Musicology Commons^™

Review Of Re-Reading The Beethoven Violin Sonatas By Daniel Tong, Katharina Uhde

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Marriage Letters Of Joseph Deym And Josephine Brunsvik-Deym By Rita Steblin, Jos Van Der Zanden

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Composer Embalmed By Abigail Fine, Joe Davies

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

"The Effect Was The Same, But Not For The Eye." From Playability To Augenmusik In Beethoven’S Arrangement Of His Grande Fugue Op. 133/134, Elisa Novara

The Beethoven Journal

Beethoven’s four-hands piano transcription of the Grande Fugue Op. 134 is different from any other arrangement he ever made: firstly, it is given an opus number, which is something that conventional Klavierauszüge usually do not have; secondly, it has a dedication, namely to Beethoven’s patron and pupil the Archduke Rudolf. Third, it is notoriously so difficult to play that it barely fulfils the primary function of four-hands piano transcriptions in the 19th century, i.e. a more easily accessible performance medium, which would have resulted in a better circulation of the work.

A more conventional transcription of Op. 133 might have …

Beethoven’S Piccolo Apprenticeship: Eighteen Years Of Experimentation Before The Fifth Symphony, Rikki A. Wolpowitz

The Beethoven Journal

Beethoven is routinely credited as the "father of the orchestral piccolo," a claim resting primarily on his deployment of the instrument in the Fifth Symphony (1808). Yet this paternity metaphor obscures a crucial fact: Beethoven composed for the piccolo for nearly eighteen years before that symphonic premiere, producing works for court entertainment, public dances, and military bands that systematically explored the instrument’s capabilities. This article examines Beethoven’s complete piccolo output—nineteen works comprising thirty-two individual pieces—through a three-function analytical framework: the piccolo as range-extender, as vehicle for programmatic effect, and as independent voice. Beginning with the Musik zu einem Ritterballett (1790) …

"Wondrous Emanations Of A Transcendently Transfigured Sublimity And Profundity": The Reception Of Beethoven's Last Three Piano Sonatas In The Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, Nicholas S. Kennedy

The Beethoven Journal

Ludwig van Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas, Opp. 109, 110, and 111, have captured the imaginations of critics from the nineteenth century to the present. As “late” works penned towards the end of the composer’s life, these sonatas have often been read as infused with existential or transcendental meaning, frequently aligned with Beethoven’s own experiences. Reception studies have identified broader tropes of autobiographical explanation and poetic analogy as applied to these works by early critics; however, these studies frequently stop short of identifying more specific patterns in the images employed to describe the sonatas. Focusing on mainly German literature from …

Beethoven, Caspar Peucer’S Commentarius, And Enchanted Nature, Nicholas Chong

The Beethoven Journal

The posthumous inventory of Beethoven’s library includes a late Renaissance treatise by Caspar Peucer (1525–1602) entitled Commentarius de præcipuis generibus divinationum (Commentary on the main types of divination). Peucer’s text is concerned mainly with methods of predicting the future through such practices as magic, astrology, and the reading of oracles. Neither Peucer nor his treatise is mentioned in any other source associated with Beethoven. The composer also had a limited knowledge of Latin and his copy of Peucer’s text was more than two centuries old.

Previous scholarship has not explored Beethoven’s ownership of this book in any detail, except to …

The Performer As Stylistic Free Agent: A Historically Inspired Approach To Interpreting Manuel De Falla’S Homenaje, Yiannis Efstathopoulos, Maarten Stragier, Kristin Van Den Buys

Soundboard Scholar

Manuel de Falla’s Homenaje pour “Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy” presents a complex identity knot that reflects Debussyan Alhambrism back onto its inspiration, drawing from both classical and folk traditions. This is the first research project to approach that knot from the perspective of historically inspired performance. It identifies a fascinating counterpart to its complexity in the stylistically hybrid guitar practices that were common at the time Falla composed his miniature masterpiece. The authors therefore propose that a historically inspired performer of Homenaje can act as a stylistic free agent, traversing the continuum of styles that gave birth to Falla’s …

The Verney Family And Their Guitars In France And England, 1643–53, Christopher Page

Soundboard Scholar

The five-course guitar was a fundamental resource for the Verney family from 1643 to 1653 as they sheltered in France, avoiding their creditors and escaping the state of civil war at home in England. Their papers from that period, comprising many thousands of letters and financial accounts, show them hiring a guitar-master, ordering new guitars in Paris and debating the relative benefits of lessons for their eldest son on the guitar as opposed to the lute. This article reproduces the key documents and considers the music that the Verneys may have played. The papers particularly show how an instrument often …

Recovering Hidden Histories: Christopher Page On The Guitar In Victorian England, Jenny Nex

Soundboard Scholar

A review of The Guitar in Victorian England: A Social and Musical History, by Christopher Page (Cambridge University Press, 2025)

"Heil, O Sonne, Heil!": Schemata And Semiotics In Haydn's Oratorio Sunrises, Michael D. Slattery

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

Both of Haydn’s late oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons, contain depictions of sunrises, a subject matter that Sisman (2013) has characterized as “Emergent Light,” in contrast with the famous “absolute” creation of light at the opening of The Creation. In addition to their shared object of representation, the four sunrise passages I identify in these two works all use a phrase-level schema Gjerdingen (2007) has christened the Do-Re-Mi. In this paper, I enrich our cultural understanding of Haydn’s sunrises by attending to nuanced semantic implications of the Do-Re-Mi, illustrating how phrase-level schemata can construct extramusical meaning.

Work on phrase-level …

Dowland Is For Everyone! The Making Of A New Biography, K. Dawn Grapes, Katharyn R. Benessa

Soundboard Scholar

Following the publication of her new biography of the Elizabethan lutenist John Dowland, K. Dawn Grapes details her research journey in conversation with Katharyn Benessa. They discuss both the history of Dowland research, including the legacy of Diana Poulton, and the gaps that still remain. Grapes offers new context for understanding Dowland’s music and considers how his travels and experiences may have shaped his life and work.

A Two-Winged Murcia: Spanish Dance, Italian Corelli, One Guitar, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of Santiago de Murcia (1673–1739): Entre dos almas, by Stefano Maiorana (Baroque guitar).

So Much For Musicology: William Carter Plays Santiago De Murcia, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of La Guitarra Española: Santiago de Murcia (1682–1732), by William Carter (Baroque guitar).

Creolized Baroque: Early Music In A Brazilian Key, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of Iberian and Afro-Brazilian Music of the 17th Century, by Ensemble Banza, Rogério Budasz, (Baroque guitar).

A Living Source Report: Cristian Gutiérrez Plays Cifras Selectas, Ellwood P. Colahan

Soundboard Scholar

Review of Cifras selectas de guitarra, by Cristiano Gutiérrez (Baroque guitar).

Using Handwriting Text Recognition (Htr) Technology To Create A Language Learning Model (Llm) For Blythe Owen’S Handwriting, Aiko J. Ayala Rios, Marianne Y. Kordas

Journal of Adventist Libraries and Archives

Handwriting Recognition Technology (HTR) has proven to be a valuable support for the fields of digital humanities and archival resources, as more scholars strive to make documents machine-readable and accessible. With this in mind, the newest phase of the Blythe Owen letter transcription project commenced in the summer of 2025, utilizing Transkribus, a software that aids in transcription and the creation of Language Learning Models (LLMs) tailored to specific writing styles. This report outlines the progress made in learning to use the program, the various issues that arose, and provides suggestions for the project's future as well as for similar …

Pedro Ximénez Abrill Y Tirado: Another And Deeper Look, Richard Savino

Soundboard Scholar

Born in Arequipa, Peru, Pedro Ximénez Abrill y Tirado was a virtuoso cellist and guitarist who composed over forty symphonies, forty masses, dozens of chamber pieces with interesting instrumentations, and over three hundred solo pieces for the guitar. He moved to Lima for a period and later became Maestro di Capilla at the Sucre Cathedral in Bolivia. At the time Sucre was one of the wealthiest cities in South America, if not the wealthiest.

Abrill's renown was such that he was published in Paris by Richault and was written about in Hugh Bonelli's published travel diary (London, 1854). His music …

Humor In Eighteenth-Century Dress: The Comic Form Of Beethoven’S Grosse Fuge, Op. 133., Stephen Husarik

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge (Op. 133), previously interpreted as a work shaped by comedic design, can also be understood as an “algorithmic fugue” in which the subject undergoes a systematic process from deformation to restoration. Rather than relying mainly on traditional contrapuntal devices such as inversion and augmentation, Beethoven reshapes the theme through syncopation and paired slurred pulses, then expands these alterations into increasingly exaggerated fugal textures. Drawing on sketches and manuscript sources, this paper argues that the process resembles the moves of a Rubik’s Cube, with each transformation contributing to an eventual solution. In the closing measures, Beethoven reverses the …

H. C. Robbins Landon (1926-2009): A Brief, But Grateful Tribute, David Wyn Jones

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

Tribute honoring H. C. Robbins Landon on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Landon’S Salieri: Myth-Busting, Stereotype-Making, And The Narratives Of Eighteenth-Century Music, Yuhan Tian

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

This paper reconsiders H. C. Robbins Landon’s writings on Antonio Salieri, focusing on 1791: Mozart’s Last Year, Mozart: The Golden Years, and Haydn: Chronicle and Works II. It starts from a basic observation: Landon is widely credited with dismantling the story that Salieri poisoned Mozart, yet his books also helped to fix another vivid image of Salieri—as “the arch-intriguer” at the Viennese court. How can the same author both clear away one myth and reinforce another kind of stereotype?

The paper combines close reading with straightforward source criticism and recent work on biography and life-writing. The first section …

Haydn’S Creation Challenge: A New Hypothesis About The Genesis Of Beethoven’S Ninth Symphony, Stefan Romanó

HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America

The article hypothesizes that Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was the product of his decision to take up the challenge that Haydn’s Creation had confronted him with since his youth.  Haydn’s oratorio was immensely popular in Vienna and Germany during Beethoven’s time, more popular than Beethoven’s own music.  It represented the golden standard of musical perfection for Beethoven himself, who strove to equal it, but repeatedly felt that he had not yet jumped over the Creation hurdle.  He took up the challenge in the years 1816-18, when he began designing the first movement of his Ninth, as a replica to the …

“About Organs”: A Lutheran Statement About Organ Music From 1597, And Its Historical Context, Markus Rathey

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The article presents a translation of an important document about organ music, published by the Theology Department at Wittenberg University in 1597. While written in response to an ongoing controversy, the document became the authoritative statement of the Lutheran church about organs and organ music in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The article presents the first complete English translation of the text and it analyzes the historical context of the document.

Singing About Singing: Images Of Choirs In Aquitanian 'Versaria', Eva Moreda Rodriguez

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Charles Atkinson and Gunilla Iversen, among others, have noted and discussed the increased presence of terms relating to music, singing and sound in Latin-language liturgical or paraliturgical music of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Aquitanian versus and Benedicamus trope repertoires provide a prime example, with words such as cantum, carmen, chorus and others recurring frequently. The recent development of scholarly strands (Emma Dillon, Sarah Kay) that considers how music and text combines (Dillon’s “sound of song”) to shape and put forward discourses that are precisely about the nature of sound, singing and music open up new opportunities to examine …

Mapping Legnani In Print: Mustardino’S Thematic Catalogue, Marco Riboni

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Luigi Legnani: Catalogo tematico delle edizioni a stampa per e con chitarra [Thematic Catalogue of Printed Editions for and with Guitar], by Marco Mustardino (Rome: Aracne, 2023).

Understanding Modern American Politics Through Identity And Pop Music Between 2018 And 2025: A Musicological Analysis, Emilyn Bedell

Ramifications

This project studies how music impacts our society by examining the ways popular musicians (Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, and Hozier) imbue their songs with their identity. Their music engages their authentic self and social interests, effectively communicating their artistic and social values to their audience. This study examines three artists who recently became popular, so there is less established musicological research focused on them. To explore them deeper, I draw on cultural sources such as newspapers and magazines, in addition to academic journals. I also analyze their music and videos alongside recorded interviews to understand the sociopolitical issues for which …

Max Bruch: Die Lorelei, Ralph P. Locke

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

The Way Of The Moderns: Six Perspectives On Modernism In Music, Edited By Antoni Pizà, Rob Haskins

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Hating Jazz, By Andrew S. Berish, Gabriel Solis

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Leonard Bernstein In Context, Edited By Elizabeth A. Wells, James Leve

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.