Dr Gabriele Cecchetti

Position  

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Biography

Gabriele joined MARCS in 2024 after completing his PhD at the Digital and Cognitive Musicology Lab of the École Polytchnique Fédérale de Lausanne and an MPhil at the Centre for Music and Science of the University of Cambridge. In Rome, his hometown, he previously graduated in physics (Università ‘La Sapienza’) and as a cellist (Conservatorio ‘S. Cecilia’). Since 2021, he serves as a member of the Scientific Committee of the Italian Society for Music Theory and Analysis. He is also an experienced musician with a particular devotion to orchestral and chamber music, collaborating over several years (among others) with the Orchestra Filarmonica di Benevento and the educational programs of the Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia in Rome.

Research Interests

His research interests lie on a spectrum spanning from music analysis and performance to the cognitive underpinnings of the experience of music: what kinds of structures can be hidden in music, and what cognitive processes make it possible for humans to discover such structures while listening? In his strive to address these questions, he engages with theoretical modelling as well as behavioural and electrophysiological experiments, drawing from the methodologies of different disciplines including music theory, corpus studies, computer science, psycholinguistics, and music psychology. At MARCS, he works alongside Prof. Roger Dean on the development of a deep-learning approach to artificial creativity in free improvisation.

Qualifications and Honours

• PhD (2024). Digital and Cognitive Musicology Lab, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• MPhil in Music Studies (2019). Centre for Music and Science, University of Cambridge
• MMus in Music Performance (2018). Conservatorio Santa Cecilia, Rome
• BSc in Physics (2015). Università La Sapienza, Rome

Publications

PhD Thesis:

• Cecchetti, G. (2024). Hearing structure in music: An empirical inquiry into listening as representation and processing. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. https://doi.org/10.5075/epfl-thesis-10590

Selected publications:

• Cecchetti, G., Tomasini, C. A., Herff, S. A., & Rohrmeier, M. A. (2023). Interpreting rhythm as parsing: Syntactic-processing operations predict the migration of visual flashes as perceived during listening to musical rhythms. Cognitive Science, 47(12). https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13389
• Cecchetti, G., Herff, S. A., Finkensiep, C., Harasim, D., & Rohrmeier, M. A. (2023). Hearing functional harmony in jazz: A perceptual study on music-theoretical accounts of extended tonality. Musicae Scientiae, 27(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/10298649221122245
• Cecchetti, G., Herff, S. A., & Rohrmeier, M. A. (2022). Musical Garden Paths: Evidence for Syntactic Revision Beyond the Linguistic Domain. Cognitive Science, 46(7). https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13165
• Cecchetti, G., Herff, S. A., Finkensiep, C., & Rohrmeier, M. A. (2020). The experience of musical structure as computation: What can we learn? Rivista Di Analisi e Teoria Musicale, 26(2), 91–127. https://doi.org/10.53152/1032

For a full list of publications, see my Google Scholar page.

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