The performance of notes inégales: the influence of tempo, musical structure and individual performance style on expressive timing

NOTES INÉGALES IS A COMMON PRACTICE IN THE per- formance of French baroque music. It indicates that the first of a pair of equally notated notes is played longer, similar to the use of swing eighths in jazz. The perfor- mance of that inequality is an ongoing source of debate, but the actual performance has not been studied yet. In an experiment, eight harpsichordists and eight baroque violinists performed six melodies of French baroque gavottes in three tempo conditions. The mean ratio of inequality was 1.63, with mean ratios of individual per- formers varying between 1.89 and 1.33. Another sig- nificant source of variance was the metric structure, with larger inequality found at metrically important points. Tempo also had an important influence, but individual interpretation varied greatly. For example, while most performers played more evenly while tempo increased, some performers chose the opposite strategy. Pitch interval had only a minor impact on the execution of the notes inégales, but also showed differences between performers. The results show the importance of personal style in music performance: although the music played is highly standardized, we show how the timing of different performers can be influenced by dif- ferent aspects of the musical structure

Tempo effects in mortality

This study examines the existence of tempo effects in mortality and evaluates the procedure developed by Bongaarts and Feeney for calculating a tempo-adjusted life expectancy. It is shown that Bongaarts and Feeney's index can be interpreted as an indicator reflecting current mortality conditions under specific assumptions regarding the effects of changing period mortality conditions on the timing of future cohort deaths. It is argued, however, that currently there is no clear evidence about the existence of such effects in actual populations. This paper concludes that until the existence of these effects can be demonstrated, it is preferable to continue using the conventional life expectancy as an indicator of current mortality conditions.demographic methods, formal demography, measurement issues, mortality models, tempo adjustments, tempo effects

Temporal Variability and Stability in Infant-Directed Sung Speech: Evidence for Language-specific Patterns.

In this paper, sung speech is used as a methodological tool to explore temporal variability in the timing of word-internal consonants and vowels. It is hypothesized that temporal variability/stability becomes clearer under the varying rhythmical conditions induced by song. This is explored crosslinguistically in German – a language that exhibits a potential vocalic quantity distinction – and the non-quantity languages French and Russian. Songs by non-professional singers, i.e. parents that sang to their infants aged 2 to 13 months in a non-laboratory setting, were recorded and analyzed. Vowel and consonant durations at syllable contacts of trochaic word types with ¦CVCV or ¦CVːCV structure were measured under varying rhythmical conditions. Evidence is provided that in German non-professional singing, the two syllable structures can be differentiated by two distinct temporal variability patterns: vocalic variability (and consonantal stability) was found to be dominant in ¦CVːCV structures whereas consonantal variability (and vocalic stability) was characteristic for ¦CVCV structures. In French and Russian, however, only vocalic variability seemed to apply. Additionally, findings suggest that the different temporal patterns found in German were also supported by the stability pattern at the tonal level. These results point to subtle (supra) segmental timing mechanisms in sung speech that affect temporal targets according to the specific prosodic nature of the language in question

Diversification of myco-heterotrophic angiosperms: evidence from Burmanniaceae.

Background - Myco-heterotrophy evolved independently several times during angiosperm evolution. Although many species of myco-heterotrophic plants are highly endemic and long-distance dispersal seems unlikely, some genera are widely dispersed and have pantropical distributions, often with large disjunctions. Traditionally this has been interpreted as evidence for an old age of these taxa. However, due to their scarcity and highly reduced plastid genomes our understanding about the evolutionary histories of the angiosperm myco-heterotrophic groups is poor. Results - We provide a hypothesis for the diversification of the myco-heterotrophic family Burmanniaceae. Phylogenetic inference, combined with biogeographical analyses, molecular divergence time estimates, and diversification analyses suggest that Burmanniaceae originated in West Gondwana and started to diversify during the Late Cretaceous. Diversification and migration of the species-rich pantropical genera Burmannia and Gymnosiphon display congruent patterns. Diversification began during the Eocene, when global temperatures peaked and tropical forests occurred at low latitudes. Simultaneous migration from the New to the Old World in Burmannia and Gymnosiphon occurred via boreotropical migration routes. Subsequent Oligocene cooling and breakup of boreotropical flora ended New-Old World migration and caused a gradual decrease in diversification rate in Burmanniaceae. Conclusion - Our results indicate that extant diversity and pantropical distribution of myco-heterotrophic Burmanniaceae is the result of diversification and boreotropical migration during the Eocene when tropical rain forest expanded dramaticall

Infants’ perception of rhythmic patterns

We explored 9-month-old infants perception of auditory temporal sequences in a series of three experiments. In Experiment 1, we presented some infants with tone sequences that were expected to induce a strongly metric framework and others with a sequence that was expected to induce a weakly metric framework or no such framework. Infants detected a change in the context of the former sequences but not in the latter sequence. In Experiment 2, infants listened to a tone sequence with temporal cues to duple or triple meter. Infants detected a change in the pattern with duple meter but not in the pattern with triple meter. In Experiment 3, infants listened to a tone sequence with harmonic cues to duple or triple meter. As in Experiment 2, infants detected a change in the context of the duple meter pattern but not in the context of triple meter. These findings are consistent with processing predispositions for auditory temporal sequences that induce a metric framework, particularly those in duple meter

The influence of employment uncertainty on childbearing in France: A tempo or quantum effect?

This paper investigates whether unemployment and insecure employment periods merely delay fertility or also impact on completed fertility in France. It analyses both the timing of first childbearing and the fertility reached at age 40. Different indicators of declining employment security are used, i.e. current individual employment characteristics, the accumulation of unstable jobs, and aggregate-level indicators of employment uncertainty. Male unemployment has a negative influence on the timing of first childbearing, while periods of insecure employment delay fertility for women. Completed fertility is impacted by unemployment spells only for men who have faced long-term unemployment. Employment uncertainty thus tends to delay first parenthood but has a relatively weak effect on lifetime fertility in France. Generous state support to families associated with a generous unemployment insurance system, and the strong French two-child family norm may explain why economic uncertainty affects fertility less than elsewhere.birth parity, event history analysis, fertility, gender, labor market, short-term employment, unemployment

Global timing: a conceptual framework to investigate the neural basis of rhythm perception in humans and non-human species

Timing cues are an essential feature of music. To understand how the brain gives rise to our experience of music we must appreciate how acoustical temporal patterns are integrated over the range of several seconds in order to extract global timing. In music perception, global timing comprises three distinct but often interacting percepts: temporal grouping, beat, and tempo. What directions may we take to further elucidate where and how the global timing of music is processed in the brain? The present perspective addresses this question and describes our current understanding of the neural basis of global timing perception

Does economic development drive the fertility rebound in OECD countries?

We examine how far changes in fertility trends are related to ongoing economic development in OECD countries. In the light of the inverse J-shaped relationship between the human development index (HDI) and total fertility rates that was recently found by Myrskylä, Kohler and Billari (2009), we single out the impact of economic development on fertility. We empirically test the hypothesis of a convex impact of GDP per capita on fertility, using data from the OECD area that spans the years 1960 to 2007. We test the robustness of our findings by controlling for birth postponement and for different income distribution patterns. By designating a clear turning point in the relationship between economic development and fertility, we find that economic development is likely to induce a fertility rebound, but is not sufficient to lift fertility to a significantly higher level in all OECD countries. Country-specific factors explain why countries with similar GDP per capita levels achieve significantly lower or higher fertility rates than the estimated baseline, however. By decomposing GDP per capita into several variables, we identify female employment as the main factor impacting fertility, behind GDP variations. The positive association between the increase in female employment and fertility rates suggests a key role played by the changes in norms and institutions supporting the combination of work and family that go along with the process of economic development.demographic economics; fertility; economic development; female employment; economics of gender