Silent Towns: Telematic Media for Remote Ensemble Performance

In this chapter we analyze musical interactions among elementary school children, highlighting, through ethnographic approaches, the creative musical processes that occur spontaneously in school contexts. To sustain the arguments that allow us to state that musical creative behavior is seen in school children's daily practices, some theoretical assumptions were made: creativity is a common attribute to all human beings and is potentially developable; creative experiences are deeply gratifying; and musical creativity is strongly related to playfulness behaviors. The empirical context of the research is a set of first, third and fourth grade classes that were studied through the lens of school ethnography and in accordance with the methodology chosen by Patricia Ca mpbell (1998) in her ethnographic research conducted in child contexts where music interaction took place. The results of the study revealed that children's musical behavior happens in several different moments of daily school routine as well as in almost all its spaces. In all musical manifestations/interactions, creativity was a central issue that drove the activity and, at the same time, gave sense and pleasure to it. The creative musical behaviors were categorized to better understand and study them. The three main categories were: individual musical practices; collective musical practices; and musical practices related to adult interaction (mainly with teachers). Creativity was revealed under interaction with surrounding sound sources (natural or human), and in 'musical dialogues' between children. It was also seen in musical learning/teaching contexts between children, where a great set of creative solutions were essential to promote and maintain a playful situation. Finally, this research enables us to say that there were more creative musical behaviors when children were interacting together, than when under the direct supervision of adults (teachers).

Marxist theory is the important guiding ideology on which we have built the Party and the country, and prospered and strengthened the Party. The Communist Party of China has led the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country through a century of hard struggle to make the brilliant achievement of rising from standing up, getting rich and becoming strong. This is attributed to the fact that the Party has combined the essence of the excellent culture of the Chinese nation, which has been deposited for thousands of years, with the standpoints, viewpoints and methods of Marxism, and has made creative use and innovative development of Marxist theory, forming a Chinese-style and modernized scientific theoretical system of Marxism that meets China’s national conditions in the practice of China’s revolution, construction and reform. The “two combinations” is a major theoretical point of view formed in the process of the development of the localization of Marxism in China, reflecting the realistic requirements of the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. At the same time, it also highlights the Party’s profound understanding of the trend of Marxism’s theoretical evolution, promotes the theoretical innovation and development of contemporary Marxism, and lays a solid theoretical and practical foundation for the realization of the second hundred-year goal.

The purpose of this research was to explore the engagement and flow experiences in collective music practices of amateurs, students, and professional musicians. Based on the first phase of a sequential explanatory mixed methods research design, this article presents the results obtained from an online survey with 102 participants from diverse collective music practices. The results obtained were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Some statistically significant differences were observed in the interaction between participant groups (amateurs, students, and professionals) and dimensions of engagement (behavioral, cognitive, and emotional), as reported in the results and discussed in relation to the literature. In summary, we were able to explore and discuss some aspects of engagement, motivation, and flow experience based on the participants’ responses regarding their collective music practices.

COVID-19 pandemic and complete lockdowns brought about major changes in the education system. There was a sudden obligatory shift toward the utilization of digital resources for teaching and learning purposes in those critical times. Medical education, specifically physiology teaching comprises much of laboratory works and hands-on trainings; such curriculums are very difficult to implement in the virtual mode. The present study was designed to evaluate and validate the efficiency and impact of online physiology teaching through a virtual classroom system in a class of 83 first year undergraduate MBBS students. Questions based on the availability and use of technology, ease and effectiveness, the adeptness of faculty, and learning outcomes were circulated among the undergraduate MBBS students of a tertiary medical college and hospital via digital mode and responses were recorded and analysed. Validation through principal components and factor analysis had showed that the online teaching is not much effective and has a limited application in the physiology education of undergraduate MBBS students. Our study revealed that virtual physiology teaching to undergraduate medical students during COVID-19 pandemic had a moderate level of effectiveness.

Increasing the utilization of internet technology gave birth to the new challenges in the protection of privacy and personal data, especially with the increasing collection practices, the utilization and dissemination of one's personal data. Regulatory instruments and failed to become one of the trigger mechanism of the weak protection of privacy and personal data in particular in the use of cloud storage technology. Cloud storage is a technology which uses the internet and a central server that much to keep or manage user data. Cloud storage allows users to use the application without the install so that personal files can be accessed anywhere and at any time through internet access. This technology enables efficiency by concentrating storage, data processing and memory. However, on the other hand, cloud storage has raised new legal issues, namely how the personal data of users of cloud storage are protected from a variety of disclosure and distribution by cloud storage service providers to third parties.

COVID-19 lockdown improved river water quality in China

In spring 2020, governments of many countries implemented lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Worldwide, the pandemic forced about 1.5 billion children to stay at home for several weeks and to experience homeschooling. The objective of this study was to assess the variation in stress levels and associated factors in school-aged children in France during the first COVID-19 lockdown. A cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire was designed by an interdisciplinary team involving hospital child psychiatrists and school doctors. Between 15 June and 15 July 2020, Educational Academy of Lyon (France) invited the parents of school-aged children to participate in this survey. The first part of the questionnaire concerned the children with data on lockdown conditions, socio-demographic data, daily rhythms (eating and sleeping), perceived stress variations, and feelings. The second part assessed parental perspectives on their child’s psychological state and use of the mental health care system. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with stress variation (increased or decreased). A total of 7218 questionnaires were fully completed by children from elementary school to high school with a balanced sex ratio. In summary, 29% of children reported a higher stress level during the lockdown, 34% reported a lower stress level, and 37% reported no stress variation in the usual situation prior to COVID-19. Parents were most often able to identify signs of increased stress levels in their children. The most influential factors in the variation of stress for children were academic pressure, family relationships, and fear of being infected or infecting a family member with SARS-CoV-2. Our study underlines the high impact of school attendance stressors on children in usual conditions and encourages vigilance for children whose stress levels have decreased during the lockdown but who may have increased difficulty re-exposing themselves upon deconfinement.

The Covid-19 pandemic lockdown had a profound impact on British young adults' drug using lives. Overnight, participants found themselves unable to access the protective mechanisms, specifically peer groups and routines on which they had come to rely to control and maintain pleasure with their drug use. The resulting analysis from online semi-structured qualitative interviews with 14 young people exposes a trend in drug use patterns. Substances that are easily intertwined in their daily lives and the conditions of lockdown, such as cannabis, alcohol, and cocaine were used more frequently and more habitually. Despite a perception of low risk due to prevalent use, these substances pose a heightened risk of dependency. In this article, I argue that because they were socially isolated and without protective mechanisms, such as peer support or daily routines, participants incorporated these drugs into their work-from-home regimes. This gave rise to a potential lack of control of their use. This insight contributes to enhancing a nuanced understanding of (un)controlled drug use among young people and the factors that influence this.

Urban tourist beach ecosystems provide the essential service of recreation. These ecosystems also support critical ecological functions where biodiversity conservation is not usually a priority. The sudden lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic created a unique opportunity to evaluate the effects of human absence in these urban-coastal ecosystems. This study examined bioindicators from 29 urban tourist beaches in seven Latin-American countries and assesses their response to lockdown about some relevant anthropogenic stressors such as pollution, noise, human activities, and user density. The presence of animals and plants, as well as the intensity of stressors, were assessed through a standardized protocol during lockdown conditions. Additionally, the environmental conditions of the beaches before and during lockdown were qualitatively compared using multivariate non-parametric statistics. We found notable positive changes in biological components and a clear decrease in human stressors on almost all the beaches. Dune vegetation increased on most sites. Similarly, high burrow densities of ghost crabs were observed on beaches, except those where cleaning activity persisted. Because of the lockdown, there was an exceptionally low frequency of beach users, which in turn reduced litter, noise and unnatural odors. The observed patterns suggest that tourist beaches can be restored to natural settings relatively quickly. We propose several indicators to measure changes in beaches once lockdown is relaxed. Adequate conservation strategies will render the recreational service of tourist beaches more environmental-friendly.

Analyzing protective factors for adolescents’ mental health during COVID-19 pandemic in Spain: A longitudinal study

Psychological distress during the COVID-19 lockdown: The young adults most at risk

In this article, we present part of the results from a wide-ranging research study addressing Orquestra Geração (OG), a Sistema-like project set up in Portugal in 2007. Orquestra Geração strives to bring about, through collective musical practices, the social inclusion and social mobility of children and teenagers experiencing educational and social vulnerability. The data collected include semi-structured interviews with three OG mentors, one of whom currently serves as the OG director, the OG sub-director, former national coordinators, the current national coordinator, and school coordinators, as well as observations of music classes, orchestra rehearsals and intensive summer internships. We briefly describe the project before detailing the organization’s identity and the profile of its music teachers in a narrative highlighted by the actors’ own words. Finally, we analyse the OG through the lenses of two different and yet complementary conceptual frameworks: Mintzberg’s organizational typology, and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, as expanded and applied by Engeström. Findings suggest an underlying tension between adopting El Sistema’s methodology, as implemented in Venezuela, and adapting this to the Portuguese context. Moreover, a concentration of power in a few key figures may possibly prevent Orquestra Geração from prospering within a framework where its identity stands out as an autonomous project from El Sistema.

Examining the differences between presentational and participatory music, this paper explores the importance of jam sessions as hybrid performance models and collective musical practices. As such, they display democratic and hierarchic devices that produce complex social and cultural settings, providing particular frameworks for community gathering and interaction between the different participants. Based on my field research in the Madrid’s blues scene, where jam sessions have gained a dominant widespread, I will discuss two significant and distinct jams that take place every Sunday. The aim is to practically analyse what type of musical experiences and relationships they produce, considering the significance of the blues genre production and the underground status of the scene. Overall, I intend to broaden the academic interpretations of jam sessions, suggesting hybridity as a theoretical framework for analysing the social life of situated live music experiences in different genres.

Reviewed by: Harnessing Harmony: Music, Power, and Politics in the United States, 1788–1865 by Billy Coleman Rebeccah Bechtold (bio) Music, Music history, Civil society Harnessing Harmony: Music, Power, and Politics in the United States, 1788–1865. By Billy Coleman. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020. Pp. 268. Cloth, $27.95.) When Whig presidential candidate William Henry Harrison narrowly defeated Martin Van Buren in 1840, it was largely thanks to the power of music, or so Democratic critics of Whig electioneering practices insisted. As the Albany Argus—a Democratic newspaper disgruntled by the election's results—proclaimed late in that year, "By their glee-clubs and other kindred appliances," the Whigs "have endeavored to debase the minds of the people" (quoted on 107). Certainly, music's use in political campaigns was far from novel. Yet, as Billy Coleman deftly argues in Harnessing Harmony, early Americans approached such music "as if it were akin to a new technology" (92). Taking as its primary subject how early Americans "thought about music in relation to politics" (6), Harnessing Harmony ultimately argues that music became a deliberate vehicle in which elite ideals about the American democratic system were disseminated to a larger populace. Musicologists and historians alike have unraveled music's at times divisive position in the lives of early Americans. Thanks to the efforts of Richard Crawford, Nicholas Tawa, and Karen Ahlquist, among others, we have a clear sense of music's origin and reception in the early United States. More recent works by Daniel Cavicchi, Joanna Brooks, and Laura Lohman have complicated these narratives further, demonstrating how Americans from diverse backgrounds participated in music in both private and public ways. Although clearly indebted to these scholarly traditions, Harnessing Harmony challenges the oft-held view that populist music was primarily exercised to confront those in power; rather, in Coleman's analyses, popular music was a tool "elite Americans consistently and adaptively" used "as a means of social control" (3). [End Page 346] Most notable perhaps is Coleman's rereading of the political lineage of Francis Scott Key's "The Star-Spangled Banner." Coleman argues that Key, a southern Federalist outspoken on the importance of national unity, drew on a Federalist tradition of defining music as "an effective means of convincing people to forgo partisanship and rally behind the wisdom of the nation's leaders" (26). Returning "The Star-Spangled Banner" to its early history helps us better understand how Federalists used popular music as a "ready-made means for fostering precisely the kind of political culture . . . in which elite values shaped American values" (47). This top-down approach established a tradition influencing antebellum electoral politics in the ensuing years—eventually leading Harrison to the presidency. Even though Whig campaign songs like "Good Hard Cider" and "Log Cabin" seemed to emphasize "your average laborer," they were often marketed to an aspirationally elite clientele who would appreciate the songs' "lavish lithographs by Nathaniel Currier" and "high-quality print work" (102). For Whigs, campaign music offered a respectable outlet through which middle-class Americans could participate in a grassroots campaign, all while avoiding the more unruly processes associated with popular democracy. This Federalist approach to popular music also paved the way for the establishment of musical organizations like the Boston Handel and Haydn Society (founded in 1815), the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia (founded in 1820), and the Boston Academy of Music (founded in 1833). The publication of The Boston Handel and Haydn Society's Collection of Church Music in 1822 certainly solidified the American public's interest in a collective music practice by quickly becoming the "nation's common source of accessible and respectable music" (60). Yet not all Americans agreed over the appropriate relationship between civil society and its governing body. When the Boston Academy of Music, led by Samuel Atkins Eliot, proposed that Boston incorporate music into its public-school curriculum, the Common Council initially turned down the proposal. While not objecting to the value of music per se—public sentiment generally was in favor of musical education—they proved wary of what seemed to be a "larger partisan-based attempt to influence public culture through civil society institutions," particularly what...

Examining the differences between presentational and participatory music, this paper explores the importance of jam sessions as hybrid performance models and collective musical practices. As such, they display democratic and hierarchic devices that produce complex social and cultural settings, providing particular frameworks for community gathering and interaction between the different participants. Based on my field research in the Madrid’s blues scene, where jam sessions have gained a dominant widespread, I will discuss two significant and distinct jams that take place every Sunday. The aim is to practically analyse what type of musical experiences and relationships they produce, considering the significance of the blues genre production and the underground status of the scene. Overall, I intend to broaden the academic interpretations of jam sessions, suggesting hybridity as a theoretical framework for analysing the social life of situated live music experiences in different genres.