Purposes of the study were (1) to describe the size and instrumentation of the college gospel choir; (2) to describe the general musical activities of the college gospel choir; (3) to determine the primary body of literature performed by college gospel choirs; and (4) to determine how the college gospel choir is managed. / A 28-item survey was created and sent to gospel choir directors at 86 universities and four-year colleges in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Seventy-eight surveys were returned which yielded a response rate of 91%. Forty-five respondents indicated that there was no gospel choir in existence at their college or university. Consequently, 33 (42%) surveys were completed and included in this study. / Results of the survey revealed that gospel choirs at colleges and universities in the Southeast were mostly medium-sized ensembles with a membership of 31 to 60 singers, accompanied by between 2 and 4 instrumentalists. The most common instruments used were the piano and drums. Synthesizers and electric keyboards were found chiefly among medium and large choirs. Membership in most (63.7% and 51.5%) choirs included music majors and non-students. / Most (97%) of the choirs rehearsed once or twice per week for 1-3 hours. Performances during the academic year usually occurred 2-4 times per month. A majority (78%) of the gospel choirs did not perform during the summer. Of the choirs who performed during the summer (21%), performances did not exceed 2 per month. The church and the college campus were places where gospel choirs most frequently performed. / In addition to contemporary gospel music, most respondents (90.9% and 97%) indicated that traditional Negro spirituals and songs written by a present or past member of the choir were included in their repertoires. None of the respondents cited the performance of secular music. / The majority of college gospel choirs (71%) were managed by students. These choirs were commonly involved in fund raising activities, and typically received honoraria for performances. Choirs managed by faculty or staff members (29%) were usually offered as a course for credit. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2502. / Major Professor: Andre J. Thomas. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This study examined procedures for obtaining post-graduation data from graduates of specialized arts high schools in the United States. Only schools with music majors and membership in the International Network of Performing and Visual Arts Schools participated in the study. / Thirty-seven public schools and seven private schools completed a questionnaire designed to obtain data on each school's student population, objectives, and post-graduation information. Most schools served students in grades nine through twelve. Arts schools ranged in size from approximately 105 to 840 students with an enrollment of two to 300 music students. Although nearly half (47.7%) of the schools reported no geographic recruiting restrictions, 27.3% could not recruit outside their school district and 50% were limited to statewide recruiting. / Missions of arts schools were divided nearly evenly among pre-professional training institutions, schools with a college preparatory emphasis, and schools seeking to provide the best general education possible. Audition was the primary determinant for admission to a school's music department. Eight-seven percent of the pre-professional college preparatory schools used auditions as a primary admission criterion. / Eighty-six percent of the schools sought proposed career or college course of study information from students, but only 34% sought follow-up information after graduation. A majority of schools responded positively on the questionnaire to categories of information that might be requested from graduates. These suggestions were used to create a model survey designed to procure long-term follow-up data which could be used to evaluate specialized arts schools and the value of arts education for all students. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2502. / Major Professor: Rodney Eichenberger. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of visual/aural conditions on the emotional response to music of musicians and nonmusicians. Subjects, musicians (n = 90) and nonmusicians (n = 90), were randomly assigned to three experimental groups: visual only, aural only, and visual/aural. The stimulus used for the experimental conditions was a taped excerpt (the final 8 minutes, 22 seconds) of a commercially recorded "live" concert of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "The Resurrection." Subjects were asked to indicate degrees of their felt emotional response by manipulating a Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) dial during experimental conditions. Subject demographic data were collected by means of an exit questionnaire. / Results indicated no significant difference between musicians and nonmusicians for the aural only and visual/aural conditions. A significant difference was found among musicians and nonmusicians for the visual only condition. / A qualitative analysis of individual and collective response graphs revealed that all subjects differentiated across the music stimulus excerpt. Additionally, there were subtle differences among musicians and nonmusicians in response to listening to music and to listening/watching the video recording. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-08, Section: A, page: 2312. / Major Professor: Clifford K. Madsen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The purpose of this study was to develop an assessment instrument through which affective responsiveness of third-grade children to music could be measured. / Three sources provided the foundation for the present study: (a) the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook II: Affective Domain (Krathwohl, Bloom, & Masia, 1964) which outlines five levels of affective behavior and suggests possible behaviors indicative of each level (receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and characterization by a value); levels I and II were determined pertinent to the present study; (b) the studies of Piaget which provide cognitive characteristics of the school-age child; and (c) the works of Erikson which explore the emotional and social development of the school-age child. / These three sources combined with a synthesis of selected literature resulted in the selection and definition of three behaviors indicative of affective response to music: attentiveness, physical response, and unsolicited response. / An initial affective behavior assessment instrument was designed to record student observations and to test the procedure. Subsequently, a fourth behavior--verbal response--was added and operational definitions were redefined upon analysis of the pilot instrument by music experts. / The study used the final Affective Behavior Assessment Instrument Form in evaluating ten observations edited from five videotaped third-grade music classes. Observations were made across three separate music settings of desk work, bell playing, and board work. / Results indicate that third-grade children's behavior representative of affective responsiveness to music can be observed and charted. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-09, Section: A, page: 3008. / Major Professor: Amy Brown. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

A need was determined for a computer program which could evaluate sight singing performance with melodies of four or more measures and tempi established by the student. The present study was undertaken to provide algorithms for such a computer program, and to compare those algorithms to human evaluation. / A computer program to record pitch and rhythmic errors in sight singing examples was written for use with the Roland VP-70 Voice Processor, a hardware device which converts real-time audio input to MIDI information. Forty-six subjects sang a total of 249 test melody samples. Cassette recordings of 51 of these examples were evaluated by the researcher and two other college sight singing instructors. MIDI recordings of the same samples were processed through the computer evaluation program. Reliability coefficients were calculated for the instructors with each other and the computer. Comparisons of the human and computer evaluations were made for discrepancies which were studied in detail, and incorporated into the program so as to effectively simulate human evaluation. / It was noted that instructors did not categorize as incorrect, intervals performed less than 60 cents sharp or flat; subsequently, the allowable cent deviation was increased from 50 cents to 59 cents. Durations of the last note performed as short as 20% and as long as 180% of the correct value were evaluated as correct by the instructors. The computer program was revised to reflect that judgment. The original fifteen percent deviation allowance for judgment of rhythm was increased to twenty percent for half notes, upon discovery that these notes were performed consistently short and not marked incorrect by the judges. / Of 45 internal (excluding first and last) half notes sung, 32 (71%) were performed short when measured against surrounding quarter notes. In addition, of 110 groups of two eighths, 79 second notes (72%) were performed longer than first notes. These differences were not perceived by the human judges, but study of these phenomena might reveal some valuable insight into rhythmic performance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-07, Section: A, page: 2307. / Major Professor: Peter Spencer. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The purpose of this treatise is to examine antithetical viewpoints relating to the formal approach to training the child voice, as expressed in selected American contributions to vocal pedagogy literature and related research. The treatise is primarily intended to give the reader a clear understanding of the major points of contention regarding the formal approach to training the child voice and the associated implications of using that approach. / In order to provide a complete analysis of the formal approach to training the child voice, the treatise discusses the characteristics and implications of both formal training and nonformal training. The treatise discusses the representative methods which employ specific, formal vocal training techniques but does not analyze these specific techniques in depth. Instead, these various methods are treated and discussed collectively as they relate to the overall issue of vocal training for the child voice. The treatise refers to them as the formal approach. / The nonformal training of the child voice has been generally referred to as the "song approach" or the "song method." As with the formal approach, the treatise examines the song approach in general terms, rather than in specific terms (i.e., the specific techniques within the song approach are not analyzed in depth), and presents the song approach as the alternative to the formal approach. / The treatise also presents a summary of the American history of training the child voice. / The treatise concludes that both the history of training the child voice and the weight of literature and research concerning that topic support the general success and effectiveness of the formal approach in producing good singing habits and skills in children over that achieved by the song approach. Accordingly, the treatise recommends that instruction of the child voice be predominantly conducted using formal teaching techniques. However, the treatise also suggests the addition of certain characteristics of the song approach so that formal drills and exercises do not become overemphasized to the detriment of the child's enjoyment of singing and development of song repertoire. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-11, Section: A, page: 4310. / Major Professor: Yvonne Ciannella. / Thesis (D.M.A.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

<p> The purpose of the study was to investigate intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors that influence middle school students&rsquo; enrollment decisions in either alternative (Modern Band) or traditional (Advanced Choir) music ensembles, as well as to explore external influences (peers, parents/family members, and the music teacher) on students&rsquo; performance and learning skills. The data revealed that common intrinsic motivators described by students from both ensembles included interest in music, developing playing/singing skills and improving performance skills, emotions toward performing, desire of career and personal enjoyment, and self-encouragement. </p><p> The participants included two eighth-grade students enrolled in Modern Band and two eighth-grade students from Advanced Choir, and both ensembles were taught by the same teacher in the same school in an urban area on the West Coast. The results indicate whether the motivations were internal or external, different levels of impact were seen on each student regarding decision-making, learning process, and performance skills.</p><p>

This study presents a phenomenological enquiry of two professional music improvisers' perceived mental representations. The notion of perceived 'mental representations' are recognized as having a pedagogical importance in increasing the quality of a musical performance, yet its nature and roles in music learning remain poorly understood. Although they are generally seen as conscious and quasi-perceptual experiential phenomena involving the imagination of events, objects, and settings, music scholars have found 'mental representations' difficult to conceptualize due to the coexistence of its different names and definitions in the literature. Synonymous terms of 'mental representations' also feature in several phenomenological and psychological models of referent-based musical improvisation. These include the concepts of 'tonal imagery' (Pike, 1974), 'representational structures' (Clarke, 1988), and 'analytical representations' (Pressing, 1988). To address this gap, the present study seeks to conceptualize the nature, formation, and roles of mental representations in the context of the musical improvisation process. An overarching research question guided the study: What characterises the nature of improvisers' embodied perceived mental representations before, during, and after a thematic musical improvisation? The study's qualitative methodology is positioned in constructivism and draws on the theoretical thinking of Andreas C. Lehmann and Marc Leman. In particular, this study adopts Lehmann's (1997) theory of three necessary types of mental representations in an expert musical performance (1. the desired performance goal, 2. the production aspects, and 3. the actual performance) as a theoretical lens to understand how the improvisers' mental representations are used. In addition, Leman's (2010) framework of embodied approach to musical semantics is used to access and understand how the improvisers' mental representations are formed. The research design comprised two phenomenologically informed descriptive case studies of two professional improvisers. A central feature of this study's design was having the improvisers learn a given musical stimulus in order to trace the formation and development of their perceived mental representations before, during, and after their improvisations. In addition, a group of four methods was employed: semi-structured interviews, live musical performance, graphic elicitation, and observation. Data comprising interview quotes, thick descriptions, the improvisers' performances, and their drawings were first analysed separately, and then were brought together and interpreted using a framework informed by the theoretical works of Lehmann and Leman. The findings of the study are presented in a narrative across two descriptive case studies, showing how the mental representations from Lehmann's model, and Leman's six types of semantics are evidenced throughout the two improvisers' learning, ideation, improvisation, and reflection phases. In particular, the key findings presented four ways of meaning constructions during the improvisers' formation of their mental representations, and identified twelve types of goal, production, and reflection-based mental representations. Bringing the two cases together, the study concludes that the two professional improvisers' mental representations: (1) are multi-various in nature, (2) undergo progressive and distributive formations, and (3) take on multiple types of roles. In addition to pedagogical recommendations to music education, the study's methodological contribution lies in providing a reference point and common ground for locating and describing the different phenomena taking place during improvisation - 'mental representations' being just one of them.

Musical expression is largely dependent upon accentuation, yet there have been few attempts to study the perception of dynamic accent in music or to relate the results of psychoacoustical research in intensity to realistic musical situations. The purpose of the experiment was to estimate the relationships among (a) the intensity increment in dB(A) required to meet an 80% correct criterion in the perception of one accented tone embedded within a seven-tone isochronous series of identical 87 dB(A) snare drum timbre stimuli of 333 ms onsets (accent level, or AL), (b) the different limen (DL) for intensity increase to meet a 75% correct criterion in a 2AFC task for pairs for the stimuli, and (c) the age of the subjects, all of whom have normal audiograms. / The 51 subjects (N = 51) were female nonmusicians ranging in age from 9 to 33 years (M = 17.98, SD = 5.21). The response tasks involved saying whether the second tone of each pair was louder or softer and circling the accented note in notated quarter notes. The stimuli production, the headphone calibration process, and their rationales were detailed. The global regression model was significant (F(2, 48) = 5.505, p =.007, $R\sp2$ =.187), and the relationship between AL and DL was not significant (F(1, 48) = 5.505, p =.197, $R\sp2$ change =.029), the relationship between AL and age was significant (F(1, 48) = 5.732, p =.021, $R\sp2$ change =.098) at an alpha level of.05 and power calculated at.66 for a medium ES. / It was concluded that accented sounds are easier to perceive in tone pairs than they are in a musical setting and that subject maturation improves performance of intensity judgement tasks. Suggestions for further research include shortening the length of the experimental session for younger subjects and increasing the number of intensity increments as well as using smaller increments to accommodate individual differences in perception. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-03, Section: A, page: 0662. / Major Professor: Jack A. Taylor. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

This study was designed to explore intensity preferences in music listening through an operant task which allowed subjects to alter loudness (intensity) levels for four selected frequency bands. Comparisons were made relating the effects of age, sex, frequency band, song, and presentation condition to intensity preferences and to the initial presentation volume. Six age groups comprising 18 through 90 year old subjects (N = 180) participated in the study. Subjects represented active and passive community music participants and were individually tested using six songs specifically chosen for their popular appeal. Initial audiometric evaluations indicated typical presbycusic changes as age increased. Subsequent loudness preferences were assessed for four frequency bands (110, 330, 1000, 3000 Hz) using a graphic frequency equalizer. Results obtained from equalizer settings indicated a significant difference between age groups. Subjects in the three younger age groups (18-53) preferred louder volume levels than did subjects in the oldest age group. Older subjects, with deteriorating hearing abilities, did not compensate by increasing the listening volume, while younger subjects with much better hearing did increase loudness levels. On the basis of this study it may be concluded that: (1) Older adults will generally prefer lower loudness levels than younger adults in music listening contexts. (2) An inverse relationship appears to exist between preferred loudness levels and auditory capabilities, with increased volume being paired with lower auditory threshold levels. (3) Older adults can be easily taught to use a graphic frequency equalizer and thereby create the possibility of increased enjoyment of music listening activities. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: A, page: 1693. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.