Electrophysiological and behavioral indicators of musical knowledge about unfamiliar music

Most listeners possess sophisticated knowledge about the music around them without being aware of it or its intricacies. Previous research shows that we develop such knowledge through exposure. This knowledge can then be assessed using behavioral and neurophysiological measures. It remains unknown however, which neurophysiological measures accompany the development of musical long-term knowledge. In this series of experiments, we first identified a potential ERP marker of musical long-term knowledge by comparing EEG activity following musically unexpected and expected tones within the context of known music (n = 30). We then validated the marker by showing that it does not differentiate between such tones within the context of unknown music (n = 34). In a third experiment, we exposed participants to unknown music (n = 40) and compared EEG data before and after exposure to explore effects of time. Although listeners’ behavior indicated musical long-term knowledge, we did not find any effects of time on the ERP marker. Instead, the relationship between behavioral and EEG data suggests musical long-term knowledge may have formed before we could confirm its presence through behavioral measures. Listeners are thus not only knowledgeable about music but seem to also be incredibly fast music learners.

Music Performance

Music performance involves precise motor control that is coordinated with higher order planning to convey complex structural information. In addition, music performance usually involves motor tasks that are not learned spontaneously (as in the use of the vocal apparatus), the reproduction of preestablished sequences (notated or from memory), and synchronized joint performance with one or more other musicians. Music performance also relies on a rich repertoire of musical knowledge that can be used for purposes of expressive variation and improvisation. As such, the study of music performance provides a way to explore learning, motor control, memory, and interpersonal coordination in the context of a real-world behavior. Music performance skills vary considerably in the population and reflect interactions between genetic predispositions and the effect of intensive practice. At the same time, research suggests that most individuals have the capacity to perform music through singing or learning an instrument, and in this sense music performance taps into a universal human propensity for communication and coordination with conspecifics.

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.

THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUSICAL CULTURE OF BASHKIRIA IN THE 1950S - MID-1980S

In the 1950s-1980s. the musical culture of Bashkiria was further developed, acquiring specific forms. As a result of the influence of various musical cultures, forms of professional art that were not inherent in traditional national culture were actively developing in the republic. Historically, the artistic and aesthetic experience of Bashkiria was limited to monodic forms of folk music (monophonic songs and instrumental tunes). The problem of overcoming the predominance of traditional monody in professional musical culture was urgent. Having adopted and creatively using the best traditions of classical and Soviet music, Bashkir professional music has gone an accelerated path from traditional monophonic folk music to complex genres of professional art. For several decades, such genres as opera, symphony, ballet were created in Bashkiria. Already in 1950-1970. a national style is formed on the basis of the creative implementation of folklore and the interaction of national and international in musical art. In the 1960s. against the background of the continuous interest of Bashkir composers in chamberinstrumental and chamber-vocal genres, the center of gravity is shifting to the field of musical-theatrical, symphonic music. In the musical life of the republic, great importance was attached to the popularization of musical culture. Bashkir radio paid great attention to the promotion of musical knowledge and works. Back in the early 1960s. musical and educational programs were conducted in the Bashkir and Russian languages, concerts of Bashkir, Chuvash and Russian composers were broadcast. Often, the radio played works by amateur composers with the participation of the authors themselves. At the same time, with the huge genre diversity of the musical culture of Bashkiria, significant and talented works of many authors remained outside the active cultural life, unable to popularize them and bring them to the mass audience. As a result, a serious gap was noticeable between the musical culture itself and its consumer. The low level of culture of perception of music by the population, due to the lack of professional musical education, formed preferences for pop, popular music.

"Sometimes I Live in the Country, Sometimes I Live in Town”: Discourses of Authenticity, Cultural Capital, and the Rural/Urban Dichotomy in Alternative Country Music

<p>Alternative country (or alt.country) offers to its listeners a complex juxtaposition of punk and country aesthetics and sentiments, rendering music that is considered to be a heartfelt, rustic, and authentic alternative to mainstream popular music. This suggests an expansive genre style, with ever-shifting musical parameters, as well as potential for negotiation regarding the genre’s seminal artists. Thus, alt.country is primarily understood and organised in relation to the lofty concept of authenticity, usually prior to musical or lyrical considerations. The genre therefore offers an illuminating approach to considering the socially constructed and negotiated demarcations of genre. Although genre is often perceived to be unmovable and absolute, every announcement of a genre and its associated performance works to change the fabric of the genre itself. Despite this, genre facilitates common expectations between audience members, offering a shortcut to understanding particular musical events and their relation to one another. The appearance of authenticity is a cornerstone of the alt.country genre. Genuine characteristics, lived experience, and emotion are highly valued within the alt.country subculture. Authenticity too is dependent on changing social conceptions of the term and what it actually means to be ‘authentic’. Attempts by No Depression, the genre’s coalescing magazine, to guide the audience’s perceptions of authenticity are frequent, but not always successful, supporting the assertion that individuals have their own socially-informed and nuanced understanding of the concept. Notions of authenticity contribute to Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital. Alt.country possesses its own world view, characteristics and knowledge which are valuable and exchangeable within this setting. There too exists a visible hierarchy. Within the genre, a knowledge of a wide array of music (country or otherwise), dressing in the right clothes and generally appearing unkempt, unpolished and unprofessional all results in high amounts of cultural capital. Musicians and the audience alike must play into and contribute to these values to be given the right to be part of this community. Traditionally within popular music, the critic has acted as an intermediary, between the music and the listener, communicating the specifities of cultural capital and the music’s value (or otherwise). Their vast and superior musical knowledge (capital) places them in this respected position. No Depression’s critics though must put this traditional dynamic aside, instead adopting a self-effacing, unprofessional tone, thus contributing to the genre’s characteristics to subsequently retain respect and continue to have authority within this subculture. Alt.country functions as a self-knowing community. The music maintains a preoccupation with both American ruralities, and the vices and people that bind them to everyday urban life. Rural geographies and the glorious escape to the country is portrayed as an absolute point of freedom, offering what they currently lack. This ignores the often harsh realities of rural sustenance. The appeal of this music to the audience is similarly located. Physical escape to the country is not practical (and often not wanted), so these desires are played out as a fantasy within alt.country and its lyrical tropes. It offers emotional resonance for its audience, making the genre highly affective, despite both the audience’s and musicians’ urban realities. These contradictions suggest the underlying complexities of making ironic yet emotionally connected music in the postmodern age. It is acknowledged that authenticity is produced and constructed, yet alt.country can still provide a sense of comfort, solace, and escape.</p>

"Sometimes I Live in the Country, Sometimes I Live in Town”: Discourses of Authenticity, Cultural Capital, and the Rural/Urban Dichotomy in Alternative Country Music

<p>Alternative country (or alt.country) offers to its listeners a complex juxtaposition of punk and country aesthetics and sentiments, rendering music that is considered to be a heartfelt, rustic, and authentic alternative to mainstream popular music. This suggests an expansive genre style, with ever-shifting musical parameters, as well as potential for negotiation regarding the genre’s seminal artists. Thus, alt.country is primarily understood and organised in relation to the lofty concept of authenticity, usually prior to musical or lyrical considerations. The genre therefore offers an illuminating approach to considering the socially constructed and negotiated demarcations of genre. Although genre is often perceived to be unmovable and absolute, every announcement of a genre and its associated performance works to change the fabric of the genre itself. Despite this, genre facilitates common expectations between audience members, offering a shortcut to understanding particular musical events and their relation to one another. The appearance of authenticity is a cornerstone of the alt.country genre. Genuine characteristics, lived experience, and emotion are highly valued within the alt.country subculture. Authenticity too is dependent on changing social conceptions of the term and what it actually means to be ‘authentic’. Attempts by No Depression, the genre’s coalescing magazine, to guide the audience’s perceptions of authenticity are frequent, but not always successful, supporting the assertion that individuals have their own socially-informed and nuanced understanding of the concept. Notions of authenticity contribute to Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital. Alt.country possesses its own world view, characteristics and knowledge which are valuable and exchangeable within this setting. There too exists a visible hierarchy. Within the genre, a knowledge of a wide array of music (country or otherwise), dressing in the right clothes and generally appearing unkempt, unpolished and unprofessional all results in high amounts of cultural capital. Musicians and the audience alike must play into and contribute to these values to be given the right to be part of this community. Traditionally within popular music, the critic has acted as an intermediary, between the music and the listener, communicating the specifities of cultural capital and the music’s value (or otherwise). Their vast and superior musical knowledge (capital) places them in this respected position. No Depression’s critics though must put this traditional dynamic aside, instead adopting a self-effacing, unprofessional tone, thus contributing to the genre’s characteristics to subsequently retain respect and continue to have authority within this subculture. Alt.country functions as a self-knowing community. The music maintains a preoccupation with both American ruralities, and the vices and people that bind them to everyday urban life. Rural geographies and the glorious escape to the country is portrayed as an absolute point of freedom, offering what they currently lack. This ignores the often harsh realities of rural sustenance. The appeal of this music to the audience is similarly located. Physical escape to the country is not practical (and often not wanted), so these desires are played out as a fantasy within alt.country and its lyrical tropes. It offers emotional resonance for its audience, making the genre highly affective, despite both the audience’s and musicians’ urban realities. These contradictions suggest the underlying complexities of making ironic yet emotionally connected music in the postmodern age. It is acknowledged that authenticity is produced and constructed, yet alt.country can still provide a sense of comfort, solace, and escape.</p>

The Public Music Theory of George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw is best known today for his plays, but he first exercised his incisive wit as a drama and music critic in London, intermittently from 1876, regularly from 1888 to 1894, and intermittently again to the end of his life. Shaw explicitly intended to make his reviews both educational and accessible to the general public, combining performance critiques with broader considerations, including aspects of music theory and music education, and avoiding technical terms to the extent possible. Thus, his music criticism serves as an example of public music theory. This chapter surveys Shaw’s music-theoretic comments through this lens, analyzing what they demonstrate about his own musical understanding and underlying ideologies, the educational purpose of his reviews, and the level of musical knowledge he assumed on the part of his late nineteenth-century London readership.

Gaze patterns of expert and amateur sight-readers with particular focus on the cognitive underpinnings of reading key and time signatures

Over the last decade, eye-tracking technology has provided researchers with specific tools to study the process of reading (language and music) empirically. Most of these studies have focused on the “Eye-Hand Span” phenomenon (the ability to read ahead of the point of playing). However, little research investigates the cognitive implications of specific aspects of musical notation when performed in real time. This research aimed to observe the fixations patterns of sight-readers in order to investigate the cognitive underpinnings of key and time signatures in music scores. This research project is a quantitative study using a quasi-experimental research design. Tobii eye-tracking equipment and software were used to record the eye movements of 11 expert and 7 amateur keyboard sight-readers. Two key aspects of music notation, key and time signatures, were selected as the main focus of the study. To investigate these aspects, eighteen research participants were provided with seventeen sight-reading examples for one hand (low complexity) and two hands (high complexity) composed specifically by the researcher. Several examples contained one or more unexpected aspects (accidentals or changes of time signature) to test their effect on fixation count and duration. Two variables (fixation count and fixation duration) were utilised to analyze fixation patterns on the selected aspects of the scores. Three main results emerged from the data analysis: 1) Expert sight-readers performed with much greater accuracy than experts in both tests; 2) Expert sight-readers exhibited a higher fixation count on entire scores in complex examples; 3) Both expert and amateur sight-readers fixate more and for longer on certain notational aspects such as key and time signatures than other notational aspects such as deviations or individual notes. This selection of focused attention suggests that both expert and amateur sight-readers cognitively process music scores in a hierarchical order. In conclusion, key and time signatures appear to require more and longer fixations by both groups of readers than other aspects of the score. This supports previous research which suggests that sound musical knowledge may play a positive role in performers’ sight-reading skills, thereby contributing to more successful sight-reading performances.

Student Opinions on Psychomotor Learning Activities Used in Music Lessons

This study aims to determine the situation by examining the opinions of 8th-grade students about psycho-motor activities used within the scope of 8th-grade music lessons. Semi-structured interview technique was used as a qualitative method in the research. With this method, data were collected by conducting one-on-one interviews with 8th-grade students. The study was conducted with forty-four 8th-grade students. The obtained data were analyzed by making content analysis. According to the findings obtained from the interviews; It is understood that the psycho-motor activities used in schools are mostly similar, but there are problems in the implementation process, the activities cannot be used effectively and efficiently, and music lesson activities are not given enough importance due to the problems arising from the deficiencies in the material and learning environment. From the students' opinions, it is understood that the theoretical parts of the music lessons are long and the lessons conducted in this way are boring. Based on the students' opinions, it is understood that the singing activity is the most used psycho-motor activity, but this activity is not used to improve the musical knowledge and skills taught in the lessons, but to increase the students' interest in the lessons. It is understood that rhythm exercises, body percussion and instrument playing activities are less involved in music lessons than singing activities.

Organization of Experimental Work on the Formation of Musical and Aesthetic Competence of Adolescents in Out-Of-School Art Education

The article emphasizes that the state of modern art education in Ukraine and China requires the introduction into the practice of music education of students of out-of-school educational institutions of new methods aimed at forming their musical and aesthetic competence. Presented step-by-step method covers piano preparation of teenage students in two planes-performing and art-theoretical and provides for the presence of three stages: organizational-orientational, intellectual-deepening and creative-enriching. The main purpose of the first organizational and orientation stage of education was to acquire in adolescents a positive motivation for musical and aesthetic activities and the expansion of the thesaurus of musical knowledge. The second (intellectually-deepening) stage was aimed at theoretical and practical development of musical knowledge in order to form in adolescents musical and aesthetic competence, filling musical and intonation vocabulary, expanding musical and aesthetic worldview, activating emotional impressions, comparing their own experiences with artistic content of piece of music, accumulation of musical thesaurus and musical performance experience. The third (creative-enriching) stage was aimed at developing the ability to genre-style embodiment of interpretive ideas, creative evaluation of musical phenomena on the basis of the system of values adopted in the art of music.