Understanding motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. This project examines motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. It applies major theoretical explanations from other domains where optimising motivation and practice quality has consistently been found to increase performance, persistence, learning, creativity, and wellbeing. The expected outcomes of the project address the competitiveness of Australian musicians, particularly in light of significantly lo ....Understanding motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. This project examines motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. It applies major theoretical explanations from other domains where optimising motivation and practice quality has consistently been found to increase performance, persistence, learning, creativity, and wellbeing. The expected outcomes of the project address the competitiveness of Australian musicians, particularly in light of significantly lower funding for music institutions compared to international counterparts. The research endeavours to inform understandings about the nature of motivation and practice more generally, by extending conceptions that have until now been formed largely through research in non-artistic domains of human accomplishment.Read moreRead less
Making Music Work: Sustainable Portfolio Careers for Australian Musicians. This project plans to explore the conditions and strategies needed for musicians to sustain successful portfolio careers. Most musicians have ‘portfolio careers’, combining aspects of performance, recording, creation, music direction, teaching, community activities, health, retail and a presence in online environments. This phenomenon — often across music genres — is widespread but not well understood. The project involve ....Making Music Work: Sustainable Portfolio Careers for Australian Musicians. This project plans to explore the conditions and strategies needed for musicians to sustain successful portfolio careers. Most musicians have ‘portfolio careers’, combining aspects of performance, recording, creation, music direction, teaching, community activities, health, retail and a presence in online environments. This phenomenon — often across music genres — is widespread but not well understood. The project involves surveys and 12 in-depth case studies of individual musicians or ensembles that will aim to identify key success factors and obstacles. This information is intended to inform opportunities for training, development and support.Read moreRead less
Maintaining active minds and bodies through adult music education. This project aims to investigate how instructional design can enhance learning and wellbeing for older adults who are studying a musical instrument for the first time. Music is a highly valued cultural activity in this age group, yet teaching strategies are seldom modified from that for young learners. This project expects to generate fundamental knowledge of improvisation as a learning stimulus, and of the possible barriers of ....Maintaining active minds and bodies through adult music education. This project aims to investigate how instructional design can enhance learning and wellbeing for older adults who are studying a musical instrument for the first time. Music is a highly valued cultural activity in this age group, yet teaching strategies are seldom modified from that for young learners. This project expects to generate fundamental knowledge of improvisation as a learning stimulus, and of the possible barriers of musical notation and the physical demands of an instrument. Intended outcomes include uptake of results by music professionals, aged-care and older-adult education service providers, leading to significant benefits in the social, cultural, and physical health and wellbeing for this growing population.Read moreRead less
Agile opera: chamber opera in a new era. Chamber Made Opera and university researchers will explore new production and audience models that engage a digitally enabled society. This project will support the creation of innovative performance works, enable the engagement of new audiences, and provide outcomes that promote the sustainability of arts organisations in the digital age.
The Western Australia New Music Archive: 1970 - today: finding, accessing, remembering, performing. This project sees the creation of the Western Australian New Music Archive, a digital repository of and interface to Western Australian music composed from 1970 to the present day. A partnership between peak state and national bodies, the project will also involve the performance and recording of works from the archive.
Loudness moves! Roles of changing acoustic intensity in the perception of music. Changing loudness of a sound is an urgent cue for object location, and an emotional cue in speech and music. With new empirical techniques, we will identify roles of loudness in perception of structure, arousal and emotion in music. The work has application in inter-personal communication, sonic information display and, and in music selling online.
The shock of the old: Rediscovering the sounds of bel canto 1700-1900. Bel canto—beautiful singing—describes a forgotten tradition (1700–1900), epitomising clear communication of expression and meaning of text. This project aims to generate new research-based knowledge of bel canto sound vocabulary, music, and history through implementation of a multi-modal method—working with an international community of singers—to produce multi-faceted outputs that inform future scholarship and creativity in ....The shock of the old: Rediscovering the sounds of bel canto 1700-1900. Bel canto—beautiful singing—describes a forgotten tradition (1700–1900), epitomising clear communication of expression and meaning of text. This project aims to generate new research-based knowledge of bel canto sound vocabulary, music, and history through implementation of a multi-modal method—working with an international community of singers—to produce multi-faceted outputs that inform future scholarship and creativity in singing. Modern classical singing fails to communicate the meaning of the text in bel canto repertory. Expected outcomes are revitalisation of global practices to produce classical singers better equipped to convey the text, increasing audience engagement, and the sustainability of the classical music industry.Read moreRead less
Hearing the music of early New South Wales, 1788-1860 . This project aims to restore the musical sound world of early New South Wales, from local Aboriginal songs to imported European settler music. It aims to develop new creative research methodologies applicable to the study, teaching and understanding of musical interactions in the early colony. By digitally embedding the recorded outcomes and documentary materials within an accessible web repository, the project aims to disseminate new knowl ....Hearing the music of early New South Wales, 1788-1860 . This project aims to restore the musical sound world of early New South Wales, from local Aboriginal songs to imported European settler music. It aims to develop new creative research methodologies applicable to the study, teaching and understanding of musical interactions in the early colony. By digitally embedding the recorded outcomes and documentary materials within an accessible web repository, the project aims to disseminate new knowledge of musical soundscapes. The project expects to transform the way we talk about and understand the sound worlds of Indigenous and settler musical cultures, with benefits for academic, music professional and amateur researchers.Read moreRead less
Deciphering nineteenth-century pianism. The project aims to investigate the nature of 19th-century piano playing and offer new and alternative ways of interpreting 19th-century repertoire. Current approaches to playing 19th-century piano music differ from evidence of historical practices. The project will address this with ideas on 19th-century piano practice, the relationship between music notation and performance, increased interpretive choices, and a method for historically informed performan ....Deciphering nineteenth-century pianism. The project aims to investigate the nature of 19th-century piano playing and offer new and alternative ways of interpreting 19th-century repertoire. Current approaches to playing 19th-century piano music differ from evidence of historical practices. The project will address this with ideas on 19th-century piano practice, the relationship between music notation and performance, increased interpretive choices, and a method for historically informed performance. Published multi-modal outputs will serve as industry models fostering diversity in performing styles.The project aims to bring social and psychological health benefits, increase wellbeing in our culture and society, and boost the music economy.Read moreRead less
The physics and art of expressive performance on wind instruments. This project aims to understand the non-linear physics underlying how musicians produce beautiful, expressive phrases. Elegant, expressive playing is much more than just the right notes. Using techniques unique to this team, we will give a deeper understanding of how breath pressure, mouth geometry and forces, tongue action and finger motions interact to communicate expression in musical phrases on a wind instrument. The outcome ....The physics and art of expressive performance on wind instruments. This project aims to understand the non-linear physics underlying how musicians produce beautiful, expressive phrases. Elegant, expressive playing is much more than just the right notes. Using techniques unique to this team, we will give a deeper understanding of how breath pressure, mouth geometry and forces, tongue action and finger motions interact to communicate expression in musical phrases on a wind instrument. The outcome will be the understanding of how varying control parameters interact at the physical level and how this communicates expression to listeners. Understanding interactions that expert players perform unconsciously will have significant benefits to music learning and teaching.Read moreRead less