Meter and Rhythm in the Sung Poetry of Iranian Khorasan

The rhythmic theory developed by al-Fārābī remains relevant to the analysis of sung poetry in the contemporary Middle East, not least with respect to the question of how duration comes to be determined and the conception of verse as a constituent of melody (Arabic laḥn) in the fullest sense. This chapter reviews some of Fārābī’s concepts in relation to Christopher Hasty’s discussion of projective potential. Analysis of eight examples of sung verse in Persian and Khorasani Turkish focuses on coordination of tunes with rhythmic cycles associated with different types of poetic meter. I argue that the best analytical work on Persian traditional music, notably that of Dariush Talā’i, provides an excellent foundation for studies of Iran’s regional musics.

Bridging the Safavid–Ottoman Divide

In both Persian and Turkish art-music traditions, despite their significant current differences, the musical idiom of the 15th-century Timurid court is regarded as a significant forbear. Late 15th-century theoretical literature, however, refers to regional variations across the Middle East; these were exacerbated by a lack of continuity in Safavid and Ottoman court patronage during the 16th century, resulting in loss of repertoire and eventual replacement. Yet in the late 17th century commonalities between Safavid and Ottoman art-music practices re-emerge. Although not identical, indeed partly divergent, these practices share a core of frequently used modes and rhythmic cycles and use the same structures for complex song-settings; they even have elements of vocal repertoire in common, while certain Ottoman instrumental pieces are labelled ‘Persian’. There is evidence for the maintenance in both traditions of aesthetic constants in the domains of modulatory practice and formal articulation that can be observed much earlier.

Performing Cultural Hybridity in Isang Yun’s Glissées pour violoncelle seul (1970)

This paper explores cultural hybridity in Isang Yun’s Glissées pour violoncelle seul (1970) using a framework based on ideas from the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari. The discussion centers on five principal oppositions in the work: Taoist-inspired coalescence/dissolution and the Austro-German sonata cycle; Hauptton and twelve-tone techniques; the evocation of traditional Korean ornamentation and the concept of fixed pitch; the evocation of traditional Korean instruments and the cello timbre; and changdan rhythmic cycles and twelve-tone prose rhythms. Conclusions drawn from the consideration of each opposition then serve as the basis for comments regarding effective performance, using a framework based on ideas from conductor Markand Thakar.

Prefrontal attentional saccades explore space rhythmically

SummaryRecent studies suggest that attention samples space rhythmically through oscillatory interactions in the frontoparietal network. However, the precise mechanism through which the prefrontal cortex, at the source of attention control signals, organizes this rhythmic exploration of space remains unknown. We show that, when decoded at a high spatial (0.1°) and temporal resolution (50ms), the prefrontal covert attentional spotlight, aka the mind’s eye, continuously explores space at an alpha 7-12 Hz rhythm. When sensory events are presented at a specific optimal phase (resp. anti-phase) with respect to this rhythm, sensory encoding and behavioral report are accurate (resp. poor). We propose that this rhythmic prefrontal attentional spotlight dynamics corresponds to a continuous overt exploration of space via alpha-clocked attentional saccades. These attentional saccades are highly flexible, their pattern of space exploration depending both on within-trial and across-task contingencies. These results are discussed in the context of exploration and exploitation strategies and prefrontal top-down attentional control.HighlightsThe decoded prefrontal attentional spotlight samples visual space in rhythmic cyclesThis rhythmic attentional exploration predicts neuronal sensory processing accuracyThis rhythmic attentional exploration predicts overt behavioral accuracyThese rhythmic cycles define alpha-clocked attentional saccadesSpace exploration by attentional saccades is highly flexible and under top-down control

Fish on the move: connectivity of an estuary-dependent fishery species evaluated using a large-scale acoustic telemetry array

Connectivity — movements of animals between and among numerous habitats — and the factors (rhythmic cycles and environmental variables) influencing connectivity of juvenile Lichia amia (Teleostei: Carangidae) were assessed in complementary acoustic telemetry studies in two geographically separated estuaries (620 km apart) in South Africa. The studies were conducted within a nationwide array of acoustic receivers moored in estuaries and coastal waters. Tagged fish in both the Kowie (n = 21) and Goukou (n = 17) estuaries displayed high levels of multiple habitat connectivity, with 81% and 76% visiting nearby marine and estuarine environments, respectively. The presence of tagged L. amia within the tagging estuaries was significantly influenced by river and sea temperature (Kowie) and river inflow and moon phase (Goukou). Tidal phase, time of day, and season were found to significantly influence marine excursions undertaken by Kowie- and Goukou-tagged fish. Our study provides an assessment of connectivity among multiple estuarine, port, and marine habitats, relating those movements to rhythmic cycles and environmental variables, and highlights the benefits of tracking animals using an extensive acoustic receiver array that spans multiple habitats.

Thalamo-cortical interactions define functional dissociations across the macaque attention network

ABSTRACTSpatial attention is discontinuous, sampling behaviorally relevant locations in theta-rhythmic cycles (3–6 Hz). Underlying this rhythmic sampling are intrinsic theta oscillations in frontal and parietal cortices that provide a clocking mechanism for two alternating attentional states that are associated with either engagement at the presently attended location (and enhanced perceptual sensitivity) or disengagement (and diminished perceptual sensitivity). It has remained unclear, however, how these theta-dependent states are coordinated across the large-scale network that directs spatial attention. The pulvinar is a candidate for such coordination, having been previously shown to regulate cortical activity. We therefore examined pulvino-cortical interactions during theta-rhythmic sampling by simultaneously recording from FEF, LIP, and the pulvinar. Neural activity propagated from (i) pulvinar to cortex during periods of engagement and (ii) from cortex to pulvinar during periods of disengagement. A rhythmic reweighting of pulvino-cortical interactions thus defines functional dissociations in the macaque attention network.

Symbiotic learning partnerships in youth action sports: Vibing, rhythm, and analytic cycles

Reporting on an ethnographic study of youth media production at an action sports camp, this article describes the symbiotic learning partnerships formed between teen skateboarders and teen videographers necessary to collaboratively demonstrate the mastery of both tricks and video capture/editing. Symbiotic learning partnerships emerge when partners are, as one participant says, vibing with one another: when they are deeply invested in the production of a collaborative media artifact that they will jointly distribute across social media. When vibing with one another, skaters and videographers fall into collaborative, rhythmic cycles. This collaborative mastery is illustrated specifically through a focus on the cycles of reflection and nurture that skaters and videographers enter into when honing their respective crafts. This article advances understanding of youth digital media production in the rich, yet understudied, action sports community, drawing out potential implications for the design of digital media learning settings, broadly, that do not urge youth down individual pathways, but instead implement opportunities for symbiotic participation and learning.

Renaissance Psychologies

Thirteen writershave comprehensively explained theRenaissance scheme of physiology-psychology used for nosce teipsum, to ‘know oneself’, and other scholars have analysed key features likehumours, bodily spirits, passions, reason, inner wits, soul and spirit, mystic apprehension.Only poetswith epic scope, like Spenser and Shakespeare, depict human nature holistically, yet these finest poets have radically distinct psychologies.Spenser’s Christianised Platonism prioritises the soul, his art mirroringdivine Creation as dogmatically and encyclopedically conceived. He looks to the past, collating classical and medieval authorities in memory-devices like the figurative house, nobly ordered in triadic mystic numerical hierarchyto reform the ruins of time. Shakespeare’s sophisticated Aristoteleanism prioritises the body, highlighting physical processes and dynamic feelings of immediate experience, and subjecting them to intense, skeptical consciousness. He points to the future, using the witty ironies of popular stage productions to test and deconstruct prior authority, opening the unconscious to psychoanalysis. This polarity of psychologies is radical and profound, resembling the complementary theories of physics, structuring reality either (like Spenser) in the neatly-contained form of particle theory, or (like Shakespeare) in the rhythmic cycles of wave theory. How do we explain these distinct concepts, and how are they related? These poets’ contrary artistry appears in strikingly different versions of a ‘fairy queen’, of humour-based passions (notably the primal passion of self-love), of intellection (divergent modes of temptation and of moral resolution), of immortal soul and spirit, of holistic plot design, and of readiness for final judgment.

Chronotherapy: A Review

Chronotherapy refers to the use of circadian, ultradian, infradian and seasonal or other rhythmic cycles in the application of therapy. There are number of conditions which show a circadian pattern and advantage could be taken by timing and adjusting the administration of drugs according to the circadian rhythm of the disease. Some of the conditions, which may be significantly benefited, are hypertension, myocardial infarction, bronchial asthma, peptic ulcer, arthritis, duodenal ulcer, diabetes, neurological disorder, cancer and hypercholesterolemia. Chronotherapy can be classified into time controlled systems wherein the drug release is controlled primarily by the delivery system, stimuli induced PDDS in which release is controlled by the stimuli, such as the pH or enzymes present in the intestinal tract or enzymes present in the drug delivery system and externally regulated system where release is programmed by external stimuli like magnetism, ultrasound, electrical effect and irradiation.