Tag Archives: Composers

by | January 25, 2010 · 12:14 pm

Operas as graphic novels

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With their dramatic action and vivid characters, operas have inspired a number of graphic novels, including books by P. Craig Russell and a series (now out of print) produced in collaboration with England’s Royal Opera House. The most noteworthy examples of this genre are not just illustrations of libretti; they are autonomous works of art in the graphic novel tradition.

Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen is particularly suited to the treatment it receives in The ring of the Niebelung by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane; set in a mythological time, with illustrious characters who can alter their physical forms, defy gravity, and survive without oxygen, it fits naturally into the medium’s world of fantasy and superheroes.

In some cases this drammata in pittura brings a powerful new dimension to Wagner’s drammata in musica—for example, the action that the audience must imagine during the Vorspiel of Die Walküre is fully depicted over the course of four textless pages. The cycle was first published in four installments by DC Comics.

Above, the opening of Act II of Die Walküre (click to enlarge); below, part of the 2011 production by the Metropolitan Opera.

Related article: The Ring recast

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by | January 19, 2010 · 1:42 pm

Postcards

Postcards are a form of music iconography that provides clues about reception. Their subjects have included popular musicians, groups, and composers and their works.

The 1909 Austro-Hungarian postcard reproduced above wryly depicts two aspects of Franz Liszt’s persona: the devout abbé of his later years and—if you look closely—the libertine of his scandalous youth. (Click to enlarge.)

Related article: Schubert deltiography

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by | January 13, 2010 · 3:56 pm

Souvenir books

Often souvenir books are considered ephemera: Most libraries do not purchase them. Sometimes, however, they take the form of a book of articles by notable authors; these are treated as essay collections by libraries and by RILM. For example, the souvenir book published by New York’s Metropolitan Opera for their 1988 production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen includes contributions by the musicologists Carolyn Abbate and Barry Millington and the poet and literary critic Richard Howard.

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by | January 12, 2010 · 2:51 pm

Muzikologija bez granica/Musicologie sans frontières

In 2009 the Hrvatsko Muzikološko Društvo launched the series Muzikologija bez granica/Musicologie sans frontières with “Teatro di poesia” in the opera house: The collaboration of Antonio Smareglia and Silvio Benco by Juliana Ličinić van Walstijn. The book focuses on the three operas that resulted from collaborations between the Croatian composer Antonio Smareglia (1854–1929) and the Italian writer Silvio Benco (1874–1949).

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Filed under Dramatic arts, New series, Opera, Romantic era

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by | January 6, 2010 · 7:15 pm

Caricature

Caricature is a type of iconography that involves distorting the features of recognizable people to exaggerate some aspect of their demeanor.

Opinions differ regarding the term’s applicability to other than real-life subjects; for example, Walt Disney considered his animated animals to be caricatures because in creating them he blended animal features with human ones, an inversion of the practice of caricaturing people by merging their features with those of animals.

In the caricature reproduced above by Albert Douat (1847–92, signed with the pseudonym J. Blass), Liszt consoles Wagner over the Parisian reception of Tannhäuser in 1861 and Lohengrin in 1891; both productions were disrupted by elements hostile to the composer. Liszt’s imposing stature and paternal attitude—particularly apt since by the time the drawing was produced he was Wagner’s father-in-law—contrasts with the dejected, little-boy look of the creator of Gesamtkunstwerk.

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by | January 4, 2010 · 2:52 pm

Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte der Musik

The German publisher Allitera Verlag launched the series Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte der Musik in 2009 with Deutsche Frauen, deutscher Sang: Musik in der deutschen Kulturnation, edited by Rebecca Grotjahn. The collection focuses on European musical topics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with essays that culturally contextualize the works of major composers along with those of lesser-known figures such as Albert Lortzing and Ingeborg Bronsart von Schellendorf.

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by | December 17, 2009 · 4:06 pm

Facsimile editions

Facsimile editions may present reproductions of illuminated manuscripts; they also may document creative processes, like the famously scrawled and blotted manuscripts of Beethoven.

In rare cases facsimile editions provide evidence of collaborative processes; an example is the recent edition by Leo S. Olschki Editore of the working copy of the libretto for Puccini’s Tosca, part of which is pictured above.

With notes in the hands of Puccini, the publisher Giulio Ricordi, and the librettists Luigi Illica and  Giuseppe Giacosa—and the inclusion of pasted-in pages fathfully reproduced as separate, attatched sheets—the edition documents the collaborative process that resulted in one of the landmarks of verismo opera.

Below, Renée Fleming sings Tosca’s signature aria Vissi d’arte.

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by | December 8, 2009 · 2:47 pm

Music on money

Like postage stamps, musical subjects depicted on money represent a type of iconography that is controlled by governmental organizations; their didactic goals are minimal, and their political role is paramount. Most often they involve the celebration of a national composer whose work embodied and enacted a national character—but their symbolism occasionally misfires.

For example, the above Romanian  50,000 lei banknote pictures George Enescu on the front alongside some recognizable musical images, but the depiction of a Bucegi-Mountains rock formation known in Romania as The Sphinx, which appears to be a reference to the character of the Sphinx in the composer’s opera Oedipe, was judged to be sufficiently puzzling to merit a redesign omitting the image.

This according to “Music on money: State legitimation and cultural representation” by Marin Marian-Bălaşa (Music in art XXVIII 1–2, pp. 173–189.

Related article: Enescu and makam

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by | December 3, 2009 · 12:08 pm

Res musica

Res musica (ISSN 1736-8553), a peer-reviewed annual journal, was launched by the Eesti Muusikateaduse Selts and the Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia in 2009; its editor-in-chief is Urve Lippus (above). The journal aims to be a widely disseminated forum for Estonian researchers in all areas of music, making a unique contribution to the international discipline by synthesizing German- and English-language scholarly traditions with Estonian musicological discourse. Articles in volume 1 focused on historical studies of Baltic music, pedagogy, and musical life.

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by | November 30, 2009 · 1:36 pm

Musicalia: Časopis Českého muzea hudby

The České Muzeum Hudby in Prague launched its semiannual journal Musicalia: Časopis Českého muzea hudby (ISSN 1803-7828) in late 2009. Founded in 1976, the museum owns about 750,000 items including music and nonmusic manuscripts, books, iconography, composers’ estates, instruments, sound recordings, and press clippings; the Muzeum Bedřicha Smetany and the Muzeum Antonína Dvořáka are under its auspices. Musicalia, which is published bilingually in Czech and English, is devoted to sources for the history of music and musical culture and to information about the museum’s acquisitions, exhibitions, conferences, and publications. The journal is edited by Jana Vojtěšková and Dagmar Štefancová; its first issue includes essays about Martinů, Dvořák, Vinzenz Maschek, the Missale Olomucense, and a piano played by Mozart.

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