Thesis (M.M.)--Ohio University, August, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation focuses on the cultural representations of the one-child policy ever since 1978. The artistic discourses about the one-child policy provide a fantastic space to explore China’s post-socialist society and contending ideologies. It also sheds light on the intricate relation between aesthetics and politics and these among the state, family and individual. Moreover, as discourses, artistic narratives and images also participate in the redefining of reproduction/one-child policy. Therefore, inquiries into the interaction between aesthetics and politics enrich our understanding of how reproductive ideals are constructed, negotiated and transformed. This dissertation can be divided into five parts. In the introduction part, I introduce issues related to the one-child policy, materials which I use and my main approaches to interpret them. Chapter Two explores how post-1978 family planning films and novel envision the ideal reproductive lives of peasants through the construction of ideal reproductive subjects, especially ideal female models. These artistic works also show changed representations of the ideal role models. Chapter Three looks into the patriarchal reproductive subject in Mo Yan’s Frog which centers on the conflict between state power and traditional male-centric reproductive culture. Although there are ambiguities, the novel demonstrates that the state has failed to transform peasants’ traditional reproductive ideas. Chapter Four deals with women’s exploration of reproduction from the 1980s on. The writings of some female authors demonstrate a consciousness of independent female reproductive desire. In some works, we can even see the emergence of a new kind of female reproductive privacy. In these works, reproduction becomes the female protagonists’ personal, private matter and women’s subjectivity is seen in their ability to make reproductive decisions according to their own interests. In the Coda, I talk about my future research plans. Overall, in this dissertation, I trace the political, economic, cultural, and technical factors that contribute to the gradual emergence of pluralism in reproductive ideas and practices. My dissertation demonstrates the dynamic interaction among different forces affecting reproduction, one of the most strictly controlled realms in Chinese life. Although reproduction is still mainly dictated by the state current two-child policy, a push towards greater individual autonomy is starting to gain momentum. / 10000-01-01

The present research utilised five tasks to investigate non-musicians' perception of phrase, rhythm, pitch and beat structure in unaccompanied Gaelic melodies and musical sequences. Perception of phrase structure was examined using: i) a segmentation task in which listeners segmented Gaelic melodies into a series of meaningful units and ii) a novel click localisation task whereby listeners indicated where they perceived a superimposed click in the melody had occurred. Listeners consistently segmented the melodies into units of 2.4 - 5.4 seconds. Clicks which were positioned before and after perceived boundaries (identified by segmentation) were perceptually migrated towards the boundary. These results suggest that listeners perceptually differentiate between phrasal groups in melodies (See Sloboda & Gregory, 1980; Stoffer, 1985, for similar results with musicians). Short term memory for rhythmic structure was examined using rhythm recall of computer generated sequences and Gaelic melodies. Computer generated rhythms with small tonal pitch intervals (1 - 4 semitones) were easier to recall than large atonal intervals (predominantly greater than 4 semitones). Recall of Gaelic melodies, containing repetitive rhythmic units, was better than recall of computer sequences. Pitch reversal of Gaelic melodies did not effect recall. Beat-tapping with three Gaelic melodies revealed that the majority of listeners established the underlying beat 1.5 - 3 seconds (5 - 6 notes) after the start of the melodies. Perception of meaning and content in two note melodic intervals and three Gaelic melodies was examined using an adjective pair two-alternative forced choice task. Responses to musical intervals showed evidence of perceptual similarity based mainly on interval size. Perceived information content in the melodies increased significantly by the fourth note. The results suggest that the amounts of Gaelic melody which are: i) required to establish an underlying beat, ii) remembered after one hearing, and iii) perceptually grouped into a meaningful unit, include the unit of melody which is necessary to establish a basic meaning.

In current musicological research, considerable attention is given to the description of melodic structure and pitch organization. But it is problematical that the analytical concepts and terminology of the Common Practice Era are largely inadequate for meaningful description of melody of Asia and medieval Europe. For most traditions of melody in Asia and medieval Europe, there is some sort of developed system of theory, but each system is limited to the repertory it describes. Consequently, the comparative study of melody in these fields has been seriously hampered, and much published research in melody has had to concern itself with the formulation of analytical approaches more than the actual study of melody. This study attempts to resolve this problem by offering for consideration an analytical model, the acoustic melodic formula, that is of use in the comparative study of melodic structures and formulas in Asia and medieval Europe. The acoustic melodic formula is a structural design consisting of three conjunct intervals, namely, a lower perfect fourth, a middle third of varying intonation, and an upper third, also of varying intonation. In addition to identifying the acoustic melodic formula in Japan, Korea, central Asia, and Jewish, Byzantine and Latin chant, this study also investigates how such melodies have additional tones--melodic embellishments--added to them through folk improvisation and artistic elaboration.

Klaas van Oostveen is best known in South Africa for his Six Miniatures, published by UNISA in the Grade 6 piano album, list D. What is not that well-known is the fact that between 1936 and 1982 he had composed more than 80 pieces, encompassing a multitude of different genres and instrumental combinations. The method of composition Van Oostveen employed can be described as melodically based and to that end he had written an unpublished work entitled The Art of MelodyWriting. As teacher of Harmony, Counterpoint and Composition at the University of the Witwatersrand, Van Oostveen ·left as legacy a number of leading South African music educators that today impart his methods of composition to numerous students in these subjects. This thesis broadly attempts to quantify the extent to which Van Oostveen's compositional theories correlate with his actual compositions, and to that end some of his best known works were analysed from a mainly melodic viewpoint. The compositions included in the study spans a wide array of musical genres demonstrating Van Oostveen's control of all these different musical formats. A CD compilation of recorded works has been included to give the reader a practical insight into the music of Klaas van Oostveen. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / D. Mus.

Inspired by Lin and Huang’s (2009) rhythmic study of Chinese dialects, this study examines speech rhythm of 21 Chinese dialects from three perspectives, timing, melody, and phonological structure. The 21 dialects belong to four major groups of Chinese and their respective sub-groups. The four major groups are Mandarin, Wu, Min, and Cantonese. Nine duration-based and four pitch-based metrics are used to quantify timing and melody, respectively. Four phonological structure-based metrics are used to explore the relationships between syllable structure and timing and between tone structure and melody. All the metrics are paired up according to five categories, duration-only, pitch-only, duration-pitch, duration-syllable, pitch-tone, and each pair is subject to a correlation analysis. Then timing and melody patterns of the Chinese dialects are determined by correlation patterns of relevant metric pairs. The main findings of this study are as follows: 1) Timing and melody patterns of the Chinese dialects are far from homogenous across major groups and melody patterns are more distinct than timing patterns; 2) No single metric pair is able to quantify speech rhythm consistently for all the Chinese dialects; nonetheless, pitch-based metric pairs fare better than duration-based ones; 3) Syllable-timedness and melodiousness are correlated positively for all the major groups except for Wu; 4) Phonological structure plays little role in shaping timing and melody patterns of most Chinese dialects. The above findings are both expected and unexpected. They are expected in the sense that rhythmic perception invovles multiple acoustic cues, so it comes as no surprise that not all rhythmic metrics are successful in quantifying Chinese rhythm. They are unexpected for the reason that all the metrics are developed based more or less on phonological structure, yet the rhythmic patterns they reveal do not correspond to the structure affinity or group membership of the Chinese dialects. Overall, the findings suggest that pitch is a more import cue than duration to Chinese rhythm. As the first study of Chinese rhythm across multiple dialects and from different perspectives, this study not only lays a methodological foundation for future research but also contributes to our in-depth understanding of Chinese dialects. / Graduate / 0290 / yali@uvic.ca

Tato práce hledá souvislost mezi intonačním rozpětím a přívětivostí, která je podle Pětifaktorového modelu považována za jednu ze složek osobnosti. Jelikož zkoumání projevů osobnostních rysů v hlase není ve fonetickém výzkumu příliš běžné, je v teoretické části popsán sou- časný stav poznání v oblasti postojů, popisu osobnosti a prvních do- jmů v hodnocení osobnosti. Představeny jsou především studie, které se týkají působení řeči. Jádrem práce je experiment, v němž je porov- náván vliv tří úrovní intonačního rozpětí (komprimovaná, normální a expandovaná) na hodnocení přívětivosti u 15 českých mluvčí. Per- cepčního testu se účastnilo 41 respondentů Intonačnímu rozpětí je věnována samostatná kapitola, která se zaměřuje především na pro- blematická místa popisu. Statistická analýza neprokázala významné rozdíly mezi úrovněmi rozpětí, podrobnější rozbor se tak zaměřil na odhalení rušivých proměnných a popis slabších trendů. Klíčová slova: intonační rozpětí, melodie řeči, vnímání mluvčího, stereo- typní hodnocení Abstract The purpose of the current study is to establish the relationship be- tween pitch range and agreeableness which is viewed as one of the personality traits according to the Big Five model. As the focus on the manifestation of personality traits in speech is not very common in phonetic...

Children with cochlear implants (CI) have difficulty perceiving pitch differences, which contributes to poor melodic perception. Aims/Methods. This study investigated how children with bilateral CIs (n = 23, M = 6,9 years) and children with normal hearing (NH) (n = 27, M = 7,2 years) were able to discriminate pitch intervals with a semitone as the smallest difference, and recognize melodies presented without lyrics in two conditions: as a melody and as a melody combined with pictures. An interview related to music was also conducted. Results. Children with bilateral CIs achieved very high scores on the pitch discrimination task. Children with NH surpassed the children with bilateral CIs at identifying songs without pictures (children with CIs 11%, NH 52%) and together with pictures (CIs 30%, NH 83%).  Measurement of effect size showed moderate to strong differences between children with CIs/NH. The interview findings showed positive attitudes towards music, with 77% of the children with CIs (versus 100% of children with NH) saying they enjoyed listening to music, had favourite artists and favourite songs. Conclusion. Children with CIs demonstrated a very good ability to discriminate pitch differences, but scored low on melody recognition tasks. The results confirm that melody recognition is demanding for children with CIs. In spite of the difficulty CIs have transmitting musical information, these children with CIs as a group have developed positive attitudes towards music. This finding suggests the potential capacity of CIs in relationship to music, but even more the potential capacity of growing children’s brains.     Barn med cochleaimplantat (CI) har svårighet att uppfatta skillnader i tonhöjd, vilket påverkar förmågan att identifiera melodier. Syfte/metod. Syftet var att studera hur barn med bilaterala CI (n = 23, M = 6,9 år) kunde diskriminera mellan tonhöjdsintervall med en semiton som minsta enhet och identifiera fem barnsångsmelodier jämfört med barn med normal hörsel (NH), (n = 27, M = 7,2 år). Melodierna presenterades i två betingelser: utan stöd av bilder (UB) samt med stöd av bilder (MB). Dessutom genomfördes en intervju om musik. Resultat. Förmågan att diskriminera tonhöjdsskillnader var mycket god. Melodier (UB): barn med CI klarade 11 %, barn med NH 52 %. Melodier (MB): barn med CI klarade 30 %, barn med NH 83 %. Analys av effektstyrka mätt i Cohens d visade moderata till stora skillnader mellan barn med CI/NH. Deskriptiv analys av intervjuerna visade positiva attityder till musik och att 77 % av barn med CI (100 % av barn med NH) tyckte om att lyssna på musik, och att flera barn hade favoritartister och favoritlåtar. Slutsats. Barn med CI hade mycket god förmåga att uppfatta tonhöjdsskillnader, men hade svårt att identifiera melodier. Resultatet bekräftar att melodiigenkänning är krävande för barn med CI. Trots de begränsningar som CI har beträffande musikåtergivning har barnen som grupp positiva attityder till musik. Det torde säga en del om den potential CI har i relation till musik, men ännu mer om den stora kapacitet som uppväxande barns hjärnor har.

Trata-se de investigar o caráter ambivalente da música na teoria de Jean-Jacques Rousseau. O filósofo defende, ao mesmo tempo, os traços naturais da sinfonia, que lhe concedem o acento enérgico responsável por movimentar os sentimentos do ouvinte, e os aspectos artificiais que a constituem, resultantes da moralidade necessária para que a música seja de fato expressiva. Essa conciliação entre os elementos racional (harmonia) e patético (melodia) reforça o combate do filósofo genebrino contra a teoria ramista. / The purpose of this masters thesis is to investigate the ambivalence of music in Jean-Jacques Rousseau\'s theory. The philosopher argues, at the same time, about the natural features of the symphony, which give it the energetic accent responsible for moving the feelings of the listener, and about the artificial aspects that are resulting from morality required for music to be significant indeed. This reconciliation between the rational elements (harmony) and pathetic (melody) strengthens the combat against Rameaus theory.

O presente estudo procura reconstituir o sistema de categorias da melodia tonal a partir da investigação de algumas propriedades comuns ao aparelho fonador humano e aos instrumentos musicais reais e virtuais. Analisando essas propriedades à luz da teoria Glossemática (Hjelmslev, 1975) e da fonologia prosódica (Nespor & Vogel, 1986), a investigação chegou aos seguintes resultados: (I) dado que o sistema musical e o sistema fonológico possuem categorias comuns, pode-se sustentar a existência de um parentesco genético entre expressão verbal e expressão musical; (II) os sistemas apresentam orientações opostas: no sistema fonológico das línguas naturais, a categoria dos segmentos (ou constituintes) é relativamente expandida, enquanto a categoria dos suprasegmentos (ou caracterizantes) é concentrada. Inversamente, no sistema da melodia tonal é a categoria dos suprasegmentos que é relativamente expandida, enquanto a categoria dos segmentos é concentrada, (III) o efeito de sentido característico da melodia tonal é fruto de uma configuração sintagmática de suprasegmentos(cronemas, tonemas e dinamenas) hierarquicamente organizados; (IV) outras categorias do sistema melódico (andamento, dinâmica e timbre) ocupam um papel à parte ne hieraquia melódica e são as principais responsáveis pelas marcas deixadas no enunciado pela instância intérprete do sujeito da enunciação. / This work aims to discuss the tonal melodic system of categories by investigating some of the properties that are common to both the human vocal tract and to musical instruments - real or virtual. The analysis of these properties from the standpoint of the Glossematics theory (Hjelmslev, 1975) and of the prosodic phonology (Nespor & Vogel, 1986) led us to the following results: (I) because the music system and the phonological system comprise common categories it is possible to establish a genetic kinship between verbal and musical expression; (II) both systems present opposite properties: in the phonological system of natural languages the segmental categories (or constitutives) are relatively expanded whereas the suprasegmental categories (or characterizers) are concentrated. Conversely, in the tonal melodic system the suprasegmental categories are the ones that are relatively expanded whereas the segmental categories are concentrated; (III) the characteristic meaning effect of tonal melodies comes as a result of a hierarchly structured syntagmatic configuration of suprasegments (chronemes, tonemes, dynamenes); (IV) other categories of the melodic system (tempo, dynamics, timbre) play a distinct role in the melodic hierarchy and are the main responsible for the marks left on the text by the performer instance of the enunciation subject.