It has recently become more common to combine methodologies from the fields of ethnomusicology and psychoacoustics to address fundamental questions concerning music perception. Ethnomusicology emphasizes cultural context when examining the different ways musical sounds are organized. Psychoacoustics explores the relationships between perceptual processes and physical properties of sound. The methodologies of both disciplines are crucial in developing a cross-cultural cognitive theory of music. A perception experiment was performed on two groups of Western musicians: one with training in Javanese gamelan music (the Gamelan group), and one without training in Javanese gamelan (the Western group). This study examined whether changes in timbre perception occurred in adults who were trained in another culture's music compared to naive listeners. The two groups' perceptions were also compared between an isolated tone and a melodic context to determine where the effects of training were most salient. A mathematical technique known as Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) showed that all subjects based their ratings on two factors during both contexts. In the isolated tone context, the two subject groups did not differ in their timbre perception. In the melodic context, the subject groups diverged in a statistically significant manner. Multiple regression analysis showed that in the isolated tone context, attack centroid (a measure of the spectral energy distribution during the initial 50 milliseconds of the tone) was emphasized almost equally by both groups, along with an unknown psychological factor. In the melodic context, the Gamelan group focused their attention almost completely on the attack centroid while the Western group focused their attention roughly the same between the attack centroid and the middle portion of the amplitude envelope. These results indicate that timbre perception in the music of another culture is modified when a listener has received training in that music, even as an adult. A musical context is needed for these modifications to become apparent, however, otherwise training has no effect on processing timbre. It would appear that attention is directed to acoustical properties that provide meaning to a musical context by those listeners who are familiar with that context. Conversely, listeners who are naive of another culture's musical contexts do not focus their attention on those specific acoustical properties. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

No description available.

This dissertation examines an Indonesian-North American version of an evolving, transnational and hybrid multimedia art form which has come about through forty years of adaptations made by cross-culturally located artists in creative conversation with Indonesian performers involved in the Javanese and Balinese forms of musical theatre known as wayang. Wayang theatre employs puppets and other components including gamelan music (Indonesian percussion instruments, drums, flutes, strings and vocals). Given this complexity, there are many possibilities for variations, changes, and hybridization. In this research project, I analyze aspects of this hybrid performance by analyzing select Indonesian-North American wayang performances, as case studies. In order to isolate complex changes and various adaptations of wayang performances in the North American setting, I also analyze and contextualize a hybridization of Javanese and Balinese wayang performances. As a performance art form, wayang has always been changing historically—at some points more quickly and dramatically than at other periods of time, thus resisting firm categorization that would provide a baseline for comparison. I have developed the wahiyang theoretical framework as an analytical tool to identify the influence of North American culture on the wayang performances in my case studies. I argue that new genre of wayang is emerging, creating a hybridized form that I call wahiyang gaya NA. This process has progressed to the point that wahiyang gaya NA can be said to represent a new genre of multimedia world art, which combines elements of local and global artistic practises, making the form even more flexible and adaptable than its original forms in Indonesia. The gradual spread and popularization of wayang in North America has definite historical contexts, namely the early 19th-to-mid 20th century conjunction of decolonization and Third World nationalism, with the more recent decades’ layering of multiculturalism and push towards conscious cultural responses to economic globalization. This developing continuum of new hybrid forms spans a spectrum of cultural inclusion and expansion of wayang and new components. At times these may be seen as wayang influence upon Western performance practice; at other times an entire Indonesian wayang production with additional elements added from Western music, theater, and other disciplines may be presented. These developments signify an enhanced and expanded exchange of cultural products between the nations of the world, taking place in an expanded space for dialogue between the artists of the developed and developing countries. I will show, using case studies, how this process has produced and is producing a new branch of wayang as part of a continuum of hybridized wayang forms. By examining selected performance collaborations that have taken place over the last 40 years, I will provide a detailed analysis, which for the first time, lays out the components that constitute the variation of wayang art performance that has developed in response to geographical and cultural contexts of the Pacific Northwest of USA and Westcoast Canada. / Graduate / 2018-04-12 / 0377, 0357, 0465 / sutrisno@uvic.ca

L’interférence et interaction Europe-Asie sur le plan culturel et artistique qui s’est épanouie durant le XIXe siècle a ouvert une nouvelle réserve de nouveaux matériaux pour la création littéraire et artistique. De cet échange chacun des deux continents a retiré pour lui-même des éléments qui lui étaient bénéfiques aux points de vue littérature, peinture, musique, architecture, et même religion... La thèse intitulée “Influence de la musique asiatique sur la composition chez Claude Debussy” est entreprise dans le but de rechercher les ingrédients exotiques exploités avec grande délicatesse et sensibilité par Debussy – homme progressiste ouvert aux courants nouveaux, symbole de l’Impressionnisme en musique et surtout grande célébrité pour ses nouvelles limites en timbres. L’analyse d’environ 140 œuvres officiellement publiées de Debussy confirme sa grande réussite dans la mise en œuvre des matériaux musicaux Asiatiques. D’autre part, la thèse se propose aussi de montrer cet autre aspect de Debussy, à savoir qu’il était la somme harmonieuse de l’esthéticisme dans l’art Japonais, de la pureté des échelles traditionnelles, et de la témérité dans l’emploi de timbres nouveaux provenant des instruments Asiatiques. / The cultural and artistic interference and interaction that flowered during the 19th century between Europe and Asia brought a new enormous storage of artistic material at the disposal of European artists. Both continents derived from it materials useful to them in terms of literature, paintings, music, architecture and even religion... The present thesis, “Influence of Asian music on Claude Debussy’s composing”, aims at spotting out exotic materials subtly and sensitively brought into play by Debussy – a progressist spirit open to new trends, symbol of Impressionism in music and, above all, top celebrity for his setting of the new limits for timbres. Analysis of 140 Debussy’s officially published works confirms his success in using Asian materials for his music. Moreover, the thesis also manage to bring into light this other aspect of Debussy, as the final and successful product from the blend between Japanese estheticism, purity of the traditional scales and boldness in the use of new timbres from Asian instruments.

This study investigates the use of Indonesian gamelan with participants who have special needs or with special populations, and considers what the playing of gamelan music has to offer music therapy practice. The gamelan is an ensemble of instruments on which the traditional music of Indonesia is played, consisting of mainly tuned and un-tuned percussion instruments tuned to four, five or seven tone scales. Gamelan are being increasingly used for music activities with participants who have special needs, such as learning disabilities, mental health problems or sensory impairments, and with special populations, such as prisoners. Whilst aims are broadly educational, therapeutic benefits are also being noted. There is little research into the effectiveness of this use of gamelan; the therapeutic benefits have not been researched within the context of music therapy. As an experienced music therapist and gamelan musician, I considered that investigating the potential for using gamelan within music therapy would produce new knowledge that could extend the practice of music therapy. Various qualitative methods within a naturalistic paradigm were used to investigate current and past practice of gamelan playing with special needs groups and to identify the therapeutic benefits. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with gamelan tutors working in this area and a music therapy project using gamelan with a group of children who had learning difficulties was undertaken by the author. Using a thematic approach to the analysis of data, the key features of gamelan playing which have relevance for music therapy practice were identified. Gamelan playing was found to have a range of therapeutic benefits which can be used intentionally by a music therapist to address therapeutic aims. It was found firstly that the playing of traditional gamelan music can be used for specific therapeutic purposes and secondly, that the music and instruments can be adapted and used within various music therapy approaches and for participants with a range of disabilities. A set of guiding principles are also proposed for the use of this new music therapy practice.

Professional Javanese gamelan musicians and the way they think about and make music have been extensively studied by ethnomusicologists. This thesis shifts the analytical focus to the experience and practice of players in 'gamelan associations' for whom music is neither their primary occupation nor main source of income. It addresses two issues: firstly, who are these musicians and what does their way of playing and conceiving of music tell us about gamelan, and secondly, what opportunities and benefits does participation in these groups afford them. The first section sets out the details and context of fourteen gamelan associations in Surakarta. It examines local terminology for different forms of musicianship, their practice in relation to factors such as recompense for playing, ability, repertoire, and training, and discusses the combination of rehearsal and social gathering which I claim is fundamental to these groups. I argue that, whilst there is significant diversity among gamelan associations and their members, they represent a unified category of musicians distinct from those who are officially employed to play and that the specific benefits they obtain from playing derive from this non-professional status. The second section sets out these benefits in five chapters, relating respectively to gamelan's implication in discourses of community at local and state level, expressions of cultural ownership, the display and negotiation of personal authority, access to power, and the production of public sound. I argue that these connections mean that participation in gamelan associations is not simply recreational but a potentially powerful way for Solonese people to create meaning and influence for themselves amidst the competing models of modernity and rapid political change of contemporary Indonesia.

Parmi les nombreuses traditions musicales extra-occidentales qui se sont exportées en occident, le gamelan, musique traditionnelle de Bali et Java en Indonésie, n’a cessé de fasciner les musiciens et mélomanes occidentaux depuis le tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles. Pour de nombreux Canadiens, la découverte de tels orchestres balinais et javanais s’est faite plutôt récemment, lors de l’Exposition spécialisée de 1986 à Vancouver. Au lendemain de cet événement, le gouvernement indonésien a légué les instruments ayant servi aux événements de l’Expo à la Simon Fraser University et à l’Université de Montréal. Depuis, plusieurs universités canadiennes ont accueilli des professeurs et compositeurs balinais et javanais dans leur corps professoral, alors qu’un nombre considérable d’étudiants canadiens ont choisi d’aller parfaire leur formation en Indonésie. Au fil des années, ces échanges internationaux ont favorisé l’établissement de communautés de gamelan notoires dans trois villes canadiennes : Vancouver, Montréal et Toronto. Actifs depuis plus de trois décennies, ces ensembles ont accumulé un corpus d’œuvres originales les distinguant les uns des autres et témoignant de leur environnement artistique spécifique. Cette recherche vise à comprendre de quelle façon le gamelan a évolué depuis son exportation au Canada dans différentes régions du pays, et en quoi cette évolution témoigne d’identités régionales équivalentes à celles que l’on peut observer dans l’archipel indonésienne. / Among the many non-European musical traditions exported to the west, the traditional gamelan music of Bali and Java, Indonesia, never ceased to fascinate musicians and audiences since the turn of the 20th century. For many Canadians, the discovery of such orchestras occurred rather recently at the 1986 World Exposition on Transportation in Vancouver. After the event, the Indonesian government gifted the instruments used at the Expo to Simon Fraser University and the University of Montreal. More Canadian universities have since welcomed Indonesian artists among their staff while a considerable number of Canadian students have chosen to perfect their knowledge in Java and Bali. Throughout the years, such international exchanges have nurtured distinct gamelan communities in three notorious Canadian cities: Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. Active for over three decades, these ensembles have accumulated a body of original works distinguishing them and highlighting their vastly different artistic environments. This research aims to understand how gamelan has evolved in different regions since its arrival to Canada, and to what extent this evolution underlines regional identities similar to those found throughout the Indonesian archipelago.

La version intégrale de ce mémoire est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l'Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU). / Ce mémoire expose les résultats de mon projet de recherche, qui consistait à élaborer et tester ma démarche compositionnelle s’appliquant aux musiques de pratique électroacoustique, instrumentale et mixte. Mon intention était d’uniformiser et de systématiser mon approche s’inscrivant essentiellement dans l’esthétique des romantiques. J’y combine musique à programme, partitions graphiques et autres techniques modernes de composition. Le premier chapitre est consacré à la description détaillée et commentée des trois étapes qui constituent mon travail de création : le programme, l’analyse ainsi que la structure et la forme. Pour expérimenter cette approche, j’ai composé trois pièces : Le chat noir, pièce mixte pour gamelan, bandes et traitements en temps réel et inspirée d’une nouvelle d’Edgar Allan Poe, La nébuleuse de la tour, pièce électroacoustique basée sur une partition graphique exécutée par une guitare et un trombone et, comme troisième pièce, Le livre de Thot, pour trio à cordes et piano, présentée en quatre mouvements inspirés d’autant de cartes du tarot. Les trois pièces sont décrites et analysées en fonction de ma démarche aux chapitres deux, trois et quatre, respectivement. / This thesis presents the results of my research project which consisted in elaborating and testing my compositional approach in three musical forms, namely, electroacoustic, instrumental, and mix. My aim was to systematize my approach—which belongs essentially with romantic aesthetics—and to make it uniform by combining program music, graphic partitions, and other modern compositional techniques. The first chapter is devoted to the detailed and commented description of the three stages of my creation process : program, analysis, as well as form and structure. To test my approach, I have composed three pieces, 1- Le chat noir, a mixed piece for gamelan, recording and real-time processing inspired by a novel by Edgar Allan Poes, 2- La nébuleuse de la tour, an electroacoustic piece based on a graphic partition and performed on guitar and trombone, and 3- Le livre de Thot, for string trio and piano and performed in four movements inspired by four tarot cards. These three pieces are described and analyzed in chapters two, three, and four respectively.

Syncretisms is an original composition scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and marimba (2-mallet minimum, 4 recommended) with an optional percussion part requiring glockenspiel and chimes, and has an approximate duration of 6 min. 45. sec. The composition combines modern western tuning, timbre, and harmonic language with organizational principles identified in music from Southeast Asia (including music from cultures found in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia). The accompanying paper describes each of these organizational principles, drawing on the work of scholars who have performed fieldwork, and describes the way in which each principle was employed in Syncretisms. The conclusion speculates on a method for comparing musical organizational systems cross-culturally.