Politecnico di Milano joins the beneficiaries of the REM@KE project
The ERC Synergy Grant project REM@KE (Reconstructing Embodied Musical Knowledge at the Keyboard) announces the formal integration of two new beneficiaries: the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering (DEIB) of Politecnico di Milano, represented by the Musical Acoustics Laboratory at the Territorial Campus of Cremona, and the Institute of Heritage Science of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR ISPC).
REM@KE aims to reconstruct the embodied musical knowledge of the historical keyboard instrument through Cognitive and Digital Organology (CaDO), an interdisciplinary approach that studies the relationships between these instruments, the performers who played them, and the cultural environments that shaped their evolution.
Within the project, Politecnico di Milano contributes specialised expertise in the vibroacoustic analysis of the mechanical dynamics of keyboard instruments, namely the response of the mechanical components to the performer's gesture, together with the modelling of soundboards. The vibroacoustic methods developed by Politecnico di Milano will make it possible to measure, model and compare the dynamic behaviour of original instruments and their reconstructions, helping to fill a dimension that has so far been overlooked by historical organology.
The mechanics of a keyboard instrument are a system of extraordinary subtlety. The relationship between the performer’s gesture and the resulting sound is mediated by components whose dynamic properties vary from instrument to instrument, from maker to maker, and over time. Measuring them accurately and non-invasively is technically challenging, but it is the only way to address REM@KE’s fundamental question: how did these instruments sound, and how did they feel under the fingers in the time of Pasquini, Bach, Mozart, or Chopin?
Fabio Antonacci, Associate Professor at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of Politecnico di Milano and head of the vibroacoustic research line at the Musical Acoustics Laboratory.