This dissertation presents an evaluation of a new method of teaching reading by means of a handbook for teachers and a workbook for children who have not learnt reading after being taught by the traditional methods in the classroom. The method uses poetry, mainly in doggerel and limerick form, assembled into a sequential and meaningful reading/spelling programme which, together with reference to phonics workbooks and reading books, trains the beginner reader up to the level of reading literacy. Research on the literature available shows that poetry has not yet been used as a total remedial programme. The efficacy of the need for remediation is examined, and remediation methods analysed for what they should include. Other avenues of remediation are explored, such as the gross and fine motor and perceptual schools of thought, and the language and auditory orientation to remediation, into which the Poetry Method neatly fits. Psychological theories - such as the behaviourist operative reward systems and the ideas of phenomenologists such as Rogers - that total healing can come about through renewed motivation and growth in self-esteem, are shown to be included in the Poetry Method.

My work revolves around Alexander Yakovlev’s vocal method which originates in the tradition of organic singing established in Russia by Glinka in the mid nineteenth century, and developed by the legendary Russian bass Fyodor Chalyapin. My approach to piano technique and performance formed as a direct result of Yakovlev’s principles and his vocal method, serves as the origin in my search for piano mastery. Being taught organic singing simultaneously with my piano studies by Yakovlev’s successor Natalia Pirozerskaya in my early childhood, I did not at that point see the full benefit of this approach for my piano skills. It was only after twelve years of trial and error in seeking to realise my inner expressive and virtuoso potential at the piano, that I understood the infinite value of Pirozerskaya’s teaching method and began to analyse the effect of organic singing on my pianistic process. Pirozerskaya grounds her research on the singing voice following Yakovlev’s concept of the vocal apparatus functioning as a sensory organ in relation to musical performance. Yakovlev developed a theory around this phenomenon which he labelled funzione d’attacco. This way, the singer’s inner artistic impulses cause a direct, natural motor response in his/her vocal organ, forming optimal corresponding movements which with training become automatic, almost reflexive. Pirozerskaya believes that because the vocal organ is an embodied instrument positioned close to the brain, organic vocal movements easily stimulate the brain, serving to alert and coordinate the motor-muscular responses of the entire body, and thus helping to form differentiated musical movements of the hands – the apparatus of the pianist. My research is focused on these phenomena in relation to piano playing. I am working towards systematising Pirozerskaya’s and my own further discoveries on how this unique vocalpiano method impacts on piano technique. Aiming to distinguish between the notions of a ‘good piano player’ and a ‘performing artist’, I am developing my proposed piano method of re-connecting the pianist with his inner artistic self. Combining my experience with relevant ideas of several renowned piano pedagogues from Frederick Chopin to the present, I propose an approach to piano playing which, I believe, has the capacity of maximising artistic expression in performance through developing a natural functional balance of pianistic movements inseparable from the pianist’s artistic aims

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This document describes the design of a supersonic and a subsonic test section for a high enthalpy wind tunnel. A streamline is tracked through a supersonic test section using the method of characteristics. The specifics of the design program and the design techniques are illustrated for the supersonic section. The section of the paper dealing with the subsonic nozzle has a greatly diverse nature. This section details the inlet and exhaust restrictions and construction elements for the entire low speed system. The system is currently being set up for testing with the subsonic section, and the supersonic will eventually follow.

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