Our investigation was aimed at improving the comprehension of asymmetrical rhythms. Specifically,... more Our investigation was aimed at improving the comprehension of asymmetrical rhythms. Specifically, our study is one of the few to date focussing on cognition of asymmetrical meters and, as far as we know, the only study considering free tapping in relation to such meters. In this study, we used real musical pieces. By using a digital editing procedure of sound signal, we manipulated various accent structures independently, and investigated their role in decoding rhythmic expression. This allowed us to investigate behavioural synchronization on the basis of a natural expressive variability, without the need for artificial stimuli. A software capable of precisely recording the tapping sessions was created, and a sound analytic methodology was proposed, supporting and extending our knowledge of the topic. The work proved that the presumptive advantage of musicians (as compared to non-musicians) in synchronization behaviour fails in an intercultural context. Mental schemes built up durin...
ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to assess the influence of melodic and rhythmic redundancies, ... more ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to assess the influence of melodic and rhythmic redundancies, and their interaction with tonality, on recognition memory for music. Forty-four non-musicians performed a recognition task with unknown musical material. Stimuli created for experimental purposes were made up of 48 short melodies (half tonal and half non-tonal) and were characterized by the presence of three kinds of musical redundancy: melodic only, rhythmic only, or both melodic-rhythmic. In a first phase, subjects listened to a study list of 24 stimuli. After 20 minutes, a test list containing 48 stimuli (24 previously heard and 24 novel ones) was administered, and subjects were asked to indicate for each item whether the melody: was recognized from the study list (R response); evoked a sense of familiarity (K response); or was not recognized at all (X response). Major results showed that tonality influences semantic, but not episodic memory, and that the two systems are differentially affected by the type of redundancy (especially melodic-rhythmic, which has a large effect on episodic memory but is ineffective for semantic memory). Moreover, tonality and the type of redundancy systematically interact only in the episodic memory system. Thus, evidence supports disassociation of the two memory systems. Furthermore, R and X responses showed a symmetry in their trend, suggesting a role for X responses as counterparts of the R responses within the episodic memory system. Melodic-rhythmic redundancy demonstrated the most prominent effects on the episodic system, whereas the assessment comparing melodic versus rhythmic only as the pre-eminent type of redundancy was more ambiguous. Finally, non-tonal stimuli were found to be more sensitive than tonal stimuli, whereby they showed differential effectiveness regarding redundancy type, a result which suggests that they could prove serviceable in future studies concerning recognition memory for music.
Accent perception and entrainment in music were investigated. 88 Ss (experts and naïve) were invi... more Accent perception and entrainment in music were investigated. 88 Ss (experts and naïve) were invited to tap freely along with two kinds of musical stimuli. Both kinds of stimuli were excerpts of performances on the Jew's Harp based on isochronous and non-isochronous meters: the excerpts were processed in order to independently eliminate or randomize the variations of different musical parameters (timbre, loudness, expressive timing, pitch, and their different combinations). Results show that the effect of musical training is present only in relation to familiar metrical structures: when facing an unknown meter, the musicians are no more accurate than non-musicians. The analyses show also that all the manipulated parameters can be similarly used to extract the temporal structure of a piece. This can be considered a proof towards a model of the perceptual system where structure detection in rhythmical sequences can be performed using alternatively a wide range of parameters.
Chaotic systems can exhibit a complex evolution that is well-suited to musical control. By modell... more Chaotic systems can exhibit a complex evolution that is well-suited to musical control. By modelling one such system, known as Chua’s circuit, a number of chaotic attractors that oscillate in rhythmic fashion were discovered, similar to traditional wave oscillators used in sound synthesis. This led to an exploration of the sonification of the system and an investigation of musical mappings such as filter control, spatial rendering, and note generation. A method of controlling musical accompaniment was also developed, where the chaotic system is used to generate melodies that conform to a key and scale specified by the user. Finally, an immersive virtual interface was designed that allows a performer to play along with the accompaniment, while controlling various high-level parameters.
We developed an interactive system for music performance, able to control sound parameters in a r... more We developed an interactive system for music performance, able to control sound parameters in a responsive way with respect to the user’s movements. This system is conceived as a mobile application, provided with beat tracking and an expressive parameter modulation, interacting with motion sensors and effector units, which are connected to a music output, such as synthesizers or sound effects. We describe the various types of usage of our system and our achievements, aimed to increase the expression of music performance and provide an aid to music interaction. The results obtained outline a first level of integration and foresee future cognitive and technological research related to it.
Proc. of International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Belfast, Aug 1, 2008
Chaotic systems can exhibit a complex evolution that is well-suited to musical control. By modell... more Chaotic systems can exhibit a complex evolution that is well-suited to musical control. By modelling one such system, known as Chua's circuit, a number of chaotic attractors that oscillate in rhythmic fashion were discovered, similar to traditional wave oscillators used in sound synthesis. This led to an exploration of the sonification of the system and an investigation of musical mappings such as filter control, spatial rendering, and note generation. A method of controlling musical accompaniment was also developed ...
The work concerns using evolutionary methods to evolve melodic sequences, obtained through a musi... more The work concerns using evolutionary methods to evolve melodic sequences, obtained through a music generative approach from Chua’s circuit, a non-linear dynamic system, universal paradigm for studying chaos. The main idea was to investigate how to turn potential aesthetical musical forms, generated by chaotic attractors, in melodic patterns, according to the western musical tradition. A single attractor was chosen from the extended gallery of the Chua’s dynamical systems. A specific codification scheme was used to map the attractor’s space of phases into the musical pitch domain. A genetic algorithm was used to search throughout all possible solutions in the space of the attractor’s parameters. Musical patterns were selected by a suitable fitness function. Experimental data show a progressive increase of the fitness values.
Our investigation was aimed at improving the comprehension of asymmetrical rhythms. Specifically,... more Our investigation was aimed at improving the comprehension of asymmetrical rhythms. Specifically, our study is one of the few to date focussing on cognition of asymmetrical meters and, as far as we know, the only study considering free tapping in relation to such meters. In this study, we used real musical pieces. By using a digital editing procedure of sound signal, we manipulated various accent structures independently, and investigated their role in decoding rhythmic expression. This allowed us to investigate behavioural synchronization on the basis of a natural expressive variability, without the need for artificial stimuli. A software capable of precisely recording the tapping sessions was created, and a sound analytic methodology was proposed, supporting and extending our knowledge of the topic. The work proved that the presumptive advantage of musicians (as compared to non-musicians) in synchronization behaviour fails in an intercultural context. Mental schemes built up durin...
ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to assess the influence of melodic and rhythmic redundancies, ... more ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to assess the influence of melodic and rhythmic redundancies, and their interaction with tonality, on recognition memory for music. Forty-four non-musicians performed a recognition task with unknown musical material. Stimuli created for experimental purposes were made up of 48 short melodies (half tonal and half non-tonal) and were characterized by the presence of three kinds of musical redundancy: melodic only, rhythmic only, or both melodic-rhythmic. In a first phase, subjects listened to a study list of 24 stimuli. After 20 minutes, a test list containing 48 stimuli (24 previously heard and 24 novel ones) was administered, and subjects were asked to indicate for each item whether the melody: was recognized from the study list (R response); evoked a sense of familiarity (K response); or was not recognized at all (X response). Major results showed that tonality influences semantic, but not episodic memory, and that the two systems are differentially affected by the type of redundancy (especially melodic-rhythmic, which has a large effect on episodic memory but is ineffective for semantic memory). Moreover, tonality and the type of redundancy systematically interact only in the episodic memory system. Thus, evidence supports disassociation of the two memory systems. Furthermore, R and X responses showed a symmetry in their trend, suggesting a role for X responses as counterparts of the R responses within the episodic memory system. Melodic-rhythmic redundancy demonstrated the most prominent effects on the episodic system, whereas the assessment comparing melodic versus rhythmic only as the pre-eminent type of redundancy was more ambiguous. Finally, non-tonal stimuli were found to be more sensitive than tonal stimuli, whereby they showed differential effectiveness regarding redundancy type, a result which suggests that they could prove serviceable in future studies concerning recognition memory for music.
Accent perception and entrainment in music were investigated. 88 Ss (experts and naïve) were invi... more Accent perception and entrainment in music were investigated. 88 Ss (experts and naïve) were invited to tap freely along with two kinds of musical stimuli. Both kinds of stimuli were excerpts of performances on the Jew's Harp based on isochronous and non-isochronous meters: the excerpts were processed in order to independently eliminate or randomize the variations of different musical parameters (timbre, loudness, expressive timing, pitch, and their different combinations). Results show that the effect of musical training is present only in relation to familiar metrical structures: when facing an unknown meter, the musicians are no more accurate than non-musicians. The analyses show also that all the manipulated parameters can be similarly used to extract the temporal structure of a piece. This can be considered a proof towards a model of the perceptual system where structure detection in rhythmical sequences can be performed using alternatively a wide range of parameters.
Chaotic systems can exhibit a complex evolution that is well-suited to musical control. By modell... more Chaotic systems can exhibit a complex evolution that is well-suited to musical control. By modelling one such system, known as Chua’s circuit, a number of chaotic attractors that oscillate in rhythmic fashion were discovered, similar to traditional wave oscillators used in sound synthesis. This led to an exploration of the sonification of the system and an investigation of musical mappings such as filter control, spatial rendering, and note generation. A method of controlling musical accompaniment was also developed, where the chaotic system is used to generate melodies that conform to a key and scale specified by the user. Finally, an immersive virtual interface was designed that allows a performer to play along with the accompaniment, while controlling various high-level parameters.
We developed an interactive system for music performance, able to control sound parameters in a r... more We developed an interactive system for music performance, able to control sound parameters in a responsive way with respect to the user’s movements. This system is conceived as a mobile application, provided with beat tracking and an expressive parameter modulation, interacting with motion sensors and effector units, which are connected to a music output, such as synthesizers or sound effects. We describe the various types of usage of our system and our achievements, aimed to increase the expression of music performance and provide an aid to music interaction. The results obtained outline a first level of integration and foresee future cognitive and technological research related to it.
Proc. of International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Belfast, Aug 1, 2008
Chaotic systems can exhibit a complex evolution that is well-suited to musical control. By modell... more Chaotic systems can exhibit a complex evolution that is well-suited to musical control. By modelling one such system, known as Chua's circuit, a number of chaotic attractors that oscillate in rhythmic fashion were discovered, similar to traditional wave oscillators used in sound synthesis. This led to an exploration of the sonification of the system and an investigation of musical mappings such as filter control, spatial rendering, and note generation. A method of controlling musical accompaniment was also developed ...
The work concerns using evolutionary methods to evolve melodic sequences, obtained through a musi... more The work concerns using evolutionary methods to evolve melodic sequences, obtained through a music generative approach from Chua’s circuit, a non-linear dynamic system, universal paradigm for studying chaos. The main idea was to investigate how to turn potential aesthetical musical forms, generated by chaotic attractors, in melodic patterns, according to the western musical tradition. A single attractor was chosen from the extended gallery of the Chua’s dynamical systems. A specific codification scheme was used to map the attractor’s space of phases into the musical pitch domain. A genetic algorithm was used to search throughout all possible solutions in the space of the attractor’s parameters. Musical patterns were selected by a suitable fitness function. Experimental data show a progressive increase of the fitness values.
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