A high-resolution directivity measurement system at Brigham Young University has been renovated and upgraded. Acoustical treatments have been installed on the microphone array, professional-grade audio hardware and cabling have been utilized, and user-friendly MATLAB processing and plotting codes have been developed. The directivities of 16 played musical instruments and several loudspeakers have been measured by the system, processed, and plotted. Using loudspeakers as simulated musicians, a comprehensive analysis was completed to validate the system and understand its error bounds. A comparison and evaluation of repeated-capture to single-capture spherical systems was made to demonstrate the high level of detail provided by the 5 degree resolution system. Analysis is undertaken to determine how nonanechoic effects in anechoic chambers influence results. An overview of directivity measurement systems from the literature is provided as well as a dedicated discussion of the directivity measurement system at Brigham Young University.

In a brief survey of this history of the oboe, it is necessary to return to primitive instruments. It is impossible to give a definite date at which the oboe may have originated, but Schwartz, in this Story of Musical Instruments, accepts the periond of the Fourth Dynasty in Egypt, or about 3700 B.C., as the date of the oldest specimens of the early forms.1 We also know of their existence in the Mesopotamian culture of 2800 B.C. A shrill, double-reed instructment with some finger-holes is known to have exited in Greece about 1500 B.C., when that civilization was undergoing many changes, but frequently we omit the example of the oboe (called flute) (see footnote4), in the orchestra of King Nebuchadnezzar, in the early part of the sixth century. This Biblical reference is found in the third chapter of the Book of Daniel.2

Drawing on phenomenology and the theory of embodied music cognition, and the idea that music is movement and the way we experience music is related to movement and to our bodies, the design and conception of a musical instrument is carried out through a soma design process, with the non-dualistic body at center. In addition to the use of design fiction as a means to imagine new design possibilities, practical somaesthetics are a part of the design process through the bodily practices of Dalcroze eurhythmics and instrument defamiliarisation. These continuous bodily practices provide space for explorations of musical, aesthetic sensitivities and contribute to the designer's attuning to their own body and discoveries of musical sensitivities therein. The experiential qualities of music--movement related rhythm and repetition are identified, and reflected in the design of the musical instrument. While interacting with the instrument does not necessarily provide direct immersion into those experiential qualities, nor an intimate musician--instrument relationship, it might however, open up a fertile breeding ground for new design directions and make space for new experiences. The design process itself, leading up to the instrument, was a great contribution to making room for exploring interactions with the body, movement and music. / Med utgångspunkt i fenomenologi och teorin om förkroppsligad musikkognition, samt iden att musik ar rörelse och att hur vi upplever musik ar relaterat till rörelse och vara kroppar, har designen och skapandet av ett musikinstrument utförts genom en soma-designprocess, med den icke-dualistiska kroppen i centrum.  Utöver användandet av designfiktion som ett satt att föreställa sig nya designmöjligheter, ingår praktisk somaestetik som en del av designprocessen via dem kroppsliga praktikerna Dalcroze-rytmik och instrument-främmandegöring. Dessa kontinuerliga, kroppsliga praktiker ger utrymme for utforskning av musikaliska och estetiska mottagligheter och bidrar till designerns själsstämning av sin egen kropp, samt upptäckter av musikaliska mottagligheter inuti densamma.  De empiriska kvaliteterna hos musik-rörelserelaterad rytm och repetition identifieras och återspeglas därefter i utformningen av musikinstrumentet. Aven om interaktion med instrumentet inte nödvändigtvis leder till en direkt upplevelse av dessa kvaliteter, eller en intim musiker-instrument-relation, sa kan den emellertid lagga en bördig grogrund for nya designriktningar och skapa utrymme for nya upplevelser. Själva designprocessen, som lett fram till instrumentet, gav stora möjligheter till att skapa plats for att utforska interaktioner med kroppen, rörelse och musik.

No description available.

Note:

Integrating state-of-the-art sensory and display technologies with 3D computer graphics, extended reality (XR) affords capabilities to create enhanced human experiences by merging virtual elements with the real world. To better understand how Sound and Music Computing (SMC) can benefit from the capabilities of XR, this thesis presents novel research on the de- sign of musical experiences in extended reality (MusE-XR). Integrating XR with research on computer assisted musical instrument tutoring (CAMIT) as well as New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), I explore the MusE-XR design space to contribute to a better understanding of the capabilities of XR for SMC. The first area of focus in this thesis is the application of XR technologies to CAMIT enabling extended reality enhanced musical instrument learning (XREMIL). A common approach in CAMIT is the automatic assessment of musical performance. Generally, these systems focus on the aural quality of the performance, but emerging XR related sensory technologies afford the development of systems to assess playing technique. Employing these technologies, the first contribution in this thesis is a CAMIT system for the automatic assessment of pianist hand posture using depth data. Hand posture assessment is performed through an applied computer vision (CV) and machine learning (ML) pipeline to classify a pianist’s hands captured by a depth camera into one of three posture classes. Assessment results from the system are intended to be integrated into a CAMIT interface to deliver feedback to students regarding their hand posture. One method to present the feedback is through real-time visual feedback (RTVF) displayed on a standard 2D computer display, but this method is limited by a need for the student to constantly shift focus between the instrument and the display. XR affords new methods to potentially address this limitation through capabilities to directly augment a musical instrument with RTVF by overlaying 3D virtual objects on the instrument. Due to limited research evaluating effectiveness of this approach, it is unclear how the added cognitive demands of RTVF in virtual environments (VEs) affect the learning process. To fill this gap, the second major contribution of this thesis is the first known user study evaluating the effectiveness of XREMIL. Results of the study show that an XR environment with RTVF improves participant performance during training, but may lead to decreased improvement after the training. On the other hand,interviews with participants indicate that the XR environment increased their confidence leading them to feel more engaged during training. In addition to enhancing CAMIT, the second area of focus in this thesis is the application of XR to NIME enabling virtual environments for musical expression (VEME). Development of VEME requires a workflow that integrates XR development tools with existing sound design tools. This presents numerous technical challenges, especially to novice XR developers. To simplify this process and facilitate VEME development, the third major contribution of this thesis is an open source toolkit, called OSC-XR. OSC-XR makes VEME development more accessible by providing developers with readily available Open Sound Control (OSC) virtual controllers. I present three new VEMEs, developed with OSC-XR, to identify affordances and guidelines for VEME design. The insights gained through these studies exploring the application of XR to musical learning and performance, lead to new affordances and guidelines for the design of effective and engaging MusE-XR. / Graduate

Au croisement de la sinologie, de la philologie, de l’histoire, de la musicologie, de l’organologie et de la pratique instrumentale, cette recherche se donne pour objet d’approfondir notre connaissance de la facture et des techniques de jeu de la cithare chinoise qin sous la dynastie des Tang (618-907) en traduisant et analysant des sources peu exploitées de cette période, à savoir le traité Tang Chen Zhuo zhifa 唐陳拙指法 (Techniques de jeu [du qin] par Chen Zhuo des Tang) et 1468 poèmes évoquant cet instrument. En complément d’autres sources anciennes, l’étude du corpus des poèmes précise notamment l’origine des matériaux utilisés pour le qin, l’usage d’accessoires, l’identification de luthiers amateurs et professionnels, la constitution du répertoire, l’emploi et l’évolution des partitions.La traduction et édition critique du Tang Chen Zhuo zhifa sert de support à un travail d’inventaire et d’analyse typologique des gestes décrits dans ce traité. Les techniques de jeu de l’époque s’y révèlent dans leur étendue et leur diversité.Afin d’en faciliter leur compréhension, plusieurs doigtés font l’objet des reconstitutions filmées, conservées sur le DVD en annexe. Des analyses d’acoustique musicale effectuées sur une sélection de techniques se sont également avérées riches d’enseignements en révélant les fondements concrets et subtils sous-jacents au jeu du qin à l’époque des Tang. / At the intersection of sinology, philology, history, musicology, organology and instrument playing, this research aims at broadening our knowledge of how the qin Chinese zither was made and played throughout the Tang dynasty (618-907). The research draws on often overlooked or untapped sources of information from this period such as the Tang Chen Zhuo zhifa 唐陳拙指法 treatise (Qin Playing techniques by Chen Zhuo) and 1468 poems in which the instrument is referred to.Study of the body of poems and ancient texts sheds light on the origin of the materials used to make the instrument and how accessories were used, drawing a distinction between amateur and professional instrument makers and explaining how a repertoire is built and how sheet music was read and evolved over time.The translation and critical edition of Tang Chen Zhuo zhifa serve as a basis for an inventory and typological analysis of the techniques described in the treatise, which illustrates the wide range and different styles of playing. Some of the fingerings were filmed and recorded on a DVD included here in appendix. Analyses of the musical acoustics of a selection of techniques provide valuable insights into both the groundings and the subtlety of qin playing during the Tang period

Contemporary music for horn often requires techniques and musical or notational considerations that are unconventional with respect to the standard pedagogy of the instrument. As such, these considerations often represent a level of challenge to which the average-intermediate to advanced-hornist is unprepared to approach or altogether unfamiliar. The most prominent of these demands arising in the last few decades of the twentieth century through today include microtonality (such as extended just intonation and quarter tones), extended techniques in combination or juxtaposition (such as multiphonics and right hand technique), rhythmic complexity (including metric modulation, non-dyadic meters, additive rhythms, and nested tuplets), and unconventional notations (graphic, spatial, and other temporal notations). This document first surveys the challenges of the repertoire in question, which includes works by György Ligeti, Thea Musgrave, Milton Babbitt, Brian Ferneyhough, Iannis Xenakis, Heinz Holliger, and Douglas Hill, among others. After considering the merits and limitations of existing pedagogical materials that work towards these ends, the document then underlines a strategic pedagogical goal for understanding and approaching unconventional contemporary repertoire through newly-composed etudes. This document is written in conjunction with and justification for the author's 24 Unconventional Etudes for Horn, and includes examples therefrom.

With the ever growing media and music catalogs, tools that search and navigate this data are important. For more complex search queries, meta-data is needed, but to manually label the vast amounts of new content is impossible. In this thesis, automatic labeling of musical instrument activities in song mixes is investigated, with a focus on ways to alleviate the lack of annotated data for instrument activity detection models. Two methods for alleviating the problem of small amounts of data are proposed and evaluated. Firstly, a self-supervised approach based on automatic labeling and mixing of randomized instrument stems is investigated. Secondly, a domain-adaptation approach that trains models on sampled MIDI files for instrument activity detection on recorded music is explored. The self-supervised approach yields better results compared to the baseline and points to the fact that deep learning models can learn instrument activity detection without an intrinsic musical structure in the audio mix. The domain-adaptation models trained solely on sampled MIDI files performed worse than the baseline, however using MIDI data in conjunction with recorded music boosted the performance. A hybrid model combining both self-supervised learning and domain adaptation by using both sampled MIDI data and recorded music produced the best results overall. / I och med de ständigt växande media- och musikkatalogerna krävs verktyg för att söka och navigera i dessa. För mer komplexa sökförfrågningar så behövs det metadata, men att manuellt annotera de enorma mängderna av ny data är omöjligt. I denna uppsats undersöks automatisk annotering utav instrumentsaktivitet inom musik, med ett fokus på bristen av annoterad data för modellerna för instrumentaktivitetsigenkänning. Två metoder för att komma runt bristen på data föreslås och undersöks. Den första metoden bygger på självövervakad inlärning baserad på automatisk annotering och slumpartad mixning av olika instrumentspår. Den andra metoden använder domänadaption genom att träna modeller på samplade MIDI-filer för detektering av instrument i inspelad musik. Metoden med självövervakning gav bättre resultat än baseline och pekar på att djupinlärningsmodeller kan lära sig instrumentigenkänning trots att ljudmixarna saknar musikalisk struktur. Domänadaptionsmodellerna som endast var tränade på samplad MIDI-data presterade sämre än baseline, men att använda MIDI-data tillsammans med data från inspelad musik gav förbättrade resultat. En hybridmodell som kombinerade både självövervakad inlärning och domänadaption genom att använda både samplad MIDI-data och inspelad musik gav de bästa resultaten totalt.

Thesis (PhD) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The researcher encountered the following problems while teaching braille IWSic notation to blind learners at the Pioneer School in Worcester: • Young learners learning to read braille IWSic notation with the piano as mediwn appeared to struggle technically. For example, blind children experienced difficulty finding the correct keys over seven octaves; they had generally weak posture; they had to learn to play one part with one hand while the other hand would read; they had to memorise the music for each clef individually and then combine them cognitively; they had to memorise the soprano, alto, tenor and bass parts of a piece; they often experienced discouragement because of the very slow progress they made compared with their sighted peers. • Although learners seemed to find the recorder technically more manageable, currently available braille recorder tutors proved to be inadequate. This inadequacy was a result of the tutors having been designed for the sighted child. The researcher thus set out to design a more appropriate approach than is currently available for teaching braille music notation to the blind, with the recorder as medium. The research method was qualitative and included a literature survey which covered the following unique needs of the blind learner: • psychological • emotional and social • concept development • motor skills (orientation, laterality, posture, coordination) • tactile perception • creativity and self expression The qualitative research also included video observation of a series ofiodividual and group lessons. The lesson material emerged from a programme designed by the researcher and was based on the literatme study. An observation panel. together with the researcher, evaluated the lessons on predetenDned coded assessment criteria 'The lessons and progrannne were adapted according to feedback from the lessons. The qualitative research includes interviews with five blind learners and six teachers of braille music notation. The interviews were designed to gather information on how blind learners can more appropriately be taught the braille music code. The unique needs of blind learners, in particular those concerning orientation and perceptual awareness, are considered in this alternative approach for teaching braille music notation to blind learners. 'The alternative programme is skills based and can be used convElliently in conlunetion with the Outcomes- Based Education (OBE) modeL / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die navorser het die volgende probleme ondervind tydens baar onderrig van braille musieknotasie aan blinde leerders by Pionierskool in Worcester: • Dit wil voorkom asofjong leerders wat braille musieknotasie moet aanleer met die klavier as medium, tegniese probleme ondervind. Blinde kinders het dit byvoorbeeld moeilik gevind om die korrekte toetse oor sewe oktawe te vind; oor die algemeen was hulle houding swak; hulle moes leer om een stemparty met een hand te lees terwyl die ander hand gespeel het; hulle moes die musiek vir elke sleutelteken apart memoriseer en die stemme kognitiefbymekaar sit; hulle moes die sopraan, alt. tenoor en bas stempartye van 'n stuk memoriseer, hulle is baie keer moedeloos, weens hulle stadige vordering, in vergelyking met hulle siende portuurgroep. • A1hoewel dit gelyk het asof leerders die bioldIuit tegnies meer hanteerbaar gevind het, blyk huidige beskikbare braille bloldluit handleidings nie geskik te wees nie. Hierdie ontoereikendheid is as gevolg van die feit dat die handleidings vir die siende kind ontwerp IS. Derhalwe het die navorser gepoog om 'n meer toeganklike benadering te ontwikkel as wat tans beskikbaar is vir die onderrig van braille misieknotasie aan die blinde, met die bioldIuit as medium. Die ondersoekmetode was kwalitatief van aard en het onder andere 'n literatuuroorsig ingesluit wat die volgende unieke behoeftes van die blinde leerder ingesluit het: • siellnmdig • emosioneel en sosiaal • konsep ontwikkeling • motoriese vaardighede (oriëntasie, lateraliteit, houding, koOrdinasie) • gevoelswaarneming