music

Listen to a musicologist blow through the oldest known shell horn.

A love of music and science led the marine biologist to discover that whales sing songs, a discovery that he’s since used to convince the world the animals are worth saving.

Hear the muted symphony that one researcher thinks might be a close approximation to how macaques perceive the performance.

The auditory cortices of humans and rhesus monkeys respond very differently to harmonic tones.

A group of around 300 whales produced 184 distinct songs over just a few years, according to a new study.

A whole-genome analysis of people who experience color when they listen to sounds points to a handful of genes involved in neural development.

Researchers create a program that can use fMRI data to identify which musical pieces are in participants' heads.  

The artist discusses music as a means to get kids excited about science, and the inspiration he took from astrophysics and polar bears.

At 100 sites around North America, field recorders are set to record natures’ response to the blotting out of the sun on Monday.

Ben Henry delves into the still-unanswered questions of where our musical preferences come from and what makes synesthetes tick.

Researchers are using multiple methods to study the origins of humans’ capacity to process and produce music, and there’s no shortage of debate about the results.

The evidence is equivocal on whether animals dig human songs, so scientists set out to make music that mimics their soundscapes.

Music sounds very different to cochlear implant users. Researchers are trying to improve the experience.

Music, the future of American science, and more

Studies of remote Amazonian villages reveal how culture influences our musical preferences.

Researchers investigate the unusual association of musical sounds with tastes or colors through the lens of another perceptual quirk.

Zebra finches dial down dopamine signaling when they hear errors in a song performance.

An experiment in which people pass each other initially nonrhythmic drumming sequences reveals the human affinity for musical patterns.