Musical Score Research Articles

Prinsip Suku Betawi Sebagai Inspirasi Utama Penciptaan Karya Tari Ngasosi

A principle is something that is inherent and its truth is the basic principle for thinking and acting. The Ngasosi dance work is a new dance performance presented in pairs, which departs from the habits of Betawi people's lives. This research was carried out using qualitative methods, namely by explaining in detail the inspirational ideas and forms of presentation with a background of creativity carried out by choreographers in developing traditional Betawi dance, as well as expanding character education. This research uses primary and secondary data sources. The primary data source is interview notes, the researcher's secondary data source was obtained through literature studies in the form of books, scientific journals that support research, and photo documentation of variations in dance movements, fashion, make-up, props and musical scores. The resulting understanding is that this dance depicts a father and son who carry out the principles of life of the Betawi people, namely the Koran, prayer, silat which are applied in everyday life, where the principles of life of the Betawi people must be remembered from an early age until adulthood so that they become good habits and obligations. which has always been passed down from generation to generation.

Topological querying of music scores

For centuries, sheet music scores have been the traditional way to preserve and disseminate Western music works. Nowadays, their content can be encoded in digital formats, making possible to store music score data in digital score libraries (DSL). To supply intelligent services (extracting and analysing relevant information from data), the new generation of DSL has to rely on digital representations of the score content as structured objects apt at being manipulated by high-level operators. In the present paper, we propose the Muster model, a graph-based data model for representing the music content of a digital score, and we discuss the querying of such data through graph pattern queries. We then present a proof-of-concept of this approach, which allows storing graph-based representations of music scores in the Neo4j database, and performing musical pattern searches through graph pattern queries with the Cypher query language. A benchmark study, using (real) datasets stemming from the Neuma Digital Score Library, complements this implementation.

RealSinger: Ultra-realistic singing voice generation via stochastic differential equations

Synthesizing high-quality singing voice from music score is a challenging problem in music generation and has many practical applications. Samples generated by existing singing voice synthesis (SVS) systems can roughly reflect the lyrics, pitch and duration in a given score, but they fail to contain necessary details. In this paper, based on stochastic differential equations (SDE) we propose RealSinger to generate 22.05kHz ultra-realistic singing voice conditioned on a music score. Our RealSinger learns to find the stochastic process path from a source of white noise to the target singing voice manifold under the conditional music score, allowing to sing the music score while maintaining the local voice details of the target singer. During training, our model learns to accurately predict the direction of movement in the ambient Euclidean space onto the low-dimensional singing voice manifold. RealSinger’s framework is very flexible. It can either generate intermediate feature representations of the singing voice, such as mel-spectrogram, or directly generate the final waveform, as in the end-to-end style which rectify defects and accumulation errors introduced by two-stage connected singing synthesis systems. An extensive subjective and objective test on benchmark datasets shows significant gains in perceptual quality using RealSinger. The mean opinion scores (MOS) obtained with RealSinger are closer to those of the human singer’s original high-fidelity singing voice than to those obtained with any state-of-the-art method. Audio samples are available at https://realsinger.github.io/.

Synchronization Functions of “Mickey-Mousing” in Animation Film Rhapsody Rabbit

Synchronization between visual animation and music has been widely known as mickey-mousing. Notable old animation films have used this particular technique to reinforce action with a musical flourish and convey a certain meaning. Furthermore, animation music is commonly based on popular music, such as The Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 in Rhapsody Rabbit. The music is utilized not just as a scoring aspect but to dictate every Bugs Bunny's action when playing the piano. This research aims to study the implementation of the mickey-mousing technique in Rhapsody Rabbit film. It uses a qualitative content analysis approach to analyze visual and aural aspects—primary data is sourced from the Rhapsody Rabbit film and the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 music sheet. Secondary data is collected from literature studies related to the topic. Data collection is conducted through observation, interview, and documentation study. The data is analyzed using Klaus Krippendorf's content analysis technique which divided into six steps. The result of this study is that the mickey-mousing technique is implemented through a combination of a fast pace of visual and musical play altogether. Animation adapts to several parts of the musical composition so that articulation, illustration, and accentuation occur as a function of the mickey-mousing technique.

“Prices of Music Monographs and Scores as Reflected in Notes ”: A History of and Future for the Column

“Prices of Music Monographs and Scores as Reflected in Notes ”: A History of and Future for the Column

WAKE

WAKE is a queer postcolonial ritual centering grief, healing, and solace through movement within the collective. Created by choreographer Jay Carlon with collaborator and vocalist Micaela Tobin, alongside a live electronic musical score, WAKE is a meditative performance imbued with images, sound, and objects derived from Carlon’s Filipinx heritage and dedicated to those born in the wake of US imperialism.

The Effectiveness of Musical and Non-Musical Choir Training Processes in Reading Sheet Music at the Student Activity Unit Vocalista Harmonic Choir, Indonesian Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta

This study explores the effectiveness of choir rehearsal processes in the Student Activity Unit Vocalista Harmonic Choir (VHC) at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta, particularly in music reading for both musical and non-musical members, as well as their interactions with the conductor. The research methodology employed is qualitative with an observational approach. Through participatory observation, the researcher concludes that musical members tend to be more confident in music reading and assist non-musical members. Conversely, non-musical members require additional time and practice to catch up with the repertoire. However, during the Voice In December (VID) concert, non-musical members demonstrate mastery of the material and adapt well alongside musical members, indicating the effectiveness of the choir rehearsal process in unifying the vocal quality of its members. Data collection involved note-taking, audio recordings, and video recordings during rehearsals and the concert. The findings suggest that musical choir members tend to aid non-musical members in learning, while non-musical members require extra effort to catch up with the repertoire. The conductor plays a crucial role in providing guidance and vocal technique training. The rehearsal outcomes demonstrate that non-musical members are capable of mastering the repertoire and participating effectively in concerts.

Creativity in a music composition community: an analysis of online comments

ABSTRACT Scholars have often highlighted the intrinsic features of technology to support the generation and sharing of ideas (Craft 2011). By studying user interactions within informal online communities, researcher can elucidate the ways technology impacts creativity and learning within these groups. This qualitative content analysis (Hsieh and Shannon 2005) used a systems-based approach to creativity (Csikszentmihalyi 1999) to examine the interactions within an online community (Noteflight) focused on Western standard music notation-based composition. One popular, publicly available, original musical score was selected. Online comments were collected and analysed. Findings highlight the diversity and abundance of feedback given to the composer as well as the many ways users engaged with domain knowledge. This online community allows individuals to share knowledge, learn about the social norms associated with giving feedback, and explore creative ideas regarding music composition. Implications from this study highlight the ways music educators and technology designers can develop web-based music learning environments that support creativity and life-long engagement.

Emigrant Songs of Ukrainians in the Context of Scientific Research of Robert Klymasz (Canada)

The purpose of the research is to analyse the genre and thematic, musical component and peculiarities of the transformation of emigrant songs from the collections of folk songs Introduction to the Ukrainian-Canadian Immigrant Folklore Cycle and Ukrainian Folk Songs from the Prairies by R. Klimasz (Canada). The research methodology is based on the principles of objectivity, systematicity and historicism, which is supported by the historical and cultural approach. The musicological, textual, stylistic, and contextual analyses are applied, which reveal the musical, literary, historical and cultural dimensions of the evolution of emigrant songs, and also allow us to identify the transformation of emigrant songs in new socio-cultural conditions. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the introduction into scientific circulation of the collections of sheet music of the Canadian-Ukrainian folklorist R. Klymasz, which contain samples of emigrant songs of Ukrainians in Canada as authentic musical folklore of Ukrainian immigrants in the context of studying the transformation of the musical folklore tradition of Ukrainians in the North American diaspora. Conclusions. The emigrant songs collected and published by R. Klymash, created among overseas emigrants, are part of the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian diaspora in North America, which consists of epic stories, song lyrics, and humorous and satirical dance songs. The folk song materials clearly demonstrate the current themes, melodic, rhythmic and harmonic aspects of the musical component, and the contexts of performance. The musical and poetic style of the songs expresses the peculiarities of the music of the western region of Ukraine with its respective linguistic dialects. Examples of emigrant folklore reflect the diachronic development of the song culture of Ukrainians in the diaspora from the creation of emigrant songs as authentic examples of immigrant folklore with gradual modification to complete assimilation into another cultural environment, which is expressed in the change of content of the works, the use of macaronic elements in the texts, and later – melodic borrowings.

Songs of Return

As the title suggests, this paper looks at ideas of passage, accumulation and repetition. I record birdsong in southern France where I live and work and make prints by re-visualising them with a sonogram programme. I walk and listen to the local terrain and while doing so am interested in the dynamic changes that surround me in nature and my emotional meeting point with them. The arrival, departure and movement of birds in the environment I would like to talk about specific works that illustrate how I use sonograms in the studio and about my low-fi techniques leading to my work with recordings and prints as a musical score for improvisation.

Musical Notation

The main goal of this essay is to propose and make plausible a framework for developing a philosophical account of musical notation. The proposed framework countenances four elements of notation: symbols (abstract objects that collectively constitute the backbone of a ‘system’ of notation), their characteristic ‘forms’ (for example, shapes, understood abstractly), the concrete instances, or ‘engravings’, of those forms, and the meanings of the symbols. It is argued that these elements are distinct. Along the way, several preliminary arguments are given for how one ought to understand them—for example, it is suggested that engravings represent symbols rather than instantiate forms, although they are characteristically seen to represent a symbol by being seen to instantiate an associated form. Having proposed this framework, the essay explores the nature of musical instructions, as the meanings of symbols, and offers an argument in favor of the commonly held (but recently challenged) view that those meanings are imperative. Specifically, composites of musical notation (paradigmatically, musical scores) primarily express instructional meaning, and denote something like ‘sonic structures’ only secondarily, in virtue of their primary, imperative, meaning.

INKULTURASI NILAI INJIL DALAM BUDAYA JAWA PADA LAGU BOJANA AGUNG: SUATU KAJIAN MUSIKOLOGIS

The musicological study of the Bojana Agung song examines the inculturation song as a faith reflection that lives and develops in the context of Javanese culture. Combining textual research methods and literature studies, this paper describes (1) How can the Javanese inculturation style in the Bojana Agung be a contextual reflection of the faith experience in the Eucharist?; and (2) How can the encounter between the Gospel and Javanese culture in the Bojana Agung's inculturation process encourage the faith growth in being more participative and transformative? Using the music score from Kidung Adi number 242 as the primary data, this research shows that Bojana Agung uses a pelog nem pentatonic scale with a binary song form. Part A's unison melody depicts the Last Supper contemplation; meanwhile, part B's two and four voices composition creates a livelier Church's response to this glorious passage. Diversity, togetherness, cooperation, humility, and wisdom are Javanese's noble values that are inculturated in this song. The encounter between the Gospel and the local is the essence of the inculturation process. Through it, the Church is more active, creative, and inclusive in responding to the fullness of Christ's incarnation.

The latest trends in the cimbalom repertoire of the 21st century

Statement of the problem. Today, cimbalom art is experiencing a new stage of development, the prominent features of which are the use of composition techniques of the 20th century, as well as the development of an arsenal of extended cimbalom playing techniques. Compared to other folk instruments, this stage of enrichment of the cimbalom repertoire begins later and falls mainly on the 21st century, when a number of innovative works appear, both for cimbalom solo and in combination with other instruments. However, at present, this layer of the cimbalom repertoire remains almost unexplored. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to identify the principles of implementing the latest trends in the development of the cimbalom repertoire in the work of composers of the 21st century. For the first time, the concept of extended performance techniques and their differentiation is introduced into the scientific circulation of cimbalom studies, and the works by P. Machajdík, J. Huffman, J. Seo, F. van Wijck, D. Lazariev, which were not previously considered by musicologists, are highlighted from this viewpoint. Historical approach, comparative, performance, structural and functional types of analysis allowed tracing the main trends in the development of the latest solo and ensemble cimbalom repertoire. Research results and conclusion. After analyzing a number of musical studies and scores of modern composers, the typical features of the latest samples of the cimbalom repertoire was found. The typical its features are a significant variety of composition techniques, among which we find aleatorics (J. Seo, J. Pereira), microchromatics (J. Seo), sonorics (F. Van Wijck, J. Pereira), dodecaphony (J. Pereira, D. Lazariev). In modern works both, the traditional techniques of playing, which were successful in cimbalom performance even before that (flageolets, playing with a normal beat, pizzicato, glissando), and the various advanced techniques are used. Among the latter are: – non-traditional types of glissando using a finger stick (D. Lazarіev), nails (J. Seo), marimba sticks (J. Pereira); – percussion finger technique (J. Pereira); – imitation of clusters – hitting the strings with the palms of the hands (F. Van Wijck); – playing with non-traditional objects, such as glasses (P. Machajdik); – preparation of the cimbalom (J. Huffman, D. Lazariev). A common feature of modern cimbalom compositions is an active change of different types of sticks during one piece, sometimes in the middle of a part, as well as their alternation with sticks from other instruments (marimba, bells, xylophone), which can be considered as part of an arsenal of extended performance techniques. For example, in the works of J. Seo, J. Pereira and D. Lazariev, playing with marimba sticks and playing with plastic sticks from orchestral bells is assumed. Preparation of the instrument is less often used (J. Huffman used a metal needle for this purpose, and D. Lazariev – two chains and foil). It was concluded that extended performance techniques are at the stage of development and study by musicologists, but despite all the difficulties, the knowledge on them is gradually being introduced into scientific circulation. It should also be emphasized that modern composers show interest in the developing of advanced performance techniques, which certainly inspires hope for writing of new works for cimbalom and its research.

Liszt’s Étude S.136 no.1: audio data analysis of two different piano recordings

In this paper, we review the main signal processing tools of Music Information Retrieval (MIR) from audio data, and we apply them to two recordings (by Leslie Howard and Thomas Rajna) of Franz Liszt’s Étude S.136 no.1, with the aim of uncovering the macro-formal structure and comparing the interpretative styles of the two performers. In particular, after a thorough spectrogram analysis, we perform a segmentation based on the degree of novelty, in the sense of spectral dissimilarity, calculated frame-by-frame via the cosine distance. We then compare the metrical, temporal and timbrical features of the two executions by MIR tools. Via this method, we are able to identify in a data-driven way the different moments of the piece according to their melodic and harmonic content, and to find out that Rajna’s execution is faster and less various, in terms of intensity and timbre, than Howard’s one. This enquiry represents a case study able to show the potentialities of MIR from audio data in supporting traditional music score analyses and in providing objective information for statistically founded musical execution analyses.

The Portuguese Court’s Acquisition of Musical Scores from Italy in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries and the Fundo do Conde de Redondo

ABSTRACT The assembling of a library of musical scores of Italian music and libretti was an enterprise undertaken by the Portuguese court throughout the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The library served a practical need, especially in the wake of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and expressed the court’s musical taste; as a result, it received significant investment. Information concerning the growth of the library can be found in previous work on the composer Niccolò Jommelli and his heirs, who were involved in sending scores of the composer’s music to Portugal in the 1760s and 1770s. Drawing attention to evidence in Portuguese royal household correspondence that has not been considered fully to date, as well as some of the scores today preserved in two Lisbon libraries, this article offers a wider examination of how music manuscripts came to Portugal from Italy between c.1770 and c.1820.

Differences in music appreciation between bilateral and single-sided cochlear implant recipients

ObjectiveTo compare changes in music appreciation after cochlear implant (CI) surgery for patients with bilateral and single-sided deafness (SSD). MethodsA retrospective cohort study was performed on all adult CI unilateral or bilateral recipients from November 2019 to March 2023. Musical questionnaire subset data from the Cochlear Implant Quality of Life (CIQOL) – 35 Profile Instrument Score (maximum raw score of 15) was collected. Functional CI assessment was measured with CI-alone speech-in-quiet (SIQ) scores (AzBio and CNC). Results22 adults underwent CI surgery for SSD and 21 adults for bilateral deafness (8 sequentially implanted). Every patient group had clinically significant improvements (p < 0.001) in mean SIQ scores in the most recently implanted ear (Azbio (% correct) SSD: 14.23 to 68.48, bilateral: 24.54 to 82.23, sequential: 6.25 to 82.57). SSD adults on average had higher music QOL scores at baseline (SSD: 11.05; bilateral: 7.86, p < 0.001). No group had significant increases in raw score at the first post-operative visit (SSD: 11.45, p = 0.86; bilateral: 8.15, p = 0.15). By the most recent post-implantation evaluation (median 12.8 months for SSD, 12.3 months for bilateral), SSD adults had a significant increase in raw score from baseline (11.05 to 12.45, p = 0.03), whereas bilaterally deafened (7.86 to 9.38, p = 0.12) adults had nonsignificant increases. ConclusionsSSD patients demonstrate higher baseline music appreciation than bilaterally deafened individuals regardless of unilateral or bilateral implantation and are more likely to demonstrate continued improvement in subjective music appreciation at last follow-up even when speech perception outcomes are similar.

From Music Scores to Audio Recordings: Deep Pitch-Class Representations for Measuring Tonal Structures

The availability of digital music data in various modalities provides opportunities both for music enjoyment and music research. Regarding the latter, the computer-assisted analysis of tonal structures is a central topic. For Western classical music, studies typically rely on machine-readable scores, which are tedious to create for large-scale works and comprehensive corpora. As an alternative, music audio recordings, which are readily available, can be analyzed with computational methods. With this paper, we want to bridge the gap between score- and audio-based measurements of tonal structures by leveraging the power of deep neural networks. Such networks are commonly trained in an end-to-end fashion, which introduces biases towards the training repertoire or towards specific annotators. To overcome these problems, we propose a multi-step strategy. First, we compute pitch-class representations of the audio recordings using networks trained on score–audio pairs. Second, we measure the presence of specific tonal structures using a pattern-matching technique that solely relies on music theory knowledge and does not require annotated training data. Third, we highlight these measurements with interactive visualizations, thus leaving the interpretation to the musicological experts. Our experiments on Richard Wagner's large-scale cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen indicate that deep pitch-class representations lead to a high similarity between score- and audio-based measurements of tonal structures, thus demonstrating how to leverage multimodal data for application scenarios in the computational humanities, where an explicit and interpretable methodology is essential.

Anatomy of a Song

Anatomy of a Song

Building Suspense: A Critical Examination of Foreshadowing Devices in TV Series Opening Credits

This paper explores the intricate use of foreshadowing devices within the opening credits of television series, unraveling the artful integration of visual, musical, and textual elements. Through detailed case studies of iconic shows such as Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, and Westworld, we dissect the deliberate choices made by creators to engage audiences from the very beginning. The analysis uncovers the narrative nuances embedded in symbols, musical scores, and textual clues, highlighting their role in setting the stage for complex and immersive storylines. Ethical considerations, methodological challenges, and the limitations of the study are also addressed. By contributing insights to television studies and narrative theory, this paper emphasizes the significance of opening credits as a canvas for storytelling in the evolving landscape of contemporary television.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance and the Aesthetics of Authenticity

Warhorse Studios’ award-winning action role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018) has—perhaps somewhat unkindly—been described as a “peasant simulator.” Nonetheless, “simulation” is a good description of the way in which its gameplay is conceived and framed, with a stated focus on historical accuracy and realism. This verisimilitude has been cited as having a noticeable cost in terms of accessibility for new players, with something of a steep learning curve required to master the game, but has also frequently been cited in positive reviews. The level of realism is indeed impressive. It extends not only to the need to eat, drink, and sleep, but also to the need to learn how to read (vernacular and Latin separately) if the player wishes to glean any information from written texts. But a focus on realism always brings with it challenges. The highly effective musical score of this game, written by Jan Valta and Adam Sporka, features an interactive and adaptive score, making use of a new engine developed specifically for the game called the Sequence Music Engine. There is already a neat tension here between the stated aim of historical fidelity and the modern expectation of an adaptive score; no preexistent “authentic” music can be used in this manner. As with all games, and indeed all screen media, composers and studios must work hard to balance authenticity to the medium and the genre with authenticity to the period. We expect fairly ubiquitous non-diegetic music in screen media—and its absence carries very particular semantics—but fifteenth-century Bohemia was conspicuous in its absence of invisible, itinerant symphony orchestras roaming its landscape. This article focuses on the interplay between fantasy and “authenticity,” especially considering the ways in which the composers work creatively to give an immersive and coherent soundworld, within the limits of what I term an “aesthetic of authenticity.” It explores the creative interplay between the “real” historical environment and that which is understood to be real in the popular consciousness, as well as the interconnected web of demands set by the medium, the interactive and narrative genres, and the historical setting.