Stylistic Attributes Research Articles

Social and Stylistic Correlates of Vocal Fry in a cappella Performances

To determine the social and stylistic correlates of vocal fry in a cappella performances. A matched-guise experiment was used to measure listener evaluations of fry and non-fry guises. Four singers, two male and two female, sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" with onset vocal fry. These recordings were used to create the two guises: (i) an unmodified recording with onset vocal fry on vowel-initial words and (ii) a recording in which the fry had been removed. In total, 253 participants listened to the recordings and evaluated the singers' social and stylistic attributes along a Likert scale, e.g., how confident, sexy, and sincere each singer sounded. A factor analysis was used to conflate correlated variables, and mixed effects linear regression models (n = 1,012) were fitted to each lone or joint factor to determine whether vocal fry significantly influenced listeners' responses to the singers. Vocal fry significantly altered listener evaluations of the singers' sincerity/commitment, maturity/sophistication, naturalness, and confidence (P < 0.05). Unlike male singers, who were rated as significantly less sincere/committed with vocal fry, female singers were seen as more sincere/committed with vocal fry and younger listeners also found them less natural, suggesting vocal fry is associated with emotional intensity in female voices. Younger listeners perceived singers with fry as less mature/sophisticated, suggesting an association with youth. Finally, listeners with more musical training rated singers with fry as less confident, while less trained listeners did not exhibit this difference. Listeners are highly attuned to vocal fry in music but respond to it differently based upon their age, musical training, and the singer's sex. Vocal fry is evaluated more positively among younger, less musically trained listeners, and it is better received in women's voices, suggesting that the use of fry strategically targets a specific audience, i.e., younger and less trained listeners, who interpret fry as a marker of youth and emotional earnestness. These findings show that a single stylistic feature like vocal fry can be imbued with multiple meanings depending on the singer and audience, and its use can serve to include or exclude particular listener groups.

The Performance Document: Assimilations of Gesture and Genre

Artist or activist actions and performances often take place just once and are intended to be experienced live. These actions are recorded and disseminated through photography and video taken from a range of perspectives, from paid-up and pre-briefed “professional” photographers or videographers through to spontaneously taken images by audience members or passers-by. Inevitably “documentation” is never neutral and these records are infused with the stylistic intervention and conventions of the photographer in question. Within our conversation, we locate the performance document as the site of a potential two-way assimilation of gesture and stylistic attributes of diverse photographic conventions. In our co-writing, we track parallel analyses of photographs taken by commercial photographer Françoise Masson of the 1970s actions of artist Gina Pane and the utilization of photographs within the contemporary lens-based practice of Dinu Li, in which gesture and conventions are assimilated and move fluidly backwards and forwards between political propaganda, film, documentary, and domestic photography.

O final do ciclo gráfico paleolítico do Vale do Côa: A arte móvel do Fariseu (Muxagata, Vila Nova Foz Côa)

We present in this work the integral study of the portable art of Fariseu (Coa Valley). Eighty-five engraved pieces and four painted ones form the studied collection. The chronological attribution to the Late Dryas/ beginning of the Pre-boreal is perfectly assured by the stratigraphic origin of the pieces. The technical and stylistic attributes of the figures are similar to some of the rock art of the Coa valley, making the collection an important chronological referent to a vast number of engraved and painted panels of the region. Those technical and stylistic attributes are also similar to others from Southwest Europe that are dated from the end of the Late glacial period, which denotes the affiliation of this rock art facies in a graphic tradition of a broader geographic range.

Релігійно-культові засади творчості Г. Свиридова.

Метою даної статті є виявлення релігійно-культових засад композиторського методу як головних парадигматичних властивостей творчості Г. Свиридова. Методологія дослідження спирається на системний аналітичний підхід з виокремленням музично-історичного, етимологічного, текстологічного та семантичного музикознавчих методів, що дозволяє простежити шляхи формування стильових ознак творчості Г. Свиридова. Наукова новизна даної статті міститься у виявленні православної богослужбової традиції як культурної домінанти у творчому доробку Г. Свиридова. Висновки. Головні стильові настанови та провідні семантичні аспекти у творчості Г. Свиридова наочно демонструють те, що релігійно-культові тенденції набувають значення парадигми, а у пізньому періоді його творчості досягають філософської, майже богословської узагальненості. Композитор прагне з одного боку до ораторіальності як до однієї з постійних форм музичної виразності, наділеною стійкими інтонаційно-тематичними формулами як відображення сфери колективної піснетворчості як широкої музичної метафори пам'яті – соборності, з іншого – прагне до пісенності як до ідеального природнього способу буття музики.Ключові слова: релігійно-культова традиція, культ, соборність, канон, канонічний текст.

Exotica as prestige technology: the production of luxury gold in Western Han society

Abstract

Specialized pottery production in Dalma tradition; a statistical approach in pottery analysis from Soha Chay Tepe, Zanjan, Iran

Soha Chay Tepe is located on the right bank of the Sojasrud River and lies within the province of Zanjan, in Western Iran. During excavation, one cultural period and two architectural phases have been distinguished, contemporary to the Middle Chalcolithic period (Dalma tradition). More complex activities in Chalcolithic period are well studied and accepted by researchers, however analyzing pottery according to stylistic attributes revealed more details about systematic pottery production of this period in the west of Iran. A total of 96 pottery samples was chemically analyzed with portable XRF device in order to detect clustering pattern. Results have revealed meaningful similarities concerning composition between the sampled groups in regards to their decoration style. It showed that the potters of Soha Chay Tepe might have made distinct operation decisions for their various pottery style productions. Portable XRF with relative internal calibration used in this study confirmed that it has high potential in compositional studies of ceramic regarding to more detailed questions.

Seeing is Believing: The Ongoing Significance of Symbolic Representations of Musical Works in Copyright Infringement Disputes

Since the mid-twentieth Century the development of audio recording and synthesized sound technologies has radically altered how popular songs are created, fixed, disseminated, and consumed. Courts adjudicating copyright infringement claims involving musical works whose content and creation depend on these technologies, still emphasize melody, harmony, rhythm, and words – all recordable in visible symbols – as the protectable core of these works. This emphasis has been criticized as obsolete, and inapt when applied to musical works created and documented by performers only in audible formats, in which sonic and stylistic attributes may contribute more than fundamental musical elements to the popular appeal of a song. The legitimacy of this criticism depends upon our understanding of both what constitutes a copyrightable musical work, and also notation’s efficacy to represent it. This article argues that the judiciary’s traditional view of protectable expression of musical works as limited to a combination of melody, harmony, rhythm, and words, continues to be valid today despite changes in how popular songs are typically created and fixed. Timbre, dynamics, and other stylistic sonic – and, increasingly, visual – attributes closely associated with performance may significantly affect the appeal and marketability of the audio/video recording of a popular song. Yet they may contribute little to the underlying copyrightable work of music. Consider that while a documented meaningful combination of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements alone may constitute a musical work, a similar combination of information about instrumentation, dynamics, tempo, etc. – i.e., elements more closely associated with the performance of a musical work – does not. Melody, harmony, rhythm, and words can be precisely recorded in graphical symbols. This article argues that given that sight is our most developed sense, visual documentation should be the medium by which courts and juries evaluate allegations of substantial similarity between two musical works. If courts permit litigants to present audible renditions of musical works, these renditions should be limited to MIDI-produced sound based on transcriptions of the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic content of the works in question by a neutral party appointed by the court. If the judiciary were to broaden copyright protection for musical works to incorporate sonic and stylistic elements closely associated with their performance, this expansion could generate paralyzing uncertainty among popular musicians about the scope of protection for extant works. It could also lead to monopolization of musical ideas, which would inhibit the very production of original musical expression that copyright is supposed to promote.

The Literary Haunted House: Lovecraft, Matheson, King, and the Horror in BetweenRebeccaJanicker. McFarland, 2015.

Literary Haunted House: Lovecraft, Matheson, King, and the Horror in Between Rebecca Janicker. McFarland, 2015.To discuss the role of what she calls the house motif in facilitating the creation of liminal spaces where past and present directly interact, Rebecca Janicker employs a series of case studies featuring works from three of America's most wellknown horror writers. An extended introduction situates these texts in the gothic genre, before outlining theoretical foundations for concepts of space and liminality around which Janicker's arguments circulate. Each chapter has a given story as its chief focus, beginning with H. P. Lovecraft's The Dreams in the Witch House (1933), followed by Richard Matheson's A Stir of Echoes (1958) and Earthbound (1982/1989), then finishing with a run through Stephen King's Shining (1977), Christine (1983), and Bag of Bones (1998).Accompanied at times by references to each other or additional stories from each respective author, these case studies are viewed in relation to themes from within their contemporary historical settings: the impact of science, urbanization, immigration, and modernity for Lovecraft; suburbanization and nostalgia for Matheson; and class, family, nostalgia, and race for King. A brief conclusion closes the study by gesturing toward the potential applicability of Janicker's work across print and other media.The book's broad scope and tendency to wander across varied historical contexts and concerns make it difficult to place within any specific set of academic literature. While Janicker is aware of some newer research and includes a brief list in her conclusion (168), these sources are not integrated within the study itself which largely uses older material. This has the effect of placing the parallel to recent studies of the chosen authors, haunting in fiction and the gothic/horror genres more broadly. A striking omission from the bibliography is Andrew Smith's Ghost Story, 1840-1920: A Cultural History (2010). Despite dealing primarily with older texts, Smith nevertheless engages with concepts of history and haunted houses in his chapter about Henry James. Smith's skillful discussion of the interplay between history and haunting could have been used to great effect by Janicker.In the preface we are told that the book began as a PhD project (ix). Based on its stylistic attributes, little was done in the conversion from thesis to monograph. …

A Cache Within a Cache: Description of an Abalone “Treasure-Box” from the CA-SNI-14 Redwood Box Cache, San Nicolas Island, Alta California

Excavation of a cache feature eroding from a sea cliff on the northwest coast of San Nicolas Island produced two redwood boxes containing more than 200 artifacts of Nicoleño, Native Alaskan, and Euroamerican origin, along with four asphaltum-lined basketry water bottles and other artifacts. An abalone shell “treasure-box” was found inside the western box of the feature that included a large black abalone shell dish containing 20 items and a second black abalone shell that served as a lid. This “cache within a cache” contained two finely crafted eccentric abalone fishhooks, three shell pendants, an abalone nacre spangle, two bird bone pendants, two stone beads, a piece of chlorite displaying striations, two unmodified shells, and seven bifaces made from exotic chert and bottle glass. This article describes the treasure-box and its contents, addressing stylistic and functional attributes and exploring how these items might relate to one another. Similar receptacles from the Channel Islands and southern California coast are also discussed. The contents of the abalone treasure-box represent utilitarian and ornamental items from the rich Nicoleño culture, stowed during the early to mid-nineteenth century, possibly by the famous Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island.

Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Sites in the Upper Neches River Basin in Anderson and Cherokee Counties, Texas

Late Caddo period sites belonging to the Frankston phase (ca. A.D. 1400-1680) and the Historic Caddo Allen phase (ca. A.D. 1680-1800) are common in the upper Neches River basin in East Texas, including habitation sites as well as associated and unassociated cemeteries. As is well known, ancestral Caddo cemeteries have burial features with associated funerary offerings, most commonly ceramic vessels. In this article, we document 34 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL) from six different sites in the upper Neches River basin, including the Ballard Estates (41AN53, n=4 vessels), O. L. Ellis (41AN54, n=15), Lee Ellis (41AN56, n=1), Dabbs Estate (41AN57, n=3), A. H. Reagor (41CE15, n=3), and John Bragg (41CE23, n=8 vessels) sites. Our first purpose is to put on record these ceramic vessels from six poorly known ancestral Caddo sites in order to better understand the history of Caddo settlement in the upper Neches River basin, including the history of burial interments at these sites. The second purpose is much broader, and is part of an effort to establish an East Texas Caddo ceramic vessel database that can be employed for a variety of research purposes. The synthesis of the stylistically diverse Caddo ceramic wares in different recognized ancestral communities across the Caddo area, including the upper Neches River basin occupied by a Hasinai Caddo group, would seem to be tailor-made for studies of ancestral Caddo social networks and social identities that rely on large regional ceramic datasets. The formal and statistical assessment of the regional variation in Caddo ceramic assemblages is currently being assembled in a Geographic Information System by Robert Z. Selden, Jr. (Stephen F. Austin State University), and the assemblages include the vessels from the six sites discussed herein. This is based on the delineation of temporal and spatial divisions in the character of Caddo ceramics (i.e., principally data on decorative methods, vessel forms, defined types and varieties, and the use of different tempers) across East Texas sites and other parts of the Caddo area, and then constructing networks of similarities between ceramic assemblages from these sites that can be used to assess the strength of cultural and social relationships among Caddo communities in the region through time and across space. The identification of such postulated relationships can then be explored to determine the underlying reasons for the existence of such relationships, including factors such as the frequency of interaction and direct contact between communities, the trade and exchange of ceramic vessels, population movement, and similarities in the organization of ceramic vessel production. In conjunction with a database on 2D/3D-scanned Caddo ceramic vessels from East Texas sites, the East Texas Caddo ceramic vessel database is made part of a digital database where comprehensive mathematical and quantitative analyses of morphological attributes and decorative elements on vessels can be conducted. Queries to such a combined database of vessels and sherds should lead to better understandings of regional Caddo ceramic stylistic and technological attributes and their spatial and temporal underpinnings. The results of past and current instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and petrographic analysis of Caddo Area ceramics, including East Texas (where there is a robust INAA database) can also be explored as a means to corroborate production locales, and establish the chemical and paste characteristics of local fine ware and utility ware ceramics in assemblages of different ages. These in turn allow the evaluation of the possible movement of ceramic vessels between different Caddo communities in East Texas and the broader Caddo world.

Instruments of Change: Late Dorset Palaeoeskimo Drums and Shamanism on Coastal Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada

AbstractThe only known evidence of Dorset Palaeoeskimo drum use ever documented was salvaged decades ago along with thousands of other Late Dorset Palaeoeskimo artifacts from an eroding coastal site (PfFm-1) at Button Point on Bylot Island, Nunavut (Figure 1) (Mary-Rousselière 1976, Taylor 1971-1972). These finds consist of two nearly complete wooden drums and various other drum frame fragments that date to the centuries surrounding A.D. 1000 (Taylor 1971-1972). In the spring of 2014, the authors and Lori White re-examined all of the wood fragments recovered from Button Point, documenting the known drum pieces and discovering nearly a dozen previously unidentified drum fragments. These fragments represent instruments in a range of sizes, but with a consistent and uniquely Late Dorset Palaeoeskimo style that has not been identified prior to our research. In this paper, we discuss a proposed typology of the Dorset drums and drum fragments, and contrast their stylistic attributes with subsequent historic Inuit drum morphology in the region. We will also discuss some of the functional aspects of how the drums were manufactured and the use of foraged coastal resources in their construction. Finally, we offer an interpretation of the driftwood-constructed drums as part of what we believe to be elements of Late Dorset shamanism.

Continuity and change in the anthropomorphic figures of Australia’s northwest Kimberley

One of the largest concentrations of rock paintings in Australia is found in the rugged Kimberley region in the northwest of the continent. A temporal sequence of visually distinctive figurative styles is presumed to span periods of cultural change and major climatic events. As the nature and course of these changes are poorly understood, this paper investigates the relationships between continuity and change in the stylistic attributes of the selected anthropomorphic figures in the rock art assemblage. Some previous Kimberley rock art researchers have argued for an abrupt discontinuity in the art assemblage between the Wararrajai Gwion (the most recent of the Gwion styles) and Painted Hand Periods (formally Clothes Peg Figure and Clawed Hand Periods respectively), while others have argued for more gradual change. Based on the study of 204 rock art sites from 15 site complexes, which included a total of 7,579 motifs and 3,685 identifiable anthropomorphic figures, we identify the core characteristics of anthropomorphic figures in each of the established stylistic periods and show that there is no evidence to support notions of an abrupt discontinuity of art through time. Rather, attribute preferences changed gradually, existing as clades of variation rather than discrete units, with identifiable threads of continuity and periods when certain attributes (core characteristics) are preferentially adopted. A quantitative analysis supports our interpretation.

O pewnych wspólnych cechach IX-wiecznej ceramiki z obszaru północnej i południowej części obecnego Dolnego Śląska

This article presents the results of comparative research into 9th century vessels discovered in numerous archaeological sites in Lower Silesia. The research was underpinned with petrographic analyses of ceramics representing a progressive trend in pottery. The reason why this issue is discussed is the occurrence of vessels with similar technological and stylistic attributes in both the south and the north of the region under scrutiny. The research leads to a conclusion that the common features shared by the ceramics artefacts may result from foreign influences in the north and the south of the region alike. However, numerous similarities in the final touches of the vessels indicate that in the first half of the 9th century (if not later), Silesian potters shared their experiences while the populations of the north and the south of the region and exchanged various artefacts including vessels. This exchange of experience in pottery production bore fruit in the form of stylistically and formally diverse vessels.

Prairie Caddo Sites in Coryell and McLennan Counties in Central Texas

Did ancestral Caddo peoples live and settle on the prairies of Central Texas in prehistoric times (i.e., before A.D. 1680)? Story had noted that there is little known about “the nature of the Caddo connections” in these sites, and she wondered what these settlements represented: “(1) groups from the east who occupied the area year round and/or seasonally; or (2) local groups who were interacting with Caddoans [sic] through trade, marriage, and visitations…?” In this article, I am concerned with the consideration of “Caddo connections” as expressed in the character of the ceramic assemblages from four sites in Central Texas that have been considered to have Caddo pottery and were occupied by Prairie Caddo peoples, Of particular importance are the stylistic (i.e., decorative methods and decorative elements) and technological (i.e., choice of temper inclusions) attributes of the sherds from the sites that are from utility ware and fine ware vessels. According to Shafer, the term “Prairie Caddo” refers to “Caddo groups [that] occupied portions of central Texas prairies in Late Prehistoric times,” from ca. A.D. 1000–1300.

Caddo Ceramic Sherds from Leon River Valley Sites in Coryell County, Texas

This article is concerned with the consideration of “Caddo connections” as expressed in the character of the ceramic assemblages from three sites in the Leon River valley in Central Texas that have been considered to have Caddo pottery and were occupied by Prairie Caddo peoples; these ceramic assemblages are in the collections of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). Of particular importance are the stylistic (i.e., decorative methods and decorative elements) and technological (i.e., choice of temper inclusions) attributes of the sherds from the sites that are from plain ware, utility ware, and fine ware vessels.

Žanrovske specifičnosti srpske realističke pripovetke

This paper will discuss genre-specific features of the short story in Serbian Realism. To establish genre-specific, primarily linguistic and stylistic features of the short story in Serbian Realism and prose in general, we will describe stylistic attributes that connect literary works written in the period of Realism as a movement and determine common stylistic features that link them. In addition, we will also examine the status of the prose text, the creative method of which was defined as realist in contemporary Serbian literature. Conclusions indicate that the structure of the auctorial short story is not subject to strict theoretical rules and that the term realist short story does not restrict the story to the period of the epoch of Realism, but allows it to apply to every literary period in which authors used the objective method to depict events and protagonists.

An Aggregate of Spear Points from Atoka County, Oklahoma

Nine spear points were reported from a farm in northwestern Atoka County, Oklahoma. This aggregate of points appeared to bean isolate as no other prehistoric material was found in the vicinity. The following study discusses the setting and nature of the specimens, stylistic attributes of the spear points and their age, technological and functional characteristics of the pieces, and whether these items represent caching behavior.

Linguistic Markers and Stylistic Attributes of Hedging in English Academic Papers Written by Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

Hedging means mitigating words so as to lessen the impact of an utterance. It may cause uncertainty in language but is regarded as an important feature in English academic writing. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the style of academic writing in English with particular reference to the significant role of hedging and the linguistic features that mark it. The data was taken from academic articles in the humanities written by native speakers of English, Filipino speakers of English, and Thai speakers of English. It is hypothesized that speakers of English as a foreign language use fewer and different hedging devices than native speakers of English. The result of the analysis shows that the prominent linguistic markers of hedging are the auxiliaries may, might, could, the verbs suggest, appear, seem, and the adverbs perhaps and often. They are divided into three groups according to their stylistic attributes of hedging; namely, probability, indetermination, and approximation. The use of hedging found in the data confirms what Hyman (1994) says; i.e., that hedging allows writers to express their uncertainty about the truth of their statements. It is also found that English native speakers use hedges most frequently. The Filipino speakers of English are the second, and the Thai speakers of English use hedges the least frequency. This implies that hedging is likely to be related to the level of competence in English including knowledge of stylistic variation, and that it needs to be formally taught to those who speak English as a second or foreign language.

Content-Based Prediction of Movie Style, Aesthetics, and Affect: Data Set and Baseline Experiments

The affective content of a movie is often considered to be largely determined by its style and aesthetics. Recently, studies have attempted to estimate affective movie content with computational features, but results have been mixed, one of the main reasons being a lack of data on perceptual stylistic and aesthetic attributes of film, which would provide a ground truth for the features. The distinctions between energetic and tense arousal as well as perceived and felt affect are also often neglected. In this study, we present a data set of ratings by 73 viewers of 83 stylistic, aesthetic, and affective attributes for a selection of movie clips containing complete scenes taken from mainstream movies. The affective attributes include the temporal progression of perceived and felt valence and arousal within the clips. The data set is aimed to be used to train algorithms that predict viewer assessments based on low-level computational features. With this data set, we performed a baseline study modeling the relation between a large selection of low-level computational features (i.e., visual, auditory, and temporal) and perceptual stylistic, aesthetic, and affective attributes of movie clips. Two algorithms were compared in a realistic prediction scenario: linear regression and the neural-network-based Extreme Learning Machine (ELM). Felt and perceived affect as well as stylistic attributes were shown to be equally easy to predict, whereas the prediction of aesthetic attributes failed. The performance of the ELM predictor was overall found to be slightly better than the linear regression. A feature selection experiment illustrated that features from all low-level computational modalities, visual, auditory and temporal, contribute to the prediction of the affect assessments. We have made our assessment data and extracted computational features publicly available.

Cross-valley communities: Identity and interaction in Early Postclassic period highland Chiapas

Over the last half-century, anthropologists have employed the concept of “communities” as an interpretive framework. While many scholars have conceptualized the community as a territorial unit, it may be more usefully viewed as a type of social network. As social networks, communities create patterned relationships and interactions between their members, which can be reflected in various aspects of material culture from landscape markers to similarities in the stylistic attributes of domestic artifact assemblages. This article examines the nature and degree of interaction between the Early Postclassic period archaeological sites of Moxviquil, Huitepec, and Yerba Buena in highland Chiapas, and the degree to which the relationships between them constitute communities as social networks. Statistical measures of homogeneity and boundedness are used to compare ceramic vessel attributes at these three sites, and to identify patterns of exchange, emulation and distinction in ceramic assemblages. The results of the analysis suggest high degrees of homogeneity in ceramic attributes between Jovel Valley sites, in contrast with low degrees of homogeneity between the Jovel Valley sites and Yerba Buena. However, the results also indicate a low degree of boundedness between these three sites, suggest low-intensity inter-valley interaction between separate communities.