news 2020

What is a hit song made up of? And why are some songs much easier to remember than others? Musicologists Ashley Burgoyne and Henkjan Honing investigated this by using music from the Eurovision Song Contest. In the recently launched online experiment Hooked on Music , participants listen to songs from the Eurovision Song Contest throughout the years.

The performing arts has been badly affected during the coronavirus pandemic with live musical performances cancelled for many months because singing was identified as a potential "higher risk" activity. New collaborative research has shown that singing does not produce very substantially more respiratory particles than when speaking at a similar volume.

Scientists in EPFL's Digital and Cognitive Musicology Lab (DCML), led by Martin Rohrmeier, have used data science and statistical techniques to characterize the musical style of choro, a primarily instrumental genre from Brazil, for the very first time. The study , which was recently published in the Journal of New Music Research , identifies key stylistic traits from some 300 pieces of choro music, providing an unprecedented empirical analysis of the harmony and form of the genre, which emerged in 19 th century Brazil and is still popular today.

The eerie and usually unheard sounds of space captured in the deep cold of Antarctica could be the next hot hit, thanks to a new research, musical and artistic collaboration. The unique project takes recordings of Earth's natural radio sounds, normally not audible to the human ear, and stunning imagery captured at the Halley Research Station in Antarctica to create a 90-minute soundtrack set to piano.

The EmoDémos project - led by the University of Geneva among children aged 7 to 12 years - has shown that playing an instrument in an orchestra can facilitate the acquisition of cognitive and emotional skills in two years.

Complex learning processes like speaking or singing follow similar patterns. Using the example of zebra finches, researchers at UZH and ETH Zurich have investigated how young birds imitate the courtship songs of their fathers and practice them thousands of times. The study has revealed what aspects of the song are remembered overnight, and that sleep allows the bird to optimally build upon the progress made on the previous day.

Don't ever let a violin go without varnish, researchers advise, on the basis of a new study published in the journal "Scientific Reports". The scientists used neutron imaging to investigate what effects different coatings have on the wood of the instrument. Varnishing does in fact reliably protect against humidity, but it also influences the sound characteristics of the wood.

Scientists have mapped 13 key emotions triggered when we listen to music. Click on image to visit audio map. (Graphic by Alan Cowen) The "Star-Spangled Banner" stirs pride. Ed Sheeran's "The Shape of You" sparks joy. And "ooh là là!" best sums up the seductive power of George Michael's "Careless Whispers." UC Berkeley scientists have surveyed more than 2,500 people in the United States and China about their emotional responses to these and thousands of other songs from genres including rock, folk, jazz, classical, marching band, experimental and heavy metal.