Song Structure Research Articles

Motivated cognitive control during cued anticipation and receipt of unfamiliar musical themes: An fMRI study

Principal themes, particularly choruses in pop songs, hold a central place in human music. Singing along with a familiar chorus tends to elicit pleasure and a sense of belonging, especially in group settings. These principal themes, which frequently serve as musical rewards, are commonly preceded by distinctive musical cues. Such cues guide listeners' attention and amplify their motivation to receive the impending themes. Despite the significance of cue-theme sequences in music, the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of these sequences in unfamiliar songs remain underexplored. To fill this research gap, we employed fMRI to examine neural activity during the cued anticipation of unfamiliar musical themes and the subsequent receipt of their opening phrase. Twenty-three Taiwanese participants underwent fMRI scans while listening to excerpts of Korean slow pop songs unfamiliar to them, with lyrics they could not understand. Our findings revealed distinct temporal dynamics in lateral frontal activity, with posterior regions being more active during theme anticipation and anterior regions during theme receipt. During anticipation, participants reported substantial increases in arousal levels, aligning with the observed enhanced activity in the midbrain, ventral striatum, inferior frontal junction, and premotor regions. We posit that when motivational musical cues are detected, the ventral striatum and inferior frontal junction played a role in attention allocation, while premotor regions may be engaged in monitoring the theme's entry. Notably, both the anticipation and receipt of themes were associated with pronounced activity in the frontal eye field, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex, dorsal caudate, and salience network. Overall, our results highlight that within a naturalistic music-listening context, the dynamic interplay between the frontoparietal, dopaminergic midbrain-striatal, and salience networks could allow for precise adjustments of control demands based on the cue-theme structure in unfamiliar songs.

The effects of anthropogenic noise and urban habitats on song structure in a vocal mimic; the gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) sings higher frequencies in noisier habitats

In urban and human-modified landscapes, animals face novel selection pressures resulting from differences in habitat structure and increased anthropogenic noise. Urban noise pollution can negatively impact songbirds because low-frequency noise often masks portions of birds’ mating signals and reduces signal transmission. Previous research has demonstrated that the songs of birds in more urban habitats have structural differences that can enhance signal transmission when noise is present. The majority of these studies have focused on species that deliver short, stereotyped songs and have limited repertoires. Gray catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis, family: Mimidae) sing long bouts containing imitated, improvised, and invented song elements, and therefore may have an increased ability to vary songs in response to noise. We hypothesized that aspects of developed habitats including loud anthropogenic noise and changes to land cover would impact catbirds’ song structural parameters, including song minimum, peak, and maximum frequency, frequency bandwidth, and entropy. We recorded and processed songs from 42 male catbirds and analyzed over 18,000 song elements from sites along an urban gradient from western Virginia to the Washington, DC metropolitan region. We quantified the urban intensity at each site-centroid based on percent canopy cover, percent impervious surface, and noise level. Song features such as minimum, maximum, and peak frequency increased significantly as noise levels increased, demonstrating that catbirds in noisier areas sing higher frequency songs compared to individuals in quieter habitats. Land cover variables also significantly predicted certain song features such as maximum frequency (impervious surface) or entropy (canopy cover). These structural differences in catbird song can limit the negative effects of environmental noise-masking, even for their long song bouts, and suggest that vocal mimics respond to anthropogenic noise. Future studies could investigate repertoire size and composition along an urban gradient and if these structural differences lead to functional consequences for the songs of vocal mimics.

On Inclusion and Resurgence: The State of North American Indigenous Theatre and Performance Scholarship

Abstract: This article follows the structure of a pop song—verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus—to put into relationship scholarship on North American Indigenous theatre and performance, the current state of academia, the politics of Indigeneity, and critiques of recognition and inclusion from Indigenous Studies. Historicizing Indigenous theatre scholarship and production alongside Peter Morin and Jimmie Kilpatrick’s participatory karaoke performance, “Love Songs to End Colonization,” models disciplinary inclusion and how Indigenous performance challenges it. This essay turns to Glen Coulthard’s call for Indigenous resurgence and Dylan Robinson’s demonstration of disciplinary redress to explicate why Indigenous performance can be aesthetically and politically powerful. In singing these disparate ideas together, this essay considers the benefits and pitfalls of inclusion for Indigenous theatre into North American theatre production, scholarship, and higher education as well as issue a warning against complacent inclusion and mere celebrations of diversity. Indigenous performance asks more than theatre and performance studies often acknowledges; to engage with it robustly and productively, the field must be open to singing a song it is just beginning to learn.

Oi u luzi chervona kalyna (“Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow”) as an Anthem-Song: Social Roles and Genre Transformations in the Time of War

Countering the Russian invasion is the subject of many songs dating back as far as several centuries. Oi u luzi chervona kalyna (“Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow”) is one of such songs. Intonation structure of this folk song, remarkably resembling an anthem, represents the mighty power of generations and unites the communities in their struggle against the enemy. Investigating the genre transformations of this piece and it communicative models that consolidate communities serving as an attribute of Ukrainian national identity as opposed to the enemy proves the importance of the subject of this paper. The objectives of this research were the following: to study the historical and genre reminiscences of the Oi u luzi chervona kalyna song, to analyze its impact on developing the new trends within the popular Ukrainian music and culture, to outline the communicative mechanisms used in the anthem-like pieces rooted in folk songs to influence and consolidate communities. The means of replication of this song may be identified, on the one hand, as a specifically targeted strategy, namely, seemingly random viral sharing in the Internet. On the other hand, the transformation of a genre of this song is evident. Heavy rotation of the Oi u luzi chervona kalyna song enables concluding that it became a part of the mainstream of the present time. The very idea of the song encourages the audience to collaboration and co-creation, be it singing along, making electronic covers, singing backing vocals, etc. The fact that its symbolic and semiotic fields influenced the intensification of cross-cultural interaction between similar worldviews and became a unifying factor in the struggle against the Ruscist evil in is an important feature of this song’s replication during the war

First song description of the humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae (Balaenopteridae: Artiodactyla), breeding off Nicaragua

Introduction: Humpback whales belonging to the Central American (CA) Distinct Population Segment breed off the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. Knowledge on this endangered population and its conservation status is limited.
 Objective: The aim of this study is to provide the first description of the CA humpback whale song off Nicaragua, which helps further understanding on the population’s dynamics.
 Methods: Acoustic recordings of songs were obtained during dedicated boat-based surveys at two locations on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua in 2018. Recordings were made from the boat using a portable system for a total of 23 hours and 56 minutes over 32 days from January to April 2018. A total of nine recordings of high enough quality for the song analysis were identified during this period from three different days at Padre Ramos (PR) (northern site) and four different days at San Juan del Sur (southern site). Song structure was described using standard humpback whale song elements, i.e. themes, phrases, and units.
 Results: A total of seven themes, seven phrases, and 19 unit types were identified. Three of the themes were common and frequently repeated in a song cycle while the others were less common in the repertoire and were recorded only during the middle of the season. Song theme order was variable, both within and across song sessions.
 Conclusions: This study provides the first song description of humpback whales along the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. Comparison of these songs with other datasets from the CA population and other breeding areas in the Northern Hemisphere could help understand the migratory patterns of these animals and the level of connectivity among populations since song can be socially learnt. Future data collection of humpback whale song recordings in Nicaragua is necessary to gain further understanding on the song structure variation within this population and the mechanisms of song transmission and dynamics across populations in the region.

Humpback whale: Yes/no? Challenges with passive acoustic monitoring of this well-described species

Humpback whales sing song and produce non-song sounds. Dozens of research articles have described their acoustic repertoire—even if only considering Australian waters. While song structure changes slowly over seasons, individual notes may exhibit multi-decadal stability. Irrespectively, automatically detecting humpback whale vocalizations remains an ongoing development activity while manual validation of automated detections continues to be problematic. While analysing archival recordings from Australian waters using the NOAA/Google convolutional neural network pretrained for humpback whale song [https://tfhub.dev/google/humpbackwhale/1], we found numerous instances of a particular type of sound with spectrographic features resembling those of humpback whale vocalizations. These sounds lacked the context of a song and occurred in chorus-like patterns, withthe same sound recorded at varying received levels and overlapping in time—indicative of many animals simultaneously producing nothing but this specific call. To investigate these phenomena further, we (1) built a custom detector for these specific calls, (2) ran the detector on archival recordings from North-western Australia, and (3) compared geographic and seasonal presences and absences to known patterns of humpback whale occurrence. The likelihood of these scenarios being humpback whales is discussed.

Sub-unit classification of Pacific and Atlantic humpback high-complexity song units—Sub-unit diversity drives unit diversity

Humpback whale communication studies have primarily focused on holistic unit classification methods to identify thematic patterns of song structure. These various whole-unit, spectral-feature-extraction and classification procedures have resulted in low information entropy estimates of songs, akin to bird song. A recent study of high complexity, frequency-modulated song units shows that unit diversity and information entropy of humpback vocalizations is much higher and variable across regions of the Pacific and the Atlantic. Sub-unit-level feature-extraction and classification of these high-complexity units indicates that humpbacks have precision control of the generation of target frequencies, a characteristic of human vowel production. The number of distinct sub-units varies by geographic region and is comparable to English and Asian language phoneme sets.

Song structure of male Northern House Wrens and patterns of song production and delivery across the nesting cycle

Song structure of male Northern House Wrens and patterns of song production and delivery across the nesting cycle

Analysis of The Structure and Meaning of The Lyrics Song of Adeles 30th Album “Struggle of Love”

Analysis of the Structure and Meaning of the Lyrics Song of Adele’s 30th Album “Struggle of Love”. Paper. Maumere: Faculty of Social Sciences Education and Humanities. IKIP Muhammadiyah Maumere. 2023. This research aims to know and explain the structures and the meanings of song’s lyrics of Adele’s 30th album. There are two focuses of research namely physical and inner structure and meaning. The method of research used descriptive qualitative. In this research, there are two data sources, namely: primary and secondary data. For data collection, the researcher used interpretation of written material according to published notes, and articles. Based on the researcher conducted by the researcher, some important things can be found it, namely Adele’s songs contain a lot of structure and meaning. The results of the analysis found that in Adele’s song especially in 30th album, there are two big points. The points are: structure and meaning. The physical structure of Adele’s songs contains a lot of diction, figurative language, and imagery, basically that of the seventh mostly used three important parts of the physical structure. In terms of the inner structure of Adele’s songs there are important elements in them namely: themes, tones, feeling and mandate that are so diverse and aesthetically pleasing. Basically, of all that song that exist, not all song contains important points in the inner structure but only a few songs

Variability in Temporal Characteristics of the South Eastern Indian Ocean Pygmy Blue Whale Song

The temporal characteristics of whale song are considered to be amongst the most stable elements of song production, though very few studies have looked at the timing of discrete sounds or the silences between them. This study indicates that the temporal characteristics of the song of the southeast Indian Ocean pygmy blue (SEIOPB) whale are highly variable. While the song repetition interval, or inter-song interval (ISI), appeared to remain consistent within a song event, defined as a consistent bout of singing presumed to come from an individual animal, it was found to be variable between song events. Song structure was a confounding factor in the analysis of variability in ISI with songs comprised of longer phrases naturally having a longer song repetition interval. The songs of the SEIOPB whale are characteristic of the species with only three primary song types. The three-unit song (units I, II and III) has the longest mean ISI of ~ 200 s, approximately twice that of songs composed of only two units (II and III) at a mean of ~ 100 s ISI which is approximately twice the ISI of a one-unit song (unit II only). The results of this study suggest that variability in ISI cannot be attributed to change in one element of a song but is driven by temporal changes in all elements of the song including phrase structure, unit duration and the length of the intervals between song units. Thus, the temporal characteristics of blue whale song appear to be under the control of the animal and may vary between individual whales, and within songs of an individual. It is concluded that the temporal characteristics of song potentially encode contextual information about the singer and may be influenced by audience effects, including audience composition and singer density.

Collaborative Composition and Urban Popular Music in Digital Music Didactics

Composition is one of the facets of musical activity that allows a more effective way to interrelate theoretical and practical contents in a real context to enhance the development of creativity and collaborative work in the music classroom. Through a qualitative methodology based on participant observation, the results of several projects aimed at implementing collaborative composition in the training of music teachers at the University of Salamanca through audio production tools (DAW) as a pedagogical strategy to address basic knowledge and specific skills of the curriculum of the music subject in secondary education, are synthesized. From this perspective, this work proposes a structured and sequential model for the collaborative composition of musical productions in the field of popular urban music (with special attention to the rock style), addressing and exemplifying in a practical way issues such as the layered structure in the prototypical song of rock bands, the fundamental rhythmic bases, the harmonic function and the development of chord progressions or the creation and development of melodic lines for the voice.

Age-related changes in the temporal structure of song in the common rosefinch Erythrina erythrina

AbstractBird species that have visual differences in plumage coloration between young and older males may also differ in their song parameters. We have studied the difference in song rate between yearlings vs. older males in the common rosefinch Erythrina erythrina, a species with delayed plumage maturation. Yearlings sang 2.3 more strophes per minute compared to older males, and the breaks between strophes were 1.3 s shorter in young males. The higher singing rate of yearling males is probably a form of compensation for lower age (male quality), which may be important in finding a mate or avoiding aggression from older males.

Deep Learning for Multi-Structured Javanese Gamelan Note Generator

Javanese gamelan, a traditional Indonesian musical style, has several song structures called gendhing. Gendhing (songs) are written in conventional notation and require gamelan musicians to recognize patterns in the structure of each song. Usually, previous research on gendhing focuses on artistic and ethnomusicological perspectives, but this study is to explore the correlation between gendhing as traditional music in Indonesia and deep learning technology that replaces the task of gamelan composers. This research proposes CNN-LSTM to generate notation of ricikan struktural instruments as an accompaniment to Javanese gamelan music compositions based on balungan notation, rhythm, song structure, and gatra information. This proposed method (CNN-LSTM) is compared with LSTM and CNN. The musical data in this study is represented using numerical notation for the main melody in balungan notation. The experimental results showed that the CNN-LSTM model showed better performance compared to the LSTM and CNN models, with accuracy values of 91.9%, 91.5%, and 91.2% for CNN-LSTM, LSTM, and CNN, respectively. And the value of note distance for the Sampak song structure is 4 for the CNN-LSTM model, 8 for the LSTM model, and 12 for the CNN model. The smaller the note distance, the closer it is to the original notation provided by the gamelan composer. This study provides relevance for novice gamelan musicians who are interested in learning karawitan, especially in understanding ricikan struktural music notation and gamelan art in composing musical compositions of a song.

Evolutionary and Ecological Processes Underlying Geographic Variation in Innate Bird Songs.

AbstractEcological and evolutionary processes underlying spatial variation in signals involved in mate recognition and reproductive isolation are crucial to understanding the causes of population divergence and speciation. Here, to test hypotheses concerning the causes of song divergence, we examine how songs of two sister species of Atlantic Forest suboscine birds with innate songs, the Pyriglena fire-eye antbirds, vary across their ranges. Specifically, we evaluated the influence of isolation by distance and introgressive hybridization, as well as morphological and environmental variation, on geographic variation in male songs. Analyses based on 496 male vocalizations from 63 locations across a 2,200-km latitudinal transect revealed clinal changes in the structure of songs and showed that introgressive hybridization increases both the variability and the homogenization of songs in the contact zone between the two species. We also found that isolation by distance, morphological constraints, the environment, and genetic introgression independently predicted song variation across geographic space. Our study shows the importance of an integrative approach that investigates the roles of distinct ecological and evolutionary processes that influence acoustic signal evolution.

EFL learners' narrative skills: the case of contemporary country music

Facilitating oral skills through authentic materials such as music has been essential in foreign language teaching (FLT). However, a model whose core element is to develop adolescent EFL learners’ narrative skills through songs with highly emotional lyrics is still non-existent. Furthermore, engaging students in vivid debates about everyday topics with which they can relate is considered a key element to develop their narrative skills. Both, themes and structure of contemporary country music songs have been analysed by means of a corpus. Additionally, a questionnaire has been administered to know adolescent English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ attitude towards the implementation of social issues and music in class. The results show that there exists a narrative structure in contemporary country music songs and a wide range of topics with which students can easily identify. These results suggest that these song lyrics may serve to facilitate EFL students' narrative skills.

Organization of song of the Yellow-rumped flycatcher (<i>Ficedula zanthopygia</i>, Muscicapidae, Aves)

Birdsong consists of stereotypical song types or syllables which follow each other according to certain rules. Based on these rules, linear and combinatorial syntaxes are identified. The former one implies a fixed sequence of song types repeated cyclically. In the combinatorial syntax, there are clusters of song types, within which song types may be performed in a varying sequence. The structure and organization of birdsong have been described for many species, but still remain unexplored for most of them. We studied for the first time the song structure and organization, as well as song sharing for the Yellow-rumped flycatcher Ficedula zanthopygia (Hay, 1845). First of all, we determined the repertoire of song types in each male. Then, the organization of singing was analyzed using methods of information theory and network analysis. To analyze the patterns of song sharing, we compared all song types of all males. Individual repertoires consisted from 8–31 song types. While singing, male flycatchers avoid repeating the same song type two or more times in a row (continuous variety). At the same time, different song types alternate with a much degree of freedom: we did not reveal any patterns which could indicate the presence of either linear or combinatorial syntax. Males generally shared few song types, and the similarity of the repertoires of any two males was small. Besides, males did not preferably use shared or individual (i.e., found in the only one male) song types. Song sharing was not related to the distance between males. The results were compared to what is known about the song structure and organization of the other three Ficedula species studied to date.

Unmasking hidden genetic, vocal, and size variation in the Masked Flowerpiercer along the Andes supports two species separated by Northern Peruvian Low

Abstract Genetic divergence among isolated populations is not always reflected in phenotypic differentiation. We investigated the genetic and phenotypic differentiation in Diglossa cyanea (Thraupidae; Masked Flowerpiercer), a widely distributed species in the tropical Andes. We found strong evidence for 2 main lineages separated by the Marañón River valley in the Northern Peruvian Low (NPL). These 2 lineages show a deep sequence divergence in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA; ~6.7% uncorrected p-distance, n = 122), spectral frequency and song structure (with exclusive final whistles in southern populations, n = 88), and wing length (the northern populations are smaller, n = 364). The 2 divergent D. cyanea mitochondrial lineages were not sister to each other, suggesting a possible paraphyly with respect to D. caerulescens (Bluish Flowerpiercer) that remains to be tested with nuclear genomic data. No genetic variation, size difference, or song structure was observed within the extensive range of the southern group (from the NPL to central Bolivia) or within all sampled northern populations (from the NPL to Venezuela). These vocal differences appear to have consequences for song discrimination, and species recognition, according to a previously published playback experiment study. We propose that the southern taxon be elevated to species rank as D. melanopis, a monotypic species (with the proposed name Whistling Masked-Flowerpiercer). In turn, we provide a redefinition of D. cyanea (Warbling Masked-Flowerpiercer), which is now restricted to the northern half of the tropical Andes as a polytypic species with 3 subspecies (tovarensis, obscura, and cyanea). Based on our results, the subspecies dispar should be treated as a junior synonym of cyanea. Our study highlights the need to continue amassing complementary data sets from field observations, experiments, and collection-based assessments to better characterize the evolutionary history, biogeography, bioacoustics, and taxonomy of Neotropical montane birds.

A noisy neighbour: acoustic competition drives changes in song traits and spatiotemporal behaviour of orthopterans

Competition for acoustic space is key for sound-communicating animals, yet little is known about whether and how it may drive evolutionary pathways, for example signal structure, as well as species distributions or individual spatial behaviour. Here we assessed the occurrence of interspecific acoustic competition in sound-communicating taxa by testing three nonmutually exclusive hypotheses explaining variability of song structure and singing activity, in two sibling species of tree crickets of the genus Oecanthus. By comparing song acoustic parameters, diel activity patterns and relative densities of singing crickets in both sympatry and allopatry, we found that the local co-occurrence of the two species drives changes in all the considered factors of song production. Namely, we report changes in temporal and structural song traits, as well as in singing activity patterns and apparent population density, with strongly asymmetrical effects, only evident for one of the two species considered. Our results highlight the role of acoustic space as a key resource that shapes biotic interactions, and eventually behaviours, in sound-communicating taxa, and represent a replicable approach in the study of acoustic assemblages.

Marked Feat of Allusions in Roman Mikhailov’s Fairy Tales Collection «The Berries»

Artistic experiments are characteristic of the latest Russian literature. The experiment allows not only to create the effect of a dialogue with the classics, but also to build a new model for assessing reality. The poetic world traditionally has two highways of balance: this is time and an artistic space. The poetics of postmodernism is focused on the creation of the new within the framework of the transformation of the existing. Aesthetic experience processed by postmodern authors has signs of allusions, reminiscences, quotations, open hints. Roman Mikhailov's prose is a unique example of playing with literary codes, cultural and historical stereotypes. This happens both at the level of form and at the boundary level of content. The new literary reality of assessing the present in the mode of fairy-tale narrative is being implemented in R. Mikhailovs collection The Berries (2019). Lately reseachers have been finding little interest in the collection, there are hadly any works found in the public domain that would concern the analysis of language, style, author's manner of narration, compositional framework, genre variations. Thus, the study in line with the assessment of the typology and poetics of Roman Mikhailov's fairy tales appears to be relevant. The methodological content of this work correlates with the one of a receptive and hermeneutic nature. Labeling of allusions in the collection The Berries is carried out for the purpose of visual differentiation of meanings. The scope of postmodern writers meanings expands to rhizome. Consequently, the text stops being only a formal plane, but becomes a paradigmatic sign system. The collection of fairy tales The Berries contains texts of different years. However, they form a single artistic world with related plots. The literary experiment of R. Mikhailov's fairy tales focuses on the texts by Sh. Perrault, F.M. Dostoevsky, N.A. Nekrasov, I.S. Turgenev, N.S. Leskov, A.P. Chekhov; N. Pogodin's screenplay; V. Suteev's cartoon plots; V.S. Vysotsky's song structure. The range of allusions in this case is wide, while the integrity of the cycle remains impeccable. This material can be used in studies on the poetics of the latest Russian prose, as well as in the invastigations focused on Roman Mikhailovs works.

Similarity of structures in popular music

The study of the similarity matrix of a song has been a particularly efficient technique to characterise song structures. This method transforms a song into a matrix representing the proximity between its different sections and is usually used to automatically detect structural properties such as its verse, its chorus, its tempo, etc. In this paper, these matrix representations are used not to study the inherent structure of a song, but to compare them with each other. This allows to create a metric on songs related to their pattern matrices, on which statistical tools can be applied. This metric is used to create groups of songs with similar structures and leads to interesting observations on patterns commonly used by certain artists, for certain years, and in certain genres. Moreover, this approach also unveils structures used across different features, such as songs from different decades and genres. Finally, this metric on songs is evaluated on classification tasks and shows that its interest lies in its ability to highlight specific behaviours rather than general trends.