Project Title: When Dissonance is Beautiful: A Study of Cross-Cultural Religious Beliefs and Their Relation to Musical Color
Project Description: While Western music theory dominates most of the music today and assumes that musical consonance tends to be preferred over musical dissonance, research suggests that this is not true cross-culturally. What makes the matter especially counterintuitive is that neurobiological research indicates that consonant musical colors are more efficiently processed in the brain than dissonant musical colors. Why, then, is it not the case that all cultures exhibit a general preference for consonance? One potential explanation is that this is due to how different cultures conceptualize music differently. My project will explore how cultural beliefs--with a focus on religious beliefs--contribute to the different degrees of appreciation of musical dissonance across different cultures. I also hope to come up with a more universal instead of purely Westernized system to describe musical colors through this project. I will study this topic from the perspectives of music, psychology, anthropology, and data science.
Most Important Accomplishment: Yet to come.
Reflections on the College Scholar Program: I feel very grateful for this opportunity to do interdisciplinary research on music—my primary interest outside of academics. I am also looking forward to connecting with my peers who combine topics and techniques from an array of disciplines in unexpected and unique ways.