Launched by the Institute of Musical Research at the University of London in 2010, Francophone Music Criticism, 1789–1914 is a repository of digitized, searchable reviews relating to French music and ballet. Texts are grouped into collections devoted to particular works, events, series, performers, or authors. Bibliographical resources and work in progress of a more general nature are also included. The database’s development network is headed by Katharine Ellis and Mark Everist.
In opera, eating and drinking function largely as they do in society—they define social relationships. The antisocial act of refusing to share food or drink with merry people carries a negative connotation and implies an unfortunate result. Further gastromusicological laws may be deduced from Verdi’s operas:
The interaction between these gastronomic codes and other interweaving codes is often complex.
This according to “Feasting and fasting in Verdi’s operas” by Pierpaolo Polzonetti (Studi verdiani XIV [1999] pp. 69–106).
Above and below, Libiamo ne’ lieti calici from La traviata, as performed by the Metropolitan Opera in 2018.
Filed under Curiosities, Food, Opera, Romantic era
The Centro de Documentación Musical de Andalucía released Manuel de Falla 1876–1946: Grabaciones históricas in 2009 as part of its series Documentos Sonoros del Patrimonio Musical de Andalucía. The earliest recording included is Fantasía Bética, performed by Mark Hambourg in 1923; the most recent is Fuego fatuo, recorded by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Radio Televisión Española, directed by Antoni Ros Marbà, in 1976.
The accompanying booklet provides complete discographical information, numerous historical photographs, and notes in Spanish, English, and French by Andrés Ruiz Tarazona. Additional performers include Andrés Segovia, the Orquesta Bética de Cámara de Sevilla, which Falla founded in 1923, and the composer himself at the piano.
Above, Alicia de Larrocha performs Falla’s own piano transcription of “Danza del fuego” from his El amor brujo.
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Filed under 20th- and 21st-century music, Resources
The universal availability and divergent imagery of coffee in people’s lives has been expressed in popular music more often than many of us realize. “You’re the cream in my coffee: A discography of java jive” by B. Lee Cooper and William Schurk (Popular music and society XXIII/2 [summer 1999] pp. 91–100) lists over 100 coffee-related popular songs from the 1920s to the 1990s. The songs are grouped both alphabetically and by subject; topics include addictive stimulants, commercial jingles, companionship and socialization, and sexual metaphors.
Click here to hear the Ink Spots performing their 1940 hit Java jive by Ben Oakland and Milton Drake.
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Filed under Food, Popular music, Resources
In 2009 the Akademia Muzyczna im. Karola Lipińskiego in Wrocław launched Muzycy Wrocławscy, a series devoted to musicians of Wrocław and edited by Anna Granat-Janki. The inaugural volume, Ryszard Bukowski: Szkice do portretu, is dedicated to the composer, pedagogue, and publicist (1916–1987) who was one of the foremost leaders of postwar Polish culture. The volume collects papers presented at a conference held in 2007 at the Akademia commemorating the twentieth anniversary of Bukowski’s death; a table of contents in English is included.
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Filed under 20th- and 21st-century music, New series
On 17 November 2010 Na Píobairí Uilleann launched Na Píobairí Uilleann: Source, an Internet resource that includes Irish music web tutors, Irish music collections dating back to 1724, reed-making and pipe-making videos, recitals, and historical data on iconic musicians.
While the site is specifically intended to support students of uilleann piping, pipe-making, and maintenance, it includes material of interest to players of other traditional instruments, traditional singers, and all lovers of Irish traditional music.
Source is a free collection; membership in Na Píobairí Uilleann enables use of organizational tools to create personal bookmarks and galleries. Content will be added regularly, and the site’s design provides for possible future enhancements such as the ability for members to upload and share their own content.
Many thanks to Patrick Hutchinson for bringing this to our attention! Below, Séamus Ennis plays Pat Ward’s jig on the uilleann pipes.
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Filed under Ethnomusicology, Europe, Instruments, Resources
The Centre for Cultural Studies Research at the University of East London launched Dancecult: Journal of electronic dance music culture (ISSN 1947-5403), a peer-reviewed, open-access e-journal, in 2009. The journal is a platform for interdisciplinary scholarship on the shifting terrain of electronic dance music cultures worldwide, including studies of emergent forms of electronic music production, performance, distribution, and reception.
The inaugural issue featured articles about rave, neotrance, psychedelia, DJ culture, and the concept of IDM (intelligent dance music). The journal is published biannually.
Filed under New periodicals, Popular music, Reception
In 2010 the Organ Historical Society Press launched its series OHS monographs in American organ history with Organbuilding along the Erie and Chenango Canals by Stephen L. Pinel. The book chronicles the careers of the organ builders Alvinza and George N. Andrews of Utica, New York, and their innovative use of the canals to undercut their Boston and New York competition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Sponsored by the Organ Historical Society, the Press also publishes a quarterly journal, an annual study of organs by locale, and CDs featuring historic American instruments.
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Filed under Instruments, New series
For an experiment involving both acoustical and MIDI data, the German pianist Armin Fuchs made an uninterrupted recording of Satie’s Vexations, fulfilling the composer’s apparent indication that the piece should be repeated 840 times; the performance lasted nearly 28 hours.
Tempo and loudness remained stable over the first 14 hours of alertness; after 15 hours a state of trance ensued, resulting in a destabilization of tempo followed by uncontrolled deviations in loudness.
This according to “Tempo and loudness analysis of a continuous 28-hour performance of Erik Satie’s composition Vexations” by Reinhard Kopiez, Marc Bangert, Werner Goebl, and Eckart Altenmüller (Journal of new music research XXXII/3 [September 2003], pp. 243–258).
Above, the full text of Satie’s composition. The official Satie website, which includes rare film footage, is here.
Below, a brief exposition of the work.
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Filed under 20th- and 21st-century music, Curiosities, Performance practice, Science
Sephardic music: A century of recordings showcases and discusses over 100 years of recorded Sephardic music, from the 78 rpm era to the present. Created by Joel Bresler, this resource includes information on repertory and performance practice and a comprehensive discography of Sephardic 78s in Hebrew and Ladino ordered by label, song, or artist. Numerous illustrations are provided, including reproductions of record labels and covers.
Above, the label from Haim Effendi’s 1907 recording of the popular Sephardic song A la una; the recording can be heard here.
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Filed under Europe, Resources, World music
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