Tonality and the Cultural

The emphasis in this response to Mine Doğantan-Dack’s ‘Tonality: The Shape of Affect’ is on the cultural construction of tonality and the ways in which that may encourage Western musicians to understand tonality as a fundamental psychological process. An alternative hypothesis is proposed in which tonality assists in the effective musical modelling of hunting, offering a means to relive the experience in social groups

Heuristics for expressive performance

This chapter discusses concepts and terms that professional musicians find useful in preparing for and talking and thinking about expressive performance. An example is “shape,” which, as recent research has shown, is immensely flexible and useful for sharing ideas about how to generate expressive performance without having to specify exactly which sounds might be required. The word is used between musical performers with a high level of mutual understanding, as a way of communicating expressive features that are actually very difficult to articulate in more detail. Further examples of heuristics for musical expression are drawn from a recent interview study of professional musicians, and their implications are discussed. It is argued that this kind of terminology, easily dismissed as superficial or vague, is in fact precisely targeted to the nature of the task and is highly effective in use by musicians

Lo que estamos haciendo con la música antigua es genuinamente auténtico hasta un grado tan pequeño que la palabra pierde una gran parte de su pretendido significado

Es una traducción de: "What we are doing with early music is genuinely authentic to such a small degree that the word loses most of its intended meaning, en Early Music, Vol. XII núm. 1 (Febrero 1984, pp. 13·16).Luis Carlos Gago (traductor)

Lo que estamos haciendo con la música antigua es genuinamente auténtico hasta un grado tan pequeño que la palabra pierde una gran parte de su pretendido significado

Es una traducción de: "What we are doing with early music is genuinely authentic to such a small degree that the word loses most of its intended meaning, en Early Music, Vol. XII núm. 1 (Febrero 1984, pp. 13·16).Luis Carlos Gago (traductor)

Large-Scale Structure, Performance and Brahms's Op. 119 No. 2

Research in musical performance studies has generated a healthy scepticism of the importance of large-scale structure to performance (in terms of both interpretation and perception): on the one hand, it might well be hardwired into notation, and on the other, prioritising it risks simply repeating outworn maxims that neglect the performer’s musical contributions. Recently, some scholars have begun to rethink the potential structural relevance of performance rather than necessarily determining structure on the basis of the musical score alone. In this article, I consolidate some of this thinking and draw out its implications for performers’ handling of large-scale structure; in doing so, I suggest that we should consider moving away from conventional large-scale score-based forms as structural certainties. I support this through a case study of Johannes Brahms’s Intermezzo in E minor, Op. 119 No. 2 in which I analyse recorded performances by Wilhelm Backhaus, Maria Yudina and Ilona Eibenschütz. I conclude by arguing that the inclusion and prioritisation of any particular musical material – whether the score, performance, or other – requires serious consideration and reflection in any analytical act

A plasmid DNA-launched SARS-CoV-2 reverse genetics system and coronavirus toolkit for COVID-19 research

The recent emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the underlying cause of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), has led to a worldwide pandemic causing substantial morbidity, mortality, and economic devastation. In response, many laboratories have redirected attention to SARS-CoV-2, meaning there is an urgent need for tools that can be used in laboratories unaccustomed to working with coronaviruses. Here we report a range of tools for SARS-CoV-2 research. First, we describe a facile single plasmid SARS-CoV-2 reverse genetics system that is simple to genetically manipulate and can be used to rescue infectious virus through transient transfection (without in vitro transcription or additional expression plasmids). The rescue system is accompanied by our panel of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (against nearly every viral protein), SARS-CoV-2 clinical isolates, and SARS-CoV-2 permissive cell lines, which are all openly available to the scientific community. Using these tools, we demonstrate here that the controversial ORF10 protein is expressed in infected cells. Furthermore, we show that the promising repurposed antiviral activity of apilimod is dependent on TMPRSS2 expression. Altogether, our SARS-CoV-2 toolkit, which can be directly accessed via our website at https://mrcppu-covid.bio/, constitutes a resource with considerable potential to advance COVID-19 vaccine design, drug testing, and discovery science

LEARN: A multi-centre, cross-sectional evaluation of Urology teaching in UK medical schools

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the status of UK undergraduate urology teaching against the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) Undergraduate Syllabus for Urology. Secondary objectives included evaluating the type and quantity of teaching provided, the reported performance rate of General Medical Council (GMC)-mandated urological procedures, and the proportion of undergraduates considering urology as a career. MATERIALS AND METHODS: LEARN was a national multicentre cross-sectional study. Year 2 to Year 5 medical students and FY1 doctors were invited to complete a survey between 3rd October and 20th December 2020, retrospectively assessing the urology teaching received to date. Results are reported according to the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES). RESULTS: 7,063/8,346 (84.6%) responses from all 39 UK medical schools were included; 1,127/7,063 (16.0%) were from Foundation Year (FY) 1 doctors, who reported that the most frequently taught topics in undergraduate training were on urinary tract infection (96.5%), acute kidney injury (95.9%) and haematuria (94.4%). The most infrequently taught topics were male urinary incontinence (59.4%), male infertility (52.4%) and erectile dysfunction (43.8%). Male and female catheterisation on patients as undergraduates was performed by 92.1% and 73.0% of FY1 doctors respectively, and 16.9% had considered a career in urology. Theory based teaching was mainly prevalent in the early years of medical school, with clinical skills teaching, and clinical placements in the later years of medical school. 20.1% of FY1 doctors reported no undergraduate clinical attachment in urology. CONCLUSION: LEARN is the largest ever evaluation of undergraduate urology teaching. In the UK, teaching seemed satisfactory as evaluated by the BAUS undergraduate syllabus. However, many students report having no clinical attachments in Urology and some newly qualified doctors report never having inserted a catheter, which is a GMC mandated requirement. We recommend a greater emphasis on undergraduate clinical exposure to urology and stricter adherence to GMC mandated procedures

Classical music as enforced Utopia

In classical music composition, whatever thematic or harmonic conflicts may be engineered along the way, everything always turns out for the best. Similar utopian thinking underlies performance: performers see their job as faithfully carrying out their master’s (the composer’s) wishes. The more perfectly they represent them, the happier the result. But why should performers not have a critical role to play in re-presenting a score, just as actors are permitted – required even – to find new meanings and new relevance in texts? And what or whom are performers obeying, the long dead composer (and what is the ethical basis for that?) or a policing system (teachers, examiners, adjudicators, critics, agents, promoters, record producers) that enforces an imaginary tradition from childhood to grave? Starting from the evidence of early recordings, showing that composers are misrepresented, this article seeks to unpick some of the delusions that support classical music practice. </jats:p