Late breaking information

MUSICOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM

07/03/2019

"When" in Musical Rhythm: Is Beat Perception Special?

Colloquium Musicology
Fleur Bouwer, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Thursday 21 March 2019, 15:30-17:00
Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16, room 3.01


A packed Museum-square collectively swaying to the music of André Rieu. Going crazy on Lowlands festival. Kids singing a song together. As humans, we seem to all be capable of moving and synchronising to a musical beat. But is it indeed so easy to hear a beat in musical rhythm? How does the brain allow us to perceive a beat in sound and to predict when the next tone will be heard in a musical rhythm? In this talk, cognitive musicologist Fleur Bouwer will address these questions. Moreover, she will present data from her recent experiment in which she aimed to find out whether the perception of a beat in musical rhythm is "special" or uses general timing processes in the brain.

Fleur Bouwer is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam, supervised by Heleen Slagter and Henkjan Honing. Using methods like EEG and fMRI, she examines how predictions shape the perception of music in general and musical rhythm in particular. Fleur obtained her PhD in 2016. She holds both a Master in Psychology (UvA) and a Master of Music (Amsterdam Conservatory). In 2016, Fleur received an ABC Talent grant, enabling her to continue her research combining her fascination for the human brain and her passion for music. In addition, Fleur is an enthusiastic educator, both in teaching courses at the UvA and in bringing the science of music cognition to the public.