Embodied music cognition: towards the understanding of gesture in saxophone performance

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Listening To Teachers’ Voices: Constructs On Music Performance Anxiety In Artistic Education

Music performance anxiety is an acknowledged condition amongst musicians from early learning stages to professional levels. Anxiety experienced in uncontrolled levels translates into the development of physiological and psychological symptoms that impair performance skills and may, ultimately, lead to post-traumatic stress disorders and drop-out of music-related activities. This paper focuses on teacher’s voices to justify the need for inclusion of anxiety management training in music schools’ curricula as means of promoting well-being, coping with stress-inducing situations, and boosting growing musicians’ performative experiences through positive pedagogies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to four instrument teachers of a Portuguese institution of specialized artistic education to collect data about previous experiences, conceptions, and ways of teaching MPA managing. The importance of integrating coping strategies in pedagogical practices, its obstacles and benefits, alongside suggestions for conceiving viable intervention projects in schools were discussed by the interviewed and hereby critically presented with respect to existing literature

A exposição gradual como estratégia de gestão da ansiedade na performance musical em crianças e adolescentes

O presente relatório encontra-se dividido em duas partes: relatório da Prática Profissional e Projeto de Intervenção Pedagógica. A primeira parte trata da descrição do percurso realizado no âmbito do estágio profissional efetuado no ano letivo 2018/2019 na Escola de Música da Póvoa de Varzim, na área de especialização de classe instrumental e vocal: saxofone e classe de conjunto. A par das aulas lecionadas em tempo letivo, com supervisão, foram também dinamizadas várias atividades extracurriculares e implementada uma investigação envolvida na temática da ansiedade na performance musical. Na segunda parte apresenta-se o projeto de intervenção pedagógica “A exposição gradual como estratégia de gestão da ansiedade na performance musical em crianças e adolescentes”, sob a forma de artigo científico. Através da construção de uma hierarquia gradual de 10 situações de exposição à ansiedade, e sua realização, procurou-se que os 5 alunos participantes se familiarizassem e aprendessem a gerir a ansiedade. A metodologia utilizada foi a de investigação-ação, baseada na teoria desenvolvida por Cynthia Last. Os resultados da intervenção apontaram uma redução dos níveis de ansiedade dos participantes e num aumento dos seus níveis de autoconfiança, de preparação para a tarefa e de motivação para tocar em público.This report is divided into two parts: Professional Practice report and Pedagogical Intervention Project. The first part is the description of the journey accomplished within the professional internship done during the school year 2018/2019 at Escola de Música da Póvoa de Varzim, in the area of specialization of vocal and instrumental class: saxophone and class ensembles. As well as the classes taught during the school timetable schedule, with supervision, were also dinamized various extracurricular activities and implemented an investigation involved in the theme of music performance anxiety. In the second part is presented the pedagogical intervention project “Gradual exposure as a strategy of music performance anxiety management among children and adolescents”, in the form of a scientific article. Through the construction of a gradual hierarchy of 10 exposure situations to anxiety, and its execution, was intented that the 5 participating students became familiar and learnt to manage anxiety. The methodology used was the research-action, based on the theory developed by Cynthia Last. The results of the intervention pointed a reduction of anxiety levels of the participants and increase of their levels of self confidence, of preparation for the task and of motivation to public performance

The city as an artifact: what Décimas Urbanas reveal about the decadence in the captaincy of Goiás

In the 18th century, gold prospecting was the main factor for the increase of the population of Captaincy of Goiás. This activity occupied part of the highlands and created a network of mining hamlets and roads that connected the colony’s central region from the coastal ports to the western border. Throughout this century, the search for precious metal redesigned this wide territory, intersected by mountains, plateaus and plains, irrigated by rivers, covered with forests and savannas, homeland for several indigenous groups. As gold emerged from rivers and mountains, new settlements were formed. The precious metal, however, didn’t stay in those places – once extracted, it was immediately shipped, with no time to print its promising signs of wealth in urban centers. The fall in gold production, during the 19th century, lead to new economic configurations that supposedly affected the Captaincy with the specter of decadence. In this article, we wish to challenge some of the theme’s paradigms as we assess the traces of decadence in four urban centers of the Captaincy of Goiás: Vila Boa, Pilar, Meia Ponte and Natividade. They were specifically chosen because they share the same origins in gold mining but also have gone different developments, which created their own characteristics and diversity, reflected in their materiality and social conformation. Through the analys and spatialization of the data extracted from the urban tax Décima Urbana, we may visualize some vestiges of the gold crisis and reveal important aspects related to the social topography of these places.O ouro foi o grande catalizador da povoação da Capitania de Goiás no século XVIII, ocupando parte dos sertões e criando uma rede de arraiais mineradores e estradas que conectavam a região central da colônia aos portos do litoral e à fronteira a oeste. Ao longo desse século, a busca pelo metal precioso redesenhou o vasto território, entrecortado por serras, planaltos e planícies, irrigado por rios, recoberto de matas e cerrado, terra originária de diversas etnias indígenas. Dos rios e das serras brotava o ouro, ao passo que surgiam novas povoações. Porém, o ouro não ficava nos arraiais – uma vez extraído, era despachado para longe, sem que lhes dessem tempo para imprimir nos núcleos urbanos os sinais promissores da riqueza. A queda da produção aurífera, durante o século XIX, acarretou uma nova configuração econômica que teria acometido a Capitania com o fantasma da decadência. Neste artigo, pretendemos quebrar alguns paradigmas sobre esse tema e avaliar o peso da decadência em quatro núcleos urbanos da Capitania de Goiás: Vila Boa, Pilar, Meia Ponte e Natividade. Escolhidos para o estudo por possuírem a mesma gênese mineradora, esses núcleos apresentam trajetórias distintas e características próprias que evidenciam essa diversidade, rebatidas na sua materialidade e conformação social. Com a análise e espacialização dos dados da Décima Urbana, podemos visualizar no intraurbano os reflexos da crise do ouro, além de revelar aspectos importantes ligados à sociotopografia desses núcleos

A IGREJA E A CONSTITUIÇÃO DOS NÚCLEOS MINERADORES GOIANOS DO SETECENTOS

Os núcleos mineradores da Capitania de Goiás tiveram a Igreja como um dos principais agentes modeladores do espaço urbano, juntamente com os rios e os caminhos, que conduziam aos outros arraiais. Esse artigo se propõe a clarear a interferência da Igreja nesses núcleos não só como assistência espiritual, mas elucidando como sua presença influenciou na constituição do desenho urbano dos assentamentos mineradores do século XVIII

O projeto “a lista dos 10”: intervenção pedagógica no ensino artístico especializado

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Book of abstracts for [e]motion - 1st Graduate Conference on Science and Technology of the Arts

Our relationship with the body and the material world has been transforming following processes of digitalization that were in motion before COVID-19 but, as consequence, were potentially accelerated. It is urgent to foster research on what is the place for physicality and (i)materiality in our time. In this context, the 1st Graduate Conference on Science and Technology of the Arts chose to focus on the intertwinement of notions of motion and emotion through interdisciplinary approaches from and towards the arts and/or heritage.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Knee flexion of saxophone players anticipates tonal context of music

Music performance requires high levels of motor control. Professional musicians use body movements not only to accomplish and help technical efficiency, but to shape expressive interpretation. Here, we recorded motion and audio data of twenty participants performing four musical fragments varying in the degree of technical difficulty to analyze how knee flexion is employed by expert saxophone players. Using a computational model of the auditory periphery, we extracted emergent acoustical properties of sound to inference critical cognitive patterns of music processing and relate them to motion data. Results showed that knee flexion is causally linked to tone expectations and correlated to rhythmical density, suggesting that this gesture is associated with expressive and facilitative purposes. Furthermore, when instructed to play immobile, participants tended to microflex (>1 Hz) more frequently compared to when playing expressively, possibly indicating a natural urge to move to the music. These results underline the robustness of body movement in musical performance, providing valuable insights for the understanding of communicative processes, and development of motor learning cues.Grant 2020.05257.BD of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and TechnologyFSE programme through Programa Operacional Regional NorteFlemish Government, the project FQM-307 of the Government of Andalusia (SpainProject PID2020-113961GB-I00 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (also supported by the FEDER programme).Consejería de Conocimiento, Investigación y Universidad, Junta de Andalucía (Spain)FEDER programme for the project A-FQM-66-UGR20IMAG-María de Maeztu grant CEX2020-001105-M/AEI/ 10.13039/50110001103

Insights into the study of saxophonists' body language: capturing and analyzing expressive performative movement

Body movement constitutes an essential part of music performance. Although physical consciousness in instrumental learning is highly approached from technical and injury-preventive perspectives, research conducted over the past two decades has evidenced musician’s ability to connect and express themselves through their moving bodies. Gestural elements may facilitate structural and expressive intentions (e.g., singers bend forward to execute loud passages), establish communication with the audience and co-performers (e.g., flutists and clarinettists nod rhythmically for coordination purposes) and illustrate musical characters and atmospheres (large, exposed gestures in opposition to contained, introverted ones) (Bishop & Goebl, 2018; Davidson, 2001, 2012). The fact that biomechanical features of musical instruments restrict performer’s ability to move freely leads to the development of specific motion cues per instrument type, which brings us to the main questions of this research. How do saxophonists move while performing? What gestures are the core of the sax player’s body language, and what inherent intentions do they carry? Are we able to augment meaningful performances by matching our body talk with the impeccable musical result we practice for countless hours? In this paper we present the early stage of an on-going PhD research, involving multimodal data collection and processing of saxophone performances. A hybrid presentation is intended, coarticulating theoretical discussion with video extracts of motion capture sessions demonstrating several procedures of data gathering in the studio. Eleven saxophone players were invited to play five excerpts of standard saxophone repertoire (including works by Creston, Debussy, Ibert and Glazounov) in two different modes: immobile and projected expressiveness. Each individual session combined audio and video recording with motion capture from an optical-passive system comprising ten infrared cameras, which allows for precise movement tracking and mapping into computational 3D models. These models translate into uncharacterized animations evidencing performer’s movements only (no visual appearance attached), from which parameters such as trajectory or amplitude may be analysed. An integrated analysis of synchronized motion and audio data will be posteriorly conducted to compare interpretations of each excerpt in the two performative modalities and understand how bodily movements relate to musical parameters. We expect this research to build new insights concerning the development of an expressive gesture vocabulary for saxophone performance and pedagogy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio