This article is a survey and review of several writings on the philosophies and compositional techniques involving control and chance in the creation of modern art and music. The purpose of discussing and comparing these writings is to trace different understandings, reactions, and interpretations of these philosophies in order to offer a more informed perspective on these oft misunderstood techniques. The first article analyzed is Robert Charles Clark’s “Total Control and Chance in Musics: A Philosophical Analysis,” which discusses fundamental issues regarding both total control and chance music. The second article, Stephanie Ross’ “Chance, Constraint, and Creativity: The Awfulness of Modern Music,” presents some of the adverse reactions to these methods of composition. The third and fourth articles, Roland Barthes’ “The Death of the Author” and “From Work to Text,” offer a broader philosophical viewpoint on the different roles of the author and their product when creating art. The final article, Jeongwon Joe and S. Hoon Song’s “Roland Barthes’ ‘Text’ and Aleatoric Music: Is the ‘Birth of the Reader’ the Birth of the Listener?” concludes this survey by tying Barthes’ concepts back to music.

The main purpose of this article is to examine the methods and philosophies behind a work that the author composed for piano, “Junction +4.” The piece incorporates elements of both minimalism and indeterminacy. The author has made an effort to ascertain whether these seemingly contradictory methods can successfully coexist in a single piece of music. In this way he challenges the fact that minimalism inherently involves a careful regulation of predetermined elements, whereas indeterminacy by definition relinquishes control. In addition to addressing this paradox, “Junction +4” also serves as a representation and critique of technology in society. This article also talks about prominent composers and works that represent the categories of futurism, minimalism, and indeterminacy.

The text examines the phenomenon of categorical perception of musical pitch as defined by John Sloboda (1999), Jane A. and William Siegel (1977), Stefan Koelsch (2012), and William Yost (2013), in their researches in the field of music psychology. The paper states the hypothesis that the current system of dividing the octave in twelve equal semitones do not employ the human physical capabilities for defining pitch to their full extend. On the contrary, the reviewed literature testify for the existence of a strong tendency to categorically label and perceive non equally tempered intervals with different but close to each other magnitudes (widths) as the same. This tendency is stronger in professionally trained musicians than in non-musicians. A short historical excursion to the 21 tone 1/6 syntonic coma meantone temperament, recommended by both Leopold (1856) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1965), is included as an example for better utilization of the musicians’ potential to distinguish pitch and intervals, which had been employed in practice. The text continues with a brief overview of the theory behind generating intonations and temperaments, based on the Equal Division of the Octave (EDO) method. Finally, a short exemplary reference to Kyle Ganns’ cycle “Hyperchromatica” (2015) is made alongside with quoting his personal attitude and commentary towards the performers’ general interest for microtonal music. The paper concludes that the categorical perception of pitch in the context of the twelve-tone equal temperament may be regarded as the main challenge, which the microtonal music is facing.

In this article the author approached to musical time as complex phenomena using terms such as absolute and relative time. Author defined time as an objective time of the musical composition and the subjective time as psychological experience. Accordingly, absolute time is organized within the composition - it is objective and defined, thus can be expressed in size by the properties, values and symbols of musical elements, notation and timing. Musical time as the psychological phenomena is relative referring to the organization of time in performer’s mind, as well as how the performance is perceived and experienced by listeners. The nature of organization of elements of musical time in the performer’s mind lies in the conception of the structure of the temporal organization generated by the performer’s subjective expression, knowledge of the musical form, and motor/kinesthetic ability. Furthermore, the idea of the temporal structure also incorporates experience and practice, as well as intuition and aesthetic valuations. Thus, the structure of time is not independent – it interacts and relies upon other structures, building performer’s conception of the whole. Author concluded that understanding the time structure in music, i.e. how to recognize its symbols, how to organize it for the performance and while performing, is very important aspect of the musical expertise. Furthermore, in music education the special emphasis has to be laid on the musical time through learning and understanding its symbols, because perception and recognition of temporal structure would deepen student’s interpretation and knowledge of the form, and develop expressive and qualitative performance.

The practice of music in societies with oral tradition, in general, and particularly in black Africa, was rooted in the mythological beliefs, concerning the body of myth stories retold among people in those societies and interdictions/taboos and totems, which do not have grounds in logic and reason, that attempt to explain the nature of the human beings and their surrounding. Being the crucial elements that structure and regulate all sphres of life, as well as the manifestations and consequences of religious beliefs, those were the attempts to describe and explain the origins and fundamenatal values of a given culture and /or religious considerations of the people in the given society. If those extra-musical features were influential and inspiring enough, then that made it possible to establish the relations, i. e. the allusions to mythology and rituals which could be expressed in the music. When thinking about this particular fact, then it must be allowed that the music is likely to provide a primary document for understanding the sysems of thoughts and for teaching us lessons on certain facets of the life of those societies/ cultures. In particular, it can be used as a means to learn about their relationship to the environmental, natural occurances and the humanity, the fact the researchers have not been sufficiently focused on when research about the music. This research aims to reflect on how well musical art has contributed to addressing that goal, namely, based on the concrete examples drawn from the music of Lobi peoples/tribes, the author is trying to shine a light on how these peoples, consciously or instictively, convey an often complex set of problems, and communicate with an immediacy and universality that often sit outside of common language, particularly the environmental problems they encounter in their existence.

Drawing on research of contemporary dance music this study analyzes how practices of, and discourse about, contemporary dance music contribute to the performance and embodiment of gender, and national identities. This article examines the articulation of gender and national identity in performance in the specific context of Russian contemporary male national dance. Dance in particular is a very interesting research setting for a subject as identity. Dance is located mostly outside of the daily life setting, therefore it enables another social framework with different social norms and rules than the ones applicable in daily life. Especially the identity axes of gender and national identity are provoked by national dances. To create insight and to understand the background and discourse of her research, the author presents the theoretical framework at first. Next her argument will be elucidated by the empirical chapters, which represent her findings in the field. At the end the author answers her research questions, as well as evaluating some existing theories on the topic, in her conclusion. The conclusion is that the bodies of dancers are cultural bodies and dance movements can be seen as scripts, which are culturally encoded and part of daily life. The body is the materialization of cultural definitions of femininity and masculinity, maleness and femaleness, and also materializes the dancer’s interpretation of them, as was stated by Aalten (1997). Namely, dancers create and recreate their gender and national identity inter-subjectively while dancing. Dance allow people to reclaim their humanity and is inscribed within the realm of feeling and emotion, The dancing body is a symbolic expression that may embody many notions of desire, hate, romance, anger, sexual climax. Dance, dance music and culture are intrinsically connected. Dancers and their dance practices reflect what exist in a society and culture, like how sexuality and gender are perceived.

Ballets for children have been recognized as a unique genre of the dance art. From the point of children ballet production of the Yugoslav ballet assembly very little was documented, and this particularly referred to the Serbian production. Children‘s ballets aim to provide an experience for young people, to educate on dance art and to attract, engage and sustain children as an audience for major ballet houses. They challenge a whole range of difficultes and problems that have to be solved by the choreographers and dancers. For example, the first major challenge in taking children to the ballet is that the story is told entirely through dance, and many children find this aspect of the ballet difficult to appreciate. The author examined the representations of the ballet body and analyzed how this and some other difficulties have been solved in children‘s ballet production of the Serbian National Theatre Ballet (SNP) in Novi Sad during the long period of forty five years, from the first performances in 1972 up to now, namely to 2017. In addition, the author has made an inventory by listing repertoir, choreografies, and stories. She was tracking the number of performances for each production and the number of audience to conclude on the impact of the children‘s ballet. The implication of the paper is that the possibile solutions referred to in the paper could be seen as a suggestion for the future opportunities of the production, particularly in the case of the future premieres.

Smiljana Mandukic (1908-1992) a dancer, choreographer, and teacher, was among those dancers who pioneering the modern dance in Serbia. The beginning of the 20th century brought new forms of art as the old ones were not sufficient to express new feelings and experiences, in that era of rapid technological progress. Mandukic was educated as a dancer in interwar Vienna, so she happened to be at the centre of Central European expressionist dance, free dance, at the time of her formation as a dancer. Smiljana acquired dance knowledge from her teachers, famous dancers and choreographers, Gertrud Bodenwieser, who developed her own style of modern expressionist dance, known as “Bodenwieser Viennise Style”, and Grete Wiesenthal, who was a member of the corps de ballet of the Hofoper in Vienna (Vienna Court Opera Ballet). Both her teachers were the representatives of “Ausdrukstanz” or “Neur Tanz”, and were rejected formalism and virtuosity of classical dance in favour of more natural movements. Like her pair, Maga Magazinovic (1882-1968), who introduced expressionist dance in Serbia, established the first school of modern dance in 1910, and founded the first modern dance group consisted of female dancers, Mandukic advocated for the importance of dance in education of female population. In the traditional, patriarchal Serbian society, she opened the second school of modern dance in 1931, and was the first artist who established a professional group of modern dance. Her greatest achievement was the creation of “epic-patriotic choreodrama”. The main goal of this article is to confirm that Smiljana Mandukic’s pioneer work in establishing modern dance in Serbia was the part of the European expressionist modern dance movement of the equal importance and significance not only when considering the Western Balkans but the broader European context.

Marija Maga Magazinovic (Užice,1882- Belgrade, 1968), a choreographer, dancer, modern dance theorist, philosopher, feminist, librarian and journalist, was the founder of modern dance in Serbia. In her efforts to introduce modern dance, Magazinovic demanded emancipation of art, “pure” dance, a beauty of simple movements, which had no need for story, scenography, costume, even music, nothing but naked dancer’s body. Maga, who graduated philosophy at the Belgrade University in 1904, and was a journalist by vocation, working as the first woman journalist in the daily newspaper “Politica” as a columnist, also fought for women’s rights and emancipation. By bringing modern artistic view into the patriarchal Serbian society, she contributed to the social and cultural development, and to the understanding and adopting of the modern dance at the very time when it was developed and brought on stage in the West. Stemmed from the schools of Max Reinhardt and ballet school of Isadora Duncan, she brought their views and pedagogical methods to Serbia when she returned from Berlin and Munich to Belgrade, where she opened the first school of modern dance in 1910. She was the first to advocate for the necessity of female education, particularly of engaging girls in doing rhythmic gymnastics and dance as a form of bodily and spiritual education. Given that Marija Maga Magazinovic was the first who opened the door for the progress and changes in the fields of dance and women’s rights by bringing concepts of those movements, in which she directly participated, to Serbia, these concepts had to be explained. Therefore, the main goal of the paper is to examine these concepts, such as modern dance, rhythmic gymnastic, body culture, Ausdruckstanz, expressionism, and women emancipation, which is crucial if we want to understand early period of modern dance development, and to understand Magazinovic’s efforts and achievements and her place and historical significance for Serbian, and Yugoslav region.

Background: Dancers are highly trained athletes who are at significant risk of injury due to the repetitive nature of their movement. It is hypothesized that injury patterns will be determined by the peculiar movement patterns and physical requirements of specific dance genres. This study was therefore undertaken to determine the association between the flexibility of the lower limb muscles and the pattern and risk of injury among professional dancers in three different dance genres. Methods: Eighty two professional dancers recruited from four (4) dance companies in Lagos State Nigeria presented as 28 indigenous African dancers, 26 ballet dancers and 28 hip hop dancers. A modified questionnaire on the epidemiology of dance injuries was administered to all participants and the degree of flexibility of the hip muscles measured by goniometry prior to warm up and stretching. Major Findings: There was a significant relationship between the flexibility of the hamstrings and injury occurrence in all the dance groups. The flexibility of the medial rotators, and the adductor group of muscles were significantly (p<0.05) related to injury occurrence respectively in the indigenous and ballet participants while a significant relationship (p<0.05) was seen between injury occurrence and flexibility of the adductors and medial rotators among hip-hop participants. Conclusion: The flexibility of the lower limb muscles is an intrinsic and a major factor contributing to injury among professional dancers. There is therefore a need to develop a stretching protocol for the different dance genres to prevent injury.