Professional Conductors Research Articles

Hooked on technology: examining the co-occurrence of nomophobia and impulsive sensation seeking among nursing students

BackgroundNomophobia, the crippling fear of being disconnected from mobile devices, is a burgeoning global concern. Given the critical nature of the profession of nursing students, understanding nomophobia’s prevalence and potential impacts on patient care and professional conductors becomes even more crucial.AimThis study explores the relationship between nomophobia and impulsive sensation-seeking among nursing students in Egypt.Design and methodsA multicenter cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1626 nursing students randomly selected from three universities across Egypt.ToolsThe Arabic versions of the Nomophobia and Impulsive Sensation Seeking Questionnaires were employed to gather data.ResultsOur findings revealed that 40.3% of the surveyed nursing students exhibited severe nomophobia, indicating a substantial dependence on their mobile devices. Notably, this high prevalence was accompanied by a strong tendency towards impulsive sensation-seeking behaviors. Furthermore, a stepwise regression analysis identified several significant predictors of nomophobia (p < 0.001). Impulsive sensation-seeking, year of study, average daily smartphone usage, and age emerged as key factors, explaining 27.5% of the variability in nomophobia scores.ConclusionThe prevalence of nomophobia among Egyptian nursing students is undeniable, highlighting their substantial reliance on mobile devices. A significant association with impulsive sensation-seeking behavior further compounds this dependence. Factors such as impulsive sensation seeking, year of study, average daily smartphone usage, and age were identified as significant predictors of nomophobia. Recognizing these factors as key predictors of nomophobia is crucial for designing effective interventions and psychotherapies. Prioritizing such interventions can promote future nurses’ well-being and ensure they deliver the highest quality care to their patients.

Exploring the Capability of Elementary School Teachers as Musical Conductors in Formal School Activities

Leading a choir at official school events is one of the skills that a school teacher should have. School events attended by students or fellow teachers usually begin with singing songs together, such as in national ceremonies or other formal school activities. However, it turns out that not all teachers are confident and capable of being conductors when their role is needed. Teachers at Sekolah Dasar Negeri (SDN) Cicayur 1, a state-owned elementary school in Cisauk District, Tangerang Regency, have such experience. A community service activity has been carried out for three months, attended by all fifteen teachers at the school, including the principal, to explore and train the skills to become conductors for the teachers. Activity began with the preparation stage, coordinating with the school for smooth implementation. At the implementation stage, activities were carried out using lecture, demonstration, practice, and assignment methods. At the evaluation stage, the assignment result was reviewed from seven videos containing the teacher's performance while leading a song at a formal event as a conductor. The videos show that teachers still need more practice to do better, especially in terms of song expressivity, accuracy of song tempo, stability of song tempo, and tempo matching with music score. If teachers' abilities as conductors can be improved, in the future, it is expected that teachers will be able to teach students how to become professional conductors, and the school can consider organizing extracurricular activities for choirs.

The Benefits of Music in Teaching Catholic Religious Education in Croatia

Music viewed from the real praxis could trigger positive religious emotions as the path of beauty in those searching for the meaning of life or the higher one in God. The article aims to encourage interdisciplinarity in teaching Catholic RE in Croatia, presenting many benefits of music and examples of positive practices that music can encourage in students. The main purpose of this paper, after recognizing the needs and difficulties of interdisciplinary teaching primarily for teachers in Croatia, is to create a model of implementing music content efficiently in Catholic religious education (RE) in Croatia. The research finds the necessity to unite experts from three fields to make interdisciplinary teaching efficient and progressively constructive: religious education pedagogy and music pedagogy combined with music practice itself through professional conductors. Nevertheless, the text seeks to expose an easily applicable model that leads to efficient and progressive interdisciplinary teaching, which is also the main aim of the work. The research is significant as this model could be examined in different subject areas, highlighting that singing in class could encourage religious sensibility and help improve spiritual and religious competencies. The research findings showed that the advantages and specifics of choral singing could be integrated into the religious education curriculum, making RE more dynamic and challenging for students. The research is based on a literature review, a data analysis, as well as participant observation (teacher and conductor) as methods to prove advantages and possibilities of how to implement music into the RE curriculum.

Speaking in gestures: Left dorsal and ventral frontotemporal brain systems underlie communication in conducting.

Conducting constitutes a well-structured system of signs anticipating information concerning the rhythm and dynamic of a musical piece. Conductors communicate the musical tempo to the orchestra, unifying the individual instrumental voices to form an expressive musical Gestalt. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, 12 professional conductors and 16 instrumentalists conducted real-time novel pieces with diverse complexity in orchestration and rhythm. For control, participants either listened to the stimuli or performed beat patterns, setting the time of a metronome or complex rhythms played by a drum. Activation of the left superior temporal gyrus (STG), supplementary and premotor cortex and Broca's pars opercularis (F3op) was shared in both musician groups and separated conducting from the other conditions. Compared to instrumentalists, conductors activated Broca's pars triangularis (F3tri) and the STG, which differentiated conducting from time beating and reflected the increase in complexity during conducting. In comparison to conductors, instrumentalists activated F3op and F3tri when distinguishing complex rhythm processing from simple rhythm processing. Fibre selection from a normative human connectome database, constructed using a global tractography approach, showed that the F3op and STG are connected via the arcuate fasciculus, whereas the F3tri and STG are connected via the extreme capsule. Like language, the anatomical framework characterising conducting gestures is located in the left dorsal system centred on F3op. This system reflected the sensorimotor mapping for structuring gestures to musical tempo. The ventral system centred on F3Tri may reflect the art of conductors to set this musical tempo to the individual orchestra's voices in a global, holistic way.

Fields of Activity of Volodymyr Goshovskyi (Dedicated to the Centenary of the Scientist)

In the conditions of the Russian occupation, when Ukraine is fighting for independence, the commemoration of the centennial anniversary of one of the “titans” of Ukrainian ethnomusicology, Volodymyr Hoshovsky (1922–1996), acquires special national significance.&#x0D; The article reviews the spheres of activity of the scientist throughout his life starting from his childhood. The diverse upbringing and education of the European level formed V. Hoshovsky’s interest in the exact sciences and humanities, as well as in art, even in his childhood. This diversity of interests allows you to respond to changing life circumstances and master a new profession.&#x0D; After receiving a doctorate in philology and ethnography at the Charles University in Prague (1944), V. Hoshovsky prepared to become a scientist and became a polyglot. His main linguistic studies fell on the Prague period: work at the Institute of Slavic Studies, teaching at the Modern Languages Club, brilliant proposals and scientific prospects for the future.&#x0D; Ethnographic studies took place in Uzhhorod in 1946–1948. V. Hoshovsky headed the ethnographic department of the Uzhhorod Historical and Ethnographic Museum, began an in-depth survey of the folk culture and lifestyle of the villages of the Transcarpathian region, and organized a number of large exhibitions.&#x0D; The strengthening of ideological pressure and the closing of the ethnographic department led to the search for a new field of activity and realization as a professional musician. V. Hoshovsky obtained a second higher education – this time – in music. He graduated from the Lviv State Conservatory named after M.V. Lysenko (1953), as in Prague, having chosen two specialties. As a result, he became the first professional guitarist and the first professional conductor of an orchestra of folk instruments in Transcarpathia. A passion for musical aesthetics and musicology was added to the performances. His musical activity was very intense.&#x0D; Since 1955, V. Hoshovsky entered the field of ethnomusicology, which turned into his life’s work. His research on folk music evolved, delineating three periods. In the early period (Uzhhorod, 1955–1961), the scientist focused on regional studies: he carried out numerous field surveys of Transcarpathian villages, began the study of the history of musical folklore of Transcarpathia, studied the kolomyika in the context of Slavic studies, and engaged in the discovery of the musical dialects of Transcarpathia.&#x0D; In the mature period (Lviv, Yerevan, 1962–1986) V. Hoshovsky significantly expanded the range of scientific interests, reached the level of Carpathian studies, Slavic studies and cybernetic ethnomusicology, completed studies in the field of musical dialectology, significantly updated the research methodology by involving the methods of linguistics, semiotics, genetics, cybernetics, etc. The main his works were the anthology “Ukrainian Songs of Transcarpathia” (1968), the monograph “On the Origins of Folk Music of the Slavs” (1971), the two-volume collection of Klyment Kvitka’s works “K.V. Kvitka. Selected Works” (1971, 1973), development of UNSACAT (on the basis of Lviv analytical maps, and in cooperation with Armenian programmers), computer research of Ukrainian, Slovak, Armenian and Azerbaijani folk music. In the later period (Lviv, Uzhhorod, 1986–1996) he focused on the coverage of certain ethnomusicological issues and memories.&#x0D; The review made it possible to come to the conclusion that the realization of V. Hoshovsky in the field of linguistics and ethnography laid an interest in scientific work. The switch to the musical sphere made it possible to wait out the ideological pressure. Fascination with ethnomusicology marked a return to the bosom of science, but at a new level: with the unification of all previously acquired knowledge and experience. The breadth of scientific interests, familiarity with modern methods of research in various fields of science, the possibility of studying the latest European specialized literature in the original language distinguished this scientist among contemporary ethnomusicologists and provided space for bold experiments.&#x0D; As for pedagogical and social work, they formed a supporting line to the philological, musical, and ethnomusicological spheres of V. Hoshovsky’s activities. On the one hand, they stimulated public interest in certain issues, and on the other hand, they contributed to the education of followers who formed the musical, performing and ethnomusicological future of Ukraine.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ТВОРЧОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ ДИРИГЕНТА В ПРОЦЕСІ СТВОРЕННЯ МУЗИЧНОГО СПЕКТАКЛЮ

The purpose of the article is to consider the specifics of the composing work of the conductor in creating a performance in a musical theatre. The methodology of the study is based on the principles of sequential analysis and describes the preparatory stages for musical performance's opening, which are to outline the specifics of conducting work in a musical theatre and is based on the development of a certain creative process during rehearsal time. We have applied the attitude approach and methodological recommendations of artistic handling of a music performance task solution. The scientific novelty of the study is to determine the mechanisms of the staging process during the creation of a new musical performance by preparing musical material, to describe the gradual formation of its components, to analyse the work of the conductor, who determines the semantic concept of musical performances and creates a musical concept. The article reviews and describes a concept of a “seated rehearsal” in detail in the context of the contemporary activities of solo musicians and the conductor, as well as the mechanism for the artistic creation of theatrical action, which lays the solid professional foundation for the stage life of a musical performance. We can state that the process of creating a musical performance has a system of scheduling and distribution of rehearsal time, which is distinctly different from the philharmonic orchestra conductor's work. Conclusions. We have proved that the backgrounds for creating a musical performance by the professional conductor are certain knowledge that is necessary for the successful implementation of the entire production process, its distribution in time and effective use. The individual work of the conductor in the musical theatre is aimed at the consciousness of the creative process with the participation of all the soloists of the play, which determines both the technical level of professionalism and the art figurative focus.

Formation of professional skill of the future conductor in the system of art education (on the example of pedagogical methods of professor I. Yuzyuk)

The purpose of the article is to characterize the peculiarities of the formation of professional skills of the future conductor during the years of study at the art institution on the experience of teaching I. Yuzyuk. The methodology consists in the application of materials, the main provisions of the organization of individual lessons in choral conducting, which characterize the professional competencies of a professional conductor, which forms the musical-aesthetic and artistic development of the individual, which promotes professional music education and culture. The scientific novelty of the work is that for the first time the method of forming the professional skills of the future conductor in the system of art education is considered on the example of the teaching of Professor I. Yuzyuk, who introduces his methods into the educational process, solving current problems of choral performance. Conclusions. As a result of the research, it was found that the analyzed experience and peculiarities of I. Yuzyuk's teaching on conducting training of future specialists are an important component in the formation of professional skills of the future conductor, which contributes to the development of art education. Generalized results of methodical bases of the organization by I. Yuzyuk of classes on choral conducting, formation in them of positive motivation to conducting specialty, individual approach to students, deepening of theoretical knowledge concerning choral activity, improvement of conducting technique, artistry, complex application of various teaching methods, activations which forms the professional skills of the future conductor. The pedagogical activity of I. Yuzyuk and his experience in the formation of a professional conductor in the system of art culture and education is characterized. Emphasis is placed on the peculiarities of the manifestation of the conductor's individuality in his professional activity, integrating aspects of development and formation.

User experience in a kinect-based conducting system for visualization of musical structure

There is a potential for immersive tools that can teach some basic aspects of conducting in a constructive way. This work presents a Kinect-based conducting system that uses a gestural interface for visualization of musical structures, aimed towards educational purpose. The system provides a solution that enables students to practice conducting without the actual need of the physical presence of an orchestra or choir. Visualization of melodic and harmonic structures through an audiovisual mapping is provided to enable the understanding of complex musical pieces, such as operas and concertos. Real-time visual and gestural feedback is generated for the conductor and audience through the display of a set of particle emitters and the trajectory traversed by the captured gestures. Focusing on delivering a better user experience (UX), the system was also evaluated by professional conductors, musicians and users without any formal musical knowledge. UX played an important part in identifying that this type of experience is viable as an additional support for conducting and musical theory learning.

ДИРИГЕНТСЬКА ШКОЛА МИКОЛИ МАЛЬКО У НАУКОВОМУ ПРОСТОРІ

The article covers the conducting school of Mykola Andriiovych Malko in the scientific space. It is revealed that M. A. Malko’s artistic way is an example of universalism of creative personality, individual originality and unique expressiveness of each real master. The wide range of his artistic activity is analyzed, in terms of identifying various vectors of the artist's work:performance, scientific principles and pedagogical guidelines, musical and public initiatives. Based on the analysis of the scientific works of the outstanding artist, the opportunity for the importance of mastering the knowledge, skills and abilities of conducting art is provided. The importance of the rehearsal process in the subject of«Conducting» is revealed ,because a great responsibility falls on the shoulders of the future specialist who decided to become a conductor, to dedicate himself to the conducting profession, as well as his teacher,who has the duty to educate future highly professional conductor. It has been determined that taking a conducting course at an educational institution does not mean that the future conductor has already become a professional. He only gets the basics of conducting technique, which will need to be further developed and improved in the process of painstaking creative work with the team. It was found that one of the most important tasks of the educational process in the subject of «Conducting» is the development of a highly moral personality. Thus, M. A. Malko’s scientific and methodological works outline a range of issues related to the problems of conducting, form the professional skills of future conductors, promotes intellectual development, cultivates love for the profession. M. A. Malko’s conducting and pedagogical activity at different stages of his life is covered. M. A. Malko’s artistic and creative activity is recognized as a significant contribution to the development of Ukrainian culture’s conducting art.

VOLODYMYR ZVARUN’S СONDUCTING WORK (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE MALE CHOIR «CHERVONA KALYNA»)

Ukrainian researchers frequently investigate the work of professional choirs, paying almost no attention to amateur ones – the centers creating musical environment at the local level. As a rule, such collectives are conducted by professional conductors, graduates from music academies, enthusiasts, masters of their work, who do not work for financial reward, but they work to develop the national choral art, and to involve talented singers in singing. The figure of V. Zvarun, who devoted more than 70 years to his favourite activity – work with Ivano-Frankivsk choirs, stands out among the passionate personalities who have contributed to the development of the choral life in the Carpathian region.The artist’s long creative life was closely connected with various choirs of the city as well as the region. If we take into consideration the fact that homogeneous male collectives are a rare phenomenonon on the choral map of Ukraine, it is very important to pay special attention to them. «Chervona Kalyna» is one of the few male choirs that has a long history and is probably the only semiprofessional collective of such a kind in the Carpathian region.The relevance of the article consists in the necessity to describe the creative path of the choir «Chervona Kalyna» and its conductor, who made a significant contribution to the development and evolution of the cultural life of the Carpathian region. Due to the fact that the choir occupied its niche in the musical movement of the region, significantly contributed to its revival, became one of the leading choirs in the cohort of professional and amateur collectives of the Carpathian region, it is necessary and equally relevant to analyze its creative work. However, no choir is able to work during rehearsals or on concert venues without a conductor and, therefore, it is vital to characterize the creative work of some personalities, such as V. Zvarun in particular.The main objective of the article is to reveal V. Zvarun’s talent through the prism of his conducting practice with the choir «Chervona Kalyna».Methodology is related to the analysis methods of V. Zvaryn’s conducting work and the systematization of the concerts given by his collectives, it enables us to demonstrate the importance of the choirmaster’s major impact.The article analyzes the long creative activity of the famous Carpathian conductor, teacher-methodologist, Methodologist at the Chair of the Methodics of Music Education and Conducting at V. Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Honored Artist of Ukraine V. Zvarun. The artist’s conducting postulates were found out, his work with various creative collectives was described, special focus was made on the professional development of the amateur choir «Chervona Kalyna», its repertoire, concert life, touring were characterized, and it is the scientific novelty of the article as this choir and its conductor were not previously investigated in other researches.The results of the study were achieved owing to the author’s interview with V. Zvarun, the investigation of concert programmes provided by the conductor from the artist’s personal archive, analysis of newspapers reviews from the local periodicals.Conclusions. The musician’s work is a great responsibility to a society which accumulates energy and tempers the conductor’s character. V. Zvarun is an enthusiast of choral work who lived and worked for art’s sake, and the successful creative work of the collectives conducted by the maestro (there were 21 choirs in total) prove this fact. The most popular one was the amateur choir «Chervona Kalyna», which gave over a hundred concerts during its activity, becoming a part of history not only in Ivano-Frankivsk, Carpathian region, but also in the Ukrainian society in general.

Heuristic and supervised approaches to handwritten annotation extraction for musical score images

Performers’ copies of musical scores are typically rich in handwritten annotations, which capture historical and institutional performance practices. The development of interactive interfaces to explore digital archives of these scores and the systematic investigation of their meaning and function will be facilitated by the automatic extraction of handwritten score annotations. We present several approaches to the extraction of handwritten annotations of arbitrary content from digitized images of musical scores. First, we show promising results in certain contexts when using simple unsupervised clustering techniques to identify handwritten annotations in conductors’ scores. Next, we compare annotated scores to unannotated copies and use a printed sheet music comparison tool, Aruspix, to recover handwritten annotations as additions to the clean copy. Using both of these techniques in a combined annotation pipeline qualitatively improves the recovery of handwritten annotations. Recent work has shown the effectiveness of reframing classical optical musical recognition tasks as supervised machine learning classification tasks. In the same spirit, we pose the problem of handwritten annotation extraction as a supervised pixel classification task, where the feature space for the learning task is derived from the intensities of neighboring pixels. After an initial investment of time required to develop dependable training data, this approach can reliably extract annotations for entire volumes of score images without further supervision. These techniques are demonstrated using a sample of orchestral scores annotated by professional conductors of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Handwritten annotation extraction in musical scores has applications to the systematic investigation of score annotation practices by performers, annotator attribution, and to the interactive presentation of annotated scores, which we briefly discuss.

George Lloyd - Music for Brass, from symphony to test-piece

Name: Pieter Koster Main Subject: Wind band Conducting Research Supervisor: Paul Scheepers Title of Research: George Lloyd – Music for brass, from symphony to test-piece Research Questions: 1. Did George Lloyd change his way of composing from Symphony no. 10 via Royal Parks to Diversions on a Bass Theme? a. In what way does George Lloyd treat the following compositional elements in each piece? i. Structure ii.Harmony iii.Thematic material iv. Musical Tension b. In what way does the treatment of these elements differ in each piece? 2. Did George Lloyd succeed in combining his own views with the demands of the test-piece commissions, to write an appropriate test-piece? Summary of Results: Cornish symphonic and opera composer George Lloyd has written several compositions for brass, starting with a symphony for brass ensemble (Symphony no. 10) and then several test-pieces for brass band. The commission of test-pieces for brass band contests appears to be guided only by implicit criteria for these sort of compositions. Lloyd’s first test-piece, Royal Parks, apparently did not meet the criteria and his second test-piece, Diversions on a Bass Theme, did. This thesis investigates if George Lloyd changed his way of composing to write an appropriate test-piece, by a detailed analysis of Symphony no. 10, Royal Parks and Diversions on a Bass Theme. Besides that the thesis will try to answer the question if Lloyd was able to combine his own musical views with the demands of the test-piece commissions. The main findings are that Lloyd remained within his own musical language when writing the test-pieces, however he made some decisive choices regarding structure, form and thematic material that influenced the compositions significantly. He did partially succeed in combining his own views with the demands of the test-piece commissions. Biography: Pieter Koster (1985) completed his Bachelor’s Degrees at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague as a student of Ad van Zon on the trumpet, and Alex Schillings for conducting. In September 2016 he successfully completed his Master-exam concert with the Bundes Polizeiochester München. Pieter has participated in multiple conducting courses with renowned (professional) orchestras and teachers. Today he is professional conductor of the fanfare orchestras ‘Ons Genoegen’ Hattem, ‘Wilhelmina’ Volendam and the Koninklijke Brassband Utrecht. He is also a brass teacher for numerous students. Since 2014 he is secretary and member of the board of the Dutch Association of Wind band Conductors (Bond van Orkestdirigenten en Instructeurs).

Long Working Hours and Short Sleep Associated with Obesity among Professional Drivers and Conductors

Abstract: Background: The issues of long working hours and short sleep among professional drivers are increasing worldwide, making it necessary to study their health hazards. Obesity among professional drivers and conductors is becoming an equally challenge now a days. In the present study, we investigated the association between long working hours and short sleep with body mass index (BMI) among male drivers and conductors in the city of Multan, Pakistan.Methods: The cross-sectional sample of 345 participants (197 drivers and 148 conductors) was taken using a convenient sampling technique with the help of a self-administered questionnaire. From the participants, the data were collected about their daily work-ing hours, sleeping hours and working period. Anthropometric measurements (weight and height) of each participant were taken to calculate BMI. Along with descriptive statistics and percentages, Chi-square test was used to examine the association in the full sample and stratified by study participants (i.e. drivers and conductors).Results: The mean (± standard deviation: SD) of age, BMI, daily working and sleeping hours of all the participants were32.98 ± 11.17 years, 24.35 ± 4.65 Kg/m2, 9.32 ± 3.49 hours and 7.79 ± 1.69 hours, respectively. There were statistically significant association between the short sleep and long working hours with obesity (χ2 = 17.37, p-value &lt; 0.01 and χ2 = 14.43, p-value 0.01, respectively).Conclusion: The present study concludes that both short sleep and long working hours are significantly associated with obesity among professional drivers and conductors.

A case of musical anhedonia due to right putaminal hemorrhage: a disconnection syndrome between the auditory cortex and insula

ABSTRACTA 63-year-old, right-handed professional chorus conductor developed right putaminal hemorrhage, and became unable to experience emotion while listening to music. Two years later, neurological examination revealed slight left hemiparesis. Neuromusicological assessments revealed impaired judgment of “musical sense,” and the inability to discriminate the sound of chords in pure intervals from those in equal temperament. Brain MRI and tractography identified the old hemorrhagic lesion in the right putamen and impaired fiber connectivity between the right insula and superior temporal lobe. These findings suggest that musical anhedonia might be caused by a disconnection between the insula and auditory cortex.

Professional orchestral conductors’ use of selected teaching behaviors in rehearsal

This descriptive study examined professional conductors’ use of rehearsal time in sequential pattern components, discussing task presentation targets, and using verbal imagery and modeling techniques. Commercially available videos of 15 professional conductors rehearsing prominent orchestras were scripted, coded, and timed for selected teaching behaviors. Results revealed that professional conductors spent a large amount of rehearsal time allowing the ensemble to perform, presenting musical information, and focusing on interpretational aspects of the music (especially dynamics and style). All the conductors used verbal modeling to some extent, and most used verbal imagery at some point in rehearsal. Preservice and practicing music educators/conductors may find these results to be beneficial when reflecting on and refining their own teaching skills.

Gesture-Driven Interaction Using the Leap Motion to Conduct a 3D Particle System: Evaluation and Analysis of an Orchestral Performance

In this work, we present and evaluate an interactive simulation of 3D particles conducted by the Leap Motion, for an orchestral arrangement. A real-time visual feedback during gesture entry is generated for the conductor and the audience, through a set of particle emitters displayed on the screen and the path traced by the captured gesture. We use two types of data input: the captured left and right hand conducting gestures (some universal movements, such as the beat patterns for the most common time signatures, the indication of a specific section of the orchestra, and the cutoff gestures), which are responsible for setting the tempo and dynamics of the orchestra; and a MIDI file, which contains information about the score of an orchestral arrangement, defining which notes each musical instrument should play. As regards the gestural input of the conductor, we have considered two musical elements of expression: tempo and dynamics. Besides performing functional testing, we analyzed the simulation results focusing on the occurrence of false positives, false negatives, positional deviations and latency. Moreover, a professional conductor evaluated our system and provided qualitative feedback about it.

Music Control in an Interactive Conducting System Using Kinect

Music conducting is the art of directing musical ensembles with hand gestures to personalize and diversify a piece of music. Although the ability to successfully perform a musical piece demands intense training and coordination for the conductor and the orchestra, preparing a practice session is expensive and time-consuming. Hence, there is a genuine need for alternatives capable of providing adequate training for conductors at all skill levels. The potential use of virtual and augmented reality technology holds particular promise. The goal of this research is to examine the mechanics of music conducting and to develop a system capable of closely simulating the experience of conducting a piece of music. After extensive discussions with professional and nonprofessional conductors, in addition to wide-ranging research regarding music conducting materials, several key features of conducting were identified. A set of lightweight algorithms exploring these features was developed to enable tempo control, volume adjustment, and instrument emphasis, which are core components of conducting. Such a system would be a helpful training tool for students, an experiential tool allowing professional conductors and composers to shape music at a low cost, or an entertainment tool for nonprofessional music lovers. In this paper, we propose a real-time interactive conducting system using Microsoft Kinect. The proposed system overcomes the limitation of Kinect's design, which is generally designed for large body movements. In this system, delicate conducting signals can be correctly recognized without referencing any prior knowledge. Evaluation of the algorithms in real-world scenarios reveals promising results. The system was evaluated by conductors of all skill levels and provided a high level of accuracy and a low latency. Users of the final system expressed satisfaction with the virtual experience.

O corpo nas atividades em trânsito: condutores profissionais e mobilização do corpo-si

Os acidentes de trânsito matam, anualmente, mais de 30.000 pessoas no País. Parte delas envolve trabalhadores em situações de trabalho, embora sejam escassas pesquisas interessadas nessas questões. São ainda menos frequentes pesquisas que se debruçam sobre aspectos dos modos de condução, como o uso do corpo no processo de pilotagem. Por meio de pesquisas operadas pela perspectiva ergológica, pudemos verificar que o processo de pilotagem urbana notabiliza-se por meio do pensamento, da inteligência, da cognição e por como eles se articulam a um corpo biológico, psíquico, cultural e histórico: um corpo-si. O uso desse conceito se impõe, visto ser impossível uma completa prescrição das condições do trânsito, que requer o uso de uma inteligência da prática. A pilotagem envolve a mobilização do corpo por inteiro, desenvolvendo saberes e experiências que auxiliam na execução das tarefas e dos constrangimentos enfrentados na atividade em trânsito. O reconhecimento desse corpo-si se torna, portanto, um elemento fundamental para se compreenderem os comportamentos dos condutores profissionais.

Perception of Expression in Conductors' Gestures: A Continuous Response Study

The visual channel has been shown to be more informative than the auditory channel in perceptual judgments of a performer's level of expression. Previous work has revealed a positive relationship between amplitude of music-related movement and ratings of expression, for example, and observers have been shown to be sensitive to kinematic features of music-related movement. In this study, we investigate relationships between the kinematics of a conductors' expressive gestures and ratings of perceived expression. Point-light representations (totalling 10 minutes) of two professional conductors were presented to participants who provided continuous ratings of perceived valence, activity, power, and overall expression using a virtual slider interface. Relationships between these ratings and 11 kinematic variables computationally extracted from the movement data were subsequently examined using linear regression. Higher levels of expressivity were found to be conveyed by gestures characterized by increased amplitude, greater variance, and higher speed of movement.

Sharing the podium: exploring the process of peer learning in professional conducting

We discuss a recent peer-learning project we undertook as co-conductors of the Young Conservatorium Wind Orchestra at Griffith University. Drawing on current educational theory on peer learning and material from our conducting practice and research, we explore how this approach offers professional conductors the opportunity to work together in an inclusive and empowering learning environment. We outline our peer learning context, the learning relationship we shared, the most significant musical outcomes of such a process, and the implications for conducting pedagogy and the professional development of conductors.