A Mathematical, Graphical and Visual Approach to Granular Synthesis Composition

We show a method for Granular Synthesis Composition based on a mathematical modeling for the musical gesture. Each gesture is drawn as a curve generated from a particular mathematical model (or function) and coded as a MATLAB script. The gestures can be deterministic through defining mathematical time functions, hand free drawn, or even randomly generated. This parametric information of gestures is interpreted through OSC messages by a granular synthesizer (Granular Streamer). The musical composition is then realized with the models (scripts) written in MATLAB and exported to a graphical score (Granular Score). The method is amenable to allow statistical analysis of the granular sound streams and the final music composition. We also offer a way to create granular streams based on correlated pair of grains parameters.

Gender Identity and Gestural Representations in Jonathan Harvey’s String Quartet No. 2

Jonathan Harvey debuted several novel techniques and elements in his String Quartet No. 2—“temperature” and gender markings, unique to this piece, and the melodic chain technique, a method which he continued to use in his subsequent quartets. Though the melodic chain technique is decipherable from score analysis, and has been explained by the composer in interviews, Harvey’s temperature and gender markings have continued to puzzle scholars, due to vague descriptions that obscure their meaning (especially in the case of the temperature markings) and to the implied stereotypes of themes that are gendered feminine and masculine (more shocking to the modern eye than it was in 1988). The question thus arises: did Harvey engage in a sexist trope with his gendered stereotyping of the themes, or was he ahead of his time by offering a nuanced and fluid approach to understanding gender, guided by his spirituality, presenting the constraints of binary stereotypes before dismantling them? Building on the scholarship of gender theory and musical gesture and embodiment, this article examines the meaning of gender in this piece.

Vocal Virtuosity

Vocal Virtuosity is a book about the apex of operatic vocalism. Nothing strikes the ear quite like a soprano singing in the sonic stratosphere. Whether thrilling, chilling, or repellent to the listener, the reaction to cascades of coloratura with climaxing high notes is strong. Coloratura—agile, rapid-fire singing—was originally essential for all singers, but its function changed greatly when it became the specialty of particular sopranos over the course of the nineteenth century. The central argument of Vocal Virtuosity runs counter to the historical commonplace that coloratura became an anachronism in nineteenth-century opera. Instead, the book demonstrates that melismas at mid-century were made modern. Coloratura became an increasingly marked musical gesture during the century with a correspondingly more specific dramaturgical function. In exploring this transformation, Parr’s research reveals the instigators of this change in vocal practice and the perpetuators of the art of coloratura. Vocal Virtuosity examines the historical traces of Parisian singers who were the period’s greatest exponents of vertiginous vocality as archetypes of the modern coloratura soprano. The book also explores what melismas can signify in operatic performance while constructing the historical trajectory of coloratura as it became gendered the provenance of the female singer. In arguing that vocal virtuosity was a source of power for women, generating space for female authorship and creativity, the book reclaims a place in history for the coloratura soprano.

Black Time in the Age of COVID

Both telematic performances and COVID suffer from latency. In telematic performance, it is the lag between a musical gesture you make, and the time that others in the network receive it. In COVID, it is lags between contact and showing symptoms, and between pubic health policy decisions and their effects. I argue that we need to embrace latency as an improvisational partner both in our telematic performances, and in our health care policies. I argue that Black aesthetics and Black approaches to sound and improvisation have long embraced latency, and that we need to become what is sometime called Afro-logical improvisers both in our networked performances and in our COVID related health policies.

Applying Deep Learning Techniques to Estimate Patterns of Musical Gesture

Repetitive practice is one of the most important factors in improving the performance of motor skills. This paper focuses on the analysis and classification of forearm gestures in the context of violin playing. We recorded five experts and three students performing eight traditional classical violin bow-strokes: martelé, staccato, detaché, ricochet, legato, trémolo, collé, and col legno. To record inertial motion information, we utilized the Myo sensor, which reports a multidimensional time-series signal. We synchronized inertial motion recordings with audio data to extract the spatiotemporal dynamics of each gesture. Applying state-of-the-art deep neural networks, we implemented and compared different architectures where convolutional neural networks (CNN) models demonstrated recognition rates of 97.147%, 3DMultiHeaded_CNN models showed rates of 98.553%, and rates of 99.234% were demonstrated by CNN_LSTM models. The collected data (quaternion of the bowing arm of a violinist) contained sufficient information to distinguish the bowing techniques studied, and deep learning methods were capable of learning the movement patterns that distinguish these techniques. Each of the learning algorithms investigated (CNN, 3DMultiHeaded_CNN, and CNN_LSTM) produced high classification accuracies which supported the feasibility of training classifiers. The resulting classifiers may provide the foundation of a digital assistant to enhance musicians' time spent practicing alone, providing real-time feedback on the accuracy and consistency of their musical gestures in performance.

Playing with sounds in the first years: Relevant research and pedagogical propositions for early childhood music education

Infants and children in their earliest years (6 months to 3 years) are highly motivated to act on objects to produce sounds and to explore the possibilities of sound production. Yet educational practice and music education research rarely concentrate on very young children’s abilities to produce sounds with objects or with age-appropriate musical instruments. There is, however, a small corpus of studies that have explored sound production among the under-3s and have suggested the importance of this activity in early musical development. In this article we first introduce and discuss this corpus of studies. In light of the theories of musical gesture and sound production emerging from these studies, we then propose a complementary music education perspective for young children under 3 years of age which is focused on sound production with objects.

Another Approach to Musical Interpretation

Music is neither a construction of pitches nor a linear arrangement of vocal parts, but rather an energetic shaping through time that integrates articulation, harmony, melody, and rhythm. Music expresses a kind of gesture in the dimension of sounds. In most cases, musical expressions, compared to linguistic expressions, are more like a state of motion or a behavior of sounds originating from physical sensations. Musical gesture can interpret the emotional expression and meaning of music from a perspective that is closer to the nature of music. Such an interpretation is not constrained by the traditional analysis of form and content, self-discipline and heteronomy, subjectivity and objectivity. It is more about how to stimulate the sensory systems to join in and understand the behavior and contents of music expressions in order to synthesize the meaning of music in different dimensions.