Music Practice Commons^™

Modernizing And Diversifying Western's Audio Engineering Curriculum: First Stage, Kyle Haddad

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This was the first stage in a much larger study designed to update the audio engineering curriculum at Western University, to reflect modern trends and to diversify beyond the UK 1970s prog rock bias of traditional curriculum. An undergraduate student was hired from within the Popular Music Studies program here at Western University to work in the studio for the summer, and to provide recommendations for change in studio design at the end fo the summer based on that work. The student worked on his own material, and engineered record sessions for a PhD candidate currently at work on a …

Collection Of Violin Technique Fundamentals, Patricio Flores Esquivel

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This book provides a sampling of exercises and studies for violin playing. It serves as both a collection of useful materials and a reference to other studies and exercises aimed at the playing level of an average incoming violin student at Western University. This compilation of exercises is sorted according to the fundamental aspect of violin technique that each exercise addresses.

Much of the book is made up of patterns and variations on studies and exercises that are sorted by skill and designed to be reusable and useful for other studies beyond this book, as well as violin repertoire. It …

The Effects Of Multilingualism And Music Experience On Tone And Vowel Discrimination Ability, Niloufar Ansari Dezfuly

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigates the effects of language background (monolingual/bilingual and early/late bilingual exposure), knowledge of a tonal language and music experience on auditory discrimination by employing tone and vowel discrimination tasks. A total number of 8,769 observations were analyzed using logistic regression to answer the following questions: (1) Do vowel and tone discrimination abilities correlate with language background in diverse groups of speakers such as monolinguals and bilinguals of different types (early/late bilinguals)? (2) Does musical training affect tone and vowel discrimination? (3) Does knowledge of tonal language affect tone discrimination? The findings suggest that with regard to vowel discrimination, …

Ann Southam's Solo Piano Music: A Performance Guide, Amelia G. Yates

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Ann Southam (1937-2010) is one of Canada’s greatest contemporary composers. Best-known for her minimalist music, Southam composed twelve-tone, minimalist, jazz, and electroacoustic music for a variety of mediums including orchestral, chamber, and solo instrument. A significant portion of her creative output is for solo piano and this monograph is the first study of these works. This project demonstrates her wide-ranging approach to composition while also focusing on her minimalist music. It promotes Southam’s music and emphasizes her significance as a contemporary Canadian composer. This monograph can be used by performers, scholars, composers and teachers to deepen their understanding of Southam …

Mozart And Genius: Music And Philosophy, Aidan Witvoet

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This output poster serves as an overview to my efforts and responsibilities throughout the duration of the internship. Here I also showcase a brief sample of the concepts and areas of exploration within which I have been immersed, both in regards to the the content of the book I am helping to prepare for publishing as well as accompanying readings and discussions.

Heavy Metal Fundraisers: Entrepreneurial Recording Artists In Platform Capitalism, Jason Netherton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

How do cultural producers square customary understandings of what it means to be authentic and autonomous creators in new contexts characterized by digital-era entrepreneurial pressures and online platform-mediated financial opportunities? This study examines how heavy metal recording artists experience these pressures; how some of them engage in platform-based crowdfunding, argue over its legitimacy, and rationalize varying degrees of acceptance and dependence. First, my analysis centers on a case study which follows the experiences of a progressive metal band as they navigate a new financial relation in conjunction first with the fundraising platform Pozible and then the patronage-based crowdfunding platform …

See It And Believe It: An Investigation Into Singers' Imagery Use, Brianna Desantis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Sport and dance psychology researchers have shown, time and again, how imagery improves performance in their respective fields. In singing, imagery has a long history in the bel canto (beautiful singing) tradition but it is more linked to using metaphor and simile as teaching aids rather than a mental practice technique to improve performance. Because of this, imagery in singing is even broader than imagery in athletics or dance. Moreover, imagery in singing psychology has not been as thoroughly examined in an empirical setting, especially not from a sport and dance psychology perspective.

This monograph aims to outline the term …

"I Need To Fight The Power, But I Need That New Ferrari": Conspicuous Consumption, New-School Hip-Hop And "The New Rock & Roll", Emmett H. Robinson Smith

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

2017 marked the year in which hip-hop officially became the most listened-to genre in the United States. This thesis explores hip-hop music’s rise to its now-hegemonic position within the music industry, seeking to provide insight into the increasingly popular sentiment that hip-hop is “the new rock & roll”. The “new-school” hip-hop artists of the last six years or so have also been the subject of widespread critical disdain, especially for their heightened degree of emphasis on conspicuous consumption. This study will track hip-hop’s ascent from the mid-1980s through to its current position as both a political vehicle and a commercial …

Audio Mastering As A Musical Competency, Matthew T. Shelvock

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, I demonstrate that audio mastering is a musical competency by elucidating the most significant, and clearly audible, facets of this competence. In fact, the mastering process impacts traditionally valued musical aspects of records, such as timbre and dynamics. By applying the emerging creative scholarship method used within the field of music production studies, this dissertation will aid scholars seeking to hear and understand audio mastering by elucidating its core practices as musical endeavours. And, in so doing, I hope to enable increased clarity and accuracy in future scholarly discussions on the topic of audio mastering, as well …

My Mla At 20, Lisa Rae Philpott

Western Libraries Publications

Highlights of my 20th MLA conference - the 83rd Music Library Association meeting, held in Atlanta, Georgia, Feb-Mar 2014. Sessions I attended included: Stanford University's re-design of their music library website; representation of women scholars in musicological publications (Suzanne Moulton-Gertig); research into women collectors of Irish traditional music (Margaret Erickson); "What NOT to Wear: MLA Interview Edition" (Mistie Shaw, Susannah Cleveland, Mark Puente); RDA and Public Services (Elizabeth Hill Cribbs, Sonia Archer-Capuzzo, Patricia Falk) and Stop Reinventing the Wheel: An Online Repository for Music Information Literacy (Andi Beckendorf, Sara J. Beutter Manus, Clayton Crenshaw, Brian McMillan, Nancy Zavac)

Audio Mastering As Musical Practice, Matt Shelvock

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines audio mastering as musical communication. Tasks including loudness management, harmonic balance, denoising, phase alignment, monitoring, effects application, and administrative responsibilities are of central importance to mastering engineers. With the exception of administrative responsibilities, each of these tasks significantly shapes a record’s aesthetic character and physical makeup. These contributions – the final creative steps before an album’s release – demonstrate the mastering engineer’s role as a collaborative auteur in recorded musical communications.

Uncharted Waters: "Hidden" Jazz Collections At The U.W.O Music Library, Lisa Rae Philpott

Western Libraries Presentations

Popular music has long been ignored by academic music programs and their associated libraries. If we are now playing 'catch-up' with pop music, then what is the status of jazz music? At Western, surprising collections of jazz music exist, but are hidden. This presentation offers an overview of the Simmons Collection and the CKGW Radio Orchestra collection, and highlights some of the Canadian content contained therein.

Mla Reports: Pre-Conference On Conservation, And A Report On The Conference, Lisa Rae Philpott

Western Libraries Publications

Report of the Music Library Association's 65th Annual meeting, held at the Seattle Westin, February 5-1 1, 1996. The pre-conference Conservation Workshop, offered by Ted Honea of Sibley Library was invaluable and informative. Gerard Schwarz, Music Director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra since 1983, described his indebtedness to music libraries, and how he devises programmes for the SSO. Other topics included: Brahmsiana; Managing Difficult People; Managing Technology; Teaching the 'Net; the Selling of Seattle Through Song; and Handel's Relationship with his Publishers. And, the Eastman School/Sibley Library has recently received the Alexander Courage Collection (source materials, sketches, and movie scores, …