- Title
- Musical accent in action: expressive accent and auditory-biography in live music performance
- Creator
- Dellit, Cynthia-Louise
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Masters Research - Master of Philosophy (MPhil)
- Description
- This thesis argued that the phenomenon of accent makes a significant contribution to the dialogue existing between music performer and music listener, and implicates the performer’s manipulation of expressive accenting as a major component within the chain of emotional communication. The aspect of live music performance occupied a central position and provided the sound stimuli for both experimental trial and duo recital. The thesis positions itself on the tipping point between science and art. It was led by the performer-as-researcher, performing on flute in the duo recital (Chapter 5) and on tin-whistle in the trial experiment (Chapter 4), aiming to represent both the voice from the inside and the voice from the outside. This novel interdisciplinary research examined the expressive parameter of musical accent, and inter-musician accenting perception, while synthesizing insights from combined lenses including music performance, musicology, psychology, artificial intelligence, auditory cognition, with a theoretical underpinning of Complex Systems Theory. In the experimental trial, the investigation concerned whether a group of listening musicians would experience the same sound cue (i.e., accent) as differing sound cues, and whether such difference might indicate connections to the individual’s unique socio/instrumental/listening background. Empirical methods were used to examine for patterns of perceptual difference in the way listeners encoded changing patterns of accenting during live performance. Despite general theoretical/empirical agreement concerning the significance and complexity of accent, possible correlations between accent perception, individual auditory-biography (socio/personal listening history), and auditory processing have, to my knowledge, remained largely unexamined. Listening history is thought to be shaped primarily by instrument of specialization as well as by ensemble exposure. This thesis diverges from previous sound-centric investigations of personal listening history. By contrast, I have designated the term auditory-biography as representing an entangled auditory experience whereby the sound signal is acknowledged as being socially situated and potentially impacted by non-auditory individual and group influences. The trial is described in the form of a conference paper presented at the International ESCOM 2015 conference (European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music). Results indicated that the same sound cue was in fact perceived as differing sound cues by listener participants, with indications of auditory-biography involvement. The final studies contextualized musical accent in ensemble action with a duo recital performance of flute and harp, describing multiple inter/intra musician auditory-biography and perceptual impacts connected with polyphonic auditory scene analysis. An accenting case study was developed combining sound file, composer’s score, and descriptive text to indicate the converging complexity of accenting in ensemble performance. Findings may contribute to tertiary syllabus development in areas such as large/small instrumental ensembles as well as the applied studio teaching practice.
- Subject
- music performance; expressive accenting; auditory-biography; expressive performance
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1335456
- Identifier
- uon:27438
- Rights
- Copyright 2017 Cynthia-Louise Dellit
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 535 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |