498 research outputs found
Effort in gestural interactions with imaginary objects in Hindustani Dhrupad vocal music
Physical effort has often been regarded as a key factor of expressivity in music performance. Nevertheless, systematic experimental approaches to the subject have been rare. In North Indian classical (Hindustani) vocal music, singers often engage with melodic ideas during improvisation by manipulating intangible, imaginary objects with their hands, such as through stretching, pulling, pushing, throwing etc. The above observation suggests that some patterns of change in acoustic features allude to interactions that real objects through their physical properties can afford. The present study reports on the exploration of the relationships between movement and sound by accounting for the physical effort that such interactions require in the Dhrupad genre of Hindustani vocal improvisation.
The work follows a mixed methodological approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse interviews, audio-visual material and movement data. Findings indicate that despite the flexibility in the way a Dhrupad vocalist might use his/her hands while singing, there is a certain degree of consistency by which performers associate effort levels with melody and types of gestural interactions with imaginary objects. However, different schemes of cross-modal associations are revealed for the vocalists analysed, that depend on the pitch space organisation of each particular melodic mode (rÄga), the mechanical requirements of voice production, the macro-structure of the ÄlÄp improvisation and morphological cross-domain analogies. Results further suggest that a good part of the variance in both physical effort and gesture type can be explained through a small set of sound and movement features. Based on the findings, I argue that gesturing in Dhrupad singing is guided by: the know-how of humans in interacting with and exerting effort on real objects of the environment, the movementâsound relationships transmitted from teacher to student in the oral music training context and the mechanical demands of vocalisation
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Measuring musical interaction: analysing communication in embodied musical behaviour
This thesis addresses the ubiquity and necessity of embodied interaction to musical activity, using video analysis to observe communication in musical events. Through the specific study of classical North Indian instrumental duo performance, the thesis examines how processes of social interaction may inform human musical activity, using a combined methodology of ethnographic study and quantitative data analysis of original video-recordings. Proposing a pragmatic approach to the study of the meaningful nature of musical events, the thesis keeps sight of the generative context of the human body in social interaction, and offers a model of musical communication that privileges nonlinguistic, socially co-regulative elements in its account of human musical interaction. The socially meaningful nature of the behaviour-in-time of the musicians included in the study is investigated by means of a novel methodology. This combines the qualitative exploration of emic concepts related to the practice of North Indian classical music with an empirical analysis of video data, based on a cognitive ethological framework. The thesis draws on current notions of embodied cognition and contributes to the growing corpus of musicological literature emphasising the embodied and social nature of musical communication. The results of this exploratory study suggest that both social-interaction and music-structural factors contribute to the organisation of the musicians' communicative behaviours and that, to a certain extent, these organisational factors can be separated in analysis
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Structuring social relationships: Music-making and group identity
This thesis is about groups and their boundaries: how we bond with some people, but are separated from others who do not belong. It is also about social interaction - the building-blocks of this group identity. In particular, I investigate musicâs role in our social landscape. Making music together is a powerful way of establishing and structuring these relationships; I argue that it can bring people together, but can also reinforce the divisions between them.
First, I present a new synthesis, drawing on relevant literature about our capacity for sociality, analyses of social interaction, and a history of the research on social groups. I outline a helpful framework by which to understand different forms of social engagement, depending on the nature of the interaction goal; I also clarify the concepts of interdependence and categorisation as distinct processes in group formation. Following this, I suggest that when our interaction is primarily affiliative, or relational, in goal (with little or no external goal focus), then it brings people together via relationships of interdependence; when we aim to communicate something more precisely (i.e. we have an external goal), then the need to maintain our common ground might instead form the basis for social division via categorisation.
Second, I report an initial empirical project which tests some of these predictions. My experiments show that music-making enhances affiliation, especially when there is no external goal focus. Adding a goal contributes to social division - affiliation on the basis of common team membership - but only when the interaction task was a success. When it was not successful, or caused embarrassment for those involved, participants instead seem to distance themselves from any associated group identity. This experimental work is supported by video analyses, in which I show different patterns of behaviour in interaction with and without an external goal.
This thesis is an important starting point in understanding the nature both of social groups and of music. It highlights the potential for music-making to structure our social world through either affiliation or division
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My Body, My Instrument: How body image influences vocal performance in collegiate women singers
This dissertation is about the influence of body image on classical vocal performance in collegiate women singers. Those trained in classical singing are familiar with the phrase, âyour body is your instrument.â A focus on the physical body is apparent in the vocal pedagogical literature, as is attention to singersâ mental and emotional states. But the intersection of emotions and the bodyâhow one thinks and feels about their body, or body imageâis largely absent from the vocal pedagogical literature. As voice teachers continue to necessarily address their studentsâ instruments (bodies), the field has not adequately considered how each singerâs relationship with their instrument (their body) might affect them, as singers and as people.
This initial foray sought answers to just two of the myriad unanswered questions surrounding this topic: Does a singerâs body image influence her singing? If so, when and how? It employed a feminist methodological framework that would provide for consciousness-raising as both a method and aim of the study. Four collegiate women singers served as co-researchers, and data collection took place in three parts: a focus group, audio diaries, and interviews. The focus group was specifically geared towards consciousness-raising in order to provide co-researchers with the awareness necessary for examining their body image. Co-researchers then recorded semi-structured audio diaries for one month after practice sessions, voice lessons, and performances. One-on-one interviews concluded data collection and provided a situation of co-analysis wherein the researcher and co-researcher could deeply examine data from the focus group and diaries.
The major discovery of this research is a pervasive sense of separation between a woman singerâs âeveryday bodyâ and her singerâs body. Self-objectification served as a barrier to a conscious recognition of embodied experience and effectively split the singer in two. The various states of the relationship between these two seemingly separate entities resulted in specific outcomes for singing, including restriction, unawareness, inconsistency, and focus. The discussion concludes with a consideration of how a positive body image may encourage effective and artistic vocal performance and how voice teachers might help foster a positive experience of oneâs body
Lawrence University Course Catalog, 2012-2013
https://lux.lawrence.edu/coursecatalogs/1010/thumbnail.jp
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