Musicology Commons^™

French Music By An Italian Count: A Survey Of Selected Recordings Of Ludovico Roncalli, Ellwood Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

No abstract provided.

Guitar Etudes In The Lisztian Vein: Zanon Plays Mignone’S Twelve Etudes, Diogo Alvarez

Soundboard Scholar

Diogo Alvarez reviews Fabio Zanon's recording of Mignone's 12 Etudes and other works, with commentary on the music and the composer.

Narciso Yepes And The Composers Of His Time, Belén Pérez Castillo

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At his peak, Narciso Yepes was one of the most celebrated figures in the guitar world, as evidenced by the quantity and reach of his recordings. While he is well known as a proponent of the ten-string guitar with an innovative chromatic tuning, less attention has been focused on his activity as a commissioner of new works (many of them for the six-string guitar). Yet in this domain, Yepes was extremely productive, premiering works by such composers as Ascencio, Bacarisse, Balada, Maderna, Marco, Montsalvatge, Ohana, Palau, and Ruiz-Pipò, to name a few. Yepes's role as a collaborator varied from one …

Rodrigo’S Concierto De Aranjuez Through The Writings Of Regino Sainz De La Maza, Leopoldo Neri

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Regino Sainz de la Maza was the guitarist who premiered Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona in 1940. Although musicologists have studied this musical phenomenon from different approaches, this study approaches the subject from the perspective of the performer and his musical writings, affording us new historical, aesthetic and technical data on Rodrigo's work.

Rudolph Süss’S Lyrische Suite No. 1, Op. 23, Matanya Ophee

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This article reproduces the Lyrische Suite [no. 1], op. 23, by the Austrian composer Rudolph Süss, with a short introductory commentary. First published in Vienna around 1921, this suite is a fine example of the enthusiasm for the guitar in early twentieth-century Austria and Germany, which resulted in much music that has been overlooked, overshadowed as it was by the emerging Spanish repertoire.

Note

This article is one of a series of seven celebrating the work of Matanya Ophee (1932–2017) on the ninetieth anniversary of his birth. Written between 1982 and 1991, these articles first appeared in early issues of …

Andrés Segovia And Federico Moreno Torroba’S Danza Castellana, Julio Gimeno

Soundboard Scholar

The guitar’s early twentieth-century repertoire is of unique importance, containing as it does the first guitar pieces by non-guitarist composers known for their symphonic, operatic and chamber music. Many of these composers wrote for the pioneering Andalusian guitarist Andrés Segovia, and among the most prolific of them was Federico Moreno Torroba. In various memoirs and interviews, Segovia identified Torroba’s miniature Danza castellana as not only the first piece written for him by a non-guitarist composer but even the first such piece by anyone, predating, in Segovia’s telling, Falla’s 1920 Homenaje. This article challenges Segovia’s claim by recounting the details …

Joaquín Rodrigo And Julian Bream: Aspects Of A Relationship, Javier Suárez-Pajares

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In light of the complex diplomatic relations between Spain and the United Kingdom in the 1950s, the deteriorating relationship between the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo and the English guitarist Julian Bream describes a telling arc—from 1951, when Bream gave the British premiere of the Concierto de Aranjuez, to 1959, when he emphatically rejected the Sonata giocosa that Rodrigo had written for him. To explore Bream's negative reaction, this study considers both Rodrigo’s relation to England and Bream’s ambivalent attitude toward the Spanish guitar tradition. An epilogue examines the recordings that the guitarist subsequently made of the Concierto de Aranjuez …

Soundboard Scholar No. 8: Cover

Soundboard Scholar

Cover image: Ex Libris bookplate for Jane Patterson by Robert Anning Bell. Line illustration from 1893 that appeared in The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art. Private Collection.

Editor's Letter, Jonathan Leathwood

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An introduction to the contents of Soundboard Scholar, no. 8.

Carlo Barone (1955–2022), Adrian Walter

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Carlo Barone (1955–2022) was a pioneering performer, researcher, and educator in the nineteenth-century performing practice of the guitar. In this tribute, his friend and collaborator Adrian Walter describes Barone's career.

Le Donne E La Chitarra, James Akers, Romantic Guitar, Ellwood Colahan

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No abstract provided.

Athénaïs Paulian’S Airs And Variations, Op. 1, Matanya Ophee

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This article reproduces Airs et Variations, op. 1, by Athénaïs Paulian (Bonn: Simrock, c. 1829), with a brief historical commentary and notes on performance. The commentary includes notes on Paulian's role in the Parisian guitar scene of Sor, Aguado, de Fossa, and others; the Italian soprano Angelia Catalani; and the popularity of the aria "Das klinget so herrlich," from Mozart's Singspiel Die Zauberflöte.

Elsa Just’S Ständchen For Guitar Trio, Matanya Ophee

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This article reproduces a serenade from an early twentieth-century German guitar magazine. It is for guitar trio and of moderate difficulty. The introductory commentary attributes the piece to Elsa Just (1894–1919) and includes a translation of the entry on Just from Zuth's 1926 Handbuch der Laute und Gitarre.

Rudolph Süss’S Lyrische Suite No. 2, Op. 24, Matanya Ophee

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This article reproduces the Lyrische Suite no. 2, op. 24, by the Austrian composer Rudolph Süss, with a short introductory commentary. First published in Vienna around 1921, this suite is a fine example of the enthusiasm for the guitar in early twentieth-century Austria and Germany, which resulted in much music that has been overlooked, overshadowed as it was by the emerging Spanish repertoire.

J.N. Bobrowicz’S Grand Polonaise, Op. 24, Matanya Ophee

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This article presents an edited version of a Grand Polonaise by the Polish guitarist-composer Jan Nepomucen Bobrowicz (1805–81), preceded by a short commentary and notes for performance. The commentary includes a translation of the biographical entry for Bobrowicz in Sowiński’s Les musiciens polonais et slaves (Paris, 1857).

Carlos Pedrell’S Al Atardecer En Los Jardines De Arlaja, Matanya Ophee

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This article reproduces Al atardecer en los jardines de Arlaja by the Uruguayan composer Carlos Pedrell, preceded by a commentary. Together with Pedrell's other guitar works, this piece enriches our picture of Latin American guitar repertoire in the early twentieth century. In the case of Pedrell, we have a work written by a composer who studied in Paris and who wrote for three of the major guitarists of his time—Segovia, Pujol, and Llobet.

A Rondo Allegro By François Molino, Matanya Ophee

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This article presents an edited version of a Rondo-Allegro from Molino's Grande méthode complette (Paris, c. 1833). The rondo theme bears some resemblance to the famous melody "Das klinget so herrlich" from Mozart's Singspiel Die Zauberflöte. Ophee discusses the many versions of this theme to be found in the guitar's nineteenth-century repertoire, by composers such as Sor, Giuliani, and Paulian, drawing attention to composers' use of both the sung melody and the instrumental introduction.

Matanya Ophee’S Contributions To Soundboard Magazine: A Retrospective, Stanley Yates

Soundboard Scholar

The guitar historian Matanya Ophee's writings in Soundboard span almost his entire career as a researcher. In this restrospective, Stanley Yates surveys Ophee's work in general before offering a bibliography and commentary on his contributions to Soundboard: articles, reviews, and columns.

“An Attractive And Varied Repertoire”: Full-Data List, Christopher Page

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This document presents the complete set of data analyzed in Christopher Page, “‘An Attractive and Varied Repertoire’: The Guitar Revival of 1860–1900 and Victorian Song,” Soundboard Scholar, no. 8 (2022), https://digitalcommons.du.edu/sbs/vol8/iss1/3.

“An Attractive And Varied Repertoire”: The Guitar Revival Of 1860–1900 And Victorian Song, Christopher Page

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Most modern histories of the classical guitar are devoted to solo playing. They therefore forego a different kind of history based upon the guitar used as an accompaniment for a singer. This article explores how that alternative history might be framed with reference to England during the long reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). This is the ideal laboratory for such an experiment, not least because the compositions of Catharina Pratten (1824–1895), the most influential guitar player of the day, are often thought to reveal a late-Victorian public with little interest in the guitar as a solo resource. Yet the newspaper …

Healthy Cello Playing: Teaching Cello To Promote Injury Prevention, Isabella Kodama

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Cellists and other instrumentalists frequently suffer from playing-related injuries, and these can be detrimental to their career and psychological health. There are many ways to treat these injuries, but the most beneficial method is prevention. I want to find ways to help prevent pain and injury by developing good habits in the beginning of their playing. A lack of body awareness is a frequent cause of injury for many musicians. My goal in this research is to find ways of preventing injuries throughout one’s playing career, but more specifically from the very early stages of cello-playing, so that these issues …

Video Gamers As Performers: Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

This study is based on the concept and idea of video game players performing music through the games that they play. This serves as a very assessable way for people who do not have the money, time commitment, and or motivation to be able to play and perform music without any background in music literacy.

Observed Internal Mechanisms Of Clarinet Performance: Annotated Bibliography, Michael Dirnberger

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Woodwind instrumental pedagogy is a complex and broad field of study, and its traditions and misconceptions of teaching and playing are deeply ingrained in our modern methods of instrumental pedagogy. These lingering misunderstandings within our teaching traditions turn people away from the practice of instrumental music-making and hold others back from reaching their true potential. Comparing the observed physical realities of performing musicians with the physical effect produced by some of the most popular tools in clarinet pedagogy has revealed that the syllabic guide to pedagogy is not always using the most optimal syllables to guide students in the right …

The Evolution Of The Bel Canto Technique Through The 20th And 21st Century: Annotated Bibliography, Claudia Diaz

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

The Bel canto technique is the quintessential technique of opera performance. Throughout history, it has adapted itself and survived through pedagogies, composers, influential artists, and scientific specialists from the field. Although the bel canto technique has a wide range of sources and complete history, this will focus more on the evolution occurring through the 20^th and 21^st centuries. How the bel canto technique has managed to survive is key to understanding its future.

Assuming An Editorial Role To Establish Performance Interpretations: Annotated Bibliography, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

As more and more sources in musical scores become available nowadays, made possible by the discovery and editing of composers’ manuscripts and the publication of and multiple critical editions, performers often find the need to consult multiple editions of the same piece and the original sources (if available) to come up with one’s own performance edition. This process has become essential in my own music making experience as a performer, because it lays down a foundation for making appropriate interpretive decisions and gaining a more thorough understanding of the music for analytical and performance purposes. I refer to the process …

On The Need For A Scholarly Edition Of Tárrega’S Complete Works, David J. Buch

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In this guest editorial, the author provides evidence of the unreliable nature of the majority of Tárrega’s first editions, and the substandard quality of most modern editions. The author argues that in light of the recent availability of formerly inaccessible primary sources, the time is right for a scholarly edition of Tárrega’s complete works with state-of-art editorial methods.

A Noteworthy Early-American Guitar Treatise: James Ballard’S Elements Of 1838, Peter Danner

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No abstract provided.

A Tribute To Vladimir Morkov (The Czar’S Guitars), Ellwood Colahan

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A review of A Tribute to Vladimir Morkov, by The Czar’s Guitars (John Schneiderman & Oleg Timofeyev) (Hänssler Classic HC20018, 2020, 2 compact discs).

Archetypes (Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad, Third Coast Percussion), Nathan Cornelius

Soundboard Scholar

A review of  Archetypes, by Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad, and Third Coast Percussion (Cedille 201, 2021, 1 compact disc).

"The Lutenist!": Anxieties, Ambiguities, And Deviations In Julian Bream’S Discography, Sidney Molina

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The recent passing of English guitarist Julian Bream (1933–2020) has prompted a reevaluation of his artistic legacy by critics around the world. In this article, I propose a way of reading Bream’s discography in relation to that of his predecessor, Andrés Segovia, utilizing Harold Bloom’s theory of influence, a methodology that I first proposed in application to music in 2006. After dividing Bream’s fifty albums into phases inspired by Bloomian categories, I examine the works that Bream chose to record more than once, with a focus on those to which he returned three or more times.