Music Scholarly Works

Permanent URI for this collection

Browse

Recent Submissions

  • Publication
    Research Productivity in Music Education and Music Therapy: Update of Publication Records from 1993-2013
    (2024-03-05) Johnson, Christopher M.; Wheeler, Beth; Hernandez-Ruiz, Eugenia
    The purpose of this study was to update previous work, determine changes in publication patterns, identify music scholars of research productivity (as determined by publication rate), and identify the most productive institutions by examining the most recent 21 years of first-tier research publications in music education and music therapy. Results indicated that many researchers listed for their work ending in 1992 do not appear in the 1993-2013 period, though there were five notable exceptions. The main reason behind this change in productivity might be the passage of time (e.g. retirements, changes in position or administrative responsibilities). Patterns were noted in the most active / highest ranked institutions. Twelve institutions were on the lists in 1992 and in the current list. The ranking of the top three remained exactly the same, while the positioning of the other nine seemed to represent more fluidity of publication rate. All institutional data varied with their parallel changes in individual faculty.
  • Publication
    Content and Correlational Analysis of a Corpus of MTV-Promoted Music Videos Aired Between 1990 and 1999
    (SAGE Publications, 2020-03-02) Osborn, Brad; Rossin, Emily; Weingarten, Kevin
    From 1990 to 1999 MTV promoted a series of 288 music videos called “Buzz Clips”, designed to highlight emerging artists and genres. Such promotion had a measurable impact on an artists’ earnings and record sales. To date, the kinds of musical and visual practices MTV promoted have not been quantitatively analyzed. Just what made some videos Buzzworthy, and others not? We applied two phases of content analysis to this corpus to determine the most common sonic and visual signifiers in Buzz Clips, then processed the results of that content analysis using polychoric correlations. Our findings show high degrees of shared variance between certain pairs of musical and visual elements observed in the sample music videos. We interpret a number of these relationships in terms of their relevance to a performer’s perceived ethnicity and gender, showing how certain audiovisual features regularly accompany white men (e.g., electric guitar) while others regularly accompany women and performers of color (e.g. drum machines).
  • Publication
    A Survey of Neonatal Nurses Perspectives on Voice Use and Auditory Needs with Premature Infants in the NICU
    (MDPI, 2021-08-11) Smith, Amy R.; Hanson-Abromeit, Deanna; Heaton, Ashley; Salley, Brenda
    Background: Exposure to the voice and language during the critical period of auditory development associated with the third trimester is thought to be an essential building block for language. Differences in the auditory experience associated with early life in the NICU may increase the risk of language delays for premature infants. NICU nurses are fundamental in the care of premature infants; how they use their voices may be important in understanding auditory experiences in the NICU. This study examined voice use behaviors of NICU nurses in the United States and their current knowledge of early auditory development. Method: An opt-in, online questionnaire. Results: Nurses reported using their voice more as the age of infants approached term gestation and speaking to infants was the most common type of voice use. Both infant and nurse factors influenced reported voice use decisions in the NICU. Nurses did not believe the NICU auditory environment to be sufficient to meet early auditory needs of premature infants but did believe that premature infants are exposed to adequate voice sounds. Conclusions: A gap in knowledge regarding the importance of early exposure to voice sounds may be a barrier to nurses using their voices to support early auditory development.
  • Publication
    Music History and Ethnicity from Prague to Indiana: Paul Nettl, Eighteenth-Century Bohemia and Germanness
    (Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 2019-04) Nedbal, Martin
    Bohemian-American musicologist Paul Nettl spent an early part of his career in Prague but emigrated to the United States in 1939, after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. This article examines Nettl’s writings on Bohemian history and culture, including his scholarly articles, lectures for the general public, and autobiographical essays. These materials include both English and German sources, published article s, unpublished manuscripts and typescripts preserved in Nettl’s estate at Indiana University, and typescripts of radio programs from the Czech Radio Archive. These materials illuminate the complex issues of national and ethnic identity in pre-WWII Czechoslovakia and within the post-WWII Central European emigrant community in the United States. The examination shows that despite, or perhaps because of, his Bohemian and Jewish roots, Nettl exhibited a life-long commitment to the doctrine of German cultural superiority, that this ideology was in fact compatible with his commitment to multiculturalism, and that his attitudes to specifically Czech culture fluctuated, depending on the political situation in Central Europe, between a rejection and a hesitant acknowledgment. Some of these fluctuating attitudes were also connected to Nettl’s Jewishness and other elements that made him a life-long outsider as a German in pre-WWII Czechoslovakia, a Jew in the German-Bohemian community, and a Central European emigrant in America. This article argues that within the social and political upheavals affecting Nettl and his family, the ideology of German cultural superiority represented a stabilizing element and an absolute, unquestionable value.
  • Publication
    Strumming, Fingerpicking, and Hybrid Accompaniment Patterns for Guitar: A Systematic Introduction to Technique and Styles for Music Therapy and Music Education
    (University of Kansas Libraries, 2019) Matney, William; Niemuth, Brenna
    This work is one part of a three-part Open Educational Resource (OER) that teaches students how to play the guitar as an accompaniment instrument, facilitating technical, theoretical, and ear skill development that can translate into a range of song styles. Materials may be used either as primary or supplemental guides for: (a) non-primary guitar classes, (b) musicianship classes for music therapy and music education students, and (c) other musicianship classes. This resource includes three handbooks and a set of supplementary videos. The Guitar Chord Handbook (http://hdl.handle.net/1808/29433) provides visuals for common open chords, as well as some barre and color chords. The Chord Progression Handbook (https://hdl.handle.net/1808/29434) maps out more than 20 common chord progressions found in folk and popular music,providing song examples. The third handbook, Strumming, Fingerpicking, and Hybrid Accompaniment Patterns for Guitar (https://hdl.handle.net/1808/29435), facilitates detailed development of strumming, muting, plucking, and combined skills with more than150 exercises. Videos provide visual reinforcement for each strumming/fingerpicking exercise. Videos for Strumming Patterns: Each strumming pattern has been videorecorded as a resource for you. These videos can be located at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCZYIvXCKglMZHkCvJ9wqgd8cpC0eZHYd
  • Publication
    Chord Progression Handbook For Guitar, Piano, and Other Accompaniment Instruments
    (University of Kansas Libraries, 2019) Matney, William; Niemuth, Brenna
    This work is one part of a three-part Open Educational Resource (OER) that teaches students how to play the guitar as an accompaniment instrument, facilitating technical, theoretical, and ear skill development that can translate into a range of song styles. Materials may be used either as primary or supplemental guides for: (a) non-primary guitar classes, (b) musicianship classes for music therapy and music education students, and (c) other musicianship classes. This resource includes three handbooks and a set of supplementary videos. The Guitar Chord Handbook (http://hdl.handle.net/1808/29433) provides visuals for common open chords, as well as some barre and color chords. The Chord Progression Handbook (https://hdl.handle.net/1808/29434) maps out more than 20 common chord progressions found in folk and popular music,providing song examples. The third handbook, Strumming, Fingerpicking, and Hybrid Accompaniment Patterns for Guitar (https://hdl.handle.net/1808/29435), facilitates detailed development of strumming, muting, plucking, and combined skills with more than150 exercises. Videos provide visual reinforcement for each strumming/fingerpicking exercise. Videos for Strumming Patterns: Each strumming pattern has been videorecorded as a resource for you. These videos can be located at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCZYIvXCKglMZHkCvJ9wqgd8cpC0eZHYd
  • Publication
    Guitar Chord Handbook: An Introduction to Commonly Used Chords For Music Therapy and Music Education Students
    (University of Kansas Libraries, 2019) Matney, William; Niemuth, Brenna
    This work is one part of a three-part Open Educational Resource (OER) that teaches students how to play the guitar as an accompaniment instrument, facilitating technical, theoretical, and ear skill development that can translate into a range of song styles. Materials may be used either as primary or supplemental guides for: (a) non-primary guitar classes, (b) musicianship classes for music therapy and music education students, and (c) other musicianship classes. This resource includes three handbooks and a set of supplementary videos. The Guitar Chord Handbook (http://hdl.handle.net/1808/29433) provides visuals for common open chords, as well as some barre and color chords. The Chord Progression Handbook (https://hdl.handle.net/1808/29434) maps out more than 20 common chord progressions found in folk and popular music,providing song examples. The third handbook, Strumming, Fingerpicking, and Hybrid Accompaniment Patterns for Guitar (https://hdl.handle.net/1808/29435), facilitates detailed development of strumming, muting, plucking, and combined skills with more than150 exercises. Videos provide visual reinforcement for each strumming/fingerpicking exercise. Videos for Strumming Patterns: Each strumming pattern has been videorecorded as a resource for you. These videos can be located at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCZYIvXCKglMZHkCvJ9wqgd8cpC0eZHYd
  • Publication
    An Open Educational Resource for the Analysis of Music Video
    (University of Kansas Libraries, 2018-09-18) Osborn, Brad
    This Open Education Resource (OER) teaches students how to analyze and interpret music videos from 1981 to the present. Assuming no prior knowledge in any area, the text takes students through three major units (music analysis, visual analysis, sociological analysis), addressing several topics within each unit. Students are exposed to terms and concepts relating to music theory, music history, film and media studies, sexuality and gender diversity, ethnicity, and fashion.
  • Publication
    Mozart, Da Ponte, and Censorship: Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte at the Vienna Court Theater, 1798-1804
    (2018) Nedbal, Martin
    On July 10, 1798, the German ensemble at the Vienna court theater presented the premiere performance of Die Hochzeit des Figaro, the first production of Mozart and Da Ponte’s Le nozze di Figaro – and indeed of any Mozart-Da Ponte work – at the court theater since Mozart’s death and Da Ponte’s departure from the imperial capital. A few months later, on December 11, 1798, a new production of Don Giovanni, titled Don Juan, arrived at the court theater stage. On September 19, 1804, a production of Così fan tutte followed, under the title Mädchentreue. Although the productions were not extraordinarily successful in terms of performance numbers, they represented important trends in the Viennese reception of Mozart’s operas that were to continue throughout the early nineteenth century. In particular, these productions left behind numerous records about the convoluted processes through which theatrical works were approved, re-approved, and revised before reaching the stage in Vienna around 1800. Particularly prominent among these processes was censorship. Yet, as this article shows, Viennese censors worked in tandem with numerous private and public agents who likewise contributed to the final shape of pre-existing works’ adaptations. An examination of the censorial approaches to Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte in Vienna around 1800 shows that late Enlightenment censorship was contradictory and multidirectional and should be considered not as a force of restriction but as an element that affected artworks in ways similar to other social, political, and cultural factors, such as patronage, audience structure, and various social and political ideologies.
  • Publication
    Lessons from Lithuania: A pedagogical approach in teaching improvisation
    (Sage, 2017-05-01) Hedden, Debra G.
    The purpose of this study was to uncover the approach that a professor in Lithuania utilized in successfully teaching undergraduate music education majors how to improvise during a one-semester course. The research questions focused on the participant’s philosophy of teaching and learning, his methods for motivating students, the learning experiences he provided, and pedagogy that provided sequence of instruction and learning activities for the students. The research design consisted of a qualitative case study approach in which I interviewed the participant formally (three lengthy interviews), informally (seven casual conversations), and made six 90-minute observations of his improvisation classes. Inductive data analysis was employed to identify emergent themes. Those themes included (a) the freedom to create, (b) the act of convincing the students to engage, (c) the establishment of expectations, (d) the pedagogy and sequence of instruction that precipitated skill acquisition, and (e) the classroom environment that enhanced improvisational outcomes. The implications for teacher education are discussed.
  • Publication
    Mozart's Figaro and Don Giovanni, Operatic Canon, and National Politics in Nineteenth-Century Prague
    (University of California Press, 2018-03-01) Nedbal, Martin
    After the enormous success of Le nozze di Figaro at Prague's Nostitz Theater in 1786 and the world premiere of Don Giovanni there in 1787, Mozart's operas became canonic works in the Bohemian capital, with numerous performances every season throughout the nineteenth century. These nineteenth-century Prague Mozart productions are particularly well documented in the previously overlooked collection of theater posters from the Czech National Museum and the mid-nineteenth-century manuscript scores of Le nozze di Figaro. Much sooner than elsewhere in Europe, Prague's critics, audiences, and opera institutions aimed at historically informed, “authentic” productions of these operas. This article shows that the attempts to transform Mozart's operas into autonomous artworks, artworks that would faithfully reflect the unique vision of their creator and not succumb to changing audience tastes, were closely linked to national politics in nineteenth-century Prague. As the city's population became more and more divided into ethnic Czechs and Germans, both groups appropriated Mozart for their own narratives of cultural uniqueness and cultivation. The attempts at historic authenticity originated already in the 1820s, when Czech opera performers and critics wanted to perform Don Giovanni in a form that was as close as possible to that created by Mozart in 1787 but distorted in various German singspiel adaptations. Similar attempts at historical authenticity are also prominent in Bedřich Smetana's approach to Le nozze di Figaro, during his tenure as the music director of the Czech Provisional Theater in the late 1860s. German-speaking performers and critics used claims of historical authenticity in the 1830s and 40s to stress Prague's importance as a prominent center of German culture. During the celebrations of the 1887 Don Giovanni centennial, furthermore, both the Czech and German communities in Prague appropriated Mozart's operas into their intensely nationalistic debates.
  • Publication
    Towards a Skills-Based Curriculum: Recent Trends in Music History Pedagogy
    (Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2016) Roust, Colin T.
    The Information Age poses a crucial dilemma for musicologists. If our courses value the dissemination of knowledge as a primary goal, then we must find a way to compete with the vast oceans of knowledge at our students' fingertips. However, if we rethink our curricula, we can make our courses more than just acquiring knowledge, transforming them into courses about the use of knowledge.
  • Publication
    Neural Processing of Emotional Musical and Nonmusical Stimuli in Depression
    (Public Library of Science, 2016-06-10) Lepping, Rebecca Jo Chambers; Atchley, Ruth Ann; Chrysikou, Evangelia G.; Martin, Laura E.; Clair, Alicia A.; Ingram, Rick E.; Simmons, W. Kyle; Savage, Cary R.
    Background Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and striatum are part of the emotional neural circuitry implicated in major depressive disorder (MDD). Music is often used for emotion regulation, and pleasurable music listening activates the dopaminergic system in the brain, including the ACC. The present study uses functional MRI (fMRI) and an emotional nonmusical and musical stimuli paradigm to examine how neural processing of emotionally provocative auditory stimuli is altered within the ACC and striatum in depression. Method Nineteen MDD and 20 never-depressed (ND) control participants listened to standardized positive and negative emotional musical and nonmusical stimuli during fMRI scanning and gave subjective ratings of valence and arousal following scanning. Results ND participants exhibited greater activation to positive versus negative stimuli in ventral ACC. When compared with ND participants, MDD participants showed a different pattern of activation in ACC. In the rostral part of the ACC, ND participants showed greater activation for positive information, while MDD participants showed greater activation to negative information. In dorsal ACC, the pattern of activation distinguished between the types of stimuli, with ND participants showing greater activation to music compared to nonmusical stimuli, while MDD participants showed greater activation to nonmusical stimuli, with the greatest response to negative nonmusical stimuli. No group differences were found in striatum. Conclusions These results suggest that people with depression may process emotional auditory stimuli differently based on both the type of stimulation and the emotional content of that stimulation. This raises the possibility that music may be useful in retraining ACC function, potentially leading to more effective and targeted treatments.
  • Publication
    Theory-guided Therapeutic Function of Music to facilitate emotion regulation development in preschool-aged children
    (Frontiers Media, 2015-10-14) Moore, Kimberly Sena; Hanson-Abromeit, Deanna
    Emotion regulation (ER) is an umbrella term to describe interactive, goal-dependent explicit, and implicit processes that are intended to help an individual manage and shift an emotional experience. The primary window for appropriate ER development occurs during the infant, toddler, and preschool years. Atypical ER development is considered a risk factor for mental health problems and has been implicated as a primary mechanism underlying childhood pathologies. Current treatments are predominantly verbal- and behavioral-based and lack the opportunity to practice in-the-moment management of emotionally charged situations. There is also an absence of caregiver–child interaction in these treatment strategies. Based on behavioral and neural support for music as a therapeutic mechanism, the incorporation of intentional music experiences, facilitated by a music therapist, may be one way to address these limitations. Musical Contour Regulation Facilitation (MCRF) is an interactive therapist-child music-based intervention for ER development practice in preschoolers. The MCRF intervention uses the deliberate contour and temporal structure of a music therapy session to mirror the changing flow of the caregiver–child interaction through the alternation of high arousal and low arousal music experiences. The purpose of this paper is to describe the Therapeutic Function of Music (TFM), a theory-based description of the structural characteristics for a music-based stimulus to musically facilitate developmentally appropriate high arousal and low arousal in-the-moment ER experiences. The TFM analysis is based on a review of the music theory, music neuroscience, and music development literature and provides a preliminary model of the structural characteristics of the music as a core component of the MCRF intervention.
  • Publication
    Construct optimal experience for the hospitalized newborn through neuro-based music therapy
    (Frontiers Media, 2015-09-03) Shoemark, Helen; Hanson-Abromeit, Deanna; Stewart, Lauren
    Music-based intervention for hospitalized newborn infants has traditionally been based in a biomedical model, with physiological stability as the prime objective. More recent applications are grounded in other theories, including attachment, trauma and neurological models in which infant, parent and the dyadic interaction may be viewed as a dynamic system bound by the common context of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The immature state of the preterm infant’s auditory processing system requires a careful and individualized approach for the introduction of purposeful auditory experience intended to support development. The infant’s experience of an unpredictable auditory environment is further compromised by a potential lack of meaningful auditory stimulation. Parents often feel disconnected from their own capacities to nurture their infant with potentially life-long implications for the infant’s neurobehavioral and psychological well-being. This perspectives paper will outline some neurological considerations for auditory processing in the premature infant to frame a premise for music-based interventions. A hypothetical clinical case will illustrate the application of music by a music therapist with an infant and family in NICU.
  • Publication
    Scoring Loss in Some Recent Popular Film and Television
    (Oxford University Press, 2014-09-24) Murphy, Scott
    A certain tonally- and temporally oriented progression of two triads, dwelt upon usually through undulation, accompanies scenes depicting the contemplation of a considerable sorrowful loss in many popular films and throughout one television program produced between 1985 and 2012. In lieu of any strong stylistic precedent for this musico-dramatic association, certain structural relationships between the two triads relative to other triadic pairings may account for possible motivations of the association.
  • Publication
    Evaluation of the Impact of Music Program Participation on Students’ Musical and Academic Success, and School Engagement in the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools: A Comprehensive Test of Pathways and Contextual Factors
    (2016) Johnson, Christopher M.; Eason, Becky J. A.
    The purpose of this project was to examine the effect of participating in music on student school engagement and academic achievement in a Metropolitan Nashville Public School district. Student records for the class of 2012 (N = 6,006) in a major urban school district were collected and examined for student personal characteristics, music participation, their indicated level of school engagement, and their academic achievements. These variables were examined using Structural Equation Modeling techniques. Results indicated that the quantity of Music Participation had an important effect on both the level of School Engagement and Academic Achievement. Conclusions indicate that more music involvement was advantageous to the school system’s overall performance, and that steps being taken to engage a wider cross-section of students might well have a significant impact on the students’ academic lives.
  • Publication
    Subverting the Verse—Chorus Paradigm: Terminally Climactic Forms in Recent Rock Music
    (Society for Music Theory, 2013-03) Osborn, Brad
    This article defines and demonstrates a formal type I call “terminally climactic forms.” These forms, which appear frequently in rock songs after 1990, are characterized by their balance between the expected memorable highpoint (the chorus) and the thematically independent terminal climax, the song’s actual high point, which appears only once at the end of the song. After presenting the rationale for such forms, including new models of rock endings and climaxes, the article presents archetypes for three classifications of terminally climactic forms: two-part, three-part, and extended. Each archetype is supported by analytical examples from the post-millennial rock corpus.
  • Publication
    Communal Singing as Political Act: A Chorus of Women Resistants in La Petite Roquette, 1943–1944
    (Michigan Publishing, 2013-06) Roust, Colin T.
    During World War II, any women arrested in Paris for political reasons were incarcerated in La Petite Roquette prison. While there, some of the women formed an ad hoc chorus that sang a repertoire comprised of French and Soviet songs. Though they were prevented from taking direct, physical action against the Nazi occupiers, they turned to song as a means of proclaiming their identity and demonstrating their political beliefs.
  • Publication
    Kid Algebra: Radiohead's Euclidean and Maximally Even Rhythms
    (New Music, Inc., 2014) Osborn, Brad
    The British rock group Radiohead has carved out a unique place in the post-millennial rock milieu by tempering their highly experimental idiolect with structures more commonly heard in Top Forty rock styles.1 In what I describe as a Goldilocks principle, much of their music after OK Computer (1997) inhabits a space between banal convention and sheer experimentation—a dichotomy which I have elsewhere dubbed the ‘Spears–Stockhausen Continuum.’2 In the timbral domain, the band often introduces sounds rather foreign to rock music such as the ondes Martenot and highly processed lead vocals within textures otherwise dominated by guitar, bass, and drums (e.g., ‘The National Anthem,’ 2000), and song forms that begin with paradigmatic verse–chorus structures often end with new material instead of a recapitulated chorus (e.g., ‘All I Need,’ 2007). In this article I will demonstrate a particular rhythmic manifestation of this Goldilocks principle known as Euclidean rhythms. Euclidean rhythms inhabit a space between two rhythmic extremes, namely binary metrical structures with regular beat divisions and irregular, unpredictable groupings at multiple levels of structure. After establishing a mathematical model for understanding these rhythms, I will identify and analyze several examples from Radiohead’s post-millennial catalog. Throughout the article, additional consideration will be devoted to further ramifications for the formalization of rhythm in this way, as well as how hearing rhythm in this way may be linked to interpreting the lyrical content of Radiohead’s music. After doing so, I will suggest a prescriptive model for hearing these rhythms, and will then conclude with some remarks on how Radiohead’s rhythmic practices may relate to larger concerns such as style and genre.