Musical Context Research Articles

A Case Study of Multicultural Music Education Practice in Primary Schools -Taking Nanjing Xiaoying Primary School as an Example

Under the influence of the development trend of global economic integration, the concept of multicultural music education has gradually attracted the attention and research of multinational music education circles. After summarizing relevant scholars’ literature on multicultural music education through literature research, I find out the research and practice status of multicultural music education at home and abroad, and forwards strategies for how can the education entering primary school. On this basis, after writing the course objectives, chapter arrangements and course content, I used the practice research method to take class four and five，grade six of Nanjing Xiaoying Primary School as the practice object, and conducted a 16-week teaching practice around multicultural music education from September 2021 to December 2021. It is concluded through practice that multicultural music education not only conforms to the development of the times, but also helps to enhance students’ interest in music learning, enriches the content of music teaching, and helps students establish a prototype of the world’s music context. In specific implementation process, students’ innovative ability should be affirmed, and the differences in singing ability among individuals and the acceptance of the depth and breadth of teaching content need to be adjusted in practice.

The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music

The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music

Gesture-vocal coupling in Karnatak music performance: A neuro-bodily distributed aesthetic entanglement.

In many musical styles, vocalists manually gesture while they sing. Coupling between gesture kinematics and vocalization has been examined in speech contexts, but it is an open question how these couple in music making. We examine this in a corpus of South Indian, Karnatak vocal music that includes motion-capture data. Through peak magnitude analysis (linear mixed regression) and continuous time-series analyses (generalized additive modeling), we assessed whether vocal trajectories around peaks in vertical velocity, speed, or acceleration were coupling with changes in vocal acoustics (namely, F0 and amplitude). Kinematic coupling was stronger for F0 change versus amplitude, pointing to F0's musical significance. Acceleration was the most predictive for F0 change and had the most reliable magnitude coupling, showing a one-third power relation. That acceleration, rather than other kinematics, is maximally predictive for vocalization is interesting because acceleration entails force transfers onto the body. As a theoretical contribution, we argue that gesturing in musical contexts should be understood in relation to the physical connections between gesturing and vocal production that are brought into harmony with the vocalists' (enculturated) performance goals. Gesture-vocal coupling should, therefore, be viewed as a neuro-bodily distributed aesthetic entanglement.

The Application of Artificial Intelligence Wireless Network in Music Contextual Teaching under the New Media Art Perspective

Technological growth has resulted in simplifying various tasks previously considered tedious jobs by humans. Artificial intelligence technology has increased and is being appointed to reduce the burden of handling charges by assisting humans in their tasks. The artificial intelligence technology integrated with the wireless network systems is designed to teach music with the help of new media art. New media art is referred to as artwork that deploys new media technologies for its production. Some of the new media technologies are as follows: animation, computer graphics, digital art, video games, sound art, and interactive art. New media art is different from the traditional visual arts, such as paintings, sculptures, and architecture. The new media art is gaining popularity and has become an unavoidable technology. In this article, people will research the application of artificial intelligence and wireless networks in the music context of teaching under the vision of new media art. The integration of AI and wireless network technology with new media art in the music teaching field is more advantageous than the traditional methods of music teaching. The integration model Convolutional Neural Network Art Algorithm (CNNAA) is a CNN algorithm to train and test the music teaching in the context of new media art such as technological involvement such as 4G and 5G for faster data transfer in the wireless communication. The proposed model is compared with the existing fuzzy logic, neural network (NN), and K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN) for the training and testing of the model for an accurate teaching process. The results show that the CNNAA has obtained a higher accuracy of 98% and 99% for training and testing.

An Examination of Trunk and Right-Hand Coordination in Piano Performance: A Case Comparison of Three Pianists.

Playing the piano at expert levels typically involves significant levels of trial-and-error learning since the majority of practice occurs in isolation. To better optimize musical outcomes, pianists might be well served by emulating some of the practices found in sports, where motor learning strategies are grounded in biomechanics and ergonomics in order to improve performance and reduce risk of performance-related injuries. The purpose of the current study is to examine trunk-hand coordination and preparatory movement strategization in piano performance, while considering the influence of anthropometry, skill level of the performer, and musical context. Using a ten-camera motion capture system, movement of C7 and right-hand distal phalanges was tracked at three different playing speeds during performance of an excerpt from Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata. There were three participants: two males and one female of differing anthropometric characteristics and skill levels. Motor strategization was examined. Expertise influenced starting trunk position: Initiation intervals and trunk range of motion (ROM) both suggested anthropometry to be a performance factor. For the shortest performer, trunk movement appeared to be used as an efficiency measure to compensate for a shorter arm reach. Skill level was revealed by examining right-hand velocity at the fastest tempo. The current study hypothesizes that an examination of proximal-to-distal preparatory strategies in terms of anthropometry and skill level can help to optimize motor learning for pianists. To realize piano performance as a whole-body skill and encourage healthy practice, pedagogy needs to educate learners regarding fundamental biomechanical and ergonomic principles, movement optimization, and movement strategization in the service of artful performance.

Appropriating Copland’s Fanfare

This video explores the stylistic and associative evolution of the emblematic sound Aaron Copland forged in his Fanfare for the Common Man (1942). This style, called here the triumphant exordium, consists of a constellation of specific musical features that has been imitated and troped by other composers—and by Copland himself—to carve out musical landscapes with evocative expressive qualities that include both clear and ambiguous connections with Americana. After summarizing the Fanfare’s original musical and extra-musical contexts, this video illuminates this legacy through three case studies.

Does interpersonal liking lead to interpersonal synchrony in musical contexts?

The causal relationship of interpersonal liking affecting interpersonal synchrony is inconsistently documented. This study tests whether (a) interpersonal liking increases both behavioural and perceived synchrony and (b) people will synchronise with an agreeable partner over a competing musical stimulus. We had college students (N = 25) shake an egg-shaker with an agreeable or disagreeable confederate without music, with music, and with specific instruction to synchronise. Participants reported liking the agreeable confederate more than the disagreeable confederate and rated their relationship more positively; however, both behavioural and perceived synchrony were unaffected by the agreeableness of the confederate. Thus, we failed to replicate previous findings in an auditory only context. Furthermore, participants who believed they were more synchronised with the confederate liked the confederate more and felt more like a team, but the degree of behavioural synchrony was unrelated to these social perceptions. Perception of synchrony appears to be more important for social bonding than behavioural synchrony.

Jonas Otterbeck: The Awakening of Islamic Pop Music. In the series Music and Performance in Muslim Contexts. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021. 220 pages.

Something has happened to the Islamic music scene since the turn of the twenty-first century. A gradual change towards increased diversity seems to be underway: new forms of musical expressions, including instruments and popular musical tropes, and new kinds of musicians who are stylish and savvy perform their music to enthusiastic audiences, who dig their idols and share their concert experiences in social media as fans all over the world do, but with an added, faith-based flavour. This music is not merely intended to entertain and sell, even if it is orchestrated by the commercial laws of the global music industry – it also has “the goal of being perceived and accepted as Islamic” (p. 4). By experimenting with sounds, formats and styles of performance, the agents of Islamic pop or pop-nashid (nashid being an old, Arabic term for Islamic song) challenge conceptions of legitimate Islamic art, pushing the limits of what can be regarded as purposeful, ethical and authentic ways of expressing Islam in music. In his recent book, Jonas Otterbeck explores this dynamic musical context based on rich ethnographic data (interviews, participant fieldwork) and multi-media analyses, placed in dialogue with central concepts and analytical frameworks from classical Islamic theology and philosophy, ethnomusicology and various strands of the study of contemporary religion and culture.

On Material Indeterminacy

‘Material indeterminacy’ is the term I use to discuss how my work since 2010 has explored the consequences of placing materiality, indeterminacy, and responsiveness at the centre of a compositional practice, and what means for the relationships between instrument, player, and score. I propose that the structural consequence of contingency in instrumental performance is an underexplored aspect of experimental composition, which has historically tended to focus on models that either control contingency or obviate its consequences. ‘Material indeterminacy’ is proposed as a third way that folds the emergent consequences of contingency back into meaningful relation with the unfolding structure. This research is framed by theoretical perspectives on materiality: Andrew Pickering’s performative ontology of human and material agencies, specifically his ‘dance of agency’ between human and material; anthropologist Tim Ingold’s phenomenological approach to materiality that valorises the relational ‘working-with’ of human and material. The liveliness of materiality is considered in relation to Lucy Suchman’s work on situatedness and the entwined nature of plans and actions, and then returned to a musical context via listening and the discourse of improvisation as response-to-contingency. Finally, I discuss these ideas via examples of my own work from the Garden of Forking Paths compositional project (2019–2021).

Blessed Damozel(s): Ekphrastic Perspectives on Rossetti’s Poem and Painting

Abstract Ekphrasis – the representation of a work of art in terms of another art form – was originally the highest rhetorical exercise, requiring the verbal recreation of a picture or sculpture. The definition has broadened to include all kinds of ‘inter-art’ representation. Works of art depicting music (generically, or specific works) are familiar in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as are musical representations (as opposed to word-setting) of literary texts. But poems are less frequently rendered into painting, and the musical representation of graphic art is more a twentieth-century phenomenon. Siglind Bruhn’s Musical Ekphrasis (2000) mapped out the subject area, with particular attention to Debussy, but there have been few attempts to explore the topic in a musical context since then. This article seeks to explore a particular three-fold intersection of music, art, and poem. Dante Rosetti’s The Blessed Damozel exists both as a poem (first published 1851, revised until 1873) and a painting (1875–1878). The poem was set by Claude Debussy (1887–1888, re-orchestrated 1902), and by many British composers (one of which slightly pre-dates Debussy), and some from other Anglophone countries. These settings show a wide range of responses to Rossetti’s most popular and most frequently anthologized poem. Some try to situate it within the English oratorio tradition as opposed to Debussy’s perceived Wagnérisme, but others are much more diverse, ranging from accompanied recitation through vocal settings accompanied by a chamber ensemble, to choral works, either a cappella or with piano. Some composers only set an extract from the poem, and, including Debussy’s setting, only five use an orchestra. This article analyses aspects of these highly diverse settings and their reception with a view to testing the viability of ekphrasis as a methodological tool.

Neonatal manual specialization in language and music conditions: Consistency with the hemispheric specialization adult model

The main purpose of this study was to test in neonates the influence of the sound environment, i.e., language versus music, on asymmetric hand movement activity in the presence of a target object. Based on hemispheric specialization, our hypothesis was that infants would use their right hand more in the speech context (left hemisphere) and their left hand more in the music context (right hemisphere). The study involved 19 full-term 3-day-old neonates. An object was presented successively in the two sound environments in counterbalance order for 120 s each. Left and right movements and mouth activity were scored during the target object presentation. Results show that neonates moved their left hand twice as much as their right hand in the music condition than in the language condition, and they moved their right hand a longer time in the language condition than in the music condition. The average number of sucking bursts was significantly higher in the language condition than in the music condition. We discuss the results in terms of manual specialization in relation to the development of hemispheric specialization.

The CODA Model: A Review and Skeptical Extension of the Constructionist Model of Emotional Episodes Induced by Music.

This paper discusses contemporary advancements in the affective sciences (described together as skeptical theories) that can inform the music-emotion literature. Key concepts in these theories are outlined, highlighting their points of agreement and disagreement. This summary shows the importance of appraisal within the emotion process, provides a greater emphasis upon goal-directed accounts of (emotion) behavior, and a need to move away from discrete emotion “folk” concepts and toward the study of an emotional episode and its components. Consequently, three contemporary music emotion theories (BRECVEMA, Multifactorial Process Approach, and a Constructionist Account) are examined through a skeptical lens. This critique highlights the over-reliance upon categorization and a lack of acknowledgment of appraisal processes, specifically goal-directed appraisal, in examining how individual experiences of music emerge in different contexts. Based on this critique of current music-emotion models, we present our skeptically informed CODA model - Constructivistly-Organised Dimensional-Appraisal model. This model addresses skeptical limitations of existing theories, reinstates the role of goal-directed appraisal as central to what makes music relevant and meaningful to an individual in different contexts and brings together different theoretical frameworks into a single model. From the development of the CODA model, several hypotheses are proposed and applied to musical contexts. These hypotheses address theoretical issues such as acknowledging individual and contextual differences in emotional intensity and valence, as well as differentiating between induced and perceived emotions, and utilitarian and aesthetic emotions. We conclude with a sections of recommendations for future research. Altogether, this theoretical critique and proposed model points toward a positive future direction for music-emotion science. One where researchers can take forward testable predictions about what makes music relevant and meaningful to an individual.

The relationship between acoustic and musical pitch processing in adolescents.

Amusia is defined as a difficulty processing the tonal pitch structure of music such that an individual cannot tell the difference between notes that are in-key and out-of-key. A fine-grained pitch discrimination deficit is often observed in people with amusia. It is possible that an intervention, early in development, could mitigate amusia; however, one challenge identifying amusia early in development is that identifying in- and out-of-key notes is a metacognitive task. Given the common co-occurrence of difficulties with pitch discrimination, it would be easier to identify amusia in developing children by using a pitch change detection task. The goal of this study was to explore the behavioural and neurophysiological profiles of adolescents with poor pitch processing (Poor PP) abilities compared with those with normal pitch processing (Normal PP) abilities. Neurophysiologically, the Poor PPs exhibited a similar event-related potential (ERP) profile to adult amusics during both acoustic and musical pitch discrimination tasks. That is, early ERPs (ERAN, MMN) were similar in Poor PPs compared with Normal PPs, whereas late positivities (P300, P600) were absent in Poor PPs, but present in Normal PPs. At the same time, behavioural data revealed a double dissociation between the abilities to detect a pitch deviant in acoustic and musical context, suggesting that about a third of the children would be missed by selecting a fine-grained acoustic pitch discrimination task to identify the presence of amusia in early childhood.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and musical behaviour: The significance of context

Recent estimates indicate that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is prevalent in about 2.5% of adults and 5.9% of young people. Negative impacts of ADHD are often reported in academic performance, emotional and cognitive functioning, and peer relationships, but little is known about ADHD and music. Using a detailed case study approach, structured observations in contrasting settings over a period of several school terms were made of one Primary and one Secondary school-aged boy, each with a formal assessment of ADHD. Analyses of video-based observations every 30 s ( n = 5,961 in total) were related to (1) the particular core ADHD symptoms attributed to inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity, together with their observed severity; and (2) tutors’ and pupils’ actions during their focus music sessions. These quantitative data enriched the qualitative analyses. The research findings indicate that, notwithstanding their ADHD-related symptoms, the affected individuals could engage successfully in music and acquire musical skills. ADHD was not a static condition, but variable according to pedagogical and musical context. Habitual ADHD symptoms were either reduced or entirely absent when participants were engaged in playing and performing music. Analyses suggest that an effective, context-sensitive and inclusive pedagogy can integrate pupils into successful individual and collective music making.

Familiarity modulates neural tracking of sung and spoken utterances

Music is often described in the laboratory and in the classroom as a beneficial tool for memory encoding and retention, with a particularly strong effect when words are sung to familiar compared to unfamiliar melodies. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this memory benefit, especially for benefits related to familiar music are not well understood. The current study examined whether neural tracking of the slow syllable rhythms of speech and song is modulated by melody familiarity. Participants became familiar with twelve novel melodies over four days prior to MEG testing. Neural tracking of the same utterances spoken and sung revealed greater cerebro-acoustic phase coherence for sung compared to spoken utterances, but did not show an effect of familiar melody when stimuli were grouped by their assigned (trained) familiarity. However, when participant's subjective ratings of perceived familiarity were used to group stimuli, a large effect of familiarity was observed. This effect was not specific to song, as it was observed in both sung and spoken utterances. Exploratory analyses revealed some in-session learning of unfamiliar and spoken utterances, with increased neural tracking for untrained stimuli by the end of the MEG testing session. Our results indicate that top-down factors like familiarity are strong modulators of neural tracking for music and language. Participants’ neural tracking was related to their perception of familiarity, which was likely driven by a combination of effects from repeated listening, stimulus-specific melodic simplicity, and individual differences. Beyond simply the acoustic features of music, top-down factors built into the music listening experience, like repetition and familiarity, play a large role in the way we attend to and encode information presented in a musical context.

Preservice Music Teachers Perceptions of Teaching and Learning Popular Music

The purpose of this instrumental case study was to investigate the perceptions of preservice music teachers learning popular music and facilitating popular music learning experiences with elementary students in an after-school music program. Preservice music teachers enrolled in a popular music pedagogy course learned techniques for teaching and performing popular music, and facilitated an elective after-school ‘ukulele program where they worked with students from two different elementary schools. Using interviews, researcher journals, preservice teacher reflections, and observations, we explored how preservice music teachers make sense of their experiences in learning to teach in a new musical context. We found that preservice teachers valued extended field experiences before student teaching, developed positive attitudes toward teaching popular music/musicianship, and required significant time to acquire the skills needed to teach in an informal learning environment.

A social innovation approach to programming to address social issues

ABSTRACT Social innovation can be defined as a more effective solution to a social problem that positively impacts society. The following manuscript is a conceptual discussion where the authors propose a five-stage approach to utilizing social innovation in designing and implementing innovative programming to address complex social issues. The authors provide a unique example that applies this process as the foundation, within a unique musical context. Ultimately, it is hoped by utilizing social innovation concepts within the programming foundation, it will lead to alternative perspectives when addressing complex social issues.

Touching through Music, Touching through Words

This article investigates the versatile embodiment of touch in the sensory-aesthetic construction of piano performance. The sensorial interactions enmeshed in piano playing distribute a peculiar interaction between touch and sound, which can be comprehended as two kinds of pianistic touch – the physical touch and the affective touch. In the synthesis, or symbiosis, of these two kinds of touch, piano performance epitomizes a sensory-aesthetic continuum to transmit its force beyond perceptible spatial-temporal boundaries. This article argues that the tactile-sonic relationship in piano playing manifests the performative power of music to formulate new modes of feeling and understanding. This argument is explored in three stages. The first stage utilises two treatises, Steven Connor's ‘Edison's teeth’ (2001) and Simon Waters’ ‘Touching at a distance’ (2013), to explicate how touch enables the production of musical sound and how music can be received as tactually oriented sensations. The second stage introduces the piano as an exemplary instrument of touch in the contexts of scientific studies and relevant cultural history. The third stage uses two novelistic texts as heuristics to explore how pianistic touch is enacted performatively to engage with the aural, visual, somatic and visceral sensations. Both Thomas Mann's ‘Tristan’ (2009 [1903]) and Forster's A Room with a View (2012 [1908]) testify to how fictional presentations of piano playing can provide fertile loam to reappraising pianistic touch beyond the ordinary musical context. Overall, as performed in a range of pianistic settings, the multivariant senses of touch provide productive perspectives for re-constructing what prior categories of senses and sensations could not consider. This article will thus be conducive to a quest for new forms of creativity underlying the performance and performativity of pianistic touch.

Spectral Analysis of Musical Notes as a Source of Information About Musical Instruments

The integration of physics, music, and mathematics has long been used to increase students’ interest and motivation in these subjects. For example, previous articles in this journal have shown how to teach physical concepts in a musical context, use a smartphone to check the resonant frequencies of whistles, use a smartphone to examine the spectra of sounds, and apply Fourier analysis to the study of musical intervals. This article is devoted to the audio recordings analysis of saxophone sounds, violin, guitar, piano, hand bell, and ocarina in the Audacity editor. The purpose of this analysis is to determine the amplitude-frequency structures of musical notes and obtain information for the classroom about the physical characteristics of musical instruments and some playing techniques.

Metric Ambiguity and Rhythmic Gesture in the Works of George Crumb

Despite a growing body of theoretical work on the music of George Crumb, surprisingly little has been said about his use of rhythm and metre, elements which are often more aurally accessible than complex pitch structures and which constitute a recognisable aspect of Crumb’s style. Much of Crumb’s output is characterised by a unique combination of metric ambiguity with clear and often recurrent rhythmic gestures whose use and juxtaposition creates varying levels of metricity. A significant portion of his music can then be situated in the middle of a spectrum that ranges from completely non-metrical to clearly metrical. The result is a unique rhythmic language that stringently avoids large-scale metrical structures but makes frequent use of localised metrical gestures and brief moments of metrical emergence. These rhythmic and metric structures are then used in different ways to create a range of temporal and formal effects. This paper focuses on the rhythmic and metric characteristics of motives from several pieces by George Crumb. Emphasis will be placed on a particularly interesting case in the final movement from Crumb’s Vox Balaenae, where the repetition and shifting musical context of a small set of rhythmic motives results in a process of metrical emergence and dissolution that contributes to the arch form of the piece.