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Subject: FW: Musicology PhD studentship in Goldsmiths Computing Department
From:    "Chew G" <[log in to unmask]>
Date:    Thu, July 19, 2007 5:09 pm
To:      [log in to unmask]
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From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]

AHRC/EPSRC/JISC eScience four-year PhD Studentship in Musicology at
Goldsmiths Department of Computing (Oct 2007 - Sept 2011)

PURCELL PLUS

Principal Investigator: Mr Tim Crawford, Senior Lecturer in Computational
Musicology, Goldsmiths, University of London; Co-Investigator: Prof.
Geraint Wiggins, Professor of Computational Creativity and Leader of the
ISMS group in the Department of Computing, Goldsmiths, University of
London

This AHRC/EPSRC/JISC-funded eScience project, based in the ISMS group at
the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths, is about reconciling the needs
of humanistic scholarship (in this case, a musicological study) with the
demands and constraints imposed by the emerging eScience technology being
brought to bear on those needs.

Its essential aims are to:

* investigate a methodology for conducting musicological research in an
eScience context by supplementing and supporting traditional methods
rather than threatening or replacing them

* build a computer-based framework for investigating the knowledge of an
expert community about a certain repertory of music by establishing,
recording and analysing associations between information in the three
domains of notated score, verbal commentary and recorded performance, and
to develop the means whereby scholars can interact with this information,
providing ways to annotate the sources, to extract knowledge that is
meaningful for their study and present it effectively, without needing to
learn the underlying technology

* demonstrate proof of concept of this framework on Purcell's Fantazies
and In nomines (c1680) as the basis of enquiry, using a variety of
information sources including a full score-encoding, a
specially-commissioned expert commentary and several audio recordings

* show how ICT tools (such as music information retrieval as represented
by the OMRAS 2 project) which operate on musical content (either in the
symbolic/score or digital audio domain) may be used to produce information
that can be expressed as musical knowledge in a manner that is compatible
with humanistic enquiry. This will be carried on within the context of
established and emerging text-based methods such as those facilitated by
the Semantic Web and other technologies


PHD STUDENTSHIP

We are offering a fully funded studentship for a PhD student who will work
alongside the technical team under the supervision of the PI and CoI, on a
study of the emerging methodological issues and their implications for the
discipline of musicology. We expect this to be carried out in the context
of a number of musicological case studies undertaken during the period of
the studentship. The duration is four years, during the first of which the
student will receive appropriate training in the necessary technical
skills to carry out the study using the technological framework.

We wish to stress, however, that this will not require any more than basic
ICT experience or expertise as a prerequisite; more important is a
thorough musical background, a proven aptitude for musicological research,
and the willingness to take on a challenge. The student will work for the
first two years alongside Mr David Lewis, the technical RA on the project
and himself a trained musicologist, as the Purcell Plus framework is
designed and developed.

We expect the PhD thesis to be on a topic related to musicological
methodology and the use of IT tools such as music information retrieval
and/or the elicitation of explicit and tacit knowledge from various
sources of musical information. The PhD work will provide an essential
element of validation to the Purcell Plus project which will feed back
into the ongoing design of the software framework.

For further details, see:
http://doc.gold.ac.uk/~mas01tc/PurcellPlus/PurcellPlus_CaseForSupport.pdf

Applicants should normally have an excellent first degree, preferably in
music; those with a similar degree in a discipline relevant to the project
with a demonstrable musical understanding and a good knowledge of music
history will also be considered.

To apply for this studentship you will need to follow the normal
Goldsmiths postgraduate admissions procedure.
See: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/apply/pg/

All applications should be clearly marked "Purcell Plus PhD studentship".

The closing date for applications is 7th September 2007.

************

COMPUTING AT GOLDSMITHS

The Department of Computing at Goldsmiths is a vibrant, innovative and
challenging research-led department, and one of Europe's leading research
departments specialising in computing and its applications in the arts.

Intelligent Sound and Music Systems (ISMS) make or process music in ways
which involve knowledge of music and/or musical behaviour. Among the aims
of the ISMS group at Goldsmiths are a better understanding of how human
music cognition functions and to build computational systems which
analyse, model and ultimately exhibit behaviour which is musical and/or
useful to musicians, including musicologists.