An Argument based Creative Assistant for Harmonic Blending

Conceptual blending is a powerful tool for computational creativity where, for example, the properties of two harmonic spaces may be combined in a consistent manner to produce a novel harmonic space. However, deciding about the importance of property features in the input spaces and evaluating the results of conceptual blending is a nontrivial task. In the specific case of musical harmony, defining the salient features of chord transitions and evaluating invented harmonic spaces requires deep musicological background knowledge. In this paper, we propose a creative tool that helps musicologists to evaluate and to enhance harmonic innovation. This tool allows a music expert to specify arguments over given transition properties. These arguments are then considered by the system when defining combinations of features in an idiom-blending process. A music expert can assess whether the new harmonic idiom makes musicological sense and re-adjust the arguments (selection of features) to explore alternative blends that can potentially produce better harmonic spaces. We conclude with a discussion of future work that would further automate the harmonisation process.Comment: 8 pp; submitted to 7th International Conference on Computational Creativit

Muir String Quartet, September 21, 2016

This is the concert program of the Muir String Quartet performance on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 at 8:00 p.m., at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were Quartet in G major, Op. 77 No. 1 by Franz Joseph Haydn, Trio for Strings in C minor, Op. 9 No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven, and Quartet for Strings in A minor, Op. 51 No. 2 by Johannes Brahms. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

CROUCHING TIGER CELLO CONCERTO - A MELDING OF FORM AND CONTENT FOR THE CONCERT STAGE

Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto for Amplified Cello and Orchestra is not only one of the most frequently performed cello concerto of the recent past; it also demonstrates Tan’s masterful synthesis of artistic forms from the Chinese and the Western art music traditions with visual media that extends beyond the concert-hall. The music for this concerto was initially composed as part of the score for Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, itself a landmark blend of Chinese cinema with Western technique. The score broke boundaries, combining Western orchestral music with traditional Chinese instruments and thematic material. This melding of a wide variety of influences is typical of Tan’s œuvre and reveals the depth of his personal experience; his works include references to childhood experiences in the Hunan province, soundscapes suggested by his many years of struggle in New York City, and instrumentations that reflect his interest in environmentalism. Performing the Crouching Tiger Concerto can be a challenging undertaking. Each movement expresses musical ideas both Chinese and Western, while simultaneously mirroring the emotions of the film clips that Tan selected for display behind the performance. This paper will explore these connections, suggesting ways in which an aspiring performer can bring out the most important details of each section of the concerto. It will also give suggestions for navigating some of the unique technical challenges of the solo cello part; glissandi, use of a guitar pick, and amplification. The music of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had an indelible impact on me as a young child, single-handedly cementing my future as cellist, and I am glad, twenty years later, to be able use my experiences learning this piece to help others who are approaching it for the first time

The influence of jazz elements on Edison Denisov's Sonata for alto saxophone and piano

textThe purpose of this treatise is to further the saxophonist’s understanding of the importance of jazz elements and their influence upon Edison Denisov’s Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano. Jazz music has captivated and intrigued the world's many cultures, and the saxophone has had a close association with its development. As the saxophone moved from the jazz club to the concert stage it lost along the way of many of the identifiable elements of its jazz heritage. Modern discussions of jazz and its influence upon the Sonata have either been desultory or have simply been excluded. This may stem from a performer’s unfamiliarity with jazz performance practice, or their view that jazz is not of scholarly substance. As a result, saxophonists are often acutely unaware of the nuance and substance that jazz elements lend to the overall presentation of the Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano. In order to promote more accurate performances it is important that the saxophonist become familiar with these elements. It is the intent of this treatise to identify jazz influence, as a unifying element in the Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano by Edison Denisov (1929- 1996). The following topics are addressed, in order, to support the saxophonist in developing an understanding of the influence of jazz upon the composer and within this work: the influence of jazz music upon melody, harmony and rhythm; historical and biographical information of Edison Denisov; a discussion of jazz and its role in cold war, Soviet society; and the identification of jazz elements as they were incorporated in the Sonata.Musi

The BG News November 9, 1971

The BGSU campus student newspaper November 9, 1971. Volume 56 - Issue 33https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bg-news/3646/thumbnail.jp

Strung Together: A Practical Exploration of Music-Cultural Hybridity, Interaction, and Collaboration

Strung Together is a collaborative performance project commissioned in September 2017 by Diaspora Arts Connection in San Francisco, US. Drawing from models of cultural integration and collaborative creativity, this research project enabled the development of a practical methodology through which the improvisatory approaches of non-congruent music-cultures might be combined to create a programme of original, eclectic works, within a limited time frame. Considering the subtle boundaries which lie between coexistence, assimilation, and synthesis within intercultural collaborations, Strung Together explored how different initial musical stimuli might alter the balance, whilst maintaining contextually-relative improvisatory freedom/s; and optimising productivity. Here the blending of three improvisation-based music traditions was investigated – Persian Classical, Arabic traditional and Western contemporary – through a process comprising: continual dialogue; collective composition; coalesced methods of improvisation; rearrangement and refinement; rehearsals; and live performance. Acting as musical director/performer, I sourced four professional musicians from the San Francisco Bay area – each expert in different traditions of improvisatory music(s) – to form a quintet; and was ultimately responsible for the project’s curation and delivery. I provided various pre-composed musical stimuli, Fragment(s), each of which incorporated influences from the performers’ respective music traditions and served as initial platforms for the development of the final pieces. We gathered together daily for one week, and during this time collectively developed, arranged, and rehearsed a complete performance programme of new, hybrid music. A live performance took place on the final day at the renowned Buriel Clay Theatre, which was streamed live via social media, reaching a worldwide audience. This presentation will reflect on the creative practice behind Strung Together, demonstrating that by inaugurating a democratic environment, where manifold approaches to music-making are considered and respected at a structural level, music-cultural hybridity is achievable within a limited time frame

Integrating Drama and Music into the Language Arts Curriculum: Its Effects on Student Self-Perception and Achievement

This researcher tested the effects that drama and music had on students within the language arts. Research participants included 19 fourth grade students randomly chosen from three language arts classes. For the three week duration of the study, classroom lessons included activities for singing, acting, improvisation, song writing, and games. The participants took a self-perception survey before and after the study. A second assessment tested students’ skills inventory, asking questions already covered in previous lessons. At the end of the study students were again tested. Results show that there was a significant increase in attention to classroom activity, self-esteem, and perceptions of language arts. All students improved their skills, those with the lowest pre-assessment had the largest increases. The daily lesson plan used in this study is included in the appendix

Fluid Dynamics: Representations of Water in Music

Water has remained a subject of all kinds of musical works since at least the middle ages. These musical works lack the concrete representational capacity of paintings, photographs, and films, relying instead on more abstract metaphorical constructs to convey water imagery. Current scholarship on water music typically centers on Romantic and Impressionist works and does not examine the process of signification by which musical signs portray water. The principal goal of this study is to determine how musical devices convey specific aspects of bodies of water and how such devices interact and contribute to musical depictions of streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. I find that evocations of motion in the form of waves and flow are especially important to portrayals of water; furthermore, music depicting motion can combine with devices evoking water’s other characteristics to create detailed, multifarious depictions. I give special attention to John Luther Adams’s water compositions, which are notable for their thorough depictions of bodies of water and represent a relatively new phenomenon: the focused musical depiction