The Human Nature of Music

Music is at the centre of what it means to be human – it is the sounds of human bodies and minds moving in creative, story-making ways. We argue that music comes from the way in which knowing bodies (Merleau-Ponty) prospectively explore the environment using habitual ‘patterns of action,’ which we have identified as our innate ‘communicative musicality.’ To support our argument, we present short case studies of infant interactions using micro analyses of video and audio recordings to show the timings and shapes of intersubjective vocalizations and body movements of adult and child while they improvise shared narratives of meaning. Following a survey of the history of discoveries of infant abilities, we propose that the gestural narrative structures of voice and body seen as infants communicate with loving caregivers are the building blocks of what become particular cultural instances of the art of music, and of dance, theatre and other temporal arts. Children enter into a musical culture where their innate communicative musicality can be encouraged and strengthened through sensitive, respectful, playful, culturally informed teaching in companionship. The central importance of our abilities for music as part of what sustains our well-being is supported by evidence that communicative musicality strengthens emotions of social resilience to aid recovery from mental stress and illness. Drawing on the experience of the first author as a counsellor, we argue that the strength of one person’s communicative musicality can support the vitality of another’s through the application of skilful techniques that encourage an intimate, supportive, therapeutic, spirited companionship. Turning to brain science, we focus on hemispheric differences and the affective neuroscience of Jaak Panksepp. We emphasize that the psychobiological purpose of our innate musicality grows from the integrated rhythms of energy in the brain for prospective, sensation-seeking affective guidance of vitality of movement. We conclude with a Coda that recalls the philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment, which built on the work of Heraclitus and Spinoza. This view places the shared experience of sensations of living – our communicative musicality – as inspiration for rules of logic formulated in symbols of language

Serving Massive Time-Based Media (SMaTBaM) - Report on the evaluation process of system needs and demands of serving time -based media in the area of the Performing Arts

The SMaTBaM project (Serving Massive Time-Based Media) aimed to establish a working example of a dataserver for time-based media in the area of the Performing Arts. Building on experience gained in the UMI/NetMuse project, the project will demonstrate the searching and serving of massive realtime data, using a web-based interactive front end. The project is designed directly to enhance the Performing Arts Data Service, PADS , whose remit and funding from the Arts and Humanities Data Service, AHDS, do not extend to conducting research into the development of specialized supporting technology. (PADS is a Glasgow University Arts Planning Unit Project based in the Departments of Music and of Theatre, Film and Television Studies.

Community Impact of Public Processions

Research into the impact of public processions on community life in Scoltand.  The research paid particular attention to the impact of problematic processions, and how these processions could be better policed and managed

Rhythmic Relating : Bidirectional support for social timing in autism therapies

We propose Rhythmic Relating for autism: a system of supports for friends, therapists, parents, and educators; a system which aims to augment bidirectional communication and complement existing therapeutic approaches. We begin by summarizing the developmental significance of social timing and the social-motor-synchrony challenges observed in early autism. Meta-analyses conclude the early primacy of such challenges, yet cite the lack of focused therapies. We identify core relational parameters in support of social-motor-synchrony and systematize these using the communicative musicality constructs: pulse; quality; and narrative. Rhythmic Relating aims to augment the clarity, contiguity, and pulse-beat of spontaneous behavior by recruiting rhythmic supports (cues, accents, turbulence) and relatable vitality; facilitating the predictive flow and just-ahead-in-time planning needed for good-enough social timing. From here, we describe possibilities for playful therapeutic interaction, small-step co-regulation, and layered sensorimotor integration. Lastly, we include several clinical case examples demonstrating the use of Rhythmic Relating within four different therapeutic approaches (Dance Movement Therapy, Improvisational Music Therapy, Play Therapy, and Musical Interaction Therapy). These clinical case examples are introduced here and several more are included in the Supplementary Material (Examples of Rhythmic Relating in Practice). A suite of pilot intervention studies is proposed to assess the efficacy of combining Rhythmic Relating with different therapeutic approaches in playful work with individuals with autism. Further experimental hypotheses are outlined, designed to clarify the significance of certain key features of the Rhythmic Relating approach

Why do we like to dance and sing?

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An exploration of timbre analysis : the game of sound in two performances of Jeux vénitiens

The analysis of timbre in musical structure is often left to subjective descriptive terms, while the analysis of pitch and form has a precise methodology and vocabulary at its disposal. Where changes in timbre appear to play an important role in a work, an analysis solely of the piece’s pitch and thematic structures may fail to account for vital elements in the composition’s structure. This paper presents an analysis of the first movement of Lutoslawski’s Jeux vénitiens using techniques of timbre analysis based on psychoacoustic research. Following a traditional analysis of pitch and form, two different performances of Jeux vénitiens are analysed using psychoacoustic timbre measures of width, sharpness and roughness. The results from these two performances are compared and the score is examined for reasons for the changes in timbre. Musical structures based on both pitch and timbre analyses are proposed. The paper is both a case study of how timbre analysis can be done, and an invitation to others to embark on analysis of timbre in musical structures