The Western Australia New Music Archive: 1970 - today: finding, accessing, remembering, performing. This project sees the creation of the Western Australian New Music Archive, a digital repository of and interface to Western Australian music composed from 1970 to the present day. A partnership between peak state and national bodies, the project will also involve the performance and recording of works from the archive.
Loudness moves! Roles of changing acoustic intensity in the perception of music. Changing loudness of a sound is an urgent cue for object location, and an emotional cue in speech and music. With new empirical techniques, we will identify roles of loudness in perception of structure, arousal and emotion in music. The work has application in inter-personal communication, sonic information display and, and in music selling online.
Developing a personalised Music Affect Recommender System. The project aims to develop a personalised music recommender system using perceived tone quality, affect and liking. Recommender systems using prior verbal annotations and ratings are common (Amazon) but inappropriate for less popular music by unfamiliar artists, which lacks social use data. The project intends to build on work into perception of musical affect and its relation to loudness and tone quality; and the automation of the orga ....Developing a personalised Music Affect Recommender System. The project aims to develop a personalised music recommender system using perceived tone quality, affect and liking. Recommender systems using prior verbal annotations and ratings are common (Amazon) but inappropriate for less popular music by unfamiliar artists, which lacks social use data. The project intends to build on work into perception of musical affect and its relation to loudness and tone quality; and the automation of the organisation of digital libraries both by labels and acoustic content. Developing this, the project seeks to create a model that gives recommendations which accounts for an individual's preferences based on acoustic content, affect and liking. The system will be designed to update rapidly and to encourage exploration of familiar and unfamiliar music.Read moreRead less
Controlling interactive music performance: enhancing live performances by human musicians and algorithmic computer systems. This project will investigate techniques for the control of computer music systems during performances with a musician. It will identify and evaluate parameters and patterns for expressive variation of music algorithms, contribute new theories of music representation, and provide insights into human interactions with semi-autonomous technologies.
Understanding motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. This project examines motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. It applies major theoretical explanations from other domains where optimising motivation and practice quality has consistently been found to increase performance, persistence, learning, creativity, and wellbeing. The expected outcomes of the project address the competitiveness of Australian musicians, particularly in light of significantly lo ....Understanding motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. This project examines motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. It applies major theoretical explanations from other domains where optimising motivation and practice quality has consistently been found to increase performance, persistence, learning, creativity, and wellbeing. The expected outcomes of the project address the competitiveness of Australian musicians, particularly in light of significantly lower funding for music institutions compared to international counterparts. The research endeavours to inform understandings about the nature of motivation and practice more generally, by extending conceptions that have until now been formed largely through research in non-artistic domains of human accomplishment.Read moreRead less
Australian Youth Orchestra's Contribution to Musical Life through Educational/Performance Programs for Aspiring Musicians in Urban, Regional and Rural Australia. The history of AYO, which is Australia's centre for excellence for aspiring orchestral musicians and an arts company responsive to changing socio-artistic conditions, needs investigating re the bridge it provides to the professional music world, its socio-artistic importance, and to answer calls for accountability. Through research int ....Australian Youth Orchestra's Contribution to Musical Life through Educational/Performance Programs for Aspiring Musicians in Urban, Regional and Rural Australia. The history of AYO, which is Australia's centre for excellence for aspiring orchestral musicians and an arts company responsive to changing socio-artistic conditions, needs investigating re the bridge it provides to the professional music world, its socio-artistic importance, and to answer calls for accountability. Through research into its innovative training and performance programs and archives (1948 - the present) and comparisons of its role with state and overseas youth orchestras, this project will measure and interpret AYO's contributions to Australia's cultural life in urban, regional and rural areas, including its participants' accelerated musical development and enhanced career opportunities.Read moreRead less
Transformations from Renaissance to Baroque: The Cultural and Musical Significance of Giovanni Gabrieli. The Western European tradition forms a significant part of Australia's culture, and it is important that Australians are contributors to the extension of this tradition as well as being consumers. This project will discover new music and materials that will be of immense interest to many Australians, and it will make its discoveries known in an accessible way that meets the demand in Austral ....Transformations from Renaissance to Baroque: The Cultural and Musical Significance of Giovanni Gabrieli. The Western European tradition forms a significant part of Australia's culture, and it is important that Australians are contributors to the extension of this tradition as well as being consumers. This project will discover new music and materials that will be of immense interest to many Australians, and it will make its discoveries known in an accessible way that meets the demand in Australian society. My leadership in Renaissance music studies, especially Gabrieli, is contributing to Australia's involvement in the dynamic, international revival of early music, as well as facilitating telecasts, broadcasts, concerts and recordings.Read moreRead less
Developing techniques for evolutionary music. Traditional compositional conventions do not meet the needs of contemporary composers who are increasingly working in non-linear media, such as DVDs, the Internet, video games, and mobile phones. This research will create a new class of algorithmic music techniques inspired by evolutionary processes to meet these challenges. While exploring new musical techniques, this research will provide new insights into the applicability of theoretical principle ....Developing techniques for evolutionary music. Traditional compositional conventions do not meet the needs of contemporary composers who are increasingly working in non-linear media, such as DVDs, the Internet, video games, and mobile phones. This research will create a new class of algorithmic music techniques inspired by evolutionary processes to meet these challenges. While exploring new musical techniques, this research will provide new insights into the applicability of theoretical principles from biological evolution and artificial life to support human creativity.Read moreRead less
Islam and Ideologies of War, Gender and Class as Determinants of Musical Identity in Twentieth Century Aceh, Indonesia. In the colonial and postcolonial periods, the natural wealth and strategic location of Aceh province brought it fame, foreign contact and frequent war, yet its cultural expressions - which can help explain Acehnese behaviour and the current war situation - are poorly known. Aceh's musical identity is determined by intersections between the music's internal syntax and extramusic ....Islam and Ideologies of War, Gender and Class as Determinants of Musical Identity in Twentieth Century Aceh, Indonesia. In the colonial and postcolonial periods, the natural wealth and strategic location of Aceh province brought it fame, foreign contact and frequent war, yet its cultural expressions - which can help explain Acehnese behaviour and the current war situation - are poorly known. Aceh's musical identity is determined by intersections between the music's internal syntax and extramusical associations arising from ideologies and functions of religion, combat, gender and class; history of noble and religious leadership; and social change. New theories are presented that relate musical style to the ideologies and explain the performing arts' fusion of indigenous, Arabic and other foreign elements.Read moreRead less