Maestro, Directed By Bradley Cooper. 2023.,
2026
Mount Allison University
Maestro, Directed By Bradley Cooper. 2023., Elizabeth A. Wells
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
No abstract provided.
Orthography,
2026
independent scholar/composer
Orthography, Jeremy Gill
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
The myth of Pope Gregory I taking melodic dictation from a magical singing bird is the imaginative starting point of Western musicʼs love-hate relationship with the music notation systems it later developed. This essay traces that development through Thomas Tallis and J. S. Bach to the dichotomous modern examples of Brian Ferneyhough and Arvo Pärt. In it, I suggest that Western musicʼs eventual development hinged upon that earliest desire to document and codify melodies, answering Gregoryʼs contemporary Isidore of Seville, who lamented that “unless sounds are held by the memory of man, they perish, because they cannot be written down.”
Mozart’S Jewish Librettist: A Brief History Of A Poorly Kept Secret,
2026
Brandeis University
Mozart’S Jewish Librettist: A Brief History Of A Poorly Kept Secret, Robert L. Marshall
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
Lorenzo da Ponte, the librettist of Mozart’s three greatest Italian operas, was born a Jew, a fact rumored about during his lifetime but not definitively established until 1900. The treatment (or not) of Da Ponte’s Jewish origins as documented from his time to the present constitutes a history of concealment, rumor, discovery, denigration, and exploitation. Its nadir was reached during the Nazi period, its zenith most recently, as the poet, hitherto a secondary player in the Mozart biographies, has emerged as the colorful protagonist in substantial biographies of his own.
In Praise Of Simplicity: Marie Hinrichs’S Op. 1, Neun Gesänge,
2026
University of Oregon
In Praise Of Simplicity: Marie Hinrichs’S Op. 1, Neun Gesänge, Stephen Rodgers
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
In a chapter from German Lieder in the Nineteenth Century (1996), Jürgen Thym describes the historiography of the German Lied as “a hike through the high-peak area of a mountain landscape where the trail along the ridge leads from one glorious peak to the next.” Beneath the high peaks of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Wolf, he notes, are smaller peaks not reachable by trail. Thym clears paths through this unexplored landscape by surveying the Lieder of Carl Loewe, Fanny Hensel, Franz Liszt, Robert Franz, Clara Schumann, and Peter Cornelius. My essay extends one of these paths, exploring the songs of …
Berlioz's Mysterious Amélie,
2026
Independent scholar
Berlioz's Mysterious Amélie, Pascal Beyls, Peter Bloom
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
In September 1864, in a letter to his long-time confidante, the Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein, Berlioz mentioned the name of the woman with whom, as he had earlier confided to the Princess, he had conducted a brief but passionate affair: “her name was Amélie.” Until now, the Berlioz scholars have been unable properly to identify this mysterious person. From other letters and documents, including Ernest Legouvé’s Soixante ans de souvenirs, we have known the approximate dates of the beginning and ending of the relationship. But only now, on the basis of the birth and death certificates of the woman and …
Revolutionary Alchemy: Incantation And Collage As Magical Methods In Rock Of The Countercultural Era,
2026
University of Colorado, Boulder
Revolutionary Alchemy: Incantation And Collage As Magical Methods In Rock Of The Countercultural Era, Jay Keister
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
Magic held a special fascination for the post-war counterculture, a movement that valued music and art as tools of the imagination to counter what Theodore Roszak called the “technocracy” in which science was to blame for cultural disenchantment in the West. At a time when countercultural rhetoric was bolstering a newfound faith in the power of music to generate social change, rock music began to be conceived by many musicians and perceived by audiences as a kind of magic. This article considers music by the Beatles, the Doors, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and others to show how musicians …
William Albright's Whistler (1834-1903): Three Nocturnes: "Why The Hell . . . Should Anyone Listen To This?!",
2026
independent scholar
William Albright's Whistler (1834-1903): Three Nocturnes: "Why The Hell . . . Should Anyone Listen To This?!", R. Douglas Reed
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
The article explores William Albright's Whistler (1834-1903): Three Nocturnes (1989) through historical context, musical analysis, performance practice, and the composer's essay on the relationship between his composition and Whistler's paintings. Commentary by composer Sydney Hodkinson gives information about the 1960s new music scene in Ann Arbor (the ONCE Group, The Grate Society) composition study with Ross Lee Finney.
Pedro António Avondano: Il Mondo Della Luna. Naxos 660487-88, 2021.,
2026
Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester)
Pedro António Avondano: Il Mondo Della Luna. Naxos 660487-88, 2021., Ralph P. Locke
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
The world-premiere recording of Il mondo della luna by Pedro António Avondano consists of a highly skillful and alert performance by Portuguese musicians, including singers well trained in Italian. The recitatives were rehearsed in an unusual way, with the singers first speaking the lines rather than singing them. The experiment will be judged variously by different observers. The reviewer dislikes the frequent clash in pitch between voice and instruments, especially at cadences. But others have hailed the recording unstintingly.
Svatopluk Havelka: Symphony No. 1 [In B-Flat Minor]. Supraphon Sua 18138 (Lp, 196?).,
2026
Florida International University
Svatopluk Havelka: Symphony No. 1 [In B-Flat Minor]. Supraphon Sua 18138 (Lp, 196?)., Stephen Thomson Moore, Tom Moore
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
No abstract provided.
Thomas Schippers In Cincinnati: A Forgotten Episode In The Life Of A Conductor Renowned For Opera,
2026
University of New Hampshire
Thomas Schippers In Cincinnati: A Forgotten Episode In The Life Of A Conductor Renowned For Opera, Nancy Spada
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
Thomas Schippers’s experience as a conductor of symphonic literature, for which he seems to have been quite overlooked and nearly forgotten, is related in this article in some detail. There are interesting facts concerning his work as Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra where he expounds on some of his ideas about conducting such an orchestra and describes certain innovative programs he produced during his tenure there. Several well-known performers who worked with him give their opinion or recount their experiences under his baton. In addition, two of his former conducting students share some fascinating details of what it …
Two Essays On Contemporary Music,
2026
Editor and Critic
Two Essays On Contemporary Music, Bálint András Varga
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
Bálint András Varga (1941–2019) was an advocate for and a keen critic of contemporary music, first on radio, and later as an acquisitions editor for both Editio Hungarica and Universal-Edition. He interviewed many musical figures and planned to interview visual artists before he died. His interlocutors were impressed with Varga’s insightful questions and frequently answered them much more comprehensively than they would ones from standard journalists. These two essays were intended to be published in Varga’s third book, From Boulanger to Stockhausen: Interviews and a Memoir. The first, “What to Listen for in Music,” refers to Aaron Copland’s book of …
The Japanese Shakuhachi: Comparing The Ancient Tuning With The Modern One,
2026
Hirosaki University
The Japanese Shakuhachi: Comparing The Ancient Tuning With The Modern One, Nick Bellando, Bruno Deschênes
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
The difference between traditional and modern shakuhachi construction and tuning is significant in that it represents a paradigm shift in the psychological aim and embodied techniques employed in association with the instrument. Beginning in Edo-era Japan as an ostensibly religious instrument, the shakuhachi was at first played with a similar technique to its predecessor, the hitoyogiri, using the breath to modify pitch and giving priority to tone color. Coming into the modern era, the shakuhachi came to be used increasingly as a modern musical instrument; the resulting higher priority of pitch-precision brought about changes in construction and playing techniques that …
The Ossianic Maiden Colma In Compassionate View: Ferdinand Hiller’S “Colma’S Klage” (1873) And Vinzenz Lachner’S Die Klage Der Kolma (1874),
2026
University of New Hampshire
The Ossianic Maiden Colma In Compassionate View: Ferdinand Hiller’S “Colma’S Klage” (1873) And Vinzenz Lachner’S Die Klage Der Kolma (1874), James W. Porter
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
The widespread, positive reception of Ossianic poems in Germany and Austria inspired many musical settings from Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and perhaps also Schumann. Settings of the poetic narrative of Colma, which relates the anguish of a maiden discovering that her brother and her lover have slain each other in mortal combat, were composed by Zumsteeg, Reichardt, Schubert, and Weber. This essay examines two later settings composed in the 1870s by Ferdinand Hiller and Vinzenz Lachner. While the settings are undeniably effective in their use of common idioms of German composition in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, they are …
Expanding Access To Latin American Art Song: A Study Of Theodoro Valcárcel's Andean-Influenced Art Songs,
2026
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
Expanding Access To Latin American Art Song: A Study Of Theodoro Valcárcel's Andean-Influenced Art Songs, Douglas E. Perez
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
EXPANDING ACCESS TO LATIN AMERICAN ART SONG: A STUDY OF THEODORO VALCÁRCEL’S ANDEAN-INFLUENCED ART SONGS advocates for the exploration and performance of underrepresented Latin American composers. Multiple methods of increasing access are discussed, including the creation of a central source for IPA, literal, and poetic translations of Latin American art songs; the study of seldom-performed composers, their output, and influences; and the application of these elements through informed performance. This document centers on the Peruvian composer Theodoro Valcárcel and analyzes the intersection of his indigenous heritage with his Latin American and European musical training as reflected in his compositional style …
Christopher Luna-Mega: Time’S Arrow. Other Minds Om 1031-2, 2022 [Review],
2026
University of New Hampshire
Christopher Luna-Mega: Time’S Arrow. Other Minds Om 1031-2, 2022 [Review], Rob Haskins
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
No abstract provided.
Christopher Fox: Trostlieder. Kairos 0220005kai, 2022 [Review],
2026
University of New Hampshire
Christopher Fox: Trostlieder. Kairos 0220005kai, 2022 [Review], Rob Haskins
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
No abstract provided.
Sylvie Bodorová: Snow And Stars. Cesky Rozhlas Cr 1117-2, 2021 [Review].,
2026
University of New Hampshire
Sylvie Bodorová: Snow And Stars. Cesky Rozhlas Cr 1117-2, 2021 [Review]., Tom Moore
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
No abstract provided.
Romances For Voice And Guitar, Arranged By Hector Berlioz. Atma Classique Acd2 2800, 2020 [Review],
2026
Smith College
Romances For Voice And Guitar, Arranged By Hector Berlioz. Atma Classique Acd2 2800, 2020 [Review], Peter Bloom
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
No abstract provided.
‘Brillez, Astres Nouveaux!’ Arias And Other Excerpts From Eighteenth-Century French Operas By Rameau, Leclair, Boismortier, And Others. Aparte Cd Ap223, 2020 [Review],
2026
University of Rochester
‘Brillez, Astres Nouveaux!’ Arias And Other Excerpts From Eighteenth-Century French Operas By Rameau, Leclair, Boismortier, And Others. Aparte Cd Ap223, 2020 [Review], Ralph P. Locke
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
No abstract provided.
Defying The Conventional: Musical Performance, Embodied Cognition, And The Reconfiguration Of Institutional Discourse,
2026
University of Ottowa
Defying The Conventional: Musical Performance, Embodied Cognition, And The Reconfiguration Of Institutional Discourse, Dillon Parmer
Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal
This essay confronts the dialectic between theory and practice through a comparison of an idea basic to how we understand music (the notion that pitch moves up and down in vertical space) with how pitch is thought of in actual music-making. The comparison leads to both a new conceptual model for thinking about pitch, what might be called Pitch Horizontality, as well as a proposal for how to bring institutional discourse about music into sync, not with how scholars in other disciplines think about their subject matter, but with the thinking that goes on in contexts of real-world artistic production.
