58,741 research outputs found
Moral Music Management: Ethical Decision-Making After Avicii
No full textFollowing the tragic suicide of Avicii (Tim Bergling) in 2018, many in the popular media, and reportedly the musician’s own family, were seen to question the ethics of decisions taken by his manager (Williams, 2018; Ralston, 2018). By applying a moral intensity test (Jones, 1991) in the form of a scenario-based questionnaire to six music managers based in London (UK), this article interrogates how and why music managers make the moral and ethical choices they do. The findings suggest that music managers are aware of ethical challenges emanating from their work, but that the relatively informal, loosely regulated nature of the music workplace complicates the negotiation of ethical and moral tensions. However, music managers’ close awareness of the ‘social consensus’ and ‘proximity’ of moral intensity suggests that cultural (as opposed to regulatory) change can help guide and inform managerial decision-making
The effects of background music and sound in economic decision making: Evidence from a laboratory experiment
No full textThis paper experimentally studies the effects of background music and sound on the preference of the decision makers for rewards in pairwise intertemporal choice tasks and lottery choice tasks. The participants took part in the current experiment, involving four treatments: (1) the familiar music treatment; (2) the unfamiliar music treatment; (3) the noise treatment and (4) the no music treatment. The experimental results confirm that background noise affects human performance in decision making under risk and intertemporal decision making, though the results do not indicate the significant familiarity effect that is a change of the preference in the presence of familiar background music and sound.Allais-type preferences; choice under risk; intertemporal choice; the familiarity effect
Popular Music Pedagogy: band rehearsals at British universities
No full textThere has been little published pedagogical research on popular music group rehearsing. This study explores the perceptions of tutors and student pop/rock bands about the rehearsals in which they were involved as a part of their university music course. The participants were 10 tutors and 16 bands from eight British tertiary institutions. Analysis of participants’ interview responses suggested their perceptions could be grouped into three over-arching categories: operational mechanics of rehearsing: rehearsing activities; and group dynamics in the rehearsal. These categories, comprising a master list of twelve themes, are used to provide a basis for establishing twelve pedagogical guidelines for tutors involved in undergraduate pop/rock band rehearsal activities. Abstracted from the research are two illustrative pedagogical models, which are offered as suggestions for practice and further debate
Portfolio of recorded performances and exegesis: Messiaen’s musical language for the jazz pianist - an exploration through performance.
No full textMoving beyond Gunther Schuller’s Third Stream amalgamation of classical and jazz, this study explores whether the musical language of Olivier Messiaen can make a valid contribution to jazz piano performance. Initially, my project sought to answer such questions as: What elements of the musical language of Messiaen already exist in the jazz vocabulary? Am I able to extend this further? What are the timbral structures and pianistic effects within Messiaen’s musical language? What will be the most effective application of Messiaen’s musical language to jazz piano performance? Endeavouring to answer the final question led me to consider such aspects as whether the project should be limited to quoting Messiaen motifs, arranging Messiaen melodies, replacing jazz harmonic structures on standards with examples from Messiaen’s musical language or whether it would be better to approach the research conceptually. The work of Hubert Nuss provided encouraging reassurance that this was not an impossible task. In order to articulate this conception, the initial challenge was to decide how the classical and jazz worlds might meet in a ‘Messiaen’ technique. The approach adopted was similar to that used for undergraduate jazz study, namely, immersion in the piano scores and recordings of Messiaen’s music as well as by live performances. This was followed by the development and assessment of a contrived approach when specific techniques, such as tonal colourings or harmonic structures, were developed through prepared exercises and consciously included in my performance. It was then compared with an intuitive approach when no such precise parameters were established. This submission consists of CD recordings of two public recitals and an exegesis. It documents the development of this Messiaen technique and discusses its application in my performances. It also demonstrates the ways that Messiaen’s musical language can be used within jazz piano performance to provide a colour that distinguishes jazz piano performance in a competitive field.Thesis (M.Mus.) -- University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 201
A study, exploration and development of the interaction of music production techniques in a contemporary desktop setting
No full textAs with all computer-based technologies, music production is advancing at a rate comparable to ‘Moore’s law’. Developments within the discipline are gathering momentum exponentially; stretching the boundaries of the field,
deepening the levels to which mediation can be applied, concatenating previously discrete hardware technologies into the desktop domain, demanding greater insight from practitioners to master these technologies and even
defining new genres of music through the increasing potential for sonic creativity to evolve.
This DMus project will draw from the implications of the above developments and study the application of technologies currently available in the desktop environment, from emulations of that which was traditionally hardware to the latest spectrally based audio-manipulation tools. It will investigate the interaction of these technologies, and explore creative
possibilities that were unattainable only a few years ago – all as exemplified through the production of two contrasting albums of music. In addition, new software will be developed to actively contribute to the evolution of music production as we know it. The focus will be on extended production technique and innovation, through both development and context.
The commentary will frame the practical work. It will offer a research context with a number of foci in preference to literal questions, it will qualify the methodology and then form a literature & practice review. It will then present a series of frameworks that analyse music production contexts and technologies in a historical perspective. By setting such a trajectory, the current state-of-the-art can be best placed, and a number of the progressive production techniques associated with the submitted artefacts can then by contextualised. It will terminate with a discussion of the work that moves from the specific to the general
Music Making >= Computer Programming
No full textMusic notation is probably one of the earliest forms of sequential programming. Each note on a stave informs the performer what action to take and the output is generally reliable and repeatable. Of course one thing that makes music making different from computer programming is the ability to add human expression and interpretation to the performance – adding pseudo-random events and character to the sound that is created. Nowadays computing systems are able to introduce fuzzy logic parameters, and modern processing speeds are sufficient to enable humanised responses to be incorporated. With all this in mind, it’s no surprise that collaborations between computing and musical experts have resulted in wild and wonderful innovations that unlock new forms of musical expression and creativity
Audiomobiles, Sculptures and Conundrums
No full textRoberto Gerhard was a pioneer of electronic music in England creating a number of substantial concert, theatre and radio works from as early as 1954. Gerhard’s electronic music is one of the richest repositories for understanding the development of the composer’s late compositional technique. Apart from the Symphony no.3, ‘Collages’, none of Gerhard’s electronic music is published. This paper will discuss aspects of Gerhard’s electronic music, focusing on Audiomobiles (1958-59) and Sculptures (1963)
Music for classical guitar by South African composers : a historical survey, notes on selected works and a general catalogue
No full textIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 296-309).This is the first comprehensive investigation of music for, or including, the classical guitar by South African composers. The focus of this research has been, firstly, to uncover as much of the repertoire as possible, and, secondly, to collate, study, catalogue and report on the information. A brief historical survey of the guitar in South Africa provides the context within which this study was conducted. The primary sources of quantitative data collection were through the archival catalogues of the South African Music Rights Organisation and through personal contact with guitarists, composers and guitar teachers. Other sources consulted were publishers, broadcasting corporations, recording companies, libraries and the internet. The body of the dissertation comprises biographical sketches, background notes, analyses and technical notes on 17 selected solo and chamber works dating from 1947 to 2007 by some of South Africa's most prominent composers and guitaristcomposers. The repertoire ranges in style from the traditional and ethnically inspired to the experimental and abstract. As this is an empirical survey, each selected entry includes details on instrumentation, duration, level of difficulty, number of pages, scordatura, commissions or requests, sources or publishers, premières and recordings. A biography of each composer is provided as well as background notes which offer an overview of the selected work. The notes discuss historical, cultural, musical and extra-musical influences, and frequently include references to interview material. The commentaries on the selected works, with musical examples, include an analytical component describing structure, form, stylistic and compositional elements, while the technical observations include performance suggestions and a grading for each work
Strange Attractors: A Commentary on Applications of Indeterminacy in my Recent Music
No full textThis commentary reflects on how indeterminacy has been used in the music I have written over the period of my doctoral studies, 2005-2008. Non-musical ideas play a major role in my compositional language and this is reflected in the use of 'strange attractors' as a metaphor for the philosophical and aesthetic stance behind composing with indeterminacy. After a brief introduction chapter, the links between strange attractors—and chaos theory in general—and indeterminate music are discussed. And applications of indeterminacy to pitch organisation techniques such as spectral modelling and frequency modulation are examined as part of a frequency-based harmonic continuum. Different methods of generating ambiguous pitch percepts that sit at the boundaries of the harmony/timbre duality are considered In pieces with text processes
Assessing undergraduate jazz and rock group music-making : adding to the classic(al) recipe
No full textAs the teaching of a broad range of musics has entered the academy over recent decades, default settings inherited from classical music are increasingly questioned. In particular, approaches to music performance - in a classical context focused on the individual, on technical facility, and on performance outcome - are often inappropriate for the assessment of popular music styles. Undergraduate music performance teaching at the University of Western Sydney has long included a consideration of the quality of collaboration, not only in the performance event, but the rehearsal process. An experiment with students choosing parameters for self and peer assessment of group music-making has underlined the importance of ‘non-musical’ (personal, interpersonal, and organizational) skills. Rather than suggest that modes of assessment inherited from classical models have no place in the assessment of rock and jazz groups, this paper argues that a synthesis of traditional (technique and expression oriented) and new approaches will best prepare young musicians for “real world” contexts, while also reflecting the process musicians partake in to bring any collaborative project to fruition
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