Artistic research has come of age, and with it the Orpheus Institute. Founded twenty years ago, the Institute’s purpose from the start has been to pursue research through the practice of musicians.

Before 1936, musical practices in Palestine relied heavily on colloquial poetry, especially in rural communities, which constituted most of the population. In this dissertation, Issa Boulos has examined historical records that revealed many differences and similarities between Palestinian communities…

Who were the main artists and producers who generated new forms of popular music? What was the music like that was produced by artists in particular urban settings? How were particular lifestyles articulated to identify new audiences and what does this reveal about the way popular music contributed…

Improvisers in experimental music do not record their music in a conventional score, but in ever-changing 'tactile pathways'. This is the proposition put forward by researcher Christopher Williams. PhD defence 13 December.

In this research project the constituent elements of River Plate tango are investigated in order to decode how specific musical materials were organized and combined by four outstanding musicians: Osvaldo Pugliese, Horacio Salgán, Astor Piazzolla and Gustavo Beytelmann.

Two events on Music and the Brain will be held in Leiden later this month.

In this dissertation the author digs into the constituent elements of River Plate tango in order to decode how specific musical materials were organized and combined by four outstanding musicians: Pugliese, Salgán, Piazzolla and Beytelmann.

Music of Possibility is a personal account of what, for composer Richard Barrett, are the most consequential areas of twentieth- and twenty first-century musical innovation, and how, together with a web of technologies, cultures and politics, they have informed his creative practice.

How are notation and improvisation interfaced in contemporary and experimental music?

Tactile Paths is an artistic research project that aims to expand and articulate the feedback between notation and improvisation in experimental music.

Exploring chamber music possibilities between a pianist and live coder(s).

Playing a musical instrument is generally considered to be a complex human behaviour involving the integration and coordination of a broad range of human functions such as perception, imagination, memory, information processing, emotion, communication, and dexterity.

Leiden University Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) launches the open online course Music & Society on Coursera to advance worldwide access to high-quality education. The course starts on January 9, 2017 and will be taught by Prof. dr. Marcel Cobussen and drs. Hafez Ismaili M’hamdi.

docARTES is a doctoral programme for performers and composers. It offers a unique environment for critical reflection on musical practice.

ACPA Professor of Auditory Culture and Music Philosophy Marcel Cobussen will give a lecture at the Gaudeamus Academy Workshop Weekend. The GMW Academy is a prelude to the contemporary music festival Gaudeamus Muziekweek, taking place from 7 to 11 september in diverse venues within the center of Utr…

The thesis wishes to examine the pathways of thought underlying the creative act of music making and the performance practice of complex music from the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.

Composer, bass player and ACPA alumnus Ilya Ziblat Shay presented a paper at the Music Weekend and Midlands New Music Symposium, organised by Nottingham Forum for Artistic Research.

MOOC Music & Society

In a series of six lectures, Jed Wentz, the Utrecht Early Music Festival’s artistic adviser, will acquaint you with subjects central to the developments in early music worldwide. First lecture starts 15 October!

This year, Leiden University celebrates its 444th birthday – and when you’re giving a party, you need great music! Neuropsychologist Rebecca Schaefer agrees. She has been fascinated by music since she was a child, and now she studies how music can make us happy, give us energy or calm us down.

The “harpe organisée”, 1720-1840: Rediscovering the lost pedal techniques on harps with a single-action pedal mechanism, is the title of Maria Christina Cleary's PhD thesis. This is the first monographic study on harp pedal techniques, tracing the historical way to pedal on the early pedal harps with…

Richard Barrett has launched a new digital music label on Bandcamp.

On January 9 the ACPA kicked off their first MOOC Music & Society. And with 1700 (!) applicants we dare to say it is a success!

So-called

Playing the piano with your forearm, plucking the strings, sawing through the piano: pianist Luk Vaes's doctoral dissertation covers all the techniques of play for which a piano is NOT designed. His defence ceremony will consist of three concerts and a public defence. 'Musicians were using the interior…

This research aims to fully recall these lost sound aspects of the eighteenth century and is, therefore, a study that passionately advocates the diversity of musical experience in the context of historical performance practice.

This research derives from the development of tools for algorithmic composition which extract pitch materials from sound signals, analyzing them according to their timbral and harmonic properties, putting them into motion through diverse rhythmic and textural procedures.

This dissertation derives from the development of tools for algorithmic composition which extract pitch materials from sound signals, analyzing them according to their timbral and harmonic properties, putting them into motion through diverse rhythmic and textural procedures.

How might viola and string quartet playing in the performer-centered, moment-to-moment and communicative style heard on early recordings be brought about today?

This research intents to redefine the limits of the electric guitar.

What was the stringed instrument known in medieval and early Renaissance Italy as “cetra”?

Can the Stroh violin be reivented (recovered, exposed, revived and promoted) in the 21st century contemporary music?

Using musical cues to learn a physical task significantly develops an important part of the brain, according to a new study co-authored by Leiden psychologist Rebecca Schaefer. The results are published in the journal Brain & Cognition.

The Leiden University Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) will start in January 2017 with their first MOOC through Coursera: Music & Society. MOOC stands for massive open online course and is a relatively new phenomenon of open access and free internet education in the United States. Big…

Through the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, multiple gifted bachelor and master students of Leiden University and the University of the Arts The Hague can fully develop both their artistic and academic talents by choosing academic or artistic minors or electives.

In 2016, Leiden University hosts the monthly meetings of the Music and Cultural Analysis reading group.

On February 8 the 443rd dies natalis will take place in the Pieterskerk in Leiden.

PhD candidate Magda Pucci studied indigenous music in Brazil. She and her group Mawaca travelled through the Amazon and played with peoples there such as the Paiter Suruí, Kayapó, Ikolen-Gavião and the Huni-Kuin. PhD defence on 19 March.

Prof. dr. Marcel Cobussen has published a free e-pub: The Field of Musical Improvisation.

In 2016, Marcel Cobussen successfully applied for two trainee positions at ACPA, funded by the Humanities Research Traineeship Programme at Leiden University. One of the results, a multi-media essay 'In Search of the Public. Exploring Contemporary Performance Practices of Classical Music in The Netherlands'…

ACPA’s PhD candidate and composer/flutist Ned McGowan will give a lecture at Café Chercher on March 27 called Speed in Music, Brain and Body.

On the occasion of the 440th DIES NATALIS, celebrated on Monday 9 February, Leiden University proudly awarded an Honorary Doctorate to William Christie, renowned harpsichordist, conductor, musicologist and teacher, and the foremost pioneer in the renewed appreciation of Baroque music in France, notably…

The present study aims to establish and develop guidelines for effective use of the classical guitar’s scoring potential.

Although the guitar has been part of the classical music tradition for centuries, writing for the guitar remains a formidable challenge for many composers. Where orchestral instruments have a long history of scoring guides that help composers develop their craft, the number of studies dedicated to guitar…

This Spring we relaunched our free online course The Importance and Power of Music in our Society.

Apart from his activities as coordinator of the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Rogier Schneemann is co-founder, guitarist and composer of the Dutch-Italian group Azure Hiptronics, originally formed in 2006.

This dissertation examines the airs sérieux contained within the Recueils d’airs serieux et a boire de differents autheurs published by the Ballard printing house in Paris between 1695 and 1699 inclusive.