An Interpretive Analysis of Bela Bartok\u27s Performance of His Own Music

Bartok\u27s recordings made between 1912 and 1945 are considered valuable sources to Bartok interpreters. These recordings provide us with a wealth of information about the composer\u27s intentions and helpful interpretive ideas. This study shows that Bartok performs with great freedom that expresses what goes beyond the scores. The pieces selected in this study include Bagatelle Op. 6 No. 2, Evening in Transylvania from Ten Easy Piano Pieces, the first movement of Suite Op. 14, and Allegro Barbaro. By analyzing Bartok\u27s recordings on these four pieces, this thesis explores that Bartok\u27s interpretive decisions are related to stylistic and structural characteristics. His different use of tempo, dynamics, touch etc., results in varied perception of the form by the listener (Bagatelle); his free rubato playing articulates human language (Evening in Transylvania); his improvisatory performance brings out the essential character of folk dance (Suite, first movement); and his thoughtful articulation prevents a primitive piece from being too boisterous (Allegro Barbaro). This study also discusses Gyorgy Sandor\u27s recordings for comparison. Mr. Sandor was one of Bartok\u27s most successful pupils and won a Grand Prix du Disque for his recording of the entire piano music of Bartok. It is proved that Sandor\u27s playing of the same pieces is much more Classical and conservative than Bartok\u27s, because of Sandor\u27s more controlled touch and less various tempo, rhythmic variations. The author prepared the performance editions in the Appendix which illustrate precisely what has been played on the recordings. These examples provide the direct and reliable information, showing Bartok\u27s intentions on playing his own music

THE INFLUENCE OF INFOMRATION SENSITIVITY, COMPENSATION ON PRIVACY CONCERN AND BEHAVIOUR INTENTION

The holdbacks of information privacy to online marketing result in scholars\u27 research passionate around privacy concern. Following the research trend, this study examined the effect of two antecedent factors--information sensitivity and compensation--and their interactions on privacy concern and behaviour intention including information disclosure, protection intention and transaction intention. Two types of information (basic information as less sensitive information;, basic and financial information in purchasing context, basic and identifiable information in job hunting context as more sensitive information) and two types of compensation (30% sale discount as low level of compensation, free job vacation information as high level of compensation) were assigned to approximately reflect the practices in the real world. The experimental results show that privacy concern has negative effect on information disclosure but positive effect on protection intention. Information sensitivity has negative effect on information disclosure and transaction intention but positive effect on protection intention. On the contrary, compensation has positive effect on information disclosure and transaction intention. Moreover, compensation negatively interacts with information sensitivity, which has positive effect on information disclosure. These outcomes imply marketers should beware of the cost-benefits level to obtain accurate personal information

Coping with marginality: the Bunun in contemporary Taiwan.

This thesis is concerned with how the Bunun, an Austronesian speaking indigenous people of Taiwan, deal with changing historical conditions brought about mainly, but not solely, by colonialism. I explore how the Bunun engage and negotiate with the state, the Han-Chinese and Christianity; how a colonised people like the Bunun sustain an active role in their relationships with powerful others; and how they 'cope' with - read, endure, work through, break apart and transcend - the predicaments of marginality. I do not approach these questions by reconstructing a bounded Bunun tradition, and see how this tradition is influenced and transformed by the impact of external forces. Instead, I examine the subtle and complex ways in which the past, the state, and the Bunun culture itself are constructed in the present. I also criticize the romanticized notion of resistance which has dominated the studies of marginality, and the implicit assumption that we can only find the agency of the colonized under the rubric of resistance. Rather, I explore the various possible ways in which the Bunun can create 'agentive moments', a shift in the sense of oneself being acted upon by the world to a subject acting upon the world, for themselves. In attempting to understand how the Bunun can play an active role in making and transforming the world in which they live, I do not forget that their effort may fail and at times they experience themselves as powerless, displaced and lost. To exclude or erase such experiences is to adopt an anodyne view of history which denies the violent and destructive aspects of colonialism. The studies of death and the decline of spirit mediumship demonstrate vividly how the Bunun cope with the loss of life and power, and how such experiences contribute to the ways in which they understand and comment on their own existence at a particular historical moment. By taking into serious account the sense of powerlessness, loss, and displacement, I aim to convey the affective qualities of the Bunun's living experience which give the sense of a period, that is, what Raymond Williams (1977) calls 'structures of feeling'. I suggest that 'structures of feeling' are powerful expressions and evocations of how the Bunun experience the history of their colonisation, which give shape to local historical consciousness

Freeway travel time estimation based on the general motors model: a genetic algorithm calibration framework

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/166267/1/itr2bf00710.pd

Estimation of diffusion coefficients, lateral shear stress, and velocity in open channels with complex geometry

The lateral distributions of depth-averaged apparent shear stress, depth mean velocity, and diffusion coefficients are essential in certain quantitative analysis for sediment transport and environmental studies. An analytical method for the computation of these parameters is presented. A mathematical relationship between these parameters, based on the concept of surplus energy transport through a minimum relative distance developed by Yang and Lim [1997], is established, the depth-averaged apparent shear stress is determined from the boundary shear stress, depth mean velocity is obtained by considering the influence of nonuniform shear velocity and the free surface in 3-D channels, and the diffusion coefficients are linked to the depth-averaged apparent shear and velocity. The theoretical formulations for the distributions of depth-averaged apparent shear stresses, depth mean velocity and diffusion coefficients in trapezoidal and compound channels are presented. Comparisons between the theoretical and the measured lateral distributions of the depth-averaged apparent shear stresses and the depth mean velocities are also presented, and a reasonable agreement is achieved