IELTS Listening · Cam 11
Cam11 - Test 4 - Part 3
Hi, Joanna, good to meet you. Now, before we discuss your new research project.
Level: B2 · 67 sentences
Transcript
- Hi, Joanna, good to meet you.
- Now, before we discuss your new research project.
- I'd like to hear something about the psychology study you did last year for your Master's degree.
- So how did you choose your subjects for that?
- Well, I had six subjects, all professional musicians, and all female.
- Three were violinists
- and there was also a cello player and a pianist and a flute player.
- They were all very highly regarded in the music world
- and they'd done quite extensive tours in different continents,
- and quite a few had won prizes in competitions as well.
- And they were quite young, weren't they?
- Yes, between 25 and 29 -
- the mean was 27.8.
- I wasn't specifically looking for artists who'd produced recordings but...
- this is something that's just taken for granted these days, and they all had.
- Right.
- Now you collected your data through telephone interviews, didn't you?
- Yes.
- I realised if I was going to interview leading musicians, it'd only be possible over the phone because they're so busy.
- I recorded them using a telephone recording adaptor.
- I'd been worried about the quality, but it worked out all right.
- I managed at least a 30-minute interview with each subject, sometimes longer.
- Did doing it on the phone make it more stressful?
- I'd thought it might...
- it was all quite informal though and in fact they seemed very keen to talk.
- And I don't think using the phone meant I got less rich data rather the opposite in fact.
- Interesting.
- And you were looking at how performers dress for concert performances?
- That's right.
- My research investigated the way players see their role as a musician
- and how this is linked to the type of clothing they decide to wear.
- But that focus didn't emerge immediately.
- When I started I was more interested in trying to investigate the impact of what was worn on those listening,
- and also whether someone like a violinist might adopt a different style of clothing from, say, someone playing the flute or the trumpet.
- It's interesting that the choice of dress is up to the individual, isn't it?
- Yes, you'd expect there to be rules about it in orchestras, but that's quite rare.
- You only had women performers in your study.
- Was that because male musicians are less worried about fashion?
- I think a lot of the men are very much influenced by fashion,
- but in social terms the choices they have are more limited...
- they'd really upset audiences if they strayed away from quite narrow boundaries.
- Now, popular music has quite different expectations.
- Did you read Mike Frost's article about the dress of women performers in popular music...
- No.
- where he points out that a lot of female singers and musicians in popular music tend to dress down in performances,
- and wear less feminine clothes, erm, like jeans instead of skirts,
- and he suggests this is because otherwise they'd just be discounted as trivial.
- But you could argue they're just wearing what's practical...
- I mean, a pop-music concert is usually a pretty energetic affair.
- Yes, he doesn't make that point, but I think you're probably right.
- I was interested by the effect of the audience at a musical performance when it came to the choice of dress.
- The subjects I interviewed felt this was really important.
- It's all to do with what we understand by performance as a public event.
- They believed the audience had certain expectations
- and it was up to them as performers to fulfill these expectations to show a kind of esteem...
- they weren't afraid of looking as if they'd made an effort to look good.
- I think in the past the audience would have had those expectations of one another too,
- but that's not really the case now, not in the UK anyway.
- No.
- And I also got interested in what sports scientists are doing too, with regard to clothing.
- Musicians are quite vulnerable physically, aren't they, because...
- the movements they carry out are very intensive and repetitive, so...
- I'd imagine some features of sports clothing could safeguard the players from the potentially dangerous effects of this sort of thing.
- Yes, but musicians don't really consider it.
- They avoid clothing that obviously restricts their movements, but that's as far as they go.
- Anyway, coming back to your own research, do you have any idea where you're going from here?
- I was thinking of doing a study using an audience...