CURRICULUM VITAE David W. R. Sears 555 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Québec, Canada H3A 1E3 Office Phone: (514) 398-4535, ext. 094837 Cellular Phone: (514) 554-2703 Email: david.sears@mail.mcgill.ca Homepage: www.music.mcgill.ca/~dsears1 EDUCATION Ph.D. Music Theory August 2008 Present Specialization: Music Perception and Cognition Ph.D. Candidate, Year 5 GPA: 3.98 Co-supervised by William E. Caplin (Music Theory) and Stephen McAdams (Psychology) University of Arkansas B.A. Music, English August 2002 May 2008 Specializations: Music Theory, English Literature GPA: 3.96, 4-year Honors Program, Summa Cum Laude, Senior Scholar Research Thesis Title (2008): Processing Surprise in Tonal Melodies Honors Thesis Title (2007): Conceptual Synaesthesia: Deconstructing Perceived Boundaries around Music and Literature Co-supervised by Elizabeth H. Margulis (Music) and Debra R. Cohen (English) RESEARCH INTERESTS Perception of Closure in Tonal Music Schema Theory Statistical Learning Popular Music Analysis Computational Music Theory Music and Emotions Musical Expectations and Psychophysiological Response Sensorimotor Synchronization FELLOWSHIPS Quebec Merit Scholarship for Foreign Students (2011 2013) $58,334 Richard H. Tomlinson Doctoral Fellowship (2008 2011) $75,000 McGill International Doctoral Award (2008 2010) $19,539.30 Provost s Fellowship, (2008 2009) $5,000 AWARDS & PRIZES Received the Dean s Essay First Prize, Exploring the Sound-box in Radiohead s Paranoid Android, (2012) $1,000 Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music, Media, and Technology (CIRMMT) Student Award (2011 2012) $5,000 CIRMMT Student Travel Award for the National Conference of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR) (2011) $500 Received the Grand Prize for Student Research at the National Conference of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC) (2011) $500 SMPC Student Travel Award (2011) $250 CIRMMT Student Travel Award for the International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC) (2010) $500 CV: David Sears 1 January 27, 2013
SEMPRE Travel Award for ICMPC (2010) $100 University of Arkansas Student Undergraduate Research Grant (2008) $1,200 Received the Distinguished Scholarly Publication by the Inquiry Research Journal for Processing Surprise in Tonal Melodies, (2008) $1,000 Honors College Research Grant (2007) $1,200 Sturgis Study Abroad Grant (2005) $3,000 Music Scholarship (2005) $600 Alcia Yoes Music Scholarship (2004) $600 REFEREED PUBLICATIONS Sears, D. Forthcoming. The Perception of Cadential Closure. In What is a Cadence? Theoretical and Analytical Perspectives on Cadences in the Classical Repertoire, edited by M. Neuwirth and P. Bergé. Leuven: Leuven University Press. Sears, D., W. E. Caplin, and S. McAdams. Submitted. Perceiving the Classical Cadence. Music Perception. Trochidis, K., D. Sears, D. L. Trân, and S. McAdams. Forthcoming. Psychophysiological Measures of Emotional Response to Romantic Orchestral Music and their Musical and Acoustic Correlates. In Proceedings of the 9 th International Symposium on Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval, June 19-22, 2012. London: Springer-Verlag. Sears, D. 2011. What is a Cadence? Theoretical and Analytical Perspectives on Cadences in the Classical Repertoire. Conference Report. Eighteenth Century Music 8 (2): 361 4. Sears, D., M. Ogg, M. Benovoy, D. L. Trân, and S. 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. Sears, D., M. Ogg, M. Benovoy, G. Zilberstein, and S. McAdams. 2010. Are Bodily Responses Pre- Musical? Psychophysiological Applications to Music Analysis. In Proceedings of the International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition 11. Peer-reviewed abstract, Seattle, University of Washington. Sears, D. 2008. Processing Surprise in Tonal Melodies. Inquiry Research Journal, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR: 16 23. CONGRESS CONTRIBUTIONS Sears, D. 2012. Exploring the Sound-box in Radiohead s Paranoid Android. Paper presented at the Music Graduate Student Symposium (MGSS): Traditions, Progressions, Transgressions, Toronto, ON, May 4 5. Weigl, D. M., D. Sears, and J. A. Hockman. 2012. Exploring Beat Salience through Perception, Synchronization, and Subjective Judgement tasks. Paper presented at the CIRMMT Workshop on Multi-Sensory Perception and Action, Montreal, QC, December 4. Sears D., D. M. Weigl, and J. A. Hockman. 2012. Investigating Beat Salience: A Reaction-Time Approach. Poster presented at the Annual CIRMMT Student Symposium, Montreal, QC, May 23. Trochidis, K., D. Sears, D. L. Trân, and S. McAdams. Psychophysiological Measures of Emotional Response to Romantic Orchestral Music and their Musical and Acoustic Correlates. Paper presented at the 9 th International Symposium on Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval, London, UK, June 19 22. CV: David Sears 2 January 27, 2013
Sears, D., M. Ogg, M. Benovoy, D. L. Tran, and S. 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, MA, September 14 18. Sears, D., W. Caplin, and S. McAdams. 2011. The Perception of Cadential Closure in Mozart's Keyboard Sonatas. Paper presented at the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC), Rochester, NY, August 11 14. Sears, D., W. Caplin, and S. McAdams. 2011. The Perception of Cadential Closure in Mozart's Keyboard Sonatas. Invited paper presented at What is a Cadence? Theoretical and Analytical Perspectives on Cadences in the Classical Repertoire, Academia Belgica, Rome, January 17 19. Sears, D. 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, Boston, MA, October 23. Sears, D., M. Ogg, M. Benovoy, G. Zilberstein, and S. McAdams. 2010. Are Bodily Responses Pre- Musical? Psychophysiological Applications to Music Analysis. Paper presented at the 11 th International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), Seattle, WA, August 23 27. Sears, D., M. Ogg, M. Benovoy, and S. 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. Sears, D., and H. Egermann. 2010. Psychological Mechanisms and Psychophysiological Measurements. Paper presented at the CIRMMT Workshop on Psychophysiological Measurement, Montreal, QC, April 23. Sears, D., A. Conard, and M. Vallieres. 2010. Musical Materials in Time: Some Theoretical Approaches to Musical Form. Paper presented at the CIRMMT Workshop on Structural Analysis of Music, Montreal, QC, March 26. Sears, D. 2008. Processing Surprise in Tonal Melodies. Paper presented at Confounding Expectation: Music and the Unexpected Outcome: Graduate Student Conference, Calgary, AB, April 25 26. RESEARCH EXPERIENCE Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT) Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory (MPCL) Researcher May 2009 Present Ph.D. Thesis Project: The Perception of Closure in Tonal Music Designed and conducted experiments examining the perception of closure in cadential and noncadential contexts in Mozart s keyboard sonatas and string quartets Collected reaction-time data and subjective ratings on Likert and analogical-categorical scales Principal statistical techniques employed: repeated measures analysis of variance, linear mixed modeling, multiple linear regression Designed and created an open-access database of cadential passages from the High Classical Period in the Python programming language Supervisors: Profs. William E. Caplin and Stephen McAdams Research Project: The Effects of Beat Salience on Sensorimotor Synchronization Designed and conducted three experiments examining the effects of the salience (or strength) of an isochronous beat on perception and sensorimotor synchronization in popular music genres CV: David Sears 3 January 27, 2013
Collected subjective ratings on Likert and analogical-categorical scales, reaction-time data, and tapping data Principal statistical techniques employed: k-means clustering, parametric and nonparametric analysis of variance, distributional analysis Collaborators: Doctoral candidates David M. Weigl (Information Studies) and Jason A. Hockman (Music Technology) Supervisors: Profs. Stephen McAdams and Catherine Guastavino Research Project: Psychophysiological Measures of Emotional Response to Romantic Orchestral Music and their Musical and Acoustic Correlates Designed and conducted an experiment examining the relationship between induced emotions and acoustic and psychophysiological features in Romantic orchestral, chamber, and piano music Collected subjective ratings on an analogical-categorical scale and measured psychophysiological responses (BVP, SC, EMG, Resp) Principal statistical techniques employed: multiple linear regression Collaborator: Dr. Konstantinos Trochidis (Baycrest s Rotman Research Institute) Supervisor: Prof. Stephen McAdams Research Project: Music Listening and Felt Emotion: Predicting the Psychophysiological Responses of Listeners with Musical Features Designed and conducted an experiment examining the relationship between induced emotions, psychophysiological responses, and musical features in Romantic piano music Collected subjective ratings on an analogical-categorical scale and measured psychophysiological responses (BVP, SC, EMG) Principal statistical techniques employed: data pre-processing of psychophysiological responses, extraction of musical features from symbolic representations of Romantic excerpts, repeated measures analysis of variance, multiple linear regression Collaborator: Mattson Ogg Supervisor: Prof. Stephen McAdams Schulich School of Music Research Assistant May 2009 August 2009 Untitled Book Project Performed extensive literature review of empirical studies examining the experience of frisson, chills, and other intense emotional responses during music listening Employers: Prof. Don McLean and Sandy Pearlman Music Cognition Laboratory Language Processing Laboratory University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Researcher May 2007 May 2008 B.A. Research Thesis: Processing Surprise in Tonal Melodies Designed and conducted an experiment examining melodic expectations in a priming paradigm using experimenter-composed four-voice chorales Supervisors: Profs. Elizabeth H. Margulis and William Levine TEACHING EXPERIENCE Schulich School of Music Teaching Assistant CV: David Sears 4 January 27, 2013
MUTH 110 Melody and Counterpoint Fall 2008 MUTH 111 Elementary Harmony Winter 2009 MUTH 210 Tonal Theory and Analysis I Fall 2009 MUTH 211 Tonal Theory and Analysis II Winter 2010 Taught individual sections for the two-year undergraduate music theory core. Lectured twice weekly and graded individual homework assignments, the midterm, and the final exam. Met with individual students on a weekly basis. Course material consisted of writing in two and three voices in the Renaissance style (MUTH 110), introductions to roman numeral analysis and part-writing in four voices in chorale style (MUTH 111-210), and the analysis of musical form in the High Classical Period, with introductions to intrathematic (sentence, period, and hybrid) and interthematic (small binary, small ternary, sonata exposition) forms, as well as the identification of cadence types. MUTH 250 Music Perception and Cognition Winter 2011 Prepared and conducted all lab meetings. Graded all reading and laboratory assignments, and in cooperation with the course lecturer, prepared and graded the midterm and final. Met with individual students on a weekly basis. Gave course lectures on individual topics (Perceptual Principles Governing Voice Leading, Music and Emotion, Melody and Schema Theory, Performance). UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT ADVISEES Lorraine Chuen (B.A. Psychology, 2012) Physiological Responses to Auditory Change John Aspler (Project, 2011) Physiological Responses to Auditory Change Diêu-Ly Trân (B.A. Psychology, 2011) Predicting Behavioural and Physiological Measures of Emotions with Musical Features PROFESSIONAL SERVICE McGill Learning Management System Faculty and Student Advisory Group (2011 ) CIRMMT Executive Committee, Axis 3 Student Coordinator (2010 2011) McGill Graduate Student Music Symposium Abstract Committee (2010) McGill Open Houses (2009 2010), presented research representing the Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory of CIRMMT. WORKSHOPS Accepted as a Fellow in the Exploring the Mind through Music Workshop at the University of Houston, June 13 17, 2011. Attended the Society of Music Analysis Summer School in Music Analysis at Durham University, July 13 15, 2009. MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS Society of Music Theory (SMT) Society of Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC) The International Society for Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR) Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR) Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music, Media and Technology (CIRMMT) TECHNICAL SKILLS Experimental design and analysis for human auditory and music research Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis CV: David Sears 5 January 27, 2013
Music Software: Finale, Sibelius, Adobe Audition, Propellerhead Reason, Sonic Visualiser, Beatroot, jaudio, Matlab music toolboxes and GUIs (MIR, MIDI, PsySound), Music21 (basic) Programming/Scripting Languages: Matlab, LaTeX, Python (basic) Statistical Software: SPSS, Matlab, R Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows family, Apple OS X ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Language skills: English (native), French (proficient), German (basic) Piano: 2 years of formal training Saxophone: 8 years of formal training, classical EXTERNAL REFERENCES Stephen McAdams, Montreal Canada Research Chair in Music Perception and Cognition Professor, Department of Music Research, Schulich School of Music Email: smc@music.mcgill.ca Web: http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/faculty/mcadams.html William E. Caplin, Montreal James McGill Professor of Music Theory Department of Music Research, Schulich School of Music Email: caplin@music.mcgill.ca Web: http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~caplin/home.html Elizabeth H. Margulis University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Director of the Music Cognition Laboratory Associate Professor, Department of Music Email: ehm@uark.edu Web: http://comp.uark.edu/~ehm/ CV: David Sears 6 January 27, 2013