Beyond the Aural: Towards an Intermodal Framework for the Creation and Analysis of Performed Music

<p>A music performance is an environment inhabited by an ecology of modalities, and music composed for performance should be discussed in terms of the various modalities and their interdependencies. Composition and analysis have traditionally prioritised the aural and the formal and tended to ignore performance space politics, corporeality, architecture, the objecthood of instruments and the subjecthood of instrumentalists, and other non-aural elements which contribute to the concert experience. This exegesis outlines a framework for the intermodal discussion of multimodal music for performance: Post-Aural Music. In Post-Aural Music the hierarchy of elements becomes fluid, the ‘aural’ no longer being the assumed authority. The framework is modelled after Hans-Thies Lehmann’s Postdramatic Theatre, an examination of modern theatre tendencies resulting from the dethroning of ‘drama’. It looks to Matthias Rebstock and David Roesner’s book Composed Theatre, an observation on how ‘compositional thinking’ is being applied to these other disciplines; and is illustrated by an analysis of Helmut Lachenmann’s Pression from the Post-Aural perspective. I reflect on the process and presentation of my own performance event Fish in Pink Gelatine, a ‘performed installation and staged concert’, as the creative project this exegesis supports.</p>

Beyond the Aural: Towards an Intermodal Framework for the Creation and Analysis of Performed Music

<p>A music performance is an environment inhabited by an ecology of modalities, and music composed for performance should be discussed in terms of the various modalities and their interdependencies. Composition and analysis have traditionally prioritised the aural and the formal and tended to ignore performance space politics, corporeality, architecture, the objecthood of instruments and the subjecthood of instrumentalists, and other non-aural elements which contribute to the concert experience. This exegesis outlines a framework for the intermodal discussion of multimodal music for performance: Post-Aural Music. In Post-Aural Music the hierarchy of elements becomes fluid, the ‘aural’ no longer being the assumed authority. The framework is modelled after Hans-Thies Lehmann’s Postdramatic Theatre, an examination of modern theatre tendencies resulting from the dethroning of ‘drama’. It looks to Matthias Rebstock and David Roesner’s book Composed Theatre, an observation on how ‘compositional thinking’ is being applied to these other disciplines; and is illustrated by an analysis of Helmut Lachenmann’s Pression from the Post-Aural perspective. I reflect on the process and presentation of my own performance event Fish in Pink Gelatine, a ‘performed installation and staged concert’, as the creative project this exegesis supports.</p>

Shakespeare and Music

William Shakespeare entertained many ideas about music, some of them conflicting, and he frequently represented these ideas in his plays. Music was a multifaceted art and science in early modern England, and debates over the nature and interpretation of music played out in a variety of contexts: academic, religious, political, commercial, and aesthetic. At the same time, music was a vital part of Shakespeare’s theatrical practice. He made use of his company’s musical resources to include performed music in his plays, and his characters frequently sing and quote popular ballads and songs that would have been recognized by his audiences. The combination of words about music and musical performances gave Shakespeare the opportunity to test various theories of music in complex and original ways. His plays are especially demonstrative of the ways in which certain views of music were connected to other ideological perspectives. Shakespeare’s most modern idea about music is the notion that musical meaning derives from its contexts and conventions rather than from an inherent, universal nature. Taken together, his plays provoke skepticism about unified theories of music. At the same time, they demonstrate that the seeming universality of music makes it an extremely powerful tool for both the polemicist and the dramatist.

Den kvinnliga sopranen i barockrepertoaren

The artistic doctoral project of soprano Kajsa Dahlbäck is in two parts. The theme of the concert series is “The female soprano within the baroque repertoire 1600–1750” and that of the thesis is “Singing-in-the-world – a phenomenological study on the singer’s inner work”. In her concerts, Dahlbäck has performed music from different parts of Europe and particularly from communities with female singers, such as for instance Italian nun convents, Vivaldi’s time at La Pietà in Venice and the court of Swedish Queen Christina in Stockholm and Rome. In her thesis, Dahlbäck shares insights from her experience as a singer specializing in early music as well as the genre’s generally intimate concert and rehearsal atmosphere. Experience texts from rehearsals and concerts have been mirrored against phenomenological theories. The practice-based triadic concept of body–breath– mind is linked to the theoretical singing-in-the-world. Body–breath–mind is the foundation for singing-in-the-world, a synthesis of the phenomenological tradition of Heidegger’s being- in-the-world (in-der-Welt-sein), Merleau-Ponty’s being toward-the-world (suis à) and in recent years Škof and Berndtson’s breathing-in-the-world.

Combining Kangaroo Care and Live-Performed Music Therapy: Effects on Physiological Stability and Neurological Functioning in Extremely and Very Preterm Infants

Interventions such as kangaroo care (KC) and live-performed music therapy (LPMT), are increasingly used to facilitate stress reduction in neonates. This study aims to investigate the effect of combining the two on physiological responses and neurological functioning in very preterm infants. Infants received six sessions of LPMT. KC was added to one LPMT session. Physiological responses included heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation. We videotaped infants for 30 min before and after two sessions to assess general movements (GMs). We included 17 infants, gestational age median 26.0 weeks (IQR 25.6–30.6 weeks), of whom six were males. Combined interventions showed a decrease in heart rate from mean 164 bpm before to 157 bpm during therapy, p = 0.001. Oxygen saturation levels increased during combination therapy from median 91.4% to 94.5%, p = 0.044. We found no effects of LPMT or combined interventions on GMs. Infants with a postnatal age (PNA) < 7 days generally seem to display less optimal GMs after therapy compared with infants with a PNA >7 days. In conclusion, combining interventions is equally beneficial for physiological stability and neurological functioning as LPMT alone. Future studies should focus on the effects of this combination on parent-infant bonding.

Hierarchical beat perception develops throughout childhood and adolescence and is enhanced in those with musical training

Most music is temporally organized within a metrical hierarchy, having nested periodic patterns that give rise to the experience of stronger (downbeat) and weaker (upbeat) events. Musical meter presumably makes it possible to dance, sing, and play instruments in synchrony with others. It is nevertheless unclear whether or not listeners perceive multiple levels of periodicity simultaneously, and if they do, when and how they learn to do this. We tested children, adolescents, and musically trained and untrained adults with a new meter perception task. We presented excerpts of human-performed music paired with metronomes that matched or mismatched the metrical structure of the music at two hierarchical levels (beat and measure), and asked listeners to provide a rating of fit of metronome and music. Fit ratings suggested that adults with and without musical training were sensitive to both levels of meter simultaneously, but ratings were more strongly influenced by beat-level than by measure-level synchrony. Sensitivity to two simultaneous levels of meter was not evident in children or adolescents. Sensitivity to the beat alone was apparent in the youngest children and increased with age, whereas sensitivity to the measure alone was not present in younger children (5-8-year-olds). These findings suggest a prolonged period of development and refinement of hierarchical beat perception, and surprisingly weak overall ability to attend to two beat levels at the same time across all ages.

«FILLING IN THE GAP BETWEEN SOUND AND WORD»: ACOUSTIC IMAGE-MAKING IN B. AKHMADULINA’S LYRICAL POETRY

The article analyzes relations between the sound and the word in the image-bearing system of B. Akhmadulina’s lyrical poetry. Among the acoustic objects in the poetess’ works one may discover sounds of natural environmental phenomena, as those of rain, of dripping water, cock’s crowing, etc., as well as the audible strata of culture (sounds of music, singing, or gramophone play). Meaningfully, the audible natural world is often expressed by either comparing it with music, or metaphorically, associating it with human speech, or, ultimately, with a prophetic or even sacred word. Sounds of everyday life, as the click of an electric switch, or the squeak of an opening door, as a rule, lose their direct material meaning and acquire metaphorical and symbolic connotations. The acoustic background of everyday life in Akhmadulina’s lyrical contents is turned into the «speech» of ordinary objects and can be juxtaposed with the poetess’ word, the poet being responsible to endow space with a voice. Paradoxically, it cannot be achieved by music. For all the high density of Akhmadulina’s musical associations, she seldom describes them, more often than not in the majority of musical fragments there appears «the silent movie effect», when acoustic means of the performed music is represented via its visual analogs, while musical instruments are needed only metaphorically or as means of comparison. Real sounds, those that will acquire actual meaning serve as blood emphatic accents which turn into ‘bleeding speech’. It is only then that the gap between the sound and the word dies away. The process of extracting the sound is hard and almost always painful. Still, that is the only way of overcoming the existing noise which claims the word’s space, and thus saves the object from namelessness. It is only the poet’s living voice that is able to give speech its identity and credibility. It is only by extreme effort that one can give name to the existing matter. Only by saying it aloud can you come into contact with Truth.

Characteristics of caregivers submitted to music therapy after the death of loved ones

ABSTRACT Objective: To describe the characteristics of bereaved caregivers submitted to post-loss music therapy. Method: This is a cross-sectional database from a randomized clinical trial that performed music therapy for caregivers who lost their loved ones to cancer. The following variables were used for this analysis: sociodemographic, religious beliefs, previous sound-musical experiences, and experiences related to care, loss and repair processes. Descriptive statistical analyzes were performed. Results: Of the 69 participants, 85.5% had a strong bond/secure attachment with their loved ones; 68.1% followed a long death and dying process (> 6 months), which was related to a chronic disease; 88.4% did not participate in conspiracy of silence, suggesting a satisfactory communication; 60.9% reported receiving spiritual/religious support, suggesting healthy and continent support; and all participated in funeral rites. Conclusion: The process of elaborating the bereavement of caregivers indicated the presence of protective factors.