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No description available.

A new analytical tool called “voice-leading class” is introduced that can quantify on an angular scale any transformation mapping one pitch dyad onto another. This method (based on a concept put forth by Dmitri Tymoczko) can be applied to two-voice, first-species counterpoint or to single-voice motivic transformations. The music of Béla Bartók is used to demonstrate the metric because of his frequent use of inversional symmetry, which is important if the full range of the metric’s values is to be tested. Voice-leading class (VLC) analysis applied to first-species counterpoint reveals highly structured VLC frequency histograms in certain works. It also reveals pairs of VLC values corresponding to motion in opposite directions along lines passing through the origin in pitch space. VLC analysis of motivic transformations, on the other hand, provides an efficient way of characterizing the phenomenon of chromatic compression and diatonic expansion. A hybrid methodology is demonstrated using Segall’s gravitational balance method that provides one way of analyzing textures with more than two voices. A second way is demonstrated using a passage from Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Finally, the third movement of the String Quartet #5 is analyzed. Families of geometrically related VLC values are identified, and two are found to be particularly salient because of their relationship to major and minor thirds, intervals which play an important role in the movement. VLC values in this movement are linked to contour, form, motivic structure, pitch-class sets and pitch centricity, and are thus demonstrated to be useful for understanding Bartók’s music and the music of other composers as well.

The purpose of the present study was to tease apart the paralinguistic from the linguistic aspects of infants' perception of infant-directed (ID) speech. Several studies have shown that infants beginning at a few days after birth discriminate native from nonnative speech and can discriminate specific contours (rising, falling, rising-falling) in ID speech. Some studies have also indicated that infants at 4.5 months of age prefer their own name over other names but at 6 months of age, fail to prefer a sentence with their own name embedded in it. Using a discrimination procedure, the current study investigated whether 6-month-old infants could detect a change in contour and/or a change in words when listening to ID utterances. Results indicated that 6-month-old infants detected both a contour and a word change. From these results, it is argued that as has been shown in other experiments, infants are extremely sensitive to subtle changes in speech. Furthermore, ID speech appears to facilitate infants' ability to discriminate small changes in ID speech (both linguistic and paralinguistic). It is suggested that future studies investigate more discrete changes in speech samples and a replication of this research with adult-directed (AD) speech. / Master of Science

In this paper we develop a mathematical model of a two-dimensional aeroelastic airfoil. This model is used to design a flutter suppression controller. Flutter is a vibration in a wing caused by airstream energy being absorbed by the lifting surface. Flutter increases with increasing speed. For simplicity, we consider a flat plate in a two-dimensional flow. The model is developed in the frequency domain and then transformed into the time domain. The uncontrolled model is numerically simulated using MATLAB. Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) theory is used to design a state feedback controller. The LQR control scheme consists of using a full state feedback controller of the form u=-Kx, where K is a control gain matrix. The goal is to use LQR theory to supress flutter and to maintain stability of the closed loop system. / Master of Science

An optimization algorithm has been developed to study the effectiveness of substituting time tested ODEs with FDEs as applied to ship motions, specifically with an eye toward modeling different forms of roll damping. Relations between the order of differentiation a and damping coefficient b in the FDEs have been drawn for changing damping, added moment of inertia, and initial roll angle. A pitch model has also been studied and compared to the roll model. The error at each of these a and b pairs has also been calculated using an L2-norm. An initial effort was made to correlate the FDE coefficients to differing mechanisms of roll damping as characterized by Himeno. / Master of Science

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / A musical task involving pitch discrimination was developed and taught to children and adults. The task was a single tone matching procedure employing three organ tones and keys in the "do, re, mi" configuration, in which individually presented ("heard") tones, served as stimuli controlling selection of keys for tone-matching responses. The design of the study included an exploratory phase, in which sequences of material were manipulated and behavioral (performance) characteristics investigated, and a control experiment, in which reinforcing stimuli (feedback contingencies) were manipulated. Data describing errors as a function of trials and other relationships between stimuli and response events were collected. These were plotted in the form of individual cumulative records and stimuli-response tracking charts, respectively. Pre-adult subjects ranging in age from four to eleven years were recruited from an academic and professional population attending a private school. Adult subjects (ranging in age from 24 to 78 years) were selected on the basis of their claims to (a) not being "musical, " (b) not being able to read music, (c) not having any recent or prolonged music study. All subjects worked at the keyboard of a specially adapted organ by which tones were presented, responses recorded, and feedback provided. The study was primarily concerned with the following questions: 1. Would this key-tone matching task be "easy" or "difficult"? 2. Could performance be improved by employing the objective procedures described? 3. What behavioral characteristics could be revealed by the use of such procedures? Data from the exploratory phase (conducted with youth subjects) indicated that matching "do, re, mi" keys to their associated tones in single tone matching trials was not as "easy" a task as one might have expected. Analyses of stimuli-response tracking charts indicated that the major "pre-solution" behavior patterns were affected by the programmed sequences of material, and by the one, two, three, order inherent in the stimuli themselves. These data also provided evidence of the systematic nature of such performance, and that the relationships between sequence of material and patterns of responding can be subjected to experimental control. In the control experiment (conducted with youth and adult subjects) three different reinforcement procedures (feedback contingencies) were tested on a sequence of material developed in the exploratory phase. Procedure l provided production of the trial tone plus a red light signal for a correct response, and silence (no consequence) for an incorrect response. Procedure 2 was the same as procedure l, with exception that the red light signal was withheld. In procedure 3, correct and incorrect responses produced the associated tones of the keys pressed. Control experiment data (cumulative error graphs) revealed improvement in 13 out of 14 youth subjects, and in 10 out of 15 adult subjects. The procedures in which subjects heard the correct tones and not the incorrect tones in training (l and 2) produced more learning than the procedure (3) in which subjects heard the correct as well as the incorrect tones. Also, more learning was achieved under procedure l, which provided the red light consequence in addition to the tone for correct responding, than under procedure 2, which provided the tone only (no light). A behavioral model of key-tone matching was suggested as the framework for further research. The implications of the study were seen to extend beyond musical learning theory, to auditory learning theory in general. The relevance of the findings to education in general and to adult education in particular was indicated. / 2999-01-01

The purpose of the study was to determine judgments of trained musicians regarding the intonation of complex tones in the context of synthesized woodwind ensemble performances. Problems included in the study were (1) estimation of the point in pitch deviation which would result in out-of-tune judgments, (2) investigation of timbral effects on judged intonation, and (3) investigation of effects of mistuning within differential voices.