Music Research Research Articles

Music therapy research during a pandemic: An accidental experiment in caring for music

This article describes how a group of music therapists and a music sociologist working on the AHRC-funded research project Care for Music responded to the situation they found themselves during the 2020–21 COVID pandemic, both in terms of their practice and the ongoing research project they shared. In particular, the article outlines how the challenging situation has produced interesting new practical, methodological and theoretical perspectives – functioning as a helpful ‘accidental experiment’. The article presents three vignettes of music therapists coping with the initial pandemic situation and how they adapted music therapy practice, followed by preliminary reflections on emerging themes from the ‘accidental experiment’ in relation to the central concern of the AHRC Care for Music research project: the co-creation of mutual ‘scenes of care’ through music within later life and end of life settings.

AN OVERVIEW ON ISMAIL BAHA SURELSAN’S PLACE IN TURKISH MUSIC AND HIS WRITINGS IN MUSIKI MECMUASI

It is necessary to know the history of music well in order to recognize and comprehend Turkish Music, which is a major element of the national culture. The works of Turkish Music researchers and composers are very important in this context. İsmail Baha Sürelsan, in terms of the period he lived in is important in the concext of history of Turkish Music with his musical writings and composer identity. Although Sürelsan, who has a versatile personality such as composer identity, educator identity and author identity, has articles in different sources, but his articles in Musiki Mecmuası, which he wrote between 1953-1968, were included in this research. In his writings, it is seen that he mainly deals with Turkish Music composers, Turkish Music concert interpretations, the situation, development and change of Turkish Music belonging to the period, he lived in, as well as instruments such as Kanun, Ud, Çenk and Rebab. Purpose of the study is to reveal the contribution of İsmail Baha Sürelsan, who has an important place in Turkish Music History, to Turkish Music with his identity as a writer as well as performing music. Documentary data and interview were used in the study. Keywords: İsmail Baha Sürelsan, Turkish Music, Musiki Mecmuası

Creative Crisis? Performing Artists in Vienna’s Live Music Scene in the Age of COVID-19

Cultural workers are affected more than many other working populations by the pandemic COVID-19. Especially, live music as an antidote to crisis highlights the benefits of performing art in times of isolation; a practice that risks normalizing the idea that musicians are performing for free. This article discusses the intersection of live music with social and cultural issues, focusing on Vienna’s popular music scene. I begin my inquiry with an insight into the area of live music research, based on the works of Philip Auslander and Simon Frith. Throughout the text, I turn a critical eye to the broad impacts of the pandemic on music-making, the ways in which the potentials of emerging communities are leading to changed forms of appreciation, and emphasize the “sense of community” (Auslander) by way of three case studies. Ultimately, I aim to shed light on the strategies through which musicians deal with the crisis.

Digitalization and the Musical Mediation of Anti-Democratic Ideologies in Alt-Right Forums

ABSTRACT Popular music research has explored digital technologies’ potential for democratizing music consumption, distribution, and production. This article, however, focuses on the anti-democratic implications of digitalization for popular music by exploring discussions of music in 1,173 posts in 6 Alt-Right forums, from 2010–2018. It demonstrates that, first, owing to algorithmic architecture, interpretations of musical politics are mutually reinforcing in these spaces. Second, a large degree of musical “omnivorousness” in these forums is both a feature of contemporary far-right strategy and a consequence of digitalization. Third, by articulating “reactionary democratic” principles through music criticism, these movements more easily evade regulation.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text (RAFT) is published by RILM, an internationally recognized authority on providing bibliographic access to music research. The database includes over a million bibliographic records with coverage from the early 1800's to the present. Full text coverage of more than 250 journals provides additional value to this database. The full text titles are unique to the database and there is very little overlap with other music databases. The comprehensives and quality of RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text is unrivaled among music databases.The EBSCO interface of RAFT is familiar to many users and offers easy integration with other heavily used music databases, such as Music Index with Full Text and RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals. The heavy coverage of foreign language content and sheer size of the citations may make RAF intimidating to the novice music researcher. However, RILM's authority on music research and interdisciplinary content make RAFT a necessary database for serious upper-level music research.

페미니즘 음악연구 -여성의 사회화 과정, 교육 여건, 사회적 인정을 통하여-

본 연구는 지금까지의 페미니즘 음악연구에서 시행되어 온 남성중심의 음악사에서 알려지지 않은 여성들의 음악활동과 업적을 찾아내는 보상적 접근에서 탈피하여, 사회적, 교육적, 역사적으로 주어진 환경과 구조를 중립적으로 분석하면서 여성의 활동영역과 역량에 접근한다. 본 연구는 페미니즘 음악연구가 음악영역을 넘어서 문화와 역사에 있어서 여성에게 주어진 환경, 교육, 사회화 과정을 이해하고 여성의 역할과 그들의 창의적인 참여를 밝히는데 도움이 되고자 한다.

Vision 2020: A Review of 20 Years of Inclusion Studies in Music Education

Inclusion has been a prominent topic in music education since the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1974 (now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA 2004). In 2000, music educators at the Housewright Symposium presented a list of goals for music education for the year 2020 in a document called Vision 2020, and one of those goals stated that barriers would be removed for the inclusion of all students. The purpose of this literature review was to examine the past 20 years of music education research (1999–2019) to determine how well the inclusion goal of Vision 2020 has been met. Four themes emerged: Perceptions in Schools, Practices in Schools, University Coursework, and Unique Topics. A concluding section summarizes findings and presents implications for meeting the Vision 2020 inclusion goal as it pertains to students with disabilities.

Grammy Museum grants for music research, preservation

Grammy Museum grants for music research, preservation

Towards the Feasibility of Instituting a Philippine Digital Audio Library: A Case Study

As a spearhead force in music research, especially in the area of South East Asia region, the University of the Philippines (UP) Center for Ethnomusicology (UPCE) caters to a gigantic collection of audio materials which covers different musics and musical traditions in the Philippines, South East Asia and representative areas from other continents. As an outcome of its former appellation, the “UP Ethnomusicology Archives”, UPCE hosts an ethnomusicological collection of about 2500 hours of recorded music in open reel and cassette tape formats, under the authorship of Jose Maceda whose visionary work of putting together these valuable recorded materials left a treasure for ethnomusicology scholarship and research. In recognition of his influential contribution that made the UCPE an archive and repository of materials on music, philosophy, anthropology and other cognate disciplines, these audio materials, together with field notes, music transcriptions, song texts, photographs, music instruments, music compositions, personal files, about 200 books and journals, all of which he personally initiated and developed as a unified institution resource for music research are called “Jose Maceda Collection”.

Improvisation, Indeterminacy, and Ontology: Some Perspectives on Music and the Posthumanities

In this article I address some questions concerning the emerging conjunction of musical research on improvisation and work in the ‘posthumanities’, in particular the theoretical results of the ‘ontological turn’ in the humanities. Engaging with the work of the composer John Cage, and George E. Lewis’s framing of Cage’s performative indeterminacy as a ‘Eurological’ practice that excludes ‘Afrological’ jazz improvisation, I examine how critical discourse on Cage and his conception of sound is relevant to the improvisation-posthumanities conjunction. After discussing some criticisms of ontological and materialist approaches to sound, I consider the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) of Bruno Latour, posed as offering an alternative to these approaches. Following an examination of some limitations to ANT based around the themes of critique and abstraction, I draw from the work of Gilles Deleuze and Georgina Born to suggest that work on improvisation and the posthumanities may be fruitful, but must be part of a pluralistic mode of inquiry that does not reject critique and abstraction, as some work in the posthumanities has done.

‘Taste the value of each note’: verbal teaching strategies in guitar masterclasses

ABSTRACT Our study examines the impact of student performance level, student gender and content matter on the verbal strategies (literal language, technical instruction and images and metaphors) teachers use in guitar masterclasses. After recording and transcribing 60 guitar masterclasses, of which 40 were selected for the final sample, we operationalised the variables as follows: independent judges evaluated students’ performance levels, and the content taught and the verbal strategies used by teachers were categorised using the software NVivo 10. Statistical tests (two-way ANOVA, the Mann–Whitney U-test and the Kruskal–Wallis test) suggested that the content presented by the teacher may determine the type of verbal strategy used in the classroom. The results indicate that music education research has used images and metaphors as an umbrella concept, and this may hide specificities of the teacher's verbal discourse.

Editorial

The Malaysian Journal of Music, Volume 10, Issue 1, comprises six articles that present current issues in ethnomusicology, music education and composition from Thailand, Philippines and Italy. Four articles on music education emphasise the importance of musical activities in enhancing social and emotional skills, the importance of integrating local approaches to teaching traditional music and the development of the music curriculum in public and private institutions. This volume presents one article on practice-led research which highlights the art of practice as research. This methodology is an approach to research that is gaining popularity among music researchers. An article that frames the compositional techniques of two composers from different regions of the world under a western philosophical concept is also presented.

A Multiple Case Study of Music Cooperating Teacher Roles in Mentoring Dialogues

While music education researchers have examined cooperating teacher and student teacher interactions via classroom observations and interviews, there is little research on extended dialogues between the cooperating teacher and student teacher or various mentoring roles (coach, guide, model, and evaluator) assumed by cooperating teachers. During one 8-week student teaching placement period, I recorded extended dialogues between four student teacher-cooperating teacher pairs, along with individual interviews. Data were analyzed using the mentor roles in dialogues model. The mentoring role assumed during dialogues reflected the student teaching context, perceptions about appropriate roles, cooperating teacher and student teacher personalities, and their relationship. Mentoring dialogues were especially influenced by unique features of the music ensemble class.

Home-Coming: The Repatriation of Historical Recordings

This article deals with the provocative questions of repatriating recordings stored in large and small archival institutions, mainly audio or video recordings, to source communities. While this topic is often, disputed within the framework of sound and audio-visual archivists, it is rather rarely, investigated with academic vigor based personal experience in the field of music research. This paper attempts to start closing the knowledge gap and exchange ideas between those with practical experience and those with musicological background but not necessarily intense experiences. The article provides an in-depth understanding of the term ‘home-coming’ and how this term relates to future activities and directions to be considered by museums and archival institutions. These insights might be of great benefit in sustaining and developing today’s archival institutions in Asia and Europe.

A Methodological Framework for Assessing Social Presence in Music Interactions in Virtual Reality.

Virtual reality (VR) brings radical new possibilities to the empirical study of social music cognition and interaction. In the present article, we consider the role of VR as a research tool, based on its potential to create a sense of “social presence”: the illusory feeling of being, and socially interacting, inside a virtual environment. This makes VR promising for bridging ecological validity (“research in the wild”) and experimental control (“research in the lab”) in empirical music research. A critical assumption however is the actual ability of VR to simulate real-life social interactions, either via human-embodied avatars or computer-controlled agents. The mediation of social musical interactions via VR is particularly challenging due to their embodied, complex, and emotionally delicate nature. In this article, we introduce a methodological framework to operationalize social presence by a combination of factors across interrelated layers, relating to the performance output, embodied co-regulation, and subjective experiences. This framework provides the basis for the proposal of a pragmatic approach to determine the level of social presence in virtual musical interactions, by comparing the outcomes across the multiple layers with the outcomes of corresponding real-life musical interactions. We applied and tested this pragmatic approach via a case-study of piano duet performances of the piece Piano Phase composed by Steve Reich. This case-study indicated that a piano duet performed in VR, in which the real-time interaction between pianists is mediated by embodied avatars, might lead to a strong feeling of social presence, as reflected in the measures of performance output, embodied co-regulation, and subjective experience. In contrast, although a piano duet in VR between an actual pianist and a computer-controlled agent led to a relatively successful performance output, it was inadequate in terms of both embodied co-regulation and subjective experience.

News

News

The validity and efficacy of ‘Spheres of Musical Understanding: A Fluid, Situational and Context-Specific Model’

The purpose of this article is to propose a model for the development of musical understanding that is fluid, situational and context-specific and to investigate the model’s validity. The model was developed through observations while teaching, viewing video recordings of young children in interactive music environments, analysing other models and theories of development of musical understanding, and discussion and reflection on our own practice and that of others. In this article, we present the model, comparing and contrasting it primarily with Gordon’s theories of Preparatory Audiation and Audiation and Voyajolu and Ockelford’s Sounds of Intent model. For this initial validation of the model, two early childhood music researchers independently observed a video recording of one 3-year-old child during a 60-minute preschool music class, documenting his musical responses and initiations as well as periods where there was seemingly a lack of musical engagement. We labelled each response in association with the model, as appropriate. Through this study, we were able to explain the child’s engagements through the lens of the model; it was clear the hypothesis of a fluid model was supported. Refinements to the model for easier use were recommended as well as conducting observations of children in other situations and contexts.

Recreating the Beatles

Beatles tributes come in many forms and guises, but look-alikes are arguably the most popular type. Because of their focus on replicating the band’s iconic costumes and hairdo, they usually limit themselves to an easily reproducible core repertoire, forgoing the elaborate post-1966 studio productions. By contrast, sound-alikes strive for complete aural accurateness, often recreating the heavily produced compositions the Beatles never performed outside of the studio. One of the industry’s top-tier Beatles sound-alikes are the Analogues. Neglecting all mimetic visual effects, they re-animate the albums created after 1966, using the same orchestrations and instrumentations as the Beatles, including rare vintage instruments such as the Mellotron. Their approach bears parallels to historically informed performance (HIP), a common practice in Early Music, yet it operates within an entirely different framework. Informed by sound recordings, the Analogues deconstruct and re-record the Beatles’ music to construct their own performance, in the process conceiving a modern technology-based type of HIP. This article begins by establishing a typology of Beatles tributes before examining the process of staging an Analogues performance. It argues that the Analogues’ approach to historical recreation allows them to transcend criticism typically aimed at tributes and, paradoxically, lay claim to an “authentic” performance of what is inherently inauthentic, a live imitation of a recording. Overall, this article demonstrates how HIP can be used effectively outside of its mainstream classical context as a tool for popular music researchers and performers.

Some observations on autocorrelated patterns within computational meter identification

The computational approach of autocorrelation relies on recurrent patterns within a musical signal to identify and analyze the meter of musical passages. This paper suggests that the autocorrelation process can act as a computational proxy for the act of period extraction, a crucial aspect of the cognition of musical meter, by identifying periodicities with which similar events tend to occur within a musical signal. Three analytical vignettes highlight three aspects of the identified patterns: (1) that the similarities between manifestations of the same patterns are often inexact, (2) that these patterns have ambiguous boundaries, and (3) that many more patterns exist on the musical surface than contribute to the passage's notated/felt meter, each of which overlaps with observations from music theory and behavioral research. An Online Supplement at chriswmwhite.com/autocorrelation contains accompanying data.

Migration, music and the mobile phone: a case study in technology and socio-economic justice in Sicily

ABSTRACT The role of the mobile phone among people on the move has featured in several disciplinary discussions in recent years, but it remains relatively neglected by ethnomusicology. Exploring the gap, this article draws observations from Media and Communications Studies, Migration Studies and Anthropology to bear on a participatory music education project that the author led among unaccompanied migrating minors in Sicily 2017–2019. It interrogates the ethics of music research among migrant communities particularly when it involves participatory work such as performing, recording and publishing music. It also examines how Africans are caught up in, and negotiate, the racist colonial legacies that continue to inform musical consumption in Italy. The central arguments of the article are that mobile phones empower participants in their day-to-day lives and music-making, but have complex social consequences; and that within a macro socio-economic sphere, phones link participants ever more tightly and more powerfully into the historical chain of mass production that is exploiting humanity and the environment. Ethnomusicologists would do well to turn their attention more critically towards phones and related audio technologies, and reflect on the very deep socio-political entanglement in which all our networked lives – migratory or settled – are caught.