The Institute for Chinese Studies presents the Re-Imagining China's Past and Present Lecture Series:
Udo Will
Professor
Cognitive Ethnomusicology
The Ohio State University
"Chinese Music and the Concept of Time"
Flyer: Udo Will Flyer.pdf
Abstract: Contemporary Chinese music has adopted the modern Western concept of time as an abstract framework that organizes musical events. This contrasts significantly with the traditional Chinese view on temporal experience as being anchored around the core notions of events and duration - a surprisingly ‘modern’ idea, compatible with the 20th century time concept of relativistic physics. The presentation is going to outline how the classical concept of time has shaped transmission of music. It will also show how entrainment theory can help to avoid the considerable difficulties and misinterpretations of the temporal performance aspects of traditional Chinese music that arise if viewed from the perspective of the contemporary time concept.
Bio: Udo Will is Professor of Cognitive Ethnomusicology at The Ohio State University. He studied music, sociology, and neuroscience and holds a PhD in both musicology and neurobiology. His research focuses on cognitive aspects of music performances in oral cultures, on rhythm and melody processing by the human brain and on a comparison of the cognitive architecture of music and language processing. Together with M. Clayton (Durham, UK) and I. Cross (Cambridge, UK)) he was one of the initiators of the interdisciplinary ‘Music and Entrainment’ network. He currently leads research projects on brainwave entrainment to musical stimuli, on time and rhythm processing, and on cultural effects on cognitive processing of prosodic components in music and language in Asian and African tone language cultures.
Free and Open to the Public
This event is sponsored by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.
