An Exploratory Study on the Acoustic Musical Properties to Decrease Self-Perceived Anxiety

Musical listening is broadly used as an inexpensive and safe method to reduce self-perceived anxiety. This strategy is based on the emotivist assumption claiming that emotions are not only recognised in music but induced by it. Yet, the acoustic properties of musical work capable of reducing anxiety are still under-researched. To fill this gap, we explore whether the acoustic parameters relevant in music emotion recognition are also suitable to identify music with relaxing properties. As an anxiety indicator, the positive statements from the six-item Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, a self-reported score from 3 to 12, are taken. A user-study with 50 participants assessing the relaxing potential of four musical pieces was conducted; subsequently, the acoustic parameters were evaluated. Our study shows that when using classical Western music to reduce self-perceived anxiety, tonal music should be considered. In addition, it also indicates that harmonicity is a suitable indicator of relaxing music, while the role of scoring and dynamics in reducing non-pathological listener distress should be further investigated.

Esorcizzare lo spettro

This paper enquires into the political and juridical themes underlying Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca (1900). Through the comparison of Puccini’s score, the libretto by Giacosa and Illica, and the original play by Sardou, I will present a twofold reading of the intertwinement between politics, religion, and law in this musical work. On the one hand, I will show that the police power represented by the character of Scarpia can be interpreted, from a Benjaminian standpoint, as a violent power that shapes the legal and religious order. On the other hand, I will argue that the artistic couple made by Cavaradossi and Tosca is politically significant in so far as their art represents an attempt to deactivate Scarpia’s pervading and oppressive force. The conclusion will contend that the aesthetics in this opera subtends the aspiration for an “inoperative”-wise revolution in religious institutions as well as in legal and political relations.

‘Empfindsamer Stil’ And Its Literary Connections: A Cue To Music Instruction

Empfindsamer Stil is a German expression whose meaning has historically been debated as either a “human emotional disposition” or “a musical style”. This descriptive bibliographic study seeks to investigate the historical development of Empfindsamer Stil, its application in musical contexts, as well as its nexus with literacy works, to inform music instruction. Given the COVID-19 pandemic research environment, most of the data were collected virtually and reported thematically. Findings indicate that Empfindsamer Stil is characterized by an emphasis on the expression of a variety of deeply felt emotions within a musical work, with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach being the principal exponent. The study also reveals that historians of philosophy across time failed to agree on the meaning of the term Empfindsamer Stil. It was therefore concluded that language is dynamic and evolving. Music educators must ensure to explore the history-contextual significance of musical terminologies, especially those that may be alien within the specific musico-cultural milieu of the learner. Also, in teaching, applying, and assessing lessons involving terminologies, music teachers must take a cue from specific historical epochs and cultures to maximize relevance and fairness. Future studies in music history, in correlation with modern psychology and literary works, will therefore help clarify further whether the term Empfindsamer Stil is best explained as a phenomenon of human emotional disposition or a musical style. Also, more research will better explain the interdependent coexistence of music and various literary works.

On Gavriil Popov’s Symphony No. 1 (To the First Publication of the Score)

В статье рассматриваются вопросы, связанные с историей создания, исполнения, запрета и дискуссий вокруг Первой симфонии выдающегося отечественного композитора, выпускника Ленинградской консерватории Гавриила Николаевича Попова (1904–1972). Судьба сочинения оказалась трагической: исполненная лишь однажды, симфония была запрещена. Так произошла одна из первых «публичных казней» музыкального произведения — еще до печально известных публикаций об опере «Леди Макбет» и балете «Светлый ручей» Д. Шостаковича, положивших начало борьбе с «антинародным формалистическим направлением» в музыке. Долгие годы замалчивания привели к тому, что яркое достижение отечественной симфонической школы «выпало» из истории советского искусства. Усилиями музыковедов И. Барсовой, И. Ромащук, Е. Власовой, И. Воробьёва, дирижеров Г. Проваторова и А. Титова Первая симфония Попова была возрождена к жизни. Сейчас готовится к печати первое издание этого незаслуженно забытого произведения. The article discusses issues related to the history of creation, performance, prohibition and discussions which surrounded the First Symphony of the remarkable Russian composer Gavriil Popov. The fate of the composition turned out to be tragic: once performed, the symphony was banned. It was one of the first public “executions” of a musical work — even before the infamous articles of the newspaper Pravda about the opera Lady Macbeth and the ballet Light Stream by Dmitry Shostakovich, which marked the beginning of the struggle against the “anti-national, formalistic trend” in music. Long years of oblivion led to the fact that the Symphony “fell out” of the history of Soviet music. Through the efforts of such musicologists as Inna Barsova, Inna Romashchuk, Yekaterina Vlasova, Igor Vorobyov, conductors Gennady Provatorov and Alexander Titov, Popov’s First Symphony was revitalized. And now the question arises regarding the first publication of this undeservedly forgotten outstanding work of the Soviet music.

The Evaluation of Music Department Students of Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta in Modes Identification

Modes in Modality concept is a musical thinking that was used before 1600s. After 1600s (Baroque Era), the concept of modes changed into a contrast concept called Tonality (major-minor) and still exist today, in our era. Musical knowledge will evolve along with technological advances, but in fact there are so many composers today using the concept of modes to give another nuance and interpretation in their musical works. As academic musicians, surely the students of Music Department of ISI Yogyakarta got the concept of modes in several subject such as music theory, music structure and style, music analysis, and etc. However, the tonality concept that always used by common academic musicians today makes the concept of Modality become so hard to identify if they are heard a musical work that contains modes. This research will show us how many students of Music Department of ISI Yogyakarta who can’t identify a musical work that contains modes.

Reproduction performance means of the piano work texture program (on the example of the cycle “Shevchenko’s Suite” by B. Liatoshynskyi)

The article is devoted to revealing the peculiarities of the texture program performance reproduction of a musical work. Based on the consideration of the textural program as a sequence of changes in the musical performance during the process of developing the form of the work, the performer-pianist must build the appropriate means of performance: artistic and technical ones. An important role here belongs to the author and the editorial remarks, the content of which, however, is quite conditional and requires individual performance correction. The topicality of the chosen topic lies in the need for in-depth consideration of the problems of musical texture and its attributes in the piano-performance specification. The purpose of the research is to identify the performance component of the piano work textural program, to propose an algorithm for its analysis on a specific example of B. Liatoshynskyi’s cycle. The methodology: the article uses a set of general scientific and special musicological approaches for developing the content of the stated topic. Among them are the following methods: systematic and structural method, it is aimed at revealing the essence of the phenomenon of the musical work textured program; a deductive method, it determines the course of research in the direction from a general part (textural program of a musical work) to a special (specificity of textural performance during a piano work) and a specific one (textural programs of plays of the cycle by B. Liatoshynskyi); genre and stylistic types of analysis from the point of view of reproduction of these phenomena in textural programs; texture analysis as a kind of musicological analysis; performance analysis, which is aimed at identifying the features of the textural attributes of the work under consideration. The results of the study show that the process of a piano work performance in the direction of its full interpretation is inseparable from analytical observations on the texture program and its attributes. The set of analytical and performance-technical procedures has as its ultimate goal the act of performing a piano work, in which the composer’s intentions are reproduced by means of the individual style of the pianist. The novelty of this study is the extrapolation of ideas about the piano work textural program on the interpretive activities of the performer. Embodying own understanding of the textural process and its attributes in the interpretation, the performer demonstrates personal version of the work sound image, revealing the means of the drama and composition art features. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of using its provisions and conclusions in the courses “Musical Interpretation”, “Analysis of Musical Works”, “History of Piano Performance”, as well as in classes specializing in “piano” for bachelors and masters of the higher educational institutions of art and culture of Ukraine. Conclusions. Thus, the concept application of the piano work “texture program” in relation to the activities of the performer-interpreter raises a number of issues related to the means of the performance center: dynamics, articulation, agogics, in their vision by the musical composer and directly the performer. In this context, the identification and implementation of the piano work textured program gives the key to the disclosure of its ideological and artistic content, a clear understanding of the drama and form features, implemented in the act of performance.

INTERPRETATION OF CHORAL WORK AS A CREATIVE COMPONENT IN THE SYSTEM OF FACTORS OF PERFORMANCE SKILLS OF THE FUTURE TEACHER - MUSICIAN

The article considers the issues of training a future music teacher, substantiates the importance of musical performance in his professional development. The views of scientists on the interpretation of the concepts of "performance", "performing skills" are analyzed. The components that determine the performance skills are highlighted. The meaning of the concepts "creation" and "creativity" is specified, their differences are defined. The phenomenon of interpretation as a type of creative activity is analyzed. Different approaches of music teachers and scholars to the interpretation of the term "interpretive skills", which are manifested in analytical work with musical text, technical and performing skills, artistic taste, the performer's own attitude to the figurative content of a musical work and reflect the level of his creative abilities. The key provisions of the theory and practice of interpretive activity of the future music teacher are indicated. The stages of creation of interpretation of a choral work are singled out and the range of tasks of each stage is defined. Analysis of a musical work is considered as one of the components of interpretation. The focus is on the formation of interpretation skills during individual lessons in the class of choral conducting. Methods and forms of work are proposed to activate the creative thinking of students to expand the musical horizons. It was found that the state of creative search deepens the performer's knowledge of the musical image, forms the skills and abilities of full-fledged work on interpretation. Emphasis is placed on the peculiarities of reading the musical text, on the development of skills and abilities in the independent analysis of a musical work. The role of personal qualities of the student and own experience in creative process is defined. The peculiarities of the formation of interpretive abilities are characterized, in particular, the sketch study of works as one of the forms of analytical-synthetic activity of the student is singled out. It was found that musical interpretation is a key aspect of the performing activity of a future musician teacher.

Building in-situ instruments for the Street Sonatas #1 and #5

Musical work for the Dossier “A quarter of century of Pd: past, present and future” [note by editor]