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This article provides a counterstory to damaging, dominant narratives concerning migrant experiences and border crossings. Through counter-storytelling, I share Rey's lived experiences as a transfronterizx (transborder) student who crossed the United States–Mexico border daily to attend school and eventually, participate in school music. The overarching question guiding the study was: What are a transfronterizx student's experiences navigating school and school music in the United States? Based on the findings, Rey encountered literal and metaphorical barriers as he pursued an education in the United States. In particular, navigating language, deficit-based teaching practices, surveillance, and policing were key in his narrative. Currently as a music educator, Rey draws from his personal transfronterizx background to inform his music teaching practices in a predominantly Latine school community. Considerations for working with migrant students and families are discussed in light of ongoing sociopolitical issues, including the need for more culturally and linguistically responsive practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 2020, the B2B (business-to-business) background music company Soundtrack Your Brand—formerly Spotify Business—launched the world’s first full-catalog on-demand streaming service for background music. Although background music providers have licensed, curated, and distributed music to businesses for nearly a century, they have only recently started embracing the new possibilities of streaming. Now, streaming is rapidly influencing the background music industry’s features, music selection practices, and economics. While scholars in music and media studies have extensively studied B2C (business-to-consumer) streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, they have largely neglected streaming’s impact on background music. This article investigates how streaming is impacting the B2B background music industry, drawing upon platform analysis, marketing materials, and interviews with background music CEOs and researchers. After reviewing background music’s history and effects, the article examines how streaming is influencing business-oriented background music features, such as scheduling, zoning, messaging, and monitoring. It then considers streaming’s impact on background music selection practices, demonstrating how businesses are increasingly using features popularized by mainstream consumer services, such as playlists, algorithmic recommendations, and massive catalogs of music. The final section explores how streaming is shaping the economics of the background music industry, particularly for rightsholders who have historically been underpaid billions of dollars in public performance royalties. I argue that streaming may improve background music’s efficiency for businesses, but it also potentially reifies broader concerns about social control, surveillance, and inequitable artist remuneration that have become increasingly prevalent in the streaming age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents outcomes from a critical interpretive synthesis inquiry exploring whether community music can contribute to more equitable societies. Drawing on 74 cross-disciplinary articles, we identify equity-related outcomes across three key categories: outcomes to improve the immediate wellbeing and life trajectories for individuals experiencing disadvantage; outcomes relating to the development of skills, knowledge and understandings empowering individual participants to enact positive social change within their communities; and outcomes with the potential to affect the root causes of social inequity. This review provides a solid foundation for further conceptual and theoretical development within and beyond the fields of social justice research and community music. Our findings will also be helpful for translating the creative and cultural benefits that community music practice could bring to addressing social justice issues in a wide range of complex contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically examines user-curated, public playlists on Spotify tagged with homonegative terminology. We consider these playlists discursive texts that reflect and co-construct discourses about the relations between music, music streaming, gender, and sexual identity. Applying theories from masculinity and queer studies and conducting a critical textual analysis of 21 playlists, this article unpacks how these playlists relate to homophobia, heteromasculinity, and queer reappropriation. The analysis shows that the discursive connections between certain musics and homonegativity are not as straightforward as they might seem at first sight. The tagging practices suggest a network of ambiguities that cannot be interpreted as unilaterally and integrally homophobic, while overly optimistic claims also cannot account for this meticulous discursive identity work. A variety of logics underlies these playlists, including queer reappropriation, heteromasculine homonegativity, and more ambiguous negotiations. The findings support earlier queer and masculinity studies' claims that homophobic practices are as much a matter of gender as sexuality. Rather than instances of active hatred toward certain sexual identities, the playlists and their discursive tags are attempts to negotiate identities amidst music's multidimensional gendered connotations. Circulating in the digital space that is Spotify, the playlists articulate a complex variety of heteromasculine and/or queer identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1926, a New York Times article described the cultural and ethnic flows in south Brazil as a "Melting Pot". The report predicted that German Brazilians, tied to their ethnoracial origin, would soon be Brazilianized. The study of congregational song practices offers insight into the relationship between migration, race, culture, and ethnicity. Moreover, investigating Brazilian Lutheran singing practices helps us understand how the New York Times' prediction unfolded on the ground. This paper examines the Brazilian Lutheran hymnal Livro de Canto, published in 2017, and displays how Brazil's ethnoracial diversity is manifested and negotiated in the Lutheran context, both musically and theologically. By interviewing members of the hymnal committee and investigating how they dealt with Brazil's ethnoraciality in the context of the hymnal compilation, this paper demonstrates ways denominations and churchgoers negotiate theological, cultural, musical, and ethnoracial identities through congregational singing. More importantly, it showcases how Brazilian Lutheran church music practices inform broader social conversations around racism, nationalism, Blackness, and Brazilianness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forecasting the popularity of new songs has become a standard practice in the music industry and provides a comparative advantage for those that do it well. Considerable efforts were put into machine learning prediction models for that purpose. It is known that in these models, relevant predictive parameters include intrinsic lyrical and acoustic characteristics, extrinsic factors (e.g., publisher influence and support), and the previous popularity of the artists. Much less attention was given to the social components of the spreading of song popularity. Recently, evidence for musical homophily—the tendency that people who are socially linked also share musical tastes—was reported. Here we determine how musical homophily can be used to predict song popularity. The study is based on an extensive dataset from the last.fm online music platform from which we can extract social links between listeners and their listening patterns. To quantify the importance of networks in the spreading of songs that eventually determines their popularity, we use musical homophily to design a predictive influence parameter and show that its inclusion in state-of-the-art machine learning models enhances predictions of song popularity. The influence parameter improves the prediction precision (TP/(TP + FP)) by about 50% from 0.14 to 0.21, indicating that the social component in the spreading of music plays at least as significant a role as the artist's popularity or the impact of the genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In certain contexts, processes of perception, action and skill development and those related to aesthetic experiences can have mutual influence upon each other. Concepts from the domains of ecological psychology and aesthetics may therefore be distinct but entangled. These entanglements are explored here through observations from an experiment in which musicians' behaviours and experiences were recorded while they interacted with a computer music controller instrument operating different modes of sound synthesis. Processes of action-perception exploration and enacting the instrument's various affordances had an impact upon the musicians' aesthetic judgements about the instrument, and their imagining its virtual potential for application in music cultural practices. Conversely, musicians' prior experience in different aesthetic cultures constrained the affordances of the instrument that were discovered and taken up by them. These insights are used to expand upon the different ways that perceptual-motor and social aesthetic processes can constrain and shape each other. Ongoing and further directions for both theoretical and empirical research are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interwoven Sound Spaces is an interdisciplinary project which brought together telematic music performance, interactive textiles, interaction design, and artistic research. A team of researchers collaborated with two professional contemporary music ensembles based in Berlin, Germany, and Piteå, Sweden, and four composers, with the aim of creating a telematic distributed concert taking place simultaneously in two concert halls and online. Central to the project was the development of interactive textiles capable of sensing the musicians’ movements while playing acoustic instruments, and generating data the composers used in their works. Musicians, instruments, textiles, sounds, halls, and data formed a network of entities and agencies that was reconfigured for each piece, showing how networked music practice enables distinctive musicking techniques. We describe each part of the project and report on a research interview conducted with one of the composers for the purpose of analysing the creative approaches she adopted for composing her piece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I explore the role of radio and music listening practices in re-signifying the imperial identities of the population of Goan origin, who were either born in or migrated to colonial Mozambique. Apart from relying on archival research and interviews with radio professionals and other relevant informants, I also draw on 11 in-depth interviews with Portuguese and Mozambicans of Goan origin who have lived in colonial Mozambique for ten or more years, both men and women. Alongside the biographical method, I also examine my interlocutors' relationship with several forms of media to investigate their past practices of radio reception and music listening. I articulate Nick Couldry's framework of media as practice with Elizabeth Bird's approach to the historical audience to understand my interlocutors' memories of radio and sound reception as part of a broader set of social and cultural practices through which their imperial identities are reconstructed. The research results suggest that my interlocutors' past radio and music listening practices contributed to both reproducing and discontinuing their parents' socio-cultural practices brought with them when they migrated from Goa to Mozambique. Additionally, such practices enabled the construction of different ambivalent forms of Goan-ness in colonial Mozambique, hence across different spaces of the empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sound studies research has demonstrated that hearing and listening are culturally constructed and historically contextual. Yet the construction of normative perceptual states has historically relied on interspecies comparison, particularly in the laboratory. In this article Iconsider the ways that scientific imagining constructs more than human subjects, particularly the entanglement of bats and humansin the violent history of echolocation research. Beginning with the notion of "sonic sight", I examine early echolocation experiments as well as the biomimetic application of echolocation by humans who are blind or visually impaired. I conclude with an analysis of "Bat/Man", an experimental piece by Austin-area composer Steve Parker, whose work suggests that human-animal relations are a product of anthropomorphic imaginaries. Drawing from recent work in critical animal studies, I argue that biomimetic practices in the laboratory and in music are central to the production of a perceptual normate that constitutes the category of the human. At the same time, I invoke Thom van Dooren's concept of a "multispecies ethics" to consider the violent asymmetries that are implicit in such forms of knowledge production (Van Dooren 2019, 11). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although recent decades have witnessed a significant growth and expansion of studies dealing with the performing practice of Arab music improvisation, most such studies are focused on instrumental, not vocal, performing practices. As a result, Arab vocal performing practice, especially that of vocal improvisatory genres, still lacks a comprehensive theoretical approach. In this article I examine the maqām (Arab modal framework) phenomenon by analysing a piece in its pre‐eminent improvisatory genre (mawwāl) composed and performed by an eminent musician: mawwāl 'Ṭal al‐Ṣabāḥ' by Wadī' al‐Ṣāfī. Most vocal improvisation is presented in Arab music literature without a defined or definite melodic (or rhythmic) structure. I posit that the mawwāl genre has defined and quasi‐defined structures on the macro and micro levels of the piece, since a major part of those structures is manifested as recurring, defined compositional devices and interrelationships throughout the piece within the improvisational frame of the mawwāl genre, a reflection of its structural intricacy. This article thus contributes to the existing literature on classical Arab vocal performance by implementing the theory of natural schemata as an analytical framework along with a structural analysis based on a detailed descriptive transcription of the piece, and thus characterising the largest and smallest strata of musical structures in the mawwāl genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic exposure to loud sound leads to noise-induced hearing loss. This is especially common in collegiate-level musicians. Existing methods for estimating exposure typically do not consider genre- or instrument-specific variability in soundscape/spectral characteristics. We measured sound exposure levels (SELs) across instruments, bands, and genres at a university music school. We found (1) considerable variability in SELs across instruments and bands, (2) that Jazz musicians are consistently exposed to the highest sound levels, and (3) that spectral features of music differ between instrument type and genre, and based on room size. These findings highlight the need for tailored guidelines that moderate the implementation of hearing conservation initiatives for collegiate musicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its status as an analogue sound carrier, the cassette has shown remarkable resilience in the digital era. Drawing on qualitative data gathered in three significant markets for cassettes, Japan, Australia and the USA, during 2018 and 2019, this article explores how the cassette tape's material significance in the 21st century manifests itself in a complex network of interrelated local, translocal and virtual practices of music creation, distribution and consumption. The article draws on Magaudda's 'circuit of practice' concept and Peterson and Bennett's three tier model of scenes (local, trans-local and virtual). Taking the cassette's hybrid occurrence and usage throughout a plethora of highly distinctive music scenes in Japan, Australia and the United States as a basis, we argue that Magaudda's 'circuit of practice' theory needs to be structurally extended to grasp the multifaceted circuits of music in the digital age. This requires that the occurrence of a single audio format such as the cassette is recurringly analysed within different cultural contexts in order to map and delineate the format's overall significance for contemporary music practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For much of history, philosophers and theorists have considered the abstract, rational contemplation of music to be the true form of spiritual activity. This has often come at the cost of making the practical aspect of music (which consists of listening, performance, subjective experience, among others) subservient to theory. This paper examines the implications of separating abstract music theory from its practical side and explores where spirituality can be situated. It was not until the nineteenth century, under the influence of Schopenhauer, that a proper unification of music theory and practice truly took on metaphysical and spiritual dimensions. Schopenhauerian metaphysics allowed music to legitimately become a spiritual refuge in the age of positivism, paving the way for projects such as Scriabin's Mysterium. The described tension between theory and practice in Western music will be contrasted with Sufism as a point of comparison. The comparison will illustrate how a spiritual movement like Sufism poses a challenge for musicological research. Additionally, reflecting on the state of current music research, the paper explores how music and musicology of the twentieth century onward fall short of the spiritual aspirations of preceding generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an ethnographic study of the Hong Kong busking scene, this article explores how buskers navigate and negotiate their practices and experiences in the scene. Within the contested socio-political and institutional context in Hong Kong, buskers' collective efforts have brought the promise of street music to life by bringing people together and fostering a sense of belonging, connection, and solidarity with their music. The statement, "This city needs street music," not only captures street musicians' deep conviction in the significance of their practice, but also calls for a wider recognition of the value of street music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to investigate the impact of a specially designed intervention programme on middle school students' creative thinking and musical experience. The study was conducted among 120 students (SD = 13.4) at middle music schools in the PRC. The instruments included the Creative Personality Scale (CPS) and the Scale of Musical Experience (SME). On the CPS post-test, the control group demonstrated the same creativity, suggesting the impossibility of independent development of creative abilities within an educational institution. The influence group demonstrated increased medium creativity (10.0%) and strong creativity (11.1%). SME post-test in the control group suggests that poor musical experience fell by 11.4%, medium experience increased by 6.4% and strong musical experience increased by 5.0%. The influence secured the dominance of the medium musical experience, with poor musical experience reduced by 22.3% and strong experience increased by 15.7%. The present findings can enhance scientific knowledge about classical music practices and their adoption within educational institutions. The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that creativity-oriented practices can be integrated into music schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we evaluated the validity and reliability of a Chinese adaptation of the Self-Regulated Practice Behavior (SRPB) scale developed by Miksza. Tasks included supplementing, altering, and translating items to create a viable adaptation for Chinese music majors and evaluating the construct validity and reliability of the Chinese-adapted Self-Regulated Practice Behavior (C-SRPB) scale. Confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) were used to analyze responses provided by Chinese music majors (N = 880) from various music conservatories and universities. Results indicated that an adjusted six-factor ESEM model was the best fit to the data. Internal consistency reliability coefficients for the subscales ranged from good to excellent (αs =.77–.86). Significant correlations between six subscales of C-SRPB and practice habits (i.e., daily duration, self-rated efficiency, and percentage of time spent on informal practice) provided criterion validity evidence. Overall, the findings suggested that the C-SRPB is a valid and reliable tool for measuring the self-regulated music practice of music majors in China. The results also suggest that music majors' understanding of self-regulated practice vary according to individualistic and collectivist culture contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to determine the student's knowledge levels in the Department of music education after completing two semesters of Western music theory and practice courses. The study group consisted of 126 students studying in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades of Marmara University Atatürk Faculty of Education, Department of Fine Arts Education, Department of Music Education. The study was designed using a descriptive survey model, and the Western music theory and practice knowledge test and personal information form developed by the researchers were used as data collection tools. The data obtained were analyzed with the help of Kruskall-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. According to the research results, the fact that the students studying in the Department of music education have taken only two semesters of Western music theory and practice courses shows that they are inadequate in musical hearing, reading and writing skills. In addition, variables such as the type of high school the students graduated from, their level of finding the duration of the course sufficient, and their musical hearing, reading and writing education before starting university revealed that there were significant differences between the total scores of the western music theory and practice course achievement test. This research is considered an important research that can contribute to the existing limited studies and develop a knowledge test to measure the knowledge of students studying in the Department of music education towards Western music theory and practice courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is music that is one of the most important branches of art that affect society and individuals psychologically and physiologically, which allows man to act from the moment he exists on earth. Music is not just an entertainment tool or leisure activity. Music that athletes listen to before, during and after exercise is a method in which athletes express their emotions, thoughts and perceptions without words. Athletes get the feelings of relaxation, motivation, arousal and maximizing their performance thanks to the positive emotion acquisition with the music tool. In the years of 1970-1980’, the sports and music relationship gained a different dimension with the fact that the music was included in the sports applications. The inclusion of music in sports practices in the 1970s and 1980s accelerated the relationship between sports and music. Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassi broke the world record in the 10,000m race in 1998 by listening to Scatman John's song ' Scatman '. Haile Gebrselassi “Music gives me a rhythm that matches my record pace.” can be shown as an example of the effect of music in sports exercises. Due to the limited number of studies on the effect of music in sports exercises and the lack of studies on music exercises in the field of e-sports, this study aims to reveal the effect of music on e-sports exercises n e-sports. The sample of the research consists of 170 students in the e-sports team of Süleyman Demirel University. The Effect of Music on Sportive Practices Scale, developed by Karayol and Turhan (2020), was used in the research. In the study, Independent Sample t-Test was used to, single-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA. Pearson correlation analysis was applied. As a result of the analyzes, it was concluded that the perceptions of the effect of music in esports exercises differ according to the gender variable. Female e-sports players are more affected by music before and during e-sports exercises than male e-sports players are affected by music before and during e-sports exercises. As a result of the study, it has been observed that the gender variable is a factor affecting the effect of music in e-sports exercises, while the variables of age and education field do not have any significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines French colonial and early Tunisian nationalist initiatives concerning public music listening practices in 1930s Protectorate Tunisia. Drawing on historical documents from the colonial archive, period travel logs, and Tunisian authors, I offer a history of café listening in Tunis focused on audition of ma'lūf, Tunisian Arab-Andalusī music. Specifically, I analyse a 1935 government-issued mandate directing café owners across the country to play pre-approved recordings of ma'lūf for their clientele. I consider this mandate alongside a co-occurrent policy of the nascent Rashidiyya organisation that prohibited live performance of ma'lūf in cafés. While these approaches appear contradictory – one encouraging ma'lūf listening and the other discouraging it – I demonstrate that French and elite Tunisian actors in fact sought similar goals: rescuing traditional music from neglect and debasement. I explore the way these policies reflected pre-existing ideological tensions among Tunisians around the respectability of music listening in public – especially with regard to class and gender – and how acts of colonial control sought to 'settle' ma'lūf listening, challenging Tunisian 'sensate sovereignty' (Robinson [2020]. Hungry Listening, Resonant Theory for Indigenous Studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) and shaping emerging politics of multisensory and embodied listening. This account aims to situate ma'lūf listening within its dense sensory, cultural, and historical contexts, taking into account the social-sonic milieu of the café, colonial anxieties around public radio listening, and the use of music broadcasting to combat threats to colonial control. Finally, I identify examples of present-day approaches to 'unsettling' Tunisian listening and reclamation of multisensory musical experience from my ethnographic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

YouTube is currently the most widely used platform for music streaming. Users listen to music videos rather than watch them. This is environmentally suboptimal since video data require more energy than audio data to be hosted and transmitted. Why are consumers using a video platform to stream music? In this paper, we sketch a framework for analyzing digital practices as consumption practices and their transformation in the context of the ecological transition. We interviewed 29 online music consumers from varied backgrounds. Drawing on practice theory, we conceptualize online music use as a combination of sociotechnical configurations articulating listening devices, types of attention to music, and the social contexts of daily life. We analyze how different platforms, especially YouTube, are embedded in specific configurations. We first establish that configurations in which videos are actually watched are rare. Though users are aware of the carbon footprint of streaming, this representation does not inform their listening configurations. We describe three types of online music practices according to the role YouTube plays in, that correlate with music passion: YouTube can be framed as a free and open listening platform (especially to casual listeners), as an efficient soundtracking device in many contexts, as a useful complementary listening and music sharing device. The paper extends the literature on green consumption to digital consumption, analyzing relations to infrastructures in a regime of abundance, and contributes to the sociology of online music consumption, showing how platform choices are linked with music passion and embedded in social contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between contemporary art spaces and 'Do-It-Yourself' (DIY) music in Glasgow. It demonstrates the continuity and interconnectedness of DIY music and art practices by considering the transition of galleries from 'white cubes' to music venues and spaces for social interaction. Following a brief overview of Glasgow's urban renewal and cultural regeneration, it traces the emergence of the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) and Transmission and provides an outline of their organisational structure and policies. It then explores ethnographically how they have facilitated the cross-pollination between DIY music and contemporary art after the 2008 financial crisis. Approaching art galleries as social spaces that provide a platform for DIY musicians invites a holistic understanding of the reciprocal relationship between DIY music and contemporary art institutions in Glasgow. Therefore, the article considers in turn how these spaces were influenced by the ethics of DIY music. The malleability of contemporary art spaces and their relationship to the DIY ethos demonstrate that cultural policies should aim to strengthen the existing grassroots communities that form the bedrock of the city's cultural scenes. This necessitates a move beyond the labels 'post-industrial' and 'creative city', thus decoupling cultural activities from the discourse of urban competition and Glasgow's economic goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Scotland, experimental and non-commercial art and music practices have long shared physical space, with a great deal of crossover between who is making visual art and music, as well as fluidity between artists and their audiences. Whilst Scotland's—and in particular Glasgow's—DIY scene and its history has been well documented by writers such as Sarah Lowndes and Hans Ulrich Obrist offering art-historical perspective, there has been less focus on the ways in which connections are embodied through music and sometimes experimental writing and publishing practices in these communities. This paper contains two qualitative studies of projects that operate within both visual art and music contexts: The Rhubaba Choir, an experimental choir attached to Edinburgh artist-run organisation Rhubaba and The Grass is Green in the Fields for You a small-press publishing project focused on music culture, run by Matthew Walkerdine. Working with a definition of DIY as an ethic or methodology rather than a style of production, it explores the philosophical overlap between DIY art and music practices as well as their differences and the influence they have had and continue to have on each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multitrack mixing is an essential practice in modern music production. Research on automatic-mixing paradigms, however, has mostly tested samples of trained, normal hearing (NH) participants. The goal of the present study was to explore mixing paradigms for hearing-impaired (HI) listeners. In two experiments, the mixing preferences of NH and HI listeners with respect to the parameters of lead-to-accompaniment level ratio (LAR) and the low to high frequency spectral energy balance were investigated. Furthermore, preferences of transformed equalization (EQ-transform) were assessed, achieved by linearly extrapolating between the power spectrum of individual tracks and a reference spectrum. Multitrack excerpts of popular music were used as stimuli. Results from experiment 1 indicate that HI participants preferred an elevated LAR compared to NH participants but did not suggest distinct preferences regarding spectral balancing or EQ-transform. Results from experiment 2 showed that bilateral hearing aid (HA) disuse among the HI participants yielded higher LAR values, stronger weighting of higher frequencies, as well as sparser EQ-transform settings compared to a condition with HA use. Overall, these results suggest that adjusting multitrack mixes may be a valuable way for making music more accessible for HI listeners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scope of this paper is limited to music mediation in the context of specifically designed concerts, hence the title “on stage”, with a focus on performances for children. In addition to research findings, the main part of the presentation will be devoted to insights gained from more than a decade of personal practical experience in moderating and conducting more than 120 educational performances for children. With the professionalization of music mediation, the many different approaches and strategies that can be used to best serve the goal of creating access to classical music have been studied and classified. The most important of these will be presented in the context of the concert. They will be illustrated with examples from the study of practices in different music institutions worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seventeenth-century monarchy was performed, by ritual, by enactments, by sounds, and by visualizations. The crises of European monarchies of the 1620s and 1630s were met with splendid spectacles in which rulers and courtiers acted out idealized royal virtues and power. This article argues the case for the vital importance of music within these spectacles. Musical harmony was thought to mirror the harmony of the spheres, indicating God's plan for the universe. The ruler's ability to master or evoke musical harmony in aulic theatre could thus function as double representation of divine approval of his or her government. By comparing ballets and masques at the French Court of Louis XIII and the British Court of Charles I, music's centrality to political power in the performance of sacral kingship will be demonstrated. A focus on Britannia Triumphans (1638) and Merlaison (1635), works known for the extraordinary attention Charles I and respectively Louis XIII devoted to their performances, exemplifies how the handling of music offers valuable insights into the inner power structures of those courts. In both cases the musical performance was used to communicate and establish related political agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intonation evaluation is an important precondition that offers guidance to music practices. This paper present a new intonation quality evaluation method based on self-supervised learning to solve the fuzzy evaluation problem at the critical intonations. Firstly, the effective features of audios are automatically extracted by a self-supervised learning-based deep neural network. Secondly, the intonation evaluation of the single tones and pitch intervals are carried out by combining with the key local features of the audios. Finally, the intonation evaluation method characterized by physical calculations, which simulates and enhances the manual assessment. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieved the accuracy of 93.38% which is the average value of multiple experimental results obtained by randomly assigning audio data, which is much higher than that of the frequency-based intonation evaluation method(37.5%). In addition, this method has been applied in music teaching for the first time and delivers visual evaluation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive music practice has been suggested to enhance the development of cognitive abilities over and above musical expertise. Executive functions (EFs) have been particularly investigated, given their generalizability across different domains and their crucial role in almost all aspects of cognition. However, the relationship between musical expertise and EFs is still not completely understood, as several studies have reported conflicting results. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between musical expertise and EFs, determining which facets—if any—of EFs might be particularly relevant to extensive music practice. Thirty-five student pianists completed a set of neuropsychological tasks which assessed EFs (the Trail Making Task, Design Fluency, Numerical Stroop, and the Tower of London). They also performed a short musical excerpt inspired by the piano literature. Musical expertise was assessed by considering three parameters, namely the highest academic degree in music, the lifetime amount of music practice, and the quality of the sample-based musical performance. The results indicate that postgraduate piano students did not show advantages in EFs compared to undergraduate piano students. More extensive lifetime practice in music was solely associated with faster visual reaction times on the Numerical Stroop task. The Trail Making and Design Fluency scores were significant predictors of the quality of the sample-based musical performance. In conclusion, the present data suggests that EFs and the amount of music practice do not seem to be correlated in student pianists. Nevertheless, some facets of EFs and the quality of musical performance may share substantial amounts of variance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the entanglement of digital technologies in contemporary music, specifically focusing on the interactions between performers and machines. It discusses the various ways in which innovative technologies are incorporated into practices of contemporary music, raising questions about traditional roles, methods, and epistemologies. The article takes a posthumanist perspective, examining the relationship between performers and technology and considering the ethical implications of this technological context. Contributors to this special issue of Contemporary Music Review represent diverse creative practices and methodologies, offering insights into the reconfiguration of virtuosity, embodiment, and agency in performer-machine collaborations. [Extracted from the article]

The established conceptual frameworks in the sociology of music largely name forms of social collective, albeit emphasising different characteristics. 'Scene' and 'neo-tribe' are the principal contemporary examples of this. In this article, we describe scene and neo-tribe as conceptual responses to what questions (What kind of sociality is this? What kind of cultural context is this?). We engage critically with scene and neo-tribe, and with the underlying logic of sociological explanation which posits and then answers what questions about social collectives as the best means of accounting for social practices around music. We do this to advocate sociological enquiry into music via how questions, suggesting that such questions have a specific sociological trajectory which presents underexplored opportunities for the sociology of popular music. To this end, we introduce and describe the concept of 'genre work', to investigate how musical development and social groups are co-constituted through the same social processes and dynamics. We argue that scene and neo-tribe tend to background the empirical processes (and the music) around which their respective research agendas are oriented. Genre work and similar approaches, in contrast, seek to document and analyse the discourses, interactional forms and mediated and co-present activities by which genres and the social groupings interested in them are mutually cohered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines and contextualizes Nadia Boulanger's musical and non-musical mourning practices within fin de siècle French culture, her family history with mourning, and her personal approaches to loss. Through examination of archival materials, including letters, datebooks, and concert programmes, as well as her published writings, I argue that Nadia mourned her sister Lili after her death in 1918 through a set of embodied practices that either viscerally reminded her of Lili or allowed her to resemble an idealized image of her sister. In addition, through analysis of Nadia's and Lili's post-1914 compositions in the context of mourning, this article also shows how both Boulanger sisters' mourning practices and their idiosyncratic, although socio-culturally and spiritually inflected, understandings of loss and grief shaped their musical compositions. By detailing the ways that mourning and musical choices intertwined for Nadia Boulanger, this essay sheds new light on her career, while also demonstrating the importance of considering emotional practices in music history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neuroscience of music originated as part of a laboratory-based scientific tradition with rigid experimental control. During the past two decades, the field has moved toward more naturalistic settings through various means. Sound stimulation and empirical paradigms are now closer to real music, regardless of the research method being used. Study participants cover the whole lifespan and include participants with typical and atypical behavioral and neuropsychiatric profiles. Methods and contexts of data acquisition are more versatile and also include everyday settings, such as daycare centers and schools. Further needs for improved practices have been identified, such as self-reports based on digital data collection tools and inclusion of music cultures not based on Western music practices. Studies in the neuroscience of music gained momentum in the 1990s as an integrated part of the well-controlled experimental research tradition. However, during the past two decades, these studies have moved toward more naturalistic, ecologically valid paradigms. Here, I introduce this move in three frameworks: (i) sound stimulation and empirical paradigms, (ii) study participants, and (iii) methods and contexts of data acquisition. I wish to provide a narrative historical overview of the development of the field and, in parallel, to stimulate innovative thinking to further advance the ecological validity of the studies without overlooking experimental rigor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we explored the ways in which listening tools within technology-mediated environments can facilitate children's self-regulation of instrumental music learning between lessons. This interpretive multiple case study utilized a software application assigned for 22 weeks to a piano teacher and four students (ages 8–10). Data sources include student and teacher semistructured interviews and practice session observations. Self-regulated learning theory informed the recommended learning approach with technology and provided a lens for within- and cross-case thematic analysis. Study findings suggest that digital tools that provide accessible and customizable listening experiences can be used strategically to promote independent listening opportunities between lessons, in turn facilitating processes of aural familiarity and problem-solving. However, students' self-regulatory development was also dependent on learning preferences and sustained teacher facilitation. The recommendations in this study can inform instrumental teachers about pedagogical approaches with technology, and the implications can contribute to the design of digital environments to support children's instrumental learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the ways in which some Caribbean women contest established communication norms through rhetorical practices. Specifically, I argue that there is a particular brand of rhetorical resistance performed by several Caribbean women in response to the patriarchal and social expectations regulating their communication behavior. I refer to this idea as "woman's tongue" and define it as a dialectical tool used by Caribbean women to assert and contest established norms of communication while negotiating the politics of gender and class. Further, I posit that woman's tongue can make productive theoretical and disciplinary interventions by highlighting Caribbean feminist rhetoric and the politics of vernacular speech. Conceptually, this feminist rhetoric signifies the power of a woman's voice as prescient, incisive, and transgressive. I investigate how this feminist knowledge production is represented in and informed by Caribbean popular culture, specifically reggae music. Based on this analysis, I conclude a culturally relevant Caribbean feminist rhetoric can de-essentialize the rhetorical eminence of Euro-American communication philosophies in the study of communication phenomena. Such theories may remain relevant to the study of communication in the Caribbean, but they do not always capture the lived realities of inhabitants from non-Euro-American cultural and geo-political spaces. They also tend to exclude the indigenous knowledge produced in such spaces and the theoretical contributions other epistemologies can make to the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this autoethnographic reflective essay, I explore the challenges that the COVID-19 crisis presented to community music training and practice within a university setting, through the evocative 'storying' of key experiences from my own work. I acknowledge the sense of grief that came with losing opportunities for music-making face to face. Whilst online music-making matters, the visceral experience of sound within space was deeply missed by staff and students. In contrast, I also explore the possibilities that COVID-19 pushed us to explore. These include connecting with international partners in our regular teaching, establishing a digital collaborative project with a local school and creating online placement opportunities. I explore the unexpected developments in teaching, learning and scholarship that have occurred as a result. I also acknowledge the questions and critiques that the pandemic revealed. Whilst the longing for in-person music-making continued, it was reassuring to know that we retained our capacity to connect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Musical training has been associated with various cognitive benefits, one of which is enhanced speech perception. However, most findings have been based on musicians taking part in ongoing music lessons and practice. This study thus sought to determine whether the musician advantage in pitch perception in the language domain extends to individuals who have ceased musical training and practice. To this end, adult active musicians (n = 22), former musicians (n = 27), and non-musicians (n = 47) were presented with sentences spoken in a native language, English, and a foreign language, French. The final words of the sentences were either prosodically congruous (spoken at normal pitch height), weakly incongruous (pitch was increased by 25%), or strongly incongruous (pitch was increased by 110%). Results of the pitch discrimination task revealed that although active musicians outperformed former musicians, former musicians outperformed non-musicians in the weakly incongruous condition. The findings suggest that the musician advantage in pitch perception in speech is retained to some extent even after musical training and practice is discontinued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines analytical methods for preparing and interpreting Karlheinz Stockhausen's sextet Mikrophonie I (1964) for tam-tam and electronics. Would-be performers of this work face significant accessibility issues: Stockhausen's recommended equipment—especially the electronic filter used to process the tam-tam's sound—is extremely rare. These issues often necessitate performers finding alternative solutions for equipment. Mikrophonie I is one of several works for live electronics that have become increasingly difficult to program, due to the obsolescence of the technology required to perform them. Performers often reconstruct the necessary electronics digitally, using software such as Max/MSP. Wetzel [(2006). "A Model for the Conservation of Interactive Electroacoustic Repertoire: Analysis, Reconstruction, and Performance in the Face of Technological Obsolescence." Organised Sound 11 (3): 273–284. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355771806001555] describes a three-stage model for this reconstructive process that foregrounds the need for performer-led analysis. Using Mikrophonie I as a case study, I expand on Wetzel's model to navigate the reconstruction through two main analytical perspectives: the prioritisation of sound or process. These methods are then applied to my realisation process of Mikrophonie I. I describe the process of constructing a digital filter in Max/MSP based on a patch created by Christopher Burns [(2002). "Realizing Lucier and Stockhausen: Case Studies in the Performance Practice of Electroacoustic Music." Journal of New Music Research 31 (1): 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1076/jnmr.31.1.59.8104] and compare different interface options for using the filter in performance. Referring to previous recordings by the Stockhausen Ensemble (1965) and the percussion ensemble red fish blue fish (2014), I show how creative interpretations can help ensembles overcome the perceived shortcomings of their available tam-tam. Beyond the specifics of reconstructing the technology required for performing Mikrophonie I, this article underlines the indispensability of analysis for performers who specialise in works with obsolescent technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We understand that our thinking and creating is always in company. By musicking with others, we situate ourselves amongst an entangled web of human, nonhuman, and more-than-human co-creators; to recognise these external and internal influences is to become a companion. Our concept of companion thinking stems from companion texts according to Sara Ahmed (2017. Living a Feminist Life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press), which may 'prompt you to hesitate or to question the direction in which you are going, or they might give you a sense that in going the way you are going, you are not alone' (16). Companionship implies with: In this paper, we discuss how companions are vital to our improvisatory music practices by considering the co-creative relationships in which we operate. we analyse our artistic research from our perspectives as performers and improvisers and consider the processes of making music with beyond-human entities. Instead of the human-focused concept of collaboration, we posit companionship as an approach to thinking-with and sounding-with the more-than-human, other-than-human, and nonhuman. Our former selves, experiences, environments, and nonhuman critters and objects are always-already part of our musicking practices and communities. Performance is thus ecological, political, and personal; it is through this lens that we analyse the entanglements of our varied communities and explore how this concept can stretch beyond a music practice, to consider what it means to engage in creative practice as migrant-settlers on stolen Aboriginal land. This paper includes an investigation of what it means to be a companion and a discussion of a practice-based case study in which we implement—or practice—companion thinking. As friends, collaborators, and companions to one another, we each present our individual concepts of companionship through our own improvisation practices, addressing themes of situatedness, response-ability, surprise, stumbling, curiosity, and unmastery. We then analyse the entanglements of our work in performance. This process of thinking, making, and doing in-company offers the opportunity to consider an intersection of analysis and performance through an improvisatory musical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most particular characteristics of Capoeira is its intertwined relationship with musicality. Several articles, books and dissertations, explore the religious, identity and cultural implications the songs express as a constitutive part of the space of the capoeristic game. In this article, more than carrying out a historical analysis of the presence and importance of music in the practice of capoeira, we intend to explore some religious aspects, both in the lyrics of practicing composers (Mestres), as well as in the public domain and in the universe of Brazilian popular music, because they have important elements for understanding capoeira as a driving force of values that constitute and contribute for a better understanding of the roots of Brazilian culture. To this end, we will divide our exhibition into three presentations: a) in the first, we draw, supported by the work of Angelo Augusto Decanio Filho, master Decanio, lines that contour some rhythms, fundamentally of Afro matrix and that find, in capoeira, reception and reinterpretations; b) then, we carry out a hermeneutic effort, based on authorial and public domain songs, observing what is in them of religiosity and, mainly, of openness to a hybrid vision of religious elements from different traditions; c) finally, we explore the sensations of the capoeira imaginary, in terms of the religious aspect, in some Brazilian Popular Music compositions.can be the beginning of meeting and living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at an analysis of the psychological suffering which musicians may experience in performance situations, this paper puts forward some ideas largely based on the metapsychology of Sigmund Freud and on a critical view of university-level education of musical interpreters. It is argued, at first, that ethical and moral injunctions put upon performers throughout their education could be identified metapsychologically as superegoic. Another part of the investigation verses on possible relations between Superego, death drive and sublimation in the production of unhealthy practices in the study and preparation of performances. This part of the discussion will also consider the different ways in which the Ego might relate with its ideal instances. The last portion of the paper consists in an analysis of passages from Thomas Bernhard's der Untergeher, based on the hypotheses hereby brought to light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship examining the role of cultural capital in school outcomes in relation to race and ethnicity in the French context is scarce. This article seeks to test how various potential forms of cultural capital, beyond the most traditional ones, are associated with school grades relationally with French students' backgrounds. Using Ministry of Education data to perform regression analyses on old and new forms of cultural capital, I find some evidence of differences in their association with grades. Reading, internet, documentaries, sport, and music practice are all associated with higher school grades, but less so for Haiti and overseas- origin children for four practices out of five. This study contributes to research on ethnic/racial inequalities in the French school system and to broader conversations around the contemporary redefinition of cultural capital by showing that racial inequalities can be reproduced in schools through a wide array of cultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]