AHRC Research Centre for Music as Creative Practice Workshop 10-11 March 2010 Shaping music in...

AHRC Research Centrefor Music as Creative Practice

Workshop 10-11 March 2010

Shaping music in performance: Structure, memory and shape

Dr Jane GinsborgCentre for Music Performance Research, RNCM

Outline of talk

• Shape: some definitions

• Memory expertise and structure

• Effective memorising of music – advice and experiments

• Shared performance cues: understanding of compositional structure; effects on recall

• Beating time

• Shaping contour: bodily movement

• Summary and conclusion: mental representations revisited

Shape: some definitions

• A particular kind of mental representation

• Questionnaire survey on Music and Shape seeks expert musicians’ reports on representations evoked by the word “shape”

• For me as a performer = “structure”

• Also “contour” (of pitch and dynamic – NB often associated cf Schumann’s Mondnacht)

Memory expertise and structure

• Method of loci: Cicero De Oratore (55 BC)

• Simonides (556-468 BC)

• Theatre of memory – birth of mnemonics

1. Relies on representation of table, theatre, house etc., and ability to “walk” round it

Memory expertise

• Ericsson, Chase & Faloon (1980)

• Extended normal digit-span by utilising knowledge of running times to make associations e.g.

• 3492 = “3 minutes and 49.2 seconds, near world-record mile time

Effective memorising of music

• Cognitive analysis - identifying key changes, harmonic structure, length of rests, difficult exit points (Hallam, 1997 – interviews)

• Use of compositional structure– To guide practice (Chaffin & Imreh, 1997) – As retrieval scheme to perform from memory

(Taylor et al., 1999) – Longitudinal case study method (Chaffin et

al., 2002)• Impossible without information in LTM re

sections, phrases, sub-phrases etc.

Advice: analyse before learningEdwin Hughes (1915). Musical memory in piano playing and piano study. The Musical Quarterly, 1, 592-603

Tobias Matthay (1926). On Memorizing and Playing from Memory. Oxford University Press

Experiments

• Benefits of analysis (Rubin-Rabson, 1937; Ross, 1964)

• Use of structural boundaries to guide practice:

– more so in skilled pianists; developed over course of practice sessions (Williamon & Valentine, 2002)

– singers (Ginsborg, 2002)

Development of shared performance cues

• Ginsborg, Chaffin & Nicholson (2006a)

• Singer’s and conductor’s understanding of compositional structure

• Ricercar 1 from Stravinsky’s Cantata

Longitudinal case study method • Chaffin, Imreh & Crawford (2002)

(and many other papers since 1994)

• One pianist – 33 hours’ practice /

memorisation of Bach’s Italian Concerto

– one performance (a commercial CD)

– Written-out free recall of first page two years later

More recent case studies

• Jazz pianist (Noice, Jeffrey, Noice & Chaffin, 2008) – 45 minutes preparation and one performance

• Cellist (Chaffin, Lisboa, Logan & Begosh, 2009) – also Bach – 33 hours preparation, multiple performances, free and cued recall

• Students – http://www.htfdcc.uconn.edu/psyclabs/musiclab.html– http://www.htfdcc.uconn.edu/psyclabs/SYMP.html

http://www.htfdcc.uconn.edu/psyclabs/musiclab.html

http://www.htfdcc.uconn.edu/psyclabs/SYMP.html

The opportunity

• Projected performance of Stravinsky’s Cantata for soprano and tenor soloists, small instrumental ensemble and women’s choir in December 2003 at Firth Hall, Sheffield

• Ricercar 1 for solo soprano and instrumental ensemble

• Conductor / rehearsal pianist: George Nicholson• Soprano soloist: me

Theoretical framework• Performer attends to important features of the music

while practising / rehearsing (basic, structural, interpretive, expressive)

• Some of these stop being perceived as important• Others are attended to automatically• The remainder are retained as retrieval or

performance cues – landmarks in the performer’s mental representation of the piece – when performing from memory

• Converging evidence that attention to features that become performance cues determines what is practised… and subsequently, what is forgotten

Shared performance cuesProcedure (1)

• Video-record all individual practice sessions, joint rehearsals (ten in all lasting 8 ½ hours) and performance

• THEN determine transcription and analysis methods (to avoid “demand characteristics”)

• Give performance

• Post-performance reports: indicate musical features and PCs on multiple copies of score

• Calculate start-and-stop beats for every practice segment

Shared performance cues - original

“shiny” sound

yearningdancing

Count/listen

Count/listen

Count

Tidied up (beats 92-129): expressive and prepare PCs


• Video-record all individual practice sessions, joint rehearsals (ten in all lasting 8 ½ hours) and performance

• THEN determine transcription and analysis methods (to avoid “demand characteristics”)

• Give performance

• Post-performance reports: indicate musical features and PCs on multiple copies of score

• Calculate start-and-stop beats for every practice segment

Practice in Session 1 (black = from memory, grey = score open)

Starts, stops and repetitionsGinsborg, J., Chaffin, R. and Nicholson, G. (2006b). Shared performance cues: Predictors of expert individual practice and ensemble rehearsal. In M. Baroni et al. (Eds.) Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, Bologna, Aug 22-26, 2006.


• Transcribe and analyse verbal data

• Analyse behavioural data: relate post-performance reports to practice using mixed hierarchical regression analyses

• Make and analyse written-out free recalls for six years post-performance

Singer Conductor

Section 1

Verse 1: The maidens came when I was in my mother’s bower / I had all that I wolde


Refrain 1: The baily berith the bell away

The lilly, the rose, the rose I lay



The silver is whit, red is the golde

The robes thay lay in folde

The baily berith the bell away


Verse 2: The silver is whit, red is the golde




Verse 3:

And through the glass window shines the sone

How should I love, how should I love, and I so young?

Verse 2:


Verse 2a: How should I love, how should I love, and I so young?





Verse 4: For to report it were now tedius… Verse 3: For to report it were now tedius…

Section 2: Recitative / fanfare:

Right mighty and famus Elizabeth, Our quen princis, Preportent and eke victorius,

Recitative:

Right mighty and famus Elizabeth,

Our quen princis, Preportent and eke victorius,

Section 3: Prayer [first phrase is transitional]

Vertuos and bening, Lett us, lett us pray all…

Coda [change of direction in text at “Lett us”]:


Content analysis of talk

• Ginsborg, J., Chaffin, R. and Nicholson, G. (2006a). Shared performance cues in singing and conducting: a content analysis of talk during practice. Psychology of Music, 34 (3), 167-194.

Features (locations)

• Structural – start of section (9), switch (7), start of phrase (29)

• Basic – prepare (count, listen, think, watch) (35), pronunciation of words (25), technical / breath (45)

• Interpretive – meaning of words (29), dynamics / tempo (9)

• Expressive (15)

Performance cues (locations)

• Individual PCs– Basic – prepare PC (20) , technical / breath

PC (14)– Interpretive – stress on words PC

(pronunciation + meaning) (28)– Expressive PC (12)

• Shared PCs– Basic – score SPC (cue entry, co-ordinate

rhythm, cadence) (11) , arrival/off SPC (8)– Expressive – expressive SPC (5)

Relating reports to practice in Session 3

Start section

Start phrase

Type Predictor variable Z

STARTS – positive effects

Structural Start of section 7.199***

Start of phrase 11.378***

Basic Prepare 4.763***

Interpretive Dynamics/Tempo 5.023***

Expressive PC Expressive PC -2.641*

Basic SPC Score SPC -3.266**

STOPS

Structural Start of phrase PC -3.497***

Basic SPC Arrival/off SPC 15.468***

Score SPC 3.509***

REPETITIONS

Structural Start of phrase 5.184***

Basic PC Prepare PC -3.674****


STARTS – positive effects







STOPS – positive effects



Score SPC 3.509***

REPETITIONS – positive effects




STARTS – negative effects (without discussion or in context)







STOPS – negative effects



Score SPC 3.509***

REPETITIONS – negative effects



Ginsborg, J. and Chaffin, R. (2009). Very long term memory for words and music: an expert singer’s written and sung recall over six years. In K. Stevens et al. (Eds), Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Music Communication Science (ICoMCS2). University of Western Sydney.

Very long term recall for words and music

Results (1): Accurate recall (%)

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

FR0 Dec03

FR1 Feb05

FR2 Jun05

FR3 Aug06

FR4 June07

FR5 Nov07

FR6 Nov08

FR7 July09 SUNG

(U)

FR8 July09 SUNG

(A)

FR0 to 2 (Dec 03, Feb 05, June 05)

0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193 205 217 229 241

0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193 205 217 229 241

0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193 205 217 229 241

FR3 to 5 (Aug 06, Jun 07, Nov 07)

0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193 205 217 229 241

0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193 205 217 229 241

0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193 205 217 229 241

FR6 to 8 (Nov 08, Jul 09, Jul 09)

0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193 205 217 229 241

0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193 205 217 229 241

0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193 205 217 229 241

Sung without accompaniment

Sung with accompaniment

Very long-term recallTable 3: Effects of predictor variables on recall showing effects across sessions

Type Predictor variable Estimate Standard Error

Z

Structural Start of section -0.038 0.008 -5.02***

Interpretive PC Stress on words -0.034 0.009 -3.835***

Basic PC Prepare 0.017 0.009 1.98*

Interpretive Dynamics/Tempo 1.606 0.320 5.023***

*** p < .0001, **p < .001, *p < .01

Ginsborg, J. and Chaffin, R. [forthcoming 2010]. Performance cues in singing and conducting: evidence from practice and recall. In I. Deliège and J. Davidson (Eds), Music and the Mind: Investigating the functions and processes of music (a book in honour of John Sloboda). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Different roles of singer and conductor

• Singer: serial chaining vs content addressability as back-up (Happy birthday)

• Conductor: the bigger picture – declarative, semantic memory

Train signalling: block system

Centralized traffic control

Singer Conductor

Section 1







The silver is whit, red is the golde


The baily berith the bell away


Verse 2: The silver is whit, red is the golde




Verse 3:

And through the glass window shines the sone / How should I love, how should I love, and I so young?

Verse 2:


Verse 2a: How should I love, how should I love, and I so young?





Verse 4: For to report it were now tedius… Verse 3: For to report it were now tedius…

Section 2: Recitative / fanfare:

Right mighty and famus Elizabeth, Our quen princis, Preportent and eke victorius,

Recitative:

Right mighty and famus Elizabeth,

Our quen princis, Preportent and eke victorius,

Section 3: Prayer [first phrase is transitional]


Coda [change of direction in text at “Lett us”]:


Beating time

• Aim: to investigate associations between singer’s practice and rehearsal behaviour (start-beats, stop-beats and repetitions)…

• …with different kinds of movement – pulsing, conducting and gesturing, and no movement (NB independent judge) –

• …and musical features/performance cues

• Method: as before but with multiple rather than mixed hierarchical regression analysis

Sessions 1 and 2 (individual: learning): pulse beating, conducting

Session 3 (individual, memorising): conducting

Sessions 5 (individual, memorising) and 6 (joint): pulse beating, conducting, no movement

Session 8 (individual): conducting, gesture

Sessions 9, 12 and 15 (joint): gesture, no movement

Outline of findings

• Different kinds of body movement are associated with kinaesthetic learning at different stages of the process of preparing to perform from memory

• Beating a pulse provides framework for ensuring rhythmic accuracy

• Conducting during memorizing phase helps form metrical representation – SHAPE

• Gesture – once piece is learned and memorized – underpins communication of semantic meaning (musical or verbal)

• Need for singer also to practise not moving in preparation for performance

Beating time

Ginsborg, J. (2009). Beating time: the role of kinaesthetic learning in the development of mental representations for music. In A. Mornell (ed.) Art in Motion. Vienna: Peter Lang.

The story so far

• Shared performance cues

1. Verbal commentaries and discussions: content analysis of four sample practice sessions / rehearsals

• Cognitive, metacognitive and hints at social processes

2. Annotations (representing features and PCs) as predictors of very long term recall via practice behaviour (stops, starts, repetitions)…

3. …with and without bodily movement (singer only)

Shaping contour: Bodily movements

• Study of “gestures and glances” (Ginsborg & King, 2009; King & Ginsborg, forthcoming [2010])

• Research questions: How do performers’

1. bodily movements (“gestures”) and

2. use of eye contact (“glances”) compare

• when they collaborate in ensemble rehearsal with performers of different levels of

A.Expertise (student vs professional)

B.Familiarity (regular vs new duo partners)

Ekman & Friesen (1969, in Davidson, 2001, 2006)

Emblems Direct verbal translation e.g. thumbs up for “yes”

Illustrators Used to describe or reinforce points

Adaptors Satisfy personal needs e.g. twiddling fingers

Affect displays Reveal affective or emotional state

Regulators Regulate interaction

Cassell (1998, in Davidson, 2005)

Propositional To denote meaning

Iconic Describe action

Metaphoric Illustrating metaphor

Deictic Indicative or pointing gesture

Beat Repetitive motor gestures

Ekman & Friesen (1969) Cassell (1998)

Illustrators Iconic

Emblems Propositional

Adaptors

Regulators Deictic or beat

Ekman & Friesen (1969)

Cassell (1998)

Delalande (1988) of Glenn Gould’s gestures

Illustrators Iconic Meditative, vibrant, fluid, delicate, vigorous

Emblems Proposi-tional

Adaptors

Regulators Deictic or beat

Participants

Name (singer & pianist)

Mean age (years)

Experience together (years)

Level of expertise

Amanda & Colin

68 10 Professional

Isobel & George

57 15 Professional

Betty & Robert

25.5 2 Student

Sophie & Guy

21.5 2 Student

Materials

• Three songs by Ivor Gurney (1890-1937)– Epitaph – On the Downs – I Shall be Ever Maiden

• Video-recordings of practice sessions, rehearsals and performances stored as DVDs

• Analysis using Noldus The Observer

Procedure

Session 1:

familiar / same expertise

Session 2: unfamiliar / same expertise

Session 3: unfamiliar / different expertise

Professional A / Professional 1

Professional A / Professional 2

Professional A (Isobel) / Student 1 (Guy)Professional B /

Professional 2

Professional B / Professional 1

Student A /

Student 1

Student A / Student 2

Professional 1 (George) / Student A (Betty)

Student B /

Student 2

Student B

Student 1

Analysis (1)

States “Gesture” Pulsing with hand / head

Shaping with hand

Conducting with hand

“Glance” Gazing at partner / elsewhere

Points “Gesture” Gesture

“Glance” Glance at partner / elsewhere

Analysis (2)"420.301",“Betty & Guy","pianist","Glance other","Point","""447.876","Betty & Guy","singer","Pulse hand","State start","26-35""457.251","Betty & Guy","pianist","Gesture","Point","lifts hand""467.770","Betty & Guy","singer","Pulse hand","State stop","""467.770","Betty & Guy","singer","Still","State stop","""467.770","Betty & Guy","singer","Pulse hand","State start","29-38""477.834","Betty & Guy","pianist","Glance other","Point","""478.133","Betty & Guy","singer","Pulse hand","State stop","""478.477","Betty & Guy","singer","Glance other","Point","29-38""480.144","Betty & Guy","singer","Gesture","Point","point "heart"""481.066","Betty & Guy","pianist","Glance other","Point","""482.083","Betty & Guy ","singer","Gesture","Point","point "was"""513.205","Betty & Guy","singer","Gesture","Point"," = 'stop"' (error)""513.682","Betty & Guy","singer","Pulse hand","State start","26-41""514.039","Betty & Guy","singer","Gesture","Point",""heart"""518.674","Betty & Guy","singer","Pulse hand","State stop","""532.370","Betty & Guy","singer","Pulse head","State start","""537.722","Betty & Guy","singer","Pulse head","State stop",""

Analysis (3)

States % of rehearsal time

Pulsing with hand / hand

Shaping with hand

Conducting with hand

Gazing at partner / elsewhere

Points Rate per minute of rehearsal time

Gesture

Glance at partner / elsewhere

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Isobel (P) Betty (S) George (P) Guy (S)

Pulse

Shape

Conduct

Pulsing (hand / head), shaping and conducting (% of rehearsal time)

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

George (P) Colin (P) Guy (S)

Pulse hand

Isobel (P) with her three partners (% of rehearsal time)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Robert (S) Guy (S) George (P)

Pulse hand

Pulse head

Shape hand

Betty (S) with her three partners (% of rehearsal time)

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

Isobel (P) Betty (S) George (P) Guy (S)

Gesture

Gesture (rate per minute)

Isobel and George (both P)

Betty and Robert (both S)

Discussion: “gestures” (1)

• Performers used more physical gestures when rehearsing with familiar and same-expertise than new or different-expertise partners

• Wider range of gestures in familiar partnerships

Discussion: “gestures” (2)

Emblems Consolidate technical details

Illustrators Establish rhythms and secure pitching

Convey narrative

Regulators Co-ordination / structural boundaries

Beats (deictic) Conducting to establish tempo or pulse

Metaphoric gestures

Convey musical information

Discussion: gestures in relation to music

• Contribute to the development of mental representations for formal structure (cf Williamon & Davidson, 2002)

• Pianists’ gestures primarily expressive and communicative; singers’ gestures support technical production of sound and convey information

• “Movement-related information may be limited to relatively general, instrument-independent forms of body motion, e.g. swaying, rocking and expressive gesturing” (Keller, 2008, p. 209)

Discussion: effects of familiarity and expertise

• Closer harmonisation of gestures in established duo: “combined rhetoric” of movements

• Ensemble performers anticipate, attend and adapt to their own and each others’ playing (Keller, 2008)…

• …so as to develop joint mental representations and implement shared decisions; auditory and motor information

• Complemented by verbal information (Ginsborg & King, 2007ab, 2008)

Summary and conclusions: mental representations revisited

• Understanding of structure (and structural boundaries) crucial to memory

• Shared performance cues research – serial chaining (block signalling) vs content addressability (centralized traffic control)

• Beating time – role of kinaesthetic memory in forming mental representation of metrical structure

• Shaping contour – role of bodily movement (also kinaesthetic memory?) in creating mental representation of meaning

Thank you for your attention

• Any questions?

• [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

AHRC Research Centre for Music as Creative Practice Workshop 10-11 March 2010 Shaping music in...

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