Professional Musicians Research Articles

Effects of interoceptive accuracy on timing control in the synchronization tapping task.

Humans often perform rhythmic synchronized movements. Professional musicians and dancers particularly perform such movement tasks well and have a higher interoceptive accuracy (IAcc) than non-musicians and non-dancers. We thus hypothesized that rhythmic synchronized movements might be enhanced by a higher IAcc. To investigate this hypothesis, this study conducted a heartbeat counting task and a rhythmic synchronization tapping task with normal (easier) and slow (harder) tempi metronomes. Inconsistent with our hypothesis, however, a higher IAcc was negatively correlated with timing control, but only in the slow tempo condition [r (30) = 0.46, p < 0.05]. This suggests that a higher IAcc did not enhance timing control in rhythmic synchronized movements but rather weakened it, resting heart rate variability was not correlated with timing control.

A Stimulus Set of 40 Popular Music Drum Patterns with Perceived Complexity Measures

This study presents an audio stimulus set of 40 drum patterns from Western popular music with empirical measurements of perceived complexity. The audio stimuli are meticulous reconstructions of drum patterns found in commercial recordings; they are based on careful transcriptions (carried out by professional musicians), drum stroke loudness information, and highly precise onset timing measurements. The 40 stimuli are a subset selected from a previously published larger corpus of reconstructed Western popular music drum patterns (Lucerne Groove Research Library). The patterns were selected according to two criteria: a) they only feature the bass drum, snare drum, and one or more cymbals, and b) they plausibly cover the complexity range of the corpus. Perceived stimulus complexity was measured in a listening experiment using a pairwise comparison design with 220 participants (4,400 trials). In each trial, participants were presented with two stimuli, and they stated which of the two sounded more complex to them. The comparison data then served to calculate complexity estimates using the Bradley–Terry probability model. The complexity estimates have an intuitive interpretation: they allow calculation of the probability that one pattern is considered more complex than another pattern in a pairwise comparison. To our knowledge, this is the first set of naturalistic music stimuli with meaningful perceived complexity estimates. The drum pattern stimuli and complexity measurements can be used for listening experiments in music psychology. The stimuli will further allow measures and models of drum pattern complexity to be assessed.

The role of theater architecture in music education

The article examines the role of theater architecture in music education. It is determined that the study of theatrical architecture is an important part of obtaining musical education, especially for those who plan to become a professional musician. As part of music education, students can study theater architecture and its impact on musical performances. It should also be noted that music education necessarily includes the development of the general culture of students, for this reason, the architectural features of theater buildings can contribute to the development of the general culture of students.

STANISLAV LIUDKEVYCH – GREAT UKRAINIAN COMPOSER, PROGRESSIVE PUBLIC ACTIVIST, ORGANIZER OF THE MUSICAL LIFE IN THE WESTERN UKRAINE

The article investigates the main features of artistic, educational, pedagogical, scientificpublicist and sociopolitical progressive activity of Stanislav Liudkevych that is exceptionally significant for the development of the national culture and, specifically, Ukrainian music, even in the new historical circumstances. It also dwells upon Stanislav Liudkevych’s public activity as the organizer of the musical life in Lviv and other cities of the Western Ukraine that resulted in the organization of the Union of Professional Musicians of Ukraine (1934–1939), the work of which put an end to the professionalization of Halych musicians and started the traditions that exist till now. It also studies the questions from the artist’s report on the First Pedagogical Congress of the Union of Professional Ukrainian Musicians on November 2nd and 3rd, 1935, and from his scientific articles, that still answer the thorny problems of the current development of the Ukrainian culture. The article reveals the aspects of the composer’s biography referring to the creation of vocal chamber music (choirs and solo singing), piano music for the pedagogical repertoire (original works and the translation of the Ukrainian folk songs for the piano), and ensemble works for the piano duets. The paper separately investigates the composer’s input in the pedagogic area and musical schooling as well as teaching music in the public schools that has an immense impact on the esthetic upbringing of the young person. Stanislav Liudkevych started his artistic path on the verge of 19th and 20th century, in the period of essential conflicts in social and cultural life. He soon became an example of the progressive national artist that joined the worldly and artistic aspirations together. He was a highly-qualified musician, a person with wide and comprehensive general education, for whom the fight for the artistic progress and creative professionalism constituted the very basis of his diverse activity. The life and creativity of Stanislav Liudkevych is an example of unique purposefulness and active desire to fulfill the primary ideals of humanity. He responded heartily to the most significant and thrilling social events. The main idea of the composer’s music as well as his multiple publicist and musicological articles is the fight for freedom, for the development of the spiritual and, specifically, musical culture of his people, for the relationship with other progressive cultures, etc. The composer’s diverse activity is characterized by the integrity of the worldview, standpoint of a progressive person formed by the examples of the leading national thought, as well as the ideals of the symbolic poets, such as Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko. The composer understood the art as a social phenomenon that is inseparably connected to the life of a community, as a reflection as the whole history of the society. Throughout many decades the composer acted as the leading artist that strives for the life of his native culture and for the improving of the spiritual health of Ukrainian nation. Thus, not only music composition, but also the whole progressive activity of Stanislav Liudkevych, such as sociopolitical, educational, pedagogical and critic, are vital for the development of the Ukrainian art.

Organ preservation surgery for laryngeal cancer in a trombone player

Introduction. Modern treatments for early glottic carcinoma achieve high rates of local control and long-term survival, but potential side effects of some of these treatments have a substantial impact on a patient?s quality of life. There is a small quantity of available scientific research on the effects of organ-preservation surgery on musicians, highlighting the challenge of balancing functional outcomes with their occupational demands. Case report. We present a successful surgical treatment of a mid-membranous left vocal fold squamous cell carcinoma (T1a stage) in a professional trombonist with a history of many years of smoking. Due to suboptimal exposure during initial microlaryngoscopy, open cordectomy was performed for tumor removal instead of transoral laser microsurgery. After the operation and the proper rehabilitation, the patient continued to play the brass instrument unhindered and managed to fulfill all the obligations of a professional musician in a national orchestra. Conclusion. Selecting a method for the treatment of glottic cancers in professional musicians who play brass instruments remains challenging due to limited literature and the potential harm to the ability of performance and the musician?s career. Partial open laryngectomies for laryngeal cancer treatment are shown to be feasible without compromising the musician?s performance.

Pedagogy of the Public Intellectual on the Example of Life and Work of Gordon Matthew Sumner (Sting)

G.M. Sumner (Sting) is a teacher and pedagogue by education. After a short period of schoolwork, he began a career as a professional musician. As a musician with pedagogical education (from the second half of the 1970s to the present day), he achieved significant successes in the artistic field, functioning not only in the real world but also in the digital world, thanks to the mediatized everyday life, currently existing in many different social media. We believe that Sting is a Public Intellectual not least because of the message his songs convey, but also because of his charity work and involvement in the social issues of the modern world. On the example of a few selected texts of his songs and his activities outside of music, we reconstructed his pedagogy, which has its roots in recognizing the importance of the relationship between man and nature.

Mobile Safe Spaces and Preset Emotions: Making Music with Apps as a Digital Technology of the Self

ABSTRACT Apps for making music on smartphones and tablets are widely used by professional and amateur musicians alike. Based on a qualitative study, this article describes how making music with apps affects users’ sense of self and emotion regulation in everyday life. It demonstrates that music apps are used in “technologies of the self,” that they shape musicians’ self-constitution and allow a complex interplay between music, place, and the self. It argues that music production with apps can promote practices of self-government, but also serve as a tool of self-empowerment and critique.

ТЕМА ПАМЯТИ В ТРИО МИХАИЛА КОЛЛОНТАЯ «ДЕСЯТЬ СЛОВ МУСОРГСКОГО НА СМЕРТЬ ВИКТОРА ГАРТМАНА»

In the spiritual life of a person, remembrance plays a significant role. The resurrection of the priceless past experience of one’s own and someone else’s opens the way to comprehension of the present, one’s own Self. Artists strive to reflect the amazing ability of a person to cross the border of the real and sacred worlds in memory. In the musical art of the second half of the XXth — early XXIst centuries, the theme of memory is embodied through a dialogue of compositions from different eras, traditions, concepts. In this vein, the article examines the unique composition by our compatriot and contemporary Mikhail Kollontay “Ten Words of Mussorgsky on the Death of Viktor Hartmann” for piano, cello and violin. Created in the wake of Mussorgsky’s piano cycle “Pictures at an Exhibition” and the International Competition and Festival of Arts in Vienna (1993), the trio embodies the journey of human memory along the paths of the afterlife. Reflecting the aesthetics of postmodernism and not belonging to the sphere of sacred music, the composition is devoted to the key themes of “life and death” and “salvation through repentance” for the Russian Orthodox consciousness. It intricately intertwines intra- and extramusical components (title, titles of plays, quotations from literary sources, artistic artifacts, comments in the author’s letters, etc.), which form a dialogue between the “alien” and the “own”, the past and the present, the secular and the spiritual. The analysis of the timbro-sonic side, intonation vocabulary, thematicism and its compositional and dramatic organization reveals vivid signs of the poetics of memory. They build an original concept of the trio, which demonstrates its enduring value in the Russian and, wider, world cultural space. The article is addressed to professional musicians, postgraduate students and specialists in the field of musicology.

„Musiker wirst Dein Leben kaner!“ – Stress, Druck, Lampenfieber und Neuro-Enhancement in der Musik

In recent years the ‘classical music scene’ has come under increasing criticism regarding neuro-enhancement and the use of drugs, including Ritalin, beta blocker, caffeine, LSD in microdoses or alcohol. Pressure to perform, touring, stress and performance anxiety are part of musicians’ everyday lives. I assume that the phenomenon of overwork in the field of music is not new. Performance limits for professional musicians existed much earlier. The text is about music education, violence in education, child prodigies, and the dealing with fears of failure and stressful situations. The increased thematization of stage fright is due on the one hand to the emergence of large concert halls and the accompanying expansion of the audience, and on the other hand to the possibility of preserving and comparing voices and artistic interpretations of works on data carriers. Autobiographical texts as well as concert reviews and articles in historical- medical journals are used as sources.

Development of the Musi-CI Training, A Musical Listening Training for Cochlear Implant Users: A Participatory Action Research Approach.

A cochlear implant (CI) is a prosthesis that allows people with severe to profound hearing loss to understand speech in quiet settings. However, listening to music presents a challenge to most CI users; they often do not enjoy music or avoid it altogether. The Musi-CI training course was developed for CI users with the goal of reducing music aversion and improving music enjoyment. A consortium was established consisting of a professional musician with CI, CI rehabilitation professionals and researchers. Participatory action research (PAR) was applied to develop and evaluate the training experiences, collaborating with 37 CI users during three cycles of eight training sessions, each held over a period of 3 months. Input and feedback were collected after each training session using questionnaires, observations and focus group interviews. Almost all participants (86%) completed the training. After completing the training a large majority of participants reported increased music appreciation, increased social participation in musical settings and a positive impact on general auditory perception. The resulting Musi-CI training programme focuses on music listening skills, self-efficacy, and self-motivation. It consists of exercises intended to strengthen attention and working memory, to improve beat and rhythm perception (with online rhythm exercises) and exercises to distinguish timbre of instruments and emotion in music. A Melody Game was developed to improve pitch and melodic contour discrimination.

CONDUCTING AND EDUCATIONAL WORK OF YEVHEN VAKHNIAK AT M. V. LYSENKO STATE CONSERVATORY OF LVIV

This article is devoted to the creative work of the famous conductor, teacher and composer Yevhen Vakhniak (1912–1998) which had a significant impact on the evolution of Ukrainian choral art. The purpose of this article is to focus the attention on long years conducting and educational work of Ye. Vakhniak at M. V. Lysenko State Conservatory of Lviv (now named M. V. Lysenko National Academy of Music of Lviv). We have analyzed the creative work of the conductor as head of men’s choir “Homin”, the choir of the opera studio, the student’s choir of the conservatory. We have identified artistic and worldview principles, repertoire priorities, features of conducting and performing style and educational approaches of the artist. We have briefly described his educational and methodological and compositional heritage. We provide the list of his most famous students and followers. During forty years of his creative work at M. V. Lysenko State Conservatory of Lviv, Ye. Vakhniak showed himself as practical choirmaster, conductor pedagogue, teacher trainer, arranger, and composer. The choirmaster practical activity of the conductor proved his professional universalism, maturity, and meaningfulness of his individual artistic style, as well as his inclination to creative experiments and integration of innovative methods of work. The wide range of the conducting repertoire of the artist included many monographic concert programs, the priority was given to the choir music of Ukrainian composers and to the ecclesiastic pieces of Western European authors. Ye. Vakhniak was a very good interpreter and proactive promoter of choral pieces by Galician composers. His artistic and pedagogical principles were based on the principles of Christian morality and had expressive signs of quiet non-conformism in relation to the social order of that time. Ye. Vakhniak didn’t accept and never applied authoritarian methods of work. The key to his success was great erudition, professional competency, personal commitment, and sociability. Ye. Vakhniak’s knowledge and creative experience are recorded in his monograph, articles, educational and methodical manuals and textbooks, music prints, phonograms, press publications. Large number of students and choir performers who later became successful professional musicians testify about high efficiency of Ye. Vakhniak as high school pedagogue, and the composer activity of the artist harmoniously complements the image of his universal creative personality of the Renaissance type.

The Dilemma of Empty Halls

Today, live classical concert attendance is low, a fact which threatens the careers of professional musicians. This paper examines recent statistics of classical concert attendance, theories as to why attendance rates are low, marketing methods for target audiences, and finally, recommendations to solve the dilemma of empty concert halls. To encourage concert attendance, classical music must be tastefully marketed to present-day audiences through the experience of technically excellent, musical, and interesting live performances. Ultimately, the relationship between art and its audience (the consumer) reveals that the key to the dilemma is the audience.

Bessarabian piano art at the confl uence of the XIX-XX centuries

Since the end of the XIX century — beginning of the XX century, the musical life in Bessarabia is being intensified due to the artistic activity of some professional musicians with studies at Russian and Western European conservatories, thus creating standards of musical education and interpretive mastery with a significant impact on the professional training of pianists. The first musical institutions appear: M. Voloshinovskaya, who had studied in Vienna, opened a private school in 1891 in Chisinau. Previously, in 1890, a music school, accessible to all social classes, was opened at the initiative of Vasile Gutor, born in Chișinău and having graduated from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in Professor K. Davydov’s cello class. At the same time, premises of the national school of composition are manifested; the first works for piano being made in the style and forms of Western schools adapted to the native oral sound stratum. As a result of the adaptation and the valorization of musical folklore, professional music is being developed in the Bessarabian area.

MARIA MANTURZEWSKA AND HER STUDIES ON MUSICIANS’ PERSONALITIES

The structure and nature of professional musicians’ personalities have been examined by numerous scholars. The issue of musicians’ personalities and the role of personality traits in their music activities is the subject of both reflective considerations and systematic research. The studies in the field of psychology of music analysed those personality traits that had a direct influence on the process of learning, creating, or performing music. When choosing a music profession, it is hard to be guided only by personality factors, without considering perception-related, technical, and intellectual aptitude. Being a musician is a combination of genetic and biological “package”, personality traits, as well as social and emotional support given during childhood and adolescence. Research on the personalities of professional musicians, conductors and composers started in the 19th century first attempted by Strumpf and then they were continued in the 20th century by Seashore, Teplov, Manturzewska, and later on by Bell and Cresswell, Kemp and Woody. It was conducted using musical aptitude tests, intelligence tests, and personality tests (by Castell, Eysenck, or the Big Five by Costa and McCrae). Maria Manturzewska’s research (also using the tests mentioned earlier) from 1960s and 1970s contributed to the popularization of knowledge about a professional musician’s personality. This article presents the most important results of these studies, which cast new light on the personality structure and the features (competencies, skills) which are necessary to become a successful musician.

Questions and Commentary

Answers to frequently asked questions (from students and professional musicians) during Zoomed events of last 2.5 years

Living in Artistic Career: The Role of Job Crafting towards Work Identity for Musicians

Professional musicians have been continuously facing difficulties in career over time. One of the psychological threats for musicians is to lose their identity at work, which may lead to abandonment of their potential lifetime career. Previous studies have not emphasized the importance of certain work efforts to maintain work identity in the context of music career. This study conducted a literature review on the job crafting role to musicians’ work identity, and aimed to elaborate the existing concepts with the context of music profession. Using theoretical frameworks of job crafting and Job Demand-Resource theory, this study proposed theoretical perspectives to support the theories, by identifying five dimensions of job crafting (task, relational, cognitive, emotional, and physical) for professional musicians, as well as building a conceptual model that may help musicians to maintain work identity. This study also contributed theoretical insights and implications regarding the job crafting role towards identity construction for musicians, which could be considered during the current pandemic.

Analyzing and predicting success of professional musicians

The emergence of streaming services, e.g., Spotify, has changed the way people listen to music and the way professional musicians achieve fame and success. Classical music has been the backbone of Western media for a long time, but Spotify has introduced the public to a much wider variety of music, also opening a new venue for professional musicians to gain exposure. In this paper, we use open-source data from Spotify and Musicbrainz databases to construct collaboration-based and genre-based networks. We call genres defined in these databases primary genres. Our goal is to find the correlation between various features of each professional musician, the current stage of their career, and the level of their success in the music field. We build regression models using XGBoost to first analyze correlation between features provided by Spotify. We then analyze the correlation between the digital music world of Spotify and the more traditional world of Billboard charts. We find that within certain bounds, machine learning techniques such as decision tree classifiers and Q-based models perform quite well on predicting success of professional musicians from the data on their early careers. We also find features that are highly predictive of their success. The most prominent among them are the musicians’ collaboration counts and the span of their career. Our findings also show that classical musicians are still very centrally placed in the general, genre-agnostic network of musicians. Using these models and success metrics, aspiring professional musicians can check if their chances for career success could be improved by increasing their specific success measures in both Spotify and Billboard charts.

End of the Day.

Philip Alexander, MD, is a native Texan, retired physician, and accomplished musician and artist. After 41 years as an internal medicine physician, Dr. Phil retired from his practice in College Station in 2016. A lifelong musician and former music professor, he often performs as an oboe soloist for the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra. He began exploring visual art in 1980, evolving from pencil sketches-including an official White House portrait of President Ronald Reagan-to the computer-generated drawings featured in this journal. His images, which first appeared in this journal in the spring of 2012, are his own original creations. If you would like to see your art published in the Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal, submit your creation online at journal.houstonmethodist.org as a "Humanities" entry.

Live music during haemodialysis: A multiple methods randomised controlled pilot study.

Fatigue is an immense problem among patients undergoing haemodialysis and is associated with anxiety and depression. Live music used in different hospital settings has shown promising effects, but the feasibility and potential effectiveness of live music during haemodialysis are unknown. To evaluate the feasibility, the participants' musical experience and potential effectiveness of live music on patients' levels of fatigue, relaxation, anxiety, depression, treatment satisfactionand work engagement among nurses. A pilot randomised controlled trial evaluated with a multiple methods design. Two clusters of 12 patients were each randomised to receive either 30 min of live music once a week during haemodialysis or usual care over a period of 6 weeks. The primary outcome was patients' immediate fatigue. Other outcomes were patients' long-term and post-dialysis fatigue, relaxation, anxiety, depression, treatment satisfactionand work engagement among nurses. Observations and semi-structured interviews with patients, nursesand musicians were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of the musical experience as well as feasibility. The study was feasible and detected significant differences on immediate fatigue (p < 0.001) and anxiety (p < 0.012) in the intervention group compared to controls. Among 17 nurses, a significant difference was found in Dedication (p < 0.024). Furthermore, live music gave patients an uplifting experience, bringing joy and relaxationand the nurses experienced a sense of quietness in a stressful day. Providing live music performed by professional musicians in a haemodialysis setting is feasible and showed a significant effect on immediate fatigue and anxiety compared to controls.

A Professional Musician with Sight‐Reading Difficulties: A Case Study

AbstractBackgroundThere have been few reports of musical alexia in neurodegeneration. In this case report, we describe a professional orchestral musician who presented with a chief complaint of decline in performance accuracy. While he had previously been exceptional in sight‐reading, he was now making frequent mistakes and falling behind. He stated that performing a familiar piece was, “like reading it for the first time.” He later developed difficulties with visuospatial abilities and language.MethodsWe aimed to characterize his musical and cognitive symptoms using a battery that consisted of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia, novel tasks to assess accuracy of music reading and music production, standard neuropsychological testing, and review of clinical imaging and CSF.ResultsThe patient completed the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBAE) with no errors. His pitch, interval, auditory memory, rhythm perception, as well as basic note names and values were unaffected. (Fig.1). We had designed two novel measures to assess his ability to play unfamiliar music using a key signature task and a performance piece. (Fig 2,3,4). Results indicated that he was able to sight read familiar excerpts but not unfamiliar excerpts. On unfamiliar pieces, his sight reading, comprehension, and production showed marked impairment. He was unable to accurately reproduce note sequences in musical passages. On standard neuropsychological measures, he demonstrated impairment on tasks requiring mental rotation and figure discrimination as well as language measures including reading comprehension (BDAE), and confrontation naming (MINT). MRI (Fig 5) showed atrophy in the patient’s parietal lobes and CSF fluid analysis was positive for abnormal Aβ‐42 and normal tau (Aβ‐42:521.55, ptau:25.55).ConclusionOur novel tasks revealed specific deficits in music sight reading, echoed in impairment in visuospatial abilities and language on neuropsychological measures. The patient’s imaging, positive CSF amyloid testing and cognitive testing suggest that amusia was an early stage of a probable parietal variant of Alzheimer’s disease (i.e., PCA). His case highlights the importance of considering a neurodegenerative process in patients presenting with isolated deficits in music reading. Future studies will be needed for normative and validation studies of our novel tasks.