The Björling 'Opera' : A children's Nursery Academy and an Italian Conservatory in Miniature

The aim in this chapter is to develop a deeper understanding about the informal Björling 'School' in Sweden. Contextually the example is related to the micro history of opera education contributing to the macro perspective illuminating a provincial example of the concept of domestic opera schooling. The specific focus was on Karl David Björling (1873-1926), the teaching parent of the Swedish tenor Jussi Björling (1911-1960) and his brothers Gösta and Olle.   The Björling family model of opera schooling belongs to the classical canon of domestic home education which was common during the epoch. The phenomenon is also within the field of opera singing an important reference to the historical context of the Nordic opera history of vocal education.   The uniqueness concerning the Björling School seems to be the rigorous and exceptionally early training. David Björling’s pedagogy was rooted in earlier German theories of musical upbringing. It's clear from his results that he was familiar with the neo-humanistic ideal on which reformed music education was based. Of a specific interest is the term Gesang als Unterricht as a concept for developing childrens musical and memorising capacities.   Conceptually the roots of the Björling model are in the eighteenth-century Romantic view of prodigies and their abilities. The extensive touring is connected to the promotion of wonder-children, and David Björling’s educational style to the conservative Master-pupil tradition.   David Björling's vocal ideal was a part of the contemporary debate about “The decadence of the singing art”, and seems to have its roots in an older Italian tradition. There are recurring similarities between his educational methods and the didactic principles of the Lamperti School: Enjoying a revival around the late 1800s and early 1900s, it has been called the natural or the national school. Nevertheless, through authentic experiences and gramophone recordings the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso became David Björling’s pedagogical role model.

Can humming caregivers´ facilitate feeding during mealtime situations with persons with dementia? A qualitative study

Background. ‘Music Therapeutic Caregiving’, defined as when caregivers’ sing for or together with persons with dementia care situations, has been shown to facilitate the caring situation, and enhance positive and decrease negative expressions in persons with dementia. No studies about singing during mealtimes have been conducted, and this project was designed to elucidate this. However, since previous studies have shown that there is a risk that persons with dementia will start to sing along with the caregiver, the caregiver in this study hummed such that the person with dementia did not sing instead of eat. Aim. To describe professional caregivers’ experiences of humming during meal time while feeding persons with dementia. Method. An intervention with caregivers humming was implemented during lunch time. Focus group interviews were conducted to fetch the caregivers experiences. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the interviews. Results. The caregivers described that humming disseminated relaxation and joy, and awakened memories about the songs hummed which encouraged the persons with the dementia to join in the songs. They also described that humming seemed to make the persons with dementia associate with mealtime and could make them eat more. However it also revealed suspiciousness and agitation from the persons with dementia. Conclusion. Humming during mealtime revealed mainly positive as well as some negative influences. More and larger studies are needed to be able to draw general conclusions.

Humming as a mean of communicating during meal time situations : A Single Case study involving a women with severe dementia and her caregiver

Objective: ‘Music Therapeutic Caregiving’, when caregivers sing for or together with persons with dementia during morning care situations, has been shown to increase verbal and nonverbal communication between persons with dementia and their caregivers, as well as enhance positive and decrease negative emotions in persons with dementia. No studies about singing during mealtimes have been conducted, and this pilot project was designed to elucidate this. However, since previous studies have shown that there is a risk that persons with dementia will start to sing along with the caregiver, the caregiver in this study hummed such that the person with dementia did not sing instead of eat. The aim of this pilot project was threefold: to describe expressed emotions in a woman with severe dementia, and describe communication between her and her caregivers without and with the caregiver humming. The aim was also to measure food and liquid intake without and with humming. Method: The study was constructed as a Single Case ABA design in which the ordinary mealtime constituted a baseline which comprised a woman with severe dementia being fed by her caregivers in the usual way. The intervention included the same woman being fed by the same caregiver who hummed while feeding her. Data comprised video observations that were collected once per week over 5 consecutive weeks. The Verbal and Nonverbal Interaction Scale and Observed Emotion Rating Scale were used to analyze the recorded interactions. Results: A slightly positive influence of communication was shown for the woman with dementia, as well as for the caregiver. Further, the women with dementia showed a slight increase in expressions of positive emotions, and she ate more during the intervention. Conclusion: Based on this pilot study no general conclusions can be drawn. It can be concluded, however, that humming while feeding persons with dementia might slightly enhance communication, and positive expressed emotions in persons with dementia. To confirm this, more studies on group levels are needed. Because previous studies have found that caregiver singing during caring situations influences persons with dementia positively it might be desirable to test the same during mealtime.

O ator que canta um conto: a manipulação de parâmetros musicais na voz do ator

This research started with an investigation about the theatrical speaking. Through an empirical methodology that analyzed a practical experience of creating a play and bibliographical research, the actress/researcher investigated ways to manipulate musical parameters as tools in the creation process of the actor s voice. The actress/researcher attempted to connect theory and practice, moved by the desire to find a vocal expression in theater that unfolds as living and transforming movement. This dissertation also contains the report of pedagogical experiences, in which the actress/researcher explored strategies to teach the appropriation of musical parameters in the construction of the vocal work of the actor. Considering that speaking in theater is closer to singing than everyday speech, she concluded that the actor may compose music as a music composer does in the elaborating process of building vocal scores. Therefore, she demonstrated that it is of fundamental importance a musical training in the development of the actor.

CORPOREIDADE E A MELODIA DA EXPERIÊNCIA ESTÉTICA NA FORMAÇÃO HUMANESCENTE DE CANTORES-EDUCADORES

In order for this study to be developed, the central goal on our investigation was defined as analyzing and interpreting the aesthetical experiences meanings lived by singers-educators in the human formation. The interest for the aesthetical experience theme was built from my own experience for the last twelve years as a member of the School of Music Madrigal, the oldest group in the State Federal University, created for research and cultural extension with structural perspective which brings closer teachers, students and the outer community that comes from different social realities to face the challenge of combining the ability of singing, the corporeity involvement and the aesthetical experiences meanings. This paper points out the understanding of art as perceptive expression of human emotions, such as the creation of existential demand, the restructuring of oneself and the constructions which shape beauty. We seek a dense contribution of new challenges to the peculiar demand of human potential in terms of sensibility repertoire, of involvement, of expectation in magnifying the possibilities and the human and social competences. In the formation human process, we find a living field blooming with natural artistical possibilities, experimenting emotions and feelings shared in collective life, and bringing out impulses to unexpected ludic creation, establishing a powerful aesthetical ambience which highlights the symbolic and imaginary with the deepening of rich ludopoiese properties in several meanings. From the guiding principles of etnophenomenology we find structural and indispensable perspectives which contemplate values, desires, archtype images and ideas that impress originality and fertility to the study. On this path we understand the abundance of living moments of intense commitment, acquaintance, challenges, reunions and connections that stand out from fundamental aspects to freedom, autonomy, creativity and new discontinuities. This acknowledgement brings us closer to the enlighted fullness which makes us humans

Em cada canto, um conto, uma canção: o velho, a tradição oral e a educação no Mato Grande/RN

This dissertation is about an Education which is made concrete through orality and gestuality of the elderly joking masters of the territory of Mato Grande/RN and proposes a reflection about the exchange between these two knowledges and school education. Thus, it presents the following objectives: identifying the joking elderly in the region; recording their life experiences related to the jokes of the tradition and the way they realize such references at present; besides investigating and recording educative practices which consider the elderly s jokes at the present education. The investigation is supported by the metaphor in the making of a quilt as a methodological resource in the actions of measurement, choice of patches, sewing and binding off. The mapping of the territory of Mato Grande/RN has enabled the identification of seventeen joking elderly people. It considers and records their experiences with the popular amusements and from them, it discusses the ways through which the oral tradition in Mato Grande may be recognized in four categories/actions, namely, narrating, singing, dancing and getting old, which are analyzed under the studies by authors like Benjamin, Zumthor, Almeida, Porpino, among others. Finally, it also focuses the relation between the elderly, the knowledge of the tradition and the systemized education. It describes and articulates educative actions able to connect the knowledge by the joking elderly people and the knowledges taught at school, possibilities of concretization of a rebinding of knowledges which might bring orality and writing, the new and the old, science and tradition close to each other

O corpo como matriz pedagógica

The contemporary conjuncture based on the capitalistic knowledge converges to the corporal consciousness that makes us see, feel, taste and hear, be in/to pieces. Disembodied reason legitimate and legislate ways of being and living socially and its development is the dehumanization of human relations causing pain and suffering. The objective of this work is to discuss the body as pedagogical matrix through imagistic/artistic elements: music, painting and literature. Metaphors lead to self knowledge of human subjectivity and approach us to the kaleidoscope of sensitive knowledge and enables learning to learn with the infinite combinations of images, knowledge, feelings and worldviews. The song Memória da Pele comes in the voice of Maria Betânia speak of the memories that are not mine, but are tattooed in me in the memory of skin, singing the memories of a love lived by who tries to forget rationally, but the body insists on remembering. It is password to think about what we are. The short story by Clarice Lispector, entitled Miss Algarve, narrates the life story of an unmarried and virgin woman, and her encounter with an alien called Ixtlan. Until then, she who lived as if every day were a Monday, found herself seduced by the pleasure of having a body in contact with another body, which also allowed her to give visibility to the bodies of others. She had repudiation by the immorality that her body and the other s perspired. The discovery of the body brings important lessons for nursing, involving our body and the others'. The painting the flying bed or Henry Ford Hospital, by Frida Kahlo, is our final metaphor. The traumatic experience of abortion is shown in this painting trough the picture of the artist naked in a hospital bed. This painting invites us to reflect on our work process. We need to think in multiple dimensions of the being and accept the invitation of art, so that the lightness confronts us with the weight imposed by the hegemonic ideology. I believe it is not a single view, but the many views that should justify the knowledge and practices of nursing; what matters is that they are woven into the dialogue, democracy, provided that protagonism of those individuals involved in this process, in the wandering and uncertainty, in the rewiring, solidarity, plurality. To this end, the body must be the great pedagogue that is able to be viewed not as a tapestry seen by the right view, as the logical knowledge sees, but seen by the opposite side in its singular, irregular, discontinuous weavings

Comportamento e ecologia acústica da baleia jubarte (Megaptera novaeangliae) na região Nordeste do Brasil

The acoustic ecology concept involve the relation between the live organisms and their sound environment and is applied in the present work to study the context in which the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) singing behavior, known as the most complex display in the nature, occurred in the northeastern Brazilian coast, outside the core area of Abrolhos Bank, between 2005 and 2010.I analyze the singer male occurrence , their spatial distribution and probable relations with oceanographic features, such as depth, tide regimen and moon phases. I also describe the acoustic structure and temporal variation of the singing behavior, based on song frequency and time measurements outside the Abrolhos Bank, and further compare the song complexity, registered in the same period, between Abrolhos Bank (16°- 19° S, 37°- 39° W) and the adjacent North Coast, herein considered from Itacaré (14° S, 38° W) to Aracaju (11° S, 37° W). Additionally, I look for describe and analyze anthropogenic noise sources in the marine environment of the study area, produced by the oil industry as well as by the whale watching operation, relating their frequencies to the acoustic niche utilized by the humpbacks. The results indicated a great plasticity in the singing behavior, evidenced by the occurrence of singer males in diverse social structures, from solitary individuals to other groups, even containing females and calves, as well as by the diversity which compound the song, when compared between two regions inside the same breeding area, which present distinct oceanographic characteristics. The singer male distribution may be related with the continental shelf extent along the study area. The anthropogenic noise presented frequency range, amplitude and sound intensity in potential to interfere acoustically in the singing behavior of the species, may resulting in disturbance during the breeding season in the Brazilian coast. Implications about the obtained results in the humpback whale mating system are discussed. In this way, I pretend to contribute with the acoustic ecology subject and provide information to subsidize humpback whale conservation

Dançando, cantando e contando histórias, os velhos do Mato Grande/RN educam através dos gestos e da oralidade

Compartilho fragmentos da dissertação que trata de uma Educação que se concretiza na oralidade e na gestualidade dos velhos mestres brincantes do território do Mato Grande/RN e propõe uma reflexão sobre o trânsito entre esses saberes e a educação escolar. Assim, assume os seguintes objetivos: identificar os velhos mestres brincantes da região do Mato Grande, registrar suas experiências de vida relacionadas às brincadeiras da tradição e o modo como os mesmos percebem essas referências na atualidade, investigar e registrar práticas educativas que considerem as brincadeiras dos velhos na educação atual. Assim realiza um mapeamento do território do Mato Grande/RN a partir do qual identifica dezessete velhos brincantes. Considera e registra suas experiências com os folguedos populares e a partir desses registros passa a discutir os modos pelos quais a tradição oral do Mato Grande pode ser reconhecida a partir das ações: narrar, cantar e dançar. Por último, lança um olhar para a relação entre o velho, o conhecimento da tradição e a educação sistematizada

Alterações cognitivas em escolares de classe socio-econômica desfavorecida: resultados de intervenção psicopedagógica

O objetivo deste estudo é analisar o resultado de intervenções psicopedagógicas no desempenho intelectual e em algumas funções cognitivas específicas em crianças provenientes de famílias de baixa renda, expostas a fatores pessoais e sociais adversos, como desnutrição, stress familiar, ambientes doméstico e de estimulação empobrecidos. Foram examinadas 63 crianças, alunas de escola, gratuita e em regime de semi-internato, que recebe crianças consideradas sob risco pessoal e social. Quarenta e três crianças receberam atividades que objetivam ativação cognitiva, durante período mínimo de 1 ano. Vinte crianças eram recém-admitidas. As técnicas da ativação escolhidas foram: método de aprendizagem ativa, com base em Piaget e método de ativação cognitiva para, através de exercícios psicomotores, desenvolver os pré-requisitos para aprendizagem e prevenção de dificuldades escolares, segundo Lambert. A avaliação das funções cognitivas mostrou: nível intelectual insatisfatório em 30% e médio ou superior em 70% e deficiências cognitivas específicas (noção do esquema corporal, percepção viso-motora, percepção de forma e perseveração) em 74%. Maior prevalência de crianças com inteligência superior (p < 0,05) associou-se a dois fatores: 1º: maior tempo de freqüência à escola (de 1 a 3 anos) e 2º: programas de ativação cognitiva. Não foram observadas diferenças entre os 2 grupos em relação à prevalência de alterações das funções cognitivas específicas examinadas. Os resultados demonstram que a recuperação de crianças com as dificuldades descritas é difícil. Exige investigação sistemática sobre os métodos psicopedagógicas selecionados e possivelmente, grande tempo de permanência da criança na escola, além de admissão mais precoce.

As junções de palavras no português brasileiro cantado: estudos para uma aplicação

This article is a reflection on the possibilities for the linking and or connection of words in Brazilian Portuguese lyric diction with the intention of contributing this as a tool for singers, singing and diction teachers working with BP. The proposal came from a study of the norms for the Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation 1938 and 1958 rules, which addressed the issue, in conjunction with the analysis of the current norms, published in 2007.

LEK BEHAVIOR of THE PLOVERCREST (STEPHANOXIS LALANDI, TROCHILIDAE)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Voz do cantor lírico e coordenação motora: uma intervenção baseada em Piret e Béziers

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

O uso de metáforas como recurso didático no ensino do canto: diferentes abordagens

OBJETIVO: Verificar se professores de canto de diferentes gêneros musicais utilizam expressões metafóricas (imagens) como ferramenta didática para trabalhar a ressonância vocal, se existe correspondência fisiológica pretendida para cada metáfora empregada e os motivos para utilização de tal linguagem. MÉTODOS: A amostra foi composta por 20 professores de canto, com experiência profissional mínima de cinco anos, atuantes em quatro abordagens do ensino de canto, sendo cinco professores por abordagem. Os professores responderam um questionário baseado em pesquisas já concluídas na área. As questões abordaram o histórico na docência de canto e a utilização ou não de metáforas. Aos professores que responderam afirmativamente foi solicitada a citação de três imagens correntemente utilizadas no ensino da ressonância bem como a explicação dos eventuais objetivos fisiológicos e musicais associados. As entrevistas foram gravadas em aparelho digital, transcritas na íntegra, analisadas e categorizadas. RESULTADOS: Dos professores entrevistados, 90% utilizavam imagens no trabalho com ressonância por motivos didáticos técnicos e musicais; 88,8% dos professores que afirmaram utilizar tal linguagem e que disseram ter objetivos fisiológicos associados não os descreveram de forma objetiva ou não os distinguiram de objetivos musicais e proprioceptivos. CONCLUSÃO: A maioria dos professores pesquisados utiliza metáforas como ferramenta didática, por acreditar que elas estimulam a propriocepção e a musicalidade, e que a instrução por meio de linguagem fisiológica é muito complexa. Tal achado pode estar associado ao fato de que esses profissionais tendem a não separar o processo fisiológico de produção da voz do processo subjetivo da criação artística.

The dawn lek of the Swallow-tailed Hummingbird

We studied the lek behavior of the Swallow-tailed Hummingbird (Eupetomena macroura) in an urbanized area in S (a) over tildeo Paulo state, Southeastern Brazil. During the 22-month study we identified a total of 26 lekking territories in one lek that covered an area of approximately 12 ha. The lek was active throughout the year; the number of singing males per morning ranged from 6-15. The abandonment of territories and the establishment of new ones caused continuous rearrangement of lek boundaries. Lekking territories had a mean size of 217 m(2) and were separated from each other by 24-120 m. on average, males started singing 27 min before sunrise and kept singing for 17 min. At the end of this period and after a few minutes of silent perching, they abandoned their lekking territories until the next morning. During the singing period. males spent 72-100% of the time inside their territories. The lek behavior of E. macroura is unusual compared to other lekking hummingbirds because of the short daily period of lekking, restricted to just before Sunrise. Since males and females of E. macroura possibly defend feeding territories throughout the rest of the day, the short lekking period may represent a tradeoff between two different time budget pressures from lekking and feeding activities.