A quantitative approach to evolution of music and philosophy

The development of new statistical and computational methods is increasingly making it possible to bridge the gap between hard sciences and humanities. In this study, we propose an approach based on a quantitative evaluation of attributes of objects in fields of humanities, from which concepts such as dialectics and opposition are formally defined mathematically. As case studies, we analyzed the temporal evolution of classical music and philosophy by obtaining data for 8 features characterizing the corresponding fields for 7 well-known composers and philosophers, which were treated with multivariate statistics and pattern recognition methods. A bootstrap method was applied to avoid statistical bias caused by the small sample data set, with which hundreds of artificial composers and philosophers were generated, influenced by the 7 names originally chosen. Upon defining indices for opposition, skewness and counter-dialectics, we confirmed the intuitive analysis of historians in that classical music evolved according to a master apprentice tradition, while in philosophy changes were driven by opposition. Though these case studies were meant only to show the possibility of treating phenomena in humanities quantitatively, including a quantitative measure of concepts such as dialectics and opposition, the results are encouraging for further application of the approach presented here to many other areas, since it is entirely generic.

Strategy as a matter of beliefs: the recorded music industry reinventing itself by rethinking itself

Managerial and organizational cognition studies the ways cognitions of managers in groups, organizations and industries shape their strategies and actions. Cognitions refer to simplified representations of managers’ internal and external environments, necessary to cope with the rich, ambiguous information requirements that characterize strategy making. Despite the important achievements in the field, many unresolved puzzles remain as to this process, particular as to the cognitive factors that condition actors in framing a response to a discontinuity, how actors can change their models in the face of a discontinuity, and the reciprocal relation between cognition and action. I leverage on the recent case of the recorded music industry in the face of the digital technology to study these issues, through a strategy-oriented study of the way early response to the discontinuity was constructed and of the subsequent evolution of this response. Through a longitudinal historical and cognitive analysis of actions and cognitions at both the industry and firm-level during the period in which the response took place (1999-2010), I gain important insights on the way historical beliefs in the industry shaped early response to the digital disruption, on the role of outsiders in promoting change through renewed vision about important issues, and on the reciprocal relationship between cognitive and strategic change.

Detection of small buried objects: asymptotic factorization and MUSIC

In this work, we consider a simple model problem for the electromagnetic exploration of small perfectly conducting objects buried within the lower halfspace of an unbounded two–layered background medium. In possible applications, such as, e.g., humanitarian demining, the two layers would correspond to air and soil. Moving a set of electric devices parallel to the surface of ground to generate a time–harmonic field, the induced field is measured within the same devices. The goal is to retrieve information about buried scatterers from these data. In mathematical terms, we are concerned with the analysis and numerical solution of the inverse scattering problem to reconstruct the number and the positions of a collection of finitely many small perfectly conducting scatterers buried within the lower halfspace of an unbounded two–layered background medium from near field measurements of time–harmonic electromagnetic waves. For this purpose, we first study the corresponding direct scattering problem in detail and derive an asymptotic expansion of the scattered field as the size of the scatterers tends to zero. Then, we use this expansion to justify a noniterative MUSIC–type reconstruction method for the solution of the inverse scattering problem. We propose a numerical implementation of this reconstruction method and provide a series of numerical experiments.

Effects of timbre and tempo change on memory for music

We investigated the effects of different encoding tasks and of manipulations of two supposedly surface parameters of music on implicit and explicit memory for tunes. In two experiments, participants were first asked to either categorize instrument or judge familiarity of 40 unfamiliar short tunes. Subsequently, participants were asked to give explicit and implicit memory ratings for a list of 80 tunes, which included 40 previously heard. Half of the 40 previously heard tunes differed in timbre (Experiment 1) or tempo (Experiment 2) in comparison with the first exposure. A third experiment compared similarity ratings of the tunes that varied in timbre or tempo. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results suggest first that the encoding task made no difference for either memory mode. Secondly, timbre and tempo change both impaired explicit memory, whereas tempo change additionally made implicit tune recognition worse. Results are discussed in the context of implicit memory for nonsemantic materials and the possible differences in timbre and tempo in musical representations.

Aging and memory for music: A review

People of all ages enjoy listening to music, yet most research in musical development has concentrated on infancy through childhood. Our recent research program examined various aspects of music cognition in younger (ages 18 through 30) and older adults (ages 60 through 80) with varying amounts of musical experience. The studies investigated the independent and combined influences of age and experience on a wide assortment of long and short-term memory tasks. Results showed that some musical tasks reflect the same age-related declines as seen in nonmusical tasks, and musical training does not reduce these age-related declines. In other tasks, experience differences were larger than age differences; in some cases, age differences were nonexistent. The analysis considers how aging and experience may affect different aspects of cognition, and the paper concludes by pointing out the many musical activities that even nonmusical seniors are well equipped to succeed at and enjoy.

Influences on career choice in music education audition candidates: Pilot study

The purpose of this pilot study was to survey prospective undergraduate music education majors to learn what motivated them to aspire to a career in music education. Respondents were candidates auditioning, but not yet accepted, for music teacher preparation programs at four institutions (N = 228). Findings corroborate prior research that suggests that school music teachers and/or private lesson teachers are highly influential. This study sought to quantify the types of experiences participants had in teaching roles at the time of their college audition, supporting other research suggesting that such experiences may increase interest in a music teaching career. Recommendations include engaging music educators at all PreK–12 levels in actively recruiting and encouraging future teachers, providing private instructors and performance majors with teacher recruitment information, emphasizing earlier identification and preparation of prospective educators, and refining and continuing the work begun in this pilot study.

More than Tunes in Your Head: Dynamic Aspects of Auditory Imagery for Music

Auditory imagery is more than just mental “replaying” of tunes in one’s head. I will review several studies that capture characteristics of complex and active imagery tasks, using both behavioral and neuroscience approaches. I use behavioral methods to capture people’s ability to make emotion judgments about both heard and imagined music in real time. My neuroimaging studies look at the neural correlates of encoding an imagined melody, anticipating an upcoming tune, and also imagining tunes backwards. Several studies show voxel-by-voxel correlates of neural activity with self-report of imagery vividness. These studies speak to the ways in which musical imagery allows us not just to remember music, but also how we use those memories to judge temporally changing aspects of the musical experience.

Music, perceived arousal, and intensity: psychophysiological reactions to Chopin's "Tristesse"

The present study investigates the relation of perceived arousal (continuous self-rating), autonomic nervous system activity (heart rate, heart rate variability) and musical characteristics (sound intensity, musical rhythm) upon listening to a complex musical piece. Twenty amateur musicians listened to two performances of Chopin's "Tristesse" with different rhythmic shapes. Besides conventional statistical methods for analyzing psychophysiological reactions (heart rate, respiration rate) and musical variables, semblance analysis was used. Perceived arousal correlated strongly with sound intensity; heart rate showed only a partial response to changes in sound intensity. Larger changes in heart rate were caused by the version with more rhythmic tension. The low-/high-frequency ratio of heart rate variability increased-whereas the high frequency component decreased-during music listening. We conclude that autonomic nervous system activity can be modulated not only by sound intensity but also by the interpreter's use of rhythmic tension. Semblance analysis enables us to track the subtle correlations between musical and physiological variables.

Comparison of musical activities of cochlear implant users with different speech-coding strategies

Speech coding might have an impact on music perception of cochlear implant users. This questionnaire study compares the musical activities and perception of postlingually deafened cochlear implant users with three different coding strategies (CIS, ACE, SPEAK) using the Munich Music Questionnaire. Overall, the self-reported perception of music of CIS, SPEAK, and ACE users did not differ by very much.

ON THE DIGITAL-POLITICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF MUSIC

The persuasive power of music is often relegated to the dimension of pathos: that which moves us emotionally. Yet, the music commodity is now situated in and around the liminal spaces of digitality. To think about how music functions, how it argues across media, and how it moves us, we must examine its material and immaterial realities as they present themselves to us and as we so create them. This dissertation rethinks the relationship between rhetoric and music by examining the creation, performance, and distribution of music in its material and immaterial forms to demonstrate its persuasive power. While both Plato and Aristotle understood music as a means to move men toward virtue, Aristotle tells us in his Laws, through the Athenian Stranger, that the very best kinds of music can help guide us to truth. From this starting point, I assess the historical problem of understanding the rhetorical potential of music as merely that which directs or imitates the emotions: that which “Soothes the savage breast,” as William Congreve writes. By furthering work by Vickers and Farnsworth, who suggest that the Baroque fascination with applying rhetorical figures to musical figures is an insufficient framework for assessing the rhetorical potential of music, I demonstrate the gravity of musical persuasion in its political weight, in its violence—the subjective violence of musical torture at Guantanamo and the objective, ideological violence of music—and in what Jacques Attali calls the prophetic nature of music. I argue that music has a significant function, and as a non-discursive form of argumentation, works on us beyond affect. Moreover, with the emergence of digital music distribution and domestic digital recording technologies, the digital music commodity in its material and immaterial forms allows for ruptures in the former methods of musical composition, production, and distribution and in the political potential of music which Jacques Attali describes as being able to foresee new political realities. I thus suggest a new theoretical framework for thinking about rhetoric and music by expanding on Lloyd Bitzer’s rhetorical situation, by offering the idea of “openings” to the existing exigence, audience, and constraints. The prophetic and rhetorical power of music in the aleatoric moment can help provide openings from which new exigencies can be conceived. We must, therefore, reconsider the role of rhetorical-musical composition for the citizen, not merely as a tool for entertainment or emotional persuasion, but as an arena for engaging with the political.

Comparison of music perception in bilateral and unilateral cochlear implant users and normal-hearing subjects

Music plays an important role in the daily life of cochlear implant (CI) users, but electrical hearing and speech processing pose challenges for enjoying music. Studies of unilateral CI (UCI) users' music perception have found that these subjects have little difficulty recognizing tempo and rhythm but great difficulty with pitch, interval and melody. The present study is an initial step towards understanding music perception in bilateral CI (BCI) users. The Munich Music Questionnaire was used to investigate music listening habits and enjoyment in 23 BCI users compared to 2 control groups: 23 UCI users and 23 normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Bilateral users appeared to have a number of advantages over unilateral users, though their enjoyment of music did not reach the level of NH listeners.

The EU’s Trouble with Mashups: From Disabling to Enabling a Digital Art Form

New tools for editing of digital images, music and films have opened up new possibilities to enable wider circles of society to engage in ’artistic’ activities of different qualities. User-generated content has produced a plethora of new forms of artistic expression. One type of user-generated content is the mashup. Mashups are compositions that combine existing works (often) protected by copyright and transform them into new original creations. The European legislative framework has not yet reacted to the copyright problems provoked by mashups. Neither under the US fair use doctrine, nor under the strict corset of limitations and exceptions in Art 5 (2)-(3) of the Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC) have mashups found room to develop in a safe legal environment. The contribution analyzes the current European legal framework and identifies its insufficiencies with regard to enabling a legal mashup culture. By comparison with the US fair use approach, in particular the parody defense, a recent CJEU judgment serves as a comparative example. Finally, an attempt is made to suggest solutions for the European legislator, based on the policy proposals of the EU Commission’s “Digital Agenda” and more recent policy documents (e.g. “On Content in the Digital Market”, “Licenses for Europe”). In this context, a distinction is made between non-commercial mashup artists and the emerging commercial mashup scene.

Cloth-covered Clamshell Music Box

Unbound sheet music and an audio CD of a live performance of the sheet music. GoalTo design an aesthetically cohesive binding and housing for the materials. TreatmentThe sheet music was bound as a double-fan adhesive with cloth-covered case binding. The bound volume and audio CD were housed together in a cloth-covered clamshell box with Volara foam insert.