“MusicLab Copenhagen”: The Gains and Challenges of Radically Interdisciplinary Concert Research

Abstract

The pioneering “research concerts” of recent decades represent prime examples of interdisciplinary music research. MusicLab Copenhagen, a collaboration between RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time, and Motion at the University of Oslo and the Danish String Quartet was no exception in this regard. This paper aims to document and critically evaluate key components of the project by framing it as a radically interdisciplinary research collaboration. We review the multidimensional differences and similarities between the research traditions involved and report on semi-structured interviews with five key project members. This, in turn, forms the basis for a critical discussion of organizational aspects, aims, values, and overt and covert hierarchies resulting from the meeting of divergent scientific disciplines. Ultimately, we review the practical, epistemological, and theoretical gains and challenges involved in conducting organizationally complex research at the vanguard of interdisciplinarity—both in general terms and within music research in particular. A set of recommendations is provided for conducting successful research concerts, emphasizing, among other things, the importance of providing realistic and artistically satisfying concert experiences while still collecting valid, reliable, and sufficient data; of matching expectations about what can and cannot be achieved and concluded from the collected data; of prioritizing organizational competence and infrastructure, striking a balance between top-down control and bottom-up initiatives; and of recognizing and respecting each other's expertise across the involved research disciplines.