Showing papers in "Musicae Scientiae in 2012"
TL;DR: In this paper, body movements during music performance have been found to be indicative of the performer's musical intentionality, and contribute to an observer's perception of expressive playing, which contributes to the perception of musical intent.
Abstract: Body movements during music performance have been found to be indicative of the performer’s musical intentionality, and contribute to an observer’s perception of expressive playing. This study inve...
103 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the extent to which ideas developed in The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems and further refined in The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (Gibson, 1966; 1979) can b...
Abstract: This paper explores the extent to which ideas developed in The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems and further refined in The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (Gibson, 1966; 1979) can b...
64 citations
TL;DR: Based on recent advancements in cognitive science and mathematical models of the mind, the authors proposes a hypothesis on the fundamental role of music in cognition and in the evolution of the human mind.
Abstract: Based on recent advancements in cognitive science and mathematical models of the mind, this paper proposes a hypothesis on a fundamental role of music in cognition, and in the evolution of the mind...
62 citations
TL;DR: The analysis of the annotation data set reveals that the importance of single musical features for assessing similarity varies both between and within tune families, which exemplifies that assessing similarity is crucial for human categorization processes, which has been questioned within Cognitive Science.
Abstract: In this article we determine the role of different musical features for the human categorization of folk songs into tune families in a large collection of Dutch folk songs. Through an annotation st...
52 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report the results of an empirical project that compared psychological qualities of absorption in everyday music listening scenarios with characteristics of non-music-related involvement, concluding that music may be a particularly effective agent in the facilitation of absorption because it affords multiple potential entry points to involvement.
Abstract: The construct of absorption (effortless engagement) has been the subject of a small number of disciplinespecific studies of involvement, including music. This paper reports the results of an empirical project that compared psychological qualities of absorption in everyday music listening scenarios with characteristics of non-music-related involvement. Absorption was located in “real-world” settings, and experiences across different activities in a variety of contexts were tapped as soon as possible after they occurred. The inquiry was designed to test two assumptions that have underpinned previous absorption research: first, that certain activities are inherently particularly absorbing; second, that absorption is best conceptualized primarily as a trait as opposed to a state. Twenty participants kept diaries for two weeks, recording descriptions of involving experiences of any kind. Eight weeks after submitting descriptive reports they completed the Modified Tellegen Absorption Scale (Jamieson, 2005). Diaries indicated that different activities shared a subset of involving features, and confirmed the importance of multi-sensory perception and the imaginative faculty to absorbed experiences. Music may be a particularly effective agent in the facilitation of absorption because it affords multiple potential entry points to involvement (acoustic attributes, source specification, entrainment, emotion, fusion of modalities) and because its semantic malleability makes it adaptable to a variety of circumstances. The MODTAS provided insufficient evidence for establishing correlations between state and trait absorption. It is argued that state and trait divisions are constructs that are inherently problematic.
35 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a cross-sectional design including school-aged children was employed to investigate the effeciency of music for children from an early age, and the results showed that children are attracted to the aesthetics of music.
Abstract: From an early age, children are attracted to the aesthetics of music. Employing a cross-sectional design including school-aged children, the present exploratory study aimed to investigate the effec...
35 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an in-depth qualitative investigation into the impact of job loss for seven opera choristers, focusing on their perception of this loss and how this perception influenced the experience of career transition and subsequent redefinition of the self.
Abstract: This paper presents an in-depth, qualitative investigation into the impact of job loss for seven opera choristers. The paper focuses on their perception of this loss and how this perception influences the experience of career transition and subsequent redefinition of the self. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is used to highlight the individual nature of dealing with loss and transition. Discussion centres on three themes which best capture the psychological process involved in the renegotiation of self for the participants. Analysis shows that a key issue in adapting to career transition is re-defining what it means to be a singer without the validation of full-time employment. The Organismic Valuing Theory of growth after adversity (Joseph & Linley, 2005) is used as a framework within which to discuss individual fluctuations between searching to develop new areas of the self and restoring the established self. The study concludes that singers are unique in the employment market because of their ...
31 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a cued-recall method was used to induce involuntary musical imagery (INMI) and delayed self-reports in a large sample of people, and the prevalence of the phenomenon was considerable.
Abstract: It is still a mystery why we sometimes experience the repetition of memories in our minds. This phenomenon seems to be particularly prominent in music. We believe that present lack of knowledge relates to the lack of methods available for the study of this topic. To improve the understanding of involuntary musical imagery (INMI), this paper proposes a novel method to induce it in experimental settings. We report three experiments that were conducted to evaluate two research questions related to INMI: Can it be experimentally induced, and if so, which factors influence its emergence? Investigation particularly focused on how recent activation of musical memory might predict INMI. The questions were tested in single-trial experiments conducted over the internet. The experiments utilized a cued-recall method to induce INMI and delayed self-reports. Among a large sample of people, the prevalence of the phenomenon was considerable. When the familiarity with the stimuli was controlled for, inducing INMI experim...
28 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the cognitive and social processes underlying musical and social collaboration were explored in a small-scale study of two professional and two student singer-pianist duos.
Abstract: The cognitive and social processes underlying musical and social collaboration were explored in a small-scale study of two professional and two student singer-pianist duos. Each of the eight participants rehearsed one song with his or her regular partner and a second song with a new partner of the same level of expertise; four participants rehearsed a third song with a new partner of the other level of expertise. Their talk during rehearsal was analysed to determine a) numbers and initiators of verbal exchanges, b) interactional style, c) musical dimensions, and d) rehearsal strategies. The professional duos rehearsed more efficiently, in that they talked less and sang/played more. Interactional style was overwhelmingly positive. Students were more likely than professionals to show solidarity and ask for orientation, while professionals were more likely to give and ask for opinions. Basic, interpretive and expressive musical features were found to be as salient in these single rehearsals as evidenced in e...
28 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the cognitive processes involved in the elaboration of composers' works are investigated. But their focus is restricted by the methodological and epistemological problems with which they are associated.
Abstract: Studies of composers’ cognition are restricted by the methodological and epistemological problems with which they are associated. In order to capture the cognitive processes involved in the elabora...
23 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors sketch the outlines for a comprehensive theory of the psychogenesis of music, a theory of how human beings may come to hear certain sounds and combinations of sounds as music.
Abstract: In this paper I sketch the outlines for a comprehensive theory of the psychogenesis of music. That is, a theory of how human beings may come to hear certain sounds and combinations of sounds as music. It is a theory that takes its empirical starting point in previous and well-known research findings on fundamental human interaction and communication. As such it incorporates at its core a developmental-psychological theory about the human being’s development of a sense of self in relation to others, from infancy on, and is further supported by findings from research on infants’ behavior and reactions to music. It is argued that human interaction and communication is at the outset musical – or protomusical – and that which makes interaction and communication work is the emotive, or affective power of sound (“communicative musicality” is another term that has been used for mainly the same phenomenon). Although the empirical foundations are familiar, the comprehensive picture offered by the theory is new. The...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated students' experiences and perceptions of public master classes as articulated through the instrument they studied, their gender and year in college, and revealed a significant main effect f...
Abstract: It has been said that participation in master classes provides an initiation into a community of practice (Hanken, 2008; Creech et al., 2009) and that contemporary practices in higher music education are strongly informed by those of the past (Froehlich, 2002, cf. Heikinheimo, 2009). This is certainly true of public master classes which provide students with the opportunity to perform in public and to receive feedback on their performance from a high-profile master musician. In terms of expertise, the master musician is perceived to possess an exceptional blend of musical knowledge derived first from rigorous training in the values and methods of a particular tradition (or traditions) of musical performance, and second from their own career as a high-profile performer. In this study we investigated conservatoire students’ experiences and perceptions of public master classes as articulated through the instrument they study, their gender and year in college. The findings revealed a significant main effect f...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors determine the most informative framework to understand the effect of emotion-inducing music on the short-term recall of information about narratives, and the results provided strongest support for the mood congruence theory in this context.
Abstract: Research on whether music facilitates recall has been inconsistent and has lacked a theoretical basis. Three competing emotion-based theories yield differential predictions dependent on arousal levels, mood congruence, and functional relevance of information respectively. The aim of this study was to determine the most informative framework to understand the effect of emotion-inducing music on the short-term recall of information about narratives. Ninety-five participants (range = 18–58 years) were randomly allocated to one of four groups differentiated by the type of music presented to them, which was either happy (n = 26), sad (n = 19), fearful (n = 25), or calm (n = 25). Participants listened to music, followed by a positively or negatively emotionally-valenced narrative, and free recall of the narrative was tested approximately five minutes later. The results provided strongest support for the mood congruence theory in this context. After exposure to positive music, recall of positive information was ...
TL;DR: It is concluded that this MT program was found successful in significantly enhancing facial expression in individuals with PD.
Abstract: Neurological degeneration associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) affects the verbal as well as the nonverbal communicative potential of individuals diagnosed with PD. Communicating with significa...
TL;DR: Despite the widespread use of the term gesture in writings about music, the term is not defined in most musical dictionaries as discussed by the authors, despite the fact that gesture gestures have been widely used in music.
Abstract: Despite the widespread use of the term gesture in writings about music, the term is not defined in most musical dictionaries. Moreover, as this paper shows, the term is employed by different writer...
TL;DR: Granot and Jacoby as mentioned in this paper showed that listeners are insensitive to the overall tonal structure of musical pieces, including the non-stable B section of the sonata K. 570/I.
Abstract: Previous studies have suggested that listeners are insensitive to the overall tonal structure of musical pieces. In Part I of this report (Granot & Jacoby, 2011) we reexamined this question by means of a puzzle task using 10 segments of Mozart’s B flat major piano sonata K. 570/I. As expected, subjects had difficulty in recreating the original piece. However, their answers revealed some interesting patterns, including (1) Some sensitivity to the overall structure of A–B–A’ around the non-stable B section; (2) Non-trivial sensitivity to overall “directionality” as shown by a new type of analysis (“distance score”); (3) Correct grouping and placement of developmental sections possibly related to listener’s sensitivity to musical tension; and (4) Sensitivity to opening and closing gestures, thematic similarity, and surface cues. In the current paper we further validate these findings by comparing the results obtained from a new group of participants who performed an 8-segment puzzle task of Haydn’s E minor p...
TL;DR: In many countries, singing is a common leisure activity in many countries as mentioned in this paper, and amateur choirs are characterized by a high degree of social coherence and common musical motivations and goals lead to long-te...
Abstract: Choral singing is a common leisure activity in many countries. Amateur choirs are characterized by a high degree of social coherence. Obviously, common musical motivations and goals lead to long-te...
TL;DR: In this article, the inner reactions to bagana were investigated by means of 108 statements collected from 32 participants (from virtuoso players to simple listeners) during interviews or discussion.
Abstract: The bagana is a paraliturgical lyre played by the Christian Amhara of Ethiopia. It is used to perform spiritual music. Bagana is an intimate instrument, accompanied by the singing voice only. It has a special role in Christian Amhara music, as its myth of origin closely connects it to God, the biblical King David and King Menelik I. It is reputed to be very powerful and its performances arouse intense reactions in both players and listeners. Some of these reactions were observed directly (immediate calming, tears, overwhelmed faces). Inner reactions to bagana were investigated by means of 108 statements collected from 32 participants (from virtuoso players to simple listeners) during interviews or discussion. Statements were classified by using the Strong Experiences related to Music (SEM) descriptive system (Gabrielsson & Lindstrom Wik, 2003). Results show that the inner reactions bagana elicits are varied (statements fall into six of the seven categories of the SEM descriptive system) but a majority of ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the impact of verbal description on listeners' recognition accuracy and confidence of classical singing voices and assessed the scope and limitations of the terms used to describe singers' sound.
Abstract: Verbalizing sound quality of individual music performers presents a challenge to musicians and pedagogues in describing a complex aural phenomenon. Verbal overshadowing (VO) is well documented in psychological literature and can occur when we use words to describe sensory experiences (such as seeing, tasting or hearing). The verbal description impairs later recall of the sensory experience and individuals are less able to identify the original from a line-up of similar stimuli. This study investigated the impact of verbal description on listeners’ recognition accuracy and confidence of classical singing voices. It also assessed the scope and limitations of the terms used to describe singers’ sound. Five soprano singers performed an excerpt of Caro mio ben twice for a recording. Listeners (n = 50) heard a single singer performing the first take of Caro mio ben, which they either described in words, or just remembered. Listeners were later asked to identify the voice from a homogenous line-up of the five si...
TL;DR: The result suggests that restraint of movement during WCP singing is associated with reduced peaks in SPL, and possible reasons include the inhibition of respiratory mechanisms for subglottal pressure production and interference with sensorimotor feedback mechanisms such as the autophonic response.
Abstract: In western contemporary popular (WCP) singing, body movement is integral to overall stage performance. However, singers are often directed to stand still while singing during recording sessions or ...
TL;DR: The authors investigated the relationship between typicality, a musician's image and music evaluation by adolescents and paid particular attention to adolescents' sensitivity to the (un-)conventional behavior of the musician.
Abstract: This study investigates the relationship between typicality, a musician’s image and music evaluation by adolescents. We pay particular attention to adolescents’ sensitivity to the (un-)conventional...