-
Are musicians better at multitasking?
Hello Dear Reader, It got chilly all of a sudden. We were enjoying a mild late summer in the UK until this week. Now people have broken into their supplies of heavy winter scarves and gloves. I have had the pleasure of bringing out my Grandmother’s legacy of winter hats. Today I am debuting her white 1920s bonnet. My Grandma’s hats remind me of her, a lovely feeling. They also fit my head, which is a miracle. My head measures 60cm circumference. Why not measure your head Dear Reader? You will likely find yours is a neat and well-shaped cranium, not like the bulging mass that sits atop my neck. Large…
-
PhD in Music Psychology: Viva
Hello Dear Reader This week I enjoyed a phone call with a much-missed colleague Elena, from Switzerland. You can see my Swiss colleagues in this photo of my leaving party. I am sure she won’t mind if I talk about the fact that Elena just handed in her PhD, which I had the pleasure of helping to supervise when I lived in Lucerne last year. Elena’s PhD is entitled ‘Evaluating recorded performance: An investigation of music criticism through Gramophone reviews of Beethoven piano sonata recordings’. It is a fascinating study of music critique; how style and form has changed over nearly 100 years of written text. She breaks down the different components…
