by | March 20, 2025 · 6:00 am

The contemplative Karnatak singer Jayashri Ramnath

The Indian singer Jayashri Ramnath (better known as Bombay Jayashri) was introduced to Karnatak music in her early childhood, influenced by her parents’ roles as music teachers. Jayashri began her performing career at the age of 28, and having grown up in cosmopolitan Mumbai (formerly Bombay), she was exposed to a wide range of music genres, including bhajans, film music, Hindustani classical, and light music. Despite this diverse musical background, Jayashri’s passion for Karnatak music remained at the core of her identity. During her childhood and college years, she kept her Karnatak training a secret while also exploring other musical opportunities, including singing jingles. Her voice, shaped by Hindustani training, combined with her soulful delivery drawn from her eclectic musical experiences, made Jayashri a distinctive performer.

Jayashri also has ventured into other genres, frequently collaborating with a variety of instrumentalists and vocalists. Boldly, for a Karnatak classical singer not yet widely established, she sang for films in multiple South Asian languages, including Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu. Many of these film songs became huge successes, earning her the title of best female playback singer in Tamil Nadu province. Until today, her music is characterized by a contemplative quality known as sruti suddham. Initially criticized for offering sweet music rather than more profound depth, Jayashri’s style has matured into a serene and resonant presence. Her stage demeanor exudes dignity, free from unnecessary gestures, reflecting her deep connection to the beauty of raga. As a composer, she has also earned recognition for her collaborations with artists like Chitra Visweswara, Parvathy, and others.

Jayashri with her son, Amrit.

The most exceptional aspect of her musical career, however, is her immense popularity, which spans across regions and extends worldwide. She has truly become an internationally beloved star, forging a unique connection with diverse audiences through her hypnotic and compelling voice. Beyond her musical talents, she is known for her warmth and kindness in post-concert interactions, leaving lasting memories not only of her remarkable music but also of her humble and genuinely kind nature.

This according to “Bombay Jayashri Ramnath–Notes of resilience: Reflecting with grace and gratitude” by Shailaja Khanna (Sruti: India’s premier magazine for the performing arts 31/1 [2024] 20–25; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2024-10526). Find it in RILM Abstracts with Full Text.

Below, Jayashri performs at a concert in Sri Lanka.

Jayashri performs Valli devasenapate.

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by | March 16, 2025 · 6:00 am

Music education and citizenship in Venezuela

From 2007 to 2017, El Sistema–Venezuela’s national music education system–experienced a remarkable rise, followed by an equally dramatic decline. While it may be tempting to dismiss this decade as an anomaly in the history of music education, it more accurately represents a significant return to a long-standing rationale for music education: social activism. By placing this brief yet impactful period of El Sistema’s influence within a broader historical context, including Venetian Ospedali, British Brass Bands, and American Settlement Music Houses, El Sistema and similar music education initiatives highlighted the potential of music education to directly address societal inequities.

Cover of a DVD featuring performances of the National Children´s Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela at a European festival in 2013.

Research on El Sistema-inspired (ES-i) programs has identified key program characteristics and potential outcomes for students, such as fostering student pride and persistence, creating a sense of community within ensembles, providing low-barrier access, promoting peer mentoring, offering frequent performance opportunities, and enhancing emotional regulation skills and psychosocial well-being. However, despite these positive impacts, El Sistema and its derivatives remain highly controversial. Reports of abuse within El Sistema in Venezuela have been described as an open secret, and philosophical critiques highlight issues with the model’s ties to the Venezuelan government, its failure to address deep structural problems in society, and its reliance on propaganda to exaggerate claims of social change.

Jose Luis Alvaray, age 11, a Venezuelan musician in the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, performs as director during a presentation at a ceremony in Caracas on 8 June 2013. Photo: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images.

In this context, post-El Sistema programs may provide an additional lens through which to view musical contexts for citizenship education. These programs must confront the challenge of redefining the El Sistema model, determining whether the program serves to normalize and reproduce social structures or to foster political participation.

This according to “Ritornello: El Sistema, music education, and a centuries-long narrative of socio-musical activism” by Stephen Fairbanks (Music education research 24/1 [2022] 18–30; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-21042) and “Teaching citizenship through music education: A case study of a community youth orchestra program” by Amanda E. Ellerbe (Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 236 [spring 2023] 43–57; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2023-14178).

The week of 17 March is International Teach Music Week.

Below, a performance by the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra, featuring some of Venezuela’s best high school musicians, led by Gustavo Dudamel, playing Shostakovich’s symphony no. 10, 2nd movement.

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by | March 12, 2025 · 6:00 am

Electroacoustic sound, multimedia, and digital opera

Digital opera has roots in electroacoustic works that integrate spatial soundscapes into performance, such as Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin (2000, pictured above). Musicologist Anna Schürmer offers a broader view, tracing its history even further, suggesting its origins may precede electroacoustic sound. Schürmer links the evolution of digitally mediated works to the construction of larger 18th century theaters, where sound connected audiences across physical divides. Earlier multimedia-infused productions, like Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die soldaten (1965), Harrison Birtwistle’s The mask of Orpheus (1986), Libby Larsen’s Frankenstein (1990), and Bill Viola’s The Tristan project (2004, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic), are significant for their use of electronics. However, they fall short of utilizing digital sound sample processing. Additional antecedents include mid-20th century radio plays and performances where multimedia significantly shaped the auditory experience.

A production of Viola’s The Tristan project.

From Rihm’s Die Hamletmaschine.

The most prominent use of contemporary digital technology in opera lies in sound design, where digital processing techniques shape how audiences perceive sound within the performance space. This innovation builds on earlier milestones, including IRCAM (the French institute of research on music and sound) performances employing electronic or MIDI keyboards and voice, such as Wolfgang Rihm’s Die Hamletmaschine (1987) and various works by Karlheinz Stockhausen. In the 21st century, the digital manipulation of sound samples has become a staple–though often overlooked–in both contemporary and traditional operatic productions, with subtle amplification techniques further extending its reach.

This according to the new entry on digital opera by Megan Steigerwald Ille, in DEUMM Online.

Below is a performance of Die soldaten with music by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, along with an excerpt from Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin sung by the soprano, Susanna Phillips.

Read related Bibliolore posts:

https://bibliolore.org/2024/03/19/kaija-saariahos-avant-garde-sound-worlds/

https://bibliolore.org/2014/04/05/spohr-and-german-opera/

https://bibliolore.org/2011/07/10/italian-opera-manuals/

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by | March 7, 2025 · 6:00 am

RILM’s UNESCO accreditation

Since its founding in the mid-1960s, the Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM) has advanced a globalist perspective, fostering international networks that have connected scholars from around the world. During a period when Europe was politically split by the Iron Curtain and non-European entities aligned with either the Eastern or Western blocs, RILM’s founder, Barry S. Brook, worked to create opportunities for multilateral collaboration on a global scale. Brook envisioned RILM as an international initiative modeled after UNESCO’s administrative structure, where each participating country established its own national committee to contribute bibliographic records to the central database in New York.

This model established an intellectual framework for collaboration, promoting equality among all participating nations. In recent years, RILM has taken this approach even further by earning UNESCO accreditation as a non-governmental organization (NGO), enabling it to provide advisory services to the Committee of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The milestone marks a significant advancement in RILM’s ongoing mission to document, preserve, and share the world’s musical knowledge. As RILM’s director, Tina Frühauf, notes, the organization’s UNESCO accreditation underscores its dedication to safeguarding global musical heritage.

Watch an interview with Frühauf below, where she discusses UNESCO accreditation, the recent addition of DEUMM Online to its suite of resources, and the upcoming release of the RILM Archive of Popular Music Magazines, a new resource that further strengthens RILM’s role in the field of popular music research.

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by | March 4, 2025 · 6:00 am

A resource for international women composers

International Women’s Day, celebrated worldwide on Saturday, 8 March, highlights the remarkable achievements of women and reinforces the ongoing pursuit of gender equality. To honor this day, Bibliolore features a reference text from RILM Music Encyclopedias, International Encyclopedia of Women Composers by Aaron I. Cohen, which celebrates the extraordinary contributions of women in music. Let its inspiring content guide you in embracing this year’s International Women’s Day theme, “accelerate action”, a rallying cry for equal rights, power, and opportunities for all. At the heart of this vision lies the empowerment of the next generation—particularly young women and adolescent girls—as driving forces for meaningful and lasting change. This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a progressive document used as a blueprint for women’s and girls’ rights worldwide that transformed the women’s rights agenda in terms of legal protection, access to services, youth engagement, and change in social norms and stereotypes.

A retired town planner and self-proclaimed “research buff” from Johannesburg, South Africa, Aaron I. Cohen (b.1906) made history in 1981 by publishing the first encyclopedia dedicated to women composers. The second edition of this groundbreaking work, expanded into two volumes, includes 6,200 entries and 14 appendices. Cohen’s remarkable research journey began with a four-year expedition across Europe, during which he gathered materials on women composers. He also established a global network of antiquarians who provided him with essential references. Recognizing the linguistic diversity of the sources, he eventually put together a small team capable of translating texts from at least 15 different languages.

Cohen’s encyclopedia is remarkable for its breadth, highlighting the earliest known woman composer, Hemre (2723 B.C.E.), an Egyptian leader of court music, and spans a vast geographical scope, featuring nearly 300 composers from Asia to Central America. To this day, the International encyclopedia of women composers remains the only comprehensive resource that covers virtually every known woman composer. It provides biographical details, lists of compositions and publications, as well as a bibliography. This edition also includes a discography and a list of recording companies, making it an invaluable reference for understanding the contributions of women in music.

To learn more, visit RILM Music Encyclopedias and browse through its encyclopedias devoted to a wide range of music and subjects.

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by | February 28, 2025 · 6:00 am

Nusantara heavy metal and Malaysia’s long hair ban

In 1989, the Malaysian band Search became a cultural phenomenon across the maritime Southeast Asia region (locally known as nusantara, or archipelago), successfully exporting their unique style of Malaysian hard rock and heavy metal, which came to be known retrospectively in the Malay language as rock kapak (literally “axe rock”). Their success paved the way for cross-border collaborations in Indonesia and elsewhere, including recordings, tours, and a feature-length film. Following the release of their 1985 debut album Cinta buatan Malaysia (Love made in Malaysia), Search emerged as leaders in the emerging Malay hard rock scene. As heavy metal and rock music gained popularity among youth across the country, Malaysian authorities attempted to limit its spread by imposing a ban on long-haired rockers in 1992. The government justified this measure by associating rock and metal with antisocial behavior, drug use, and other undesirable activities. Search found themselves at the heart of this controversy, as the ban restricted the broadcast of their music on national radio and television. Instead of altering their appearance, Search chose to defy the ban, leading to concert permit denials by government officials.

The Cinta buatan Malaysia cassette tape.

This episode underscores the connections and tensions stirred by Malay rock, which acted as both a crossing of nation-state borders and a challenge to religious and moral boundaries. The former can be understood in the context of inter-regional popular music exchanges within the nusantara region, while the latter reflects Malay rock’s resistance to authoritarian moral policing. The boundary crossings enacted by Search illustrate how the mobility of Malay rock, seen as an informal cross-nusantara movement predominantly led by male, working-class youth, opposed the conservative policies of ethnonational states. While Search’s movement across the region represented a porous crossing of domestic and regional borders, it was the emotionally resonant aspects of their popular ballads that attracted a wide audience across maritime Southeast Asia and even influenced politicians who sought to control their public image.

Search in 2022.

Despite the challenges posed by the long hair ban, Search persevered, consistently releasing albums and singles throughout the 1990s and 2000s, even as rock’s popularity declined in favor of pop, hip hop, and R&B across Asia. Their most recent album, Katharsis, was released in 2017.

This according to “Crossing borders and crossing the line: Nusantara mobilities of Search and the Malay rock phenomenon (1980s and 1990s)” by Adil Johan (Indonesia and the Malay world 51/151[2023] 257–278; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2023-16963).

Below are links to two classic Search music videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM-5hmqKXPY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGDvEJJfwH4

Other Bibliolore posts on international heavy metal:

https://bibliolore.org/2019/07/11/martyrdom-and-mapuche-metal/ https://bibliolore.org/2018/07/02/karinding-attacks-heavy-metal-bamboo/ https://bibliolore.org/2018/01/25/extreme-metal-in-iraq-and-syria/

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by | February 25, 2025 · 6:00 am

William Grant Still sounds African American life in the early 20th century

The U.S. composer and conductor William Grant Still, whose maternal grandmother had been a slave on a plantation in Georgia, attended Wilberforce University in Ohio from 1911 to 1915 after attending high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, where his mother taught English literature. Still learned to play the violin, cello, and oboe and wrote his first arrangements and began to compose as an autodidact. In 1917, he enrolled at Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied composition and theory. After eight months of service in the Navy during World War I, Still briefly resumed his studies but in 1919, went to work in New York as an arranger for the Pace and Handy Music Publishing Company, for which he arranged, among other things the song Saint Louis blues, which was recorded by James Reese Europe’s Hellfighters (369th Infantry Regiment Band). In 1936, he conducted the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra and in 1955, the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra. In both instances, Still was the first African American conductor to do so.

A mural outside the William Grant Still Art Center in Los Angeles.

As many of the titles reveal, nearly all of Still’s work reflected African American life. His first orchestral compositions were Darker America (1924), From the journal of a wanderer (1925), and From the Black belt (1926). Two major orchestral pieces, Africa (1930) and the popular Afro-American symphony (1930), established his wide reputation and helped him earn a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1933. At this time, Still turned his attention to the stage with two ballets for the Ruth Page Company of Chicago: La guiablesse (1927), set in Martinique, and Sahdji (1930), with an African background. A third ballet, Miss Sally’s party, dates from 1940. In 1934, Still received another Guggenheim Fellowship for composition and moved from New York to Los Angeles, where he completed his first opera, Blue steel (1934).

Still with Verna Arvey and their two children. Photo courtesy Judith Anne Still.

This marked the beginning of a series of stage works characterized by close collaboration with Verna Arvey, a white Jewish pianist, librettist, and writer, and Still’s second wife, which became high points of his career. Almost all these works addressed racial problems in the U.S., with Troubled island being the most notable example. Created in collaboration with Langston Hughes, it premiered in 1949 at the New York City Center. Still’s dedication to African American themes resulted in three notable text settings: And they lynched him from a tree (1940); Plainchant for America (1941), and Pages from Negro history (1943). He was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship again in 1935 and 1938. During this time, Still composed for film and television while also pursuing his aspirations as a composer of serious music.

This according to the Dictionary of American classical composers (2005). Find it in RILM Music Encylopedias.

Listen to two of William Grant Still’s better known compositions below.

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by | February 22, 2025 · 6:00 am

The emergence of string quartet ensembles

As the string quartet established its place as a distinct chamber music genre, it gained a reputation as the most demanding form of instrumental music and eventually transitioned from aristocratic and bourgeois salons to public concerts. This shift required performers to adapt, transforming the music making experience from casual, intimate gatherings of like-minded individuals to more formal recitals, creating a new dynamic between performers and audience. While private quartets continued to exist alongside public performances, such practices have not been extensively documented.

Around 1800, Vienna saw a notable number of regular quartet gatherings, held in both prominent and less prominent homes, such as those of Emanuel Aloys Förster and Nikolaus Zmeskall von Domanovecz. Similar activities during the late 18th and early 19th centuries were sporadically documented across various courtly, aristocratic, and bourgeois salons throughout the German-speaking region, as well as in (primarily Austrian) monasteries and charitable foundations. These quartet performances were also featured in regular quartet entertainment or as part of larger mixed programs in both large and small towns.

A drawing of the Müller quartet (1832).

While little is known about the exact musical standards of these private, semi-public, and public performances, it is likely that they were of high quality, as the performers were typically musically trained connoisseurs or professional musicians. These gatherings likely provided the foundation for developments that would dominate the 19th century: the concerts of traveling virtuosos who, from city to city, sought new partners for semi-public performances in private homes or public concerts, the concert tours of permanent ensembles, and the establishment of such ensembles in aristocratic or upper-class households.

This according to this month’s featured article on the string quartet ensemble in MGG Online.

The Shinner Quartet.

Below is a 1934 performance Mozart’s string quartet no. 21 in D major by the Kolisch Quartet.

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by | February 19, 2025 · 6:00 am

Capoeira and social justice

Capoeira, as a martial art, was created by enslaved Afro-Brazilians. Today, it blends song, dance, acrobatics, and theatrical improvisation, inspiring many practitioners to become active in social causes. Capoeira often serves as a gateway for individuals to transition from physical training to social justice activities, highlighting its deep roots in resistance and subversion. For instance, practitioners in the United States, both as individuals and as communities, engage in activism by marching against racial discrimination, celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, organizing clothing drives for job seekers, and advocating for economic and environmental justice in their communities. For these capoeiristas, the practice becomes a form of serious leisure that fosters personal growth, a sense of belonging, and an enhanced sense of self, while also carrying social duties and responsibilities. In this way, capoeira exemplifies how participation in a leisure community—often regarded as trivial—can profoundly reshape one’s worldview and positions capoeira itself as a powerful model for civic engagement.

Using Robert Stebbins’s concept of “serious leisure” helps illuminate how capoeira fosters social activism. Stebbins defines serious leisure as a mix of amateur pursuits, hobbyist activities, and career volunteering that individuals engage in outside of their work life, deriving personal satisfaction from it. In this context, capoeira, as a relational Afro-Brazilian martial art, encourages practitioners to leave with a heightened awareness of, and concern for, the societal structures surrounding them. Capoeira’s African roots, both as a martial art and a cultural expression, touch on themes such as authenticity, gentrification, Afrocentrism, and nationalism. These elements implicitly and explicitly engage with the social dynamics of race, influencing the practice and the ways practitioners interact with their broader societal context.

This according to Graceful resistance: How capoeiristas use their art for activism and community engagement by Lauren Miller Griffith (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2023; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature 2023-5114).

Celebrate the UN World Day of Social Justice on February 20.

Watch a performance of capoeira music and solo techniques by children below.

Read a related post in Bibliolore:

https://bibliolore.org/2021/02/28/capoeiras-hidden-history/

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by | February 15, 2025 · 6:00 am

Music streaming and the datafication of listening

Along with the file sharing practices that preceded it, music streaming has dramatically transformed the music industry’s business model, shifting it toward a model resembling rental or licensing. In the case of Spotify, the most prominent streaming service, there is no need for users to download or store music files on their devices. Instead, only the application necessary to play audio files, which are temporarily stored in non-permanent working memory, is downloaded. No copy of the original files is ever saved on the user’s device or becomes their property, leaving users entirely reliant on a subscription service and a stable internet connection.

The objective is to analyze users’ listening habits on a statistical level, a process the digital culture scholar Robert Prey refers to as the “datafication of listening”. This involves extracting data from listening behaviors, enabling both the market and streaming platforms to tailor musical recommendations to individual users. This analytical approach has reached its peak in depth and scope through streaming platforms. The collection of such data, however, has also led to the increasingly sophisticated engineering and curation of tracks presented to users. These platforms use various methods to keep users loyal to the music filtered by the platform, while simultaneously fostering hyper-intermediation practices.

The idea of disintermediation in the cultural sector, particularly in music, which appeared imminent in the early 2000s, has ultimately been reversed. Instead of breaking free from traditional distribution systems, music has returned to a model strikingly like the one that existed prior to the advent of the MP3 format. This new form of mediation—driven by analysis, algorithms and the extensive datafication of listening habits—has transformed the inherent immateriality of streaming content into a new kind of control. This shift has created an enhanced capacity for surveillance, surpassing the systems used in previous years. By leveraging and refining these mechanisms of hyper-intermediation, streaming platforms have established a global monopoly, largely built upon the Internet.

This according to the entry on streaming in DEUMM Online.

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