Cetacean citations : rhythmic variability in the composition and recomposition of humpback whale song

In this interdisciplinary thesis I attend to the rhythmic variability of the phrases whose repetition is such a distinctive feature of humpback whale song, listening and responding as bioacoustician, musician, and zoömusicologist. I developed methods to visualize and measure individual distinctiveness and rhythmic precision in shared song phrases, and assessed thirteen hours of humpback song from ten singers, collected off Mo’orea, French Polynesia, September-November 2019. Using multiple regression and multivariate distance techniques, I found that individual singers sing shared phrases with their own individually distinctive rhythms but with equal levels of rhythmic precision, across a wide range of phrase variants. As a musician I recomposed with transcriptions and recordings of humpback song phrases, the ‘cetacean citations’ of my title, producing a portfolio of six works in collaboration with other musicians. In a reflective zoömusicological analysis of my compositional processes, I examined how composers might avoid both an ‘anthropodenial’ that fails to recognize the similarities between humans and other animals, and a ‘naïve anthropomorphism’ that fails to recognize the differences. Further, I challenged the presumption that there are no ethical questions involved in the musical use of other-than-human audio recordings via an analysis of their inevitable ‘objectification’ in contemporary composition. Drawing on Adorno’s critique of instrumental rationality and Plumwood’s critique of anthropocentrism, I elaborated the concept of an aesthetic rationality that treats other-than-human sounds with respect, through a set of strategies for composers to produce a non-anthropocentric multispecies music that neither enacts nor embodies human exceptionalism. Finally, I proposed the notion of ‘multispecies heterophony’ to describe the overlapping nonhierarchical sounding of difference. This compositional form was jointly inspired by the ‘asynchronous chorus’ of the collective singing of humpback whales, and the human dynamics of large group improvisation; I suggest that it offers a promising musical model for ecological thinking

The role of individual behaviour in the collective cultural evolution of humpback whale songs

For more than forty years, the complex songs emitted by humpback whales have fascinated the scientific community as well as the general public. These songs are produced by males during the breeding season, and are hierarchically structured and population specific. Within a population, males tend to conform to the same song type, but songs undergo gradual unidirectional change. Instances of more rapid song changes have also been recorded, where the song sung by a population has been replaced by the song of an adjacent population. The learning mechanisms that concurrently drive song conformity, and simultaneously allow gradual (evolution) and rapid (revolution) song change are not currently understood. This thesis aims to address this gap by using innovative theoretical models as well as more established empirical methods. Chapter 1 provides a general introduction to the thesis topics. In chapter 2 I introduce a spatially explicit agent-based modelling approach to investigate humpback whale song evolution and transmission. I found that shared feeding grounds promote inter-population song transmission, song conformity emerges as a function of breeding ground geographical segregation, and production errors facilitate gradual evolution of songs. In chapter 3, the same modelling approach is extended to simulate song revolutions using a new learning bias in combination with different movement scenarios. I found that the consistent emergence of song revolutions is dependent on cognitive (song memory), behavioural (singing probability) and spatial (agent density) factors. Finally, in chapter 4, I analyse intra- and inter- individual song variability at different hierarchical levels of organisation in songs recorded off eastern Australia. I found that variability is not homogeneously distributed across the different song levels. Furthermore, I identified consistent and distinctive individual patterns of song production consistent with the theory that songs could represent mate quality advertisements for females."This work was supported by Leverhulme Trust Grant [grant number: RPG-2013-367]" -- Acknowledgement

THE DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF COMPUTATIONAL MULTI-AGENT MODELS FOR INVESTIGATING THE CULTURAL TRANSMISSION AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION OF HUMPBACK WHALE SONG

Full version: Access restricted permanently due to 3rd party copyright restrictions. Restriction set on 06.07.2018 by SE, Doctoral CollegeThree different multi-agent models are presented in this thesis, each with a different goal. The first model investigates the possible role migratory routes may have on song evolution and revolution. The second model investigates what social networks could theoretically facilitate song sharing in a population of whales. The third model implements a formal grammar algorithm in order to investigate how the hierarchal structure of the song may affect song evolution. Finally, the thesis attempts to reconnect the models with their origins and discusses how these models could potentially be adapted for composing music. Through the development of these different models, a number of findings are highlighted. The first model reveals that feeding ground sizes may be key locations where song learning from other population may be facilitated. The second model shows that small world social networks facilitate a high degree of agents converging on a single song, similar to what is observed in wild populations. The final model shows that the ability to recognise hierarchy in a sequence coupled with simple production errors, can lead to songs gradually changing over the course of time, while still retaining their hierarchal structure

Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music

Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music by Steven Jan is a comprehensive account of the relationships between evolutionary theory and music. Examining the ‘evolutionary algorithm’ that drives biological and musical-cultural evolution, the book provides a distinctive commentary on how musicality and music can shed light on our understanding of Darwin’s famous theory, and vice-versa. Comprised of seven chapters, with several musical examples, figures and definitions of terms, this original and accessible book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the relationships between music and evolutionary thought. Jan guides the reader through key evolutionary ideas and the development of human musicality, before exploring cultural evolution, evolutionary ideas in musical scholarship, animal vocalisations, music generated through technology, and the nature of consciousness as an evolutionary phenomenon. A unique examination of how evolutionary thought intersects with music, Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music is essential to our understanding of how and why music arose in our species and why it is such a significant presence in our lives

Emergent Rhythmic Structures as Cultural Phenomena Driven by Social Pressure in a Society of Artificial Agents

This thesis studies rhythm from an evolutionary computation perspective. Rhythm is the most fundamental dimension of music and can be used as a ground to describe the evolution of music. More specifically, the main goal of the thesis is to investigate how complex rhythmic structures evolve, subject to the cultural transmission between individuals in a society. The study is developed by means of computer modelling and simulations informed by evolutionary computation and artificial life (A-Life). In this process, self-organisation plays a fundamental role. The evolutionary process is steered by the evaluation of rhythmic complexity and by the exposure to rhythmic material. In this thesis, composers and musicologists will find the description of a system named A-Rhythm, which explores the emerged behaviours in a community of artificial autonomous agents that interact in a virtual environment. The interaction between the agents takes the form of imitation games. A set of necessary criteria was established for the construction of a compositional system in which cultural transmission is observed. These criteria allowed the comparison with related work in the field of evolutionary computation and music. In the development of the system, rhythmic representation is discussed. The proposed representation enabled the development of complexity and similarity based measures, and the recombination of rhythms in a creative manner. A-Rhythm produced results in the form of simulation data which were evaluated in terms of the coherence of repertoires of the agents. The data shows how rhythmic sequences are changed and sustained in the population, displaying synchronic and diachronic diversity. Finally, this tool was used as a generative mechanism for composition and several examples are presented.Leverhulme Trus

2002, UMaine News Press Releases

This is an incomplete catalog of press releases put out by the University of Maine Division of Marketing and Communications between January 3, 2002 and December 19, 2002

2009-2010 Course Catalog

2009-2010 Course Catalo

2005, UMaine News Press Releases

This is a catalog of press releases put out by the University of Maine Division of Marketing and Communications between January 19. 2005 and December 29. 2005

The Music Sound

A guide for music: compositions, events, forms, genres, groups, history, industry, instruments, language, live music, musicians, songs, musicology, techniques, terminology , theory, music video. Music is a human activity which involves structured and audible sounds, which is used for artistic or aesthetic, entertainment, or ceremonial purposes. The traditional or classical European aspects of music often listed are those elements given primacy in European-influenced classical music: melody, harmony, rhythm, tone color/timbre, and form. A more comprehensive list is given by stating the aspects of sound: pitch, timbre, loudness, and duration. Common terms used to discuss particular pieces include melody, which is a succession of notes heard as some sort of unit; chord, which is a simultaneity of notes heard as some sort of unit; chord progression, which is a succession of chords (simultaneity succession); harmony, which is the relationship between two or more pitches; counterpoint, which is the simultaneity and organization of different melodies; and rhythm, which is the organization of the durational aspects of music