Classical concert directed by researchers is "Happening of Year" of Danish Broadcasting Corporation

Playing and listening to music influences our consciousness and increases our quality of life. This is the starting point for a long-lasting cooperation between music philosopher Simon Høffding and the Danish String Quartet. The work culminated in the concert MusicLab Copenhagen in October 2021, where researchers from the RITMO center at the University of Oslo participated actively.

A Scientific Music Experience

With help from disciplines such as phenomenology, musicology, music technology, and experimental psychology, the scientists used the concert to explore questions related to what they call absorbing music experiences.

The aim is to understand how the minds and bodies of musicians and audiences are engaged during intense conditions, such as a classical music concert.

- We wanted to give the audience a concert with high artistic quality, while at the same

time carrying out experiments with the performers and the audience, says Jensenius.

This provides the researchers with an unusual insight in the minds of professional musicians during a concert, as well as an understanding of the interaction between mind and body.

The Science Behind the Performance

While the audience enjoyed the classical concert, the researchers measured how the pulse varied and how the breath was synchronized between the four quartet members and selected people from the audience.

- We are now working on finding relationships between the different datasets we gathered, and are compiling these with information from interviews with the musicians and questionnaires from the audience, Jensenius explains.

- The aim is to look at connections between amount of absorption, attention, and mind wandering with both the musicians and the audience.

Read about the concert and watch the stream here.

"The most accomplished musicians can play without thinking". Read interview with Simon Høffding from 2020.