Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Ritual, Spectacle, And Theatre In Late Medieval Seville (Chapter 1), Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

From the fall of Islamic Išbīliya in 1248 to the conquest of the New World, Seville was a nexus of economic and religious power where interconfessional living among Christians, Jews, and Muslims was negotiated on public stages. From out of seemingly irreconcilable ideologies of faith, hybrid performance culture emerged in spectacles of miraculous transformation, disciplinary processionals, and representations of religious identity. Ritual, Spectacle, and Theatre in Late Medieval Seville reinvigorates the study of medieval Iberian theater by revealing the ways in which public expressions of devotion, penance, and power fostered cultural reciprocity, rehearsed religious difference, and ultimately helped establish Seville …

Etcètera Ii: Notes Sobre Música, Art I Literatura (2020-2022), Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

A compilation of essays on music, the arts, and literature previously published in Bellver, the arts section of Diario de Mallorca (2020-2022). This is the second part of ETCETERA.

La Ricarda, Mestres Quadreny I L'Experimentalisme Musical Català Dels Anys Seixanta: De Com L’Arquitectura Va Esdevenir Música I La Música, Arquitectura, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Eren uns temps magnífics per a la creació: els concerts semblaven obres de teatre i les obres de teatre, concerts. Els músics feien d’actors i aquests havien de fer de músics. I la distinció entre el públic i els intèrprets també es diluïa, si és que no s’eliminava del tot. Els semiòlegs —o són semiòtics?— havien explicat que en tot acte comunicatiu hi havia un emissor, un missatge i un receptor; i precisament d’això es tractava, d’eliminar aquestes distincions. Ah, i en molts casos, tampoc no hi havia escenari, ni sala de concerts.

Quan Barcelona Era ‘Absolument Moderne’, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Talment com París i Berlín, la Barcelona d’entreguerres (c. 1920-1936) va ser un destacat centre internacional de creativitat musical. Arnold Schoenberg, installat en una bella casa modernista al barri de Vallcarca, hi va compondre part de la seva òpera Moses und Aron i l’opus 33b per a piano; Anton Webern, Igor Stravinski, Richard Strauss, Serguei Prokófiev i Béla Bartók hi van dirigir l’Orquestra Pau Casals; i s’hi van estrenar el Concert per a violí i orquestra així com fragments de l’òpera Wozzeck d’Alban Berg.

L’Ètica De L’Estètica ¿Caldria Debatre L’Antijudaisme Del ‘Misteri D’Elx’?, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Al final de la representació de la segona jornada del Misteri d’Elx hi ha un moment d’indescriptible intensitat emocional. La catarsi que experimenten els espectadors, actors i músics sol manifestar-se en aclamacions, víctors i fins i tot llàgrimes. Els ventalls de les dones aletegen agilíssims, pràcticament posseïts. Primer tímidament —per a no interrompre la màgia del moment— però gradualment amb gran intensitat, comencen, ja al final de la representació, els aplaudiments, sempre in crescendo, acompanyats, poc després, per la coneguda i emfàtica expressió: «Visca la Mare de Déu!».

Nyssma Manual Revisited, Di Su

Publications and Research

The New York State School Music Association’s NYSSMA Manual is revised every three years. A new edition, the 33^rd, is expected in July 2021. Back in 2008 this author wrote a review article of the 28^th edition (2006). Since then, four revisions have been released and some changes have been made. This article, as a follow-up, reviews the Violin Solos section of the current edition, the 32^nd (2018).

On Improvised Music, Computational Creativity And Human-Becoming, Arto Artinian, Adam James Wilson

Publications and Research

Music improvisation is an act of human-becoming: of self-expression—an articulation of histories and memories that have molded its participants—and of exploration—a search for unimagined structures that break with the stale norms of majoritarian culture. Given that the former objective may inhibit the latter, we propose an integration of human musical improvisers and deliberately flawed creative software agents that are designed to catalyze the development of human-ratified minoritarian musical structures.

Untangling Medium Of Performance For The Linked Data Environment, Kimmy Szeto

Publications and Research

Medium of performance is critical for music retrieval and has long been a complex facet of music cataloging. Recent years saw significant strides towards standardizing the vocabulary and encoding medium of performance data in the MARC environment as well as in the linked data environment. In the course of leading the MLA BIBFRAME task force to examine the potentials of expressing, standardizing, and implementing music-related data and data structures, I discovered our handling of medium of performance has not been consistent with respect to the FRBR constructs of “work” and “expression,” as well as the concept of “event.” After the …

The Choral Works Of Hamish Maccunn (1868–1916), Jennifer Oates

Publications and Research

This article provides an overview of the partsongs of Hamish MacCunn and places them within the context of British choral music in the nineteenth century. A complete list of MacCunn's partsongs are included. To access the embedded sound files, access the article via the American Choral Review homepage.

The Social Life Of Musical Instruments, Eliot Bates

Publications and Research

Accordion Crimes, a novel by E. Annie Proulx, traces the life of and routes travelled by a green diatonic button accordion: its birth in Sicily in the workshop of “The Accordion Maker,” its numerous changes of ownership in the Americas during encounters between various immigrant communities, and its death when it finally falls into disrepair in the town of Old Glory, Minnesota. There are other accordions in the book, and many temporary human owners, but it is one particular green accordion that is the book’s protagonist. We meet and experience other characters largely through their interactions with the green accordion, …

The Tardy Recognition Of J.S. Bach's Sonatas And Partitas For Violin Solo, Di Su

Publications and Research

J. S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo (BWV 1001-1006) are among the most important masterpieces in the literature of violin music. They are included in standard repertoire for serious violin students; they are frequently performed in solo recitals; they are recorded by numerous virtuosi; and they are required in major violin competitions. The vast amount of editions also indicates the importance of the works. In Edlund’s catalogue, one finds as many as seventy-seven editions ranging from Simrock (1802) to Henle (1987)

However, the Solos did not enjoy such a prominent status in Bach’s own time and even in …

Mixing For Parlak And Bowing For A Büyük Ses: The Aesthetics Of Arranged Traditional Music In Turkey, Eliot Bates

Publications and Research

In this paper I explore the production aesthetics that define the sound of most arranged traditional music albums produced in the early 2000s in Istanbul, Turkey. I will focus on two primary aesthetic characteristics, the achievement of which consume much of the labor put into tracking and mixing: parlak (“shine”) and büyük ses (“big sound”). Parlak, at its most basic, consists of a pronounced high frequency boost and a pattern of harmonic distortion characteristics, and is often described by studio musicians and engineers in Turkey as an exaggeration of the perceived brightness of the majority of Anatolian folk instruments. Büyük …

Ron’S Right Arm: Tactility, Visualization, And The Synesthesia Of Audio Engineering, Eliot Bates

Publications and Research

Most scholarship on audio engineering analyzes practices and practitioners in terms of musical and technical knowledges. The few references to sensory perception typically center on critical listening practices (“golden ears” engineers), audiophilia, and technologies of audition. However, particularly in light of computer-based workflows, the practice of audio engineering features carefully developed synesthesias of critical listening, visualization of digital audio, and tactile manipulations of interfaces, which can’t adequately be explained as cognitive processes or as conscious knowledge.

I draw on literature in the emerging field of sensory scholarship, in particular Brian Massumi’s theorization of synesthesia and affect and Charles Hirschkind’s analyses …

Brigadoon: Lerner And Loewe's Scotland, Jennifer Oates

Publications and Research

Since the 1950s, Brigadoon has been accepted as a representation of Scotland. Brigadoon’s Scotland consists of a highland landscape with lochs, mists, castles populated by fair maidens, warlike yet sensitive kilted men and bagpipers. Much of this comes from the invented traditions of Scotland, particularly kilts and clan tartans; late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Scottish literature; Scottish propaganda for tourism following WWII; and Scottish popular culture. In spite of Lerner’s well-written book, Loewe’s charming music, and Agnes De Mille’s exciting choreography, the Scottishness of the work received, and still receives, the most attention. Brigadoon’s inauthentic or dubious depiction of …

“Etc. Etc.” Reliquias Y Fragmentos De Una Sonata De Schubert, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Resumen:

Tomando como ejemplo el caso de Reliquie, Sonata para piano en do mayor D. 840 de Schubert, este ensayo explora los entresijos que generan las obras musicales incompletas. ¿Qué diferencia hay entre un fragmento amputado y uno inacabado? ¿Qué autoridad tienen las reconstrucciones de obras incompletas? ¿Qué opciones tiene el intérprete a la hora de ejecutar esta obra? ¿Por qué nos atraen los fragmentos? La Sonata para piano en do mayor consiste en dos movimientos completos y otros dos inconclusos. Si bien algunos pianistas como Paul Badura-Skoda han grabado esta obra con su propia compleción, Sviatoslav Richter interrumpe su …

A Critical Review Of Violin Solos Section Of The Nyssma Manual, Di Su

Publications and Research

The New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) runs an annual evaluation of students' musical performance. The purposes of the evaluation are to promote music programs in the schools and communities of New York State, and to provide a means of objective evaluation of musical performance. The evaluation is influential because the selections of participant for All-State, All-County, and other music festivals are mainly based upon NYSSMA scores. To familiarize the evaluation criteria and to prepare students to meet the requirements, New York State music teachers use the "NYSSMA Manual" as an important teaching guide. Aiming at future revisions, this …

Liberace, Janet Butler Munch

Publications and Research

Liberace was a pianist and popular entertainer who projected old-world elegance and set the tone for showmanship in the postwar era.

Like Falling Off A Log: Rubato In Chopin's Prelude In Ab Major (Op. 28, No. 17), William Rothstein

Publications and Research

Rubato is widely regarded as a purely intuitive art. While it may be true that most performers rely solely on intuition for their rubato, a conscious approach may also be helpful. For the teacher of “analysis for performers,” a conscious approach is essential if rubato is to be discussed at all.

Rubato is a difficult subject to theorize. The late David Epstein made an admirable attempt in his book Shaping Time, using recordings by performers he admired to construct quantitative models. My approach here will be qualitative rather than quantitative, and introspective rather than empirical. Unlike Epstein, I will …

Review Of Analogías Musicales: Kandinsky Y Sus Contemporáneos, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

It is hard to believe that curators and scholars still find something to say about the relationship between music and art of the twentieth century. Still, in recent years there has been a relentless boom of exhibitions, scholarly studies, and books dedicated to this topic. This interest, to be sure, is due, in part, to the prestige that modernist art commands among wealthy collectors and institutions, but also to its immense popularity among the general public. Less popular in appeal, though equally revered among the happy few, is modernist music. When both manifestations – art and music – are brought …

Howard Harold Hanson, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Howard Hanson was a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, conductor, and music educator who was director of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester for forty years.

Heinrich Schenker As An Interpreter Of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, William Rothstein

Publications and Research

There was a time when it seemed necessary for admirers of the work of Heinrich Schenker to remind the musical community periodically that it had grown out of a lifetime of practical musical experience—that is, that Der freie Satz did not represent a self-contained system of theoretical speculation. Schenker himself tried repeatedly throughout his career to impress this point upon his readers. In recent years, fortunately, this reminder—which had threatened to become merely ritualistic—has become somewhat less necessary. The change in Schenker's reputation may, it seems, be dated precisely to 1975, when Dover Publications issued an inexpensive reprint of his …