Classical Pieces Research Articles

The Composition and Performance Analysis of Spring Nostalgia by Huang Tzu

“Spring Nostalgia” is a classic piece among Huang Tzu’s art songs. The refined lyrics and beautiful melody demonstrate Huang Tzu’s skillful integration of Western compositional techniques with elements of traditional Chinese music. This paper analyzes the song’s lyrical imagery, musical form structure, and piano accompaniment. Additionally, it compares the live performance by Liao Changyong, baritone singer, with the studio recording by Dilber Yunus, soprano singer, offering insights for singers to perform the piece better.

Comparative Electromyographic Analysis in Leg Press of Traditional Fitness Equipment, Traditional Outdoor Fitness Equipment, and a New Model of Outdoor Fitness Equipment in Trained Young Men

This study compares the electromyographic activity (EMG) of different muscle groups (rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, biceps femoris, tibialis anterior, and gastrocnemius) of the lower limbs when performing a traditional seated leg press (SLP) with a classic piece of outdoor fitness equipment (OFE-SLP), and with a new OFE leg press that allows the user to adjust the intensity of the exercise by means of a selectorized system (BIOFIT-LP). It was found that the EMG of the OFE-SLP was significantly lower than that of the SLP, but similar activations to those of the SLP were achieved with the BIOFIT-LP. In conclusion, the inclusion of a system to be able to change intensity of the exercise in OFE achieves an EMG activity similar to traditional machinery in trained young men.

Uncovering potential distinctive acoustic features of healing music

BackgroundMusic therapy is a promising complementary intervention for addressing various mental health conditions. Despite evidence of the beneficial effects of music, the acoustic features that make music effective in therapeutic...

A transformers-based approach for fine and coarse-grained classification and generation of MIDI songs and soundtracks.

Music is an extremely subjective art form whose commodification via the recording industry in the 20th century has led to an increasingly subdivided set of genre labels that attempt to organize musical styles into definite categories. Music psychology has been studying the processes through which music is perceived, created, responded to, and incorporated into everyday life, and, modern artificial intelligence technology can be exploited in such a direction. Music classification and generation are emerging fields that gained much attention recently, especially with the latest discoveries within deep learning technologies. Self attention networks have in fact brought huge benefits for several tasks of classification and generation in different domains where data of different types were used (text, images, videos, sounds). In this article, we want to analyze the effectiveness of Transformers for both classification and generation tasks and study the performances of classification at different granularity and of generation using different human and automatic metrics. The input data consist of MIDI sounds that we have considered from different datasets: sounds from 397 Nintendo Entertainment System video games, classical pieces, and rock songs from different composers and bands. We have performed classification tasks within each dataset to identify the types or composers of each sample (fine-grained) and classification at a higher level. In the latter, we combined the three datasets together with the goal of identifying for each sample just NES, rock, or classical (coarse-grained) pieces. The proposed transformers-based approach outperformed competitors based on deep learning and machine learning approaches. Finally, the generation task has been carried out on each dataset and the resulting samples have been evaluated using human and automatic metrics (the local alignment).

Applying an Allportian Trait Perspective to Sense of Purpose.

Sense of purpose captures the extent to which one feels that they have personally meaningful goals and directions guiding them through life. While this construct has illustrated its ability to robustly predict desirable outcomes-ranging from happiness to mortality-the nature of this construct remains unclear. I begin by describing different definitions and measures from the purpose literature. From there, I review the debates suggesting that it should be classified as a component of identity development, a facet of well-being, or even a virtue. In the current paper, I argue that sense of purpose could be best served when qualified as a trait, building from the eight components of defining a trait from Allport's (1931) paper: "What is a trait of personality?". Using this classic piece as a framework, I integrate empirical and theoretical work on purpose and personality to dive into whether sense of purpose is a trait. I conclude by discussing the challenges and implications of bolstering sense of purpose if it is best classified as a trait.

Reflections on Leonard J. Arrington

Reflections on Leonard J. Arrington

Gods, Goddesses, and Mortals for the 21st Century: The Reinstallation of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Collection of Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art

Gods, Goddesses, and Mortals for the 21st Century: The Reinstallation of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Collection of Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art

Semantic Analysis Of Poetry “Fear No More The Heat O’ The Sun” By William Shakespeare

Classical poetry is still very popular today. But in this classic piece of literature, especially in William Shakespeare's poem "Fear No More the Heat of the Sun," it can be difficult to understand what the words mean. Therefore, this study aims to help poetry lovers understand the meaning of poetry using semantic analysis that focuses on the lexical meaning and denotation meaning. The dates in this sentence are the words of his four stanza verses of the poem which is the basic level of attention. The data acquisition technique is to reread each word many times. The data obtained were analyzed using dictionaries and encyclopedias. The results of this study were Poetry Fear No More The Heat O' The Sun By William Shakespeare Tells The Story Of Chimney Sweepers in this study was dominated by lexical meaning.

Relaxing effects of music and odors on physiological recovery after cognitive stress and unexpected absence of multisensory benefit.

Several studies have described, often separately, the relaxing effects of music or odor on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. Only a few studies compared the presentation of these stimuli and their interaction within a same experimental protocol. Here, we examined whether relaxing music (slow-paced classical pieces) and odor (lavender essential oil) either presented in isolation or in combination would facilitate physiological recovery after cognitive stress. We continuously recorded the electrocardiogram to assess the high-frequency component of heart rate variability (HF-HRV), an index of parasympathetic activity, and electrodermal activity (EDA), an index of sympathetic activity, 10min before, during and 30 min after a cognitive stress (i.e., completing timely constrained cognitively demanding tasks) in 99 participants allocated to four recovery conditions (control N=26, music N=23, odor N=24, music+odor N=26). The stressing event triggered both a significant increase in EDA and decrease in HF-HRV (compared to baseline). During the recovery period, the odor elicited a greater decrease in EDA compared to an odorless silent control, whereas no difference in HRV was observed. Conversely, during this period, music elicited a greater increase in HF-HRV compared to control whereas no difference in EDA was observed. Strikingly, in the multimodal music+odor condition, no beneficial effect was observed on ANS indexes 30 min after stress. Overall, our study confirms that both olfactory and musical stimuli have relaxing effects after stress on ANS when presented separately only, which might rely on distinct neural mechanisms and autonomic pathways.

The Newest English Translation of the Tbilisian Maqama

Tbilisian Maqama is the 33th story in the book of the prominent Arab writer al-Hariri (1054-1122). Two permanent characters of the Maqama-cycle – the narrator and the main hero meet each other in the Tbilisian mosque. Maqamas were translated into English several times, but those were mostly exact translations. The newest translation (Imposters) issued by the New York University Press in 2020 is the imitation and a very interesting interpretation of the original version. The fact that one of the fifty maqamas of al-Hariri is called “Tbilisian” mustn’t be a pure accident. It seems that Tbilisi was regarded as one of the main political, trade and cultural centers in the Middle East, but American translator doesn’t pay much attention on it. In the newest translation Tbilisi is mentioned in the text and in the notes as well, although the title of Tbilisian Maqama is remade according to the bestseller by L. Rosten (The Joys of Yiddish) as The Joy of Yarabic. There are approximately fifty words or expressions in Yinglish in the translation. What is the common between the Tbilisian Maqama created in the 12th century and the Yiddish-inflected American English (resp. Yinglish) spoken in northeastern of USA?! It’s impossible to make the ordinary reader of the 21st century to read the classical text with its simple plot and didacticism, complicated language and rhythmed prose, high style and Quran citations. Translator Michael Cooperson tried to make his work interesting for the English-speakers by the possibilities of global English. In his translation English is represented as a rich language of the classical literature, on the one hand, and as a widespread spoken language, on the other. All of the fifty maqamas are translated into different styles. Cooperson uses classical English writers’ idioms and many slangs. The imitation of the Tbilisian Maqama is full of associations connected with the main character and the plot of this story. Cooperson chose the language of American Jews here because the main hero’s simulation as if he is disabled, his complains about poverty and illness reminds him the monologues of the 20th century American Jewish performers Henny Youngman, Don Rickles and Rodney Dangerfield. All of them used Yinglish in their performances. The translator mentions also the Imposter-like story “A Yom Kippur Scandal” originally written in Yiddish by Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916) which presents a swindle man like the hero of maqamas. Apart from this, here are allusions from the Old Testament, the texts of Yiddish theater songs etc. Some poems not translated but replaced by original versions written in Yiddish preserving the context and mood. Cooperson tried to create the analogue of the “linguistic acrobatics” of the original version. The literary pieces of the Middle Ages are often translated separately for the academical purposes with more scrupulosity, special commentaries etc., and separately for ordinary readers with some changes. But in the newest popular translation of Tbilisian Maqama the interpretation of the origin’s language needs no less definitions, explanations. This translation is Transculturation. It’s domestication – as Cooperson notes, he couldn’t find better way to integrate this classical piece in the receiving culture. The newest translation with its linguistical and stylistic diversity can be assessed as post modernistic translation as well.

Filtros, dragones y golondrinas:: Una lectura de Tristán e Isolda desde la Teoría Moral

Starting from the poetic image that the end of Tristan and Isolde leaves us with -a bush linking two tombs-, and the images of the swallows, the dragon and the filter, it is proposed to travel to the deep complexity that the link between Tristan and Isolde means, in order to contemplate the roles of: moral luck in this legendary love, the emotions that mobilize the actions of these lovers, and finally, self-reflection as a process that encourages the address of ethical aspects in a classic piece of universal literature. This work is introduced as a feasible narrative approach to bring to the classroom and help with the emergence of the figure of moral luck as a trigger for global and individual reflections, on the path of thinking and self awareness.

Dilemma and Resistance of “the Other”: An Analysis of Half of a Yellow Sun

The classical piece Half of a Yellow Sun, composed by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie garners critical acclaim. Post-colonial perspectives such as diaspora, identity, and history have gained popularity among scholars; however, more comprehensive research is required. Grounded on post-colonial theory, this article attempts to present the dilemma of the “other” from the perspective of race and ethnicity and examines how the “other” resists and constructs their space for survival within the colonial discourse. Evidence suggests that Adichie, as the black and the Igbo, delineates the dilemma and resistance of the “other” to convey her firm racial, ethnic, and cultural confidence.

Pluralistic Professionalisms: Religious Identity, Excluded Voice, and a Toolkit for the Periphery


 Assimilation of new entrants into the legal profession has been a signature strain of Carrie Menkel-Meadow’s research. Even if the empirical particularities have since evolved, her pathbreaking research on women lawyers and gendered lawyering processes remain prime examples of socio-legal work on lawyers with important theoretical extensions. For example, in Portia in a Different Voice, her now classic piece from 1985, Menkel-Meadow analyzes how numbers alone are insufficient indicia of feminization within the legal profession. Beyond the description of the state of the legal profession at the time of writing, her argument that we should pay attention to what lawyers do rather than how many of them there are changed a line of scholarship about lawyer demography and demanded that it pay more attention to experience and nuance in what could seem like a critical mass. Similarly, in 1987, while analyzing the assimilation of minority groups, she asks, in productive provocation, “Is assimilation a desirable goal?” to suggest that excluded voices might—even when seemingly included— suffer from everyday exclusion because they do not have access to the kinds of social and economic capital necessary for true inclusion. In another line of research focused on legal institutions and decision-making metrics rather than systems and experiences of lawyers, Menkel-Meadow discusses her now-eminent theory of “process pluralism”: the idea that a range of embedded processes need to merge in client-forward ways to offer meaningful justice. Although Menkel-Meadow’s work on the empirical legal profession has been what has most directly influenced my own scholarly inquiry, this theoretical kernel from her dispute resolution research inspires extending the analyses to new kinds of diversity in the legal profession.
 
 Following the spirit of her research focused on bespoke hybridization, this Article merges these two lines of significant theory across interrelated fields to consider “pluralistic professionalisms”—pluralism in professional values and identity—by focusing on the experience of Muslim actors in contemporary legal landscapes. Although scholarship has reinforced the myriad ways in which identity capital within the legal profession is built and valorized, religion complicates the analysis because it involves the performance of not just an individual’s identity, but also its additional interaction with law’s neutrality and its presumptions—despite enough evidence to the contrary—of secularity. Islam further exposes cleavages in these intersectionalities because of the way this particular religious identity is gendered, racialized, and read, especially in the Global North, often under the violent pretense of “liberal” progress.
 
 
 
 In contending with this complicated juxtaposition, this Article argues for paying attention to a particular kind of process pluralism in the creation of professional identity. Part II outlines the ways in which Menkel-Meadow’s scholarship on diversity and identity in the legal profession creates what I refer to as a “toolkit for the periphery” that allows us to consider new kinds of professional entrants and navigations. Part III unpacks the ways in which religious identity and performance complicates the analysis of identity alterity and uses Menkel-Meadow’s process pluralism as a way to consider these conjunctions. Part IV uses data from an ongoing Navigating Identities in Legal Education (“NILE”) project, as well as case law on Islamophobic workplace discrimination, to reveal the ways in which “ideal” or “good” identities of the Muslim lawyer are constructed in post-September 11, 2001 (“9/11”) America. The concluding Part V employs the concept of pluralistic professionalisms to make sense of the data in the previous section and to extend these two seemingly under-connected strains in Menkel-Meadow’s research centering on process pluralism and professional identity. Although the Islamic identity and the experiences of Muslim lawyers are the focal points of this Essay, the argument for professional pluralism—much like Menkel-Meadow’s research—extends beyond the particularities of this specific case.
 
 
 
 

Uncovering the differences between the violin and erhu musical instruments by statistical analysis of multiple musical pieces

The violin and erhu are two of Western and Chinese music’s main bowed string instruments. Recent work has compared the different emotional characteristics between the violin and erhu on the Butterfly Lovers Concerto. In our study, we examine several hypotheses to investigate whether the previous studies’ results hold generally. Four musical excerpts were extracted from four famous Chinese and Western classical pieces, and the excerpts were divided into four emotional categories: Happy, Sad, Agitated, and Calm. Based on the Butterfly Lovers results, we expected that: (1) the violin has a more Happy emotional characteristic than the erhu, while the erhu is comparatively more Sad, and (2) the violin is better at conveying high-Arousal excerpts. We used the Bradley–Terry–Luce (BTL) paired-comparison model to obtain the ranking scores and identify statistically significant differences between the two instruments. The erhu was consistently perceived as sadder than the violin for all Sad excerpts, while the violin was generally calmer and more agitated for those categories. Further study with more listeners and excerpts is needed to verify whether these results generally hold and at a statistically significant level.

Synchronization between music dynamics and heart rhythm is modulated by the musician's emotional involvement: A single case study.

In this study we evaluated heart rate variability (HRV) changes in a pianist, playing in a laboratory, to investigate whether HRV changes are guided by music temporal features or by technical difficulty and/or subjective factors (e.g., experienced effort). The pianist was equipped with a wearable telemetry device for ECG recording during the execution of 4 classical and 5 jazz pieces. From ECG we derived the RR intervals series (tachogram), and, for each piece, analyzed HRV in the time (RR, RMSSD, Stress Index) and frequency domains (Total spectral power) and performed non-linear analysis (Multiscale Entropy). We also studied the correlation (Pearson) between the time course of music volume envelope and tachogram. Results showed a general reduction of parasympathetic and an increase of sympathetic activity, with the greatest changes during the classical pieces execution, the pianist appraised as more demanding than the jazz ones. The most marked changes occurred during the most technically/emotionally demanding piece, and correlation analysis revealed a negative association between music volume envelope time course and tachogram only for this piece, suggesting a modulation of the limbic system on the synchronization between heart rhythm and music temporal features. Classical music was also associated with the increase of entropy (1st scale) with respect to rest, indicating its effectiveness in driving flexible, healthy, heart dynamics. In conclusion, HRV seems modulated not only by the music temporal features, but also by the pianist’s emotional involvement, which is greatly influenced, in a non-trivial manner, by the technical demands and musician expertise.

Teaching The Tragedy of the Commons through an Iterative, Performance-based, Embodied Cognition Pedagogy

ABSTRACT Garrett Hardin’s The Tragedy of the Commons is a classic piece of academic literature in geography and cognate fields. Applying theories of embodied cognition and performance pedagogies, this paper presents a classroom-based activity that can be used to teach the concepts of The Tragedy of the Commons in a way that will likely intersect with students’ own lived experiences more meaningfully than Hardin’s central example of a group of livestock owners making use of a shared field for grazing. The activity involves a dialogue among five student volunteer actors that iteratively portrays a group of friends trying to negotiate their own advantages alongside a sense of equity in the context of dividing the cost of a shared meal. During and after the performance, key opportunities are presented for the instructor to lead a discussion about Hardin’s “tragedy” as well as the solutions he proposes by which it might be overcome. The model of scripted performance plus impromptu discussion used here can be applied to the teaching of other complex topics in the geography classroom.

РЕЦЕПЦИЯ ФИЛЬМА Э.Г. КЕОСАЯНА "НЕУЛОВИМЫЕ МСТИТЕЛИ" В 1960-1970-Е ГГ. В СОВЕТСКОЙ ПРЕССЕ

The article is focused on reception of the movie Elusive Avengers (1967) by E. Keosayan in the Soviet media of 1960s – 1970s. The film by E. Keosayan is a kind of remake of I. Perestiany’s Red Devils (1923) based on P. Blyakchin’s story published in 1921. The Perestiani movie by 1960 got the status of classic piece of Soviet cinematograph. Elusive Avengers appeared at the juncture of two epochs: Krushchev’s “thaw” was nearly over anyway yet the Soviet tanks had not rolled into Prague. The film met the mixed review from critics. The movie was released towards the 50 years jubilee of the revolution and it was really caught in the “gaping” between the party of the artists who wanted to speak and articulate their position and attitude with free language and the party of conservative guards which upheld conservative values, what naturally affected the language of description of cinematic reality.

Pandemic and Resilience— An Analysis of Love in the time of Cholera and the Plague

The article proposes to provide an insight into Pandemic Literature revealing the impact of pandemic on society as well as the remarkable human resilience. Human history has witnessed a number of pandemics like cholera, plague, and the current covid-19. The word ‘pandemic’ is derived from the Greek words ‘pan’ and ‘demos’. Pan means all and demos means people or crowd. Pandemic is an infectious disease widespread over a large part of the world. Resilience is the human ability to recover quickly from adverse circumstances. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a classic piece of pandemic literature. The author says that lovesickness is a literal illness. The story takes place in the backdrop of a cholera outbreak. The marked effect of cholera on people’s life and the remarkable human resilience are highlighted in the article. The protagonist’s outburst in the end of the novel shows the surge of resilience. The analysis of The Plague by Albert Camus, the noted French writer throws light on helpless human beings unable to change their destinies. The writer’s absurdist point of view is revealed. The novel begins with the onslaught of plague in the Algerian city of Oran. Besides the sufferings of people, the change of human attitudes and the trait of resilience are also depicted by the author.

The Impact of Structure and Corporate Ideology on Leader–Follower Relations in the Bureaucratic Organization: A Reflection on Moral Mazes

In the wake of organizational scandals associated with corporate America servant as well as transformational leadership are seen as approaches capable of engendering a type of morality—on the part of leaders and followers—based on shared values, universal moral principles and an orientation towards a pro-social behavior serving the common good. However, recent critiques have highlighted the tendency in the relevant literature to overlook the systemic context within which leadership and followership are situated. Given this oversight this paper re-visits a classic piece of ethnography on corporate America: Robert Jackal’s Moral Mazes. Employing concepts from critical realism fused with insights from studies on management and bureaucracy we analyse the key themes from the book pertaining to the nature of the leader–follower dynamic in shareholder capitalism. The analysis highlights the role of bureaucracy and corporate ideology as key elements shaping leader–follower relationships, encouraging a type of morality associated with guarding self-interest whilst undermining relationality. The influence of the structural and cultural context in which leader–follower relations unfold draws attention to morality as relationally contingent as opposed to an ideal state.

고보리 엔슈(小堀遠州) 편지에 나타난 와카 분석

While Koborienshu was the greatest architect and interior designer of his time, he was also extremely passionate about Waka. He worshiped the medieval poet, Teika and after learning from one of his descendants, Tameyori, himself wrote Waka, Kyoka, and Haikai, together with other poets with whom he had tea meetings. Koborienshu also recited Waka to mourn a dead friend; imitated 47 classical pieces of Kyoka on a trip to Kyoto; and wrote Haikai and Renku, interacting with cultured men. In addition, in 48 of the 148 letters, he poured out his feelings through Waka, Haikai, and others. The Waka in his letters followed the classical pattern, which represented his attitude of reciting the phrases of classical pieces as they were. Many of the songs were rooted in Kokinshu. It was also characterized by the use of homonyms to investigate the multiplicity of meanings. In his travel books, the overall composition followed the form of Tosanikki, but the written songs were markedly influenced by Isemonogatari. Besides, one can find his deep passion for classical Waka from his act of borrowing Waka phrases on tea ceremony tools and the use of the place name of Utamakura.