Improving the representational strategies of children in a music-listening and playing task: an intervention-based study.

This intervention-based study focuses on the relation between music and its graphic representation from a meta-representational point of view. It aims to determine whether middle school students show an increase in meta-representational competence (MRC) after an educational intervention. Three classes of 11 to 14-year-old students participated in the teaching experiment: one experimental class (E) and two control classes (C). An intervention on MRC was carried out on the E class during the hours that were allocated for the regular music lessons, while students from the C classes followed the regular music curriculum. E and C classes were given the same pretest and posttest, which measured students' MRC by means of six representational criteria. One month after the posttest, all classes completed a retention test. The results reveal an overall effect in favour of the E group, despite the negative results for two representational criteria. Moreover, the overall gain, to a great extent, was due to a decrease in the score of the C classes, while the gains in the E class were rather small. Theoretical, methodological and educational implications are discussed

Mapping Through Listening

Gesture-to-sound mapping is generally defined as the association between gestural and sound parameters. This article describes an approach that brings forward the perception-action loop as a fundamental design principle for gesture–sound mapping in digital music instrument. Our approach considers the processes of listening as the foundation – and the first step – in the design of action-sound relationships. In this design process, the relationship between action and sound is derived from actions that can be perceived in the sound. Building on previous works on listening modes and gestural descriptions we proposed to distinguish between three mapping strategies: instantaneous, temporal, and metaphoric. Our approach makes use of machine learning techniques for building prototypes, from digital music instruments to interactive installations. Four different examples of scenarios and prototypes are described and discussed

Perception of ‘Back-Channeling’ Nonverbal Feedback in Musical Duo Improvisation

In witnessing face-to-face conversation, observers perceive authentic communication according to the social contingency of nonverbal feedback cues (‘back-channeling’) by non-speaking interactors. The current study investigated the generality of this function by focusing on nonverbal communication in musical improvisation. A perceptual experiment was conducted to test whether observers can reliably identify genuine versus fake (mismatched) duos from musicians’ nonverbal cues, and how this judgement is affected by observers’ musical background and rhythm perception skill. Twenty-four musicians were recruited to perform duo improvisations, which included solo episodes, in two styles: standard jazz (where rhythm is based on a regular pulse) or free improvisation (where rhythm is non-pulsed). The improvisations were recorded using a motion capture system to generate 16 ten-second point-light displays (with audio) of the soloist and the silent non-soloing musician (‘back-channeler’). Sixteen further displays were created by splicing soloists with back-channelers from different duos. Participants (N = 60) with various musical backgrounds were asked to rate the point-light displays as either real or fake. Results indicated that participants were sensitive to the real/fake distinction in the free improvisation condition independently of musical experience. Individual differences in rhythm perception skill did not account for performance in the free condition, but were positively correlated with accuracy in the standard jazz condition. These findings suggest that the perception of back-channeling in free improvisation is not dependent on music-specific skills but is a general ability. The findings invite further study of the links between interpersonal dynamics in conversation and musical interaction

Temporal rate is not a distinct perceptual metric.

yesSensory adaptation experiments have revealed the existence of ‘rate after-effects’ - adapting to a relatively fast rate makes an intermediate test rate feel slow, and adapting to a slow rate makes the same moderate test rate feel fast. The present work aims to deconstruct the concept of rate and clarify how exactly the brain processes a regular sequence of sensory signals. We ask whether rate forms a distinct perceptual metric, or whether it is simply the perceptual aggregate of the intervals between its component signals. Subjects were exposed to auditory or visual temporal rates (a ‘slow’ rate of 1.5 Hz and a ‘fast’ rate of 6 Hz), before being tested with single unfilled intervals of varying durations. Results show adapting to a given rate strongly influences the perceived duration of a single empty interval. This effect is robust across both interval reproduction and duration discrimination judgments. These findings challenge our understanding of rate perception. Specifically, they suggest that contrary to some previous assertions, the perception of sequence rate is strongly influenced by the perception of the sequence’s component duration intervals.This work was supported by a Wellcome Trust [WT097387] grant to NW

A Spectro-gestural-morphological Analysis of a Musical-tactile score

International audienceIn the following article the author will compare a musical and a tactile score in the specific case study represented by Rieko Suzuki's tactile score transcription of Friedrich Chopin's posthume Nocturne n° 20 in C sharp minor. In the intention of the author this comparison will show its correlations between sound, movement and musical representation and will highlights the common features of musical and the tactile notation. To conduct this analysis it will be compared the movement indicated by the musical score and the ones prescribed by the tactile score applying and expanding Denis Smalley's spectromorphological analysis towards a spectro-gestural-morphological analysis. For this reason the author invite the reader to refer to Smalley's explanation of spectromorphological analysis (Smalley 1997). This research must be considered as a contribution related with the actual debate on sonification (Hermann, Hunt, Neuhoff 2011) musical cognition (Launay 2015, Schaefer 2015) and mediation (Leman 2007) and will implicitly suggest a possible artistic application of tactile scores as basis of new compositional techniques. 1. Tactile scores Tactile scores were created by Rieko Suzuki in order to describe and design tactile sense. Those scores are used to notate actions oriented to massage and to transmit those informations in order to create a repertory of " massage pieces ". They are used to transcribe musical works in massage's scores (in the case of tactile scores based on preexisting music), to compose music, to develop emotional engineering and haptic design (Suzuki, Suzuki 2014). Tactile scores are the result of a long process of elaboration based on trials and errors that brings to define the most important massage's parameters: dimension, pressure and speed. During this period, in which Rieko Suzuki tried new massage's strategy with her customers, tactile scores became more detailed, from hieroglyphic-like inscription to diastematic notation, and progressively reveal common features with musical scores expressing a certain proximity between tactile and musical experience. In fact, as Rieko Suzuki wrote: […] counts and rhythm are important in tactile perception; a single circular stroke could not be distinguished from a mere rubbing, while more than double strokes would be recognized as massage. By giving rhythm on a tactile sense, we can create " impressions " ; a rhythm of touching gives a " theme " on the impression provoked by tactile sense, where the theme is the expression through tactile sense such as small-large, fast-slow, line-curve and so on; in a sequence of massage strokes starts from small circles then moves to large circles and small circles again, à subject would feel small and large (Suzuki