My aim in this chapter is to offer some observations on the past, present and future of comparison in musicology. These comments concern the necessity of comparison, but also the profound difficulties it presents: understanding both the importance and problems of comparison is an important part of any cultural study of music. In order to introduce and to illustrate these observations, I will ma...

This study examined classical music’s effect on test anxiety and exam performance in a college setting by randomizing students to (1) listen to Mozart while studying and taking an exam, (2) study and take the exam under usual conditions, or (3) choose between these two alternatives. We controlled for: prior exam performance, year in college, age, the amount of time ordinarily listening to class...

Carnatic music, the classical music of South India, is rich in melodic and devotional content. Vocal renderings effectively convey the devotional aspect, and a variety of instruments enhance the melodic effect of the vocal renderings. After briefly tracing the origins and early development of Carnatic music, we will describe vocal and instrumental renderings and provide a comparison. We also al...

Tempo variations in classical music are an important means of artistic expression. Fluctuations in tempo can be large and sudden, making applications like automated score following a challenging task. Some of the fluctuations may be predicted from (tempo annotations in) the score, but prediction based only on the score is unlikely to capture the internal coherence of a performance. On the other...

OBJECTIVE The operatic singing technique is frequently used in classical music. Several acoustical parameters of this specific technique have been studied but how these parameters combine remains unclear. This study aims to further characterize the Western operatic singing technique by observing the effects of melody and technique on acoustical and musical parameters of the singing voice. MET...

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This paper presents the Fourier and wavelet characterization of vibratio...