Enhanced development of auditory change detection in musically trained school‐aged children: a longitudinal event‐related potential study

Adult musicians show superior auditory discrimination skills when compared to non‐musicians. The enhanced auditory skills of musicians are reflected in the augmented amplitudes of their auditory event‐related potential (ERP) responses. In the current study, we investigated longitudinally the development of auditory discrimination skills in musically trained and nontrained individuals. To this end, we recorded the mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a responses from children who play a musical instrument and age‐matched children with no musical training at ages 7, 9, 11, and 13. Basic auditory processing was investigated by recording ERPs in the Multi‐Feature Paradigm that included frequency, duration, intensity, location, and gap deviants. The detection of musically more relevant sound changes was examined in an oddball paradigm with major chords as standards and minor chords as deviants. The musically trained children showed larger increase in MMN and P3a amplitudes with age for the chord deviants than the control children. There was also a strong trend (p = .054) for larger increase in MMN amplitude in the musically trained children for the location deviant. As no group differences in response amplitudes were evident at the early stages of the training, our results suggest that the superior neural auditory discrimination in adult musicians is due to training and not pre‐existing differences between musicians and non‐musicians.     

Troubles musculosquelettiques,pratique instrumentale et ressentis des musiciens d’orchestre professionnels en confinement dû à la COVID-19

IntroductionProfessional orchestra musicians frequently suffer from musculoskeletal disorders related to their working conditions. In the spring of 2020, the lockdown and the interruption of their professional activities because of the COVID-19 pandemic could have presented an opportunity for them to recuperate but could also have increased their professional uncertainty and been a source of negative emotions.ObjectiveThe first objective is to evaluate the evolution of musicians’ musculoskeletal disorders in relation to the interruption of their professional activities due to COVID-19. The second is to examine the impact of professional uncertainty caused by the pandemic on their instrument practice as a function of the emotions it generated.MethodA questionnaire concerning instrument practice and musculoskeletal disorders was completed by 439 French orchestra musicians in 2019 (period of professional activity). During lockdown (April 2020), a second questionnaire measuring these variables as well as professional uncertainty, emotions, emotional exhaustion, and the lockdown experience was completed by 172 musicians.ResultsInstrument practice and musculoskeletal disorders decreased between the periods of activity and lockdown. Professional uncertainty during lockdown correlated with negative emotions. Emotional exhaustion mediated the relations between uncertainty and the effort perceived when practicing one's instrument on the one hand and the pleasure experienced during practice on the other.ConclusionFor orchestra musicians in lockdown, uncertainty was related to negative emotions. Playing their instrument required more effort and was not associated with well-being, emphasizing the difficulties regarding the resumption of their professional activity in conditions which would limit the risk of injury.     

Prayerful silence and creative response in twenty-first-century monasticism

Many of today's monks and nuns are active composers: some have entered their communities as highly trained musicians, while others find themselves drawn to musical expression after profession. But how does such a creative musical response relate to the monastic atmosphere of hesychia (prayerful silence), and does this response differ in secular experiences of a prayerful silence? This paper provides an ethnographic account of the relationship between hesychia and creative response among twenty-first-century monastic musicians in the Western tradition, comparing these responses with those from secular Christian composers and from composers in the Quaker tradition for whom silence is, as for monastics, an integral component of worship; the issues are then explored in the context of methodological constructs for discursive meditation and contemplative prayer, and of conceptual notions of silence. This paper argues that essential differences between monastic and secular experiences of silence are significant regulators of creative response to hesychia.     

Death by 1000 ‘true fans’: Do marketing laws apply to music listening?

The advice to musicians and marketers is to focus on what they love: a truism for practitioners is to find 1000 ‘true fans’ and make $100 from each of them (Kelly, 2008. 1000 True fans. The Technium). If this advice is correct, we should see musicians with loyal user bases engaging more with their favourite artists and less with other music, suggesting a narrow targeting strategy would suffice. On the other hand, the established marketing laws indicate that the listeners of very different genres should overlap more than conventional wisdom would suggest, supporting the need for a much broader approach to targeting potential audiences. Given these conflicting views, musicians need to know if they should market to their existing listeners, the listeners of music similar to theirs (i.e., the same genre), or if they should try to reach a much wider audience. We turn to established choice patterns from the marketing literature to address these questions in the music context. This study examines 84,000,000 observations of music listening from 27,000 unique global users between 2013 and 2014 and survey data from 2019 containing music listening from over 1000 representative respondents in the United States. The results show that listening follows the Duplication of Purchase law for genres, artists, albums, and songs, at an annual, 6-months, 3-months, 1-month, and 1-week period, with no indication of partitioned music listening. The implication is that musicians should try to reach all potential listeners, regardless of what they already listen to. These findings contribute to the theoretical knowledge about duplication analyses of various durations, extend the contexts of choice behaviour that exhibit this pattern, and managerially, to knowledge about the extent of potential audiences and ‘share of ear’ competition.     

Rock Stars in Anti‐Drug‐Abuse Commercials: An Experimental Study of Adolescents' Reactions1

Two studies examined adolescents' perceptions and effectiveness of rock stars in antidrug‐abuse public‐service announcements (PSAs). In the pilot study (N= 24 teenagers), adolescents expected rock musicians, and in particular heavy metal musicians, to be drug users. In our experimental study (N= 78 high school students aged 15 to 16 years), one group was shown 4 PSAs produced by Rock Against Drugs, using rock stars Jon Bon Jovi, Aimee Mann, Gene Simmons, and Belinda Carlysle as spokespersons. The comparison group was shown 4 equivalent PSAs that were created using unknown actors selected for their similarity to the rock stars in terms of age, ethnicity, and gender, but without any reference to rock music. PSA ratings were taken on 4 scales: attractiveness, expertness, trustworthiness, and overall PSA rating. Pretest and posttest measures of drug attitudes supported our hypotheses that countermessages from rock stars denormalize the connection between rock music and drugs, and that adolescents respond more positively to PSAs with rock stars than to PSAs without rock stars.     

In the Anteroom of Divinity: The Reformation of the Angels from Colet to Milton

Abstract

Erasmus censures the musical practice of the medieval Church from ethical and rhetorical perspectives on music, and highlights decorum in delivery at the liturgical performance. His criticism of instrumental music echoes the patristic views of music, which are essentially logocentric and opposed to the use of musical instruments within the Church. The Erasmian ideal of church musicians lies in the classical model of the sacred-musical orator, with great emphasis on musicians’ moral status and intellectual ability. In relation to music (especially the Psalms) in the context of Christian worship, Erasmus regards music as a ‘spiritual sacrifice’ in which leading godly lives is combined with singing hymns and praises.     

Musical Training,Bilingualism, and Executive Function: A Closer Look at Task Switching and Dual‐Task Performance

This study investigated whether musical training and bilingualism are associated with enhancements in specific components of executive function, namely, task switching and dual‐task performance. Participants (n = 153) belonging to one of four groups (monolingual musician, bilingual musician, bilingual non‐musician, or monolingual non‐musician) were matched on age and socioeconomic status and administered task switching and dual‐task paradigms. Results demonstrated reduced global and local switch costs in musicians compared with non‐musicians, suggesting that musical training can contribute to increased efficiency in the ability to shift flexibly between mental sets. On dual‐task performance, musicians also outperformed non‐musicians. There was neither a cognitive advantage for bilinguals relative to monolinguals, nor an interaction between music and language to suggest additive effects of both types of experience. These findings demonstrate that long‐term musical training is associated with improvements in task switching and dual‐task performance.     

The Harmonium in Sikh Music

The harmonium has become the standard instrument in all Sikh musical worship (kirtan) performances and it seems inseparable from the Sikh musical experience. In the mid-nineteenth century, however, the kirtan experience was considerably different. Until the early twentieth century, kirtanis performed kirtan on stringed instruments and adhered to a number of complex traditional musical themes and structures. Following the introduction of the harmonium, kirtanis became attracted to this instrument and in the space of 50 or 60 years, the harmonium became their instrument of choice. This paper explores this theme and attempts to deconstruct the history of the harmonium and the reasons why it became so attractive as an instrument of choice for Sikh kirtanis. We explore the popularity of the harmonium amongst Indian musicians in general before attempting to understand why Sikh kirtanis rejected stringed instruments and chose the harmonium.     

A life without a plan? Freelance musicians in pandemic limbo

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already precarious conditions of freelance workers. The aim of this study is to understand what it means for freelance musicians to be in pandemic limbo. Thirteen Swedish professional freelance musicians in the classical genre were interviewed about their experiences in the midst of the pandemic. A theoretical frame of reference is offered with concepts from Bourdieu, sociology of emotions and emotional geographies. This enables an understanding of what it means as a freelancer to be dislocated and disrupted in relation to places and spaces of work and investments in time and emotions. The conclusions are about the ambivalent emotions and processes of emotional management that are caused by the pandemic. For freelance musicians, depending on their access to the live-settings of gigs, auditions and social venues, it is like being thrown back in time and place (back to where careers were slowly built). However, while at a distance from the normal run of careers, constructive processes of critical reflection and re-orientation have been initiated.     

THE ELUSIVENESS OF JEWISHNESS: JEWS IN VIENNESE POPULAR CULTURE AROUND 1900

The participation of Jews in Viennese popular culture in the fin-de-siècle period has to date been scarcely investigated. This essay sheds light on one aspect of the vast field of popular culture, the lively scene of Jewish Volkssänger. They formed ensembles of musicians who played Viennese songs (Wienerlieder) and performed short theatrical pieces. The central questions posed in the article concern the Jewishness of the Volkssänger: how is it expressed and can it be determined, what distinguishes Jewish from non-Jewish Volkssänger, does Jewishness play a role in the formers' performances? In order to answer these questions, several theatre pieces of various Jewish Volkssänger ensembles are examined using a new analytical tool, Jewish difference. Through its application, it is possible to show that the theatre pieces performed by the Jewish Volkssänger represented Jews without a fixed, static self-understanding. Their Jewishness was depicted as fluid, diverse, determinable only at certain moments and in specific contexts. The distinction between Jews and non-Jews was blurred. A glance at the biographies of the Jewish Volkssänger revealed that their lives were very much like those of the Jewish characters in the plays: they readily intermingled with non-Jews, and their Jewishness was only one––and an always changing––facet of their multiple identities.     

Pianists exhibit enhanced memory for vocal melodies but not piano melodies

Nonmusicians remember vocal melodies (i.e., sung to la la) better than instrumental melodies. If greater exposure to the voice contributes to those effects, then long-term experience with instrumental timbres should elicit instrument-specific advantages. Here we evaluate this hypothesis by comparing pianists with other musicians and nonmusicians. We also evaluate the possibility that absolute pitch (AP), which involves exceptional memory for isolated pitches, influences melodic memory. Participants heard 24 melodies played in four timbres (voice, piano, banjo, marimba) and were subsequently required to distinguish the melodies heard previously from 24 novel melodies presented in the same timbres. Musicians performed better than nonmusicians, but both groups showed a comparable memory advantage for vocal melodies. Moreover, pianists performed no better on melodies played on piano than on other instruments, and AP musicians performed no differently than non-AP musicians. The findings confirm the robust nature of the voice advantage and rule out explanations based on familiarity, practice, and motor representations.     

Effects of Specific Cue Content on Need for Achievement Scores

Based on the hypothesis that cue content of need for achievement tests can influence scores on these tests because of the cue's specific past associations for the Ss, a study was conducted with special cues and selected Ss to discover differences which might ordinarily be masked. The Ss were 14 male undergraduate swimmers and 14 male undergraduate musicians from the University of Michigan. They were given a French (1955) type need for achievement test. The results of the study indicate that cue content is important, but only under rather specific conditions. The implications of the findings for interpretation of n Ach scores in general are discussed.     

The skill of recognizing musical structures

In three experiments, musicians and nonmusicians were compared in their ability to discriminate musical chords. Pairs of chords sharing all notes in common or having different notes were played in succession. Some pairs of chords differed in timbre independent of their musical structures because they were played on different instruments. Musicians outperformed nonmusicians only in recognizing the same chord played on different instruments. Both groups could discriminate between instrument timbres, although musicians did slightly better than nonmusicians. In contrast, with chord structures not conforming to the rules of tonal harmony, musicians and nonmusicians performed equally poorly in recognizing identical chords played on different instruments. Signal detection analysis showed that musicians and nonmusicians set similar criteria for these judgments. Musicians' superiority reflects greater sensitivity to familiar diatonic chords. These results are taken as evidence that musicians develop perceptual and cognitive skills specific to the lawful musical structures encountered in their culture's music. Nonmusicians who lack this knowledge based their judgments on the acoustical properties of the chords.     

Assessment of fine motor skill in musicians and nonmusicians: differences in timing versus sequence accuracy in a bimanual fingering task

While professional musicians are generally considered to possess better control of finger movements than nonmusicians, relatively few reports have experimentally addressed the nature of this discrepancy in fine motor skills. For example, it is unknown whether musicians perform with greater skill than control subjects in all aspects of different types of fine motor activities. More specifically, it is not known whether musicians perform better than control subjects on a fine motor task that is similar, but not identical, to the playing of their primary instrument. The purpose of this study was to examine the accuracy of finger placement and accuracy of timing in professional musicians and nonmusicians using a simple, rhythmical, bilateral fingering pattern and the technology that allowed separate assessment of these two parameters. Professional musicians (other than pianists) and nonmusicians were given identical, detailed and explicit instructions but not allowed physically to practice the finger pattern. After verbally repeating the correct pattern for the investigator, subjects performed the task on an electric keyboard with both hands simultaneously. Each subject's performance was then converted to a numerical score. While musicians clearly demonstrated better accuracy in timing, no significant difference was found between the groups in their finger placement scores. These findings were not correlated with subjects' age, sex, limb dominance, or primary instrument (for the professional musicians). This study indicates that professional musicians perform better in timing accuracy but not spatial accuracy while executing a simple, novel, bimanual motor sequence.     

The Creation Process of Brazilian Musicians

This study investigated the creative process of well‐known musicians in Brasília, Brazil and the conditions that facilitated the development of their creative abilities. A sample of 14 professional musicians (11 composers and 3 performers) participated in semi‐structured interviews to discuss the following topics: musical formation, dedicating time to music, working conditions, creativity in music, the creative process, and the importance of music in their lives. The results indicated that the majority of the musicians view creativity as a complex process supported by many factors, especially the environment. Four stages of the creative process were described by these musicians: process triggering, preparation, product elaboration, and product validation.     

Left-hemisphere activation is associated with enhanced vocal pitch error detection in musicians with absolute pitch

The ability to process auditory feedback for vocal pitch control is crucial during speaking and singing. Previous studies have suggested that musicians with absolute pitch (AP) develop specialized left-hemisphere mechanisms for pitch processing. The present study adopted an auditory feedback pitch perturbation paradigm combined with ERP recordings to test the hypothesis whether the neural mechanisms of the left-hemisphere enhance vocal pitch error detection and control in AP musicians compared with relative pitch (RP) musicians and non-musicians (NM). Results showed a stronger N1 response to pitch-shifted voice feedback in the right-hemisphere for both AP and RP musicians compared with the NM group. However, the left-hemisphere P2 component activation was greater in AP and RP musicians compared with NMs and also for the AP compared with RP musicians. The NM group was slower in generating compensatory vocal reactions to feedback pitch perturbation compared with musicians, and they failed to re-adjust their vocal pitch after the feedback perturbation was removed. These findings suggest that in the earlier stages of cortical neural processing, the right hemisphere is more active in musicians for detecting pitch changes in voice feedback. In the later stages, the left-hemisphere is more active during the processing of auditory feedback for vocal motor control and seems to involve specialized mechanisms that facilitate pitch processing in the AP compared with RP musicians. These findings indicate that the left hemisphere mechanisms of AP ability are associated with improved auditory feedback pitch processing during vocal pitch control in tasks such as speaking or singing.     

‘KEEPING THE FAITH ALIVE': TEACHING SIKH KIRTAN IN AMERICA

Since the large influx of Sikhs to the USA beginning with immigration reform in the 1960s, Sikhism has continued to come into view as an American religion. Throughout the USA today, Sikhs are devoting vast amounts of time and effort toward keeping continued generations of Sikh Americans connected with Sikh communities, traditions, history, and ways of being and knowing. One of the primary ways that many communities are teaching younger generations how to be Sikh in America is through teaching the performance of the Sikh sacred musical tradition, Gurbani kirtan (musical performance of the Word of the Gurus and Bhagats of Sikhism found within the Guru Granth Sahib). This article will explore observations from my field research and interviews among people who are teaching the Gurbani kirtan tradition in the USA, and their students. I will discuss how those teaching the tradition fall into several groups: organized kirtan academies, well-known kirtaniyas (Sikh sacred musicians) who hold periodic workshops, professional music teachers, and volunteer instructors within gurdwara communities. I will present insights from my interviews conducted with interviewees from each group about their pedagogical methods, reasons for teaching, and hopes and concerns for the future. Finally, I will conclude with some observations on the role of Gurbani kirtan in the emergence of Sikhism as an American religion.     

Using Celluloid to Break the Silence About Sexual Violence in the Black Community

Abstract

I am the producer, writer, and director of NO!, a feature length documentary that addresses intra-racial sexual assault in the Black community. Through this film, I hope to break the silence and give visual voice to a chorus of Black women rape survivors and Black women and men activists, historians, poets, attorneys, psychologists, and musicians. Their messages are conveyed through testimonies, scholarship, dance, music, and poetry.     

Ethnicity effects in relative pitch

Absolute pitch (AP), the rare ability to identify a musical pitch, occurs at a higher rate among East Asian musicians. This has stimulated considerable research on the comparative contributions of genetic and environmental factors. Two studies examined whether a similar ethnicity effect is found for relative pitch (RP), identifying the distance or interval between two tones. Nonmusicians (n = 103) were trained to label musical intervals and were subsequently tested on interval identification. We establish similar ethnicity effects: Chinese and Korean participants consistently outperformed other participants in RP tasks, but not in a “relative rhythm” control task. This effect is not driven by previous musical or tone-language experience. The parallel with the East Asian advantage for AP suggests that enhanced perceptual-cognitive processing of pitch is more general and is not limited to highly trained musicians. This effect opens up many research questions concerning the environmental and genetic contributions related to this more general pitch-based ability.     

Career trajectories of Dutch pop musicians: A longitudinal study

Systematic studies of artistic careers are scarce and this is the first large-scale study on the career development of pop musicians. Using a prospective longitudinal approach we followed a sample of aspiring pop musicians in the Netherlands (N = 369) over a three-year period. First we identified four groups of pop musicians with different career patterns, that is, upward careers, downward careers, stable successful careers and stable unsuccessful careers. By means of a multigroup growth mixture model we examined how career success was influenced by social support, professional attitude and professional network. Results showed that successful pop musicians experience more social support, have a stronger professional attitude and a more extensive professional network. Moreover, our study shows that these findings were consistent both between and within the different career pattern groups.