Enhancing students' experience in music composition through music notation software

A project was undertaken in a Hong Kong primary school to investigate the role of music notation software in leaching music composition. The project was divided into three stages. During the first stage, appropriate hardware equipment and software applications were installed in the school music room, and four teaching plans were developed on the models and strategies derived from findings in the local and international literature. During the second stage, these teaching plans were implemented in Grade One, Grade Three, Grade Five and Grade Six classes of the school. During the third stage, the effectiveness of these teaching activities was evaluated by comparing the experiences from the second stage to the corresponding findings from similar projects undertaken in other Hong Kong primary schools, as well as to findings from the international literature. The results demonstrated that tile visual and audio stimulation created by computer"based technology can motivate students to successfully engage in music composition. Moreover, computer"based technology provides an opportunity for students to compose music in an atonal idiom. However, a large number of students were unable to demonstrate the concept of structural design in their musical products, and one of the findings from this investigation was that teachers need to be more purposeful in their teaching by directing students to employ the technique of repetition of interesting musical fragments or phrases in order to achieve a sense of unity in their pieces.

Revelationary art of Joyce Lorraine Sullivan : an artist's experience of her inner dimensions, an inner journey of discovery

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Two-dimensional string notation for representing video sequences

Most current work on video indexing concentrates on queries which operate over high level semantic information which must be entirely composed and entered manually. We propose an indexing system which is based on spatial information about key objects in a scene. These key objects may be detected automatically, with manual supervision, and tracked through a sequence using one of a number of recently developed techniques. This representation is highly compact and allows rapid resolution of queries specified by iconic example. A number of systems have been produced which use 2D string notations to index digital image libraries. Just as 2D strings provide a compact and tractable indexing notation for digital pictures, a sequence of 2D strings might provide an index for a video or image sequence. To improve further upon this we reduce the representation to the 2D string pair representing the initial frame, and a sequence of edits to these strings. This takes advantage of the continuity between frames to further reduce the size of the notation. By representing video sequences using string edits, a notation has been developed which is compact, and allows querying on the spatial relationships of objects to be performed without rebuilding the majority of the scene. Calculating ranks of objects directly from the edit sequence allows matching with minimal calculation, thus greatly reducing search time. This paper presents the edit sequence notation and algorithms for evaluating queries over image sequences. A number of optimizations which represent a considerably saving in search time is demonstrated in the paper.

Inspired by the past, driven by the passion: music in state-supported education in New South Wales and Victoria 1848-1920

This investigation considers the development of class music teaching in New South Wales and Victoria during the first seventy-two years of state-supported primary education. The first chapter describes the English background including music teaching methods (resulting from the mid-nineteenth century English choral singing movement) and the subsequent development of music teaching in English elementary schools. The promotion of school music is then considered on a broadly chronological basis in the two states and several themes are identified in relation to school music policy and practice. These include the status of music (core curriculum or extra-curricular subject), who should teach music (generalist or specialist teachers), what teaching methods and music notation should be used (staff or Tonic Sol-fa), musical training for generalist teachers, and curriculum content in relation to the aims and objectives of school music. Comparisons are made between developments in both states and between both states and English school music. The final chapter demonstrates the relevance of many of the historical themes identified for music education today. The thesis concludes by identifying a recurring problem from the past. namely the lack of co-ordination between various aspects of school music policy, as the most serious problem to be overcome in the future.

Learning to take charge : women's experiences of living with endometriosis

This paper describes aspects of a study that was conducted to determine women's needs for information related to laparoscopy for endometriosis. Sixty-one women attended focus groups, during which they described endometriosis as a disease of multiple losses: of relationships, of career and of a sense of self-worth. The women indicated that the pathway to diagnosis and treatment had been long and unnecessarily difficult. Many women said that they had reached a point where they decided enough was enough: the medical merry-go-round had to finish. They had to become assertive, take control and decide for themselves how they were going to manage their disease and their quality of life. For all but one woman in the study, complementary therapies were vital. For some women, alternative therapies had replaced allopathic medicine completely. Complementary/alternative therapies were a mechanism for regaining control.

Focus group study of endometriosis: struggle, loss and the medical merry-go-round

Women with endometriosis experience a range of problems for which they may or may not be adequately supported. This paper reports on one aspect of a study conducted at the Epworth Hospital, Melbourne, to identify the information needs of women facing laparoscopy for endometriosis. A number of focus groups were conducted that provided women with a forum for communicating their experiences of endometriosis and laparoscopy. The findings include the experiences of 61 women who described the lack of support, the struggles and the losses involved in living with endometriosis. By far the worst experience that these women described was the encounter with health professionals and the ways in which their symptoms were trivialised and dismissed. There is a great deal for nurses to learn about the experience of living with endometriosis if they are to support women with this chronic illness in their search for well-being.

Modeling dialogue with mixed initiative in design space exploration

Exploration with a generative formalism must necessarily account for the nature of interaction between humans and the design space explorer. Established accounts of design interaction are made complicated by two propositions in Woodbury and Burrow's Keynote on design space exploration. First, the emphasis on the primacy of the design space as an ordered collection of partial designs (version, alternatives, extensions). Few studies exist in the design interaction literature on working with multiple threads simultaneously. Second, the need to situate, aid, and amplify human design intentions using computational tools. Although specific research and practice tools on amplification (sketching, generation, variation) have had success, there is a lack of generic, flexible, interoperable, and extensible representation to support amplification. This paper addresses the above, working with design threads and computer-assisted design amplification through a theoretical model of dialogue based on Grice's model of rational conversation. Using the concept of mixed initiative, the paper presents a visual notation for representing dialogue between designer and design space formalism through abstract examples of exploration tasks and dialogue integration.

A case for a revival of tonic sol-fa in the twenty-first century

The Tonic Sol-fa method of teaching singing was developed in England by John Curwen over a period of forty years from the 1840s until the 1870s. Although originally an aid to reading staff notation, the J 872 Standard Course saw staff notation dispensed with altogether in favour of its own notational system. By the end of the century it had spread from Britain to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, the United States, India, China, Japan and the Pacific Islands. However, largely due to its notational isolation, Tonic Sol-fa declined markedly during the early twentieth century. Except for the incorporation of certain aspects into the Kodaly method, it has largely disappeared from contemporary music teaching practice. Surprisingly, however, Tonic Sol-fa in its nineteenth century form is presently "alive and well" in certain developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. This paper will present an analysis of Tonic Sol-fa and evaluate its characteristics in terms of contemporary pedagogical and notational theory. The paper will then report on the current use of Tonic Sol-fa in developing countries and it will be argued that, in certain of these countries, this nineteenth century teaching method and notational system has not only survived but has indeed flourished. It will be argued that, in at least one case, Tonic Sol-fa has been "indiginised" so that it has not only become an integral part of the musical culture but also has become part of the social fabric of the country. The case will be put for a revival of Tonic Sol-fa in developing countries where, for social, economic and educational reasons, an alternative model to that utilised in more highly developed countries may be more successful/ in promoting school and community choral music.

Easy, cheap and true : the case for promoting the Curwen method of teaching choral singing in developing countries

The Curwen method (Tonic Sol-fa) was developed by the Rev. John Cunven in England from the 1840s originally as a means of teaching music reading from staff notation. However, in the 1872 Standard Course, staff notation was dispensed with altogether in favour of Tonic Sol-fa "letter" notation. By the end of the century, Tonic Sol-fa had spread from Britain to many overseas countries. Although aspects were later incorporated into staff-based teaching
systems such as the Kodaly approach and the "New Curwen Method", Tonic Sol-fa in its late nineteenth century ' form has been "extinct" in Britain for several decades. Nevertheless, it is "alive and well", indeed flourishing, in certain African, Asian and Pacific countries. This paper analyses the Tonic Sol-fa system in terms of contemporary pedagogical practice and notational theory. The paper also reports on the use of Tonic Sol-fa in two countries - South Africa and Fiji - where it is now the mainstay of community choral music. It is argued that, particularly for developing countries, the Curwen method and its letter notation should be seriously considered as an alternative to staff notation methods as a highly effective means of promoting school and community choral singing.