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‘Inclosed in this tabernacle of flesh’: body, soul, and the singing voice
No full textThis essay considers how early modern constructions of the singing voice are embedded into a range of philosophical discourses that spread far wider than the usual concerns of music scholarship. Taking as a case study, Battista Guarini's poem 'Mentre vaga Angioletta' (1581), it investigates of some of the broader concepts, both philosophical and ‘scientific’, which lie behind the poem’s engagement with the operation of a particular singing voice, and its effects on the body of the one who listens. It provides a model for fresh ways of considering a fundamental human phenomenon, that is important to comprehending early modern consciousness
A four-stave transcription of Froberger’s Ricercar, FbWV 412: why play contrapuntal music from open score notation?
No full textThis edition of the Ricercar, FbWV 412 by Johann Jacob Froberger (1616–1667) gives keyboard players a tool with which to experience reading music from open score — a practice generally neglected today. This skill, also known as partitura, was a prerequisite of seventeenth-century keyboard fugue performance. The practice began in Naples with Rocco Rodio's Libro di ricercate, a 4 (1575), and widely adopted across Europe until beyond the time of J.S. Bach, The author's transcription of FbWV 412 is edited from the Seconda Parte of Froberger’s Libro Quarto of 1656 (A-Wn Mus. Hs. 18707, fols. 53v–56v.) is typeset in open score notation with modern treble and bass clefs to assist players who wish to perform this music from a visual presentation similar to that of Froberger's autograph but which does not require fluency in C-clefs. The transcription is accompanied by a brief performance commentary
Reflection as creative process: perspectives, challenges and practice
No full textThis paper explores the challenges and opportunities for embedding reflection in practice-based curricula in the arts. Following the root and branch curriculum reform project recently completed at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the paper presents a hermeneutic and analytical narrative of the challenges emerging from presenting reflection as a creative, active and interactive process. The paper outlines a working version of reflection as a creative and embodied process. In order to demonstrate that creativity and reflection are inextricably linked in the arts, and more importantly, that they are crucial to a student’s practice, the term itself often needs to be humanized. While written reflection remains a crucial component of our courses, here I consider different approaches to reflection, drawn from current practice, where it becomes a practical and generative platform for creativity. In the process of exploring these practices, the paper draws on Ken Robinson’s insightful exploration of the concept of creativity and articulates with Csikszentmihayli’s thought-provoking study on its location
Music regulators in two string quartets: a comparison of communicative behaviors between low- and high-stress performance conditions
No full textIn ensemble performances, group members use particular bodily behaviors as a sort of “language” to supplement the lack of verbal communication. This article focuses on music regulators, which are defined as signs to other group members for coordinating performance. The following two music regulators are considered: body gestures for articulating attacks (a set of movements externally directed that are used to signal entrances in performance) and eye contact. These regulators are recurring observable behaviors that play an important role in non-verbal communication among ensemble members. To understand how they are used by chamber musicians, video recordings of two string quartet performances (Quartet A performing Bartók and Quartet B performing Haydn) were analyzed under two conditions: a low stress performance (LSP), undertaken in a rehearsal setting, and a high stress performance (HSP) during a public recital. The results provide evidence for more emphasis in gestures for articulating attacks (i.e., the perceived strength of a performed attack-type body gesture) during HSP than LSP. Conversely, no significant differences were found for the frequency of eye contact between HSP and LSP. Moreover, there was variability in eye contact during HSP and LSP, showing that these behaviors are less standardized and may change according to idiosyncratic performance conditions. Educational implications are discussed for improving interpersonal communication skills during ensemble performance
Game-based learning of musical instruments: a review and recommendations
No full textThe process of learning and mastering a musical instrument is extremely complex and prone to challenges.
Students engage with their teacher for a relatively limited time and subsequently undertake long periods of private study based on the guidance received. This time away from formal feedback leaves them prone to the development of bad technical and practice habits, to burnout from the solitary nature of practice, and to a lack of external motivation to improve. Furthermore, the great deal of time and effort required to master a musical instrument amplifies the effects of inefficient practice, and the highly complex nature of the material being learned can both lead to subjective and vague and the belief in the need for excessively long hours of repetitive practice to acquire technical skills. These factors can have negative consequences for the learner, ranging from frustration stemming from lack of progress, high abandonment rates, and psychological and physiological health problems. Game-based learning solutions are well-suited to address the challenges experienced by student, capitalizing on constant advances in technology such as the use of immersive or embodied controllers and interfaces that use gesture recognition as input. This paper reviews the current state-of-the-art in the use of game-based learning practices and tools (e.g. serious games) in music learning, taking the violin as a case study. It finds that, while progress is being made, relatively little has been done to leverage game-based learning to improve musicians’ experience. The paper will outline the requirements and pitfalls associated to the culture of high performance and mainstream music students and conclude with a series of recommendations for those developing-game based learning solutions
Musical motives in performance: a study of absolute timing patterns
No full textMusical motives are short melodic, rhythmic and/or harmonic patterns repeated either exactly or in varied form. They have long been recognised as important elements of musical structure. Less well-explored is how musical motives are manifested in performance, and how they are perceived in that context. Expressive motives originating in performance—which we term “performance motives”—are also of considerable interest, but they have received scant theoretical attention despite their potential significance in music performance and perception. Performance motives may go some way to addressing questions of listener preference for particular performers' interpretation of the same work over others.
In this chapter, we discuss a method that seeks to locate and to characterise performance motives. It combines a simple pattern-matching approach with Formal Concept Analysis to allow the exploration of repeated absolute timing patterns in performance. We present the results obtained by applying this method to timing data from publicly available, audio-recorded performances of a work by Chopin. We conclude that repetition types can be related to specific motivic, structural and temporal factors as well as more general characteristics and combinations thereof that might be overlooked in a study focused primarily on the score