No description available.

Post-tonal repertoire can prove to be a challenging musical endeavor for performers and listeners alike. However, that does not mean that performers should avoid programming this music. If musicians undertake new repertoire with an open mind and a willingness to discover new avenues of musical expression, it creates a fulfilling experience for both the performers and the audience. Where performers are uncertain of how to proceed, musical and textual analysis can help them understand a piece’s structure and engage with audiences on a deeper level. Using George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children, I will analyze elements of the cycle that are salient to performers with the goal of creating a compelling, cohesive narrative for audiences. For those who are new to post-tonal repertoire, Crumb’s compositions offer an ideal opportunity for musicians to employ analysis as a tool for guiding performance choices. The musical structure of Crumb’s compositions is easily discernible when analyzed and is often deeply symbolic and spiritual in nature. His music, while meticulously notated, presents ample opportunity for individual interpretation and expression. Since its premiere in 1970, Ancient Voices of Children has become one of Crumb’s most celebrated pieces, largely due to his incredibly expressive setting of the poetry of Federico García Lorca. After a brief overview of both the composer and poet, I will explore the textual content, pitch content, melodic contour, harmonic structure, ensemble, and rhythm to provide performers with a clearer understanding of the work. This paper further investigates the relationship between Federico García Lorca’s poetry and George Crumb’s music and offers performance suggestions to convey that narrative. In outlining this process through Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children, this paper gives performers a guide to approaching post-tonal music and making it accessible to a broader audience. / Music Performance

This thesis study investigates gains in the speaking of China study abroad (SA) students from Brigham Young University. Pre-and post-program Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (SOPI) tasks were used to generate multiple fluency measures, such as native judges' subjective fluency ratings, word count, number of unique words, number of filler words, mean pause length, tonal accuracy, etc. The study results display significant differences between pre- and post-tests for all fluency measures. In other words, China SA students were perceived to be more fluent in their speech by native judges after SA; their speech samples show more word (token and type) production, and shorter pauses in post-SOPI tasks than in pre-SOPI tasks. Participants used more filler words and had more unfilled pauses in post-measures than in pre-measures and they enhanced their tonal accuracy during the SA. Native judges' perception of task completion was also measured and the students were more capable of completing speech tasks in the post-program measures than in the pre-program measures. The OPI ratings indicate that some students made as much as two sub levels' improvement on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) scale.

Research on voice change in males has generally fallen into two categories: music education studies of changes in the singing voice and speech studies of changes in the speaking voice. These studies rarely consider differences in the dynamic ability of male singers at different stages of vocal development. The concept of tessitura, a portion of the vocal range in which the singer sounds best, is referred to in the literature on vocal music, but the means for identifying its size and location within the range have not been consistently specified. Tessitura appears to be a portion of the range which is most controllable in terms of dynamics and agility and is optimal in tonal quality. This study used the phonetograph to investigate differences in measures of intensity control between pre-pubertal, pubertal (changing) and post-pubertal voices in 48 males aged 9 to 18 years old. These intensity measures were compared to ratings of vocal effort from a panel of 4 music educators in order to determine if tessitura could be identified from acoustic and perceptual evidence of an optimum vocal area. Results of the study were: 1) post-pubertal voices demonstrated greater control of vocal intensity as revealed in lower mean minimum and comfortable intensity measures, higher overall maximum intensity measures and a larger minimum-to-maximum intensity range; 2) intensity measures for pubertal voices were similar to those observed in pre-pubertal voices, contrary to trends suggested in the literature on voice change; 3) the Greatest Dynamic Range (GDR) on the phonetograph, indicating the range in which singers had the most dynamic control, was smaller than the range in which the singers were judged to sound best; 4) tessitura originated in the lower portion of the vocal range, around the location of mean speaking fundamental frequency. Although registers were not specifically investigated, tessitura appeared to be primarily related to modal register in singers who had completed voice change.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Cadences are orderly progressions of chords which occur in classical and contemporary Western music. They can serve as anchoring points for the perception of musical key and of tonality. The rules governing the structure and usage of cadences have been set forth in music theory. In a series of experiments, listeners were able to rate the stability of simple two-chord cadences without explicit knowledge of music theoretical concepts. The stability ratings obtained for the cadences presented in these experiments were affected by the listener's musical training (inexperienced or formally trained), by the cadence type (chord progression moving toward or away from the tonic), by the position of the root (in the lowest or uppermost note position of chord) by the direction of cadence resolution (upward or downward pitch change). and by the tonal context. The tonal context was an ascending or descending diatonic scale in the key of G-major or C-major played before each cadence trial. Two hypothetical listening strategies were introduced as possible ways of perceiving musical cadences. Melody-tracking was defined as a simple analytic listening strategy which focused on the soprano voice of each chord in a cadence. Voice-tracking was defined as a flexible strategy which allowed the listener to focus on either the soprano or the bass voice in the triad sequence. Musically trained listeners' ratings generally conformed to the voice-tracking strategy. Their ratings followed conventional standards consistently and accurately. They rated G-C cadences most stable in a C-major context. and C-G cadences most stable in a G-major context. Untrained listeners' ratings did not consistently show this effect of key context. Their ratings generally conformed to the melody-tracking strategy. They considered downward resolution of a cadence more stable than upward resolution, and they gave higher stability ratings to cadences when the soprano voice instead of the bass voice led the cadence. All listeners tended to rate plagal cadences as more stable than imperfect cadences, and perfect cadences as more stable than other cadences. They also generally gave higher stability ratings to soprano-led cadences than to bass-led cadences. The musically untrained listeners were able to assign meaningful stability ratings to cadences. despite their lack of musical terms. The trained listeners appeared to approach the task in a different way. Over the course of formal musical training. trained listeners may have learned to use a more flexible strategy while maintaining a high level of accuracy and consistency in their task performance. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Traditional active noise control (ANC) systems rely on a physical sensor to measure the error signal at the desired location of attenuation. The error signal is then used to update an adaptive controller, which ultimately attenuates the measured response. However, it is not always practical to use traditional ANC in real-world applications. For example, as small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) become more commonly used, community noise exposure also increases, along with the desire to reduce UAS noise. Traditional ANC systems that rely on physical sensors at observer locations are impractical, since a UAS does not typically have real-time access to the response at an observer's ears, which is realistically in the far-field. Virtual error sensing (VES) can augment an ANC system using near-field measurements to estimate the response at a desired far-field location. In this way, the VES technique effectively shifts the zone of quiet from the location of the physical sensor(s) to a different "virtual" location. This thesis begins by outlining past work that used traditional ANC methods and virtual error sensing techniques. Numerical modeling results showing the predicted spatial change in SPL achieved using a virtual sensor will be presented. Experimental tests used ANC to attenuate the noise from a single UAS rotor at far-field locations using a near-field microphone and the remote microphone technique (RMT) to develop the VES. The results of the VES alone and with an ANC approach at several far-field virtual locations will be presented and discussed. / Master of Science / Small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) are becoming increasingly common for private, military, and commercial use, and as such, community noise exposure is increasing. Reducing the noise produced by UAS could help improve community acceptance. Active noise control (ANC) might be used to attenuate noise produced by sUAS, however, traditional ANC systems would require a physical sensor in the far-field, which is not feasible. A virtual error sensor (VES) could eliminate the need for a far-field sensor. This thesis describes the proposed VES strategy, and presents numerical simulations and experimental results that highlight both the benefits and limitations of the approach. Results of the VES system with and without an ANC approach are discussed. Experimental testing focused on attenuating the tonal noise produced by one 2-bladed rotor with a tip radius of 4.7 inches. Pressure variations caused by the blade rotation were measured in the near and far-field using electret microphones and externally polarized condenser microphones, respectively. The ANC system used the filtered-x least mean squares algorithm in conjunction with the VES system to estimate the far-field response. A 2-inch diameter speaker served as the secondary source to provide the appropriate control input to the system. Experimental results show reductions between 6-13 dB at varying far-field locations and rotation rates.

Le bruit tonal d’interaction rotor-stator, généré par l’impact des sillages issus des pales d’un rotorsur la grille d’aubes d’un stator redresseur, contribue de manière déterminante au bruit d’origineaérodynamique des turbomachines axiales carénées, qui équipent une large part des systèmes de propulsionaéronautique et de conditionnement d’air. La prédiction du bruit par l’utilisation de simulationsnumériques demeure onéreuse, notamment dans les premières phases de conception lorsque de nombreusesconfigurations doivent être testées. Dans cette optique, l’approche analytique choisie dans cettethèse apporte une alternative tout à fait appropriée. Les modèles analytiques basés sur une fonctionde réponse aéroacoustique de profil isolé ne permettent pas de reproduire l’effet de grille engendrépar le nombre important d’aubes de stator. Inversement, de fortes approximations sont nécessairespour décliner les fonctions de réponse de grilles d’aubes existantes dans des configurations tridimensionnelles.Le formalisme proposé, basé sur la méthode de raccordement modal, permet d’introduiresimplement l’effet de grille dans une géométrie annulaire d’étage rotor-stator. Un modèle de réponse degrille rectilinéaire bidimensionnel est tout d’abord présenté pour la transmission d’ondes acoustiques àtravers le stator ainsi que pour la génération de bruit par l’impact de rafales hydrodynamiques. Dansce cadre, une analyse linéaire et non visqueuse est considérée, pour laquelle les modes acoustique ettourbillonnaire d’un gaz sont couplés par le biais des frontières rigides. Les perturbations de vitessesliées aux sillages sont modélisées comme des rafales convectées. Leur impact sur la grille de statorgénère des ondes acoustiques se propageant en amont, en aval ainsi que dans les espaces inter-aubesdu stator, vu comme un réseau périodique de guides d’ondes. Les sections de bords d’attaque et defuite des aubes sont considérées comme des interfaces sur lesquelles la continuité des fluctuations depression, de vitesse axiale et de vorticité est vérifiée. Un système d’équations est ainsi obtenu, puisrésolu par des projections sur les bases modales du conduit et des inversions matricielles. Le champacoustique rayonné est ainsi déterminé uniformément dans tout le domaine. Les résultats issus de cesmodélisations sont comparés à ceux des fonctions de réponse de grilles d’aubes rectilinéaires issues dela littérature, montrant un très bon accord avec les modèles basés sur la technique de Wiener-Hopf. Leformalisme est par la suite étendu aux grilles annulaires par l’ajout de fonctions de Bessel comme fonctionsde forme radiale exprimant les effets tridimensionnels. Finalement, une procédure est présentéepour rendre compte de l’hétérogénéité des aubes de stator, caractéristique des nouvelles architecturesde turbomachines. Cette méthodologie est basée sur l’emploi conjoint du principe du dipôle de bordd’attaque et de la fonction de réponse aéracoustique de la grille de stator à l’aide de la technique deraccordement modal. Le principe de dipôle de bord identifie le chargement instationnaire des aubesinduit par l’impact de rafales hydrodynamiques, calculé par le formalisme d’Amiet, avec la trace duchamp de pression acoustique produit par un dipôle placé au voisinage du bord de l’aube. Les prédictionsissues de ce modèle, appliqué dans un cadre bidimensionnel, sont ensuite comparées à des mesuresobtenues pendant la campagne d’essais du projet SEMAFOR. / The rotor-stator wake-interaction tonal noise, generated by the impingement of rotor wakes onoutlet guide vanes, plays a crucial role in the aerodynamic noise of axial-flow ducted fan stages. Thelatter are widely used in most aeronautic propulsion and air-conditioning systems. The noise predictionby means of numerical simulations remains expensive, especially at the preliminary design stage whennumerous configurations must be tested. In this respect, the analytical approach chosen in this thesisprovides a well suited alternative. The analytical modeling based on an isolated-airfoil response functioncan not reproduce the cascade effect introduced by the large number of stator vanes. Conversely, drasticapproximations are required to extend the current cascade response functions to three-dimensionalconfigurations. The proposed modeling based on the mode-matching technique simply introduces thecascade effect in an annular rotor-stator stage. A rectilinear cascade response function is firstly presentedto account for the acoustic transmission through the stator along with the wake-interaction noise.In this context, a linearized and non-viscous analysis is carried out, in which the acoustic and vorticalmodes of a gas are coupled at rigid physical boundaries. The velocity perturbations issued from thewakes are written as a sum of convected gusts. Their impingement on the cascade of vanes generatesacoustic waves propagating upstream, downstream of the cascade, as well as inside the inter-vane channelsof the stator, seen as a periodic array of bifurcated waveguides. The duct cross sections at theleading-edge and the trailing-edge of the vanes are seen as interfaces on which the continuity of thefluctuating pressure, axial velocity and vorticity is fulfilled. A system of linear equations is obtained,then solved by means of modal projections and matrix inversions. The acoustic field is then uniformlycalculated in the whole domain. Comparisons with rectilinear cascade response functions show a verygood agreement with predictions based on the Wiener-Hopf technique. The configuration of an annularcascade is addressed by introducing the Bessel functions as radial shape functions, expressing threedimensionaleffects. Finally, a procedure is presented to account for the heterogeneity of the statorvanes, typical of modern fan architectures. This approach is based on the combinaison of the leadingedgedipole principle and the cascade response function derived from the mode-matching technique.The edge-dipole principle identifies Amiet’s solution for the unsteady loading and the radiation of adipole approached very close to the edge of a half plane. The predictions provided by this modeling,applied in a two-dimensional configuration, are finaly compared to measurements performed in the testcampaign of the SEMAFOR project.