Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MA (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Psychology / unrestricted

Composition has been conceptualized as a method for communicating a way of thinking (i.e., cognition) from composers to performers and audience members. Music notation, or how music is represented in a visual format, becomes the vehicle through which such cognition is communicated. In the past, research on notation has been approached either categorically or as a taxonomy, where it is placed into separate categories based primarily on visual elements, including its symbols, conventions, and practices. The modern application of notation in Western classical music repertoire, however, has shown that the boundaries between these systems are not always clear and sometimes blend together. Viewing music notation from a spectrum-based approach instead provides a better understanding of notation through its cognitive effects. These spectra can then be viewed through multiple dimensions, all addressing different aspects. The first dimension consists of the historical systems of notation, ranging from standard music notation (SMN) to music graphics. Additional kinds of notation, such as proportional, pictorial, and aleatoric, work as the mediary levels between these two. The second dimension focuses on whether notation is processed intuitively, based on either cultural priming or general cognitive principles, or through conscious interpretation. The last dimension views notation as either a visual representation of the sound (descriptive) or a representation of the process performed to create the sound (prescriptive). This thesis conceptualizes a theory for understanding music notation though these multiple dimensions by synthesizing psychological studies about music, music notation research, and pre-existing musical scores.

No description available.

Denna undersökning handlar om hur en reharmonisering påverkar unga vuxna musikers känslomässiga uppfattning av låten ”Tryggare kan ingen vara”. För att få reda på vilka känslor deltagarna kände fick de fylla i ett formulär som var baserat på Geneva Emotional Music Scale (förkortat som GEMS). Utöver detta formulär fick de även svara på två korta frågor samt fylla i ett formulär om sin musikaliska bakgrund. Studien visar att unga vuxna musiker känslomässigt reagerar annorlunda på olika harmoniseringar av ”Tryggare kan ingen vara”. De mest intressanta skillnaderna presenteras och analyseras med hjälp av uträknade median- och medelvärden utifrån formuläret som är baserat på GEMS. Dessa siffror jämförs sedan med de andra frågorna som deltagarna fick svara på och det förs resonemang kring varför de möjligen svarade som de svarade.

This thesis deals with the question how music is used and how often in the news report of Czech TV stations. It also presents findings of musical psychology, that points to the undesirable influence of such music on the objectivity of news reports because music influences the way the news is understood and interpreted by the viewer. The whole work consists of two main parts - theoretical and practical. In the theoretical part, we deal with music psychology, music analysis, music and sound development in the audiovisual work and the practice of sound production in television news. The chapter on musical psychology presents the basic and advanced concepts and knowledge of the field, which relate to the ability of music to interact with human communication, perception, understanding, memory, experiences and emotions. The next chapter is devoted to musical analysis focusing on semantic analysis. The third and final chapter of the theoretical part is dedicated to music and sound in audiovisual works as well as the development of work with sound and music in television broadcasting and news. It also covers the development and specifics of production of TV news. In the practical part, we present our own research. The first chapter describes and explains the data from the quantitative part of the...

This thesis takes as its starting point the observation that the authorship of the creative product of orchestral performances has been, and continues to be, over-attributed to the conductor. This is reflected both in popular perceptions and in the scholarly attention given to the conductor's leadership role, as well as in orchestral practices which privilege the conductor's artistically superior position within the orchestra through rehearsal and performance rituals and in remuneration and marketing. Although existing research has challenged the perception that the authority of the conductor is absolute, none has offered alternative explanations for how best to attribute the authorship of orchestral performances. Through a three-phased mixed-methods empirical study including an online questionnaire, in-depth interviews, and a newly developed method of data collection utilising an online variation of video-stimulated recall to capture musician experiences in real-life rehearsal and performance settings, this research contributes to an understanding of the social psychology of orchestral performance by identifying what prompts musicians' decision-making regarding how and when to play their parts. The analysis of the data has resulted in the development of a theoretical Framework of Influence and Action in Orchestral Performance that offers a new way of conceptualising authorship in performance through a 'theory of influence'. It concludes with an exploration of the implications of this revised view of authorship for existing orchestral practices, group creativity research, and our understanding of how the relationships enacted in the micro-socialities of orchestral performance reflect larger social formations.

Le travail de recherche examine plusieurs problématiques relatives à la perception, la représentation et la catégorisation des stimuli musicaux durant l’écoute. Nous souhaitons enquêter ces processus cognitifs dans le cadre des différentes approches théorétiques présentes dans la littérature scientifique internationale. En particulier, la thèse s’est focalisée sur le processus de segmentation perceptif du morceau pendant l'écoute, et a analysé au moyen de deux expériences comportementales, les différents rôles des nombreuses caractéristiques structurelles et dynamiques dans le développement de la représentation de la composition musicale par Pauditeur. Ils sont aussi considérés les variables liées au musicien et à l’écouter. Les données expérimentales obtenues sont étudiées en relation avec les modèles modernes de auditory map of salience, et parallèlement, avec les modèles plus spécifiques de segmentation développés pendant ces trente dernières années dans la cadre de la psychologie cognitive de la musique. Pour les expériences on a utilisé un paradigme de segmentation musical avec deux écoutes de morceaux atonales et un ordre balancé de présentation. Les résultats expérimentaux démontrent que la carte de saillance n'est pas une trame immuable pouvant être remplie avec des combinaisons de caractéristiques du stimulus. Au contraire, elle peut être modulée par la répartition de l'attention « goal directed » il travers, par exemple, une modulation des seuils perceptifs spécifiques pour certaines caractéristiques. / This research examines several issues related to the collection, representation and the categorization of musical stimuli during the listening. We investigate these cognitive processes in the with reference to the different theoretical approaches existing in the international scientific literature. In particular, the thesis focuses on the process of perceptual segmentation of musical pieces during the listening. Two behavioral experiments allow analyzing the different roles of many structural and dynamic features in the development of the listeners’ representation of the music. Experiments take into account also the variables related to the musician and the listener. The experimental data obtained are discussed with regard to the current models of auditory map of salience, as well as with models of music segmentation models. In the paradigm of musical segmentation we used subjects have to hear and segment two versions of an atonal piece. Order of presentation is balanced across participants. The results demonstrate that the saliency map is not an immutable frame deriving only from the features of the stimuli. On the opposite, it can be modulated by goal-directed attention through, for example, modulation of specific perceptual thresholds for certain characteristics.

Kognitiv beteendeterapi (KBT) bygger på teorier kring människans tankar, känslor och beteenden. Det är ett samlingsbegrepp för metoder som utformats för att hjälpa människor att förändra problematiska beteenden. Inledningsvis sammanfattas de begrepp som är relevanta för studiens syfte. Statistik visar att psykisk ohälsa är vanligt förekommande hos klassiska musiker. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur KBT kan användas för att uppnå ändamålsenliga beteenden i musikalisk övning och fungera som ett hjälpmedel för att hantera problem. Studien byggde på en hermeneutisk grund. Materialet bestod av självobservationer från instudering av Mendelssohns violinkonsert. Dessa tolkades ur ett KBT–perspektiv för att besvara syftet. I resultatet visas integrerandet av KBT–interventioner i form av konkreta exempel där interventionen utformats för att bemöta ett problem i instuderingen. I studiens diskussion analyserades resultatet i form av vilken effekt KBT–interventionerna haft i den musikaliska övningen. / Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is based on theories about thoughts, feelings and behaviors. It’s a collective term for methods that serve the purpose of helping people with problematic behaviors. In the introduction the relevant concepts for the study are summarized. Statistics show that mental distress among classical musicians is common. The purpose of the study was to examine how CBT can be applied in order to reach effective behaviors in musical practice and serve as a tool for managing problems. The basis of the study was hermeneutic. The material consisted of self-observations from the study of Mendelssohn violin concerto. These were analyzed from a CBT-perspective to answer the purpose. In the result the integration of CBT-interventions can be viewed in terms of concrete examples where the interventions have been formed to respond to a problem in the practice. In the discussion of the study the result has been analyzed according to what effect the CBT-interventions have had in the musical practice.

Music performance anxiety is an issue that affects musicians at all levels but can begin in early adolescence. The researcher investigated three variables and their ability to predict music performance anxiety: catastrophization, self-regulation, and goal-setting style. Catastrophization is a negative thought that amplifies perceived criticism. Self-regulation is a metacognitive skill that allows students to plan strategies and evaluate learning. Goal-setting style refers to a student's framework when establishing learning objectives – whether they are focused on mastering the subject matter, or only trying to avoid being the worst in the class. A sample of adolescent wind musicians (n = 68) were administered four self-reporting measures for the predictor variables and music performance anxiety. Catastrophization, self-regulation, and goal-setting style were all statistically significant in predictor music performance anxiety, with catastrophization alone explaining 69% of the variance in the predictor variable. Overall, the whole model was able to explain 46% of the variance in music performance anxiety.

Individual differences in the strength of music preference are among the most intricate psychological phenomena. While one person gets by very well without music, another person needs to listen to music every day and spends a lot of temporal and financial resources on listening to music, attending concerts, or buying concert tickets. Where do these differences come from? The hypothesis presented in this article is that the strength of music preference is mainly informed by the functions that music fulfills in people’s lives (e.g., to regulate emotions, moods, or physiological arousal; to promote self-awareness; to foster social relatedness). Data were collected with a diary study, in which 121 respondents documented the goals they tried to attain and the effects that actually occurred for up to 5 music-listening episodes per day for 10 successive days. As expected, listeners reporting more intense experience of the functional use of music in the past (1) had a stronger intention to listen to music to attain specific goals in specific situations and (2) showed a larger overall strength of music preference. It is concluded that the functional effectiveness of music listening should be incorporated in existing models and frameworks of music preference to produce better predictions of interindividual differences in the strength of music preference. The predictability of musical style/genre preferences is also discussed with regard to the present results.