Search

Musical performance relies on nonverbal cues for conveying information among musicians. Human musicians use bodily gestures to communicate their interpretation and intentions to their collaborators, from mood and expression to anticipatory cues regarding structure and tempo. Robotic Musicians can use their physical bodies in a similar way when interacting with fellow musicians. The paper presents a new theoretical framework to classify musical gestures and a study evaluating the effect of robotic gestures on synchronization between human musicians and Shimon - a robotic marimba player developed at Georgia Tech. Shimon utilizes head and arm movements to signify musical information such as expected notes, tempo, and beat. The study, in which piano players were asked to play along with Shimon, assessed the effectiveness of these gestures on human-robot synchronization. Subjects were evaluated for their ability to synchronize with unknown tempo changes as communicated by Shimon's ancillary and social gestures. The results demonstrate the significant contribution of non-instrumental gestures to human-robot synchronization, highlighting the importance of non-music-making gestures for anticipation and coordination in human-robot musical collaboration. Subjects also indicated more positive feelings when interacting with the robot's ancillary and social gestures, indicating the role of these gestures in supporting engaging and enjoyable musical experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the 50th anniversary of the first National Chopin Piano Competition in 1975, celebrated by the Chopin Foundation of the United States. It reflects on the competition's history, its influence on American pianists, and the impact of its founder, Lady Blanka Rosenstiel. It features reflections from past winners about their influences, their approaches to teaching, and their roles in shaping future generations of pianists.

The article focuses on Michelle Cann's transformative role in classical music, highlighting her dedication to education, advocacy for underrepresented composers like Florence Price, and her ability to connect deeply with audiences through her performances. It emphasizes her journey from a musically nurturing childhood to becoming a pianist and educator, reshaping classical music as a more inclusive and impactful art form.

This research examines the motivational patterns of high-performing classical pianists, characterized by a combination of implicit motives (i.e., non-conscious preferences for specific incentives). Utilizing the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software, I analyzed textual data from biographies of 107 pianists (i.e., Juniors aged 13-17: n = 38; Professionals aged 18-30: n = 30; Amateurs aged 35 and older: n = 39) participating in the prestigious 2022-2023 Van Cliburn Competitions. My results showed distinct profiles of implicit motives among pianists compared to nonpianists, with significantly higher need for achievement and need for power. While professional pianists exhibited the lowest level of need for power, junior pianists demonstrated the highest level of need for affiliation. Gender and age predicted part of pianists' implicit motives. Male pianists demonstrated higher need for achievement than females. Finally, age negatively predicted need for affiliation. These findings highlight the motivational patterns within the classical piano community, offering theoretical implications for understanding implicit motives and practical applications for pianist education. Study limitations and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary discussions of moral expertise have raised a host of problems for the very idea of a "moral expert." This article interrogates the conception of moral expertise that such discussions seem to assume and proposes instead that we understand moral expertise as a species of practical skill. On this model, a skilled moral agent is more similar to a skilled pianist than she is to a theoretical expert (for instance, an expert on the War of 1812). The article argues both that it is more natural to understand the moral "expert" as excelling in a form of skilled practice and that such a conception would render moot many of the concerns which preoccupy contemporary discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The focus of this study centers on the extraction, analysis, and interpretation of the motor behavior of advanced-level pianists using observational methodology, itself framed within the field of mixed methods, paying particular attention to those aspects that characterize the pressed and struck touch. The aim of this research was to analyze the motor interactions of activation or inhibition associated with the production of a type of touch in the movements of the right upper limb of the participating pianists. Methods: An ad hoc observational instrument was built that was incorporated into the software Lince Plus for data recording and coding. Data reliability was guaranteed applying Cohen's Kappa coefficient, and an analysis of polar coordinates was carried out to identify the motor interactions involved in piano playing. Results: The study provided significant information about the interaction of motor functions linked to two types of touch, such as those that occur in the sliding finger movement over the key in the pressed touch or the lifting finger movement above the key in the struck touch, obtaining clearly identified patterns of piano touch motor behavior. Discussion: This research represents an innovative perspective of the study of piano-playing movement via the direct and perceptible observation of the pianist's motor behavior in an everyday context. Observational methodology is distinguished by its low degree of internal control, which makes it possible to scientifically study the spontaneous behavior of pianists in their natural environment. This model allows us to describe and analyze piano touch for its application in the field of piano performance and teaching, emphasizing the practical implications of motor interactions in piano touch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on nuanced approach to interpreting musical synchronization and asynchrony, focusing on the pedagogical and expressive potential between exact timing and subtle delays. Topics include historical context of musical asynchrony in performance practice, examples from 19th-century pianist Sigismond Thalberg; and modern interpretations of similar concepts by Nadezhda Golubovskaya.

Background: Musician's dystonia is a task-specific movement disorder that deteriorates fine motor control of skilled movements in musical performance. Although this disorder threatens professional careers, its diagnosis is challenging for clinicians who have no specialized knowledge of musical performance. Objectives: To support diagnostic evaluation, the present study proposes a novel approach using a machine learning-based algorithm to identify the symptomatic movements of Musician's dystonia. Methods: We propose an algorithm that identifies the dystonic movements using the anomaly detection method with an autoencoder trained with the hand kinematics of healthy pianists. A unique feature of the algorithm is that it requires only the video image of the hand, which can be derived by a commercially available camera. We also measured the hand biomechanical functions to assess the contribution of peripheral factors and improve the identification of dystonic symptoms. Results: The proposed algorithm successfully identified Musician's dystonia with an accuracy and specificity of 90% based only on video footages of the hands. In addition, we identified the degradation of biomechanical functions involved in controlling multiple fingers, which is not specific to musical performance. By contrast, there were no dystonia-specific malfunctions of hand biomechanics, including the strength and agility of individual digits. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the present technique in aiding in the accurate diagnosis of Musician's dystonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus of the publication "Bartók and Slovakia" is the exploration of the national identity of composer and pianist Béla Bartók, whose life and work are closely connected to Slovakia. Bartók, born in Romania, spent a significant part of his life in Bratislava and Budapest, where he established important relationships with local artists and folklore. The book contains 41 contributions from various authors that document Bartók's professional and personal relationship with Slovakia, including his ethnomusicological activities and the influence of Slovak folk music on his work. The publication provides valuable information and analyses that contribute to a better understanding of Bartók's legacy and his ties to Slovak culture. [Extracted from the article]

Finger technique is a crucial aspect of piano learning, and hand exoskeleton mechanisms effectively assist novice piano players in maintaining correct finger technique consistently. Addressing current issues with exoskeleton robots, such as the inability to provide continuous correction of finger technique and their considerable weight, a novel hand exoskeleton robot has been developed to enhance finger technique through continuous correction and reduced weight. Initial data are gathered using finger joint angle sensors to analyze movements during piano playing, focusing on the trajectory and angular velocity of key strikes. This analysis informs the design of a 6-bar double-closed-loop mechanism with an end equivalent sliding pair, using analytical methods to establish the relationship between motor extension and input rod rotation. Simulation studies assess the exoskeleton's motion space and dynamics, confirming its capability to meet structural and functional demands for accurate key striking. Prototype testing validates the exoskeleton's ability to maintain correct finger positioning and mimic natural strike speeds, thus improving playing technique while ensuring comfort and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores pluralism, skepticism, and relativism in Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano, The Sirens of Titan, Cat’s Cradle, and Slaughterhouse-Five. The study attempts to reveal Vonnegut’s depiction of contemporary postmodern politics, society, and culture. It looks into postmodernism as the inclusive term of the thematic attributes of pluralism, skepticism, and relativism which apparently imprint the typical image of postmodernism life. Therefore, the study sheds light on the selected novels’ perception of postmodernism on the verge of social and cultural change stimulated by politics that plays a crucial role in shaping postmodern man and his capacity to cope cultural pluralism. In this way, the study unravels such pluralism via highlighting the characters’ skepticism of their ability to grasp the relativism of postmodern life. The study examines Vonnegut’s postmodern dexterity as a critique of contemporary political actions that lead to new life styles. In addition, it discovers the selected novels’ narrative structure as a postmodern device of exposing contemporary socio-cultural reality that is spoiled by contemporary politics. In this way, it identifies Vonnegut’s postmodern fictional theme of relativism i.e., dealing with political sequences as challenging reality; and this reality should be amended by controlling postmodern politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper analyzes the ways in which imagination is a key mechanism in defining the concept of identity (of a persona or of the other). It does so by articulating two concrete experiences of Europeans visiting Japan: the literary theorist Roland Barthes in 1966 and the jazz pianist Keith Jarrett in 1976. Both cases are relevant and symptomatic not only for those historical periods, but also for essential contemporary debates concerning cultural appropriation, multiculturalism and the perspectives through which we encounter, comprehend, and behave towards alterity. Several more theoretical dimensions are revisited, from Martin Heidegger’s rooting of the sense of Being in a precise here and now to ethical considerations on what constitues an Event (and not only an aesthetic one) and to the way music can teach us different nuances for redefining contemporary theory in connection to today’s most urgent needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ethos (0860-8024) is the property of John Paul II Institute, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The rise of transrealism in the second half of the twentieth century embellished the literary landscape in America with a new mode of expression that offered new understanding of time, space, identity, and social values and norms. This study situates the American novelist Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano within this literary context to map out the qualities that distinguish it as a transrealistic fiction. We argue that through innovative coalescence of fantasy and realism, this postmodern novel provides a satirical commentary against the incongruities of the contemporary American society. To analyse the novel, we employ Rudy Rucker's theorisations of the movement that delineates the transrealist manifesto as a union of realism, fantasy, and science-fiction. The findings reveal that through a satirical representation of the current advancements in technology and their inevitably negative impact on human life and society, the novel provides a dystopian picture of modern life in America. This apocalyptic sentiment is reinforced through a creative convergence of the surreal features of science-fiction, the tropes of naturalistic realism, and the elements of satire that together help to accentuate the deficiencies and ironies of the modern American society as well as the rampant misuse of technology by both individuals and authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The literature suggests that the medical community needs musicians to provide an insider’s perspective to understand the physical and psychological dimensions of playing an instrument, and healthcare providers need to understand musicians’ experiences in order to develop coping strategies. Compared with professional pianists, student pianists are a neglected group. However, student and professional pianists both want to maintain their playing careers and have the experience of giving up playing because of playing-related musculoskeletal disorder (PRMD). There are a few studies conducted on student pianists’ experiences with PRMD, but none have been conducted in the Chinese context. Given the distinctive characteristics of higher music education in China and Chinese piano students, this study aims to investigate the lived experiences of tertiary student pianists with PRMD. Methods: Phenomenology is the most suitable qualitative method for investigating lived experiences. This study employed a transcendental phenomenological approach to investigate the experiences of student pianists, collecting data through one-on-one interviews and focus group discussions. Since phenomenological research emphasizes the homogeneity of research subjects, all 25 participants in this study are tertiary student pianists from seven Chinese higher education institutions. Results: Four themes and ten sub-themes were identified in this study. They are as follows: Theme one, Perceptions of PRMD, with sub-themes of body perceptions, negative thought, and emotional changes; Theme two, Complex Identity, with sub-themes of future pianists’ identity, nuanced identity of student pianists, and the dual identity between student pianist and patient; Theme three, Coping Strategies, with sub-themes of self-regulation and actively seek help from social relations; Theme four, Influences and Meanings, with sub-themes of negative influences of PRMD and positive meanings of PRMD. Conclusion: This study explores the experiences of tertiary student pianists with PRMD, including their subjective thoughts and feelings. It also highlights the importance of understanding tertiary student pianists’ experiences in developing health education and healthcare measures tailored to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• metronomic rolls for player piano have so far been commonly considered devoid of scientific interest as mere mechanical transpositions of the musical score. • instead, they can be considered valuable witnesses of the executive practice of the early twentieth century. • through a software based on peaks detection applied to the ordered vector of detected Inter Onset Intervals (IOIs) it was possible to identify numerous examples of expressive passages, therefore deviations from the score. • this indicates that computational information retrieval applied to MIDI or audio rendered from the rolls can bring new scientifically significant knowledge. • the techniques used here could be applied directly or adapted to obtain useful information also not related to expressiveness. Between the last years of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century, the production and use of rolls for player piano became widespread. These were strips of perforated paper wrapped around a cylinder, capable of activating in the instrument a pneumatic mechanism for the automatic operation of the piano keys. The metronomic-type rolls were produced manually, by transposing the piece's score into the paper's perforation. In this contribution, we propose a solution based on the automatic identification of peaks in the distribution of the Inter-Onset-Intervals (IOIs) of the notes for the detection, within metronomic rolls, of timing-related expressive areas, i.e. of musical passages in which deviations in the length of the holes with respect to what is prescribed in the score are operated intentionally to add expressiveness. The identified algorithm, applied to a dataset of approximately 700 rolls converted into MIDI format, showed good sensitivity, and made it possible to identify in a relatively short time numerous examples of intentional expressiveness in the analyzed repertoire, commonly and erroneously considered a mere mechanical transposition of the score. In the conclusions, some reflections on the relevance of this research in the musicological field are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The player piano is one of the most overlooked musical instruments of the early 20th century. I present here a new historical reading of the player piano, drawing together the fields of organology, science and technology studies, literature studies, and cultural critical theory. I start with an overview of the instrument's design and history, and then situate its invention and exponential growth within the music industry. I conclude by examining the response of the author William Gaddis to the player piano, and how this directs us to consider the player piano itself through the critical lens of Adornean late style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to identify the specifics of the ethnic-national content of the cultural and artistic heritage of Odesa, taking into account its polyethnic-polynational status of the city and the cultural dominance of the Ukrainian-Slavic factor due to its military-expansive genesis. The methodological basis is the artistic indicators of the intonation concept in the traditions of the school of B. Asafyev in Ukraine, presented in the works of the authors of this study, as well as in the works of D. Androsova, O. Muravska, O. Roshchenko, I. Shevchuk, among others. Special attention is paid to the biographical and descriptive method, evidenced in the research of V. Shulhina and O. Yakovlev. The scientific novelty of the study is based on the selection of regional features of Ukrainian culture, with an emphasis in this case on the multi-national and poly-ethnic content of the South of Ukraine, which allows us to emphasise the conclusions about a certain plurality of representations of outstanding masters involved in the Ukrainian cultural aura - and this applies to the characteristics of such outstanding personalities as K. Szymanovskyi, V. Malyshevskyi, S. Richter, H. Neuhaus. Conclusions. The specificity of Odesa and the Ukrainian South in general is marked by intersections of national-ethnic and religious beliefs, covering numerous family-family relations, despite the fact that the ethnic core was a Slavic-Ukrainian fusion of Russian-Ukrainian and Polish-Ukrainian combinations, and the participation of Germans and other national inclusions was significant. Stormy social vicissitudes corrected the life path of many natives from the cultural environment of Odesa and the Ukrainian South in general, who later found themselves in other national and cultural dimensions, without losing the cultural "charge" received in the "small homeland" of the regional southern Ukrainian destination. And vice versa, being born and released into the art world outside of Ukraine, they organically later "fit" into the cultural space of Odesa and the South of Ukraine in general. Therefore, we introduce clarifications in the characteristics of national belonging (in the mental and cultural sense) in relation to the following authors: V. Malyshevskyi - Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish composer, K. Szymanovskyi - Polish, Ukrainian composer, V. Rebikov - Ukrainian, Russian composer and theorist, S. Richter, G. Neuhaus - Ukrainian, Russian pianists, in analogy to the duality of Ukrainian - Russian artists in relation to M. Vrubel, V. Kandinskyi, M. Roslavets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Czech pianist Ludmila Zadrobilkova (1844–1872) began her concert career very early and became known throughout Europe. On tour, she also visited Croatia and Slavonia in 1861 and 1862, where she was extremely well received in the spirit of Slavism, with numerous ovations, flowers and occasional songs which were presented to her in concerts held in Zagreb, Karlovac, Đakovo and Osijek. In this paper, the media coverage of her concerts in the domestic and foreign press of the time is surveyed with the aim of identifying the main elements that contributed to her success. On the other hand, on the basis of archival material, hitherto unknown or neglected elements of her private life are illuminated, such as the period of her life in Osijek from 1866 to 1869. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When pianist Gonzalo Soriano Simó (1913-1972) moved to Madrid in 1933, in order to become a pupil of José Cubiles, he got to live the last years of the so called Spanish Edad de Plata. Sometimes as a performer, others as a spectator, his experiences in 1930s' Madrid illustrate the cultural milieu and activities of that time, cut short unexpectedly by Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). His recitals at Residencia de Estudiantes or Asocación de Cultura Musical, his relationship with Adolfo Salazar or the musical collaboration with "La Argentinita" make him a good example of how cultural activities developed those years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilateral proprioception includes the ability to sense the position and motion of one hand relative to the other, without looking. This sensory ability allows us to perform daily activities seamlessly, and its impairment is observed in various neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy and stroke. It can undergo experience-dependent plasticity, as seen in trained piano players. If its neural correlates were better understood, it would provide a useful assay and target for neurorehabilitation for people with impaired proprioception. We designed a non-invasive electroencephalography-based paradigm to assess the neural features relevant to proprioception, especially focusing on bilateral proprioception, i.e., assessing the limb distance from the body with the other limb. We compared it with a movement-only task, with and without the visibility of the target hand. Additionally, we explored proprioceptive accuracy during the tasks. We tested eleven Controls and nine Skilled musicians to assess whether sensorimotor event-related spectral perturbations in μ (8-12Hz) and low-β (12-18Hz) rhythms differ in people with musical instrument training, which intrinsically involves a bilateral proprioceptive component, or when new sensor modalities are added to the task. The Skilled group showed significantly reduced μ and low-β suppression in bilateral tasks compared to movement-only, a significative difference relative to Controls. This may be explained by reduced top-down control due to intensive training, despite this, proprioceptive errors were not smaller for this group. Target visibility significantly reduced proprioceptive error in Controls, while no change was observed in the Skilled group. During visual tasks, Controls exhibited significant μ and low-β power reversals, with significant differences relative to proprioceptive-only tasks compared to the Skilled group—possibly due to reduced uncertainty and top-down control. These results provide support for sensorimotor μ and low-β suppression as potential neuromarkers for assessing proprioceptive ability. The identification of these features is significant as they could be used to quantify altered proprioceptive neural processing in skill and movement disorders. This in turn can be useful as an assay for pre and post sensory-motor intervention research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]