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Classical concert directed by researchers from University of Oslo is the "Happening of the Year" of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation

On October 26, 2021, a very special “research concert” with the Danish String Quartet took place. The concert went on to win DR’s award “Happening of the Year”.

String quartet with mocap equipment

MusicLab is an innovation project between RITMO and University of Oslo Library. The aim is to explore new methods of research, education, and dissemination. MusicLab Copenhagen was carried out in cooperation with the Danish String Quartet in October 2021, where the musicians performed pieces with measurement devices on their heads and bodies. Photo: 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 H?ffding 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

Portrait of Alexander Jensenius
The award ceremony takes place Friday, February 4 and will be aired on Danish radio and television. Professor Alexander Refsum Jensenius from RITMO will receive the award together with project leader Simon H?ffding, a former postdoc at RITMO.

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 H?ffding from 2020.

By Ellen Evju Jahr
Published Feb. 4, 2022 3:16 PM - Last modified Mar. 7, 2022 12:04 PM