As with any sensory input, music might be expected to incorporate the processing of information about the safety of the environment. Little research has been done on how such processing has evolved and how different kinds of sounds may affect the experience of certain environments. In this article, we investigate if music, as a form of auditory information, can trigger the experience of safety. We hypothesized that (1) there should be an optimal, subjectively preferred degree of information density of musical sounds, at which safety-related information can be processed optimally; (2) any deviation from the optimum, that is, both higher and lower levels of information density, should elicit experiences of higher stress and danger; and (3) in general, sonic scenarios with music should reduce experiences of stress and danger more than other scenarios. In Experiment 1, the information density of short music-like rhythmic stimuli was manipulated via their tempo. In an initial session, listeners adjusted the tempo of the stimuli to what they deemed an appropriate tempo. In an ensuing session, the same listeners judged their experienced stress and danger in response to the same stimuli, as well as stimuli exhibiting tempo variants. Results are consistent with the existence of an optimum information density for a given rhythm; the preferred tempo decreased for increasingly complex rhythms. The hypothesis that any deviation from the optimum would lead to experiences of higher stress and danger was only partly fit by the data. In Experiment 2, listeners should indicate their experience of stress and danger in response to different sonic scenarios: music, natural sounds, and silence. As expected, the music scenarios were associated with lowest stress and danger whereas both natural sounds and silence resulted in higher stress and danger. Overall, the results largely fit the hypothesis that music seemingly carries safety-related information about the environment.

No description available.

Den här kvalitativa studien syftar till att bidra med kunskap om trumlärares didaktiska förhållningssätt till trummornas klangvärld vid enskild instrumentalundervisning på gymnasienivå. Studien inkluderar semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra trumlärare för att ge insikter om deras upplevda erfarenheter av ämnet. Studiens resultat visar på att trumlärare ofta arbetar med trummornas klangvärld i förhållande till främst ensembleundervisning genom att arbeta med klangvärld utifrån en specifik låt eller genre. Resultaten visar också att undervisning om klangvärld enligt trumlärare kan vara utmanande då elevernas kunskapsnivå generellt är så pass låg att andra mer grundläggande färdigheter bakom trummorna, som teknik och dynamisk kontroll, måste adresseras först. Andra utmaningar trumlärare står inför är resurs- och tidsbrist. Studien betonar, i samstämmighet med tidigare forskning, att arbete med trummornas klangvärld är en central del av det konstnärliga skapandet bakom trummorna, att detta arbete bör ske utifrån flera olika perspektiv och fokus om målet är att skapa en så bred kunskapsbas som möjligt samt att workshops kan vara ett både utvecklande och tidseffektivt sätt att arbeta med trummornas klangvärld på. / This qualitative study aims to explore drum teachers' didactical perspectives on teaching high school drum students about the timbral sound world of drums. The study includes semi-structured interviews with four drum teachers to provide insights into their perceived experiences of the subject. The findings of the study suggest that drum teachers often work with the timbral sound world of drums in relation to primarily ensemble teaching, by working with the sound world based on a specific song or genre. Findings also show that according to drum teachers teaching about timbre can be challenging due to the students' general knowledge level being so low that other more basic skills behind the drums, such as technique and dynamic control, must be addressed first. Other challenges include a lack of resources and time constraints.  The study emphasizes, in accordance with prior research, that working with the timbral sound world of drums is a central part of developing an artistic expression behind the drums, that this work should be approached from multiple perspectives and focuses if the goal is to create as broad a knowledge base as possible and that workshops can be both a developing and time-efficient way to work with the timbral sound world of drums.

Sound and its apperception are essential to music. But »sound« and »perception« can have different denotations in empirical studies of aural perception and music analysis. To me, musical sound is fundamentally situated: a sound becomes musical when heard not as an isolated aural stimulus, but as an event that serves as the focal point for a complex apperception in which multiple musical events and various human perceptual and cognitive faculties participate. In his essay Music Theory, Phenomenology, and Music Perception, David Lewin probes the sound of a single G-minor chord through an exegesis of various contexts in which it might be heard. After some background on Lewin’s work, I develop a way of thinking about musical sound around two ideas: (1) musical sound is qualitative; and (2) it is context-dependent in a deep way – context penetrates, saturates, is embedded in, and creates musical sound. This idea leads to three others: musical sound is multivalent, distributed, and dynamic. Whereas Lewin explores the formative influence musical contexts exert on sound in a tonal setting (Schubert’s Morgengruß), I consider how this sort of thinking might apply to music outside the bounds of common-practice tonality. With its massive scale, intricate and diverse compositional design, prominent use of varied repetition, and mix of elements of tonality with Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition and atonal materials, Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (1944) is an apt environment in which to consider the possibilities.

Orchestrierung wurde bisher hauptsächlich auf eine intuitive, non-verbale musikalische Art und Weise unterrichtet und Traktate zur Orchestrierung widmen sich vor allem den Instrumenten (Instrumentenkunde). Der Komponist und Professor für Orchestrierung am nationalen Konservatorium in Paris, Marc-André Dalbavie (1961–), und einige seiner ehemaligen Studierenden haben seit den 1990er Jahren unter dem Begriff ›funktionale Orchestrierung‹ allgemeine und verbalisierte Prinzipien der Orchestrierung entwickelt, die meisten davon basierend auf Akustik, Psychoakustik und üblicher Praxis. Ich präsentiere im Folgenden eine Auswahl dieser Funktionen und einige damit in Verbindung stehende Beispiele aus der Literatur. / Orchestration has been mainly taught in a quite intuitive and non-verbalized musical way, and treatises in orchestration are mostly treatises on instruments. Since the 90’s, under the name ›functional orchestration‹, the composer and orchestration professor at the national Paris conservatory, Marc-André Dalbavie (1961–), and a few of his former students have developed some general and verbalized principles of orchestration, mostly based on acoustics, psychoacoustics and common practice. I briefly present some of these functions and a few related examples from the literature.

No description available.

Dass sich die Kategorie »Klang« im 20. Jahrhundert emanzipiert habe, ist ein Gemeinplatz. Aufgabe der musikologischen Diskussionen ist es dabei, zu präzisie­ren in welcher Hinsicht diese »neuen« Zugangs­weisen zu Klang sich tatsächlich von der »Klangkomposition« vergangener Jahr­hun­derte unterscheiden und vor welchen kompositionsästhetischen, kulturgeschichtlichen und wahrnehmungstheoretischen Diskursen sie sich entwickelt haben. Die Beiträge des vorliegenden Bandes, zurückgehend auf ein Symposium im Jahr 2011 an der Kunst­universität Graz, umkreisen die Interaktionen zwischen Klang und Wahrnehmung aus musikanalytischen, musikhistorischen, theoriegeschichtlichen, musikästhetischen und psychoakustischen Perspektiven. Von der (differenziert vorgetragenen) Diagnose einer »Klangver­gessenheit« in Musiktheorie und -wissenschaft ausgehend, werden dabei mit je unterschiedlichen Akzenten Desiderate und Anregungen für künftige Forschungen formuliert.

I föreliggande studie är syftet att studera några högskolelärares upptattningar angående-, innebörden av och arbete med en sopranklang på en högskolenivå. Tidigare litteratur och forskning visar på olika svar om hur begreppet kan användas, innebörden av begreppet samt nyanseringen av begreppen klang, timbre och klangfärg. Arbetet är kvalitativt och utgår från det teoretiska perspektivet designteori och socialsemiotik. Metoden som används är stimulated recall-intervjuer som i föreliggande fall innebär en videoobservation av en sånglektion och ett intervjutillfälle där läraren i en semistrukturerad intervju berättar om uppfattningar och arbete med en vacker klang, med videon som underlag för intervjun. Resultatet delas in teman om uppfattningar om och arbetet med klang. Gällande uppfattningar angående klang framkommer att klang ses som en medfödd, utvecklingsbar och kommunikativ förmåga samt som ett ej användbart begrepp. Resultatet visar att Arbetet med klangen utgår ifrån verbala, sångliga, fysiska och känslomässiga representationer. I diskussionen diskuteras aspekten om en vacker klang kan tyckas vara medfödd eller utvecklingsbar. Även vikten av multimodalitet i arbetet med klang diskuteras. I diskussionen lyfts även aspekter av arbetet med klang som direkt eller indirekt eller som ett fysiskt fenomen kontra ett abstrakt fenomen. / This study is about the soprano timbre, how university teachers defines the term and how the work with it in teaching. Previous research presented different answers about the meaning of the term timbre. It’s a qualitative study and based on the theoretical perspective design theory and social semiotic. The method used is stimulated recall interviews, which in the present case is both a video observation of a singing lesson and an interview occasion where the teachers are interviewed one by one. The interview is semi-structured and the teachers got to tell about their opinion about a beautiful sound, and the work with timbre. The video is used as a basis for the interview. The result is divided into the categories "The opinion of" and "the work with" timbre.The opinion of timbre is also divided into the headings: sound as innate, developable and communicative ability and also the term timbre being not useful. The work with the timbre is based on verbal, singable, physical and emotional representations. In the discussion, the aspect is further discussed if a beautiful sound can seem to be innate or developable, as well as the multimodality and its resources. The discussion also discusses aspects of the work with the sound as direct or indirect or as a physical phenomenon versus an abstract phenomenon. In addition, the beautiful timbre of the multimodality is discussed.

The aim of this study is to gain insight into how experienced children’s choir conductors work with the development of voices in the elementary school age. The work primarily focuses on aspects of vocal production such as finding and matching pitch, intonation, tone quality, resonance and falsetto singing. Because of the inherent complex nature of singing, the work also to some extent covers other aspects of choir singing such as breath, posture and organisation. Three experienced Swedish choir directors were interviewed with a qualitative method. The results show that the directors’ methods were similar, emphasizing good voice quality of the director, high registry singing, and enhancing listening skills over detailed work with resonance and tone quality. The results also show that the choir directors were coherent with and to some extent relied on the same method literature that forms the backbone of this work. This study brings to light what methods are used by todays children’s choir directors and further underscores the relevance of existing literature. / Uppsatsens syfte är att ge inblick i hur erfarna körledare arbetar med röstutveckling hos barn i lågstadieåldern. De huvudsakliga områden som undersöks är körledarnas arbete med tonträffning, intonation, tonkvalitet, resonans och huvudklang. På grund av körsångens komplexa natur avhandlar arbetet även i viss mån övriga aspekter såsom andning, hållning och organisering av kören. Uppsatsen bygger på material från tre kvalitativa intervjuer med erfarna körledare. Resultatet visar att de tre körledarna använder sig av likartade metoder. Samtliga betonar vikten av att körledaren själv har en god röstkvalitet, att körsången sker i ett högt register anpassat till barnens röster och att körundervisningen bör fokusera på gehörsutveckling snarare än detaljarbete med resonans och tonkvalitet. Resultatet visar även att körledarnas metoder till stor del överensstämde med och i viss mån även utgick ifrån de källor som tas upp i uppsatsens litteraturkapitel. Uppsatsen visar på vilka metoder som används av erfarna barnkörledare och understryker även relevansen av den befintliga litteraturen i ämnet.

Music has been shown to positively impact people living with advanced dementia, triggering fleeting recall and recollection and impacting emotional responses. Research and practice have focused on opportunities for people to engage with music by listening to playlists of favourite songs, revisiting existing skills by playing music, or by engaging in group music sessions or music therapy. Research has primarily focused on music and melodic sound, however our day-to-day lives are filled with ambient sound, soundscapes and percussive sound. Research in this area is limited. As is research in how to promote creative engagement with sound for those who do not have any existing musical skills. This paper will discuss a project to adapt an innovative electronic musical instrument, The AirSticks, invented by a professional musical performer for use in his own practice, to suit the needs of people living with advanced dementia. It will provide insights into workshops with a group of residents at two care homes and show the impact on one person in particular as she engaged in an emotive improvisation with the musician.