Thinking Spaces: Andrew Goldman, “The Cognition of Musical Improvisation: Theories and Experiments”

This presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. As always, our Thinking Spaces events are free!

To attend the talk, RSVP via our Google Forms.

More About this Workshop:

Improvisation is a challenging topic to study using the theories and methods of cognitive science owing to the difficulty of defining it, and the diversity of improvisatory practices. I share my theoretical frameworks for engaging this challenge as well as the results from some behavioral and neuroscientific studies. Ultimately, I draw upon improvisation as a case study for exploring the difficulties of using science to understand music more generally.

More About the Presenter:

Andrew Goldman is a music theorist and cognitive scientist, and is currently Assistant Professor in Music Theory and Cognitive Science at Indiana University, where he also directs IU’s Music and Mind Lab. He received his PhD in 2015 at the Centre for Music and Science at the University of Cambridge. He was in the inaugural cohort of Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience at Columbia University, and also held a postdoctoral position with the Music, Cognition, and the Brain initiative at Western University before joining the faculty at Indiana University.

His research considers how we can (and cannot) use scientific methods to learn about musical perception and cognition in theory, and he also designs and conducts behavioral and neuroscientific experiments on music perception and cognition. Goldman’s research has focused on improvisation in music and dance, and more recent work has addressed the perception of musical form, melodic contour, metrical perception, and embodiment in music. His work has been published in both music and psychology journals, and has been presented at national and international conferences including the Society for Music Theory, the International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition, and the American Psychological Association. Goldman is also a pianist and composer. His original musical, “Science! The Musical” provides an alternate platform to explore the worlds of music and science. Musical numbers include “The Interdisciplinary Rag,” “The Real World,” “Publish or Perish,” and more!

To attend the talk, RSVP via our Google Forms.