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"Musical ability Cross-cultural studies."
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Universality and diversity in human song
It is unclear whether there are universal patterns to music across cultures. Mehr et al. examined ethnographic data and observed music in every society sampled (see the Perspective by Fitch and Popescu). For songs specifically, three dimensions characterize more than 25% of the performances studied: formality of the performance, arousal level, and religiosity. There is more variation in musical behavior within societies than between societies, and societies show similar levels of within-society variation in musical behavior. At the same time, one-third of societies significantly differ from average for any given dimension, and half of all societies differ from average on at least one dimension, indicating variability across cultures. Science , this issue p. eaax0868 ; see also p. 944 Songs exhibit universal patterns across cultures. What is universal about music, and what varies? We built a corpus of ethnographic text on musical behavior from a representative sample of the world’s societies, as well as a discography of audio recordings. The ethnographic corpus reveals that music (including songs with words) appears in every society observed; that music varies along three dimensions (formality, arousal, religiosity), more within societies than across them; and that music is associated with certain behavioral contexts such as infant care, healing, dance, and love. The discography—analyzed through machine summaries, amateur and expert listener ratings, and manual transcriptions—reveals that acoustic features of songs predict their primary behavioral context; that tonality is widespread, perhaps universal; that music varies in rhythmic and melodic complexity; and that elements of melodies and rhythms found worldwide follow power laws.
Journal Article
Factors and Clusters of Musical Self-Concept Discovered in a Cross-Cultural Sample of Swiss, Chinese, and Taiwanese Students
Cultural and societal settings in which an individual is raised, and the role of music and musical training during an individual’s upbringing, shape the relation to music and the conception of the self with regard to music in the present and in the future. Accordingly, differing cultural and musical biographical backgrounds are reflected in differences of musical self-concepts. The aim was to assess distinct musical self-concept types of Chinese, Taiwanese, and Swiss university music students with an adapted version of the Musical Self-Concept Inquiry (MUSCI), and to analyze these types in terms of the manifestation of different dimensions of the musical self-concept as well as sociodemographic and further personal characteristics. 805 university music students took part in the study. The sample included 293 Swiss, 356 Chinese, and 156 Taiwanese students. An adapted version of the Musical Self-Concept Inquiry was administered, and the data subjected to a principal component and a confirmatory factor analysis to determine the factors of the musical self-concept. A cluster analysis was carried out to identify self-concept clusters. H-, U-, Chi2, and two-sample Kolmogorov–Smirnov Z-tests were carried out to assess cluster differences in the factor manifestations, as well as sociodemographic and further personal aspects. The Musical Self-Concept Inquiry-SwisSino could be confirmed with regard to three factors (ability, mood management, dance), while other factors could not be retained. Three significantly distinct clusters were identified, which differed regarding the factor manifestation and the students’ origin, gender, course of study, main instrument, practice hours, and parental educational background and musical activity. However, due to only a few dimensions of the musical self-concept being verified, the broadness of the concept was restricted. Advances in quantitative comparative music studies will thus require further work on conceptional issues as well as the clarification of cultural notions and adequate translations.
Journal Article
Children's Artistic Responses to Musical Intervals
In one experiment, White South African boys drew pictures in response to four musical intervals. In the second, the subjects were of both sexes and drawn from White, urban Black, and rural Black populations. Six intervals were used. Drawing content was similar cross-culturally. Consonances were perceived as generally positive; dissonances, generally negative. There was also an activity dimension. Children in a lower grade drew more concrete pictures than did those in a higher grade, regardless of age. Even young listeners were fairly consistent in their responses. This suggests that perception of musical meaning is a universal rather than culturally based phenomenon.
Journal Article
A Virtual Panel of Expert Researchers
Presents the observations of a panel of research experts who have conducted research on music and the brain. States that the participants are Andrea Halpern, Larry Parsons, Ralph Spintge, and Sandra Trehub. After an introduction of each person, the participants characterized their principal findings. (CMK)
Journal Article