Polyphony and homophony differ not only by their structural, but also by their expressive characteristics.

Polyphony and homophony differ not only by their structural, but also by their expressive characteristics.

As the Enlightenment took hold in Europe, all aspects of eighteenth-century society felt its effects. Musical tastes, caught in this ideological shift, began to move from the more codified complexity of counterpoint toward the more simplified aesthetic known as galant. Johann Sebastian Bach, now in the most mature phase of a musical career rooted in the contrapuntal style, came under growing public criticism from proponents of galant who were increasingly dismissive of counterpoint as an out-dated compositional method. In 1741, during this time of growing censure, Bach created the wedding cantata BWV 210, O holder Tag erwünschte Zeit, based on an earlier cantata but with significant changes that are unique within this oeuvre. Rather than the typical celebratory libretto characteristic of his other wedding cantatas, Bach mounted a strong rhetorical argument in defense of music, deftly combining irony, humour, and pointed barbs to make his point. The rationale for this has not received significant scholarly attention. This dissertation explores the idea that Bach used BWV 210 as a specific personal response to his critics who favoured the changing musical aesthetic of the era, and as a defense of a contrapuntal style cherished by him but no longer valued by many advocates of the galant. This claim is supported through an aggregation of extant research linking the cantata to the circumstances in which it was created. Particular attention is given to the ideological conflict represented in the aesthetic shift of the eighteenth century, and Bach’s reactions evident in written documents, his compositions and in his unique synthesis of compositional styles intersecting the aesthetics of his era. The circumstances under which the cantata was written provide context for the significant libretto revisions undertaken to adapt the cantata from its closest known counterpart, BWV 210a. Finally, Johann Scheibe’s published criticism against Bach is explored as an important flashpoint for Bach’s use of BWV 210 as a musical rebuttal. Not only is a better understanding of a lesser-known cantata achieved, but a glimpse into the mindset of Bach is also realized through the unusually personal response included in BWV 210.

As the Enlightenment took hold in Europe, all aspects of eighteenth-century society felt its effects. Musical tastes, caught in this ideological shift, began to move from the more codified complexity of counterpoint toward the more simplified aesthetic known as galant. Johann Sebastian Bach, now in the most mature phase of a musical career rooted in the contrapuntal style, came under growing public criticism from proponents of galant who were increasingly dismissive of counterpoint as an out-dated compositional method. In 1741, during this time of growing censure, Bach created the wedding cantata BWV 210, O holder Tag erwünschte Zeit, based on an earlier cantata but with significant changes that are unique within this oeuvre. Rather than the typical celebratory libretto characteristic of his other wedding cantatas, Bach mounted a strong rhetorical argument in defense of music, deftly combining irony, humour, and pointed barbs to make his point. The rationale for this has not received significant scholarly attention. This dissertation explores the idea that Bach used BWV 210 as a specific personal response to his critics who favoured the changing musical aesthetic of the era, and as a defense of a contrapuntal style cherished by him but no longer valued by many advocates of the galant. This claim is supported through an aggregation of extant research linking the cantata to the circumstances in which it was created. Particular attention is given to the ideological conflict represented in the aesthetic shift of the eighteenth century, and Bach’s reactions evident in written documents, his compositions and in his unique synthesis of compositional styles intersecting the aesthetics of his era. The circumstances under which the cantata was written provide context for the significant libretto revisions undertaken to adapt the cantata from its closest known counterpart, BWV 210a. Finally, Johann Scheibe’s published criticism against Bach is explored as an important flashpoint for Bach’s use of BWV 210 as a musical rebuttal. Not only is a better understanding of a lesser-known cantata achieved, but a glimpse into the mindset of Bach is also realized through the unusually personal response included in BWV 210.

Il y a (au moins) deux questions fondamentales que l’on est amené à se poser lorsqu’on étudie le langage: comment acquiert-on le langage? —le problème d’apprentissage —et pourquoi les langues du monde partagent certaines propriétés mais pas d’autres? —le problème typologique. Dans cette thèse, j’entreprends de relier ces deux domaines en me focalisant sur le lexique, l’ensemble des mots de notre langue et leur sens associés, en posant les questions suivantes: pourquoi le lexique est-il tel qu’il est? Et est-ce que les propriétés du lexique peuvent être (en partie) expliquées par la façon dont les enfants apprennent leur langue? Un des aspects les plus frappants du lexique est que les mots que nous utilisons sont ambigus et peuvent être confondus facilement avec d’autres. En effet, les mots peuvent avoir plusieurs sens (par exemple, les homophones) et sont représentés par un ensemble limité de sons qui augmentent la possibilité qu’ils soient confondus (par exemple, les paires minimales). L’existence de ces mots semble présenter un problème pour les enfants qui apprennent leur langue car il a été montré qu’ils ont des difficultés à apprendre des mots dont les formes sonores sont proches et qu’ils résistent à l’apprentissage des mots ayant plusieurs sens. En combinant une approche computationnelle et expérimentale, je montre, quantitativement, que les mots du lexique sont, en effet, plus similaires que ce qui serait attendu par chance, et expérimentalement, que les enfants n’ont aucun problème à apprendre ces mots à la condition qu’ils apparaissent dans des contextes suffisamment distincts. Enfin, je propose que l’étude des mots ambigus permet de révéler des éléments importants du mécanisme d’apprentissage du langage qui sont actuellement absents des théories actuelles. Cet ensemble d’études suggère que les mots ambigus et les mots similaires, bien que présents dans le langage, n’apparaissent pas arbitrairement dans le langage et que leur organisation reflète (en partie) la façon dont les enfants apprennent leur langue. / Modern cognitive science of language concerns itself with (at least) two fundamental questions: how do humans learn language? —the learning problem —and why do the world’s languages exhibit some properties and not others? —the typology problem. In this dissertation, I attempt to link these two questions by looking at the lexicon, the set of word-forms and their associated meanings, and ask why do lexicons look the way they are? And can the properties exhibited by the lexicon be (in part) explained by the way children learn their language? One striking observation is that the set of words in a given language is highly ambiguous and confusable. Words may have multiple senses (e.g., homonymy, polysemy) and are represented by an arrangement of a finite set of sounds that potentially increase their confusability (e.g., minimal pairs). Lexicons bearing such properties present a problem for children learning their language who seem to have difficulty learning similar sounding words and resist learning words having multiple meanings. Using lexical models and experimental methods in toddlers and adults, I present quantitative evidence that lexicons are, indeed, more confusable than what would be expected by chance alone. I then present empirical evidence suggesting that toddlers have the tools to bypass these problems given that ambiguous or confusable words are constrained to appear in distinct context. Finally, I submit that the study of ambiguous words reveal factors that were currently missing from current accounts of word learning. Taken together this research suggests that ambiguous and confusable words, while present in the language, may be restricted in their distribution in the lexicon and that these restrictions reflect (in part) how children learn languages.

The focus of this master's thesis is an automatic creation of organ overtures for church songs from both theoretical and practical points of view. Organ overture is a short introduction to a church song. According to the fact that it can be described by a finite set of rules, it is possible to use techniques for solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems. An effective instrument to develop such system can be C++ programming language and Gecode library.

TITLE: THE LANGUAGE OF MUSIC: Claudio Monteverdi as an innovator in the field of dealing with text in music. SUMMARY: The main topic of this Thesis is Claudio Monteverdi's work and its importance for the development of dealing with text in music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque period. In Monteverdi's compositions we can follow the evolution of counterpoint techniques reaching from the traditional 16th century vocal polyphony to the purely monodic approach to composition that is typical of Baroque music. The text works as a creative element that affects the author's way of working, leading him from the first experiments with the musical representation of each word in the madrigal to a dramatic expression of the text in the style of opera. In his work Monteverdi uses wordpainting to an unprecedented extent. He invents new musical expression for words that contain a strong emotional charge, like subtle rhythmic figures for joyful words, or sharp dissonances for words conveying pain. He is the first composer to achieve excellence in combining flawless technical skill with the dramatic line of the composition. His work forms an imaginary bridge between music of two periods: in the first period text is perceived as a mere "servant" of music but becomes the "ruler" of it in the later one. The Thesis...

Cette recherche descriptive vise à établir un portrait des principales difficultés rencontrées par les élèves du secondaire relativement à l’orthographe des homophones et cela à travers différents angles d’analyse. Nous avons d’abord fait ressortir l’importance des difficultés orthographiques chez les élèves du secondaire québécois et mis en relief la proportion de ces erreurs attribuée à l’orthographe des homophones. À partir des données recueillies par le groupe de recherche Projet grammaire-écriture qui s’est donné comme objectif, dans un premier temps, de recueillir de nombreuses données à travers deux instruments de collecte (une dictée et une production écrite), nous avons tout d’abord relevé les erreurs d’homophonie commises le plus fréquemment par les élèves pour ensuite analyser chacune des formes homophones problématiques en fonction de critères variés tels que leur fréquence lexicale dans la langue française, leur appartenance à une catégorie grammaticale particulière ou encore la structure syntaxique qui les sous-tend. Les erreurs les plus importantes ont fait l’objet d’une observation plus poussée : nous avons établi le pourcentage de graphies correctes versus erronées dans tous les textes des élèves. Finalement, nous avons aussi comparé nos résultats à ceux obtenus par McNicoll et Roy (1984) auprès d’une population de niveau primaire. Les résultats révélés par notre analyse montrent que ce sont principalement les finales verbales en /E/ qui posent problème aux élèves du secondaire, suivies par les formes homophones s’est/c’est/ces/ses et se/ce. / This descriptive research aims to establish a picture of the main difficulties high school students face with regard to the spelling of homophones; this was achieved using several perspectives of analysis. We started by emphasising the importance of spelling difficulties among Québec high school students and then outlined the proportion of those errors specifically attributable to the spelling of homophones. Using data gathered by Projet grammaire-écriture, a research group with the preliminary objective of gathering a significant amount of data using two means of collection (a dictation and a written production), we started by outlining the most frequent homophonous errors made by the students and then analysed each of the problematic homophonous forms using several criteria, such as their lexical frequency in the French language, their belonging to a particular grammatical category, or their underlying syntax structure. The most outstanding errors have been the subject of more advanced analysis: we have established the percentage of correct spelling versus wrong spelling in all of the students’ writings. And, finally, we have also compared our results with those obtained by McNicoll and Roy (1984), who surveyed students from primary schools. The results of our analysis show that the main problems high school students face are verbs ending with the sound ‘e’, followed by the s’est/c’est/ces/ses and se/ce homophonous forms.

Il lavoro persegue l’obiettivo di raccogliere e analizzare le formule augurali che in Cina vengono veicolate tramite l’omofonia, un fenomeno che all’interno del Cinese Mandarino Standard ha un’incidenza di gran lunga superiore ad altre lingue. I dati sono stati raccolti nel corso di un’indagine di campo a Langfang (Hebei), tra settembre e dicembre 2017, tramite 30 interviste semi-strutturate su un campione tipologico a scelta ragionata, che ha portato alla creazione di un corpus scritto di 217.000 caratteri cinesi, e tramite osservazione. La ricerca ha evidenziato come nella cultura cinese permanga una radicata percezione del valore magico della parola, in grado con la sua sola formulazione di influenzare il corso degli eventi. L’omofonia si fa quindi portavoce di espressioni beneauguranti, con un duplice obiettivo pragmatico: da un lato, fornire rassicurazione psicologica al singolo, dall’altro creare appartenenza sociale, per cui il rispetto dell’omofonia si configura come una forma di adesione al sistema di valori in cui la società si riconosce. Il fenomeno si presenta estremamente dinamico: si evidenziano spinte innovative da parte dei giovani e invenzioni personali, un crescente orientamento verso messaggi augurali positivi, con una re-interpretazione dei tabu, e infine con la tendenza a una formulazione proverbiale. / This study aims at collecting the wishes hidden in Chinese homophonies. The data have been collected during a field search carried out in Langfang (Hebei), between September and December 2017, both through 30 semi-structured interviews to a judgmental sample, resulting in a written corpus of 217,000 Chinese characters, and through field observation. The study points out that a belief in the magical power of words still persists nowadays in Chinese culture. In such a cultural context, homophony conveys good wishes, with a twofold pragmatic aim: on one hand, it provides the individuals with psychological reassurance; on the other hand, it creates social we-ness and the respect of homophony is seen as adhering to the social value system the society identifies itself with. The homophonic phenomenon appears to be extremely dynamic: innovations are provided by the young, personal creativity is allowed, taboos are re-interpreted so that they take on a positive meaning and wishes tend to be formulated as proverbs.