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Sacred and profane: review of 'Edmund Rubbra: symphonist' by Leo Black and 'The innumerable dance: the life and work of William Alwyn' by Adrian Wright
No full textWhat are the implications of neuroscience for musical education?
No full textBackground: In this paper, we consider music education in a broad sense–not merely pertaining to the development of exceptional levels of artistry in talented performers, but also to notions of musical listening and appreciation enjoyed by the casual listener.
Purpose: This review cannot be exhaustive, but aims to illustrate what we already know about the neuroscience of how music is perceived, appreciated, learned and performed, and the implications that this knowledge has for music education in this broadly defined sense.
Design and methods: Extant studies from across the fields of neuroscience, psychology, education and music were surveyed using mainstream Internet databases (e.g., PubMed), as well as specific Internet cites promoting interdisciplinary exchange among musicians and scientists (e.g., Music and Science Online: http://www.science.rcm.ac.uk). The result is a review of some 50 studies from across this relatively young field.
Conclusions: To date, examples of tangible, practical advice from neuroscience that can be applied directly to musical learning and performance are relatively scant. However, the field is growing rapidly, and collaborations between musicians and scientists are becoming more common. We argue that the scope for neuroscience research to inform and shape musical education is ripe for development, particularly when musicians and scientists work together to address questions of musical relevance with scientific rigour
Book review: 'Music of the twentieth century: a study of its elements and structure' by Ton de Leeuw.
No full textTon de Leeuw (1926–96) is held in high regard in the Netherlands for his achievements across a number of fields. First, his reputation as a composition teacher was second to none: his students included many of the leading Dutch composers of the last forty years, including Jan Vriend, Jos Kunst, Joep Straesser, Tristan Keuris, Guus Janssen, and Chiel Meijering. Second, there is his work as scholar of and proselytizer for both twentieth-century music and non-Western musical traditions, which gained a wide audience through his regular broadcasts on Dutch radio. And finally, of course, we have his own refined and elegant music, which frequently shows the influence of his interest in the music of the Indian subcontinent and East Asia, and continues to be regularly aired on concert platforms
Edition review: C. P. E. Bach: the complete works series V, vol. 5.1, works for special occasions I ed. Ulrich Leisinger
No full text"Attractively packaged but unripe fruit": the UK's commercialization of musical history in the 1980s
No full textThe decade from 1980 proved to be truly significant in the development of historical performance, as recreations of post-Baroque repertory gradually became the norm. At its close, three complete cycles of Beethoven Symphonies had been recorded on “period” instruments, implicitly demonstrating the complexity of the spectrum between practical expediency and historical accuracy. By 1991, Clive Brown was issuing a timely warning that the pedigree of many of the instruments on these recordings was of doubtful authenticity. The commercially-motivated rush to push period-instrument performance ever more rapidly into the nineteenth century did not offer much hope for the consolidation of historical playing styles. Despite some revelations, he felt that there was infinitely more to historically sensitive performance than merely employing the right equipment, and the public was in danger of being offered “attractively packaged but unripe fruit.” Brown noted an uneasy synthesis between modern baroque style applied to Beethoven alongside modern styles applied to old instruments
Seeing the sound: an exploration of the use of mental imagery by classical musicians
No full textSimilarities exist between the performance of musicians and athletes; both must prepare to perform at their optimal level and both experience psychological reactions to performance. Sport psychologists have begun to collaborate with performing artists to investigate the potential positive outcome of psychological skills on their performance (e.g., Connolly & Williamon, 2004; Fish et al., 2004). Mental imagery may be used for both cognitive and motivational purposes, resulting in positive performance outcomes such as learning a technically difficult piece, regulating arousal, and being confident. To explore these functions of imagery use an examination of classical musicians' use of imagery was undertaken. Music students (N = 159) completed the Functions of Imagery in Music Questionnaire (created for the purposes of this study). It was found that musicians reported employing imagery to limit distractions, recover from an error, maintain mental toughness, demonstrate confidence, and overcome mental and physical fatigue. In addition, performance majors indicated using imagery significantly more frequently to see themselves overcoming a difficult situation than non-performance majors, while voice musicians employed imagery to see goal achievement more often than instrumental musicians
Book review: 'Mozart's Viennese instrumental music: a study of stylistic re-invention' by Simon P. Keefe
No full textAction and thought in cello playing: an investigation of children’s practice and performance
No full textThis article presents a longitudinal case study investigation of three young cellists' self-directed preparation of a new piece of music for an informal performance. The investigation considers how musical understanding starts to emerge in children's practice and performance. It explores practice at early stages of learning and examines the children's thoughts and action through a comparison between what they say and what they are able to demonstrate through playing. The participants were filmed both in practice sessions and in informal performances. A multi-method approach was used in which detailed analysis of the children's playing, semi-structured interviews and the children's own appraisal five years after the research were combined. The results show that when left to their own devices, the children developed an internal representation of the music that incorporated rhythm and pitch mistakes of which they were unaware. The participants' appraisal five years later confirmed that they all adopted a mainly technical approach to the piece, through repetitive practice strategies, with no focus on musical matters and, therefore, no particular understanding of the structure of the piece. Overall, their interpretation was limited by their technical and conceptual difficulties and there were only a few signs of musical expression
Sensorimotor reorganization by proprioceptive training in musician’s dystonia and writer’s cramp
No full textObjective: The sensorimotor organization (SMO) of the motor hand area is abnormal in focal hand dystonia and likely contributes to symptom manifestation. In healthy subjects SMO is changed by training with proprioceptive stimulation. Here we test whether similar interventions reverse the abnormal SMO in musician's dystonia and writer's cramp. If so, they could be developed for therapeutic application.
Methods: In six non-musicians, six professional musicians, six patients with musician's dystonia, and six patients with writer's cramp, SMO was explored by measuring changes in short-interval-intracortical-inhibition (SICI) during short periods of hand muscle vibration before and after two training types: AttVIB, involving attention to 15 minutes vibration of the abductor pollicis brevis (APB); and AttIndex, involving attention to subtle cutaneous stimulation of the index finger.
Results: In healthy non-musicians, baseline SMO is spatially differentiated: SICI is reduced in projections to the vibrated, but enhanced to the non-vibrated muscles. Here AttVIB increased and AttIndex reduced the effect of subsequent APB-vibration on SMO. In healthy musicians, baseline SMO is less differentiated. AttVIB reinstated a more differential SMO pattern while AttIndex attenuated the effect of APB vibration. In focal hand dystonia, SMO is completely dedifferentiated. AttVIB tended to restore a more differential SMO in musician's dystonia but not in writer's cramp while AttIndex failed to induce any changes in both groups.
Conclusion: The intervention effect depends on the pre-interventional sensorimotor organization (SMO). In focal hand dystonia, particularly in musician's dystonia, it is possible to retrain an abnormal SMO toward a more differential pattern, which has potential implications for therapy