1857 research outputs found
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Specialist support for performers: audiologist
No full textLearn how an audiologist can help performers keep their hearing in top shape and avoid irreversible noise induced hearing loss
Music students’ physical fitness
No full textResearch finding that more can be done to help ensure musicians are physically fit and ready to take the stage.
Read the full report:
Araújo L, Wasley D, Redding E, Atkins L, Perkins R, Ginsborg J, & Williamon A (2020), Fit to perform: a profile of higher education music students’ physical fitness, Frontiers in Psychology, 11 (298), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00298, see also http://researchonline.rcm.ac.uk/id/eprint/1117/
Hans Gál: What a Life!
Get PDFMusic from the Internment Camp Revue: Douglas, Isle of Man, 1940. Instrumentation: 2 violins, viola, cello, clarinet, flute, piano,
2 singers: medium high and low voice.
Includes songs and instrumental numbers from the bilingual revue, the melodrama Ballade vom Armen Jakob by Norbert Elias and the Suite from What a Life! for piano.
See the Audio tab below for recordings of songs from What a Life! as follows:
Der Song vom Stacheldraht (Norbert Meyn, tenor, Christopher Gould, piano, Ashley Solomon, flute); Frauen Song (Norbert Meyn, tenor, Christopher Gould, piano, Haim Choi, violin); Die Ballade vom Deutschen Refugee I-III (Julien van Mellaerts, baritone, Christopher Gould, piano, Ingrid Pearson, clarinet, Haim Choi, violin); Aufräume Song (Norbert Meyn, tenor, Christopher Gould, piano, Nina Kiva, cello); Keep fit! (Norbert Meyn, tenor, Christopher Gould, piano); Besen Song (Norbert Meyn, tenor, Christopher Gould, piano); Der Song vom Doppelbett (Norbert Meyn, tenor, Christopher Gould, piano, Ingrid Pearson, clarinet); Serenade (Norbert Meyn, tenor, Julien van Mellaerts, baritone, Christopher Gould, piano, Haim Choi, violin).
Songs from ‘What a Life!’ recorded on July 22, 2021 at RCM Belle Shenkman Studios: Producer: Raphael Mouterde. Performers: Julien van Mellaerts (baritone); Norbert Meyn (tenor); Ingrid Pearson (clarinet); Ashley Solomon (flute); Nina Kiva (cello); Ham Choi (violin); Christopher Gould (piano). ***** This edition was prepared as part of the research project ‘Music, Migration and Mobility - The Legacy of Migrant Musicians from Nazi Europe in Britain’ which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, reference AH/S013032/1. ***** COPYRIGHT NOTICE: The edition: © 2020 Royal College of Music, London (graphic rights only), Eva Fox-Gál. All rights reserved. The recordings: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 4.0
Capturing the magic: a three-way dialogue on the impact of music on people and society
Get PDFThis article sets out a dialogue on the impact of music on people and society. The perspectives of three researchers, from different experiential and methodological backgrounds, are presented. The article explores: how we define concepts of impact; how we seek to measure the impact of engaging with music, providing examples from our own recent work; and tensions in attempting to capture or measure the ‘magic’ of music, including how to meet the needs of different audiences and how to develop new ways to capture impact. The authors reflect on the political climate in which music interventions operate, including the need to ask different questions at different times for different audiences, concluding that it is vital to measure both if there is any impact, how this impact was achieved, and people’s experiences of engaging with music. We found consensus about the need to move evidence forwards through both the use of arts-based creative methods that focus on the music-making process itself as well as through collaborations that bring together varied perspectives, experiences, disciplines and research methods. We also argue that – as there is considerable evidence about the impact of music, on different people, in different ways, and in different settings – researchers should now aim to take stock of the evidence base. Finally, we posit that there is merit in engaging with a reflective dialogue like the one presented here, as a tool to help challenge, disrupt, and influence our own thinking
Communicating through musical play: combining speech and language therapy practices with those of early childhood music education – the SALTMusic approach
Get PDFYoung children’s speech and communication skills have been in the spotlight in recent years, often in association with parental socio-economic status and children’s ‘readiness’ for school. Finding innovative and open-ended ways to encourage children with communication difficulties to engage in interactive play was the premise for this action research project. By combining the theoretical knowledge and expertise of speech and language therapists with those of early childhood music-arts practitioners, the interdisciplinary research team expanded their understanding and practical approaches. Caregivers and children aged 24–48 months attended weekly SALTMusic sessions. The team reflected together on their observations after every session, completing the ‘SALTMusic Scale’ for each child.
Drawing together analyses from this tool, and other data collection methods, it was evident that children’s communication improved when the need to talk was removed and children and caregivers were encouraged to play with sound and make music together. This is an important study offering an evidence-informed approach to working with children and their caregivers that can relieve anxiety and build confidence. The quality of practice in the field is impacted by an increasingly reflective workforce who place theory and research as integral elements of their practice
Yodelling, jokes and thrilling energy: how Haydn transformed the symphony
No full textIn our daily series Armchair Arts, a Telegraph critic offers expert analysis. Today, Ivan Hewett looks at a playful but majestic work
‘Frankly, the economics are horrendous’: what future for classical music after lockdown?
No full textWith concert halls dark across the country, Ivan Hewett reports on the sometimes drastic proposed solutions to the industry's current crisis
Carmen abroad: Bizet's opera on the global stage
No full textFrom the 'old world' to the 'new' and back again, this transnational history of the performance and reception of Bizet's Carmen – whose subject has become a modern myth and its heroine a symbol – provides new understanding of the opera's enduring yet ever-evolving and resituated presence and popularity. This book examines three stages of cultural transfer: the opera's establishment in the repertoire; its performance, translation, adaptation and appropriation in Europe, the Americas and Australia; its cultural 'work' in Soviet Russia, in Japan in the era of Westernisation, in southern, regionalist France and in Carmen's 'homeland', Spain. As the volume reveals the ways in which Bizet's opera swiftly travelled the globe from its Parisian premiere, readers will understand how the story, the music, the staging and the singers appealed to audiences in diverse geographical, artistic and political contexts
Reconsidering memorisation in the context of non-tonal piano music
Get PDFPerformers, pedagogues and researchers have shared interest in the topic of musical memorisation for centuries. A large and diverse body of studies on this subject has contributed to the current understanding of musicians’ views of performing from memory, as well as the mechanisms governing encoding and retrieval of musical information. Nevertheless, with a few exceptions, existing research is still highly based on tonal music and lacks further examination in the musical world of non-tonality. The convention of performing from memory is a well-established practice for particular instruments and musical genres, but an exception is often made for recent styles of repertoire moving away from tonality. No study to date has systematically investigated the reasons for such exception and musicians’ views on this matter. Moreover, the existing principles of memorisation that are thought to apply to musicians in the highest levels of skill are strongly based on the use of conceptual knowledge of tonal musical vernacular. Such knowledge is often obscured or absent in non-tonal repertoire.
This thesis aims to extend the findings of previous research into musical memorisation in the context of non-tonal piano repertoire by documenting pianists’ views and practices in committing this music to memory. An interview study with pianists expert in contemporary music (Chapter 3) establishes the background for the thesis. A variety of views on performing contemporary music from memory were reported, with several pianists advocating benefits from performing this repertoire by heart and others from using the score. Memorisation accounts revealed idiosyncrasy and variety, but emphasised the importance of specific strategies, such as the use of mental rehearsal, principles of chunking applicable to this repertoire and the importance of different types of memory and their combination.
The second study (Chapter 4) explores the topic in further depth, by thoroughly examining the author’s entire process of learning and memorising a newly commissioned non-tonal piece for prepared piano. This study extends findings from performance cue (PC) theory. This widely recognised account of expert memory in music suggests that musicians develop retrieval schemes hierarchically organised around their understanding of musical structure, using different types of PCs. The use of retrieval schemes in this context is confirmed by this study. The author organised the scheme around her own understanding of musical structure, which was gradually developed while working through the piece, since the music had no aural model available or ready-made structural framework to hold on to early in the process. Extending previous research, new types of PCs were documented and, for the first time, negative serial position effects were found for basic PCs (e.g., fingering, notes, patterns) in long-term recall. Finally, the study provided behavioural evidence for the use of chunking in non-tonal piano music.
The third study (Chapters 5 and 6) extends these findings to a serial piece memorised by six pianists. Following a multiple-case study approach, this study observed in great depth memorisation approaches carried out by two of those pianists, who performed the music very accurately from memory, and by one pianist who performed less accurately. The first two pianists developed retrieval schemes based on their understanding of musical structure and different types of PCs, mainly basic and structural. Comparisons between the pianists revealed very different views of musical structure in the piece. Even so, both musicians used such understanding to organise encoding and retrieval. The pianist with the least accurate performance adopted an unsystematic approach, mainly relying on incidental memorisation. The absence of a conceptual retrieval scheme resulted in an inability to fully recover from a major memory lapse in performance.
The findings of this research provide novel insights into pianists’ views towards performing non-tonal music from memory and into the cognitive mechanisms governing the encoding and retrieval of this music, which have practical applications for musicians wishing to memorise non-tonal piano music