Music Commons^™

"Stolen Time: The History Of Tempo Rubato." By Richard Hudson., Barton Hudson

Performance Practice Review

Review's and critiques Hudson's 1994 book.

"Monsieur De Saint Lambert: A New Treatise On Accompaniment." Trans. And Ed. By John S. Powell, Charlotte S. Mattax

Performance Practice Review

Reviews and critiques Powell's translation and editorial work on Lambert's Accompaniment Treatise.

The Mandolin: Its Structure And Performance (Sixteenth To Twentieth Centuries), James Tyler, Paul Sparks

Performance Practice Review

RILM: "A history of the instrument, with information about the construction and repertoire, and particular reference to performance techniques. The derivation of the term "mandolin" is discussed, as are the differences between the mandolino and the Neapolitan mandolin."

Performing On The Trombone: A Chronological Survey, David M. Guion

Performance Practice Review

RILM: "A history of the trombone from the late 14th c. to the present, with special emphasis on performance practice."

Action And Singing In Late 18th And Early 19th Century England, Robert Toft

Performance Practice Review

RILM: "Examines the role that action played in the performance of vocal music in the late 18th and early 19th c., through descriptions in writings from the period. Gilbert Austin's Chironomia, or, A treatise on rhetorical delivery (London, 1806) provided instruction in elocution and described such topics as standing, using the hands and arms, and making gestures in relation to the text. Austin's notation of action is applied to Thomas Gray's poem An elegy written in a country church-yard--which was set to music by Stephen Storace--to illustrate how action might have been employed by singers in the late 18th …

Historical And Regional Pronunciations In Vocal Performance, Douglas Leedy

Performance Practice Review

RILM: "Particular pronunciations or dialects are important factors in the creation and execution of vocal music. Such sounds can have a dramatic effect on the coloration and rhythmic profile of a piece of music; the recreation of such sounds is thus of great importance."

With Intent To Stage: Editing Kurt Weill's Music For The Theater, Ed Harsh

Performance Practice Review

RILM: "A critical edition of Weill's opera and music theater works confronts special editorial problems. The complex and dynamic identity of a work for the theater conflicts with the paradigm of the stable, definitive text that critical editions usually aim to present. Further, the collaborative nature of such works allows significant influence to be exerted on the text by individuals other than the composer. A satisfactory solution to these problems is not possible by recourse to the conventional musical-editorial philosophy that has prevailed for most of the 20th c. Rather, a new philosophy that places a positive value on the …

Cover/Table Of Contents

Performance Practice Review

Table of Contents for the Fall 1996 issue of Performance Practice Review.

Elements Of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, And Deformations In The Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata, Mark Richards

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

Tosca’S Prism: Three Moments In Western Cultural History, Juan Chattah

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

A Russian Rhetoric Of Form In The Music Of Witold Lutosławski, Douglas Rust

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

The capacity to write music that clearly conveys one formal meaning in its immediate context, and yet expresses a different meaning in a wider context, is one of the most interesting attributes in the musical style of Witold Lutosławski (1913–94), who cultivated multiple temporalities in his compositions using the musical language of twentieth-century modernism. In developing these innovations, he was inspired by his Russian-trained composition teacher to use metaphors of rhetoric and drama to model the “psychology” of his musical forms on the example of Beethoven’s sonatas. This article will suggest ways in which Lutosławski’s manner of composing music in …

The Unfolding Tale Of Griffes’S “White Peacock”, Taylor A. Greer

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

This essay provides an interdisciplinary study of
Charles Griffes’s monumental piano work, “The White Peacock,” integrating historical, analytical, and literary perspectives. A strong correspondence exists between the poem’s central image, the bird’s unfolding tail, and three aspects of Griffes’s setting: (1) his style of “motivic magnification,” in which the initial lush dominant ninth chord is transformed into composed-out melodic spans in the bass; (2) a strategic expansion of register, coinciding with the recapitulation; and (3) his unusual treatment of form, which in the final measures suggests perpetual repetition. Finally, Griffes’s work underlines his ties to European artistic culture by reviving …

Schenker, Schubert, And The Subtonic Chord, David Damschroder

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

A close reading and critique of Heinrich Schenker’s treatment of the subtonic chord (for example, B♭-D-F in C major or C minor) serves as the foundation for a detailed assessment of the diverse contexts in which it was employed by Franz Schubert. Numerous analyses of musical excerpts by Schubert help to reveal the relationship between the subtonic chord and the dominant Stufe (scale-step) and to demonstrate various linear contexts in which it may arise. Although the chord often is labeled as VII in C minor or as ♭VII in C major, its subsidiary role within the projection or connection of …

How To Build A Development Section: A Schenkerian Perspective, Timothy Cutler

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

More than fifty years ago, Allen Forte rightly predicted that the theories of Heinrich Schenker would have a profound impact on music theory pedagogy. In particular, Schenkerian analysis benefits Fernhören (“distance-hearing”), which relates not only to musical connections severed by chronological remoteness, but also to the conceptual space that extends from the composition itself to its background structure. This essay examines one underutilized method for strengthening Fernhören. Using the fundamental structure of an unnamed composition as a starting point, a note or two at a time will be added to the background, working through the middleground and toward the foreground. …

Beats That Commute: Algebraic And Kinesthetic Models For Math-Rock Grooves, Brad Osborn

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

Math rock’s most salient compositional facet is its cyclical repetition of grooves featuring changing and odd-cardinality meter. These unconventional grooves deform the conventional rhythmic structures of rock, such as backbeat and steady pulse, in such a way that a listener’s sense of metric organization is initially thwarted. Using transcriptions from math-rock artists such as Radiohead, The Mars Volta, and The Chariot, the author demonstrates a new analytical apparatus aimed at making sense of the ways listeners and performers process these changing pulse levels: the pivot pulse. The pivot pulse is defined as the slowest temporal level preserved in a given …

What’S In A Theme? On The Nature Of Variation, Roman Ivanovitch

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

Most descriptions or taxonomies of variation suggest a conception of “theme” as a repository of elements from which the variations will select, emphasizing now one aspect, now another. When considered as a temporal phenomenon, however, a theme appears not as a static arrangement of “structural” elements, but instead stands in a complex and reciprocal relationship to the variations: it bequeaths to them a set of expectations about how they might proceed, and yet exists as a mutable collection of possibilities or potentialities to be activated and reshaped by the course of the variations themselves. The article explores some of the …

Compound Melody And Jazz Improvisations: A Reconsideration, John D. Check

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

The concept of “compound melody” (a frequent component of Schenkerian analysis) pertains to the way a single line of music projects two or more voice-leading parts. While usually associated with works of the common-practice period, it also plays a role in jazz improvisations. This is especially so in an improvisation by alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, on “All The Things You Are” by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. The voice-leading graphs of this solo, and the attendant commentary, suggest that an awareness and appreciation of compound melody can enable a deeper understanding of jazz styles.

This article is part of …

Contributors/End Matter

Performance Practice Review

List of contributors to the Spring 1995 (8/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

End matter and advertisements from the Spring 1995 (8/1) issue of Performance Practice Review.

"A History Of Pianoforte Pedaling." By David Rowland, Sandra P. Rosenblum

Performance Practice Review

Rosenblum reviews and critiques Rowland's book on the history of pianoforte pedaling.

"Das Tempo In Der Musik Von Barock Und Vorklassik. Die Antwort Der Quellen Auf Ein Umstrittenes Thema." By Klaus Miehling, Wolfgang Aufhagen

Performance Practice Review

Auhagen reviews and critiques Miehling's book on tempo in the Baroque and Preclassic eras.

"Tudor Music." By David Wulstan, John Morehen

Performance Practice Review

Morehen reviews and critiques Wulstan's book on Tudor Music.

Musical Venues In Vienna, Seventeenth Century To The Present, Ingeborg Harer

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "Consideration of musical venues is often neglected in research on historical performance practice. Many musical works are directly linked to a particular location. The characteristic features (type, size, Acoustics) of the room or building for which the music was written influenced the composer in the creation of his work. A number of venues have had a special place in the musical life of Vienna over the past four centuries. A list of principal Viennese musical buildings (theaters, opera houses, music rooms, concert halls) is included, along with the circumstances surrounding their construction, and the more important musical works--especially …

Musical Performance At San Petronio In Bologna: A Brief History, Marc Vanscheeuwijck

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "The building of Bologna's most important church was decided by the Senate and begun in 1390. A regular musical chapel was created in 1436, and the first organ was installed in 1475. A second instrument was built in 1596 to perform double choir music with the chorus and the cornetto and sackbut band. During the 17th and 18th c. a considerable repertoire for large ensembles with vocal soloists, choirs, trumpets, and strings in concerted style developed in the basilica. Stylistic characteristics of the music result from the long reverberation time (12 seconds) and other acoustic qualities specific to …

Woodwind Vibrato From The Eighteenth Century To The Present, Dwight C. Manning

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "Surveys methods of vibrato production in woodwind performance. Beginning with Jacques Martin-Hotteterre, 18th-c. authors recommended finger vibrato. In the 19th c., Anton Bernhard Furstenau mentioned finger as well as jaw and breath vibrato. Late in the century, Maximillian Schwendler proclaimed that vibrato is initiated in the larynx (throat). The 20th c. has seen the debate continue over whether vibrato is produced by the breathing and blowing apparatus or by the throat, with recent scientific experiments supporting the latter claim."

Violin Playing In Late Seventeenth-Century England: Baltzar, Matteis, And Purcell, Mary Cyr

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "In the late 17th c., violin playing in England underwent a virtual revolution as a result of virtuoso techniques introduced by violinists from abroad such as Thomas Baltzar and Nicola Matteis. Iconographical evidence illustrates the popularity of the French bow grip and various ways of placing the instrument against the body. Technical features such as multiple stops and the messa di voce were employed extensively by Baltzar and Matteis. The likelihood that their playing influenced Henry Purcell suggests that violinists today might incorporate lively Articulation and the messa di voce in Purcell's trio sonatas of 1683."

Brossard And The Performance Of Jacquet De La Guerre's Céphale Et Procris, Wanda R. Griffiths

Performance Practice Review

RILM abstract: "Sebastien de Brossard made an arrangement of the prologue of Jacquet's tragedie en musique, and had it performed by his Academie de Musique in Strasbourg in 1696, two years after the opera's run at the Paris Opera. His arrangement sheds light on performance issues including breathing, vocal ornamentation, notes inegales, and scoring.(author)"

Giovanni Luca Conforti And Vocal Embellishment: From Formula To Artful Improvisation, Murray C. Bradshaw

Performance Practice Review

"Considers Conforti's treatise Breve et facile maniera d'essercitarsi... (1593) and his Salmi passaggiati (1601-03), revealing the vast gulf between the etude-like exercises in the treatise and the actual embellished music--a difference similar to that between the exercises of Hanon and the piano etudes of Chopin. The embellishments of this period were far more than mere displays of virtuosity; they sprang from a desire to express the deepest meanings of the text."

Performance Practice And Musical Expressivity, Roland Jackson

Performance Practice Review

"Musical expressivity is intimately associated with subtle dynamic changes--slight variations in volume between one note and the next--which help shape and make meaningful the phrases. Daniel Gottlob Turk was among the few theorists who recognized and described this subtlety."

2011-2012 Master Of Music Recital - Susana Obando-Barqueto (Double Bass), Susana Obando, Tao Lin

Master of Music Recitals

No abstract provided.

2011-2012 Guest Pianist Weekend: "Postcards From Russia" - Jon Kimura Parker, Jon Kimura Parker

Guest Recitals

Jon Kimura Parker Master Class (January 14, 2012 at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm) - Program