Rebecca Cypess

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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About

Rebecca Cypess is a leading scholar in historical musicology, with a focus on the intersections of music, technology, and expression from the early modern era to the present. Her research explores how musical machines—from Enlightenment-era automata to contemporary robotic instruments—challenge and redefine notions of human-like expression. In her widely cited work, "The Anthropomorphic Analogy: Humanising Musical Machines in the Early Modern and Contemporary Eras" (2018, 8 citations), Cypess traces how artists and engineers have historically imbued mechanical sound-producers with human traits, linking early modern ideas to modern cybernetics and robotics. Her follow-up study, "Can Musical Machines Be Expressive? Views from the Enlightenment and Today" (2017, 5 citations), examines transitive theories of expression, arguing that eighteenth-century thinkers and today’s robotic instrument designers alike strive to make machines seem more emotionally vivid through nuanced sonic control. By bridging historical philosophy with cutting-edge technology, Cypess reveals a persistent cultural desire to animate the inanimate. Her work is essential reading for students of musicology, sound studies, and the history of technology, offering a compelling lens on how we define artistry, embodiment, and the very boundaries of the human.