Henkjan Honing (1959) is professor in Music Cognition at both the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). He conducts his research under the auspices of the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) and the University of Amsterdam's Brain and Cognition (ABC) Center.
Honing obtained his PhD at City University (London) in 1991 with research into the representation of time and temporal structure in music. During the period between 1992 and 1997, he worked as a KNAW Research Fellow (Academieonderzoeker) at the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), where he conducted a study on the formalization of musical knowledge, pioneering the use of symbolic AI (GOFAI) and connectionist models (neural networks) to the representation of time and temporal structure in music. Up until 2003, he worked as a research coordinator at the Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information (NICI; Now Donders Institute) where he specialized in the computational modeling of music cognition. In 2007, he was appointed Associate Professor in Music Cognition at the University of Amsterdam's Musicology capacity group. In 2010 he was awarded the KNAW-Hendrik Muller chair, designated on behalf of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In 2012 he was appointed strategic Professor of Cognitive and Computational Musicology, and in 2014 he became full professor in Music Cognition at both the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam. In 2013 he received a Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship, a prize granted by the Lorentz Center for the Sciences and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2019 Henkjan Honing was elected member of the KNAW. In 2024 Honing received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC).
Henkjan Honing is known as a passionate researcher in this new interdisciplinary field that gives us fundamental insights in the cognitive mechanisms underlying musicality. He has authored over 250 international publications in the area of music cognition and music technology. He published several books for the general public such as Iedereen is muzikaal. Wat we weten over het luisteren naar muziek (Nieuw Amsterdam, 2009/2012), published in English as Music Cognition: The Basics (Routledge, 2021): an adapted and fully revised edition of Musical Cognition introduced at the 2011 edition of TEDxAmsterdam.
Recently three new books appeared: Music Cognition: The Basics (2021, Routledge), Aap slaat maat. Op zoek naar de oorsprong van muzikaliteit bij mens en dier (Nieuw Amsterdam, 2018) –translated in English as The Evolving Animal Orchestra: In Search of What Makes Us Musical (2019, The MIT Press)–, and an edited volume with a research agenda on musicality entitled The Origins of Musicality (2018, The MIT Press).
Henkjan Honing's books and lectures are popular with a broad audience and are appreciated both inside and outside the scientific world.
The Music Cognition Group (MCG) is part of the Department of Musicology, the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), and Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and is housed at Science Park Amsterdam.
For an overview of the group members see here.
The research of the MCG has a special focus on the temporal and melodic aspects of music using theoretical, empirical and computational methods. The research program aims to identify the basic neurocognitive mechanisms that constitute musicality (and effective ways to study these in human and nonhuman animals) and to develop a method for analyzing musical phenotypes that point to the biological basis of musicality.
For an overview of the research see here.
Henkjan Honing (1959) is professor in Music Cognition at both the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). He conducts his research under the auspices of the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) and the University of Amsterdam's Brain and Cognition (ABC) Center.
Honing obtained his PhD at City University (London) in 1991 with research into the representation of time and temporal structure in music. During the period between 1992 and 1997, he worked as a KNAW Research Fellow (Academieonderzoeker) at the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), where he conducted a study on the formalization of musical knowledge, pioneering the use of symbolic AI (GOFAI) and connectionist models (neural networks) to the representation of time and temporal structure in music. Up until 2003, he worked as a research coordinator at the Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information (NICI; Now Donders Institute) where he specialized in the computational modeling of music cognition. In 2007, he was appointed Associate Professor in Music Cognition at the University of Amsterdam's Musicology capacity group. In 2010 he was awarded the KNAW-Hendrik Muller chair, designated on behalf of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In 2012 he was appointed strategic Professor of Cognitive and Computational Musicology, and in 2014 he became full professor in Music Cognition at both the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam. In 2013 he received a Distinguished Lorentz Fellowship, a prize granted by the Lorentz Center for the Sciences and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2019 Henkjan Honing was elected member of the KNAW. In 2024 Honing received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC).
Henkjan Honing is known as a passionate researcher in this new interdisciplinary field that gives us fundamental insights in the cognitive mechanisms underlying musicality. He has authored over 250 international publications in the area of music cognition and music technology. He published several books for the general public such as Iedereen is muzikaal. Wat we weten over het luisteren naar muziek (Nieuw Amsterdam, 2009/2012), published in English as Music Cognition: The Basics (Routledge, 2021): an adapted and fully revised edition of Musical Cognition introduced at the 2011 edition of TEDxAmsterdam.
Recently three new books appeared: Music Cognition: The Basics (2021, Routledge), Aap slaat maat. Op zoek naar de oorsprong van muzikaliteit bij mens en dier (Nieuw Amsterdam, 2018) –translated in English as The Evolving Animal Orchestra: In Search of What Makes Us Musical (2019, The MIT Press)–, and an edited volume with a research agenda on musicality entitled The Origins of Musicality (2018, The MIT Press).
Henkjan Honing's books and lectures are popular with a broad audience and are appreciated both inside and outside the scientific world.
The Music Cognition Group (MCG) is part of the Department of Musicology, the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), and Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and is housed at Science Park Amsterdam.
For an overview of the group members see here.
The research of the MCG has a special focus on the temporal and melodic aspects of music using theoretical, empirical and computational methods. The research program aims to identify the basic neurocognitive mechanisms that constitute musicality (and effective ways to study these in human and nonhuman animals) and to develop a method for analyzing musical phenotypes that point to the biological basis of musicality.
For an overview of the research see here.
Routledge, September 2021.
The MIT Press, April 2018.
Uitgeverij Nieuw Amsterdam, mei 2018.
Uitgeverij Nieuw Amsterdam, 2009, 2012 (uitgebreide editie, 6de druk).
Routledge, 2011, 2013 (updated paperback edition), 2017 (new eBook).
Uitgeverij Nieuw Amsterdam, 2012.
GRATIS DOWNLOAD (iBook / iPad only)
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), 2010.
GRATIS DOWNLOAD (Inaugural Lecture 2010, published in Dutch both at AUP and KNAW; Dutch version can be downloaded for free via KNAW, paper-copies are available via AUP)