Language of Science and Music
Richard Stern
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 USA
Interpreting the original intent of the composer of a centuries-old musical composition can be as difficult as resolving some of the most challenging scientific problems. Indeed, the process of understanding the form and structure of a musical composition and communicating it
to an audience through its performance is in many ways quite similar in spirit to the process of understanding and communicating new scientific phenomena. We will discuss and compare the process of discovery and understanding in our universe from the complementary points of de
parture of what is "beautiful" versus what is "true." Using a series of musical and scientific examples. We will comment on several recurring problems and issues in baroque performance practice and how the resolution of these problems informs us about the sensory perception and interpretation of musical sound.
Richard M. Stern received the S.B. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970, the M.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972, and the Ph.D. from MIT in 1977, all in electrical engineering. He has been on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon Univ
ersity since 1977, where he is currently a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science Departments, and Associate Director of the CMU Information Networking Institute. Much of Dr. Stern's current research is in spoken language systems, where he is particularly concerned with the development of techniques with which automatic speech recognition can be made more robust with respect to changes in environment and acoustical ambience. He has also developed sentence parsing and speaker adaptation algorithms for earlier CMU speech systems. In addition to his work in speech recognition, Dr. Stern also maintains an active research program in psychoacoustics, where he is best known for theoretical work in binaural perception. Dr. Stern is a member of the IEEE and the Acoustical Society of America.
Richard Stern studied harpsichord with Martin Pearlman in Boston and with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. He also studied music theory and history with David Epstein and Robert Freeman as a music major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For more than twenty years he
has presented solo and chamber music recitals on historical instruments as a founding member of the 415 Players Baroque Ensemble, and in appearances as a guest artist with the Chatham Baroque Ensemble. He has also performed with many members of the Pittsburgh Symphony as a me
mber of the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Project and the Pittsburgh Baroque Ensemble, as a guest artist appearing with the Ionian Chamber Players and the Renaissance City Winds, and on the Pittsburgh Symphony's Community Concert Series, Shadyside Concerts, Music in a Great Space, and other recital series.