Musical Scale Research Articles

José Limón's Chaconne

Abstract: In 1942, choreographer José Limón created a solo for himself to J. S. Bach's "Chaconne" for solo violin, the last movement of Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor BWV 1004. Many of Limón's works revolve around a central thematic narrative, often celebrating the majesty of the human spirit. In his Chaconne , however, Limón created an abstract movement representation of Bach's music, employing theme and variation as a stylistic compositional device. Chaconne is not, however, devoid of connotative references, as certain gestures, shapes, and stances spark various associations. But these occasional veiled echoes of a literal scenario do not explain the continuing appeal of the work, which instead is attributed mainly to its impressively crafted choreographic design, the carefully built relationships it exhibits between dance and music, and the openness and interpretative flexibility it offers as a vehicle for empowering the dancer. Limón intended the dance to reflect the meaning of the music, not strictly a visualization of the music, though it does have its share of such music-dance matches. The dance partakes in certain aspects of the music's form and structure, utilizing similar or parallel compositional design and techniques and following and countering the music's phrasing, melodic contour, and rhythms. Some of the congruences are obvious and satisfying, such as the many four-measure aaab dance phrases joined to equivalent four-measure aaab phrases of Bach's music. Some of the music-dance congruences are more subtle, such as extended physical movements riding ascending and descending musical scales. This choreographic focus on melodic contour draws attention to how Bach pairs ascent and descent, or chordal arpeggiation and stepwise scalar runs, across pairs of four-measure sequences. Separate from, but hand in hand with, its relationship to the music, the dance also has its own shape. Limón conceived of the material as developing from "a seminal dance phrase from which the entire work would flow." He did not elaborate on that phrase or how it evolves throughout the work. Still, generations of dancers in his namesake company have contributed to and accumulated a treasure trove of observations about and interpretations of Limón's solo, and how it relates to the music—and this cache may be usefully consulted. A choreomusical analysis of the dance incorporating the insights of dancers reveals how Limón developed the steps, gestures, positions, and phrases of his material; what musical relationships are pertinent to dancing it; how choreographic variation structures the dance; and how the dance illuminates aspects of design in the music. In particular, a principle of diminution pervades the design of the dance and the music; material is repeated in some way in faster or in smaller units, thus accelerating one's experience of, and increasing the tension in, a performance. However, such analysis can only be tentative, its conclusions temporary. There is no agreed-upon original or definitive dance score. Multiple versions exist on video and in the company's collective memory. Various dancers perform the dance differently. Furthermore, it is a living, growing artwork, as each new performer brings their individual experience to bear upon their performance—an artistic stance encouraged by Limón's conceptualization of his dance as a score open to each dancer's interpretation.

Cross-Cultural and Computational Perspectives: A Comparative Study on Music Scale Perception and Interpretation

Cross-Cultural and Computational Perspectives: A Comparative Study on Music Scale Perception and Interpretation

Functions of music, focused on the context of music listening, and psychological well-being in late adolescence regarding gender differences.

Late adolescences, as a developmentally challenging transitional period between childhood and adulthood, provides a number of pressures that impact well-being of youth. Among approaches for facilitating well-being, music is reported to be one of the most effective ones, which was especially proven during Covid-19 pandemic. Given the significance of music and music listening in late adolescence, our study sought to examine the relationship between psychological well-being and music listening among university students (N = 603; Nfemale = 356, Nmale = 247) with a focus on the social, intrapersonal, and sociocultural context of music listening. The RESPECT music scale, the SPWB, and the PANAS were used to measure positive and negative affect as well as the six components of psychological well-being. The findings revealed that, while there were no gender differences in the sociocultural setting, females reported to listen to music more frequently than males in intrapersonal and social contexts. In two areas, female students rated their psychological well-being higher than male students: personal growth and positive relationships with others. They also reported experiencing positive and negative affect more frequently than men. Regression analyses revealed that the functions of music explained only a small amount of the variance in psychological well-being. Specifically, music listening in a social and sociocultural context significantly explained two aspects of psychological well-being: personal growth and positive relations with others. The intrapersonal context of music listening predicted a positive affect, while the social context predicted a negative affect. Our study highlights several implications of music listening in youth regarding gender either in everyday activities or in educational and clinical setting.

Convergent evolution in a large cross-cultural database of musical scales

Scales, sets of discrete pitches that form the basis of melodies, are thought to be one of the most universal hallmarks of music. But we know relatively little about cross-cultural diversity of scales or how they evolved. To remedy this, we assemble a cross-cultural database (Database of Musical Scales: DaMuSc) of scale data, collected over the past century by various ethnomusicologists. Statistical analyses of the data highlight that certain intervals (e.g., the octave, fifth, second) are used frequently across cultures. Despite some diversity among scales, it is the similarities across societies which are most striking: step intervals are restricted to 100-400 cents; most scales are found close to equidistant 5- and 7-note scales. We discuss potential mechanisms of variation and selection in the evolution of scales, and how the assembled data may be used to examine the root causes of convergent evolution.

An explanatory sequential pilot inquiry on music therapy and performance anxiety in university music education majors

Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is prevalent among amateur and professional musicians. While music therapy has established itself as an effective therapy for reducing anxiety in numerous individuals with varying health issues, in depth research on the potential benefits of music therapy for managing MPA is lacking. This explanatory sequential pilot inquiry with 15 undergraduate music education majors from two large music faculties in Canada assessed the benefits of group music psychotherapy offered for 6 weeks in person or via telehealth on the experience of MPA. Test measures included the Spielberger State and Trait Anxiety Inventories (STAI) pre and post study, a pre and post study questionnaire, pre and post music psychotherapy session Likert scales for anxiety and mood, and a post study interview. Music psychotherapy interventions included breathing exercises, grounding and guided visualizations/meditations, and musical improvisation. Quantitative data, assessed for all participants combined and by group, revealed that anxiety and mood scores on the Likert scale improved after participation in six music psychotherapy sessions, while the STAI scores remained constant pre and post study. Qualitative themes suggest the benefits of music psychotherapy for changed perception and cognitions, sense of support, reduction in symptoms and overall continued and future management of MPA. The results of this study are promising, pointing to music psychotherapy as a potential short-term therapy for MPA symptom management, having practical implications for post-secondary music education and future research.

World Music Open-earedness as a Possible Measure of Proteophilia and Connection to a Cultural Secure Base: A Commentary on Quan et al. (2022)

In this commentary, I discuss the key findings of Quan et al. (2022) and consider how their World Music Open-earedness Scale might contribute to future research and practice. I offer an alternative assessment of the relationship between world music open-earedness and sociocultural adaptation, and suggest how this may be investigated further. I extend this into a reinterpretation of the result linking specific functions of music to adaptation, adding greater emphasis to the role of music as an explicit expression of culture. I propose that these findings can be used to support an increased focus on culture and art in educational contexts, including an increase in intercultural content and encounters.

Adapted Weighted Linear Prediction with Attenuated Main Excitation for formant frequency estimation in high-pitched singing

This paper aims to show how to improve the accuracy of formant frequency estimation in the singing voice of a lyric soprano. Conventional methods of formant frequency estimation may not accurately capture the formant frequencies of the singing voice, particularly in the highest pitch range of a lyric soprano, where the lowest formants are biased by the pitch harmonics. To address this issue, the study proposes adapting the Weighted Linear Prediction with Attenuated Main Excitation (WLP-AME) method for formant frequency estimation. Specific methods for glottal closure instant estimation were required due to differences in glottal closure patterns between speech and singing. The study evaluates the accuracy of the proposed method by comparing its performance with the LPC method through different pitch series arranged in an ascending musical scale. The results indicated that the adapted WLP-AME method consistently outperformed the LPC method in estimating formant frequencies of vowels sung by a lyric soprano. In addition, by estimating the formant frequencies of a synthetic /i/ vowel sung by a soprano singer at the musical note E5, the study showed that the adapted WLP-AME method provided formant frequency values closer to the correct values than those estimated by the LPC method. In general, these results suggest parameter values of AME function that optimize its performance, which can have applications in fields such as singing and medicine.

Development of the Effective Musical Notation Reading Strategies Scale in Learning Violin and Factors That Affect the Level of Using Such Strategies

This correlational study consisted of 396 undergraduate violin students studying at three different types of faculties in 18 universities in the 2016-2017 academic year in Turkiye. Data collection was made by using the Effective Musical Notation Reading Strategies Scale (EMNRSS) developed by the researcher and a personal information form. The data were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis for construct validity, and in order to determine the internal consistency of the scale within the framework of the reliability tests, the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients were calculated. The three-factor structure that emerged in the exploratory factor analysis was confirmed according to the fit index values obtained as a result of the confirmatory factor analysis (X2/SD = 2.38; NFI = 0.93; CFI = 0.96; GFI = 0.84; RMSEA = 0.059). The alpha value for the first factor of the scale (post-play) was calculated as 0.89 whereas such value was 0.87 for the second factor (during-play) and 0.83 for the third factor (pre-play). The alpha value calculated for the total scale score was 0.92. As a result of the analyses, a 34-item five-point Likert-type scale with three factors was developed. The EMNRSS may be utilized in future research to explore the factors that affect students’ level of using such strategies. The applicability of the EMNRSS to levels other than undergraduate level may also be explored.

The vocal origin of musical scales: the Interval Spacing model.

The vocal origin of musical scales: the Interval Spacing model.

Plato’s Timaeus and optimal pentatonic scales

After a short review of Pythagorean theory of harmonic ratios and musical scales as it is described in Plato’s Timaeus treatise, the concept of ‘optimality of a sequence of (real) numbers with respect to Pythagorean ratios’ is defined and main theorem of this article proves that there are only three optimal sequences of length 6, which correspond to three well-known pentatonic scales which are used in many musical traditions (including Chinese, Japanese and others). It is also noted that a definition similar to our optimal scales has appeared in a treatise by Sadi-al-Din Urmavi, a thirteenth century Iranian musicologist.

Assessment of musical preferences and its association among Indian population

Introduction and Aim: Music is known to have positive effects on humans and enhances mental health. This study presents the outcomes of a preliminary research that investigates Indian’s music preferences between string (sitar) and percussion (parai) instruments. Materials and Methods: 85 participants made up the sample (25 males and 60 females), who were aged between 18 and 60 and came from different regions of India. The participants responded to an online survey made up of Likert scale questions using Google forms. Results: According to preliminary findings from this study, female participants scored significantly (p<0.05) higher on the music preference scale for the string (sitar) instrument than male participants did. When compared to urban areas, people in rural areas have significantly (p<0.05) higher music preference scores. The participants’ preference score for percussion instruments was significantly (p<0.05) high as compared to string instruments. The male participants revealed significantly (p<0.05) high score for music importance when compared to the female participants. Conclusion: The study assessed the music preferences (sitar and parai) of Indian with an aid of questionnaire study with Likert scale. According to the study's findings, musical choices vary depending on a number of variables, including gender, age, place of residence, occupation, and musical instruments.

Statistical Learning of Chord-Transition Regularities in a Novel Equitempered Scale: An MMN Study

In music and language domains, it has been suggested that patterned transitions of sounds can be acquired implicitly through statistical learning. Previous studies have investigated the statistical learning of auditory regularities by recording early neural responses to a sequence of tones presented at high or low transition probabilities. However, it remains unclear whether the statistical learning of musical chord transitions is reflected in endogenous, regularity-dependent components of the event-related potential (ERP). The present study aimed to record the mismatch negativity (MMN) elicited by chord transitions that deviated from newly learned transitional regularities. Chords were generated in a novel 18 equal temperament pitch class scale to avoid interference from the existing tonal representations of the 12 equal temperament pitch class system. Thirty-six adults without professional musical training listened to a sequence of randomly inverted chords in which certain chords were presented with high (standard) or low (deviant) transition probabilities. An irrelevant timbre change detection task was assigned to make them attend to the sequence during the ERP recording. After that, a familiarity test was administered in which the participants were asked to choose the more familiar chord sequence out of two successive sequences. The results showed that deviant transitions elicited the MMN, although the participants could not recognize the standard transition beyond the level of chance. These findings suggest that humans can statistically learn new transitional regularities of chords in a novel musical scale, even though they did not recognize them explicitly. This study provides further evidence that music-syntactic regularities can be acquired implicitly through statistical learning.

History of the Development of Nagham Al-Qur'an in Indonesia

Nagham is an art form of reciting the Quran. The application of art in reciting the Quran is highly dependent on the rules of Tajweed. Reciting the Quran according to Tajweed rules is a command found in the Quran and Hadith. By reciting the Quran by the rules of recitation, a beautiful sound melody called "nagham" is created. However, this artistic melody does not have a musical scale or musical notes. Therefore, the focus of this research is to examine the development of nagham in Indonesia. This study aims to explore the development of Nagham in Indonesia in greater detail. The method used is descriptive and analytical. This research reveals that there are seven nagham styles in Indonesia: Bayyati, Shaba, Hijas, Nahawan, Rast, Sika, and Jiharkah. On the other hand, the application of nagham varies among different reciters (qari).

INFLUENCE OF MUSIC PREFERENCES ON ANGER LEVELS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY

The present study aims to study the impact of music preferences on anger levels amongst undergraduate and postgraduate students. A survey was administered online (via Google Forms) and offline to a sample of 210 individuals using convenience and snowball sampling methods. Two tools were utilised in the questionnaire - the Music Preference Scale developed by Upadhyay and colleagues and the Behavioural Anger Response Questionnaire. The responses were computed in the form of the respective subscales and dimensions of each scale. The Music Preference Scale recorded readings under five dimensions - Intense and Electrical, Devotional and Cultural, Emotional and Melodious, Reflective and Spiritual, and Contemporary and Rhythmic. The Behavioural Anger Response Questionnaire assesses anger across 6 domains - Direct Ager Out, Rumination, Social Support Seeking, Diffusion, Assertion and Avoidance. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics - to analyse the demographics of the sample; T-test to test significance of the collected data, and Pearsons’ Correlation analysis has been conducted to study the relationship between the two variables. According to the results of the study, there is no significant difference in the anger levels expressed by males and females, or by undergraduate and post- graduate students. Males & females seemed to listen to the same level of Intense & Electronic, Contemporary & Rhythmic, Spiritual & Reflective music. Females were found to listen to more Devotional & Cultural and Emotional & Melodious music. Qualitative analysis shows no significant difference in the preference for music genres amongst undergraduate and post-graduate students. To conclude, music preferences have a negligible impact on anger levels.

Felicia Donceanu – The cycle of lieds Three songs for Til on lyrics by George Călinescu

Born on Moldavian soil, on January 28, 1931, in Bacău, the composer Felicia Donceanu completed her musical studies at the “Ciprian Porumbescu” Conservatory in Bucharest, under the high supervision of some already established personalities of Romanian music. She composed for various genres, from instrumental theater, children's music, to chamber music, stage music, vocal-symphonic, choral, thus exhibiting, with exquisite skill, her mastery of laying down the notes on the musical scale. With a special love for Romanian poetry and literature and beyond, Felicia Donceanu dipped her writing pen in ink to give voice to her music and through the power of her own words. Authentically feeling this vein of poetic art, she also stood out with texts dedicated to various choral works of Romanian composers. She wrote scripts for various musical-choreographic performances, or radio dedicated, and with her painting talent she gave life to illustrations in children's books. As for the admiration that Felicia Donceanu gives to the distinguished man of culture, George Călinescu, it is drawn in two directions, holding a profound respect for the originality of the personality and the works of this illustrious representative of Romanian culture and literature, who ravished souls and became a source of inspiration, both for the young students of the Faculty of Letters and for people of culture in general. It is not surprising that Felicia Donceanu found in the creation of the poet George Călinescu a never-ending source of inspiration. In 1964, the cycle Three songs for Til was born, including the lieds: The Steps, The Leaf and The Living Water. It is based on the love poem structured and rendered in three different forms from a poetic and compositional point of view. Felicia Donceanu thought of the three lieds, in a “suite in pre-classical style: gavotte (The Steps), saraband (The Leaf) and courant (The Living Water)... each of them being doubled by meanings close to popular creation... in the first one, the game..., in the second one, the romance (with depressive, chromatic accents) and in the third one, the enchantment” (Constantinescu, 1966, p. 24). The musical interpretation of the poems is not a simple metaphorical game, the musical character of the poems, in general - far from being just an ornament - being part of the act of creation necessary for a fair reception, because it is created in a certain mood and a special tension of tone, and the reader or listener will have to perceive it in the same tension and texture. The quality of the sound, the form and the point of crystallization of the feeling make up an act of creation and not a borrowing, made by the poet or performer, from life. Poetry is the intimate form of creation, the acquired vocal timbre that identifies itself entirely with the musicality of the content.

Common and distinct quantitative characteristics of Chinese and Western music in terms of modes, scales, degrees and melody variations

Music is in general mutually understood among different cultures worldwide but can sometimes vary by different styles. The Western music system (heptatonic system) and the Chinese music system (pentatonic system) have common and different characteristics in terms of modes, scales, degrees, and melody variations. In this paper, we show these characteristics through quantitative analysis and comparison and have identified two common characteristics of Chinese pentatonic and Western heptatonic music with respect to modes, scales, and degrees. Although the structures and profiles of the modes, scales, and degrees of both kinds of music are different, they both show a preference to bright modes and scales, and their preference to tonal centres and degrees are consistent with the generating orders via their primal tuning temperaments. Based on the structural characteristics of the musical scales of Chinese pentatonic and Western heptatonic music, we present three interval-dividing metrics to examine the melody variations quantitatively. We find that the melody variations of Chinese pentatonic and Western heptatonic music measured by the interval-dividing metrics both follow the power law, a physical-mathematical law existing in many natural and engineering systems. This study fills the gap in the quantitative analysis of Chinese pentatonic music and provides an approach to studying the common characteristics of different types of music.

Measuring the structural validity of two Nordoff-Robbins scales for a patient with Autism

Psychological studies aimed at validating tests have been taking place for several years and have influenced various professions, such as music therapy. Music therapy emerged as a profession after the Second World War and since then it has proved to be effective for the treatment of various health conditions. In recent decades, studies on the validity of music therapy instruments have increased. This current article aimed to verify the structural validity of two instruments for music therapy assessment called “Child-Therapist Relationship in Coactive Musical Experience Scale” and the “Musical Communicativeness Scale”. As a methodology, the scales were used to evaluate 120 excerpts from music therapy sessions performed to a patient diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Different models were tested through item confirmatory factor analysis. The use of this two scales for measuring with confidence only general latent variable, the interaction, for the assessed patient was shown, considering the 120 excerpts of videos.

Translation and validation of music performance self-efficacy scale into Turkish

The Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale (MPSES) is an important scale designed to reflect the four sources of self-efficacy of Bandura by Zelenak, and has been used in many studies of music education in the international literature in recent years. This study was carried out to ensure the validity and reliability of the Turkish translation of the MPSES. Participants ( N = 613) were students (men n = 291; women n = 322) in undergraduate-level music education programs in Turkey. The translation process included the following steps, which were performed by a translation group: (1) translation into Turkish, (2) back translation into English, and (3) cross-cultural adaptation. First and second-level confirmatory factor analysis results showed good model-data fit (for one main dimension and four sub-dimensions). Therefore, the Turkish version of MPSES produced satisfactory internal consistency coefficients (α = .75–.91). Additionally, t-test results and item-total score correlation coefficients also revealed that the items re distinctive. Accordingly, The Turkish version of MPSES is a valid and reliable tool for determining the sources of music performance self-efficacy for those who will do research in Turkish.

Transferring Music Pieces into Different Scales based on Nyquist Language

As the increasingly need for art in the society and the current boost in technology, computer music is known as an increasingly important field in our life. While for music scales, which determine a music piece’s genre and style, is also important to any music pieces. The idea of this study is to combine the concepts of music scales and computer music, realizing the ability for music scales transformation. This article will use Nyquist language as an example to provide a clearer perspective of the way that computer algorithms are able to transfer music pieces into different music scales. This study combined the advantages programming within Nyquist, which will be the music synchronize functions and the presence of the unique data type “score” with our music ideas. Thus, it was easy for users to compose the notes in a clear and ordered manner. After composing the scales as functions in Nyquist, one can modify music pieces into different styles according to the scales. In addition, based on the auto backup function in Nyquist, it is easy to retrieve a .wav format video file after processing the program on our terminals. These results shed light on guiding further exploration of music pieces transferring based on computer techniques.

Gastrofonia: a new cultural horizon of music and food

Abstract The meaning of matter is determined by our interpretations. Even food has its own frequencies, which can be aligned with the specific notes of a musical scale. When presented with a dish we might ask not only “how does it taste?” but also “how does it sound?.” Gastrofonia is defined not as the musical accompaniment to a cooking demonstration, but the actual sound of it: music is made by food. Built upon an experiment initiated by John Cage to try to make music with objects, gastrofonia examines sound as a possible connection among the visual and material arts. Combining music with taste, musician Roy Paci identified a biosonic perception of food. This chapter aims to analyze the case of gastrofonia in light of the increased scientific and artistic interest in food characterizing our contemporary society, that is, an orthorexic society where food has become a specific form of language, a communicative vehicle through which we express our identity, interests, social-ethical choices, and new concepts of art. From a sociosemiotic perspective, the gastrofonic dish is an example of a textual polyphonic discourse combining different languages, related to the five senses in a performance that becomes a form of shared communication.