Citing musicality: Performance knowledge in the Gardzienice archive

This article draws on previously published multimedia documents to explore the notion of musicality in the work of Włodzimierz Staniewski and the Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices. In addition to offering a close analysis of several documented moments – including performances, work demonstrations, expeditions and gatherings – it tests the ability of multimedia documentation to capture performance knowledge, arguing that the work of Gardzienice is a paradigmatic example of ‘practice as research’. Taking the archive as a crucial dimension of the dissemination of knowledge, the article uses multimedia citation to examine the specific contributions of Gardzienice in the context of musicality as a relation between the theatrical and the musical. The article demonstrates that the stability of the archive allows for a detailed explication of performance knowledge in a way that is not possible from live performance alone

Temporal decorrelation of collective oscillations in neural networks with local inhibition and long-range excitation

We consider two neuronal networks coupled by long-range excitatory interactions. Oscillations in the gamma frequency band are generated within each network by local inhibition. When long-range excitation is weak, these oscillations phase-lock with a phase-shift dependent on the strength of local inhibition. Increasing the strength of long-range excitation induces a transition to chaos via period-doubling or quasi-periodic scenarios. In the chaotic regime oscillatory activity undergoes fast temporal decorrelation. The generality of these dynamical properties is assessed in firing-rate models as well as in large networks of conductance-based neurons.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Death and rebirth of neural activity in sparse inhibitory networks

In this paper, we clarify the mechanisms underlying a general phenomenon present in pulse-coupled heterogeneous inhibitory networks: inhibition can induce not only suppression of the neural activity, as expected, but it can also promote neural reactivation. In particular, for globally coupled systems, the number of firing neurons monotonically reduces upon increasing the strength of inhibition (neurons' death). However, the random pruning of the connections is able to reverse the action of inhibition, i.e. in a sparse network a sufficiently strong synaptic strength can surprisingly promote, rather than depress, the activity of the neurons (neurons' rebirth). Thus the number of firing neurons reveals a minimum at some intermediate synaptic strength. We show that this minimum signals a transition from a regime dominated by the neurons with higher firing activity to a phase where all neurons are effectively sub-threshold and their irregular firing is driven by current fluctuations. We explain the origin of the transition by deriving an analytic mean field formulation of the problem able to provide the fraction of active neurons as well as the first two moments of their firing statistics. The introduction of a synaptic time scale does not modify the main aspects of the reported phenomenon. However, for sufficiently slow synapses the transition becomes dramatic, the system passes from a perfectly regular evolution to an irregular bursting dynamics. In this latter regime the model provides predictions consistent with experimental findings for a specific class of neurons, namely the medium spiny neurons in the striatum.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, submitted to NJ

Goethean rhymes and rhythms in verse translations of Faust into Spanish

The few translators who have attempted a Spanish verse translation of Goethe’s Faust for the most part fail to do justice to the metrical diversity of Goethe’s play and therefore they either altogether give up the idea of rendering Goethe’s play in poetry, e.g. Pedro Gálvez in 1984, or they create a traditionalist Spanish Faust poem with excessive liberties regarding its content, like, in 1882, Teodoro Llorente. Others have tried to fit Goethe’s verse in the Procrustean bed of unrhymed endecasílabos, which has forced them to abridge the original text in numerous passages (Valverde 1963). Moreover, some authors, such as Valverde and Silvetti Paz (1970), translate some passages of Goethe’s magnum opus into Spanish verses resembling unrhymed iambic pentameter, a rather unusual approach in Spanish poetry, but nevertheless surprisingly effective. The translation which clearly stands out is the one by Augusto Bunge (1926, 1949), who carefully studied and analyzed the metrical structure of Faust and created a Spanish version which imitates Goethe’s complex rhythms and rhyme patterns while remaining largely faithful to the German original.This article is the English version of “Los ritmos y la rima de la versificación goetheana en las versiones métricas del Fausto en español” by Stefan Beyer. It was not published on the print version of MonTI for reasons of space. The online version of MonTI does not suffer from these limitations, and this is our way of promoting plurilingualism

Regularity in speech rhythm as a social coalition signal

First published: 01 August 2019Regular rhythm facilitates audiomotor entrainment and synchronization in motor behavior and vocalizations between individuals. As rhythm entrainment between interacting agents is correlated with higher levels of cooperation and prosocial affiliative behavior, humans can potentiallymap regular speech rhythmonto higher cooperation and friendliness between interacting individuals.We tested this hypothesis at two rhythmic levels: pulse (recurrent acoustic events) and meter (hierarchical structuring of pulses based on their relative salience).We asked the listeners to make judgments of the hostile or collaborative attitude of two interacting agents who exhibit either regular or irregular pulse (Experiment 1) or meter (Experiment 2). The results confirmed a link between the perception of social affiliation and rhythmicity: evenly distributed pulses (vowel onsets) and consistent grouping of pulses into recurrent hierarchical patterns are more likely to be perceived as cooperation signals. People are more sensitive to regularity at the level of pulse than at the level of meter, and they are more confident when they associate cooperation with isochrony in pulse. The evolutionary origin of this faculty is possibly the need to transmit and perceive coalition information in social groups of human ancestors. We discuss the implications of these findings for the emergence of speech in humans.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), through the “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres/Units of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-0490) to the BCBL, from European Commission as Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowDLV- 792331 to L.P., fromMinisterio de Ciencia E Innovacion by grant PSI2017-82563-P to A.G.S., and grant RTI2018-098317-B-I00 to M.O

The plot thickens: The aesthetic dimensions of a captivating mathematics lesson

We present an analysis of a sixth-grade mathematics lesson in which an aesthetically-rich moment of mathematical surprise, inspired by a decontextualized integer addition problem, spurred students to ask mathematical questions and actively sustain inquiry into the lesson’s central ideas. In order to understand how the unfolding mathematical content enabled this moment, we interpret the lesson as a mathematical story. Using this narrative framework, we describe the aesthetic dimensions of the story including its plot, density, coherence, and rhythm, and connect them to the unfolding mathematical content. This analysis demonstrates how these aesthetic elements of a lesson can be recognized and how they help explain the students’ productive engagement. This framework offers a potential tool for researchers and practitioners who seek to understand, design, and enact captivating mathematical experiences.Accepted manuscrip

Convergent Styles: A Study of Dave Brubeck\u27s Points on Jazz

The music of Dave Brubeck encompasses diverse classical and jazz styles from around the world. Due to the eclectic nature of Brubeck’s music and the difficulty in categorizing his style, little has been written about his compositions. This document will aid musicians in better understanding his suite Points on Jazz, a work for classical piano. The first chapter examines the development of Brubeck’s style from his early childhood years until 1958, the year he composed Points on Jazz. The second chapter details the background of this piece and some of its influences, including Dziekuje, the piece upon which Points on Jazz is based. The third chapter presents a performance guide outlining stylistic, artistic, technical, and interpretive considerations, including score comparisons from other works which may have influenced Brubeck. The fourth chapter summarizes Brubeck’s style and provides an overview of this style in some of his other compositions. This study proves that Brubeck’s music cannot be defined by any established style but rather is a unique convergence of many different styles. This monograph will lead to a better understanding and interpretation of Points on Jazz and can be used as a resource for further studies of Brubeck’s classical compositions

Temporal issues in the inherent rhythmic expressions of African indigenous music performance practices

This study focused on the reception and interpretation of African rhythmic expression and the management of independent roles in ensemble performance practices. Two points of view were explicitly discussed in this work to reveal the significance of cultural background in the reception and interpretation of a musical culture. African scholar’s perception and representation of independent rhythmic roles and instrumental blend in an ensemble forms the first view, while the second view is the perception of non-African scholar; their interpretation and representation of individual roles and rhythmic expression of indigenous African musical performance practices. These were examined using indigenous music practices of Igbo ethnicity in Nigeria as sample material. Data collected was through review of related literature, participant observation and personal interview. Finding revealed that the determinant factors for African compositional techniques, temporal application and implication in their performance practices are mere expression of cultural heritage or inherent life style playing out in musical expressions. Thus, the recommendation emphasized that for any scholar to rightly interpret and denote the cultural signifiers in the temporal involvement in African music culture his/her understanding of the people’s cultural principles, myths, connotations, tonal syntax, semantics, semiotics denotations and inter-semiotics is germen