Bibliolore

by admin | December 17, 2015 · 6:00 am

Gamelunch

Gamelunch is a sonically augmented dining table that exploits the power and flexibility of physically-based sound models towards the investigation of the closed loop between interaction, sound, and emotion.

Continuous interaction gestures are captured by means of contact microphones and various force transducers, providing data that are coherently mapped onto physically-based sound synthesis algorithms. While performing usual dining movements, the user encounters contradicting and unexpected sound feedback, thus experiencing the importance of sound in the actions of everyday life.

This according to “Gamelunch: A physics-based sonic dining table” by Stefano Delle Monache, Pietro Polotti, Stefano Papetti, and Davide Rocchesso, a paper included in Proceedings of the 33rd International Computer Music Conference (San Francisco: International Computer Music Association, 2007, pp. 41–44).

Above and below, Gamelunch in action.

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Tagged as Computer applications, International Computer Music Conference

by admin | December 14, 2015 · 6:00 am

Madrigals and bees

Many are the creatures of the air, water, and earth that inhabit the verses of Italian madrigals, sonnets, and canzoni.

The poets of the 16th and 17th centuries—Torquato Tasso, Giovanni Battista Guarini, and Giambattista Marino, to mention the most famous—found an erotic metaphor in the bee, which is both sweet and stinging.

There are also the little parasites that annoy and explore the desired body. All the animal species are represented in this repertoire: insects, fish and crustaceans, snakes, small mammals and ferocious predators, singing birds, and fantastical beasts.

This according to “Hic sunt leones: Animali e musica nella Sicilia nel Cinque e Seicento” by Giuseppe Collisani, an article included in Res facta nova: Teksty o muzyce współczesnej VI/15 [2003] pp. 51–68).

Above, a 17th-century Italian bee in a painting by Giovanna Garzoni; below, Giovanni de Macque’s Ne i vostri dolci baci; the work’s text includes the bee metaphor.

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Filed under Animals, Renaissance

Tagged as Bees, Insects, Madrigal

by admin | December 12, 2015 · 6:00 am

Dancing to Sinatra

The notion of “dancing to Sinatra” immediately calls to mind images of World War II-era GIs and their sweethearts dancing cheek-to-cheek to the crooner’s ballads or couples jitterbugging to Five minutes more.

A provocative presence among social dance musicians of the swing era, Sinatra’s songs have also inspired the dancing of professional choreographers in ballet and modern dance. Perhaps the most important choreography created for the concert stage to Sinatra’s music is Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra suite, which was choreographed in 1983 for American Ballet Theatre’s Mihail Baryšnikov and Elaine Kudo.

This according to “Dancing to Sinatra: The partnership of music and movement in Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra suite” by Lisa Jo Sagolla, an essay included in Frank Sinatra: The man, the music, the legend (Rochester: University of Rochester, 2007, pp. 117–23).

Today is Sinatra’s 100th birthday! Above, recording dance music for the kids; below, an excerpt from Tharp’s work.

BONUS: Sit back and enjoy the entire suite.

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Filed under Dance, Popular music

Tagged as American Ballet Theatre, Birthdays, Frank Sinatra, Twyla Tharp

by admin | December 9, 2015 · 6:00 am

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in recital

While Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is still world-renowned for her operatic brilliance, it has proved all too easy for her admirers to forget her passion for recital performance.

It was as a recitalist that Schwarzkopf made her U.S. debut in 1935, and she was a beloved figure on American recital stages until her New York farewell recital in 1975. Her final stage appearance was a Zurich lieder recital in 1979.

This according to “Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (December 9, 1915–August 3, 2006)” by Janet A. Choi and Oussama Zahr (Opera news LXXI/4 [October 2006] pp. 80–81).

Today would have been Schwarzkopf’s 100th birthday! Above, performing with Gerald Moore, one of her favorite accompanists; below, also with Moore, Richard Strauss’s Wiegenlied.

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Tagged as Birthdays, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Gerald Moore, Richard Strauss

by admin | December 3, 2015 · 6:00 am

Pranksta rap

Humor provides a means of navigating the race and gender politics of hip hop culture in several ways.

The Beastie Boys, a trio of white Jewish rappers, relied heavily on humor to mark their outsider status while mitigating claims of racial inauthenticity.

The triumphant career of Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott shows how her humor—especially when aimed at the rapper herself—has functioned as an artistic expression of old-school legitimacy and as a means of empowerment for a businesswoman in the male-dominated music industry.

While the proliferation of hip hop parody relies on racial and gender stereotypes for much of its humor, it also offers outsiders the possibility to negotiate otherwise prohibitive social differences from within hip hop culture.

This according to “Pranksta rap: Humor as difference in hip hop” by Charles Hiroshi Garrett, an essay included in Rethinking difference in music scholarship (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 315–337).

Below, Missy Elliott performs Work it, her classic send-up of sexual stereotypes.

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Filed under Humor, Popular music

Tagged as Beastie Boys, Hip hop, Missy Elliott, Rap music

by admin | December 1, 2015 · 6:00 am

Bette Midler’s persona

The 1988 California court decision favoring Bette Midler over Ford Motor Company’s advertising agency left legal commentators wondering less about performance rights than what might be called persona rights.

After a number of performers, including Nancy Sinatra in Sinatra v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. (1970), had been unsuccessful in their attempts to make a proprietal claim on an identifiable vocal style, Midler v. Ford Motor Co. reversed the trend.

The Ninth Circuit Court, overruling the trial court, concluded that Midler’s brassy belting of the 1972 hit Do you want to dance? was hers alone. In hiring a singer to imitate the Midler style in a Mercury Sable television commercial, the judge said that Ford’s agency was “pirating an identity”.

This according to “Bette Midler and the piracy of identity” by Jane M. Gaines, an essay included in Music and copyright (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993, pp. 86–98).

Today is Midler’s 70th birthday! Below, singing Do you want to dance? in 1993.

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Tagged as Bette Midler, Birthdays, Law

by admin | · 1:00 am

RILM Music Encyclopedias

RILM proudly introduces RILM Music Encyclopedias™, a full-text compilation of 41 seminal titles published from 1775 to the present, the majority of which are not available anywhere else online.

RILM Music Encyclopedias comprises nearly 80,000 pages with approximately 165,000 entries. It provides comprehensive encyclopedic coverage of the most important disciplines, fields of research, and subject areas, among them popular music, opera, musical instruments, blues, gospel, world music, recorded sound, and women composers. Its content spans multiple countries, cultures, and languages (including English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, and Greek). It is designed as an extensive global resource that meets the teaching, learning, and research needs of the international music community.

New titles will be added annually, ensuring that RILM Music Encyclopedias is musicology’s reference shelf of the future, comprising every aspect of lexicographical writings on music. RILM Music Encyclopedias is available via EBSCOhost®, which brings its expertise to bear on the design of the online database with a user-friendly and familiar platform. RILM Music Encyclopedias is fully equipped with the most advanced search and browse capabilities, allowing for cross searches in multiple languages. It is the only multilingual cross-searchable collection of music encyclopedias in the world.

For trials, sales, and subscription terms please contact your EBSCO Sales Representative or email information@ebsco.com.

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Filed under Resources, RILM, RILM news

Tagged as Encyclopedia, RILM, RILM history, RILM news

by admin | November 28, 2015 · 6:00 am

Happy 90th to the Grand Ole Opry!

On 28 November 1925 a white-bearded man sat down before one of the Nashville radio station WSM’s modern carbon microphones to play some old-time fiddle tunes. Uncle Jimmy Thompson played on the air for an hour that night, and throughout the region listeners took notice.

In Nashville the response at the offices of National Life and Accident Insurance Company, which owned radio station WSM, was dramatic. It was not long before the station manager was besieged by pickers and fiddlers of every variety, all wanting their shot at the Saturday night airwaves.

By 1940 the Grand Ole Opry had found its national audience and was poised to become the legendary institution that it remains to this day.

This according to A good-natured riot: The birth of the Grand Ole Opry by Charles K. Wolfe (Nashville: Country Music Foundation, 1999). Above, Ernest Tubb at the Opry. Below, a show from the early 1960s.

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Tagged as Country music, Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, Roy Acuff, Tennessee

by admin | November 26, 2015 · 6:00 am

Wampanoag music and dance

On this U.S. Thanksgiving Day, let’s pay our respects to the Wampanoag people, who helped the refugees at Plymouth Colony through their first winter, taught them to fish and grow corn, and attended their celebration after their first successful harvest.

Wampanoag music is wrapped up in dance. The beat of a hardwood stick, water drum, and corn rattles is the music of their lively social dances, while appreciation and gratitude are expressed in their ceremonial dances.

“It is part of our nature is to be in thanksgiving” said Ramona Peters, a Wampanoag woman. “It’s sort of our philosophy, so it gets threaded through both the social and ceremonial dances.”

This according to Music on Martha’s Vineyard: A history of harmony by Tom Dresser and Jerry Muskin (Charleston: History Press, 2014).

Below, the 2018 Mashpee Wampanoag Powwow.

Above, Wampanoag Festival by Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

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Tagged as Indians, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, Wampanoag people