Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Musicality: The Seashore Symposium.
Don D. Coffman · Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education · 1999
Modeling of Voice Production Fariborz Alipour Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology The University of Iowa A voice production model includes three components (biomechanic, airflow, acoustic), each responsible for a major task of voice production. Mathematical descriptions of the speech production processes have been implemented in a computer program to allow the simulation of speech. The biomechanic model solves the vocal fold tissue movement and oscillations including the posturing of the laryngeal cartilage with a mathematical technique called finite element. The airflow model finds the velocity and pressure distribution within the larynx and glottis by a numerical method. The acoustic model calculates the sound pressure propagation through the vocal tract. These components are combined in a computer program that requires the information about geometry of the glottis and the larynx. It also requires the knowledge of mechanical and physiological properties of the vocal fold tissues. The speech and voice simulator program effectively creates a virtual human on which researchers can perform experiments that would otherwise be considered far too invasive for subjects. Additionally, it provides a method for producing artificial speech and song. [Work supported by NIDCD Grant No DC03566-01] Turning Music Theory on Its Ear: Do We Hear What We See; Do We See What We Say? Jeanne Bamberger Massachusetts Institute of Technology Why is it that music fundamentals courses so often are felt to be unproductive, especially by students who have been identified as gifted performers? I argue that we are making mistaken assumptions about the nature of the musical knowledge that our students bring to these classes (i.e., what they already know). Specifically, while we focus from the start on discrete elements such as measuring and identifying isolated, decontextualized pitch and duration values, our students, in listening and performing, are responding to more highly aggregated elements such as the goal-directed motion of motives and phrases, as well as the context-dependent functions that generate the stability and instability of these motions. Thus, we are asking our students to begin with what we believe are the simplest kinds of elements, but which for them may be the most difficult. Our own conventional units of description come perilously close to becoming our units of perception we hear and see what we can say. To substantiate these claims, I discuss children's invented notations of a simple rhythm. As marks on paper, the notations provide us with objects of This content downloaded from 157.55.39.136 on Thu, 19 May 2016 05:24:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms