Arts and Humanities

Abstract: Historical music dictionaries are now widely accessible as scans and optical-character-recognition text, but they remain difficult to reuse side by side. Their languages, editions, editorial forms, and digitisation histories differ too much to treat them as a single uniform archive. This Data Descriptor presents Lexicon C19, an English-dominant multilingual computational corpus derived from eight nineteenth-century music, dance, biographical, and general reference traditions, with processed witnesses in English, French, German, Russian, and Portuguese. The v3.2.1 release contains 3,760 rule-selected records, a complete pool of 25,186 parsed candidates, source and line provenance, a controlled music-performance taxonomy, supporting metadata, deterministic build code, and an executed analysis notebook. Structural checks confirm identifier uniqueness, complete local-file provenance, stable checksums, and deterministic rebuilding. A label-blinded 200-record single-annotator audit estimates selected-candidate precision at 97.0% and category accuracy at 89.7% among real and relevant sampled rows. Labels and confidence values remain machine-derived corpus fields rather than gold-standard annotations. The corpus is designed for source-stratified retrieval, computational lexicography, OCR research, weak supervision, and the selection of passages for verification and close reading.

Abstract: Musical play gives learners with Special Educational Needs (SEN) an immediate way to act on, perceive, and reorganize a learning environment through sound. This study protocol proposes a randomized, counterbalanced, within-participant mixed-methods comparison of two matched forms of musical interaction: physical/tangible musical toys and virtual/immersive musical environments controlled through touch, gesture, or movement. Engagement is treated as a multidimensional process encompassing behavioral participation and persistence, emotional involvement, and cognitive-agentic investment in exploration, choice, and task completion. A common event ontology will align systematic observation of tangible interaction with time-stamped digital logs, while educator ratings and structured qualitative observations will contextualize individual response patterns. The protocol emphasizes functional equivalence between conditions, accessibility, sensory and motor fit, learner agency, and standardized adult mediation rather than assuming the superiority of either medium. Mixed-effects models will estimate within-learner condition effects and order effects, and integrated qualitative analysis will examine why particular affordances support or constrain engagement for different learners. The resulting framework is intended to inform the design and evaluation of accessible serious games, digital musical instruments, and hybrid physical-digital learning experiences for inclusive education.

Abstract: The sustain pedal ties together bodily action, timing, instrument mechanics, acoustic resonance, and interpretive judgment. In a digital environment, though, all of that can get flattened into a pedal trace, a MIDI value, or an apparent note duration — and a partial measurement can quietly start passing as a pedagogical judgment. This applied literature review pulls together piano-pedagogy, pedal-timing, piano-acoustics, sensing, automatic-transcription, and technology-mediated-feedback research to ask what these signals actually represent. The synthesis separates five things that tend to get collapsed into one: key action, pedal action, acoustic consequence, musical-interpretive context, and pedagogical inference. From that separation, the article proposes the Pedal Feedback Evidence Model (PFEM), an unvalidated framework linking evidence source, digital representation, warranted interpretation, confounds, and teacher verification. The literature shows pedal timing, depth, and sonic outcome shifting with performer, tempo, attentional focus, instrument, and acoustics. Digital feedback can make parts of a performance inspectable — but pedal data shouldn't get converted into claims about musical appropriateness, intention, or learning.

Abstract: A one-to-one music lesson normally unfolds in a shared room, where teacher and student can move, reposition, and inspect the instrument from any angle. Synchronous online teaching compresses all of that into a fixed rectangle. This structured applied literature review asks what visual information teachers actually need during instrumental instruction, and how camera framing might be organized around the teaching task rather than around whatever equipment happens to be on hand. Evidence drawn from distance music teaching, gesture research, teacher observation, visual attention studies, and educational technology shows that bodily modeling, hand and arm movement, posture, facial communication, score reference, and contact with the instrument all carry pedagogically relevant information. But camera position by itself does not reliably determine what a teacher notices or how that teacher evaluates instruction — seeing more is not the same as noticing more. The review proposes the Pedagogical Visual Access Matrix (PVAM), an unvalidated framework linking pedagogical task, visual target, candidate view, information loss, and complementary view. PVAM is meant to make camera-design decisions explicit, while keeping a firm line between visual access, teacher noticing, pedagogical interpretation, and what actually happens to learning.

Abstract: Real-time score following is usually shown to users as a cursor moving through the score, but its educational value depends on what happens after position is estimated, not on the estimate itself. This structured applied review draws on music-alignment, instrumental-learning, practice-analysis, and self-regulation research to separate four functions: navigation, recovery, repetition, and practice support. Correct localization is not the same as understanding. A system relocalizing after a jump does not mean a learner recovered musically. Detected repetition does not establish deliberate practice, and coverage metrics do not establish learning. Working from these boundaries, the article proposes the Score-Following Educational Action Matrix (SF-EAM), an unvalidated conceptual framework linking alignment state, evidence provenance, permitted educational action, ambiguity, verification, and inference boundary. The framework calls for explicit unlocated, ambiguous, and relocalizing states, and for suspending judgment when position evidence is thin. Score following, on this view, is infrastructure for pedagogical interaction — not a substitute for pedagogical assessment.

Abstract: In 1974, Richard Alewyn argued that the pleasure of fear, as represented by the 'uncanny', was an aesthetic post-Enlightenment phenomenon. In order to evaluate this thesis, it is necessary to investigate artefacts from the pre-Enlightenment era. This article therefore focuses on 17th-century music theatre, searching for clues to the pleasure of fear and the uncanny in such works. After investigating examples from La Pellegrina (Intermedio), Cavalieri's Rappresentazione di Anima, et di Corpo, Monteverdi's Ballo delle Ingrate, Lully's Béllérophon and Alceste, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, and Charpentier's Médée, as well as contemporaneous descriptions of these performances, the article concludes that pre-Enlightenment art did imply the pleasure of fear, and possibly the uncanny. However, three observations can be made in contrast to post-Enlightenment art: 1) The horrible agents in 17th-century music theatre do not usually occur of their own accord, but are intentionally evoked by human agents; 2) The horrible is not usually the subject itself, but comes into play as part of a love drama or similar; 3) 17th-century music theatre does not thematise the disturbance of a natural order; rather, the monsters simply belong to the fictional reality.

Abstract: The piano preludes of Borys Lyatoshynsky (1895–1968)—the Three Preludes, Op. 38, the Two Preludes on Ukrainian folk-song melodies, Op. 38bis, and the Five Preludes, Op. 44, all composed during the 1942–43 wartime evacuation—have re-entered Western concert life as vehicles of Ukrainian identity. This article shifts the question of national identity in these miniatures away from a text-immanent reading of the score toward how performing and curating them affords an experience of Ukrainian identity for the present-day listener. Drawing on documented recent performances and recordings—Vadym Kholodenko’s recital programming of Op. 38 alongside the canonical European repertory, and Margaret Fingerhut’s curated album Ukraine: A Piano Portrait—it argues that performance largely realises an identity the score encodes, while curation can add—through sequence and paratext—meaning the notes do not fix. The preludes’ internal difference between literal folk-song quotation (Op. 38bis) and folk intonation (Opp. 38 and 44) becomes a resource that performers and curators mobilise. Situating these cases within the broader re-reception of Lyatoshynsky during the Russo-Ukrainian war, the article reframes the prelude as a site where national identity, encoded in the score, is realised as a present-day experience through performance and curation.

Abstract: Computational methods for big data music research mostly come from the field of music information retrieval. Through feature extraction and machine learning, many practical tasks have been automated, like genre recognition and playlist generation. However, for musicological purposes, conventional features do not provide enough insight into the music production process. In this study, we evaluate how well Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients and recording studio features reveal aspects of early house and techno music from the United States of America and Germany. The explorative study is an exemplary case-study where music production plays an essential role. Further studies may reveal how much the findings transfer to other producer-driven music, like hip hop and electronic dance music.

Abstract: This study examines the role of music education as an instrument of national identity construction in the five Central Asian states and analyses the consequences of this function for regional educational integration. Drawing on the theory of invented tradition (Hobsbawm and Ranger, 1983) and the concept of imagined communities (Anderson, 1983), the research analyses music curriculum content in the principal conservatories of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The source material includes publicly available curriculum documents, programme descriptions, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage nomination files, national education laws, and World Bank statistical data. The analysis maps the divergent national music canons that have been constructed through higher education curricula since independence in 1991. A pattern we term curricular nationalism emerges from this mapping: the deliberate use of music education curricula to construct nationally specific cultural identities by selecting canonical instruments, elevating particular musical genres to national heritage status, and incorporating specific musicians and composers into national pantheons. Each of the five states has built a distinct canon within its conservatory system. Kazakhstan has centred its curriculum on the dombra and the kuy tradition; Uzbekistan on the Shashmaqom classical system and the dutar; Kyrgyzstan on the komuz and the Manas epic tradition; Tajikistan on a reframing of the shared Shashmaqom heritage as distinctly Tajik; and Turkmenistan on the dutar and the bakhshi bardic tradition. These divergent canons are not accidental products of institutional development but purposeful constructions that serve to distinguish each newly independent state from its neighbours. The study identifies a structural paradox: the cultural proximity of the five states, including shared musical traditions, instruments, and performance practices that could in principle support regional cooperation, is precisely what drives curricular divergence, because shared traditions become objects of competitive national appropriation rather than a basis for integration. We suggest that this dynamic forms an identitarian barrier to regional music education integration that the structural mechanisms of the Bologna Process and the relational mechanisms of bilateral cooperation are largely unequipped to resolve, since the obstacle is not technical or institutional but political in nature.

Abstract: The present study investigates the governance of music higher education in Central Asia by examining two competing external integration frameworks that currently operate in the region: the European Bologna Process and China's Belt and Road Initiative. The empirical focus is placed on five Central Asian states, namely Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The research draws on the theory of policy borrowing and lending as formulated by G. Steiner-Khamsi, the concept of soft power in educational cooperation, and the theory of regional education space as developed by S. Marginson, with the aim of analysing how these two frameworks act upon Central Asian music education institutions through different mechanisms and produce different effects. Documentary evidence is collected from national education laws, institutional reports from principal conservatories in the region, programme descriptions from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music's Belt and Road Art Talent Training Programme, Aga Khan Music Programme publications, diplomatic agreements from the 2023 China-Central Asia Summit, and statistical data from the World Bank and UNESCO. The analysis brings to light that the Bologna Process acts on Central Asian music education through structural standardisation, which requires the adoption of compatible degree formats, credit systems, and accreditation mechanisms, while China's Belt and Road Initiative operates through relational exchange, which offers talent training programmes, bilateral institutional partnerships, and cultural diplomacy events that do not require structural convergence. The paper puts forward the concept of dual integration pressure to describe the condition in which music education institutions must respond to both frameworks at the same time, and identifies a structural incompatibility between the multilateral norm convergence logic of the Bologna model and the bilateral relationship logic of the Chinese model. The findings point to the fact that music education, as a domain where cultural specificity and institutional standardisation exist in direct tension, makes visible a governance problem that remains hidden in other fields of higher education cooperation in Central Asia. A complementary engagement framework is proposed that identifies conditions under which the two models can operate without mutual interference and suggests that Chinese cooperation can address gaps in heritage documentation, traditional instrument exchange, and performance-based mobility that Bologna-oriented reforms are structurally unable to fill.

Abstract: China's "Double Reduction" policy, introduced in 2021 to curtail excessive academic tutoring, has redirected millions of families toward extracurricular arts education, particularly music. Yet this surge in demand has exposed longstanding structural weaknesses in China's extracurricular music education system, including an entrenched examination-grading culture, market fragmentation, and a narrow conception of musical learning centered on technical reproduction rather than creative engagement. This paper presents a comparative analysis of extracurricular music education systems in the United States, Germany, and Japan, examining how each country has developed distinct institutional arrangements to support music learning outside the formal school curriculum. The United States relies on a decentralized, community-driven model that privileges creative expression and cultural pluralism. Germany maintains an extensive network of publicly funded music schools (Musikschulen) organized as a complement to general schooling. Japan embeds much of its extracurricular music activity within the school-based club (bukatsu) system, supplemented by well-established industry-education partnerships with corporations such as Yamaha and Suzuki. Drawing on policy documents, institutional data, and existing scholarship in comparative education and music education, we identify both shared principles and irreducible differences across these three models. The analysis suggests that China's current predicament cannot be resolved through market expansion alone; rather, it requires a reconfiguration of institutional design, pedagogical orientation, and the relationship between assessment and musical experience. We conclude by outlining a set of policy directions, including reforming the graded examination system, expanding public provision at the community level, and reorienting teacher education toward broader conceptions of musicianship.

Abstract: This paper examines why music higher education across five Central Asian states—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—resists the regional integration that general higher education has begun to pursue. We compare degree structures, accreditation systems, and curriculum models at each country’s national conservatory, and we analyse national education laws alongside international agreements to trace the roots of divergence. The analytical lens combines institutional isomorphism—a framework that explains how organisations copy, comply with, or professionally absorb external models—with the concept of regional education space as a deliberate governance project. The evidence reveals a pattern we call the conservatory paradox: every government simultaneously pushes its conservatory toward Bologna-compatible degree formats and charges the same institution with safeguarding nationally distinct oral music traditions that UNESCO has inscribed on its heritage lists. This dual mandate opens a persistent gap between what formal structures describe and what classrooms actually deliver. Rather than full harmonisation, we propose a three-level coordination framework—mutual trust through accreditation without curriculum uniformity, joint heritage projects anchored in shared traditions such as Shashmaqom, and short-term mobility windows that bypass the credit-transfer bottleneck.

Abstract: We examine the friction between oral music transmission and formal curriculum structures inside three Central Asian conservatories — the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory (Almaty), the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan (Tashkent), and the Kyrgyz National Conservatory (Bishkek). The analytical lens is drawn from M. Polanyi’s tacit knowledge theory and I. Nonaka and H. Takeuchi’s SECI model of knowledge conversion. We worked through publicly available syllabi, programme descriptions, accreditation reports, and institutional data from these three institutions. The core finding is what we call epistemic mismatch: a structural clash between the codified, modular, outcome-based knowledge that Bologna-style curricula demand and the tacit, embodied, relationally transmitted knowledge on which oral music traditions survive. A “two curricula” phenomenon emerged from the data — formal written documents describing traditional music programmes coexist with an entirely separate enacted curriculum that teachers actually follow in the studio. The Aga Khan Music Programme’s work in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, reaching over 7,000 students in 80 schools, is analysed as an attempted epistemic bridge. We propose a three-principle framework: protected pedagogical space for oral transmission within credit structures, competence-based assessment replacing written examination, and audio-visual documentation replacing notation.

Abstract: MPA occurs in very young children and is prevalent throughout the lifespan of musicians. Childhood presentations are phenotypically similar to adult musicians which raises the question as to whether MPA is innate or acquired and if identified in childhood, the most appropriate way to manage it to forestall MPA as a lifelong problem. An understanding of developmental and psychodynamic psychology and the multifactorial causation of MPA is necessary to develop effective interventions.

Abstract: This study deals with the classificational aspects of raags of Hindustani Classical music by grouping raags into thaats and timings. The raags are classified based on the notes and the time of the day. The different timings of the days portrays various emotions, and these emotions are expressed through raags.

Abstract: This study is our sincere effort and service towards Hindustani Classical Music. The raag which we are writing about in this article is Raag Shankara. We have researched multiple resources, which include books, websites, other digital media and multiple performances of various artists. The artists range from vocal, sitar, sarod, surbahar and flute. The aim of this article on Raag Shankara is to bring together the knowledge and historical background of Raag Shankara based on theory, structure, patterns and various ways the artists have expressed it over decades of performances. This article also serves as a unique learning resource for students of various skills, knowledge and performance levels, who are in the process of becoming performers and learners of Hindustani Classical Music. We are not endorsing or following a specific gharana system of music. Rather, we are aiming to keep the structure as it is and the readers are free to apply it to any gharana system or not. We have also included a big list of websites which have performances on Raag Shankara, and this will serve the learner in a multitude of ways.

Abstract: This study is our sincere effort and service towards Hindustani Classical Music. The raag which we are writing about in this article is Raag Yaman. We have researched multiple resources, which include books, websites, other digital media and multiple performances of various artists. The artists range from vocal, sitar, sarod, surbahar and flute. The aim of this article on Raag Yaman is to bring together the knowledge and historical background of Raag Yaman based on theory, structure, patterns and various ways the artists have expressed it over decades of performances. This article also serves as a unique learning resource for students of various skills, knowledge and performance levels, who are in the process of becoming performers and learners of Hindustani Classical Music. We are not endorsing or following a specific gharana system of music. Rather, we are aiming to keep the structure as it is and the readers are free to apply it to any gharana system or not. We have also included a big list of websites which have performances on Raag Yaman, and this will serve the learner in a multitude of ways. It would be ambitious to say that this is the first resource on Raag Yaman, but we can certainly say for sure that a study with such detail does not exist. We can confidently say that if a learner follows this article to learn Raag Yaman, then they would not have to spend endless hours researching the theory from other resources.

Abstract: This article proposes a novel method to describing the chord relations involving triads and seventh chords. It is based on the quantity of semitones between two chords, while also considering the quantity of common tones and the quality and quantity of intervals beyond semitones and common tones. The premise of this research is that the existence of semitones and quantity of semitones between chords are correlated with the degree of tendency of their relation. After examining the effects of semitones, common tones, and other intervals between two chords, this article introduces a new concept called “Chord Relation Value” to facilitate a quantitative and qualitative analysis of chord relations. A key innovation of this study is its departure from traditional voice leading concepts by examining all possible semitonal movements between two chords, leading to conclusions that differ from those of existing analytical theories. Through the analysis of musical excerpts from various periods, including classical music, pop music, jazz music and film music, this article demonstrates that the Chord Relation Value is highly effective in analyzing and describing the chord relations involving triads and seventh chords, applicable in both tonal and non-tonal contexts.

Abstract: This article examines the nature of musical stimuli used in eye-movement research on music reading, with a focus on syntactic elements essential for fluent reading: melody, rhythm, and harmony. Drawing parallels between language and music as syntactic systems, the study critiques the widespread use of stimuli that lack coherent musical structure, such as random pitch sequences or rhythmically ambiguous patterns. Eight peer-reviewed studies were analyzed based on their use of stimuli specifically composed for research purposes. The findings reveal that most stimuli do not reflect authentic musical syntax, limiting the validity of conclusions about music reading processes. The article also explores how researchers interpret the concept of “complexity” in musical stimuli, noting inconsistencies and a lack of standardized criteria. Additionally, it highlights the importance of considering motor planning and instrument-specific challenges, which are often overlooked in experimental design. The study calls for more deliberate and informed stimulus design in future research, emphasizing the need for syntactically meaningful musical excerpts and standardized definitions of complexity. Such improvements are essential for advancing the understanding of visual processing in music reading and ensuring methodological consistency across studies.

Abstract: This study explores the modern songs of Kabir Suman, a pivotal figure in contemporary Bengali music, through a semantic, discursive, and inclusive lens. His songs have redefined urban Bengali music by blending political consciousness, personal introspection, and social inclusivity. Through a multidisciplinary framework, this paper investigates how Suman’s lyrical innovations contribute to the cultural and political discourse in West Bengal and beyond. The study uses semantic analysis to unpack the meanings within his lyrics, discursive analysis to explore his thematic strategies, and inclusion theory to assess his engagement with marginalized voices. Findings reveal that Kabir Suman’s oeuvre challenges normative cultural narratives and reconstructs Bengali identity in postmodern urban spaces.