Ao longo das últimas três décadas observamos o progressivo interesse que a semiótica da canção popular desenvolvida por Luiz Tatit a partir da semiótica greimasiana vem despertando no meio acadêmico. Situada na fronteira dos domínios da lingüística e da música, e justamente por isso, a canção se apresenta como um objeto de difícil análise. Teorias específicas para o componente verbal e musical raramente se compatibilizam a ponto de permitirem uma análise homogênea. O êxito obtido até agora pela semiótica greimasiana pode em parte ser explicado por sua forte vocação para a multidisciplinaridade, a despeito de sua origem e tradição lingüística. Em suas formulações iniciais foram considerados apenas alguns parâmetros musicais que estruturam a melodia da canção. Dessa maneira, poderíamos afirmar que em um primeiro momento a canção foi considerada uma palavra cantada, opondo-se a palavra falada da nossa fala cotidiana. Percebemos que parte dos esforços dos pesquisadores que se dedicam ao desenvolvimento dessa teoria consiste em tentar incorporar cada vez mais elementos musicais. A partir de uma revisão crítica da literatura atual, esse trabalho discute e propõe procedimentos de semiotização do material musical, especialmente no que se refere ao timbre e às questões de harmonia. Para garantir a coerência necessária com os fundamentos da teoria, propusemos a distinção entre o discurso da produção musical e o discurso musical propriamente dito, discutimos a relação entre plano da expressão e plano do conteúdo no discurso musical, assim como sua organização hierárquica. Dentro dessa diversidade de assuntos e abordagens, elegemos como fio condutor do trabalho a obra cancional de Chico Buarque, que representa a um só tempo a fonte de indagações e a sustentação dos resultados obtidos. / Throughout the last three decades it has been observed the increasing interest of the academic environment on the semiotic theory of popular song developed by Luiz Tatit, based on greimasian semiotics. Situated midway between linguistics and music, and exactly because of that, songs are difficult to analyse. Specific theories for the verbal and the musical components are rarely compatible enough to allow an homogeneous analysis. The success achieved so far by greimasian semiotics can in part be explained by its strong multidisciplinary vocation , in spite of its linguistic origin. In its initial formulation, only musical parameters that structuralyze the songs melody had been considered. Therefore, it could be said that, at first, the song was considered a \"sung word\", as opposed to the \"spoken word\" of our daily speech. Part of the efforts of the researchers dedicated to the development of this theory consists in trying to incorporate increasingly more musical elements. Based on a critical review of the current literature, the present work discusses and proposes semiotization procedures of the musical material, especially timbre and harmony aspects. To guarantee the necessary coherence with the theorys foundations, we propose the distinction between the speech of musical production and the musical speech per se; we discuss the relationship between expression and content in the musical speech, as well as its hierarchic organization. Within this diversity of subjects and approaches, we chose the songs composed by Chico Buarque as a guideline, as a source of the investigation as well as a support of the results.

Cochlear implants (CIs) provide coarse representations of pitch, which are adequate for speech but not for music. Despite increasing interest in music processing by CI users, the available information is fragmentary. The present experiment attempted to fill this void by conducting a comprehensive assessment of music processing in adult CI users. CI users (n =6) and normally hearing (NH) controls (n = 12) were tested on several tasks involving melody and rhythm perception, recognition of familiar music, and emotion of recognition in speech and music. CI performance was substantially poorer than NH performance and at chance levels on pitch processing tasks. Performance was highly variable, however, with one individual achieving NH performance levels on some tasks, probably because of low-frequency residual hearing in his unimplanted ear. Future research with a larger sample of CI users can shed light on factors associated with good and poor music processing in this population.

Cochlear implants (CIs) provide coarse representations of pitch, which are adequate for speech but not for music. Despite increasing interest in music processing by CI users, the available information is fragmentary. The present experiment attempted to fill this void by conducting a comprehensive assessment of music processing in adult CI users. CI users (n =6) and normally hearing (NH) controls (n = 12) were tested on several tasks involving melody and rhythm perception, recognition of familiar music, and emotion of recognition in speech and music. CI performance was substantially poorer than NH performance and at chance levels on pitch processing tasks. Performance was highly variable, however, with one individual achieving NH performance levels on some tasks, probably because of low-frequency residual hearing in his unimplanted ear. Future research with a larger sample of CI users can shed light on factors associated with good and poor music processing in this population.

This thesis acts as a first step in connecting the sub jective description of piano tone with quantitative measurements of changes in the vibrational and acoustical properties of a piano. Voicing techniques used by piano technicians are applied to a fully strung test piano and a series of tests are undertaken to measure the effect they have on piano tone. The addition of weights and riblets to a piano soundboard, two commonly practiced methods used to change the tone of a piano and even out the transition between the low tenor and high bass bridges, are examined in detail in this thesis. Modal analysis is the first test method applied and is used to determine the mode shapes and the modal properties of the test soundboard. The addition of small masses and riblets is shown to have the ability to change modal properties to varying degrees and connections are made between the output sound, attachment locations, modification locations, and mode shapes of the soundboard. A new technique, piano tone mapping, is introduced as a visualization method that displays the harmonic structure of the entire piano in one image. Using the technique creates a unique fingerprint of a piano that can be compared in various ways to other pianos. The piano tone maps reveal that initial magnitude and decay rate of the output sound are both decreased for notes with attachment points close to modification locations where weights and riblets are added. Impedance testing is also conducted for a number of different modifications. These tests reveal that riblets and weights each have their own frequency bands of influence, with the weights creating impedance changes primarily below 800 Hz and riblets creating impedance changes above 500 Hz, with a region of overlap between 500 Hz and 800 Hz. Tests also revealed that changes in impedance created by these voicing techniques were local in effect, with a region of influence less than 10 cm in radius extending from the location where the weight or riblet is attached.

This thesis acts as a first step in connecting the sub jective description of piano tone with quantitative measurements of changes in the vibrational and acoustical properties of a piano. Voicing techniques used by piano technicians are applied to a fully strung test piano and a series of tests are undertaken to measure the effect they have on piano tone. The addition of weights and riblets to a piano soundboard, two commonly practiced methods used to change the tone of a piano and even out the transition between the low tenor and high bass bridges, are examined in detail in this thesis. Modal analysis is the first test method applied and is used to determine the mode shapes and the modal properties of the test soundboard. The addition of small masses and riblets is shown to have the ability to change modal properties to varying degrees and connections are made between the output sound, attachment locations, modification locations, and mode shapes of the soundboard. A new technique, piano tone mapping, is introduced as a visualization method that displays the harmonic structure of the entire piano in one image. Using the technique creates a unique fingerprint of a piano that can be compared in various ways to other pianos. The piano tone maps reveal that initial magnitude and decay rate of the output sound are both decreased for notes with attachment points close to modification locations where weights and riblets are added. Impedance testing is also conducted for a number of different modifications. These tests reveal that riblets and weights each have their own frequency bands of influence, with the weights creating impedance changes primarily below 800 Hz and riblets creating impedance changes above 500 Hz, with a region of overlap between 500 Hz and 800 Hz. Tests also revealed that changes in impedance created by these voicing techniques were local in effect, with a region of influence less than 10 cm in radius extending from the location where the weight or riblet is attached.

In the past decade, the availability of digitally encoded, downloadable music has increased dramatically, pushed mainly by the release of the now famous MP3 compression format (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, 1994). Online sales of music in the US doubled in 2005, according to a recent news article (*), while the number of files exchanged on P2P platforms is much higher, but hard to estimate. The existing and coming informational flood in digital music prompts the need for sophisticated content-based information retrieval. Query-by-Humming is a prototypical technique aimed at locating pieces of music by melody; automatic annotation algorithms seek to enable finer search criteria, such as instruments, genre, or meter. Score transcription systems strive for an abstract, compressed form of a piece of music understandable by composers and musicians. Much research still has to be performed to achieve these goals. This thesis connects essential knowledge about music and human auditory perception with signal processing algorithms to solve the specific problem of pitch estimation. The designed algorithm obtains an estimate of the magnitude spectrum via STFT and models the harmonic structure of each pitch contained in the magnitude spectrum with Gaussian density mixtures, whose parameters are subsequently estimated via an Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm. Heuristics for EM initialization are formulated mathematically. The system is implemented in MATLAB, featuring a GUI that provides for visual (spectrogram) and numerical (console) verification of results. The algorithm is tested using an array of data ranging from single to triple superposed instrument recordings. Its advantages and limitations are discussed, and a brief outlook over potential future research is given. (*) "Online and Wireless Music Sales Tripled in 2005"; Associated Press; January 19, 2006

Acoustic features of sound such as pitch, loudness, perceived duration and timbre have been shown to be related to emotion in regard to sound, demonstrating that an important connection between the perceived emotions and their timbres is lacking. This study investigates the relationship between acoustic features of sound and emotion in regard to timbre. In two experiments we investigated whether particular acoustic components of sound can predict timbre, and particular categories of emotion, and how these attributes are related. Two behavioral experiments related perceived emotion ratings with synthetically created sounds and International Affective Digitized Sounds (Bradley & Lang, 2007) sounds. Also, two timbre experiments found acoustic components of synthetically created sounds, and IADS. Regression analyses uncovered some relationships between emotion, timbre, and acoustic features of sound. Results indicate that emotion is perceived differently for synthetic instrumental sounds and IADS. Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients were a strong predictor of perceived emotion of instrumental sounds; however, this was not the case for the IADS. This difference lends itself to the idea that there is a strong relationship between emotion and timbre for instrumental sounds, perhaps in part because of their relationship to speech and the way these different sounds are processed.

Thesis (DMus.)--University of Alberta, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis examines the music of contemporary British progressive rock artist Steven Wilson and explores the ways in which specific musical influences have informed and shaped his work. Wilson’s solo output is extremely eclectic and draws from a plethora of diverse genres including progressive rock, electronica, metal, drone, pop, jazz, and industrial. Although it would be impossible to trace all of the influences involved in Wilson’s unique musical idiolect, I study the influence of three seminal tracks upon his work: progressive rock band King Crimson’s “The Court of the Crimson King” (1969), electronica duo Boards of Canada’s “An Eagle in Your Mind” (1998), and progressive death metal group Opeth’s “Blackwater Park” (2001). I demonstrate how Wilson’s recordings share timbral and formal features with these earlier works and consider the analytic implications through the lens of genre theory. The findings are then synthesized through a focused analysis of Wilson’s “Ancestral” (2015) in order to explore genre fusion and demonstrate how these salient musical features are integrated within a single song. This project ultimately seeks to situate Wilson within the progressive rock tradition, consider the role of timbre and form in popular music genres, and investigate the complex relationship between genre and influence.

[EN] SUMMARY (English) THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE TIMBRE OF PIANO: SINCE ITS MECHANICAL EVOLUTION TO EXTENDED TECHNIQUES, THROUGH INTERNAL, EXTERNAL AND ELECTRONIC ELEMENTS. This research deals with the study of piano timbre throughout its historical evolution from organological, artistic, social and technological perspectives. Since its genesis, the piano has been of interest to musicians, fans, artists, artistic movements, etc., who in one way or another have shaped the instrument and sound depending on the use and needs, identifying areas domestic, professional, creative and artistic they demanded. Considering these reasons, this thesis analyzes and explains the contexts and situations that have led to the constant changes of the instrument, both form and sound: the demand for more expressive qualities of sound and flow that originated the fortepiano; the growth of the bourgeoisie led to an expansion of the music on the piano found its means of dissemination; composers found in it a powerful tool for creating, generating a nutritious and constant relationship of mutual growth between instrument and work; the Industrial Revolution was a technological leap that made affordable the piano, bringing it closer to the homes; automation tools paved the way for record systems and reproduction of music without an performer; its peak during Romanticism led it to be subjected to hostilities by the plastic art of later centuries, as Fluxus; and the emergence of electronics and computers has created new evolutions of the instrument, giving it unlikely sonic possibilities. All these processes did not happen in a linear fashion or were subject to a single reason, but contributed to the evolution of the piano timbre, enriching its nuances and transforming through unorthodox procedures in the production of sound, such as extended techniques. This thesis describes, explores and analyzes the extended processing techniques ringer from different angles, exposing the product of his study. One goal of this research is to demonstrate, through the study of the evolution of the piano from its beginnings to the present, that unlike other orchestral instruments, processing continues and remains a source of inspiration for the development of future systems based on its philosophy and technology. Another objective is to deepen the knowledge of their timbral complexity, through its harmonic spectrum analysis and knowledge of new sonic possibilities derived from its evolution and manipulation techniques timbre. For this purpose, the methodology used in this thesis has developed both the theoretical and experimental level, from various perspectives: firstly, by the historical study of the origin and evolution of the piano as an instrument designed for use purely musical; secondly, from the analysis of noise, ringing and the evolution of the parameters in the construction of the instrument; and finally, by investigating changes in the acoustic piano through the use and experimentation with extended techniques; also considering the study of it as an art object, due to its attraction, visual and performative use exerted on contemporary art movements. In addition, a comprehensive study on the growing evolutionary path included piano, from its automation and incorporation of digital and computer systems that have served as a point of inspiration for developing new instruments (synthesizer and related devices, MIDI systems, etc.) and forms of composition related to them. / [ES] RESUMEN (Castellano) LA TRANSFORMACIÓN DEL TIMBRE DEL PIANO: DESDE SU EVOLUCIÓN MECÁNICA HASTA LAS TÉCNICAS EXTENDIDAS, MEDIANTE ELEMENTOS INTERNOS, EXTERNOS Y ELECTRÓNICOS. La presente investigación aborda el estudio del timbre del piano a lo largo de su evolución histórica, desde perspectivas organológicas, artísticas, sociales y tecnológicas. Desde su génesis, el piano ha sido objeto de interés de músicos, aficionados, creadores, movimientos artísticos, etc., quienes de un modo u otro han ido dando forma al instrumento y a su sonido en función del uso y las necesidades, que los ámbitos domésticos, profesionales, creativos y artísticos demandaban. Considerando estos motivos, la presente tesis analiza y expone los contextos y las situaciones que han propiciado las constantes transformaciones del instrumento, en su forma y sonido: la demanda de mayores calidades expresivas y del caudal sonoro que dio origen al fortepiano; el crecimiento de la burguesía propició una expansión de la música que encontró en el piano su medio de difusión; los compositores encontraron en él una poderosa herramienta para la creación, generando una nutritiva y constante relación de crecimiento mutuo entre instrumento y obra; la revolución industrial supuso un salto tecnológico que hizo asequible el piano, acercándolo a los hogares; la automatización del instrumento abrió el camino a los sistemas de registro y a la reproducción de la música sin intérprete; su auge durante el Romanticismo le llevó a ser objeto de hostilidades por parte de la vanguardia plástica de siglos posteriores, como Fluxus; y la irrupción de la electrónica y la computación ha generado nuevas evoluciones del instrumento, dotándolo de posibilidades sonoras inverosímiles. Todos estos procesos no sucedieron de forma lineal ni estaban sujetas a una única razón, pero contribuyeron a la evolución del timbre del piano, enriqueciéndolo, matizándolo y transformándolo a través de procedimientos poco ortodoxos en la producción del sonido como son las técnicas extendidas. Esta tesis describe, explora y analiza las técnicas de transformación del timbre desde diferentes ángulos, exponiendo el resultado de su estudio. Uno de los objetivos de esta investigación es demostrar, mediante el estudio de la evolución del piano desde sus antecedentes hasta la actualidad, que al contrario que otros instrumentos orquestales, su transformación continúa, y sigue siendo una fuente de inspiración para el desarrollo de sistemas futuros, basados en su filosofía y su tecnología. Y otro objetivo es profundizar en el conocimiento de su complejidad tímbrica, por medio del análisis de su espectro armónico y el conocimiento de las nuevas posibilidades sonoras derivadas de su evolución y las técnicas de manipulación de su timbre. Para ello, la metodología empleada en esta tesis se ha desarrollado tanto a nivel teórico como experimental, desde varias perspectivas: en primer lugar, mediante el estudio histórico del origen y la evolución del piano como instrumento pensado para un uso meramente musical; en segundo lugar, desde el análisis de la acústica, el timbre y la evolución de los parámetros en la construcción del instrumento; y por último, mediante la investigación de las transformaciones acústicas del piano a través del uso y la experimentación con técnicas extendidas; considerando también el estudio del mismo como objeto artístico, por la atracción, uso visual y performático que ejerció sobre los movimientos artísticos contemporáneos. Además, se incluye un amplio estudio sobre la creciente vía evolutiva del piano, a partir de su automatización y la incorporación de sistemas digitales e informáticos, que han servido como punto de inspiración para el desarrollo nuevos instrumentos (sintetizador y dispositivos afines, sistemas MIDI, etc.) y las formas de composición relacionadas con ellos. / [CAT] RESUM (Català) LA TRANSFORMACIÓ DEL TIMBRE DEL PIANO: DES DE LA SEVA EVOLUCIÓ MECÀNICA FINS A LES TÈCNIQUES ESTESES, MITJANÇANT ELEMENTS INTERNS, EXTERNS I ELECTRÒNICS. La present recerca aborda l'estudi del timbre del piano al llarg de la seva evolució històrica, des de perspectives organològiques, artístiques, socials i tecnològiques. Des del seu gènesi, el piano ha estat objecte d'interès de músics, aficionats, creadors, moviments artístics, etc., els qui d'una manera o altra han anat donant forma a l'instrument i al seu so en funció de l'ús i les necessitats, que els àmbits domèstics, professionals, creatius i artístics demandaven. Considerant aquests motius, la present tesi analitza i exposa els contextos i les situacions que han propiciat les constants transformacions de l'instrument, en la seva forma i so: la demanda de majors qualitats expressives i del cabal sonor que va donar origen al fortepiano; el creixement de la burgesia va propiciar una expansió de la música que va trobar en el piano el seu mitjà de difusió; els compositors van trobar en ell una poderosa eina per a la creació, generant una nutritiva i constant relació de creixement mutu entre instrument i obra; la revolució industrial va suposar un salt tecnològic que va fer assequible el piano, apropant-ho a les llars; l'automatització de l'instrument va obrir el camí als sistemes de registre i a la reproducció de la música sense intèrpret; el seu auge durant el Romanticisme li va portar a ser objecte d'hostilitats per part de l'avantguarda plàstica de segles posteriors, com Fluxus; i la irrupció de l'electrònica i la computació ha generat noves evolucions de l'instrument, dotant-ho de possibilitats sonores inversemblants. Tots aquests processos no van succeir de forma lineal ni estaven subjectes a una única raó, però van contribuir a l'evolució del timbre del piano, enriquint-ho, matisant-ho i transformant-ho a través de procediments poc ortodoxos en la producció del so com són les tècniques esteses. Aquesta tesi descriu, explora i analitza les tècniques esteses de transformació del timbre des de diferents angles, exposant el producte del seu estudi. Un dels objectius d'aquesta recerca és demostrar, mitjançant l'estudi de l'evolució del piano des dels seus antecedents fins a l'actualitat, que al contrari que altres instruments orquestrals, la seva transformació continua, i segueix sent una font d'inspiració per al desenvolupament de sistemes futurs, basats en la seva filosofia i la seva tecnologia. I un altre objectiu és aprofundir en el coneixement de la seva complexitat tímbrica, per mitjà de l'anàlisi del seu espectre harmònic i el coneixement de les noves possibilitats sonores derivades de la seva evolució i les tècniques de manipulació del seu timbre. Per a això, la metodologia emprada en aquesta tesi s'ha desenvolupat tant a nivell teòric com experimental, des de diverses perspectives: en primer lloc, mitjançant l'estudi històric de l'origen i l'evolució del piano com a instrument pensat per a un ús merament musical; en segon lloc, des de l'anàlisi de l'acústica, el timbre i l'evolució dels paràmetres en la construcció de l'instrument; i finalment, mitjançant la recerca de les transformacions acústiques del piano a través de l'ús i l'experimentació amb tècniques esteses; considerant també l'estudi del mateix com a objecte artístic, per l'atracció, ús visual i performàtica que va exercir sobre els moviments artístics contemporanis. A més, s'inclou un ampli estudi sobre la creixent via evolutiva del piano, a partir de la seva automatització i la incorporació de sistemes digitals i informàtics, que han servit com a punt d'inspiració per al desenvolupament nous instruments (sintetitzador i dispositius afins, sistemes MIDI, etc.) i les formes de composició relacionades amb ells. / Pérez Hernández, P. (2016). LA TRANSFORMACIÓN DEL TIMBRE DEL PIANO: DESDE SU EVOLUCIÓN MECÁNICA HASTA LAS TÉCNICAS EXTENDIDAS, MEDIANTE ELEMENTOS INTERNOS, EXTERNOS Y ELECTRÓNICOS [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/63260 / TESIS