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Conservatory musicians’ temporal organization and self-regulation processes in preparing for a music exam
Get PDFPerforming at the very highest levels requires rigorous preparation before the important performance. Musicians and especially music students encounter many challenges when preparing themselves for an important musical performance. This study sought to identify and analyze the context-specific temporal organization and self-regulation efforts that music students employ during their preparation period. Conservatory musicians were recruited from an Australian University Conservatorium. Thirteen conservatory musicians aged between 19 and 21 years (M = 19.6; SD = 0.76) participated in the study. All musicians, through an elicitation interview, were asked to recall and reconstruct their preparation period, leading up to a performance exam. Elicitation interviews provided access to music students’ experiences by describing their general preparation. The results showed that conservatory musicians go through different phases (Phase 1: Choosing a piece; Phase 2: Piece discovery; Phase 3: Piece interpretation; Phase 4: Performance preparation). Self-regulatory efforts to prepare for a music performance exam vary from one musician to another. Organizational and disorganizational competencies, specific self-regulatory skills, seem not to be exploited by conservatory musicians. Also, during their preparation, most music students prefer technical and musical work than challenges such as playing in front of the public. Emotionally, conservatory musicians go through pleasant and unpleasant emotions depending on the phase of their preparation. Our results show that music students could benefit from advice on how to organize their preparation period well before an important performance takes place. Implications for conservatory musicians and teachers are discussed.
A genealogy of Prokofiev’s musical gestures from the juvenilia to the later piano works
No full textProkofiev’s early, unpublished works for piano were composed between 1896 and 1907. They demonstrate the origins of his pianistic idiom, as well as provide us with a genealogy of musical ideas and gestures that were to remain key features of his compositional voice. These early works, in addition to evidence drawn from a number of primary sources, also present us with insights into Prokofiev’s own development as a pianist and his musical personality, shedding light on his technical strengths, his preferences, and his at times unorthodox approach to performance. The chapter concludes with a hermeneutic and analytical discussion of his Toccata, op. 11, composed in 1912, the climactic work of this early period
Emotion regulation processes can benefit self-regulated learning in classical musicians
Get PDFSelf-regulated learning (SRL) is the degree to which students are metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviourally active participants in their own learning process. It involves the self-regulation of cognitive, behavioural, and affective processes. SRL holds significant potential for enhancing practise and achievement. Although affect is acknowledged as one of the three fundamental processes in SRL, there is limited research investigating it. However, emotions have been found to influence SRL efficiency while emotion regulation (ER) can impact learning outcomes. Thus, this study sought to investigate how ER processes relate to SRL among professional musicians who perform Western classical music. Four forms of regulation (reappraisal, suppression, rumination, repression) were examined in relation to the SRL three-phase model. Professional musicians (N = 334) of 39 nationalities (age: 18–66; [M = 28]; female = 215; male = 119) completed a survey comprising the Self-Regulated Learning in Music Questionnaire, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and demographic items. A significant positive correlation emerged between SRL and reappraisal, and significant negative correlations emerged between SRL and the other three processes. Further multiple linear regression analysis revealed that reappraisal, practise hours, and expertise accounted for 26% of the variance in SRL. Finally, a factorial (2 × 2 × 2) ANOVA yielded significant group differences on ER as a function of gender, expertise, and occupation. Results suggest that reappraisal can enhance the use of SRL in musicians, thus highlighting the potential utility in considering ER as part of SRL. These results suggest that by including training on emotion regulation strategies within musicians’ educational institutions and workplaces, efficiency and engagement in SRL can be enhanced. This could produce more effective learning strategies and outcomes, together with higher musical achievements
The association between loneliness and depressive symptoms among adults aged 50 years and older: a 12-year population-based cohort study
Get PDFBackground: Loneliness is experienced by a third of older adults in the UK and is a modifiable potential risk factor for depressive symptoms. It is unclear how the association between loneliness and depressive symptoms persists over time, and whether it is independent of related social constructs and genetic confounders. We aimed to investigate the association between loneliness and depressive symptoms, assessed on multiple occasions during 12 years of follow-up, in a large, nationally representative cohort of adults aged 50 years and older in England.
Methods: We did a longitudinal study using seven waves of data that were collected once every 2 years between 2004 and 2017, from adults aged 50 years and older in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). The exposure was loneliness at baseline (wave two), measured with the short 1980 revision of the University of California, Los Angeles Loneliness Scale (R-UCLA). The primary outcome was a score indicating severity of depression measured at six subsequent timepoints (waves three to eight), using the eight-item version of the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Analyses were linear multilevel regressions, before and after adjusting for social isolation, social support, polygenic risk scores, and other sociodemographic and health-related confounders. The secondary
outcome was depression diagnosis, measured using a binary version of the CES-D. Findings 4211 (46%) of 9171 eligible participants had complete data on exposure, outcome, and confounders, and were included in our complete case sample. After all adjustments, a 1-point increase in loneliness score was associated with a 0·16 (95% CI 0·13–0·19) increase in depressive symptom severity score (averaged across all follow-ups). We estimated a population attributable fraction for depression associated with loneliness of 18% (95% CI 12–24) at 1 year of follow-up and 11% (3–19) at the final follow-up (wave eight), suggesting that 11–18% of cases of depression could potentially be prevented if loneliness were eliminated. Associations between loneliness and depressive symptoms remained after 12 years of follow-up, although effect sizes were smaller with longer follow-up.
Interpretation: Irrespective of other social experiences, higher loneliness scores at baseline were associated with higher depression symptom severity scores during 12 years of follow-up among adults aged 50 years and older. Interventions that reduce loneliness could prevent or reduce depression in older adults, which presents a growing public health problem worldwide.
Funding National Institute on Aging and a consortium of UK Government departments coordinated by the National Institute for Health Research
BBC Radio 3 record review: Proms composer: Rachmaninov
No full textWilliam Mival discusses recordings of music by Proms composer Rachmaninov in this programme broadcast on 1 August 2020
A life reset
No full textDigital mini-opera, duration 11 minutes. This work won second prize in the #OperaHarmony series.
Synopsis: Set in the initial weeks of the lockdown during the
Coronavirus pandemic, A Life Reset highlights the equalising effects of lockdown. Anna, a woman who usually lives alone in isolation and hasn’t left her flat in years, is now able to join in fully now life has moved online. But will these inclusive opportunities last?
Librettist: Laura-Jane Foley; Director: Julie Osman; Editor: Alessandro Mariscalco. Performers: Anna: Kirstin Sharpin; Chorus: Philippa Boyle, Victoria Barbé, and Elizabeth Sillo
A longitudinal study of the development of expressive timing
Get PDFTempo arches have often been reported in polished music performances, but their development during the learning of a new piece has not been studied. We examined the development of expressive timing at three levels of musical structure (piece, section, phrase) as an experienced concert soloist (the second author) prepared the Prelude from J. S. Bach’s Suite No. 6 for solo cello for public performance. We used mixed effect models to assess the development of expressive timing and the effects of the performance cues (PCs) that the cellist used as mental landmarks to guide her performance. Tempo arches appeared early in practice at all three levels of musical structure and changed over time in complex ways, first becoming more pronounced and more asymmetrical and then shrinking somewhat in later performances. Arches were also more pronounced in phrases that contained PCs, suggesting that PCs reminded the cellist where to “breathe” between phrases. The early development of tempo arches suggests that they were an automatic product of basic cognitive or motor processes. The complex trajectory of their later development appeared to be the result, at least in part, of a deliberate communicative strategy intended to draw listeners’ attention to some musical boundaries more than others
Longitudinal associations between short-term, repeated, and sustained arts engagement and well-being outcomes in older adults
Get PDFObjectives: This study investigated whether frequency of receptive arts engagement over 10 years contributes to experienced, evaluative and eudaimonic well-being in older adults.
Methods: We used repeated data of 3,188 respondents from waves 2 to 7 (2004/2005-2014/2015) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. We examined longitudinal associations between short-term (frequent engagement at one wave), repeated (frequent engagement at 2-3 waves), and sustained (frequent engagement at 4-6 waves) arts engagement and experienced, evaluative and eudaimonic well-being. We fitted linear and logistic regression models adjusted for baseline well-being and a number of sociodemographic, economic, health and social engagement factors.
Results: In the fully-adjusted models, short-term engagement was not longitudinally associated with well-being, but repeated engagement with the theatre/concerts/opera and museums/galleries/exhibitions was associated with enhanced eudaimonic well-being and sustained engagement with these activities was associated with greater experienced, evaluative and eudaimonic well-being
