Music, sounds, the Stradivarius and the computer: A dialogue between the music-maker and the music-listener

In what might be described as an 'ecological' spirit, here I recycle an ancient form, the dialogue. I find the dialogue form particularly appealing for its potential to encapsulate ideas both as content and form. This dialogue, between the music-maker and music-listener, is intended as an allegory that uses accessible language in a contemporary, conversational style. From an epistemological perspective, the split maker-listener may be viewed as a fabrication that subsumes numerous conflicts at personal, group and societal levels. The text is about creativity, freedom and ownership, about concept, percept and practice within multidisciplinary and multicultural contexts. It can be reconstructed in different ways when the music-maker and the music-listener are personified under a multitude of guises within multiple contexts. I have added a bibliographic list following the dialogue that includes some examples of the background reading that has helped to shape the thinking underlying the text. In particular, I have been deeply influenced by Gregory Bateson's writings, especially his 'metalogues', a collection of humorous, deceptively light dialogues that do not specify theatrical elements. I feel this lack of obvious affective content in the text allows readers to construe their own views of how the negotiation of discourses may take place, regardless of what I may have imagined or thought to have implied – or not – using a few italicised words

Schreier split extensions of preordered monoids

Properties of preordered monoids are investigated and important subclasses of such structures are studied. The corresponding full subcategories of the category of preordered monoids are functorially related between them as well as with the categories of preordered sets and monoids. Schreier split extensions are described in the full subcategory of preordered monoids whose preorder is determined by the corresponding positive cone

A note on ensiling characteristics of the tropical grass Setaria sphacelata var. splendida (Stapf).

The objective of this study was to evaluate the ensiling characteristics of Setaria sphacelata var. splendida (S. splendida) and to identify ensilability limiting factors of this tropical grass, locally produced