A tiny camera films inside a clarinetist’s mouth. Badges resembling large Hershey kisses measure the volume that surrounds musicians. A research scientist shows video of Bonobo apes making music with rock musician Peter Gabriel. This is not your typical research facility. There are no chemistry labs, no test tubes, no white coats. But inside UNCG’s School of Music, the world of sound is being probed as never before. (...)
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The institute plans to probe questions from the practical to the esoteric. Among them:
• How deep in our evolutionary history is music embedded?
• How can we protect musicians from noise-induced hearing loss? Does a gene protect some while making others more susceptible?
• How can music be used to manage pain and heal injury?
That work partners with researchers across campus, county lines and the country, from Wake Forest University to the Great Ape Trust of Iowa. “Maybe, through research, we can find answers to questions that have vexed us for years,” Deal says. Ultimately, Deal predicts that its projects can advance the role of music on multiple fronts, such as improving how students learn to play an instrument, teaching people more about music in all of nature and enhancing people’s lives “in ways we didn’t imagine.”(...)
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In a third-floor office, research scientist Patricia Gray works on one of the institute’s largest projects, biomusic — the music of nature. Thanks to technology, scientists now can hear, record and analyze sounds of birds, insects, mice, elephants — even a single cell. It’s work that helped Gray and other experts secure a $2.7 million National Science Foundation grant for a traveling exhibit on the subject.
So, who’s that in her desk photo?
It’s Kanzi, a Bonobo ape and one of her favorite research subjects. Bonobos and humans share a common ancestor dating back 100,000 years. Studying music-making in our closest primate cousins, Gray says, “has the promise of helping us understand the evolution of music.” She shows video of Kanzi jamming on a synthesizer, as rock musician Peter Gabriel plays in an adjoining room. Amazingly, Kanzi synchronizes his beat with Gabriel’s.
“The more we find out what they already instinctively know about music, the more it implies how deep in our evolutionary history music is embedded,” Gray says. “Think about people downloading their own music and carrying it with them. Perhaps this is part of our DNA, and other species’ DNA, to have our favorite musical sounds with us.” (...)
By Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane
Staff Writer
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