Technological Support for Highland Piping Tuition and Practice

This thesis presents a complete hardware and software system to support the learning process associated with the Great Highland Bagpipe (GHB). A digital bagpipe chanter interface has been developed to enable accurate measurement of the player's nger movements and bag pressure technique, allowing detailed performance data to be captured and analysed using the software components of the system. To address the challenge of learning the diverse array of ornamentation techniques that are a central aspect of Highland piping, a novel algorithm is presented for the recognition and evaluation of a wide range of embellishments performed using the digital chanter. This allows feedback on the player's execution of the ornaments to be generated. The ornament detection facility is also shown to be e ective for automatic transcription of bagpipe notation, and for performance scoring against a ground truth recording in a game interface, Bagpipe Hero. A graphical user interface (GUI) program provides facilities for visualisation, playback and comparison of multiple performances, and for automatic detection and description of piping-speci c ngering and ornamentation errors. The development of the GUI was informed by feedback from expert pipers and a small-scale user study with students. The complete system was tested in a series of studies examining both lesson and solo practice situations. A detailed analysis of these sessions was conducted, and a range of usage patterns was observed in terms of how the system contributed to the di erent learning environments. This work is an example of a digital interface designed to connect to a long established and highly formalised musical style. Through careful consideration of the speci c challenges faced in teaching and learning the bagpipes, this thesis demonstrates how digital technologies can provide a meaningful contribution to even the most conservative cultural traditions.This work was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of the Doctoral Training Centre in Media and Arts Technology at Queen Mary University of London (ref: EP/G03723X/1)

Adaptive Scattering Transforms for Playing Technique Recognition

Playing techniques contain distinctive information about musical expressivity and interpretation. Yet, current research in music signal analysis suffers from a scarcity of computational models for playing techniques, especially in the context of live performance. To address this problem, our paper develops a general framework for playing technique recognition. We propose the adaptive scattering transform, which refers to any scattering transform that includes a stage of data-driven dimensionality reduction over at least one of its wavelet variables, for representing playing techniques. Two adaptive scattering features are presented: frequency-adaptive scattering and direction-adaptive scattering. We analyse seven playing techniques: vibrato, tremolo, trill, flutter-tongue, acciaccatura, portamento, and glissando. To evaluate the proposed methodology, we create a new dataset containing full-length Chinese bamboo flute performances (CBFdataset) with expert playing technique annotations. Once trained on the proposed scattering representations, a support vector classifier achieves state-of-the-art results. We provide explanatory visualisations of scattering coefficients for each technique and verify the system over three additional datasets with various instrumental and vocal techniques: VPset, SOL, and VocalSet

Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Folk Music Analysis, 15-17 June, 2016

The Folk Music Analysis Workshop brings together computational music analysis and ethnomusicology. Both symbolic and audio representations of music are considered, with a broad range of scientific approaches being applied (signal processing, graph theory, deep learning). The workshop features a range of interesting talks from international researchers in areas such as Indian classical music, Iranian singing, Ottoman-Turkish Makam music scores, Flamenco singing, Irish traditional music, Georgian traditional music and Dutch folk songs. Invited guest speakers were Anja Volk, Utrecht University and Peter Browne, Technological University Dublin

Masonry conservation case studies: LSU Law School 1936, St Alban\u27s Chapel LSU 1929, and the Theta Xi Fraternity House LSU 1939

Re-construction/renovation/preservation and maintenance of historic or architecturally significant buildings is one of the most difficult tasks undertaken in the public sector market place by design professionals and constructors today. Wide variations exist in the level of knowledge, training, experience and expertise of all of the parties in such an endeavor, and all projects are different. One of the most underutilized and misunderstood roles in this environment is that the professional historic preservation consultant. This thesis attempts to illustrate the efficient and beneficial role of this specialist. Included are case studies for a 1939 fraternity house on the campus of LSU, the recent Renovation of the LSU Law School/Law Center (1936 and 1969), and St. Alban’s Chapel and Episcopal Student Center (1929) at LSU. There will be particular emphasis on material conservation, the erosion of historic information and original design detail, site documentation and site observation and the importance of these tasks in the building preservation process

‘Experiments in Form and Genre’: Dark Pastoral in the Poetry of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

This thesis explores the use of the pastoral genre in the poetry of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Takings its cue from William Empson’s Some Versions of Pastoral, this study interrogates the idea of the romanticised rural idyll. It argues for a variegated and dynamic generic landscape that is underpinned by a new subgenre called the dark pastoral. Examining Wordsworth and Coleridge’s early poetry as well as Wordsworth’s epics, this thesis charts the experimentation, rehabilitation and evolution of the pastoral across 55 years. Through the approach of new formalism, this study reveals the poetic techniques and innovations of two Romantic poets committed to generic advancement. The first chapter introduces the idea of generic experimentation in its analysis of the lyric ‘I’ in Lines Written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798, ‘The Old Cumberland Beggar, a Description’ and ‘The Nightingale’. The second chapter investigates pastoral anxiety in Coleridge’s ‘Conversation Poems’ and notes the transformative effect of the imagination in lyrics including ‘This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison’ and Fears in Solitude. The third chapter investigates Coleridge’s hybridisation of the pastoral with myth narrative in its exploration of self-consciousness in ‘Kubla Khan’, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and ‘Christabel’. Chapter four discusses how Wordsworth manipulates genre to produce his epic tale of suffering, The Excursion. The final chapter reveals the new poet-hero in its examination of pastoral trial in The Prelude. Although the word ‘pastoral’ rarely appears in Wordsworth and Coleridge’s works, the genre underpins their poetic thoughts. Both poets relish the challenge of reinventing the pastoral, figuring it as an opportunity to modernise and liberate key axioms such as the return, Arcadia and nostalgia. Through their unique approaches to generic experimentation, Wordsworth and Coleridge drastically alter the style, form and content of the bucolic landscape, ultimately revealing two distinct but imaginative types of pastoral poetry

Selections and essays

XXIII, 423 p

"With the quiet sturdy strength of the folk of an older time": an archaeological approach to time, place-making, and heritage construction at the Fairbanks House, Dedham, Massachusetts

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityHistoric houses function as the stages for, and central figures in, processes of place-making and heritage construction. I offer the case site of the Fairbanks House (completed in 1641) in Dedham, Massachusetts as the subject of my investigation into these issues. Touted as the "oldest timber frame house in North America," the Fairbanks House is widely regarded as a significant example of early colonial architecture in the United States; it has operated as a house museum since it was purchased by the Fairbanks Family in America, Inc. stewardship group in 1904. This study expands beyond antiquity to include all eight generations of Fairbanks families who lived on the property. I argue that longevity, and a durational perspective that links the past with the present, is equally vital to peoples' understanding and appreciation. I trace the biography of the Fairbanks House from its creation in the early 17th century to its current use as a heritage site. This perspective emphasizes the continued saliency of accumulated individual decisions and actions, reified by both material culture and immaterial processes such as tradition and memory. I use archaeological, architectural, documentary, and oral sources to reconstruct the landscape of the Fairbanks farm and I demonstrate how residents made day-to-day choices, such as land purchases or neighborly socializing, to improve their socio-economic standing and establish a future for their children. In doing so for eight generations, they established a legacy that was celebrated beginning in the 19th century, when Fairbanks women living in the house promoted their family's history through storytelling and published media. These processes of heritage construction remain continuous and personal, as shown by the results of an ethnographic study that I designed, which reveals that Fairbanks House museum visitors define historicity not through specific facts about the Fairbanks family but through their own narratives based on their engagement with the site's material culture. In addition to providing an important example of how generations of modestly-successful New England farmers adapted their surroundings to fit their values and goals, this study positions local house museums as dynamic spaces for creative, personal engagements with the past

Library buildings around the world

"Library Buildings around the World" is a survey based on researches of several years. The objective was to gather library buildings on an international level starting with 1990