Musical Imagination Research Articles

The Role of Musical Imagination and Music Perception in Violin Performance

Musical imagination and music perception play significant roles in violin performance. Learning the violin requires not only mastering techniques but also understanding the intrinsic logic, emotional expression, and detail handling of musical works. Musical imagination helps students better comprehend and memorize music by visualizing the structure and melodies of musical compositions, thus linking them closely with techniques. On the other hand, music perception enables performers to sensitively perceive emotions, details, and coordination in ensemble playing, leading to precise expression and harmonious performance. This paper explores the strategies of applying musical imagination and music perception in violin learning to enhance performance skills and artistic expression.

Application of music therapy during the COVID-19

The sudden attack of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the rapid spread of the virus, has caused a severe impact on the psychology of medical staff, patients and ordinary people. In order to reduce the negative impact of the epidemic on the people's psychology, China has begun to provide professional music mental health services for different groups of people to reduce the psychological harm caused by the epidemic. Chinese music therapists actively participated in epidemic prevention operations and launched a number of "fighting the epidemic-psychological assistance for music therapy" programs. According to people's emotional and psychological adjustment needs during the epidemic, the project carried out music psychological public welfare activities for various key groups. Activities include music listening, music relaxation, music imagination, music painting, song discussion, song lyrics, body rhythm, etc., from listening and experiencing music to participating music interaction and other rich group music psychological activities. Through music experience and interaction, the activity relieves negative emotions such as anxiety and depression, increases positive and pleasant emotions, promotes communication and interaction among participants, reduces loneliness caused by isolation, and promotes family harmony.

Application of music therapy during the COVID-19

The sudden attack of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the rapid spread of the virus, has caused a severe impact on the psychology of medical staff, patients and ordinary people. In order to reduce the negative impact of the epidemic on the people's psychology, China has begun to provide professional music mental health services for different groups of people to reduce the psychological harm caused by the epidemic. Chinese music therapists actively participated in epidemic prevention operations and launched a number of "fighting the epidemic-psychological assistance for music therapy" programs. According to people's emotional and psychological adjustment needs during the epidemic, the project carried out music psychological public welfare activities for various key groups. Activities include music listening, music relaxation, music imagination, music painting, song discussion, song lyrics, body rhythm, etc., from listening and experiencing music to participating music interaction and other rich group music psychological activities. Through music experience and interaction, the activity relieves negative emotions such as anxiety and depression, increases positive and pleasant emotions, promotes communication and interaction among participants, reduces loneliness caused by isolation, and promotes family harmony.

A Pedagogical Analysis of Darius Mihaud’ s Piano Duet Suite Scaramouche

With the development of piano education, higher music colleges and universities are exploring scientific teaching methods, and the teaching mode of piano duet has entered the public’s view as an effective way to cultivate students’ musical perception. In today’s research, the performance analysis of piano duet has been involved, but the pedagogical analysis of the repertoire has not been explored in depth. Therefore, the study of analyzing repertoire with pedagogical analysis as the main body is very beneficial to the development of piano education. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the current situation of piano duet teaching, analyze it through hardware and software, and elaborate the important value of piano duet teaching. Taking French composer Mihaud’s Piano Duet Suite Scaramouche as an example, we start from the ontological analysis of the music, and study its compositional structure and the three major features of neoclassicism. On this basis, visual full score exercises, aural level and phrase exercises, and exercises of musical imagination are discussed in detail for pedagogical analysis. This paper follows the logic from macroscopic to microscopic to form a systematic teaching method of piano duet, with a view to providing reference and insight for the current research on the teaching of piano duet by applying analysis in piano education.

CONFLUENCES BETWEEN KOELLREUTTER'S PEDAGOGY AND MUSICAL IMAGINATION

Hans-Joachim Koellreutter's Active, Creative or Open Pedagogy, as a way of musical thinking, can present many transversalities and intersections with the concept and application of the term Musical Imagination. This is the question that motivated this study. For this purpose, we will use the analytical-descriptive method with a fulcrum in the Literature Review. Thus, we intend to draw some notes that lead towards the interface between the plans considering the scope of the adopted concept of Musical Imagination to encompass the set of phases that constitute the Creative Process (or “poíesis”). In this perspective, such entanglements go “pari passu” with the notions of Becoming, Flow and Rhizome established by the master; however, they find in the prevalence of Musical Making their greatest significant load having the ability to educate more expressive and reflective artists and educators.

Musical Imagination and Reading: The Role of Sight-Reading in the Constitution of Brazilian Musical Genres

We focus on professional Brazilian music of the instrumental genre and address the crucial role of sight-reading in its development. We argue that in addition to the standard concept of sight-reading — related to the strict deciphering of signs on the pentagram — other reading praxis founded, over the last two centuries, what came to be recognized as Brazilian music. In this sense, we highlight that the notational format internationally known as lead sheet (the notational standard used in the context in question) not only enabled the availability of essen-tial musical elements for the singularization of work and authorship but also led to the con-solidation of the collection of images musicals that constituted the genre in question. In this way, the interaction of imagined simulations of generic patterns—the action of embodied memory — with reading the lead sheet gave rise to works and defined a repertoire. Consid-ering assumptions of embodied cognition of music, stylistic-musical foundations, and the analysis of recordings and transcriptions, we speculate attributing a central role to sight-read-ing in the constitution of the stylistic field addressed — primarily represented by Choro. It is a musical production originated by and in performance, encompassing phrasal and harmonic improvisation, modes of articulation, and sonority.

TRAVERSING SONIC TERRITORIES (TST)

What happens when musicians improvising on acoustic instruments sample and exchange their sound libraries? How can such a transgression of sonic territories contribute to an expanded understanding of one’s own sonic identity? And could this b/lending of identities point to a more ambiguous yet vibrant field of intra-play? Departing from these questions, this project intends to challenge our idea of sonic identity as a personal subject-oriented entity, and consequently investigate how a collaborative sharing of sampled sounds, can contribute to an expanded understanding of the sounds we play and are played by. Individual idiomatic approaches to one’s own instrument are thus interfered as we transgress habitual boundaries for action possibilities and musical imagination. The practice circulates from the duo of Torben Snekkestad and Søren Kjærgaard toward external collaborators, where the sharing process involves different approaches to audio sampling and mapping, embedding and embodying, listening and playing with each other’s sonic material to a point where authorship, origin, instrument and sonic identity is diffracted.

HYPERBOLIC SPACE AND VIOLETA DINESCU'S MUSICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE ‘WOMAN'S SOUL’

AbstractThis paper proposes an approach to the representation of mental musical space, understood here as a mental ‘hologram’ of a musical structure created while composing or listening to a piece of music. Composers claim to ‘hear’ music in their mind and ‘see’ it in their spatial imagination; normally we see music graphically represented on two-dimensional staves, but we could mentally decode it in a three- or multi-dimensional space, and I argue that Violeta Dinescu's musical vision occupies a non-Euclidean imaginary musical space rather than the Western classical-music template. Dinescu's graphical design suggests a hyperbolic space, distorting the musical parameters accordingly. Two of her works are discussed: Gehen wir zu Grúschenka, for cello with voice ad libitum, and Herzriss – Aus deinem Herzen kannst du die Liebe nicht ausreißen, an opera for solo voice(s), percussion and cello. The first views the behaviour of musical parameters as if in an imaginary hyperbolic space; the latter exemplifies intertextuality in a cultural hyperbolic space. Both are metaphors of the woman's soul.

Blake and Music, 2022

If 2021 saw a considerable addition to the corpus of Blake settings and tracks inspired by his poetry, 2022 witnessed something of an explosion, with almost a hundred releases recorded from this year alone. As has been evident for some time, this rapid acceleration is due to the growth of streaming services, with almost every track in the listings below being offered by Amazon, Apple, Spotify or—​increasingly popular with artists—​Bandcamp. As the barriers to entry decline, more and more independent artists are making their music available. This, of course, is true of all music, but it is significant that Blake’s hold on the musical imagination is growing (and not just in terms of new versions of old favorites, such as “Jerusalem” or “The Tyger”).

Poetry of Zbigniew Herbert as Inspiration for Zygmunt Mycielski’s Compositions

An important role in Zygmunt Mycielski’s compositional oeuvre was played by works inspired by the poetry of Polish twentieth-century authors: Czesław Miłosz, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Paweł Hertz and Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński. The composer was a friend of these poets and their oeuvre had a strong impact on his musical imagination. This is also true of the oeuvre of Zbigniew Herbert, whose poems inspired two compositions by Mycielski – Six Songs for Orchestra (1978) and Eight Songs to Words by Zbigniew Herbert for baritone and piano (1984). The article focuses on both pieces in the light of their links to Herbert’s poetry, with the author presenting a broader context of their origin.

The Musical Depiction of Chaos and Creation in Jean-Féry Rebel’s “Les Éléments”

The Creation of the Universe is a theme that inspired artists and musicians throughout the ages. However, it was not only the idea of creation that aroused the interest of these artists, but also the existence of Chaos, which is believed to have preceded the act of creation. In the France of Louis XIV, arts and music were profoundly influenced by Classical Antiquity, as proven by the artworks of this era. Artists and composers sought to depict the creation of the Universe, often resorting to the theory of elements – however, this was subordinated to the ideas of the Catholic doctrine. An interesting musical representation of Chaos and the creation of the Universe belongs to Jean-Féry Rebel (1666- 1747), who played an important part in the evolution of the French Baroque. In the simfonie nouvelle for orchestra Les Élements (1737-1738), the composer evokes the state of chaos that preceded the act of creation, using certain harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic constructions. The entire work reflects the aesthetic ideal of the French Baroque, that approaches art as harmonious imitation of nature. In Rebel’s work the primordial elements gradually become distinct, each receives a clear musical and rhythmic profile, allowing them to be easily identified throughout the work. Rebel also associates these elements to certain dances, as can be observed in the musical numbers that follow the Chaos, the fluidity and grace of the music reflecting the balanced and refined dance movements of the period. Rebel’s musical evocation points to future representations of this theme, at the same time containing several features that prove the composer’s visionary musical imagination.

The Role of Musical Imagination and Music Perception in Violin Performance

The Role of Musical Imagination and Music Perception in Violin Performance

Storytelling: An Engaging Teaching Tool in Ensemble Classes

How can music educators create an engaging and supportive learning environment in ensemble classes? I propose using storytelling as a teaching tool to foster music learning and musical engagement in a relaxed, inviting, and focused atmosphere. Although storytelling cannot replace traditional teaching methods, it can help students understand technical concepts, develop bodily sensations, improve musical imagination, and develop a sense of community. I therefore address different aspects of storytelling to promote a more informed use of stories in ensemble classes.

"Sound of Friendship": Music Iconography in Twentieth-Century Africa–China Relations

This essay examines the role of music in twentieth-century Africa–China relations by analyzing musical performances' contribution to the production and circulation of knowledge about Africa in China through musical imagination. Drawing on archival and multimedia sources, this essay focuses on the figure of Zhu Mingying—an influential Chinese musician in the twentieth century—as a case study to analyze how African imagery is deployed and circulated in music making and marketing practices in China, as well as its implications for developments in Africa–China relations. This essay contributes to a growing body of scholarship on Africa–China relations that addresses the humanistic as opposed to popular metanarratives of trade, aid, security, and investment.

Creativity in Hong Kong’s special schools’ music classrooms

ABSTRACT To investigate music teachers’ perceptions and concerns in fostering music creativity of students with intellectual disabilities, findings are presented from a study of nine music teachers purposely sampled from across all three categories (mild, medium, severe) of Hong Kong’s special school for students with intellectual disabilities. Personal profiles identify respondents’ displaying three professional knowledge gaps – music expertise, special-education training and prior experience of being taught ‘creativity’. Findings also indicate that respondents add to the creativity literature: first by supplementing Hargreaves’ [2012. “Musical Imagination: Perception and Production, Beauty and Creativity.” Psychology of Music 40 (5): 539–557] ‘process’ to include ‘music making’ and ‘body movement’, and second, that music creativity may be described as a spectrum that embraces various forms of expressions.

Music and Sound in the Life and Literature of James Joyce: Joyces Noyces by Gerry Smyth

Reviewed by: Music and Sound in the Life and Literature of James Joyce: Joyces Noyces by Gerry Smyth Annika J. Lindskog (bio) MUSIC AND SOUND IN THE LIFE AND LITERATURE OF JAMES JOYCE: JOYCES NOYCES, by Gerry Smyth. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. 268 pp. $90.00. Before James Joyce settled on becoming a writer, he was drawn to music and considered a career as a singer. This passion is evident in his writing in many different ways, starting with the rhythms of Chamber Music and on to "The Lass of Aughrim," which so shakes Gretta in "The Dead"—"Distant Music he would call the picture if he were a painter"1—and the experimental "ear" episode in Ulysses, "Sirens."2 In another way, music is omnipresent in Joyce's writing in the prosody of his language and his perceptiveness to sounds. In the words of Clive Bell, who was not a particular fan, Joyce wrote a kind of "jazz prose," one of the first critical comments on the musical aspects of Joyce's works.3 Music in Joyce's works has since drawn considerable critical attention, with studies by Zack Bowen, Jack W. Weaver, Matthew Hodgart and Ruth Bauerle, Brad Bucknell, and Michelle Witen, which is just to scratch the surface.4 With his latest study, Music and Sound in the Life and Literature of James Joyce, Gerry Smyth again adds to what he himself specifies as a "subfield" within the Joyce critical industry that was there from the start (66). I write "again" since this is not, in fact, Smyth's first foray into musical Joyce; his Celtic Tiger Blues: Music and Irish Identity has several chapters on Joyce's Chamber Music.5 He has also written essays on other aspects of Joyce, most notably on betrayal, and widely on Irish literature and music.6 Do we need another book on Joyce and music? I am not fully convinced, even though Smyth writes well and interestingly on almost all topics he approaches. He is not particularly explicit about what he brings to the conversation; while he spends some thirty pages on previous criticism of musical Joyce—a huge favor to any future critic venturing into this field—he never really positions his own work vis-à-vis this scholarship. As he himself acknowledges, his study offers "no specific 'thesis' to bring to bear other than its focus on JJ's response to music as both a personal predilection and a professional opportunity" (91). Much as Smyth makes "thesis" sound like a bit of a dirty word here, this is a fair description of his study, in which he does not present a unified picture of music in Joyce's works, but rather dips down a little here and there, as he pleases. This approach works mostly well and enables Smyth—especially in the second half of the study—to offer more sustained analysis of some of Joyce's "noyces" rather than to give a more cursory account of the whole. At times, though, I wish that Smyth would help his readers more; he sometimes neglects not only to offer any thesis but to tell us what he is about at all, which makes for difficult reading. This is the [End Page 369] case with the fragmentary and confusing "Three Lives" (4) that opens the study and offers three brief biographical sketches of Irish musicians (Edward Ceannt, Ina Boyle, and John McCormack). Apparently, the chapter reflects "issue[s] bearing upon Joyce's musical imagination" (3), or so the abstract in the electronic edition informs me—the text itself does not explain how or even mention Joyce, except in the last sketch, where Smyth notes that "JJ's profuse admiration for McCormack . . . remained tinged with jealousy" (7). McCormack is also the only musician of the three who reappears in the study. "Three Lives" opens the first of two larger sections in the text, which is called "Reading and Writing" (1). Here, Smyth discusses various topics that are sometimes related to Joyce but at other times delve more into the musical context of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. For example, Smyth considers whether Joyce could have become a composer (possibly), his...

Extreme Exoticism: Japan in the American Musical Imagination, by W. Anthony Sheppard

<i>Extreme Exoticism: Japan in the American Musical Imagination</i>, by W. Anthony Sheppard

James Porter, Beyond Fingal's Cave: Ossian in the Musical Imagination (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2019). xxi + 401 pp. $99.00.

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The Application of Micro Class in Middle School Music Education

In order to help middle school students realize the coordinated development of music appreciation ability and aesthetic character, each middle school also began to gradually carry out the innovation of micro class in music teaching classroom. However, because many middle school students lack of thinking perception of music, and the conventional middle school music class cannot expand their music imagination. Therefore, on the basis of clear investigation and research on the learning ways of micro class, middle school music teachers must optimize the teaching effect of middle school music, so as to help students complete the transformation of music thinking development and gradually optimize their music appreciation character.

Violin technique and the contrapuntal imagination in 17th-century German lands

Abstract This article examines the interplay of performing technique and compositional structure in the works of four violinist-composers from late 17th-century German-speaking lands: Johann Jakob Walther, Johann Paul von Westhoff, Heinrich Biber and Johann Georg Pisendel. Focusing on these musicians’ complex polyphonic writing, the article argues that the physical techniques necessary to perform their works—specifically, those developed as a corrective to the challenges of pre-chinrest shifting—are associated with a particular way of conceptualizing and imagining counterpoint on the violin. The article goes on to trace the legacy of violinistic counterpoint in the music of later composers, including in Johann Sebastian Bach’s unaccompanied Sonatas and Partitas, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Trio, op.9 no.1. Along the way, the article speculates as to whether the musical imaginations of past composers, performers and listeners are accessible to modern-day enquiry. It concludes by arguing that a lack of explicit documentary evidence need not be an impediment in the investigation of historical practices, providing an alternative to the ‘positivistic’ approach often criticized in recent discussions of historically informed performance.