Solo Performance Research Articles

Clarifying reverberation for organ performance

In the conceptual phase of design or remodeling of a space for organ performance, the acoustical consultant will have a limited time in which to assess the potential for reverberation and to guide the designer in maximizing this potential. In a place of worship, the organ is likely to serve as an accompaniment to the choir and also as a solo performance instrument, both of which have their distinct acoustical requirements. It is important for the designer to fully understand the intended uses of the organ and the qualities that the organ builder wishes to emphasize. While attaining sufficient reverberation for organ performance is often a challenging task, too much reverberation, which can blur form, harmonic structure, rhythm articulation, and dynamic contrasts, must also be avoided. The architectural factors to be considered in this careful balance are reviewed together with examples of successful organ installations.

Partners in creation

This article discusses the role of the solo performer today, and the importance to composers of writing with particular performers in mind, with whom they are able to interact during the composing process. The author examines important composer – performer partnerships of the 1960s and 1970s, then traces the evolution of his own work as a performer of contemporary music, at the same time looking at his own evolving focus in the creation and documentation of new and recent music for his own instrument, the trombone.

AIDS and American Apocalypticism: The Cultural Semiotics of an Epidemic (review)

Reviewed by: Aids and American Apocalypticism: The Cultural Semiotics of an Epidemic James Fisher Aids and American Apocalypticism: The Cultural Semiotics of an Epidemic. By Thomas L. Long . Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. pp. x + 242. $73.50 cloth, $24.95 paper. Ex–Catholic priest turned academic / activist Thomas L. Long brings a unique perspective to this persuasive analysis of the semiotics of AIDS. Focusing on apocalyptic language and images from fiction, drama, performance art, graphics, scientific journals, medical publications, and mainstream journalism proliferating since 1981, Long traces the "rage and grief" (ix) he felt watching the mounting death toll from AIDS in the early 1980s. Examining the impact of apocalyptic views of the growing pandemic and diverse images of homosexuals emerging from public presentations by both pro-gay activists and conservative Christian fundamentalists, Long traces the birth of conservative apocalypticism to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American religious dialogue. Long's sympathies unmistakably side with the gay community and AIDS victims, but his religious background, coupled with his impressive knowledge of literature and performance theory, permits a balance of disdain for fundamentalist views with an understanding of the basic human need for spirituality when he acknowledges that it is possible to recognize "the value of religious discourse without endorsing its claims to represent the real" (199). Surveying various victories and defeats for both sides of the national dialogue on AIDS and homosexuality, slow governmental response to the illness, incidents of gay-bashing and hate crimes, assaults on gay-themed art and literature, and increasingly vitriolic political soundbites (pro and con), Long illuminates the dangers and the usefulness of apocalypticism inherent in the presentations of both the dogmatically religious and the secularist. In five insightfully argued chapters, Long demonstrates an ultimate triumph for AIDS activists in appropriating apocalyptic language and imagery initially employed by antigay forces. Chapter 1 commences in the 1970s as Long traces the defining moments that connected antigay apocalypticism with fundamentalist Christianity. Considerable attention is devoted to Anita Bryant's attempt to repeal a gay equal-rights ordinance in Florida, a campaign that unleashed intense social debate that was exploited by televangelists Pat Robertson and Jim Bakker, among others, and conservative politicians as Ronald Reagan ascended to the US presidency. Surveying the cultural landscape of the period, fundamentalist Tim LaHaye warned that "America is experiencing a homosexual epidemic" (6), a prophetic statement given the arrival of AIDS—a literal epidemic, which fully ignited "end of time" rhetoric exacerbated by early news reports calling AIDS a "gay cancer." Long analyzes the foundation of apocalyptic language and the response of cultural critics, many of whom recognized the political strategizing inherent in their crafting of apocalyptic rhetoric with antigay fervor. "Apocalypse is a long-running serial: not 'Apocalypse Now' but 'Apocalypse from Now On'" (13), Susan Sontag claimed, a stance Long identifies as a benchmark of postmodern culture and art. Long's second chapter introduces language describing "marginalization" (27) of gays and AIDS sufferers through solo performances by David Drake and Tim Miller, with Long drawing cogent connections with a range of theorists offering varying views of AIDS apocalypticism in the burgeoning field of performance theory. The author logically moves to the role of the dramatist in the third chapter by discussing [End Page 152] the seminal figure of Larry Kramer, identified as an exemplar of the "uniquely American discourse, the jeremiad" (27). Kramer's harsh indictments of government, media, and his fellow gay citizens for failing to recognize and respond to the mounting tragedies of AIDS significantly altered the evolution of apocalyptic language associated with the epidemic. In Long's estimation, Kramer's rhetorical achievements emerge in demonstrating methods for co-opting "end of time" language to shift debate toward energizing public response to the crisis. Seizing the moral high ground, Kramer framed a view of morality that made response seem imperative. In chapter 4, Long dissects the trope of Armageddon as applied by both sides of the homosexual / AIDS divide. He points to increasing use of "military metaphors" (109) to describe AIDS during the Reagan era, tying them to the rise of militaristic language by militant groups such as ACT UP and Lesbian Avengers. Each side...

Theatre and AutoBiography: Writing and Performing Lives in Theory and Practice (review)

Reviewed by: Theatre and AutoBiography: Writing and Performing Lives in Theory and Practice Ryan Claycomb (bio) Sherrill Grace and Jerry Wasserman, eds. Theatre and AutoBiography: Writing and Performing Lives in Theory and Practice. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2006. 352 pp. ISBN 0-88922-540-0, $24.95. Over the past decade or so, theatre and performance studies and auto/biography studies have inched toward one another, but only in the last few years have we seen concerted study and discussion at the confluence of these two concerns. In 2004, the University of British Columbia hosted a workshop on precisely this nexus, "Putting a Life on Stage: A Theatre and AutoBiography Exploratory Workshop." The result is this useful, though by no means comprehensive collection edited by Sherrill Grace and Jerry Wasserman, one that explores both the practical and theoretical dynamics for staging lived experience, and for writing lives conducted on or near the stage. While the origin of these essays as conference papers sometimes limits the scope and impact of many pieces in the collection, several will contribute meaningfully and lastingly to this growing area of inquiry. In her introduction to Theatre and AutoBiography, Sherrill Grace contends that there exists a "highly productive" relationship between these two fields of knowledge, and situates the intersection within current critical discussions of performativity, of the interplay between theories of life writing and the writing itself, of narrative, and of memory. Specifically, she argues persuasively and usefully for a notion of "performative autobiographics: the creation of identities that exist in performance, that challenge fixed notions of the self and of subjectivity, and that are new each time the story is performed" (18). While the volume is perhaps too disparate for the introduction to make much more substantitive claims than this, it is a useful summary of the critical conversation thus far. While the threads that Grace introduces are not all common to every one of the fifteen academic essays in the volume, notions of performance, self, and subjectivity are recurring themes, and find their most theoretically infused engagements in the first section, "Theorizing AutoBiographical Theatre." Particularly compelling in this section are Susan Bennett's "3-D A/B" and Ric Knowles's "Documemory, Autobiology and the Utopian Performative in Canadian Autobiographical Solo Performance," both of which examine, variously, the ontological and rhetorical status of the body on the truth claims of auto/biographical narratives. Bennett writes, "The body, above all else, [End Page 213] makes these performances both more and less reliable than their written equivalents, for it claims a special purchase on the real, incites evidence of the past and promises, for the audience, a three-dimensional text" (46). Meanwhile, Knowles, in discussing the work of performer Emily Taylor, argues that "the show turned on a confrontation between the discursive 'I' as social and grammatical 'subject' and the culturally and discursively produced and abjected body" (50). While neither essay comes to a consensus on the relationship of the autobiographical body to "the real," there is plenty to work with in these thoughtful additions to the field. The second section of the volume, "AutoBiographical Plays: Page, Stage or Real Life?," examines a range of auto/biographical texts in performance, covering issues of process and performance, the notion of dramatic portraiture, the autographic relationship of the playwright to the fictional play, and the implications of the self in performance for feminist work. Particularly useful in the section is Joanne Tompkins's essay, in which she examines the actor's and audience's engagements of Self and Other. She argues that in works by Joan MacLeod and by Guillermo Verdicchia and Marcus Youssef, "each encourages its audiences to read the fictional characters in their own context, but neither isolates that context from the 'real' life models which partly precipitated them" (124). It is in this section in particular that a reader will find the greatest evidence of the rich range of discussion on this critical confluence of theatre and auto/biography, and while the shorter nature of many of the arguments may render those discussions less than exhaustive, each essay in this section makes a contribution to the discourse. The third section, "Theatre Lives: From Autobiography to Biography," revolves...

Essential Partners in Collection Development: Vendors and Music Librarians

Essential Partners In Collection Development: Vendors And Music Librarians Daniel Zager The task of building music library collections necessarily involves the vendors who sell to our libraries the scores, books, journals (whether in printed or electronic formats), and recordings that enable the users of music libraries to make, study, and listen to a rich panoply of music in various styles and genres—without chronological or geographical limits. Imagine for the moment that a superior music library vendor abruptly and without warning decides that the time has come to close down, to dissolve the business. What does the music librarian lose? Clearly, one loses a business entity that can deliver the goods to libraries by way of firm orders, standing orders, subscriptions, or approval plans. That loss is obvious. What is perhaps less obvious is that the music librarian also stands to lose important services in terms of bibliographic information and notification of new publications, whether that information comes by way of printed notification slips, lists of new publications, catalogs, or by way of electronic files, an extensive and well-organized Web site, or even advertisements in a music journal such as Notes. Furthermore, vendors often send publisher catalogs and brochures as yet another means to notify librarians of new publications. If a vendor goes out of business the music librarian loses both goods and services—bibliographic services on which our collection development activities depend. After a general consideration of the selection process, this article focuses on the partnership between vendors and music librarians as seen in approval plans, and in vendor-supplied bibliographic information that serves as a complement to published reviews. [End Page 565] The Selection Process Viewed objectively, the selection process entails myriad decisions evaluating the nature of published music materials in the context of a host of internal and external factors. External factors are those that reside outside the institution where the selector is working; internal factors refer to the institutional context and include most prominently: (1) the type of institution, (2) the nature of curricula or communities, and (3) matters of budget. Such internal and external factors make selection of materials a highly individual process that varies significantly from one institution to the next. The type of institution to which a music library or music collection is attached varies considerably in the academic arena.1 At the risk of generalizing, it is still fair, I think, to distinguish among (1) the comprehensive school of music, (2) the conservatory, and (3) the department of music. The comprehensive school of music (for the most part a uniquely American phenomenon) includes the study of composition, performance, music education, music theory, and musicology within a single administrative entity, usually including the full range of undergraduate and graduate (masters and doctoral) degree programs. The conservatory of music most often emphasizes performance and composition, with a supporting role (rather than separate degree programs) for music theory and musicology. The department of music is perhaps the most variable of the three types of institutions cited here, but most often the study of composition, music theory, and musicology are more prominent than is a full range of performance degree programs for all instruments, with faculty specialists for each performance area. Making music—whether in large ensembles, chamber music, or solo performance—is important in the department of music, but it is less of a focus in this context than in the conservatory or comprehensive school of music. Some of the strongest research programs in music theory and musicology are to be found in the department of music context. These different types of music institutions will, of course, exhibit different emphases in their degree programs and curricula—internal factors that play an important role in the selection of music library materials. [End Page 566] What may be essential for a conservatory library, e.g., a broad range of orchestral excerpt books, may be of much less importance in a music library serving a department of music focused on musicological and theoretical work. Conversely, the musicological...

PERFORMANCE ANXIETY, DYSFUNCTIONAL ATTITUDES AND GENDER IN UNIVERSITY MUSIC STUDENTS

The aims of this study were twofold: 1) to investigate the relationships between anxiety and general dysfunctional attitudes, perfectionism, and the need for approval in the solo performance examination of Turkish university music students, and 2) to examine the effects of perfectionism, need for approval, and gender on anxiety. Fifty-four instrumental music students participated in this study. Research data were collected using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988) and the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (Weissman & Beck, 1978). The results revealed that there are significant positive correlations between anxiety and total score of dysfunctional attitudes, and the need for approval (p < .05). The ANOVA results also showed that while there was no main effect of perfectionism, need for approval and gender had significant effects (p < .05) on anxiety. However, interaction effects of perfectionism, need for approval, and gender on anxiety were not significant. Results are discussed in the context of related literature.

FRACTAL ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT EASTERN AND WESTERN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

In this paper, we attempt musical analysis by measuring fractal dimension (D) of musical pieces played by several musical instruments. We collected solo performances of popular instruments of Western and Eastern origin as samples. We attempted usual spectral analysis of the selected clips to observe peaks of fundamental and harmonics in frequency regime. After appropriate processing, we converted them into time series data sets and computed their fractal dimension. Based on our results, we conclude that instrumental musical sounds may have higher Ds than those computed from vocal performances of different types of Indian songs.

The Use of Presentational Aesthetics in Heidi Rose's Mirror Image

As I watched Heidi Rose's tour-de-force performance of Mirror Image, I found myself amazed at how powerfully this solo performance resonated as a performance art monologue. Considering the highly a...

A Cappella and Diva: A Collaborative Process for Individual Academic Writing

A Cappella and Diva: A Collaborative Process for Individual Academic Writing

El Mexorcist (A Performance)

In the past months, I’ve been writing, re-writing and testing in front of informal audiences of colleagues a series of spoken word performance texts. Some of these texts I found by digging through forgotten archives of my computer’s memory. I brought them back to life through obsessive re-writings, in dialogue with my colleague, City Lights editor Elaine Katzenberger. Others are transcripts of ad lib texts that spontaneously came to being during my solo performances. A few I wrote this year in direct response to political or pop cultural phenomena, exploring their effects on my views on art, activism, identity, sexuality and language. What these texts have in common is a tone - a kind of ironic and melancholic tone - and a unique form of vernacular philosophical inquiry that I feel are at the core of performance art and performance literature. Together they function as reflections on our millennial condition, as artists and cultural practitioners living in the US, a country that is undergoing an unprecedented cultural and political crisis. Some underlying questions are: Why do we continue doing what we are doing (in my case, writing and performing) against the backdrop of war, censorship, cultural paranoia and spiritual despair? What are the new roles that artists must undertake? Where are the new borders between the accepted and the forbidden? Is art still a pertinent form of inquiry and contestation? Is my audience really with me? Who are ‘we’ and who are ‘they’? Can I collaborate with my audience in the making of the performance? From whence do we draw the energy to continue? As a performance artist my job is precisely to ask questions in original ways. Like most of my performance literature, these hybrid texts suffer from an identity crisis. Are they spoken word poetry, performance ‘monologues’, pop philosophy, art theory, post-colonial thought, or Chicano stand-up comedy? I truly don’t know. It is actually better that I don’t know. Like most of my literature, they are ‘open texts’, works in permanent progress, which means that their publication merely preserves them in one phase of their ongoing development. Together, I see them as both a multi-purpose literary bank and a script in permanent progress; documents of sorts for crossing the border into the new century. The form of these texts on the page is merely a performative strategy. Though they are poetic prose pieces, I have structured them like poems or monologues, in short sentences per line. This way, it is easier for me to read them aloud and to play with language rhythms and textures. My colleagues are constantly asking me why I chose to return to my solo spoken word material. First and foremost because my audiences asked me to do so. As I have toured with my troupe over the last three years, everywhere we go audiences tell me they want to hear my voice again. They want to know my current opinions about art and politics. They insist on hearing my voice, alone on stage, without excess performance paraphernalia. They ask and I must acquiesce. Furthermore, I feel that the complexities and subtleties imbedded in the content and form of these pieces couldn’t possibly be conveyed through my troupe work, which tends to be more experiential and collaborative. I begin performing this solo material sometime in early 2006. Every performance will utilize a different combination of texts and performative strategies. There will always be a 15-20 percent margin for improvisation, for specificity to the site, the city and the audience.

Negative : Using Performative Interventions to Explore HIV-Negativity

Negative:Using Performative Interventions to Explore HIV-Negativity Ragan Fox (bio) In fall 2004, I took a graduate course called "Performance and Social Activism" at Arizona State University. As a class, we considered various approaches to scholarship, activism, and performance, noting the ways in which the social worlds overlap. Several times throughout the semester, we were given opportunities to workshop short performances of activism. The workshops provided an opportunity for me to perform, gain feedback, and revise fictive monologues that I had been working on throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, we were asked to present a final project that used performance to highlight a particular activist agenda. I chose to focus on significations of HIV-negativity, because I wanted to acknowledge my HIV-related fears and work through them in a self-reflexive manner. For the final project, I wrote and performed Negative, a short performance piece comprising three HIV-negative–related monologues. Each of the three monologues challenges the idea that HIV-negativity is necessarily a positive or affirming experience. The title flips the connotation of "negative" back to a condition of attitudinal negativity. Later that year, I performed a full-length version of Negative in Arizona State University's Empty Space Theater. The audience for this performance was composed of people who were in the class, along with some of their friends. In the following pages, I critically consider the activist potential of the monologues. Before doing so, it is important to contextualize the roles of performance, theory, and activism in HIV-related scholarship. The Activist Potential of a "Performative Intervention" In his book Acts of Intervention,David Román intimates that our culture's woefully partial knowledge of "being negative" contributes to increasing seroconversion1 rates (233), and, conversely, an outright rejection of sex by individuals who fear contracting HIV (243). Although fewer people are dying of AIDS-opportunistic infections, HIV and AIDS diagnoses are substantially increasing (Krisberg 6; Sanchez A3). Rising seroconversion rates indicate that current HIV-prevention tactics are not as effective as they ought to be. New ways of framing and talking about the virus are therefore needed to complement existing efforts to contain its spread. In this essay, I, an HIV-negative performance artist and academic activist, chronicle my attempt to intervene against popular AIDS myths by exploring HIV-negativity. "Interventions" are performances that add to, contradict, and / or renegotiate how HIV and AIDS are articulated in US American culture, with the intent of calling dominant ideologies into question (Román 43). My mode of intervention involves the use of creative writing and solo performance. I chronicle the successes and failures of my intervention in [End Page 47] the form of this academic essay because such documentation illuminates the often thorny ground of performance work. Ultimately, I question how narrative and creative writing might be used to flesh out HIV-negativity, providing multiple opportunities for audience insight and identification. In this essay, I examine how a variety of discourses affects identity formation; I also look at the ways in which performance contributes to, challenges, and sometimes reifies popular discursive handlings of HIV-negative people. To accomplish these tasks, I borrow from and modify Judith Butler's notion of gender performativity. In Bodies that Matter, Butler explains that "performativity must be understood not as a singular or deliberate 'act,' but, rather, as the reiterative and citational practice by which discourse produces the effects that it names" (2). As with gender, serostatus can be framed as a key identity marker that depends on an iterative chain to constitute itself. Using performance to establish an HIV-negative identificatory continuum—in terms of topics that specifically relate to HIV-negative cultural members—performatively intervenes in discursive handlings of HIV that tend to ignore people who are affected by AIDS but who are not necessarily infected. By employing the term "performative intervention," I am advocating for a mode of performance that is explicitly activist / interventionist, tactically employed, and capable of challenging monolithic and oppressive conceptions of complex social phenomena. While some could argue that every performative utterance presupposes a response from its witnesses, the type of intervention that I imagine occurs when the terms...

Play by Play: Theater Essays & Reviews, 1993-2002 (review)

Reviewed by: Play by Play: Theater Essays & Reviews, 1993–2002 Tom Smith Play by Play: Theater Essays & Reviews, 1993–2002. By Jonathan Kalb. New York: Limelight Editions, 2003; pp. vii + 274. $30.00 cloth, $17.95 paper. Jonathan Kalb's excellent collection of essays illuminates the one area of theatre often relegated to mean-spirited punchlines or dismissed entirely: theatre criticism. With this compilation, Kalb—former drama critic for The Village Voice and New York Press as well as a regular contributor to American Theatre and The New York Times—has proven himself an important documentarian of American [End Page 163] theatre production history and deserves to be regarded as an important theatre practitioner. Kalb's first section, "Critical Mess," begins with a transcript of a lecture given to students at Barnard College and New York University in fall 2002. "The Death (and Life) of American Theatre Criticism: Advice to the Young Critic" is a fascinating and charming discussion of both the author's own journey and "words of practical advice, offered with all the recklessness of love" (14). Kalb offers valuable insights such as "Write journalism—Read beyond it" and "Ground your work in knowledge, not style." The author is passionate about the need for and development of critics rather than stylists, and encourages open and public discourse that allows give-and-take between critics and readers to avoid the too-common megalomania of many critics. This essay is followed by "The Critic In Extremis," a rather short piece that tackles the decline of criticism while lionizing Gordon Rogoff, critic and author of Vanishing Acts: Theater Since the Sixties. Rogoff, challenges Kalb, is the type of critic whose work is overlooked primarily because of America's inclination towards anti-intellectualism and embrace of recycled culture. Including witty gems such as Rogoff's reaction to David Mamet's work: "short-winded plays keep playing into the hands of the monsters he's putting down" (26), Kalb makes a valid point about our current obsession with entertainment over analysis. Part 1 ends with the direct and insightful "The Critic as Humanist," which scrutinizes the struggle of the critic to respond to the work not only as a universal audience member but also an elite one. Kalb's next section, "Something the Dust Said," focuses specifically on the work and legacy of Samuel Beckett. The five essays within explore everything from Beckett's work on film to the recently published Eleuthéria, the play that Beckett wanted never to be published. A critical look at Deirdre Bair's biography on Beckett, a performance review of a revival of Waiting for Godot, and a look at Bill Irwin's performance in Texts for Nothing complete the section. In all five essays, Kalb proves himself an informed and opinionated defender of Beckett's intent while providing the reader with a strong sense of the range of approach to dramatic criticism. "American Dreams" sheds light on solo performance pieces. In his essay "Documentary Solo Performance: The Politics of the Mirrored Self," Kalb makes the case that the rise of solo pieces isn't merely a matter of economics, but, rather, the reaction to the lack of political theatre that thrived in early periods of American history. Solo artists such as Anna Deavere Smith, Marc Wolf, Danny Hoch, and Sarah Jones, claims Kalb, represent a modern version of Brecht's expounding of topical narratives and documentary style. It is a fascinating and insightful discourse; by representing the role of the critic as respondent not only to the work but also the historical context in which the work fits, Kalb proves himself a remarkably authoritative and discerning voice. Four essays compose part 4, "German Questions." Beginning with a review of Peter Stein's twenty-one-hour production of Faust I and Faust II in July 2000 and progressing to a discussion on the Berliner Ensemble's decline as Germany's "official" theatre, Kalb's work takes a sharp turn in "You Can Go Home Again." In this personal essay on being an American Jew living in West Berlin for a few years, Kalb offers a refreshingly personal reaction in his critiques of German plays. While never crossing...

One-on-one: What is the Role of the Drama Teacher in the Process of Teaching the Solo Performance?

This article reports on the experiences of two teachers as they prepare their classes for the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) solo performance examination. The VCE Drama course culminates in a student- devised solo performance examination. The students create a character in response to an ‘examination paper’ developed over approximately twelve weeks. The students present their solo performance examination to external assessors at a designated assessment centre in early October each year. The pedagogy of the devised solo performance is explored through a phenomenological study. The research findings are presented as a constructed narrative supported by an interpretive commentary.

Repertoire and structure of duet and solo songs in cooperatively breeding white-browed sparrow weavers

Summary White-browed sparrow weavers (Plocepasser mahali) are cooperatively breeding songbirds of eastern and southern Africa that live in small groups year-round consisting of a dominant breeding pair, and subordinate, non-breeding males and females. This species possesses an elaborate vocal communication system: solo songs are exclusively produced by the dominant male, duet songs are mainly produced by the dominant pair, and chorus songs, similar in syllable structure and temporal pattern to duet songs, are produced by all group members. We analysed songs of males and females with known social status recorded from different colonies in Zimbabwe and complemented these data by studying songs of captive birds at our institute. Solo songs are produced in one performance at dawn during the breeding season. Recordings of captive males on consecutive days revealed that males sing in a single solo performance 88.4 ± 4.1% of their total solo song repertoire. This suggests that dominant males recorded in Zimbabwe have a solo song repertoire of 67.0 ± 4.0 syllables, which is similar in size to those of captive males (58.3 ± 3.7 syllables). Repertoire sizes of both free-living and captive males are not correlated with the length of the solo song performance. Duetting is both antiphonal and in unison. Dominant males and females appear to have similar sized duet repertoires (51.9 ± 2.1 syllables). Recordings from captive pairs suggest that 7598% of the repertoire is shared with higher syllable sharing in more experienced pairs. Since all group members engage in duets and chorus singing, we estimate that each subordinate male and female shares the duet syllable repertoire with the breeding pair. For dominant males, the duet syllables are widely distinct from those of the solo songs; of their total syllable repertoire only 2.1% occur in both repertoires. Further, solo song and duet song differ in the temporal organisation.

Flying Solo

The 2005 edition of the World Stage Festival at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre provides the occasion for reflection on questions of nation in the festival world, as befits the themes of the current issue of CTR. It also provides occasion for reflection on the theme of an earlier issue, that of solo performance.

A Comment on the History of the Pulsed Radiofrequency Technique for Pain Therapy

Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ecosman@cosmancompany.comAs one of the inventors of the pulsed radiofrequency technique for pain therapy, I disagree with the Editorial View of the history of this technique. The authors state that the history was based on a “personal written communication” from William Rittman, M.S. (Principal, RF Medical Devices, Middleton, MA). The editorial stated that there was a chance meeting at a 1995 scientific conference in Austria between Mr. Rittman and Menno Sluijter, M.D., Ph.D. (Professor Emeritus, Department of Anesthesia, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands), and a Soviet-bloc scientist, andthis scientist challenged the conventional belief that pain relief after radiofrequency treatment was a result of tissue destruction, suggesting that pain relief could result from the strong magnetic fields induced by voltage fluctuations in the area of treatment. Mr. Rittman returned to the bench and quickly devised a means of creating the same high-voltage fluctuations without any heating at the tip of the needle by using pulses of electrical current rather that continuous current. Dr. Sluijter immediately introduced the technique into clinical practice …In my opinion, Mr. Rittman's view of the history of pulsed radiofrequency, as described in the editorial, is factually incorrect and misleading, and ignores the roles that Dr. Sluijter and I played in it. I give my view of the history here.I was the scientific director of all radiofrequency generators and radiofrequency electrodes built at Radionics since 1970, including the first pulsed radiofrequency unit in 1995. I was also the overall director of Radionics. Mr. Rittman reported to me, and I was aware of all research he was doing. I was the main contact at Radionics with Dr. Sluijter, with whom I had worked closely since 1977. Therefore, I know the history well.After the meeting with the Soviet-bloc scientist, Dr. Sluijter and Mr. Rittman were intrigued by his magnetic field idea and discussed it with me. I made quantitative estimates that magnetic field effects are negligible for our parameter range and that only the electrical field could possibly produce biologic effects to reduce pain, outside of the known radiofrequency heating effects. To test the magnetic field hypothesis, Mr. Rittman suggested disconnecting the reference electrode to isolate the magnetic effect and eliminate electric effects. I again argued that pain relief effects when the reference electrode was disconnected could only arise from either a transient electric field pulse when the radiofrequency is turned on or from capacitively induced radiofrequency electric fields. Dr. Sluijter tried this suggestion on a few patients, and some of them experienced pain relief. However, the percentage of success was not high enough to be convincing.Dr. Sluijter then called me and suggested making a stream of pulses that might work better than a transient electric field pulse that I had postulated earlier. I liked his idea. Intense discussions followed among Sluijter, Rittman, and myself on an appropriate pulsed radiofrequency waveform that would be practically adaptable to the existing Radionics RFG −3C RF Lesion Generator. Careful attention had to be given to what was possible and safe related to the existing generator's circuits, software, and signal outputs. This led to the specification for the first pulsed radiofrequency generator. The actual design and bench work to build the first pulsed radiofrequency unit in 1995 was not done by Mr. Rittman at all. It was done by two other Radionics engineers: Raymond Fredricks and Jack Thomasian. The unit was sent to Dr. Sluijter, and he did a small patient series with the unit in early 1996. The results were encouraging. At that time, I performed more detailed calculations to prove that the magnetic field near our electrode at our radiofrequency voltages and frequencies is about 1 gauss, approximately equal to the earth's magnetic field. Therefore, the magnetic field is irrelevant. I also calculated that the electric fields and currents are very large, in biologic terms, and are the likely agents to produce the clinical effect observed.Sluijter, Cosman, Rittman, and van Kleef published the world's first article on pulsed radiofrequency, which included the above work, in The Pain Clinic in 1998. A U.S. patent on pulsed radiofrequency for pain therapy was first applied for in June 1996 with the proper inventors: Sluijter, Rittman, and Cosman. Four U.S. patents were eventually issued stemming from that initial patent application.The discovery of the pulsed radiofrequency technique for pain therapy involved many events, exchanges of ideas among the inventors, and well-thought-out implementations. It was certainly not a quick, solo performance by Mr. Rittman as the editorial portrays.Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ecosman@cosmancompany.com

A Comment on the History of the Pulsed Radiofrequency Technique for Pain Therapy

Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ecosman@cosmancompany.comAs one of the inventors of the pulsed radiofrequency technique for pain therapy, I disagree with the Editorial View of the history of this technique. The authors state that the history was based on a “personal written communication” from William Rittman, M.S. (Principal, RF Medical Devices, Middleton, MA). The editorial stated that there was a chance meeting at a 1995 scientific conference in Austria between Mr. Rittman and Menno Sluijter, M.D., Ph.D. (Professor Emeritus, Department of Anesthesia, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands), and a Soviet-bloc scientist, andthis scientist challenged the conventional belief that pain relief after radiofrequency treatment was a result of tissue destruction, suggesting that pain relief could result from the strong magnetic fields induced by voltage fluctuations in the area of treatment. Mr. Rittman returned to the bench and quickly devised a means of creating the same high-voltage fluctuations without any heating at the tip of the needle by using pulses of electrical current rather that continuous current. Dr. Sluijter immediately introduced the technique into clinical practice …In my opinion, Mr. Rittman's view of the history of pulsed radiofrequency, as described in the editorial, is factually incorrect and misleading, and ignores the roles that Dr. Sluijter and I played in it. I give my view of the history here.I was the scientific director of all radiofrequency generators and radiofrequency electrodes built at Radionics since 1970, including the first pulsed radiofrequency unit in 1995. I was also the overall director of Radionics. Mr. Rittman reported to me, and I was aware of all research he was doing. I was the main contact at Radionics with Dr. Sluijter, with whom I had worked closely since 1977. Therefore, I know the history well.After the meeting with the Soviet-bloc scientist, Dr. Sluijter and Mr. Rittman were intrigued by his magnetic field idea and discussed it with me. I made quantitative estimates that magnetic field effects are negligible for our parameter range and that only the electrical field could possibly produce biologic effects to reduce pain, outside of the known radiofrequency heating effects. To test the magnetic field hypothesis, Mr. Rittman suggested disconnecting the reference electrode to isolate the magnetic effect and eliminate electric effects. I again argued that pain relief effects when the reference electrode was disconnected could only arise from either a transient electric field pulse when the radiofrequency is turned on or from capacitively induced radiofrequency electric fields. Dr. Sluijter tried this suggestion on a few patients, and some of them experienced pain relief. However, the percentage of success was not high enough to be convincing.Dr. Sluijter then called me and suggested making a stream of pulses that might work better than a transient electric field pulse that I had postulated earlier. I liked his idea. Intense discussions followed among Sluijter, Rittman, and myself on an appropriate pulsed radiofrequency waveform that would be practically adaptable to the existing Radionics RFG −3C RF Lesion Generator. Careful attention had to be given to what was possible and safe related to the existing generator's circuits, software, and signal outputs. This led to the specification for the first pulsed radiofrequency generator. The actual design and bench work to build the first pulsed radiofrequency unit in 1995 was not done by Mr. Rittman at all. It was done by two other Radionics engineers: Raymond Fredricks and Jack Thomasian. The unit was sent to Dr. Sluijter, and he did a small patient series with the unit in early 1996. The results were encouraging. At that time, I performed more detailed calculations to prove that the magnetic field near our electrode at our radiofrequency voltages and frequencies is about 1 gauss, approximately equal to the earth's magnetic field. Therefore, the magnetic field is irrelevant. I also calculated that the electric fields and currents are very large, in biologic terms, and are the likely agents to produce the clinical effect observed.Sluijter, Cosman, Rittman, and van Kleef published the world's first article on pulsed radiofrequency, which included the above work, in The Pain Clinic in 1998. A U.S. patent on pulsed radiofrequency for pain therapy was first applied for in June 1996 with the proper inventors: Sluijter, Rittman, and Cosman. Four U.S. patents were eventually issued stemming from that initial patent application.The discovery of the pulsed radiofrequency technique for pain therapy involved many events, exchanges of ideas among the inventors, and well-thought-out implementations. It was certainly not a quick, solo performance by Mr. Rittman as the editorial portrays.Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ecosman@cosmancompany.com

Imagination in practice: a study of the integrated roles of interpretation, imagery and technique in the learning and memorisation processes of two experienced solo performers

How can we use practice time in the best possible way? Do we, as performers, have a keen enough awareness of the workings of our mind and body to be sure we are learning in the optimum way for secure performance? If not, how can we readily convey to others good habits for learning and memorisation? By demonstrating aspects of how experienced solo instrumentalists prepare for performance, this paper makes some progress towards answering these questions. In order to extend existing piano based research and to establish possible instrumental differences in working patterns, this study is based on data from interviews with a guitarist and a 'cellist. Thematic analysis of the interview data reveals that despite some variation due to the respective nature of the instruments, most practice strategies are common to both and these strategies are always generated by interpretative goals. Firstly, the clear links between interpretative goals and the formation of playing techniques are demonstrated by the subjects' intuitive mental constructs involving imagery, giving considerable insight into their thought processes and working patterns. Among the forms of imagery identified, motor imagery was found to be unexpectedly significant. Next, there is some discussion of how imagery associated with simultaneous technical and emotional input can help to embed information securely in the memory. The value of creating idiosyncratic structures relating to learning and performance is then shown. Finally, advantages of introducing a more imaginative approach into practice at all levels are proposed, together with potential benefits for both motivation and memory retention.

Teatro Caliente! (review)

Reviewed by: ¡Teatro Caliente! Karen Jean Martinson ¡Teatro Caliente!Theater in My Basement/SW Annex, Modified Arts, Phoenix. 30– 3110, 01112004. Despite its namesake, many assert that nothing new ever arises in Phoenix. Often assumed to be as culturally arid as its desert landscape, the city of Phoenix conjures images of relocated retirees, endless pavement, and the conservative politics of Barry Goldwater. Yet, original theatre is proving the exception. ¡Teatro Caliente!, an annual festival of alternative performing arts in the Southwest, opens a space for the artists who live in the area to come together as an eclectic performance community. It turns out that these artists have something important to say because as one of the nation's fastest-growing cities, Phoenix manifests all of our national problems; the city stands as a battleground for wars over identification, immigration, education, the distribution of limited resources, and the formation and maintenance of personal and political relationships. The festival has many strengths, perhaps the greatest of which is its dedication to ethically representing the diversity of the region. ¡Teatro Caliente! creates a forum in which a multiplicity of Southwestern voices can speak and be heard. By allowing artists to come together in their own particularities to speak in a variety of languages, performance genres, and forms, the festival interrogates the region's deep history and reimagines its future. The second annual incarnation of the festival featured over twenty participants, who offered a wealth of artistic creation, including solo performances concerning identity and interpersonal relations; theatre pieces examining xenophobia and bigotry in USAmerican culture; butohdance evoking the cold cruelty prevalent in contemporary culture; and multimedia explorations of the marginalization of queerness and the legacy of white patriarchy. In a festival rich with innovative performances, several pieces stand out for the critical insight they offer. Virginia Grise and Irma Mayorga presented The Panza Monologues, a multilingual collection of Latina women's thoughts and experiences surrounding their panzas. In the most simple translation, panzarefers to the belly, but more metaphorically references the heart, the center of the body, and the center of life. The production makes visible the way political, economic, sexual, and cultural oppression play out on the female body. Initially conceived at San Antonio's Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, where Grise and Mayorga worked together as activists, the performance grew out of the recognition that as the Esperanza women fought for social justice, it sometimes seemed the most tangible gains they made were in their own waistlines, at the expense of their physical well-being. This revelation made clear in a personal way the link between the health of the body and of a culture. As noted in The Panza Monologues,over sixty percent of USAmericans are overweight, a statistic that disproportionately affects minority and impoverished people. In contemporary US culture, it has become a privilege to eat well and to be physically active. At the same time, USAmericans are subjected to a deluge of media information about the perfect female body, which is always tall, thin, and white. The Panza Monologuesexplores the complex terrain of learning to care for your body while loving it for what it is. While the tough work of questioning the cultural practices that lead to obesity is somewhat underdeveloped in this piece that favors celebrating the overweight panza, the monologues chart a course through the landscape of identification rich with humor and sadness, resistance and repression. By introducing us to an entire spectrum of women—women who harness the power of their bodies, whose bodies are the site of physical abuse, who have destroyed their panzas and themselves, and those whose panzas have, in one way or another, led them to political or spiritual knowledge— The Panza Monologuesreveals how the panza connects us to everything, most importantly each other. The performance builds bridges across the cultural lines that divide us precisely because it is situated thematically, linguistically, and aesthetically in the particularities of the USAmerican Latina experience. It is thus fitting that the production shares the stage with latinidad. The Panza Monologuesanimates latinidad scenically by employing a festive altar, complete with flowers, fairy lights, and pillows. These elements become...

Tongues and Cymbals: Contextualizing 1 Corinthians 13:1

In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul's message is one of unity. The key to understanding Paul's metaphor of the cymbal in 1 Corinthians 13:1 lies in knowing that within the biblical tradition, the cymbal was never played alone, but always accompanied other instruments, singing, and words of praise. Paul urges the tongue-speakers at Corinth to abandon their solo performances and place their gifts in the service of building up the community. Love mandates that all utterances be interpreted for the community, so that the gift of tongues will no longer divide God's church, but will instead contribute to its unity in Christ.