Temporally Guided Music-to-Body-Movement Generation

This paper presents a neural network model to generate virtual violinist's 3-D skeleton movements from music audio. Improved from the conventional recurrent neural network models for generating 2-D skeleton data in previous works, the proposed model incorporates an encoder-decoder architecture, as well as the self-attention mechanism to model the complicated dynamics in body movement sequences. To facilitate the optimization of self-attention model, beat tracking is applied to determine effective sizes and boundaries of the training examples. The decoder is accompanied with a refining network and a bowing attack inference mechanism to emphasize the right-hand behavior and bowing attack timing. Both objective and subjective evaluations reveal that the proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. To the best of our knowledge, this work represents the first attempt to generate 3-D violinists' body movements considering key features in musical body movement

Embodied knowledge: the case of ensemble performance

Ensemble performance requires interaction to a degree rarely found outside of music. Current research on ensembles has increasingly focused on the communicative properties of performers’ physical gestures. However, this approach presupposes that communication underlies most ensemble interaction, disregarding the wealth of non-communicative interaction which may occur. In examining this topic, I have formulated three questions: • How do musicians interact and share information with each other while performing? • To what extent does the musical content being performed affect the ways it has to be physically created by musicians? • How does the physical relationship between the performer and their instrument relate to communicative and interactive processes of ensemble performance? I argue that musicians’ physical motions could not only be influenced by musical content but also be required for effective performance. These motions may be interpreted as meaningful by observers and co-performers. My research applies rehearsal observation and reflective practice within the framework of action research, allowing me to collaborate with Birmingham Conservatoire’s Boult Quartet (a postgraduate string quartet) and The Supergroup (an improvising ensemble of doctoral students) in examining the complexities of ensemble performance through an understanding of its phenomenologies, contributing to current cross-disciplinary research on embodied knowledge

Music, mind and health : how community change, diagnosis, and neuro-rehabilitation can be targeted during creative tasks.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. [127]-145).As a culture, we have the capacity to lead creative lives. Part of that capacity lies in how something like music can touch on just about every aspect of human thinking and experience. If music is such a pervasive phenomenon, what does it mean for the way we consider our lives in health? There are three problems with connecting the richness of music to scientifically valid clinical interventions. First, it is unclear how to provide access to something as seemingly complex as music to a diverse group of subjects with various cognitive and physical deficits. Second, it is necessary to quantify what takes place in music interactions so that causality can be attributed to what is unique to the music experience compared to motivation or attention. Finally, one must provide the structure to facilitate clinical change without losing the communicative and expressive power of music. This thesis will demonstrate how new music technologies are the ideal interfaces to address the issues of scale, assessment, and structured intervention that plague the ability to introduce creative work into healthcare environments. Additionally, we describe the first neural interface for multisensory-based physical rehabilitation, with implications for new interventions in diverse settings. This thesis demonstrates the design and implementation of devices that structure music interaction from the neural basis of rehabilitation. At the conclusion of this research, it is possible to envision an area where users are empowered during scientifically based creative tasks to compose neurological change.by Adam Boulanger.Ph.D

Investigating the phenomenon of dance and music performance through the experience of the performer

This thesis examines the phenomenon of performance in dance and music as experienced by the performer. Previous research studies have generally been directed towards examining specific facets of dance and music performance, with a lack of understanding concerning the performer’s experiences of them. Although these studies have often focused on gaining insight into what constitutes a performance, their attention to isolated aspects of performance has precluded understanding of how these elements form the experience of the performer in a holistic sense. Inspired by a personal quest for insight into the subjective awareness of what underlies dance and music performance, the following thesis aims to better understand the phenomenon of performance from the perspective of the performing dancer and musician. In strengthening the originality of this research, the qualitative and quantitative research paradigms provided a framework that allowed in-depth exploration of the phenomenon under investigation. Two qualitative research studies, together with a questionnaire, were carried out to investigate the thoughts and perceptions of the performer in relation to what it means to be a performer and more generally on the phenomenon of performance. This thesis also includes two separate chapters on the concepts of performance enhancement and reflective practice with a view to establishing whether they might usefully be applied within the artistic disciplines of dance and music. Findings from the two research studies and questionnaire revealed that performers place high importance on the concept of the ‘self’, which they experience and perceive differently as an ‘individual’, a ‘person’ and a ‘performer’. Performers were also shown to view themselves as embodied entities, evincing a strong sense of individuality and a subjective awareness of being a performer, alongside conveying technical and expressive abilities. Findings illustrate the subjective nature of how participants experience and understand performance and performing, revealing the potential for application to other artistic disciplines. It is hoped that, through offering performers the opportunity to speak openly about what is of importance to them, researchers and educators might productively address the components that exist within the experience of the performer, in order to better and more widely understand the performer and the phenomenon of performance

Florida Technological University: Revised Course Descriptions, June 15, 1970

Revised course descriptions, effective June 15, 1970. This bulletin supersedes the September 1969 edition

Florida Technological University: Course Descriptions, Bulletin Supplement, Fall 1971

Fall 1971 Course Descriptions. This booklet supersedes the listing shown in the July 1971 Bulletin

Undergraduate and Graduate Course Descriptions, 2016 Fall

Wright State University undergraduate and graduate course descriptions from Fall 2016