Makiko Sadakata is a lecturer at the musicology department of the University of Amsterdam. She is one of the core research members at the Music Cognition Group (MCG) at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation. Her research revolves around the question of what music is to our mind and how it differs from other sounds, such as language and environmental sounds. To address this question she uses various methods, but mainly behavioural. Makiko is also involved in different research projects and topics with the keywords: sound learning, rhythm perception, and background music. Besides, Makiko enjoys teaching music cognition. She learns so much from preparing courses but also from supervising students. Currently, she is teaching several courses related to music cognition and research skills at the University of Amsterdam
This course addresses recent cognitive perspectives on music as a social, acoustical, psychological and cultural phenomenon.
The course provides an overview of current concepts of, and empirical findings about, musical rhythm in cognitive science.
In the last two decades an important shift has occurred in music research, that is, from music as an art (or art object) to music as a process in which the performer, the listener, and music as sound play a central role. This transformation is most notable in the field of systematic musicology, which developed from “a mere extension of musicology” into a “complete reorientation of the discipline to fundamental questions which are non-historical in nature, [encompassing] research into the nature and properties of music as an acoustical, psychological and cognitive phenomenon” (Duckles & Pasler, 2001; Honing, 2006). These recent strands of music research will be interpreted in the context of the “cognitive revolution” in the humanities and the sciences. Next to an overview of the methods and techniques that became central to the contemporary musicologist’s toolkit, current developments will be discussed that explore what cognitive musicology can say about how music works.
Ervaring opdoen met het zelfstandig uitvoeren van een muziekwetenschappelijk onderzoek aan de hand van een zelfgekozen onderwerp en methoden op basis van de cursussen uit het afgelopen semester.