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Recent investigations into infants' intersensory perception suggest a specific developmental pattern for infants' attention to visible and auditory attributes of dynamic human faces. This work has proposed that infants' perception seems to progress along a sensory continuum: beginning with multimodal sensory cues (e.g., auditory and visual), then visual-cues alone, and finally auditory-cues alone. Additionally, research has proposed that amodal or invariant sensory information directs infants' attention to specific redundant aspects in the surrounding environment (e.g., temporal synchronicity). The current research attempted to clarify the potential methodological confounds contained in previous investigations into infant intersensory development by contrasting infant behavior within fixed trial and infant-controlled habituation procedures. Moreover, the current research examined infants' attention to auditory manipulations within multimodal displays when redundant sensory information (synchronicity) was or was not available. In Experiment 1, 4-month-old infants were habituated to complex audiovisual displays of a male or female face within an infant controlled habituation procedure, and then tested for response recovery to a change in voice. For half the infants, the change in voice maintained synchronicity with the face, and for the other half, it did not. The results showed significant response recovery (i.e., dishabituation) to the change in voice regardless of the synchronicity condition. In Experiment 2, 4-month-old infants received the same face+voice test recordings used in Experiment 1, but now within a fixed trial habituation procedure. Again, synchronicity was manipulated across groups of infants. In contrast to Experiment 1, the infants in the fixed-trial experiment failed to show evidence of voice discrimination. These results suggest that infant controlled procedures may be more sensitive to infant attention, especially in terms of complex social displays. In addition, synchronicity appeared to be unnecessary in terms of infants' ability to detect vocal differences across multimodal displays. In sum, these results highlight the importance of research methodology (e.g., infant control) and overall stimulus complexity (e.g., discrete vs. complex) involving studies of infants' intersensory development. / Ph. D.

After an intense period of concerts and projects that involved learning large quantities of new music I realized that I often got vocally tired when learning music. I have always been a quick learner but my method of learning has not always been beneficial for my vocal health. In this project I have explored new ways of learning music in which I prioritize vocal health. I have deepened my understanding of the vocal mechanism and experimented with vocal exercises as a part of learning repertoire. Making and listening to recordings of my repertoire and working sessions has helped me to hone my approach. I worked with two pieces of repertoire, spending three weeks on each piece, and focused on different parts of the learning process every week. After completing the work with each piece I chose a few of the recordings to show my singing teacher and a small group of my singing colleagues. This led to meaningful discussions that took my work further. This project has helped me to practice efficiently without becoming vocally tired, created a bridge between repertoire work and vocal technique, and increased the quality of my everyday work as a classical singer.

Thesis (M.A.)--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. / Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) was a prolific composer and a renowned teacher in his own day. He headed the composition department for many years at the Royal Collage of Music in Cambridge and he had as his students such men as Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. His music and influence were widely known in England at the turn of the century, yet today he is virtually unknown in this country; those who know him at all remember him primarily for his Irish Rhapsody. In England, too, he has suffered a serious decline in popularity. According to Sir Jack Westrup, about the only Stanford works ever performed there are his Songs of the Sea and The Revenge [TRUNCATED] / 2999-01-01

Föreliggande arbete inriktar sig på att utifrån ett genusperspektiv undersöka hur sånglärares elevbemötande påverkas av elevens biologiska kön. Med hjälp av videoobservationer av lärarnas sångundervisning i kombination med semistrukturerade intervjuer med de observerade lärarna har olika teman framkommit i analysarbetet av lärarnas elevbemötande och uttalade uppfattningar kring kön och genus. Resultatet visar att den mest markanta skillnaden i lärarnas bemötande är hur mycket lärarna skrattar eller skämtar med eleverna. Lärarnas förhållningssätt till sångarens roll presenteras samt hur det påverkar lärarnas lektionsupplägg. Vidare behandlar resultatet hur det sociala samspelet mellan lärare och elev fungerar, hur uppmuntran och beröm ges samt hur lärarnas uppfattningar kring känslomässiga skillnader mellan pojkar och flickor tycks påverka sångundervisningen och lärarnas elevbemötande. I diskussionen behandlas bland annat hur genusordningen styrks genom såväl lärarnas elevbemötande som elevernas bemötande av lärarna samt hur normer och förväntningar färgar deras sociala interaktioner. / The purpose of the study is to, from a gender perspective, investigate how vocal teachers treatment of the student is affected by the student’s biological sex. With the help of video observations of the teachers vocal tutoring in combination with semi-structured interviews certain themes have emerged from the analysis of the teachers treatment of the students and stated views on sex and gender. The result shows that the most significant difference in the teacher’s attitude towards the students is the amount of teachers joke and laughter. The teachers approach towards the singers function is presented along with how that seems to affect the teachers approach towards vocal tutoring. The result also display how the social interaction appears between the teacher and students, how encouragement and praise is given and how the teachers perceptions on emotional distinctions between boys and girls are effecting the vocal tutoring and the teachers treatment of the students. In the chapter on discussion I present, among other things, how both teachers and students due to their attitude towards each other confirm the gender order and lastly how social structures and expectations affects their social interactions.

Jenny Lind was an opera singer in the years 1838–49. During this time she was given the status f an icon mainly due to her image. She was almost sanctified by the press. Her “private personality” was assigned a saintly purity, and she became a stereotype symbol of femininity. This dissertation investigates what factors interacted that made this possible, and highlight the importance of Lind’s voice for her image. Jenny Lind’s voice was a high soprano, but not very powerful. By positioning herself in a singing tradition that corresponded to her voice’s advantages, she managed to develop an equilibrium, which she used well. Lind’s voice was often perceived as unusual; she had a particular voice timbre. She also had a vocal defect. Her tones from f’–a’ are described as “husky”, and sometimes hoarse. This means that her voice let through more air than her vocal cords could use. My argument is that it was the voice damage that created unique timbre that the contemporary critics perceived as particularly “feminine”. Lind’s weak and damaged voice corresponds to the nineteenth century’s female ideal: fragile and weak. Moreover, Lind needed to adept her roles to her damage voice and the consequence was that also her interpretations were perceived “feminine”. In other words, Lind exerted a gender performative voice processing. All of Jenny Lind’s roles became representatives of femininity, regardless of whether it was the role’s purpose or not. Lind adapted all her interpretations to her weak voce, it's strength being high notes, pianissimo dynamics and equilibrism, and gave all her roles a genderstereotyped voice.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur sångpedagoger beskriver att de arbetar med röstregister i sin undervisning, vilka olika röstbegrepp informanterna använder sig av samt hur de förklarar dessa för eleverna. Med denna studie vill jag få en bild av hur terminologin påverkar undervisningen när samma register förklaras på olika sätt. Jag har utgått från kvalitativa intervjuer för att på så sätt få en mer utförlig bild av sångpedagogers uppfattningar och handlingar. Jag har intervjuat fyra sångpedagoger i olika genrer för att se om det finns någon skillnad i val av begrepp utifrån vilken genre de arbetar inom. För att kunna tolka och försöka förstå informanterna på ett djupare sätt har jag använt mig av ett hermeneutiskt förhållningssätt. Jag har också analyserat datamaterialet utifrån ett didaktiskt perspektiv.   Resultatet visar att informanterna anser att det finns för många begrepp när det gäller röstregister och att det skulle vara bra att sortera upp dem och minska antalet på dem. Samtidigt anser informanterna att sången är viktigare än hanteringen av begreppen. Genom att förklara begrepp utifrån specifika genrer samt vara tydlig med vad ett register är skulle terminologin kunna berika undervisningen. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how vocal teachers work with vocal register in their teaching; which voice terms the informants use and how they explain these to the students. With this study I want to get a picture of how the terms affect the teaching, when the same register is explained in different ways. I have used qualitative interviews to get a more detailed picture of the vocal teachers’ opinions and actions. I have chosen four vocal teachers in different genres in order to find if there are different choices of words between the music genres they work in. To be able to interpret and understand the informants in a deeper way I have used a hermeneutic perspective. I have also analysed the data from a didactic point of view.    The results show that the informants find too many terms connected to the vocal register and that it would be good to categorise and minimize the number of them. At the same time the informants believe that the singing is more important than the use of the terms. Explaining the terms within the genre, and by making clear what a register is, should enrich the education.

Throughout the recorded history of vocal development certain characteristics can be traced to nationalistic roots. This work explores the four major schools of singing: English, French, German and Italian and includes a brief history of the pedagogical development and ideas of these schools' development. In addition, specific techniques and their similarities and differences, between each school is explored. Through the use of students as a control group, various characteristics within the four schools are implemented in coaching. The results are noted. The major theme of this work is to outline the major schools of vocal pedagogy and to contrast and compare specific techniques found in each school. Furthermore, regarding the individual student, the positive and negative effects of teaching in a dedicated fashion to one school versus the implementation of proven methods, of various schools, even though they cross nationalistic boundaries, has been the major thrust of this investigation

Le développement de la musique religieuse de Henry Purcell pendant la seconde moitié du dix-septième siècle est le fruit d’un compromis fructueux entre les contraintes politiques et religieuses de l’Angleterre de la Restauration et l’influence du baroque continental. L’évolution stylistique de ses compositions reflète la politique menée par les souverains successifs : Charles II, Jacques II et Guillaume d’Orange. Musicien baroque en pays anti-papiste, Purcell se montre particulièrement habile dans la manière de mettre les mots en musique et parvient à un équilibre entre l’exigence des réformateurs en matière d’intelligibilité du texte et l’esthétique de la contre-réforme. / The development of Henry Purcell’s sacred music in the second half of the seventeenth century originates in a fruitful compromise between the political and religious constraints of Restoration England and the contribution of the continental baroque. The stylistic evolution of his religious compositions reflects the political and religious developments which took place during the successive reigns of Charles II, James II and William of Orange. As a baroque musician and a native of an anti-papist country, Purcell showed considerable skill in the art of setting words to music and managed to blend in the Reformers’ emphasis on the intelligibility of the text and Counter-Reformation aesthetics.

The purpose of this report is to present a plan of study for a course in vocal pedagogy.