This study aimed to characterize the biomechanics of vibrato and non-vibrato phonation in professional singers, focusing on vocal fold oscillation patterns and cuneiform cartilage movements. Ten vocally healthy, professionally-trained, western classical singers were instructed to sustain the vowel [i:] without vibrato, with vibrato, and again without vibrato, for approximately two seconds for each quality. Data were collected via acoustic recordings, electroglottography (EGG), and transnasal high-speed videoendoscopy. After segmentation, glottal area waveforms (GAW) were analyzed, and temporal trajectories of fundamental frequency ( fo) and glottal parameters were compared. Cuneiform cartilage movement was tracked in three spatial dimensions using the videoendoscopic image sequences. The participants maintained a relatively stable mean fo across conditions, with no significant differences in open quotient (OQEGG and OQGAW) and closing quotient (ClQ) regarding vibrato and non-vibrato. During vibrato, most participants showed a higher OQ in vibrato fo minima than in maxima. Vibrato was associated with lower cepstral peak prominence and higher sound pressure level (SPL), and SPL courses inverse to fo modulation. The cuneiform tubercle tracking correlated to fo showed vertical and horizontal movements which followed, in one subject, an epiglottis forward positioning, presumably due to a tilting by cricothyroid muscle activity linked to the vibrato phenomenon.

Based on our experience conducting our own independent artistic-scientific and practice-based research projects and the experiences made over the last years leading the Doctoral Programme for Artistic Research at the University of Applied Arts and now working at ARC Artistic Research Center and their Doctor Artium programme, at mdw University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, we propose new and unconventional approaches to supervising and supporting doctoral artistic research work, whether their focus is more practice-based, theory-oriented or artistic-scientific. Design approaches, such as the pooling of supervision and strategically introducing moments of epistemic decompression, can support projects as well as candidates in a more sustainable and pluri-vocal manner, ultimately leading to the artist-researchers’ long-term independence, transcultural versatility and well-being. Reflexivity, methodology, and (somatic) learning theory are key points, as well as defining and conceptualising possibilities for supporting and supervising a line of work, which is directed into the unknown, unknowable, and uncertain, or located within limit-experiences. Open Access: https://doi.org/10.22501/ruu.3265756

Dirty Dragging ist dem unberechenbaren, nomadischen Mitschleppen gewidmet und reformuliert queertheoretische Fragen aus transozeanischer Perspektive. Das Buch beschäftigt sich mit der Ambivalenz ›dreckiger‹ Auftrittsformen von Drag über Karneval bis zur Propaganda in politischen Gewaltzusammenhängen: unter Apartheid, NS und Jim Crow-Segregation. Evelyn Annuß erweitert die Lektüre von Gender Bending um Perspektiven auf Blackface und ›racialized Drag‹. Entsprechend fragt Dirty Dragging sowohl nach gewaltförmigen, lokal spezifischen Mobilisierungen des Transgressiven als auch danach, wie sich queere und kreolisierte Formen performativen Widerstreits gegen identitäre Trennungen verschränken. So erinnert das Buch vor dem Hintergrund gegenwärtigen rechtsautoritären Abdriftens zugleich an das potenzielle Glück, die Verhältnisse kollektiv zum Tanzen zu bringen

Facing Drag brings together international experts from fields like history, media, theatre, and performance studies to explore how gender, race, and ethnicity are impersonated across time and cultures. Using diverse case studies, the volume examines acts of crossing, appropriation, and re-signification in performance, highlighting their political, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions. It expands the concept of drag beyond gender bending, investigating its intersections with racialization and colonial histories. The essays offer critical insights into both the subversive potential of drag and its entanglement with violent forms of othering and exclusion. Mit Beiträgen von Evelyn Annuß, nora chipaumire, Sam Ehrentraut, Zimitri Erasmus, Elaine S. Frantz, Aurélie Godet, Karin Harrasser, Nanna Heidenreich, Katrin Köppert, Eric Lott, Julia Ostwald, Jay Pather und Raz Weiner

How can diverse musical interactions be productively used to promote inter- and transcultural communication, support human thriving and flourishing, empower marginalised social groups, or make society as a whole more sustainable, just and inclusive? Bringing together perspectives from research and practice, this edited volume explores how music mediation as a distinct artistic-educational practice can foster social cohesion, enable dialogue, and create new forms of engagement. The contributions critically reflect on the conditions, limitations, and potentials of music mediation in various contexts, providing insights for scholars, musicians, and practitioners working at the intersection of music and society.

Touchless control of human-computer interfaces in science-fiction has inspired several musical applications. This paper presents Cloud Hands, a touchless musical assemblage that controls sample-based granular synthesis via hand motion. The paper discusses how the assemblage manifests in three emanations: as a sound interface, a digital music instrument and an interactive multimedia composition. A dedicated Python script extracts the hand landmark positions and distances from a camera frame, which are mapped to control parameters of granular synthesis of a sample in Pure Data. A Wekinator patch may extract symbolic hand poses to change samples and playback speed. The emanations use varying modes of visual feedback, from no feedback at all to wire-frame models of the hand to sound material-related segmentation of video material as a reference map. Performance recollections from the first author and other users of Cloud Hands are analyzed in order to identify conveniences and constraints of the sensing technology, mapping, and sound production. Finally, the paper discusses the influence of conveniences and constraints on aesthetics, form and performance behavior.

In order to simulate the function of bowed string instruments, it is necessary to model the frictional interaction between the bow hair and the vibrating string. This is possible using an elasto-plastic friction model, which has previously succeeded in reproducing experimental data captured on a monochord setup. In this study, this elasto-plastic model is refined to guarantee passivity, and a stable numerical scheme is derived that inherits the energy balance of the underlying continuous model. The approach presented considers a finite-width bow, thus spreading the bow–string interaction over an area. The compliance of the bow hair and the torsional motion of the string are also taken into account. A sound example and animations of the string motion are provided to demonstrate the behavior of the model.

Suizidalität ist ein verbreitetes Sujet unzähliger Lieder, Opernarien und Instrumentalstücke – so etwa im berühmt-berüchtigten Suicide Song »Gloomy Sunday«. Aktuell wird in fachlichen und populärwissenschaftlichen Debatten diskutiert, inwieweit Musik Einfluss auf reale Suizidhandlungen zeitigt, sei es als Risiko- oder als protektiver Faktor. Die Beiträge des Bands, die auf dem Symposium »Musik und Suizidalität« an der mdw – Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien 2022 der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt wurden, greifen diese Debatten auf. Der Band bringt erstmals kulturhistorische, empirische, medizinische und therapeutische Perspektiven zusammen, um den Diskurs über das noch immer tabubehaftete Thema weiter zu etablieren und mit Sichtweisen aus der Praxis zu erweitern. Mit Beiträgen von Andy R. Brown, Julia Heimerdinger, Susanne Korn, Thomas Macho, Paul Plener, Claudius Stein, Benedikt Till & Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, Harm Willms sowie Studierenden der Musiktherapie und der Instrumental- und Gesangspädagogik

Music has long been at the forefront of social activism and some genres have built their global reputation as a weapon of resistance and empowerment. When these genres spread into a country like China and gain considerable popularity, the world celebrates the decline of the authoritarian system and sees them as threats to ideological hegemony. However, centralized control of musical activities is more than manufacturing standardized propaganda products. In mainland China, the system also operates to generate “out of control” phenomena, to channel people’s desires to act beyond restrictions. This article focuses on the rise of Chinese rock, a happening that has been interpreted in the existing body of scholarly literature as successful rebellion and as indicating the democratic nature of China’s popular music culture. After a reflexive discussion on the limits of prevalent data-collection methods in the study of Chinese popular music, this article reveals the state’s leading role in the promotion of Cui Jian, who is globally renowned as the Father of Chinese Rock. This article challenges a prevalent understanding in the existing body of literature on Chinese popular music, that is, Cui Jian and his rock songs were subversive and banned in the 1980s. It examines how a state-led music reform was turned into the people's choice and into the outcome of a successful rebellion.