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- Ahlbäck, Sven, 1960-
(författare)
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Melody Beyond Notes : A Study of Melody Cognition
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Abstract Melody beyond notes - a study of melody cognition Keywords: Melody, Cognition, Melodic segmentation, Melodic Parallelism, Pitch Structure,Meter, Rhythm, Grouping, Swedish Folk Music, Music Theory, Computer-aided analysis This thesis is a music theoretical approach to cognition of surface structure in monophonic melodies. It can briefly be described as a study into what extent we may acquire a common experience of melodic structure, such as phrase structure, only from listening to a melody. More precisely, this work concerns the question as to whether a cognitively based method of analysis can provide analyses of melodic surface structures in different styles thatwill concur with listeners’ conceptions better than chance. In order to investigate this question a general model of melody cognition wasdeveloped, relying primarily on a few general cognitive principles. The model was designed to be general in the sense that it should apply to any style for which the concept of melody is relevant. This model provided the framework for a computer-aided method of analysis, which performs analysis of different aspects of melodic surface structure based on information of relative pitch and temporal information only. These aspects involve: Categorical perception of pitch and duration at basic levels, such as context-sensitive quantization and melodic pitch categorization; Analysis of metrical and non-metrical temporal structures, e,g. heterometric structures; phrase and section structure, including analysis of structural implications of melodic similarity, structural hierarchy and symmetry. This development has required new theoretical concepts and methods to be created, e.g. regarding the relationship between rhythm and meter, some of which are presented for the first time is this thesis.In order to evaluate the performance of the model a series of listener tests were performed, which together with corpuses of musical notations from different styles, constituted the reference material of the study. This material has included Scandinavian folk music styles and Western classical music, but also examples of Eastern European folk music, Middle East and Indian Classical music, Jazz and Western popular song.The results of these tests indicated that melody can be conceived differently by people even within a limited cultural sphere. But the results also suggested that this variability is possible to model by a rule-based method of analysis, since the predictions given by the model generally were well above chance level. It is herein suggested that variability in grouping conception to a considerable degree can be accounted for in terms of start- and end-oriented grouping preference. Moreover, the results also indicate that important aspects of even culturally foreign music can be conveyed, also in limited melodic stimuli.Generally, the results support the assumption of a general cognitive framework for melodic surface structure. This might be interpreted as to indicate that, metaphorically speaking; melody may indeed be a universal ‘language’, but one which we all understand in our own way.
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- Ryner, Birgitta, 1939-
(författare)
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Vad ska vi sjunga? : En musikpedagogisk diskurs om tiden mellan två världskrig
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis contains an analysis and interpretation of the school music debate that was particularly lively during the 1930s. The debate started with an article in Stockholms-Tidningen – Stockholms Dagblad entitled Why not sing popular songs in music classes? The author was Knut Brodin, a music teacher at Olofskolan, a school run in accordance with the principals of educational progressivism, inspired by John Dewey. The debate developed into a confrontation between tradition and renewal. The foundations of music teaching, indeed of school education as a whole, both form and content, were at stake. The debate also raised questions about values in view of the increasing popularity of popular music and its potentially harmful effect on morals. The purpose of the thesis is to describe and interpret the Swedish discourse on music teaching during the 1930s. The main question is: What educational and other ideas were expressed in this discourse and what was their origin? The theoretical and methodical framework of the thesis is discourse analysis. The material studied consisted of texts in the form of statements about music and music teaching. The analysis reveals a struggle for power, i.e. the power to win the right to interpret and define the basic elements of the discourse. Music and music teaching emerge in a broader social context in connection with the analysis of the discourse. The terms music and music teaching turn out to be variable and ambiguous. The same applies to other terms such as children and education. The period studied here witnessed a marked professionalization of music teachers which sharpened the ideological struggle between different groups. The discourse was marked by the incompatibility between traditional and progressive tendencies.
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- West, Tore, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Interaktion och kunskapsutveckling : en studie av frivillig musikundervisning
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In a joint dissertation project, 11 brass instrument and guitar lessons, with 4 teachers and 21 students aged 9-35 years, were videotaped, transcribed and analyzed. Two were group lessons and 9 were private lessons. The object of the project was to study how music teaching and learning can be understood from an institutional perspective by describing, analyzing and interpreting musical instrument lessons. The lessons were viewed as social encounters in which the action of participants creates and re-creates social orders at different institutional levels, by means of communication routines using speech, music and gesture. Data were derived from micro-ethnographic transcriptions of speech, gesture and music of a total of five hours of videotape, supplemented by text analyses of 14 method-books. The transcripts were analyzed as text from the perspective of critical discourse analysis. At the analytical level the study applied the cognitive concepts of experiencing and learning music, as well as those of educational genres of speech and music use. The analyzed data were interpreted and discussed from the perspectives of interaction-theory and institution-theory. The results show how the music during the lessons was broken down into separate notes, as read from the score. Music was not addressed as phrases, rhythms, or melodies. Expressive qualities of music performance were not addressed. The characteristics of the interaction were found to be asymmetric, with the teacher being the one controlling the definition of the situation. Student attempts to take initiative were ignored by teachers. This asymmetric pattern of interaction had negative consequences for students’ as well as teachers’ opportunities to learn. The organization of the teaching situation as well as teaching methods is discussed from the perspective of institution-theory. A major conclusion is that the way instrument teaching is organized leaves little room for students and teachers to discuss and reflect on the teaching process.
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