David Robert William Sears
Department of Computational Perception
Johannes Kepler University Linz
Altenberger Straße 69
Science Park 3, Room 402
A-4040 Linz, Austria
Nationality: USA
Phone: +43 732 2468 4720
Fax: +43 732 2468 4705
E-mail: [email protected]
Personal Webpage: http://www.davidrwsears.com
Current position
Post-doctoral Researcher, Department of Computational Perception, Johannes Kepler University
Research interests
• Music Perception & Cognition • Digital Humanities Research • Empirical Musicology • Classical Form • Schema
Theory • Implicit Learning • Popular Music Analysis • Music and Emotions • Musical Expectations • Sensorimotor
Synchronization
Appointments held
2013-2014
Associate Lecturer, Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal
Education
2016
2008
2007
Ph.D. in Music Theory, McGill University, Montreal
• Dissertation title: The Classical Cadence as a Closing Schema: Learning, Memory, and Perception pdf
• Co-supervised by William E. Caplin (music theory) and Stephen McAdams (psychology)
B.A. in Music, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
• 4-year Honors Program, Summa Cum Laude, Senior Scholar
• Research thesis title: Processing Surprise Tension in Tonal Melodies
• Co-supervised by Elizabeth H. Margulis (music theory) and William H. Levine (psychology)
B.A. in English, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
• Honors thesis title: Conceptual Synaesthesia: Deconstructing Perceived Boundaries Around Music and Literature
• Co-supervised by Elizabeth H. Margulis (music theory) and Debra R. Cohen (english)
Fellowships, awards, & prizes
2015
2011-2014
2011, 2014
2013
2012
2011
2008-2011
2008-2010
2008-2009
Schulich School of Music Graduate Excellence Fellowship
Quebec Merit Scholarship for Foreign Students
Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music, Media, and Technology (CIRMMT) Student Awards
CIRMMT Inter-Centre Research Exchange to Queen Mary, University of London
Dean’s Essay First Prize, “Exploring the ‘Sound-box’ in Radiohead’s ‘Paranoid Android’ ”
Grand Prize for Student Research at the Society for Music Perception and Cognition Conference
Richard H. Tomlinson Doctoral Fellowship
McGill International Doctoral Award
Provost’s Fellowship
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$3,000
$70,334
$10,000
$3,000
$1,000
$500
$75,000
$19,540
$5,000
Publications
Articles
2016
Chuen, Lorraine, David R. W. Sears, and Stephen McAdams. 2016. “Psychophysiological Responses to Auditory
Change.” Psychophysiology 53 (6): 891–904. pdf
2014
Sears, David R. W., William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. 2014. “Perceiving the Classical Cadence.” Music
Perception 31 (5): 397–417. pdf
2011
Sears, David R. W. 2011. “What is a Cadence? Theoretical and Analytical Perspectives on Cadences in the Classical
Repertoire.” Conference Report. Eighteenth Century Music 8 (2): 361–4. pdf
2008
Sears, David R. W. 2008. “Processing Surprise Tension in Tonal Melodies.” Inquiry Research Journal 9: 16–23. pdf
Ogg, Mattson, David R. W. Sears, Manuela Marin, and Stephen McAdams. Forthcoming. “Psychophysiological Indices of Music-Evoked Emotions in Musicians.” Music Perception.
Sears, David R. W., Marcus T. Pearce, William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. Submitted. “Simulating Melodic
and Harmonic Expectations for Tonal Cadences Using Probabilistic Models.”
Sears, David R. W., Marcus T. Pearce, Jacob Spitzer, William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. Submitted. “Expectations for Tonal Cadences: Sensory and Cognitive Priming Effects.”
Book chapters
2015
Sears, David R. W. 2015. “The Perception of Cadential Closure.” In What is a Cadence? Theoretical and Analytical
Perspectives on Cadences in the Classical Repertoire, edited by Markus Neuwirth and Pieter Bergé, 251–83. Leuven: Leuven University Press. pdf
2012
Trochidis, Kostas, David R. W. Sears, Diêu-Ly Trân, and Stephen McAdams. 2013. “Psychophysiological Measures of
Emotional Response to Romantic Orchestral Music and their Musical and Acoustic Correlates.” In From Sounds
to Music and Emotions, edited by Mitsuko Aramaki, Mathieu Barthet, Richard Kronland-Martinet, and Sølvi Ystad, 44–57. Berlin: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pdf
Abstracts
2011
Sears, David R. W., Mattson Ogg, Mitchel Benovoy, Diêu-Ly Trân, and Stephen McAdams. 2011. “Predicting the
Psychophysiological Responses of Listeners with Musical Features.” Psychophysiology. Special Issue: Society for
Psychophysiological Research Abstracts for the Fifty-First Annual Meeting 48: S106. pdf
2010
Sears, David R. W., Mattson Ogg, Mitchel Benovoy, Gilbert Zilberstein, and Stephen McAdams. 2010. “Are Bodily
Responses Pre-Musical? Psychophysiological Applications to Music Analysis.” In Proceedings of the International
Conference of Music Perception and Cognition 11, 46. Peer-reviewed abstract, Seattle, University of Washington.
In preparation
Sears, David R. W.. 2016. “Beneath the Surface: Pattern Discovery Using Non-Contiguous N -grams.” Working
Paper, Department of Computational Perception, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria.
Sears, David R. W.. 2016. “The Classical Cadence Typology: Classification Using Phylogenetic Trees.” Working
Paper, Department of Computational Perception, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria.
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Selected conference presentations
2017
Sears, David R. W. 2017. “Family Resemblance and the Classical Cadence Typology: Classification Using Phylogenetic Trees.” Paper presented at the 9ᵗʰ European Music Analysis Conference (EuroMAC), Strasbourg, France,
June 28-July 1.
2016
Sears, David R. W. and Claire Arthur. 2016. “Beneath (or Beyond) the Surface: Corpus Studies of Tonal Harmony.”
Symposium presented at the 14ᵗʰ International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), San
Francisco, California, July 5-9.
2016
Sears, David R. W. and Stephen McAdams. 2016. “A Corpus Study of Tonal Harmony: Pattern Discovery Using
Non-contiguous N -grams.” Paper presented at the 14ᵗʰ International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), San Francisco, California, July 5-9.
2015
Sears, David R. W., Marcus Pearce, William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. 2015. “Statistical Learning and the
Perception of Closure: How IDyOM Models Cadences.” Paper presented at the Society for Music Perception
and Cognition (SMPC), Nashville, Tennessee, August 1-5.
2014
Sears, David R. W. 2014. “The Classical Cadence in Context: A Corpus Study of Haydn’s String Quartets.” Paper
presented at the 8ᵗʰ European Music Analysis Conference (EuroMAC), Leuven, Belgium, September 17-21.
2014
Sears, David R. W., William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. 2014. “Expecting the Classical Cadence: Priming Effects.” Paper presented at the 13ᵗʰ International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), Seoul,
South Korea, August 4-8.
2014
Fujinaga, Ichiro, David R. W. Sears, and Andrew Hankinson. 2014. “Big Data for the Music Perception and Cognition Community.” Paper presented at the 13ᵗʰ International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition
(ICMPC), Seoul, South Korea, August 4-8.
2013
Sears, David R. W. 2013. “Modeling Cadential Strength: Perception, Context, and Hierarchy.” Poster presented at
the 36ᵗʰ annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory (SMT), Charlotte, North Carolina, October 31-November
3.
2013
Sears, David R. W., William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. 2013. “Hierarchies of Cadential Closure: Effects of
Training and Context.” Paper presented at the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC), Toronto,
Ontario, August 8-11.
2013
Weigl, David M., David R. W. Sears, Jason A. Hockman, Stephen McAdams, and Catherine Guastavino. 2013. “Investigating the Effects of Beat Salience on Beat Synchronization Judgements During Music Listening.” Paper
presented at the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC), Toronto, Ontario, August 8-11.
2013
Chuen, Lorraine, David R. W. Sears, and Stephen McAdams. 2013. “Psychophysiological Responses to Auditory
Change.” Poster presented at the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC), Toronto, Ontario, August 8-11.
2013
Weigl, David M., David R. W. Sears, and Catherine Guastavino. 2013. “Examining the Reliability and Predictive
Validity of Beat Salience Judgements.” Poster presented at the Cognitively Based Music Informatics Research
Conference (CogMIR), Toronto, Ontario, August 7.
2013
Sears, David R. W. 2013. “Transcribing the Sound-box: Perceptual Principles and Compositional Choices.” Paper
presented at the International Conference on Analyzing Popular Music (popMac), Liverpool, United Kingdom,
July 2-4.
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2012
Trochidis, Kostas, David R. W. Sears, Diêu-Ly Trân, and Stephen McAdams. 2012. “Psychophysiological Measures
of Emotional Response to Romantic Orchestral Music and their Musical and Acoustic Correlates.” Paper presented at the 9ᵗʰ International Symposium on Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval, London, United Kingdom, June 19-22.
2011
Sears, David R. W., Mattson Ogg, Mitchel Benovoy, Diêu-Ly Trân, and Stephen McAdams. 2011. “Predicting the
Psychophysiological Responses of Listeners with Musical Features.” Poster presented at the 51ˢᵗ annual meeting
of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR), Boston, Massachusetts, September 14-18.
2011
Sears, David R. W., William E. Caplin, and Stephen McAdams. 2011. “The Perception of Cadential Closure in
Mozart’s Keyboard Sonatas.” Paper presented at the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC),
Rochester, New York, August 11-14.
2010
Sears, David R. W. 2010. “The Effect of Performance Features and Formal Repetition on Measures of Physiological
Arousal.” Paper presented at the 3ʳᵈ meeting of the Northeastern Music Cognition Group (NEMCOG), Boston,
Massachusetts, October 23.
2010
Sears, David R. W., Mattson Ogg, Mitchel Benovoy, Gilbert Zilberstein, and Stephen McAdams. 2010. “Are Bodily
Responses Pre-musical? Psychophysiological Applications to Music Analysis.” Paper presented at the 11ᵗʰ International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), Seattle, Washington, August 23-27.
2010
Sears, David R. W., Mattson Ogg, Mitchel Benovoy, and Stephen McAdams. 2010. “The Effect of Performance Features on the Psychophysiological Responses of Listeners.” Poster presented at the BRAMS Annual Scientific
Day, Montreal, QC, April 16.
Teaching experience
Associate Lecturer
2014
MUMT 250 Music Perception and Cognition
• Introduction to music perception and cognition. Course topics include acoustics, the physiology of the human
ear, auditory scene analysis, perceptual principles governing voice leading, and music and emotion.
2013
MUTH 250 Tonal Theory and Analysis III
• Analysis of musical form in the High Classical Period, with introductions to the basic theme types (sentence,
period, and hybrid, small ternary, small binary) and sonata form, as well as the identification of cadence types.
Teaching Assistant
2011
MUMT 250 Music Perception and Cognition
• Introduction to music perception and cognition.
2010
MUTH 211 Tonal Theory and Analysis II
• Analysis of musical form in the High Classical Period.
2009
MUTH 210 Tonal Theory and Analysis I
• Continuation of MUTH 111.
2009
MUTH 111 Elementary Harmony
• Introduction to roman numeral analysis and part-writing in four voices in chorale style.
2008
MUTH 110 Melody and Counterpoint
• Writing in two and three voices in the Renaissance style.
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Undergraduate student advisees
2014-2015
Jacob Spitzer (B.A. Psychology, 2015)
Investigating Closure Schemata in Mozart’s Keyboard Sonatas: Perceiving and Expecting the Classical Cadence
2011-2012
Lorraine Chuen (B.A. Psychology, 2012)
Psychophysiological Responses to Auditory Change
2011
John Aspler (B.A. Psychology, 2011)
Physiological Responses to Auditory Change
2010-2011
Diêu-Ly Trân (B.A. Psychology, 2011)
Predicting Behavioral and Physiological Measures of Emotions with Musical Features
Service to the profession
2016-2017
2013
2011-2012
2010-2011
2010
Ad-hoc Reviewer, Music Perception.
Consulting Editor for Odyssey Science Magazine for Kids, September issue.
McGill Learning Management System Faculty and Student Advisory Group.
CIRMMT Executive Committee, Axis 3 Student Coordinator.
McGill Graduate Student Music Symposium Abstract Committee.
Memberships and affiliations
Society of Music Theory (SMT)
Society of Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC)
Northeast Music Cognition Group (NEMCOG)
The International Society for Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR)
Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR)
Technical skills
Experimental design and univariate and multivariate statistical analysis.
Music software: Finale, Sibelius, Adobe Audition, Propellerhead Reason, Sonic Visualiser, Music21 (basic)
Programming/Scripting Languages: Matlab, LATEX, Python (basic)
Statistical software: SPSS, Matlab, R
Additional information
Language skills: English (native), French (proficient), German (basic)
Piano: 2 years of formal training
Saxophone (classical): 8 years of formal training
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References
William E. Caplin McGill University, Montreal
James McGill Professor of Music Theory
Department of Music Research, Schulich School of Music
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Web: http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~caplin
Stephen McAdams McGill University, Montreal
Canada Research Chair in Music Perception and Cognition
Professor, Department of Music Research, Schulich School of Music
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Web: https://www.mcgill.ca/psychology/stephen-mcadams
Nicole Biamonte McGill University, Montreal
Associate Professor, Department of Music Research, Schulich School of Music
• E-mail: [email protected]
René Rusch University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Assistant Professor, School of Music, Theatre, & Dance
• E-mail: [email protected]
Elizabeth Margulis University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Director of the Music Cognition Laboratory
Professor, Department of Music
• E-mail: [email protected]
Marcus T. Pearce Queen Mary, University of London
Leader of the Music Cognition Laboratory
Lecturer in Sound and Music Processing, School of Electronic Engineering & Computer Science
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Web: http://webprojects.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/marcusp
Last updated: February 5, 2017 • Typeset in XƎTEX
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