Musical Message Research Articles

파라텍스트로써의 앨범커버 연구

This study focuses on the implicit and metaphorical communication of musical messages on album covers and discusses the ultimate role of album covers: the visual communication of music. For this purpose, first of all, the album cover is examined from the point of view of music and listener's interface, and the function of the album cover as paratext is examined. Album covers have the effect of creating a new experience for the listener, drawing attention to the shared properties of music and image through the image on the cover. In this sense, the album cover acts as a paratextual representation of a text as another text, creating a place for new interpretations to emerge. Based on this, I analyze the changes in the Beatles' musical style reflected in their album covers in relation to their genres and works. Through this study, it is expected that new musical thinking will be established through convergence with visuals, recognizing that album covers, which are visual materials, are also important materials that make up music.

Musical messages – Creating a bespoke climate story for the Outer Hebrides

Exposed to westerly and south-westerly Atlantic weather systems, the Outer Hebrides (off the west coast of Scotland) are a series of islands where the inhabitants are already well versed in coping with severe weather. Headed by the Outer Hebrides Community Planning Partnership (OHCCP) Climate Change Working Group (CCWG), a range of adaptation planning documents are in production. Driven by a desire to engage with local communities, the CCWG alongside the Làn Thìde Climate Beacon, Adaptation Scotland and the Met Office created a project to explore the development of a storyline to communicate climate change information to the Outer Hebrides community. Collaborating with a local artist, Tuil is Geil (Gaelic for “Flood and Wind”) was created through a combination of sonified climate data, local voices and field recordings of local weather. Three themed pieces were created and these pieces (alongside a science presentation on projections of climate change for the Outer Hebrides) formed the centre of public engagement sessions when members of the public were able to share their thoughts about vulnerabilities and adaptation needs on the islands. As a project team we learned a number of important lessons around the process for creating a bespoke storyline for a community which included: i) The need to set appropriate boundaries and manage expectations, ii) The importance of local partner organisations and networks, iii) The need to bridge between science and art, and iv) The need to collaborate with the local community. We strongly believe that this approach has major community impact and it is the intention to support similar storyline projects in other regions of Scotland.

Analysis of Sound Field Distribution in Architecturally Diverse Temples

The results of the research, which aimed to analyze the acoustic properties of selected sacred buildings located in the city of Czestochowa, Poland are presented in the paper. Three architecturally unusual and completely different from each other churches were selected for the study. The churches differed in shape of their buildings, cubic volume, years of construction, interior furnishings, etc. Nine different objective parameters were used to describe the physical properties of acoustical field in the studied churches. Various factors characterizing the acoustic properties of each building were determined, such as the distribution of sound pressure level (SPL), reverberation time T30, definition D50. Next, they were thoroughly analyzed, so as to ultimately obtain distributions of individual acoustic parameters in the space of the tested building. It allowed to evaluate the quality of the received verbal or musical message depending on the place where the listener was. Further research on speech intelligibility and the musical quality of churches was performed by determining the averaged values of next four objective acoustic parameters: centre time Ts, speech clarity C50, music clarity C80, and speech transmission index (STI). A new approach to analyzing the objective physical parameters describing the sound field was presented in Sec. 4. Mean free path length and critical distance were determined for the investigated acoustic fields in each church and they were associated with a general geometric factor characterizing the complexity of the room shape. The final part of the work presents a comparative analysis of the obtained results of acoustic quality tests of the temples, and thus their usefulness in terms achieving a maximum intelligibility of speech and music. The interesting similarities were found in the spatial distribution of individual acoustic parameters characterizing the distribution of the acoustic field in temples with completely different architecture.

The Question of the Musical Message. The Semantic Capacity of the Expressive Structure

"Is it possible to communicate through music? Does music communicate something in particular? Is music like the message in a bottle – the meaning wrapped in the envelope of a form? Who would be the recipient of the musical message in this case – one, many, all of humanity, as in the IV parts of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony? Or maybe just Captain Grant’s children? And how pertinent is the extrapolation of notional-discursive schema and logic to music as Mattheson did in Der Vollkommene Kapellmeister? Because this phrase – the message of music – immediately refers to both the suggestive neutrality of musical sounds and the emotional irrelevance of the relationships between them. Sounds are just sounds. Is a chord the analogy of the word, the melody the analogy of the phrase, and a whole articulation the substitute of a speech? Is music a language? Or, indeed, being both sonorous, but also processual and symbolic, just like spoken language, music does not connote in the same way. And if the language has prescribed references, then music does not. A chord, a melody, let alone a counterpoint, have no predetermined meaning, not even one resembling a notional one, even after the performance is over. Should the composer first be a very good connoisseur of human emotional behavior rather than a very good musician? Or, perhaps, a simple postman, as in the famous song of the Beatles? Keywords: message, communication, language, connotation, symbol, process, music"

JURIS KARLSONS’S DANCE THEATRE: THE BALLET “KARLSSON FLIES …”

Alongside with theatre, a bright feature of Karlsons’s music is choreography and the corresponding space of dance theatre because ballet is a dance theatre. Karlsons’s contribution to the genre of ballet is laconic in quantity while substantial in quality. All ballets have been composed at different stages of his creative life, and their themes differ in style, genre and imagery. Another title of the ballet “Into the Fire” (a play by the Latvian playwright Rūdolfs Blaumanis Ugunī) is “A Concerto for Orchestra in Five Movements after Reading Blaumanis”. The first artistic achievement of the genre lies both in the field of ballet and concert. It can be considered a substantial and qualitative impulse for his future creative work, as the symbolism of this ballet lays ground for the next ballet that was created as a result of studying the writings of the Latvian poetess Aspazija and her play “The Silver Veil” (Sidraba šķidrauts). This ballet is the quintessence of Karlsons’s symbols and signs. The composer’s success (and that of the whole creative team) lies in the fact that the national and creative ideas are not presented in a declarative and conspicuous manner; they are presented as a national generalisation in a subtle language of symbols and subtexts. “The Symphonic Pages of the Ballet “The Silver Veil””, which followed nine years later, can be viewed as the quintessence of the ballet “The Silver Veil”, and it can be compared to a film adaptation or staging production of a literary work. We can feel an individual autobiographical tone in the musical message of the ballet “Karlsson Flies …”. Karlsons lays special emphasis on the meaning of fairy tales in the life and consciousness of a human being, and he offers another conception of theatricality. We observe a synthesis of acts and a continuous development of musical dramaturgy. The principle of acts has allowed the composer to accomplish vivid scenes and effective fragments of music whereas the continuous dramatic development has filled the ballet numbers with leitmotifs since the composer has performed very thorough work in directing the musical material. A special type of theatre that the composer offers in the second act is a discovery. The fashion theatre is synthesised with the dance theatre. In the composer’s creative work, this ballet is truly crowned with success in children’s music, as the dance genre is an essential means of expressing genre personification.

Bharathiyar's Passion for Carnatic Music and Folk Music

Mahakavi Subramania Bharathiyar was a great poet of the twentieth century. Mahakavi Bharathiyar's works are considered as great treasures for the Tamil community. Even at an early age, Bharathiyar had a great affection and knowledge of the Tamil language. He started writing poetry at the age of seven while still studying at school. At the age of eleven, he showed his talent for poetry and the King of Ettayapuram, who appreciated his poetry, gave him the title of "Bharathi". From that day he was known as "Subramania Bharathiyar". Bharathiyar is also very passionate about music. Mahakavi Bharathiyar has given many works to this world through his attachment to music, many songs and many social ideas through his songs. In this way, some of Bharathiyar's musical works and musical messages have been examined in this research paper. The sub-topics of the study of this research paper are the sub-topics Bharathiyar and Carnatic Music, Bharathiyar and Folk Music except the introduction and conclusion respectively. Bharathiyar's attachment to music and his musical knowledge are explained under the subheading Bharathiyar's Music. Bharathiyar's attachment to Carnatic music is explained in the subtitle Bharathiyar and Carnatic Music. Finally, under the title Bharathiyar and folk music, the folk music songs created by Bharathiyar in folk music depicting the life and environment of the rural people are highlighted under this title. Therefore, various musical messages found in Bharathiyar's work under these three sub-headings have been examined in this review. These respectively are seen as the theme of this research paper.

The Power of Music to Prevent and Control Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Music is a powerful approach to engage communities and disseminate information. Specifically, health campaigns employing music have been used to promote behaviors that can prevent emerging infectious diseases (EIDs). For example, hip hop artists supported campaigns to prevent acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in the 70s in the United States, while Brazilian funk promoted vaccination to mitigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, we broadcast musical messages in local languages to increase community awareness and support prevention measures in Guinea and Liberia in response to the recent Ebola outbreak in 2021. Given the potential of music to promote both individual and population-level behavioral changes to prevent transmission, there is a need to consolidate information on music-based health interventions, and on how we can measure their effectiveness. In this perspective, we provide examples of relevant initiatives, discussing challenges and solutions associated with implementing interventions based on our experience with the 2021 Ebola outbreak. We recommend four steps for a successful music-based health intervention including (1) establishing a task force, (2) compose a “catchy” song including critical preventive measures, (3) deliver the song to the target audience, and (4) evaluate the campaign effectiveness. We argue that close interactions between scientists and musicians can produce rapid musical content for disease prevention. We also identify and discuss several methodological frameworks for testing the effectiveness of such interventions. We conclude that support from public health authorities, government media departments, and international agencies, is necessary to deliver wide outreach and long-term sustainability of musical messaging toward effective EID prevention.

Cover Art

Cover Art

Revolution

Revolution

MUSICAL ACTIVISM IN THE STRUGGLE TO END THE ANGLOPHONE SECESSIONIST CRISIS IN CAMEROON

In 2016, a crisis broke out in Cameroon provoked by secessionist agitations in the two Anglophone regions of the North West and South West. It has variedly been referred to as the Anglophone Crisis or the Ambazonian War. The crisis has affected and threatened the unity, territorial integrity, social cohesion and le vivre ensemble in Cameroon. It has shattered the economy, destroyed schools, villages, infrastructures and businesses leading to mass displacement of persons to the Francophone regions and neighbouring Nigeria. In fact, the crisis has inflicted huge anguish and damages on the masses and has left the populations in very precarious conditions and misery that demand humanitarian actions to their rescue. Appeals have been made from several stakeholders both nationally and internationally pressing on the government to seek and implement lasting solutions to the crisis. Some musicians and song composers through musical activism added their voices to the calls for peace by articulating and conveying the misfortunes, despair, miseries and sufferings of the poor masses, victims of the war. This was exhibited in the music titles, the lyrics or messages they passed across, their grieving faces in the video grams and their tones that were telling and compelling as they expressed their lamentations. The musicians via musical activism regretted the war, begged for peace, unity, cease-fire and veritable actions in seeking lasting solutions to the crisis. This article attempts an analysis of the content and messages of some of these musicians revealing the desperation and gravity of the crisis in Cameroon.
 
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Childhood as a musical theme – affectivity and instrumental expressiveness in the works of Schumann, Debussy and Enescu

Abstract Childhood is a theme that music does not avoid, and through works such as Kinderszenen by Robert Schumann, Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy or Impressions d’enfance (Childhood Impressions) by George Enescu, is illustrated by various compositional means, determined by epochs or trends with which the creators identify, but also by their personal experiences and their expressive intentions. The affectivity of childhood is the key to decipher the musical message, pursuing the connection between the universe and the way in which the composers chose to lead the sound discourse through instruments, exploring so diversily the possibilities presented by them. The image, the symbol or the instrumental timbre, understood as processes of transmitting the expression, are the elements that the study seeks to define in correlation with the programmatism and the musical specificity of each previously mentioned work. This analytical incursion belongs to the contemporary performer, who, in order to understand and render this theme, uses not only the knowledge in the field, but also the extra-musical insight, belonging to literature or psychology.

Translingual Literary Text: on Problem of Understanding

The given study covers an actual interdisciplinary issue - Russian language, post-Soviet Russian literature in particular, that includes the otherness of multiple ethnic cultures and creates unique images of the world. In the modern conventional sense, culture is replaced by transculture - a space of interaction and mutual repulsion, intertwinement, constellation, overlapping, flowing of cultures into one another. These processes have no and cant have any solidified, final forms that would be determined once and for all. Therefore, the works created in the aesthetics of transculturation are always unique, be it a literary text, a musical message or a silent arthouse short film speaking the language of negative space. We believe that a transcultural episteme should be used in the process of new thinking formation. A person without any developed pragmatic presupposition is deprived of explanatory knowledge and becomes a victim of the information manipulation embedding a model of confrontational perception of the Other into the collective consciousness. By the given work, we would like to demonstrate a method of working with higher-school students that we called Immersion Reading. Using the works by Russian Germans (in particular, E. Seifert and G. Belger), we describe the stages of readers immersion into a literary work step by step (context verticalization, hermeneutic comment creation, stages of typification and differentiation of texts within a chosen paradigm, synthesis) and then bring up the results of our work with students and doctoral candidates of Russia and Kazakhstan for discussion within Literature and Globalization, Intercultural Communication in Art Dimension lecture courses (author of the courses - Bakhtikireeva, U.M.).

Analysis of the Effectiveness of Advertising Messages. Comparison by Media, Typology, and Schedule of Advertisements

Purpose – This research aims to evaluate how the effectiveness of advertisements can vary according to three fundamental variables: the time schedule of message receipt, the media, and the type of advertising message used. Design/methodology/approach – An experiment with 375 university students related to administrative careers was devised, creating 25 work groups that were stimulated by multiple advertisements with different combinations of the described variables. Subsequently, various techniques were applied to evaluate the ads used. Findings and implications – The main results showed that advertisements with musical messages have a greater capacity to be retained in the minds of their recipients; similarly, advertising messages that are transmitted through the use of audiovisual media have a greater capacity to please or attract. Limitation – The main limitation is associated primarily with the characteristics of the sample, as it is a very specific audience, where the influence of other demographic variables, including age, sex, marital status, and living conditions, was not considered. Originality – The results obtained confirm the contributions of previous studies and reveal patterns of behavior related to the impact of the media and the type of advertisement that is used in its potential to stimulate memories in the subjects receiving the message and to please the target audience, fundamentally in the messages aimed at young audiences (university students). In addition, it provides information on how some attributes that distinguish the advertisement, according to the type of advertising messages used, should be considered as an additional criterion for managers to decide on the type of the advertising message, the fair amount to use, and the most beneficial transmission schedule of such advertisements.

Verbal aspects of China’s vocal art system

Verbal aspects of China’s vocal art system

Programme Instrumental Theory as a Principle of Thinking of the Performer (The Case of Musical Compositions for the Solo Flute of Chinese Composers of the Twentieth Century)

The aim of the paper is concerned with the programme instrumental theory in the flute art as a principle of thinking of the performer that is embodied in composer’s attitude toward the flute and the comprehension of timbre possibilities of the flute in single works.Research methodology. The offered paradigm of studying the programme instrumental theory in the flute art makes it possible to connect aesthetic and culturological, genre and stylistic approaches in the context of musicological method.Results. The specific character of art thinking of the performer reveals the world-modeling, semantic, timbre-coloristical and time-spatial parameters of musical sound. The author determines the main historical and culturological and immanent stylistic factors of the flute performance as a unity of composer’s and performing creation, as the co-operation of academic and non-academic options of the flute instrumentalism.Novelty. The analysis of traditional and innovative repertoire of the flutist achieves a stylistic and textological level and enables to line up the conception of “flute instrumentalism” as a theory and practically meaningful for a modern flutist — performer and teacher. The unity of performing and musicological issues is confirmed in the course of musical message. Certain performing ways are revealed in the context of artistic and stylistic bases of the flute performance.The practical significance. The key results can be used in the lectures of performing skills, as well as in the series of lectures «Music Culture of Foreign Countries».Keywords: flute, programme music, instrumental theory, principles of art thinking, genre, style.

About some features of authorship in a music video project

Relevance of the study . In contemporary music the search for new screen forms of presentation of music pieces to the general public is constantly happening, featuring innovation technologies (television, computer). Within this framework we can speak about a certain musical genre trend that is represented by art music documentary with a concert presentation, music video, and music video project, etc. Main objective of the study . The article considers phenomenon of authorship in one of the modern forms of video presentation of a musical work that was called ‘musical video project.’ In this form video images shown on the screen are added to the sound of traditional performance of the music piece, and this should promote an effective music message reach the mainstream audience. Methodology of the study . The main method was the analysis and research, as well as the synthesis, which allowed to combine different types of creative activity in the whole direction of the mid 20–21 century. Results and conclusions . The main participants of artistic activity here, as well as in traditional forms of musical presentation, remain the composer and musician. But at the same time another category of performers works, the number of which varies. Those may be video makers, sound and video directors, technical staff and other participants. To illustrate the expansion of the functions of authorship we give an example of a large-scale American video project located in Miami in a specially constructed New World Center architectural complex. The author of the entire architectural solution, built based on the principle of openness, is a famous American architect Frank Owen Gehry. We analyze features of the Sun Trust Pavilion concert hall where video projects take place. The author of the video footage is the famous artist Tal Posner, who relies in his video images on graphic structure and music style. The video footage is shown along with the music tempo– rhythm. The initiator and one of the leading participants of video projects is a famous American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. The music is performed by the specially created New World Symphony Orchestra.

Decoding the Musical Message via the Structural Analogy between Verbal and Musical Language

Abstract The topic approached in this paper aims to identify the structural similarities between the verbal and the musical language and to highlight the process of decoding the musical message through the structural analogy between them. The process of musical perception and musical decoding involves physiological, psychological and aesthetic phenomena. Besides receiving the sound waves, it implies complex cognitive processes being activated, whose aim is to decode the musical material at cerebral level. Starting from the research methods in cognitive psychology, music researchers redefine the process of musical perception in a series of papers in musical cognitive psychology. In the case of the analogy between language and music, deciphering the musical structure and its perception are due, according to researchers, to several common structural configurations. A significant model for the description of the musical structure is Noam Chomsky’s generative-transformational model. This claimed that, at a deep level, all languages have the same syntactic structure, on account of innate anatomical and physiological structures which became specialized as a consequence of the universal nature of certain mechanisms of the human intellect. Chomsky’s studies supported by sophisticated experimental devices, computerised analyses and algorithmic models have identified the syntax of the musical message, as well as the rules and principles that underlie the processing of sound-related information by the listener; this syntax, principles and rules show surprising similarities with the verbal language. The musicologist Heinrich Schenker, 20 years ahead of Chomsky, considers that there is a parallel between the analysis of natural language and that of the musical structure, and has developed his own theory on the structure of music. Schenker’s structural analysis is based on the idea that tonal music is organized hierarchically, in a layering of structural levels. Thus, spoken language and music are governed by common rules: phonology, syntax and semantics. Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff develop a musical grammar where a set of generating rules are defined to explain the hierarchical structure of tonal music. The authors of the generative theory propose the hypothesis of a musical grammar based on two types of rules, which take into account the conscious and unconscious principles that govern the organization of the musical perception. The structural analogy between verbal and musical language consists of several common elements. Among those is the hierarchical organization of both fields, a governance by the same rules – phonology, syntax, semantics – and as a consequence of the universal nature of certain mechanisms of the human intellect, decoding the transmitted message is accomplished thanks to some universal innate structures, biologically inherited. Also, according to Chomsky's linguistics model a musical grammar is configured, one governed by wellformed rules and preference rules. Thus, a musical piece is not perceived as a stream of disordered sounds, but it is deconstructed, developed and assimilated at cerebral level by means of cognitive pre-existing schemes.

"You Are My Dwelling Place": Experiencing Black Male Vocalists' Worship as Aural Eroticism and Autoeroticism in Gospel Performance

"You Are My Dwelling Place"Experiencing Black Male Vocalists' Worship as Aural Eroticism and Autoeroticism in Gospel Performance Alisha Lola Jones (bio) Within the twenty-first-century, historically African American, Pentecostal settings in which gospel music is performed, there is a long-standing tradition of ministers presenting songs and delivering sermons that promote sexual abstinence among unmarried individuals, encouraging listeners to wait until they get married to have sex. Essential prescriptions for maintaining chastity in the Worth the Wait movement include prohibitive teachings that Christian believers should guard their hearts, minds, and "gates" (i.e., ears and eyes) from sexually suggestive or erotic contemplation, pornographic entertainment, and self-pleasure through masturbation. Yet the songs and sermons through which such messages reach the "gates" of the congregation are themselves a physical and embodied discourse that—for many listeners and performers—can be understood as erotic and pleasurable. While the performance of gender and sexuality in gospel music has been marked as a taboo discussion in historically African American Protestant congregations, their rich interdependence is exemplified by albums such as Sacred Love Songs (1999) by T. D. Jakes, in which gospel music is intended to get (married, heterosexual) Christian couples in the mood for sex.1 Sacred Love Songs is based on the Song of Solomon and was marketed as "gospel" songs with the most "romantic and poetic texts ever written."2 Jakes, a preacher, narrates intermittently throughout the album, envoicing a divine blessing on the marriage bed and effectively cuing the act of procreative sex as an act of cocreation between husband, wife, [End Page 3] and God. Although there is a growing number of Christian same-sex marriages, most historically African American Protestant churches remain resistant to the movement. According to one iTunes review, the music is "as healing as it is entertaining[.] Sacred Love Songs encourages men and women to love each other in God's way with heartfelt musical messages." The album includes collaborations with popular R&B and gospel soprano, alto, and tenor (SAT) singers Tamar Braxton, Shirley Murdock, Jesse Powell, and Marvin Sapp, but the prominence given to Jakes's own deeper male voice as both speaker and singer draws upon gendered hierarchies of authority to reestablish bass timbres as the conventional sound for the sexual healing of African American Christian believers. The ambivalent reception of Sacred Love Songs and other similar recordings indicates both the success with which Jakes harnesses the erotic potential of gospel music and the discomfort that such an explicit acknowledgment of sonic eroticism causes for many religious gospel listeners, as it marks a glaring demographic omission in the project's potential impact: there is no exploration of a virgin, celibate, queer, or sensual listening to and feeling of gospel music through forms of sensory modalities (vision, audition, olfaction, gustation, tactility, and motion) in order to deepen love and spirituality in charismatic Christian social life.3 Furthermore, there is no consideration of the pleasure vocalists themselves may derive, concurrently maintaining Christian piety while providing forms of musical sexual healing for others.4 In this essay, I tease out the ways in which gospel singing is understood as erotic and sensual for nonheterosexual, single believers, both performers and listeners. I ask what we might learn about the pleasure derived from the auditory and bodily dimensions of gospel music making and contend that sexual abstinence discourses obscure the alternative forms of sensual and sexual exploration occurring in gospel music participation. Informed by womanist and feminist modes of analysis, I conduct this research as a formally trained, cisgender woman preacher, musician, and researcher who is sexually and nonsexually attracted to men, with what black feminist bell hooks might call an oppositional gaze toward black male musicians.5 My research on black men's worship is a critical affirmation of a tradition that I simultaneously respect and critique. Elsewhere, I have written that throughout popular gospel music discourse, white sexual paranoia about the black male body has been internalized by historically African American Protestant churchgoers. Cultural insiders exhibit a sociocultural fixation on the preservation of black masculinity and heterosexuality with recurrent questions such as "Are all the choir directors gay?" Thus, the gender expression of black...

Bears in a Band by S. Parenteau

Parenteau, Shirley. Bears in a Band. Candlewick Press, 2016.This is a great little book. Children will love the rhymes, which tell the story of four brightly coloured teddy bears, who pick up instruments and begin to play. They make a joyful noise that eventually wakes “Big Brown Bear." Instead of being angry, Big Bear joins as a conductor and the music becomes even better.There are two music messages in this book. First, parents should celebrate their children’s musical activities and accept that there will be noise. Second, everyone should attempt to find the music in themselves, and share that with everyone.The text is simple. Young children will quickly memorize it. “The bears all play a noisy song/They don’t care if the notes are wrong." The images are happy, uplifting and full of warm fuzzies. This would be a good bedtime picture book for young children. I highly recommend this book for libraries. Highly recommended: 4 stars out of 4 Reviewer: Sean BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety.

The Music in George's Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue by S. Slade

Slade, Suzanne. The Music in George's Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue. Calkins Creek, 2016.This biography gives Gershwin’s early history and then focuses on how he came to write Rhapsody in Blue, beginning with a train ride where the “train noises created new melodies in his head.”This is a very blue book. The whole palette is dark blue, purple and black, with sepia and light brown backgrounds and highlights. The images are surreal. One shows Gershwin reaching out of a bus window to grab a note floating in the air. Elongated keyboards twist and wave their way through collections of overlapping images. Parts of pictures are disproportionate. Apart from the colour and the images, the most striking thing is the shape of the text. On every page some words are much larger, in different fonts and different shades of blue. The text and the images are meant to reflect the wild, unpredictable and jazzy nature of Gershwin’s music.The music message of this book is that composers and musicians can find music anywhere and that great compositions often break the rules.While this is a picture book, the text includes some difficult words like “rhapsody” and “syncopated”, which could be read and understood by children in upper elementary and junior high school, but they might pose a challenge for younger children. Highly Recommended: 3 stars out of 4Reviewer: Sean BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety.