Song Repertoire Research Articles

Oskar Kolberg i etnomuzykologia wobec ludowej pieśni religijnej

Niniejszy artykuł przedstawia historię badań nad katolickim śpiewem ludowym w Polsce, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem pracy największego polskiego etnografa, Oskara Kolberga (1814–90). Karol Kurpiński, kompozytor i dyrektor Teatru Narodowego, inicjator pierwszej debaty na temat muzyki ludowej w 1820 roku, zaproponował funkcjonalne ujęcie pieśni ludowej, której definicja obejmowała także pieśni religijne śpiewane w języku narodowym. Antologie tekstów pieśni ludowych wydawane w latach 30. i 40. XIX wieku zawierały możliwie najbardziej oryginalny repertuar pieśni chłopskich przekazywanych ustnie i pamięciowo. Pieśni religijne, jak wynika z druków, nie były zwykle włączane do badań folklorystycznych, jednak zmiany kulturowe, jakie zachodziły na przestrzeni XIX wieku, skłoniły badaczy do dokumentowania również starszych pieśni religijnych wykorzystanych w tradycji ludowej, takich jak kolędy (Michał Marcin Mioduszewski 1843). W swoich badaniach Oskar Kolberg był skoncentrowany głównie na specyfice regionalnej poszczególnych części kraju, dlatego też znormalizowany repertuar pieśni religijnych wykonywanych w kościołach w zasadzie go nie interesował. Jednak mimo swoich preferencji badawczych Kolberg spisał około 800 pieśni religijnych z bogatej kolekcji 20 tysięcy utworów wokalnych i instrumentalnych. Te 800 utworów wchodzi w skład lokalnych repertuarów towarzyszących obrzędom wielkopostnym, wielkanocnym, bożonarodzeniowym, a także związanym z kultem świętych patronów oraz innym, takim jak np. ceremonie pogrzebowe. Powodem uwzględnienia śpiewów religijnych w pracach Kolberga był również fakt ich ustnego przekazywania, który skutkował ogromną wariantywnością pieśni. Niektóre z wariantów nabierały specyficznych cech określanych przez lokalną tradycję śpiewaczą. Praktyka wykonawcza zyskała od 1970 roku zainteresowanie badawcze zarówno etnomuzykologów, jak i hymnologów, tym bardziej że zawarte w pieśniach elementy chorału gregoriańskiego przetrwały w żywej tradycji aż do naszych czasów.

Context of female bias in song repertoire size, singing effort, and singing independence in a cooperatively breeding songbird

Among animals with conventional parental care roles, female bias in expression of elaborate sexually or socially selected traits is rare. However, such cases are instrumental for understanding selection pressures on females. Here, I present observational data showing that among mated pairs of cooperatively breeding stripe-headed sparrows, Peucaea r. ruficauda, singing behavior is broadly female-biased. Unlike in all other songbirds described to date, paired females outpaced males in singing effort, singing independence, and complexity of displayed repertoire. Social context of increased singing effort and song mode specialization suggested a strong influence of resource defense on females relative to males but did not exclude mate defense as an additional function. Females had larger song repertoires for territorial behavior, and males possessed a repertoire for mate acquisition that females did not. Males only equaled females in singing effort while singing in the mate acquisition mode. The female song bias toward aggression supports a previous study which concluded that resource defense is a strong selective pressure on female song evolution, given that female song response to simulated territorial intrusions was stronger than male response. Because stripe-headed sparrows remain pair-bonded and territorial year-round for multiple years, breeding females may be the dominant singers for a significant portion of their lives. Cases of female song bias are rarely noted in the literature, but increasing study of monomorphic, tropical, and Austral species may increase their number and change our perception of how elaborate, sex-specific traits evolve.

An experimental test of host song mimicry as a species recognition cue among male brood parasitic indigobirds (Viduaspp.)

ABSTRACT Obligate brood parasites, which typically lack reliable interactions with conspecifics early in life, acquire species recognition cues by mechanisms other than imprinting on parents and siblings. The African indigobirds (Vidua spp.) are exceptional among brood parasites in that learning and mimicry of host vocalizations play an integral role in the social behavior of the parasites. Male indigobirds have impressive vocal repertoires featuring chatter calls, host mimicry, and complex non-mimicry songs. While chatter calls are similar, sympatric indigobirds are distinguished both by their mimicry of different hosts and by unique repertoires of non-mimicry songs. A previous playback experiment showed that male indigobirds respond differentially to natural singing (i.e. playbacks including host mimicry, chatter, and complex non-mimicry) of sympatric conspecifics and heterospecifics, but the relative role of host mimicry and complex non-mimicry in species recognition remains unknown. We addressed this ...

Learn it now, sing it later? Field and laboratory studies on song repertoire acquisition and song use in nightingales.

In many bird species, song changes with age. The mechanisms that account for such changes are only partially understood. Common nightingales Luscinia megarhynchos change the size and composition of their repertoire between their first and second breeding season. To inquire into mechanisms involved in such changes, we compared the singing of 1-year-old and older free-living nightingales. Older males have more song types in common than have 1-year olds. Certain song types frequently sung by older birds did not (or only rarely) occur in the repertoire of yearlings ('mature' song types). We conducted learning experiments with hand-reared nightingales to address reasons for the lack of mature song types. The acquisition success of mature songs was as good as that of control songs (commonly sung by both age groups). However, the analysis of song type use revealed that all yearlings sang common song types more often than mature types. This indicates that the absence of certain song types in the repertoires of free-living yearlings cannot be accounted for by learning and/or motor constraints during song learning. Moreover, our results suggest that in communication networks, animals may restrict the actual use of their signal repertoire to a certain subset depending on the context.

EAR WORMS AND AUDITORY CHARLES BONNET SYNDROME

Background Visual hallucinations of Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) secondary to visual deprivation occur in 11–15% of elderly patients with acquired visual impairment. It is increasingly recognised that there is an auditory form of CBS consisting of musical hallucinations in elderly patients with acquired hearing loss. Here we present two cases of auditory CBS. Case 1: An 82 year old man with age related macular degeneration and deafness presented with a 2 year history of transient visual hallucinations which met proposed diagnostic criteria for CBS and a 1 year history of auditory musical hallucinations with retained insight. Case 2: An 85 year old lady was referred by psychiatrists querying a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy. She described a 10 year history of depression, severe hearing loss, tinnitus and auditory hallucinations. The hallucinations took the form of a limited repertoire of songs, they were more likely to occur when the patient was alone and they affected sleep. The patient retained insight into the hallucinations and had learnt to control them using distraction. Conclusion Neurologists should be aware of the entity of auditory CBS in the form of musical hallucinations in elderly patients with significant hearing loss.

“Brasilhana”: la creación de un signo musical transcultural

Este artículo trata un caso específico de regionalismo musical dentro de las múltiples expresiones contemporáneas de la música popular brasileña; a saber, el repertorio de canciones de música gaucho/nativista producidas en el flujo de un movimiento de revitalización que nació en la década de 1970 en el sur de Brasil. Partiendo de un análisis musicobiográfico de una canción específica, el texto presenta el carácter contextual de los signos musicales empleados como marcadores de identidad transnacional/nacional/regional, la agencia de los creadores de música en la construcción de identidad social y la cuestión del esencialismo en los sistemas de clasificación musical, sobre todo respecto a temas de tradición/autenticidad.

Similar, yet different: male Reed Buntings (Emberiza schoeniclus) show high individual differences in song composition, rates of syllable sharing and use

Male birds sing to find a mate or to defend a territory. Their songs are known to be highly species-specific, but males may additionally show high levels of song individuality. Differences in song features have been shown to code for male quality and/or motivational states. Quantifying differences and similarities in the singing of males may broaden the general understanding of avian song and pairing systems. Here, we investigated the song of an Eastern German population of Reed Buntings (Emberiza schoeniclus), a species with a medium-sized song repertoire and extraordinary high extra-pair young rates (up to 55 %). Using a computed template-recognition algorithm, we analysed songs of 11 males focussing on individual variation in song composition and use. To determine the degree of song sharing among males, we compared two different measurements of song similarity (DICE coefficient and coefficient of compositional similarity; CCS). We found that males sing highly individual with respect to most analysed parameters. On average, males shared 62 % of their syllable type repertoire with at least one other male. However, taking song use into account, the overall degree of song sharing was low to moderate for both similarity measures, and average DICE values were higher than the CCS values. Additionally, we found that the closer the male territories were to each other, the higher the proportion of song sharing tended to be. We discuss the implications of our findings for the function of song in the Reed Bunting.

Singing onstage: female and male common nightingales eavesdrop on song type matching

In bird communication, listening individuals may obtain information on the quality and motivation of a male not only from solo-singing, but also from song interactions and listeners base their future decisions in territorial and mating contexts on such public information. Eavesdropping on male interactions may thus have a strong influence on sexual selection. In singing interactions, temporal coordination (e.g. overlapping vs. alternating) of two singers as well as structural interaction patterns (e.g. song type matching or repertoire matching) have been described, but the latter is far less studied. By conducting dual-speaker playback experiments with common nightingales Luscinia megarhynchos, we simulated an interaction where one singer was repeatedly song–type matching his counterpart. Playbacks were broadcast to male and female nightingales, and their approach behaviour and singing responses (in the case of male focals) were analysed. We found that both, males and females, spent more time with the matched bird, whereas males additionally sang more songs towards the matching bird. This can be taken as strong hint that eavesdropping occurs in nightingale communication and that listening to male vocal contests might be an important strategy for both sexes to adjust their behavioural output. With regard to the function of song matching, we assume that song-matching is not an aggressive signal per se in nightingales. We rather conclude that vocal leaders within an interaction, here the matched bird, may elicit stronger responses in conspecifics than vocal followers, here the matching bird.

Does song complexity correlate with problem-solving performance in flocks of zebra finches?

The ‘cognitive capacity hypothesis’ states that song complexity could potentially be used by prospective mates to assess an individual’s overall cognitive ability. Several recent studies have provided support for the cognitive capacity hypothesis, demonstrating that individuals with more complex songs or larger song repertoires performed better on various learning tasks. These studies all measured individuals’ learning performance in social isolation. However, for gregarious species such as the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata, testing individuals in a group context is socially and ecologically more relevant if song complexity is to be a meaningful indicator of cognitive ability. We tested whether song complexity correlated with performance on a suite of novel foraging problems in flocks of male zebra finches, starting by replicating the lid-flipping task used by Boogert et al. (Animal Behaviour ,2 008,76, 1735e1741), who provided the first support for the cognitive capacity hypothesis in zebra finches isolated during testing. We also presented flocks with a barrier task and two types of novel food. We found that males’ song complexity scores did not correlate with their latency to solve any of these novel foraging problems in a social context. Individuals that solved the tasks likewise did not have more complex songs than nonsolvers. However, performance was positively correlated across the different foraging tasks. These results raise doubts as to whether the song complexity measures used by Boogert et al. are predictors of problem-solving performance, and perhaps cognitive ability, in a more ecologically relevant, social setting. Stress responsiveness might instead explain the association between song complexity and foraging task performance among isolated zebra finches reported by

Productive Ambiguity: Fleshing out the Bones in Yolŋu Manikay "Song" Performance, and the Australian Art Orchestra’s "Crossing Roper Bar"

This paper examines the place of creativity amid orthodox musical elements in the manikay (public song) tradition of the Yolŋu people of Northern Australia, particularly the song repertoire belonging to the Wägilak clan from Ŋilipidji. Beginning with the Yolŋu metaphor of raki (string) as it describes an individual’s historical constitution, an examination of productive ambiguities built into the rhythmic (bilma) and intervallic (dämbu) forms of manikay underpins the assertion that tradition speaks with living relevance through performed realisation and improvisation. The Australian Art Orchestra’s collaboration with Wägilak songmen, "Crossing Roper Bar," is introduced as a dramatic example of the manikay tradition working in and through contemporary expressions and contexts. This project sustains the ancestral bones of manikay, dutifully curated through the generations as an integral, orthodox framework with complex social, legal, and religious significances. Here, discursive musical conversation is central to a non-appropriative engagement with cultural difference and musical forms from the past.

The vocal behavior of the Brown-throated Wren (Troglodytes brunneicollis): song structure, repertoires, sharing, syntax, and diel variation

Empirical descriptions of vocal behaviour are important for understanding avian biology. In this study, we provide the first detailed analysis of the vocal behaviour of the Brown-throated Wren (Troglodytes brunneicollis), a neotropical songbird found in oak forests in the highlands of Mexico and the southwestern United States. We quantify the fine structural characteristics of the song, and describe the size and structure of the song repertoire. Further, we describe diel variation, analyze song-sharing patterns among neighbors, and explore whether this species uses syntactical rules for creating their songs. Our analyses reveal that Brown-throated Wrens have complex songs and simple calls. They sing with eventual variety, repeating songs many times before switching to a new song type. Males combine syllables into phrases to create songs. We show that song repertoire size is not fixed; birds recombine their syllables to produce highly variable song types. Brown-throated Wrens sing with high vocal output after sunrise and song activity declines throughout the morning. Song sharing shows no variation with distance among our sampled individuals. We divide the syllables in Brown-throated Wren songs into 13 categories; birds sing some syllables more frequently than others, and some syllables are more likely to be found at the beginning, middle, or end of the song. Transitions between syllable categories deviate significantly from random chance, and most males analyzed follow similar patterns of syllable transitions, revealing syntactical structure. This research, which provides the first empirical study of Brown-throated Wren song, expands our knowledge of the behaviour of this poorly-studied taxon, and contributes insight into the organization and composition of song in tropical birds.

Vocal behaviour of the island-endemic Cozumel Wren (Troglodytes aedon beani): song structure, repertoires, and song sharing

Documenting the diversity of vocal behaviour across different avian taxa is key to understanding the ecology and evolution of complex behaviours. Unique to Cozumel Island in the Mexican Caribbean Sea, the Cozumel Wren (Troglodytes aedon beani) provides an opportunity to investigate how isolation influences complex cultural traits. Most aspects of the biology, natural history, and taxonomy of Cozumel Wrens are unknown. In an attempt to better understand the Cozumel Wren’s biology, we provide the first description of the songs and the vocal behaviour of this island-endemic bird. Based on more than 700 h of recordings, including more than 36,000 songs, we describe the fine structural characteristics of male Cozumel Wrens songs, and explore patterns of repertoire organization and song sharing. Cozumel Wrens sing songs composed of highly variable syllables, with prominent trills at the end of each song. Each bird has a limited repertoire of songs, which they create by recombining a restricted number of syllable and trill types. They repeat a song type several times before switching to a different one, with some variation in the number of times they repeat specific elements. Cozumel Wrens share more song types with neighbours than distant individuals. Syllable sharing, however, is equivalent between neighbours and distant individuals. Our results provide important data for future research on the ecology, evolution, and behaviour of this island-endemic songbird, and for helping to clarify the taxonomic status of Cozumel Wrens.

Vocal diversity and taxonomy of white-cheeked crested gibbons

Previous research suggests that gibbon song repertoire is genetically determined and song characteristics are useful for assessing systematic relationships. The taxonomy and distribution of crested gibbons (genus Nomascus) had not been studied previously. In addition, crested gibbons face several threats to extinction such as habitat loss, the pet trade, the domestic and international trade of wildlife, and unsustainable harvest of wildlife for subsistence consumption. Additionally, rice field expansion and poaching pose significant threats to gibbons and their habitats, especially because most populations are very small. I studied vocal diversity among different wild populations of Nomascus in Vietnam and Laos to assess their taxonomic relationships and to examine whether their vocal patterns correspond to forms previously described. Linear discriminant analysis, classification trees, and multidimensional scaling revealed distinct populations based on song characteristics and species (or subspecies) boundary locations were recognized. In addition, population sizes in different areas were estimated based on vocal analysis. The recognition of previously unknown diversity within Nomascus and ability to locate potential species boundaries aided in implementation and adaptation of gibbon conservation strategies and the development of gibbon management plans for protected areas. In addition, this project improved the monitoring of a poorly known and understudied ape, by working with provincial staff and local people.

Music therapy song repertoire for children with autism spectrum disorder: A descriptive analysis by treatment areas, song types, and presentation styles

The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify the song types, presentation styles, and song repertoire utilized within specific treatment areas with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The researchers sent surveys to 257 music therapists who worked with children between the ages of birth through 19 years diagnosed with ASD. Ninety-one music therapists participated in the survey, resulting in a 35% return rate. The number of participants responding to each question ranged from 72 to 91. Overall, the majority of respondents indicated they utilized more pre-existing songs, followed by original compositions and lyric replacement (piggyback) songs. However, when asked questions about song types used to address specific treatment areas, respondents indicated they utilized live original compositions across all treatment domains more frequently than live pre-existing and live lyric replacement songs. Developing protocols to choose song types may be helpful for the acceptance of music therapy as an evidence-based treatment modality for children with ASD. Future research is warranted to determine the type of songs most conducive to facilitating improvement in specific treatment areas. Implications for clinical practice, educational preparation, and limitations of this study are provided.

Song complexity, song rate, and variation in the adrenocortical stress response in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia)

Physiological mechanisms that pleiotropically affect condition, life-history decisions, and fitness may covary with the expression of sexually selected ornaments. The adrenocortical stress response regulates energy balance, controls vertebrate responses to survival threats, and may divert energy expenditure away from investment in costly sexual displays. Further, developmental stress may induce correlations between the stress response during adulthood and sexual signals that develop early in life, such as song in oscine birds. We examined the relationship between the adrenocortical stress response (measured by plasma corticosterone concentrations) and the sexually selected traits of song complexity and song rate in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia). Additionally, we explored whether the stress response, song complexity, or song rate predict other male quality and fitness metrics. In contrast to prior research, which reports negative relationships between song complexity and the stress response in this species, males with larger song repertoires had larger stress responses. Song rate was unrelated to the stress response, but positively correlated with male body mass and nestling mass. In addition, males with higher syllable diversity had longer wingchords and lower hematocrit, males with larger song repertoires had heavier nestlings and higher hematocrit, and males with larger stress responses and baseline corticosterone had higher hematocrit. Results suggest that the relationship between the stress response and song complexity is context-dependent, and that song repertoire size, syllable diversity, and song rate serve distinct signaling functions.

The role of the pineal gland in the photoperiodic control of bird song frequency and repertoire in the house sparrow, Passer domesticus

Temperate zone birds are highly seasonal in many aspects of their physiology. In mammals, but not in birds, the pineal gland is an important component regulating seasonal patterns of primary gonadal functions. Pineal melatonin in birds instead affects seasonal changes in brain song control structures, suggesting the pineal gland regulates seasonal song behavior. The present study tests the hypothesis that the pineal gland transduces photoperiodic information to the control of seasonal song behavior to synchronize this important behavior to the appropriate phenology. House sparrows, Passer domesticus, expressed a rich array of vocalizations ranging from calls to multisyllabic songs and motifs of songs that varied under a regimen of different photoperiodic conditions that were simulated at different times of year. Control (SHAM) birds exhibited increases in song behavior when they were experimentally transferred from short days, simulating winter, to equinoctial and long days, simulating summer, and decreased vocalization when they were transferred back to short days. When maintained in long days for longer periods, the birds became reproductively photorefractory as measured by the yellowing of the birds' bills; however, song behavior persisted in the SHAM birds, suggesting a dissociation of reproduction from the song functions. Pinealectomized (PINX) birds expressed larger, more rapid increases in daily vocal rate and song repertoire size than did the SHAM birds during the long summer days. These increases gradually declined upon the extension of the long days and did not respond to the transfer to short days as was observed in the SHAM birds, suggesting that the pineal gland conveys photoperiodic information to the vocal control system, which in turn regulates song behavior.

A Potential Metric of the Attractiveness of Bird Song to Humans

AbstractThe prevalence of passerines (mostly oscines, or songbirds) in international bird trade suggests that the possession or production of a song that is attractive or desirable to people may contribute to the likelihood of a species being traded. Testing this is difficult because we lack a general and readily available metric that quantifies attractiveness of bird song to humans. We propose and validate such a metric, based on the number of sound files lodged for a species on the Xeno‐Canto website (www.xeno-canto.org). Our hypothesis is that species with more attractive songs are likely to be recorded more often, and so be represented more often in this online bird sound resource, all else being equal. Using a sample of North American and European passerines, we show that song repertoire size and geographic range size are consistently related to the number of recordings on Xeno‐Canto. We use these results to derive a metric (the residuals of a model of the number of recordings in Xeno‐Canto as a function of geographic range size) that may identify songs that are attractive to humans. Bird species whose songs are known to have inspired classical music, including several well known for their songs (e.g. common nightingale, European blackbird), have higher values of the metric than those that have not been referenced in classical music. The metric may help explain which bird species are present in trade, and so contribute to studies of invasion and conservation biology.

Teenagers’ Perception of Time Using the Song “Sinal Fechado” —Report of Experimental Results

The present article focuses on the experiences of this researcher while working with a youth chorus in Rio de Janeiro. With the goal of commemorating twenty years of activity as director of the choruses at the Colégio S?o Vicente de Paulo (Cosme Velho\RJ) in 2013, this researcher chose, for the annual concert presented by the youth choir SVEM, a repertoire of songs dealing with aspects of time; using this subject, it was possible to examine different interpretations related not only to the topic of time but also to the differences in meanings experienced by distinct age groups (the conductor and the young singers), resulting in a conflict of approaches during the rehearsals of the song “Sinal Fechado”. Consulted authors, such as Deleuze and Benjamin, through their reflections on the work of Marcel Proust (especially In Search of Lost Time) bring to the fore discussions of the meaning of the perception of time; this researcher intends to translate those questions as experienced in the process of rehearsal. Using material from doctoral classes at the PPGM-UNIRIO, some thoughts are proposed for a deeper understanding of the subject.

Immigration and dispersal are key determinants of cultural diversity in a songbird population

Socially learned signals and behaviors are found throughout the animal kingdom and often show striking variation within species over space and time. However, the extent to which this cultural diversity is generated by demographic factors such as immigration and dispersal has proved difficult to investigate and remains largely untested in a natural setting. Focusing on 14 different local neighborhoods within a wild population of great tits Parus major, we examined the relationship between individual movements over a 7-year period and patterns of cultural diversity at a neighborhood level, assessed using 2 indices: Song repertoire size and repertoire novelty, measured at the neighborhood (but not individual) level. We found that the repertoire size of a neighborhood is positively correlated with its levels of immigration, but that repertoire novelty is constrained by dispersal and geographic proximity among neighborhoods, both of which promote song sharing. In parallel, we show that the acoustic structure of some songs changes subtly over distance, in line with the view that learning errors can lead to the establishment of novel social traits (cultural differentiation). Our findings demonstrate that spatial variation in cultural diversity in animal societies can partly be explained as the outcome of dispersal and immigration transferring traits between neighborhoods and also suggest that trait transmission declines in fidelity over distance.

Vocal Variability of Chaffinch Song (<i>Fringilla coelebs</i> L.) as a Condition of Cultural Evolution in Local Populations

There are such characteristics of a matter of the nature, as variability and stability (tradition, norm). Probably, these opposites process as if other qualities of different forms of energy also create “movement” development. Thus the given properties of a matter of the nature can be considered at different levels of its organization. The singing of many passerine birds is incontrovertible feature of their life which determines and builds a reproductive cycle. By studying song repertoire of many sparrow species in details, it was revealed that the individual has not only one, but some types of songs. Thus spring singing represents the multifunctional phenomenon and can bear (carry) various values. The singing is not only a means of attracting females, but also a means of intimidation of the contender and delimitation of nested territory. Variants or types of species-specific song are individually various and distributed between individuals of a population. The complex interrelation of geographical variability of chaffinch song in many respects gives a support at an evolutionary view in the given aspect.