Previous correspondence on this topic refers to the different patterns of overtones that enable us to distinguish one instrument from another. This isn’t the only factor involved. Many years ago when ...

Singing experiments with residents of the Bolivian rainforest demonstrate how biology and experience shape the way we hear music. In the lowlands of Bolivia, the most isolated of the Tsimané people ...

“Beauty in music,” wrote the composer Charles Ives, “is too often confused with something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair.” Ezra Sims, a pioneering Boston-based composer, did more than ...

Our experience of musical intervals and the uncanny “sameness” of octaves is encoded in our neuroanatomy. The neuroscience of music is rich, complex and not without controversy. But some things are ...