Song Performance Research Articles

Exploring the Impact of Cultural Policies on the Inheritance and Performance of Ersu Tibetan Folk Songs

This paper explores the effects of cultural policies on the performance and inheritance of Ersu Tibetan folk songs in Xieluo Township, Sichuan Province, China. The Ersu Tibetans, a small branch of the Tibetan ethnic group, have experienced significant transformations in their cultural practices due to government efforts to preserve and promote their intangible cultural heritage (ICH). These policies, while contributing to economic benefits and visibility, have also led to shifts in performers' identities and a growing commercialization of their traditional music. Through ethnographic fieldwork, this study examines the tensions between cultural preservation and commercialization and offers policy recommendations to balance the authenticity of Ersu Tibetan folk songs with modern performance demands.

Musical Structures of Weifang Folk Songs: A Study in Contemporary Social Contexts

Background and Aims: This study delves into the musical structure of Weifang Chinese folk songs within their contemporary social context, aiming to investigate the musical structure of Weifang Chinese folk songs in their current social context. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive methodology integrating ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, interviews, and musical analysis was employed. Fieldwork in the Weifang region involved observing folk song performances, interacting with local musicians, and documenting cultural practices. Archival research examined historical materials, while interviews gathered insights from folk musicians, community members, and cultural experts. Musical analysis and transcription techniques were applied to understand the intricate musical structures of Weifang folk songs. Results: The study revealed the diverse genres, expressive themes, and unique musical structures of Weifang folk songs, including the two-sentence, three-sentence, four-sentence, and multisentence patterns. The songs exhibited rich cultural tapestries, reflecting local customs, language traditions, and communal sentiments. Conclusion: Weifang folk songs have evolved to adapt to changing social dynamics, serving functions ranging from labor encouragement to educational inheritance and entertainment. The study underscores the significance of cultural heritage preservation programs and interdisciplinary collaborations to safeguard and promote Weifang's musical legacy.

Hospital blues: reflections on writing and hearing healthcare histories through blues and folk music performance

ABSTRACT In recent years, scholars have investigated the sonic dimensions of healthcare environments. Less well explored, however, is the musical history of the hospital: how musicians sang about hospitals as social commentary or to narrativize their own experiences of hospitals and/or hospitalization. This short creative reflection looks back on my performance of blues and folk songs about hospitals at the Senses in Modern Health/Care Environments conference in Bristol in 2022. It asks how blues and folk songs about hospitals recorded in the twentieth century might recover how musician, patients, and musician–patients – particularly those from marginalized communities in the US South and Britain – experienced and perceived healthcare environments. As well as a short overview of the histories of some of these songs, this piece considers the value and ethics of musical performance as a means to researching, teaching, and understanding the histories of healthcare.

Effectiveness of Information and Communication Programmes for Children with Special Educational Needs in the Context of Speech Development

The work aims to determine the effectiveness of information and communication programs for special educational needs (SENs) in the context of speech development. The aim was achieved through the use of general theoretical methods of analysis, observations, and calculations of the ranking factor, efficiency coefficient, and Phillips correlation coefficient. It was established that the most effective approaches for the development of children's speech are the use of information technologies (2.5), social interaction (2.37), and group approach (2.25). Results: The results provided grounds for developing a speech and general development program for children aged 4 to 7. The program provided for the creation of mind maps, provision of joint reading, performance of educational songs, and development of speech in accordance with the specified topic. Training became possible due to the use of modern technologies, namely the applications MindMeister, Digital Inclusion, and speech synthesis from Google and YouTube. It was established that the developed program had a positive effect on the improvement of children’s phonetic speech compared to the results at the beginning of the study. Conclusions: The practical significance of the work implies the possibility of using the developed program for speech correction among a larger number of children. Prospects: Research prospects are related to elaborating speech development mechanisms depending on the degree of speech impairment.

Size differences among canaries, goldfinches and allies may explain correlated evolution of song and colour.

Sexual signals such as colour ornamentation and birdsong evolve independently of each other in some clades, and in others they evolve positively or negatively correlated. We rarely know why correlated evolution does or does not occur. Here, we show positively correlated evolution between plumage colour and song motor performance among canaries, goldfinches and allies, associated with species differences in body size. When controlling for body size, the pattern of correlated evolution between song performance and colour disappeared. Syllable diversity was not as strongly associated with size, and did not evolve in a correlated manner with colour. We argue that correlated evolution between song and colour was mediated by large size limiting song motor performance, likely due to constraints on the speed of moving heavier bills, and by larger species having less saturated plumage colour, possibly due to life-history traits of larger birds (e.g. longevity, stable pairs) contributing to weaker sexual selection. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that correlated evolution between sexual signals is influenced by how, in a clade, selective pressures and constraints affecting each type of signal happen to be co-distributed across species. Such contingency helps explain the diversity in clade-specific patterns of correlated evolution between sexual signals.

Vocal Techniques and Musical Literacy in the Singing of Chinese Gu Shi Ci Art Songs

Chinese Gu Shi Ci art songs are a genre that combines ancient Chinese poetry with music, reflecting profound emotional depth and cultural ethos. The primary objective is to investigate the integration of vocal techniques and musical literacy in the performance of Chinese Gu Shi Ci art songs. The study conducted at Nanchang University and the China Conservatory of Music involved interviews and observations with five key informants: professors, vocal coaches, professional singers, music educators, and opera performers. Data analysis included transcribing interviews, coding for recurring themes, and cross-referencing observational data. The findings reveal that precise vocal techniques, such as breath control and tone modulation, and a deep understanding of the poems’ contexts significantly enhance performance authenticity and emotional resonance. The study underscores the need for an integrated curriculum in music education that combines technical skills with cultural and literary education. It suggests incorporating historical context modules, technical workshops, interdisciplinary approaches, performance analysis, and practical opportunities to foster a comprehensive understanding of Gu Shi Ci art songs. This approach can deepen students’ appreciation and ensure the rich cultural heritage of these songs continues to resonate with contemporary audiences.

TOLKAPPIA MEIPADUGAL IN KANNADASAN'S YESU KAVIYAM

The Jesus epic composed by the poet Kannadasan is considered one of the most significant texts in the epic genre of the ancient Tamil language. This book is an epic that is written in a manner that is accessible and comprehensible to individuals of all social strata. The poet has composed a poetic rendition of Jesus' complete life story. This research aims to explore the performance of songs as dance with the support of the meipadugal in Tolkappiyam, the first grammar book of the Tamil language. This research was conducted to assist dancers in enhancing their performance of a certain dance by emphasizing the background and character of the song.

Contested Locations and Unfixed Borders: A Study About the Frontiers of Greece and North Macedonia

ABSTRACT The paper explores the complex dynamics of border regions between Greece and North Macedonia, focusing explicitly on the areas of Florina and Edessa. Drawing on ethnographic data from the 1990s until now, the study shows how multilingual cultural performances shape the perceptions and interpretations of location and identity. As well, the paper advocates for a spatially focused approach to border studies, one that examines relationships and interactions within specific locations, therefore employing the concepts of crosslocations and aural border to analyze how coexisting locating regimes interact and produce multiple experiences of place in both the same space and across locations. These bordering processes highlight current transformations, such as the performance of Macedonian songs primarily, the Greek state institutions’ challenges in monitoring situations involving non-Greek linguistic expressions, and the prevalence of Macedonian as a term of reference to the language and songs. Finally, the study concludes that cultural performances have the power to transcend state control, reshape border spaces by symbolically abolishing state border regimes, and ultimately produce alternative lived realities concerning place-making and identity.

Daily singing of adult songbirds functions to maintain song performance independently of auditory feedback and age

Many songbirds learn to produce songs through vocal practice in early life and continue to sing daily throughout their lifetime. While it is well-known that adult songbirds sing as part of their mating rituals, the functions of singing behavior outside of reproductive contexts remain unclear. Here, we investigated this issue in adult male zebra finches by suppressing their daily singing for two weeks and examining the effects on song performance. We found that singing suppression decreased the pitch, amplitude, and duration of songs, and that those song features substantially recovered through subsequent free singing. These reversible song changes were not dependent on auditory feedback or the age of the birds, contrasting with the adult song plasticity that has been reported previously. These results demonstrate that adult song structure is not stable without daily singing, and suggest that adult songbirds maintain song performance by preventing song changes through physical act of daily singing throughout their life. Such daily singing likely functions as vocal training to maintain the song production system in optimal conditions for song performance in reproductive contexts, similar to how human singers and athletes practice daily to maintain their performance.

Домбра в калмыцком фольклоре и лирике ХХ – начала XXI в.: поэтика музыкального инструмента

The relevance and novelty of the article is determined by the fact that the poetics of a musical instrument was not the object and subject of research in Kalmyk folklore and poetry. Among the national musical instruments, the dombra retains its functionality at the present stage. The study of dombra as a thing and as a musical instrument in the translation of folk culture and art is of interest in a historical-functional, comparative-comparative sense when referring to both folklore and poetry, since it demonstrates the tradition, the continuity of the works of poets on this topic. In Kalmyk oral folk art, the dombra as a musical instrument is often found. It is mentioned in epics, fairy tales, legends, riddles, and songs. The material for the article were selected folklore works and representative poems of Kalmyk poets of the 20th – early 21st centuries. The purpose of the article is to consider the poetics of dombra as a thing and a musical instrument in Kalmyk folklore and lyrics to identify the continuity of traditions in the modern period. Results. The Kalmyks, unlike other Turkic-Mongolian peoples, apparently have not preserved folklore works about the appearance of the dombra as such, since it is considered a borrowed instrument. There are no such poems in Kalmyk lyrics. In Kalmyk folklore, the dombra is shown in its musical function; usually it does not have a plot-forming role. Among Kalmyk poets, poems about dombra are usually associated with the Dzhangarchi’s performance of folk epic songs, with folk rituals and holidays, singing and dancing. Depending on the time and space reflected in such texts, dombra is shown against the backdrop of historical and personal events, demonstrating a thematic range. A number of texts are dedicated to famous performing musicians and masters of dombra art. The analysis involved poems created in the Kalmyk and Russian languages, and also compared the original texts and their Russian translations.

Warm-up and metrics of song performance: a commentary on Vazquez-Cardona et al.

Warm-up and metrics of song performance: a commentary on Vazquez-Cardona et al.

The continuity of the vocal and performing heritage of the multi-genre song culture of the Kuban Cossacks

The object of the study is the continuous preservation of the multi-genre Cossack folk song, which represents a key purpose in the implementation of the preservation of the traditional mentality at the present stage. The subject of this work is the immanent complexes of traditional song culture in the folklore heritage. The purpose of this study is to structure the issue of the cultural interrelation of the ethnic canvas of the Kuban Cossack folk songs, in the originality of the genesis of the vocal and performing specifics of modern creativity. When discovering the fundamental foundations of the vocal performance of the Cossack song, special attention is paid to the study of the folklore primary sources of the Kuban folklorists, V.G.Zakharchenko, A.D.Bigdai, G.M.Kontsevich. Along with this, an expert assessment of the characteristics of the Kuban Cossack folk song according to the genre classification component is an important feature of the performance of vocal samples today. The theoretical basis is in an analytical approach to the peculiarities of the performance of a local source from the point of view of substantiating the scientific nature of the subject under consideration according to the functionally oriented elements of the report: traditions, traditional manner of performance, interpretation of the text, song melody. Methodological basis: components of the study of the local singing tradition, modernization of folklore song documents, the method of consistency-the genre diversity of Cossack performance. The author's approach to the correlation of musical sources as methodological characteristics of the Kuban Cossack singing traditions has been developed. We test the proposed system when working with archival documents, in the diagnosis of song samples recorded from informants. The key aspect is the musicological analysis of the musical collections of Kuban Cossack folk songs from the point of view of the continuously developing, multifaceted changing performing skills of the soloist and choir. The author takes into account the introduced model of performing Cossack songs since the resettlement of the Black Sea Cossacks, who brought the baggage of multi-genre sources and eventually introduced the Kuban folk singing art. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the author's analytical systematization of authentic song compositions recorded by folklorists, in the analysis of multi-genre Kuban Cossack sources (selectively) for further active performance on stage. The specific directions of performance according to characteristic song genres are determined: historical, military, everyday, marching, lyrical, wedding, ceremonial, round dance, comic. The reproduced orientation of the nature of the continuous preservation of folklore sources in the revised performance interpretation of Cossack vocal works gives rise to significant broadcasting opportunities today.

Vocal and arranging solutions for broadcasting Kuban Cossack folk songs: methodology and practice

The object of the research is performance as a theoretical and methodological basis for the preservation of folk songs in the modern world. The subject of this work is a variety of tools for translating sources through the use of interpretation through vocal arrangements. The purpose of this study is to find performance techniques for comprehending the folklore of the Kuban Cossack song, illustrative popularization of the real listener through a new reading of the original source. In identifying the substantial foundations of song performance, special attention is focused on the music collections of folklorists V. G. Zakharchenko (born 1938), A. D. Bigdai (1855-1909), G. M. Kontsevich (1863-1937), who made a significant contribution to the foundations of the Kuban Cossack folk singing art. Along with this, the analysis of a wide range of vocal arrangements in the practice of professional and amateur vocalists provides a postulation about the ambiguity of interpolation in the formation of an original reading of folklore documents. The theoretical justification of this study is based on the tactics of analyzing endemic folklore singing concepts in the context of the art history dynamics of modern research. The methodological core of the work identifies the elements of preserving traditional performance through the vocally processed embodiment of Kuban Cossack folk songs. The author's direction has been developed in the complex of the constituent elements of the arranging performance, based on the personality of the vocalist, containing an individual interpretation of the performing plurality. The performing techniques of folklore Cossack sources has been formed. Exceptional accents are identified in the analysis of musical folklore sources (selectively) to establish new technical characteristics of performance. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the genesis of Cossack culture for the author's constructive orientation of ways to preserve and transform musical material to a modern listener. The characteristics of the song material according to the genre-performing component, expressed by the system of mechanisms of performance by vocal-performing solutions, are revealed. The derived orientation of the translation mechanisms opens up new facets of the performance of Kuban Cossack folk songs for the preservation of traditions with multifaceted options for the transformation of folklore documents for subsequent generations.

토니 윌리엄스의 재즈 드럼 연주 특징 분석

This study aims to identify the jazz drumming characteristics of Tony Williams, a drummer who represents the post-bop era. To this end, we first examined the characteristics of postbop era playing, and then compared Tony Williams' and Jimmy Cobb's performances of Miles Davis' representative song So what to derive Tony Williams' playing characteristics. To analyze the performance comparison, we transcribed Jimmy Cobb and Tony Williams' performance of Miles Davis' So what. Next, we analyzed Greg Bizonet's interviews to identify his original performance. The analysis revealed that Tony Williams uses hi-hat feet and combination articulations to create a sense of musical space. He also developed the blush method. We hope that this study will help many drummers to improve their performance and provide audiences with higher quality music and a more comprehensive musical perspective.

Musical and Aesthetic Education of Children and Youth in the a Cross-Cultural Space of the Republic of Malta

The article attempts to investigate and generalize the experience of musical and aesthetic education, the organization of general musical education of children and youth in the cross- cultural environment of the Republic of Malta. On the basis of the analysis of the program material, the priority types of activities in the lessons and during the organization of extra curricular work on artistic and aesthetic education were considered. Particular attention is paid to vocal and choral work, study and performance of folk songs, as well as involving students in familiarizing themselves with the works of domestic and foreign composers, forming worldviews in children and young people by means of musical art. It has been proven that students are active and resourceful, independently find and present folk songs in lessons that they have heard performed by members of their families or acquaintances of the older generation. A dominant role in music lessons is played by listening to and analyzing the musical works of classical composers and studying the work of Maltese composers. Composers and their works are presented, which are included in music education programs.

Формы взаимодействия народного песенного творчества и инструментальной музыки (на примере традиционного сольно-группового пения кавказских народов)

The article examines the interconnection of the vocal-choral and instrumental music in the traditional solo-and-group performance among the different peoples throughout the Caucasus (the Adyghians, Abkhazians, Osetians, Balkars and Karachays). The present problem range has not yet become a topic of special academic comprehension. In this connection,the aim of the article is to draw the attention of specialists towards studying it and defining the role of the instrumental strata within the standard texture of broadly disseminated song performance in the Caucasus region. The traditional regional type of texture of song composition includes two main strata: the solo declamatory presentment of the tune and the choral (i.e., ensemble) accompaniment existing in dialogic interaction with each other. Frequently, we can find a third stratum, as well — the instrumental, as a rule, existing in performance on a traditional bowed string instrument. As living folk music practice confirms, its participation in the solo-and-group singing is not a mandatory factor. The place and the role of the instrumental stratum in the examined folk musical material is determined in this article. The author highlights the main functions of all the textural strata, the parity of the first two lines of the song texture and the forms of their interaction, in which the traditional standard and self-sufficient structure of characteristic polyphonic singing of the peoples of the Northern Caucasus is reflected.

“I Felt Frightened and Then I Started Singing”: Songs at Russian Protest Actions

This article explores the role of songs in Russian protests. Data are drawn from ethnographic observations made at protests held between 2015 and 2022, mostly in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as part of the project, “Monitoring Contemporary Folklore,” based at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. The authors consider materials from 240 protests. Viewing protests as an act of communication, the article analyzes the circumstances for song performances and suggests a hypothesis for songs’ communicative goals. The article additionally demonstrates how song choice changes from common 1980’s protest songs to new tracks that gained later popularity. The article demonstrates how song production depends on the types of protests and the levels of participant engagement.

Meeting in the Middle: Sociophonetic Convergence of Bad Bunny and J Balvin’s Coda /s/ in Their Artistic Performance Speech

The artistic performance of identity by top Latin music artists can be heard on many Top-40 US radio stations, since, as of July 2023, 20% of the Billboard Hot 100 is (Spanish language) Latin music. This study aims to determine the variants found in the pronunciation of coda /s/, a robust phonetic differentiator of regional and social dialects, in the top songs versus in the spontaneous speech of the two top Latin music artists in the global market. Are Bad Bunny and J Balvin holding to the pronunciation of their respective regional variety in their artistic performance speech (APS, my term) or are they shifting to a different pronunciation? What motivations might cause a difference in the pronunciation of their APS and spontaneous speech? Bad Bunny and J Balvin’s pronunciation of coda /s/ is analyzed in depth as sociophonetic data: their performances of songs from 2018 to 2020 that charted at the top of the Hot Latin Songs Billboard chart as well as on The Billboard Hot 100 chart, and their spontaneous speech from their most-viewed Spanish-language interviews and Instagram Live recordings on YouTube recorded between 2018 and 2020. Bad Bunny overwhelmingly used deletions (∅) in his spontaneous speech—which is typical of an island Puerto Rican—but used a statistically significant amount of maintenance of the sibilant [s] and its aspirated variant [h] in his APS (p < 0.0001). J Balvin primarily used [s] in his spontaneous speech—which is typical of Medellín, Colombia—but used about 50/50 [s] and (∅) in his APS. They are both shifting to a different pronunciation in their APS and converging towards each other, and the difference is statistically significant (p < 0.0001). This dialect convergence could be the beginning of an identity-based pan-Latinx dialect leveling that is, on the one hand, the “in-crowd” pronunciation with covert prestige but, on the other hand, is part of the formation of an evolving multi-regional connector variant diffused through popular music and pop culture.

Музикално-педагогическата дейност на учителя Димо Бойчев в Истанбул (1923–1935)

Dimo Boychev (1878–1966) was a choir conductor and music pedagogue, considered the progenitor of children's musical bands and popularizer of children's choral singing and children's operetta in Bulgaria. From 1923 to 1935 he was a singing teacher at the Bulgarian primary school „Josif 1“ in Istanbul, at the same time leading the Exarchate Mixed Choir and the Children's Musical Band „Macedonka“. In the present text, based on materials from the Bulgarian archives, memories and publications in periodicals, we make an attempt to provide a more comprehensive presentation of his musical and pedagogical activity in the city near the Bosphorus. As a teacher of singing, reading and liturgy at the Bulgarian School, he revived the activity of the exarchal mixed choir and established the Children's Music Band „Macedonka“. With their active school and out-of-school events, the two choirs led and conducted by Dimo Boychev unite the Bulgarian community in the city and bring variety to the busy workday of gardeners and dairy farmers. The programs of concerts, parties and evenings, which are held on various occasions, include performances of Bulgarian and Turkish songs, including folk songs, and operettas. Dimo Boychev plays a mediating role between Bulgarian and Turkish musicians.

Theatre translation

The article analyses the textual changes that occur in the process of staging a performance based on a translated text. Drawing on Morini’s four types of theatre translation, namely the interlingual, intralingual, intersemiotic, and intrasemiotic aspects of theatre translation (emerging from Jakobson’s classification of translation), the article focuses on the differences between the translated text and the text spoken on the stage through the analysis of the Slovene performance of Sad Songs from the Heart of Europe by the Finnish author Kristian Smeds, translated into Slovene by Julija Potrč Šavli. The play, directed by the Finnish theatre director Jari Juutinen, was performed at the Slovene theatre Slovensko ljudsko gledališče Celje by the Slovene actress Maša Grošelj. As the author of the article participated in staging this play as a language consultant, the article provides an insight into the process, and reveals why and how the changes to the text occurred. As the analyses of the written and staged texts show, the majority of the textual changes were introduced by various agents involved in the production of the play, while some were also due to the multimodal interactions between different theatre modes (speech, scenography, sound, light, props, etc.).