Papers by Stefanie Acevedo
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The interplay between motivic structure and metrical structure is thought to be a critical compon... more The interplay between motivic structure and metrical structure is thought to be a critical component of music perception. Alignment of melodic pattern with temporal presentation facilitates recognition of tonal patterns (Deutsch, 1980). However, the effects of meter and melody have never been systematically demonstrated. We report a study that explored whether matched metrical and motivic structures facilitate the recognition of alterations to pitch patterns. Eight tonal melodies were composed with binary (four-note) or ternary (three-note) repeated patterns. A simple meter (implied from the binary patterns) or a compound meter (implied from the ternary patterns) was imposed during each trial through a metronome and a harmonic progression played prior to each trial. Melodies, thus, consisted of motivic structures and metrical structures that were crossed factorially and could match or mismatch. Three experiments were performed. Despite differences in repetitions needed for familiarization of melodies, both groups of subjects seem to be affected by a meter and motive interaction: matching structures lead to higher accuracy of recognition versus mismatching structure. The current results show possible influences of higher-order aspects of structure on the perception of local events (i.e. pitch class).
"The complexity of atonal musical structures has led theorists to offer varying analyses of atona... more "The complexity of atonal musical structures has led theorists to offer varying analyses of atonal works. This ambiguity stems from the intricacies of human perception: Is it possible to state a definitive analysis when perceptions differ? In order to justify a segmentation, the analyst must provide supporting evidence in the music. Due to the wide range of perception, this evidence yields analyses that are more or less persuasive, but neither correct nor incorrect. David S. Lefkowitz and Kristin Taavola, however, propose a mathematical model that defines a correct segmentation.
This thesis briefly compares Lefkowitz and Taavola’s mathematical theory to James Tenney and Larry Polansky’s perception-based theory. Tenney and Polansky’s theory is rooted in visual Gestalt perception and provides the foundation for Dora A. Hanninen’s segmentation theory. I then employ Hanninen’s analytical framework to identify segmentational boundaries that support published analyses of two atonal works: the fourth of Anton Webern’s Fünf Sätze, Op. 5 and an excerpt from Arnold Schoenberg’s Klavierstücke, Op. 11, No. 1. I apply two of Hanninen’s three segmentational criteria: the sonic, which refers to acoustical properties, and the contextual, which refers to categorizations, such as set-classes.
Lefkowitz and Taavola note that Tenney and Polansky’s theory cannot be applied to polyphony. Although Tenney and Polansky concede this point, Hanninen encourages the use of her theory for polyphonic segmentation. She does not, however, provide a method for addressing polyphony. Thus, I combine aspects from Lefkowitz and Taavola’s simultaneous analysis with Hanninen’s theory in order to formulate a basic method for segmenting polyphonic music.
I find that sonic and contextual criteria in the music strongly support the analyses by George Perle, Allen Forte, Gary Wittlich, and Charles Burkhart. Due to the emphasis of set-class theory for atonal analysis, there is an inherent reliance on contextual criteria; however, sonic criteria also reinforce their segmentations and sometimes may even support their contextual criteria in places lacking local sonic criteria. Thus, the musical structures strongly support the segmentations, validating the diversity of analyses and suggesting that atonal music can legitimately be heard in different ways."
Conference Presentations by Stefanie Acevedo
"The analytical application of schemata to 18th-century music has been widely codified (cf. Gjerd... more "The analytical application of schemata to 18th-century music has been widely codified (cf. Gjerdingen 2007 and Byros 2009b). Once schemata have been learned, a listening approach becomes “top-down” (rather than “bottom-up”; Byros 2009a), or what Schank and Abelson (1977) call a script-based listening strategy. As applied to schema theory, script perception occurs when, through exposure, a listener develops an a priori schema toolbox that guides his/her listening in subsequent hearings. This is in comparison to bottom-up plan perception that does not assume prior learned patterns. Thus, when well-defined schemata are applied to eighteenth-century compositions, the analytical approach is always script-guided.
The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate listening strategies for which the lexicon for categorizing musical stimuli is incomplete. Thus, the current proposal establishes a strategy that would uncover such a well-defined toolbox for nineteenth-century repertory, employing the defined eighteenth-century schematic categories as an initial lens for this discovery; in order to adapt said schema to nineteenth-century works, a listener must (to use Jean Piaget’s terminology) accommodate and assimilate previously learned schemata. Ultimately then, listening must not only follow a script-based approach, in which a schema will be activated during real-time listening, but also a transformational approach, in which learned schemas will be altered and adapted to fit a new model. The transformations may include, but are not limited to: contour alterations, reharmonizations, expansions, and truncations.
The transformational mechanism relies on a network of schemata, proposed here; the idealized galant listener develops a lexicon of schemata, each of which has a definite identity but is related to others through equivalence classes. For example, given a set of musical events (E1, E2, E3 … En), if one favors contrapuntal direction during listening, he/she might activate an equivalence class that includes the “Fonte” and “Sol-Fa-Mi” schemas; favoring harmony, however, a tonic prolongation might activate the “Meyer” and “Fenaroli”. As a direct correspondence with an individual eighteenth-century schema is unlikely, it is most important that a listener is able to associate a musical event (expressed as E1, E2, E3 … En) with an equivalence class (Xa, Xb, Xc … Xn). In summary, the listening strategy is inverted—rather than starting with a learned (a priori) schema toolbox (“top-down”), one has to build one from scratch (“bottom-up”) in order to generate new categories. Finally, through the usage of transformations (T(a), (T(b), T(c) … T(n)), the idealized listener will accommodate the change in style by expanding the lexicon, creating new categories and thereby establishing a new context for interpretation of Romantic works. "
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Papers by Stefanie Acevedo
This thesis briefly compares Lefkowitz and Taavola’s mathematical theory to James Tenney and Larry Polansky’s perception-based theory. Tenney and Polansky’s theory is rooted in visual Gestalt perception and provides the foundation for Dora A. Hanninen’s segmentation theory. I then employ Hanninen’s analytical framework to identify segmentational boundaries that support published analyses of two atonal works: the fourth of Anton Webern’s Fünf Sätze, Op. 5 and an excerpt from Arnold Schoenberg’s Klavierstücke, Op. 11, No. 1. I apply two of Hanninen’s three segmentational criteria: the sonic, which refers to acoustical properties, and the contextual, which refers to categorizations, such as set-classes.
Lefkowitz and Taavola note that Tenney and Polansky’s theory cannot be applied to polyphony. Although Tenney and Polansky concede this point, Hanninen encourages the use of her theory for polyphonic segmentation. She does not, however, provide a method for addressing polyphony. Thus, I combine aspects from Lefkowitz and Taavola’s simultaneous analysis with Hanninen’s theory in order to formulate a basic method for segmenting polyphonic music.
I find that sonic and contextual criteria in the music strongly support the analyses by George Perle, Allen Forte, Gary Wittlich, and Charles Burkhart. Due to the emphasis of set-class theory for atonal analysis, there is an inherent reliance on contextual criteria; however, sonic criteria also reinforce their segmentations and sometimes may even support their contextual criteria in places lacking local sonic criteria. Thus, the musical structures strongly support the segmentations, validating the diversity of analyses and suggesting that atonal music can legitimately be heard in different ways."
Conference Presentations by Stefanie Acevedo
The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate listening strategies for which the lexicon for categorizing musical stimuli is incomplete. Thus, the current proposal establishes a strategy that would uncover such a well-defined toolbox for nineteenth-century repertory, employing the defined eighteenth-century schematic categories as an initial lens for this discovery; in order to adapt said schema to nineteenth-century works, a listener must (to use Jean Piaget’s terminology) accommodate and assimilate previously learned schemata. Ultimately then, listening must not only follow a script-based approach, in which a schema will be activated during real-time listening, but also a transformational approach, in which learned schemas will be altered and adapted to fit a new model. The transformations may include, but are not limited to: contour alterations, reharmonizations, expansions, and truncations.
The transformational mechanism relies on a network of schemata, proposed here; the idealized galant listener develops a lexicon of schemata, each of which has a definite identity but is related to others through equivalence classes. For example, given a set of musical events (E1, E2, E3 … En), if one favors contrapuntal direction during listening, he/she might activate an equivalence class that includes the “Fonte” and “Sol-Fa-Mi” schemas; favoring harmony, however, a tonic prolongation might activate the “Meyer” and “Fenaroli”. As a direct correspondence with an individual eighteenth-century schema is unlikely, it is most important that a listener is able to associate a musical event (expressed as E1, E2, E3 … En) with an equivalence class (Xa, Xb, Xc … Xn). In summary, the listening strategy is inverted—rather than starting with a learned (a priori) schema toolbox (“top-down”), one has to build one from scratch (“bottom-up”) in order to generate new categories. Finally, through the usage of transformations (T(a), (T(b), T(c) … T(n)), the idealized listener will accommodate the change in style by expanding the lexicon, creating new categories and thereby establishing a new context for interpretation of Romantic works. "
This thesis briefly compares Lefkowitz and Taavola’s mathematical theory to James Tenney and Larry Polansky’s perception-based theory. Tenney and Polansky’s theory is rooted in visual Gestalt perception and provides the foundation for Dora A. Hanninen’s segmentation theory. I then employ Hanninen’s analytical framework to identify segmentational boundaries that support published analyses of two atonal works: the fourth of Anton Webern’s Fünf Sätze, Op. 5 and an excerpt from Arnold Schoenberg’s Klavierstücke, Op. 11, No. 1. I apply two of Hanninen’s three segmentational criteria: the sonic, which refers to acoustical properties, and the contextual, which refers to categorizations, such as set-classes.
Lefkowitz and Taavola note that Tenney and Polansky’s theory cannot be applied to polyphony. Although Tenney and Polansky concede this point, Hanninen encourages the use of her theory for polyphonic segmentation. She does not, however, provide a method for addressing polyphony. Thus, I combine aspects from Lefkowitz and Taavola’s simultaneous analysis with Hanninen’s theory in order to formulate a basic method for segmenting polyphonic music.
I find that sonic and contextual criteria in the music strongly support the analyses by George Perle, Allen Forte, Gary Wittlich, and Charles Burkhart. Due to the emphasis of set-class theory for atonal analysis, there is an inherent reliance on contextual criteria; however, sonic criteria also reinforce their segmentations and sometimes may even support their contextual criteria in places lacking local sonic criteria. Thus, the musical structures strongly support the segmentations, validating the diversity of analyses and suggesting that atonal music can legitimately be heard in different ways."
The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate listening strategies for which the lexicon for categorizing musical stimuli is incomplete. Thus, the current proposal establishes a strategy that would uncover such a well-defined toolbox for nineteenth-century repertory, employing the defined eighteenth-century schematic categories as an initial lens for this discovery; in order to adapt said schema to nineteenth-century works, a listener must (to use Jean Piaget’s terminology) accommodate and assimilate previously learned schemata. Ultimately then, listening must not only follow a script-based approach, in which a schema will be activated during real-time listening, but also a transformational approach, in which learned schemas will be altered and adapted to fit a new model. The transformations may include, but are not limited to: contour alterations, reharmonizations, expansions, and truncations.
The transformational mechanism relies on a network of schemata, proposed here; the idealized galant listener develops a lexicon of schemata, each of which has a definite identity but is related to others through equivalence classes. For example, given a set of musical events (E1, E2, E3 … En), if one favors contrapuntal direction during listening, he/she might activate an equivalence class that includes the “Fonte” and “Sol-Fa-Mi” schemas; favoring harmony, however, a tonic prolongation might activate the “Meyer” and “Fenaroli”. As a direct correspondence with an individual eighteenth-century schema is unlikely, it is most important that a listener is able to associate a musical event (expressed as E1, E2, E3 … En) with an equivalence class (Xa, Xb, Xc … Xn). In summary, the listening strategy is inverted—rather than starting with a learned (a priori) schema toolbox (“top-down”), one has to build one from scratch (“bottom-up”) in order to generate new categories. Finally, through the usage of transformations (T(a), (T(b), T(c) … T(n)), the idealized listener will accommodate the change in style by expanding the lexicon, creating new categories and thereby establishing a new context for interpretation of Romantic works. "