Harris gets grant for Handel workEllen T. Harris, the Class of 1949 Professor of Music, has been awarded a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to broaden her research on "Messiah" composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and develop a new book, "Mr. Handel and His Friends: Music in the Context of 18th-Century London Life.""Mr. Handel and His Friends" takes up the study of Handel's career when he lived in London (1711-1759), where he composed "The Messiah" as well as numerous well-known oratorios and operas. Harris' 2002 book, "Handel as Orpheus: Voice and Desire in the Chamber Cantatas" (Harvard), explored Handel's use of silence in his cantatas, composed when he lived in Italy and was "very much embedded in the patronage system," Harris said. "Orpheus" won the prestigious Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society and the Louis Gottschalk Prize from the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Harris described her new work on Handel as getting to know the renowned composer "without his wig." "We know a lot about Handel within his wig -- in his role as composer of big public works, producer of 30 oratorios and 42 operas -- but little about how he lived his life. Unlike Mozart, he left few letters or other documents. But a turning point came when he moved to London: He had a home of his own; he made money from composing and, before he died, he wrote a will," Harris said.Handel's music has inspired Harris for more than 30 years, she said, thanks to its richness, humanity and emotional power. But his will contained surprises that led to a wealth of material about how his music fit into 18th-century English society. "Handel left money and all his scores to his manager for 40 years, John Christopher Smith. He left money to his librettists and to his extended family in Germany. He left all the performance materials for 'The Messiah' to the Foundling Hospital. You'd expect that. "But he also bequeathed money to five 'mystery' people, unknowns whom he clearly had cared about. I tracked them all down. It was exhilarating to discover, for example, that Handel's music copyist, known in all his works as "S7" ("S" is for scribe), was his friend James Hunter," Harris said. The life stories of Handel's friends and neighbors -- as revealed through documents Harris dug through at the British Library, National Archives, the House of Lords Library and other dusty storage sites -- yielded the details that Harris needed to get "outside the wig" in portraying the composer's character, particularly his capacity for sympathy. "The 'mystery beneficiaries' in Handel's will had much in common with him and with one another. All were slightly on the edge of English society. Few were Anglicans (Handel was Lutheran). All but one were childless; most were unmarried; and most of them had up-and-down middle-class financial lives typical in England's market economy," Harris said. Most revealingly, Handel's neighbors were amateur musicians, men and women who played his new works and heard him play at parties, she noted. "Through his music, he was participating in English society, not just riding above it. His music was not just for kings. It was supported by the aristocracy, yet intended to be played in the home. A circle of music-loving friends and neighbors nourished this very human composer, and he repaid their affection," Harris said.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 15, 2006 (download PDF).

N.E. Philharmonic to premiere Peter Child choral work March 4MIT composer Peter Child may have been born in England, but these days he's steeped in "Americana.""Americana" is the title of a program to be presented by the New England Philharmonic, where Child is composer in residence. The program will include the world premiere of Child's choral piece, "The Sifting: Three Songs of Longfellow." The orchestra presents "Americana" on Saturday, March 4, in Kresge Auditorium at 8 p.m. Admission is free with an MIT ID."The Sifting" will be performed with the Simmons College Chorale, directed by Sharon Brown, and the Boston Conservatory's Women's Chorus, directed by Miguel Felipe. Child selected the three Longfellow poems with the Philharmonic's theme in mind, he said. The trio express a "compelling Romantic philosophy," he said. "They condemn worldly ambition, express a sense of ideal reality that underlies appearance and everyday illusion, and extol a sense of divinity contained in human beings. It is this 'transcendentalist' quality, combined with their lyricism, that attracted me," Child writes in his program notes. The concert will also include Elliott Carter's "Variations for Orchestra"; Gunther Schuller's "Violin Concerto No. 2" (Danielle Maddon, violin); and Charles Ives' "Three Places in New England." For more information, visit www.nephilharmonic.org.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 1, 2006 (download PDF).

Harbison's 'Milosz Songs' to premiere in New YorkInstitute Professor John Harbison has adapted texts by Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) for the New York Philharmonic, which will perform the song cycle, "Milosz Songs for Soprano and Orchestra," Feb. 23-25.The piece is Harbison's fourth work for soprano Dawn Upshaw and his first commission for the New York Philharmonic.Robert Spano will conduct the concerts, which also include Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story," on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m. and Friday through Saturday, Feb. 24-25 at 8 p.m. in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City."Milosz's poems are epilogues for the 20th century," Harbison wrote in his commentary for the score. "He draws us, unready, as he was, into the great sweep of that history. "Harbison also noted that as a composer, he was "drawn to [Milosz's] fragmentary short lyrics, grateful for their elusive melody, their barely reconciled dissonant elements, their embrace of the everyday."One of America's most distinguished artistic figures, Harbison has received numerous awards and distinctions, including a MacArthur "genius" grant and a Pulitzer Prize. For tickets to the New York Philharmonic's premieres of "Milosz Songs," call 212-875-5656 or visit www.nyphil.org.

Memorial concert to honor Edward CohenEdward Cohen (1940-2002), a classically trained musician inspired by jazz and devoted to new music, was greatly respected and loved as a colleague and teacher at MIT.When he passed away after teaching for 25 years in MIT's music section, his colleagues decided to honor Cohen by setting up a memorial fund to finance a new series of concerts at MIT, each of which would showcase at least one of Cohen's compositions. "When Ed died we lost a mainstay of the composition and theory department," said fellow composer Professor Peter Child, one of the organizers.The first Edward Cohen Memorial Concert, to be held Monday, Feb. 27, at 8 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium, will feature Collage New Music, directed by David Hoose, performing works by Cohen and others who were close to him. Admission is free.The program will include Cohen's "Elegy" (1977), featuring soprano Janet Brown, and "Sextet" (1961); "Duomo" (1997) by Marjorie Merryman (Cohen's widow, who is the Drake Professor of Humanities and Fine Arts at Macalester College); and "In Eius Memoriam" (1968) by Seymour Shifrin, who was Cohen's composition teacher at the University of California at Berkeley.In addition, there will be two short works for piano solo. One is a new work, "Eulogy-E.C.," written especially for the concert and dedicated to Cohen's memory by Martin Boykan, a composer and close personal friend of Cohen's. Boykan is the Irving Fine Professor of Music at Brandeis University. The other is a transcription of "I Should Care" from a recording by Thelonius Monk. Cohen adored Monk, and this transcription was done by MIT's Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music Evan Ziporyn as a gift for Cohen shortly before he died.Cohen composed works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles and orchestra, as well as two operas, receiving acclaim both on and off campus. "Forgive the stereotype, but university professors aren't supposed to compose music like this," wrote Richard Buell in his Boston Globe review of Cohen's 60th birthday concert in 2001. Buell described Cohen's voice as a "surprisingly lyric, long-spanned one, quite striking once you get past the wide registral span of the melodies and a tonal language that, though obviously 'modern,' leaves diatonic afterimages in the mind. And all of it built like a steel trap."In addition to Brown, performers at Collage's Edward Cohen Memorial Concert will include: Linda Toote, flute; Peggy Pearson, oboe; Robert Annis, clarinet; Catherine French, violin; Anne Black, viola; Joel Moerschel, cello; Christopher Oldfather, piano; and Craig McNutt, percussion.Collage New Music has commissioned, performed and recorded contemporary classical music in the Boston area since 1972. The group received a Grammy nomination for Best Small Ensemble Performance for its 2006 recording of "Mottetti di Montale," composed by MIT Institute Professor John Harbison.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on February 15, 2006 (download PDF).

Ring mastersThe winners in the MIT Hyperscore Ringtone Competition, held by Harmony Line Inc., were announced at a gala ceremony on Friday, Jan. 27, in Room 10-250. The celebration included a DJmix of finalist compositions, a performance by the Chorallaries of MIT of the three finalist pieces, a raffle and the presentation of prizes. Electrical engineering and computer science sophomore Alex Vazquez won the undergraduate category for "Wadam Starr," and media arts and sciences graduate student Owen Meyers won the affiliates category for "Oslo at Midnight." Honorable mentions went to mechanical engineering sophomore Lucas Hernandez-Mena for "Trans" and media arts and sciences graduate student Adam Boulanger for "Ambient_04857." To hear and/or download winning ringtones, visit www.h-lounge.com/.

Concert features hands-off musicForget the roses and violins. In a special noontime concert on Valentine's Day called "Waves of Pleasure," Assistant Professor Brian Robison will wave his hands over a theremin to create other-worldly renditions of popular romantic classics by Handel, Puccini and Rachmaninoff, as well as contemporary favorites by Ellington, Gershwin and Rodgers. Also featuring lecturer Charles Shadle as piano accompanist, the concert will be held in the Lewis Music Library (Room 14E-109) on Tuesday, Feb. 14 from 12 to 1 p.m. One of the earliest electronic musical instruments, the theremin is unique in that the performer doesn't touch it while playing. Instead, proximity of the performer's hands to two antennae control the pitch and volume.Robison first encountered a theremin in a music store about a decade ago. "I was hopelessly unable to produce any recognizably musical sound," he recalls, but he decided last fall that the instrument was just too much fun not to have one.Calling the theremin "maddeningly difficult to play accurately," Robison notes that it requires extremely fine motor control. "If your hand drifts just a millimeter or two in space, that motion produces a noticeable change in pitch," he says.The concert will include an opportunity for adventurous audience members to try the instrument. "There's something mesmerizing about playing an instrument that responds to your every move, whether you want it to or not," Robison says. "I keep coming back to the theremin -- despite the limitations, despite the frustration, despite the humiliation. Much like love."

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on February 8, 2006 (download PDF).

Jazz orchestra to celebrate Big Dig Feb. 8Music and theater arts lecturer Mark Harvey and his Aardvark Jazz Orchestra will celebrate the scheduled completion of the Big Dig with the premiere of Harvey's "Dig, Dug, Done," on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Regatta Bar. Celebrating the Big Dig -- which marked "substantial completion" on Jan. 31 after 14 years and an investment of more than $14 billion -- has become an Aardvark tradition. In 2004, the band played Harvey's first Central Artery composition, "Dig the Dig" (complete with hard hats, shovels and cell phones), and Harvey is keeping open the possibility of further musical tributes through 2010, just in case.

Get ready for 'Invasion of Technology'It'll be a jamming night at the Museum of Science as humans, computers and robots join forces to present a musical hybrid of Western and traditional Balinese music. "Music and the Invasion of Technology," featuring premieres by Professor Evan Ziporyn and alumna Christine Southworth, will take place at the Museum of Science's Cahners Theater on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m.Best-known for compositions that bridge Balinese and Western musical idioms to forge a new sound, Ziporyn has composed "Belle Labs" as a virtuosic dialogue between two humans (Todd Reynolds on violin and Ziporyn on clarinet) and a robot, pushing the musicians and the machine to their limits. Southworth, who graduated from MIT in 2002 in mathematics with a minor in music, is co-founder of Ensemble Robot, which premiered "Zap!" -- a work for Van de Graaff generator, robots and musicians -- at the Museum of Science in February 2005. The Boston Phoenix called the work "truly electrifying."Southworth's "Zap" and Ziporyn's "Belle Labs" both use the Heliphon robot, a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)-controlled double-helix-shaped xylophone that plays by striking metal keys with solenoids.Southworth, who's currently pursuing a master's degree in computer music and multimedia composition at Brown University, will premiere "Heavy Metal," a new piece for Balinese gamelan, robots and electric strings. The work will feature MIT's Gamelan Galak Tika, Ensemble Robot, Reynolds on violin, Eddie Whalen on guitar, Erik Nugent on lyricon and Blake Newman on bass. "Heavy Metal" will also introduce Ensemble Robot's two newest members, the Bot(i)Cello and the BlowBot.The Bot(i)Cello uses windshield wiper motors to reel in guitar strings, plucked by computer fans rotating at varying speeds. The strings are attached to bows made of tempered spring-steel, which hold them at a constant tension. When the motor reels in a string, the pitch of the string goes up, and vice versa. "The instrument looks like a three-legged spider, or perhaps a strange metal tree," says Southworth, who designed and built the robot with Boston artists Giles Hall and Andy Cavatorta.The BlowBot, developed by Cavatorta, is a dancing tetrahedron made of air cylinders that expand from 2 to 4 feet in length, according to Southworth. As each of its six cylinders expands and contracts, one of 12 flutes is played. "It's very beautiful, quite organic-looking and very active," says Southworth.The concert will be followed by a discussion of the impact of technology on music with Ziporyn, Southworth and Reynolds, as well as a dessert reception with a cash bar. Tickets are $10. Limited additional seating is available in a separate theater with simulcast projection of the event for free.The program is the third in a Museum of Science Series titled "When Science Meets Art," which examines how both art and science investigate and involve theories and transforming information into something else. The Museum's next "When Science Meets Art" event -- on Wednesday, Feb. 1 -- also features MIT talent. Titled "Seamless: Computational Couture" and produced by Nick Knouf and Christine Liu of the Media Lab, the program will be a runway fashion show, showcasing innovative, wearable works of interactive and technology-based design. Emceed by Assistant Professor Chris Csikszentmihalyi of the Media Lab, the show will take place in the Galaxy Caf̩ at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 and a dessert reception is included.The Museum of Science is located at Science Park, in Boston. For more information, call (617) 723-2500 or visit www.mos.org/brainyacts.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on January 25, 2006 (download PDF).

MIT pianist to perform at Jordan Hall Jan. 14Senior lecturer and pianist David Deveau will perform in New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall as part of the Boston Bank of America Celebrity Series on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 8 p.m.To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival and his 10th year as the festival's artistic director, Deveau will perform a special program of solo and ensemble works by Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt and Anton Webern, as well as a new piece by Professor Peter Child (commissioned by Bank of America Celebrity Series). He will also give a rare performance of the chamber version of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, discovered in Germany in 1995. He'll be joined by a host of renowned musicians, including Professor Marcus Thompson, a violist. Ticket prices range from $22-$35. For more information, visit www.celebrityseries.org/.

'Note'-worthy contest seeks new ringtonesWhy have a cell phone that merely rings, beeps or squawks when you can create your own ringtone and compete for prizes while doing so?Professor Tod Machover of the Media Lab is creating his own buzz with an MIT make-your-own-ringtone competition using Hyperscore, software developed at MIT that allows composers to write music with computer graphics.The contest started on Monday, Jan. 9, and entries will be accepted until midnight Saturday, Jan. 21. "The original version of Hyperscore -- part of our Toy Symphony project -- allowed kids to compose music for orchestras around the world," Machover said. "Now you can even carry your masterpiece with you, right in your cell phone."The competition is staged by Harmony Line Inc., a start-up company launched to further develop and disseminate Hyperscore. Hyperscore can be downloaded free through Harmony Line's community music web site, where participants can create original music, share, edit and comment upon it. Ringtone submissions will be judged by a panel that includes Machover; David "The Edge" Howell Evans, guitarist for U2; MIT Professor Marvin Minsky; and award-winning Hyperscore inventor Mary Farbood, a Ph.D. student at the MIT Media Lab.Participants must have an MIT e-mail account. For more contest information and to enter, visit www.h-lounge.com. PrizesThe winner of the MIT undergraduate category will be awarded a Lyons Group VIP Key Card, good for free, no-wait admissions for the winner and three friends to the Avalon Club or other Lyons Group venues in the Boston area for six months. Prize sponsored by the Lyons Group.In addition, a $500 cash prize from the H-Lounge will be awarded to a dorm, fraternity, sorority or MIT organization or student group.The winner in the MIT affiliates category will be awarded a 60GB Video iPod� and Bose iPod SoundDock��� system donated by the H-Lounge.A showcase for the submissions and the announcement of the winners will be held on Friday, Jan. 27, at 4:30 p.m. at the Stata Center's Kirsch Auditorium (Room 32-123).

MIT Symphony Orchestra plans Russian celebration Dec. 9Alexey Shabalin, assistant conductor of the MIT Symphony Orchestra (MITSO), will make his debut conducting the ensemble in a night of all-Russian music inspired by the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin and featuring award-winning baritone Anton Belov.The Dec. 9 program will be Shabalin's first opportunity to conduct the orchestra since coming to MIT seven years ago. For the past three years he has served as the orchestra's assistant conductor.Shabalin, who graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1995, toured the world as a concert violinist with the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra before coming to MIT.Shabalin will conduct the orchestra in five works, including Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and Georgy Sviridov's "The Blizzard." He said he is eager to conduct the performance because "for many years, Tchaikovsky symphonies have not been played by MITSO.""The Blizzard," the most contemporary piece on the program, is considered a lasting testament to the romantic writings of Pushkin. It is "almost never performed in the U.S.," Shabalin said.Belov, the Moscow-born baritone soloist, will perform three arias: Onegin's aria, from Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin"; Yeletsky's aria, from Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades"; and Aleko's cavatina, an aria from Rachmoninov's "Aleko."Belov, who holds a bachelor's degree in music from the New England Conservatory and an artist's diploma and master's degree in music from the Juilliard School, is no stranger to the stage or the music he will be performing with MITSO. Belov sang the title role in "Eugene Onegin" at the Juilliard Opera Center in 2002. This will, however, be his first time performing at MIT with MITSO.The inspirations for both "Eugene Onegin" and "The Queen of Spades" came from stories of the same names written by Pushkin, and the pieces are full of the intense romanticism, tragedy and drama present in Pushkin's literary works.Pushkin's narrative poem "The Gypsies," a tale of love and murder, inspired Rachmoninov's "Aleko," and will contribute to the overall tone of the evening.While the music itself will no doubt touch the audience, Shabalin said the members of MITSO will also benefit from this concert. "I know the students will enjoy playing these emotional pieces," Shabalin said.The concert begins at 8 p.m. at Kresge Auditorium. Free tickets are available in Lobby 10 and Room 4-243 the week of the concert or they can be purchased for $5 at the door. For more information, call x3-2826.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on December 7, 2005 (download PDF).

MIT concert to honor Schuller on Dec. 2To commemorate the 80th birthday of Gunther Schuller, world-renowned composer, conductor and advocate of jazz and classical music, the MIT Wind Ensemble will perform music he composed and edited in a concert on Friday, Dec. 2.The recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for composition, Schuller became a leader in a new style of music, said Frederick Harris, music director of the ensemble."He is a huge proponent of taking jazz and classical and fusing them together," he said, noting that Schuller is known for this "Third Stream" style. "It was a term he coined describing the respectful co-existence of the stream of classical music with the stream of jazz music creating a 'third stream' -- a fusion of the two."The MIT Wind Ensemble will showcase both the classical and the jazz elements of Schuller's work, but will perform only one piece that he composed, "Blue Dawn Into White Heat." "Rather than do a concert of all his music, we want to highlight his advocacy for other musicians," Harris said. In 2000, the ensemble performed a concert of Schuller's compositions to commemorate his 75th birthday. From Scott Joplin to Charles Mingus, Schuller has been a proponent of many different styles of music. He helped lead a ragtime revival in the 1970s, even creating a ragtime ensemble at the New England Conservatory."He's also worked with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie," Harris said. "I can't think of anyone else who has worked like that, advocating their music. We wanted to honor the jazz element."To that end, the ensemble will be performing a jazz version of the classic "Blue Moon," that Schuller arranged. "Jazz is very different," said Jessica Young, a senior oboist in the ensemble. "It's so cool to listen to, but playing is a challenge. We're doing our best to rise to that challenge."Although Schuller will not be at Friday's MIT concert, he attended the Wind Ensemble's rehearsal in Kresge Auditorium on Monday, Nov. 21 (the day before his actual birthday) and gave the student musicians some feedback on their rendition of his works. "I'm always pretty nervous to have the composer come in, especially with someone like Gunther Schuller," said Kurt Stiehl, a junior percussionist in the ensemble. "It's an honor just to play for someone like him."At the rehearsal, Schuller hopped up on stage to listen. After each piece, he gave compliments and suggestions, from "Can you play a little softer, my dear?" to "You gotta play faster, you gotta go crazy!" After one critique, he looked at one student and said, "You look at me like I'm crazy ��� maybe I am." Special guests at Friday's concert will include the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble and local musician Ran Blake, whom Harris called "one of the great avant-garde jazz pianists." The performance begins at 8 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium. Tickets cost $5. For more information, call x3-2826.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on November 30, 2005 (download PDF).

Junior soloist strings together violin, science; to perform Oct. 21At age 2, when most kids are learning how to speak and walk, Serenus Hua started playing the violin. An MIT junior now, the 19-year-old has worked his way up in the classical music world, winning numerous competitions and playing everywhere from Juilliard to Jordan Hall, where his performance at age 15 was broadcast as part of the public radio program "From the Top."This year he won the 2005 MIT Symphony Concerto Competition, which earned him a chance to perform with the MIT Symphony Orchestra in Kresge Auditorium this Friday (Oct. 21). He will be the featured soloist in Pablo de Sarasate's "Carmen Fantasy." Originally from New Jersey, Hua began studying violin formally at age 7. He went on to enroll in The Juilliard School in New York City and admits that playing music at Julliard is very different from playing at MIT."At Juilliard, it was very technical, very showy," he said. "Everyone was trying to show off. At MIT, most people are going into engineering and science, so it's not a question of who's going to be the best soloist. I have more time to learn the pieces, rather than the techniques."The piece he will be performing is different from the one in the original opera "Carmen," Hua said. "It has the same basic theme, but this composer has added a lot of tricks and flourishes."He puts it in the genre of a "show piece," one of his favorite types of music. "It's what I'm better at," he said. "They're fun to play, fun to listen to. One of my teachers likens it to dessert. You have your main course, with your standards, Bach and Brahms. For dessert, you come back to the show pieces."Over the years, Hua has found a way to combine music and community service. In high school Hua founded a volunteer group called "Music in Action" that performed at senior homes, day-care centers and school events. At MIT, he is involved with the MIT Arts Scholars, whose members range from film students to classical musicians like himself. The group is trying to organize a benefit for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. A chemical biological engineering major, Hua is very interested in science. While he is also majoring in music, he doesn't see himself performing for a living. "It's too late for me to be a chamber musician," he said. "I'm not in a conservatory, and the market is pretty low these days."At MIT he plays as much as he can, although it can be difficult to find time. "MIT has kept me busy," he said. "It's always been a balance for me. I practice in between classes, whenever I can. I'll bring my violin to class."Although he had not yet rehearsed with the MIT Symphony, Hua seemed confident. "I'm used to performing with an orchestra after one or two rehearsals. For this, it will be about four."Humbly, he added, "It's a better deal than I'm used to."

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 19, 2005 (download PDF).

Senegal trip adds rhythm to RambaxFor 11 members of MIT's African drumming ensemble, "Rambax," the West African nation of Senegal was more than a vacation destination. This past spring, the MIT student musicians spent three weeks playing, studying and absorbing Senegalese culture during the group's first summer study tour.On Sept. 14, Rambax co-founder and director Patricia Tang and some of the group members spoke about their extraordinary trip during the first Arts Colloquium of the semester. The presentation, attended by faculty, students, members of the Council for the Arts and Council Scholars in the Arts, was hosted by Associate Provost for the Arts Alan Brody. Tang organized and led the trip to give the group a chance to study and perform the traditional art of sabar drumming within its cultural context -- among and for the Wolof people of Senegal."We did not want to arrive there with this idea that we would show the Senegalese how to play their own music," said Tang, associate professor in the Music and Theater Arts Section and a specialist in Senegalese music. "We wanted to show them that we cared so much for Senegalese culture that we wanted to learn their art."Students lived and practiced with the family of Lamine Tour̩, co-founder of Rambax and a native traditional Senegalese drummer. Tour̩ is an MIT lecturer in music and theater arts.Sabar drummers use one hand and one stick to create either a dance rhythm or a "bakk," a musical phrase that is composed by musicians, "griots," and is passed down through the generations. "Mbalax" is the basic accompaniment beat played on the smallest drum, and "tulli" and "talmbat" are the two bass drum accompaniments. Together they create the basis by which the lead drummer carries the main beat. There is no sheet music and the resulting sound is a chaotic, frenzied beat that starts at your foot and works its way up to your bobbing head until you cannot help but dance. It is beautiful and wild and harmonic at the same time.The students not only strengthened their drumming abilities, but also held a poster exhibit and social hour with students from Universit̩ Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal. Students from both continents shared ideas and scientific, mathematic and musical projects.Students also performed. One night they set up two street festivals, one for children and one for adults. The next night they performed at the Soiree Senegalese, a nightclub that features pop music along with traditional drumming. "We got a great reception from the people there," said Sasha Devore, a graduate student at the Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology, who has been drumming for four years. "It was absolutely amazing. We did so much and everyone was so excited to show us their culture and their way of drumming and to learn our way and to really share in the experience. I would definitely go back." Rambax was created in 2001 after Tang had spent several years studying Senegalese music. She lived in Dakar, Senegal, from 1997 to 1998, and the experience was unforgettable, she said. She felt her students needed context to fully understand the art of sabar drumming."We used to say, 'wouldn't it be fun to go to Senegal,'" said Tang. "But within the last year, we realized that we had several of our students graduating, and that it was now or never. Students even went so far as to buy their plane tickets before we had received funding from the school for the trip."Prior to traveling, Tang put her students through a cultural orientation. Students were taught the importance of eating with their right hands and sharing a communal food bowl as they do in Senegal. Although there were many health and cultural concerns, the students were more than prepared upon arrival and even learned enough of the Wolof language to offer thanks and compliments to their hosts and townspeople. "We showed the people of Senegal how culturally diverse our MIT group was," said Tang. "We have students from Brazilian, Vietnamese, Hispanic backgrounds ��� all different nationalities who come together for the love of drumming." At the presentation, Tang showed videos of Rambax's performances in Senegal. In each video, the drummers smiled with exuberance as they felt the rush of what Devore called, "losing themselves inside the music while remaining focused on your surroundings." "Our drumming has changed since we came back," said Devore. "We learned the cultural rhythm. We have context now. When we play, we can feel the ocean; we can smell the smells and feel the dust. We drummed ourselves to exhaustion and simply lost ourselves in the music. Our drumming has definitely changed since our trip."The tour was funded in part by the Council for the Arts at MIT, the offices of the Chancellor, Dean for Undergraduate Education and Dean for Graduate Students, and the Music and Theater Arts Section.For more information on Rambax, visit their web site at web.mit.edu/Rambax.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 5, 2005 (download PDF).

Researchers want to know what's music to your earsIs one man's Mozart another man's migraine? It might be, if culture plays the dominant role in music perception, as has been alleged by many 20th century composers. Thus far, such matters have been the province of armchair debates, but now two MIT students have designed an experiment to measure just how different--or similar--perceptions of music are across cultures.The students are conducting a web-based Music Universals Study to measure the perception of music in people all over the world, and they're inviting the public to participate. Mary Farbood, a Ph.D. student at the MIT Media Lab, and Josh McDermott, a Ph.D. student in MIT's Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, have been at work for the past year on a study designed to measure the degree to which perceptions of music vary from culture to culture.To do this they created a psychology experiment designed to measure how people from different cultures hear music. Their goal is to collect data from thousands of people all over the world in order to better understand how different aspects of music perception vary with culture, age, musical training and other factors.Farbood and McDermott's study grew out of questions about music perception that have puzzled scientists and philosophers for thousands of years. "Despite its central role in human culture, the origins and adaptive function of music remain a complete mystery," McDermott said. "As a cognitive scientist, I was fascinated by the question of which aspects of music perception and appreciation are universal-and hence probably innate-and which vary with cultural and musical exposure."Historically such studies have been difficult to conduct because of geographical limitations. But thanks to the Internet, Farbood and McDermott have already collected data from hundreds of people around the world and all walks of life, and they want to hear from thousands more.The success of the study depends on the extent and diversity of participation, so the pair is hoping to attract many visitors to the website, particularly from far corners of the globe. The Music Universals Study measures the way users respond to different sounds by asking questions about musical preferences, the perception of emotion in music, and the perception of tension and resolution.For example, participants are asked to listen to two different sounds and to rate which of the two is preferable. They are also asked to choose a graphical representation or written description that best illustrates a particular short musical clip. In all cases Farbood and McDermott are interested in how consistent the responses prove to be within a country, and how different they are in different parts of the world.The duration of the study will depend in part on how quickly the researchers amass data from different parts of the world, but Farbood and McDermott hope to have answered some of the most significant study questions within the year.To participate, visit http://music.media.mit.edu/.