Transcrire ou décrire : tel est le dilemne auquel sont souvent confrontés les ethnomusicologues. ... more Transcrire ou décrire : tel est le dilemne auquel sont souvent confrontés les ethnomusicologues. A qui s'adresse la notation ? au praticien ? au musicologue ? Quel est son but ? aide-mémoire ? aide à l'apprentissage ? fixation ? possibilités comparatives ? Qu'y a-t-il lieu de noter ? hauteurs, durées, timbre, geste du musicien ? Où en sommes-nous aujourd'hui avec les nouveaux outils technologiques (ordinateur, playback, Sonagraph, etc.) dont nous disposons ? Doivent-ils nous conduire à abandonner la notation sur portée ? Qu'en est-il par ailleurs de l'étude des notations musicales rencontrées dans certaines traditions ? Quels en sont les principes et comment fonctionnent-elles au sein de leur culture ? Quels sont enfin les enseignements que ces notations nous fournissent sur les méthodes cognitives qu'elles mettent en jeu
Chapter 14 considers the physiological, psychological, and social origins of rhythm. It reviews a... more Chapter 14 considers the physiological, psychological, and social origins of rhythm. It reviews analytical data from music performances of Australian Aboriginal groups, arguing that processing differences for vocal and instrumental rhythms suggest dynamic neural models; these challenge an abstract conception of rhythm. As a result, it is difficult to regard the rhythm of speech as at the origin of vocal music, and which in turn gives rise to instrumental music. The author holds that vocal rhythms in speech and music, and instrumental rhythms, derive from different ways of interacting with our environment and are controlled by different temporal mechanisms. Thus instrumental music should be considered in parallel to vocal music, not as derived from it.
Un des outils essentiels de la musicologie comparée est la notation, et l’analyse d’après la nota... more Un des outils essentiels de la musicologie comparée est la notation, et l’analyse d’après la notation constitue l’une de ses approches méthodologiques principales. Si les limites de la notation occidentale standard appliquée à cet exercice ont été perçues dès la naissance de la discipline, suscitant, très tôt, de nombreuses tentatives d’adaptation, le rôle fondamental de la notation dans la méthodologie de la musicologie comparée n’a jamais été vraiment remis en cause. Je propose ici d’envisager la notation essentiellement comme un système d’écriture qui transpose des événements audio-temporels dans le domaine spatio-visuel. Un bref survol historique rappelle tout d’abord les étapes importantes de la genèse de cette notation musicale et explique comment elle a fini par devenir une force capable de conditionner les formes mêmes de la musique occidentale. Je tente de montrer pourquoi, lorsqu’elle s’occupe de cultures non-occidentales et non-écrites, la musicologie comparée a recours à...
Comment les musiciens témoignent-ils verbalement de leur pratique vocale ou instrumentale ? Que d... more Comment les musiciens témoignent-ils verbalement de leur pratique vocale ou instrumentale ? Que disent-ils de la musique qu'ils jouent ? Quelle valeur et quelle signification donnent-ils à leur pratique ? Dans quel cadre s'inscrit-elle pour eux ? Et encore, quels discours font ceux qui, dans une culture donnée, réfléchissent au pourquoi et au comment de la création artistique : théoriciens, philosophes, esthètes, poètes ?... Quelles sont les dimensions cognitives et extramusicales de la musique ? En un mot, comment les musiciens pensent-ils la musique ? Tel est le thème de ce dossier, qui nous offre un état de la question à travers une série d'études de cas représentatifs de régions aussi différentes que le désert de Namibie, le Tchad, le Maroc, le Pays basque, la Bretagne, la Sardaigne, la Silésie, l'Afghanistan, le Tibet, la Chine et l'Australie. Fondés à Genève en 1988 dans le cadre des Ateliers d'ethnomusicologie, les Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles p...
thnomusicologists generally seem to adhere to the idea that pitch perception is based on frequenc... more thnomusicologists generally seem to adhere to the idea that pitch perception is based on frequency ratios, a theory that has gained support from various disciplines. Musics from different cultures, as far as they have been analyzed in this regard, appear to conform with this principle. Irrespective of the type of scales they use (tempered, equidistant, etc.), they all seem to be based on logarithmic frequency systems in which the invariant interval features are frequency ratios, not frequency differences as is the case in linear systems. However, in a series of studies on Australian Aboriginal music Catherine Ellis has given evidence that the frequency distribution of this music shows segregation into clusters spaced according to frequency differences instead of ratios (1964, 1965, 1967, 1990); but, as a result of methodological limitations, some of her results are not unequivocal, and interpretation is limited because there is no accompanying time-frequency analysis of her material. Nevertheless, Ellis's claim of arithmetic scaling in this music is strongly supported by her finding that transpositions appear to be performed on a frequency-difference basis. Although these findings bear considerable implications for several disciplines, including, not least, ethnomusicology and theories on the evolution of music, they have found little resonance in current approaches within these disciplines. In over twenty years there has been no re-examination or follow-up study on her results. This neglect cannot simply be explained by difficulties or limitations of the applied methods; probably it is a far more important factor that Ellis's studies contradict a widespread belief about an essential of human auditory perception, the correspondence of pitch distance and frequency ratios.
Ein Grosteil der in der vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft seit langem bekannten Verfahren zur Unte... more Ein Grosteil der in der vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft seit langem bekannten Verfahren zur Untersuchung von Musik und Musikaufzeichnungen — etwa die Klangstrukturanalyse — war bisher mit einem enormen apparativen Aufwand verbunden. In der alltaglichen musikanalytischen Praxis waren solche Methoden daher selten zu finden. Andere Verfahren, wie z.B. Transkriptionen oder Tonhohenbestimmungen von Band oder Schallplatte waren auserst muhsam und mit einem grosen Verschleis an Geraten und Aufzeichnungsmedien verbunden.
... The concept of entrainment and its significance for ethnomusicology ... In time with the musi... more ... The concept of entrainment and its significance for ethnomusicology ... In time with the music: The concept of entrainment and its significance for ethnomusicology ...
Primary projections of the anterior and posterior lateral-line nerves were traced by means of tra... more Primary projections of the anterior and posterior lateral-line nerves were traced by means of transganglionic transport of horseradish peroxidase in species belonging to five of the six anuran superfamilies. Both anterior and posterior lateral-line nerve afferents each enter the brain via a single root which divides into two or more bundles. These bundles carry fibers from neuromasts only. No separate dorsal fascicle and no ampullary organs as in urodeles and gymnophions have been found. All bundles join in the neuropil of the nucleus intermedius to form ascending and descending fascicles. Two distinct fascicles are found in species showing little collateralization. No fasciculation is found in species with an elaborate telodendritic arborization. Afferents of the anterior lateral-line nerve run ventromedially and those of the posterior lateral-line nerve dorsolaterally within the ipsilateral nucleus intermedius neuropil. Rostrally they terminate in the vicinity of the eminentia granularis and caudally in the vicinity of the calamus scriptorius. The metamorphic changes in the alar plate do not support the hypothesis of Larsell ('34) as to a change in function of second-order lateral-line neurons into second-order auditory neurons. The rostra1 part of the nucleus intermedius shows numerous degenerating neurons at metamorphic climax whereas the caudal part becomes part of the nucleus caudalis of adult anurans. Besides the members of the Pipoidea, there is at least the genus Bombina which retains parts of the lateral-line system. The term "dorsal island," its relevance for any part of the anuran brain, and the possible relation between absence of electroreception and the development of the nucleus dorsolateralis are discussed.
In a current research project we have taken up again the question of interval structures in Centr... more In a current research project we have taken up again the question of interval structures in Central Australian music and have devised a com-pletely new, computerized set-up with a different approach to the prob-lem (see section on methods). To be able to compare the new results (Will ...
Until recently, written language and writing have been considered to be of minor interest in the ... more Until recently, written language and writing have been considered to be of minor interest in the context of cognitive and linguistic theories. Though the practical relevance of writing competences is undisputed, research in language production was, initially, research into speech production. This limitation was mainly due to the widespread opinion that spoken language is the exclusive domain
In recent decades the cognitive sciences have seen some remarkable developments that reflect shif... more In recent decades the cognitive sciences have seen some remarkable developments that reflect shifting and broadening perspectives of the discipline. One is the recognition that cognition is shaped and formed by an intricate interplay of biological, environmental and experiential, that is, cultural factors. This realization has profited from a notable tradition of cultural and cross-cultural research in psychology with an initial research emphasis on social cognition, personality traits, cognitive styles, and so on. It has produced multiple lines of evidence for cultural differences engendering differences in psychological behavior, and, following the introduction of modern imaging methods (fMRI, EEG, MEG), has uncovered influences of cultural factors on various brain functions and activations of specific neural substrates, including low-level perceptual processes.
Entrainment, broadly defined, is a phenomenon in which two or more independent rhythmic processes... more Entrainment, broadly defined, is a phenomenon in which two or more independent rhythmic processes synchronize with each other. To illuminate the significance of entrainment for various directions of music research and promote a nuanced understanding of the concept among ethnomusicologists, this publication opens with an exposition of entrainment research in various disciplines, from physics to linguistics and psychology, while systematically introducing basic concepts that are directly relevant to musical entrainment. Topics covered include consideration of self-synchrony and interpersonal synchrony in musical performance, humans’ innate propensities to entrain, the influence of cultural and personal factors on entrainment, the numerous functions of musical entrainment in individual health, socialization, and cultural identification, and a presentation of methodologies and analytical techniques. Finally, some case studies illustrating one methodological strand, that of chronometric ...
This paper contributes to the ongoing controversy on the nature of syllabic structures in writing... more This paper contributes to the ongoing controversy on the nature of syllabic structures in writing. Our evidence comes from a modified version of the continuous typing paradigm (e.g. Shaffer 1978) as proposed by Will et al. (submitted). Based on experiments on written word and nonword production, we show that, both prelingually hearing-impaired and hearing writers group their graphemic output in syllable-like units in a very similar fashion. Furthermore, this timing pattern appears to be independent of whether the input is a real word or pseudoword. As the hearing-impaired are impoverished with respect to spoken language phonology, we conclude that the syllabic units are not crucially dependent on experience with spoken language. Instead, we argue that 1) grapho-syllables are abstract entities, and 2) that the application of syllabic principles is a modespecific postlexical mechanism. keywords: hearing-impaired, syllable, grapho-syllable, ortho-syllable, writing, typing abbreviations...
This study reports on five experiments in which English and German participants had to type words... more This study reports on five experiments in which English and German participants had to type words presented visually or orally or elicited in a picture naming task. In another experiment subjects were to type pseudowords, and in the last experiment typing responses were delayed. In all experiments a highly significant increase of inter-keystroke intervals (IKIs) at positions that where either exclusively syllable (S) boundaries or combined syllable and morpheme (SM) boundaries was found. SM-type IKIs are significantly larger than S-type IKIs and influenced by word frequencies, indicating lexical dependencies. SM-type IKIs were found to be significantly longer for oral than for visual word presentation. This is taken as an indication that additional processes are involved in the accessing of graphemic word forms when words are presented orally. The fact that pseudo-words are also written with increased IKIs at syllable onsets indicates that at least one major component of the S-type ...
In various societies, especially in tone language areas, speech surrogates serve a variety of pur... more In various societies, especially in tone language areas, speech surrogates serve a variety of purposes including long-distance communication, conveyance of message between close encounters, etc. How speech surrogates work is not yet well understood, but there are suggestions that tonal information may assist tone-language speakers to access their mental lexicons. This study investigates whether brain activity in Chinese musicians and non-musicians during a covert word repetition task is differently affected by vocal and instrumental pitch contour primes. The analysis demonstrates that differences in effects of vocal and instrumental primes in musicians and non-musicians largely correspond to differential activation changes in the right superior temporal gyrus. The largest differences are found in the Heschl’s gyri. Musicians showed greater % BOLD changes in left than in right hemisphere while nonmusicians did not show a significant hemispheric difference. Musicians showed the highes...
Transcrire ou décrire : tel est le dilemne auquel sont souvent confrontés les ethnomusicologues. ... more Transcrire ou décrire : tel est le dilemne auquel sont souvent confrontés les ethnomusicologues. A qui s'adresse la notation ? au praticien ? au musicologue ? Quel est son but ? aide-mémoire ? aide à l'apprentissage ? fixation ? possibilités comparatives ? Qu'y a-t-il lieu de noter ? hauteurs, durées, timbre, geste du musicien ? Où en sommes-nous aujourd'hui avec les nouveaux outils technologiques (ordinateur, playback, Sonagraph, etc.) dont nous disposons ? Doivent-ils nous conduire à abandonner la notation sur portée ? Qu'en est-il par ailleurs de l'étude des notations musicales rencontrées dans certaines traditions ? Quels en sont les principes et comment fonctionnent-elles au sein de leur culture ? Quels sont enfin les enseignements que ces notations nous fournissent sur les méthodes cognitives qu'elles mettent en jeu
Chapter 14 considers the physiological, psychological, and social origins of rhythm. It reviews a... more Chapter 14 considers the physiological, psychological, and social origins of rhythm. It reviews analytical data from music performances of Australian Aboriginal groups, arguing that processing differences for vocal and instrumental rhythms suggest dynamic neural models; these challenge an abstract conception of rhythm. As a result, it is difficult to regard the rhythm of speech as at the origin of vocal music, and which in turn gives rise to instrumental music. The author holds that vocal rhythms in speech and music, and instrumental rhythms, derive from different ways of interacting with our environment and are controlled by different temporal mechanisms. Thus instrumental music should be considered in parallel to vocal music, not as derived from it.
Un des outils essentiels de la musicologie comparée est la notation, et l’analyse d’après la nota... more Un des outils essentiels de la musicologie comparée est la notation, et l’analyse d’après la notation constitue l’une de ses approches méthodologiques principales. Si les limites de la notation occidentale standard appliquée à cet exercice ont été perçues dès la naissance de la discipline, suscitant, très tôt, de nombreuses tentatives d’adaptation, le rôle fondamental de la notation dans la méthodologie de la musicologie comparée n’a jamais été vraiment remis en cause. Je propose ici d’envisager la notation essentiellement comme un système d’écriture qui transpose des événements audio-temporels dans le domaine spatio-visuel. Un bref survol historique rappelle tout d’abord les étapes importantes de la genèse de cette notation musicale et explique comment elle a fini par devenir une force capable de conditionner les formes mêmes de la musique occidentale. Je tente de montrer pourquoi, lorsqu’elle s’occupe de cultures non-occidentales et non-écrites, la musicologie comparée a recours à...
Comment les musiciens témoignent-ils verbalement de leur pratique vocale ou instrumentale ? Que d... more Comment les musiciens témoignent-ils verbalement de leur pratique vocale ou instrumentale ? Que disent-ils de la musique qu'ils jouent ? Quelle valeur et quelle signification donnent-ils à leur pratique ? Dans quel cadre s'inscrit-elle pour eux ? Et encore, quels discours font ceux qui, dans une culture donnée, réfléchissent au pourquoi et au comment de la création artistique : théoriciens, philosophes, esthètes, poètes ?... Quelles sont les dimensions cognitives et extramusicales de la musique ? En un mot, comment les musiciens pensent-ils la musique ? Tel est le thème de ce dossier, qui nous offre un état de la question à travers une série d'études de cas représentatifs de régions aussi différentes que le désert de Namibie, le Tchad, le Maroc, le Pays basque, la Bretagne, la Sardaigne, la Silésie, l'Afghanistan, le Tibet, la Chine et l'Australie. Fondés à Genève en 1988 dans le cadre des Ateliers d'ethnomusicologie, les Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles p...
thnomusicologists generally seem to adhere to the idea that pitch perception is based on frequenc... more thnomusicologists generally seem to adhere to the idea that pitch perception is based on frequency ratios, a theory that has gained support from various disciplines. Musics from different cultures, as far as they have been analyzed in this regard, appear to conform with this principle. Irrespective of the type of scales they use (tempered, equidistant, etc.), they all seem to be based on logarithmic frequency systems in which the invariant interval features are frequency ratios, not frequency differences as is the case in linear systems. However, in a series of studies on Australian Aboriginal music Catherine Ellis has given evidence that the frequency distribution of this music shows segregation into clusters spaced according to frequency differences instead of ratios (1964, 1965, 1967, 1990); but, as a result of methodological limitations, some of her results are not unequivocal, and interpretation is limited because there is no accompanying time-frequency analysis of her material. Nevertheless, Ellis's claim of arithmetic scaling in this music is strongly supported by her finding that transpositions appear to be performed on a frequency-difference basis. Although these findings bear considerable implications for several disciplines, including, not least, ethnomusicology and theories on the evolution of music, they have found little resonance in current approaches within these disciplines. In over twenty years there has been no re-examination or follow-up study on her results. This neglect cannot simply be explained by difficulties or limitations of the applied methods; probably it is a far more important factor that Ellis's studies contradict a widespread belief about an essential of human auditory perception, the correspondence of pitch distance and frequency ratios.
Ein Grosteil der in der vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft seit langem bekannten Verfahren zur Unte... more Ein Grosteil der in der vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft seit langem bekannten Verfahren zur Untersuchung von Musik und Musikaufzeichnungen — etwa die Klangstrukturanalyse — war bisher mit einem enormen apparativen Aufwand verbunden. In der alltaglichen musikanalytischen Praxis waren solche Methoden daher selten zu finden. Andere Verfahren, wie z.B. Transkriptionen oder Tonhohenbestimmungen von Band oder Schallplatte waren auserst muhsam und mit einem grosen Verschleis an Geraten und Aufzeichnungsmedien verbunden.
... The concept of entrainment and its significance for ethnomusicology ... In time with the musi... more ... The concept of entrainment and its significance for ethnomusicology ... In time with the music: The concept of entrainment and its significance for ethnomusicology ...
Primary projections of the anterior and posterior lateral-line nerves were traced by means of tra... more Primary projections of the anterior and posterior lateral-line nerves were traced by means of transganglionic transport of horseradish peroxidase in species belonging to five of the six anuran superfamilies. Both anterior and posterior lateral-line nerve afferents each enter the brain via a single root which divides into two or more bundles. These bundles carry fibers from neuromasts only. No separate dorsal fascicle and no ampullary organs as in urodeles and gymnophions have been found. All bundles join in the neuropil of the nucleus intermedius to form ascending and descending fascicles. Two distinct fascicles are found in species showing little collateralization. No fasciculation is found in species with an elaborate telodendritic arborization. Afferents of the anterior lateral-line nerve run ventromedially and those of the posterior lateral-line nerve dorsolaterally within the ipsilateral nucleus intermedius neuropil. Rostrally they terminate in the vicinity of the eminentia granularis and caudally in the vicinity of the calamus scriptorius. The metamorphic changes in the alar plate do not support the hypothesis of Larsell ('34) as to a change in function of second-order lateral-line neurons into second-order auditory neurons. The rostra1 part of the nucleus intermedius shows numerous degenerating neurons at metamorphic climax whereas the caudal part becomes part of the nucleus caudalis of adult anurans. Besides the members of the Pipoidea, there is at least the genus Bombina which retains parts of the lateral-line system. The term "dorsal island," its relevance for any part of the anuran brain, and the possible relation between absence of electroreception and the development of the nucleus dorsolateralis are discussed.
In a current research project we have taken up again the question of interval structures in Centr... more In a current research project we have taken up again the question of interval structures in Central Australian music and have devised a com-pletely new, computerized set-up with a different approach to the prob-lem (see section on methods). To be able to compare the new results (Will ...
Until recently, written language and writing have been considered to be of minor interest in the ... more Until recently, written language and writing have been considered to be of minor interest in the context of cognitive and linguistic theories. Though the practical relevance of writing competences is undisputed, research in language production was, initially, research into speech production. This limitation was mainly due to the widespread opinion that spoken language is the exclusive domain
In recent decades the cognitive sciences have seen some remarkable developments that reflect shif... more In recent decades the cognitive sciences have seen some remarkable developments that reflect shifting and broadening perspectives of the discipline. One is the recognition that cognition is shaped and formed by an intricate interplay of biological, environmental and experiential, that is, cultural factors. This realization has profited from a notable tradition of cultural and cross-cultural research in psychology with an initial research emphasis on social cognition, personality traits, cognitive styles, and so on. It has produced multiple lines of evidence for cultural differences engendering differences in psychological behavior, and, following the introduction of modern imaging methods (fMRI, EEG, MEG), has uncovered influences of cultural factors on various brain functions and activations of specific neural substrates, including low-level perceptual processes.
Entrainment, broadly defined, is a phenomenon in which two or more independent rhythmic processes... more Entrainment, broadly defined, is a phenomenon in which two or more independent rhythmic processes synchronize with each other. To illuminate the significance of entrainment for various directions of music research and promote a nuanced understanding of the concept among ethnomusicologists, this publication opens with an exposition of entrainment research in various disciplines, from physics to linguistics and psychology, while systematically introducing basic concepts that are directly relevant to musical entrainment. Topics covered include consideration of self-synchrony and interpersonal synchrony in musical performance, humans’ innate propensities to entrain, the influence of cultural and personal factors on entrainment, the numerous functions of musical entrainment in individual health, socialization, and cultural identification, and a presentation of methodologies and analytical techniques. Finally, some case studies illustrating one methodological strand, that of chronometric ...
This paper contributes to the ongoing controversy on the nature of syllabic structures in writing... more This paper contributes to the ongoing controversy on the nature of syllabic structures in writing. Our evidence comes from a modified version of the continuous typing paradigm (e.g. Shaffer 1978) as proposed by Will et al. (submitted). Based on experiments on written word and nonword production, we show that, both prelingually hearing-impaired and hearing writers group their graphemic output in syllable-like units in a very similar fashion. Furthermore, this timing pattern appears to be independent of whether the input is a real word or pseudoword. As the hearing-impaired are impoverished with respect to spoken language phonology, we conclude that the syllabic units are not crucially dependent on experience with spoken language. Instead, we argue that 1) grapho-syllables are abstract entities, and 2) that the application of syllabic principles is a modespecific postlexical mechanism. keywords: hearing-impaired, syllable, grapho-syllable, ortho-syllable, writing, typing abbreviations...
This study reports on five experiments in which English and German participants had to type words... more This study reports on five experiments in which English and German participants had to type words presented visually or orally or elicited in a picture naming task. In another experiment subjects were to type pseudowords, and in the last experiment typing responses were delayed. In all experiments a highly significant increase of inter-keystroke intervals (IKIs) at positions that where either exclusively syllable (S) boundaries or combined syllable and morpheme (SM) boundaries was found. SM-type IKIs are significantly larger than S-type IKIs and influenced by word frequencies, indicating lexical dependencies. SM-type IKIs were found to be significantly longer for oral than for visual word presentation. This is taken as an indication that additional processes are involved in the accessing of graphemic word forms when words are presented orally. The fact that pseudo-words are also written with increased IKIs at syllable onsets indicates that at least one major component of the S-type ...
In various societies, especially in tone language areas, speech surrogates serve a variety of pur... more In various societies, especially in tone language areas, speech surrogates serve a variety of purposes including long-distance communication, conveyance of message between close encounters, etc. How speech surrogates work is not yet well understood, but there are suggestions that tonal information may assist tone-language speakers to access their mental lexicons. This study investigates whether brain activity in Chinese musicians and non-musicians during a covert word repetition task is differently affected by vocal and instrumental pitch contour primes. The analysis demonstrates that differences in effects of vocal and instrumental primes in musicians and non-musicians largely correspond to differential activation changes in the right superior temporal gyrus. The largest differences are found in the Heschl’s gyri. Musicians showed greater % BOLD changes in left than in right hemisphere while nonmusicians did not show a significant hemispheric difference. Musicians showed the highes...
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