Matching Items (77)
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- All Subjects: Music
- Creators: Norton, Kay
- Status: Published
Description
Previous literature on synchronization to music using finger tapping tasks in a laboratory or otherwise controlled setting has led to some invaluable, albeit dated, theories about time and synchronization. In an effort to modernize some of the approaches utilized in research on music synchronization, this study applies established theories of music entrainment to a fieldwork study. Specifically, this study focuses on the extent to which participants of Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art disguised as a dance, synchronize to external timekeepers by analyzing icti in several types of movements and comparing them to musical rhythmic beats.
Sports psychology studies have shown that the presence of music can have involuntary effects on exercise. For example, walkers and runners will spontaneously synchronize gait to auditory signals. However, runners do not normally focus on choreology, acrobatics, and environmental stimuli while exercising. This study contributes to this field of research by adding observations and analyzing degrees of synchronization in a martial art, which may be more cognitively demanding than running.
In Capoeira, participants are still expected to attend to music. The degree of synchronization that occurs in a Capoeira class can then be compared with synchronization in martial arts that have music solely as a background component. These future studies would be analyzing music entrainment in real-life environments with physical activities that are more cognitively complex than running. Moreover, these future studies can help to confirm or challenge current theories of attention and music entrainment and synchronization.
Sports psychology studies have shown that the presence of music can have involuntary effects on exercise. For example, walkers and runners will spontaneously synchronize gait to auditory signals. However, runners do not normally focus on choreology, acrobatics, and environmental stimuli while exercising. This study contributes to this field of research by adding observations and analyzing degrees of synchronization in a martial art, which may be more cognitively demanding than running.
In Capoeira, participants are still expected to attend to music. The degree of synchronization that occurs in a Capoeira class can then be compared with synchronization in martial arts that have music solely as a background component. These future studies would be analyzing music entrainment in real-life environments with physical activities that are more cognitively complex than running. Moreover, these future studies can help to confirm or challenge current theories of attention and music entrainment and synchronization.
ContributorsRossi, Alex (Author) / Norton, Kay (Thesis advisor) / Knowles, Kristina (Thesis advisor) / Fossum, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Although many of the effects of the flute’s design and mechanisms have been previously studied, the flute’s stopper remains relatively unexplored. Stoppers are traditionally made of cork, are used to seal the upper end of the headjoint tubing, and determine the overall intonation of the flute. However, new stoppers made of different types of materials have been created to serve an additional purpose: to improve various aspects of player performance. These new non-cork stoppers vary in design and material, and claim to improve players’ projection, resonance, response, and other qualities.
This research project discusses the history of the flute’s stopper and its functions, usage, and effects to improve general stopper knowledge and assist flutists interested in trying or purchasing non-cork stoppers available today. Because only three small studies have been published on the stopper’s acoustic and perceived effects to date, two single-blind experiments were conducted to determine the stoppers’ potential acoustic and perceived effects on listener and player perception. Five of the most popular stoppers available today were tested: the Bigio Stopper, Celestine Rexonator, Seidman Flute Stopper Plug, Swap-Stopper, and the traditional cork stopper.
To determine the stopper’s acoustic effects, which can be quantified, an acoustic experiment was conducted to investigate the stoppers’ effect on intensity in decibels (which correlates with perceived loudness) and spectral centroid in hertz (which correlates with perceived tonal brightness). Perception tests were conducted to examine how both players and listeners perceive the stoppers’ effects on projection, response, tone quality, and timbre. The results of these experiments will help flutists better understand the effects of the stopper and navigate the stopper-makers’ claims about non-cork stoppers available for purchase today.
This research project discusses the history of the flute’s stopper and its functions, usage, and effects to improve general stopper knowledge and assist flutists interested in trying or purchasing non-cork stoppers available today. Because only three small studies have been published on the stopper’s acoustic and perceived effects to date, two single-blind experiments were conducted to determine the stoppers’ potential acoustic and perceived effects on listener and player perception. Five of the most popular stoppers available today were tested: the Bigio Stopper, Celestine Rexonator, Seidman Flute Stopper Plug, Swap-Stopper, and the traditional cork stopper.
To determine the stopper’s acoustic effects, which can be quantified, an acoustic experiment was conducted to investigate the stoppers’ effect on intensity in decibels (which correlates with perceived loudness) and spectral centroid in hertz (which correlates with perceived tonal brightness). Perception tests were conducted to examine how both players and listeners perceive the stoppers’ effects on projection, response, tone quality, and timbre. The results of these experiments will help flutists better understand the effects of the stopper and navigate the stopper-makers’ claims about non-cork stoppers available for purchase today.
ContributorsHoeckley, Stephanie (Author) / Buck, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Gardner, Joshua (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
For decades, music educators have discussed the need to expand the standard choral canon to address disparities across student demographics in collegiate choral programs. These conversations have proved insufficient, because they do not address the systemic and structural issues that are the main cause for the racial and gender disparities within various areas of choral music. To address how structural oppression has found its way into collegiate choral music, I have studied how the discourse, or language, found on several collegiate choral music program public websites upholds two main power structures within collegiate choral music: the white racial frame and settler colonialist thought. Through a fictionalized narrative based on my personal music education experiences called “Decolonizing Kiki: A Socratic Dialogue,” I provide a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of language found on current American collegiate choral program websites. The narrative analysis intentionally centered my body and marginalized identities in order to illustrate the need to reflect upon the impact of language in choral music education. In addition to addressing the white racial frame and colonialist knowledge systems and practices in the discourse of collegiate choral music, this document departs from a typical Western approach to educational research. The narrative analysis also serves as a personal educational currere, which has helped me affirm my cultural and ethnic identities, ground my teaching philosophy, and further reconceptualize the future of choral music education
ContributorsSteiner, Kiernan Marlene (Author) / Schildkret, David (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Thompson, Jason (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Mental health of children has been a topic of concern in recent years, and was brought to the forefront again in 2020 due to exacerbated stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the amount of time children spend in school, the effects of their emotional stress and mental health challenges are seen by their teachers. Studies have shown that teachers often have high levels of concern about student mental health, but also do not feel as though they have enough resources and guidance from their schools to be able to support the mental health of the students in their classrooms on a daily basis. Research also shows that music is an effective tool for addressing children’s mental health and bolstering their mindfulness. The goal of this study was to better understand whether or not a subset of elementary school music teachers use music to help students who are feeling anxiety, stress, or other emotional or mental disturbances. To that end, I surveyed a convenience sample of elementary music educators, mainly from Arizona’s Maricopa County, about the following research questions: (1) are educators utilizing music in their classrooms expressly for mental health and mindfulness purposes? (2) how do music educators perceive the mental health of their students? (3) how do they manage related behaviors or challenges in their classrooms? (4) do they feel they have adequate resources to address student mental health? A secondary purpose of the study was to utilize the responses to inform my creation of a website intended to provide resources that would be useful for music educators who are willing to address student mental wellbeing.
In addition to receiving many individual pieces of helpful information, I analyzed survey responses for general trends. My sample indicates that music teachers do have more than moderate levels of concern over their students’ mental health. It also revealed a lack of consistency in teacher pre-service preparation and also in the kinds of programs and associated training that are in place which address student mental health.
ContributorsCole, Casey (Author) / Norton, Kay (Thesis advisor) / Schmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Solís, Ted (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This thesis examines the role of advocacy and social justice in the music of three living American women composers, and the ways their efforts as mentors, patrons, academics, and educators interact with their work as composers. Case studies include Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972), Missy Mazzoli (b. 1980), and Jennifer Jolley (b. 1981). My musicological narrative is informed by Kimberly Francis’s concept of women as “cultural mosaics” and Patricia Hill Collins’s theorization of intersectionality, which addresses the junction of variable characteristics (such as race, gender, or class) as they relate to an individual’s identity. I have centered my narrative on social issues these composers address through their activism and their music. Gabriela Lena Frank’s orchestral work, Peregrinos (2009), emphasizes Frank’s value of community outreach and her interdependence on others. Frank uses folklórica traditions and Latin mythology to musically recognize the diverse experiences of Latin American immigrants living in Indianapolis. Missy Mazzoli blends operatic traditions with electronics to convey messages of female empowerment in Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt (2012). Mazzoli’s characterization of the fascinating life of this nineteenth-century woman resonates with modern understandings of intersectionality and agency, and aligns with her work with the Luna Composition Lab. Jennifer Jolley’s approach to musical activism in Prisoner of Conscience (2017) mirrors her philosophical and political messages explored on her blog and e-magazine articles. Juxtaposing punk rock with church motets and madrigals, Jolley comments on the nature of protest and the punishment of Russian feminist punk group, Pussy Riot.
I position these composers as cultural agents with diverse concerns and diverse means by which to voice them. Frank, Mazzoli, and Jolley each participate in valuable extra-musical roles outside of their compositions: from Gabriela Lena Frank’s Creative Academy of Music, to Mazzoli’s Luna Composition Lab, to Jolley’s NewMusicBox articles. Each of these composers negotiate agency within traditions that have not always been open to women, and they seek to further remedy race and gender inequities through their prominent positions as educators and composers.
ContributorsMartinac, Caitlin (Author) / Norton, Kay (Thesis advisor) / Saucier, Catherine (Committee member) / Hicks, Glen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Lu Pei (b. 1956) is a celebrated Chinese American composer who currently serves as a composition professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. His work is known for its varied use of Chinese folk tunes. He lived in the United States a long time, which cultivated within him abundant Western musical influences. The sound of multi-ethnic elements is greatly reflected in his own music. Writing an opera has always been his ultimate dream as a composer, and after many years of work, the opera The Third of March was completed and premiered in 2018 in Guangxi. It has received wide acclaim and has been a favorite of younger listeners. Lu Pei aims to bring young people to modern music and the Chinese opera, not only using traditional Chinese musical elements, but also adopts “reinvented” modern Western musical styles, giving a new identity to the Chinese opera is the main foci of The Third of March.
To prepare for my performer’s guide to The Third of March, I will discuss Lu Pei’s inspirations from the Guangxi Song Fairs, and the music and culture of the Zhuang people surrounding the date in the Chinese lunar calendar, March Third. For Westerners unfamiliar with Lu Pei’s music, I will briefly introduce the compositional blending of Western and Chinese musical styles with a section about Chinese composers active in the United States, Chen Yi (b. 1953), and Tan Dun (b. 1957). I will also include a brief outline of the history of Chinese opera development, and Lu Pei’s compositional concepts and the background of the opera The Third of March will be discussed.
My performer’s guide, the primary focus of this project, will begin by stressing Lu Pei’s adoption of different Chinese folk songs and Western compositional elements. These techniques clearly gave the piece a unique stylistic identity. I will give a brief overview of the Chinese language diction in International Phonetic Alphabet. Finally, the qualities of the main arias in the opera, and some of the Chinese operatic techniques for singers, and their special effects, will be explored.
To prepare for my performer’s guide to The Third of March, I will discuss Lu Pei’s inspirations from the Guangxi Song Fairs, and the music and culture of the Zhuang people surrounding the date in the Chinese lunar calendar, March Third. For Westerners unfamiliar with Lu Pei’s music, I will briefly introduce the compositional blending of Western and Chinese musical styles with a section about Chinese composers active in the United States, Chen Yi (b. 1953), and Tan Dun (b. 1957). I will also include a brief outline of the history of Chinese opera development, and Lu Pei’s compositional concepts and the background of the opera The Third of March will be discussed.
My performer’s guide, the primary focus of this project, will begin by stressing Lu Pei’s adoption of different Chinese folk songs and Western compositional elements. These techniques clearly gave the piece a unique stylistic identity. I will give a brief overview of the Chinese language diction in International Phonetic Alphabet. Finally, the qualities of the main arias in the opera, and some of the Chinese operatic techniques for singers, and their special effects, will be explored.
ContributorsBan, Banlingyu (Author) / FitzPatrick, Carole (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
ABSTRACT
Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was a prolific composer whose musical works, which encompassed eight symphonies, four overtures, an opera, dozens of sonatas, eight string quartets, solo piano works, and nearly 130 songs for solo voice or vocal quartet, were performed in the foremost concert halls in Berlin and across Germany. She studied with lauded teachers: Carl Loewe (1796-1869), Adolph Bernhard Marx (1795-1866), and Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802-1872). Her talent was applauded by audiences and critics wrote favorably, despite their reservations about women composers. However, even with this unusual pedigree, Mayer’s works nearly disappeared from concert stages after her death. How did this happen? This study aims to answer this question and will delve into Emilie Mayer’s life and works in context with the prejudices against female composers at the time, in order to determine how those biases have shaped the classical canon. Included is an in-depth stylistic analysis of Mayer’s surviving seven Lieder, along-side comparisons to similar works of other composers. In addition, appendices present Mayer’s remaining Lieder in a new, modernized edition, with selected songs transposed for better accessibility for lower voices. Relative lack of female representation in modern-day concert halls and music history books correlates to previous misconceptions of female composers. Studying the works of Emilie Mayer will support her addition to the classical repertoire, help correct the male-gendered canon that persists, and help modern female composers realize their history is not confined to a footnote.
Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was a prolific composer whose musical works, which encompassed eight symphonies, four overtures, an opera, dozens of sonatas, eight string quartets, solo piano works, and nearly 130 songs for solo voice or vocal quartet, were performed in the foremost concert halls in Berlin and across Germany. She studied with lauded teachers: Carl Loewe (1796-1869), Adolph Bernhard Marx (1795-1866), and Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802-1872). Her talent was applauded by audiences and critics wrote favorably, despite their reservations about women composers. However, even with this unusual pedigree, Mayer’s works nearly disappeared from concert stages after her death. How did this happen? This study aims to answer this question and will delve into Emilie Mayer’s life and works in context with the prejudices against female composers at the time, in order to determine how those biases have shaped the classical canon. Included is an in-depth stylistic analysis of Mayer’s surviving seven Lieder, along-side comparisons to similar works of other composers. In addition, appendices present Mayer’s remaining Lieder in a new, modernized edition, with selected songs transposed for better accessibility for lower voices. Relative lack of female representation in modern-day concert halls and music history books correlates to previous misconceptions of female composers. Studying the works of Emilie Mayer will support her addition to the classical repertoire, help correct the male-gendered canon that persists, and help modern female composers realize their history is not confined to a footnote.
ContributorsSadownik, Stephanie Beth (Author) / Weiss, Stephanie (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Thesis advisor) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020