La performance musicale est intrinsèquement sociale. La musique est la plupart du temps jouée en groupe, et même les solistes sont soumis à l’influence d’un public (réel ou imaginé). La performance musicale est également intrinsèquement créative. Les musiciens sont amenés à interpréter de la musique écrite, improviser un nouveau matériau musical, s’adapter à des conditions de jeu imprévues et gérer les erreurs techniques. Cet article se concentre sur la manière dont la créativité est répartie entre les membres d’un ensemble musical lorsqu’ils accomplissent ces tâches. Quelques aspects de la performance d’ensemble ont été largement étudiés ces dernières années dans le cadre d’une littérature plus large sur l’action conjointe (par exemple les processus sous-jacents de la synchronisation sensorimotrice). La plupart de ces recherches ont été effectuées dans des conditions hautement contrôlées, en utilisant des tâches donnant lieu à des résultats fiables, mais qui ne saisissent qu’une petite part de la performance d’ensemble telle qu’elle se produit en situation réelle. Il manque encore à cette littérature une explication de la manière dont les musiciens d’ensemble se produisent dans des conditions qui requièrent une interprétation créative, une improvisation et/ou une adaptation : comment coordonnent-ils la production de quelque chose de nouveau ? Les théories actuelles sur la créativité soutiennent l’idée que l’interaction dynamique entre les individus, leurs actions et leurs environnements sociaux et matériels sont à la base de la performance créative. Ce cadre est tout à fait conforme au paradigme de la cognition musicale incarnée et à la théorie des systèmes dynamiques en matière de coordination au sein d’un ensemble. Cette revue commence par situer le concept de créativité musicale collaborative dans le contexte de la cognition incarnée. Les progrès réalisés dans l’identification des mécanismes qui sous-tendent la créativité collaborative dans la performance musicale sont ensuite évalués. L’accent est mis sur le rôle potentiel de l’imagination musicale pour ce qui est de faciliter la flexibilité de l’interprète, et sur les formes de communication susceptibles de soutenir la coordination de la production musicale créative. Ensuite, l’émergence et le flow de groupe – des concepts qui semblent caractériser la performance d’ensemble arrivée à son paroxysme – sont examinés, et certaines des conditions susceptibles de favoriser les phases d’émergence et de flow sont identifiées. Enfin, il est avancé que des recherches supplémentaires sont nécessaires pour (1) clarifier les concepts d’émergence et de flow, et ce, en précisant les effets sur l’expérience de l’interprète et la réponse de l’auditeur, (2) déterminer à quel point l’imagination musicale est contrainte par l’expérience perceptive et comprendre la capacité des individus à s’éloigner de cadres familiers et à imaginer de nouveaux sons et de nouvelles structures sonores, et (3) évaluer les développements technologiques censés faciliter ou améliorer la créativité musicale, et déterminer quel est leur effet sur les processus sous-jacents de la collaboration créative.

The Music Ensemble dataset is a large-scale, cross-national database that provides detailed information about the musical, cognitive, personality, and demographic profiles of young adult musicians and nonmusicians. Data were collected from 1438 participants (aged 18-30) across thirty-five research sites in Europe, North America, South America, and Australia. Participants completed an in-person, in-lab battery of objective tests, including measures of verbal, visuospatial and musical short-term memory, executive functions (updating component), nonverbal reasoning, verbal comprehension, and music perception skills. The battery also included standardized and custom self-report questionnaires assessing music sophistication, music reward, personality traits, socioeconomic status, and demographic characteristics. Music Ensemble was preregistered, and the research protocol followed a standardized procedure across sites. The dataset also includes a large subsample of musicians and nonmusicians that are pair-matched for age, gender, and education (678 pairs). It enables well-powered investigations into the relationship between musical expertise and individual differences in cognition, personality, and demographic variables. It is also suitable for training in statistical and psychometric methods.

This study investigated the relationships between bodily expression, bodily coordination, mental effort, and self-reported experiences of musical togetherness. Singer-pianist duos performed pieces of classical repertoire before and after rehearsing together. Video, head motion, respiration, and pupillometry data were collected. Afterwards, the performers watched a video of their post-rehearsal performance and made continuous ratings of how together they felt. They also provided written descriptions of the cues that informed their togetherness judgements. Our analyses showed stronger head coordination between partners and larger pupil diameter during high-togetherness phrases than during low-togetherness phrases for one of the pieces. Inhalation synchrony and quantity of head motion did not differ between high- and low-togetherness phrases. Pupil size was greater during pre-rehearsal performances than during post-rehearsal performances, suggesting that demands on attention might have reduced after players had jointly constructed a shared interpretation and grown more accustomed to performing together. A thematic analysis of written responses showed that performers’ concept of togetherness related to coherence in musical parameters, moving and breathing together, and sensations of feeling together, shared musical emotion, and effortlessness. We discuss these findings in relation to the musical togetherness model.

Highly-skilled pianists demonstrate fluent and efficient hand and finger motion. Recent developments in video-based methods for markerless motion capture that rely on deep learning algorithms offer a less intrusive and resource-intensive alternative to traditional marker-based infrared ones. In this work we present an initial look into how such a markerless motion capture system could be developed and utilized for the study of pianists' hand and finger kinematics. We collect data from different pianists performing technical exercises and present an analysis of the kinematics of hand and finger motion that arise when pianists are challenged by playing at fast and slow tempi. We investigate different kinematic measures and analyze the recorded MIDI to assess the pianists' strategies for timekeeping and hand coordination and discover certain indications for smoother motions and better control at intermediate tempi. Our results are also in line with previous work in the field and point towards the suitability of this approach for studying pianists' hand movements.

Musicians experience varying degrees of musical togetherness, defined as a sense of social connectedness that they experience with co-performer(s) in music ensembles. Previous investigations focused on optimal experiences and suggested a link between social connections and musical and contextual aspects. However, it is not fully understood how this concept aligns with musicians' experiences of togetherness. This research analysed experiences of togetherness in classical ensemble performances, based on semi-structured interviews with 22 advanced music students. Thematic content analysis demonstrates the emergence of four main themes associated with togetherness experiences as follows: (1) togetherness sensation, (2) quality of the interpersonal relationships, (3) performance settings, and (4) ensemble skills. This study broadens our understanding of ensemble playing experiences and reveals how togetherness experiences can arise or be negatively affected. These results are valuable to ensemble pedagogy and social interactions.

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is a tingling sensation in the neck and spine often triggered by specific sounds. This paper reports a study on the impact of different cyclic patterns and spatial orientations-defined here as the perceived directionality and motion of sound sources in a three-dimensional auditory space-on inducing ASMR experiences. The results demonstrate that both the type of cyclic pattern and the spatial orientation significantly influence the intensity and nature of ASMR experiences. Furthermore, the research explores synthesizing ASMR-inducing sounds while preserving key audio characteristics from acoustically recorded ASMR content. Through survey data analysis and regression modeling, distinct patterns emerge regarding the relationship between personality traits and ASMR experience. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of ASMR as a sensory phenomenon and provide insights into the potential applications of artificially generated ASMR stimuli. Additionally, the research sheds light on the role of spatiality in ASMR experiences and the synthesis of ASMR-inducing sounds for future studies and practical applications.

Musicians are often regarded as a positive example of brain plasticity and associated cognitive benefits. This emerges when experienced musicians (e.g., musicians with more than 10 years of music training and practice) are compared with nonmusicians. A frequently observed behavioral finding is a short-term memory advantage of the former over the latter. Although available meta-analysis reported that the effect size of this advantage is medium (Hedges's g = 0.5), no literature study was adequately powered to estimate reliably an effect of such size. This multilab study has been ideated, realized, and conducted in lab by several groups that have been working on this topic. Our ultimate goal was to provide a community-driven shared and reliable estimate of the musicians' short-term memory advantage (if any) and set a method and a standard for future studies in neuroscience and psychology comparing musicians and nonmusicians. Thirty-three research units recruited a total of 600 experienced musicians and 600 nonmusicians, a number that is sufficiently large to estimate a small effect size (Hedges's g = 0.3) with a high statistical power (i.e., 95%). Subsequently, we measured the difference in short-term memory for musical, verbal, and visuospatial stimuli. We also looked at cognitive, personality, and socioeconomic factors that might mediate the difference. Musicians had better short-term memory than nonmusicians for musical, verbal, and visuospatial stimuli with an effect size of, respectively, Hedges's gs = 1.08 (95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.94, 1.22]; large), 0.16 (95% CI = [0.02 0.30]; very small), and 0.28 (95% CI = [0.15, 0.41]; small). This work sets the basis for sound research practices in studies comparing musicians and nonmusicians and contributes to the ongoing debate on the possible cognitive benefits of musical training.

MusicLab Copenhagen was a unique research concert featuring the world-renowned Danish String Quartet in a naturalistic setting. The audience was split between one group physically located in the hall, another group listening to a radio broadcast, and a third group watching a live stream. Qualitative and quantitative data were captured from both musicians and audiences, resulting in a comprehensive dataset that can be used to address many research questions. This document introduces the dataset, explains its structure, and reflects on the related data collection, storing, publishing, and archiving processes.

Augmented Reality (AR) employment in archaeological and cultural heritage settings are changing due to rapidly increase in computing power in mobile devices (smartphones, tablets and smartglasses). This has caused a transition from static only to richer and more dynamic environments including animation of human characters. This again opens for reconstructions and simulations of the intangible, particularly the significant context of human actions. Our chapter reports on an experiment with motion capture for AR simulation of an animal sacrifice at Ancient Phalasarna, Crete. The AR simulation was tested and evaluated by visitors on location. One conclusion is the importance of creating a balance between the fidelity of the human character's motions and their graphical appearance.

In this paper we discuss our latest iteration of RAMI (the Robotic Arm for Musicking Inclusively) as prototype digital score. We deploy RAMI as interactive technology for the purpose of improvisation ensemble work, documenting the narrative journey of a single elite musician-M-as they engage with its nascent qualities over three extended workshop sessions. This study builds in part on the musical togetherness model of human-human interaction [4], and necessarily draws adjacent concepts in robotics, human computer interaction (HCI), and digital score. Recording musicking interactions with RAMI, we elicit and report on M's thematic perceptions of instances of: familiarization; engagement strategy; decision making; connection, agency, and ensemble; assertions of schemas of RAMI; and moments of enjoying RAMI. Beyond the rich, narrative insight that these six themes offer, we critically assess these as variably (un)certain in nature; as particularly certain when asserting two schemas-RAMI as a dancer, and RAMI as a score, and as indicative of an underlying continuum of musician perception that recognises RAMI as an AI tool for musicking, on the one hand, and on the other hand, as an AI agent for embodied collaboration.

Playing music as part of a group is challenging, but also rewarding. What factors come together to maximize rewarding group playing experiences? How do feelings of enjoyment, frustration, and social (dis)connection shape group performance as it unfolds? This paper addresses these questions with a discussion of the conditions and processes that underlie rewarding experiences in musical interaction. The concept of musical togetherness is introduced, and defined as the feelings of social connection and pleasure that result from being and acting as part of a group during musical interaction. It is argued that three conditions must be fulfilled for togetherness experiences to occur. First, participants in an interactive setting must be aware of one another as intentional co-performers capable of exchanging expressive ideas. Second, interaction must unfold reliably in real-time, allowing for a mutual perception of liveness. Third, participants must adapt and build off of one another in a way that allows for mutual perception of responsivity. Whether these conditions are met is codetermined by the constraints of the environment in which the interaction takes place and the skills and communication techniques that interaction participants are able to deploy. Togetherness experiences are further supported by alignment between group members in body rhythms and a sense of we-agency, or the feeling of shared contribution to the collective musical output. The social and emotional rewards that are associated with musical togetherness are strengthened through a shared positive emotional response to successful interaction. Musical togetherness is hypothesized to contribute to shaping group performance in real-time by motivating group members to interact in ways that lead them to feel more together. This framework provides structure for a construct that has been used casually in the music psychology literature, has implications for how the performance behaviour of ensemble musicians is understood.

Playing music as part of a group is challenging, but also rewarding. What factors come together to maximize rewarding group playing experiences? How do feelings of enjoyment, frustration, and social (dis)connection shape group performance as it unfolds? This paper addresses these questions with a discussion of the conditions and processes that underlie rewarding experiences in musical interaction. The concept of musical togetherness is introduced, and defined as the feelings of social connection and pleasure that result from being and acting as part of a group during musical interaction. It is argued that three conditions must be fulfilled for togetherness experiences to occur. First, participants in an interactive setting must be aware of one another as intentional co-performers capable of exchanging expressive ideas. Second, interaction must unfold reliably in real-time, allowing for a mutual perception of liveness. Third, participants must adapt and build off of one another in a way that allows for mutual perception of responsivity. Whether these conditions are met is codetermined by the constraints of the environment in which the interaction takes place and the skills and communication techniques that interaction participants are able to deploy. Togetherness experiences are further supported by alignment between group members in body rhythms and a sense of we-agency, or the feeling of shared contribution to the collective musical output. The social and emotional rewards that are associated with musical togetherness are strengthened through a shared positive emotional response to successful interaction. Musical togetherness is hypothesized to contribute to shaping group performance in real-time by motivating group members to interact in ways that lead them to feel more together. This framework provides structure for a construct that has been used casually in the music psychology literature, has implications for how the performance behaviour of ensemble musicians is understood.

This commentary on Alves and Nogueira (2024) proposes a potential approach to compare expert and non-expert music teachers' use of embodied teaching strategies in one-to-one lessons with advanced performance students. The approach is hypothesis-driven, and builds on Alves and Nogueira's theoretical framework of expert competency domains, as well as empirical studies of musical communication and oneto-one teaching strategies. It is argued that a comprehensive definition of embodied teaching strategies should be conceptualized in terms of the quality of teacher-student interactions and the measurable outcomes of those interactions, and that it should account for the wide range of verbal and non-verbal forms of embodied musical communication that arise.

Abstract Performing in a music ensemble requires the ensemble members to adapt their individual understanding of the music to that of their co-performers during rehearsal or performance, such that they may coordinate their individual micro timing and come up with a cohesive, shared sound. Both planned and emergent coordination are involved in classical ensembles achieving a common creative interpretation of a notated score. This interpretation may be more prototypical than the performers’ individual understanding would be, reducing the risk of divergence and stabilizing the collective performance. Beyond exchanging auditory information—essential for maintaining precise temporal synchronization—ensemble members communicate through the visual domain, exchanging cueing or conducting gestures and glances, as well as establishing patterns of body sway that tend to synchronize during performance. These and other communicative behaviours may set the scene for the emergence of togetherness, a subjective feeling of being in a shared cognitive-emotional state that simultaneously enhances the experience of performers and observers.

Recent investigations on music performances have shown the relevance of singers' body motion for pedagogical as well as performance purposes. However, little is known about how the perception of voice-matching or task complexity affects choristers' body motion during ensemble singing. This study focussed on the body motion of choral singers who perform in duo along with a pre-recorded tune presented over a loudspeaker. Specifically, we examined the effects of the perception of voice-matching, operationalized in terms of sound spectral envelope, and task complexity on choristers' body motion. Fifteen singers with advanced choral experience first manipulated the spectral components of a pre-recorded short tune composed for the study, by choosing the settings they felt most and least together with. Then, they performed the tune in unison (i.e., singing the same melody simultaneously) and in canon (i.e., singing the same melody but at a temporal delay) with the chosen filter settings. Motion data of the choristers' upper body and audio of the repeated performances were collected and analyzed. Results show that the settings perceived as least together relate to extreme differences between the spectral components of the sound. The singers' wrists and torso motion was more periodic, their upper body posture was more open, and their bodies were more distant from the music stand when singing in unison than in canon. These findings suggest that unison singing promotes an expressive-periodic motion of the upper body.

Group music-making is a socially rewarding activity that strengthens social bonds and leads to feelings of musical togetherness, that is, feelings of musical alignment and social connection. For skilled ensemble musicians, social rewards are closely tied to the aesthetic rewards that come from achieving a high-quality performance. What playing conditions encourage or discourage togetherness experiences? The purpose of this study was to show how joint and mutual attention contribute to experiences of togetherness, and how togetherness relates to communicative body motion in classical piano duo playing. The study tests two hypotheses: (a) that attention focus affects pianists' togetherness experiences and communicative body motion; and (b) that pianists' body motion can index the strength of their togetherness experiences. Piano duos performed two pieces under conditions that manipulated their attention focus to encourage or discourage joint or mutual attention. Body motion data were collected using optical motion capture, and pianists rated the quality of their playing experience on a number of scales via self-report questionnaire. Results show that joint and mutual attention improved togetherness ratings, while self-directed attention decreased enjoyment. Pianists moved their bodies less when the focus was self-directed and more at the end of the session than during a baseline performance. Coupling of motion periodicities, contrary to expectations, was lower in conditions that promoted joint attention than in the baseline. The main conclusion of the study is that joint and mutual attention strengthen togetherness experiences and affect communicative body motion, but that measures of body motion provide unreliable indicators of togetherness. The study leads to a more nuanced understanding of the construct of togetherness and how it can be measured.

Music therapy provides a complex and dynamic environment and as such offers space for the emergence of nonverbal dialogue. We aimed to capture the relational, musical, and physiological aspects of intersubjectivity emerging during dyadic piano improvisations between music therapists and adult participants in a non-clinical feasibility study. Various data from 17 partner improvisations with adult participants and music therapists were collected, including audio, video, and MIDI recordings, physiological (ECG and EDA) measures, questionnaires, and semi-structured debriefing interviews. Parts of these data sets served for a mixed methods analysis to show (1) how instances of intersubjectivity were experienced by therapists and participants (drawing on interview data), (2) how their shared experiences were supported by coordination and contrast at the level of musical features (drawing on musical data), (3) how physiological arousal was compared between an initial resting baseline and the improvisation, and (4) how patterns in the event related electrodermal activity data related to qualities of intersubjectivity and musical interaction in an example of two case studies. In conclusion, intersubjectivity was characterized by overlapping experiences of relational qualities and complex patterns of musical interaction, including contrasting elements of convergence (in pitch contour) and divergence (key velocity and timing). Further, the case studies showed how differently-interpreted experiences can emerge from a homogenous musical structure, and how stronger intersubjectivity may be associated with more active experiential phenomena such as disruption or reciprocity (versus relaxation or security). Additionally, our findings highlight the complexity of musical interaction as an enactive process. Bringing together multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives enhanced a shared understanding of how subjective experiences that arise during dyadic improvisations relate to measures of musical coordination and physiological arousal. The complex mixed methods design proves to be feasible and, as a consequence, can be transferred to clinical settings in the future.

Two experiments were conducted to test the role of participant factors (i.e., musical sophistication, working memory capacity) and stimulus factors (i.e., sound duration, timbre) on auditory recognition using a rapid serial auditory presentation paradigm. Participants listened to a rapid stream of very brief sounds ranging from 30 to 150 milliseconds and were tested on their ability to distinguish the presence from the absence of a target sound selected from various sound sources placed amongst the distracters. Experiment 1a established that brief exposure to stimuli (60 to 150 milliseconds) does not necessarily correspond to impaired recognition. In Experiment 1b we found evidence that 30 milliseconds of exposure to the stimuli significantly impairs recognition of single auditory targets, but the recognition for voice and sine tone targets impaired the least, suggesting that the lower limit required for successful recognition could be lower than 30 milliseconds for voice and sine tone targets. Critically, the effect of sound duration on recognition completely disappeared when differences in musical sophistication were controlled for. Participants’ working memory capacities did not seem to predict their recognition performances. Our behavioral results extend the studies oriented to understand the processing of brief timbres under temporal constraint by suggesting that the musical sophistication may play a larger role than previously thought. These results can also provide a working hypothesis for future research, namely, that underlying neural mechanisms for the processing of various sound sources may have different temporal constraints.