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The topic of assessment has attracted wide-spread attention in the discipline of music education in recent decades. However, most research centres on school-based assessment, and then mainly on the assessment of practical music subjects. Current assessment practices in music literacy programmes (such as 'paper-and-pencil' and standardized tests) counteract what is arguably the most important goal of music education, namely the development of musicianship. Therefore, in this study, my aim is to investigate assessment practices in music literacy courses for young adults, and to show how assessment in these courses can contribute to the development of musicianship. In order to reach these aims, the terms 'musicianship' and 'music literacy' are defined. The importance of a guiding philosophy for assessment is highlighted and constructivism is discussed as an example of such a philosophy, since constructivist principles largely correspond with the principles of assessment and adult education. Principles for effective assessment are subsequently established before being applied to the assessment of music literacy outcomes. Finally, the need for further research about various topics that can inform assessment practices in music subjects is pointed out. / Thesis (M.Mus.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Written notation has a long history in many musical traditions and has been particularly important in the composition and performance of Western art music. This study adopted the conceptual view that a musical score consists of two coordinated but separate communication channels: the musical text and a collection of composer-selected performance marks that serve as an interpretive gloss on that text. Structurally, these channels are defined by largely disjoint vocabularies of symbols and words. While the sound structures represented by musical texts are well studied in music theory and analysis, the stylistic patterns of performance marks and how they acquire contextual meaning in performance is an area with fewer theoretical foundations. This quantitative research explored the possibility that composers exhibit recurring patterns in their use of performance marks. Seventeen solo piano sonatas written between 1798 and 1913 by five major composers were analyzed from modern editions by tokenizing and tabulating the types and usage frequencies of their individual performance marks without regard to the associated musical texts. Using analytic methods common in information science, the results demonstrated persistent statistical similarities among the works of each composer and differences among the work groups of different composers. Although based on a small sample, the results still offered statistical support for the existence of recurring stylistic patterns in composers' use of performance marks across their works.

<p>Composing music is something a lot of people have wished they could be able to do. Unfortunately, to be able to compose music, people often need several years of training and study to acquire the necessary knowledge: first to learn how to use the traditional musical representation and then to learn the rules for composing different kinds of music. </p><p>This thesis describes research to develop and evaluate a representation and system for musical composition. The system provides users with a simple and specific language to create and interact with the artificial world; and by creating animals and giving them behaviors, users are composing music. The user study conducted at the end of this project showed that this program ("CompositionALife") could make it easier for people without previous knowledge in music and/or composition to compose interesting music.</p>

Thesis (M.Mus.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The topic of assessment has attracted wide-spread attention in the discipline of music education in recent decades. However, most research centres on school-based assessment, and then mainly on the assessment of practical music subjects. Current assessment practices in music literacy programmes (such as 'paper-and-pencil' and standardized tests) counteract what is arguably the most important goal of music education, namely the development of musicianship. Therefore, in this study, my aim is to investigate assessment practices in music literacy courses for young adults, and to show how assessment in these courses can contribute to the development of musicianship. In order to reach these aims, the terms 'musicianship' and 'music literacy' are defined. The importance of a guiding philosophy for assessment is highlighted and constructivism is discussed as an example of such a philosophy, since constructivist principles largely correspond with the principles of assessment and adult education. Principles for effective assessment are subsequently established before being applied to the assessment of music literacy outcomes. Finally, the need for further research about various topics that can inform assessment practices in music subjects is pointed out. / Thesis (M.Mus.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This thesis explores the interplay between repeatability and contingency in a series of instrumental and electro-instrumental compositions, through a practice that involves the devising and development of unique notational strategies and the use of bespoke real-time digital signal processing software. In particular, this study examines the praxis of comprovisation, i.e. practices situated between the poles of composition and improvisation, and it is framed by three main research topics: 1. An exploration of musical time and form as components of a dynamic system between events and musical gestures, involving structures of variable and/or indeterminate temporal durations. 2. An investigation of the ways in which the temporal organization and the in-time trópos (τρόπος - ”way, mode, modality, manner”) of an improvisational performance-practice for solo violin can be transduced into the symbolic level so as to be explored as compositional material. 3. An examination of the conditions in which Middle Eastern makam music composition and improvisation traditions can inform the development of contemporary notational devices for a comprovisation practice involving other performers. In addition to the scores, software, and recordings of the compositions, a relevant portfolio of recorded solo-violin improvisations and two published papers examining the above topics are included to further illustrate the discussion.

Composing music is something a lot of people have wished they could be able to do. Unfortunately, to be able to compose music, people often need several years of training and study to acquire the necessary knowledge: first to learn how to use the traditional musical representation and then to learn the rules for composing different kinds of music. This thesis describes research to develop and evaluate a representation and system for musical composition. The system provides users with a simple and specific language to create and interact with the artificial world; and by creating animals and giving them behaviors, users are composing music. The user study conducted at the end of this project showed that this program ("CompositionALife") could make it easier for people without previous knowledge in music and/or composition to compose interesting music.

The prejudice that guitar players do not know how to read traditional western music notation has been around for a long time. That seems to also have had its affect on guitar education. For many guitarists the obvious choice is instead tablature. This study examines the attitude towards sheet music among guitar teachers at the Swedish kulturskola. The subject has been chosen primarily for the fact that the Swedish municipal music school does not have any guidelines regarding whether or not to use sheet music in the education. The purpose of this study is to examine how six guitar teachers view the use of traditional western music notation versus tablature in kulturskolan. The study is based on interviews with the teachers. The analysis has been made with a phenomenographic approach. The result reveal that all the participants prefer tablature due to it is more direct and quick implementation. Using tablature is a pedagogic strategy to keep the studentes interests in their instrument rather than an act of choice. Even if some of the teachers themselves would like to be using traditional western music notation to a greater extent they mean that it’s not possible. / Länge har fördomen funnits att gitarrister inte kan läsa noter, något som också tyckts påverka gitarrundervisningen. För många gitarrister är istället det vedertagna verktyget tabulatur. Den här studien undersöker attityden till notläsningsmetoder hos gitarrlärare på kulturskolan, just eftersom kulturskolan inte har några styrdokument. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka hur sex stycken gitarrlärare uppfattar att det fungerar att arbeta med notläsning respektive tabulatur i kulturskolan. Undersökningen har genomförts med kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer kring gitarrlärarnas användning av notläsningsmetoder i den egna undervisningen. Analysarbetet har utgått från en fenomenografisk ansats. Resultatet visar att lärarna föredrar tabulatur för den direkta och snabba implementeringen. Att använda sig av tabulatur är en pedagogisk strategi för att få eleverna att hålla fast vid sitt instrument, snarare än ett aktivt val. Även om lärarna själva i vissa fall hade velat använda sig av notläsning i större utsträckning så uppfattar de av olika anledningar att det inte är möjligt.