scholarly journals An Analysis of Jonathan Harvey’s Speakings for Orchestra and Electronics

Ricercare ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 72-107
Author(s):  
Gabriel José Bolaños Chamorro
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
Music And Language ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Articulatory Phonetics ◽  
Musical Context ◽  
Technical Achievement

In recent years an increasing number of composers have used speech as source material for instrumental, electronic and electroacoustic music. This article examines this particular intersection of music and language through an analysis of Jonathan Harvey’s Speakings for orchestra and electronics. I attempt to understand how Harvey made an orchestra sound like a human voice by analyzing his use of technology and his compositional techniques, particularly as they relate to existing theories of speech perception, acoustics and articulatory phonetics. This technical achievement is then placed in its broader musical context to examine the role that speech-sounds play in this piece, and the implications of hearing an orchestra speak in the context of this work’s narrative.

Figures of Speech: Oral History as an Agent of Form in Electroacoustic Music

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 88-94
Author(s):  
John Young
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Figures Of Speech

This article reflects on how the author’s use of oral history recordings as source material in three electroacoustic works suggests ways in which complementary threads of storytelling and recorded memory can be shaped into purposefully directed forms.

Experiences of Time and Timelessness in Electroacoustic Music

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-247
Author(s):  
Jason Noble ◽  
Tanor Bonin ◽  
Stephen McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Perception ◽  
Music Perception ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Human Information Processing ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
The One ◽  
Musical Context ◽  
Historical Antecedents

Electroacoustic music and its historical antecedents open up new ways of thinking about musical time. Whereas music performed by humans is necessarily constrained by certain temporal limits that define human information processing and embodiment, machines are capable of producing sound with scales and structures of time that reach potentially very far outside of these human limitations. But even musics produced with superhuman means are still subject to human constraints in music perception and cognition. Focusing on five principles of auditory perception – segmentation, grouping, pulse, metre and repetition – we hypothesise that musics that exceed or subvert the thresholds that define ‘human time’ are likely to be recognised by listeners as expressing timelessness. To support this hypothesis, we report an experiment in which a listening panel reviewed excerpts of electroacoustic music selected for their temporally subversive or excessive properties, and rated them (1) for the pace of time they express (normative, speeding up, or slowing down), and (2) for whether or not the music expresses ‘timelessness’. We find that while the specific musical parameters associated with temporal phenomenology vary from one musical context to the next, a general trend obtains across musical contexts through the excess or subversion of a particular perceptual constraint by a given musical parameter on the one hand, and the subjective experiences of time and timelessness on the other.

Greek Sculpture

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Spivey
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Social ◽  
Greek Sculpture ◽  
Technical Achievement ◽  
Proper Context ◽  
The Ideal

Ancient Greek sculpture seems to have a timeless quality – provoking reactions that may range from awe to alienation. Yet it was a particular product of its age: and to know how and why it was once created is to embark upon an understanding of its 'Classic' status. In this richly illustrated and carefully written survey, encompassing works from c.700 BC to the end of antiquity, Nigel Spivey expounds not only the social function of Greek sculpture but also its aesthetic and technical achievement. Fresh approaches are reconciled with traditional modes of study as the connoisseurship of this art is sympathetically unravelled, while source material and historical narratives are woven into detailed explanations, putting the art into its proper context. Greek Sculpture is the ideal textbook for students of classics, classical civilisation, art history and archaeology – and an accessible account for all interested readers.

scholarly journals Biblical Inspirations in the Works of Krzysztof Penderecki: At the Crossroads of Theology and Music

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-66
Author(s):  
Marek Skrukwa
Keyword(s):  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
Krzysztof Penderecki

By taking up Biblical themes in his oeuvre, Krzysztof Penderecki ef­fectuated the idea of returning art to its Christian roots. Analyses of selected fragments of his outstanding works (Seven Gates of Jerusalem and Passion According to St. Luke) show that the composer performed a peculiar, apt and suggestive “translation” of Biblical content into mu­sical language, using contemporary compositional techniques as well as alluding at times to the tradition of J.S. Bach. In the above compositions, Penderecki utilized the sound of the instruments, assigning them symbolic meaning and even experiment­ing with their construction (tubaphone). He also introduced a spatial­ly-distributed orchestra, assigning the human voice its original, pure­ly declamatory function, without limitations of rhythm or meter. The composer thus took steps to theatricalize the musical work, in order to enable a deeper reception of the Biblical content by the audience.

Mirroring the Expression

2019 ◽  
pp. 287-302
Author(s):  
Patrik N. Juslin
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Emotional Expression ◽  
Emotional Contagion ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
Psychological Mechanism ◽  
Musical Context ◽  
The Brain ◽  
As If

This chapter considers a psychological mechanism that can arouse musical emotions called contagion. Contagion is something that people have experienced numerous times in everyday life — outside a musical context. For instance, some people can feel depressed after a conversation with someone who is depressed. Emotional contagion refers to a process whereby an emotion is induced by a piece of music because an independent region of the brain reacts to certain acoustic features as if they were coming from a human voice that expresses an emotion, which leads the listener to mirror the emotional expression internally. The contagion mechanism is strongly related to the emotional expression of the music.

Kröpfl, Francisco (1931--)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Novoa
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
New Music ◽  
American Composers ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
Twentieth Century Music ◽  
Instrumental Accompaniment ◽  
Intense Activity ◽  
The University

Francisco Kröpfl is an Argentinean composer and researcher. His work as a pedagogue through the development of several generations of Latin American composers is widely recognized, alongside his intense activity in the diffusion of twentieth-century music through the Agrupación Nueva Música (New Music Group), founded by Juan Carlos Paz, of whom Kröpfl was a follower. Specializing in electroacoustic music, Kröpfl has been a pioneer in composition with electronic media. In 1958, he founded the Estudio de Fonología Musical (EFM) at the University of Buenos Aires, the first laboratory of its kind in Latin America. He subscribes to integral serialism (the employment of series for aspects other than pitch, such as duration), an orientation that he has applied in an original and personal manner in his works. Kröpfl has explored the expressive potential of the human voice both in his works for voice and as an instrumental accompaniment. In this vein, Orillas (1988) became a paradigmatic work, earning him the 1988 Magistère Prize in Bourges, France. He was president of the Argentine Federation of Electroacoustic Music and judged international competitions of electroacoustic music.

scholarly journals ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC AND THE SLOVAK MUSICAL AVANT-GARDE IN THE 1960S

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-64
Author(s):  
ALENA ČIERNA
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
New Music ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Given

In the 1960s, the development of music in Slovakia was marked by prominent generational and stylistic confrontations of the compositional poetries of the previous generations of composers and the just emerging one. In the composers’ community, an initiative was gaining a foothold that reassessed the practices, norms, and achievements of the previous developmental stages of Slovak music and looked for new points of departure. In certain stages of the given period, the first graduates of the Academy of Performing Arts (Ilja Zeljenka, Juraj Pospíšil, Pavol Šimai, Ladislav Kupkovič, Peter Kolman, Roman Berger, Jozef Malovec, Miroslav Bázlik, Ivan Parík, Tadeáš Salva, and others) entered the musical scene. The genesis and the formation of the Slovak musical avant-garde in the 1960s was determined by their quest for the novel possibilities of expression and the compositional techniques of the so-called New Music of Western Europe. They included experimenting with previously unknown electrogenic compositional materials and techniques of electroacoustic music. Slovak electroacoustic music, which achieved success in Slovakia and abroad already in the 1960s, emerged first on a private basis, later in the Sound Studio of the Czechoslovak Television, and, primarily, in the Experimental Studio of the Czechoslovak Radio.

Auditory Training to Improve Speech Perception and Self-Efficacy in Aging Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1270-1281
Author(s):  
Leah Fostick ◽  
Riki Taitelbaum-Swead ◽  
Shulamith Kreitler ◽  
Shelly Zokraut ◽  
Miriam Billig
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Temporal Order Judgment ◽  
Auditory Training ◽  
Intensity Discrimination ◽  
Training Design ◽  
Auditory Temporal Processing ◽  
Temporal Properties ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Aging Adults

Purpose Difficulty in understanding spoken speech is a common complaint among aging adults, even when hearing impairment is absent. Correlational studies point to a relationship between age, auditory temporal processing (ATP), and speech perception but cannot demonstrate causality unlike training studies. In the current study, we test (a) the causal relationship between a spatial–temporal ATP task (temporal order judgment [TOJ]) and speech perception among aging adults using a training design and (b) whether improvement in aging adult speech perception is accompanied by improved self-efficacy. Method Eighty-two participants aged 60–83 years were randomly assigned to a group receiving (a) ATP training (TOJ) over 14 days, (b) non-ATP training (intensity discrimination) over 14 days, or (c) no training. Results The data showed that TOJ training elicited improvement in all speech perception tests, which was accompanied by increased self-efficacy. Neither improvement in speech perception nor self-efficacy was evident following non-ATP training or no training. Conclusions There was no generalization of the improvement resulting from TOJ training to intensity discrimination or generalization of improvement resulting from intensity discrimination training to speech perception. These findings imply that the effect of TOJ training on speech perception is specific and such improvement is not simply the product of generally improved auditory perception. It provides support for the idea that temporal properties of speech are indeed crucial for speech perception. Clinically, the findings suggest that aging adults can be trained to improve their speech perception, specifically through computer-based auditory training, and this may improve perceived self-efficacy.

Adaptation of the Connected Speech Test: Rerecording and Passage Equivalency

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasan K. Saleh ◽  
Paula Folkeard ◽  
Ewan Macpherson ◽  
Susan Scollie
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
North American ◽  
First Language ◽  
Intraclass Correlation ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Connected Speech ◽  
Internal Reliability ◽  
Speech Test ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Unit Standard

Purpose The original Connected Speech Test (CST; Cox et al., 1987) is a well-regarded and often utilized speech perception test. The aim of this study was to develop a new version of the CST using a neutral North American accent and to assess the use of this updated CST on participants with normal hearing. Method A female English speaker was recruited to read the original CST passages, which were recorded as the new CST stimuli. A study was designed to assess the newly recorded CST passages' equivalence and conduct normalization. The study included 19 Western University students (11 females and eight males) with normal hearing and with English as a first language. Results Raw scores for the 48 tested passages were converted to rationalized arcsine units, and average passage scores more than 1 rationalized arcsine unit standard deviation from the mean were excluded. The internal reliability of the 32 remaining passages was assessed, and the two-way random effects intraclass correlation was .944. Conclusion The aim of our study was to create new CST stimuli with a more general North American accent in order to minimize accent effects on the speech perception scores. The study resulted in 32 passages of equivalent difficulty for listeners with normal hearing.

An Eye-Tracking Study on Audiovisual Speech Perception Strategies Adopted by Normal-Hearing and Deaf Adults Under Different Language Familiarities

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
pp. 2245-2254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianrong Wang ◽  
Yumeng Zhu ◽  
Yu Chen ◽  
Abdilbar Mamat ◽  
Mei Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Audiovisual Speech ◽  
Audiovisual Speech Perception ◽  
Allocation Pattern ◽  
Deaf Adults ◽  
Bilingual Speaker ◽  
Primary Hypothesis ◽  
Standard Chinese

Purpose The primary purpose of this study was to explore the audiovisual speech perception strategies.80.23.47 adopted by normal-hearing and deaf people in processing familiar and unfamiliar languages. Our primary hypothesis was that they would adopt different perception strategies due to different sensory experiences at an early age, limitations of the physical device, and the developmental gap of language, and others. Method Thirty normal-hearing adults and 33 prelingually deaf adults participated in the study. They were asked to perform judgment and listening tasks while watching videos of a Uygur–Mandarin bilingual speaker in a familiar language (Standard Chinese) or an unfamiliar language (Modern Uygur) while their eye movements were recorded by eye-tracking technology. Results Task had a slight influence on the distribution of selective attention, whereas subject and language had significant influences. To be specific, the normal-hearing and the d10eaf participants mainly gazed at the speaker's eyes and mouth, respectively, in the experiment; moreover, while the normal-hearing participants had to stare longer at the speaker's mouth when they confronted with the unfamiliar language Modern Uygur, the deaf participant did not change their attention allocation pattern when perceiving the two languages. Conclusions Normal-hearing and deaf adults adopt different audiovisual speech perception strategies: Normal-hearing adults mainly look at the eyes, and deaf adults mainly look at the mouth. Additionally, language and task can also modulate the speech perception strategy.

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