91丝瓜视频

New $2.5M SSHRC Partnership Grant launches global Timbre and Orchestration Network (TONE)

A major new international research collaboration led by 91丝瓜视频鈥檚 Schulich School of Music is set to transform how music is created, studied and experienced across cultures.

Funded by a $2.5 million Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant, the Timbre and Orchestration Network (TONE) brings together a global network of scholars, performers, composers and technologists as well as students in music, psychology and computer science. The initiative aims to expand research and education on two of music鈥檚 most fundamental yet historically underexamined dimensions 鈥� timbre and orchestration 鈥� beyond their traditional focus on the Western classical canon.

Every sound has a timbre. Often described as the 鈥渃olour鈥� of sound, timbre is what allows listeners to distinguish between a violin and a human voice playing the same pitch. Orchestration is the art of combining sounds to create musical meaning.
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Examining a wide range of music

The project will examine practices across a wide spectrum of traditions, from hip hop, jazz and electronic music to Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Indonesian and African music. It will also bridge disciplines including music theory, ethnomusicology, psychology, acoustics and technology.

While central to music-making worldwide, timbre and orchestration have received less scholarly attention than such elements as pitch and rhythm, which are more easily studied through written notation like sheet music.

鈥淚t鈥檚 that multidisciplinarity of people approaching problems from all these different perspectives that will make ideas bubble and develop in fascinating ways,鈥� said project co-director Professor Stephen McAdams, Distinguished James 91丝瓜视频 Professor in Music Perception and Cognition.

TONE is also co-directed by Professor Robert Hasegawa, William Dawson Scholar and Associate Professor of Music Theory.
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A departure from Eurocentric approaches

TONE builds on the SSHRC-funded ACTOR (Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration) project, a Partnership Grant led by McAdams between 2018 and 2025, which brought together over 70 researchers across five countries and produced key resources, including the open-access (TOR) website and the recently published Oxford Handbook of Orchestration Studies, co-edited by Hasegawa.

While ACTOR focused largely on Western classical orchestral traditions, TONE responds to growing calls to decentre Eurocentric approaches and move beyond score-based traditions to include improvisation and orally transmitted practices as well as global, popular and experimental music.

鈥淎 lot of scholarship relies on looking at musical scores, but what if there isn鈥檛 one?鈥� asks Hasegawa. 鈥淗ow do you conceptualize what you hear? These are new challenges that require new methodologies.鈥�

TONE comprises a 16-member partnership including 12 universities, four conservatories, three orchestras and one music centre from across North America and Europe, alongside scholars and musicians from 15 countries around the world, including the Global South.

Montreal-area partners include the Centre des musiciens du monde, Orchestre m茅tropolitain, Orchestre symphonique de Montr茅al and Universit茅 de Montr茅al.

Together, they will connect timbre and orchestration practices and pedagogy across North American, European, East and Southwest Asian, Middle Eastern and African timbre and orchestration practices and pedagogy, forming one of the most ambitious networks ever assembled in the field.
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Bridging research and creation

TONE is organized around two interconnected research streams: analysis and creation-as-research.

In the analysis stream, researchers will investigate how timbre and orchestration function in composition, performance, listener perception and sociocultural contexts. Central questions include how and why musicians select and combine sounds, and how these decisions shape emotional and aesthetic responses across cultures.

A core component is the development of a multilingual lexicon of timbre and orchestration, reflecting how different cultures describe and conceptualize sound.

Digital innovation will play a key role. TONE will expand on the website developed for ACTOR, build a database and develop computer-aided orchestration software.

Researchers will also use advances in audio analysis and machine learning to identify patterns in sound and simulate different acoustic environments.

The creation-as-research stream brings composers, performers, conductors, recording engineers, acousticians, students and researchers together to generate new musical works, performances and recordings and produce transferable knowledge, from books to open access journal articles to speaker series. A key initiative is the Contemporary Orchestration Research Ensembles (CORE) program which pairs students with professionals from non-Western traditions to co-create music and explore collaborative approaches to orchestration. The musicians will come from artistic residencies at Montreal鈥檚 Centre des musiciens du monde.

The 91丝瓜视频-based Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music and Media Technology (CIRMMT) will house workshops and seminars and provide technical expertise and access to the Centre鈥檚 specialized acoustic labs and performance research facilities.

Ultimately, TONE will deepen understanding of music as a global human phenomenon.

鈥淎s a scientist, I鈥檝e developed theories about how we organize sound based on timbre and orchestration, but it鈥檚 been developed around Western classical and contemporary music,鈥� says McAdams. 鈥淣ow, by moving into music of other cultures, we can ask: are there certain basic things everyone shares? What are the specificities in each culture? It鈥檚 exciting to push theory in new directions.鈥�

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