Music Ensembles Research Articles

Backup Singers, Celebrity Culture, and Civil Rights: Racializing Space and Spatializing Race in <em>20 Feet from Stardom</em>

This essay explores Morgan Neville's 2013 documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, which, despite the filmmaker's honorable intentions, reproduces the asymmetrical power relations that it sets out to challenge. The film spotlights previously marginalized members of rock music ensembles; namely, backup singers such as Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, and Darlene Love, whose overlapping careers span a roughly sixty-year period (1950s–2010s). But in attempting to resituate these and other vocalists as figures of nearly peerless artistry and historical consequence, demonstrating in the process how racist ideologies were staged for millions of music fans over the past half-century, 20 Feet from Stardom frequently asks these women to take a backseat to the more famous men who tell their stories. Talking-head interviews featuring rock stars such as Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen are woven into the film's narrative, their voices overlaying archival television footage and newly recorded studio performances in which backup vocalists are allowed to take center stage, if only momentarily. The "front/back" rhetoric of racial oppression and separation specific to postwar America is thus presented to concertgoers as a "natural" way of spatializing race—of spatially distributing people of different ethnicities whose connection to the civil rights movement has perhaps been obscured by their professional commitments.

Lifelong mentoring in an adult chamber ensemble

Abstract The learning and sharing of musical experiences via lifelong mentoring was explored in an adult amateur chamber ensemble at a community music school in the Northeast United States. Participants in this study included a flautist (retired Dean at a major university), a pianist (retired geneticist at a major university) and a bassoonist (employed as an architect during this study). I explored how and why the participants in this study engaged in their efforts to elevate their performance skills both individually and as an ensemble within lifelong mentoring. The following two questions guided this study: (1) How did these adult amateur musicians engage in lifelong mentoring with each other? (2) Why did these adult amateur musicians continue to perform in a music ensemble? Data collection for this study included interviews and observations of rehearsals and one performance during the course of a recital preparation sequence. Data was analysed using a system of coding and two themes emerged during the process: Musicianship and Friendship. For the participants in this study, lifelong mentoring occurred for personal enjoyment, improvement of their individual performance skills, opportunities for learning new musical knowledge, and social interactions with each other. Implications from this study suggest that providing students with opportunities to mentor each other on their own in addition to coaching from their teacher can provide opportunities for lifelong learning in music.

NEFORMALUSIS JAUNIMO ETNOKULTŪRINIS MUZIKINIS UGDYMAS: LENKIJOS PATIRTIS [YOUNG PEOPLE’S NON-FORMAL ETHNOCULTURAL MUSIC EDUCATION: THE POLISH EXPERIENCE

Non-formal education is a promising form of education, which can effectively improve competencies of young people acquired during their studies in schools of higher education. Ethnic culture gains special significance in perceiving our own identity, becoming aware of the national values of other cultures in the context of the globalizing world. The context of this problem exposes questions for the research: how much ethno-cultural music education is important in young people’s life? What motives determine young people’s decision to participate in ethno-cultural music ensemble of non-formal education? What aspects of activities in ethno-cultural musical ensembles emphasize the non-formal education teachers? The aim of the research: to reveal the experience in non-formal ethno-cultural music education accumulated by higher education schools in the neighbouring country – Poland, connected to Lithuania by cultural and historical links. Methods of collecting the research data: The qualitative research was conducted in Wroclaw (Poland) in 2015. A survey (using open-ended type questions) was employed to gather diagnostic information, which was presented in the Polish language. Students (11 informants) who participated in this research provided their written opinions and teachers of non-formal education (2 informants) were interviewed by the researchers. The obtained data were analysed using qualitative content analysis: on the basis of the distinguished keywords, categories were determined, the content of the categories was divided into subcategories, which were further interpreted. Key words: ethno-cultural education, music education, non-formal education, ethnic identity, young people’s and adult education.

Code-switching musicians: an exploratory study

ABSTRACTThere are populations of musicians who demonstrate considerable success-making music in formal school music ensembles and also in their own rock, digital, and ethnic groups in the larger musical community. We suggest helpful insights into the phenomenon of switching between various ways of being musical can be gleaned from the linguistic theory of code-switching. Although authors have identified a disconnect between the narrowly categorised music taught in schools and the wider variety of music in society, we have identified musical ‘code-switchers:’ people adept at navigating multiple musical worlds. The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences and perceptions of these musicians who have demonstrated skill and comfort switching between formal ensembles in a school of music and informal ensembles of multiple genres outside of the school and to examine the viability of using code-switching to better understand flexible, comprehensive musicianship. Participants indicated both musical and social skills as being responsible for their code-switching success.

Music Ensemble as a Resilient System. Managing the Unexpected through Group Interaction

The present contribution provides readers from diverse fields of psychology with a new and comprehensive model for the understanding of the characteristics of music ensembles. The model is based on a novel heuristic approach whose key construct is resilience, intended here as the ability of a system to adapt to external perturbations and anticipate future events. The paper clarifies the specificity of music ensemble as an original social and creative activity, and how some mechanisms, at an individual (cognitive) and group (coordination) level, are enacted in a particular way that endows these groups with exceptional capacity for resilience. There is now a wealth of evidence isolating the psychological mechanisms involved in these processes. However, there is much less focus on conditions in which the group has to face unexpected and potentially performance-disruptive events. The resilience approach offers a more thorough explanation of the regulatory strategies that musicians may resort to in order to maintain their performance at an optimal level. Music ensembles of different size are presented as case studies of how such systems (and their individual members) resist error and maintain joint performance. Three hypothetical scenarios are further proposed that epitomize resilient or non-resilient musical teams. The present contribution further proposes hypotheses and formulates predictions on which combinations of individual and group factors foster team resilience. This model further accommodates the most recent findings in neuroscience and experimental psychology. Besides highlighting the potential of music ensemble for psychological research, it offers hints about how resilience could be trained.

Separation of individual instrumental sounds in monaural music signals applying a modified Wiener filter on the time-frequency plane

This research seeks a signal processor for random processes which is suitable for distilling melodies played by a particular instrument from music ensemble. The proposed processor sequentially evaluates statistics of the mixture assuming a model of music sound and employs a modified Wiener filter so as to separate the mixture of time-variant and correlated random processes such as amplitude changing tones and same pitch tones by different instruments. The model of music sounds is assumed to be a weighted mixture of each standard tone, which is a typical tone of every pitch played by a particular instrument with invariant power, where the weight is called the amplitude factor corresponding to the standard tone. Thus, the proposed processor, at first, evaluates the current amplitude factors which are the the coordinates of the mixture where the standard tones form oblique basis. Then, according to evaluated coordinates of the mixture, its current autocorrelation and cross-correlation to each standard tone are calculated for obtaining the modified Wiener filter. Finally, the filter separates the mixture into individual tone, which is a component of a particular pitch played by an instrument with variant power, and combination of which provides a melody.

Audience gaze while appreciating a multipart musical performance.

Visual information has been observed to be crucial for audience members during musical performances. The present study used an eye tracker to investigate audience members' gazes while appreciating an audiovisual musical ensemble performance, based on evidence of the dominance of musical part in auditory attention when listening to multipart music that contains different melody lines and the joint-attention theory of gaze. We presented singing performances, by a female duo. The main findings were as follows: (1) the melody part (soprano) attracted more visual attention than the accompaniment part (alto) throughout the piece, (2) joint attention emerged when the singers shifted their gazes toward their co-performer, suggesting that inter-performer gazing interactions that play a spotlight role mediated performer-audience visual interaction, and (3) musical part (melody or accompaniment) strongly influenced the total duration of gazes among audiences, while the spotlight effect of gaze was limited to just after the singers' gaze shifts.

Bullying Victimization Among Music Ensemble and Theatre Students in the United States

The purpose of this study was to analyze the prevalence of reported school victimization through physical, verbal, social/relational, and cyberbullying aggression among music ensemble and theatre students in the middle and high schools of the United States as compared to their peers involved in other school-based activities. We analyzed nationally representative data from five waves (2005–2013) of the biannual School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, a joint project of the U.S. Bureau for Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics. Logistic regression results showed that music ensemble and theatre students were significantly more likely to be victimized by in-person bullying than their non-arts peers. A significant interaction between sex and arts status showed that male music and theatre students faced the greatest risk of being subjected to physical bullying aggression while female music and theatre students faced the greatest risk of victimization through social/relational aggression. Though incidents of experiencing hate speech were rare, music and theatre students faced a significantly greater risk of hate speech victimization than non-arts students. The overall probability of a music student being victimized by any type of in-person bullying was .34 compared to .25 for non-arts students.

Writing Sociology, Personal Reflections on What the Arts Can Teach Us

Sociology has had classes on writing, a newsletter devoted to improving sociological writing, a remarkable number of books on writing, and special writing issues of sociological journals. Still, helping both sociology students and professional sociologists write more effectively continues to be seen as a major problem for the discipline. This brief essay suggests that four lessons drawn from the arts can improve the writing of sociologists and our students. First, sociologists must recognize the centrality of audience and develop their writing with specific audiences in mind. Second, a lesson drawn from the ceramics studio shows the power of sharply sculpting and focusing work. Third, understanding that research reporting is telling a story allows sociologists to draw on some traditional devices of storytellers to craft more powerful and effective writing. Finally, a phrase (“close enough for jazz”) from musical ensembles acknowledges the importance of avoiding unreasonable delay in presenting one’s work.

Measuring social interaction in music ensembles.

Music ensembles are an ideal test-bed for quantitative analysis of social interaction. Music is an inherently social activity, and music ensembles offer a broad variety of scenarios which are particularly suitable for investigation. Small ensembles, such as string quartets, are deemed a significant example of self-managed teams, where all musicians contribute equally to a task. In bigger ensembles, such as orchestras, the relationship between a leader (the conductor) and a group of followers (the musicians) clearly emerges. This paper presents an overview of recent research on social interaction in music ensembles with a particular focus on (i) studies from cognitive neuroscience; and (ii) studies adopting a computational approach for carrying out automatic quantitative analysis of ensemble music performances.

EMERGING TRENDS FROM INDIGENOUS MUSIC AND DANCE PRACTICES: A GLIMPSE INTO CONTEMPORARY MALENDE AND TSHIGOMBELA

Past research into the history, state, function and performance contexts of indigenous African musical practices yielded a number of disturbing observations: there was no hope that the practitioners of this genre would ever begin deriving a living out of their art; there was the fear that some indigenous musical practices were nearing extinction because the few indigenous music practitioners still alive were on the brink of death, and there was therefore a need to capture the heritage before it was irretrievably lost. Lately the world of indigenous African music has undergone an evolution. South Africa’s rapidly changing postcolonial terrain has recently witnessed an upsurge of new stylistic trajectories in indigenous musical practices – nowadays it is arranged and performed by modern musical ensembles. Popular music which incorporates traditional genres has begun functioning within the socio-cultural and religious lives of Africans today, and it is no longer regarded as ‘foreign’ or alien to concert halls. It is now also frequently encountered in music stores, both in rural and urban areas. the current article traces this new, exciting and rewarding trajectory.

Musical Bodies: Corporeality, Emergent Subjectivity, and Improvisational Spaces

Interactive improvisational musical spaces (which is to say, nearly all musical spaces) involve affective relations among bodies: between the bodies of human performers, between performers and active listeners, between the sonic "bodies" that comprise the multiple overlapping events that constitute a musical performance’s unfolding. Music scholarship tends to focus on either music’s sonic materialities (the sensible; what can be heard) or the cultural resonances that locate in and through music (the political or hermeneutic; how meaning is inscribed in and for a listening subject). An embodied turn, however, has recently been manifesting, bringing music scholarship into communication with feminist theory, queer theory, and approaches that foreground subjectivity and embodiment. Exemplary in this area are works by Naomi Cumming (who asks a critical question, “does the self form the sound, or the sound the self?;” Cumming 7), Suzanne Cusick, Marion Guck, Fred Maus, and Susan McClary. All of these scholars, in various ways, thematise the performative—what it feels like to make or experience music, and what effect that making or experiencing has on subject-formation. All of these authors strive to foreground the role of the performer and performativity in the context of the extended Western art music tradition. While each makes persuasive, significant points, my contention in this paper is that improvised music is a more fruitful starting place for thinking about embodiment and the co-constitutive relationship between performer and sound. That is, while (nearly) all music is improvised to a greater or lesser degree, the more radical contexts, in which paths are being selected and large-scale shapes drawn in the “heat of the moment,” can bring these issues into stark relief and serve as more productive entry points for thinking through crucial questions of embodiment, perspective, identity, and emergent meaning.

Acoustical factors affecting the playability of brass wind instruments with side holes

Almost all modern instruments of the brass wind family radiate sound through a single terminating bell. From the Middle Ages until the second half of the nineteenth century, lip-excited wind instruments with side holes were also in frequent use in both secular and sacred musical ensembles. The acoustical properties of labrasones with side holes, such as the cornetto, the serpent, the keyed bugle, and the ophicleide, resemble in may ways those of conventional brass instruments such as the trombone, but also have features which recall woodwind instruments like the oboe and saxophone. This paper presents some recent studies on the playability of labrasones with side holes, acknowledging the outstanding contributions of William J. Strong and his collaborators to the experimental study and modelling of both woodwind and brass instruments.

Metode Tutor Sebaya dalam Pembelajaran Ansambel Musik Rekorder

AbstractThis experimental research aims to determine the learning outcomes of musical ensembles, recorder (soprano) in SMP Negeri 2 Banjarmasin using two methods of learning: peer tutoring and conventional. This study also seek out differences in the results of the two methods. Two classes of samples in this study were taken by purposive random sampling technique. Peer tutoring learning methods applied in the experimental class, and conventional teaching methods applied in the control class. Data collection techniques used are tests and documentation, while data analysis using descriptive statistical techniques. The results of this study indicate that: (1) the learning outcomes of students who use peer tutoring learning methods that are in a good qualifying with an average value of 82.91; (2) the results of student learning using the conventional method is more than enough in qualifying with an average value of 78.90; and; (3) test based on statistics found differences in student learning outcomes were significant between experimental class using peer tutors to grade control using conventional methods. Similarly it can be said that results for students in the experimental class is better than learning outcomes in the control class.Keywords: peer tutoring, learning, music ensembles, recorder

Bringing the Outside In

Through the lens of hospitality, we explored the meanings that members constructed about their experiences within a blended formal/informal college music ensemble. The focus in this ensemble was not on competition and musical excellence but on independent musicianship and praxis. The bandleader had his roots in tradition but his heart in socially relevant pedagogy and favored a less autocratic teaching and learning style. The makeup of the ensemble also included students from both formal and informal backgrounds. Conducting gesture was casual, bandstand formation was loose and free, outfits were expressive of the individual, and tone and balance were more a reflection and celebration of individuals and less of a whole or single sound. Much of the music was performed from standard notation but was chosen collectively, often related to popular contexts, and the overall emphasis was not on uniformity but on individuality and student creativity. Musical decisions often were made democratically, and opinions from within the ensemble were affirmed in the process. The ensemble consisted of a group of approximately 13 members whose experience ranged from beginner to over 30 years and who played everything from violin to iPad. Themes that emerged were inclusivity, autonomy, and affirmation.

Роль Императорского русского музыкального общества в формировании музыкальной инфраструктуры Ростова-на-Дону

The author analyzes the role of the Imperial Russian Musical Society in the formation of the infrastructure of a provincial Russian city. The premises for the creation of its Rostov Section are examined. On the material of archival documents presentation is given on the contribution of the Society to the process of education: from the foundation of musical classes to the establishment of the conservatory. An overview of the concert activities is given, the statistics of chamber music and orchestral concerts is presented, emphasis is given to the significance of opera productions and the representational activities directed towards promotion of Russian music. The Rostov Section of the Imperial Russian Musical Society carried out the role of a center for concert production, along with organizing concerts for Rostov musicians, and worked actively with touring solo musicians and music ensembles and orchestras. As a result of the development of demand for musical instruments, books on music and musical scores on the part of professional musicians as well as amateurs, the end of the 19th century witnesses an impetuous surge of development book and score publishing, sales and production of musical instruments. The information and facts show that as the result of the activities of the Rostov Section of the Imperial Russian Musical Society the foundations of musical industry covering all the sides of the musical life of the city dwellers are gradually laid in Rostov. Keywords: The Rostov Branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society, organization of tours, concert activities, musical education.

Spectral Complexity Reduction of Music Signals for Mitigating Effects of Cochlear Hearing Loss

In this paper we study reduced-rank approximations of music signals in the constant-Q spectral domain as a means to reduce effects stemming from cochlear hearing loss. The rationale behind computing reduced-rank approximations is that they allow to reduce the spectral complexity of a music signal. The method is motivated by studies with cochlear implant listeners which have shown that solo instrumental music or music remixed at higher signal-to-interference ratios are preferred over complex music ensembles or orchestras. For computing the reduced-rank approximations we investigate methods based on principal component analysis and partial least squares analysis, and compare them to source separation algorithms. The strategies, which are applied to music with a predominant leading voice, are compared in terms of their ability for mitigating effects of simulated reduced frequency selectivity and with respect to source signal distortions. Established instrumental measures and a newly developed measure indicate a considerable reduction of the auditory distortion resulting from cochlear hearing loss. Furthermore, a listening test reveals a significant preference for the reduced-rank approximations in terms of melody clarity and ease of listening.

Traditional Music in Igbo Culture: A Case Study of Idu Cultural Dance of Akpo in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State

Igbo people are endowed with numerous dance music performances which portray the culture of the people. Traditional music is so much a part of Igbo culture that majority of the people who live in big cities and other places outside their home town organize traditional music ensembles as a mark of identity, to preserve their culture and to serve as a unifying factor that binds them together. This valuable Igbo culture is fast fading away in most communities as the younger generations are losing interest in this music genre. This paper therefore views traditional music as an indispensible part of Igbo culture. It further investigates among other things the history and performance of Idu cultural dance. To achieve this, the researcher employed some information gathering techniques such as oral interviews, fieldwork and review of related literatures. This research work reveals that despite the alarming influences of the western technology on Igbo culture, dance music performance has remained the climax of every cultural and social event in Akpo community. It also suggest that the people be encouraged in their music practices, to achieve this, music scholars should research on the activities of music groups within and outside their communities. This will encourage them to hold fast to their activities knowing that there are people that have interest in them. Key words : culture, dance, performance, Igbo people, traditional music.

Timing Variations in Two Balkan Percussion Performances

Many songs and dance pieces from the Balkan Peninsula employ aksak meter, in which two categorically different durations, long and short, coexist in the sequence of beats that performers emphasize and listeners move to. This paper analyzes the durations of aksak beats and measures in two recorded percussion performances that use a particular aksak beat sequence, long-short-short. The results suggest that the timing of beats varies in conjunction with factors including melodic grouping and interaction among members of a performing ensemble and audience. Timing variation linked to melodic groups occurs on a solo recording of a Macedonian Romani folk song. The performer, Muzafer Bizlim, taps an ostinato while singing, and the timing of his taps seems to mark some local and large-scale group boundaries. Melodic organization also seems relevant to the timing of beats and measures on a recording of Bulgarian percussionist Mitko Popov playing the tŭpan, a double-headed bass drum, in a small folk music ensemble. In Popov’s performance, however, timing differences might be related to characteristics of the ensemble dynamic, such as the coordination of multiple musical participants. These interpretations generate possibilities for future study of timing variations in relation to rhythm and meter.Supplemental files available for this article: Audio Example 1 and Audio Example 2

Past, present and future: music economics at the crossroads

This paper contextualises research on the economics of music. The papers considered represent a crossroad in economics music research. One branch is the most heavily explored area of the impact of digital technology on consumption of music. The others comprise one entirely new topic which is crowd-sourced funding of new music recordings. The other topics are extremely old in terms of relevance but very new in terms of there being little prior economic analysis. These are environmental damages from musical activity and the efficiency of belonging to a pop–rock musical ensemble versus being a solo artist.