Embodied listening and the music of Sigur Ros

In 1990 Susan McClary and Robert Walser appealed for a musicology which could account for the effects of rock, or as they put it: ‘a greater willingness to try to circumscribe an effect metaphorically, to bring one’s own experience as a human being to bear in unpacking musical gestures, to try to parallel in words something of how the music feels’ (McClary and Walser 1990, 288-9). McClary and Walser were arguing for attempts to validate ‘physically and emotionally oriented responses to music’ (287), which they saw as crucial to any understanding of rock, but uncomfortable modes of response for musicology to deal with. Around the time of the McClary/Walser article, musicologists were questioning the body’s exclusion from discourse, and theorising ways in which it might be better integrated into musicological thought (Leppert 1993, Walser 1991). Since that time much scholarly work has been produced which interrogates the role of the body in musicking, work represented for instance by an examination of the idea of gesture (Gritten and King 2006, Davidson 1993). The bodies under examination in this discourse have been those of performers, but increasing attention is being focused on how performers experience the production of music. Fred Everett Maus has recently termed this approach an ‘analytical somaesthetics’, following Richard Shusterman (Maus 2010). This article uses facets of embodiment theory to interrogate the music of Icelandic band Sigur Rós, a group who seem to affect audience and critics alike in a way that is highly unusual for rock music. One of the questions their music poses echoes one that McClary and Walser asked in 1990, namely how we might account for the expressive effect of rock music. I will begin by theorising embodied listening, and accounting for how it might apply to rock music, before presenting readings of two Sigur Rós songs premised on interrogating how the listener is afforded opportunities for embodied participation

Impressionist Composition Techniques in Modern Percussion Literature

The purpose of this lecture recital was to explore the substantive contributions of impressionist composition techniques in contemporary percussion literature. Research was conducted by means of harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic analysis of contemporary works for solo marimba, marimba and electronics, and snare drum and electronics, as well as background research on composers of those works. Percussion composers Russell Wharton, Ivan Trevino, and Ian T. Jones utilize modern technology in their compositions as well as compositional techniques stemming from the Impressionist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In Impressionist composition, musical elements such as texture, non-pulsatic rhythm, and extended harmony are utilized to create a soundscape that convey emotion, mood, and setting. The successful communication of these impressions is also reliant upon shared cultural experiences and understanding, a phenomenon inherent to both the constructivist learning theory and the semiotic theory of signs, icons, and indices created by philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. Semiotics was applied to musical context by Thomas Turino, a professor of musicology and anthropology in Music as Social Life. The works of Wharton, Trevino, and Jones are examples of modern percussion literature that accesses constructivist ideas, Impressionist techniques, and musical indices promulgated by western popular culture to convey emotional and imageable meaning

Verbal rehearsal methods and their effects on expressive music performance: A comparison of verbal explanation and transformational verbal imagery

The purpose of this study was to determine if use of transformational verbal imagery rehearsal methods, when compared to use of methods based on verbal explanation, resulted in (a) higher levels of expressive performance by wind quintets and (b) greater appreciation of the composition by quintet members. The study used a posttest-only control-group design. Thirty high school brass and/or woodwind quintets were randomly assigned to experimental groups (n = 15) or control groups (n = 15). A composition rich in expressive aspects of music was used. Each quintet had three rehearsals. The first rehearsal dealt with the technical aspects of performance. Treatment which focused on the expressive aspects of performance occurred during the second and third rehearsals. An audio recording of the performance was made at the end of the third rehearsal. A questionnaire designed to measure appreciation of the music was completed by subjects at the end of the third rehearsal. To test the null hypothesis regarding expressive performance level, two independent adjudicators scored the final performance tape on two measures, (a) the level of technical performance, and (b) the level of expressive performance. A one-way analysis of covariance was used, with level of technical performance serving as the covariate. The questionnaires were analyzed using a t test for independent samples to test the null hypothesis regarding level of appreciation of the music. Significance was tested at the.05 level. No statistically significant differences were found between the treatment groups on these two measures. Subjects involved in the experimental treatment completed an additional questionnaire to provide data regarding the perceived effect of the transformational verbal imagery procedure. Results of a descriptive analysis of the data indicated that over 90% of the subjects perceived verbal imagery as easy to use and helpful in completing learning tasks. Subjects\u27 perceptions of verbal imagery suggested that its use in rehearsals helped motivate them and helped them complete learning tasks effectively and efficiently

Exploring Kinaesthetic and Body Self-Awareness in Professional Musicians

This research aimed to explore whether developing movement awareness in the playing of professional musicians could improve performance and assist in reducing tension. The issue was studied adopting a neurophenomenological perspective (Varela, 1996) which combines the traditions of continental phenomenology and neuroscientific studies related to cognitive processes. Musicians are often not aware of the importance of their body movements or gestures in playing (Holgersen, 2010). This research investigated whether movement awareness could be developed and if so what impact it would have on performance. Qualitative data were collected by applying phenomenological First-person mediator methods through semi-structured interviews, observation, and audiovisual materials. A range of professional instrumentalists participated. A quasi-repeated qualitative measurement research design was adopted. The musicians were asked to perform an easy, slow piece of music, which they had previously chosen, from memory three times. The first time the piece was performed with no intervention. In the first intervention they were asked to mentally rehearse the piece before playing it again, and in the second, they were asked to simulate the movements of playing without their instrument, before performing. The activities and performances were video recorded. The data were analysed in terms of verbal and non-verbal responses during the interviews and following performance. The performances were analysed by a panel of five experienced musicians and comparisons made in relation to the way the participants responded to the interventions. The findings showed that all of the musicians were affected by the simulation which aroused a range of feelings. The simulation seemed to generate kinaesthetic and sensory-motor feedback assisting the musicians in shaping their thoughts and developing body self-awareness even when they expressed negative feelings. The panellists noted a reduction in anxiety particularly following the third performance and an increase in concentration, musical communication, accuracy and fluidity of gestures

Implementing Composition/Theory Model Cornerstone Assessments in the Family Christian Academy Band Program

The purpose of this applied research study was to determine how Composition/Theory Model Cornerstone Assessments (MCAs) could be adapted for a church music arranging curriculum that utilized popular music pedagogy and Nashville Numbers for notating brass, woodwind, percussion, and/or bass guitar orchestral sweetening. Orchestral sweetening referred to the addition of riffs (short repeated musical figures or melodies), pads (sustained harmonies), and punctations (rhythmic and harmonic emphases of lyrics or chord changes) to an existing rhythm and vocal arrangement. While Composition/Theory MCAs had been pilot-tested for composition tasks, the MCAs had yet to be applied to an arranging context, particularly one pertaining to popular church music focused on orchestral sweetening. This study sought to determine the effectiveness of such a curriculum on Family Christian Academy junior high and high school students’ arranging, performing, rehearsing, and evaluating skills. The researcher implemented a one-group pretest- posttest design with a pre-and post-measurement using a sample size of two students (n=2), both of whom were percussionists. An adaptation of Dimitra Kokotsaki’s self- assessment in music learning survey was administered for both measurements, and a paired-samples t-test was performed that determined that there was no significance between the measurements because of sample size. However, qualitative data analyzed from MCA documents, observations, recordings, and interviews supported the idea that students grew in their arranging abilities and were able to demonstrate basic understanding of rehearsing and performing. Recommendations for future research include repeating the study with a larger sample to determine significance as well as to test the curriculum with brass and woodwind instruments and bass guitar to determine its effectiveness for students who play those instruments

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

The Development and Implementation of Units of Instruction Which Correlate Music with Mathematics and Language Arts

Green Cove Springs Elementary School is located in a rural community and has a population of approximately five hundred and fifty fourth and fifth grade students. The classes are mostly self-contained, except for some grouping in reading and mathematics. There is one resource specialist in physical education who sees each class every day and one music resource specialist who sees each class twice a week and has classes in recorder and guitar.In a survey taken last year of parents and teachers, respondents were asked to rank many areas of the curriculum in order of importance. When the results came in, music was next to last on the list. Whether or not it is correct to assume that some subject areas have greater importance than others, the results of the survey were disturbing in that they indicated that the respondents felt music and the other arts were not as important as other areas of the curriculum.Although a few students show growth in their knowledge of the musical content taught, the majority not only fail to acquire musical concepts, but also become bored and frustrated and begin to have negative attitudes towards music.The purpose of this project was to increase elementary students\u27 understanding and knowledge of musical concepts and skills through a curriculum of music activities related to the language arts and mathematics. The program was implemented jointly by the classroom teacher and the music resource specialist. It was expected that the implementation of this project would provide elementary students more opportunities to experience success in learning musical, mathematics, and language arts content through more frequent music activities.The objectives for the project were threefold. First, for the students to show cognitive growth in musical content and maintain a positive attitude toward music study. Secondly, to demonstrate the part the music specialists play in reinforcing language arts and mathematics skills. Thirdly, to provide a means for the classroom teacher to become involved in the students\u27 music instruction and increase the teachers\u27 understanding and appreciation of the value of music in the curriculum.Classroom teachers were chosen to participate with the music resource specialist in the program to allow more frequent music experiences for the students than are possible when the music resource specialist is totally responsible for all music instruction. The portion of the curriculum for the classroom teacher consisted of prepared lessons with activities that require little musical background. This was done to gain the cooperation and acceptance of the classroom teacher

Embodiment, sound and visualization : a multimodal perspective in music education

Recently, many studies have emphasized the role of body movements in processing, sharing and giving meaning to music. At the same time, neuroscience studies, suggest that different parts of the brain are integrated and activated by the same stimuli: sounds, for example, can be perceived by touch and can evoke imagery, energy, fluency and periodicity. This interaction of auditory, visual and motor senses can be found in the verbal descriptions of music and among children during their spontaneous games. The question to be asked is, if a more multisensory and embodied approach could redefine some of our assumptions regarding musical education. Recent research on embodiment and multimodal perception in instrumental teaching could suggest new directions in musical education. Can we consider the integration between the activities of body movement, listening, metaphor visualization, and singing, as more effective than a disembodied and fragmented approach for the process of musical understanding

Faculty recital: Tong-Il Hang, March 23, 2004

This is the concert program of the faculty recital of Tong-Il Han on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 at 8:00 p.m., at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Works performed were Klavierstucke, Op. 119 by Johannes Brahms, Sonata in C Major, Op. 2 No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven, and Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17 by Robert Schumann. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Center for the Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Competitive comparison in music: influences upon self-efficacy beliefs by gender

This study profiles gender differences in instrumental performance self-efficacy perceptions of high school students (N = 87) over the course of a three-day orchestra festival in which students competed against one another for rank-based seating and then rehearsed and performed as a group. Reported self-beliefs rose significantly for the sample over the course of the festival. Self-efficacy beliefs of females were significantly lower than those of males before the seating audition and first rehearsal, but were no longer different by the midpoint of the festival. Survey free-response data were coded according to Bandura's (1997 Bandura, A. 1997. Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: W. H. Freeman.) four sources of self-efficacy. A 52% drop in the frequency of student comments regarding competitive comparison appeared at the same point in which female self-efficacy beliefs were no longer different from those of males. Results support past research to suggest that males and females may respond differently to rank-based competition versus social support