Measuring Musical Forces

2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Larson ◽  
Leigh Vanhandel
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Computer Models ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Physical Motion ◽  
Musical Motion ◽  
Metaphorical Process ◽  
Psychological Experiments ◽  
Musical Forces ◽  
Melodic Expectation

RECENT STUDIES CONCERNING "musical forces" suggest that listeners of tonal music may understand, experience, and create that music (in part) through a metaphorical process that maps physical motion onto musical motion. These studies argue that musical motion is shaped by a "musical gravity," a "musical magnetism," and a "musical inertia" that are analogous to their physical counterparts. The studies also found a variety of types of evidence (the distribution of patterns within compositions, improvisations, and analyses; the behavior of computer models of melodic expectation; and the responses of participants in psychological experiments). However, none of this evidence quantifies how the interaction of musical forces might account for listeners' judgments of the dynamic tendencies of notes within heard melodic patterns. This article complements and extends these studies in three ways. First, we show how a reexamination of the metaphorical bases of the forces leads to a number of hypotheses to be tested. Second, we report an experiment that tested those hypotheses by asking listeners specifically to make judgments about the experienced "strength" of presented pattern completions. Third, we report a content analysis of the distribution of the same patterns within in Schenker's Five Graphic Music Analyses.

Musical Forces and Melodic Expectations: Comparing Computer Models and Experimental Results

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Computer Program ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Computer Models ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Single Level ◽  
Musical Forces ◽  
Melodic Expectation

Recent work on "musical forces" asserts that experienced listeners of tonal music not only talk about music in terms used to describe physical motion, but actually experience musical motion as if it were shaped by quantifiable analogues of physical gravity, magnetism, and inertia. This article presents a theory of melodic expectation based on that assertion, describes two computer models of aspects of that theory, and finds strong support for that theory in comparisons of the behavior of those models with the behavior of participants in several experiments. The following summary statement of the theory is explained and illustrated in the article: Experienced listeners of tonal music expect completions in which the musical forces of gravity, magnetism, and inertia control operations on alphabets in hierarchies of embellishment whose stepwise displacements of auralized traces create simple closed shapes. A "single-level" computer program models the operation of these musical forces on a single level of musical structure. Given a melodic beginning in a certain key, the model not only produces almost the same responses as experimental participants, but it also rates them in a similar way; the computer model gives higher ratings to responses that participants sing more often. In fact, the completions generated by this model match note-for-note the entire completions sung by participants in several psychological studies as often as the completions of any one of those participants matches those of the other participants. A "multilevel" computer program models the operation of these musical forces on multiple hierarchical levels. When the multilevel model is given a melodic beginning and a hierarchical description of its embellishment structure (i.e., a Schenkerian analysis of it), the model produces responses that reflect the operation of musical forces on all the levels of that hierarchical structure. Statistical analyses of the results of a number of experiments test hypotheses arising from the computer models' algorithm (S. Larson, 1993a) for the interaction of musical forces as well as from F. Lerdahl's similar (1996) algorithm. Further statistical analysis contrasts the explanatory power of the theory of musical forces with that of E. Narmour's (1990, 1992) implication-realization model. The striking agreement between computer-generated responses and experimental results suggests that the theory captures some important aspects of melodic expectation. Furthermore, the fact that these data can be modeled well by the interaction of constantly acting but contextually determined musical forces gives support to the idea that we experience musical motions metaphorically in terms of our experience of physical motions.

scholarly journals Taqsīm as a Creative Musical Process in Arabic Music

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaher Alkaei ◽  
Mats B. Küssner
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Thematic Content Analysis ◽  
Multiple Components ◽  
Flexible Form ◽  
Arabic Music ◽  
Shed Light

Creativity plays a major role in various musical contexts including composition, performance and education. Although numerous studies have revealed how creativity is involved in processes of listening, improvising and composing, relatively little is known about the particularities of transcultural creative processes in music. In this article, we aim to shed light on the creative musical processes underlying taqsīm performance in Arabic music. To that end, qualitative interviews have been conducted with three Berlin-based oud players from Syria. Results of a thematic content analysis show that taqsīm encompasses multiple components (e.g., a flexible form and dependency on maqam as well as tonal music) and serves various functions such as developing artistic individuality. Moreover, taqsīm is affected by interactions between tradition and novelty. We discuss the interview data within the cross-cultural experiential model of musical creativity developed by Hill (2018), offering a fresh approach to studying taqsīm which goes beyond established concepts such as the improvisation-composition continuum.

scholarly journals Teleological strategies of nontonal music: The case of Milan Mihajlović

New Sound ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 119-137
Author(s):  
Miloš Zatkalik
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Harmonic Series ◽  
Musical Analysis ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Musical Motion ◽  
The Given

Two basic strategies enable non-tonal music to be goal-oriented. One is to establish a referential sonority that would serve as the goal of musical motion. While both this sonority and the processes that steer the music flow towards it may be created contextually, in many compositions the referential role is performed by chords that approximate the harmonic series. The other strategy establishes as the goal the exhaustion of a given set of entities: most commonly the use of all pitch classes of the chromatic collection, but also other elements, such as all intervals, all possible transpositions of the given tone collection etc. Both strategies are well instantiated in the composition Eine kleine Trauermusik by Milan Mihajlović. There is also a teleological aspect of this composition that transcends pure musical analysis and is explicable in terms of music as a metaphorical representation of life processes.

Musical Forces, Melodic Expectation, and Jazz Melody

2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Larson
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Multiple Regression Analysis ◽  
Multiple Regression ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Experimental Literature ◽  
Bill Evans ◽  
Charlie Parker ◽  
Musical Forces ◽  
Melodic Expectation

I review the theoretical and experimental literature on musical forces and melodic expectation, showing important connections between that work and the work of leading jazz theorists. I then show how ideas derived from that work may help us understand a few passages of recorded jazz. The examples include two compositions (the "heads" to Charlie Parker's "Confirmation" and Toshiko Akiyoshi's "I Ain't Gonna Ask No More") and a few improvised passages (by Bill Evans and Charlie Parker). Viewing these examples in terms of what cognitive science tells us about melodic expectation clarifies their rhetorical and gestural "meanings." Furthermore, these same examples can help us test those same theories of melodic expectation——multiple regression analysis of the frequency with which certain patterns are completed within these same examples provides an empirical test of assertions derived from the literature reviewed.

PERENNIAL QUESTIONS

Tempo ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 59 (234) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Robert Clifford
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Pattern Completion ◽  
Tonal Hierarchy ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Musical Forces

In his essay ‘What are twelve-note rows really for?’ (Tempo, Vol. 57, No. 225, July 2003, p. 36), Michael Graubart suggests that ‘twelve-note rows may give back to atonal music a goal-directed force and the possibility of closure’. He argues that by using a row, composers set up a pattern that can ultimately provide a sense of completion or closure to an atonal piece, although he admits that listeners may have trouble recognizing this completion. Closure in tonal music is in fact a powerful musical force, but one whose strength depends largely upon the hierarchy found in tonal melody and harmony. Consider the closure at the end of a piece. It is here that an authentic cadence signals the coming to rest of large-scale musical forces, both melodic and harmonic, on several levels of structure. We might make analogies, as Graubart does, between tonal closure and the pattern-completion possible with a twelve-note row, but one wonders if any row, or any twelve-note piece for that matter, can provide the type of multi-level completion that is possible within the tonal hierarchy.

Do Writing Directions Influence How People Map Space onto Time?

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Wenxing Yang ◽  
Ying Sun
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Temporal Cognition ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Psychological Experiments ◽  
Vertical Up

Abstract. The causal role of a unidirectional orthography in shaping speakers’ mental representations of time seems to be well established by many psychological experiments. However, the question of whether bidirectional writing systems in some languages can also produce such an impact on temporal cognition remains unresolved. To address this issue, the present study focused on Japanese and Taiwanese, both of which have a similar mix of texts written horizontally from left to right (HLR) and vertically from top to bottom (VTB). Two experiments were performed which recruited Japanese and Taiwanese speakers as participants. Experiment 1 used an explicit temporal arrangement design, and Experiment 2 measured implicit space-time associations in participants along the horizontal (left/right) and the vertical (up/down) axis. Converging evidence gathered from the two experiments demonstrate that neither Japanese speakers nor Taiwanese speakers aligned their vertical representations of time with the VTB writing orientation. Along the horizontal axis, only Japanese speakers encoded elapsing time into a left-to-right linear layout, which was commensurate with the HLR writing direction. Therefore, two distinct writing orientations of a language could not bring about two coexisting mental time lines. Possible theoretical implications underlying the findings are discussed.

Of Frames and Cultures - A Cross-Cultural Comparison of TV Newscasts

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 160-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Senokozlieva ◽  
Oliver Fischer ◽  
Gary Bente ◽  
Nicole Krämer
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Comparison ◽  
Explorative Study ◽  
Cross Cultural Comparison ◽  
Tv News ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. TV news are essentially cultural phenomena. Previous research suggests that the often-overlooked formal and implicit characteristics of newscasts may be systematically related to culture-specific characteristics. Investigating these characteristics by means of a frame-by-frame content analysis is identified as a particularly promising methodological approach. To examine the relationship between culture and selected formal characteristics of newscasts, we present an explorative study that compares material from the USA, the Arab world, and Germany. Results indicate that there are many significant differences, some of which are in line with expectations derived from cultural specifics. Specifically, we argue that the number of persons presented as well as the context in which they are presented can be interpreted as indicators of Individualism/Collectivism. The conclusions underline the validity of the chosen methodological approach, but also demonstrate the need for more comprehensive and theory-driven category schemes.

Searching Online for Methods of Suicide

Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Christian Ulrich Eriksen ◽  
Flemming Konradsen ◽  
Thilde Vildekilde
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Online Content ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Methods Of Suicide

Abstract. Background: Information on methods of suicide is available online, and access to information on methods of suicide appears to contribute to a small but significant proportion of suicides. There is limited documentation of how methods of suicide are being profiled, as well as what content exists in other languages than English. Aim: We aimed to analyze and compare how methods of suicide are profiled on Danish and English-language websites. Method: We applied a categorization and content analysis of websites describing methods of suicide. Sites were retrieved by applying widely used Danish and English-language search terms. Results: A total of 136 English-language websites and 106 Danish-language websites were included for analysis. Websites were more often categorized as prevention or support sites, academic or policy sites, and against suicide sites than dedicated suicide sites (i.e., pro-suicide sites), or information sites. However, information on methods of suicide was available, and 20.1% and 8.9% of the English and Danish-language sites, respectively, suggested that a particular method of suicide was quick, easy, painless, or certain to result in death. Limitations: Only one author coded and analyzed all websites. A further operationalization of the content analysis checklist is warranted to increase reliability. Conclusion: The websites primarily had a prevention or anti-suicide focus, but information on methods of suicide was available, requiring an increased focus on how to diminish the negative effects of harmful online content.

Types of Stressors on Nonprofessional Against-Suicide and Pro-Suicide Message Boards

Crisis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Niederkrotenthaler ◽  
Benedikt Till
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Interpersonal Problems ◽  
Suicide Method ◽  
Presenting Problems ◽  
Message Boards ◽  
Safe Method ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Psychiatric Problems

Abstract. Background: Little is known about presenting problems of primary posters (i.e., posters opening the thread) and their responders in nonprofessional against-suicide and pro-suicide message boards. Aims: We aimed to compare problems described in suicide message boards between different types of users (primary posters and respondents) and between against-suicide, neutral, and pro-suicide message boards. Method: In all, 1,182 archival threads with 20,499 individual postings from seven nonprofessional suicide message boards supporting an against-suicide, neutral, or pro-suicide attitude were randomly selected. Problems mentioned by primary posters and their respondents were coded with content analysis. Differences between pro-suicide, neutral, and against suicide boards, as well as correlations between primary posters and respondents, were calculated. Results: Interpersonal problems were most frequently mentioned by primary posters in against-suicide threads (40.9%) and less frequently in pro-suicide threads (11.8%; p < .001). In pro-suicide boards, the most frequent stressors were suicide method-related (e.g., how to identify a safe method: 26.2% vs. 2.5% in against-suicide boards, p < .001). Primary posters resembled respondents in terms of presenting problems in pro-suicide boards, but not in against-suicide boards. Limitations: Only self-reported problems were assessed. Conclusion: The results confirm a stronger focus on death than on life among users in pro-suicide message boards, and posters with similar problems meet in pro-suicide boards. The posters appear to clearly emphasize social strains over psychiatric problems compared with some professional settings.

How to be ConTENT With Rorschach CONtent

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-165
Author(s):  
Charles A. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Abstract Content

Abstract. Content analysis is a late and contentious addition to the Rorschach canon. The determinants have ruled. Hermann Rorschach was at best, ambivalent about content analysis, focusing on the perceptual aspects of the process. Rorschachers have been not been conTENT about CONtent. The literature on the pros and cons and the how-to of content analysis is reviewed chronologically, concluding with eight issues and objections that have left Rorschach practitioners malcontent with content. Hoping to help practitioners improve the analysis of Rorschach content, ten suggestions, often with examples, are offered, these “hints” affecting both conceptualization and practice. A case fragment is appended to the review to host the above suggestions and to illustrate the (likely) less frequent “active evocation” of content to further the analysis.

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