Reflections on Puccini's La Bohème

Abstract

A continuing line of research indicates that focus of attention is perhaps the most important attribute of actively participating in meaningful music listening and a model accounting for these findings has been developed. Music teachers are especially concerned with meaningful listening when having students discern important elements or attributes of music. Although newer listening devices offer sophisticated methods for continuous measurement, the educator usually does not have access to the advanced equipment used by researchers. This study is built on a previous investigation by examining the use of a paper-and-pencil drawing for recording aesthetic responses across time. The authors also asked the 50 university music major participants to reflect and write comments concerning their listening experiences. Findings indicate that a teacher using only a simple paper-and-pencil representation might be able to elicit and document an “overall emotional effect” that provides almost as much information as using more sophisticated measuring devices.

The effect of subtitles on listeners’ perceptions of expressivity

“…All participants perceived moments of expressivity during the stimulus, and participants' stated focus of attention was high, with group means ranging from 8.65 to 9.03 on a scale from 1 to 10. The temporal locations and graphic contours of the 'high expressivity' and 'low expressivity' moments are similar to that of previous research using this stimulus to explore listeners' aesthetic response, felt emotional response, expressivity, and a more/less continuum (e.g., Lychner, 1998;Madsen & Geringer, 2008;Southall, 2003). This suggests that, for this piece of music, the relative relationships to magnitude might be the same across a variety of constructs (Lychner, 1998;Silveira & Madsen, in press).…”

“…As in previous studies utilizing this music as a stimulus, participants indicated three distinct moments of 'high expressivity,' and two moments of 'low expressivity' Madsen, Byrnes, et al, 1993;Madsen & Geringer, 2008;Madsen & Napoles, 2005;Silveira & Madsen, in press;Southall, 2003).…”

A continuous measure of musical engagement contributes to prediction of perceived arousal and valence.

“…So why is perceived valence predicted less well by acoustic cues than perceived arousal? Valence may be closely associated with more personal factors that could be culture-specific and less obligatory than the effects observed from acoustic cues on perceived arousal; for example, the individual motivational aspects of attention and interest that underpin listeners' engagement with a piece of music (Broughton, Stevens, & Schubert, 2008;Geringer & Madsen, 2000Madsen & Geringer, 2008;Thompson, 2007). In general terms, engagement refers to an active, constructive, focused interaction with one's social and physical environment that relates to cognitive, behavioral, and importantly for the present study, affective elements of motivation (Broughton et al, 2008;Furrer & Skinner, 2003;Reeve, Jang, Carrell, Jeon, & Barch, 2004).…”

Miradas concurrentes para enunciar nuevas preguntas: reflexiones en torno a una línea de investigación sobre focos de atención en experiencia estética

“…En lo que respecta a la medición, se han incluido autoinformes, escalas de puntuación, listas de chequeo, cuestionarios y diferenciales semánticos; pero siempre luego que la experiencia ha sucedido (Madsen y Geringer, 2008). Asimismo, se pueden encontrar diferentes perspectivas que incluyen el análisis de contenido y respuestas emocionales de elementos estructurales de análisis musical (Birkoff, 1933, citado en Madsen et al, 1993Goldstein, 1980); también la experiencia de tensión musical (Madsen y Fredrickson, 1993).…”