This book is about the power of music, that is, the effect
of music on our emotive, cognitive, motor, and social
abilities. Where does this power come from? What is
the basis of this power? What mechanisms support this
power? Can technology enhance this power? How can
we apply this in education, health, sports, and other
application domains?

Answering these and related questions is the central
goal of the research that is currently conducted at
IPEM, the institute for systematic musicology at Ghent
University, Belgium. IPEM’s mission is to provide a
scientifi c foundation for musical and technological
innovation in the cultural/creative sector.
With contributions of seven experts in different fi elds
such as musicology, ergonomics, acoustics, physics,
and movement science, this book reveals information
that is less publicly known. The authors discuss topics as
varied as basic concepts of musical embodiment, music
performance, mediation technology as an extension of
the body, social interaction in music, music education,
health, rehabilitation and lifestyle, and fundamentals of
music and movement.

MICHELINE LESAFFRE has been
working as a researcher in
systematic musicology at IPEM at
Ghent University since 1998. She
holds a PhD in Musicology about
user-centered approaches to Music
Information Retrieval and issues
of the perception of high-level
semantics of music. Her research
results were published in major
international peer-reviewed journals.

MARC LEMAN is ‘Methusalem’
research professor in systematic
musicology and director of IPEM
at Ghent University. He has
a background in musicology,
philosophy and computing. He is
a pioneer in the epistemological
and methodological foundations
of computational modeling and
embodied music cognition. He
published more than 250 articles,
and books.