Staff profile

Martin Clayton is Professor in Ethnomusicology in Durham University. He studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, where he obtained degrees in Music and Hindi (BA, 1988) and Ethnomusicology (PhD, 1993). His research interests include Hindustani (North Indian) classical music, rhythmic analysis, musical entrainment and embodiment. 

Professor Clayton is currently a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellow.  He recently led a strand of the EU-funded project EnTimeMent, directed a major research project, 'Interpersonal Entrainment in Music Performance', funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC, 2016-18). He previously directed the 'Experience and meaning in music performance' research project: the co-authored book of the same name was published by OUP in October 2013, and was also co-investigator on Laura Leante's AHRC-funded project 'Khyal: Music and Imagination' in 2016. 

Martin is a former editor of the British Journal of Ethnomusicology, and served for many years as committee member for the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE) and the European Seminar in Ethnomusicology (ESEM). He was a member of the Music sub-panel for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, and for the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2020. 

Authored book

• Clayton, M. (2007). Music, time and place: Essays in comparative musicology. B.R.Rhythms
• Clayton, M. (2000). Time in Indian Music: rhythm, metre and form in North Indian rag performance. Oxford University Press

Chapter in book

• Clayton, M. (2023). Hindustani Rhythm and Computational Analysis: A Musicological Perspective. In P. Rao, H. A. Murthy, & S. Prasanna (Eds.), Indian Art Music: A Computational Perspective (171-196). Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration
• Clayton, M., Rao, P., & Rohit, M. (2023). Rhythm and Structural Segmentation in Dhrupad Bandish Performance. In P. Rao, H. A. Murthy, & S. Prasanna (Eds.), Indian Art Music: A Computational Perspective (215-238). Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration
• Methodological Developments and Analytical Applications. In A. Cosentino, R. Di Mauro, & G. Giordano (Eds.), Sounding Frames. Itinerari di musicologia visuale Scritti in onore di Giorgio Adamo (39-52). edizioni Museo Pasqualino
• Clayton, M. (2020). Empirical methods in the study of music performance. An interdisciplinary history. In G. Borio, G. Giuriati, A. Cecchi, & M. Lutzu (Eds.), Investigating musical performance : theoretical models and intersection (9-24). (1). Routledge
• Clayton, M. (2020). Entrainment and the social origins of musical rhythm. In P. Cheyne, A. Hamilton, & M. Paddison (Eds.), The philosophy of rhythm : aesthetics, music, poetics. Oxford University Press
• Clayton, M. (2017). Time, Gesture, and Attention in a Khyāl Performance. In J. C. Post (Ed.), Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader, Volume II (249-266). Routledge
• Clayton, M. (2017). The Ethnography of Embodied Music Interaction. In M. Lesaffre, P.-J. Maes, & M. Leman (Eds.), The Routledge companion to embodied music interaction. Routledge
• Clayton, M., & Leante, L. (2013). Embodiment in Music Performance. In M. Clayton, B. Dueck, & L. Leante (Eds.), Experience and meaning in music performance (188-207). Oxford University Press
• Clayton, M. (2013). The Time of Music and the Time of History. In P. V. Bohlman (Ed.), The Cambridge history of world music (767-785). Durham Research Online (DRO)
• Clayton, M., Dueck, B., & Leante, L. (2013). Introduction: Experience and meaning in music performance. In M. Clayton, B. Dueck, & L. Leante (Eds.), Experience and Meaning in Music Performance (1-16). Oxford University Press
• Clayton, M. (2013). Entrainment, ethnography and musical interaction. In M. Clayton, B. Dueck, & L. Leante (Eds.), Experience and Meaning in Music Performance (17-39). Oxford University Press
• Fatone, G. A., Clayton, M., Leante, L., & Rahaim, M. (2011). Imagery, melody and gesture in cross-cultural perspective. In A. Gritten, & E. King (Eds.), New perspectives on music and gesture (203-220). Ashgate Publishing
• Dahl, S., Bevilacqua, F., Bresin, R., Clayton, M., Leante, L., Poggi, I., & Rasamimanana, N. (2009). Gestures in performance. In R. I. Godoy, & M. Leman (Eds.), Musical gestures : sound, movement, and meaning (36-68). Routledge
• Clayton, M. (2009). Local practice, global network: The guitar in India as a case study. In R. K. Wolf (Ed.), Theorizing the local : music, practice and experience in South Asia and beyond (65-78). Oxford University Press
• Clayton, M. (2009). The social and personal functions of music in cross-cultural perspective. In S. Hallam, I. Cross, & M. Thaut (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of music psychology (35-44). Oxford University Press
• Clayton, M. (2008). Toward an Ethnomusicology of Sound Experience. In H. Stobart (Ed.), The new (ethno)musicologies (135-169). Scarecrow Press
• Clayton, M. (2007). Musical Renaissance and its Margins in England and India, 1874–1914. In M. Clayton, & B. Zon (Eds.), Music and orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s to 1940s : portrayal of the East (71-93). Ashgate Publishing
• Clayton, M. (2005). Communication in Indian raga performance. In D. Miell, D. Hargreaves, & R. MacDonald (Eds.), Musical communication (361-381). Oxford University Press
• Clayton, M. (2003). Comparing music, comparing musicology. In M. Clayton, T. Herbert, & R. Middleton (Eds.), The cultural study of music : a critical introduction (57-68). Routledge
• Clayton, M. (2001). Rock to Raga: the many lives of the Indian guitar. In A. Bennett, & K. Dawe (Eds.), Guitar cultures (179-208). Berg
• Clayton, M. (2001). Introduction: towards a theory of musical meaning (in India and elsewhere). In M. Clayton (Ed.), Music and Meaning: Special issue of British Journal of Ethnomusicology (1-17). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1080/09681220108567307

Conference Paper

• Clayton, M., Rao, P., Shikarpur, N., Roychowdhury, S., & Li, J. (2022, December). Raga Classification from Vocal Performances Using Multimodal Analysis. Presented at 23rd Int. Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, Bengaluru, India
• Alborno, P., Clayton, M., Keller, P., Volpe, G., & Camurri, A. (2015, June). Automated video analysis of interpersonal entrainment in Indian music performance. Presented at Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment, Torino, Italy

Conference Proceeding

• (1997, July). Music Studies and Cultural Difference: Conference Proceedings. Presented at Music Studies and Cultural Difference, London

Edited book

• Clayton, M., Dueck, B., & Leante, L. (Eds.). (2013). Experience and Meaning in Music Performance. Oxford University Press
• Clayton, M., Herbert, T., & Middleton, R. (Eds.). (2012). The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction (Second Edition). Routledge
• Clayton, M. (Ed.). (2008). Music, Words, and Voice: a reader. Manchester University Press
• Clayton, M., & Zon, B. (Eds.). (2007). Music and Orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s to 1940s: Portrayal of the East. Ashgate Publishing
• Clayton, M., Herbert, T., & Middleton, R. (Eds.). (2003). The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction. Routledge

Journal Article

• Clayton, M., Li, J., Clarke, A., & Weinzierl, M. (online). Hindustani raga and singer classification using 2D and 3D pose estimation from video recordings. Journal of New Music Research, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/09298215.2024.2331788
• Nadkarni, S., Rao, P., & Clayton, M. (2024). Identifying Melodic Motifs and Stable Notes from Gestural Information in Indian Vocal Performances. Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval, 7(1), 246-263. https://doi.org/10.5334/tismir.211
• Eerola, T., & Clayton, M. (2024). onsetsync: An R Package for Onset SynchronyAnalysis. The Journal of Open Source Software, 9(93), Article 5395. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.05395
• Olugbade, T., Bieńkiewicz, M., Barbareschi, G., D’amato, V., Oneto, L., Camurri, A., Holloway, C., Björkman, M., Keller, P., Clayton, M., Williams, A. D. C., Gold, N., Becchio, C., Bardy, B., & Bianchi-Berthouze, N. (2022). Human Movement Datasets: An Interdisciplinary Scoping Review. ACM Computing Surveys, 55(6), https://doi.org/10.1145/3534970
• Clayton, M., Tarsitani, S., Jankowsky, R., Jure, L., Leante, L., Polak, R., Poole, A., Rocamora, M., Alborno, P., Camurri, A., Eerola, T., Jacoby, N., & Jakubowski, K. (2021). The Interpersonal Entrainment in Music Performance Data Collection. Empirical Musicology Review, 16(1), 65-84. https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v16i1.7555
• Clayton, M., Jakubowski, K., Eerola, T., Keller, P., Camurri, A., Volpe, G., & Alborno, P. (2020). Interpersonal entrainment in music performance: Theory, method and model. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 38(2), 136-194. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2020.38.2.136
• Jacoby, N., Margulis, E. H., Clayton, M., Hannon, E., Honing, H., Iversen, J., Klein, T. R., Mehr, S. A., Pearson, L., Peretz, I., Perlman, M., Polak, R., Ravignani, A., Savage, P. E., Steingo, G., Stevens, C. J., Trainor, L., Trehub, S., Veal, M., & Wald-Fuhrmann, M. (2020). Cross-Cultural Work in Music Cognition. Challenges, Insights, and Recommendations. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 37(3), 185-195. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2020.37.3.185
• Clayton, M. (2020). Theory and practice of long-form non-isochronous meters: The case of the North Indian rūpak tāl. Music theory online, 26(1), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.26.1.2
• Leante, L., & Clayton, M. (2020). Making the most of circumstances: Reflecting on the experience of two ethnomusicologist parents. Ethnomusicology Forum, 29(3), 307-310. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2020.1873566
• Jakubowski, K., Eerola, T., Blackwood Ximenes, A., Ma, W., Clayton, M., & Keller, P. (2020). Multimodal perception of interpersonal synchrony: Evidence from global and continuous ratings of improvised musical duo performances. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind and Brain, 30(4), 159-177. https://doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000264
• Clayton, M., Jakubowski, K., & Eerola, T. (2019). Interpersonal entrainment in Indian instrumental music performance: Synchronization and movement coordination relate to tempo, dynamics, metrical and cadential structure. Musicae Scientiae, 23(3), 304-331. https://doi.org/10.1177/1029864919844809
• Eerola, T., Jakubowski, K., Moran, N., Keller, P., & Clayton, M. (2018). Shared Periodic Performer Movements Coordinate Interactions in Duo Improvisations. Royal Society Open Science, 5(2), Article 171520. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171520
• Jakubowski, K., Eerola, T., Alborno, P., Volpe, G., Camurri, A., & Clayton, M. (2017). Extracting Coarse Body Movements from Video in Music Performance: A Comparison of Automated Computer Vision Techniques with Motion Capture Data. Frontiers in digital humanities, 4, Article 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdigh.2017.00009
• Clayton, M. (2016). Aksak Patterns and Entrained Interaction in Transylvanian Village Music. Empirical Musicology Review, 10(4), 292-301. https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v10i4.4886
• Clayton, M., & Leante, L. (2015). Role, status and hierarchy in the performance of North Indian classical music. Ethnomusicology Forum, 24(3), 414-442. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2015.1091272
• Will, U., Clayton, M., Wertheim, I., Leante, L., & Berg, E. (2015). Pulse and Entrainment to Non-Isochronous Auditory Stimuli: The case of North Indian Alap. PLoS ONE, 10(4), Article e0123247. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123247
• Clayton, M. (2012). What is entrainment? Definition and applications in musical research. Empirical Musicology Review, 7(1-2), 49-56
• Angelis, V., Holland, S., Upton, P. J., & Clayton, M. (2012). Testing a computational model of rhythm perception using polyrhythmic stimuli. Journal of New Music Research, 2012(iFirst article), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/09298215.2012.71891
• Lucas, G., Clayton, M., & Leante, L. (2011). Inter-group Entrainment in Afro-Brazilian Congado Ritual. Empirical Musicology Review, 6(2), 75-102
• Clayton, M. (2009). Crossing Boundaries and Bridging Gaps: thoughts on relationships between ethnomusicology and music psychology. Empirical Musicology Review, 4(2), 75-77
• Clayton, M. (2007). Observing entrainment in music performance: video-based observational analysis of Indian musicians’ tanpura playing and beat marking. Musicae Scientiae, 11(1), 27-59. https://doi.org/10.1177/102986490701100102
• Clayton, M. (2007). Time, gesture and attention in a khyal performance. Asian music, 38(2), 71-96. https://doi.org/10.1353/amu.2007.0032
• Clayton, M., Sager, R., & Will, U. (2005). In time with the music: the concept of entrainment and its significance for ethnomusicology. European Meetings in Ethnomusicology, 11 (ESEM Counterpoint 1), 1-82
• Clayton, M. (2002). Teaching Indian music at a distance: a perspective from the UK. Journal of the Indian Musicological Society, 33, 36-41
• Clayton, M. (1999). A. H. Fox Strangways and the Music of Hindostan: revisiting historical field recordings. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 124, 86-118
• Clayton, M. (1998). "You can't fuse yourself": Contemporary British-Asian music and the musical expression of identity. East European Meetings in Ethnomusicology, 5, 73-87
• Clayton, M. (1997). Le metre et le tal dans la musique de l'Inde du Nord. (translated by Georges Goormaghtigh). Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles (Imprimé), 10, 169-189. https://doi.org/10.2307/40240271
• Clayton, M. (1996). Free Rhythm: Ethnomusicology and the Study of Music Without Metre. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 59(2), 323-332. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0041977x00031608
• Clayton, M. (1996). Ethnographic Wax Cylinders at the British Library National Sound Archive: A Brief History and Description of the Collection. Ethnomusicology Forum, 5(1), 67-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/09681229608567248
• Clayton, M. (1993). Two gat Forms for the sitār: A Case Study in the Rhythmic Analysis of North Indian Music. Ethnomusicology Forum, 2(1), 75-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/09681229308567213

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Clayton, M., Rao, P., & Phatak, M. (2024). Sur Sangat Collection
• Clayton, M., Kamata, S., Takaoka, A., & Tarsitani, S. (2023). Gagaku
• Clayton, M., Leante, L., & Tarsitani, S. (2021). NIRP1 Rupak Tal Khyals
• Clayton, M., Li, J., Clarke, A. R., Weinzierl, M., Leante, L., & Tarsitani, S. (2021). Hindustani Raga and Singer Classification Using Pose Estimation
• Clayton, M., Leante, L., & Tarsitani, S. (2019). North Indian Raga Performance
• Clayton, M., & Tarsitani, S. (2019). IEMP European String Quartet
• Clayton, M., Leante, L., & Tarsitani, S. (2019). NIRP1 Rupak Tal Khyals
• Eerola, T., Clayton, M., Alborno, P., Camurri, A., Jacoby, N., Jakubowski, K., & Tarsitani, S. (2018). IEMP Technical Resources
• Poole, A., Tarsitani, S., & Clayton, M. (2018). IEMP Cuban Son and Salsa
• Clayton, M., Leante, L., & Tarsitani, S. (2018). IEMP North Indian Raga
• Clayton, M., Eerola, T., Tarsitani, S., Jankowsky, R., Jure, L., Poole, A., Rocamora, M., & Jakubowski, K. (2018). Interpersonal Entrainment in Music Performance
• Jankowsky, R., Tarsitani, S., & Clayton, M. (2018). IEMP Tunisian Stambeli
• Polak, R., Tarsitani, S., & Clayton, M. (2018). IEMP Malian Jembe
• Jure, L., Rocamora, M., Tarsitani, S., & Clayton, M. (2018). IEMP Uruguayan Candombe
• Clayton, M., Eerola, T., Jakubowski, K., & Tarsitani, S. (2017). Interactions in duo improvisations
• Clayton, M., & Sahasrabuddhe, V. (1999). 'Khyal: Classical Singing of North India' Accompanying booklet
• Clayton, M., & Cook, S. (1999). 'Wayang Golék: Performing arts of Sunda (West Java)' (DVD)
• Clayton, M., & Sahasrabuddhe, V. (1999). 'Khyal: Classical singing of North India' (DVD)
• Clayton, M., & Cook, S. (1999). 'Wayang Golék: Performing arts of Sunda (West Java)' Accompanying booklet
• Clayton, M., & Sawhney, N. E. A. (1997). Artworks: The Raj 50 Years On

Other (Print)

• Eerola, T., Clayton, M., & Emms, P. (2023). movementsync: Analysis and Visualisation of Musical Audio and Video Movement Synchrony Data
• Clayton, M. (1996). It never rains here in April... Filming music in Pune