The purpose of the article is to study the codes of the chivalric epic in musical art and the ballets Tristan and Isolde by David Dawson and A. Pieshkova. The research methodology is based on a combination of comparative-historical, semiotic, musicological, and cultural analyses, which allows the consideration of contemporary composers’ and choreographers’ approaches to the legend of Tristan and Isolde as a process of transforming chivalric epic codes through the lens of Romantic tradition and contemporary artistic practices. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the comprehensive analysis of interpretations of the Tristan and Isolde legend in music and choreography of the 20th–21st centuries through the prism of chivalric epic codes. For the first time, the combination of Romantic tradition with modern musical technologies (electronics, jazz and folk elements) is examined, as well as their role in renewing the symbols of ‘love and death’ in the contemporary artistic context. Conclusions. The engagement of 20th–21st century composers and choreographers with the Tristan and Isolde narrative demonstrates the universality and adaptability of chivalric epic codes. In the ballets by Dawson and Pieshkova, the legend acquires contemporary stage forms. Wagnerian fragments (in Pieshkova’s ballet) symbolise the classical-Romantic tradition, embodying ‘eternal love and death’, monumentality, and philosophical depth. Electronic sounds, as a modern musical layer, add a sense of experimentation and heightened emotionality. Dawson’s ballet ‘Tristan + Isolde’ embodies chivalric epic codes through contemporary choreography and a new score by Szymon Brzóska, combining lyricism and drama with modern orchestral techniques. This approach renews the narrative of love and death, connecting Romantic tradition with 21st-century aesthetics. In O. Messiaen’s Turangalîla, the symbolism of ‘love and death’ is presented as a mystical idea, whereas in H. Henze’s Tristan a critical dialogue with Romanticism is revealed. A common feature of these interpretations is their reliance on Romantic tradition, reinterpreted through contemporary artistic practices: updating musical material with modern technologies, modifications in orchestration, rhythmic freedom, and the introduction of extra-musical layers such as folk, jazz, and everyday sound complexes. This approach not only expands the artistic boundaries of the myth but also confirms its capacity to reflect contemporary cultural and philosophical inquiries. Messiaen integrates rhythmic structures inspired by Indian music (tālas), birdsong, and jazz-like elements (improvisatory piano solos, dynamic orchestral drive). Henze incorporates jazz rhythms and folk intonations into his style. In Tristan, rhythmic freedom, jazz-influenced piano textures, and a ‘folk layer’ of recorded sounds (birdsong, voices) introduce extra-musical elements into the score. Both composers reinterpret, rather than directly quote, jazz or folk elements, integrating them into a contemporary academic musical context as part of an expanded sound world.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Arusha and Zanzibar, the research highlights how Bongo Flava artists, Maasai ritual musicians, and Taarab ensembles selectively inherit, reinterpret, and reframe the West African griots core functions storytelling, social commentary, mediation, and intergenerational transmission in ways that resonate with their social and cultural environments. The paper argues that griot functions do not migrate intact across cultural boundaries but undergo processes of role reconstruction and cultural adaptation, mediated by linguistic diversity, community structures, and institutional contexts. This Tanzanian case contributes to broader debates on cultural flow, performance, and the transformation of traditional roles.

Homometric pitch-class sets (pc-sets) share the same interval content, as captured by the interval vector or the magnitudes of their Fourier coefficients, yet they can sound noticeably different. This paper proposes homometric paths as a way to bridge the gap between structural characteristics and perceptual experience of homometric pc-sets and, more broadly, of real-valued pitch-class distributions (pc-distributions). These paths lie in the space of pc-distributions that are homometric to the given pair – that is, pc-distributions whose Fourier coefficients share the same magnitude profile – and are characterized by changes in Fourier phases. To support this idea, we introduce two interactive tools. The first is ZPath, a visualizer with synchronized audio for exploring homometric paths between pc-distributions. The second is HexaComp, an algorithmic composition platform that incorporates homometric paths into musical contexts. Together, these tools aim to render homometric relationships not only analyzable but also visible and audible.

‘Selective Retention: Composing through Queries and Graphs’ reflects on composing through software systems while focusing on reinterpreting musical materials through computational methods. The exposition examines two projects that utilise software tools as temporal portals, merging algorithms with composition to create new musical contexts. It highlights the evolving relationship between these tools and their source materials, emphasising a process of iterative approaches and adaptation. The text also explores the emergent nature of creative intention and the importance of addressing local details in sound and coded data. Within the exposition, software applications are exposed, the ideas behind them are discussed, and examples of music composed with them are presented.<style>/* rules to make button only show up in META */.download-accessible { display:none;}.meta-right-col .download-accessible { display: inline-block; padding: 9px; margin-bottom:25px; border: 1px solid black; background-color:white;}</style><a class="download-accessible" href="/profile/download-media?work=3955500&file=3955523" title="This accessible PDF is a derivative of the original which it is meant to support and not replace.">Download Accessible PDF</a></span> keywords: Computer Music, Generative Algorithms, Sound Analysis, Data-Driven Sound, Algorithmic Composition, Network Models in Music., Artistic reserach

ABSTRACT This article offers a critical comparative analysis of three musical contexts at Liverpool Cathedral: liturgical services, educational programmes and wider choral outreach. Drawing on data from online questionnaires and qualitative interviews, the study examines the sociodemographic profiles of adult participants, including congregants, alongside the patterns, motivations and barriers shaping their engagement in cathedral music life. Through an interpretive reading of these data, the article explores how participants relate to the cathedral as a sacred site of worship, an educational partner and a civic cultural institution, while illustrating the structural and cultural dynamics underpinning choral participation across the three contexts. The discussion reflects on the shifting functions of the contemporary cathedral, showing how musical affect, cultural capital and evolving forms of belonging reshape the role of Anglican cathedrals in twenty-first-century public life. Liverpool Cathedral emerges as a multifunctional institution in which worship, learning and musical practice are refocused as sites of civic engagement, cultural inclusion and religious adaptation.

Music perception requires integrating individual notes into their broader musical context, yet how musical expertise shapes the neural encoding of this information across the auditory hierarchy remains unclear. Here, we address this by using the hierarchical representations from a generative music transformer model to predict human brain activity. We recorded scalp electroencephalography (EEG) from expert musicians and non-musicians, as well as intracranial EEG (iEEG) from six neurological patients, during listening to classical piano pieces. We found that deeper layers of the transformer, which represent more disentangled and contextual musical features, were more predictive of neural responses in both groups. However, this neural correspondence was significantly enhanced by musical expertise: for non-musicians, prediction accuracy plateaued across the model’s final layers, whereas for musicians it continued to increase. This enhanced encoding in experts was also strongly lateralized to the left hemisphere. Finally, the iEEG recordings revealed an anatomical gradient for this function, where neural sites progressively farther from the primary auditory cortex encoded musical context more strongly. Our study reveals how musical training refines the hierarchical neural processing of music and provides a neuro-computational account of this remarkable cognitive skill.

Abstract: This article explores an interactive computing framework designed to transform live musical performance experiences by integrating real-time digital technologies with human creativity. The framework combines adaptive computational systems with dynamic sensory inputs, enabling performers and audiences to co-create immersive environments that respond fluidly to musical gestures, spatial contexts, and audience feedback. Through interactive interfaces and intelligent processing, the system can recognize patterns in sound and movement, adapt visual and auditory outputs, and mediate new forms of expressive dialogue between artists and participants. By leveraging both historical performance data and live feedback streams, the models anticipate variations, refine improvisational possibilities, and generate contextualized outputs that extend artistic expression. The approach automates aspects of signal analysis, gesture recognition, and multimodal synchronization, while preserving the interpretive agency of the performer and minimizing technical constraints during live settings. Computational algorithms underpin the capacity to capture subtle relationships between sound, space, and audience engagement, allowing the framework to evolve with performance dynamics and accommodate unforeseen creative directions. Case studies demonstrate the system’s capacity to enhance artistic depth, broaden participation, and support new modes of aesthetic exploration in diverse musical contexts. Evaluation metrics reveal high adaptability, interpretive richness, and audience resonance, confirming the framework’s potential for advancing both performance practice and digital creativity. In conclusion, this interactive computing framework highlights the promise of fusing technological intelligence with human artistry, offering scalable and innovative tools for musicians, researchers, and cultural practitioners seeking enriched live performance experiences.

Harmonic expectation is an important mediator of musical experience. EEG research has identified event-related potential (ERP) components associated with expectation, including the early (right) anterior negativity (E(R)AN), which is theorized to index harmonic surprisal with reference to long-term memory of the statistical structure of music. However, the role of top-down influences on harmonic predictions remains underexplored. One specific influence concerns how a given harmony can be interpreted in different ways, depending on its syntactic role in a musical context. We present data from a novel paradigm that cues listeners to the syntactic structure of the stimuli (but not whether they contain improbable events). Our main result revealed larger E(R)AN amplitudes for improbable chords when listeners knew that additional context would follow a surprising harmony; P3a and P600 amplitudes were also larger in such cases. Using the theoretical framework of predictive coding, we propose that, in such cases, listeners assign higher precision to their predictions, leading to larger prediction errors as indexed by the E(R)AN, P3a, and P600 ERP components, and that prior context alone does not fully explain how unpredictable events are processed. Musical surprisal arises from a dynamic interplay between bottom-up cues and a listener's top-down anticipation within specific syntactic contexts.

This study explored the types of code-switching in Acehnese songs sung by Bergek, an Acehnese pop musician, and identified additional phenomena of code-switching beyond existing theoretical frameworks. The data consisted of ten purposively selected Bergek’s songs collected from YouTube and Smule.com. The data were analyzed using a qualitative data analysis model that involves data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification. The data were categorized based on types of code-switching, including tag-switching (insertion of brief phrases or tags from one language into another), intra-sentential switching (the switch at the clausal, sentential, or word levels), and inter-sentential switching (alternation between clauses or sentences). The findings show that these three types of code-switching exist in Bergek’s songs, with intra-sentential switching being the most prevalent (80 occurrences), reflecting the complex integration of multiple languages within a single sentence. Inter-sentential switching is the second most dominant type, observed 36 times. Tag-switching is the least common type identified, with only four occurrences. Interestingly, other notable patterns were also discovered, including affixation (the combination of Acehnese affixes with Indonesian base words) and phonemic fusion, where phonetic elements from different languages were blended. These patterns occurred 14 times in total. These findings provide a detailed view of the frequency and variety of code-switching in Bergek’s songs, contributing to enhancing comprehension of language use in bilingual and multilingual musical contexts.

ABSTRACT When a new recording of Henry Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, the ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’, was released in 1992, it sparked a phenomenon in popularity that begged to be studied and understood within the cultural and musical context of its time. Most critics labelled the work as a kind of minimalism—‘holy’, ‘mystical’, or ‘spiritual’—and that label seems to have stuck. Since then, scholars have questioned the appropriateness of such labels, interrogating whether the symphony is distinctively ‘spiritual’ or even ‘minimalist’. But they seem resigned to the category’s continued use. This article reexamines the question, and the early reception history of Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, not so much decide whether the music deserves the label, but rather to consider what the application and usage of terms such as ‘mystical’ or ‘minimalist’ reveal about how critics and audiences perceived Górecki’s music, and what roles it played in their experience of it. Though stylistically the category of ‘mystical minimalist’ might remain problematic, its currency today continues to provide a useful lens for the examination of the Górecki phenomenon of the mid-1990s.

This study aims to examine the use of hyperbole in Story of the Year’s album, Live in the Lou, with an emphasis on its role in enhancing emotional expression and the intensity of the lyrical message. Specifically, this study will identify various manifestations of hyperbole in song lyrics, classify the types used, and analyze their meaning and communicative function within the narrative and musical context of each song. The method used in this study is descriptive qualitative, focusing on textual analysis of the song lyrics. The theory of figurative language, particularly hyperbole, is applied to analyze the data. The results show that hyperboles are frequently used to convey intense feelings such as love, anger, pain, and despair. These exaggerations help the band express emotional depth and connect with listeners on a personal level. It is concluded that hyperbole plays a significant role in enhancing the aesthetic and emotional value of the songs in the album.

This case study uses a comparative framework to examine the ethical implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in music reconstruction, expanding on prior research comparing audience sentiments across professional and amateur musical contexts. It investigates two distinct applications of AI in the domain of music. Study A utilises qualitative sentiment analysis of YouTube comments to assess spontaneous public responses to an AI-enhanced version of Queen's The Night Comes Down (2024 Mix – Single Version) , analysing the top 220 most-engaged comments collected in March 2025. Study B, based on previously collected data, employs a focus group methodology to examine structured discussions among experts regarding the AI-assisted reconstruction of semi-professional Austrian bands ( Schattenparker aus Wien and The Banana Trees ). A comparative analysis reveals a sharp divergence: while Study A showed predominantly negative reactions – commenters criticised pitch correction and AI-generated visuals as threats to authenticity, artistic integrity and Freddie Mercury's legacy – Study B participants largely welcomed AI as a democratising tool for enhancing and preserving amateur recordings. This contrast highlights the complex ethical and cultural tensions surrounding AI's role in creative industries, particularly the balance between innovation, artistic authenticity and audience trust. While AI-assisted reconstructions hold potential for democratising music production and archival preservation, these divergent responses underscore the need for clearer ethical guidelines. To address these concerns, we propose a voluntary labelling scheme as a metaphorical traffic-light to disclose the degree of AI intervention. We further recommend future empirical research to test such transparency mechanisms across genres, cultures and production settings.

Collaboration between improvising musicians requires a dynamic exchange of subtleties in human musical communication. Many musicians can intuit this information, however, translating this knowledge to embodied computer-driven musicianship systems—be they robotic or virtual musicians—remains an ongoing challenge. Methods of communicating musical information to computer-driven musicianship systems have traditionally been accomplished using an array of sensing techniques such as MIDI, audio, and video. However, utilizing musical information from the human brain has only been explored in limited social and musical contexts. This paper presents “BrAIn Jam,” utilizing functional near-infrared spectroscopy to monitor human drummers' brain states during musical collaboration with an AI-driven virtual musician. Our system includes a real-time algorithm for preprocessing and classifying brain data, enabling dynamic AI rhythm adjustments based on neural signal processing. Our formative study is conducted in two phases: (1) training individualized machine learning models using data collected during a controlled experiment, and (2) using these models to inform an embodied AI-driven virtual musician in a real-time improvised drumming collaboration. In this paper, we discuss our experimental approach to isolating a network of brain areas involved in music improvisation with embodied AI-driven musicians, a comparative analysis of several machine learning models, and post hoc analysis of brain activation to corroborate our findings. We then synthesize findings from interviews with our participants and report on the challenges and opportunities for designing music systems with functional near-infrared spectroscopy, as well as the applicability of other physiological sensing techniques for human and AI-driven musician communication.

Previous research on the far transfer effects of music performance training has primarily focused on its impact on general cognitive ability. However, it remains unclear whether such training could enable children and adolescents to be creative in other domains through the acquisition of self-regulation skills, which are essential for long-term creative achievement. To start addressing this gap, we develop a new perspective on how self-regulation skills acquired during music performance training, supported by parental psychological support, could transfer to other creative domains. This new perspective also highlights the relevant role of the parental psychological support in early childhood and adolescence, which is often understudied in research on transfer of music performance training. We build our new perspective on previous studies on the connection between music and far transfer, and self-regulation and creative achievement as well as studies on the link between social/parental support and self-regulation (in the music context). This paper constructs a new theoretical framework that could explain how different styles of parental psychological support (instructive, guiding, emotional, motivational, autonomous) are involved in the possible transferability of self-regulation skills from music performance training (e.g., self-setting goals, self-reinforcement, self-support) to other creative domains.

Abstract Academic inquiries into the motivations and experiences of live music audiences have typically focused on the communal and social experience of concerts and festivals, whereas the experience of individual concertgoers has been relatively unexplored, especially in popular music contexts. In this article, qualitative interviews and focus groups were undertaken with self-declared progressive rock fans to understand their often-individualised engagement with the live music experience. The findings demonstrate the importance of live music performance and appreciation, attentive listening, and detailed personal evaluation of the musicians and their performances to these fans. The co-presence of others in the live music setting served to legitimise not only these fans’ tastes in music but also their individualised way of engaging with, experiencing, and enjoying the concert experience: their preference for the ‘text’ over ‘context’.

The world’s folk art is one of the most significant topics in contemporary cultural practice, requiring careful analysis, as it is directly related to the processes of globalization, market transformations, and commerce. Art inevitably engages with themes of identity and self-determination, which become particularly pressing in nations confronting external challenges, as seen in Ukraine during the 2020s. This also applies to musical folklore, which remains an important source of inspiration for composers of academic music today. This article summarizes the role and significance of Ukrainian folk music in the work of 21st century composers. This study aims to examine the incorporation of folk music elements into modern symphonic, chamber, instrumental, and electronic compositions. The analysis focuses on works created between 2000 and 2024. This article analyzes the works of Ukrainian composers who work in a contemporary academic style and use elements of Ukrainian folk songs in their compositions. Folk motifs are integrated into various musical contexts, ranging from experimental electronic music to atonal and aleatoric orchestral textures, jazz harmonies, and dramatic moments in symphonic compositions. Globalization has posed new challenges to the world’s culture in terms of preserving folk art in modern conditions. However, Ukrainian folk art demonstrates considerable resilience and adaptability in the contemporary artistic environment.

This research examines Gong Yi's role in the preservation, evolution, and transmission of Guqin, a highly esteemed traditional Chinese musical instrument. Gong Yi has significantly contributed to the preservation of traditional repertoires and playing skills via rigorous training with distinguished masters from several Guqin schools. He has concurrently produced unique versions that incorporate Guqin into modern musical contexts, enhancing its appeal and accessibility. His educational achievements at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and community outreach initiatives have cultivated a new generation of musicians and aficionados, facilitating the instrument's transfer across many levels of involvement. Furthermore, Gong Yi’s international performance and lobbying have enhanced Guqin’s status as a vital intangible cultural property, aiding its UNESCO certification. His technical improvements, such as Pa Yin, Nian Lun, Yao Zhi, and Sanzhi Cuo, have greatly improved Guqin's expressive potential while maintaining its traditional style. Gong Yi established Guqin's place in Chinese cultural heritage and modern creative expression by using a method that is both historically accurate and relevant today.

Abstract The integration of real-time music information retrieval techniques into musical instruments is a crucial step towards smart musical instruments that can reason about the musical context. This paper presents a real-time guitar playing technique recognition system for a smart electro-acoustic guitar. The proposed system comprises a software recognition pipeline running on a Raspberry Pi 4 and is designed to listen to the guitar’s audio signal and classify each note into eight playing techniques, both pitched and percussive. Real-time playing technique information is used in real-time to allow the musician to control wirelessly-connected stage equipment during performance. The recognition pipeline includes an onset detector, feature extractors, and a convolutional neural classifier. Four pipeline configurations are proposed, striking different balances between accuracy and sound-to-result latency. Results show how optimal performance improvements occur when latency constraints are increased from 15 to 45 ms, with performance varying between pitched and percussive techniques based on available audio context. Our findings highlight the challenges of generalization across players and instruments, demonstrating that accurate recognition requires substantial datasets and carefully selected cross-validation strategies. The research also reveals how individual player styles significantly impact technique recognition performance.

This paper uses a theoretical approach to explore the applicability of a two-dimensional cellular automaton based on melodic and harmonic intervals in random arrays of musical notes. Our aim is to explore alternative uses for a cellular automaton in the musical context for better understanding musical creativity. We use the complex systems and humanities approaches as a framework for capturing the essence of creating music based on rules of music theory. Findings suggest that such rules matter for generating large-scale patterns of organized notes. Therefore, our formulation provides a novel approach for understanding and replicating aspects of musical creativity.

Algorithmic composition is the use of automated processes in music composition as a means of removing human intervention from the compositional process. Many composers throughout history have experimented with diverse approaches, with or without the computer. This STUDY is an exploration of the potentials of random walk in music composition using the Nyquist IDE. While random walks possess inherent limitations, such as their unbounded range, they can generate sequences of pitches that resemble melodies with constraints applied. According to the analysis, linear functions were particular effective in shaping melodic contours. Pitches deviating from the established chord progression were quantized to maintain consonance. A worked example inspired by Canon in D illustrates how this approach can generate distinctive harmonic textures, highlighting its creative potential. This model holds relevance across diverse musical contexts, from real-time improvisation for multimedia to collaborative composition and performance, offering artists a tool for inspiration and an accessible means of composition.