Papers by Dr Freya Bailes
It is thought that musicians are particularly disposed t o imagining music, in activities ranging... more It is thought that musicians are particularly disposed t o imagining music, in activities ranging from composition and performance to listening. Yet the experience of having a musical fragment ‘on the brain’ suggests that musical imagery is not restricted to deliberate musical activity. Little is known about the prevalence or nature of ‘tune on the brain’ phenomena. An obstacle has been the reliance on indirect, retrospective report. The current study addresses this issue b y adapting Experience-Sampling Methods (ESM) to explore musical imagery as it occurs in everyday life. Eleven university music students were cued to fill out an experiencesampling form at random times throughout a seven-day period. The strength of imagery for different musical dimensions was probed, while more general questions explored respondents’ current activities, interaction with others, and mood. Participants reported actually hearing music for 47% of these episodes, and imagining music for 35%. Thus, for these music students, having a ‘tune on the brain’ was a common form of musical experience. Though individual variation was demonstrated between respondents, clear global differences were found between the strength of their reported imagery for different musical dimensions. A high rate of return and the depth of information provided by respondents suggest that ESM techniques are a promising way of exploring ‘tune on the brain’ experience. It is argued that this method would also be amenable to the investigation of musical imagery in a wider population.
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Australian Journal of Psychology, 2005
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In previous work we have shown that acoustic intensity profiles can be strong predictors of conti... more In previous work we have shown that acoustic intensity profiles can be strong predictors of continuous-response patterns of perceptions of change and affect expressed by classical and electroacoustic music. We studied a section of Trevor Wishart’s Red Bird in depth, and began a study of Xenakis’s Bohor. Bohor shares generic patterns of intensity change across the piece with many other electroacoustic (ea) pieces we have studied: crescendi are short, with a high rate of change of intensity, while decrescendi are longer and with slower rates of change. Here we used statistical techniques of time series analysis seeking to relate listener perceptions and acoustic properties of part of Bohor, and part of Xenakis’s orchestral piece Metastaseis. Time series analysis models the ongoing process of the perceptual responses. We found that surface timbral features of the latter, such as tremelandi, brass entries, glissandi and silence, though related to acoustic intensity patterns, were separable influences on perception; they constitute perceptually important events. The basic acoustic features of the section of Bohor we studied are more homogeneous, and at least for listeners unfamiliar with the piece, perceptual responses correspondingly are slighter. Possible future developments in the study of perception of Xenakis’s electroacoustic music, and ea music in general, are discussed
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British Journal of Music Education, Feb 15, 2016
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Psychology of Music, 2000
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Psychomusicology: Music, Mind and Brain, Mar 1, 2015
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Musicae Scientiae, Sep 1, 2009
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Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Apr 28, 2019
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Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), May 4, 2018
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Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 2022
Imagining music in the mind's ear is common in everyday life and is characterised by individu... more Imagining music in the mind's ear is common in everyday life and is characterised by individual differences in who is likely to experience involuntary musical imagery. Research has explored the relationship between musical imagery and mental health (e.g., obsessive compulsive disorder); however, little is known about the relationship between anxiety and musical imagery. The current study investigated the associations between these two variables. 432 participants completed a cross-sectional, online survey, measuring trait anxiety, depression, musical imagery experience, the controllability of unwanted thoughts, and aspects of sleep. Positive associations were found between trait anxiety and the frequency, negative valence and perceived helpfulness of involuntary musical imagery, and the amount of music imagined whilst trying to sleep. Trait anxiety did not correlate with the controllability of auditory imagery. These findings provide a clearer understanding of musical imagery'...
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Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-msx-10.1177_10298649211046979 for Is music listening an effective... more Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-msx-10.1177_10298649211046979 for Is music listening an effective intervention for reducing anxiety? A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled studies by Cristina Harney, Judith Johnson, Freya Bailes and Jelena Havelka in Musicae Scientiae
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The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Imagination, Volume 2
Freya Bailes deals with the topic of musical imagery, and she uses embodied cognition as a framew... more Freya Bailes deals with the topic of musical imagery, and she uses embodied cognition as a framework to argue that musical imagery is a multimodal experience. Existing empirical studies of musical imagery are reviewed and Bailes points to future directions for the study of musical imagery as an embodied-cognition phenomenon. Arguing that musical imagery can never be fully disembodied, Bailes moves beyond the idea of auditory imagery as merely a simulation of auditory experience by “the mind’s ear.” Instead, she outlines how imagining sounds involves kinesthetic imagery and she concludes that sound and music are always connected to sensory motor processing.
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Music and Consciousness 2
Musical imagery can be defined as the conscious experience of an internal representation of music... more Musical imagery can be defined as the conscious experience of an internal representation of music—a form of inner hearing. This chapter adopts a psychological approach to considering temporal aspects of musical imagery, from the characteristics and frequency of episodes ranging in scale from seconds and minutes (e.g. the mental continuation of interrupted music), to the potential impact of circadian (24-hour) rhythms upon the subjective experience of musical imagery. The common ground between musical imagery and other forms of spontaneous cognition, combined with evidence of temporal fluctuations in our conscious awareness of inner music, suggests a new cyclical model of musical imagery. Exploring the music in our ‘mind’s ear’ has the potential to shed light on the time course of consciousness, with consequences not just for what it means to re-present music in the mind but also for how and when new ideas come to be experienced in our imaginations.
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Together in Music
Looking back at the diverse chapters of the “Together in music” volume, three main themes are ide... more Looking back at the diverse chapters of the “Together in music” volume, three main themes are identified that reoccur. These relate to the relevance of embodied in-the-moment interaction between musicians for the creative processes to develop, the rich multi-dimensionality of the group music-making experience at a micro-, meso-, and macro-level, and the close relationships between social and musical coordination. These themes highlight the need to advance research by investigating ensemble performance and creativity at multiple analytical levels, e.g. taking microtiming, social coordination, and identity into account, and by explicitly considering developments and emergence over time. Furthermore, these themes promote the advancement of methods and techniques to investigate ensemble music-making processes, several of which are identified and illustrated in the book, including pattern detection in behavioral interaction, visualization of relationships between musicians, and innovatio...
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Together in Music, 2021
Timing and synchronization represent fundamental elements of ensemble playing. Empirical research... more Timing and synchronization represent fundamental elements of ensemble playing. Empirical research has demonstrated remarkably tight synchronization in ensembles, including instrumental and classical singing formations. Nevertheless, asynchronies between co-performers during ensemble playing are inevitable and, to some extent, desirable: musicians deliberately co-vary their timing and synchronization to attain mastery in expressive ensemble performance. By reviewing published studies on ensemble synchrony, the contextual factors that may impact synchronization are presented. Considerations of ensemble timing are then broadened to better recognize variations by musical tradition. Ultimately, the chapter reflects on the relationships between intrapersonal and interpersonal synchrony in ensemble, from the lowest levels of the temporal hierarchy, including neural activity, to the higher levels comprising breathing and cardiac activities, and musicians’ body gestures. This overview provid...
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Patterns of acoustic intensity profiles are investigated in recorded performances of the music of... more Patterns of acoustic intensity profiles are investigated in recorded performances of the music of Haydn. Consistent with our earlier observations of composed, acousmatic, live-performed, and improvised electroacoustic music, and of jazz improvisations (Dean & Bailes, 2010a, b), we hypothesised that in successive pairs of intensity rises and falls, rises are shorter in duration relative to falls, follow a faster rate of dynamic intensity change (decibel change / time), but are not significantly different in frequency of occurrence. We ask here whether this hypothesis is applicable to interpretations of 119 movements of Haydn’s works. We consider a wide range of instrumental groupings, from solo to orchestral, and we also consider multiple performances of single pieces. The hypothesised pattern was routinely observed. We also took note of alternative predictions that might flow from the ‘ramp archetype’ observed by Huron (1991) in notated scores of the classical and romantic era, nota...
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Music Perception, 2016
We investigate the roles of the acoustic parameters intensity and spectral flatness in the modeli... more We investigate the roles of the acoustic parameters intensity and spectral flatness in the modeling of continuously measured perceptions of affect in nine diverse musical extracts. The extract sources range from Australian Aboriginal and Balinese music, to classical music from Mozart to minimalism and Xenakis; and include jazz, ambient, drum n' bass and performance text. We particularly assess whether modeling perceptions of the valence expressed by the music, generally modeled less well than the affective dimension of arousal, can be enhanced by inclusion of perceptions of change in the sound, human agency, musical segmentation, and random effects across participants, as model components. We confirm each of these expectations, and provide indications that perceived change in the music may eventually be subsumed adequately under its components such as acoustic features and agency. We find that participants vary substantially in the predictors useful for modeling their responses ...
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Papers by Dr Freya Bailes