Actuellement, la quantité de musique disponible, notamment via Internet, va tous les jours croissant. Les collections sont trop gigantesques pour qu'il soit possible d'y naviguer ou d'y rechercher un extrait sans l'aide d'outils informatiques. Notre travail se place dans le cadre général de l'indexation automatique de la musique. Afin de situer le contexte de travail, nous proposons tout d'abord une brève revue des travaux réalisés actuellement pour la description automatique de la musique à des fins d'indexation : reconnaissance d'instruments, détermination de la tonalité, du tempo, classification en genre et en émotion, identification du chanteur, transcriptions de la mélodie, de la partition, de la suite d'accords et des paroles. Pour chacun de ces sujets, nous nous attachons à définir le problème, les termes techniques propres au domaine, et nous nous attardons plus particulièrement sur les problèmes les plus saillants. Dans une seconde partie, nous décrivons le premier outil que nous avons développé : une distinction automatique entre les sons monophoniques et les sons polyphoniques. Nous avons proposé deux nouveaux paramètres, basés sur l'analyse d'un indice de confiance. La modélisation de la répartition bivariée de ces paramètre est réalisée par des distributions de Weibull bivariées. Le problème de l'estimation des paramètres de cette distribution nous a conduit à proposer une méthode originale d'estimation dérivée de l'analyse des moments de la loi. Une série d'expériences nous permet de comparer notre système à des approches classiques, et de valider toutes les étapes de notre méthode. Dans la troisième partie, nous proposons une méthode de détection du chant, accompagné ou non. Cette méthode se base sur la détection du vibrato, un paramètre défini à partir de l'analyse de la fréquence fondamentale, et défini a priori pour les sons monophoniques. A l'aide de deux segmentations, nous étendons ce concept aux sons polyphoniques, en introduisant un nouveau paramètre : le vibrato étendu. Les performances de cette méthode sont comparables à celles de l'état de l'art. La prise en compte du pré-traitement monophonique / polyphonique nous a amenés à adapter notre méthode de détection du chant à chacun de ces contextes. Les résultats s'en trouvent améliorés. Après une réflexion sur l'utilisation de la musique pour la description, l'annotation et l'indexation automatique des documents audiovisuels, nous nous posons la question de l'apport de chacun des outils décrits dans cette thèse au problème de l'indexation de la musique, et de l'indexation des documents audiovisuels par la musique et offrons quelques perspectives.

The purpose of this study was to determine the pitch and intensity level characteristics found in the vibrati of preferred oboe players whose vibrato was ranked by a panel of experts. The investigation also sought to discover factors that distinguish the preferred oboe vibrato from vibrato that is less preferred.

När det gäller sångvibrato har lite forskning tidigare gjorts i ämnet, och när det gäller sångundervisning har jag i min egen erfarenhet aldrig haft någon sånglärare som talat om vibrato. Även bland tillfrågade sångkollegor, är det mycket sällsynt att de fått jobba med vibrato då de fått sångundervisning. Både på gymnasienivå och högskolenivå. Syftet var därför att ta reda på hur sånglärare arbetar med vibrato i sin sångundervisning. I den här uppsatsen har jag från ett kulturpsykolologiskt perspektiv och genom kvalitativa intervjuer undersökt huruvida sånglärare på gymnasium med estetiska program arbetar med vibrato och variation av vibrato med sina elever. Studiens forskningsfråga är: Vilka kulturella meningar ser några sånglärare med vibrato i sångundervisning? Resultaten varierade. Någon svarade att det inte var aktuellt i dennes undervisning, medan någon i sällsynta fall arbetade med vibratots vara eller icke vara i en sång. Överlag var vibratots mening dock inte något som prioriterades i sångundervisningen hos någon av de intervjuade sånglärarna. Resultatet visar att medvetenheten om vibratots mening och effekter på sången, oavsett genre, behöver väckas hos sånglärare. / <p>Bifogat finns en av mig inspelad version av en vers och refräng från gospellåten Keep Me av Tye Tribbet. </p>

Vibrato and portamento constitute two expressive devices involving continuous pitch modulation and is widely employed in string, voice, wind music instrument performance. Automatic extraction and analysis of such expressive features form some of the most important aspects of music performance research and represents an under-explored area in music information retrieval. This thesis aims to provide computational and scalable solutions for the automatic extraction and analysis of performed vibratos and portamenti. Applications of the technologies include music learning, musicological analysis, music information retrieval (summarisation, similarity assessment), and music expression synthesis. To automatically detect vibratos and estimate their parameters, we propose a novel method based on the Filter Diagonalisation Method (FDM). The FDM remains robust over short time frames, allowing frame sizes to be set at values small enough to accurately identify local vibrato characteristics and pinpoint vibrato boundaries. For the determining of vibrato presence, we test two alternate decision mechanisms-the Decision Tree and Bayes' Rule. The FDM systems are compared to state-of-the-art techniques and obtains the best results. The FDM's vibrato rate accuracies are above 92.5%, and the vibrato extent accuracies are about 85%. We use the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) with Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) to detect portamento existence. Upon extracting the portamenti, we propose a Logistic Model for describing portamento parameters. The Logistic Model has the lowest root mean squared error and the highest adjusted Rsquared value comparing to regression models employing Polynomial and Gaussian functions, and the Fourier Series. The vibrato and portamento detection and analysis methods are implemented in AVA, an interactive tool for automated detection, analysis, and visualisation of vibrato and portamento. Using the system, we perform crosscultural analyses of vibrato and portamento differences between erhu and violin performance styles, and between typical male or female roles in Beijing opera singing.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of grouping middle school students by learning modality preferences on vibrato acquisition. Traditional approaches to teaching vibrato synthesize reading and listening to elicit an appropriate tactile response, however, Ornstein (1995) identified this approach as a narrow scope suited to a "hypothetical average student" (p.105). Keefe (1985) proposed learning styles as a reliable lens for understanding the individuality of learning. Music education research has a pronounced lack of pedagogical studies addressing technical development particularly regarding stringed instruments. A majority of vibrato research in particular has been regulated to diagnostic studies of the behavior of its inherent acoustic properties. Of the several tutorial vibrato studies that exist, namely those by Gillespie (1997), and Shepherd (2004), few examined beyond two of the primary sensory (e.g., visual and auditory) learning modes identified by Swassing and Barbe (1979). This study challenged traditional approaches by accommodating individual sensory preferences as the most promising path to learning vibrato. Dominant learning preferences of 60 middle school orchestra students were identified using VARK (Fleming, 2001), an instrument whose name is derived from an acronym for Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic. Based on VARK (Fleming, 2001), results, four groups were created corresponding to three learning preferences and a control group. Pretest recordings were made to evaluate existent vibrato abilities and all subjects participated in six weeks of intervention vibrato lessons where teaching was deliberately matched to each group's learning preference. The control group was taught using a traditional class method book. Following the intervention period, posttest recordings were made as an exit assessment. All recordings were evaluated by a panel of qualified string educators using Gillespie's (1993) vibrato evaluation instrument and three data sets were constructed corresponding to means of the pretest, posttest, and a means of difference between the two. Analysis included measures of central tendency, Kruskal-Wallis H test and frequency distributions. Descriptive statistics were computed for grade, gender, and instrument to examine latent peripheral relationships and no significant differences were found between learning preference groups and the control group compelling the researcher to accept the null hypothesis.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate aspects of pitch perception of auditors when presented with musical tones whose frequencies were modulated. Research problems were: estimation of the effect of musical training upon pitch perception; estimation of the effect of stimuli of differing tonal qualities and frequency ranges upon perception; and estimation of the effect of solo and ensemble performances upon pitch perception. Subjects for the study were thirty musicians and thirty nonmusicians. Subjects were students at North Texas State University and Paris Junior College who had volunteered for the study. A test containing thirty-six items was developed which required subjects to match a tone created by a sawtooth wave generator to a simultaneously presented musical tone performed with vibrato. Each subject was tested individually, and allowed three attempts to match each test item. After the third playing of each item, a reading was taken of the frequency selected by the subject, Using the split half method, reliability for the test was found to be .86 for nonmusicians and .88 for musicians. ANOVA evaluation of responses of subjects indicated that there was a significant difference.in the location of pitch among musicians and nonmusicians, with musicians locating the pitch somewhat higher in the frequency spectrum than nonmusicians. Neither group located the pitch of modulated musical tones at the geometric mean of the modulation. Differences located in responses of the groups were consistant with regard to stimuli of varying frequency levels and timbres, and were unaffected by either solo or ensemble performance of the stimulus. Subsidiary findings indicated that among musicians no significant differences in pitch perception may be traced to the major performing instrument of the subject; differences in these subgroups and nonmusicians were consistant with the findings comparing musicians as "a whole and nonmusicians. Suggestions were made concerning application of the findings to musical training and concerning possibilities for further investigation in perception of pitch.

This thesis introduces the modern flute techniques used in the solo flute piece Laconisme de l’aile by Kaija Saariaho. The purpose is to find ways to excecute the techniques so that they serve the music in the best way. The techniques are divided in five groups based on how they are excecuted: effects made with the mouth, changing the timbre, multiphonics, effects made by fingers and diffenent sounds by blowing. As an attachment there is a recording of the piece and how the techniques sound in the context. At the end of the process it has been evaluated, if the modern techniques help with the ordinary flute playing as well. / <p>A recording of Laconisme de l'aile by Kaija Saariaho</p>

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / This thesis provides an overview of different aspects of the application of vibrato on the flute. Although it is a compilation of different viewpoints, it does not offer a conclusion as regards the ‘correct’ application of vibrato, due to the subjective nature of this phenomenon. The intention is that the reader will be able to reach his or her own conclusions and form new opinions regarding this subject. The focus is largely on the comparison of the production of vibrato on the flute with its production on other instruments. The aim is to examine the different choices involved in the production of vibrato when the flute is part of an ensemble and when it is a solo instrument. By learning more about other instruments’ timbres and production of vibrato, it enables flautists to adapt to different timbres in order to form sonorous ensembles. The physiological and scientific aspects of vibrato are also explored with the view to equip flautists with this knowledge. Thus, flautists will be able to listen to and analyse from a more critical and informed perspective how they themselves use vibrato and how other flautists use it. The main goal of this thesis is to provide enough information, opinions, studies and statistics to enable a flautist to make an informed decision concerning their choice and application of vibrato.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009 / Violin vibrato is the action by which a violinist periodically changes the frequency of a sustained note by moving the finger on the string, rapidly backwards and forwards. If it is artistically applied, it adds life, character and warmth to an otherwise dull sounding note. Although it has been used since the sixteenth century, very little research has been done on the reason why humankind would experience such periodic fluctuations as an object of beauty in violin performance. In answering the question, this study explores a variety of angles of approach in order to understand the phenomenon in its full context. The history, development and geographical origin of the technique are firstly discussed in a diachronic fashion and provide the background for the subsequent synchronic research on the physical nature of violin sound and violin vibrato. The vibrato rates and widths of four virtuosi are measured and compared to highlight the differences and individuality which are argued to be a contributing factor to the perception of beauty of the technique. It is established in the final chapter that the brain is stimulated more by sounds with periodic changes than those that are presented in the steady-state which cast some light on why vibrato may be experienced as an appreciated addition to sound. The thesis aims to present a unique view on the possibilities of interdisciplinary research of the phenomenon of violin vibrato. It further aims to present the research findings in a concise, logical, and systematic manner that could be of interest to both musician and scientist.