AHRC Research Centre for Music as Creative Practice Workshop 10-11 March 2010 Shaping music in performance: Structure,

1. AHRC Research Centrefor Music as Creative PracticeWorkshop 10-11 March 2010Shaping music in performance: Structure, memory and shape Dr Jane Ginsborg Centre for Music Performance Research, RNCM

2. 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 Outline of talk

3. 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) Shape: some definitions

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5. Method of loci: Cicero De Oratore (55 BC) Simonides (556-468 BC) Theatre of memory – birth of mnemonics Memory expertise and structure • Relies on representation of table, theatre, house etc., and ability to “walk” round it

6. 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 Memory expertise

7. 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. Effective memorising of music

8. Advice: analyse before learning Edwin 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

9. 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) Experiments

10. Ginsborg, Chaffin & Nicholson (2006a) Singer’s and conductor’s understanding of compositional structure Ricercar 1 from Stravinsky’s Cantata Development of shared performance cues

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Shared performance cues - original

18. “shiny” sound Count/listen dancing yearning Count Count/listen Tidied up(beats 92-129): expressive and prepare PCs

19. 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

20. Starts, stops and repetitions Ginsborg, 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. Practice in Session 1 (black = from memory, grey = score open)

21. Shared performance cuesProcedure (2) 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

22. Shared performance cuesProcedure (2) 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

25. 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.

26. Shared performance cuesProcedure (2) 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

27. 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)

28. 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)

29. Start section Start phrase Relating reports to practice in Session 3

33. Shared performance cuesProcedure (2) 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

34. Very long term recall for words and music • 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.

35. Results (1): Accurate recall (%)

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

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

38. FR6 to 8 (Nov 08, Jul 09, Jul 09) Sung without accompaniment Sung with accompaniment

39. Very long-term recall Table 3: Effects of predictor variables on recall showing effects across sessions *** 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.

40. Different roles of singer and conductor Singer: serial chaining vs content addressability as back-up (Happy birthday) Conductor: the bigger picture – declarative, semantic memory

41. Train signalling: block system

42. Centralized traffic control

44. 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 Beating time

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

46. Session 3 (individual, memorising): conducting

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

48. Session 8 (individual): conducting, gesture

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

50. 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 Outline of findings