MUSIC FOR WAY OF LIFE

2008-11-15T22:26:00.001-08:00

The Music on the Hill by Saki www.world-english.org

Sylvia Seltoun ate her breakfast in the morning-room at Yessney with a pleasant sense of ultimate victory, such as a fervent Ironside might have permitted himself on the morrow of Worcester fight. She was scarcely pugnacious by temperament, but belonged to that more successful class of fighters who are pugnacious by circumstance. Fate had willed that her life should be occupied with a series of small struggles, usually with the odds slightly against her, and usually she had just managed to come through winning. And now she felt that she had brought her hardest and certainly her most important struggle to a successful issue. To have married Mortimer Seltoun, "Dead Mortimer" as his more intimate enemies called him, in the teeth of the cold hostility of his family, and in spite of his unaffected indifference to women, was indeed an achievement that had needed some determination and adroitness to carry through; yesterday she had brought her victory to its concluding stage by wrenching her husband away from Town and its group of satellite watering-places and "settling him down," in the vocabulary of her kind, in this remote wood-girt manor farm which was his country house.
"You will never get Mortimer to go," his mother had said carpingly, "but if he once goes he'll stay; Yessney throws almost as much a spell over him as Town does. One can understand what holds him to Town, but Yessney--" and the dowager had shrugged her shoulders.
There was a sombre almost savage wildness about Yessney that was certainly not likely to appeal to town-bred tastes, and Sylvia, notwithstanding her name, was accustomed to nothing much more sylvan than "leafy Kensington." She looked on the country as something excellent and wholesome in its way, which was apt to become troublesome if you encouraged it overmuch. Distrust of townlife had been a new thing with her, born of her marriage with Mortimer, and she had watched with satisfaction the gradual fading of what she called "the Jermyn-Street-look" in his eyes as the woods and heather of Yessney had closed in on them yesternight. Her will-power and strategy had prevailed; Mortimer would stay. Outside the morning-room windows was a triangular slope of turf, which the indulgent might call a lawn, and beyond its low hedge of neglected fuschia bushes a steeper slope of heather and bracken dropped down into cavernous combes overgrown with oak and yew. In its wild open savagery there seemed a stealthy linking of the joy of life with the terror of unseen things. Sylvia smiled complacently as she gazed with a School-of-Art appreciation at the landscape, and then of a sudden she almost shuddered.

"It is very wild," she said to Mortimer, who had joined her; "one could almost think that in such a place the worship of Pan had never quite died out."
"The worship of Pan never has died out," said Mortimer. "Other newer gods have drawn aside his votaries from time to time, but he is the Nature-God to whom all must come back at last. He has been called the Father of all the Gods, but most of his children have been stillborn."
Sylvia was religious in an honest, vaguely devotional kind of way, and did not like to hear her beliefs spoken of as mere aftergrowths, but it was at least something new and hopeful to hear Dead Mortimer speak with such energy and conviction on any subject.
"You don't really believe in Pan?" she asked incredulously.
"I've been a fool in most things," said Mortimer quietly, "but I'm not such a fool as not to believe in Pan when I'm down here. And if you're wise you won't disbelieve in him too boastfully while you're in his country."
It was not till a week later, when Sylvia had exhausted the attractions of the woodland walks round Yessney, that she ventured on a tour of inspection of the farm buildings. A farmyard suggested in her mind a scene of cheerful bustle, with churns and flails and smiling dairymaids, and teams of horses drinking knee-deep in duck-crowded ponds. As she wandered among the gaunt grey buildings of Yessney manor farm her first impression was one of crushing stillness and desolation, as though she had happened on some lone deserted homestead long given over to owls and cobwebs; then came a sense of furtive watchful hostility, the same shadow of unseen things that seemed to lurk in the wooded combes and coppices. From behind heavy doors and shuttered windows came the restless stamp of hoof or rasp of chain halter, and at times a muffled bellow from some stalled beast. From a distant comer a shaggy dog watched her with intent unfriendly eyes; as she drew near it slipped quietly into its kennel, and slipped out again as noiselessly when she had passed by. A few hens, questing for food under a rick, stole away under a gate at her approach. Sylvia felt that if she had come across any human beings in this wilderness of barn and byre they would have fled wraith-like from her gaze. At last, turning a corner quickly, she came upon a living thing that did not fly from her. Astretch in a pool of mud was an enormous sow, gigantic beyond the town-woman's wildest computation of swine-flesh, and speedily alert to resent and if necessary repel the unwonted intrusion. It was Sylvia's turn to make an unobtrusive retreat. As she threaded her way past rickyards and cowsheds and long blank walls, she started suddenly at a strange sound - the echo of a boy's laughter, golden and equivocal. Jan, the only boy employed on the farm, a tow-headed, wizen-faced yokel, was visibly at work on a potato clearing half-way up the nearest hill-side, and Mortimer, when questioned, knew of no other probable or possible begetter of the hidden mockery that had ambushed Sylvia's retreat. The memory of that untraceable echo was added to her other impressions of a furtive sinister "something" that hung around Yessney.

Of Mortimer she saw very little; farm and woods and trout- streams seemed to swallow him up from dawn till dusk. Once, following the direction she had seen him take in the morning, she came to an open space in a nut copse, further shut in by huge yew trees, in the centre of which stood a stone pedestal surmounted by a small bronze figure of a youthful Pan. It was a beautiful piece of workmanship, but her attention was chiefly held by the fact that a newly cut bunch of grapes had been placed as an offering at its feet. Grapes were none too plentiful at the manor house, and Sylvia snatched the bunch angrily from the pedestal. Contemptuous annoyance dominated her thoughts as she strolled slowly homeward, and then gave way to a sharp feeling of something that was very near fright; across a thick tangle of undergrowth a boy's face was scowling at her, brown and beautiful, with unutterably evil eyes. It was a lonely pathway, all pathways round Yessney were lonely for the matter of that, and she sped forward without waiting to give a closer scrutiny to this sudden apparition. It was not till she had reached the house that she discovered that she had dropped the bunch of grapes in her flight.
"I saw a youth in the wood today," she told Mortimer that evening, "brown-faced and rather handsome, but a scoundrel to look at. A gipsy lad, I suppose."
"A reasonable theory," said Mortimer, "only there aren't any gipsies in these parts at present."
"Then who was he?" asked Sylvia, and as Mortimer appeared to have no theory of his own she passed on to recount her finding of the votive offering.
"I suppose it was your doing," she observed; "it's a harmless piece of lunacy, but people would think you dreadfully silly if they knew of it."
"Did you meddle with it in any way?" asked Mortimer.
"I - I threw the grapes away. It seemed so silly," said Sylvia, watching Mortimer's impassive face for a sign of annoyance.
"I don't think you were wise to do that," he said reflectively. "I've heard it said that the Wood Gods are rather horrible to those who molest them."
"Horrible perhaps to those that believe in them, but you see I don't," retorted Sylvia.

"All the same," said Mortimer in his even, dispassionate tone, "I should avoid the woods and orchards if I were you, and give a wide berth to the horned beasts on the farm."
It was all nonsense, of course, but in that lonely wood-girt spot nonsense seemed able to rear a bastard brood of uneasiness.
"Mortimer," said Sylvia suddenly, "I think we will go back to Town some time soon."
Her victory had not been so complete as she had supposed; it had carried her on to ground that she was already anxious to quit.
"I don't think you will ever go back to Town," said Mortimer. He seemed to be paraphrasing his mother's prediction as to himself.
Sylvia noted with dissatisfaction and some self-contempt that the course of her next afternoon's ramble took her instinctively clear of the network of woods. As to the horned cattle, Mortimer's warning was scarcely needed, for she had always regarded them as of doubtful neutrality at the best: her imagination
unsexed the most matronly dairy cows and turned them into bulls liable to "see red" at any moment. The ram who fed in the narrow paddock below the orchards she had adjudged, after ample and cautious probation, to be of docile temper; today, however, she decided to leave his docility untested, for the usually tranquil beast was roaming with every sign of restlessness from corner to corner of his meadow. A low, fitful piping, as of some reedy flute, was coming from the depth of a neighbouring copse, and there seemed to be some subtle connection between the animal's restless pacing and the wild music from the wood. Sylvia turned her steps in an upward direction and climbed the heather-clad slopes that stretched in rolling shoulders high above Yessney. She had left the piping notes behind her, but across the wooded combes at her feet the wind brought her another kind of music, the straining bay of hounds in full chase. Yessney was just on the outskirts of the Devon-and-Somerset country, and the hunted deer sometimes came that way. Sylvia could presently see a dark body, breasting hill after hill, and sinking again and again out of sight as he crossed the combes, while behind him steadily swelled that relentless chorus, and she grew tense with the excited sympathy that one feels for any hunted thing in whose capture one is not directly interested. And at last he broke through the outermost line of oak scrub and fern and stood panting in the open, a fat September stag carrying a well-furnished head. His obvious course was to drop down to the brown pools of Undercombe, and thence make his way towards the red deer's favoured sanctuary, the sea. To Sylvia's surprise, however, he turned his head to the upland slope and came lumbering resolutely onward over the heather. "It will be dreadful," she thought, "the hounds will pull him down under my very eyes." But the music of the pack seemed to have died away for a moment, and in its place she heard again that wild piping, which rose now on this side, now on that, as though urging the failing stag to a final effort. Sylvia stood well aside from his path, half hidden in a thick growth of whortle bushes, and watched him swing stiffly upward, his flanks dark with sweat, the coarse hair on his neck showing light by contrast. The pipe music shrilled suddenly around her, seeming to come from the bushes at her very feet, and at the same moment the great beast slewed round and bore directly down upon her. In an instant her pity for the hunted animal was changed to wild terror at her own danger; the thick heather roots mocked her scrambling efforts at flight, and she looked frantically downward for a glimpse of oncoming hounds. The huge antler spikes were within a few yards of her, and in a flash of numbing fear she remembered Mortimer's warning, to beware of horned beasts on the farm. And then with a quick throb of joy she saw that she was not alone; a human figure stood a few paces aside, knee-deep in the whortle bushes.

"Drive it off!" she shrieked. But the figure made no answering movement.
The antlers drove straight at her breast, the acrid smell of the hunted animal was in her nostrils, but her eyes were filled with the horror of something she saw other than her oncoming death. And in her ears rang the echo of a boy's laughter, golden and equivocal.

www.world-english.org

As visual music (re)asserts itself as a performance art

2008-11-15T22:25:00.001-08:00

With the invention of the ocular harpsichord in 1725, Louis-Bertrand Castel attempted to integrate sound and image in real-time. Almost three hundred years later we are poised, I think, to answer questions raised by his invention and the inventions of those who followed him. At least four threads interweave to bring us to the current moment. They can be thought of as consisting of contributions by inventors like Castel, painters such as Leopold Survage in Paris and several members of the Bauhaus in Germany, film-makers too numerous to mention, and to a lesser extent musicians, most notably Scriabin. To treat the four groups as separate is to focus on the threads at the expense of the tapestry. It is nonetheless a useful place to start. While the four have overlapped and intersected, they have only recently converged to form visual music.

Castel believed that there was an analogy between sound and light that could serve as the basis for a visual art that was as powerful in its emotional appeal as music. But though sound and light share characteristics (both are reflected by surfaces, can penetrate into denser media, and can be focused by a hollow mirror), there are also important differences between them. Tomes merge into one while colors remain separate, and tones are fleeting while colors persist. Since tones could not be made persistent, Castel proposed to make colors transient. And colors, though separate, could be combined to create visual harmonies. The ideas, then, of colors moving in time and of color harmonies have been part of visual music since its earliest imaginings.

Castel started out more interested in proving his ideas than in constructing a device. In his initial article on the topic he wrote that he wanted, “in the style of Socrates, the demonstration to precede the proposition and the construction of the thing, …since it is not as an artisan but as a philosopher that I set out to demonstrate this new art” (quoted in Franssen, p. 23). He had begun construction of a device by 1745 and he labored on it throughout the rest of his life, though in the end he was not satisfied that the results lived up to the potential of his idea or the expectations of the public. The picture that emerges is of a man worn down by his idea.

Throughout the 19th century others, including Erasmus Darwin, D.D. Jameson, Frederic Kastner, Bainbridge Bishop and Alexander Wallace Rimington, created instruments based on changing color. By the turn of the century, the physicist Albert Michelson enthusiastically wrote “so strongly do these color phenomena appeal to me that I venture to predict that in the not very distant future there may be a color art analogous to the art of sound” (quoted in Wagler 1974, p. 162).

While inventors worried about how to make colors move through time, painters were devising bases for arranging colors in appealing combinations. Some were doing so in the specific context of color music. One of the earliest such efforts was that of Leopold Survage, a Russian painter of Finnish descent. Working in Paris between 1912 and 1914, Survage painted over 200 watercolors intended to serve as the basis for a four-minute abstract film. He called the series Colored Rhythm. Both its colors and the movements implied by its changing forms are stunning, especially given that it anticipated both color stock and abstract animation by years.

Though Survage’s work was unusual in the holistic way in which it foreshadowed the future of the art, others painters were writing about and working on the general problem of creating attractive color combinations. In his basic course at the Bauhaus Johannes Itten identified seven distinct contrast effects that could be achieved through various combinations. Drawing on art history, physiological optics and neural psychology, Faber Birren compiled many principles of color use. And seeing what was happening with color among his colleagues, he observed that “Art in frames and art on pedestals is giving way to art that is more a part of life…There is an art of mobile color, Lumia, dramatic and emotional effects with color that involve the manipulation of lights, shadows, flowing abstract forms” (Birren 1987, p. 78).

With the addition of form, Survage had changed color music into visual music. Devising a language for their movement was immediately important. “An immobile abstract form does not say much...It is only when it sets in motion, when it is transformed and meets other forms, that it becomes capable of evoking a feeling” (quoted in Graves, p. 412). This was not lost on the inventors. Between 1922 and 1947, Thomas Wilfred, probably the most important of them, designed his Clavilux which gave significant roles to form and motion. “Form, color and motion are the three basic factors in lumia—as in all visual experience—and form and motion are the two most important,” he wrote (Wilfred, p. 252). But Wilfred was not alone. The 20th century, like the 19th, began with a burst of inventiveness.

Two American painters, Morgan Russell and Stanton Macdonald Wright, having created the school of synchromism to focus special attention on the role of color in abstract painting, turned their attention to building kinetic light machines as a way of animating their synchromies. They envisioned an art in which the medium would be pure light. Stanton’s brother Willard Huntington Wright wrote about it in his 1923 essay The Future of Painting.

The Synchromists were the first “school of painting” to foresee this future of the color-art. Also, they were the only modern school which was not antagonistic to the older painting. Many of their canvases were frank restatements, in color, of masterpieces by Rubens and Michelangelo. And it is a significant fact that the leading exponent of Synchromism has long since discarded pigments and canvas, and for years has been devoting his energies towards the achievement of a color-instrument which can be used to produce color-forms as the orchestra is now used to produce sound-forms [p. 50].

The 20th century continued to see the invention of new visual music instruments. In addition to Wilfred there were important innovations from Mary Halock-Greenwalt, Geroge Hall, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Ludwig Hirschfield Mack and others. But this century belonged to the film-makers. The first abstract film-makers, Viking Eggeling and Hans Richter, were scroll painters who turned to film in order to make their forms move. Inspired by Chinese scrolls and ideograms, they became interested first in implying sequence and movement and then in realizing them. Following on their 1919 debuts were abstract films by Walter Ruttman in 1921, Oskar Fischinger in 1927, and John and James Whitney in 1939. These films addressed such visual problems as elementary forms, counterpoint, continuity, tension-release, figure-ground, implied causality, and changing perspective using purely abstract forms. They were followed by works from Harry Smith, Jordan Belson, Mary Ellen Bute, Norman Mclauren, Larry Cuba, Brian Evans and countless others drawn to the emotional impact of abstract forms moving rhythmically. But film is fixed, each showing of a film very like every other, while music is not.

The goal of color music’s earliest inventors was to create an art as powerful in its effects as music is. As Oscar Wilde noted in his 1911 Essays and Lectures “music is the art in which form and matter are always one, the art whose subject cannot be separated from the method of it expression, the art which most completely realizes the artistic ideal, and is the condition to which all other arts are constantly aspiring” [p. 163]. But relatively few well-known composers have involved themselves in visual music.

Georg Philipp Telemann was supportive of Castel’s ocular harpsichord, expressing certainty that its play of colors would please. Arnold Schönberg’s 1909 musical drama Die Gluckliche Hand (The Happy Hand) included a light storm, created by projecting colored light. And a part for changing lights is integral to the score of Scriabin’s 1911 Prometheus, the Poem of Fire. In 1919 Vladimir Baranoff-Rossiné gave an optophonic concert in Moscow. In 1926 Leopold Stokowski directed the Philadelphia Orchestra in a presentation of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade that was accompanied by Thomas Wilfred playing his Clavilux. In all of these, the visuals remained subordinate to the music, never attaining the position of equality that was envisioned by the art’s early pioneers.

In 1958 Edgar Varèse composed Poeme Electronique to be part of a sound and light environment created in collaboration with the architect LeCorbusier, for the Brussels World’s Fair. Light images were projected on the walls of the pavilion while music moved in sweeping arcs through the pavilion. No attempt was made to synchronize light and music. More recently this is changing. With the spread of VJing and the near ubiquity of music videos, some bands and musicians are showing an interest in controlling the visual element of their performances.

With the ability of computers to project color graphics of high resolution in real-time and to respond to input from an unlimited variety of controllers, we are re-entering the age of the visual music instrument inventor. What was difficult in the 18th century is no longer so difficult. What is more, we have almost 300 years of thinking and experimentation to guide us. This art, while not entirely imitating painting or film, music or dance, draws on each of these. Audiences are watching, and musicians are playing along, as we create abstract visuals that move. The possibilities can be seen in Golan Levin’s Audiovisual Environment Suite and J. Walt’s Spontaneous Fantasia; in Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar’s Biped and Scott Draves’ Spotworks; in Sue Costable’s live performances with Max and Jitter and in countless clubs and concert halls.

As the variety of interfaces grows and the modes of interaction multiply, it seems that Wright was onto something in 1923 when he predicted that “the art of color will be a new art only in medium; and until the day comes when an artist is great enough to express the profound form of a Rubens, or a Michelangelo, or a Beethoven, through the modern medium of light, the art of color will remain inferior to the other arts. That day may not come for many decades—perhaps a century. But this fact should in nowise constitute a stricture against the art of color….Painting will continue to serve a decorative and representational purpose. But the art of color will be for occasional reaction and stimulation, like symphony concerts and the drama” (p. 53-54). Let the playing begin.

References

Faber Birren, Principles of Color, Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1987 (originally published in 1969).

Maarten Franssen, “The ocular harpsichord of Louis-Bertrand Castel: The science and aesthetics of an eighteenth-centure cause celebre,” Tractrix Yearbook for the History of Science, Medicine, Technology and Mathematics, 1991 (3), 15-77.

Maitland Graves, The art of color and design, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1951.

S. R. Wagler, "Sonovision: A visual display of sound," in Frank J. Malina [ed.], Kinetic Art, Theory and Practice, New York: Dover Publication, 1974, 162-164.

Oscar Wilde, Essays and Lectures, London: Methuen, 1911, p. 136.

Thomas Wilfred, “Light and the artist,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, (V) June 1947, 247-255.

Willard Huntington Wright, The Future of Painting, New York: B. W. Huebsch, Inc., 1923.

Web sites

Fred Collopy’s RhythmicLight (http://RhythmicLight.com)

Scott Draves’ Spotworks (http://spotworks.com/)

Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar’s Biped (http://www.openendedgroup.com/artworks/biped/biped.htm)

Golan Levin’s Audiovisual Environment Suite (http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/golan/aves/)

J. Walt’s Spontaeous Fantasia (http://www.johnadamczyk.com/performance.html)

Biography

Fred Collopy designed the first version of Imager—software for playing abstract visuals in the way that musicians play with sounds—for the Apple II computer in 1977. His work has been presented at ISEA, SIGGRAPH, Sonic Light, and the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and been published in Leonardo and the Journal of Visual Programming Languages. He has performed visuals live with the jazz ensemble Kassaba, electronic musician Dino Felipe, experimental composer Henry Warwick and others. He has been a visiting scientist at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center. He teaches about technology and design at Case Western Reserve University. His web site is located at RhythmicLight.com.

Music Therapy in Alzheimer's Disease

2008-11-15T22:23:00.000-08:00

Development of the Music Therapy in Alzheimer's Disease resource list was made possible by a grant from:

This list is a reviewed collection of items prepared by the Alzheimer's Association Green-Field Library staff. Contact your local chapter or local library for availability of the items.

Articles, Journal
Alexander, M. The charms of music. North Carolina Medical Journal. March-April 2001; vol. 62(2), pp. 91-94.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Ashida, S. The effect of reminiscence music therapy sessions on changes in depressive symptoms in elderly persons with dementia. Journal of Music Therapy. Fall 2000; vol. 37(3), pp. 170-182.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Brotons, Melissa; Koger, Susan. The impact of music therapy on language functioning in dementia. Journal of Music Therapy. Fall 2000; vol. 37(3),
pp. 183-195.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Brotons, Melissa; Koger, Susan; Pickett-Cooper, Patty. Music and dementia: A review of literature. Journal of Music Therapy. Winter 1997; vol. 34 (4),
pp. 204-245.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Brown, Steven; Gotell, Eva; Ekman, Sirkka-Liisa. "Music-therapeutic caregiving" the necessity of active music-making in clinical care. Arts in Psychotherapy. 2000; vol. 28(2), pp. 125 - 135.
Green-Field Library does not own.

Carruth, Ellen. The effects of singing and the spaced retrieval technique on improving face-name recognition in nursing home residents with memory loss. Journal of Music Therapy. Fall 1997; vol. 34 (3), pp. 165-186.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Chavin, Melanie. Music as communication. Alzheimer's Care Quarterly. Spring 2002; vol. 3(2), pp. 145-156.
Green-Field Library does own.
Clair, Alicia. Effect of singing on alert responses in persons with late stage dementia. Journal of Music Therapy. Winter 1996; vol. 33(4), pp. 234-247.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Clair, Alicia. The effects of music therapy on engagement in family caregiver and care receiver couples with dementia. American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias. September-October 2002; vol. 17(5),
pp. 286-290.
Green-Field Library owns.
Clair, Alicia; Ebberts, Allison. Effects of music therapy on interactions between family caregivers and their care receivers with late stage dementia. Journal of Music Therapy. Fall 1997; vol. 34(3), pp. 148-164.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Clark, M.; Lipe, A.; Bilfrey, M. Use of music to decrease aggressive behaviors in people with dementia. Journal of Gerontological Nursing. July 1998; vol. 24(7), pp. 10-17.
Green-Field Library owns.
Denney, A. Quiet music: An intervention for mealtime agitation? Journal of Gerontological Nursing. July 1997; vol. 23(7), pp. 16-23.
Green-Field Library owns.
Gardiner, James; Furios, Michael; Tansley, Dennis. Music therapy and reading as intervention strategies for disruptive behavior in dementia. Clinical Gerontologist. 2000; vol. 22(1), pp. 31-46.
Green-Field Library owns.
Gerdner, Linda. Individualized music intervention protocol. Journal of Gerontological Nursing. October 1999; vol. 25(10), pp. 10-16.
Green-Field Library owns.

Gerdner, Linda. Effects of individualized versus classical "relaxation" music on the frequency of agitation in elderly persons with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. International Psychogeriatrics. March 2000; vol. 12(1),
pp. 49-65.
Green-Field Library owns.

Gotell, Eva; Brown, Steven; Ekman, Sirkka-Liisa. Caregiver singing and background music in dementia care. Western Journal of Nursing Research. March 2002, vol. 24(2); pp. 195 - 217.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Greene, R.; Yaphank, S. The effect of therapist and activity characteristics on the purposeful responses of probable Alzheimer's disease participants. Journal of Music Therapy. Summer 1998; vol. 35(2), pp. 119-136.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Humphrey, Mary Ann. Alzheimer's disease meets the "Mozart effect." Nursing Homes Long Term Care Management. June 2000; vol. 49(6),
pp. 50, 52.
Green-Field Library owns.
Johnson, J.; Cotman, C.; Tasaki, C.; et al. Enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning after a Mozart listening condition in Alzheimer's disease: A case study. Neurology Research. December. 1998; vol. 20(8), pp. 666-672.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Kelleher, Anna Yaya. The beat of a different drummer: Music therapy's role in dementia care. Activities Adaptation & Aging. 2001; vol. 25(2), pp. 75 - 85.
Green-Field Library owns.
Kneafsey, R. The therapeutic use of music in a care of the elderly setting: A literature review. Journal of Clinical Nursing. September 1997; vol. 6(5),
pp. 341-346.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Koger, Susan; Brotons, Melissa; Chapin, Karen. Is music therapy an effective intervention for dementia? A meta-analytic review of literature. Journal of Music Therapy. Spring 1999; vol. 36(1), pp. 2-15.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Kramer, Maeona. Trio to treasure: The elderly, the nurse and music. Geriatric Nursing. July-August 2001; vol. 22(4), pp. 191-195.
Green-Field Library owns.

Kumar, A.; Tims, F.; Cruess, D.; et al. Music therapy increases serum melatonin levels in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Alternative Therapy in Health and Medicine. November 1999; vol. 5(6), pp. 49-57.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Kydd, P. Using music therapy to help a client with Alzheimer's disease adapt to long term care. American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias. March-April 2001; vol. 16(2), pp. 103-108.
Green-Field Library owns.
Mathews, Mark; Clair, Alicia; Kosloski, Karl. Brief in-service training in music therapy for activity aides: Increasing engagement of persons with dementia in rhythm activities. Activities Adaptation & Aging. 2000; vol. 24(4), pp. 41-51.
Green-Field Library owns.
Reach your confused relative with music. Brown University Long-Term Care Quality Letter. April 15, 1999; vol. 8(7), pp. s1.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Sambandham, Mary; Schirm, Victoria. Music as a nursing intervention for residents with Alzheimer's disease in long-term care. Geriatric Nursing. March-April 1995; vol. 16(2), pp. 79-83.
Green-Field Library owns.
Silber, Fanny. Israeli folk music: Its characteristics and its use in music therapy activities with people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Activities Adaptation & Aging. 1999; vol. 23(4), pp. 49-58.
Green-Field Library owns.
Tabloski, Patricia; Mckinnon-Howe, Leah; Remington, Ruth. Effects of calming music on the level of agitation in cognitively impaired nursing home residents. American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders and Research. January-February 1995; vol. 10(1), pp. 10-15.
Green-Field Library owns.
Therapeutic music can reach residents with dementia. Brown University Long-Term Care Quality Letter. 1995; vol. 7(6), pp. 1-2.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Thomas, David; Heitman, Robert; Alexander, Theresa. The effects of music on bathing cooperation for residents with dementia. Journal of Music Therapy. 1997; vol. 34 (4), pp. 246-259.
Green-Field Library does not own.
Watson, S. Noteworthy benefits. Elder Care. August - September 1998;
vol. 10(4), pp. 6-10.
Green-Field Library does not own.

Articles, Web
Ridder, Hanne Mette. Singing individual music therapy with elderly persons suffering from dementia. October 29, 2002.
http://www.musictherapyworld.de/

Aldridge, David. Music therapy in dementia care.
London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2000.
Green-Field Library Call No.: WM 450 M987 2001
Clair, Alicia. Therapeutic uses of music with older adults.
Baltimore, MD: Health Professions Press, 1996.
Green-Field Library Call No.: WM 450 C585 1996
Davis, W. Music therapy and elderly populations. IN: Davis, W.; Gfeller, K.; Thaut, M. (eds.). An introduction to music therapy theory and practice.
Boston: McGraw-Hill College, 1999.
Green-Field Library does not own
Gfeller, Kate; Hanson, Natalie. Music therapy programming for individuals with Alzheimer's disease.
Radium Springs, NM: Geriatric Resources, Inc., 1995.
Green-Field Library Call No.: WM 450 C585 1996
Odell-Miller, Helen. Approaches to music therapy in psychiatry with specific emphasis upon a research project with the elderly mentally ill. IN: Wigram, Tony, (ed.). The art and science of music therapy: A handbook.
Philadelphia, PA: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1995.
Green-Field Library does not own
Smith, Bonnie Baird. A song to set me free: A model for the use of music therapy and music related activities for the benefit of the frail elderly.
Logan UT: Sunshine Terrace Adult Day Center, 1995.
Green-Field Library Call No.: WM 450 S642 1995
Companion videos: Breaking through the barriers of aging and disease & A song to set me free; healing through music.
Green-Field Library Call No.: WM 450 VC no. 516 1994 & WM 450 VC no. 154 1994
Tabloski, Patricia; Williams, Karen. Therapeutic uses of music to calm agitation in nursing facility residents with dementia. IN: Kaplan, M; Hoffman, S. (eds.). Behaviors in dementia: Best practices for successful management. Baltimore, MD: Health Professions Press, 1998.
Green-Field Library Call No.: WM 220 B419 1998

Guidelines
Evidence-based protocol. Individualized music. University of Iowa Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center. February 2001;
35 pages.
Availability: National Guideline Clearinghouse web site http://www.guideline.gov
Web Sites
American Music Therapy Association
http://www.musictherapy.org/
The official web site of the American Music Therapy Association.
CAIRSS for Music
(Computer-Assisted Information Retrieval Service System)
http://ucairss.utsa.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First
CAIRSS is a bibliographic database of music research literature in music education, music psychology, music therapy, and music medicine. Citations have been taken from 1,354 different journal titles; 18 of which are primary journals.
Journal of Music Therapy Index of articles
http://otto.cmr.fsu.edu/memt/jmt/index.html
This web site is maintained by the Center for Music Research at Florida State University. It has indexes for the journal from 1964 - 1999.
Music Therapy in Brain Damaged Patients
http://www.indiana.edu/~pietsch/music97.html
This site provides an example of an experiment indicating that dinner music, particularly soothing music, can reduce irritability, fear-panic, and depressed mood and can stimulate demented patients in nursing homes into eating more. The effects of the music intervention were assessed by psychological ratings and by weighing the food helpings.
Music Therapy World
http://www.musictherapyworld.net/
An international site of music organizations that includes a newsletter, conference information, downloadable papers and a searchable database on music therapy research.

Vendors
These companies have music and activity therapy products available for purchase.
Custom Video Productions
88 Santa Maria Drive, Novato, CA 94947. (415) 893-9929;
www.frontrowseatvideos.com
This company produces DVDs of actual sing-along music therapy classes designed for those with dementia.
ElderSong Publications, Inc.
1-800-397-0533
www.eldersong.com
This company has a variety of books, tapes, and other products designed specifically for older adults, including those with dementia. It also carries several books about music therapy.
Geriatric Resources Inc.
http://www.geriatric-resources.com
This company produces a series of audio products that include songs from the 30's -40's, Sing-a-longs and hymns.
Innovative Caregiving Resources
http://www.videorespite.com
This company produces a series of videos referred to as Video Respite that incorporate music and images specifically for people with dementia.
MMB MUSIC, INC.
314 531-9635
www.mmbmusic.com
This company sells music books and publications, including several books on music therapy.
Music Outreach
http://www.music-outreach.com/
This site is maintained by Michael Purvis a singer and performer. Compact Discs and audiocassettes of hymns and sing-a-longs are available for purchase.
Recordings for Recovery
517.832.0784
800.798.1192
www.r4r.org
Recordings for Recovery is a non-profit organization that lends tapes to nursing homes, hospitals, and homebound individuals.

Sunshine Terrace Foundation
http://www.sunshineterrace.com/
This long-term care provider has produced a book and videos on the use of Music Therapy with dementia patients.
West Music Company
800-397-9378
www.westmusic.com
This company has books, instruments, videos, etc. available for purchase. They have music therapists on staff who can answer your questions regarding the products and their appropriateness with special populations.

Music Therapy Hide ‘n Seek at the Vogel Library

2008-11-15T22:22:00.001-08:00

I. What used to be hiding at the Vogel Library is now integrated into the main collection of the Vogel Library – for Permenent Reserve items ask at the main desk, top of the stairs.
A. Journal of Music Therapy
Indexed in PsychINFO and RILM: Abstracts of Music Literature
Both indices found on EBSCOhost
B. Music Therapy Perspectives
Indexed in PsychINFO on EBSCOhost
CD Supplement also on Permanent Reserve.
C. Music Therapy Research, 1964-1998
CD on Permanent Reserve
D. Music for Life: Aspects of Creative Music Therapy with Adult Clients by Gary Ansdell. Music CD on Permanent Reserve

II. Where you should seek Music Therapy information at the Vogel Library

N.B. Always, always, always ask yourself, what other discipline does my topic relate to, besides Music Therapy? E.g. Music Therapy and Psychology, Music Therapy and Education, Music Therapy and Medicine, etc.

A. Music Therapy and Music
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature is an international bibliography of scholarly writings on music as well as music-related disciplines. Dating from 1967 through the present, this database offers indexing of sources published in over 140 languages. (EBSCOhost)

B. Music Therapy and Psychology
PsycARTICLES
This database provides full text articles on current issues in psychology from respected sources, spanning from 1988 to the present. PsycARTICLES includes more than 25,000 full-text articles from 42 journals published by American Psychological Association and allied organizations. All journals included in this database are indexed in PsycINFO. (EBSCOhost)

or
PsycINFO
PsycINFO contains more than 1.8 million citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, dissertations and technical reports, all in the field of psychology. Journal coverage, which dates back to the 1800s, includes international material selected from more than 1,700 periodicals in over 30 languages. More than 60,000 records are added each year. (EBSCOhost)

C. Music Therapy and Medicine
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
This database provides nearly 600 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition also features abstracts and indexing for nearly 850 journals. This database is updated on a daily basis. (EBSCOhost)

or
MEDLINE
All areas of medicine, including dentistry and nursing (FirstSearch)

D. Music Therapy and Education
ERIC
ERIC, the Educational Resource Information Center contains more than 2,200 digests along with references for additional information and citations and abstracts from over 980 educational and education-related journals. (EBSCOhost)

E. Music Therapy and Social Work
Social Services Abstracts
This database provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work and human services. The database abstracts and indexes over 1,406 serials publications and includes abstracts of journal articles and dissertations, and citations to book reviews. Not much on Music Therapy but some. (CSA Internet Database).

F. Music Therapy and ????
Academic Search Premier
The world's largest academic multi-disciplinary database, Academic Search Premier provides full text for nearly 4,000 scholarly publications, including full text for more than 3,100 peer-reviewed journals. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study and offers information dating as far back as 1975. (EBSCOhost)

or
Vogel Library Catalog
Never underestimate what we have here at the Wartburg Library for either Music Therapy books or journals. We have one of the finest small college Music Therapy collections in the region. Other libraries borrow from us!

Playing and Performing Music on Campus

2008-11-15T22:21:00.001-08:00

Rights and Obligations of Faculty and Students under the University’s Public Performance Licenses
With ASCAP, BMI and SESAC

Introduction:

On today’s college campus, just about everyone knows that sharing or swapping music files over the internet is illegal. The terms “Napster” and “Grokster” are synonymous with these activities. These activities are illegal because the law grants the owner of a copyrighted work the exclusive right to control how that work is displayed, performed or distributed. If you distribute copies of a copyright owner’s work without the owner’s consent, then you are infringing on the owner’s copyright – plain, simple and understood.

However, many people still do not know that there are many other activities that occur on a college campus that could still be considered copyright infringement. These activities simply involve the playing of music in public. For example, did you know that Starbucks cannot play music in its coffee shops without proper permission? Further, without proper permission, a fraternity cannot hire a band to play cover tunes at a party, the student union cannot play music in the dining halls, nor can the University play music over the loud speakers at a basketball game. That’s because buying a CD of music only gives you the personal right to listen to that copy. It does not give you the right to distribute additional copies or play that music publicly without permission from the copyright owner.

This presents an obvious dilemma since unfortunately, getting permission from popular artists such as Beyoncé, Cold Play or Bob Dylan to play their music publicly is probably next to impossible. However, there are several organizations – American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (“ASCAP”), Broadcast Music International (“BMI”), and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (“SESAC”) – that collect license fees and grant permission on behalf of their constituent members (the musicians and artists) to allow their music to be played publicly.

As such, the University of South Florida has entered license agreements with each of these organizations. These agreements will allow you, as students, faculty and staff, to play music for University activities on campus in certain limited situations. It is important to note, however, that these license agreements do not grant you a carte blanche right to publicly perform or play music in any and all circumstances. There are still some very important restrictions that you must be aware of.

Copyright and Licensing Basics:

Copyrights attach to all works that are fixed in a tangible medium. In other words, works such as musical recordings, printed materials and photographs are covered under copyright law. If you are the original author or creator of a work, then you own the copyrights in that work. Owning the copyright means that the owner has the exclusive right to direct how that work is used. With respect to music, these rights can be expressed as follows:

1. The right to reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords (i.e. CDs, tapes, etc.).
2. The right to prepare derivative works based upon the original work.
3. The right to distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.
4. The right to perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic and choreographic works, motion pictures and other audiovisual works.
5. The right to display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, and pictorial, graphic or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and
6. In the cause of sound recordings (music), the right to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

Again, if you are not the copyright owner, you do not have the authority to do any of the above without proper permission from the owner. This includes publicly playing or performing music or other copyrighted works.

What is considered a “Public Performance”?

Almost all non-classroom public uses or displays of copyrighted material would be considered a public performance – including something as simple as playing a CD at your organization’s table outside of the Phyllis Marshall Center.

Public performances include situations where the copyrighted work is performed, displayed or simply played out loud to the public or any other place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered. This includes situations where an admission fee is charged as well as those where the music is played or performed as an additional service of the establishment.

A public performance also includes transmitting or communicating the work to the public by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or different times.

Since permission is required for “public performances”, the University has obtained public performance licenses from ASCAP, BMI and SESAC to cover these situations.

Who are ASCAP, BMI and SESAC? What do they do?

ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are organizations that were formed to act on behalf of authors, composers and musicians. They provide licenses and collect fees on behalf of their members so that persons, businesses and other groups can legally publicly perform or play copyrighted works. The license fees collected are distributed to the artists who are members of the organization.

The University of South Florida has entered into license agreements with each of the groups listed above to allow faculty and students to play or perform music and other copyrighted works publicly in certain situations.

What am I legally allowed to do under the University’s License Agreements with ASCAP, BMI and SESAC?

First, you have to be a student, faculty member or employee of the University to be covered under the University’s licenses. If you are not, then you must contact these organizations yourself to obtain your own license and you may not publicly play or otherwise perform copyrighted material on University premises.

In addition, in order to be covered under the University’s licenses, you must be conducting your activity on University premises, under the auspices of the University or in some University activity. Such activities include:

• Student gatherings
• Fraternity or sorority gatherings.
• Sporting events (club or otherwise)
• Broadcasts of college owned radio stations
• Hiring a band to play at a University event
• University Orchestras
• Graduation events
• University fairs and festivals
• Etc.

What are the restrictions set forth in these licenses?

• These licenses generally do not grant the right to perform dramatic works based on copyrighted material (i.e. dramatic-musical works or compositions thereof, musical comedy, opera, ballet, etc.).
• There are no rights to operate a coin operated phonorecord player or jukebox.
• It’s generally prohibited to transmit the playing or performance of copyrighted material to any persons outside of the University (except for University radio and television stations).

What about performers who come to our campus?

Remember, if the performer is the original author and composer, then they have the right to perform their own works. If the performer is not performing original work, it is a good idea to check with performers to see if they have secured their own licenses or permissions. In most cases, the performers will already have their own public performance licenses.

What about University activities that are conducted at off campus venues?

If a University connected organization rents the venue and hosts the event, and the activity is performed under the auspices of the University, then those activities are covered under the University’s licenses. Otherwise, off-campus activities are not covered under the University’s public performance licenses. In such an event, you should coordinate these activities with the venue and obtain your own appropriate licenses.

Is the faculty use of music or other copyrighted material in their teaching activities covered by these licenses?

No. The playing of music on campus by a University faculty member under the University auspices would generally be covered under these licenses. However, these public performance licenses are designed to cover non-classroom use. Faculty’s use of copyrighted material in class is more appropriately governed by Fair Use principles of copyright law. Please refer to the University’s Copyright Policy.

What are the penalties for Copyright Infringement?

“Willful” infringement for commercial or financial gain is a crime punishable as a misdemeanor and carries a maximum sentence of up to one year in jail and/or a $100,000 fine.

Inadvertent infringers are subject to substantial civil damages, ranging from $500 to $20,000 for each illegal performance or showing.

Conclusion and Questions:

Many on campus non-classroom activities in which students, faculty or employees would like to play or perform music are covered under our licenses with ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. However, some activities are not, such as the performance of dramatic works based on copyrighted materials and non-university associated activities.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact:

Colin C. Mailloux, Associate General Counsel
Office of the General Counsel
4202 E. Fowler Avenue, ADM 250
Tampa, FL 33620-6250
(813) 974-2131
cmaillou@admin.usf.edu

Music For Tsunami Survivors

2008-11-15T22:20:00.001-08:00

Music For Tsunami Survivors
by

Dr T V Sairam, Hon. Technical Advisor, Nada Centre for Music Therapy, Chennai, India/*

Whenever life-style gets drastically affected, we face a sense of feelings - anger, irritation or frustrations, deep shock or trauma depending on our resilience power.

In the case of Tsunami survivors, the intensity of mental shockwaves they have faced is something inestimable. More than the physical injuries done by tsunami, it is the sense of loss, fear and insecurity created by the waves, which is the real tragedy!

While the physical injuries could be tackled with a few medicines or bandages here and there, the mental trauma faced by the survivors is not that easy to heal.

For the Tsunami survivors, life-style is just not affected , but rather shattered and bruised beyond recognition – before one could know what has happened!

For, many of our brethren who have just managed to survive the Tsunami’s fury are still in a state of shock and this will continue for several days, months and nay, even years, if their problems are not seriously addressed now.

People have lost their kiths and homes, nears and dears, acquaintances and friends – all in a jiffy!

The shocked survivors – apart from food, medicine and clothing- also need a healing touch.

The healing touch that can come through love and compassion – and also no doubt, with music!

Music, we all know, is a time-tested – rather, time-honoured means by which crying children have been put to sleep for generations. Many a tribal population in the dark continent of Africa have employed rhythms and music for expressing their fear and anxiety, emotional insecurity vis-à-vis their enemies and the nature around, and to keep them attuned to each other in the community and enhance their ‘belongingness’ to each other which results in communal cohesion and sharing both the agony and ecstasy with each other.

It is this sharing of joy and grief – through music, which has strengthened the bond between members of the community while minimizing the impact of losses of lives and livestocks due to the fury of nature or the more powerful battalions of the invading enemies.

Extremes of unbearable emotional swings can no doubt, cause heart-attacks or else, suicidal tendencies on the part of the individuals.

By employing music and rhythms on such occasions, the sufferer derives a sense of support from a new-found companion, that is music.

Irrespective of the region or religion or nation, any tsunami victim can be inititated to get himself soaked in appropriate music and rhythms that alleviate his sufferings.

I will request all the top music therapists, music lovers and music enthusiasts of the country to involve themselves in this noble mission of kindling passion for music in the tsunami-affected populace all over the world. While prescribing the musical pieces, the regional and religious interests are to be given priority. As Hindus can be made to sing bhajans or kirtans, muslims can recite the holy Quran and the Christians, their religious prayer songs. All these stem from only one source, namely sonic vibration!

What the victims badly need today is succour, love, protection and compassion- and all of which could be easily communicated through singing and chanting.

Victims will, no doubt, overcome their misery through music.

There is thus, a need for deploying an army of voluntary social psychologists and music therapists to visit the affected people and offer them their support through words and deeds, through music and love.

Victims of tsunami are all still in a state of shock, suffocated by in inexpressible emotional blockade. At times, they may exhibit even a mixed emotional profile viz., anger, frustration, delirium, depression, helplessness, hyper-sensitivity and intolerance – all these to be understood by these volunteers and treated with dedication, compassion, love and understanding.

One final word; It is the ‘feel good’ factor in music has to be identified by the music therapists in accordance with the cultural background, age, physical and mental conditions of the victims, so that custom-made therapeutic sessions for different groups can be organized.

Music will not change the events, but it can certainly change us to adapt to events!

*(For any free assistance/counselling on music therapy for tsunami survivors please email to the author: tvsairam@rediffmail.com)

Evolution of human music through sexual selection

2008-11-15T22:19:00.002-08:00

Geoffrey F. Miller

Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution
University College London
Gower St., London, WC1E 6BT, England
geoffrey.miller@ucl.ac.uk

Published as:

Miller, G. F. (2000). Evolution of human music through sexual selection. In N. L. Wallin, B. Merker, & S. Brown (Eds.), The origins of music, MIT Press, pp. 329-360.

Introduction: A Darwinian approach to music evolution

“... it appears probable that the progenitors of man, either the males or females or both sexes, before acquiring the power of expressing their mutual love in articulate language, endeavoured to charm each other with musical notes and rhythm.” (Darwin, 1871, pp. 880)

In The descent of man, and Selection in relation to sex, Darwin (1871) devoted ten pages to bird song and six pages to human music, viewing both as outcomes of an evolutionary process called sexual selection. Darwin’s idea that most bird song functions as a courtship display to attract sexual mates has been fully supported by biological research (e.g. Catchpole & Slater, 1995), but his idea that human music evolved to serve the same function have been strangely neglected. Although there has been much written about the origins of human music (e.g. Blacking, 1987; Dissanayake, 1988, 1992; Knight, 1991; Rousseau, 1966; Storr, 1992; Tiger, 1992), very few theorists have taken a serious adaptationist approach to the question. Those who have, have usually searched in vain for music’s survival benefits for the individual or the group, overlooking Darwin’s compelling argument that music’s benefits were primarily reproductive, and best explained by the same sexual selection processes that shaped bird song. This chapter has the simple goal of reviving Darwin’s original suggestions that human music must be studied as a biological adaptation, and that music was shaped by sexual selection to function mostly as a courtship display to attract sexual partners. Fortunately, after a century of obscurity, Darwin’s theory of sexual selection itself has already undergone a renaissance in biology over the last two decades, so biology offers many new insights about courtship adaptations, which will be applied here to human music.

The historical analogy between the study of bird song and the study of human music may prove instructive. Before Darwin, the natural theologians such as William Paley considered bird song to have no possible function for the animals themselves, but rather to signal the creator’s benevolence to human worshippers through miracles of beauty. Bird song was put in the category of the natural sublime, along with flowers, sunsets, and alpine peaks, as phenomena with an aesthetic impact too deep to carry anything less than a transcendental message. The idea that bird song would be of any use to birds was quite alien before about 1800. With the rise of natural history, writers such as Daines Barrington in 1773 and Gilbert White in 1825 (cited in Darwin, 1871) argued that bird song must have some function for the animals that use it, but must arise exclusively from male rivalry and territorial competition. They recognized that male birds sing much more than females, and sing mostly in breeding season. But they insisted that song was a form of vocal intimidation between males rather than attraction between the sexes. Darwin agreed that some songs function to intimidate, but argued that female choice for male singing ability was the principal factor in the evolution of bird song: “The true song, however, of most birds and various strange cries are chiefly uttered during the breeding-season, and serve as a charm, or merely as a call-note, to the other sex” (Darwin, 1871, p. 705). Against the hypothesis that bird song somehow aids survival, Darwin cited observations that male birds sometimes drop dead from exhaustion while singing during the breeding season. His sexual selection theory was perfectly concordant with the idea that males sacrifice their very lives in the pursuit of mates, so that their attractive traits live on in their offspring.

The history of theorizing about the evolution of human music shows many of the same themes. Many commentators have taken Paley’s creationist, transcendental position, claiming that music’s aesthetic and emotional power exceed what would be required for any conceivable biological function. Claude Levi-Strauss (1970, p. 18), for example, took a position typical of cultural anthropology in writing “Since music is the only language with the contradictory attributes of being at once intelligible and untranslatable, the musical creator is a being comparable to the gods, and music itself the supreme mystery of the science of man.” Where such commentators have recognized any need for consistency with evolutionary principles, they usually explain music as side-effect of having a big brain, being conscious, or learning culture. As we shall see, none of these explanations are adequate if music can be shown to be a legitimate adaptation in its own right. Other theorists have adopted the pre-Darwinian natural historians’ rather narrow view of biological function as centered on competition for survival. This has led to desperate searches for music’s contribution to pragmatic survival problems in Pleistocene Africa, our ancestral environment. Here, quandaries arise. No one has ever proposed a reasonable survival benefit to individuals taking the time and energy to produce music, which has no utility in finding food, avoiding predators, or overcoming parasites. But if one falls back on claiming survival benefits to the group, through some musical mechanism of group-bonding, then one ends up in the embarrassing position of invoking group selection, which has never been needed to explain any other trait in any mammalian species (see Williams, 1966). If evolution did operate according to survival of the fittest, human music would be inexplicable.

Consider Jimi Hendrix, for example. This rock guitarist extraordinaire died at the age of 27 in 1970, overdosing on the drugs he used to fire his musical imagination. His music output, three studio albums and hundreds of live concerts, did him no survival favours. But he did have sexual liaisons with hundreds of groupies, maintained parallel long-term relationships with at least two women, and fathered at least three children in the U.S., Germany, and Sweden. Under ancestral conditions before birth control, he would have fathered many more. Hendrix’s genes for musical talent probably doubled their frequency in a single generation, through the power of attracting opposite-sex admirers. As Darwin realized, music’s aesthetic and emotional power, far from indicating a transcendental origin, point to a sexual-selection origin, where too much is never enough. Our ancestral hominid-Hendrixes could never say, “OK, our music’s good enough, we can stop now”, because they were competing with all the hominid-Eric-Claptons, hominid-Jerry-Garcias, and hominid-John-Lennons. The aesthetic and emotional power of music is exactly what we would expect from sexual selection’s arms race to impress minds like ours.

Darwin on human music

Though Darwin devoted only a few pages of The descent of man to the role of sexual selection in the evolution of human music (Darwin, 1871, pp. 875-881), his insights remain so apposite that they are worth reviewing here. Darwin seems to have considered music the single best example of mate choice having shaped a human behavioral trait. He first sets the context by reminding the reader that sounds generally evolve for reproductive functions: “Although the sounds emitted by animals of all kinds serve many purposes, a strong case can be made out, that the vocal organs were primarily used and perfected in relation to the propagation of the species” (Darwin, 1871, p. 875). He reviews as examples the sounds of frogs, toads, tortoises alligators, birds, mice, and gibbons, which are produced only in the breeding season, usually only by males, but sometimes by both sexes. He then reviews the anatomy of sound perception to argue that the capacity to perceive musical notes could easily have begun as a side-effect of the capacity to distinguish noises in general: “an ear capable of discriminating noises -- and the high importance of this power to all animals is admitted by every one -- must be sensitive to musical notes” (Darwin, 1871, p. 877). The famous 1868 paper by Helmholtz on acoustic physiology is cited to explain why many animals would converge on using tones that belong to human musical scales. Darwin concludes with a strong critique of the natural theology position, arguing that if male birds sing to females, it must be because female birds are impressed by singing: “unless females were able to appreciate such sounds and were excited or charmed by them, the persevering efforts of the males, and the complex structures often possessed by them alone, would be useless; and this is impossible to believe” (Darwin, 1871, p. 878).

Immediately after rejecting the possibility that animal sounds are useless, Darwin ponders the apparent frivolity of human music: “As neither the enjoyment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the least use to man in reference to his daily habits of life, they must be ranked among the most mysterious with which he is endowed” (Darwin, 1871, p. 878). He then cites the ubiquity of music across cultures, and even mentions some recently unearthed Palaeolithic flutes made from reindeer bone to illustrate music’s antiquity. He goes on to mention how music capacities may emerge spontaneously and reliably in human development: “We see that the musical faculties, which are not wholly deficient in any race, are capable of prompt and high development” (Darwin, 1871, p. 878). He then illustrates how music arouses strong emotions, and how love is the most common lyrical theme in songs. Apart from his rather patronizing Victorian attitude towards non-European music, Darwin’s strategy for arguing that human music is a biological adaptation and a product of sexual selection is almost identical to that which a modern evolutionary psychologist would use. Darwin summarizes: “All these facts with respect to music and impassioned speech become intelligible to a certain extent, if we may assume that musical tones and rhythm were used by our half-human ancestors, during the season of courtship (Darwin, 1871, p. 880). As the coup de grace, he pre-empts the objection that musicians don’t mean anything sexual when they perform, by reminding us that a biological function requires no conscious awareness: “The impassioned orator, bard, or musician, when with his varied tones and cadences he excites the strongest emotions in his hearers, little suspects that he uses the same means by which his half-human ancestors long ago aroused each other’s ardent passions, during their courtship and rivalry” (Darwin, 1871, p. 881).

Darwin was not troubled by the fact that both men and women produce music. He admits that the capacity and love for singing and music are not a “sexual character” in the sense of a sexually dimorphic trait (Darwin, 1871, p. 875). In the three hundred pages on sexual selection preceding his analysis of human music, Darwin noted many sexually-selected traits present in both sexes. His remarks on prehistoric marriage, and on sexually-selected physical traits present in both sexes, suggest that he assumed both male and female mate choice among our ancestors.

What can we add to Darwin’s hypothesis that human music arose through mate choice? Well, we know more about music now, and we know more about mate choice, and we know more about mental adaptations. Although Darwin laid the foundations, a modern Darwinian approach to music can draw on the full power of evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, and evolutionary anthropology

Migrating Music: Media, Politics and Style

2008-11-15T22:19:00.001-08:00

An international conference
Venue: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Date: 10 – 11 July, 2009
Over the last twenty years or so there has been much interest in music and diaspora, that is in migrating music. No doubt this interest is historically grounded. Movement of peoples and their music across the world has been occurring to an unprecedented extent and in novel ways.
Researchers in a variety of disciplines have then responded by studying musical flows and the formation of hybrid styles, but also the way in which apparently similar music can mean quite different things in different contexts. We might sum up the overarching framework as one in which researchers focus on the (largely benign) diversification and pluralisation of musical meaning and experience.
We do not seek to overturn this framework. Quite simply, it taps an important part of the reality of migrating music in the contemporary period. But we do want to bring up a number of problems and issues, and call on colleagues to think about what these might mean.
Media. Mediation has been crucial to the global movement of musics, from the hymnal to the Web 2.0. Diasporas take recordings with them when they move; broadcasters and record companies cater for them in new lands; ‘World Music’ was launched as a marketing and media category. What, then, is the impact of mediation on migrating music, and are diasporas and host communities mere recipients, or rather active shapers of their musical diets?
Politics. The orthodoxy of today is that musical migration is predominantly a Good Thing, and that hybridity always has a progressive dimension. By the same token authenticity has become a straw target. But can the authentic be a significant value for musical cultures as they are relocated around the world? And were early scholars entirely wrong to worry about ‘Americanisation’ or ‘Westernisation’? Indeed are there new models that take into account ‘Bollywoodisation’ and the effects of international culture industries? Should scholars be concerned about globalising musical vernaculars? Does a focus on hybridisation sometimes obscure larger relations of economic, cultural, and aesthetic domination?
Style. Hybridity is rarely used in verb form. But arguably the processes of stylistic transformation wrought by musical migration are very much about action – making change. What are these ‘trans’ processes? Do they always depend on mixing, or can new migrant styles emerge from endogenous reference ‘back’ to home styles? And how far are music makers and audiences consciously pushing to create the new?
We invite proposals for papers which address these and related questions from across the disciplines: (ethno)musicology, cultural and media studies, sociology, anthropology, history and performance studies. The conference emerges from the AHRC research project based at the Open University, Tuning In: Diasporic Contact Zones @ BBC World Service. So contributions which concern international broadcasting and/or the BBC are particularly welcome. We are also keen to receive proposals from practitioners - music makers, journalists and broadcasters.
Proposals should be between 150 and 200 words in length. Please send to Karen Ho at K.D.Ho@open.ac.uk. Closing date for submission is Friday, 19th December, 2008.
Keynote and plenary speakers already confirmed include:
Lucy Duran – SOAS, University of London and presenter of ‘World Routes’, BBC
Charlie Gillett – journalist and award winning presenter of ‘Charlie Gillett’s World of Music’,
BBC World Service
Jan Fairley – independent scholar and journalist
Conference convenors are Jason Toynbee and Byron Dueck, Open University
Conference administrators are Karen Ho and Josine Opmeer,
CRESC (Open and Manchester Universities)

LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC SEMINAR

2008-11-15T22:18:00.001-08:00

Saturday 22nd November 2008 The Library Building
Institute for the Study of the Americas
35 Tavistock Square, London WC1

The Latin American Music Seminar is a British forum for Latin American music research that meets twice yearly. Please contact Henry Stobart (h.stobart@rhul.ac.uk) if you would like to be included on the mailing list, or if you wish to offer a presentation or to perform at a future seminar.

10.15am Coffee

10.40 Welcome

10.45 Gustavo Delgado Parra (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) The book of Torres, an eighteenth-century didactic workbook for teaching composition.

11.30 John Cowley (Institute of Commonwealth Studies) “Oh! Cette Musique”: French Antillean Jazz under the German Occupation of Paris.

12.15 Henry Stobart (Royal Holloway, University of London) Fighting on the Streets: Strategies to Combat Music Piracy among Bolivian “Originario” Musicians.

1.00 Lunch (sandwiches provided)

2.15 Suzel Reily (Queens University Belfast) Bands, the Performance of Place, and Communal Sentiment in Small-Town Brazil.

3.00 Sue Miller (University of Leeds) “The Thieving Magpie” : Musical Borrowings, Quotes and Signifiers in Cuban Charanga Improvisation

3.45 Tea and live music performed by Cuban guitarist Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas (tbc).

We ask for a contribution of £5.00 towards coffee, tea and lunch (unless giving a paper or performing). If you wish to attend, please inform Henry Stobart by Wednesday 19th November: email: h.stobart@rhul.ac.uk or tel. 01784 443533

We are grateful to the Institute for the Study of the Americas and the
Institute of Musical Research for their support of this seminar series.

History of Music-Brain and Wellness Research

2008-11-15T22:17:00.002-08:00

The connection between active music making and the functioning of the brain and the body has been the subject of intense scientific investigation – some of it supported directly by the American Music Conference, all of it exciting. Researchers have uncovered evidence that making music helps young people develop their brains, helps students perform better in a variety of academic areas and promotes wellness in older people. Now, the study from the Mind-Body Wellness Center adds the prospect of disease-fighting to the mix. Here is a summary of some of the most important music-brain research.

In 1985, Gordon Shaw, Dennis Silverman and John Pearson presented the trion model of the brain’s neuronal structure (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 82 [1985]: 2364-2368).

In 1989, experiments in which musicians performed mental rehearsals of music indicated that music and other creative skills, such as mathematics and chess, may involve extremely precise firing patterns by billions of brain neurons (Leslie Brothers and Gordon Shaw, Models of Brain Function, edited by R. Cotterill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).

In 1990, computer experiments revealed that trion firing patterns could be mapped onto pitches and instrument timbres to produce music. This suggested that the trion model is a viable model for the coding of certain aspects of musical structure in human composition and perception, and that the trion model is relevant for examining creativity in higher cognitive functions, such as mathematics and chess, that are similar to music (Xiaodan Leng, Gordon Shaw and Eric Wright, Music Perception, Vol. 8, No.1 [Fall 1990]: 49-62).

In 1991, Xiaodan Leng and Gordon Shaw proposed that music may be considered a "pre- language," and that early music training may be useful in "exercising" the brain for certain higher cognitive functions (Concepts in Neuroscience, Vol. 2, No. 2 [1991]: 229-258).

In 1993, a pilot study found that preschool children given music training displayed significant improvement in spatial reasoning ability. (Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw) An experiment with college students found that, after listening to a Mozart sonata, they experienced a significant although temporary gain in spatial reasoning skills (Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and Katherine Ky, Nature, Vol. 365 [1993]: 611).

In 1994, a Stage II follow-up to the pilot study again found that music training improved spatial reasoning in preschool children. This gain did not occur in those without music training (Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw, Linda Levine and Katherine Ky, Paper presented at the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles [August 1994]).

In 1995, a follow up to the first Mozart study confirmed that listening to Mozart improved spatial reasoning, and that this effect can increase with repeated testing over days. However, the effect may not occur when music lacks sufficient complexity. (Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and Katherine Ky, Neuroscience Letters, Vol. 185 [1995]: 44-47.)

In 1997, a study found that keyboard training caused long-term enhancement of preschool children's spatial-temporal reasoning (Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw, Linda Levine et al, Neurological Research, Volume 19 [1997], 2-8).

In 1999, a field experiment supported the earlier finding by demonstrating that classroom keyboard instruction improved kindergarten children's spatial-temporal performance (Frances Rauscher, Mary Anne Zupan, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 1999).

Also in 1999, a research group led by Dr. Frederick Tims, Chair of Music Therapy at Michigan State University, found that group keyboard lessons given to older Americans reduced stress, loneliness and anxiety while increasing levels of human growth hormone (hGH). Human growth hormone is implicated in such aging phenomena as osteoporosis, energy levels, wrinkling, sexual function, muscle mass, and aches and pains (Frederick Tims, Alicia Ann Clair, Donna Cohen, Carl Eisdorfer, Midori Koga, Adarsh Kumar, Mahendra Kumar, Cathy McKinney, Áke Seiger, presented at symposium Music Medicine: Enhancing Health Through Music, April 23, 1999, Miami, FL).

A second 1999 study led by Dr. Tims quantified a link between structured music therapy and subjects’ levels of melatonin, a neurohormone linked with sleep regulation and believed to influence the immune system (Adarsh Kumar, David Lowenstein, J. B. Fernandez, Gail Ironson, Carl Eisdorfer, Dean G. Cruess, Michael J. Mintzer, Rogelio Cattan, Alternative Therapies, vol. 5 no. 6, Nov. 1999).

Later in 1999, a study examined enhanced learning of proportional math through music training and spatial-temporal training. Children given piano keyboard training along with a specially designed Math Video Game training scored significantly higher on proportional math and fractions than children given a control training along with the same video game (Amy Graziano, Matthew Peterson and Gordon Shaw, Neurological Research, Volume 21 [1999], pp. 139-152).

In early 2000, a study found that a curriculum combining piano lessons, educational math software and fun math problems helped second graders achieve scores on advanced math concepts and Stanford 9 math scores comparable to those of fourth graders (Matthew Peterson, Mark Bodner, Stephen Cook, Tina Earl, Jill Hansen, Michael Martinez, Linda Rodgers, Sydni Vuong, Gordon Shaw, 2000, submitted for publication).

In Fall 2000, a team led by Dr. Barry Bittman of the Mind-Body Wellness Center finds that a particular type of group drumming activity appears to boost the function of Natural Killer cells that seek out and destroy cancer cells and virally-infected cells in normal subjects. (Barry Bittman, Lee S. Berk, David L. Felten, O. Carl Simonton, James Pappas, Melissa Ninehouser, Alternative Therapies, January 2001, accepted for publication).

Guthrie and Irion juggle life and music to fine effect

2008-11-15T22:17:00.001-08:00

By Chrissie Dickinson
Special to the Tribune

Husband-and-wife folk-rock duo Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion are learning firsthand what it means to juggle family and career.
"If we could do this [interview] in 10 minutes, that would be amazing. Is that OK?," Irion asks politely and a bit harriedly, calling from the couple's home base of Columbia, S.C. "We're just now leaving the Whole Foods store and I'm putting a Popsicle in [daughter] Olivia's mouth."
Instead, Irion and Guthrie call back, each taking a turn on the phone while the other covers the parental duties with their 2 1/2 year old. Their schedule is getting busier every day. Guthrie and Irion--who both have separate music careers as well--recently released their first collaboration, "Exploration" (New West), a strong folk-country-rock effort that combines homespun harmonies and a swirl of American roots-music influences. The songs--all written or co-written by Guthrie and Irion, except for the Pete Seeger-penned "Dr. King"--move from the jangly folk-rocker "Holdin' Back" to the snarling Neil Young & Crazy Horse feel of "Gervais."
"Exploration" combines a warm, living room ambience with a loose and lively sound that also gives a nod towards the Band's seminal early releases. Guthrie and Irion, backed by the Kevin Kinney Band, will share a bill with John Doe at FitzGerald's on Saturday.
"There are a lot of influences," Irion says of the new record. "We are hugely influenced by the Band . . . but we also love Bessie Smith, Lightnin' Hopkins, all the old blues stuff."
Irion, 35, previously logged stints in several bands, including the South Carolina-based Dillon Fence. For her part, Guthrie, 25, brings a weighty legacy to the table. The daughter of 1960s folkie Arlo Guthrie, she is also granddaughter of the towering American folk music icon Woody Guthrie. Despite her lineage--and despite the fact that at the age of 2 she sang on Arlo's 1981 record "Power of Love"--Guthrie says she never seriously entertained the idea of a music career during her formative years.
True to her dad's hippie roots, Guthrie spent her early years growing up on an isolated farm in Massachusetts, then attended school at a Florida ashram from the ages of 12 to 18. It was a place where she went to class in "bare feet and pajamas" and was active in community projects that helped abused children and people with AIDS. She credits the socially and spiritually aware lifestyle at the ashram--and the guru she studied under--for giving her a solid foundation in life.
"I definitely got a lot of life experience, and funny enough, it's really come full circle," she says. "All this stuff nowadays I read about my grandfather that I had no knowledge of back then--just his openness and compassion and all the things he'd written that are still relevant today--it's really what I learned from my guru. Just about being kind, being human."
At 18 she began delving deeper into her grandfather's music, and came to understand the enormity of his legacy. "That's when I really got a good picture of what an impact he had on everybody, our society, our world. It's still occurring to me. I think Woody's spirit is growing more and more, and it's growing on me as well."
After high school, Guthrie moved to L.A., where she met Irion in 1997. The two began dating, and soon that personal partnership blossomed into a musical one as well. Guthrie had always written poetry. One night Irion started putting that poetry to his own music, then handed her a guitar. "[She took to it] like a fish to water," he says.
"I took lessons as a kid, piano and stuff, but I never really started playing until I met Johnny," Guthrie says. "We sat down, and he convinced me to put my poetry to songs, and 15 minutes later I had a guitar in my hand. A week later, I was on the road with my dad."
While many parents might have discouraged a child from pursuing music professionally, Guthrie's father Arlo and mother Jackie were all for the idea when their daughter decided to take up the family trade.
"They were psyched when I decided to play music," she says. "It was never expected of me, but when I picked it up, [my mother] talked me out of going to college to go on the road with Dad. It didn't take too much to convince me."
----------

Fairness in the music biz: Just an illusion?

2008-11-15T22:16:00.001-08:00

First time fair music award for fine examples of fairness in the music industry
(Linz, 8 September 2007)

Tonga.Online, female:pressure, Freibank Music Publishing, and Extraplatte were the first to be given the newly-created fair music Awards within the context of Ars Electronica. This year’s laureates’ submissions incorporate the entire range of activities imaginable – from exemplary commitment to projects coined by internationally acclaimed artists (e.g., Mark Chung, Einstuerzende Neubauten). fair music Initiator Peter Rantasa handed over the awards; the event ceremony also saw national and international experts discuss aspects of the value creation chain and new models for more fairness in the music business. This year also marked the beginning of the annual awards being given to businesses and service providers for their contribution to more fairness and justice in the music business by the fair music initiative.

What is the aim of the fair music Initiative?
fair music is the first global initiative for fairness and justice in the music business.
Initiated by mica – music austria, fair music stands up for the establishment of fair rules and regulations in the music world: protection of artistic freedom, well-balanced contracts for musicians, fair remuneration for composers and musicians, as well as a fair distribution of opportunities for smaller producers worldwide and especially for musicians of the Global South and considerably strengthening the position of artists and listeners. fair music adopts the idea and empirical knowledge of the Fair Trade Organisations and takes it to the world of cultural goods and services. It is committed to the development of standards of fairness for the music industry. To reach these aims, together with the International Music Council (IMC – an international NGO in formal associate relations with UNESCO) and music and cultural NGOs, the initiative will be developing standards music products and distribution channels must meet in order to receive a fair music seal of approval. The online platform www.fairmusic.net offers both the latest information and an opportunity to join the initiative.

At the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, the fair music award for achievements for fairness in the music business was given for the first time ever to companies and initiatives acting in a responsible and morally mature way. Says fair music initiator and jury president Peter Rantasa on the award: “The fair music award is meant to go to projects showing commitment, those who already prove today what a fair music business of tomorrow may look like. We are giving an award to the Avant-Garde of fair music.

The voice of the Tonga
The Tonga people (forcibly separated by the advent of modern technology and construction of the Kariba dam only 50 years ago) have seized the opportunity to restore and improve ties within the community and with the outside world by deploying new technologies. The cultural heritage of the Tonga and the Ngoma-Buntibe music is being further developed via Tonga.Online, which was established to make people outside Zimbabwe more aware of Tonga culture and provide them with an insight into the current situation in Zimbabwe.

Executive Director of the European Music Council Ruth Jakobi, composer, academic teacher of composition and president of Austro-Mechana Dieter Kaufmann, ORF music journalist Irene Suchy, Ars Electronica director Gerfried Stocker, and fair music initiator and managing director mica – music austria Peter Rantasa were of the same mind: ″Tonga.Online is an important contribution to
fair music and, thus, a worthy laureate“, Peter Rantasa explained. “In a climate of conflicting priorities between the Global North and South, the Tonga.Online platform contributes to preserving cultural diversity, as well as fighting for peace and freedom of expression in the region.“
Irene Suchy added: “To me, fair music incorporates fair distribution of resources. Neither should the Global North fleece the Global South, nor the rich the poor, nor the man the women, nor the white the black. What’s most urgent is to create the utmost fairness in the world. All structures boosting processes leading towards this goal shall be supported“.

Strong network by and for female artists
Network female:pressure was awarded by fair music for their commitment to justice in the music business and creating awareness. The public access database on female DJs, producers and visual artists has been online for about ten years now. Internationally acclaimed star DJ Electric Indigo aka Susanne Kirchmayr created and founded the project as an answer to conventional wisdom that there were too few women participating in the music scene. Open source expert Andrea Mayr has been dedicating her time to software engineering and continuously further developing the platform. More than 900 artists from 50 countries participating as of today means that female:pressure has reached a global scale with a strong impact.

More, faster, Freibank
For more than 20 years, Freibank Music Publishing has been considered a reference alternative to the big publishers. Originally founded by Mark Chung in 1986 to more effectively administer the copyrights by German band Einstuerzende Neubauten, the independent publisher based in Hamburg soon started offering services to friend-bands true to the motto „More and Faster“. Freibank not only tends to direct collection of mechanicals (which is unique in the publishing industry in Germany), but also covers promotion, marketing and secondary exploitation in film and advertising. Having developed into an international network, Freibank does not shy away from territorial borders and new technologies. A catalogue of more than 20,000 works administered is a strong testimonial to an unconventional business philosophy rewarded by fair music.

Extraplatte for cultural diversity
Harald Quendler has shown more than 30 years of commitment for cultural diversity in the Austrian music market. With his business Extraplatte – label, distributor and record store rolled into one – Quendler co-operates with musicians to make them stand on their own two feet – from music production to cover and booklet arts design to marketing and distribution. Extraplatte is an established niche service for innovative, off-key and exotic music. It is a synonym for a diverse choice of folk, jazz, world music, classical, advanced pop and contemporary music. Successful careers and trends which were knocked off by Extraplatte produce a long, long list. Promoting unknown musicians still is instrumental to Quendler. fair music rewards the commitment to cultural diversity and freedom.

The fair music talk saw social and media scientist Volker Grassmuck, Creative Commons CEO Joichi Ito, journalist and Electronic Frontier Foundation member Danny O’Brien, and Chris Gelbmann of Buntspecht Records discuss aspects of the value creation chain (especially in digital music distribution) and the justice of distribution between the Global North and South, topical developments with Technical Protection Measures (TPMs), whistling the tune of ”Goodbye Privacy“, and the new models for more fairness in the music business

Digitizing Audio with Music Match Jukebox

2008-11-15T22:15:00.001-08:00

While it is possible to digitize audio with components that come standard with Windows, I'm convinced that it's probably not the best way. The sound recorder/media player option that comes with Windows creates only .wav files. Further, because of software limitations, these files will usually not be able to handle more than about 60 seconds of audio. That's never quite enough for any slide show that I'm creating. While there are many programs that will digitize audio, few are as easy to use, and as inexpensive as Music Match Jukebox.

Obtaining Music Match
The program can be obtained from http://www.musicmatch.com/. The basic version of the software is free; the plus version is about $20. The plus version does have some interesting features, but everything you need to create audio files for a PowerPoint slide show is contained in the free version.

The Music Match Screen
This program features a very stylized graphical interface as you can see from the figure below. The left side of the screen contains all of the options necessary to play a CD. The right side of the screen provides a listing of song tracks on the current CD along with several other options that are beyond the scope of this document.

Recording an Audio Track
Recording tracks in Music Match is fairly straightforward. Begin by clicking on the red recorder button located next to the fast forward button on the left side of the screen. This causes the Music Match program to display the recorder window as illustrated by the figure.

On the right side of the recorder window, you will see the track list from the CD in the drive. Each track will, by default, have a check mark next to it. The check mark means that you wish to record that track. At this point you'll want to remove the check marks from any track that you do not wish to record. Once you have selected the desired tracks, click on the record button in lower left corner of the recorder window to begin recording.

Locating your tracks
Music match automatically places your digitized tracks in the My Documents\My Music\CD Name folder. If you wish to change the default location select Options | Music Library | New Music Library.

Adjusting the audio quality
Music Match also allows you to specify the audio file format and quality settings prior to digitizing. Changing the audio quality will impact the fidelity of the sound track as well as the file size These settings are easily changed by selecting Options | Recorder | Quality. The table below, summarized from the Music Match help screens, will allow you to make informed decisions about your recording quality.

Recording Quality
Relative Quality Disk space for 1 minute of audio
MP3 (160 kbps) CD 1.5MB
MP3 (128 kbps) CD 1MB
Windows Media (128 kbps) CD 700K
WAV CD 10MB
MP3 (96 kbps) Near CD 700K
Windows Media (96 kbps) Near CD 700K
MP3 (64 kbps) FM Radio 400K
Windows Media (64 kbps) FM Radio 400K

Classical Music Library Integration FAQ

2008-11-15T22:14:00.000-08:00

Who should read the Integration FAQ?
This is intended for the library personnel responsible for the integration of your Classical Music Library service. Technical staff should refer to the integration guide for more technical details.

What do you need to do?
Use the information in this guide to fill out your Integration Form. Return the Integration Form to your Alexander Street Press sales representative.
Where do you call for support?
If you need help filling out the form, please contact Gibson Library Connections, or our customer support team at the following address:

Gibson Library Connections
2974 Forest Road
Saint-Lazare, QC J7T 2B1
450-458-0677
gary@gibsonlibraryconnections.ca

Alexander Street Press
3212 Duke St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
800-889-5937 ext. 0
support@alexanderstreet.com

FAQ 1: How does your library initiate access?
Integration begins when you return your signed License and your Integration Form to your sales representative. Alexander Street’s technical staff then begins to build your library’s Classical Music Library service at a separate domain name in the form of http://YourLibraryName.classical.com.

There are two main types of service access:
• Internal Access: Patrons accessing Classical Music Library are within the library building, and using library terminals (on-campus).
• Remote Access: Patrons are using the library’s remote services from home or some other non-library location (off-campus).

Your Classical Music Library domain (http://YourLibraryName.classical.com) acts as a routing point, and users accessing the service actually get forwarded to one of two other domains:

Internal access users get forwarded to http://internal.LibraryName.classical.com.
Remote access users get forwarded to http://external.LibraryName.classical.com.

This means that each library has two versions of the service, each of which can be configured independently, offering you the ability to give each domain different service options (see FAQ 5 below).

FAQ 2: What are your library’s technical compatibility requirements?
Each computer that will be using Classical Music Library must be compatible with our minimum system specifications, and the network on which the computer resides must be configured to support streaming media.

The following lists the requirements that are common to all platforms and browsers:

• Internet-connected, audio-enabled computer.
• Firewalls must allow MP3 and Windows Media content and have ports 81 and 1755 open.
• Proxy servers must be able to handle ‘media streams.’

Music in a Wartime Culture

2008-11-15T22:13:00.002-08:00

Comparing the music of WWI and the Current War on Terrorism

For grades 7-12, American History, Current Events, Sociology, World History

This project can be adapted for individual or group learning. It can be done in conjunction with a music class, a technology class, an English class, or in the social studies curriculum.

Rationale: This will give students a better understanding of the role music plays in American culture. It will also introduce them to wartime music, both pro and anti war songs.

The required time frame would be between two and five days, depending on the depth of study. Given a brief introduction, and assigning the task of locating modern music dealing with war in some aspect, the actual time on task in the classroom could be reduced to one or two class periods for reflection purposes.

This was inspired by the music at the Liberty Memorial.

Lesson Objectives: The student will:
• Identify several underlying themes of war inspired music.
• Analyze the effect the author is trying to initialize.

Local Standards:

Secondary materials: Song Analysis Worksheets I and II.

Primary Sources: Music from the Great War, using such sources as the UMKC online library. Students will be expected to bring in their own samples from modern music to analyze. The instructor can choose to give them a list to choose from, but students should still be responsible for finding a copy on their own.

Technology Required: Internet, compact disc player, record player, 8-track, or cassette player, as needed. Teachers will need to find copies of the music online in advance, and have it ready to use if it will be used in a classroom. If students are responsible for doing the worksheets at home, they will need access to the internet, and a computer with a sound system. Most of the modern music can be accessed via the internet, via sources such as http//:www.launch.com

Full Description of the activity:

As a part of WWI studies, students will take time to look at the music of the period. The instructor may introduce the lesson by asking about anti war sentiment in the current culture. Why is it happening, and did it happen in other wars, or is this one different. Segue into a discussion of music as a reflection of a culture.
The instructor will play a few pieces of music from the period of 1910-1913, pointing out highlights such as the simplicity of the message, the nature of the rhythm, the brevity, as well as the clean nature of the lyrics, comparatively. Ask students what kind of music they think would be playing during WWI, before American entry. Answers will vary. Ask for a show of hands of how many believe there would be anti war music, especially before the war begins.

Each student should be given several copies of the song analysis worksheet. As a class, read over the questions on the “Song Analysis Worksheet I”. Then, play a song from the Great War period, assisting students in answering questions. Point out to them the lack of diversity they will find in music during this period (no rock, no rap/R&B, no Country) and briefly discuss why that would be; if that is a positive or a negative can be discussed as a class later. When students feel competent with the worksheet, allow them to work in small groups to listen to the music from the Great War. Have them complete three to four “Analysis” sheets in class. For homework, have them find a current song that has themes that touch on war in some way, even vaguely. It is best if this song is 2001 or later, but can still apply if it finds radio play once in a while. The instructor can provide a list of songs for the students, give recommendations, or set the students loose to find their own. Have them complete an analysis on the new songs as well.
When the students have completed their analysis, give them “Song Analysis Worksheet II”, where in they will answer questions based on their decisions on question number 16 of the part one. They will answer these on notebook paper, and be prepared to defend their answers to the class. Each group will then share with the whole their discoveries. Other groups not actively reporting will critique the decisions of the reporting group, to build some consensus on what makes a war song. This can be an extremely productive discussion if students are allowed to choose their own musical choices.
As a wrap up, students will do an individual review, comparing and contrasting the Great War music to their modern music. Hopefully, they will walk away with the belief that their music is not as far removed from the Great War’s as they assume. Also, it is hoped that they will think more critically about the music they hear on the radio.

Assessment:

To be turned in to the instructor:
1. Song Analysis Worksheet I results.
2. Song Analysis Worksheet II results.
3. Compare/contrast essay wrap up.

Assessments by instructor during discussion:
1. Point system for participation in presentation.
2. Point system for questions asked during presentations.
3. Peer grading based on any group participation.

Students will turn in copies of their “Song Analysis- Parts I and II” and a final comparison paper. Students will also be graded on participation in roundtable discussions, based on how well they contributed to their group’s presentation as well as questions for others during presentations. Finally, their grade will be determined by their time within the group, and how well they worked toward the final goal.

ART AND MUSIC

2008-11-15T22:13:00.001-08:00

Chair: Vitawan Chunthone, Thammasat University

Battlefields: Reviews from Modern Piphat Prachan
Anant Narkkong, College of Music, Mahidol University

This paper attempts to explore the phenomena and existence the Piphat music in the context of contemporary Thai society. Rather than a general explanation of its form and performance principles, major concentrations will be more on the Prachan tradition and its fundamental. Prachan, in this case, could liberally mean a musical competition between two orchestral opponents, or could mean a combating zone within the Piphat society. The parameters and significance of Piphat Prachan change from time to time, space to space, and can stand on any possible circumstances. Many images can be observed from the Piphat Prachan, such as song selections to be performed during each match, musician’s performance skills, the special music arrangements which reflect the creativity and originality of the performers, the audience’s attitudes, the acceptances and rejections of Thai music society. Also, Prachan reflects all efforts to make this music tradition survive within this present struggling cultural era.

Music in Roman Catholic Mass of Thailand
Jittapim Yamprai, Conservatory of Music, Rangsit University

When Christian Missionaries came to Thailand, they brought with them their sacred services and music. In each era, music in the Mass, as celebrated in Thailand, developed in a similar way to the evolution of Church music: i.e. the development of musical notation, the creation of a songbook for the rite, and the translation and modification of Latin and foreign songs into Thai.

The development of the Music in Roman Catholic Mass of Thailand can be divided into 4 periods: Music of the Roman Liturgy (1511-1851); The beginning of the musical development of the Mass (1851-1946); The reformation of music in Mass and the music 10 years after the Second Vatican council (1946-1972); The development of Thai sacred composition in the Mass (1973-2003).

Musical characteristics differ from period to period in the use of original chants, contrafacta on western sacred compositions, and new compositions in Thai. Thai culture impacted the performance practice, notation, text and liturgical composition, and resulted in changes to the Roman traditional norm. Thai dialects, poetry, and local instruments and ensembles were combined with the western musical style to create a unique multicultural musical style within the Mass.

The Meaning of Traditional Music in the 21st Century: A Comparative Study of Changes in Japanese Traditional Music and Traditional Music in Northern Part of Thailand
Thitipol Kanteewong, Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University

The traditional music in the twentieth-first century showed the social paradigms which influenced music composers, traditional musicians, and audiences. The new traditional music styles are connected with ideologies of the regionalism, national-ism, and internationalism.

The objective of this paper is to compare the changes in traditional music in the twentieth century between Japan and Lanna societies. The discipline of ethnomusic-ology is being used as a fundamental method to compare musical forms, social contexts, and contemporary phenomena.

Results of the research showed that the two important social factors to the changing of traditional music depending on the internal and external factors. This new phenomena in traditional music of Japan and Lanna clearly reflects the new phase of modernity, brought about by transnationalization.

Fusions of Thai and Western Music in Dontri Thai Prayuk: An Emerging Example of Modern Thai Music-Cultural Identity
Vicki-Ann Ware, School of Music-Conservatorium, Monash University

Since the mid-19th century some Central Thai musicians have fused elements of Western music-culture with their own, thereby creating new styles such as Lakhorn Pridalai, Phleng Thai Sakon and Dontri Thai Prayuk. These musical fusions, which paralleled similar transformed styles in the other arts, were in line with Thai political moves to incorporate elements of Western culture into their own, as part of their efforts to ‘modernize’ and counterbalance attempts by European powers to colonize them.

This paper focuses on one urban middle-class genre that developed from the 1950s: Dontri Thai Prayuk, in which clear patterns emerge in the way Thai musicians have maintained markers of Thai identity and fused them with Western elements that signify modernization. Motivations behind this deliberate fusion of Thai and Western elements are explained by my theories of ‘musical accommodation’ and ‘acts of identity’. Analysis of Dontri Thai Prayuk fusion music shows that it has changed the underlying rules of Thai classical and Western popular music to display a music-cultural identity that is Thai, yet modern.

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF MUSIC EDUCATION

2008-11-15T22:12:00.001-08:00

ISSN: 0004-9484
Editor: Associate Professor David Forrest
PO Box 5, Parkville, Victoria 3052
Tel: +61 3 9925 8707
E-mail: david.forrest@rmit.edu.au

The Australian Journal of Music Education (AJME) publishes articles that enhance knowledge regarding the teaching and learning of music with a special interest toward the Australian music education community. This may include articles that report results of quantitative or qualitative research studies, summarize bodies of research, present theories, models, or philosophical positions, etc. Articles should include a discussion of implications and applications to music teaching and learning, defined broadly.

The Australian Journal of Music Education is a fully refereed journal, which aims to provide clear, stimulating and readable accounts of current issues in music education. In particular, it strives to strengthen professional development and improve practice within the field of music education.

Manuscript preparation

Abstract
The manuscript should include an abstract of not more than 200 words.

Presentation
The type size of the font should be no smaller than 12 points and be double-spaced.
Tables and figures should be no smaller than eight points.

Length
Normally between 3,000 and 10,000 words. The entire manuscript including the abstract and any figures, tables, drawings, and references, generally should not exceed 20 pages.

Biographical note
Authors are requested to include a short biographical note of no more than 100 words.

Title page
The title page must include the following information: title of article; author’s name; current position and institution; current email, postal address, and telephone number.

There should also be the following statement on the title page: “This article is submitted exclusively to the Australian Journal of Music Education and, if accepted for publication, it is agreed that it will become the copyright of the Australian Society for Music Education.”

Style
All quantitative research articles should conform to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed., 2001). Non-quantitative articles may conform to APA style, The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed., 2003), or A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (K.L. Turabian, 7th ed., 2007). Authors may not mix styles within a single manuscript.

Language
Writing should be clear, and jargon free; subheadings are useful in long articles.

Stereotyping
All forms of racial and gender stereotyping should be avoided.

Abbreviations, acronyms
Should be given in full at their first mention, thus: Australian Society for Music Education (ASME).

Submission
Articles should be sent electronically to the Editor. In addition one printed copy is to be mailed to the Editor at the above address.

Review Process
The Editor will acknowledge manuscripts upon receipt. All manuscripts will then be sent out by the editor for anonymous editorial review by members of the AJME Editorial Committee. To preserve anonymity in the review process, the manuscript and abstract should contain no clues to the author’s identity or institutional affiliation (they should appear only on the title page which will not be sent out). Contributors can usually expect a decision concerning the acceptability of a manuscript for publication within three months after receipt. Accepted articles will appear in the order in which they were accepted as publication space allows in the AJME.

In reviewing the article, the referees are asked to consider the following:
1. appropriateness of the article for the members of the Australian Society for Music Education
2. scholarly content
3. relevance of the issue for Australian music education today
4. writing style (including, clarity of presentation)

Copyright
Author(s) are responsible for compiling and ensuring that any material that has influenced the research or writing has been properly cited and credited both in the text and in the list of references.

Once accepted for publication in AJME the author(s) assigns literary rights on the published article to ASME, so that the author(s) and the Editor are protected from misuse of copyright material.

However, the Editor should be informed at the time of submitting an article if any of the material has been used elsewhere.

Multiple Submissions
Manuscripts should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Intending authors are encouraged to contact the Editor if they have any questions or concerns. The Editor is particularly keen to assist prospective authors who may be considering submitting an article.

Make music with maestros

2008-11-15T22:09:00.000-08:00

Make music with maestros - In the Chair – the flight simulator for musicians

LAUNCH @ DEMO®

There are at least 60 million musicians in the US . Only 3/10 of 1% play professionally . In the Chair is for the other 59,820,000.

Australian based internet software developers Digital Monkey, in partnership with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, are launching ‘In the Chair’ at DEMO@15!, ‘the premier launch pad for emerging technologies’, February 13-15, Scottsdale, Arizona USA after winning the inaugural Guy Manson Award for outstanding showcasing companies at the ANZA Technology Network Conference, Palo Alto October 26-28, 2004.

CEO of In the Chair and Director of Digital Monkey, Mr David Evans, said In The Chair will allow music students and hobbyists to participate in the fantasy of being a music star.

“It's a simulator that places you inside the virtual environment of a symphony orchestra and lets you play along with professional musicians but your own level,” Mr Evans said.

“Unlike low end software that requires electronic synthesizers, our technology lets you play a real instrument into a microphone, and get real-time feedback on your pitch, volume, timing and timbre. It works with any instrument and any type of music.”

“You select the music, degree of difficulty and play your own instrument at home as if sitting In the Chair, onstage with the world’s leading musicians.”

In the Chair Vice President of Content and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Commercial Activities Manager, Mr Chris Matters, said this collaboration was important for the ASO and led the way for other orchestras around the globe to increase their revenues and profiles.

“Orchestras must maintain relevance. In the Chair is an ideal means to introduce the enjoyment of classical music to youth.”

“Orchestras providing content for In the Chair will have a larger constituency, attracting audiences, players and conductors to the orchestra.”

“Classical music doesn’t sell well in today’s music store but selling the content online through In the Chair will provide another vital means to create revenue from the orchestras’ catalogue of recordings, resulting in limitless content being made available for In the Chair,” Mr Matters said.

Whilst the multi-million dollar project is largely self funded by Digital Monkey and the ASO, it has been assisted by The Telstra Broadband Fund and the South Australian Film Corporation.

About DEMO@15 - www.demo.com
The annual DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products, which are hand-selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies, and have served as launch pad events for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Handspring, and U.S. Robotics, helping them to secure venture funding, establish critical business relationships, and influence early adopters. Each DEMO conference features approximately 70 new companies, products and technologies. For more information on the DEMO conferences, visit http://www.demo.com/.

About Digital Monkey – www.digitalmonkey.com.au
Digital Monkey creates digital and interactive screen content and applications. From the World Wide Web to DVD, we deliver on all interactive video platforms.

Initially created as a service based company to the Arts Industry, Digital Monkey has consistently worked for Australia's peak arts organisations. Its client portfolio includes luminaries of the Arts Industry such as The Australian Dance Theatre, the Adelaide Festival and world-renowned filmmaker Rolf de Heer.

About the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra – www.aso.com.au
With an enviable international reputation for world class performances and a vital role at the heart of the South Australian community, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra is one of the nation's most exciting performing arts organisations.

The ASO has established an international reputation for its youthful vitality and superb artistry. Following its ground-breaking 1996 tour to China, the ASO won world acclaim in 1998 with Australia’s first production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, conducted by Jeffrey Tate. This magnificent feat was repeated in late 2004 with the first fully Australian production of The Ring under the baton of Israeli Conductor Asher Fisch, described by the critics as "one of the finest occasions in the history of Australian music".

AUSTRALIAN COPRIGHT LAW

2008-11-15T22:08:00.000-08:00

PRIVATE COPYING OF MUSIC

You are now allowed to make a copy of a sound recording that you own
such as a CD, solely for your private and domestic use.

What does the new exception in s 109A allow you to do?

• You can use an earlier copy to make later copies for all the players you own regardless of format (eg you can copy a CD to two MP3 players).

• You can make sequential copies (eg you can copy a CD to a personal computer and copy the content again to an iPod).

What are the limits to the new exception?

• You must own the original copy and it must not be a pirate copy.

• Any copy you make must be made solely for your own private and domestic use.

• Any copy you make must be made for use with a playing device you own (that playing device could be a CD player, portable device such as an iPod, car sound system, personal computer or home entertainment media centre).

• Any copy you make must not be made from a ‘podcast’ of a radio broadcast or similar program (unless the podcast is licensed for private use).

• You cannot sell, swap, lend or give away any later copy to someone else. However you can lend it to a member of your family or household.

• If you sell, swap, lend or give away your original copy of a sound recording you must not keep any copy you have made.

• A business cannot use this exception to make a copy of a sound recording for you unless they have the permission to do so from the relevant copyright owners.

• You are not allowed to upload a copy of a song to the Internet.

• The new exception does not authorise you to remove technological protection measures applied to the sound recording. However many CDs, and all vinyl records, do not have such protection.

ROCK MUSIC. ROCK ART

2008-11-15T22:07:00.002-08:00

Lolui Island, Lake Victoria, Uganda.

Four rock gongs have been silent for generations.

February 2007. A group of musicians comprising members of the London Sinfonietta, five Ugandan master musicians and composer Nigel Osborne, along with sculptor Peter Randall-Page, travel to the island, accessible only by a seven-hour boat journey through dangerous waters. Their aim is bring life back to the rock gongs, natural rock formations that possess unique sonic properties found in only a few places on Earth. During the trip the gongs were digitally sampled to allow the sounds to be transported first to Kampala and ultimately back to the UK. They became the basis of a remarkably powerful musical collaboration.

This autumn the London Sinfonietta welcomes the Lead Musicians of Uganda Dance Academy - Bernard Kayiggya, Samuel Bakkabulindi, Hakim Kiwanuka, Robert Lubanga, and Mathias Muwonge – to London for the culmination of this two-year collaboration. In a mini-festival of music, talk, dance and art - the first at the newly opened Kings Place - audiences will have the opportunity to hear the results of this remarkable meeting of Western and African cultures.

Events during the week will include concerts, drumming workshops, exhibitions, talks, films and a club night. The final concert will feature the world premiere of Rock Music by Nigel Osborne – a London Sinfonietta commission - alongside music by leading Ugandan composer Justinian Tamasuza and rising British star Tansy Davies.

Promoted by London Sinfonietta in association with Kings Place Music Foundation.

USAID-Produced Music Video Promotes

2008-11-15T22:07:00.001-08:00

Better Maternal and Newborn Health

Islamabad, February 6, 2008 -- The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) today launched a new music video to educate audiences on maternal and newborn health.

“Music and television can be extraordinarily effective in communicating important health and social messages to young couples,” said Anne Aarnes, the Mission Director of USAID in Pakistan. “I hope this music video will find its way into the hearts of young husbands and wives all over Pakistan, with its strong message about family responsibility for ensuring maternal health.”

Featuring popular vocalist, Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan, the video is one of USAID and the Government of Pakistan’s joint efforts to generate awareness regarding the role of the husband and his family in matters relating to mother and newborn health. The video will be featured on major television channels throughout Pakistan.

Funded by USAID and implemented by John Snow Incorporated (JSI) in partnership with the Government of Pakistan, the $49.9 million PAIMAN project builds the capacity of existing health systems and fosters a community-based approach to ensure a continuum of care for mothers and newborns in 10 districts of Pakistan.

Support for this project is part of the $1.5 billion in aid that the U.S. Government is providing to Pakistan over five years to improve economic growth, education, health and governance and to assist with earthquake reconstruction.