Magistro darbe nagrinėjamas dainų švenčių ugdomasis vaidmuo. Pedagoginė problema aktuali tuo, kad visais Lietuvos gyvavimo tarpsniais Dainų šventės buvo kultūrinis vyksmas, skatinantis moderniosios ir archajiškos kultūros bendravimą ir sintez��, atspindintis siekius formuoti visuomenės narių pasaulėjautą, kelti jų muzikinį bei kultūrinį lygį. Deja, Lietuvai dar priklausant Tarybų Sąjungai, Dainų šventėse pradėjo skambėti „lengvesnio” žanro muzika, ėmė nykti muzikinis ir tautinis savitumas, jos ėmė virsti eiliniu masiniu muzikiniu koncertu. Repertuaras kokybine prasme sumenko, nes kompozicijos ėmė prarasti individualumą, joms kurti pasitelkiamos kompozicinės technikos, būdingos pop kultūrai, kuri individualybes niveliuoja. Nors Dainų šventėse skambančiuose kūriniuose pasitaiko sudėtingų ritminių, melodinių figūrų, dainoms kurti parenkami kokybiški, meniški literatūriniai tekstai, tačiau visapusiškas muzikinis ugdymas daugumoje atvejų nevyksta. Tyrimo objektas – Lietuvos dainų švenčių choro repertuaras, jo poveikis dainininkų muzikos suvokimui, jų meninės kultūros ugdymui. Tyrimo tikslas – išsiaiškinti kaip dainų švenčių repertuaras veikia dainininkų muzikinį ugdymąsi. Darbe analizuojamas Dainų švenčių repertuaras, jo poveikis dainininkų tolesniam muzikiniam tobulėjimui ir ugdymuisi, aiškinamasi kaip, parenkant ir kuriant kūrinius dainų šventėms, pasiekti aukštesnį dainininkų muzikinio ugdymosi lygį. Siekiant atskleisti dainų švenčių repertuaro poveikį dainininkams buvo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This master thesis analyzes the educational role of Song festivals. The pedagogical problem is relevant, since during all times in Lithuania, Song festivals have been a cultural process, encouraging communication and synthesis of both: modern and archaic culture, reflecting the aim to form the outlook and world perception of society members, as well as to raise their cultural and musical level. Unfortunately, already when Lithuania was under the rule of the Soviet Union, the music of a “lighter” genre started being played at Song festivals: the national musical distinction began to vanish and Song festivals themselves started transforming into an ordinary mass musical concert. The quality of Song festivals’ repertoire has declined, due to the loss of individuality in compositions: they started being created by using compositional techniques, characteristic to pop culture, which actually cause the loss of individualities. Although Song festivals is still the place, where the compositions with complex melodies and rhythmical figures are being performed, and high quality artistic literary texts are chosen for creating songs, in the majority of cases educational approach is missing. The object of research is the choir repertoire in Lithuanian Song festivals, its impact on the singers’ musical perception and education of their artistic culture. The goal of the research is to ascertain the influence of Song festivals’ repertoire on the musical education of singers. The thesis... [to full text]

There has been a recent paradigm shift in the study of animal communication from examining interactions as dyads to considering interactions as occurring in a communication network. The dawn chorus of songbirds, a striking acoustic phenomenon, provides an ideal opportunity to study network communication because multiple singers are within range of each other, permitting eavesdropping by both males and females. I used a 16-microphone Acoustic Location System (ALS) to simultaneously record and analyse the dawn chorus in a population of black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) breeding in eastern Ontario. Males frequency-match neighbours 24% of the time at dawn, more often than expected by chance or during daytime singing interactions. The amount of matching between males from different over-wintering flocks is significantly greater than between flockmates. Males of the same winter dominance rank match significantly more than do males of disparate ranks. Male black-capped chickadees are interacting vocally with neighbours at dawn, using the dawn chorus to mediate social relationships in ways that suggest useful information is available to the network of male and female receivers. Matching levels are not related to distance between opponents. However, males with non-fertile mates move over larger areas while chorusing and are further from their nest than males with fertile mates, suggesting dawn mate guarding. Males with non-fertile mates spend more of their chorus near boundaries with fertile neighbours than non-fertile neighbours possibly positioning themselves to facilitate eavesdropping by fertile females. Male chickadees of high and low winter social rank do not differ in either the size of their communication network, or the way they use their songs when interacting with neighbours. Males match multiple neighbours both sequentially and simultaneously. Simultaneous matching is most often the result of a former flockmate joining an interaction between two males who had been in different winter flocks. High-ranked males join the interactions of their lower-ranked flockmates, preferentially when those males are matching other high-ranked males. The dawn chorus is an interactive communication network in which all males participate and is characterized by interactions between multiple senders and receivers with males eavesdropping on interactions in which they are not involved. / Thesis (Ph.D, Biology) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-17 15:07:56.276

Male birds of many species use conspicuous song and plumage displays in both courtship and territorial interactions. In some species, one or both of these signalling traits may not reach full adult maturity until a male’s second year of life. While the prevalence of delayed plumage maturation is well documented, delayed song maturation may be more difficult to detect. As a result, there are few studies which report age-based song differences between first-year and adult males. Additionally, despite the potentially large degree of variation of each trait within yearling males, little work has examined the benefits for young males who appear or sound more adult-like. Here, I investigate variation in both song and plumage displays of yearling male American redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla) as they relate to success during the breeding and non-breeding seasons. I first demonstrate a relationship between the degree of adult-like black plumage and both non-breeding season habitat quality in Jamaica and breeding season arrival date in Ontario. Previous studies have linked breeding season arrival date with winter habitat quality in adult males using stable-carbon isotope analysis. Together, these results suggest that variation in yearling male appearance may signal an individual’s competitive ability for high-quality resources. Next, I quantified the mate-attraction songs of both adult and yearling males and demonstrate a delayed maturation in this song type. I also present evidence of the potential benefits of expressing a more adult-like song by linking song structure with reproductive success in adult males. Finally, I demonstrate a potential relationship between the degree of adult-like song and plumage expression in yearling males, but not adult males. This work demonstrates that the delayed maturation of sexual signals may play an important role in the life-history of yearling male American redstarts, and highlights the need for in-depth analyses of individual variation of multiple sexual signals in this poorly-studied age class of birds. / Thesis (Master, Biology) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-25 10:42:19.794

Many recent discoveries in animal cognition have shown that species once thought to be relatively simple are in fact capable of complex problem-solving in accordance with their ecological needs. These findings have resulted from experiments designed with the evolutionary history of the focal species in mind. Transitive inference (TI), the abiliy to infer the ordering of non-adjacent objects within a series, is a cognitive skill once thought to be exclusive to humans. Now considered a litmus-test for logical-relational reasoning, TI is thought to have evolved in social species in order to help track dominance relationships. Although recent work has shown that animals can display TI, it has yet to be demonstrated in the natural context in which it evolved. Songbirds may use TI to gain relative dominance information about others during countersinging interactions, through their use of network communication. Here I demonstrate that black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) use TI to judge the relative rank of unknown territorial intruders during the breeding season using dominance information provided through song contests. Using a multispeaker playback, I provided focal males with the relative ranks of three simulated “males” through two countersinging interactions (A > B, B > C). I predicted that when presented with the non-adjacent pair (A and C) with no relative rank information provided, focal males would choose to defend against the intruder they perceived as the greater threat. Consistent with my predictions, the majority of focal males approached “male” A. Additionally, male responses were influenced by age, with older males (in their second or later breeding season) approaching the dominant intruder more consistently than younger males (in their first breeding season). This is the first instance of TI being demonstrated in a natural population of untrained animals, and has important implications for the understanding of songbird communication networks. Transitive inference may be used in several natural situations by chickadees throughout the breeding season and a number of possible avenues for future TI research are discussed. Additionally, methods are suggested for the examination of TI during the non-breeding season. / Thesis (Master, Biology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-24 10:45:17.316

This thesis investigated the use of song repertoires during territorial defense of the song sparrow, Melospiza melodia. The functional and adaptive significances of repertoires in the order Passeriformes were reviewed. Within the family Fringillidae, an examination of repertoire size and life history features of different species revealed no significant correlations. / Observations of six neighboring song sparrows yielded information about the relative uses of repertoire-dependent and repertoire-independent mechanisms in coordinated song interactions, as well as in signalling agonistic probabilities. The behavior of song switching, independent of the identities of song types, was found to most effectively perform both types of functions. / A series of playback experiments tested and supported the hypothesis that the song sparrow's rate of switching song types increases with agonistic stimulation. Song versatility, rather than switching rate per se, was found to be an appropriate agonistic stimulus.

This thesis provides an institutional study of three elements of the systems of military logistics in the Song dynasty (960--1278 A.D.): the procurement of horses, the military agricultural colonies, and the imperial ordnance industry. While one of the main objectives of this thesis is to throw light on the importance of the logistical efforts of the Song army, this thesis also attempts to reveal the connections between the military establishment and the political and socio-economic realities of the Song period. On the basis of an examination of the effects of commercialization on Songs logistical agencies as well as these agencies' political relations with civil officials, this thesis argues that the civil officials' attempts at maintaining political dominance over the military establishment as well as certain effects of commercialization of the Song economy were the two most prominent factors that undermined the operation of the Songs military logistical systems.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

I den här uppsatsen har jag undersökt hur musik kan vara främjande för barns språkutveckling. Jag har studerat gemensamma aspekter mellan musik och språk och undersökt hur pedagoger arbetar med musik som en språkfrämjande metod i förskolan. Jag har besökt fyra förskolor, på varje skola har jag intervjuat en pedagog och observerat en musiksamling. Jag har observerat både yngre och äldre barn, från ett år till sex år gamla. Ingen av skolorna har musik som profil, men pedagogerna förklarade att de sjunger och musicerar regelbundet med barnen. De resultat jag har kommit fram till visar att musik och språk har gemensamma komponenter som ton, rytm, pauser och melodier. Genom observationerna kunde jag se att musiken skapade kommunikation mellan barn och pedagoger, att barnen imiterade melodier och rytmer i tal och sång, att de övade sitt lyssnande och att pedagogerna använde hjälpmedel som rörelser och bilder tillsammans med musiken, vilket kan främja ordförståelsen. Pedagogerna ansåg att de använder musik och sång för att kommunicera med barnen, att träna melodier i språket, de trummar rytmer på stavelser och som hjälp vid inlärningen av nya ord och begrepp. / In this essay I have investigated how music can promote children’s language development. I have studied common aspects between music and language and investigated how teachers in preschool work with music as a method for language development. I have visited four schools, in each school I made an interview with one preschoolteacher and one observation of children and teachers when they sang and made music together. I have observed both younger and older children, from one to six years old. None of the schools have music as a profile for their work, but the teachers explain that thay sing and make music with the children regularly. The results I have received show that music and language have common components like tone, rythm, pauses and melodies. During the observations I could see that the music created communication between the children and the teachers, that the children imitated melodies and rythms in speech and song, they practiced their ability to listen and the teachers used tools like movement, pictures and objects together with the music, which can be promoting for the understanding of words in the song. The teachers considered that they use music and songs as a way of communicating with the children, to practice melodies in the language, make rythms with syllables and as a support by learning new words and concepts.

People share a big part of their lives and opinions on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The companies behind these sites do their absolute best to collect as much data as possible. This data could be used to extract opinions in many different ways. Every company, organization or public person is probably curious on what is being said about them right now. There are also areas where opinions are related to the outcome of an event. Examples of such events are presidential elections or the Eurovision Song Contest. In these events, peoples’ votes will directly reflect the outcome of the elections or contests. We have developed a simplistic prototype that is able to predict the result of the Eurovision Song Contest using sentiment analysis on tweets. The prototype collects tweets about the event, performs sentiment analysis, and uses different filters to predict the ranks of the contestants. We evaluted our results with the actual voting results of the event and found a Pearson correlation of approximately 0.65. With more time and resources we believe that it is possible to create a highly accurate prediction model. It could be used in lots of different contexts. Politicians and their parties could use it to evaluate their campaigns. The press could use it to create more interesting news reports. Companies would be able to investigate their brand appreciation. A system like this could be used in many different fields.

Many of the musical works composed by Sir Arnold Bax have been studied, edited, and performed in the fifty or so years since his death in 1953. Until recently, several of the earliest symphonic works have remained as original unedited manuscripts tucked away in private collections. This dissertation serves to partially remedy this obscurity by presenting the first edition of the 1905 tone poem, A Song of War and Victory as a practical and working score. It also provides a study comprising commentary, analysis, and a large section devoted to the correction of the many errors in the manuscript. This early work is now available to orchestras, conductors, and scholars in a performance edition. Within the commentary and analysis portions is a comparison study of the other extant early, and interestingly varied, symphonic works, complete with an appendix, comprising a complete edition of the 1904 set of variations aptly titled, Variations (Improvisations). Before this study, Bax's Variations was the only remaining unedited work from the early symphonic complete works. Therefore, this dissertation fills these notable, existing, gaps and completes the exposition of these earliest examples of the composer's work. / School of Music