Bibliolore

by admin | September 1, 2011 · 1:00 am

Mr. Isaac and The Union

The 1707 Act of Union joined England and Scotland as a single entity. For the birthday of Queen Anne that year the choreographer Mr. Isaac created The Union, a couple dance that conveyed some of the tensions involved in forging a new national identity.

The doctrine of affections linked the genres of the dance’s loure and hornpipe sections with specific emotions. The loure was connected with pride, even arrogance, as well as a tinge of nostalgia; in this section of The Union, the two dancers pass and join with an air of circumspect ambivalence, expressing cultural rapprochement. Associated with Scotland, the hornpipe was linked with vigor and vitality, and the second section of The Union presents an idealized, anglicized vision of Scottishness.

This according to “Issues of nation in Isaac’s The Union” by Linda J. Tomko (Dance research XV/2 [winter 1997] pp. 99–125). Above, excerpts from John Weaver’s notation of the piece using the Beauchamp –Feuillet system.

Related articles:

The Mr. Isaac mystery

Minuet cosmology

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Filed under Baroque era, Dance, Politics

Tagged as 1707 Act of Union, Choreographers, John Weaver, Mr. Isaac, Scotland

by admin | August 30, 2011 · 1:00 am

Naučnyj vestnik Moskovskoj Konservatorii

Научный вестник Московской Консерватории (Scholarly bulletin of the Moscow Conservatory, ISSN 2079-9438) was launched in December 2009 by the Научно-издательский центр Московская консерватория (Scholarly publishing center of the Moscow Conservatory).

This quarterly periodical with an editorial board under the direction of the musicologist and professor of the Moscow Conservatory Konstantin Vladimirovič Zenkin aims for in-depth coverage of research carried out at the Московская консерватория имени П.И. Чайковского (Moscow Conservatory named for P.I. Čajkovskij). It publishes scholarly articles, methodological materials, and book reviews; author submissions are selected by the editorial board. Научный вестник is published in Russian with abstracts in both Russian and English.

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Filed under New periodicals

Tagged as Academic publishing, Moscow Conservatory, Musicology, Russia, Russian language

by admin | August 25, 2011 · 1:00 am

Traditional Ghanaian sampling

The Ewe of Ghana have a long history of incorporating musical elements from other cultures into their traditions.

Recent developments among the Tagborlo family in the master drumming for agbadza funeral dancing (above), influenced to some extent by contacts with Western popular music, involve humor (including graphic sexual jokes), taunts, and quotations from popular songs in a manner resembling sampling procedures in rap music. These innovations are entirely within the tradition—the basic rhythmic structure, cultural context, and instrumentation remain the same.

This according to “’My mother has a television, does yours?’ Transformation and secularization in an Ewe funeral drum tradition” by James Burns (Oral tradition XX/2 [October 2005] pp. 300–319). Below, agbadza drumming and dancing at a funeral in Atsiekpui, Ghana; the master drummer on the far left conveys verbal messages through references to speech rhythms and tones.

Related post: Dagomba dance-drumming

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Filed under Africa, Humor

Tagged as Agbadza, Dance, Drumming, Ewe people, Ghana, Hip hop music, Sexuality and gender

by admin | August 22, 2011 · 1:00 am

Lady Gaga’s social network

Lady Gaga went from nowhere to everywhere in just 18 months due to many factors—not least, to her unprecedented and canny use of social networking.

Gaga used Internet tools to craft her personal mythology, and continues to use them to keep in constant contact with her fans. She has millions of Twitter followers, and is the first musician ever to garner one billion hits on YouTube, where she uploads her videos for free.

This according to Poker face: The rise and rise of Lady Gaga by Maureen Callahan (New York: Hyperion, 2010). Below, the 2008 video that inspired the book’s title.

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Filed under Popular music, Reception

Tagged as Composers, Lady Gaga, Mass media, Online Communities, Performers, Social media, Social Networking

by admin | August 14, 2011 · 1:00 am

Musica Concentrationaria

Survivors’ accounts tell us that among the deportees to Nazi concentration camps were prominent, less known, and unknown musicians and composers. These accounts also attest to the existence of compositions that were written in the camps, either spontaneously or on the orders of the camp’s commanders.

Musica Concentrationaria was established to research, study, and catalogue this vast repertoire, to demonstrate the role the music had on the life of the deported: a temporary escape from the horrors that surrounded them. Some 2,500 works have already been found, and reports of further works continue to arrive.

The project has resulted in the documentary Musica concentrationaria (2007, produced by Associazione Musikstrasse and directed by Ermanno Felli), which includes documents, original scores, and interviews with deported musicians or their relatives. A related project, KZ Musik: Encyclopedia of music composed in concentration camps 1933–1945 (distributed by Membran Music), will present performances of selected works on 24 CDs.

Above, from a Nazi propaganda film, Pavel Hass and the conductor Karel Ančerl at the premiere of Haas’s Studie pro smyčcový orchestr at Theresienstadt, a year before the composer died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz. Below, the trailer for the documentary.

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Filed under 20th- and 21st-century music, Politics

Tagged as Composers, Holocaust, Nazi Concentration Camp, Nazism, Theresienstadt concentration camp

by admin | August 11, 2011 · 1:00 am

Bach’s countenance

In 2008 scholars at the Centre for Forensic and Medical Art at the University of Dundee used forensic techniques to produce a reconstruction of Bach’s face on the basis of his skull.

According to its author, Markus von Hänsel-Hohenhausen, Vom Sichtbaren zur Wirklichkeit: Das wahre Antlitz Johann Sebastian Bachs (Frankfurt am Main: Frankfurter Verlagsgruppe, 2009) raises fundamental questions relating to image theory, considering the power of the image, the possibility of accessing reality through subjectivity (that is, the objectivity that arises from a dual subjectivity), the rendering of real “presence” by means of technically accurate representation, and the physicality (and noticeable absence of spirit) that results from the application of technical methods alone, e.g., in the case of Andy Warhol’s work.

Beginning with reflections on the royal portrait, Christian ritual, and Jesus Christ’s crown of thorns, the book then delivers a clear statement about the significance of portraits of Bach, at the same time offering therein an answer to the question: Does a person really have a true countenance?

Above, the reconstruction with the 1746 portrait by Elias Gottlob Haußmann, the only portrait Bach is known to have sat for.

The first pipe organ recording

Capable of producing sounds beyond the range of human hearing, the pipe organ presents the ultimate challenge for sound recording. The first known attempt was the Columbia Records recordings of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from late August and early September 1910, which included two organ solos played by John J. McClellan.

Probably the very first pipe organ recording was a test made on 30 August 1910, with McClellan playing Wagner’s Tannhäuser overture. Two enormous acoustic recording horns, five feet long and two feet wide, were suspended on a rope strung across the Tabernacle. Although the engineer deemed the recordings successful, apparently they were never approved for release.

This according to “The first recordings of organ music ever made” by John W. Landon (Theatre organ: Journal of the American Theatre Organ Society LIII/4 [July–August 2011] pp. 22–28). Above, the Mormon Tabernacle organ as it appeared at the time of the recording (two 15-foot wings were added in 1915).

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Filed under Instruments, Science

Tagged as Columbia Records, John J. McClellan, Mass media, Organ, Pipe organ, Sound recording and reproduction, Sound recordings

by admin | August 6, 2011 · 1:00 am

Carnatic Music Idol

The “Idol” television format has gone global, and since 2004 an Indian version has featured amateur singers of popular Indian film songs. Seeing this, the producer Subhashree Thanikachalam (left)—who had already pioneered three successful television series focused on Indian music—decided to try a version presenting young performers in the classical South Indian tradition.

The result, Carnatic Music Idol, has run for two highly successful seasons and is preparing a third one. The series has done much to raise awareness of the tradition and to help viewers to understand the technical intracacies of its performance. The final rounds even call for a full rāgam-tānam-pallavi, a tour de force that was formerly considered too esoteric for general audiences.

This according to “An idol among TV shows” by Gayathri Sundaresan (Sruti 321 [June 2011] pp. 55–58. Below, excerpts from the 2011 finals.

Related articles:

The first Karnatak music conference

The mad mad Madras music season

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Filed under Asia, Reception

Tagged as Carnatic music, India, Karnatak music, Mass media, South India, Subhashree Thanikachalam, Television

by admin | August 4, 2011 · 1:00 am

Neue Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft

LIT Verlag inaugurated the series Neue Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft in 2011 with Wie Bilder klingen: Tagungsband zum Symposium Musik nach Bildern, edited by Lukas Christensen and Monika Fink. The book presents the proceedings of a conference held at the Archäologisches Museum, Universität Innsbruck, from 16 to 18 April 2010.

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Filed under New series, Visual art

Tagged as Innsbruck University, Universität Innsbruck

by admin | August 1, 2011 · 1:00 am

Mortuary pipe organs

The heyday of the mortuary pipe organ was the 1920s and 1930s; only a few have been built since World War II. A uniquely American product, the instrument’s characteristics departed significantly from those of the conventional church organ, despite its quasi-liturgical setting and function.

U.S. organ builders, long known for their innovations, met the stringent tonal, space, and cost requirements of funeral homes, cemetery chapels, and mausoleums so successfully that their instruments displaced the reed organ and piano. Over 600 mortuary organs were sold during this period, contributing significantly to the industry’s survival during the Great Depression.

This according to “The mortuary pipe organ: A neglected chapter in the history of organbuilding in America” by Robert E. Coleberd (The diapason XCV/7:1136, pp. 16–19). Above, the Estey Upright Minuette, front and back; containing 231 pipes, including a 16-foot open stop, the organ measures only 7’0″ x 4’8″ x 5’7½”.