This study investigates usage and knowledge of musical narrative functions in contemporary multimedia. A group of young adolescents were given the task of adapting musical expression, using the non-verbal research tool REMUPP, to fit different visual scenes shown on a computer screen. This was accomplished by manipulating seven musical parameters: instrumentation, tempo, harmonic complexity, rhythmic complexity, register, articulation and reverb. They also answered a questionnaire giving information about their musical training and media habits. Numerical data from the manipulation of the musical parameters were analysed to search for tendencies within the group with regard to the musical expression in relation to the different visual scenes shown. The results showed a large degree of in-group consensus regarding narrative functions of music, indicating knowledge about musical narrative codes and conventions. Also, the results were clearly influenced by factors such as the participants' musical training, gender and habits of music listening, playing computer games and watching movies — highlighting the complexity of learning and pointing to the impact of the increasing availability of narrative media on our attitudes and knowledge.

Narrative media music, music used for narrative purposes in multimedia such as film, television or computer games, is becoming one of the largest

In the past, musical instruments were developed overlong periods of time by skilled craftsmen. Today,most instruments are mass-produced. Design of musical instruments as mass-produced products requires using strategies which makeiteasier to identify customer needs and develop exact specifications. To develop useful specifications it is necessary to convert general descriptions into something which can be commonly understood and also be interpretable in terms of acoustic metrics. In this study,m ethods for analysis and specification of steady state parts of alto saxophone sounds were developed. Saxophonists' use of verbal descriptions of saxophone sounds wasi nvestigated. Sound stimuli were binaurally recorded. Judgements upon perceivedq ualities were made by saxophonists and non-saxophonists using the method of verbal attribute magnitude estimation. Perceptual dimensions were identified using principal component analysis of listening test data. Three prominent dimensions were found and described using the verbal attributes: 1) warm/soft, 2) back vowel analogues and 3) sharp/rough. The perceptual dimensions were modelled as linear functions of acoustic metrics. The results were validated through listening tests with news ubjects and news timuli. Based on the findings, the method wass een as an approach which can enhance the musical instrument design process. PACS no. 43.66.Jh, 43.66.Lj, 43.75.Pq ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA Nykänen et al.:P erceptual dimensions of saxophone sounds Vol. 95 (2009)

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Liver homogenates from 12 populations of the vlei rat Otomys irroratus (Brants 1827) were subjected to Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide electrophoresis on 7-17% gradient gels followed by Western blotting. Detection of antigenic proteins was carried out with an antiserum against liver proteins of one of these populations. Blots thus obtained were digitized into computer images and the gray level values of all electromorphs were recorded. A matrix of these values was then constructed and subjected to statistical analyses (discriminant function and cluster analysis by the Unweighed Pair Group Method with Averages). Boot-strapping parsimony analysis was performed on a multistate character matrix derived from the gray level data. Although immunoblotting seemed to be sufficiently sensitive to detect extensive individual variation, there was only partial agreement between the dendrograms thus generated and the trees previously obtained from chromosome studies (CoNTRAFATTO et a!. 1992b). Evolutionary implications of the findings are discussed and it is concluded that lack of congruence is most likely due to the detection, by this method, of old synapomorphies which pre-date the establishment of chromosomally defined groups of this species. This is taken as confirmation of a hypothesis which suggests that speciation can occur by chromosomal rearrangements before gene mutations, usually associated with speciation, become established.