THE TERM GROWL TYPICALLY REFERS TO LOW-PITCHED,rough sounds uttered by animals. Humans occasionally use growl-like voices to express excessive emotions. Acoustically characterized by loud dynamics and low values of the harmonic-to-noise ratio, growl-like sounds usually express anger and excitement associated with aggression. We propose a biomechanical model relating the aggressive characteristic of the growl-like timbre to the motor mechanisms underlying growl production in humans, highlighting how an abdominal muscle contraction enhances spine stability, which plays a critical role in physical attacks. This model was supported by the experimental data of activation of the deepest abdominal muscle during resting, singing, and growling. We found a significant positive correlation between the abdominal muscle activity associated with producing voice and the perceived aggressiveness intensity of voice. The cognition of growl-like sounds is discussed from the perspectives of biomechanics, evolutionary biology, and cognitive science.

INSIGHTS INTO MUSICAL CONDUCTING are traditionally derived from educational manuals and from interviews with conductors about their intuitive knowledge. Conducting as a form of highly specialized nonverbal communication has scarcely been studied empirically up to now. We investigated the perception of expressive movements used by conductors, as seen from three different positions with a multimodal, repeated-measures design. Observers with music training evaluated video recordings of several conductors with continuous and retrospective measures. Results indicate that watching the conductors from positions of woodwind players and first violinists (frontal and left-hand side) is perceptually more informative compared to the celli/double bass position (right-hand side). Observers gained specific information about the conductors' expressive musical intentions even in visual-only video sequences. Crosscorrelations between quantitative characteristics of conductors' movements and observers' continuous expressiveness responses show a tendency for different response time lags. These time lags are related to individual conductors' general affective behavior.

A critical and comparative review of the various methods currently used in experimental studies of tonality induction is presented. First, we deal with pitfalls in the selection of subjects, specifically focusing on the issue of contrasting more-experienced and less-experienced listeners. Next, we discuss some dilemmas with respect to the selection of stimuli. In particular, we compare the (dis) advantages of using real music stimuli with the (dis) advantages of artificial stimuli, distinguishing in the latter category between prototypical stimuli (e.g., chords or scale fragments) and tonally complex or even polytonal stimuli. Finally, we consider the (dis) advantages of various possible experimental paradigms, notably the production of a tonic and tonal center, the probe-tone paradigm, and tonality rating. For each of the three methodological subdomains, we propose recommendations for improvement.

This article will present a single case study of the acoustic attributes of sound production techniques that are involved in the expansion of performance practice with the violin. In this study, four elements were chosen from the multidimensional network involved in playing a normal tone, and then each was intentionally decoupled from ordinario. These elements (bow speed, bow placement, bow angle, and bow portion) were scaled between minimal and maximal values for any single parameter. Then, between minimal and maximal values, a series of scalar degrees were chosen to more or less uniformly link these extremes. This article will present acoustical attributes of these methods and discuss implications for musical usage. This study found that decoupling of any single parameter will result in perceptible differences that range from timbral to dynamical (sound) class change.

Im Geleitwort zur ersten Ausgabe erläutern die Herausgeber die Hintergründe und den Entstehungsprozess des neuen 'Online First' Publikationsmodus des 'Jahrbuchs Musikpsychologie' und stellen die Prinzipien des neuen Modells vor.