Musical Interpretation Research Articles

Mythological spaces in the symphonic works of Vincent d'Indy

The purpose of the article. To reveal the significance of myths and legends as the basis of general artistic principles in comprehending the reality of V. d'Indy. Explore “myth-thinking” in creativity, as a method of perceiving a man of his destiny and his place in history through the prism of the centuries-old cultural experience. Methodology. The research is based on a comprehensive approach (in the consideration of the musical, poetic and literary-critical activities of V. d'Indy). Structural, analytical-comparative (in representation`s forms of the myth`s interpretation and the musical interpretations) methods are used. The method of deductive-inductive is used to specify the phenomena and processes considered in the work. The scientific novelty consists in studying the semantics of mythological plots, their ontological and axiological characteristics. Conclusion. The constitution of the content of the symphonic works of V. d'Indy, appealing to the mythopoetic images, propagates the spiritual values of humanity that, at the same time, appear to be important moral and ethical concepts of the artist's outlook, namely: faith, hope and love.

A performing musician’s oeuvre through the prism of phenomenology.

A performing musician’s oeuvre through the prism of phenomenology.

Protocolo de Avaliação da Discriminação da Fala no Ruído com Implantes Auditivos

INTRODUÇÃO: A discriminação da fala no ruído tal como a interpretação musical estão entre os maiores desafios de um doente portador de um implante auditivo.O objetivo do estudo foi apresentar os testes de avaliação de discriminação da fala em ambientes com ruído e apreciar a sua utilização na prática clínica diária.MÉTODOS: Os autores propõem um protocolo de avaliação da discriminação da fala em ambientes com ruído para doentes candidatos a implantes auditivos, com o intuito de avaliar a integração da informação binaural. Foram utilizadas quatro colunas, dispostas no azimute 0°, 90°, 180° e 270°. Foi apresentada a conjugação de palavras/ frases com ruído branco ou som de cafetaria em quatro condições possíveis, sendo no global avaliados 16 parâmetros.RESULTADOS: O resultado é a percentagem de palavras e frases que o doente repete corretamente. Foi realizada a comparação pré e pós-operatória.CONCLUSÃO: Paralelamente ao estudo da localização espacial do som, considera-se que esta avaliação permitirá compreender a assimilação da informação auditiva dos doentes com implantes auditivos e avaliar a sua real integração binaural.

Entwine – finding music within a poem.

Entwine – finding music within a poem. Exploring musical interpretations of Japanese Tanka by Yosano Akiko What can be the contemporary musical expressions of tanka poetry from a standpoint of an improvising jazz vocalist? What are the elements that constitute tanka’s character and can they trigger a vocal inspiration? What could be the place of Japanese poetry within other artistic disciplines? In my research I have explored Japanese aesthetic sensibilities and have tried to find their translations into my own musical experimentation. After initial study of the relevant literature and listening to the existing works of both classical Japanese music and Western contemporary compositions influenced by the Japanese arts, I have proceeded with my own vocal- instrumental Sketches in which I have experimented with improvised and written music. My source material was tanka of an early 20th century poet Yosano Akiko. The improvisations and compositional sketches are based on some specifically chosen elements: the imagery and meaning of the tanka poem, layered Ukiyo-e printing technique, sound associations derived from the paintings, Japanese language sonority, Japanese scales and harmony used in the traditional gagaku ensemble and other inspirations. The final research document contains audio examples of the recordings that led to the final audio-visual presentation and an extensive paper documenting the process of discovery.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FOR RECEIVING MUSICAL NOTATION FROM MUSIC MIDI FORMAT FILES

This article focuses on the choice of the optimal way of converting MIDI music files into musical notes.MIDI(Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a standard for transmitting information between electronic musical instruments. It was developed in 1983, which makes it possible to communicate electro music instruments, computers, and other MIDI-compatible equipment, carry out one management tool for others.MIDIdoes not transmit audio information, but it works with "messages," such as the height and dynamics of the notes on the instrument, control signals for parameters such as volume, panorama, timing signals for tempo synchronization, etc.MIDIis marked by an extremely widespread.In this article, an algorithm of receiving musical notes fromMIDImusic files is implemented. The algorithm works fast, allowing the musicians to convert any melody into a noted instrument with the possibility of printing in real-time. With the development of the technology of musical programming arose a new object-in method of studying creativity. It calls modeling (reproduction or imitation) of some aspects of the objects studied or processes. It gives you the ability to start learning a musical instrument because you can simulate the process of playing any melody in the application. It is convenient for professional musicians because of the availability of music notes from music files with the ability to adjust tonality, time signature, duration, playback speed, with the possibility of transposition and modulation, etc.The developed software allows to get a musical interpretation of any melodies in MIDI format in real time with possibility to simulate playing these melodies on a musical instrument.

Вірш О. Пушкіна «Я возмужал среди печальных бурь» у двох музичних прочитаннях українських композиторів – Є. Станковича та Ю. Іщенка

У статті розглянуто ІІ частину Камерної симфонії № 4 «Пам’яті Поета» Є. Станковича, а також романс для голосу з фортепіано Ю. Іщенка. Центральним для Станковича став образ «небесної лазурі», що вплинуло на загальний просвітлений та умиротворений характер музики. Іщенко акцентує внутрішню напругу, сумніви та тривогу як домінантні образи. Об’єднуючим елементом музичних прочитань виступила гармонія, якій обидва композитори відвели першочергову роль.

Variety and multiplicity for partitioned factors in Christoffel and Sturmian words

The fundamental results in mathematical music theory due to Clough and Myerson, Cardinality equals Variety (CV) and Structure yields Multiplicity (SM), correspond to statements about Christoffel words. These results may be stated and proved in a purely word-theoretic environment by means of the concept of a partitioned factor. In this setting, the generalized circle of fifths of Clough and Myerson is replaced by the lexicographic order of word theory, and their notion of the generic description of a musical line is replaced by that of a partitioned factor of a circular Christoffel word. Sturmian words are the infinite counterparts to Christoffel words, characterized as aperiodic but of minimal complexity, i.e. words such that for all there are n+1 factors of length n. Berthé showed that the factors of a given length have at most three frequencies (probabilities). Drawing on previous work, we extend to results on factors under a fixed partitioning (decompositions of factors of length n into concatenations of words whose lengths are given by a composition of n into k parts). Any factor of a Sturmian word thus partitioned into k components belongs to one of k+1 types (varieties). We show how to compute the frequencies of the varieties. These results recapture CV and SM in Sturmian words, and we suggest musical interpretations, parallel to those in the finitary case.

Expressive Meaning and the Empirical Analysis of Musical Gesture

Many investigations of the expressive meaning of musical works rely only on the musical interpretations and intuitions of the author. While invaluable, theorists’ analyses are often biased or contradict one another. This paper presents a novel empirical approach to analyzing musical expression, in which the interpretations of individual theorists are balanced with listener reception in a broader audience, in this case a group of 110 music students from two universities. This new paradigm, which I have termed “the progressive exposure method,” presents a larger excerpt in shorter discrete segments. An exploratory case study illustrates the progressive exposure method through an analysis of the expressive meaning of the second movement of Beethoven’sPathétiqueSonata. When the results are amalgamated, a diachronic portrait emerges of cognitively complex emotions blended together as they unfold throughout the movement. This article provides readers with a hands-on, interactive tool for examining all of the results of the study. By presenting short musical gestures to listeners, a bottom-up, data-driven analysis of the expressive meaning of musical gestures and topics in the movement is possible. The consequent analytical results intersect in unique ways with more traditional theoretical and analytical practices, illustrating original applications of empirical methods to existing theories of musical expression as a means of providing converging evidence for those theories. Specifically, the results of this intersubjective analysis are discussed in light of theories of musical meaning by Hatten, Meyer, Narmour, Huron, and Margulis, and the results provide a new opportunity to directly and empirically testing a number of these authors’ hypotheses.

Reception of the poem «Do not sing, beauties with me» O.S. Pushkin in the music of the XIX and XX centuries

The purpose of article is to consider musical interpretations of A.S. Pushkin «Do not sing, a beauty with me» through the prism of the receptive approach, revealing the specifics of the implementation of this poem in selected romances of composers of the ХІХ and ХХ centuries. Methodology. The basis of this study is the system-semiological method; аlso, comparative, analytical and genre-nominative approaches are used in the work. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by the inadequate elaboration of the receptive approach in the musicological literature, and also by the attempt to present the poem by A.S. Pushkin «Do not sing, beauty with me» as an open work for composer interpretations, revealing its semantic mobility. Conclusions. Pushkin’s poem «Do not sing, a beauty with me» is an implicitly constructed text containing a conditional (final) meaning for a new reception event. This allows us to talk about the embodiment of the principles of the so-called creative or productive reception, the result of which is the emergence of a new composition. This reception clearly and convincingly reflects the dialogic nature of art, which is based on the principle of potential co-creation.

Aspectos e sugestões interpretativas em obras para trombone solista do Maestro Duda

The present article is the final result of the research on the interpretation of musical works for trombone soloist composed by the famous conductor, Maestro Duda, developed in the Postgraduate Program in Music of the Music School of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (PPGMUS-UFRN). With this research, we could make interpretative suggestions that would help the trombonist in the preparation and execution procedures of the studied works: Two Dances (Gizelle and Marquinho in Frevo), Fantasia for Trumpet and Trombone and Suíte Monette. Therefore, we will present some questions which result from the research related to Maestro Duda, about the musical interpretation, and the main results regarding aspects and interpretative suggestions in the works studied

ХОРОВІ ТВОРИ МИКОЛИ ЛАСТОВЕЦЬКОГО НА СЛОВА ЛЕСІ УКРАЇНКИ: ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПРОЧИТАННЯ

Іn every national culture we hear the names of poets, which are significant for each people. Such significant poetic triads for Ukrainians are Shevchenko, Franko, and Lesya Ukrayinka. The significance of their creativity can not be overemphasized: they have left not only high poetry for us, but also an example of service to our people, an example of a struggle for the future. The most prominent poets of our people have written many scientific works, works of art. Shevchenko, Franko, Lesyia Ukrainka’s poems inspired more than one generation of composers to create music of different genres and styles.The poetic gift of Lesya Ukrayinka grew on the basis of Ukrainian folk songs. The first “musical education” was the songs sung by ordinary women in their villages in Volyn. Piano lessons of Olha Dekonor developed the musical talent of the future poetess and forever left her love for music in her heart. In the rhythm-intonational structure of each of Lesya Ukrayinka’s poems the melody, the meter, and the dynamics are already laid.The special color and poetry gained importance in the choral works of Mykola Lastovetskiy – contemporary Ukrainian composer, musicologist, teacher, Honored Artist of Ukraine, member of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine. Choirs of M. Lastovetskiy on the words of Lesya Ukrayinka performed by different teams, but now described and analyzed by musicologists insufficient given that published recently – the first collection “Melodies and sadness Spring” was published in 2016, the collection “Contra spem spero!” is being prepared to print.The article shows the features of musical interpretation of the poetic cycle “Melodies” of Lesya Ukrayinka based on the analysis of literary and musical expressive means in choral cycle “Melodies of sorrow and hope” of Mykola Lastovetskiy. The rhythm-melodic and metro-rhythmic features of the poetry cycle of Lesya Ukrayinka, which formed the basis of the musical interpretation by the composer, have been analyzed. The article highlights the importance of musical and literary expressions in creating the composite integrity.

Review: Music and Embodied Cognition: Listening, Moving, Feeling, and Thinking, by Arnie Cox

Music and Embodied Cognition: Listening, Moving, Feeling, and Thinking , by Arnie Cox. Musical Meaning and Interpretation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016. viii, 288 pp. Embodied Cognition (EC) is a fertile research area at the intersection of disciplines including cognitive science, philosophy of mind, neuroscience, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and psychology.1 Broadly speaking, advocates of EC assume that cognition depends directly on the brain-body system as a functional whole, and cannot be reduced to the sole activity of the brain. In other words, our mental life is co-constituted by brain and body2—no cognitive process can occur without being deeply integrated with the living organism's body-in-action.3 This view promotes a primacy of sensorimotor experience over more complex (i.e., propositional) mental operations: in light of their biological (bodily, phenomenological, etc.) complexity, cognitive systems can immediately develop meaningful understandings of their world through active participation, without relying on representational recovery. Indeed, if our cognitive resources are distributed across body and environment via continuous loops of action and perception, then many of the standard explanatory tools adopted in psychology (representations, concepts, etc.) could be replaced by components and processes central to such brain-body-world dynamical coupling. Accordingly, the explanatory unit required to capture what cognition entails goes beyond brains, neural activations, mental representations, or computations. It rather emerges from the circular patterns of activity continuously enacted by the organism—within a given niche—at various levels and timescales.4 Such a perspective stands in open contrast to more traditional views, which instead base mental life on an amodal information-processing schema decoupled …

Musical interpretation: case study in musical instrument practice learning vocational high school

This study was intended to reveal: (1) the dimensions of musical interpretation taught; (2) the strategy used by teachers to introduce musical interpretation in instrument practice class; and (3) teacher’s ability or competence to teach musical interpretation. This research is case study, with the subjects were 12 teachers responsible for instrument practice class. They were selected using purposive sampling method. The data collection method used were in-depth interviews, passive participation observation, documentation and focus group discussion (FGD). The instrument of study was the researcher herself. Data validity was conduct triangulation by reviewing data acquired from a source. All data then were analyzed using interactive model which included data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion/verification. The results show that: (1) the dimensions of musical interpretation taught in every instrument practice class, were only dimensions of knowledge; (2) the strategy used by teachers when teaching musical interpretation was a direct strategy, teacher-centered learning approach, and used individual approach; and (3) teachers’ competence in teaching musical interpretation must be improved, both pedagogical and professional competences.

ІНТЕРПРЕТАЦІЯ ПОЕЗІЙ ОЛЕКСАНДРА ОЛЕСЯ ТА ОЛЕГА ОЛЬЖИЧА У ТВОРЧОСТІ БОГДАНИ ФІЛЬЦ: СУСПІЛЬНО-КРЕАТИВНИЙ АСПЕКТ

The primary task of the creative intelligentsia is the upbringing of the nation, work for the growth of its cultural and intellectual level. The social and creative aspect of musical culture is at this stage in the adoption of a national idea – the idea of state independence, in the incarnation of the unity of the nation as a guarantee of Ukrainians as a guarantee of the development of the state.The awareness of the need for the consolidation of all intellectual forces around the national idea, set forth in the poems of the representatives of the “Prague School” Oles and Olzhich, resonates with contemporary thoughts and ideas of Ukrainian society. The struggle for the nation’s spiritual sovereignty is based on the preservation of history and traditions, the advocacy of national identity. The composer’s work B. Filts is based on the principles of musical nationalism, which is in the national consciousness and expressed in creativity, based on national cultural values.The motive force of national progress in the poetry of Olesia and Olzhich is optimism, amplified by the musical interpretation of Bohdan? Filts. The creativity of Bohdan Filts is directed primarily at the education of the nation, on the establishment of its belief in itself, in its state.The article is devoted to the analysis of vocal compositions of Ukrainian composer Bohdan Filts for the words of representatives of the “Prague School” by Oleksander Oles and Oleh Olzhich in the context of national culture. The intelligence focuses on the embodiment of the national idea in the new vocal works of Bohdan Filts on the basis of an analytical approach to literary and musical expressions. The specificity of composer thinking is explored, social and creative aspects of creativity B.Filz are considered, directions of development of national musical culture are determined.

Interculturalism through a cognitive filter: Gilles Tremblay recomposes gamelan in Oralléluiants [1975

In an article on the impact of gamelan music on Claude Debussy's musical language, Nicholas Cook shows Debussy's musical interpretations that navigate between viewpoints that claim that the gamelan presents "confirmation" of the principles that have been acquired by French composers and others who judge inspired techniques from the gamelan to imitate foreign musical culture. This article applies Cook's thought to the Javanese gamelan inspiration case in Oralléluiants (1975) by Gilles Tremblay (1932-2017), by trying to go beyond the opposition between pastiche orientalist style and deeper style assimilation by giving credit to the composer Québécois. This paper proposes the idea of "cognitive filters" as a way to understand how gamelan affects Tremblay without the same effect on other composers who are exposed to the same musical culture. The phrase "cognitive filter" shows every musical schematic that listeners have not mastered in terms of their training, ability, acculturation and psychological specificity, and that represents an order perceptual data to enable in the capture of previously unknown music.

Creative Processes in the Shaping of a Musical Interpretation: A Study of Nine Professional Musicians.

Various studies have been conducted to understand the role of mental representation when musicians practice or perform music (Lehman and Ericsson, 1997; Sloboda, 2005) and the work steps required for a musician to prepare a concert (Chaffin et al., 2003). More recent studies examine creativity in the shaping of a musical interpretation (Lisboa et al., 2011; Payne, 2016; Barros et al., 2017; Wise et al., 2017). However, none of these studies answers the following questions: Why do expert musicians working from the same score create different musical interpretations? During individual practice sessions, what happens that allows each musician to produce significantly different interpretive results? To answer these questions, we instructed nine expert musicians to record their individual practice sessions, verbalize their actions and thoughts, and answer a self-reflection questionnaire. A third-party observer also described what happened during the practice sessions. We conducted interviews in order to gather additional information about the contents of the individual practice sessions; the musicians' usual work habits; and their beliefs, values, and ideas regarding the role of the musician in the creative process. Based on the methodology of Analyse par théorisation ancrée1 (Paillé, 1994), we were able to take into account a diverse data set and identify aspects of the creative process that were specific to each individual as well as elements that all musicians shared. We found that the context in which the creative process takes place—the musician (e.g., his or her values and knowledge); the musical work (e.g., style, technical aspects, etc.); and the external constraints (e.g., deadlines, public expectations, etc.)—impacted the strategies used. The participants used reflection, extramusical supports, emotions, body reactions, intuition, and other tools to generate new musical ideas and evaluate the accuracy of their musical interpretations. We identified elements related to those already discussed in the literature, including the creative process as an alternation between divergent and convergent thinking (Guilford, 1950), creative associations (Lubart, 2015), and artistic appropriation (Héroux and Fortier, 2014; Héroux, 2016).

Інтеграційні процеси в професійній підготовці музикантів як основа їхнього духовного розвитку

The article substantiates the relevance of the introduction into the professional training of students of musicians on the principle of integration. The philosophical and pedagogical definition of such concepts as “spirituality”, “spiritual values” of a student-musician is given. The purpose of the article is to introduce the principle of integration into professional training, the impact of integration processes on the development of the spirituality of students-musicians. The goal and advantages of integration training as the basis for the spiritual development of a student-musician are determined.The humanistic paradigm of education (V. P. Andrushchenko, I. A. Zyazyun, A. M. Stepashko) is the methodological basis for solving the problems of the article. A synergetic approach to the processes of development and self-development of spirituality, the thinking of the student, his creative “Self” (V. G. Budanov, V. V. Vasilkov). One of the areas of development of the conceptual foundations of the moral development of student-musician is the introduction into the educational process of the principle of integration of knowledge about the spiritual sphere of man, spiritual values, as the foundations of human culture.It is impossible to give education on the principles of a particular science, regardless of other sciences. This integration is an organic combination of the information of other educational disciplines around the topic of music, musical interpretation, is one of the most promising innovations that imposes new conditions for the activities of teachers and students, has a great influence on the effectiveness of the perception of young musicians learning material. Integration processes in the professional training of young musicians have become more and more important in recent years as they are aimed at implementing new educational ideals — the formation of a holistic knowledge system about musical art and performing skills, the development of students’ creative musical abilities and spirituality. The essence of the principle of integration is based on scientifically grounded, organic interpenetration of different areas of knowledge: in the form of a set of associations, symbols, categories, etc., taking into account the psychological and pedagogical features of the personality of student-musician in order to optimize and increase the effectiveness of forming a coherent picture of the world, value orientations and phenomena of art within the same subject. Thus, the use of the principle of integration in educational activities (in reliance on the widespread use of subject relations) contributes to developing, humanistic learning, in turn, stimulating the spiritual development of a student-musician.

Panic at the proms (perhaps the explanation lies in his background)

This paper has been written as both a celebration of the music of Harrison Birtwistle-"the most forceful and uncompromisingly original British composer of his generation" according to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians - and as a response, at once playful and polemic, to the critics and commentators who struggle to name, claim, frame and contain it within the familiar categories and tropes of contemporary music interpretation. My particular focus is Panic which is exemplary in this respect and what Birtwistle cognoscendi have a habit of referring to as 'his background to 'explain' the idiosyncratic difficulty and difference of his work, as in the quotation cited as my subtitle.

Pielgrzym Cypriana Norwida w anglojęzycznym wykonaniu Czesława Niemena

The author gradually comes to the assessment of the musical interpretation of Cyprian Norwid’s poem Pielgrzym . First, she conducts a detailed analysis of the original, from which she isolates its dominants: features necessary to be rendered in the translation to preserve the identity of the original. On their basis she examines the fidelity and quality of the English translation by Pawel Brodowski, which – as she showed – captures the general sense and renders the imagery of the original despite the introduced unifications and transformations of the text. Subsequently, the author examines the musical execution of this translation by Czeslaw Niemen and thus proves that it not only brings out the features highlighted in Brodowski’s translation, but it also restores the lost meanings and the rhyming structure of the lyric poem.

FENÓMENOS ACTUALES EN LA ENSEÑANZA DE LA INTERPRETACIÓN: INTERPRETACIÓN ESTANDARIZADA, NEODILETTANTISMO... Y UNA PROPUESTA DIDÁCTICA

Este artículo pretende reflexionar sobre las dificultades de la interpretación musical de la música seria y su enseñanza en el momento presente, a través de dos fenómenos actuales, la interpretación estandarizada y el neo-dilettantismo –basadas en lo superficial–,y la propuesta de mejora desde la docencia, sobre la idea del conocimiento profundo de la obra musical, el estilo y, en consecuencia, las intenciones del compositor