Thesis (Ph.D.)--Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne, 2000. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-280).

Based on prior research on concepts such as kinesonic feedback, and the here presented concept of kinesonic perspective, this study investigates whether or not players prefer binaurally recorded Foley over monophonically recorded Foley in a first-person video game environment, and whether or not binaural Foley has an impact on their relationship to, or perception of, the avatar. A game environment was created, in which players could switch at will between two audio modes; one containing binaurally recorded Foley, and the other containing monophonically recorded Foley. In the study, subjects were asked to state their preference between the two modes, motivate said preference, rate the two modes on three attributes, and answer questions regarding their perceived relationship to the avatar. Results showed no statistical significance regarding the preference of the sample, but a potential link was found between subjects’ preference and their perceived believability of the Foley sounds. The qualitative results showed that the binaural Foley had a complex impact on the subjects’ perception of and relationship to the avatar. The qualitative data also showed that subjects generally felt that the binaural Foley originated from their own body. Due to the small sample size and diversity of subject opinions it is however difficult to make any generalizations regarding the average player. Further research could investigate what role sound plays in the player’s ability to embody the avatar, as well as more thoroughly investigate the complex relationship between the kinesonic perspective of the avatar and that of the player.

The musical culture of the female monastic institution called La Concezione, or il monastero nuovo, reflected the political, social and devotional objectives of the Medici court. In 1562, at the close of the Council of Trent, the convent was founded through the last testament of Grand Duchess Eleonora de Toledo de'Medici with the support of Grand Duke Cosimo I's personal knighthood-- the Cavalieri di Santo Stefano. Glorified as a "reformed" institution reflecting the piety of Florence and the rectitude of the Medici family, the public image of the convent required strict adherence to Catholic Reformation ideals of female virtue. Musically, the women of the convent restricted their public performance to monophonic chant. The only universally approved music for monastics, chant was thought to be the most appropriate form of public musical devotion for the virginal daughters of the court. In private, the patrician women perhaps enjoyed the popular polyphonic music that the vast resources of their families, the Florentine court, and their superiors, afforded them. The public image of perfection was of the utmost importance to the Medici; polyphonic performance was only allowed in the most private spaces of the cloister--away from the public eyes and ears. A counter-example to recent scholarship, this view of female monastic music is in contrast to studies that have highlighted examples of wealthy convents that actively sought opportunities for polyphonic performance as part of their public character. This dissertation relies on various extant archival documents of the convent, the Order of Santo Stefano and the Medici family in an examination of the role that music played in both the public and private spheres of the most elite convent of early modern Florence. / text

A central focus of this thesis is the word-music relationship in the devotional-song-repertory of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Surrounding this focus is an examination of aspects of her life and work that relate to the production of her seventy-seven monophonic songs. This examination commences with a review of biographical sources, collation and discussion of parchment sources of her music, and identification of her music scribes. The theme of Hildegard’s music scribes is then developed, including their influence upon the liturgical genres in which her songs are cast and the melodic behaviour of her music. It is argued that, as a result of the rendering of her melodies on the medieval gamut, the surviving sources of her songs represent corruptions of orally produced chant. / The word-music relationship in Hildegard’s songs is then introduced. Her views on the role of music and her own role as monastic preacher form the basis of an examination of the relationship between rhetoric and her songs. This examination draws on contemporary modes of rhetorical criticism, and an approach which treats her songs as musically articulated rhetorical discourse is developed. A selection of her songs is then examined through this approach, and particular attention is given to songs which preserve unusual melodic behaviours. It is argued that her songs represent iubilatio responses to both the grammatical and rhetorical syntagms of her song texts, and melodic characteristics which suggest traces of her pre-redacted melodies are identified. / As a codicil to this study, a critique of ‘new’ and ‘unusual’ monastic practices in Germany by Anselm of Havelberg (c.1100-1158) forms a point of departure for discussion of a small number of surviving songs which surrounded the production of Hildegard’s music - the five monophonic songs comprising the Epithalamia to the Speculum virginum (c.1140), and a twelfth-century canticle setting emanating from the monastic home of her music scribes. This examination points towards a tradition of ‘new’ and ‘unusual’ musical practices in Southern Germany during the twelfth century and provides one possible context for Hildegard’s devotional-song repertory.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / In this work, we study some parameters of monophonic convexity in some classes of graphs and we present our results about this subject. We prove that decide if the $m$-interval number is at most 2 and decide if the $m$-percolation time is at most 1 are NP-complete problems even on bipartite graphs. We also prove that the $m$-convexity number is as hard to approximate as the maximum clique problem, which is, $O(n^{1-varepsilon})$-unapproachable in polynomial-time, unless P=NP, for each $varepsilon>0$. Finally, we obtain polynomial time algorithms to compute the $m$-convexity number on hereditary graph classes such that the computation of the clique number is polynomial-time solvable (e.g. perfect graphs and planar graphs). / Neste trabalho, estudamos alguns parÃmetros para a convexidade monofÃnica em algumas classes de grafos e apresentamos nossos resultados acerca do assunto. Provamos que decidir se o nÃmero de $m$-intervalo à no mÃximo 2 e decidir se o tempo de $m$-percolaÃÃo à no mÃximo 1 sÃo problemas NP-completos mesmo em grafos bipartidos. TambÃm provamos que o nÃmero de $m$-convexidade à tÃo difÃcil de aproximar quanto o problema da Clique MÃxima, que Ã, $O(n^{1-varepsilon})$-inaproximÃvel em tempo polinomial, a menos que P=NP, para cada $varepsilon>0$. Finalmente, apresentamos um algoritmo de tempo polinomial para determinar o nÃmero de $m$-convexidade em classes hereditÃrias de grafos onde a computaÃÃo do tamanho da clique mÃxima à em tempo polinomial (como grafos perfeitos e grafos planares).

Interactions between polyphonic motets and monophonic trouvère song in the long thirteenth century have been characterised in a number of different ways. Mark Everist and Gaël Saint-Cricq have focused on motets' use of textual and musical forms usually thought of as typical of song. Judith Peraino, on the other hand, has explored the influence of motets on a range of pieces found in manuscripts that mainly contain monophonic songs. This thesis re-examines motet-song interaction from first principles, taking as its basis the 22 cases in which a voice part of a polyphonic motet is also found as a monophonic song. The thesis's analysis of this corpus has two central themes: chronology and quotation. In addressing the first, it develops a music-analytical framework to address the compositional processes involved in these case studies, arguing that in some of them a monophonic song was converted into a motet voice, while in others a motet voice was extracted from its polyphonic context to make a song. It also emphasises, however, that chronology is often more complicated than these two neatly opposed categories imply, showing that different song and motet versions can relate to each other in ways that are dynamic, complex, and often hard to recover from the extant evidence. The conversion of song material for motets and vice versa is placed within a larger context of musical quotation and re-use in the thirteenth century, showing that many of these case studies play with the pre-existence of their song or motet material: some transfer their voice parts from one medium to another in a way that consciously foregrounds their previous incarnations, whereas others mask the pre-existence of the voice part by absorbing it into new textual and musical structures. The thesis closes with a consideration of the wider implications of the motet-song interaction it analyses. It examines the generic boundary between songs and motets and suggests a model of generic analysis that centres on the complexities of manuscript transmission. Finally, it considers the use of refrains within its corpus of motets and songs, demonstrating that these short passages of music and text are often quoted in ways similar to those analysed in motets and songs earlier in the thesis.

The Abstract The Hymn and its Tradition in Late Medieval Bohemia Veronika Mráčková, Charles University, Prague The present thesis concerns the monophonic and polyphonic office hymns preserved in late medieval Bohemian sources. The author is mainly focused on the repertoire of the hymns written in Strahov Codex from around 1467. This manuscript of uncertain provenance contains an enormous collection of three- and four- voice polyphonic hymns which show plenty of the local characteristics. These domestic traits may be identified not only through texts devoted to indigenous Saints, but also through the melodies which form the cantus firmus in the upper voice of the hymns. The identification of these monophonic tunes in other plainchant sources could help us to determine the origin of Strahov Codex. Additionally, it is clear that this mensural manuscript contains not only music of a high artistic standard, but also a number of less polished compositions, and that it is thus an important witness to the existence of a wide range of daily musical activities in late medieval Bohemia. A crucial part of this dissertation is a critical edition of the monophonic hymn tunes preserved in Roudnice Psalter, as well as an edition of the selected polyphonic hymns written in Strahov Codex.