Troy Rogers controls his robot ensemble from his laptop.
On the altar of a former cathedral in Duluth, Minn., an ensemble of musicians begins to play.
Their notes are piercing and sometimes dissonant. It’s not your typical cathedral music—but then again, these aren’t your typical musicians.
They’re robots.
(more…)
The TRBQ team met Harvard ethnomusicologist Richard Wolf while working on a show about music. But Wolf studies the funeral music of the Kota people in south India, and he has something to say about death, too.
Listen to more of Richard Wolf’s interview on TRBQ’s radio special: What Is a Good Death?
TRBQ paid a visit to the United House of Prayer for All People in Harlem to spend some time with a gospel brass band called the McCullough Sons of Thunder. And we talked with some neuroscientists who study our perceptions of music.
Pay a visit to the McCullough Sons Thunder at the United House of Prayer for All People in Harlem, and hear from neuroscientist Ani Patel of Tufts.
A video from TRBQ producer Flora Lichtman.
Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker says our affection for music is tied to our use of language. (Photo: Flora Lichtman)
Pinning down a definition of music is harder than it sounds.
A song composed by a human easily fits into the category of music. But what about a song composed by a bird? Or the rumble of a freight train?