Sound escapes: images of spirituality from music teachers and students

This on-going piece of research seeks to identify what music teachers, performers and students from high school through to university understand by the word spirituality in relation to music. From this it is hoped to be able to look at the relevance of the term spirituality in the music classroom. In this paper, data are presented from qualitative research gained in the form of interviews with 37 respondents and four focus groups of children, and quantitative research from questionnaires completed by 38 trainee music teachers. From these data, we identified five themes relating to the respondents’ understanding of the term ‘spirituality’ in relation to music. These were: to what extent spirituality is seen as a religious concept; whether spirituality is an inner or outer experience; to what extent words are relevant to spiritual experiences; the role that knowledge and emotion play and whether musicians experience a sense of spirituality more when listening or performing. From these data we go on to identify implications for the music classroom.     

Heavy metal Muslims: the rise of a post-Islamist public sphere

This article explores the emergence of new, youth-oriented public spheres in the Middle East and North Africa through the lens of the burgeoning extreme music scenes across the region. I argue that the seeming incongruity of genres such as extreme heavy metal or gangsta rap becoming popular in the Muslim world is a reminder of the diversity of contemporary Islam; more deeply, it reveals that the borders between religious belief and seemingly secular practices in Muslim societies are increasingly porous, with politically marginalized young metalheads and their more activist religious peers sharing many of the same societal goals. These are greater autonomy and even democracy, the right for tolerance of divergent views, and the rejection of the hypocrisy, corruption and authoritarianism of their leaders. I conclude with an analysis of the political implications of a still tentative rapprochement between ostensibly secular artists and the religious forces who less than a decade ago were spearheading their persecution, and in some cases prosecution, across the region.     

Battling over the public sphere: Islamic reactions to the music of today

This article analyses discussions about music in the new public sphere of the Arab world. First, it focuses on what states do to control musical expressions and what functions religious actors have in that control. Four cases are looked into: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine. Then the article discusses theological arguments, in the public sphere, about music. The theologians are divided into three positions: moderates, hard-liners and liberals. It is argued that structural changes of the public sphere—especially with regards to new media and consumer culture—have caused a heated debate about music and morality. While hard-liners and moderates engage in a discussion about the legal and the forbidden in Islam, liberals stress the importance of allowing competing norms. Examples of extremist violence against musicians is discussed and contextualised.

Enhancing positive affect and divergent thinking abilities: Play some music and dance

This study compares the effect of dance on affect and cognition to music or exercise, in a young, non-clinical population. Participants were asked to complete tests of mood and creativity before and after spending 5 min either listening to music, dancing, cycling or sitting quietly. Both dancing and passively listening to music enhanced positive affect, decreased negative affect and reduced feelings of fatigue. Cycling and sitting quietly had no effect on positive mood or feelings of fatigue. Moreover, dancing and passively listening to music had dissociable effects on different aspects of creativity, with greater change in positive affect being associated with greater enhancement in measures of verbal and non-verbal creativity, respectively. We suggest that these findings support the use of either short duration dancing or passively listening to music as potentially powerful tools in enhancing emotional well-being and different aspects of divergent thinking in non-clinical settings.     

Competitive factors of electronic dance music festivals with Social Networking Service (SNS) citizenship behaviour of international tourists

This study examined the comparative advantages of prestige service labelling (VIP), online marketing, and image differentiation when applied as marketing strategies to build tourist loyalty as a component of citizenship behaviour. The participants were 220 African tourists attending the World Club Dome Korea 2017 festival event. Following data collection, we conducted a hierarchical regression analysis to determine how VIP, online marketing, and image differentiation influenced tourist social networking service (SNS) citizenship behaviour. The results suggest that VIP and image differentiation to positively predict SNS citizenship behaviour, whereas this was not the case for online marketing. VIP had a higher influence on tourist SNS citizenship behaviour than image differentiation. In summary, strategies to attract tourists with high purchasing power should include prestige service branding with clear image differentiation. This exclusivity could be applied to online ticketing services for their added value to tourism promotion.     

音乐干预对自闭症儿童语言障碍的影响

语言障碍是自闭症的核心症状之一,改善自闭症儿童的语言障碍对其日常生活具有重要意义。诸多研究证实音乐干预能够明显改善自闭症儿童的语言障碍。从干预材料的角度出发,音乐干预包括将音乐刺激与语言刺激严格匹配的音乐干预方法以及将音乐作为学习背景的音乐干预方法,二者均能有效促进自闭症儿童的语言表达和交流。目前最有代表性的自闭症语言障碍的音乐干预方法包括听觉动作通路训练(AMMT)、基于旋律的语言沟通治疗(MBCT)以及背景音乐干预方法。音乐干预方法的发展今后需着眼于音乐类型的选择、音乐与其他活动的结合,同时兼顾不同自闭症儿童群体的适用性以及音乐干预在生活中的推广。     

声乐与器乐情绪加工的ERP研究

借助跨通道情绪启动范式考察声乐与器乐情绪加工的电生理差异。启动刺激是声乐和器乐曲(小提琴演奏), 目标刺激是与音乐情绪一致或不一致的面孔表情图片。结果显示, 与一致条件相比, 与面孔情绪不一致的器乐曲诱发了N400, 而与面孔情绪不一致的声乐曲诱发了LPC。这些结果表明, 声乐与器乐情绪加工的电生理反应存在差异。     

Gender bias in the evaluation of new age music

Eminent composers in Western European art music continue to be predominantly male and eminence in contemporary pop music is similarly male dominated. One contributing factor may be the continuing under-valuation of women's music. Possible anti-female bias in a contemporary genre was investigated using the Goldberg paradigm to elicit judgments of New Age compositions. Since stronger stereotyping effects occur when information provided about individuals is sparse, fictitious male and female composers were presented either by name only or by name with a brief biography. Evidence for anti-female bias was found in the name-only condition and was stronger when liking for the music was controlled. Other findings were the tendency for females to give higher ratings, and the association of gender differences in liking of the music with ratings of quality in the name-only condition. These results are relevant to the design of formal assessment procedures for musical composition.     

Effects of music on vocal stereotypy in children with autism

We examined the effects of manipulating the intensity (i.e., volume) of music on engagement in vocal stereotypy in 2 children with autism. Noncontingent access to music decreased immediate engagement in vocal stereotypy for each participant, but it produced only marginal effects on subsequent engagement in the behavior (i.e., after withdrawal). Manipulating the intensity of music did not produce differential effects on immediate engagement in vocal stereotypy. The implications of the results and applications for future research are discussed.     

Meditative dialogue: tuning in to the music of family therapy

Meditative dialogue is a mindfulness method through which families and their therapists are able to access the present moment and develop acceptance, non‐judgmental attitudes and attunement with one another and with the music that is always present in their lives. This process can be used to deepen empathic connections, tap into creative forces and loosen and encourage embodied and flexible interactions that alter patterns and cultivate openness to possibility and to change.     

Emotions induced by operatic music: psychophysiological effects of music, plot, and acting: a scientist's tribute to Maria Callas

Operatic music involves both singing and acting (as well as rich audiovisual background arising from the orchestra and elaborate scenery and costumes) that multiply the mechanisms by which emotions are induced in listeners. The present study investigated the effects of music, plot, and acting performance on emotions induced by opera. There were three experimental conditions: (1) participants listened to a musically complex and dramatically coherent excerpt from Tosca; (2) they read a summary of the plot and listened to the same musical excerpt again; and (3) they re-listened to music while they watched the subtitled film of this acting performance. In addition, a control condition was included, in which an independent sample of participants succesively listened three times to the same musical excerpt. We measured subjective changes using both dimensional, and specific music-induced emotion questionnaires. Cardiovascular, electrodermal, and respiratory responses were also recorded, and the participants kept track of their musical chills. Music listening alone elicited positive emotion and autonomic arousal, seen in faster heart rate, but slower respiration rate and reduced skin conductance. Knowing the (sad) plot while listening to the music a second time reduced positive emotions (peacefulness, joyful activation), and increased negative ones (sadness), while high autonomic arousal was maintained. Watching the acting performance increased emotional arousal and changed its valence again (from less positive/sad to transcendent), in the context of continued high autonomic arousal. The repeated exposure to music did not by itself induce this pattern of modifications. These results indicate that the multiple musical and dramatic means involved in operatic performance specifically contribute to the genesis of music-induced emotions and their physiological correlates.     

On the Complexity of Classical Guitar Playing: Functional Adaptations to Task Constraints

The authors performed a behavioral study of the complexity of left-hand finger movements in classical guitar playing. Six professional guitarists played movement sequences in a fixed tempo. Left-hand finger movements were recorded in 3 dimensions, and the guitar sound was recorded synchronously. Assuming that performers prefer to avoid extreme joint angles when moving, the authors hypothesized 3 complexity factors. The results showed differential effects of the complexity factors on the performance measures and on participants' judgments of complexity. The results demonstrated that keeping the joints in the middle of their range is an important principle in guitar playing, and players exploit the available tolerance in timing and placement of the left-hand fingers to control the acoustic output variability.     

Rhizomatic affective spaces and the therapeutic potential of music in prison: a qualitative meta-synthesis

Research literature supports that music programmes in prisons can have a therapeutic effect in prisoners’ lives that could promote personal development and assist the process toward desistance. The authors use a meta-synthetic approach to examine 12 qualitative articles published worldwide to explore the therapeutic potential of such programmes. The findings suggest that music programmes in prison are perceived by participating prisoners as a liberating process, which encourages participation and allows for noncoercive personal development. The therapeutic potential of music programmes is located in the combination of the benefits emanating from the effect and practice of music and the creation of mental, spatial and temporal zones of free expression and those that derive from the egalitarian and nonauthoritative approach employed by the facilitators. These findings are discussed along with aspects involved in the provision of offender treatment as well as factors that affect treatment response and engagement.     

Respecting religion in youth music subcultures: inclusivity,individuality and conflict avoidance strategy

Drawing on fieldwork with young Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians involved in the secular punk rock subculture, this article examines strategies for building respectful relationships between religious and irreligious young people in youth music subcultures. Although punk rock developed as a secular and often anti-religious youth subculture, and although a thriving Evangelical subculture has developed with its own popular music scenes at odds with secular values, a significant number of young Christians have become active participants in punk. Arguing for the importance of musical and subcultural identities among contemporary youth, this article analyses examples of creative inclusivity and respectful relationships across religious boundaries, as well as examples of conflicts over spiritual values. Outlining strategies for building religious inclusivity and resolving religious conflict in youth subcultures, it is shown that where young people’s creative capacities and individual autonomy are respected and enabled by subcultural peers and secular or religious youth workers and institutions, strongly held religious views can still be welcomed within even strongly secular youth subcultures.     

Neural correlates of music recognition in Down syndrome

The brain mechanisms that subserve music recognition remain unclear despite increasing interest in this process. Here we report the results of a magnetoencephalography experiment to determine the temporal dynamics and spatial distribution of brain regions activated during listening to a familiar and unfamiliar instrumental melody in control adults and adults with Down syndrome (DS). In the control group, listening to the familiar melody relative to the unfamiliar melody, revealed early and significant activations in the left primary auditory cortex, followed by activity in the limbic and sensory-motor regions and finally, activation in the motor related areas. In the DS group, listening to the familiar melody relative to the unfamiliar melody revealed increased significant activations in only three regions. Activity began in the left primary auditory cortex and the superior temporal gyrus and was followed by enhanced activity in the right precentral gyrus. These data suggest that familiar music is associated with auditory–motor coupling but does not activate brain areas involved in emotional processing in DS. These findings reveal new insights on the neural basis of music perception in DS as well as the temporal course of neural activity in control adults.     

音乐传达哲理性概念的认知神经机制

哲理性概念是音乐表现的对象之一。由于音乐不具有类似语言的语义性, 对哲理性概念的理解常常成为音乐欣赏者的困扰。基于此, 本项目聚焦于听者对哲理性概念的理解。通过选取音乐训练经历不同的人群为被试, 系统考察哲理性概念加工的认知神经机制。本项目成果将揭示音乐诱发哲理性概念加工的神经机制, 厘清音乐训练对音乐外在意义加工的作用, 从而在一定程度上回答人类对音乐意义理解的普遍性问题。     

音乐训练对大脑前注意加工的影响

前注意加工(pre-attentive processing)是发生在注意之前不依赖于意识的一种认知过程, 它反映了大脑对刺激的无意识的、自动的加工。失匹配负波(mismatch negativity, MMN)是研究前注意加工最常用的指标。MMN波幅降低已成为精神分裂症、抑郁症等精神类疾病的重要临床指征。MMN的研究范式主要包括经典oddball范式和多特征范式等。音乐训练对于人脑结构和功能有重要的影响, 对于增加灰质体积、改善注意记忆功能都有着显著的功效。音乐训练对MMN也有显著影响, 并表现在由各类声音特征构建的范式上。未来研究应进一步比较东西方音乐对MMN的影响, 探索更具生态化效度的研究范式, 揭示音乐训练对老年人MMN的影响及机制。