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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Filed under New series, Romantic era
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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Filed under Dramatic arts, Opera, Publication types, Romantic era, Source studies
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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Filed under 20th- and 21st-century music, Iconography
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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Filed under New periodicals
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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