Music psychology,
musicology,
musical practice
Richard Parncutt
University of Graz
Winter semester 2006
Aims

Cover and analyse interdisciplinary research
 between
 music psychology and musicology
 music psychology and music practice
 that
 has been done
 could be done

Focus on the big picture
 Detail

is important but not the main focus
Consider potential areas for future research
 More
questions than answers
Tentative plan (1)
date
topic
11.10.06
Current trends in music psychology:
aims, methods, structure, content
18.10.06
Current trends in music psychology:
Review of ICMPC Bologna (student presentations)
25.10.06
Current trends in musicology:
aims, methods, structure, content
8.11.06
Current trends in musical practice
(including performance and composition)
15.11.06
Music psychology and music theory
22.11.06
Music psychology and musicology
Tentative plan (2)
date
topic
29.11.06
Psychology, performance, education
06.12.06
Psychology, performance, education: Early acquisition of
musical aural skills
13.12.06
Psychology, theory/analysis, performance, education:
Aural analysis for performing musicians: The relationship
between accents and expression
20.12.06
Psychology, history, theory: Towards a statisticalperceptual history of western tonal-harmonic syntax
10.01.07
Psychology, ethnology: Emotions and associations
evoked by unfamiliar music
17.01.06
Psychology, performance, education: Physics,
physiology and psychology of piano performance
24.01.07
written examination
Other recent presentations
Disciplines
Topic
Psychology,
Can researchers help artists? Music
performance, performance research for music students
education
Psychology,
theory, history
Musicology,
psychology
Western music history, pitch salience, key
profiles, and the origins of tonality
Interdisciplinary balance, international
collaboration, and the future of (German)
(historical) musicology
Older presentations and papers
Psychology, theory, analysis:










Tone profiles following short chord progressions: Top-down or bottomup?
Perception of musical patterns: Ambiguity, emotion, culture
Enrichment of music theory pedagogy by computer-based repertoire
analysis and perceptual-cognitive theory
Middle-out analysis and its psychological basis
Perceptual versus historical origins of musical materials
Tonality as implication-realization: Key profiles as pitch salience
profiles of final triads in Renaissance music
Towards a perceptual theory of bebop harmony
Perceptual underpinnings of analytic techniques: From Rameau to
Terhardt, Riemann to Krumhansl, Schenker to Bregman
Tonal implications of atonal music
Critical comparison of acoustical and perceptual theories of the origin
of musical scales
Why music psychology?
Humans spend enormous amounts of time,
energy and resources on musical activities that
are not directly related to their survival. Why?
Humans identify with the music they hear. How
and why?
Music enhances quality of life. How and why?
Aims of music psychology

Description/explanation of
 musical
behaviour
 musical experience

Applications
 musicology
 psychology
 musical
practice
Musical relevance
of music psychology

Music theory and aesthetics



Music education and performance



applied developmental music psychology
musical skills and techniques
Music history



perception of musical structures
empirical testing of philosophical theories
history of musical syntax
personalities of composers and their music
Ethnomusicology

musical behaviours, cognition and
experience in different cultures
Empirical methods
of (music) psychology

Quantitative methods
 Data are numbers
 Statistical analysis by computer
 Probability of obtaining result by
chance
 Standard in cognitive psychology

Qualitative methods
 Data are text
 Content analysis
 Exploratory: main themes
 Bridge between sciences and
humanities
Areas of music psychology








Behaviours
Skills
Development
Perception of structure
Performance
Empirical aesthetics
Social psychology
Evolutionary music psychology
Musical behaviors
Performing
 Composing
 Listening
 Dancing

Cognitive engagement
 Emotional responses

Musical skills
learning a musical instrument
 singing in a choir

playing by ear and imagining music
 sightreading vs. playing from memory
 improvising and composing


talent – nature or nurture?
Musical development
 behaviours
 abilities
 lifespan
Perception of musical structure
 melody,
phrasing
 harmony, tonality
 rhythm, meter
Music performance research
The daily lives and challenges of
professional and amateur
musicians who…

perform



from scores or by improvising
alone or in groups,
compose or arrange


on paper
with computers
Empirical music aesthetics
 Dependence
of musical
preferences/judgments on
musical
structure
social influences
Social psychology of music

everyday music listening
 while

driving, eating, shopping, reading...
musical rituals and gatherings
 religious,

festive, sporting, political...
music and identity
 personal
 group
Evolutionary music psychology

Adaptation or exaptation?
 evolutionary
parasites
 protomusic in non-human animals

Individual survival
 music

Group survival
 music

and non-musical abilities
as “social glue”
Music, ritual, spirituality, trance
 mother-infant
communication
Subdisciplines of psychology

Biopsychology


Psychobiology and evolutionary psychology




personality
skill


childhood and life-span
individual differences


language, thinking, consciousness, learning, memory
Motivation and emotion
Development


sensation, psychoacoustics
Cognition


genetic and biological bases of behaviour
Perception


neuropsychology
talent, creativity, intelligence
social psychology and cognition
health

stress, coping, therapy, psychological disorders
Music psychology sources
 Books
 Journals
 Conferences
Recent general books

ICMPC Bologna 2006
 Abstract

booklet; proceedings in internet
De la Motte-Haber, Helga
 Musikpsychologie

Oerter & Stoffer
 Spezielle

Musikpsychologie
Stoffer & Oerter
 Allgemeine

Deutsch, Diana
 The

Musikpsychologie
psychology of music
Bruhn, Herbert
 Handbuch
Musikpsychologie
Main journals
Music psychology



Music Perception (MuWi-IB)
Psychology of Music (KUG-UB)
Jahrbuch Musikpsychologie (MuWi- IB)
Systematic musicology


Musicae Scientiae (MuWi-IB)
Journal of New Music Research (MuWi-IB)
Other



Psychomusicology
Empirical Musicology Review
Codex Flores
Journals in related disciplines

Psychology



Neuroscience




Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Acta Acustica
Computing



Nature Neuroscience
etc.
Acoustics and psychoacoustics


Psychological Review
etc.
Computer Music Journal
Computing in Musicology
Science in general

Nature, science
Music journals

Music theory/analysis
 Music Theory Spectrum
 Music Analysis
 etc.

Music performance, e.g.
 Music
Performance Research
 Journal of Research in Singing
 etc.
Applied music journals

Music therapy
 Journal
 etc.

of Music Therapy
Music education
 Bulletin
of the Council for Research in Music
Education
 etc.

Music medicine
 Medical
 etc.
Problems of Performing Artists
Music Psychology conferences
Global

International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition
Continental


European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music
Society for Music Perception and Cognition (USA)
Regional






Deutsche Gesellschaft für Musikpsychologie
Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (UK)
International Symposium on Cognition and Musical Arts (Brazil)
Japanese Society for Music Perception and Cognition
Australian Music and Psychology Society
Asia-Pacific Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music
General information
http://www-gewi.uni-graz.at/staff/parncutt
/musicpsychology.html
Aims, methods,
structure and content
of modern musicology
25.10.06
Structure of today‘s presentation



Definitions of “musicology”
Structure of musicology
Musicological interdisciplinarity
Part 1
Definitions of “musicology”
in theory
 in practice

“Musicology” in theory
(all) scholarship about (all) music?
 Grove
 MGG
 Dizionario
della musica e dei musicisti
Musicological subdisciplines

Core disciplines


performance, composition, theory, analysis
Parent disciplines

acoustics, computing, multimedia, sociology, cultural
studies, feminism and gender, history,
anthropology/ethnology, psychology, physiology/medicine,
education, therapy…
Any academic discipline that is


serious and established
capable of explaining musical phenomena
“Musicology” in practice
music history of western cultural elites
 sources: historical documents
 associated methods and techniques
 tradition since 19th century

“Musicology” journals
Acta musicologica
 Archiv für Musikwissenschaft
 Current Musicology
 Journal of the American Musicological Society
 Journal of Musicological Research
 Journal of Musicology
 Musikforschung
 Revue de Musicologie
 Studien zur Musikwissenschaft
... plus many musicology journals of smaller countries

Tacit assumptions of “musicology”
(Obviously) (more) important:



history
western culture and music
music of cultural elites
Eurocentricity?
19th-century colonialism?
Solutions: Journals
Acknowledge problem in preface
 Change name, e.g.

Western Music
Western Artificial Music
History of Notated Western Music

Change scope of journal
Part 2
The structure of musicology
history of musical thought
 sciences and humanities
 the tripartite model
 the evolution of disciplinary
structures

History of musical thought

Ancient civilisations



Middle ages in Europe


central position of history for national identity
20th century


quadrivium : arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, “music”
18th and 19th centuries


physics/mathematics (number ratios)
psychology (emotion)
expansion, diversification
21st century

All musics, all appropriate questions and disciplines
The relationship between
musicological subdisciplines
proportion
100
historical
80
60
systematic
40
20
0
ethnological
1600
1700
1800
année
1900
2000
History of musical thought
Antiquity and middle ages: antecedents of music theory, acoustics and psychology
mathematical philosophy of intervals and scales
19th century: music history plus auxiliary disciplines
historical musicology
music theory and
analysis
systematic
musicology
Now: all disciplinary approaches to all questions about all musics
repertoires and their contexts
history
pop
jazz
ethnology
general phenomena and their foundations
analysis
theory
sociology
psychology
acoustics
physiology
media
aesthetics, cultural studies, feminism and gender studies
philosophy
computing
The central position of historical
musicology in the 19th century

Western music:


“Music”:


esthetically superior
written works of the western canon
The main task of “musicology”:
 document
the artistry of white male genius
Humanities and sciences: differences
The tension between subjectivity and objectivity

1. The object of research



2. The distance between researcher and object



humanities: researcher‘s own experience
sciences: the external world
humanities: close (hermeneutics)
sciences: distant (data analysis)
3. The generality of conclusions


humanities: complex, specific descriptions
sciences: simple, general descriptions
Example : music psychology
The objective versus the subjective approach
Les sciences humaines et naturelles :
les points communs

La recherche de la « verité »




La compréhension des relations



intersubjectivité
rationalité
compréhension par explication
causalité
prévision
La diversité


épistémologique
méthodologique
Les sciences humaines et naturelles
: un rapport synergétique
sciences humaines
sciences naturelles

évaluations
empiriques
conséquences

académiques,
culturelles, sociales
découvertes
idées créatives et
bien fondées
Les sciences humaines et naturelles :
L‘histoire de leur relation

XIXe siècle :


XXe siècle :


domination des sciences humaines
domination des sciences naturelles
XXIe siècle :


domination des sciences informatiques ?
nouvel équilibre entre sciences humaines et
naturelles…


en général?
en musicologie?
Les sciences humaines et naturelles :
importance rélative
Les sciences humaines :
 rôle central de la culture


identité
qualité de la vie
Les sciences naturelles :
 rôle central de la technologie :
qualité de vie quotidienne
 guerre et environnement
 l’autodestruction de l’humanité

Repertoire-based musicologies: Trends
“Musicology”
Ethnomusicology
“music”
score
part of culture
readership
“musicologists”
interdisciplinary
repertory
lost
disappearing
focus
composer, score
performance
concepts
individual, idiosyncratic, culture, typical, tradition,
history, development,
change, social function,
musical autonomy,
cultural uniqueness
formal unity
authority
scholar
informants
Source: Jonathan Stock , Current Musicology, 1998
Tripartite model: USA
“musicology” / theory / ethnomusicology
Problems:
 “musical sciences” are not “musicology”
 too little communication between
musicology/theory and ethnomusicology
Tripartite model: Germany
historical
(tacit)
def.
moder
n
conten
t
problems
systematic
ethno-
western
 sciences, abstract,
cultural elites
interdisciplinary
 mus contexts  mus. phenomena

analysis;
periods,
genres;
cult. stud.
acoustics, psychology,
sociology; aesthetics,
philosophy, physiology,
media, computing...
elite, popular,
folk; continents,
regions, genres,
subcultures
(none)


remainder? auxiliary?
 larger and more diverse
 fewer professorships?
non-western,
non-elite
 mus. contexts
(German) Tripartite model: Problems
not justified:
central position of history of
western cultural elites
not integrated:
not classified:
musical practice
theory, gender, jazz/pop,
prehistory
communication among
subdisciplines
not enough:
not unified:
musicology
A personal apology
I love the “western bourgeous canon”
 History is not less important!!!
 Aim: new balance

Systematic musicology
 Humanities
“cultural
musicology”
 Sciences
“scientific
musicology”
“Cultural musicology”

epistemologies and methods of humanities

subjective


philosophical


introspective, intuitive, intersubjective
logical, aesthetic, epistemological, ethical, metaphysical
paradigms and subdisciplines








philosophical aesthetics
music criticism
theoretical sociology
semiotics
hermeneutics
deconstruction
postmodernism
cultural and gender studies
“Scientific musicology”

scientific epistemologies and methods
 empirical
and data-oriented
 prediction of future data by means of models

subdisciplines
 physiology
and neurosciences
 empirical psychology and sociology
 cognitive sciences
 computing and technology
Evolution of disciplinary structures

top-down
 regulate
 categorize
 authoritarian

bottom-up
 explore
 quasi-random
 „natural“
Musicology: Alternative structure A
specifically theory, analysis, composition,
musical
performance
humanities
history, cultural studies, philosophy
sciences
acoustics, psychology, physiology,
media, computing
mixtures
sociology, anthropology, prehistory
practice
education, medicine, therapy
Musicology: Alternative structure B
status
focus
examples
core
“music itself”
theory, analysis, composition,
performance
central
musical contexts
and phenomena
acoustics, anthropology, cult.stud.,
history, psychology, sociology
peripheral
support of core
and central
computing, psychoacoustics,
philosophy, physiology, prehistory
neighboring non-mus. culture art, literature, linguistics
& communication
practical
individual needs
education, therapy, medicine
L’unité de la musicologie
La musicologie est devenue très fragmentée.
Comment la (ré-)unir ?
Existe-il…


des méthodes et des « lois » générales en musicologie ?
une épistémologie unifiée de la musicologie ?
Dans un programme de musicologie :
En réalité à long terme:
peut-être
peu probable
Proposition: L’unité de la musicologie résulte
plutôt de sa diversité intrinsèque :



Objet :
les musiques diverses
Méthodes : les sciences « mères » diverses
Approche : la collaboration interdisciplinaire
Part 3
Interdisciplinarity
 in
musicology
 in general
Musicae Scientiae Special edition 2006
Thème
1e discipline
2e discipline
Improvisation interactive avec
ordinateur
éducation musicale
intelligence artificielle
Psychologie culturelle de la musique
psychologie musicale
anthropologie culturelle
Échelles non occidentales
psychoacoustique
ethnomusicologie
Modernisation de la musique turque
sociologie
ethnomusicologie
Isométries dans la musique de
Ciurlionis
histoire de l’art
théorie musicale
Analyse de style par ordinateur dans la
musique du XVe siècle
musicologie
historique
extraction de données
musicales
Composition a partir de l’acoustique des
étoiles
physique
composition
Bases neuronales de l’harmonie
psychoacoustique
neurophysiologie
Expression en multimédia
musicologie
informatique
Aphasie musicale
psychologie musicale
linguistique
Interdisciplinarity
boundaries of disciplines are fuzzy
 disciplines are more or less established
 disciplines are more or less distant
 not whether ID, but how much
 degree of ID is a matter of opinion
 role of collaboration
 motivation, flexibility, curiosity, daring

Interdisciplinarity in musicology
content
sciences humanities
practice
object
subject
action
intersubjective
trial and error
methods empirical
Interdisciplinary challenges:
 content and method boundaries
 content-method combinations
Conséquences

Nécessité de
promouvoir l’interdisciplinarité de façon
directe
 développer des stratégies spécifiques

CIM: The Conferences on
Interdisciplinary Musicology

Aims
 Promote
human interdisciplinary interaction
 Reunite musicology

Themes
 (General)
(Graz 2004)
 Timbre (Montreal 2005)
 Singing (Tallinn 2007)
 Structure (Thessaloniki 2008)
 Monophony versus polyphony (Paris 2009)
 Culture (Sheffield 2010)
Current trends in
musical practice


including performance and composition
relevant for music psychology
25.10.06
Introduction

This lecture

surveys current themes
 is limited to western music and subcultures
 makes few specific claims
 postpones music psychology aspects

Terminology
 “classical”
= “notated music of western cultural elites”
Rationale

Central role of performance in music(ology)



Music psychology and musicology traditionally
focus on



Music does not exist unless performed
Performance changes the music
perception than performance
basic rather than applied research
Music performance research is multi- and
interdisciplinary


theory and practice
ethnomusicology, music history, psychology, sociology,
acoustics, cultural studies, economics
Main themes
Technology
 Styles and subcultures
 Authenticity
 Skills
 Professional issues

Technology
Recording media: CDs
 Recording techniques and studios
 Electronic media in performance

Recording media: CDs

CD revolution in 1980s and 90s

more compact, easier to use
 overwhelming diversity of available music

Overloads consumers’ memory

only remember the few main stars
 CD labels market only few main stars
 authenticity backlash (see below)
Recording techniques & studios

Sound quality


most important for classical and acoustic
Creativity of studio engineer

Tonmeister as musician
Electronic media in performance

Classical and jazz





small subgroup of composers and performers
strong identity
media strongly affect musical content
discourse on technology and aesthetics
Pop/rock:
 traditional
relationship between media and content
 strong interest in developing technologies
Styles and subcultures
“Classical”
 Pop/rock
 Jazz
 fusions

Classical music: performance

Labels market only famous names


The second-highest level



even in ensemble music
very high standard
strong competition
Mobility


performances at distant venues
masterclasses with eminent performers
Classical instruments and voice

Separate subcultures
 Voice:
Opera versus lied versus early music
 Piano: solo versus accompaniment
 Melody instruments: solo versus orchestral
Pop: Styles

Musicians identify with

substyles:






rock, soft rock, pop/rock, R&B, soul, hip hop, trip hop, punk pop, dance
ethnic: Brit, Arab, Indi-, C-, J-, K-, Latin, Calypso, Reggae
techno: electro, future, noise, synth,
Country, easy listening, muzac
other: Bubblegum, Christian, Operatic, Sophisti, Turbo-folk
stars and periods (1980s…)
Pop: functions

Continues to create teenage identities
 musicians

Originality considered important



are role models
but level is low
revival of oldies, cover versions, cover bands
Media fascination with celebrities


no matter whether musicians of film stars?
sexiness more important than art?
Jazz

Discussion of musical elements:
 harmony,
tonality, blue notes
 syncopation, polyrhythms
 swing, feel
 call and response, improvisation

Musicians identify with genres
 blues,
trad, Dixieland, swing, bebop, hard bop, cool,
free, avant-garde, Latin, modal, acid, electronica
Style fusions

Many combinations of classical, jazz, pop,
traditional music plus substyles

“Authentic”?
 New combination may be original

Authentic partial styles may be undermined
Authenticity
Performance
 Composition
 Classical
 Pop
 Jazz

Authenticity in performance

In spite of musical diversity and mediocrity:



Difficult and worthwhile


maintenance of personality, spirit, character, identity
creativity from within
sheds new light on music, life, values
Important for musical “counter cultures”
 opposition

Compensation for lack of financial success


to mainstream
only the successful are corrupted?
Promoted by informal, destroyed by formal
learning?
Authenticity in composition
“Postmodern” goes beyond violation of
compositional standards and expectancies
 Coherent (or incoherent) style
 Expression of personality
 Regard (or disregard) for listener
 Minimalism versus complexity
 Apparent lack of composer models

Authenticity in classical music

Revival of old

instruments
 repertoires

Relation to

historical research
 modern technology and hifi
 performer’s intuition and emotion
 the playing and listening experience
Authenticity in pop subcultures
independence from commercial forces
 the musical experience
 common identity of performers and
listeners
 intolerance of other styles

Authenticity in jazz
Jazz as symbol of spiritual freedom
 Originality
 Personality
 Building on and deviating from models
 (Adorno: a false representation that gives
the appearance of authenticity)

Authenticity - overview

Conceptual diversity
 classical:
revival of original experience
 rock: honest communication of identity and values

Common thread
 identification
of “genuine”
 rejection of “fake”
 specific criteria

Why important?
 music
as personal identity
Skills
Talent
 Technique
 Practice
 Improvisation
 Sight reading
 Memorization
 Expression and interpretation

Talent

Talent versus hard work
 relative
importance
 performers’ identity

Talented children
 How
teachers recognize and nurture them
Technique
Body posture (e.g. Alexander technique)
 Hand positions
 Fingering
 Optimal age of acquisition
 Relationship to other musical skills
 Importance relative to interpretation

Practice
Takes a lot of time!
 How to improve efficiency?

Improvisation
In all styles: connected to authenticity
 Role of practice, vocabulary, ice breaking
 Classical music:


revival of tradition that died in 19th century
 example of modern musician’s flexibility
Sight reading

Central for many musicians who
constantly learn new repertoire
 Orchestral
 Piano
accompanists
Memorization (classical)

Specific instruments
 e.g.
piano not organ
 piano solo not ensemble
 solo singers

Methods
 auditory,
kinesthetic, visual memory
 score analysis

Effect on interpretation and reception
Expression and interpretation
Importance relative to technique
 Whether and how to teach it
 Analytic versus intuitive approach
 Role models versus individuality
 Role of body movement
 Developing a personal voice

Professional issues
Medicine
 Anxiety
 Education
 Career path
 Gender

Music medicine






Mainly an issue for classical musicians
Taboo status is weakening
Few musically qualified doctors
Role of stress and repetition
Specific ailments for specific instruments
Psychological, neurological, muscular,
orthopedic (musculoskeletal), dental,
dermatological, audiological
Performance anxiety
Mainly an issue for classical musicians
 Taboo status is weakening
 But few musically qualified therapists

Education (classical)













Conservatory culture
Cultural differences (oriental versus western students)
Music and non-musical skills
Practical versus academic courses
Technique versus interpretation
Individual versus group teaching
Analytic versus intuitive teaching styles
Practice routines and durations
Solo versus ensemble performance
Performance versus teaching
Listening to recordings, mental practice
Selection and evaluation procedures; musicality
Career preparation
Career paths

A high risk, undervalued profession






Classical:


Low social status (not a “serious” profession)
Wide range of incomes
Dependency on free market and lucky breaks
Dream of full-time  reality of part-time
Effect on mental and physical health, relationships etc.
many study performance then teach
Pop, jazz

high dependence on free market
Gender issues

Classical
 Women
in Vienna Philharmonic?
 Female conductors, composers, jazz improvisers
 Acceptance of androgeny e.g. counter tenors

Rock/pop
 Musicians esp. singers (male/female)
 music video clips as soft pornography
as sex objects
bands – strong women, sex objects or both
 Implications for musical identity
 Girl
Music psychology
and music theory
15.11.06
Music-theoretic traditions

Mathematical approach since antiquity



Aim: “understand” music and the cosmos
Mystic philosophy of string-length ratios
Humanities approach since 19th century


Aim: understand works of western canon
Subjective-empirical, logical-systematic
approach
 Linked to compositional and analytical
practice
The role of music psychology
Regard music theories as interesting
hypotheses
 Test them experimentally
 Use results to inform modern music
theory, analysis


the theme of CIM08 in Thessaloniki
Theory/analysis of structure

Specific structures:
 scales,
melody, voice leading, harmony/tonality,
rhythm, timbre

Structure in general:
 motivic,
formal, reduction, accentuation, temporal
development

Musical meaning
 emotion,

History
 History

aesthetics
of syntax
Cultural studies
 Social
and musical structures
Scales in general

Scale steps


categorical perception of pitch
Scales as pitch collections

memory limitations for no. of scale steps
Western scales
 Pentatonic, diatonic, chromatic
 melodic/harmonic octave/fifth relationships
 JND and smallest practical interval size
 Major-minor
 key profiles and statistical learning
 key tracking
 perception of triad-scale relationships
Non-Western scales

quarter-tones


equal-interval


e.g. Indonesian slendro
quasi-chromatic


e.g. Middle East, Persia…
e.g. Indian classical traditions
physical vs psychological measurement

e.g. African oral traditions (Arom)
Melody and phrasing

Pattern recognition, Gestalt principles

similarity
 proximity
 good continuation
 etc.

Auditory scene analysis (Bregman)

segmentation and grouping
 nature vs nurture
Hierarchical structure and
voice leading






compound melody and streaming
neighbor tones and melodic fusion
tonicization and pitch salience
diminution and generative grammar
key as prolongation of tonic triad
Ursatz as schema
(Schenker, Lerdahl & Jackendoff)
Contrapuntal conventions

Writing melodies


Prevalence of chord types



promote fusion ( consonance)
avoid roughness ( consonance)
Prevalence of harmonic intervals


pitch proximity (stepwise motion  streaming)
avoid fusion ( independence of voices)
Voicing of chords


doubling: exaggerate differences in pitch salience
interval size: masking and roughness
(Huron)
Harmony and tonality

Harmony:


Tonality:


perception of pitch of complex tones (Terhardt)
profiles of stability of scale steps (Krumhansl)
Computer tests:

root and tonality tracking algorithms
Rhythm and meter
Categorical perception of rhythm
 Pulse perception
 Perceived versus notated metre


Computer test: beat tracking
Timbral structure

Theory
 Relation of timbre to:
 familiar environmental sound sources
 human voice and phonemes
 Stream segregation:
 each stream has a timbre

Method
 Quantitative approaches
 similarity judgments and multidimensional scaling
 Qualitative approaches
 timbre description using everyday language
Motivic/thematic structure

Central importance for music analysis
 “first


subject”, “second subject”, leitmotives
development and recapitulation of motives
Complex models of the similarity of
melodic motives
categorical boundary between “same” and “different”
 difference between repetition and variation
Formal structure

Formal functions of musical segments

start, middle, end
 exposition, development, recapitulation

Perception of jumbled music
experimental finding: order doesn’t matter (!)
 conflict between philosophical and empirical
aesthetics

Reduction

Schenkerian reduction




foreground, middleground, background
background is supposed to comprise the most important events
largely irrelevant for music performance
accentuation (salience)

immanent


performed


grouping, metrical, harmonic, melodic
agogic, dynamic, articulatory, timbral
This kind of analysis can inform music performance
Structure: Temporal development

Local music perception lasting a few seconds


Tension/relaxation


dissonance, loudness, pitch range, tonality
Expectation


Predominates in music psychological experiments
melodic, harmonic… expections and emotional connotations
Prolongation


primary and subordinate chords of a progression
implied harmonies of a melody
Structure: Emotion and meaning

Immanent structures
 specific
structures: appoggiatura, sudden harmonic
change, repeated falling fifth progression (Sloboda)
 analysis by semiotics and hermeneutics

The performer’s contribution
 structural communication
 expressive timing and dynamics (Repp, Desain, Drake…)
 emotional communication
 specific structural cues (Juslin)
Philosophical aesthetics

Elitist and abstract
 explores
the experience of experts
 emphasis on absolute music
 emphasis on unity of the art work

Emphasis on deep meaning
 cultural

identity
Emphasis on long-term temporal relationships
 thematic
and tonal
Empirical aesthetics

Non-elitist and concrete
 typical
concert audiences, CD listeners
 role of social and psychological function
 personal identity

Emphasis on local, surface events
 complexity

and familiarity
Emphasis on short-term temporal relationships
 thematic
and tonal
Structure: History of syntax





History of musical syntax (Eberlein)
Process of cultural evolution (Dawkins)
Perception develops in parallel with syntax
Elements of musical culture (e.g. cadences) are
“memes”
Syntax develops under combined influence of
 conventions
(e.g. voice-leading rules)
 perception (e.g. pitch pattern recognition)
 social constraints (e.g. the church)
Structure: Sociocultural aspects
Does hierarchical structure reflect
hierarchical society?
 Interesting for historical, cultural and
ethnological musicology as well as music
theory

Music psychology
and musicology
Interactions between music psychology MP and
 ethnomusicology EM
 historical musicology HM
 cultural musicology CM
22.11.06
Today’s aim

Explore (possibilites for) fruitful interaction between MP
and HM, CM, ME


The topic of an ÖGMw conference in Salzburg 2008
Focus mainly on western “classical” music , since


more MP research to refer to
affords interesting comparisons with HM
MP versus HM, EM, CM

Similar aim: description/explanation of



Contrasting methods:



musical behaviour
musical experience
subjective versus objective approaches
own versus other culture
Divergent academic traditions
 surprisingly
little contact
 considerable potential for productive collaboration
Today’s topics
Dance
 Emotion
 Personality
 Talent
 Composition
 Creativity
 Preferences

Dance in musicology

EM:
 Dance and music linked in every known
 Relationships among
 dance movements and gestures
 musical meaning (e.g. ritual functions)
 musical structure

culture – why?
HM:
 Western
history of dance forms, genres, structures
 Aesthetics: Movement character of dance music
Dance in music psychology

Relationship between sound & movement
 Performance gestures
 Emotional expression

Rhythm as virtual movement
 Cognitive
neurosciences, mirror neurones
Emotion in musicology

HM:
 Researcher’s own experience
 Emotionality of specific repertoire
 Historical changes in verbalisation of
 Philosophy of emotion and meaning
 Hermeneutic

emotion
approaches
EM:
 Reliance on informants’ reports of experience
 Role of cultural background including language
 functions of music
 social, religious, psychological, healing
Emotion in music psychology

Avoided after the “cognitive turn” in the 1960s


Musical versus everyday emotions



“Hot topic” since 1990s, e.g. Juslin & Sloboda book
Everyday: happy, sad, angry, afraid… (“basic”)
Musical: nostalgia, magic, moving, excited…
Methods

Global vs local


Qualitative descriptors


Questionnaire versus real-time tracking
emotions versus associations; slippery linguistic labels
Quantitative measures


Similarity judements, MDS, dimensions: arousal, valence, salience
Bipolar rating scales, semantic differential
Personality

MP:
 dimensions
of personality as cause/effect of
musical activities and preferences

HM:
 understanding
of composers’ personal styles
Is a unified musical work a virtual person
with specific character traits?
General personality factors

Long lists such as
 warmth,
reasoning, social stability, dominance,
liveliness, rule consciousness, social boldness,
sensitivity, vigilences, abstractedness, privateness,
apprehension, openness to change, self-reliance,
perfectionism, tension (Cattel & Kline, 1977)

“big five” (cf. “basic emotions”)
 neuroticism,
extraversion, openness, agreeables,
consciensciousness (Costa & McCrae, 1985)
(Kemp)
Personality of musicians

Commonalities of (classical western) musicians







Introspection  inner world of music
Independence  musical originality
Preference for complexity  classical tradition
Sensitivity  emotional nature of music
Trait anxiety  performance anxiety
Androgeny  creativity
Differences




Strings: reserved
woodwind: confidence
Brass and singers: Extraversion
Keyboard: shyness
 Composers: reserve, dominance, sensitivity, spontaneity, openness, low
self control, radicalism, independence, persistenc

Nature or nurture?
Personality and HM
 Character
of…
music
versus other arts
music played by different
instruments
 Did
Mozart and Strauss write so well for
sopranos because they understood the
personality of typical sopranos?
Talent and MP

Nature-nurture problem
 “Nurture” aspect well documented
 “Nature” aspect difficult to investigate

Evaluation of talent
 Difficult to predict future performance
 musicality tests primarily test hearing skills
 Difficult to evaluate composed or performed
 aesthetic norms tend to be arbitrary
music
Musical talent and non-musical factors

Inborn (?) factors


Environment


Family, individual and classroom teachers, critical experiences
Personality


Intelligence, creativity, social competence, hearing skills…
Coping with stress, motivation, learning strategies, performance
anxiety…
Non-musical skills

Sciences (maths, technology, computing…), arts (painting…),
languages, sport
(Heller, 2004)
Talent in humanities musicology

HM
 music
of western cultural elites: music of the
talented?
 HM: study of the products of musical talent?
 Implications of MP talent research for HM

EM
 concepts
and roles of talent (or absence thereof)
in specific cultures
Composition in MP

Difficult to study since
 very
intuitive process
 arbitrary evaluation of musical quality

Contemporary compositional process
 McAdams
case study of Roger Reynolds
 Are the principles specific or general?
Composition in HM

Process
 composers’
sketches
 letters and reports of contemporaries

Personality
 historical
record
 does music reflect it?
Creativity in MP

Definition: production of
 novelty: new structures of old elements
 value: aesthetic value, usefulness, pleasingness

Both concepts are difficult to operationalise!

Origin: Interaction culture-society-individual

“Genius”
 Has excellent musical skills
 Knows both culture and society intimately
 Questionable as a distinct category
Creativity in HM

Novelty and value


Both concepts are central to HM and
philosophical aesthetics of music
Genius

depends on historic, social, cultural context
Development of creativity

Exposure



Gender differences



Part of general enculturation, socialisation
Confined to specific styles
Socialisation (main effect)
Genes: Hormones (Hassler) (controversial)
Motivation


Persistence, hard work
Independence
The creative process

Four phases (Poincaré 1913):

Preparation



Incubation




Exploration of solutions
Synthesis of approaches
Verification


Perception and analysis of problems
Illumination


Musical and life experience
Skill acquisition
Social and cultural realisation
HM: application to compositional process of individuals
MP: difficult to investigate contents of “black box”
Preferences: Listener typologies

Adorno (1962)







Expert
Good listener
Art consumer
Emotional listener
Jazz
Pop
Unmusical

Alt (1968)



Sensitive- emotional
Aesthetic (cf. Hanslick)
Spiritual-romantic

Explanation: socialisation and evolution

HM: relation to style classification
(Gembris)
Preferences: Life-span

Open-eared childhood


Intolerant teens: a creative phase




acquisition of varied stylistic knowledge
beginning of preferences, emotionality
creation of individual identity, peer pressure
HM: wellspring of creativity and originality for most composers
Open-eared adulthood



Less interest in music (time spent, emotion, function)
Continuing preference for music learned in teens (socialisation)
HM: composers develop the style that they established in teens
(Kemp)
Preferences and musical content

Structure

MP: Tempo and tonality but not form



MP: Complexity



HM: historical increase in complexity
MP: Berlyne’s curve shifts toward higher optimal complexity
Musical meaning

MP: Universals related to motherese


EM: question of universals
MP: Association with specific experiences


HM: why is form important?
MP: cannot answer this question
HM: romantic tradition and aesthetic
Familiarity

Own versus foreign music


EM: main subject matter
HM: implied superiority of western culture
Preferences and gender

Cliches exist!



Explanation



Females tend to prefer softer more romantic music
Males tend to prefer louder, stronger, active, sensational music
Socialisation
Evolution
HM:

gender associations
 classification of styles, periods, national character etc.
Preferences and class

“Classical” music


“Popular” music


class-conscious disciplines?
EM


familiarity, identity
HM, art history etc:


working and lower-middle classes?
Explanation: socialisation


owning and upper-middle classes?
Attempt to cover all classes: elite, popular, traditional…
MP

Started like HM, now trying to emulate EM
Psychological and
educational research
in music performance
Source: Parncutt & McPherson (Eds.) (2002)
29.11.06
Today’s aims

Summarize performance research
 Musical

development and skill acquisition
Implications for education
 Everday

performance issues
Implications for professional musicians
Music psychology and
music education

Often similar research themes
 E.g.

intonation
Often little or no contact
 University
/ disciplinary structures
(conferences, journals)
Talent and potential

Considered elsewhere in this file
Motivation and talent

Is talent based on hard work?

Do motivated students



work harder,
acquire more skills, and therefore
appear more “talented”?
Kinds of motivation

Extrinsic
 Dependent on specific rewards
 Appropriate for children learning

music
Intrinsic
 Acquired gradually
 Imitation of parents, teachers,
 An inborn component?
peers?
 Identification with music and with instrument
 Associated with persistence
 Necessary to enable long hours of practice
How to motivate music students
Balance between:

Praise for genuine progress
 extrinsic motivation

Open, helpful discussion of problems
 train
ability to set goals, solve problems
 confidence, independence, self-efficacy
 intrinsic motivation
Persistence
A matter of attitude:



Problems are expected and normal
Challenges are interesting
Ability depends on practice
Attributions

Private explanations of success and failure
 Realistic
or exaggerated
 Incremental or static

Thinking affects musical progress!
 Not

just hard work and talent
Implications for music education
Goal orientation

Children who plan to become musicians
are more likely to succeed
 intrinsic
motivation, persistence
 hours of practice
Performance anxiety

Common but still taboo


Causes





Most musicians suffer and do not seek support
trait anxiety
degree of preparation
perceived audience reaction
pessimistic self-talk, “catastrophization”
Treatments




Relaxation training
Anxiety inoculation – developing realistic expectations
Cognitive restructuring – changing habitual attitudes
Hypnotherapy, Alexander technique
Music-medical problems

Common but still taboo
 Most

musicians suffer and do not seek support
Causes





Instrument: performance technique
Repertoire: technical problems
Individual: physique and psychology
Practice routines: Repetition, duration, stress
History: increasing competition
Music-medical problems

Kinds of problem


Prevention



orthopedic (muskuloskeletal), psychological, dermatological,
audiological, dental, neurological
Music-medical knowledge
Avoidance of excessive repetition
Treatment

rest, exercises, therapy to prevent re-emergence…
Example: Focal dystonia

Symptoms


Incidence and consequences




fine motor skills and perfectionism
overlap of cortical regions
Causes


about 1% of professional musicians
can terminate a musical career
Associated with


loss of voluntary control in specific trained movements
acquired and hereditary
Treatment


medication, retraining, ergonomic changes to instrument
partially successful
(Jabusch & Altenmüller 2006)
Brain mechanisms

Each musical subskill
 Widely
distributed brain areas (neural networks)
 Individually variable

Areas involved in music
 all

motor, somatosensory and auditory areas
Plasticity: regions are bigger if
 used
more often
 used earlier in life
 musical practice  stable structural changes
Learning music notation
Language acquisition model

strict temporal sequences:
 sonic experimentation  lexical
vocabulary
 basic skills  start to read and write
 exposure

active learning
 both


perceiving and doing
improvisation in a social context
reading and writing confined to known material
Learning music notation

Implications for music education
 Don’t
start too early
 Don’t start too late
Sight reading

Component skills
 Visual
perception, recognition, memory
 Motor control
 Auditory imagination
 Stylistic knowledge (guessing)

Training
 Hours
of practice with given style
Improvisation
Hidden processes - difficult to investigate
Practice

Aims
 Improve technique
 Learn repertoire
 Develop interpretations
 Memorize

Methods
 Physical and mental practice
 Metacognition – goals, planning,
 Analyse scores and
 Take breaks
 Intrinsic motivation
recordings
organisation
Memory

Why perform from memory?
 Tradition
 Expression

How to memorize
 In
practice, focus on expression and meaning
 Understand structure (score analysis)
 Combine sense modalities
 Practice improvising in same style
Intonation

Subskills
 Pitch discrimination and matching
 Instrument tuning
 Internal tuning – melodic and harmonic
 Simple versus complex context

Every intonation is a compromise
 Harmonic versus inharmonic complex tones
 Pitch shifts due to intensity and masking
 Just frequency ratios are inconsistent
 Varying intonations in ensemble
 Deviations are expressive
Structural communication

Structure





Performance parameters



Phrasing, grouping
Meter
Melody
Harmony and tonality
Loudness, timbre, duration of each tone
Timing of IOIs
Broad definition of “accent”

Communication of structural accents through interpretative
accents
Structural communication
Emotional communication
Specific emotions in music and speech are
expressed by redundant combinations of
physical cues:









Tempo
Articulation
Loudness
Timbre
Attack
durational contrast
Microintonation
Vibrato
Variability of all of the above
Can be learned!
Body movement

Roles in music performance




Construction
Execution
Perception
Aspects


Technical control
Expression through gesture



communicate structure and emotion
show what is important
Non-musical origins


Motherese
Physical movement, running etc.
Conclusion
Psychological research in music
performance could make a considerable
positive contribution to music education at
all levels. The main problems:
Teachers often don’t know it
Students often don’t have time to learn it
Examination
Written examination

Last week of January 2007

Answer 5 out of 10 questions

Language



Examinable material



questions in English
answers in English or German
contents of the lectures
literature cited in the lectures
Tip: answer each question directly!
ICMPC Question
One of the 10 questions will be:
"Identify three thematically related papers from the
ICMPC in Bologna for which full papers are
included on the proceedings CD in the abstract
booklet (Handapparat Parncutt). Summarize their
main results and implications."