New urban Soundscapes: Angklung Buskers in Yogyakarta

Caratterizzati da una costante sovrapposizione di stimoli acustici di diversa natura, i paesaggi sonori delle realtà metro- politane contemporanee sono entità composite di difficile interpretazione. Entro questi contesti, tuttavia, la produzione di musica dal vivo ha senza dubbio un ruolo cruciale nella costruzione degli spazi sonori pubblici e dell’immaginario acustico ad essi associato. Nel presente articolo sono presentati alcuni risultati di una ricerca svolta a Yogyakarta (Giava, Indonesia) su un particolare fenomeno di musica di strada, le angklung bands: gruppi di musicisti di strada che si guadagna- no da vivere esibendosi quotidianamente negli spazi più trafficati della città. Applicando il metodo etnografico dell’osservazione partecipante, è stata documentata l’attività di questi musicisti, indagandone storie di vita, prassi performative e repertori, considerando la complessità del feno- meno e il suo rapporto “osmotico” con l’ambiente urbano Yogyanese. Descrivendo questo specifico caso di studio, si cercherà di dimostrare come una pratica musicale apparentemente marginale possa avere una funzione importante nella costruzione di una realtà acustica metropolitana, sino a divenirne un’impronta sonora. Il saggio è corredato da esempi video che illustrano la pratica musicale in analisi e consentono di valutarne l’impatto sul paesaggio sonoro circostante.Being characterized by a constant overlapping of different kinds of acoustic stimuli, contemporary metropolitan soundscapes are composite entities that are rather difficult to interpret. Within these contexts however, the production of live music undoubtedly has a crucial role in the construction of sonic public spaces and of the acoustic ideas and concepts that are associated with them. This paper presents some results of a research conducted in Yogyakarta (Java, Indonesia) regarding a particular kind of street music, i.e. the angklung bands: groups of buskers who make a living by performing every day in the most crowded spaces of the city. By applying the ethnographic method of participant observation, the activity of these musicians was documented, together with their life stories, repertoires and performative practices. In addition, the complexity of the phenomenon and its “osmotic” relationship with the Yogyanese urban context was carefully considered. This specific case study is utilized in order to show how an apparently marginal musical practice has had a significant function in the construction of a metropolitan acoustic environment, to the extent of becoming one of its soundmarks. This paper is accompanied by several video examples, which illustrate how the musical practice analyzed is conducted and make it possible to evaluate its impact on the surrounding soundscape

The spatiotemporal representation of dance and music gestures using topological gesture analysis (TGA)

SPATIOTEMPORAL GESTURES IN MUSIC AND DANCE HAVE been approached using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Applying quantitative methods has offered new perspectives but imposed several constraints such as artificial metric systems, weak links with qualitative information, and incomplete accounts of variability. In this study, we tackle these problems using concepts from topology to analyze gestural relationships in space. The Topological Gesture Analysis (TGA) relies on the projection of musical cues onto gesture trajectories, which generates point clouds in a three-dimensional space. Point clouds can be interpreted as topologies equipped with musical qualities, which gives us an idea about the relationships between gesture, space, and music. Using this method, we investigate the relationships between musical meter, dance style, and expertise in two popular dances (samba and Charleston). The results show how musical meter is encoded in the dancer's space and how relevant information about styles and expertise can be revealed by means of simple topological relationships

Time as a strand of the dance medium

Time and space are at the core of our aesthetic experiences of dance performances, yet dance has been frequently categorised as a space-based art. In this paper I revise the choreological perspective developed by Preston-Dunlop and Sánchez-Colberg that conceives dance as an embodied performative art articulated in a multistranded medium (performer, movement, sound, space). I argue that time should be allowed a distinct place in the choreological discourse since its presence is key to the expressivity of a dance piece. I conceptualise the meaning of the time strand and expose how different substrands emerge, connect with others and become expressive in dance performances. My investigation considers in particular the aesthetics of time in live performances in the theatre compared to dances created for the camera, focusing specifically on instances of contemporary transpositions from one context to the other

Collecting ground truth annotations for drum detection in polyphonic music

In order to train and test algorithms that can automatically detect drum events in polyphonic music, ground truth data is needed. This paper describes a setup used for gathering manual annotations for 49 real-world music fragments containing different drum event types. Apart from the drum events, the beat was also annotated. The annotators were experienced drummers or percussionists. This paper is primarily aimed towards other drum detection researchers, but might also be of interest to others dealing with automatic music analysis, manual annotation and data gathering. Its purpose is threefold: providing annotation data for algorithm training and evaluation, describing a practical way of setting up a drum annotation task, and reporting issues that came up during the annotation sessions while at the same time providing some thoughts on important points that could be taken into account when setting up similar tasks in the future

Electronic Dance Music: Is It Art? Selected Annotated Bibliography

Electronic Dance Music, or EDM, is a genre of music that has enjoyed success. Although it grew out of art music in the twentieth century, EDM is considered popular music. But, is the future of EDM confined only within popular music or is there potential for it to influence or become art music? Or perhaps, is EDM already a form of art regardless of whether or not it is commonly seen as such? In response to such quandaries, this paper will form a method of critique to analyze EDM in comparison to art music. To do so, an overall understanding and definition of what art music is or is not will be presented. In addition, the history of popular dance music influencing art music of the past as well as common musical characteristics of EDM will be presented. These factors will be considered and used to evaluate EDM as art

Investigating computational models of perceptual attack time

The perceptual attack time (PAT) is the compensation for differing attack components of sounds, in the case of seeking a perceptually isochronous presentation of sounds. It has applications in scheduling and is related to, but not necessarily the same as, the moment of perceptual onset. This paper describes a computational investigation of PAT over a set of 25 synthesised stimuli, and a larger database of 100 sounds equally divided into synthesised and ecological. Ground truth PATs for modeling were obtained by the alternating presentation paradigm, where subjects adjusted the relative start time of a reference click and the sound to be judged. Whilst fitting experimental data from the 25 sound set was plausible, difficulties with existing models were found in the case of the larger test set. A pragmatic solution was obtained using a neural net architecture. In general, learnt schema of sound classification may be implicated in resolving the multiple detection cues evoked by complex sounds

Broadcasting personalities: the relationship between occupation and music preferences in the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs

This research examines the music choices of interviewees on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs over a 72-year period. In the programme, individuals with a public profile related to high achievement in their chosen occupation identify several pieces of their favourite music. Publicly stated music preferences offer insights into how individuals construct and wish to communicate crucial aspects their identities. We propose that, in this context, occupation is related to music preferences. We investigate this relationship within the framework of Holland’s RIASEC model of vocational personality types, previously ignored by research into music preferences. We consider music preferences in terms of the five-dimension MUSIC model of music preferences, and preference for acoustical attributes of chosen music. Results demonstrate several significant associations between RIASEC occupation types and MUSIC preference dimensions, and also a main effect for RIASEC type on acoustical music attributes such as tempo, energy and loudness. </jats:p

Music Appreciation (Georgia Gwinnett College)

This Music Appreciation textbook was created under an ALG Round Five Textbook Transformation Grant. The original copy was presented in five modules, which are provided as separate files. Authors\u27 Description: The author of this text has intentionally kept it general in nature in order to create a platform for those who want to expand content into more in depth studies of the mentioned concepts and traditions. I believe that appreciation of any subject comes from open-minded exposure to that topic. With the arts this generally must happen at a moment when the message and meaning of the work resonates naturally with the appreciator. Each instructor of music appreciation brings a unique expertise in differing genres. I encourage you to utilize this text along with musical examples of your choice. The music appreciation specific goals (found in the syllabus) vary between individual classes as the instructors see fit. These goals will be achieved by those who have competently met all of the requirements of the course. For the course that this text accompanies the goals for each student are: To gain basic exposure to the elements of music and their treatment in music To learn historical and cultural signifiers in a diverse body of music • To approach listening to music actively/analytically and to reflect on the experience To understand the factors that contribute to musical style in their own music and music presented in the course To gain knowledge about differing musical aesthetics and trends To become more knowledgeable and sensitive to varied human expression through music If we endeavor together to reach these course goals the successful student will be able to: Describe elements of music that s/he hears, employing correct musical terminology Place music into an appropriate historical and cultural context Listen critically and discuss a wide variety of musical styles Analyze the stylistic features of a diverse group of musical styles Identify nationalistic tendencies in musical expression Identify musical diversity and aspects of our global society Accessible files with optical character recognition (OCR) and auto-tagging provided by the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation.https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/arts-textbooks/1004/thumbnail.jp