American Music Research Articles

Improvisation and Social Aesthetics

Improvisation and Social Aesthetics

Jazz Performance of 1920s as a Component of Popular American Music

The purpose of this article is an attempt to consider jazz as a component of popular music. The article is devoted to the problem of comparing the concepts of popular music and jazz, in particular jazz performance. The methodological basis was the hermeneutic-comparative method, which allows studying jazz in accordance with the intonation-characteristic composition of mass music, popular music of America in the 20s, as well as general scientific methods of analytical and historical-descriptive content, which formed the methodological foundations accepted for research in the field of art history and cultural studies in order to learn patterns and generalisations according to the definition of popularity in relation to jazz music. The scientific novelty consists in the study of the peculiarities of jazz life as a component of popular music, which is interpreted as a way of embodying the specifics of jazz performers’ activity. Conclusions. It was determined that the performing tradition and functioning of jazz existed on the border with popular music as a whole. The binary nature of the activities of jazz musicians was partially eliminated by their basic orientation and accentuated what was utilitarian in nature. It was considered that jazz musicians in their activities relied on quality education acquired through formal and informal means. It is clear that there was a process of cultivating the traditions of jazz performance, which involved the education and separation of the composer-improviser and listening audience. In the context of the study, a number of assumptions are made that are potentially promising vectors for continuing the study of the contamination of the concepts of popular music and jazz.
 Key words: Jazz, popular music, American music, jazz performance, musical style.

Music self-efficacy predicted by self-esteem, grit, and (in)formal learning preferences among amateur musicians who use online music tutorials

The present study explores the relationship between music self-efficacy (MSE) and self-esteem, grit, and learning and playing habits of amateur musicians who use online music tutorials (OMTs) while learning to play new pieces. Amateur musicians ( N = 409) from 30 countries answered research questionnaires, including preferences of autonomy OMTs (foster independent learners and incorporate knowledge) versus dependent OMTs (based mainly on imitation and provide little further knowledge). Ordinary least squares regression indicated that the independent variables accounted for 50% of the variance in the dependent variable (MSE) and that the model was significant. The results indicated that self-esteem, grit, preferences of autonomy OMTs, playing with others and weekly hours of playing were positive predictors of MSE. In addition, dependent OMTs were negatively correlated with MSE. The findings highlight the need to examine any possible causality in the relationship between learning and playing habits, and MSE of amateur musicians. In addition, data were collected in the midst of the Covid-19 worldwide impact and should be further explored post-Covid-19.

Relationship of Musculoskeletal Symptoms and Musical Practice Intensity among Musicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Descriptive Questionnaire Study.

As soon as COVID-19 spread around the world, prevention and control measures were taken, such as masking and physical distancing, which changed people's routines, including musical practice among professional and amateur musicians. This descriptive questionnaire study was designed to: 1) investigate how the pandemic affected musical practice among musicians; 2) determine how musicians remained motivated in their new routine; 3) identify the presence of pre-COVID musculoskeletal symptoms; and 4) analyze whether musculoskeletal symptoms decreased, maintained, or increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 89 musicians from Brazil participated in an online survey, from August 2020 to January 2021. The survey form included questions about motivation, musical practice frequency, and the presence and characterization of musculoskeletal symptoms (adapted from the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, NMQ). Musicians were asked to consider the periods before and during the pandemic to answer the questions. During the pandemic, the frequency of musical practice decreased (p<0.01), and it could be associated with the individual's perceptions of motivation. Musculoskeletal symptoms in the previous 12 months were reported by 58%. When comparing the period before the pandemic to the present, 35.3% of musicians reported their musculoskeletal symptoms had not changed, while 33.3% reported that they had increased. Wrists and hands, lower and upper back, shoulders, and neck were the body sites with most frequent complaints. The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the frequency of musical practice of the musicians assessed in this study, with a significant decrease in practice time. Musculoskeletal symptoms were present in this population prior to the pandemic, and these symptoms were mostly maintained or worsened.

Interlocking Themes: American Music, Race, and Music Scholarship

Interlocking Themes: American Music, Race, and Music Scholarship

A Study of Choreography Courses for Musical Theater Majors

Musical theater education in Chinese universities is generally focused on training musical performance talents, and the dance courses involved are also set up to enhance dance performance. The dance styles learned are mainly ballet, modern dance, jazz dance and tap dance, which are common in European and American musicals. However, in the actual musical rehearsal process, the use of dance to create dramatic characters, develop dramatic events, and show dramatic emotions and conflicts requires the skilled creative ability of the musical choreographer. The educational process of musical choreography is a multi-faceted process, which requires the choreographer to have a solid theoretical basis and flexible creative skills. By comparing with universities in Europe, America and South Korea that have musical theater major, this paper studies the advantages and disadvantages of musical theater major courses in Chinese universities in terms of choreography training. Based on the actual situation of China, this study finds the curriculum that conforms to musical choreography through multi-angle analysis of practice, creation, and theory.

Contributors to This Issue

Contributors to This Issue

Doing Tai Chi with “American Music”

Doing Tai Chi with “American Music”

Finding Music: Writings = Schriften, 1961–2018 by Tom Johnson

Reviewed by: Finding Music: Writings = Schriften, 1961–2018 by Tom Johnson Twila Bakker Finding Music: Writings = Schriften, 1961–2018. By Tom Johnson. Edited by Gisela Gronemeyer and Raoul Mörchen. Köln: MusikTexte, 2019. [532 pp. ISBN 9783981331950 (paperback), €29]. Music examples, illustrations, list of works, index. Finding Music by the composer Tom Johnson is a concurrently bilingual volume (English and German on facing pages), divided into three broad sections: (1) “Writing Music” presents an overview of Johnson’s compositional journey, recounting his experiences as a Yale student and as a composer in New York and subsequently in Paris; (2) “Writing about Music” highlights some of Johnson’s important work as a music critic; and (3) “Introductions” provides a wide-ranging selection of introductions and program notes to Johnson’s compositional oeuvre. The text consists almost entirely of previously published materials; the convenience of having them collected between two covers is a key attraction of the current volume, as some of the articles are out of print or, after being presented in a lecture format, were published only on Johnson’s website. Their publication here adds a level of permanence and reproducibility that those articles were previously lacking. By way of an introduction we have the composer in his own words via a retrospective conversation with Libby Van Cleve—a document previously accessible only at Yale University’s Oral History of American Music (OHAM; Tom Johnson interview by Libby Van Cleve, 4 June 1997, OHV 252a–f). Understandably, the OHAM interview covers some of the same content as Bernard Girard’s 2011 interview; however, Van Cleve’s interviewing style, or perhaps the fact that the conversation was conducted in English, results in much longer responses from Johnson than the clipped dialogue of Girard’s interview (Bernard Girard, Conversations avec Tom Johnson [Château-Gontier: Aedam Musicae, 2011]; in English as “Conversations with Tom Johnson,” trans. Christine Lucia, Contemporary Music Review 39, no. 4 [2020]: 289–460). Johnson and Van Cleve’s conversation provides an excellent overview of both the life events and compositional choices that have helped shape Johnson’s career. The experience of reading the first section, “Writing Music,” was akin to visiting a composer friend in their studio. The content is varied, and although largely organized by the original publication date of the texts, the compositional ideas are not presented in a fixed chronology. One could imagine Johnson shuffling papers in his studio to bring forth a particular music example or letter from a collaborator to illustrate a specific point of interest. It is in this section where Johnson’s dogged interest in the inherent logic of mathematics shines most brightly as the nucleus of his compositional raison d’être. It is unnecessary to understand the mathematics to appreciate how it figures into Johnson’s compositions, and at times it even seems to be an intuitive discovery by Johnson of a fundamental truth. Furthermore, this first section presents an overall image of the context for Johnson’s composition, demonstrating the interconnectedness of his network of composers, performers, philosophers, and particularly mathematicians. This shows the interdependency of these occupations, putting to rest the idea of a solitary composer hidden away from the world with his art, and replacing it with a collaborative, supportive, and connected individual seeking to find his own musical voice. Unlike the first section, which includes short texts written about Johnson’s own music, the second section [End Page 219] deals primarily with the work of others. “Writing about Music” contains some of Johnson’s most easily accessible English writings, namely selections from his articles for the Village Voice, many of which had been previously collected and published (The Voice of New Music: New York City 1972–1982 [Eindhoven: Apollohuis, 1989]; digital ed., 2002, rev. 2014, https://editions75.com/tvonm [accessed 1 June 2022]) and are offered in Finding Music in German translation. These articles, however, amount to approximately 6 percent of the text of Finding Music, and this second section is supplemented with further reflections on John Cage, Conlon Nancarrow, Morton Feldman, Charles Ives, and Robert Ashley that do not appear in the Village Voice articles. With this section also begins in earnest the reader...

Significant Difference in American Music Studies

Significant Difference in American Music Studies

Podcasts, Partnerships, and Laboratories for American Music

Podcasts, Partnerships, and Laboratories for American Music

Anti-Asian Hate and the Transpacific History of American Music; Or, Why Is “Chinatown, My Chinatown” Still Played?

Anti-Asian Hate and the Transpacific History of American Music; Or, Why Is “Chinatown, My Chinatown” Still Played?

Valuing Collaboration in American Music Studies

Valuing Collaboration in American Music Studies

Singing Like Germans: Black Musicians in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, by Kira Thurman

<i>Singing Like Germans: Black Musicians in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms</i>, by Kira Thurman

LIVESTREAM] American Music Awards 2022 LIVE Broadcast Free 21 November 2022

LIVESTREAM] American Music Awards 2022 LIVE Broadcast Free 21 November 2022

From Nowhere to Somewhere

In August 2020, two colleagues and I began an ongoing conversation on music, consent, power, language/jargon, accessibility, and inclusivity. We are not music therapists, but each of us, from our own professional and personal perspectives, is interested in the therapeutic nature of music. One colleague is a community musician in Glasgow, Scotland. She works for Good Vibrations and the Resonate Project which facilitate inclusive musical workshops and experiences. The other colleague is an amateur musician, participant advisor for one of her music groups, and a representative of people with additional support needs. I am an ethnomusicologist who specializes in Javanese and Balinese gamelan outside of Indonesia particularly as they pertain to community music making. We met through playing gamelan and through the Resonate workshops. Our conversations were a doorway for each of us into community music, musical academia, and the musical life of a woman with special needs. In our conversations, the question of accessibility as it is tied to language and power arose several times. In April 2021, we offered an edited video presentation of our conversations at the 2021 Mid- Atlantic Chapter of the Society of Ethnomusicology (MACSEM) virtual conference. In fall 2021, we hosted an event in collaboration with Good Vibrations at which we used our MACSEM video to facilitate an open conversation among academics, community musicians, music therapists, people with additional support needs, and members of the general public. One goal of this work is to provide unheard voices a place to speak. Our submission to Voices is a video reflection on our experiences beginning with our three-person, off-the-cuff conversations that originated over a year ago. Through this video, we will (literally) share our voices with your readership as we discuss our experiences of language, power, and whose voices are heard. We also reflect back on previous conversations by including our collaborative editing of the video itself. During our overall discussions, we came up with the title, “From nowhere to somewhere: Creating to Join a conversation.” This really helped focus our shared idea of what this is all about: three people from different life experiences and opportunities finding ways of speaking together and creating a format to have a voice in this arena.

Characteristics, mechanisms, and perceivability of combination tones in violins.

Combination tones (CTs) generated by the inner ear have been widely investigated in the past, starting from the famous Tartini's "third tone." Instead, much less attention has been dedicated to the CTs generated by musical instruments. In this paper, the CTs generated by a set of violins of different quality and age have been investigated when playing a selected set of dyads. CTs were found in all of the violins, and the strongest of them occurred at a frequency below the lower note of the dyad. Its amplitude was strongly dependent on violin and dyad played and was greatest in two old Italian violins and decreased down to a minimum in a factory-made violin. All of these findings are well explained by the boosting action of A0, the main air resonance of the violin that correlates well with the strongest CT. A listening test, performed using selected dyads and violins, showed that the differences between dyads with and without CTs were correctly recognized by a group of professional and amateur musicians, suggesting a possible musical significance of the main CT. The results investigating the possible source of violin nonlinearity are also described.

Determining Knowledge Level, Attitude, Behaviors Regarding Vocal Hygiene and Use of Medical Drugs and Herbal Medicinal Products for Vocal Health in Second Level Professional Voice Users

This study aims to determine the knowledge level, attitude, and behaviors regarding vocal hygiene and use of medical drugs and herbal medicinal products for vocal health in second level professional voice users. The study examined second level professional voice users comprised of amateur singers, religious officials,voice instructors and vocal coaches consisting of academicians working in conservatories and education faculties, music teachers, conservatory students majoring in opera or choir, students majoring in music education, and amateur actors who were reached via online platforms and were administered a 32-item questionnaire RESULTS: A total of 406 participants consisting of conservatory students (26.8%), religious officials (23.2%), academicians (9.1%), amateur or self-taught musicians (14.8%), conservatory graduates (8.6%), and music teachers affiliated with the Ministry of National Education were recruited for the study. It was determined that 78.8% of the participants knew the definition of vocal hygiene, and 60.6% made an effort to maintain vocal hygiene. 57.9% of the participants declared that they had at least one disease affecting their vocal health. According to our research data, 8.9% of the participants were using one or more prescription drugs or over-the-counter products daily to protect their vocal health. Lozenges, vitamins, and allergy medications constituted a large portion of these medicinal products. In total, 62.3% of participants used herbal products for vocal health in their daily life. Participants mostly consumed products containing linden, sage, ginger, chamomile, and turmeric. It was determined that more than 20 different herbal products containing plants in different mixtures and contents were used. Furthermore, 40% of the participants using herbal medicinal products consulted a health care professional.It was found that these products were mostly obtained from herbalists (79.5%), and the source of information regarding these products was quite diverse. The rate of experiencing side effects due to the use of herbal products was 2%. There is a lack of knowledge regarding vocal hygiene and its application on real-life behavior among second-level sound professionals. In particular, the awareness of vocal hygiene should be increased among religious officials. It was observed that the rate of use of herbal products to protect vocal health or to treat hoarseness was quite high. Further studies are needed to prove the benefits of these herbal and medicinal products on vocal health.

Employing Mobile Learning in Music Education.

This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of introducing digital software in music education to improve academic performance and solfeggio class attendance. To assess academic performance, a test consisting of 25 theoretical questions and 25 practical tasks was developed. The Bologna model was used as an assessment system. The groups were compared by calculating the Student's t-test in terms of the "Test Score" and "Missed Classes" parameters. The collected data revealed that the mean score for the experimental group was 87.50 out of 100, while in the control group, it was much lower, namely 65.37. Likewise, the control group was characterized by satisfactory (D) performance in mastering solfeggio, with the mean score ranging between 64 and 73, whereas experimental group participants had an average of 82-89. The statistical data processing results showed that the six-month use of the ChordIQ app contributed to more effective mastering of solfeggio by amateur musicians. At the same time, the difference between the groups turned out to be significant in both cases, so the research hypothesis was confirmed for both of them (p < 0.05). Overall, the results showed that ChordIQ is a useful mobile app teaching the user music in an exciting and interactive way. The findings collected can be used to update traditional solfeggio curricula, conduct scientific studies in the field of interactive music education, as well as create new dedicated software.

Max Lifchitz: A Transmodern Composer in American Music?

AbstractLatin American and Latinx composers continue to contribute to music by bringing a subtle universe of sounds shaped by their agency and cultural history. Composer Max Lifchitz (b. 1948) bridges his artistic output with entrepreneurship and pedagogy. Since migrating from Mexico to the United States, Lifchitz has constructed a multifaceted persona as a cultural broker. As a composer, Lifchitz's self-defined eclecticism forms the basis of his musical voice, which reconciles opposites and flows between contrasting compositional aesthetics, cultures, and techniques. In 1980, he created the North/South Consonance organization, which has been an open and anti-canonical space for composers from different aesthetics, traditions, and ethnic and gender identities to share their works with new music audiences. In Lifchitz's role as a pedagogue, he positions music as a pluriversal tool to generate epistemological equity and inclusion and a more intercultural educational experience. Despite his contributions to contemporary Western art music, his impact on new music has not yet been studied. Therefore, the article's purpose is to examine Lifchitz's extensive and complex contributions from a transmodern theoretical perspective as postulated by philosopher Enrique Dussel (b. 1934) to demonstrate how the composer's music and persona represent qualities of this philosophical theory and promote the redefinition of art music and the musician's role in the twenty-first century.