Contributos para a validação do Music Performance Anxiety Inventory for Adolescents (MPAI-A) na língua portuguesa

A ansiedade na performance musical (MPA-music performance anxiety) surge como um fenómeno fisiológico, psicológico, cognitivo e emocional que abrange todos os músicos independentemente da sua idade, experiência, dedicação ou tipo de instrumento. Pelo seu carácter crónico, e pela dificuldade que provoca na progressão na carreira, a MPA é uma patologia nefasta que, quando toma proporções exageradas, consegue afastar os músicos do seu ideal e objetivo de vida, pois o prazer de tocar é substituído pelo medo de ser julgado e observado por uma plateia ou júri. Pela necessidade de conhecer e saber reagir perante esta situação é imperativo aprofundar os conhecimentos acerca desta, para uma identificação precoce dos alunos em quem a ansiedade atinge níveis preocupantes nas atuações, quer a solo ou em orquestra. A correta abordagem deste problema por parte dos professores pode ser benéfica, levando os alunos a confiarem mais nas suas capacidades e a obterem resultados positivos. Este trabalho surge da necessidade de conseguir quantificar a ansiedade nos adolescentes e para tal o uso de uma escala previamente existente em inglês. O objetivo é explorar a ansiedade na performance musical através da tradução e aplicação do Music Performance Anxiety Inventory- Adolescents (MPAI-A) para a língua portuguesa, contribuindo para a sua posterior validação.

Nietzsche's orphans: music and the search for unity in revolutionary Russia, 1905-1921

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Imperial Russia was in the throes of immense social, political and cultural upheaval. The effects of rapid industrialization, rising capitalism and urbanization, as well as the trauma wrought by revolution and war, reverberated through all levels of society and every cultural sphere. In the aftermath of the 1905 revolution, amid a growing sense of panic over the chaos and divisions emerging in modern life, a portion of Russian educated society (obshchestvennost’) looked to the transformative and unifying power of music as a means of salvation from the personal, social and intellectual divisions of the contemporary world. Transcending professional divisions, these “orphans of Nietzsche” comprised a distinct aesthetic group within educated Russian society. While lacking a common political, religious or national outlook, these philosophers, poets, musicians and other educated members of the upper and middle strata were bound together by their shared image of music’s unifying power, itself built upon a synthesis of Russian and European ideas. They yearned for a “musical Orpheus,” a composer capable of restoring wholeness to society through his music. My dissertation is a study in what I call “musical metaphysics,” an examination of the creation, development, crisis and ultimate failure of this Orphic worldview. To begin, I examine the institutional foundations of musical life in late Imperial Russia, as well as the explosion of cultural life in the aftermath of the 1905 Revolution, a vibrant social context which nourished the formation of musical metaphysics. From here, I assess the intellectual basis upon which musical metaphysics rested: central concepts (music, life-transformation, theurgy, unity, genius, nation), as well as the philosophical heritage of Nietzsche and the Christian thinkers Vladimir Solov’ev, Aleksei Khomiakov, Ivan Kireevskii and Lev Tolstoi. Nietzsche’s orphans’ struggle to reconcile an amoral view of reality with a deeply felt sense of religious purpose gave rise to neo-Slavophile interpretations of history, in which the Russian nation (narod) was singled out as the savior of humanity from the materialism of modern life. This nationalizing tendency existed uneasily within the framework of the multi-ethnic empire. From broad social and cultural trends, I turn to detailed analysis of three of Moscow’s most admired contemporary composers, whose individual creative voices intersected with broader social concerns. The music of Aleksandr Scriabin (1871-1915) was associated with images of universal historical progress. Nikolai Medtner (1879-1951) embodied an “Imperial” worldview, in which musical style was imbued with an eternal significance which transcended the divisions of nation. The compositions of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) were seen as the expression of a Russian “national” voice. Heightened nationalist sentiment and the impact of the Great War spelled the doom of this musical worldview. Music became an increasingly nationalized sphere within which earlier, Imperial definitions of belonging grew ever more problematic. As the Germanic heritage upon which their vision was partially based came under attack, Nietzsche’s orphans found themselves ever more divided and alienated from society as a whole. Music’s inability to physically transform the world ultimately came to symbolize the failure of Russia’s educated strata to effectively deal with the pressures of a modernizing society. In the aftermath of the 1917 revolutions, music was transformed from a symbol of active, unifying power into a space of memory, a means of commemorating, reinterpreting, and idealizing the lost world of Imperial Russia itself.

A VOICE OF THEIR OWN: MUSIC AND SOCIAL COHESION IN TURKISH ALEVI LIFE

This dissertation examines the role that music has played in the expression of identity and revitalization of culture of the Alevis in Turkey, since the start of their sociocultural revival movement in the late 1980s. Music is central to Alevi claims of ethnic and religious difference—singing and playing the bağlama (Turkish folk lute) constitutes an expressive practice in worship and everyday life. Based on research conducted from 2012 to 2014, I investigate and present Alevi music through the lens of discourses on the construction of identity as a social and musical process. Alevi musicians perform a revived repertoire of the ritual music and folk songs of Anatolian bards and dervish-lodge poets that developed over several centuries. Contemporary media and performance contexts have blurred former distinctions between sacred and secular, yet have provided new avenues to build community in an urban setting. I compare music performances in the worship services of urban and small-town areas, and other community events such as devotional meetings, concerts, clubs, and broadcast and social media to illustrate the ways that participation—both performing and listening—reinforces identity and solidarity. I also examine the influence of these different contexts on performers’ musical choices, and the power of music to evoke a range of responses and emotional feelings in the participants. Through my investigation I argue that the Alevi music repertoire is not only a cultural practice but also a symbol of power and collective action in their struggle for human rights and self-determination. As Alevis have faced a redefined Turkish nationalism that incorporates Sunni Muslim piety, this music has gained even greater potency in their resistance to misrecognition as a folkloric, rather than a living, tradition.

Portuguese architect's career

This work project addresses the differences and similarities in Portuguese architects’ careers. As a study in the Human Resources Management area, where a contemporary career concept has been gaining strength, it is focused on architects’ careers since they are artistic/technical professional workers with no boundaries or specific motivations. A total of 21 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted and studied, with different architects from different age groups and paths, using a qualitative methodology approach. The interviews explored themes as the reasons for deciding to be an architect, challenges and opportunities, academic paths, best projects and future prospects. This study revealed that Portuguese architects have specific motivations, relations and expertise that reflect particular reasons why, how and with whom architects work and what is to them a successful career as an architect.

Framework for music as store atmospherics to induce buying : a study of Delhi mall customers

Music is a hidden stimulus for retailers. Not much has been researched on Indian luxury stores. This paper attempts to study the composition of music on perception of buyers at luxury stores. A research on customer’s buying intention was done to study their perception of music in the luxury store formats. This study uses exploratory factor analysis to find the significant different factors which constitute music to be played so as to induce buying in a luxury store. The composition of music depends upon music attractiveness, age of the customer and a desire to listen to the music.

What Is a Firm’s Life Expectancy? Empirical Evidence in the Context of Portuguese Companies

It is a fact that the uncertainty about a firm’s future has to be measured and incorporated into a company’s valuation throughout the explicit analysis period – in the continuing or terminal value within valuation models. One of the concerns that can influence the continuing value of enterprises, which is not explicitly considered in traditional valuation models, is a firm’s average life expectancy. Although the literature has studied the life cycle of a firm, there is still a considerable lack of references on this topic. If we ignore the period during which a company has the ability to produce future cash flows, the valuations can fall into irreversible errors, leading to results markedly different from market values. This paper aims to provide a contribution in this area. Its main objective is to construct a mortality table for non-listed Portuguese enterprises, showing that the use of a terminal value through a mathematical expression of perpetuity of free cash flows is not adequate. We provide the use of an appropriate coefficient to perceive the number of years in which the company will continue to operate until its theoretical extinction. If well addressed regarding valuation models, this issue can be used to reduce or even to eliminate one of the main problems that cause distortions in contemporary enterprise valuation models: the premise of an enterprise’s unlimited existence in time. Besides studying the companies involved in it, from their existence to their demise, our study intends to push knowledge forward by providing a consistent life and mortality expectancy table for each age of the company, presenting models with an explicitly and different survival rate for each year. Moreover, we show that, after reaching a certain age, firms can reinvent their business, acquiring maturity and consequently postponing their mortality through an additional life period.

Music copyright in the digital age: creators, commerce and copyright - an empirical study of the UK music copyright industries

Copyright markets, it is said, are ‘winner takes all’ markets favouring the interests of corporate investors over the interests of primary creators. However, little is known about popular music creators’ ‘lived experience’ of copyright. This thesis interrogates key aspects of copyright transactions between creators and investors operating in the UK music industries using analysis of various copyright related documents and semi-structured interviews with creators and investors. The research found considerable variety in the types of ‘deal’ creators enter into and considerable divergence in the potential rewards. It was observed that new-entrant creators have little comprehension of the basic tenets of copyright, but with experience they become more ‘copyright aware’. Documentary and interview evidence reveals creators routinely assign copyright to third party investors for the full term of copyright in sound recordings: the justification for this is questionable. An almost inevitable consequence of this asymmetry of understanding of copyright and asymmetry of bargaining power is that creators become alienated from their copyright works. The empirical evidence presented here supports historic and contemporary calls for a statutory mechanism limiting the maximum copyright assignment period to ten-years.

A segunda vida da Praia dos Espanhóis: dançarinos, pescadores e turistas no sul de Portugal

Abstract: In this text, we deal with proccesses of appropriation of space in the Dam of Póvoa (Portugal) using a dwelling perspective (Ingold 2009) over the territory. The reconversion of innactive spaces in rural areas into leisure-related ones in a quite common practice in contemporary times.The Spaniards beach is one of the local names given by locals to the Dam of Póvoa (Castelo de Vide), in northern Alentejo (Portugal). In the collective memory of the residents, the Dam (built in the 1920’s) is remembered for the many flowers surrounding the area. This Garden-style aesthetics has outlived the initial function of the Dam (to produce electric power). From the 1960’s to the 1980’s, it was also a popular leisure space for Spanish and Portuguese people. It is not a beach, but being inland, it was the closest thing to a beach the residents had. The centrality of this leisure space in the area only decayed after the construction of swimming pools in the nearby towns. Early in the begginning of 21st century a fire destroyed part of the natural floral landscape of the dam. Abandoned for some years, the place has still been appropriated by leisured people in day-trips (for sight-seeing, pic-nics), fishing competitions, caravan soujorns, and, since 2013, in a music and dance festival named Andanças (www.andancas.net). The research that underlies this paper was carried out between 2013 and 2016 by a team of anthropologists. An ethnography of the Dam and its uses, and of the festival and its participants was carried out. In our working-paper we higlight the main research findings achieved. Key-words: Leisure; Landscape; Tourism; Music; Space; Portugal.