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 leads a strand of the EU-funded project EnTimeMent. He directed a major research project, 'Interpersonal Entrainment in Music Performance', funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC, 2016-18), and 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. He 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. 

• Follow Martin on ResearchGate

Authored book

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

Chapter in book

• Clayton, Martin (2023). Hindustani Rhythm and Computational Analysis: A Musicological Perspective. In Indian Art Music: A Computational Perspective. Rao, Preeti, Murthy, Hema A. & Prasanna, S. R. M. Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration. 171-196.
• Clayton, Martin, Rao, Preeti & Rohit, M. A. (2023). Rhythm and Structural Segmentation in Dhrupad Bandish Performance. In Indian Art Music: A Computational Perspective. Rao, Preeti, Murthy, Hema A. & Prasanna, S. R. M. Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration. 215-238.
• Clayton, Martin, Leante, Laura & Tarsitani, Simone (2021). The Use of Static Video in Ethnomusicological Research. Methodological Developments and Analytical Applications. In Sounding Frames. Itinerari di musicologia visuale Scritti in onore di Giorgio Adamo. Cosentino, Alessandro Di Mauro, Raffaele & Giordano, Giuseppe edizioni Museo Pasqualino. 39-52.
• Clayton, Martin (2020). Empirical methods in the study of music performance. An interdisciplinary history. In Investigating Musical Performance. Theoretical Models and Intersection. Borio, Gianmario Giuriati, Giovanni Cecchi, Alessandro & Lutzu, Marco London: Routledge. 9-24.
• Clayton, Martin (2020). Entrainment and the social origins of musical rhythm. In The Philosophy of Rhythm. Aesthetics, Music, Poetics. Cheyne, Peter, Hamilton, Andy & Paddison, Max Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Clayton, Martin (2017). Time, Gesture, and Attention in a Khyāl Performance. In Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader, Volume II. Post, Jennifer C. Routledge. 249-266.
• Clayton, Martin (2017). The Ethnography of Embodied Music Interaction. In The Routledge Companion to Embodied Music Interaction. Lesaffre, Micheline, Maes, Pieter-Jan & Leman, Marc Routledge.
• Clayton, Martin (2013). Entrainment, ethnography and musical interaction. In Experience and Meaning in Music Performance. Clayton, Martin, Dueck, Byron & Leante, Laura Oxford University Press. 17-39.
• Clayton, M. (2013). The Time of Music and the Time of History. In The Cambridge History of World Music. Bohlman, Philip V. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 767-785.
• Clayton, Martin, Dueck, Byron & Leante, Laura (2013). Introduction: Experience and meaning in music performance. In Experience and Meaning in Music Performance. Clayton, Martin, Dueck, Byron & Leante, Laura Oxford University Press. 1-16.
• Clayton, Martin & Leante, Laura (2013). Embodiment in Music Performance. In Experience and Meaning in Music Performance. Clayton, Martin, Dueck, Byron & Leante, Laura Oxford University Press. 188-207.
• Fatone, Gina A., Clayton, Martin, Leante, Laura & Rahaim, Matt (2011). 'Imagery, melody and gesture in cross-cultural perspective'. In New Perspectives on Music and Gesture. Gritten, Anthony & King, Elaine Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate. 203-220.
• Clayton, Martin (2009). 'The social and personal functions of music in cross-cultural perspective'. In The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology. Hallam, Susan, Cross, Ian & Thaut, Michel Oxford: Oxford University Press. 35-44.
• Clayton, Martin (2009). 'Local practice, global network: The guitar in India as a case study'. In Theorizing the local: Music, practice and experience in South Asia and beyond. Wolf, Richard K. New York: Oxford University Press. 65-78.
• Dahl, Sofia, Bevilacqua, Frederic, Bresin, Roberto, Clayton, Martin, Leante, Laura, Poggi, Isabella & Rasamimanana, Nicolas (2009). Gestures in performance. In Musical Gestures: sound, movement, and meaning. Godoy, Rolf Inge & Leman, Marc Routledge. 36-68.
• Clayton, Martin (2008). Toward an Ethnomusicology of Sound Experience. In The New(Ethno)musicologies. Stobart, Henry Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. 135-169.
• Clayton, Martin (2007). 'Musical Renaissance and its Margins in England and India, 1874–1914'. In Music and Orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s to 1940s: Portrayal of the East. Clayton, Martin & Zon, Bennett Aldershot: Ashgate. 71-93
• Clayton, Martin (2005). 'Communication in Indian raga performance'. In Musical Communication. Miell, Dorothy Hargreaves, David & MacDonald, Raymond Oxford: Oxford University Press. 361-381.
• Clayton, Martin (2003). Comparing music, comparing musicology. In The cultural study of music: a critical introduction. Clayton, Martin, Herbert, Trevor & Middleton, Richard New York: Routledge. 57-68.
• Clayton, Martin (2001). 'Introduction: towards a theory of musical meaning (in India and elsewhere)'. In Music and Meaning: Special issue of British Journal of Ethnomusicology. Clayton, Martin Routledge. 10/1: 1-17.
• Clayton, Martin (2001). Rock to Raga: the many lives of the Indian guitar. In Guitar Cultures. Bennett, Andy & Dawe, Kevin Oxford, UK: Berg. 179-208.

Conference Paper

• Clayton, M., Rao, P., Shikarpur, N., Roychowdhury, S. & Li, J. (2022), Raga Classification from Vocal Performances Using Multimodal Analysis, 23rd Int. Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference. Bengaluru, India.
• Alborno, Paolo, Clayton, Martin, Keller, Peter, Volpe, Gualtiero & Camurri, Antonio (2015), Automated video analysis of interpersonal entrainment in Indian music performance, 15: 7th International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment. Torino, Italy, EAI, e3.

Conference Proceeding

• Clayton, Martin et al. (1997). Conference Proceedings. Music Studies and Cultural Difference, Open University.

Edited book

• Clayton, Martin, Dueck, Byron & Leante, Laura (2013). Experience and Meaning in Music Performance. Oxford Oxford University Press.
• Clayton, Martin, Herbert, Trevor & Middleton, Richard (2012). The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction (Second Edition). Routledge.
• Clayton, Martin (2008). Music, Words, and Voice: a reader. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Clayton, Martin & Zon, Bennett (2007). Music and Orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s to 1940s: Portrayal of the East. Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Aldershot: Ashgate.
• Clayton, Martin, Herbert, Trevor & Middleton, Richard (2003). The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge.

Journal Article

• Olugbade, T., Bieńkiewicz, M., Barbareschi, G., D’amato, V., Oneto, L., Camurri, A., Holloway, C., Björkman, M., Keller, P., Clayton, M., Williams, A. C De C, Gold, N., Becchio, C., Bardy, B. & Bianchi-Berthouze, N. (2022). Human Movement Datasets: An Interdisciplinary Scoping Review. ACM Computing Surveys 55(6): 1.
• Clayton, Martin, Tarsitani, Simone, Jankowsky, Richard, Jure, Luis, Leante, Laura, Polak, Rainer, Poole, Adrian, Rocamora, Martín, Alborno, Paolo, Camurri, Antonio, Eerola, Tuomas, Jacoby, Nori & Jakubowski, Kelly (2021). The Interpersonal Entrainment in Music Performance Data Collection. Empirical Musicology Review 16(1): 65-84.
• Jakubowski, K., Eerola, T., Blackwood Ximenes, A., Ma, W.K., Clayton, M. & Keller, P.E. (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.
• Clayton, M., Jakubowski, K., Eerola, T., Keller, P. E., Camurri, A., Volpe, G. & Alborno, P. (2020). Interpersonal entrainment in music performance: Theory, method and model. Music Perception 38(2): 136–194.
• Clayton, Martin (2020). Theory and practice of long-form non-isochronous meters: The case of the North Indian rūpak tāl. Music Theory Online 26(1): 2.
• Jacoby, Nori, Margulis, Elizabeth Hellmuth, Clayton, Martin, Hannon, Erin, Honing, Henkjan, Iversen, John, Klein, Tobias Robert, Mehr, Samuel A., Pearson, Lara, Peretz, Isabelle, Perlman, Marc, Polak, Rainer, Ravignani, Andrea, Savage, Patrick E., Steingo, Gavin, Stevens, Catherine J., Trainor, Laurel, Trehub, Sandra, Veal, Michael & Wald-Fuhrmann, Melanie (2020). Cross-Cultural Work in Music Cognition. Challenges, Insights, and Recommendations. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 37(3): 185-195.
• Leante, Laura & Clayton, Martin (2020). Making the most of circumstances: Reflecting on the experience of two ethnomusicologist parents. Ethnomusicology Forum 29(3): 307-310.
• 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.
• 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): 171520.
• Jakubowski, Kelly, Eerola, Tuomas, Alborno, Paolo, Volpe, Gualtiero, Camurri, Antonio & Clayton, Martin (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, section Digital Musicology 4: 9.
• Clayton, Martin & Leante, Laura (2015). Role, status and hierarchy in the performance of North Indian classical music. Ethnomusicology Forum 24(3): 414-442.
• Will, Udo, Clayton, Martin, Wertheim, Ira, Leante, Laura & Berg, Eric (2015). Pulse and Entrainment to Non-Isochronous Auditory Stimuli: The case of North Indian Alap. PLoS One 10(4): e0123247.
• Clayton, Martin (2015). Aksak Patterns and Entrained Interaction in Transylvanian Village Music. Empirical Musicology Review 10(4): 292-301.
• Angelis, Vassilis, Holland, Simon, Upton, Paul J & Clayton, Martin (2012). Testing a computational model of rhythm perception using polyrhythmic stimuli. Journal of New Music Research 2012(iFirst article): 1-14.
• Clayton, Martin (2012). What is entrainment? Definition and applications in musical research. Empirical Musicology Review 7(1-2): 49-56.
• Lucas, Glaura, Clayton, Martin & Leante, Laura (2011). Inter-group Entrainment in Afro-Brazilian Congado Ritual. Empirical Musicology Review 6(2): 75-102.
• Clayton, Martin (2009). Crossing Boundaries and Bridging Gaps: thoughts on relationships between ethnomusicology and music psychology. Empirical Musicology Review 4(2): 75-77.
• Clayton, Martin (2007). 'Observing entrainment in music performance: video-based observational analysis of Indian musicians’ tanpura playing and beat marking'. Musicae Scientiae 11(1): 27-59.
• Clayton, Martin (2007). 'Time, gesture and attention in a khyal performance'. Asian Music 38(2): 71-96.
• Clayton, Martin, Sager, Rebecca & Will, Udo (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, Martin (2002). Teaching Indian music at a distance: a perspective from the UK. Journal of the Indian Musicological Society 33: 36-41.
• Clayton, Martin (1999). 'A. H. Fox Strangways and the Music of Hindostan: revisiting historical field recordings'. Journal of the Royal Musical Association 124: 86-118.
• Clayton, Martin (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, Martin (1997). Le metre et le tal dans la musique de l'Inde du Nord. (translated by Georges Goormaghtigh). Cahiers de Musiques Traditionelles 10: 169-189.
• Clayton, Martin (1996). Free Rhythm: Ethnomusicology and the Study of Music Without Metre. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 59(2): 323-332.
• Clayton, Martin (1996). Ethnographic Wax Cylinders at the British Library National Sound Archive: A Brief History and Description of the Collection. British Journal of Ethnomusicology 5(1): 67-92.
• Clayton, Martin (1993). Two gat Forms for the sitār: A Case Study in the Rhythmic Analysis of North Indian Music. British Journal of Ethnomusicology 2(1): 75-98.

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Clayton, Martin (1996). 'It never rains here in April. Filming music in Pune'. India Magazine

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Clayton, Martin, Kamata, Sayumi Takaoka, Akira & Tarsitani, Simone (2023). Gagaku.
• Clayton, Martin, Jin Li, Alison R Clarke, Marion Weinzierl, Laura Leante & Simone Tarsitani (2021). Hindustani Raga and Singer Classification Using Pose Estimation.
• Clayton, Martin, Laura Leante & Simone Tarsitani (2021). NIRP1 Rupak Tal Khyals.
• Clayton, Martin & Tarsitani, Simone (2019). IEMP European String Quartet.
• Clayton, Martin, Leante, Laura & Tarsitani, Simone (2019). NIRP1 Rupak Tal Khyals.
• Clayton,Martin, Leante, Laura & Tarsitani, Simone (2019). North Indian Raga Performance.
• Jure, Luis Rocamora, Martín Tarsitani, Simone & Clayton, Martin (2018). IEMP Uruguayan Candombe.
• Poole, Adrian, Tarsitani, Simone & Clayton, Martin (2018). IEMP Cuban Son and Salsa.
• Jankowsky, Richard Tarsitani, Simone & Clayton, Martin (2018). IEMP Tunisian Stambeli.
• Polak, Rainer, Tarsitani, Simone & Clayton, Martin (2018). IEMP Malian Jembe.
• Clayton, Martin, Leante, Laura & Tarsitani, Simone (2018). IEMP North Indian Raga.
• Eerola, Tuomas Clayton, Martin Alborno, Paolo Camurri, Antonio Jacoby, Nori Jakubowski, Kelly & Tarsitani, Simone (2018). IEMP Technical Resources.
• Clayton, Martin Eerola, Tuomas Tarsitani, Simone Jankowsky, Richard, Jure, Luis Poole, Adrian Rocamora, Martín & Jakubowski, Kelly (2018). Interpersonal Entrainment in Music Performance.
• Clayton, Martin, Eerola, Tuomas, Jakubowski, Kelly & Tarsitani, Simone (2017). Interactions in duo improvisations. SN: 852847.
• Clayton, Martin & Cook, Simon (1999). 'Wayang Golék: Performing arts of Sunda (West Java)' (DVD). DVD.
• Clayton, Martin & Sahasrabuddhe, Veena (1999). 'Khyal: Classical singing of North India' (DVD).
• Clayton, Martin & Sahasrabuddhe, Veena (1999). 'Khyal: Classical Singing of North India' Accompanying booklet.
• Clayton, Martin & Cook, Simon (1999). 'Wayang Golék: Performing arts of Sunda (West Java)' Accompanying booklet.
• Clayton, Martin & Sawhney, Nitin et al. (1997). 'Artworks: The Raj 50 Years On'.