Postural Instabilities and the Maintenance of Bi-manual Rhythmic Movement

Most research on bimanual rhythmic coordination has occurred with the participants in a seated posture. Many activities of daily living, however, require the interaction of standing postural and manual tasks. A population of individuals that are ideal for studying the integration of a manual task into the ongoing control of posture are expert marching percussionists; they have learned to produce rhythmic movements accurately under a variety of temporal and postural constraints. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the integration of bimanual rhythmic movements and posture in expert marching percussionists. Participants (N=11) were recruited from the University of Massachusetts Drumline, and were asked to perform three rhythmic tasks [1:1, 2:3, and 2:3-F (2:3 rhythm played faster at a self-selected tempo)] in one of three postures: sitting, standing on one foot, and standing on two feet. Discrete relative phase, postural time-to-contact, and coherence analysis, were used to analyze the performance of the manual task, postural control, and the integration between postural and manual performance. Across all three rhythms, discrete relative phase mean and variability (SD) results showed no effects of posture on rhythmic performance. The complexity of the manual task (1:1 vs 2:3) had no effect on postural time-to-contact. However, increasing the tempo of the manual task (2:3 vs. 2:3=F) did result in a decreased postural time-to-contact in the two-footed posture). Coherence analysis revealed that the coupling between the postural and manual task significantly decreased as a function of posture (going from a two footed to a one footed posture) and rhythmic complexity (1:1 vs. 2:3). Taken together, these results demonstrate that expert marching percussionists systematically decouple postural and manual fluctuations in order to preserve the performance of the rhythmic movement task

The gesture's narrative : contemporary music for percussion

Musical performance gestures are recognized by the majority of theoreticians as a critical factor of a musical performance. The aim of the musical performance may consist in not only communicating the musical signs that form a musical piece, but conveying the meaningful succession of gestures, facial expressions and body movements. This meaningful succession, or otherwise the “gesture´s narrative” is assumed to be quite important for the process of directing the audience towards the intended interpretation. Recording music allowed audiences to listen to music without having to go to a musical event for this purpose. On the one hand, this made the listening experience more intense, allowing to concentrate on the aural information exclusively, but, on the other hand, it also imposed restrictions on people’s perception, as the syncretic listening and seeing experience became separated into constituents. Gestures can be considered as operating features of a person’s perception-action system. It presupposes significance of a meaning that involves more than just a physical movement. Movements can be subdivided into specific patterns and conceptualized. Conceptualized gestures are kept in people’s minds as single units, and the subdivision operations are carried out both by performers and the audience. Musical communication through gestures is therefore not about movement only, it should be viewed as structured interactions. For this research, solo percussion contemporary music performance will be analyzed. Overall, percussive music performance is extremely wide, and is accompanied by bright visual images provided by musicians themselves. From this perspective, observation over percussionists’ playing manner and it´s audience provides the researcher an opportunity to understand a narrative ability of music through musicians’ gestures. The quantitative research design divided in three experiments was chosen for the purpose of this study, which can be referred to as the description of the objective reality by using numbers in order to construct meaningful models reflecting various relationships between objects or phenomena. These numerical entities are not the reality itself, but a way of representing it. Moreover, the chosen experimental design gives an opportunity to not only establish the existence of certain effects of one variable on the other one, but also study the magnitude of these effects, considering the major two research questions: Is it possible to detect a percussive gesture’s narrative ? How does the percussive gesture influences the perception of musical narrative?Os gestos que produzem o som são reconhecidos pela maioria dos teóricos como um factor determinante da performance musical e da sua percepção. A conexão entre os gestos, sons e percepção de determinado discurso musical foi já abordada por um amplo número de cientistas, ainda que não haja um claro consenso quanto à medida em que essa conexão é fundamental ou quanto às operações cognitivas subjacentes à percepção de uma peça musical. O objetivo da interpretação em música consistirá não apenas em comunicar os sinais musicais que formam uma obra, mas também em transmitir a sucessão significativa de gestos, expressões e movimentos do corpo. Esta sucessão significativa, ou de outra forma exposto, a “narrativa do gesto” é considerada muito importante para o processo de condução de um público para a interpretação pretendida. O avanço da tecnologia neste estádio de desenvolvimento da sociedade, criou excelentes oportunidades para permitir a separação de atividades auditivas e visuais da música. A gravação e posterior difusão musical, permitiu que o público consumisse música sem ter que, para essa finalidade, presenciar um evento musical. Por um lado, esse fenómeno tornou a experiência de escuta mais frequente e porventura mais focada, permitindo ao ouvinte concentrar-se na informação auditiva exclusivamente. Mas, por outro lado, também impôs restrições a uma experiência musical sincrética com o ouvir e ouvir e ver, a separaram-se em constituintes dentro do fenómeno musical. Os gestos podem ser considerados características de funcionamento do sistema de percepção/ acção de um ser humano. Pressupõe isso a atribuição de expressão a um significado que envolve mais do que apenas um movimento físico. Os movimentos podem ser subdivididos em padrões específicos e conceptualizados. Estes gestos conceptualizados são mantidos como unidades singulares, e as operações de subdivisão significantes são levadas a cabo tanto pelos performers como pelo seu público. A comunicação musical através de gestos, não deve, portanto, ser olhada apenas sobre os aspectos do movimento, mas sim como uma interação estruturada e musicalmente contextualizada. Os processos descritos acima resultam em grande parte do ambiente de envolvimento do individuo ouvinte e dependem fortemente da sua singularidade e contexto cultural. Nem todos os movimentos poderão ser chamados gestos performativos para além daqueles aqueles cuja acção é de natureza intencionalmente expressiva ou inerente à produção de som. Nesta pesquisa, a performance de música contemporânea para percussão solo será analisada. De uma maneira geral, o desempenho dos percussionistas é, do ponto de vista visual, extremamente rico na formação de gestos. Nessa perspectiva, a observação de uma audiência sujeita à sua presença, com e sem contacto visual com a sua acção, fornece uma oportunidade de aproximação ao estudo do gesto e da sua narrativa, do ponto de vista da percepção do discurso musical. Um desenho de pesquisa quantitativa dividida em três experiências, foi o caminho escolhido para o presente estudo. Produziu-se uma descrição da realidade objectiva usando números, de modo a construir modelos significativos que pudessem reflectir as várias relações entre objectos ou fenómenos . Estas entidades numéricas não serão assim uma realidade em si, mas uma maneira possível de a representar . O processo de experimentação, dividido em três partes, dá-nos a oportunidade para perceber não só a existência dos efeitos de uma variável sobre a outra (visual e auditiva), mas também permite uma reflexão sobre a magnitude desses efeitos, tentando assim responder ás questões que levam a esta investigação: É possivel detectar uma narrativa no gesto percussivo? Como é que o gesto percussivo influencia a percepção do discurso musical

Theater percussion: developing a twenty-first-century genre through the connection of visual, dramatic, and percussive arts

Theater percussion, as it shall be referred to for the purpose of this dissertation, is an existing, yet unnamed, genre characterized by a systematic approach of combining percussion with extra-musical components that tap into senses or aspects of sentiment - visually, aurally, and emotionally, and are made possible with the use of compositional additives - acting, movement, text, and multimedia avenues such as audio and video. To complete the process, these extra-musical elements are combined with the main musical influence - a composition for percussion ensemble or soloist. Several pieces in this style have and continue to be performed by ensembles around the world, although I will be focusing on three works that fit perfectly to the theater percussion archetype. These are Living Room Music by John Cage, ?Corporel by Vinko Globokar, and Alice on Time written by myself. Through research of this style it can be determined that theater percussion is a common compositional technique. However, without a name or direct affiliation to any one musical genre, its current status provides a vague, cross-categorization of compositional species, and is at risk of becoming an extinct performance art subgenre. In addition to investigating its place in music history, the process of naming and defining serve to provide a richer understanding of this style and will ideally result in a renewed and enhanced interest from performers and audiences alike

Evaluating the Performance of a New Gestural Instrument Within an Ensemble

This paper discusses one particular mapping for a new gestural instrument called the AirSticks. This mapping was designed to be used for improvised or rehearsed duos and restricts the performer to only utilising the sound source of one other musician playing an acoustic instrument. Several pieces with different musicians were performed and documented, musicians were observed and interviews with these musicians were transcribed. In this paper we will examine the thoughts of these musicians to gather a better understanding of how to design effective ensemble instruments of this type

Measuring Affect for the Study and Enhancement of Co-Present Creative Collaboration

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Percussion and Theatrical Techniques: An Investigation into Percussion Theatre Repertoire and its Presence in Australian Classical Music Culture

Percussion theatre is a relatively new term that can be effectively used to discuss a body of musical repertoire for percussion that employ theatrical techniques. A generic approach of percussion theatre may include the specialised use of lighting, props, costume, space, and in some cases multimedia. At the focal point of this thesis are the techniques of acting, vocalisation and gesture. It discusses how the skill set of the percussionist can be expanded to better suit the broader performance demands required by compositions. Percussionists who perform percussion theatre repertoire would greatly benefit from interdisciplinary study to develop the theatrical skills specific to this genre. Stylistic trends in European, American and Australian compositions of this genre are explored in detail. Furthermore, this thesis includes a discussion of a series of written interviews with key exponents of this body of musical work in Australia. Central to this discussion are both, the technical demands of the performer, and the factors that need to be considered when composers engage with the above theatrical techniques. Finally, significant factors leading to the success of the compositions on the performing circuit are also considered with a view to discover how to promote and further develop this nascent form of performance art

Tangibility and Richness in Digital Musical Instrument Design

PhDThe sense of touch plays a fundamental role in musical performance: alongside hearing, it is the primary sensory modality used when interacting with musical instruments. Learning to play a musical instrument is one of the most developed haptic cultural practices, and within acoustic musical practice at large, the importance of touch and its close relationship to virtuosity and expression is well recognised. With digital musical instruments (DMIs) – instruments involving a combination of sensors and a digital sound engine – touch-mediated interaction remains the foremost means of control, but the interfaces of such instruments do not yet engage with the full spectrum of sensorimotor capabilities of a performer. This poses compelling questions for digital instrument design: how does the nuance and richness of physical interaction with an instrument manifest itself in the digital domain? Which design parameters are most important for haptic experience, and how do these parameters affect musical performance? Built around three practical studies which utilise DMIs as technology probes, this thesis addresses these questions from the point of view of design, of empirical musicology, and of tangible computing. In the first study musicians played a DMI with continuous pitch control and vibrotactile feedback in order to understand how dynamic tactile feedback can be implemented and how it influences musician experience and performance. The results suggest that certain vibrotactile feedback conditions can increase musicians’ tuning accuracy, but also disrupt temporal performance. The second study examines the influence of asynchronies between audio and haptic feedback. Two groups of musicians, amateurs and professional percussionists, were tasked with performing on a percussive DMI with variable action-sound latency. Differences between the two groups in terms of temporal accuracy and quality judgements illustrate the complex effects of asynchronous multimodal feedback. In the third study guitar-derivative DMIs with variable levels of control richness were observed with non-musicians and guitarists. The results from this study help clarify the relationship between tangible design factors, sensorimotor expertise and instrument behaviour. This thesis introduces a descriptive model of performer-instrument interaction, the projection model, which unites the design investigations from each study and provides a series of reflections and suggestions on the role of touch in DMI design.Doctoral Training Centre for Media and Arts Technolog