Beyond the Binary: The Intersection of Gender and Cross-Cultural Identity in Reena Esmail's Life and Choral Works

Beyond the Binary explores the intersection of gender with cross-cultural identity in composer Reena Esmail's professional life and choral music. This intersection manifests in her musical style, which accesses the resonant spaces between Western and Indian classical music. I argue that it is through the convergence of Esmail's gender identity with her cross-cultural identity that her compositions challenge gender norms and break down perceived barriers between East and West, inviting her listeners into an intersectional feminist space. This project synthesizes musicological, theoretical, and ethnographic methods, and is meant as a starting point for choral musicians and scholars to consider cultural difference and its impact on choral music. What begins as a consideration of social themes within Esmail's life and work culminates in a practical musical analysis and performance practice guide to aid conductors in preparation of Esmail's music. The compositions discussed are I Rise: Women in Song (2016), Take What You Need (2016), TaReKiTa (2016), Tuttarana (2014), and This Love Between Us: Prayers for Unity (2016)

The Art of Tablā Accompaniment in Vilambit Ektāl

Accompaniment is by far the primary usage of the tablā in modern Hindustānī music. This research presents the framework by which tablā accompaniment is developed throughout a performance. This framework is developed through transcription and analysis of two performances provided by tablā musician, Vishwanath Shirodkar. Thought processes and theories on accompaniment are scrutinised through interviews and comparison with the transcriptions. The model proposed in this thesis is that the tablā accompanist has a pre-conceived tablā motif which he manipulates depending on certain parameters. These parameters include familiarity between co-performers, gender, tāl, and tempo

An Exploration into North Indian Classical Music: Raga, Alif Laila, and Improvisation.

This thesis explores three themes: North Indian classical music, the individual Alif Laila, and the philosophical connection each has to improvisation. The process that was followed to analyze the interactions between raga in the North Indian classical tradition and one well-known musician's path within that tradition bridges theory with individual insight. Alif Laila is the individual at the center of the study. As a prominent professional sitarist living in the Washington, D.C. region, her input is analyzed placing focus on individuality within the life of a traditionally trained musician living and teaching in a Western context. Her expression in traditional sharing of musical knowledge from teacher to student, in raga performance and in musical philosophy expand upon the new generation of teacher/performers who translate their craft in order to continue their tradition of North Indian classical music. Improvisation, both as a social and musical design, extends the scholarly research and personalized ethnography to complete the thesis

The role of gesture and non-verbal communication in popular music performance, and its application to curriculum and pedagogy

Jane Davidson states that ‘the use of the body is vital in generating the technical and expressive qualities of a musical interpretation’ (2002, p. 146). Although technique and expression within music performance are separate elements, ‘they interact with, and depend upon, one another’ (Sloboda, 2000, p. 398) and, therefore, require equal consideration. Although it is possible for a musician to perform with exceptional technical prowess but little expression (Sloboda, 2000), it is important that the significance of the expressive qualities of the performer, and the ramifications of these on the delivery of the given performance, are acknowledged because whilst ‘sound is the greatest result of performance’ (Munoz, 2007, p. 56), music is not exclusively an auditory event; principally because ‘sound is essentially movement’ (Munoz, 2007, p. 56). As a performing art, music relies on the use of the physical self and body in the communicative process, and may require more than technical skill and proficient instrumental handling to be truly communicatively effective not least because, as stated by Juslin and Laukka, ‘music is a means of emotional expression' (2003, p. 774). Through a designed interdisciplinary framework, this thesis examines the use of expressive gesture and non-verbal communication skills in popular music performance, and investigates how these communicative facets can be incorporated into popular music performance education within a higher education curriculum. To do this, this work explores the practices of student and professional musicians, focusing on the areas of gesture, persona and interaction, and uses ethnographic case studies, qualitative interview processes and extracts of video footage of 3 rehearsals and live performances to investigate the importance of the physical delivery of the given musical performance. The findings from these investigations are then applied to existing educational theories to construct a pedagogical approach which will provide student musicians with the knowledge and skill to understand the implications of the art of performance through assimilated study, allowing performers to develop their own unique style of artistic expression, and creating well-rounded, empathetic, and employable musicians who have a visceral understanding of their art form

The Metaphysics of Improvisation

In The Metaphysics of Improvisation, I criticize wrongheaded metaphysical views of, and theories about, improvisation, and put forward a cogent metaphysical theory of improvisation, which includes action theory, an analysis of the relevant genetic and aesthetic properties, and ontology (work-hood). The dissertation has two Parts. Part I is a survey of the history of many improvisational practices, and of the concept of improvisation. Here I delineate, sketch, and sort out the often vague boundaries between improvising and non-improvising within many art forms and genres, including music, dance, theatre, motion pictures, painting, and literature. In addition, I discuss the concept of non-artistic improvisation in various contexts. I attempt to portray an accurate picture of how improvisation functions, or does not function, in various art forms and genres. Part II addresses metaphysical issues in, and problems and questions of, improvisation in the arts. I argue that that continuum and genus-species models are the most cogent ways to understand the action-types of improvising and composing and their relations. I demonstrate that these models are substantiated by an informed investigation and phenomenology of improvisational practice, action theory conceptual analysis, cognitive neuroscience studies and experiments, cognitive psychology studies and models, and some theories of creativity. In addition, I provide a constraint based taxonomy for classifying improvisations that is compatible with, and supports, the continuum model. Next, I address epistemological and ontological issues involving the genetic properties of improvisations, and the properties improvisatory, and as if improvised. Finally, I show that arguments against treating, or classifying, improvisations as works are weak or erroneous, and by focusing on music, I provide a correct ontological theory of work-hood for artistic improvisations

Sistema compositor de acompañamientos basado en planificación

Este proyecto se enmarca en el campo de la Inteligencia Artificial. Más concretamente en el de la planificación automática. La planificación automática, a grandes rasgos, se encarga de buscar una solución (como serie de pasos) a un problema por medio de un ordenador. En este caso, la intención es conseguir que esa planificación obtenga como resultado el acompañamiento de una pieza musical. Para la consecución de este fin habremos de equiparar el ámbito de la música (donde tiene lugar nuestro problema) con el de la planificación automática (donde tienen existencia las herramientas a utilizar). El matrimonio entre la música y la inteligencia artificial es casi tan antiguo como el nacimiento del segundo. Las aproximaciones que se han llevado a cabo en esta materia tienen muy distintos fundamentos. El enfoque tomado en este proyecto no es, como en otros muchos casos, un intento de emular la interpretación o estilo de algún músico o tendencia. Más que intentar suplantar al compositor, este proyecto es una curiosa intromisión en las posibilidades de acompañamiento que una pieza puede tener desde el punto de vista de las reglas musicales. En este aspecto, la composición ha sido siempre una creatividad atribuida a los humanos. No obstante, el acompañamiento, es una creatividad restringida dentro de una serie de reglas de armonía. Gran parte de la música moderna se ha escrito obedeciendo estas reglas. Dado que todo este conocimiento es modelable, vamos a poder representar el conocimiento esa música. Una persona siempre va a tener un punto de vista parcial sobre cómo acompañar una nota. El punto de vista, además, no se centra en la nota como tal, sino en el entorno que la rodea, es decir, “la canción”. De una manera más escueta: el resto de notas próximas. En este trabajo vamos a ignorar el conocimiento subjetivo para generar los acompañamientos. Nos olvidaremos de qué suena bien o mal para alguien. Centrándonos únicamente en la satisfacción de las premisas de las reglas armónicas. Así, el problema del acompañamiento, se convierte en un problema aproximable desde una perspectiva científica. Este proyecto está enfocado de una manera totalmente modular. Esto significa que permite cambiar cada una de las partes y adecuarla a otros requisitos o funcionalidades. Además, la facilidad de definición de nuevas reglas permite ampliar los conocimientos musicales modelados y, eventualmente, conseguir un compositor automático del estilo que se prefiera.Ingeniería en Informátic