Interview with Rebecca Hope Dirksen

Isabel Machado interviews Rebecca Hope Dirksen on After the Dance, the Drums Are Heavy: Carnival, Politics, and Musical Engagement in Haiti (2020). Interview date: Mar 17, 2021 Dr. Rebecca Dirksen is an ethnomusicologist working across the spectrum of musical genres in Haiti and its diaspora. Her research concerns cultural approaches to development, crisis, and disaster; sacred ecologies, diverse environmentalisms, and ecomusicology; and applied/engaged/activist scholarship. She is a professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University Bloomington and a founding member of the Diverse Environmentalisms Research Team (DERT).

The Polish Contribution to Central European Musical Culture in the Seventeenth Century. The Case of Marcin Mielczewski

The seventeenth-century Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania, embracing the lands of the Polish Crown (together with the territory of present-day Ukraine) and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, belonged geographically to both Central and Eastern Europe. It was a multiethnic and multiconfessional state, in which the Latin and Greek cultures were mutually interactive. With regard to the musical culture of the royal court, however, itwas the close ties with Italy that were of the greatest significance. The Polish kings of the Vasa dynasty (above ali Zygmunt III and Władysław IV) maintained music chapels consisting to a considerable extent of Italian musicians, among whom were Luca Marenzio, Giulio Cesare Gabussi, Asprilio Pacelli, Giovanni Francesco Anerio and Tarquinio Merula. Thanks to the Polish patronage, they not only composed newworks, but also trained musicians of various nations belonging to the royal ensembles. Among the composers trained at the Polish court was the Italian Marco Scacchi (d. 1662), chapel-master to Władysław IV, the composer of operas staged in the royal theatre, and also a music theorist – the author of a classification of musical genres which was produced during Scacchi's dispute over music theory with the Gdansk organist Paul Siefert. This dispute contributed to the popularisation across Europe of the works of Scacchi and also of other musicians associated with the court of the Polish Vasas. Extant handwritten sources of Silesian provenance (belonging to the Emil Bohn collection, currently held in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin) testify the considerable interest in this region (now within the Polish borders, but in the seventeenth century constituting a dominion of the Empire) in the religious compositions of Marcin Mielczewski (d. 1651), musician to Władysław IV (until 1644) and subsequently, until his death, chapel-master to Karol Ferdinand Vasa, Bishop of Płock and Wrocław. Of Mielczewski's compositional output for the needs of the Roman Catholic Church, copyists from Lutheran circles in Wrocław chose primarily psalms that were universal to the Christian repertory, furnishing those works whose texts chimed with the doctrine of the Augsburg confession with more appropriate texts of German-language contrafacta. However, this method was not always successful in eliminating traces of Catholicism, which remained, for example, in the melodies of works based on pre-compositional material drawn by Mielczewski from Marian songs that were popular in Poland (e.g. the church concerto Audite gentes et exsultate, also preserved in a version with the text of a German-language contrafactum entitled Nun höret alle, based on the song O gloriosa Domina, which in the former Commonwealth was treated as a chivalrous hymn).

Playing and Fighting as an Electric Violinist

The violin is an instrument used in various musical genres. Besides preserving, elaborating, and valuating, the classical form of the instrument as well as the classical violin repertory, an electronic version of the instrument has entered the music business many decades ago. It allows the musician to produce sounds ranging from classical violin sounds to electric guitar or even electric bass sounds. Nora Kudrjawizki (‘Angelstrings’, “One Violin Orchestra”) is an electric violinist living in Berlin and using the instrument for as many different genres and occasions as possible: playing Nirvana songs or fighting with the violin bow as an improvised sword to “Pirates of the Caribbean” music as part of her performance. Her work will be presented as a case study and will be set into a bigger framework with further electric violinist statements generated from the literature. I focus on the differences in the instrumentalist–instrument relation when playing electric or acoustic. My aim is to prove that the electric violin is mostly used to play public and impress others and that there are also musically interesting aspects and individual experiences that should be valued.

Rhythm Quantization: Notes on the History of a Technocultural Practice

This chapter sketches a general history of rhythm quantization as a widespread practice in popular music culture. Quantization—a sound technology that automatically maps microrhythmic fluctuations onto the nearest beat available within a predefined metric grid—challenges traditional notions of musicking as an embodied activity that is grounded in the co-presence of human agents. At the same time, it encapsulates cultural and cognitive processes that are entirely human, fitting into a broader historical shift towards chronometric precision in Western music. Questions arising from this apparent contradiction are taken up in this chapter, which situates rhythm quantization as an emergent technocultural practice, examining its attendant technologies and requisite structures of music-theoretical knowledge, as well as its reception within the context of different musical genres.

Indigenous Cosmopolitanisms of Music in Sámi Theatre

Which kinds of Sáminess are expressed and engaged with music in Sámi theatre? Through descriptions of the kinds of musical genres and sounds presented, the article argue that the music of Sámi theatre can typically be described as cosmopolitan. As the musical expressions and engagements convey what is Sáminess, they present cosmopolitan versions of Sáminess. The author interprets performance moments as presenting types of Indigenous cosmopolitanism, in other words, Indigenous cosmopolitanisms. The article approaches music as musicking, which refers to all of the social interactions that go into creating a musical experience. Because this is theatre, this includes the social processes of staging other theatre values that relate with the music during theatrical performances. Other theatre values include costumes, set design, props, lighting, sound effects beyond music and movement such as dance and blocking. Overall, the productions perform a dynamic and fluid Sáminess that incorporates sounds, sights and movements from around the world, while often being “rooted” in what it is to be Sámi today and historically. Although most productions include identifiably Sámi music genres such as joik, it is worthwhile to note that some don’t. In these productions, the author identifies specific varieties of cosmopolitanism, such as vernacular cosmopolitanism, different forms of rooted cosmopolitanism and pan-Indigenous cosmopolitanism. The article examines case studies from Sámi theatre companies in Norway, Beaivváš Sámi Našunálateáhter and Åarjelhsaemien Teatere. The cases, among other productions, are the joik operas The Frost Haired and the Dream Seer and Allaq; the dance theatre productions Eatnemen Vuelieh and Gïeje; and the stage plays Silbajárviand Almmiriika.

How to Measure Flamenco Performer Value? A Cultural Economic Approach

This article designs an empirical methodology to measure the perceived value of the performers, specifically using the significant example of flamenco performer. The methodology is based on an Ordered Logit Model whose dependent variable is the valuation of the flamenco performer by spectators, which complements the research carried out by Heredia-Carroza (2019). The results show that virtuosity, feelings, Roma origin of the performer are significant and they have a positive effect in the valuation of it. Also, spectator’s features as time consuming and number of albums acquired have a positive effect in the performer valuation. Finally, the results have a greater importance as they provide recording companies, an instrument that reduces uncertainty about the characteristics of the performer and it can also be used as a decision-making instrument for future signings of performers in record companies based on the spectators’ perceptions. This methodology could be replicated for the study of other musical genres.

Sounds familiar(?): Expertise with specific musical genres modulates timing perception and micro-level synchronization to auditory stimuli

Musical expertise improves the precision of timing perception and performance – but is this expertise generic, or is it tied to the specific style(s) and genre(s) of one’s musical training? We asked expert musicians from three musical genres (folk, jazz, and EDM/hip-hop) to align click tracks and tap in synchrony with genre-specific and genre-neutral sound stimuli to determine the perceptual center (“P-center”) and variability (“beat bin”) for each group of experts. We had three stimulus categories – Organic, Electronic, and Neutral sounds – each of which had a 2 × 2 design of the acoustic factors Attack (fast/slow) and Duration (short/long). We found significant effects of Genre expertise, and a significant interaction for both P-center and P-center variability: folk and jazz musicians synchronize to sounds typical of folk and jazz in a different manner than the EDM/hip-hop producers. The results show that expertise in a specific musical genre affects our low-level perceptions of sounds as well as their affordance(s) for joint action/synchronization. The study provides new insights into the effects of active long-term musical enculturation and skill acquisition on basic sensorimotor synchronization and timing perception, shedding light on the important question of how nature and nurture intersect in the development of our perceptual systems.

BARCAROLE PRINCIPLE IN A GENRE-COMPOSITIONAL ORGANIZATION OF “BERESTECHKO” BY LINA KOSTENKO

The paper deals with a historical novel in verse by the celebrated modern Ukrainian writer Lina Kostenko, for the first time analyzing it totally in a synesthetic way — through the component of musicality (namely barcarole principle of poetic creativity). The folklore origins of barcarole in the world culture have been traced, as well as the peculiarities of the absorption of the genre by professional music and literature, especially Ukrainian. Formation of the genre in the creative work of the author of “Berestechko”, who is the poet of a special musical feeling, deserves special attention. Barcarole is one of the forms of modernity in the creative thinking of Lina Kostenko; it is a natural writer’s way of perceiving reality and transforming it into an aesthetic system of artistic work (both in poems and the novel in verse). Being inclined to poetically adopt chamber and solo musical genres, the poetess creates a special voice polyphony in “Berestechko”, where each sense construct of a modern unity, i. e. novel lyric epos and barcarole, sounds both separately and complementarily, and the part of a protagonist merges into “I” of a speaker. The compositional function of barcarole in “Berestechko” is the modeling of a central character of the text. It is hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, spiritually undermined by the recent defeat. The barcarole elements are used for constructing the author’s version of this failure and its consequences, which spread around Ukraine as circles on water; absorbing a soothing rhythm of a song, which can cure the soul with love; shaping the architectonics of the text in the form of 'splashes'-'circles' with poly-functional titles and subtexts. In the genre structure of the novel, barcarole is essential both in the development of the theme and its stylistic implementation. In the unity of the work, one may notice “prelude”, the main part, and “postlude”, each part with its artistic sense. The images typical for a barcarole — water, boat, song, woman, love, etc. — are designed in accordance with the agrarian microcosm of the main character and its symbolic senses. Time flow, self-immersion, and love do not only spiritually heal hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, but give his life a direction and endow his figure with grandeur. The neoromantic potential of barcarole and the novel in verse correspond well and join in the final coda about the unshakable courage and heroism of the Ukrainian warriors.

Implementing a Personalized Music Intervention for Persons Living With Dementia in Nursing Facilities

The Mason Music & Memory Initiative (M3I) team has implemented a personalized music intervention in nursing facilities across Virginia aiming to improve behavioral and psychological symptoms of persons living with dementia. This person-centered intervention uses a unique music playlist comprising songs, artists, and preferred musical genres. The preliminary findings from a randomized controlled trial will be reported, the purpose of which was to examine the intervention impact on nursing home residents’ mood and behavior. Based on the findings from 16 facilities with 158 residents who have completed the study, both quantitative and qualitative data indicate the positive effects on residents, including improved sleep and mood, as well as reduced agitation. The challenges in implementing intervention research in nursing facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and the principles of telehealth and virtual support for facilities that were used to address those challenges will also be discussed.

Sosyal Ağlarda Çokkültürlülük Üzerine İnceleme: Youtube Tepki Videoları

Analysis of Social Networks on Multiculturalism: Youtube Reaction Videos Abstract Multiculturalism is one of the most important concepts brought about by the disappearance of borders in the geographical and cultural areas, the acceleration of mobility and information flow in the international arena, and especially in the 20th century. The concept of multiculturalism, which has the ideals of preventing racism and discrimination, increasing tolerance and sensitivity towards differences and providing intercultural interaction, has been moved to a different dimension at the point where today's world has come. Multiculturalism serves cultural processes by gaining meaning in internet environments as a field that allows cultural construction processes to take place. The study aims to contribute to the definition of the concept of multiculturalism at the level of state policies as well as its definition in the digital field. In this direction, it is aimed to reveal the contribution of multiculturalism with examples via YouTube, one of the most used social networks worldwide. On YouTube, the channel containing the reactions of a user of different cultures by watching Turkish music videos and examples from this channel were analyzed using content analysis method. Structured Abstract: The most common interpretation of globalization is the idea that the world has become more homogeneous and standardized through a technological, commercial and cultural synchronization spreading from the West, and that globalization is connected with modernity. Globalization, which is frequently discussed today, is a comprehensive concept that is based on geographical discoveries and extends to the state it has taken under the influence of today's technological developments. In today's world, globalization has turned into a way of life and has become the normal of our daily lives. Globalization in general; the disappearance of national borders, allowing the free movement of goods, services and cultures around the world. Robertson says that globalization is centered around two main orientations. While the first refers to economic interdependence, the other refers to the globalization of institutions, communities and practices (2013: 136). Globalization includes several dimensions. The cultural dimension is among the most important of these. The cultural dimension of globalization can be considered within the scope of transportation, communication and communication as a result of its economic basis. The fact that different parts of the world are in contact with economic purposes has allowed different cultures to get to know each other, and cultures that include small groups to be noticed. Intercultural interaction has reached a high level with digital communication channels. The cultural dimension of globalization has led to the emergence of various concepts. Multiculturalism is one of these concepts. Multiculturalism, as a system of thought, defines the fair promotion of different cultures in the public sphere and the peaceful coexistence of different cultural communities within the same political organization (Dotycheva, 2009:12). In the digital age we live in, every field has a multicultural structure. The fact that communication tools enable universal communication has led to the emergence of social networks. The borderless structure of social networks directly serves multiculturalism. Youtube, chosen as the subject of analysis of the study, is a social network that is visited and content is produced by millions of people around the world. Cultural content is also produced on YouTube, where all kinds of videos can be shared. It allows a culture to introduce itself and spread it from various aspects. It does this effectively with the power of visuality. By accessing the content on this network from all over the world, it is possible to watch videos, obtain information, give feedback and contribute to the expansion of the content by producing. YouTube's “Kingdom of Luke” channel, chosen as the field of study, shows its experiences about different cultures by watching music clips from different countries. While creating content, it does a preliminary research about the video to watch instead of just watching. Considering the five videos selected as a sample, 60% of the videos explain the content and give information about the song. It gives information about the song genre in 40% of the videos. Explains the musical genres that have their own characteristics as “anthem” and “folk song” and indicates their characteristics. The channel owner gives information about the singers in 100% of the videos. Explain what kind of music the singers make, their life, their place and importance in Turkish music. In this way, he gets information about the culture he is foreign to through the artists. It gives historical information on 60% of the pieces. The channel owner makes inferences about culture in 60% of the videos he examines. All of these videos are pieces with historical content. He states that as a result of his viewing experience, he was influenced by pieces with historical content and shared a sense of victory and struggle. This shows that even though it is experienced by different societies, all world rights can develop common feelings in situations such as war, destruction and victory. There are Turkish and English comments in all of the videos and in the comments under the video. This shows that besides being watched by users from Turkey, it is watched by different cultures or that users use the universal language English to appeal to all cultures. Thanks to the video content, a content producer from a different culture gained knowledge as a result of his researches and impressions about the culture he is foreign to; It has made them accessible to millions of people by publishing them on the most used video sharing site all over the world. Many people had the opportunity to access this video, and those who watched the content had the opportunity to have information about Turkish culture. These contents, which contribute to the multicultural structure in the digital field, contribute to the empathy of different cultures with each other and to develop positive thoughts about culture; It emphasizes love and respect by preventing racism and discrimination. Keywords: Social Sciences, Social Networks, Globalization, Multiculturalism, YouTube