Musicology Commons^™

Arnaud Préot: Teacher, Composer, And President, Melonee Gray

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Arnaud Préot (1818-1873) was the 8th president of Longwood University. He served between the years 1863-1869 and ran the institution during the Civil War. A Frenchman, Préot immigrated to America at the age of 19. In America, he served as a professor of language and music, and eventually served as president at three female colleges. Additionally, he composed music, including several piano compositions and many vocal pieces. His works are reflective of both the classical period and the French style. In this essay, two of his piano compositions and one of his vocal pieces are analyzed and discussed. Préot's pieces …

“Sounds Like” Redemption? On The Musicality Of Species And The Species Of Musicality, Tyler Yamin, Alice Rudge

Faculty Journal Articles

Popular and academic studies of music frequently claim that human musicality arose from the so-called ‘natural world’ of non-human species. And amid the anxieties produced by the Anthropocene, it is thought that the possibility of reconnecting with the natural world through a renewed appreciation of music’s links with nature may usher in a new era of posthuman environmental consciousness, offering repair and redemption. To critique these claims, we trace how notions of ‘musicality’ have been applied to or denied from non-human entities across diverse disciplines since the late nineteenth century. We conclude that such debates reinforce the separation that they …

Music Of The Divine: Interweaving Threads Connecting Contemporary Chant-Based Piano Repertoire, Jeremy D. Duck

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

The purpose of this document is to prove chant remains an important source of inspiration among living composers, and, despite the number of piano works already incorporating chant, composers today are still finding unique ways to include chant in their music. To achieve this objective, representative works have been selected for research and analysis for four of the major chant traditions. Connor Chee’s The Navajo Piano, Victoria Bond’s Illuminations on Byzantine Chant, and Hayes Biggs’ E.M. am Flügel: Poem-Étude for Piano Solo, though the chants from which they are inspired are diverse in concept and style, they …

An Overview Of The Major Developments In Early American Choral Education Methods: Notation-Centered Versus Sound Before Symbol, Aubrey Mangle

Senior Honors Theses

For the American choral music educator, knowledge of the beginnings and major developments of choral music education is valuable for both instruction and context. This project seeks to fill a gap in the resources available to choral music teachers by providing a brief yet comprehensive overview of the major developments in choral music education in the United States from the establishment of the Jamestown settlement in 1607 to the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929. The discussion will focus on the major figures, pedagogues, published works, and educational philosophies for singing instruction that promoted either notation-centered or sound before …

“800 Years We Have Been Down”: Rebel Songs And The Retrospective Reach Of The Irish Republican Narrative, Seán Ó Cadhla

Articles

From the glamorous, cross-dressing “Rebel, Rebel” of David Bowie, to the righteous Trenchtown “Soul Rebel” of Bob Marley and The Wailers, both varied and various musical articulations of cultural and socio-political rebellion have long enjoyed a ubiquitous presence across multiple soundscapes. As a musicological delineator in Ireland, however, ‘rebel’ conveys a specifically political dynamic due to its consistent deployment as an all-encompassing descriptor for songs detailing events and personalities from the Irish national struggle. This paper sets out to examine the specific musical delineator of “rebel song” from both musicological and politico-ideological perspectives with a view to interrogating its appropriateness …

Lliçons Magistrals, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

No seria pianista. Jo no arribaria mai a ser pianista. L’epifania va començar a cristal·litzar poc després d’haver arribat a Salzburg el 1982 amb intencions d’estudiar-hi piano. Com el narrador de la novel·la de Thomas Bernhard Der Untergeher (si es vol, el fracassat o el mediocre), jo havia quedat psicològicament gelat per la presència d’alguns dels millors pianistes del món. En poc temps, i sense capacitat de digerir-ho —tenia vint anys escassos—, havia vist i sentit en viu Alfred Brendel, Maurizio Pollini, Claudio Arrau i Bruno Leonardo Gelber, entre altres.

Ethnic Irony In Melvin B. Tolson's "Dark Symphony", Elizabeth Newton

Publications and Research

This article historicizes musical symbolism in Melvin B. Tolson’s poem “Dark Symphony” (1941). In a time when Black writers and musicians alike were encouraged to aspire to European standards of greatness, Tolson’s Afro-modernist poem establishes an ambivalent critical stance toward the genre in its title. In pursuit of a richer understanding of the poet’s attitude, this article situates the poem within histories of Black music, racial uplift, and white supremacy, exploring the poem’s relation to other media from the Harlem Renaissance. It analyzes the changing language across the poem’s sections and, informed by Houston A. Baker Jr.’s study of “mastery …

Music Composition In The 17th And 18th Centuries: A Historical Analysis Of How Georg Frideric Handel Participated In “Borrowing”, Nicholas Mueller, Oscar Peterson-Veatch, Russell Schmidt

2020 Festschrift: Georg Frideric Handel's "Messiah"

The primary focus in this research paper is borrowing; this means borrowing from other composers, and self-borrowing from a previous composition. It is widely accepted in scholarship that Georg Frideric Handel participated in the action of borrowing. However, there is significantly more contention among scholars surrounding both the extent of Handel’s borrowing, as well as what the appropriate modern perspective is for these actions. In this research paper our primary focus will be on Handel’s borrowings, the benefits he received from these actions, and the historical lens of borrowing in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The Querelle Des Clés: An Episode In Francisco Frontera De Valldemosa's Exuberant Life, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

In 1858, Francisco Frontera de Valldemosa published a peculiar music theory treatise in Madrid under the title Equinotación ó Nuevo sistema musical de llaves. It has two parts. The first (pp. 11-20) is an explanation of the invention (namely, the reduction of all clefs to only three) detailing the perceived actual need for it (that is, most clefs are unnecessary, and they impede or delay the creativity of the avid music learner). The second part (new pagination, pp. 2-83) is a curious anthology of music in many genres and styles. On the left page of each spread, there is a …

Fusiones Y Confusiones Del Concierto De Aranjuez En El Jazz: Reflexiones De Un Oyente, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Este artículo lo conforman una serie de reflexiones sobre Sketches of Spain (1960) de Miles Davis y Gil Evans, centrándose en su versión del Concierto de Aranjuez de Joaquín Rodrigo (1940). Inspirándose en los escritos de Edward Said y Homi K. Bhabha, el autor analiza la grabación como un artefacto cultural caracterizado por su “inestabilidad formal” y su “indefinición” o “condición intermedia” (in-betweenness) convirtiéndolo en un álbum que no es ni clásico ni jazz; ni español ni no-español; ni tradicionalista ni moderno, entre otras dualidades. Sketches es una obra de arte que desafía categorías y habita los intersticios de las …

Leaving A Little Heaven Behind With Coltrane, Or: The Performance Is The Archive, Ismael Santos

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines what an Audience-Centered Archive could look like, and the advantages of opening up the spaces of archival scholarship in connection with studies focused on Jazz. This thesis will explore how inherently self-limiting are traditional structures of the Archive, with the contradictory nature of Jazz Archives brought to the forefront: to archive a music like Jazz necessarily entails losing what makes it so special, losing the improvisational facet of Jazz. This thesis draws from sound studies and performance studies, along with a focus on the recording technologies that entail differences in interpretation and American history. This focus of …

L'Amic Mallorquí De Rossini, Antoni Pizà, Maria L. Martínez

Publications and Research

En tot cas, avui en dia, a pesar d'haver compost molta música, Frontera és recordat —si és que és recordat— per haver estat l'artífex de la política musical de la Casa Reial i, possiblement, com tots aquests regals atesten, per la seva estreta relació amb Rossini —i amb la Reina, és clar.

The English Voyage Of Pietrobono Burzelli, Evan A. Maccarthy

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Praised by poets, scholars, and fellow musicians of his day, the singer, lutenist, and teacher Pietrobono Burzelli (ca. 1417–97) achieved international renown for his skill at improvisational performances on plucked instruments. Until recently, archival documents recorded his presence at many courts on the Italian peninsula and as far away as the Hungarian court. Documents until now unknown to musicologists reveal that Pietrobono also traveled to England. In August 1466 he signed a will and testament in advance of a risky trip “ad partes Anglie” that he was planning to begin the next day.

The testament offers new information about Pietrobono’s …

The Partimento Tradition In The Shadow Of Enlightenment Thought, Deborah Longenecker

Music and Worship Student Presentations

This presentation investigates the relationship between partimento pedagogy and Rameau’s music theories as influenced by Enlightenment thought. Current research on partimento has revealed its importance in Neapolitan music schools of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Along with counterpoint, partimento was a core subject in the study of composition in the Neapolitan schools; however, as pedagogy and theory began to be influenced by Enlightenment ideals such as the scientific method or a preference for clear systemization, the partimento tradition began to wane. In this presentation, I examine Rameau’s music theory as an example of Enlightenment thought in music, juxtaposing the central …

“A Flower Which Blossoms And Fades”: Depictions Of Tuberculosis In 19th-Century Opera, Daniel Goldberg

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The romantic period in art and music is a time that focused on the regular person and had a fascination with nature, emotion, and death. One of the most common themes used was disease. One of the more common diseases of the time in both opera and real life was tuberculosis. In opera tuberculosis is always brought upon the same type of person time and time again and is always shown both by the character, and also though a series of metaphors. This character is always a woman and these “tubercular heroines” always are young, beautiful, frail people who need …

From A Chat In The Parlor To Viral Music Videos: An Analysis Of Music As A Social Occasion, Emma Plotnik

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Imagine an intimate room filled with people playing cards and casually chatting, while one of Chopin’s piano sonatas plays elegantly in the background. This scenario is characteristic of the atmosphere surrounding Classical and Romantic European salons. Salons served as havens of musical discourse from the Baroque era to the early twentieth century. However, with the advancement of technology from the mid-twentieth century to the present, there has been a decline, or, arguably, even a cessation of salon life.

The aim of this project was to recreate the salon environment through the generation of the online discussion forum, "Music Soirée." To …

The Self-Fashioning Of A Consummate Musical Orator, Alexis A. Vanzalen

Lawrence University Honors Projects

In 1697 the organist and composer Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707) was deemed “world famous” by a guidebook to the German city in which he lived, Lübeck. Such public acclaim for a musician was unusual in this society where musicians were generally looked down upon and stereotyped as dishonorable and picaresque outsiders. In this context, Buxtehude’s situation begs the question, how did he come to have such an esteemed reputation?

As I will argue, Buxtehude actively fashioned his reputation as an adept member of his capitalistic society, a useful civil servant, and an accomplished and complete musician, throughout his life. In large …

The Crossroads At Midnight: Hegemony In The Music And Culture Of Delta Blues, Taylor Applegate

Summer Research

The blues gave rise to the many forms of Afro-American popular music, among them bebop, ragtime, jazz, funk, soul and rap. The origins of the blues itself, however, is less clear; many origin stories cite a simple fusion of West African musical traditions with Western ones while others are founded in the mythos of the lone guitarist at the crossroads in league with the devil. In reality, the origin of blues music, like any other cultural production, probably arose from a series of interacting factors under unique social and economic circumstances. This project investigates the probable origins of the blues, …

Agencies At War: Marshaling Places, Objects, And Sonorities In The Alta California Missions, Naomi R. Sussman

History Honors Projects

1769, Spanish Franciscan Junípero Serra initiated the missionization of Alta California. To transform California into a Spanish territory, Franciscan missions evangelized indigenous peoples. While traditional Alta California mission histories emphasize either Franciscan abuses or saintliness, reifying Native American subordination, most contemporary scholarship accentuates mutual hybridization but minimizes colonial power dynamics. Through archival and secondary research, this thesis argues that spatial interplay expressed neither syncretization nor unadulterated domination, but instead competing agencies within a physical and social “contact zone.” In this Alta Californian “contact zone,” material and sonic culture reinforced the continuous struggle for authority in the missions.

A History Of Opera In Boston, John R. Tedesco

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

This thesis examines the cultural context of opera in Boston between the years 1620 to 2010. Specifically, I look at how the Boston Opera Company was founded, its existence, and its ultimate demise. The rise of opera in colonial Boston is also explored and especially how the immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries influenced the city. Around this time of changing demographics Eben D. Jordan, Jr., of Jordan Marsh Co. decided to build an opera house for the city of Boston.

The effects that Puritanism had on music and the culture of Boston during its early years …

Red Detachment Of Women And The Enterprise Of Making ‘Model’ Music During The Chinese Cultural Revolution, Clare Sher Ling Eng

Music Faculty Scholarship

Artworks produced with official sanction during periods marked by turmoil and human suffering are challenging subjects for scholars who would like to discuss them in a fair and responsible manner. If they aestheticize the works’ form and political affiliation, how would they be doing justice to these works whose creation and content are so meshed with the politics of their time? On the other hand, can an approach that takes ideology into account be developed that does not appear to ignore, condone or support the odious acts of violence associated with those periods? This article explores the latter question with …

An Early American Family Of Flutists, Wendell Dobbs

Music Faculty Research

An overview of the history of a dynasty of flutists, flute manufacturers and music publishers established by English emigrant Edward R. Riley in New York. Riley and copperplate printer Thomas Adams formed the firm Riley & Adams in 1812. It is said that all his three sons became music publishers, music instrument manufacturers and retailers.

The Mass. Memories Road Show: Some Notes On Bridging And Bonding, Joanne M. Riley

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

Four years ago, the Mass. Studies Project at UMass Boston launched a cultural heritage project that we dubbed the “Mass. Memories Road Show,” a real-world mashup of PBS’s Antiques Road Show (people bring their personal stuff to a local event for professional perusal) and the Library of Congress’ American Memory Project (digitize historic stuff and share it with the world). Our ambitious goal was – and still is! – to visit each of the 351 communities in Massachusetts, inviting residents to bring in photographs that reflect themselves and their families in that community. At the public “Road Show” events, we …

Edward Said And The Study Of Music, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

My first encounter with Edward Said’s work was in the 1980s with the book, Beginnings: Intention and Method (1975). I was exploring a semiotic approach to late 18^th-century music, specifically, a beginning-middle-ending paradigm (an Aristotelian paradigm) that seemed to me to capture the rhetorical intentions of Classic composers. Said’s wide-ranging reflections and ruminations on beginnings – as inaugural moments, as sites for the establishment of difference, as authorially privileged moments, and as "first steps in the intentional production of meaning" – proved inspiring. My enduring impression of him at the time was that he was a very good …

Nietzsche’S “Gay” Science, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

Offers a reading of the allusion to the 'Provencal' in Nietzsche’s The Gay Science, including the troubadour’s art (or 'technic') of poetic song, an art at once secret, anonymous and thus nonsubjective, but also including logical disputation, for which it is the model, and comprising, perhaps above all, the important ideal of action (and pathos) at a distance: l’amour lointain. But beyond the Provençal character and atmosphere of the troubadour, Nietzsche’s conception of a joyful science, Nietzsche's 'gay' science also adumbrates a critique of science understood as the collective ideal of scholarship, and including classical philology as much as logic, …

Berlín Era Una Festa: Capllonch Vist Pels Seus Contemporanis A Alemanya, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

A principis del segle XX, Berlín i París eren, segons Joaquim Nin Castellanos, ciutats “a l’avantguarda dels països musicals”. Segons ell, les institucions culturals alemanyes eren admirables per la seva solidesa, però entenia i es resignava a acceptar que el futur de les arts passava per París. “París o Berlín?”, es devien demanar aleshores elsjoves artistes amb aspiracions mentre preparaven l’imprescindible viatge a l’estranger per conèixer aquesta “avantguarda”.

"The Most German Of All German Operas": Die Meistersinger Through The Lens Of The Third Reich, David B. Dennis

History: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A detailed analysis of the reception of Wagner's, Meistersinger, in the Third Reich.

Making The "Birthplace Of Jazz": Tourism And Musical Heritage Marketing In New Orleans, J. Souther

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Postmodern Musicology, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

The discipline of musicology is a rather specificially 20th century institution growing out of a disparate range of 19th century studies of music theory, history, composition, etc. The OED edition extant at the time of the writing of this article dates the term musicology itself to 1909 or later. Although there are indeed practitioners throughout the world, most theorists are Anglo-American, with echoes in the French tradition of musicologie and German Musikwissenschaft. As a still-modern project, postmodern musicology derives from a predominantly Austro-German generation of scholars who translated an originally European tradition of analysis (Heinrich Schenker and -- in …

Review Of Pamela M. Potter, Most German Of The Arts: Musicology And Society From The Weimar Republic To The End Of Hitler’S Reich (New Haven And London: Yale University Press, 1998), David B. Dennis

History: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.