The Musical Form Institute is currently a project operated by Muse Foundry LLC and is seeking fiscal sponsorship for charitable programming and public education. CEP is in pilot development; public certification is not yet open. Certification mark application pending.
Why We Exist
The Certificate of Embodied Production advances arts education and public understanding of how recorded music teaches us to coordinate across difference. The CEP does this by defining a process-based standard for recordings made without timing quantization, pitch correction, or generative AI. The public benefit is educational: building shared listening literacy around embodied performance in recorded music, so music can function again as a civic resource for perceiving, imagining, and practicing democratic coordination.
Activities
(current and planned)
Publish and maintain the CEP standard as a free public resource, including plain-language criteria, examples, and a glossary of recording practices.
Produce public education materials (essays, short guides, talks, and annotated listening examples) that explain how timing, phrasing, and ensemble decision-making shape musical meaning.
Host guided listening sessions, workshops, and public discussions for artists, engineers, educators, and audiences focused on embodied musical time and recording ethics.
Document pilot sessions and publish findings (case studies, process notes, and standards revisions) to improve public understanding of recording practices and their cultural effects.
Convene a standards review process with practitioners and advisors to keep the criteria transparent, consistent, and education-forward.
The Certificate of Embodied Production is a process-based verification standard and does not evaluate artistic quality, genre, or commercial merit.