Musicology

RESUMO: O artigo apresenta resultados de pesquisas relacionadas especificamente às atividades corais a capella desenvolvidas e/ou patrocinadas pela Sociedade de Cultura Artística Brasílio Itiberê (SCABI), desde a sua criação, em Curitiba, Paraná, em 1944 até meados década de 1960, período em que a entidade realizou cerca de 30 apresentações com grupos vocais nacionais e internacionais. Dos conjuntos nacionais, investigou-se, em particular, da Associação Orfeônica de Curitiba, cuja regência coube ao maestro Luiz Eulógio Zilli (1907-1990); dos conjuntos internacionais pesquisou-se a vinda de Os meninos cantores de Viena (Die Wiener Saengerknaben), em 1949 e 1961.
Palavras-chave: Sociedade de Cultura Artística Brasílio Itiberê (SCABI); coral a capella; atividades musicais no Estado do Paraná do século XX.
ABSTRACT: The article presents results of a research specifically related to the choral activities a capella developed and/or sponsored by the Sociedade de Cultura Artística Brasílio Itiberê (SCABI), in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil. The research covers SCABI activities since its creation, in 1944 until mid 1960s. During this period SCABI featured about 30 presentations with national and international vocal groups. Among the national sets, the research focused particularly on the Associação Orfeônica de Curitiba, under regency of the conductor Luiz Eulógio Zilli (1907-1990); among the international sets the studies concentrated on the visits of the Viena Boys Singers (Die Wiener Saengerknaben), in 1949 and 1961
Keywords: Socidade de Cultura Artística Brasílio Itiberê (SCABI); choral a capella; musical activities in the State of the Paraná of century XX.

In ecclesia militares musicae
Usages et répertoire des musiques militaires dans les édifices religieux de 1801 à 1870.

  Du Concordat à la chute du Second Empire, les musiques militaires, formations musicales typées et particulières, sont appelées à se faire entendre lors des offices religieux. Musiques ostentatoires liées au plein air, à la parade bruyante ou à la « rumeur des batailles », les ensembles à vent ont bien du mal à intégrer le recueillement induit et à exprimer la Sainte parole.
  Une typologie des usages de ces musiques militaires à l’intérieur du lieu clos consacré se profile. Incarnant le pouvoir temporel, elles ne peuvent être utilisées que lors de grandes fêtes religieuses liant État et Église. Selon les divers régimes (Premier Empire, Restauration, Monarchie de Juillet, Deuxième République ou Second Empire) la présence des formations militaires est plus ou moins favorisée. Peu sollicitées pendant la première moitié du XIXe siècle, on ne trouve leur présence régulière et attendue in cathedra que sous le Second Empire à l’occasion des fêtes annuelles de l’Empereur (15 août) et de Sainte-Cécile (22 novembre). De façon naturelle, les célébrations des victoires militaires et les hommages funèbres impliquent les musiques militaires. Quelques « concerts spirituels » donnent l’occasion à l’État d’instrumentaliser sa présence dans une rencontre entre charité chrétienne et esprit philanthropique.
  Très vite se pose la délicate question du répertoire. En l’absence de compositions spécifiques destinées à cet emploi, les transcriptions sont d’un usage courant. Cependant, entre mauvais goût et emprunts à des romances populaires, les « erreurs de programmation » ne manquent pas, provoquant à l’occasion des situations cocasses qui indignent le clergé, les militaires mélomanes, les critiques musicaux ou l’État. Des compositeurs tentent de remédier à cette situation: Bochsa et Reicha dans l’espoir de servir quelques cérémonies officielles sous la Restauration, Choulet, Neukomm et Thomasson pour la Monarchie de Juillet avec un objectif moins intéressé. Sous le Second Empire, une politique culturelle officielle s’immisce dans le domaine cultuel et fait naître un véritable « répertoire militaire à vocation religieuse » sous les plumes de Colin, Dietsch ou Sain-d’Arod.
  Entre choix esthétiques, désinvolture et tentative de moralisation, la période porte en elle de nombreux aspects des relations complexes qu’entretient le pouvoir politique avec la création artistique à destination des offices liturgiques. En toile de fond, les nombreux débats sur la nature de la musique religieuse ne sont pas absents et influent sur cette branche typée et limitée du répertoire des musiques militaires souvent ignoré de la musicologie.

Colonialism is a particular mode of domination exercised by a state or comparable entity over foreign lands and peoples. There is a good deal of overlap between the keyword colonialism and the more general concept of imperialism. The former has come to refer specifically to the European domination of vast expanses of the world during the modern period as well as to techniques of imperial control developed during this period and applied by powers such as Japan and the United States. Colonialism and decolonization have had a profound impact on all domains of cultural production, including music. After defining colonialism, this entry introduces some of the processes and musical effects of Western colonial expansion from the 15th century to the present.

This essay is a survey of the figure Fortune in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English poetry. It argues that poetry reveals the work of figuration within the construction of gendered and racial difference. First, it looks at some early verses by Thomas More where poetic ambiguity is used to imitate the contingency associated with the pagan goddess. It then identifies, in an overlooked variant spelling of Thomas Wyatt’s lyric ‘They fle from me that sometim did me seke’, an association between Fortune and the poet’s mistress, which is reworked by numerous later poets. It reads the ‘dark mistress’ of Shakespeare’s Sonnets as a refiguration of Fortune: not an anti-Petrarchan conception, as is often assumed, but one inspired by the psychological technique of ‘blackening’ proposed in Petrarch’s De remediis fortunae (Remedies for Fortune). Following recent work in critical race theory, it argues that this refiguration reflects anxieties about and aesthetic fascination with the Atlantic slave trade. It discusses the career of the Elizabethan super-tune “Fortune my foe,” from an exchange of verses between Walter Ralegh and Elizabeth I to its dismissal as misogynistic in a 1668 play by Margaret Cavendish. Finally, it discusses an argument in the poetry of Katherine Philips that a virtuous woman can capture Fortune, observing that this triumph over Fortune mirrors the exploitation of slave labour in England’s Caribbean colonies.

In 1850, after five years of planning, Liszt began composing music for his Italian opera, _Sardanapalo_, after Byron. It was central to his ambition to attain status as a European composer, but he abandoned the project halfway through. La Mara (1911), Humphrey Searle (1954) and others declared the manuscript fragmentary and partially illegible, but in 2016 this verdict was categorically overturned when work began on an edition of what Liszt notated: almost the entirety of Act 1. This article draws on an array of sources – published and unpublished – significantly to update our knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Liszt’s composition and abandonment of _Sardanapalo_. In light of his inconsistently Italianate music and idiosyncratic treatment of the libretto, it also reinterprets Liszt’s mid-century aesthetic orientation, as a confidant of Wagner and would-be pillar of Franz Brendel’s future neudeutsche Schule. By contextualizing key aspects of the uncovered musical score and libretto within Liszt’s mid-century writings on aesthetics, it posits character, declamatory melody and the visuality of the stage as (initially) critical criteria in the communication of a literary narrative, and suggests that Liszt’s impulse towards symphonic poetry may first have been kindled within the aesthetic potential of opera.

Even if sound and music are deeply intertwined phenomena, it is still fiercely debated whether all music is made up of sound, and vice versa, whether all sound can be deemed as music. Researchers from many different backgrounds have proposed numerous solutions to the conundrum; however, most of them analyse music and sound out of their natural context, ignoring not negligible variables such as listeners and cognitive constraints.

This paper fills this gap, by introducing a theoretical model, called the Circle of Sound, which aims to solve the sound/music dilemma. The Circle of Sound is based on cognition, and has
been developed according to the concepts of musical complexity, musical understanding and musical enjoyment. By combining these concepts, a new operational definition of music is proposed. The theoretical framework provided can also be used as a basis for future experimental investigations, willing to shed some light on how musical is understood by
people.

Musical Portraits: The Composition of Identity in Contemporary and Experimental Music explores the wide-ranging but under-examined genre of musical portraiture. It focuses in particular on contemporary and experimental music created between 1945 and the present day, an era in which conceptions of identity have changed alongside increasing innovation in musical composition as well as in the uses of abstraction, mixed media, and other novel techniques in the field of visual portraiture. In the absence of physical likeness, an element typical of portraiture that cannot be depicted in sound, composers have experimented with methods of constructing other attributes of identity in music, such as character, biography, and profession. By studying musical portraits of painters, authors, and modern celebrities, in addition to composers' self-portraits, the book considers how representational and interpretive processes overlap and differ between music and other art forms, as well as how music is used in the depiction of human identities. Examining a range of musical portraits by composers including Peter Ablinger, Pierre Boulez, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, György Ligeti, and Virgil Thomson, and director Robert Wilson's on-going series of video portraits of modern-day celebrities and his "portrait opera" Einstein on the Beach, Musical Portraits contributes to the study of music since 1945 through a detailed examination of contemporary understandings of music's capacity to depict identity, and of the intersections between music, literature, theater, film, and the visual arts.

La Barcarolle op. 60 de Chopin fait partie de la dernière période créatrice du compositeur, également appelée « dernier style ». Cette œuvre a suscité de très nombreuses interprétations dans la littérature musicologique, mais l’objet de cette communication est de proposer notre propre analyse, à la fois formelle et narrative, qui permettra de mettre en lumière certaines nouveautés stylistiques caractéristiques de cette période et d’expliquer les déviances formelles apparentes. Ce double-niveau analytique souhaite en effet investir les aspects techniques du discours musical (forme, tonalités, sections, cadences, harmonies, etc.) mais également son niveau expressif, à travers l’utilisation des topiques musicaux. L’étude de la succession de ces unités expressives permettra notamment d’éclaircir et d’expliquer le parcours de l’œuvre, qui se détache de la forme ternaire si chère au compositeur, avec un retour varié des deux thèmes principaux dans un style héroïque au sein de la dernière section, amenant un sentiment apothéotique. Il s’agit donc d’une stratégie narrative construite selon une concaténation particulière des unités du discours musical, une disposition de type téléologique qui amènera à cette apothéose finale, également retrouvée dans d’autres œuvres du corpus de la dernière période.

Acoustical knowledge of ancient Hindus "Expressed in the Vedic language, which is derived from classical Sanskrit, the verses of the Vedas were traditionally chanted during sacred rituals and recited daily in Vedic communities. The value of this tradition lies not only in the rich content of its oral literature but also in the ingenious techniques employed by the Brahmin priests in preserving the texts intact over thousands of years. To ensure that the sound of each word remains unaltered, practitioners are taught from childhood complex recitation techniques that are based on tonal accents, a unique manner of pronouncing each letter and specific speech combinations." (World Intangible Cultural Heritage-ICH) UNESCO Proclamation 2003

15/05/2016 - Preliminary Consideration:

Please note that this project was an undergraduate assignment and therefore the scopes and resources were limited to a concrete context, not being much an ambitious work. Although the information provided is in general accurate, I am currently reviewing the scholar reception of Shostakovich as postgraduate, thus familiarized with a wider bibliography and a critical perspective and accordingly I regard my own work as lopsided, covering just one of the many points of view that have been given for this very concrete work, From Jewish Folk Poetry op.79.

May you have any kind of question or interest regarding this subject, please do not hesitate to contact me through email (in German if you prefer), which you may find in the cover page. I will be delighted to provide you with further bibliography references, answer questions or discuss any given matter.

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Auf den folgenden Seiten werden wir über die jüdische Musik von Shostakovich sprechen, genauer gesagt, über den Zyklus Aus jiddischer Volkspoesie op.79. Dabei möchten wir die Frage beantworten warum Dmitri Shostakovich diesen Zyklus komponiert hat, einer Zeit, in der die Sowjetunion vom Antisemitismus geprägt war.

He centrado mi investigación en el estudio técnico y analítico de los principales métodos del siglo XX que han destinado una parte de sus tratados en la explicación y práctica de la sujeción del instrumento, así como los cambios de posición, ambas partes relacionadas dentro de una misma categoría de la técnica de mano izquierda. En concreto, he escogido para la realización de este estudio como eje central los dos principales métodos de violín del siglo XX: El arte de tocar el violín (Carl Flesch, 1923) e Interpretación y enseñanza del violín (Ivan Galamian, 1962).

(Kassel, Reichenberger, 2001). Reviews in: Romanischen Forschungen 117/4 (2005); Speculum (2004); Revista Portuguesa de Musicología XIII (2003); Revista de Literatura medieval XV (2003); Musicology Australia XXVI (2003); Revista Musical Catalana 222 (2003); Revista de Musicología XXV (2002); Goldberg XX (2002); La Vanguardia (8 marzo 2002);

Archaic Modernism is the second monographic retrospective dedicated to Christophe Spzajdel. Back in 2018 Szpajdel commissioned Archaeological Records to cure the biography, critic essay and logo selection for his new anthology of logos. Together with the author we decided to narrate his most recent production – the body of work made after the release of the book 'Lord of the Logos' (Gestalten, 2010) – as an evolution of his original Depresiv'Moderne and Winterstijl calligraphic styles in the one named Archaic Modernism. Archaic Modernism is an ideal synthesis of his career as graphic designer.

Most of us can recall chuckling, or even laughing out loud, at a humorous musical passage and perhaps recalling how much that experience increased our enjoyment of the music. This study focuses on humour in the instrumental works of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven: composers who have been singled out by contemporary and modern scholars for their ingenuity and mastery of the Classical style. In the most general sense, musical humour arises when composers play with established conventions of musical discourse by writing something incongruous according to the stylistic context.
Chapter 1 demonstrates how historical critics understood the role of contrast in examples of musical humour and wit. It then surveys many recent music-theoretical discussions of musical humour, before briefly introducing how elements of contrast, “valence shifts,” and “opposition” are involved in musical humour from the Classical period. This study’s analytical and theoretical approach to musical humour draws on recent studies of musical humour, form, and communication in the Classical style, as well as concepts from recent linguistic theories of humour.   
Chapter 2 introduces the two primary strategies Classical instrumental composers employed to create musical humour: “opposition” and “excess.” Chapters 3 and 4 discuss a wide range of musical examples to explore how composers deployed formal functions and musical topics to produce humour. These discussions provide a sense of the wide range of effects that fall under the umbrellas of opposition and excess.
Chapter 5 concludes by briefly examining some performance applications of this study and suggesting some further potential sources of musical humour.

“Prokofiev's music is extremely visual. It's physically communicative. Sometimes, playing it, I feel like a ballet dancer sensing the music through motion and vibration. In later life Prokofiev took this still further. Not only can we visualise objects, we can also feel the material that they’re made of, the structure, the consistency of the fabric. His distinctively 'orchestrated; writing for the instrument creates a particular challenge for a performer, different weightings, voicings and colours demanding different soundscapes” ~ Dinara Klinton

An insurance man, a rocker, a partisan, a deportee, a bandoneonist.... What can such different figures have in common? Very little, you might say, apart from the fact that they are among the main protagonists of "contemporary music", a world from which people generally prefer to keep away because it seems distant, complicated and incomprehensible. But is it really so?
The exciting story proposed in the book intends to bring contemporary music closer to its potential listeners through the stories of people such as Stockhausen, Gershwin, Berio, Xenakis, Takemitsu, Piazzolla or Sofija Gubajdulina who, in their variety, give an idea of the exceptional richness of the musical languages of the 20th and 21st centuries and their closeness to the human condition of our time.

The paper proposes a survey through the essential theoretical contribution of J.P. Rameau, beginning with the famous "Traité de l'Harmonie", and enlarged with several other books devoted to the harmonic theoretical thinking, in which he evolves according to the scientific discoveries of the century.

In occasione dell’Anno Europeo del Patrimonio Culturale 2018 il Dipartimento di Beni Culturali dell’Università di Bologna ha promosso e organizzato un convegno internazionale, tenutosi a Ravenna nei giorni 21-23 novembre 2018, attraverso il quale, sotto l’umbrella subject del Grand Tour, indagare gli aspetti storici ed attuali relativi al valore
culturale e turistico delle diverse tipologie di beni rientranti nel largo concetto di ‘patrimonio culturale’. Il consesso, strutturato in cinque specifiche sessioni cui hanno partecipato studiosi italiani, francesi, spagnoli ed ungheresi, ha voluto anche dare avvio ad un percorso di valorizzazione delle diverse, ma integrate, competenze e attitudini di
ricerca presenti nel Dipartimento, evidenziando così la multidisciplinarietà che lo caratterizza e la trasversalità di talune indagini e riflessioni scientifiche. Con la pubblicazione degli atti del convegno ravennate non solo si è voluto approfondire storicamente i concetti di patrimonio culturale, viaggio, e turismo, distinti, o collegati nell'ambito del fenomeno del Grand Tour, ma si è inteso esprimere soprattutto la valenza del concetto di condivisione sociale e culturale, che ha permesso fenomeni di vasta portata e di grande incidenza nella storia pubblica come appunto questo del Grand Tour. La condivisione ha implicato nel tempo un percorso complesso di conoscenza dell’altro da sé e sia che si tratti di individui, che delle loro reti sociali, che ancora delle loro sovrastrutture culturali. La condivisione si rivela, così, il vero strumento attraverso il quale “spezzare il pane della scienza

The Melbourne Festival of Organ and Harpsichord (MIFOH) and its successors ran from 1971 to 2010 under various other names. MIFOH is used as shorthand term covering the whole period including the names: Melbourne Autumn Festival of Organ and Harpsichord, Melbourne Autumn Festival and finally Spring Autumn Early Music Festival. It hosted ~1000 different performers at all stages of their careers. It fulfilled for many a complete arc from enabling students to perform and attend master classes with major international figures in a collegiate mode to becoming the pre- eminent Australian early music festival.
The present thesis is both an examination of this largely lost legacy to musical Melbourne and Australia, and also a work of eScholarship on the substantial physical and digital music lost prior to this work. It covers the requirements for the creation of a digital archive to house the material recovered from magnetic media from the 1970’s onwards, and the recovery of analog media. There are substantial Intellectual Property barriers to assembling such large collections of original historic performances, if they are to become accessible through an Open Music Repository. This task is complicated by almost all now being classified as Orphan Works. The evolution of MIFOH matched the evolution of the absorption and professionalization of early music in Melbourne, and to further a critical mass of performers who went on to teach new generations.
Organ and Harpsichord, choral and modern composition, and early music all benefited. MIFOH and its successors contributed forty years of performance and teaching to Melbourne and left a major legacy to many people. It is surprising that such a large body of work had slipped almost out of visibility. This research has delivered an overall perspective and the supporting materials to enable this long running substantial Festival to be seen in a clearer light (Wigan 2017). It covers the contributions it made, and also addresses the repository and analog to digital recovery aspects now required to fully realise its musical legacy for the community at large. The substantial Appendices provide a basis for future scholars and interested parties that simply did not exist previously. Social network explorations are now possible. Large scale digital recovery - already ~83Gb - from original recording media is now possible, to create a major Music Repository. This will require the issues identified on music metadata, Intellectual Property, clearance and access requirements to be integrated into a fresh and living repository archive for musical works.