Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Musica insieme'

Music Performance
D.M.A.
In The Who’s second rock opera Quadrophenia, a fictitious teenager suffers from a mental illness that gives him four distinct personalities. Its main songwriter, Pete Townshend, uses the disorder and the four personalities as a means to represent the four members of The Who through the teenage protagonist, a young mod named Jimmy. Townshend reveals Jimmy’s disposition at the conclusion of a lament written from Jimmy’s perspective in Quadrophenia’s liner notes, in a harrowing confession: “Schizophrenic? I’m bleeding quadrophenic.” In this monograph, I will examine Quadrophenia for its representations of mental illness through textual, musical, and historical perspectives and how these perspectives provide evidence toward a storyline based around the cultural concept of madness. Mental illness is an invisible illness, for the inflicted does not present noticeable symptoms to others, making it difficult to perceive and accurately diagnose. That is why within popular culture, schizophrenia is oftentimes used interchangeably with multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder), as is the case with Jimmy in Quadrophenia. Although these disorders are not at all similar, both are considered under the broader umbrella of madness, a term which historically was of medical and legal significance but gained political and ideological meanings in our modern society. Quadrophenia was meant as a tribute and celebration of The Who’s beginnings within the mid-60s London mod subculture. The invisible illness aspect of the storyline is worth investigating for its avoidance of treating mental illness within the medical model, in which it is considered to be a deficit of normalcy that is in need of a fix or cure. Though Jimmy struggles with his illness, it is mostly viewed as part of his adolescent character and then further used as a way of musically and textually representing The Who and the musicians’ individual characters. The Who were the epitome of music and madness; their music often spoke in terms of deviance and disobedience, while their live performances were physical and objectionably loud, sometimes concluding with the destruction of instruments. Treating mental illness, as well as physical and developmental impairments, as difference rather than deficit, is a key principle of current disability studies and its cultural model of disability. This is in opposition to the biological model in the medical field. Society has constructed madness as a binary to sanity, and thus a contrast to normalcy. As this binary is still in practice today, society as a whole continues to stigmatize mental illness and forces it to remain invisible. The Who and their embodiment of mental illness in Quadrophenia are meant not merely to arouse sympathy for Jimmy, but also to empower mental illness as a basis of character strength. The following monograph begins with an introduction to music and disability studies regarding mental illness. The next chapter offers a glimpse into the literature on The Who and Quadrophenia, including a survey of a 2013 conference dedicated exclusively to Quadrophenia. Finally, a chapter analyzes representations of mental illness in Quadrophenia within the music, society, and The Who themselves before a brief concluding chapter.
Temple University--Theses

One of the precursors to this PhD project was an awareness that a great deal of writing about music aesthetics, the practice of making music and the nature of listening to music, is often either knowingly or unknowingly grounded in a set of philosophical debates that predate (sometimes quite considerably) the music that is being written about. As such, there is a sense in which critical perspectives on improvised music practice, if they are to be relevant, need to take into account more recent developments in philosophical and theoretical thought, and one of the objectives of this study is to meet that challenge by mapping of some of the key aspects of twentieth and twenty-first century thought that have their roots in what could be described as ‘philosophies of immanence’ onto various aspects of improvisation. From the outset, this project is written from a maker’s perspective, and takes the form of a piece of extended research that takes as its starting point the idea that musical improvisation is a form of creative thinking in action. From this position, the process of improvising and an improvised piece of music, to some extent bear the traces of the thought that has given rise to both the music and the improvising itself. By grounding the research in a set of the afore-mentioned ‘philosophies of immanence’, it is therefore my intention to develop new ways of thinking about how improvisation works, new ways to describe what is happening when we hear musicians improvising, and new ways to understand what kinds of changes and innovations are brought to bear on the resources and materials – in other words the musical knowledge, the skills, the instruments, and a wider set of musical contexts and environments – that musicians have at their disposal during an improvisation.

Current research in music scholarship appears to be trending towards the “embodied” yet from the vantage point of the performer this progression seems to be lacking a key component of such an embodied discourse: their voice. In this thesis I argue that the oversight of the performing body and its importance to the field of musicology is a result of conceptual dualities that attempt to conceal the body in its role within thought, culture, and meaning. Illustrating this oversight with the gaps in the current academic discourse, I show how many in the field either consider the body only in a metaphorical sense, or see the performer as an object of study. An examination of the contributions of three performer-scholars to this field demonstrates ways in which the gap can be filled, and lack addressed. Their approaches are then combined in an embodied analysis of Messiaen’s “Abîme des Oiseaux” from Quatour pour la Fin du Temps which reveals the potentialities of depth and breadth that can be considered when the performer’s body is permitted to be a site from which a musical analysis might originate. This thesis concludes that the performing body must be reintroduced into musicological discourse with a new understanding of its value, and that this can best be accomplished by addressing the “embodied” within the academic music curriculum, alongside traditional tonal and formal analyses.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-167).
We present the design and implementation of the Conductor's Jacket, a unique wearable device that measures physiological and gestural signals, together with the Gesture Construction, a musical software system that interprets these signals and applies them expressively in a musical context. Sixteen sensors have been incorporated into the Conductor's Jacket in such a way as to not encumber or interfere with the gestures of a working orchestra conductor. The Conductor's Jacket system gathers up to sixteen data channels reliably at rates of 3 kHz per channel, and also provides mcal-time graphical feedback. Unlike many gesture-sensing systems it not only gathers positional and accelerational data but also senses muscle tension from several locations on each arm. The Conductor's Jacket was used to gather conducting data from six subjects, three professional conductors and three students, during twelve hours of rehearsals and performances. Analyses of the data yielded thirty-five significant features that seem to reflect intuitive and natural gestural tendencies, including context-based hand switching, anticipatory 'flatlining' effects, and correlations between respiration and phrasing. The results indicate that muscle tension and respiration signals reflect several significant and expressive characteristics of a conductor's gestures. From these results we present nine hypotheses about human musical expression, including ideas about efficiency, intentionality, polyphony, signal-to-noise ratios, and musical flow state. Finally, this thesis describes the Gesture Construction, a musical software system that analyzes and performs music in real-time based on the performer's gestures and breathing signals. A bank of software filters extracts several of the features that were found in the conductor study, including beat intensities and the alternation between arms. These features are then used to generate real-time expressive effects by shaping the beats, tempos, articulations, dynamics, and note lengths in a musical score.
by Teresa Marrin Nakra.
Ph.D.

Title: Music video: Twelvestep – DownInside Made by: Benjamin Bondesson Christian Edgren Tutor: Silvio Ocasic Course admin: Peter Ekdahl Purpose: To create a music video that we can stand, that challenges us in the creative process. And to help a struggling band with another medium to spread their music. Goal:We intend to create a great product that is demanding and educational to us. Especially when it comes to cooperation and editing/post production. Keywords:Music video, digital video, film
Titel: Musikvideo: Twelvestep – Down Inside Skapad av: Benjamin Bondesson Christian Edgren Handledare: Silvio Ocasic Kursansvarig: Peter Ekdahl Syfte: Att skapa en musikvideo vi kan stå för och som kräver mycket av oss i skapande processen. Samt att hjälpa ett kämpande band med att få ett annat medium att sprida sin musik på. Mål: Vi avser att uppnå en snygg och bra produkt, som kräver mycket av oss och som ska lära oss mycket under skapandet. Framförallt vad det gäller samarbete och redigering/efterproduktion. Nyckelord:Musikvideo, digitalvideo, film
Benjamin Bondesson 0704-247 442 Christian Edgren 0704-832 106

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2009.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Feb. 2, 2010). Advisor: Terry Miller. Keywords: drum and bugle corps, reinterpretation, assimilation, ethnomusicology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 228-255).

In this study, seven rap songs by hip hop icon Tupac Shakur were examined to determine if the ideology of the Black Panther Party exists within the song lyrics of his politically oriented music. The study used content analysis as its methodology. Key among the Ten Point Program tenets reflected in Tupac’s song lyrics were for self-determination, full employment, ending exploitation of Blacks by Whites (or Capitalists), decent housing, police brutality, education, liberation of Black prisoners, and the demand for land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace, and a United Nations plebiscite.

As musicians, our main goal when we perform a piece is to transmit something to the audience: emotion. And to get this emotion also while performing. It is our way to communicate. When we are soloists, we make our own interpretation of the piece to perform, and the cycle that the music does is from the composer, trough us, and then the audience. But what happens when we are in the orchestra? In an orchestra, we are 100 musicians, each one a very different type of performer, each one with their own mentality, ideas, minds, etc. And also, we have to add a very important level in the music cycle here: the conductor. When we perform a piece with the orchestra, we do not play our own interpretation, but the one of the conductor. So, what happens when you play an interpretation that is not yours among so many other musicians? How do we achieve and transmit this emotion? How can we work this out? Does the relationship between the musicians affects the result? To answer all these questions, I have based my thesis work in two basic pillars: first, literature and documentaries about the emotion in the music and its relation to the orchestral world; and second, a series of interviews with different professional orchestra musicians who have helped me to clarify all these interrogations and which have led me into a conclusion about how the view about these topics is from inside the orchestra. I have preferred to develop my thesis more like an essay to also express my opinion about these subjects we are talking about.

A. Honegger - Danse de la chèvre

A. Jolivet - Suite en concert

       I. Moderé

       II. Stabile

       III. Hardiment

       IV. Calme - Véloce - Apaisé

Percussion: Simon Landqvist, Elias Gustafsson, Sabina Šehović, Ivar Koij.

Conductor: Daniel Berg

C. Reinecke - Flute concerto

      I. Allegro molto moderato

      II. Lento e mesto

      III. Moderato – In tempo animato – Tempo I – Più mosso – Più lentomaestoso

Piano: Georg Öquist

F. Doppler - Andante and rondo

Piano: Georg Öquist

Flute: Rebecka Kaufman

Sändningen av examenskonserten startar efter ca 5 minuter.

Since the 1950’s medial resources have accelerated at an apparent pace. The access to several TV channels, to the Internet and to cell phones has increased and is available almost every student. In the society of today young people are exposed to media technology everywhere. It is apparent that children as well as adolescents and adults are affected by television, music, the Internet in one way or the other. The aim of this essay was to investigate if students think that TV, music and the Internet affect their English language learning outside the classroom. Furthermore, the purpose was also to see in what ways their teachers use these kinds of media recourses.

Questionnaires were handed out to three ninth grade classes (56 students) and interviews were made with their English teachers. The investigations showed that the majority of the students thought that they learned a lot outside of the school, mostly from TV and films. They claimed that they learned things like words, phrases and pronunciations.

Two of the three teachers who were interviewed used TV and music frequently in their teaching because they thought it was of importance to their students’ different learning styles, while the third teacher rarely used any of the resources mentioned above. Even though their methods differed they were of the same opinion that TV, music and the Internet have a huge impact on their students.

Inside is the Sky is a musical composition for mezzo soprano and chamber orchestra. It is a collection of four songs using poems by renowned Canadian poet Lorna Crozier: A Summer's Singing, In Moonlight, Tautologies of Summer, and Inner Space. The composer wishes to connect music and poetry on a fundamental level. The approach is to write music that responds not to the mere surface of the poems, but rather to their central poetic themes, by means of parameters intrinsic to music: harmony, rhythm, melody, and registral expanse.

Thesis (Ph.D.) --University of Kentucky, 2004.
Title from document title page (viewed on August 17, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains: vii, 201 p. : music. Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (p.187-197).

In Sweden today, the English language is a part of our everyday lives. This means that from very young ages, children encounter the language in many different ways, media being one of the most common. This thesis aims to research if and how teachers in F-3 include this type of English in their teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL). In particular, the focus is to gain knowledge of how music/songs are being used in the classroom, and if the teachers incorporate the music that the pupils listen to in their spare time when working with music/songs. Their attitudes towards doing this is what this thesis is interested in. An empirical study was carried out with the use of interviews as data collecting method. A total of six lower primary school teachers (grades 1-3) spread out geographically in Sweden were interviewed. The results show that teachers report that they are aware of the many places where pupils encounter English, but only one of the teachers incorporate this in teaching EFL. However, the others do seem positive towards working with this and they mention many benefits in doing so. When it comes to music and songs, all teachers work with this in the subject, but once again five out of six do not include the songs that the pupils listen to, except when they in some cases pick something up in the moment. Again, even though some difficulties are mentioned, they seem positive towards this and they believe there is a possibility in including this in their teaching of EFL. However, as seen in the conclusion, time seems to be a big issue for doing so.

Engelska

Tese de doutoramento em Ciências da Saúde, no ramo de Ciências Biomédicas, apresentada à Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Coimbra
Creativity emerges from the individual or collective intellect in order to unfold the conundrum of life and give rise to meaningful deliberations for the attainment of a flourishing life. More specifically, creativity is commonly defined, within the framework of psychology, as a creative act or product that shall fulfill two main criteria: (i) it shall be novel (i.e. original and unexpected) and (ii) qualified judges shall agree upon its valuable contribution to the field. The cognitive science approach to creativity investigates the intellectual processes and representations concerned with the creative thinking. The methodologies of cognitive science, derived from the technological advancements of the past sixty years, have begun to adopt a more definitive and systemic perspective. Neuroscience has emerged, under this context, as the scientific study dedicated to explore the biological substrates of the nervous system, by utilizing a multitude of techniques such as neuroimaging. Cognitive neuroscience, in particular, studies the neural correlates of mental processes and it constitutes the central approach here adopted to study musical creativity. The primary goal of this thesis was thus to investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying musical creativity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure brain activity in thirty nine professional pianists and musical improvisation was employed as the ecologically valid behavioral model that could most accurately represent creative musical performance. Study I sought to investigate the specific neurocognitive effects derived from expertise in musical improvisation. A natural question that arises is whether extensive improvisational musical training may induce neuroplasticity in the brain. Many of the observed correlates of general musical training reflect not only acquisition of highly specific sensorimotor skills but also cognitive abilities required for various aspects of musical expertise. However, no study has previously focused on the effects of training musical improvisation. The results revealed a significant negative association between improvisational training and activity in a number of cortical regions in the right hemisphere. Also, improvisational training was specifically associated with functional connectivity during musical improvisation, using the premotor and prefrontal regions (previously reported to be involved during extemporization) as seed regions and controlling for age and conventional piano practice. More experienced improvisers showed higher functional connectivity during improvisation between prefrontal, premotor, and motor regions of the frontal lobe. Furthermore, the results were shown not be confounded by more experienced improvisers producing more complex improvisations. Study II explored the contribution of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in creative cognition. Different neuroimaging studies have shown so far seemingly paradoxical results regarding the implications of the DLPFC in creative functioning. On one hand, DLPFC has been argued to exert active control over free generative tasks by inhibiting habitual responses, thus enabling more original output; on the other hand, a deactivation and concomitant decrease in monitoring and focused attention has been suggested to facilitate more spontaneous associations and novel insights. Here, the study highlights that creative cognition can be implemented in different ways given different circumstances. Two categories of behavioral conditions were specified in the experimental design to convey constraints either on the musical structure (set of pitches) or on the emotional expression (happiness or fear) of the improvisations. The results confirmed higher activity in the right DLPFC, as well as in the parietal lobe and right dorsal premotor cortex, when contrasting structural conditions with emotional conditions. These results suggest higher attentional effort and cognitive control when the participants had to conform to the structural constraints. Conversely, deactivations were identified for the emotional constraints in the same regions, plus other regions explicitly contributing to emotion processing. In addition, DLPFC was found functionally connected with the frontoparietal network as well as the cerebellum during structural conditions and to various regions comprising the default network during emotional conditions.
A criatividade emerge do universo intelectual, tanto individual como colectivo, com o objectivo de superar as limitações da existência e de promover decisões que conduzam a uma vida mais plena. No âmbito da psicologia, a criatividade é por norma definida como um acto ou produto criativo que deve cumprir com dois requisitos principais: (i) constituir algo novo (ou seja, ser original e inesperado) e (ii) reunir o consenso dos especialistas acerca da sua contribuição única na área. De acordo com a abordagem seguida em ciências da cognição, a criatividade é estudada a partir dos processos e representações intelectuais envolvidos no pensamento criativo. As respectivas metodologias, decorrentes dos avanços tecnológicos nos últimos sessenta anos, adoptaram uma perspectiva mais definitiva e sistémica. A neurociência surgiu, dentro deste contexto, como o estudo científico que se dedica a investigar os substratos neuronais, recorrendo para isso a uma diversidade de técnicas, entre as quais a neuro-imagem. Em particular, a neurociência da cognição estuda os substratos neuronais associados aos processos mentais, sendo esta a abordagem central adoptada no presente trabalho com vista ao estudo da criatividade musical. O principal objectivo desta tese foi, portanto, investigar os mecanismos neuro-cognitivos subjacentes à criatividade musical. A actividade cerebral de trinta e nove pianistas profissionais foi registada com recurso à ressonância magnética funcional, enquanto estes improvisavam pequenas peças musicais. O estudo I teve o objectivo de investigar os efeitos neuro-cognitivos especificamente decorrentes da experiência em improvisação musical. A questão, aqui colocada, remete-se à identificação dos processos de neuroplasticidade que derivam da prática extensiva em improvisação musical. Muitos dos mecanismos observados e associados ao treino musical reflectem não só a aquisição de habilidades motoras e sensoriais de elevada especificidade, mas também o desenvolvimento de capacidades cognitivas essenciais em diversos aspectos relativos à experiência musical. No entanto, nenhum estudo, até ao momento, se focou nos efeitos relativos à prática improvisacional em música. Os resultados revelaram uma correlação negativa e significativa entre a prática improvisacional e a actividade cerebral, num conjunto de regiões corticais do hemisfério direito. Os resultados evidenciaram, também, que a prática improvisacional está associada a uma maior conectividade funcional entre diversas áreas do córtex pré-frontal, prémotor e motor do lobo frontal, durante a improvisação musical. A idade dos participantes e a prática musical convencional foram introduzidas no modelo de regressão linear como variáveis de controlo. Além disso, os resultados não apresentaram qualquer relação com a complexidade das peças produzidas por pianistas com maior experiência musical. O estudo II examinou a contribuição do córtex pré-frontal dorsolateral (CPFDL) no processo cognitivo criativo. Até agora, diversos estudos em neuro-imagem têm revelado resultados aparentemente paradoxais no que respeita às implicações do CPFDL na actividade funcional responsável pelo pensamento criativo. Por um lado, foi comprovado que o CPFDL exerce um controlo activo sobre tarefas de produção livre, inibindo respostas habituais e promovendo consequentemente resoluções mais originais; por outro lado, a desactivação e concomitante diminuição do CPFDL, durante actividades cognitivas relacionadas com monitorização e concentração, sugere que esta região agiliza processos mentais de associação espontânea e de concretização de novas ideias. O presente estudo destaca que o mecanismo cognitivo associado à criatividade pode ser implementado de diversas formas, dependendo das circunstâncias externas. Duas categorias de restrições foram especificadas no paradigma experimental, de modo a condicionar o comportamento dos participantes. Essas restrições referiam-se à estrutura musical (conjunto de notas) ou à expressão emocional (alegria ou medo) das respectivas improvisações. Os resultados confirmaram uma maior actividade do CPFDL direito, do lobo parietal e do córtex pré-motor dorsal direito, durante a improvisação condicionada pela estrutura da música, quando comparada com a improvisação dependente da expressão emocional transmitida pela música. Os resultados sugeriram, portanto, um esforço maior na atenção prestada e um elevado controlo cognitivo, durante as improvisações condicionadas pela estrutura musical imposta. Em oposição, foram identificadas desactivações nas mesmas regiões, assim como em regiões tipicamente associadas ao processamento de emoções, durante as improvisações cujo desempenho remete para a expressão emocional da música. Além disso, os resultados comprovam que o CPFDL está funcionalmente conectado à rede de comunicação fronto-parietal e ao cerebelo, durante as improvisações condicionadas pela estrutura musical. Por sua vez, os resultados demonstram que o CPFDL está conectado a regiões associadas à rede neuronal em modo padrão, durante as improvisações musicais condicionadas pela expressão emocional.
FCT - SFRH/BD/33895/2009

Homeschooling is a growing phenomenon. Estimates are that 1.7 million children are homeschooled each year in the United States. Although a number of studies have explored various aspects of this phenomenon, little has been written concerning the musical experiences and practices of homeschoolers. I interviewed three families consisting of six parents and a total of 10 children three times each using semi-structured questions. I also observed each family’s school day a minimum of four times, and explored the motivations for homeschooling and musical instruction, the kinds of educational and musical activities each family evidenced, and then solicited opinions regarding musical style preferences, musical experience, and the use of music in everyday life. I analyzed and interpreted the data through a framework of concepts formulated by Bourdieu (habitus, cultural and symbolic capital, exchange, and economism). My findings suggest that each family’s decision to homeschool was an outgrowth of their Christian habitus, but with nuanced considerations that included ideology, pedagogy, and family. The parents’ decision to support musical learning and experience (each of the 10 children played at least one musical instrument, most of them two, and a few three) centered on a desire to learn music as an aid to worship. However, both parents and children noted non-musical benefits including self- discipline, time management, character formation, training in focus, and life-long usefulness. Parents and children approached educational and musical studies conscientiously. They also reported preferring classical and church music to music associated with youth culture. The families used music as a concentration aid, a mood regulator, and a teaching tool.