Music Ensembles Research Articles

Going online: Successes and challenges in delivering group music instrument and aural learning for older adult novices during the COVID-19 pandemic

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many cultural and artistic programs for older adults have been put on hold, despite the numerous physical, social, and emotional well-being benefits continued participation may bring. This article details a cross-section of participants ( n = 13) in the Active Minds Music Ensemble—a longitudinal Australian-based research project that provides 12 months of group music instrument lessons to healthy older adult novices—who transitioned from face-to-face (F2F) to an online format. Research questions include the benefits and challenges for older adults as they cope with the technological demands of “going online,” perceived effects on teaching and older adults’ musical learning, as well as perceived effects on group learning benefits. Qualitative data were collected from three different perspectives: i) a frequently asked questions (FAQ) report from the research team documenting technological issues, ii) individual semi-structured interviews with the participants, and iii) a reflective report from the teacher. The findings confirm that online group music instrument lessons are viable for and valued by older adults, with appreciation of continued technical support. Teaching and learning changed as a result of the online format, primarily in the reduction of individual feedback and less interplay between participants; this was mitigated by use of various functions such as chat, whiteboards, and breakout rooms. Implications for older adult online music instrument lessons include providing continued technical support to learners and helping them maintain confidence with technology. Social opportunities for informal “side-chatter” may also help them to empathize with and encourage each other during music learning activities.

Music as an Adaptation Strategy: The Hruby Family’s Voyage from Cehnice to Cleveland

Abstract This article looks at the history of the Hruby family as an example of how immigrants to the US adapted and acquired social status through music. The family originated in the village of Cehnice in South Bohemia. Frank Hruby, the family patriarch, started his career there as a musician playing in various circuses across Europe. During his travels, he visited Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1883 settled there with his wife and oldest son. Hruby joined several musical ensembles and gradually became an important personality in the local music scene. His children studied music as well and followed their father’s musical path. They moved from playing in marching bands to founding their own orchestra, which toured across the United States as well as Europe. Using archival sources, I show how musical versatility and professionalism helped the Hruby family to integrate into American society and to reach a certain social status. Their history also illustrates how the family’s music activities balanced their Czech heritage with the requirements of the new-world audience.

The Establishment of the Swinney Conservatory of Music at Central Methodist University

The Swinney Conservatory of Music at Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri has a long history with unique beginnings. After the Civil War, Central College (Central Methodist’s original name) grew alongside a “Female Seminary,” Howard-Payne Female College. Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the two schools developed their own distinct musical cultures with Howard-Payne faculty developing a music curriculum, and Central students forming their own musical ensembles. When the schools merged in 1923 these two cultures united to create a conservatory of music at a time when many other American conservatories were being established. Just before the merger, Kansas City banker Edward Fletcher Swinney, who had strong family ties to the Fayette area and a history of philanthropy towards causes in Missouri education, donated $35,000 to Howard-Payne College for the construction of the conservatory building that would eventually bear his name. This article focuses on the early history of both Central College and Howard-Payne Female College, the role that music played at both schools (as a curricular and non-curricular activity) and the events leading to the formation of Central College’s music curriculum and construction of the Swinney Conservatory.

Performance Practice in a Pandemic: Training Ensemble Skills Using E-Tivities in Music Teacher Education

The emergency situation due to the spread of COVID-19 has brought new requirements to Higher Education to continue the learning process. In musical ensemble class, performance practice is mandatory and plays a crucial role in musical education. The pandemic has forced all classes online, but for performance practice, it was mandatory to implement a new type of student-teacher interaction, such as e-tivity. It is a dynamic and interactive learning process led by a teacher online. The investigation of the efficiency of e-tivity for training musical ensemble skills was carried out in this paper. The research was tested through experimental work that took place at Kazan Federal University (Russian Federation). Due to a complete shift in the education process to distanced learning, all disciplines were studied online, including the specific musical courses that required collective work with face-to-face interaction. The curriculum of future music teachers includes an ensemble basic course to train students‘ musical performance skills in groups. For the study, 114 students from classes with instrumental and vocal ensembles were gathered and were organized by means of e-tivity based on several online tools, including Aiseesoft Video Converter Ultimate. This tool creates a video with a split-screen effect. By using such a tool, students created the video by following the teacher‘s instructions separately, and afterward they united their musical records in one video with a split-screen effect. At the end of the research work, musical artworks belonging to certain art styles, namely classical, Tatar and Russian folk music, and jazz, were collected. The analysis of the obtained data exhibited a high level of results in each criterion scale and effectiveness of the online work with musical ensembles. Students saw improvement in self-education by the means of creativity and critical self-assessment. The increasing frequency of students‘ listening of their own performance during the ensemble music-making by e-tivity brought advantages for the involuntary repetition process.

The relationship between stability of interpersonal coordination and inter-brain EEG synchronization during anti-phase tapping

Inter-brain synchronization is enhanced when individuals perform rhythmic interpersonal coordination tasks, such as playing instruments in music ensembles. Experimentally, synchronization has been shown to correlate with the performance of joint tapping tasks. However, it is unclear whether inter-brain synchronization is related to the stability of interpersonal coordination represented as the standard deviation of relative phase (SDRP). In this study, we simultaneously recorded electroencephalograms of two paired individuals during anti-phase tapping in three interactive tapping conditions: slow (reference inter-tap interval [ITI]: 0.5 s), fast (reference ITI: 0.25 s), and free (preferred ITI), and pseudo tapping where each participant tapped according to the metronome sounds without interaction. We calculated the inter-brain synchronization between pairs of six regions of interest (ROI): frontal, central, left/right temporal, parietal, and occipital regions. During the fast tapping, the inter-brain synchronization significantly increased in multiple ROI pairs including temporoparietal junction in comparison to pseudo tapping. Synchronization between the central and left-temporal regions was positively correlated with SDRP in the theta in the fast condition. These results demonstrate that inter-brain synchronization occurs when task requirements are high and increases with the instability of the coordination.

Working together: Implications of leadership style for the music ensemble

Music leaders who conduct ensembles in education and community settings, create an ecology of participation depending on their style of leadership. The paradigm of master/apprentice that has long been pilloried in music education academia is still a popular modus operandi for many conductors. Understanding the effect that leadership has on group identity and ensemble cohesion can help participant musicians to continue lifelong engagement with ensemble music making. This exploratory research consists of three phases. First, the relevant literature regarding group work, leadership theories, and musical ensembles was explored. Second, utilizing a purpose-designed questionnaire instrument issued to three musical ensembles. The data was collected and analyzed to determine which leadership factors were considered most important in developing a positive ecology for ensemble members. Data were collected from three musical ensembles, resulting in a convenience sample of n = 73. Some unexpected results emerged from several analytical techniques that explored the cross-tabulation of questionnaire data using Pearson’s kurtosis and skewness coefficients and platykurtic distributions. Finally, this research recommends a more egalitarian ecology in order to maintain a strong interest in ensemble music making for participant musicians.

Representation in music: College students’ perceptions of ensemble repertoire

Culturally responsive pedagogy in music education is becoming increasingly crucial for all students, in all types of music programs, and at all levels of education as demographic shifts occur in schools. In music ensembles, the selection of repertoire is a critical component of culturally responsive pedagogy. The purpose of this study was to investigate student perceptions of repertoire in college music ensembles. This study was guided by the following research questions: (a) Do students perceive current ensemble repertoire as representative and supportive of their self-identities? (b) What are these perceptions according to students’ race or ethnicity, gender, and ensemble type? (c) What factors do students consider important in directors’ selection of repertoire? (d) How are directors’ current repertoire selection practices, as experienced by the respondents, informed by or responsive to gender and racial diversity in the ensembles? Respondents ( N = 278) were graduate and undergraduate college students enrolled in band, choir, or orchestra. Data were collected through an online questionnaire. Overall, respondents felt that current repertoire practices were representative and supportive, although male respondents rated composer gender as lower in importance in repertoire selection than both females and those not identifying as male or female. White students indicated that they felt repertoire selection was more representative of their gender than Black, Indigenous, and other students of color. Respondents also indicated a desire for more underrepresented composers in ensemble repertoire. Numerous implications are provided, including the need for an increased focus on culturally responsive repertoire selection processes in teacher preparation programs.

Gamelan Girls: Gender, Childhood, and Politics in Balinese Music Ensembles

Gamelan Girls: Gender, Childhood, and Politics in Balinese Music Ensembles

Inside Arabic Music: Arabic Maqam Performance and Theory in the 20th Century

Inside Arabic Music: Arabic Maqam Performance and Theory in the 20th Century

Recital halls for K-12, higher education, and community music education: A trio of case studies

The recital halls at Deerfield Academy, UMass Boston, and the Brattleboro Music Center each play a critical role at the center of the music education programs at these institutions. Deerfield's 160-seat Elizabeth Wachsman Concert Hall, at the independent high school's Hess Center for the Arts, is both intimate and warmly resonant, and features adjustable curtains at the stage to suit varying repertoire for rehearsal and performance, particularly of Deerfield's student music ensembles. The 150-seat recital hall at UMass Boston's University Hall serves an even wider array of ensembles, from classical choral to jazz, in a building that not only serves the Performing Arts Department but also Chemistry and other general-purpose classrooms; the adjustable curtains there surround the audience on all sides. In Brattleboro, a 331-seat recital hall is the crown jewel of a new community music center that also serves as the home to a Chamber Music Series and a range of ensembles including Juno Orchestra, a concert choir, chorale, and camerata, and the music center's “Educate. Open. Strengthen.” Program. These three rooms all serve critical pedagogical missions, but each with a different focus and a different set of needs and constraints that impact budget, architecture, and acoustical design considerations.

Oriental concepts in modern chamber and instrumental music (on the example of the “Igeru” repertoire)

The article is devoted to the study on the features of contemporary ensemble music through the example of the work of Igeru Contemporary Music Ensemble. The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of individual interpretations of the contemporary authors experimenting in the genres of academic ensemble music. In this respect, an analysis of several works that made up one of the concert programs of the ensemble is undertaken. In a broader context, the topic of “East-West” is considered, with the focus on the issues and principles of interaction between “Eastern” and “Western” elements in the whole artistic spectrum of musical works by composers from various schools and trends. The object of the analysis is the works that, for the most part, did not receive sufficiently wide coverage in the scientific literature. The premieres of some compositions, such as O. Nesipkhanov’s Quartet, Balasagyn Musayev’s Ush kuu, took place owing to the activity of the only contemporary music ensemble in Kazakhstan. Thus, in sum, the theme of “East-West” is still relevant in contemporary art; the composers’ addressing to it generates new experimental works. The study of the latest chamber-instrumental compositions in a comparative aspect is the most important stage of comprehension and deeper study of the characteristic features of the stylistic trends of modern musical culture, for an in-depth and meaningful understanding of the processes of development of modern musical art.

Poverty, race, disability, and intersectionality and participation in the arts: needed policy changes for the future

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, in 2016 about 1 in 5 children in the United Stated lives in poverty (19%) Students in our music classrooms and ensembles do not begin life from the same starting line. They come from homes and communities that are vastly different. The intersections of poverty, disability, racial inequity, disability, and trauma are inextricably linked in their daily lives. This article will examine these issues and offer suggestions for future policy and practice decisions in the arts.

Engaging Multitasking Performance Ensembles Through World Music Pedagogies

In world music ensembles such as African and African Caribbean percussion ensembles, the Gamelan ensemble, and the Latin marimba ensemble, members may sing a song, play instruments, and dance simultaneously. This practice is known as music multitasking. For musicians in Western art music traditions, music multitasking can be a challenge. This article discusses four teaching strategies for helping beginning learners or musicians who are new to music multitasking ensembles. The four teaching strategies are movement and dancing, rote learning, switching performance roles, and embodying the intended aesthetic and performance practice of the music and the style.

Intercultural musicking: learning through klezmer

ABSTRACT This article focuses on a particular arena of creative practice: music students’ largely sonic experience of Otherness through world music ensemble performance of klezmer (music with its roots in the weddings and other social occasions of mostly Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews in eastern and central Europe). Having briefly introduced klezmer, we situate our university ensemble into the traditions for teaching/learning it. We then present our pedagogic framework which combines ethnomusicological and intercultural thinking. We conclude with observations on how the module enables both increased transmusicality (through experience of a musical Other) and increased intercultural awareness (through the cultural encounters generated through klezmer performance).

Optical Music Recognition of Printed White Mensural Notation: Conversion to Modern Notation Using Object Detection Mechanisms

Today, the majority of music performers and vocalists are not able to read mensural notation fluently, and so conductors and music ensembles require modern editions for performing historical music. However, the conversion of printed white mensural sheet music into audible and performable modern notation currently requires elaborate manual editing by specialized music scholars. To close this gap, the present research proposes an algorithm that automatically converts scanned music score sheets of that historic period (the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) into a file format that is readable in current notation software. This includes the optical recognition of musical symbols and respective semantic interpretation, for example note pitch determination. Based on works by the composers Sebastian Ertel and Paul Peuerl, the article presents a case study that combines convolutional neural networks with further computational process steps towards an integrated algorithm within a four-step optical music recognition (OMR) approach. As a result, the used musical material could be correctly converted into the MusicXML format with a recognition rate of 99 per cent. In the wake of these promising results, in future research we propose to extend our work to other materials, epochs, note symbols and advanced semantic analyses.

A Student-Led, Small-Group Approach to a cappella Music Arranging

This article presents a field-tested approach for integrating music arranging into middle and high school music ensembles. This project-based unit of study builds on scholarship in informal music learning and social constructivism. Reflections from former high school students who participated in the project help illuminate these connections. The article provides planning and assessment documents, recognizes students’ successes, proposes solutions to challenges encountered, and reports outcomes. The article and supplemental documents demonstrate how student-led, small-group music arranging can infuse middle and high school ensembles with student creativity and choice while providing opportunities for group collaboration.

A new typology of community music groups

In this article, we offer, through a new typology, a way to portray and understand the diversity of community music’s organizational foundations and purposes. Typologies are a common descriptive and interpretive device for understanding patterns of activity. Some researchers of community music have, explicitly or implicitly, developed a number of typologies of community music organizations. Our new typology is systematically aligned to capture the social and musical variability among community music organizations. It then puts the typology to work by providing brief examples, drawn from Australian research, of each of its proposed types. This new typology is intended to allow researchers and practitioners to understand how different community music ensembles are similar or dissimilar, and make comparative discussions clearer and more systematic, offering give a clear frame for understanding present and possible future community music-making groups and organizations.

‘In the cracks between freedom and fear’: student reflections on identity and confidence learning in a creative music ensemble

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative study examining ‘real-world’ jazz performance contexts within an Australian tertiary music course. Course projects were designed to offer students opportunities to gain a better understanding of the intersections of working and performing with their teachers in an improvised music ensemble. The study investigates reflection of students’ experiences and perceptions of learning dispositions, identity and creative growth across a nine-month academic year. Students’ individual and collective improvisational learning and development were investigated by examining perceptions and reflections upon identity making, confidence, as well as cultivation of creative voice. A framework of student reflective practice for creativity provides implications for creative ensemble approaches, strategies, goals and aims.

Improving The Ability To Read Rhythmic Ensembles of A Type Of Music Using The Model Song Media In Class VIII SMP Negeri 3 Teluk Keramat

This class action research (PTK) aims to improve students' rhythmic reading skills in playing similar music ensembles by using model song media in class VII-A SMP Negeri 3 sacred bay sambas west Kalimantan. The study was conducted with two cycles of 35 students. Based on the results of the processing of research data and test results obtained as follows: The results of the pre-observation stage assessment showed students who met the assessment indicator only five out of 33 numbers students, namely: 15.15% of the expected 100%. In cycle 1, students were notified about the assessment indicators, divided groups of students into two groups, prepared teaching materials about notes and silent sign materials and similar musical ensemble materials and students were given an explanation of the meaning of musical ensembles, rhythms, and time signatures. The researcher showed several videos about playing ensembles. Evaluation is carried out individually/individually to play the scores that have been distributed using applause. The average score of the initial Test results is 67.6. The results of the assessment stage of the cycle test stage I students who meet the assessment indicator or reach KKM are 16 students or 48.5%. Students who have not earned the Teaching Completion Criteria are 17, 51.5%. Assessment activities are categorized into two types, namely individual test taking and group testing. The assessment is carried out individually first and then followed by a group assessment. The researcher will call one by one the students who are adjusted to the serial number in the student absent list to play a rhythmic pattern according to the musical instrument they carry. After doing the individual test, then a group test is carried out with the aim of seeing the cohesiveness of students in playing ensemble music. The results of the assessment stage of the cycle II test showed that students who met the assessment indicator or achieved the Minimum Completion Criteria (KKM) were as many as 33 students or 100%. The average score of students' rhythmic reading ability in cycle 2 was 83.3 with the Good category. From the study results, it can be concluded that using model song media can improve the ability to read rhythmically in playing similar music ensembles for students of grade VII-A

Spatial Audio Scene Characterization (SASC): Automatic Localization of Front-, Back-, Up-, and Down-Positioned Music Ensembles in Binaural Recordings

The automatic localization of audio sources distributed symmetrically with respect to coronal or transverse planes using binaural signals still poses a challenging task, due to the front–back and up–down confusion effects. This paper demonstrates that the convolutional neural network (CNN) can be used to automatically localize music ensembles panned to the front, back, up, or down positions. The network was developed using the repository of the binaural excerpts obtained by the convolution of multi-track music recordings with the selected sets of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs). They were generated in such a way that a music ensemble (of circular shape in terms of its boundaries) was positioned in one of the following four locations with respect to the listener: front, back, up, and down. According to the obtained results, CNN identified the location of the ensembles with the average accuracy levels of 90.7% and 71.4% when tested under the HRTF-dependent and HRTF-independent conditions, respectively. For HRTF-dependent tests, the accuracy decreased monotonically with the increase in the ensemble size. A modified image occlusion sensitivity technique revealed selected frequency bands as being particularly important in terms of the localization process. These frequency bands are largely in accordance with the psychoacoustical literature.