Exploring a systemic functional semiotics approach to understanding emotional expression in singing performance: Implications for music education

Engagement with songs through performance and analysis is a key component of music curricula worldwide. Music learning has a significant impact on a number of student competencies, including enhancing students’ communicative abilities as they learn to manipulate, express, and share sound in both voice qualities and lyrics. However, common analyses of singing performance rarely focus exclusively on voice quality, and there is no systematic framework which considers how emotional meaning in lyrics interacts with emotional meaning in voice quality. Drawing on systemic functional semiotics, this article proposes a unified theoretical framework for examining how emotional meaning is co-constructed in the voice and lyrics in singing performance. This framework provides a novel approach for discussing and teaching song analysis and performance. The framework will be illustrated through the analysis of the interaction between voice quality and lyrics in the song “Someone Like You” performed by Adele.

Composing Baudelaire for contemporary times

Sustained interactions with a poet’s work by musicians produce interpretative gaps. Through analysis of contemporary settings of five Baudelaire poems by Nicolas Chevereau, this article proposes a ‘thick method’ of song analysis which accounts for words and music as a conjoined ‘work’ and as a song ‘event’, using a systematic approach underpinned by digital tools including Excel, Sonic Visualiser, and Voyant. A consistent framework for song analysis enables us to rove around inside songs, and to draw in materials from outside the song. A highly individualized response to Baudelaire poems that are less commonly set to music, as in the case of Chevereau’s 2016 Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire, reveals significant common ground in terms of multi-perspective approaches that are now possible with intermedial works. Chevereau’s settings of Baudelaire shine important light on a series of complex sensory events which open up the poetic landscape to fresh interrogation and new interpretations.

Songs and morphology in three species of the Chorthippus biguttulus group (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Gomphocerinae) in Russia and adjacent countries

Songs and morphology are compared between Chorthippus miramae (Vorontsovsky, 1928) that was previously named as C. porphyropterus and two other closely related species, C. brunneus (Thunberg, 1815) and C. maritimus Mistshenko, 1951. We compare them because the calling song of C. miramae was previously shown to have song elements similar to those of other two species. One morphological character, the length of stridulatory file, appeared to be the best character to distinguish between all three species. For C. maritimus and C. miramae, we present the morphological descriptions since they are absent in the literature. We also establish the synonymy C. maritimus = C. bornhalmi Harz, 1971, syn. n. = C. biguttulus eximius Mistshenko, 1951, syn. n. In the song analysis, we analyse not only the sound but also the leg-movement pattern, which is very helpful to find a homology between various song elements. We show that the calling song of C. miramae usually contains two elements, one element being similar to the C. brunneus calling song, and another – to the C. maritimus calling song. Despite some similarities, the calling song elements in C. miramae have some peculiarities. The courtship song of C. miramae is similar to the C. brunneus song, whereas the rivalry songs of C. miramae comprise both the maritimus-like elements and the unique ones. C. miramae generally demonstrates a richer song repertoire than the other two species.

Bioacoustics and systematics of Mecopoda (and related forms) from South East Asia and adjacent areas (Orthoptera, Tettigonioidea, Mecopodinae) including some chromosome data

Bush-crickets (or katydids) of the genus Mecopoda are relatively large insects well-known for their sounds for centuries. Bioacoustic studies in India and China revealed a surprisingly large diversity of sound patterns. We extend these studies into the tropics of South East Asia using integrative taxonomy, combining song analysis, morphology of sound producing organs and male genitalia as well as chromosomes, to get a better understanding of the phylogeny and evolution of this widespread group. Besides the closely related genus Eumecopoda, the genus Mecopoda contains some isolated species and a large group of species which we assign to the Mecopoda elongata group. Some species of this group have broad tegmina and stridulatory files with different tooth spacing patterns and produce continuous, often relatively complicated, trill-like songs. The species of another subgroup with narrower wings have all similar files. Their songs consist of echemes (groups of syllables) which differ in syllable number and syllable repetition rate and also in echeme repetition rate. Our results show that South East Asia harbours a large and certainly not yet fully explored number of Mecopoda species which are most easily and clearly identified by song. Based on the data, five new forms are described: Mecopoda mahindai Heller sp. nov., Mecopoda paucidens Ingrisch, Su & Heller sp. nov., Mecopoda sismondoi Heller sp. nov., Mecopoda niponensis vietnamica Heller & Korsunovskaya subsp. nov., Eumecopoda cyrtoscelis zhantievi Heller subsp. nov. In addition, some taxonomic changes are proposed: Eumecopoda Hebard, 1922 stat. rev., Paramecopoda Gorochov, 2020, syn. nov. of Eumecopoda Hebard, 1922, Mecopoda javana (Johansson, 1763) stat. nov. (neotype selected) with M. javana minahasa Gorochov, 2020 stat. nov., M. javana darevskyi Gorochov, 2020 stat. nov., M. javana buru Gorochov, 2020 stat. nov., Mecopoda macassariensis (Haan, 1843) stat. rev., Mecopoda ampla malayensis Gorochov, 2020 syn. nov., Mecopada ampla javaensis Gorochov, 2020 syn. nov., Mecopoda fallax aequatorialis Gorochov, 2020 syn. nov., the last three are all synonyms of Mecopoda himalaya Liu, 2020, Mecopoda yunnana Liu 2020, stat. nov.

Contribution to unravel variability in bowhead whale songs and better understand its ecological significance

Since the first studies on bowhead whale singing behaviour, song variations have been consistently reported. However, there has been little discussion regarding variability in bowhead whale singing display and its ecological significance. Unlike the better studied humpback whales, bowhead whales do not appear to share songs at population level, but several studies have reported song sharing within clusters of animals. Over the winter season 2013–2014, in an unstudied wintering ground off Northeast Greenland, 13 song groups sharing similar hierarchical structure and units were identified. Unit types were assessed through multidimensional maps, showing well separated clusters corresponding to manually labelled units, and revealing the presence of unit subtypes. Units presented contrasting levels of variability over their acoustic parameters, suggesting that bowhead whales keep consistency in some units while using a continuum in values of frequency, duration and modulation parameters for other unit types. Those findings emphasise the need to account for variability in song analysis to better understand the behavioural ecology of this endangered species. Additionally, shifting from song toward units or phrase-based analysis, as it has been suggested for humpback whales, offers the opportunity to identify and track similarities in songs over temporal and geographical scales relevant to population monitoring.

Characteristics of Titounis Children Songs: A Study of Songs, Music Instruments and Onomatopoeia

The purpose of the study is to describe an analysis of children’s song characteristics Titounis. This study used a musicological approach to recognize songs’ characteristics. The data collection were document study and, listen and take note. This study used a content analysis technique. The analysis cover three aspects: (1) songs’ analysis, (2) instruments’ analysis, (3) Onomatopoeia. The songs that were analyzed were (1) Petit Escargot, (2) Le Roues de l Autobus, (3) Les Chiffres, (4) Un kilometer en Roulant. In the song analysis, the patterns used were general patterns, using fun and cheerful vocals, strong tonal stress, relatively limited variations in tones, slow, fast, and gradual tempo. The delivery style invites singing as well as dialogue or interaction. Then in musical instruments, the melody variations of each instrument form harmonization, the use of non-musical instruments emphasizes the theme of the song and provides the experience of hearing about the environment. The onomatopoeic analysis shows sound vroom (car), pataboum (jumping passengers), bip-bip-bip (serine), suisse-suisse (wiper). The onomatopoeia of Titounis songs serves to strengthen the song’s theme.