Richard Parncutt

Richard Parncutt ( born October 24, 1957 in Melbourne) is a music psychologist, Professor of Systematic Musicology (since 1998) and Director of the Center for Systematic Musicology (since 2008) at the Karl- Franzens- University of Graz.

Life

Richard Parncutt studied music and physics at the University of Melbourne, Australia. In 1987 he graduated from the University of New England (Armidale / Australia) from with a doctorate in music, psychology, and physics. He was a guest researcher with or postdoc at Ernst Terhardt (Munich), Johan Sundberg (Stockholm), Annabel Cohen ( Halifax, Canada), Al Bregman ( Montreal), and John Sloboda ( Keele, England) and lecturer ( lecturer ) at the Institute of Psychology Keele University (England). In addition to his music, psychological research and teaching activities, Richard Parncutt engaged in the fields of intercultural ty, and research on racism and collegiality and academic performance assurance.

Research

Parncutt research on the perception of harmony complements the related research by Ernst Terhardt and explains the basis of general principles of perception and shape recognition why, for example, the root of a C major or minor chord is C, why and in what manner chord root notes are ambiguous, why certain chords and chord progressions are used more frequently in tonal music than others ( major common than minor common than dominant, falling fifths between fundamental tones often than rising fifths, etc. ), and finally why Western music since the 17th century mainly on only two scales (major and minor ) is based.

His research in the field of rhythm perception creates a connection between pitch and rhythm perception ( the rhythmic pulse perception is understood as analogous to the perception of a harmonic complex tone ) and allows the prediction of the perceptual salience of a pulse (beat, clock ) and the rhythmic ambiguity of a tone sequence.

In his work on the piano fingering the practical everyday knowledge of pianists was systematically studied and described, which allowed for the first time the systematic prediction of fingerings in melodic passages.

In his research on the development of music he poses the question, why cause musical sound pattern strong emotions and why religious rituals are accompanied and supported by music in all cultures, and formulated surprising answers because recent empirical research on prenatal psychological development and the survival of the mother - infant bond.

Parncutt research extends to different areas of music psychology:

• Musical structure: pitch perception, consonance, harmony, tonality ( major / minor ), melody, counterpoint, rhythm and accentuation.

• Performance: psychology of musical performance (focus Piano: Expression and fingering ); Application of research findings in the musical and music teaching practice

• Origin of Music: The nature and roots of harmony, tonality, rhythm ( timing ); evolutionary psychology of music and possible roles of prenatal and postnatal mother - child bond in the phylogeny and ontogeny of Music

• Interdisciplinarity: merging of the humanities, natural science and practice at the intersection of music

• Modelling: Psychoacoustic / cognitive theories and their computerized applications in music theory, music composition and

Parncutt is the founder or co-founder of the following international peer -reviewed research infrastructures:

• Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology (since 2004)
• Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies (since 2007)
• International Student Conference on Systematic Musicology (since 2008)
• Conference on Applied Interculturality Research (since 2010)

Other public ministry and controversy

On October 25, 2012 rose Parncutt in the web space of the University of Graz, the demand for the death penalty for "deniers of global warming " and linked a list of appropriate candidates a blog of climate activists. He suggested that a jury of scientists should decide on the death penalty. The Shawshank Redemption should have the chance of parole to life imprisonment if they withdraw, publicly repent and undertake to operate out of prison research for evidence of global warming. This requirement remained on the website of the University of Graz until December 24, 2012. After several people who were on the list of names, themed the text in their blogs and the claim was the subject of public criticism, the university administration caused his removal. The original text is still searchable in the Google cache. Parncutt even apologized for his remarks. On December 29, 2012 received a further requirement in this text ( death penalty for the Pope because of the attitude of the Church to contraception ) received wide attention in Austrian and international media. The University of Graz issued a statement in which they " shocked and horrified " if the pleadings Parncutt shows up and the " inhuman statements" Parncutt rejects.

Since January 2013, a disciplinary procedure against Parncutt is pending.

Publications

Current refereed publications

• R. Parncutt: The tonic as triad: Key profiles as pitch salience profiles of tonic triads. Music Perception, 2011, pp. 333-365.
• R. Parncutt & A. Strand: The role of music in the integration of cultural minorities. In: I. Deliege & J. Davidson (Eds.): Music and the Mind ( Essays in Honour of John Sloboda ). Oxford 2011, pp. 379-411.
• R. Parncutt: Prenatal and infant conditioning, the mother schema, and the origins of music and religion. Musicae Scientiae ( Special issue on Music and Evolution, Ed. Vitouch O. & O. Ladinig ), 2009-2010, pp. 119-150.
• R. Parncutt: Tonal implications of harmonic and melodic Tn -types. In: T. Klouche, T. Noll (Eds.): Mathematics and computing in music. Springer, Berlin 2009, pp. 124-139.
• R. Parncutt: Prenatal development and the phylogeny and ontogeny of musical behavior. In S. Hallam, I. Cross, M. Thaut (Eds.): Oxford handbook of music psychology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009, pp. 219-228.

Highly cited refereed publications

• R. Parncutt: A perceptual model of pulse salience and metrical accent in musical rhythms. Music Perception, 11, 1994, 409-464.
• R. Parncutt: Harmony: A psychoacoustical approach. Springer, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-540-51279-9 / ISBN 0-387-51279-9.
• R. Parncutt: Revision of Terhardt 's psychoacoustical model of the root ( s) of a musical chord. Music Perception, 6, 1988, 65-94.
• R. Parncutt, JA Sloboda, EF Clarke, M. Raekallio, P. Desain: An ergonomic model of piano fingering for melodic fragments. Music Perception, 14, 1997, 341-382.
• R. Parncutt, GE McPherson (Eds.): The science and psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning. Oxford University Press, New York 2002, ISBN 0-19-513810-4.
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