A quantitative assessment of students’ experiences of studying music: a Spanish perspective on the European credit transfer system (ECTS)

The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate whether or not the allocation of time proposed in the Music Study Guide, adapted from the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) guidelines, is consistent and adequate for students with minimal musical knowledge. The report takes into account the importance of students’ previous knowledge and the relation this has to the time and effort expended by students in acquiring appropriate knowledge and skills. This is related also to the adequacy of the course specification to meet the demands of university study and the labour market. Results show that those students who enrolled at university without any previous musical knowledge are likely to experience significant difficulty in the acquisition of certain musical and professional competences. This highlights a need to reinforce the music curriculum, or establish zero-level courses, in order to enable such students to succeed in the subject.

Human-computer interaction for optical music recognition tasks

The need to digitise music scores has led to the development of Optical Music Recognition (OMR) tools. Unfortunately, the performance of these systems is still far from providing acceptable results. This situation forces the user to be involved in the process due to the need of correcting the mistakes made during recognition. However, this correction is performed over the output of the system, so these interventions are not exploited to improve the performance of the recognition. This work sets the scenario in which human and machine interact to accurately complete the OMR task with the least possible effort for the user.

Recognition of online handwritten music symbols

Paper submitted to MML 2013, 6th International Workshop on Machine Learning and Music, Prague, September 23, 2013.

La danza española y la ilusión cinematográfica en Mariemma: de las variedades al recital de danzas (1934-1943)

El papel específico de Mariemma (1917-2008) en su contribución a la conformación de la identidad de la danza española tras la guerra civil, exige ser estudiado desde los numerosos frentes que plasmaron su actividad como bailarina, coreógrafa y maestra. Este trabajo busca dar una primera aproximación de la recepción, el contexto formal y el repertorio en el que Mariemma proyecta su carrera artística desde España (1940), tras sus años de infancia y juventud en París (1920-1939). Con este objetivo, se utiliza una metodología que combina las entrevistas a informantes que fueron testigos cercanos de su labor, además del apoyo en fuentes documentales (hemeroteca y fílmicas) desconocidas hasta ahora. Desde los años 40, la bailarina presentó bailes regionales junto con repertorio de escuela bolera, flamenco y danza estilizada en el formato del recital de danzas. Al mismo tiempo. Mariemma hacía sus primeras incursiones en el cine con títulos como Boy (Antonio Calvache, 1940) o Donne-moi tes yeux (Sacha Guitry, 1943). Películas que han pasado desapercibidas porque pertenecen a los primeros años de la posguerra española y coinciden cronológicamente con su debut en el formato del recital de danzas. Por otra parte, son documentos con una visibilidad mínima al quedar sumergidos en las hemerotecas o supeditados a las exigencias de la gran industria cinematográfica.

Music and movement: A comparative study between the BAPNE and Suzuki Methods

The aim of this article is to compare the Suzuki and BAPNE methods based on bibliography published for both approaches. In the field of musical and instrumental education and especially for the childhood stage, the correct use of the body and voice are of fundamental importance. These two methods differ from one another; one principally musical and instrumental, which is the Suzuki method, and one non-musical, the BAPNE method, which aims at stimulating attention, concentration, memory and the executing function of the pupil through music and body percussion. Comparing different approaches may provide teachers with a useful insight for facing different issues related to their discipline.