New grant for REM@KE

A unique research project, co-led by a team at the School of Arts and Creative Technologies, will enable the highly accurate physical and digital reconstruction of historic musical instruments that are currently too damaged to play.

The project will also investigate the close relationships musicians once had with these instruments, offering fresh insights into how we can meaningfully engage with them in the present.

The ‘Reconstructing Embodied Musical knowledge At the Keyboard’ (REM@KE) project is a six-year collaboration between the Universities of York, Pavia, and Gothenburg and has now been awarded an €8m European Research Council Synergy Grant to develop its work.

Dr Andrea Schiavio is co-leading the project at York, where a soon-to-be assembled team will focus on examining the lived experiences of individuals who engage with these instruments, including performers, educators, museum professionals, and instrument builders. 

The project centres on four keyboard instruments: the Zenti bentside spinet, a Zell harpsichord, a Stein claviorganum, and a Pleyel pianino.

Dr Schiavio said: “Each of these instruments represents a unique technical innovation that significantly influenced the style of composers such as Pasquini, Bach, Mozart, and Chopin. 

“With an interdisciplinary approach spanning organology, cognitive science, historical musicology, and physical and digital reconstruction, REM@KE will create new replicas of these instruments, offering a new immersive way to experience their distinct sounds.”