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Musicological Society of Australia
This page contains a complete listing of the contents of all the Abstracts from the Musicology Australia Journals.
Marri
Ngarr Lirrga Songs: A Musicological Analysis of Song Pairs in Performance,
Linda Barwick, XXVIII, 2005-2006, p1.
This essay discusses a set of lirrga songs performed for Allan Marett
in 1998 at Wadeye in Australia's Northern Territory by a group of senior Marri
Ngarr men comprising the singers and composers Pius Luckan and Clement Tchinburur,
the ritual specialist John Nummar and the karnbi (didjeridu) player Benedict
Tchinburur. The texts of these songs and information about Marri Ngarr language
are presented in the companion essay by Lysbeth Ford in this volume. The song
session was performed for Marett to teach him about Marri Ngarr songs, and to
document lirrga songs for future generations. After discussion of the
historical origins of the lirrga genre and metaphors of liminality presented
in the song texts, the essay attempts to understand the aesthetic intentions
of the composers and performers through analysis of the musical conventions
used in the genre and the performers' shaping of the session by juxtaposition
of contrasting rhythmic modes and song subjects.
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Marri
Ngarr Lirrga Songs: A Linguistic Analysis, Lysbeth
Ford, XXVIII, 2005-2006, p26.
This essay, a companion to Linda Barwick's article in this volume, provides
evidence to show that the Marri Ngarr song register differs from the mundane
register in several important respects and, in doing so, challenges accepted
generalizations about these differences in Australian languages. Fluent speakers
of Marri Ngarr number fewer than ten; all are old and ill and the language itself
is expected to cease being spoken within the next few decades. The evidence
comes from analysis of the linguistic structure of a representative sample of
Marri Ngarr lirrga song-texts recorded in 1998, compared with a narrative
text recorded in the year 2000. Analysis shows that the complexity of the lirrga
song register is not mirrored in the current mundane register and probably
reflects a period when the language was used more widely. The analysis of Marri
Ngarr song-texts can therefore give us important clues as to what the language
may have been like in its heyday.
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The
Language of Kun-borrk in Western Arnhem Land, Murray
Garde, XXVIII, 2005-2006, p59.
Kun-borrk is a largely undocumented Aboriginal song genre from Western
Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. The texts of these songs are in ordinary semantically-transparent
language but the contextual meaning is often obscure. It is proposed that such
vagueness in song text meaning, despite the use of ordinary contemporary language,
is intentional and is part of a wider communicative practice of purposefully
indirect and vague language. Included is a detailed examination of the texts
of a number of kun-borrk song series and accounts from the songmen who
compose and perform kun-borrk in order to demonstrate the relationships
between song creation, song text language and textual meaning.
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Letters
of James H. George: A Union Musician during the American Civil War, Craig
de Wilde, XXVIII, 2005-2006, p90.
The American Civil War was one of the most deeply felt tragedies in the history
of the United States, and music was so intimately involved with the events of
this time that it became a part of those events. All the historian need do is
to look at the lyrics of songs popular at any given time during the War to realize
the real attitudes and feelings of those involved. The songs were concerned
with the entire range of human emotion-antislavery songs, political rallying
songs, songs about heroes and political leaders, battle and campaign-inspired
songs, songs about the soldier's life in camp and particularly songs about the
heartache and emotional tragedies of the War. The Huntington Library in San
Marino, California, holds a magnificent Americana collection of music manuscripts,
printed scores and other materials relating to popular music during this period.
Among its holdings are a number of Civil War era songs in the Walther Updike
Lewisson Collection, as well as letters from the composer Stephen Foster to
Edwin Christy (the leader of Christy's Minstrels, one of the foremost minstrel
troupes in America at mid century). In addition, the Collection includes a fascinating
series of letters by James Herbert George, a musician in the North's Union Army.
There are 75 letters in all, begun in 1862 when the 19-year-old was writing
to his parents, his brother and one girl back home, and ending in 1865 when
he describes the celebrations at War's end. The letters are wonderfully detailed,
capturing the images and moods of the period with much emotion and intensity.
In 1864, George was promoted in charge of the musicians. From this point onward
in particular, the letters provide a wealth of information regarding the everyday
life of a Civil War musician-from the price of a decent cornet to the favourite
song of the 10th Vermont Regiment. This essay examines the James Herbert George
correspondence and seeks to provide a colourful insight into a most interesting
period in North American history and the music popular during the time.
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Tales
From a Suitcase: Chopin's Early C-sharp Minor Nocturne, Deborah
Crisp, XXVIII, 2005-2006, p101.
According to Fryderyk Chopin's sister, Ludwika Jedrzejewicz, the Nocturne in
C-sharp minor (Lento con gran espressione) was sent to her by her brother
in an enclosure with a letter from Vienna in 1830. Chopin's letters from this
time are full of lively and witty accounts of new musical experiences, but with
an undercurrent of extreme homesickness. It would not be surprising, therefore,
if his musical works of the time reflected something of this state of mind and
it is argued in this essay that this work in particular might be read as a highly
personal musical postscript to the letter it accompanied. As such, its informal
and intimate nature might offer rare insights into Chopin as he behaved 'at
home' among his family and friends, and also reveal something of his style of
improvisation.
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'This
Rare and Precious Music': Preliminary Findings on the Catalogue of the Music
Collection of the Dresden Catholic Court Church (1765), Janice
B. Stockigt, XXVII, 2004-2005, p1.
This study provides an overview of composers and works listed in the earliest
known thematic inventory of the music library of the Dresden Catholic court
church, the 'Catalogo (Thematico) [sic] della Musica di Chiesa (catholica [sic]
in Dresda) composta Da diversi Autori-secondo l'Alfabetto 1765.' The 'Catalogo'
is the only complete, currently accessible inventory of what is arguably the
most important library of Catholic liturgical music assembled in Saxony between
c. 1708-65. Surviving items of the collection reveal the development of Saxon
Catholic musical taste during the first half of the eighteenth century. Contributors
to the collection are identified, the general purpose of musical items is outlined
and reworkings of the repertoire are discussed. Problems inherent in the 'Catalogo'
and considerations of assembly of the collection, musical fraud, losses to the
collection and transmission and dissemination are also addressed.
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Margaret
Sutherland's Chiaroscuro 1: A Comparison of Autograph Sources,
David Jockett,
XXVII, 2004-2005, p19.
From the viewpoints of both performer and editor, the author compares two autograph
sources of Sutherland's solo piano work Chiaroscuro 1 (1967). Issues concerning
access to original manuscripts and facsimiles, the reading and interpretation
of the composer's notation, idiosyncrasies of Sutherland's style and questions
of editorial and performance judgement are discussed.
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Re-organization
and Rhetoric: Changes in the Social Organization of North Indian Classical Music,
John Napier, XXVII,
2004-2005, p35.
This article re-examines some of the conclusions drawn about the social organization
of North Indian classical music by Daniel Neuman in his writings of 1977 and
1980. It marks the changes effected in the relationship between soloist and
accompanist system through the ascendancy of specialists from other than traditional
backgrounds. It explores the way such changes are framed by practitioners by
validation through the rhetoric of tradition, pedigree and seniority, and investigates
the manner in which the musical authority of soloist over accompanist is maintained
in the absence of its underpinning by social hierarchy.
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Modernist
versus Postmodernist Aesthetics: Contemporary Music Criticism and the Case of
Matthew Hindson, David Bennett and Linda Kouvaras, XXVII, 2004-2005, p54.
While stylistic and thematic tendencies associated with postmodernism in the
last two decades in the fields of literature, the visual arts, philosophy and
social theory are also a striking feature of recent music culture, music critics,
historians and composers have been reluctant to embrace the postmodern label
or to confront aesthetic, cultural and philosophical issues that have become
identified more widely in the arts with postmodernism. This essay introduces
a collaborative research project by a musicologist and cultural theorist who
examine critical reception of the works of Australian composer Matthew Hindson
in order to test the hypothesis that a combination of ignorance of, and hostility
toward, postmodern theory is hampering both the critical reception and the academic
study of important trends in contemporary Australian art music.
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Productive
Disjunction and the Play of Rupture: Reading 'the Blanks' in Writing to Vermeer,
Rowena Braddock
and Nicholas Routley, XXVII, 2004-2005, p73.
At a crucial structural moment in the opera Writing to Vermeer, Saskia, Vermeer's
model, describes some sheet music bought by her mother at the flea market: 'But
there were two pages missing from Sweelinck's 'Mein junges Leben'. She said
I could easily fill in the blanks. She has a peculiar idea of music. She asked
me if she could join up all the dots to make the music go faster'. As Saskia
implies in this passage, interpretation or performance, no matter how many pages
of the text may be missing, is never simply a matter of filling in the blanks
or speeding things up by joining the dots. The blanks cannot be glossed over,
nor can contradictions be resolved by rushing preemptively to a conclusion.
In this essay we consider the 'blanks' in Saskia's song not merely to be emblematic
of the demand for interpretation provoked by this opera's unique mix of genres
but to be deliberately produced and sustained in the spaces opened up by the
interplay of the opera's many elements. This overwhelming dynamic of disjunction
in Writing to Vermeer, with its surprising confluences and correspondences,
demands an attempt to make sense of that which bewilders us.
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Agonising Over Orthography:
Aspects of Notation from Tristan to Opus 11, Number 1, Simon
Perry, XXVI,
2003, p1.
Problematising the orthography of the transitional music of late nineteenth-
and early twentieth-century Europe provides insight into aspects of its composers’
increasingly individualised harmonic and tonal conceptions. Examples from the works
of Wagner, Liszt, Skriabin and Schoenberg are considered.
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The Transmission of Zarlino’s Canonic Theory in Seventeenth-Century Organ Chorale
Settings, Denis
Collins, XXVI,
2003, p38.
While the importance of Gioseffo Zarlino’s treatise, Le istitutioni harmoniche (1558, rev. 1573), and its influence on music theorists of the later
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is well documented, his position in relation
to actual compositional
practice of this period has not yet been fully investigated. This paper
explores how Zarlino’s codification of counterpoint formed part of the training
of certain later composers and how it is reflected in their compositions. Specifically,
a repertoire of seventeenth-century organ chorales by six composers is
compared to the very detailed set of voice-leading rules for two-part, cantus
firmus-based composition found in the revised 1573 edition of Le istitutioni
harmoniche. Consideration is also given to similar but much less detailed rules
provided by later theorists. The results show a high degree of consistency
between Zarlino’s rules and compositional practice, suggesting that Zarlino’s
discussion is fundamental to understanding
how musicians of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries approached
canonic
composition.
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Rethinking Peggy Glanville-Hicks,
Victoria Rogers, XXVI,
2003, p65.
Peggy Glanville-Hicks left a legacy of over sixty works as well as a
legacy of reflections on her musical style. She postulated that her
later works were based on a musical structure comprising melody and rhythm,
with harmony accorded only a minor and occasional role. This article demonstrates
that, contrary to Glanville- Hicks’ assertions, elements from her earlier stylistic
periods carry through to the late works, most notably through the use of modal
harmony and neoclassical structural devices. It is argued that the late works
can only be fully understood as part of a stylistic continuum, and that what
in fact occurred in her later works of the years 1951-66 was ongoing modification
and refinement of her postulated melodic- rhythm concept.
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Operatic Tapestry: Threads from Black River to Going Into
Shadows, Anne
Power, XXVI, 2003,
p104.
The premiere performances of Andrew Schultz's second opera Going Into
Shadows at Guildhall, London in June 2001 and Brisbane in September
2001 provide an opportunity to look at threads between it and his first opera
Black River. Dramatically both are concerned with women telling their stories.
In another link, both operas are concerned with issues of belonging.
Musical links are found in the composer’s use of chordal sources, which establish
a harmonic language and shape motifs that help to define aspects of character.
There are also ways of using traditional compositional techniques, such as
the ground bass, which Schultz favours at key moments of each work. This paper
examines these dramatic and
musical threads and critiques their impact in performance in the
two multi-layered
operas.
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How
are we to Write our Music History? Perspectives on the Historiography of
Military Music, Roland Bannister, XXV, 2002, p1.
This article surveys writing about military music in Australia and internationally,
using an analytical framework based on the work of historian Graeme Davison.
It begins with an examination of ethical and moral
conundrums surrounding the use of music as a tool of war, and as an agent
in citizenship and nation building.
It concludes that most military music historiography ignores ideological
questions: military music historiography is usually antiquarian, fact-driven
narrative which serves
society’s dominant interests. The paper identifies patterns in twentiethcentury
military music historiography, and considers implications for humanities
scholars, especially those working in the ‘new musicology’.
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Domenico Scarlatti and his Cantabile Sonatas, Rosalind Halton, XXV, 2002,
p22.
The term Cantabile appears in the principal sources (Parma and Venice) of
nearly twenty keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. The characteristics
of these sonatas are examined alongside the explanations of Cantabile given
by the Italian eighteenth-century musicians Tartini and Tosi. The recurrence
in these sonatas of specific types of ornamentation and notated tempo rubato
is discussed, as well as implications for the choice of instrument. The findings
of J. H. van der Meer’s 1997 article ‘The Keyboard String Instruments at the
Disposal of Domenico Scarlatti’ are considered, particularly his analysis of
keyboard ranges with regard to available types of harpsichord and piano. This
raises the relationship of these sonatas to the pianos available to Scarlatti
first in Italy, then in Lisbon and Spain. But it is possible too that his concept
of Cantabile is a style of composing that can be realised in harpsichord performance.
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Yawahr: A Corroboree for Everybody, Margaret Gummow, XXV, 2002, p48.
Of all the Aboriginal peoples of Australia it is those of the south-eastern
regions whose culture has been most devastated by Europeans. Due to this
situation musicological work in this area is quite different from other areas
of Australia; often involving historical reconstruction and relying on the
memories of old people who have not performed for many years. This paper discusses
one performance genre, Yawahr, from the Bundjalung and Gidabal areas of south-eastern
Australia. The context of the recordings and other available material is examined
in the light that performance in this area of Australia was once as rich and
vibrant as in other areas of Australia. Several recordings of one song, Mundala,
are examined and evidence produced to confirm that performances in the past,
unlike today, incorporated group singing and dancing. These findings are then
placed into the broader context of existing research on the nature of performance
from western New South Wales.
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Burr-Gi Wargugu ngu-Ninya Rrawa: Expressions
of Ancestry and Country in Songs by the Letterstick Band, Aaron Corn, XXV,
2002, p76.
This article documents the musical creativity of the Letterstick Band from
Maningrida on Arnhem Land’s north-central coast and in particular focuses on
the musical and socio-contextual analysis of two prominent songs in their repertoire:
‘Bartpa’ and ‘An-Barra Clan’. Although as musicians the band’s members have
availed themselves of new media and technologies that have been introduced
to Arnhem Land since the mid 1960s, through such analyses it is demonstrated
how songs in the band’s repertoire are informed by the aesthetics, formal elements
and themes of local manakay and borrk song traditions. Drawing upon observations
first made by the Hiatts in the late 1950s, it will be established how two
key members of the Letterstick Band, David Anjawartunga Maxwell and his younger
brother Colin Jiliburr, have extended the musical legacy of their father, Harry
Mulumbuk, by balancing continuity of local musical traditions against creative engagement
with new musical media and technologies.
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Stéphane Grappelli and the Hot
Club Quintet: The Post-War Recordings, Frank Murphy, XXIV,
2001, p5.
This article examines the improvisations by the French jazz violinist Stéphane
Grappelli on his recordings with the Hot Club Quintet between 1946 and 1948.
His two main techniques (paraphrasing and the correlated chorus) are discussed.
This is followed by a consideration of other elements of his style including
the context of the improvisations, their tempos and rhythmic vocabulary, the keys employed,
the motifs that recur from recording to recording, the harmonic extensions that
are implied by the melodic line and two aspects of his violin technique—range and special effects.
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The Red Onion Jazz Band at the 1963 Jazz Convention, Timothy Stevens,
XXIV, 2001, p35.
Between the first and second recordings commercially released by Melbourne’s
Red Onion Jazz Band, changes had taken place in the group’s working method.
These are evident from a comparison of the two recordings, and seem geared
towards facilitating a continuing presence for the band in the local jazz
community. Furthermore, they are evidence that a conception of jazz that
had developed in the local scene in the preceding twenty years was shaping
the band whether its members were explicitly aware of this or not. An investigation
of their
procedures seeks to broaden the terms of definition in Australian jazz.
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Ligeti’s Études pour piano (premier livre): A fusion of tradition
and experimentation, Nicole Edwards, XXIV, 2001, p62
The Études pour piano at once depict Ligeti’s deep affinity with
established musical idioms, and an ability to integrate external influences,
creating a
progression in the evolution of piano performance. This article places
Ligeti’s Études
pour piano in the context of the compositional tradition of the
piano étude as a genre. Examination of the formal structure,
figuration and piano technique are relevant, as they are elements in
which Ligeti largely conformed to the heritage of étude writing.
Harmony and rhythm are also discussed, where Ligeti’s unique musical language
is most clearly recognisable, and extends beyond the majority of previous étude compositions.
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Musicology in the Marketplace: A Publisher’s Point of View, Penny Souster,
XXIV, 2001, p113.
This editor’s perspective on the business of academic music publishing
considers the interplay of scholarship and market forces and shares some
of the experiences of commissioning for a university press.
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Only Connect, Peter
Platt, XXIII, 2000,
p3
Our minds can work easily both linearly and with quantum leaps. In fact we
can perform these feats simultaneously. As music scholars we have come of age.
'Philosophical monisms' (Meyer 1956) are no longer tenable. We have only
insights into music-but then, that is always what we have 'only' had. Insights
can be trivial and/or profound. We can with ease make direct links between the
notes (i.e. arrangements of pitches, rhythms and timbres) and the myth (music
seen as imaginative constructions analogous to or explaining human experience).
If our minds in this huge subject are not to be reduced to a condition of
desperate fragmentation, we need to build mental constructs of 'unifying
pictures' (Wachsmann 1982) which remind us of the whole field while we are
dealing with any one of the (often highly complex) elements of the field. My
unifying pictures are unlikely to be the same as yours. Two of mine are: Alan
Merriam's three analytic levels and 'music is what may be done with pitches,
rhythms and timbres'. My simple opposition between dominant-tonic music and
drone/ostinato music is part of this. Taken together, these unifying pictures
allow me to go off into any orbit without losing track.
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The
Nature of Nordicism: Grainger's
'blue-gold-rosy-race' and his music, Amanda Harris, XXIII, 2000, p19
Grainger's racial views and obsession with Nordic culture were an important
part of his outlook on life and art. Both Grainger, and scholars commenting
since his death, have made conclusions about the strong influence of these views
on his music. However little attempt has been made to substantiate these claims.
While such an influence is usually difficult if not impossible to quantify,
Grainger has left a list of criteria with which to identify traces of Nordicism
in his music. It is therefore possible to conduct a musical analysis based on
this criteria, to assess the true Nordic influence in Grainger's music.
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Beethoven and Melodrama,
Daniela
Kaleva, XXIII, 2000, p49
The recent interest in stage melodrama from the late eighteenth century
(1775-c. 1790) has prompted some questions about the technique of melodrama
within opera and incidental music, yet the contribution of Ludwig van Beethoven,
who set the standard of melodrama's application in German Romantic opera and
incidental music, has not been studied in detail. This paper investigates
Beethoven's melodrama application and composition in terms of its placement
within the overall dramaturgic and musical structure of the particular work;
types of melodrama insertions, and music-text interdependence. Besides the
commonly understood influence on Beethoven by the French opéra comique of
Cherubini and Méhul, there are German practices of melodrama writing associated
with stage melodrama, one of the chief composers of which was Beethoven's
teacher Neefe. It demonstrates that Beethoven had a profound technical and
dramaturgical competence of the different procedures associated with melodrama
and a particular familiarity with the German style. His own contribution to
melodrama composition represents a blend of French and German practices.
Beethoven's use of melodrama not only influenced his contemporaries, but
influenced the generation of German composers that was to follow.
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Maintaining
Grandmothers' Law:
Female Song Partners in Yanyuwa Culture, Elizabeth Mackinlay, XXIII, 2000, p76
This article considers processes of Aboriginal women's song performance
amongst the Yanyuwa community at Borroloola, Northern Territory. More
specifically, it examines how Yanyuwa women's performance and Grandmother's Law
is mediated and maintained through the Yanyuwa phenomena of song partners and
related social structures. Yanyuwa culture is first placed within a geographical
and social setting followed by a review of relevant literature on Aboriginal
women's performance practice. I then discuss in detail female song partners in
Yanyuwa culture through reference to kinship structures, generations of female
composers and processes of composition. Conclusions are drawn regarding the
relationship between genres, gender roles and identity, and gendered knowledges
in Yanyuwa culture.
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The
Nature
of Patterning in Japanese Narrative Music: Formulaic Musical Material in
Heikyoku, Gidayu-bushi and Kiyomoto-bushi, Alison Tokita, XXIII, 2000, p99
As in other areas of Japanese culture, patterning is central to music
narratives. This article introduces the term 'formulaic musical material' as the
equivalent of kata in other performing arts. The formulaic musical material of
various narrative genres has been systematised over the centuries. Especially
when named, patterning has functioned as a compositional device, as a means of
transmission, as a method of notation, and more recently, as a research tool.
The article points to facing research in this area: treating patterns in
isolation; the need to recognise patterned versus non-patterned material and
named versus unnamed patterns; the need for inter-genre research to attain
agreement on concepts and terminology; the need to recognise patterning at the
structural levels of the section, and the phrase, in combination with the
concept of narrative sub-style. Using the case studies of the genres heikyoku,
gidayu and kiyomoto, continuities and differences in structure and formulaic
musical material are discussed.
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Singapore, a South-East
Asian Haven: The Sephardi-Singaporean Liturgical Music of its Jewish
Community, 1841 to the Present, Margaret J. Kartomi Monash University, XXII
1999, p3
Despite the extensive contributions of several major musicologists, our
knowledge of the music of the many Jewish communities of the world is still far
from complete. Music of many Jewish diaspora communities in South-East Asia,
East Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa still await research and
comparative study. The music of the Singapore Jewish community, which is
primarily Babylonian-Sephardi, is one such area. This article aims to give an
overview of the Singaporean community's historico-musical experience, to
describe a few samples of its liturgical music, and to account for this music's
continuity and change over the past 160 years. In contrast with neighbouring
Indonesia and Malaysia, where militant Islam has recently grown strong,
Singapore has served as a haven for Jews in South-East Asia over the past
century and a half.
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Musicology and the
Problem of 'Musical Ear', Jamie G. Kassler, XXII 1999, p18
What constraints are brought to the task of the acquisition, comprehension, and
use of musical knowledge? This question raises the problem of 'musical ear',
solutions to which have been given chiefly by philosophers and by a variety of
psychologists, rather than by musicologists. This essay seeks to expose the
problem as a problem for musicology, by showing how, historically and
contemporaneously, solutions have been guided by two traditional theories of
knowledge and learnability.
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Pamina, Portraits,
and the Feminine in Mozart and Schikaneder's Die Zauberflote, Kate
Bartel University of California, Los Angeles, XXII 1999, p31
The major body of critical work on Mozart and Schikaneder's Die Zauberflote
is concerned with the articulation and conceptualization of universal
principles, including most prominently the allegorical confrontation between
Light and Darkness. In so far as the fundamental dichotomy that governs and
gives meaning to Die Zauberflote, Light / Darknes is symbolized by
Sarastro / the Queen of the Night and made analogous to Man / Woman, the
allegorical confrontation of the symbolic universals is played out in gendered
terms. Traditional scholarship has generally claimed that the gender hierarchies
maintained by the symbolic structure are resolved in Pamina's union with Tamino
and her initiation into the realm of Light. While the conclusion of the opera
denotes a physical existence of a woman in Sarastro's realm, however, it does
not represent an ontological presence of woman within the moral system operating
in the opera. Pamina's 'rise to glory' does not signify the inclusion of a
feminine identity in Sarastro's order; rather, it idealizes its absence.
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Japanese
Collections of Traditional Japanese Musical Instruments: Presentation and
Representation, Henry Johnson University of Otago, XXII 1999, p46
Musical instruments are displayed or collected in a range of contexts for a
variety of reasons. This study examines major Japanese collections of
traditional Japanese musical instruments. Two main areas underlie the
discussion: firstly, the collections are considered with regard to how their
instruments are presented for display, including analysis of methods of grouping
or classifying the instruments; and secondly, the collections are discussed in
terms of what they might represent, whether explicitly or implicitly, in
particular because the main objects for display are organized outside their more
usual con- text of musical performance.
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Legrenzi's Music for Compline
(1662), David Swale The University of Adelaide, XXII 1999, p63
This article offers an introduction to music for the Office of Compline in the
seventeenth century, and to the setting by Legrenzi under discussion, with
reference to the dedicatee, Hippolito Bentivoglio, and the Accademia dello
Spirito Santo at Ferrara. The structure of Compline is outlined. There follows a
brief discussion of Legrenzi's musical style. The bulk of the article analyses
the work movement by movement, illustrating Legrenzi's compositional subtleties,
particularly in regard to word treatment, modal structure, and compositional
techniques.
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Music in
Menzies-Era Melbourne, Adrian Thomas, XXI 1998, p3
Robert Gordon Menzies was Prime Minister of Australia from December 1949
until January 1966. This paper focuses on the condition of music in Melbourne during these
years of limited government support for the arts and extends into 1967, when the Holt
Government established the Australian Council for the Arts.
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Claudio
Coello's Sagrada Forma and Music for the Ceremonial Relocations of a Sacred Relic at El
Escorial in 1684 and 1690, Michael Noone, XXI 1998, p16
Claudio Coello's painting La Sagrada Forma is one of the most important
iconographical sources we possess for the study of music at the monastery-palace of the
Escorial. The canvas depicts an historical event: the reception in 1684 of a miraculous
host in a newly constructed altar in the sacristy of the Escorial basilica. The
ceremonies, which culminated in the benediction commemorated in the painting, are
carefully described in a manuscript written in 1691 by Francisco de los Santos, Prior,
chronicler, sometime maestro de capilla of the Escorial, and devisor of the painting's
iconographic program. This article correlates the painting and the manuscript with other
sources to determine how much they can tell us about the practice and composition of music
at the Escorial during the reign of Charles 11. In addition, the article examines Santos's
account of a further relocation of the relic which took place in 1690.
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Paper
Songs and Frozen Assets: Text and Traditions, Richard M. Moyle, XXI 1998, p28
This article considers song poetry as text in the context of a multiple
definition of tradition, focusing on Polynesia. It examines preservation of tradition,
whether as embellished or accurate history within song texts, or whether of songs
them-selves in the face of Christian and other Western influences, the apparent
transformation of traditional war chants into the pre-match displays of national rugby
teams, and the capacity of song both to preserve ancient power structures and to agitate
for social and political change. The influence of printing on forrnerly oral cultures is
also examined, while the need to avoid the abstraction of text from other elements of
musical, poetic, and dance performance is emphasized.
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Liszt's
monument to Bach: the Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, for Solo Piano, Deborah
Crisp, XXI 1998, p37
This paper presents an analytical view of Liszt's Variations on J. S. Bach's Weinen,
Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen motive, and in particular examines ways in which Liszt
addresses the structural dilemmas inherent in the passacaglia. Liszt's work is
considerably longer than J. S. Bach's passacaglias on the same motive. The brevity of the
motive, together with its strong sense of harmonic closure, demand special treatment in
this larger scale work if forward momentum and interest are to be maintained. Liszt
addresses these problems in a number of ways: by borrowing from J. S. Bach techniques of
pairing and dovetailing of statements of the motive so as to mask the underlying
regularity; by moving gradually away from a strict passacaglia format to one in which the
motive is given much freer treatment; and, most importantly, by placing the passacaglia
within a larger context. Liszt's quotation at the end of the variations of a chorale
imposes a further structure on the work, providing a goal towards which the variations are
directed. Alongside the freer treatment of the motive in the second half of the work,
Liszt is carefully preparing the ground for the emergence of this dramatically contrasting
material. The resulting structure is far more complex than the title 'Variations' might
suggest. With devices drawn from Bach's own practice, and from his own experiments in
chromatic harmony and motivic structure, Liszt constructs a solid edifice that parallels
the implicit narrative of Bach's cantata, and reveals the went of Liszt's understanding
and admiration of the master.
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Szenen
in Zelenka's Vespers Psalm Settings, Janice B. Stockigt, XX1 1998, p 50
Of all liturgical texts, the psalms (especially those required for Vespers)
might be considered among the texts ideally suited for the study required to identify
themes and topoi of Baroque music. At specific points of settings of certain
psalm texts, Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) includes a section whose musical-dramatic plan
is built upon smaller musical-rhetorical gestures. In these sections, or Szenen,
Zelenka appears to have followed an established tradition since, beginning with
Monteverdi, extraordinarily similar patterns are evident at precisely these points in the
settings of a great many composers. Places at which common traditions of setting occur are
at verses 5, 6, and 7 of the frequently-required opening Vespers psalm Dixit Dominus
(Psalm 109), but especially at settings of verse 9 of Confitebor tibi Domine
(Psalm 110) and settings of verse 9 of Beatus vir (Psalm 111).
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Two Types of Octave Relationships in Central Australian Vocal Music?, Udo Will, XX 1997, p6
Five performance sections from four different Central Australian songlines with a melodic range larger than an octave have been analysed. Although octave ratios exist, they are lim-ited to one octave interval in each songline: only the finalis has an 'octave' counterpart, other intervals in the upper melodic range are shown to be linear shifts of intervals in the lower range. There is evidence that the octave ratio is not treated as an octave in the common musical sense (octave identity) but much more as a specific ratio (as part of the characterization of the songlines). This helps considerably in understanding of how a musical system based on intricate patterns of linear (frequency difference) intervals can, at the same time, contain ratio intervals as essential elements without contradictions: this music does not seem to know a generalized principle of octave identity.
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As the only extended musical document in notation of 10th-century date from the north-western oasis of Dunhuang (Lanzhou, China), this manuscript has intrigued Sinologists and musicologists since its discovery by Paul Pelliot in the cave-library there, It is published here for the first time in complete transcription and facsimile. Its musical style is determined in part by the instrument, in part by function. The pieces it contains may be regarded either as lute accompaniments for songs whose texts are mostly still unknown or as versions of these songs for solo lute performance. Although written in the lute-tablature of the Tang capital, its music differs from the Court Entertainment Music of Changan.
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Key Processes in the Oral Transmission of Hindustani Vocal Music, Andrew Alter, XX 1997, p61
The transmission of Hindustani music is carried out through a process of oral transmission in which teachers instruct their students largely without the aid of writing or notation. Many pedagogical strategies have been developed by musical practitioners to cope with the oral-aural communica-tion which is inherent in this process. Such strategies are not only important to the student but also to the teacher for whom the act of teaching becomes as much a part of the tradition as performance. This paper examines the teaching strategies of a well respected teacher of Hindustani vocal music and identifies the aspects of his pedagogy which appear to be shaped by the orality of the transmission process. Structures which are observable in the music during transmission display numerous characteristics which are attributable to the oral nature of the tradition. Undoubtedly these characteristics became elements of the tradition which also appear during performance. Ultimately structures within a musical performance can be seen to be intrinsically linked to the very processes of the oral transmission itself.
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Beethoven, Mahler, and the New German Cinema, Roger Hillman, XX 1997, p84
Art music has been used on the soundtrack since the silent film era. Often functioning as highbrow mood music, it can also convey ideological associations which lend the narrative a further historical layer. The New German Cinema features works by Wagner, Beethoven, Mahler, and others whose reception has been partially influenced by Nazi propaganda. The overtones of these cultural icons parallel discourses about a fluctuating national identity. While the discipline of film studies is belatedly acknowledging the key role of the sound-track and the 'new musicology' has accentuated music as text, the area on which this article embarks has been largely ignored to date.
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A Bibliography of Statistical Applications in Musicology, Nigel Nettheim, XX 1997 p94
Statistical applications in musicology appear in wide-ly scattered publications. The present bibliography, mainly of English language publications, extends back to the beginning of the present century. The analysis of musical scores is empha-sized, but applications in the social sciences are also touched upon, as well as those to performance studies and algorithmic composition. Statistical techniques include simple summarization, graphical methods, time series analysis, information theory, Zipf's law, Markov chains, fractals, and neural networks. Several cases of misapplication of statistics are noted. Commentary is provided on the field and its sub-fields.
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In Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands, the biwa has been played by blind males both in ritual contexts and as entertainment. The latter, secular narrative tradition continued beyond the early twentieth century only in the central region of Kumamoto, the former domain of Higo. Whereas elsewhere the biwa has been played for rites of various kinds by blind Buddhist priests (moso), in rural central Kyushu musicians called biwa hiki have performed both sacred and secular recitations. One such musician remained professionally active until the early 1990s. Among the principal styles of biwa narrative, only in music of the biwa hiki does the use of humour suggest that the musicians' task has been less to edify listeners than to entertain them, less to present standardized, orthodox versions of repertory than to shape the content of a performance to the needs of listeners and the occasion. Much writing on the biwa traditions of Kyushu has appeared since the early 1980s, but the biwa hiki's use of humour as such has not been addressed. Three types of usage can be identified: humour during a warm-up talk before a recitation proper is begun; independent short cornic pieces; and the strategic insertion of humorous passages in tales that may take several hours to perform in full. It appears that biwa recitation in rural Kyushu never became a standardized practice grouped around individual figures of authority, and that the lack of an artistic orthodoxy enabled biwa hiki to deploy humour as a highly individualized performative resource.
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Japanese musical instruments are classified in Japan today in numerous and unique ways. As well as using well-known international classifications, together with other modern-day Japanese and non-Japanese counterparts, Japanese classifications of musical instruments are found on several levels of discourse. An examination of such hierarchies and divisions reveals not only an abundance of information about the structures of the instruments themselves, but also about aspects of Japanese culture in general, This initial survey examines Japanese concepts of, names for, and classifications of musical instruments.
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The Life and Afterlife of Jan Dismas Zelenka, Janice B. Stockigt, XIX 1996, p40
Jan Dismas Zelenka died on 23 December 1795. Until recent times, his works were among the most neglected com-positions written in the period contemporary with Johann Sebastian Bach. This article presents an up-to-date account of Zelenka's life at the Dresden court and traces the reception of his music after 1745. Consideration is given to the reasons for the historical disregard Zelenka and his compositions, a neglect only now beginning to be rectified.
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Papermaking and marks on paper identifying its maker have often proved helpful to musicologists in establish-ing the provenance and / or chronology for the copying of musical works. Many factors, however, complicate the useful-ness of the available information about paper, not the least of which is the difficulty in obtaining complete information about paper, its maker and date of manufacture. Although the indus-try has been researched in some parts of Europe, little is known about the papers used by musicians and copyists in seven-teenth-century Spain. This article considers the state of water-mark research on Spanish papers and applies what is currently known to a number of watermarks found in seventeenth-cen-tury devotional and liturgical music preserved in archives in Valencia and San Lorenzo del Escorial.
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Churu, Yapese dance-chants, were first documented by visitors to Yap in 1874. They were further documented in considerable detail in 1903 by Born and by Furness, in 1908 by a German expedition led by Wilhelm Müller, and in 1915 by a Capuchin missionary, Sixtus Walleser. In the eighty years since Walleser's publication, no comprehensive studies of churu have been published, leaving researchers with limited sources with which to work. These early documents can provide historical insight into Yapese performance and genres of churu, but their accuracy and reliability must now be questioned when compared with late twentieth-century churu genres and performance practice.
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Manuel de Falla, Debussy and La vida breve, Michael Christoforidis, XVIII 1995, p3
During his years in Paris (1907-14) Manuel de Falla came into frequent contact with Claude Debussy, a composer whose influence was critical in shaping the Spaniard's mature compositional style. This article explores the nature of the contacts between the composers during 1907-14 by focussing on Debussy's role in Falla's revision of La vida breve. Several recently discovered documents and pre-viously uncited sources clarify Debussy's impact on La vida breve. Debussy's influence ranges from specific suggestions to more general remarks on dramatic construction, vocal declamation and scenic production.
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Edmund Gurney's The Power of Sound (1880): II. Reception, Jamie C. Kassler, XVIII 1995, p13
This article aims to advance the contextualisation of Gurney's thesis, begun in Part I, by examining some of the "dangerous tendencies" that Gurney sought to oppose. Particular attention is given to the speech and movement theories of Herbert Spencer, who waited until the death of Darwin and Gurney to reply to their criticisms.
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The piano in Australia, 1770 to 1900: some literary sources, Deborah Crisp, XVIII, p25
The beginning of the piano's rise to popularity at the end of the eighteenth century coincided with the begin-nings of European settlement in Australia. For the upwardly mobile middle class in Europe, the piano was a highly significant acquisition: ownership of such an instrument indicated not only a degree of wealth, but also culture, education and gentility. In colonial Australia, the symbolism attached to the piano was doubly potent. In a land barely touched by European civilisation, there was an urgent need to assert European values and European culture. The presence of a piano fulfilled this need in a surprising number of ways. It was potentially a vehicle for all of the musical repertoire of the time, orchestral and chamber, operatic, vocal and choral, as well as keyboard. In addition, it provided a means of continuing the more homely folk traditions of Europe, the songs and ballads, and dances. At the same time, the instrument was a model of technical ingenuity - perhaps the most complex and sophisticated artefact to emerge from the Industrial Revolution. Thus many of the cultural values of Europe were embodied in the piano. For this reason, in addition to the enhancement of individual prestige, the piano was a highly significant factor in the European acculturation of Australia. From the earliest days of European settlement, pianos were frequently seen as an indispensable item, despite the difficulty and expense of transporting them. By the middle of the nineteenth century, a solid infrastructure of support for domestic music making had developed, paving the way for the emergence of Australian musicians into the mainstream of international music culture.
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To bury Hanslick or to praise him? The obituaries of August 1904, Sandra McColl, XVIII, p39
When Eduard Hanslick died in 1904, many Viennese newspapers published obituaries by their music critics. This article discusses thirteen of them in two parts. The first considers eleven obituaries in order to gauge how their authors regarded not only Hanslick but also the issues which had featured in his career. While Hanslick had enemies, his views nevertheless found sympathy among some Wagnerians, and he even had a following among his youngest colleagues. The second part deals in detail with the obituaries by Robert Hirschfeld and Richard Wallaschek, whose opinions of Hanslick in 1904 contrast significantly with views they had published in the 1880s.
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Please note that no abstract for this article is available
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Frequency analysis of a solo performance of one songline demonstrated a remarkable perfection and stability in frequency-production by the performer. This performance quality enabled us to carry out a detailed numerical analysis of the frequency transposition that occurred in this song. The average deviation of the actual transposition from a logarithmic model is larger by a factor of 40 than from a linear model. However, there are also considerable deviations from a linear equidistant model. Considering the nonequidistant tonal space of the songline, the best explanation is given by assuming a linear, non-equidistant transposition, comparable to the change from one mode to another (except that the interval system is based on frequency differences). These results challenge the widely accepted view that, in music, transpositions are generally based on frequency ratios.
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Mozart's European orchestras, Neal Zaslaw, XVII 1994, p13
This article musters evidence and argumentation supporting a premise underlying both the author's supervi-sion of the complete recording of Mozart's symphonies by the Academy of Ancient Music, Jaap Schroeder, concert-master, Christopher Hogwood, continuo (L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1979-86) and his Mozart's Symphonies: Context, Perform-ance Practice, Reception (Oxford University Press, 1989), that just as Mozart tailored his arias to the voices of known singers, in composing symphonies he took into account the make up, training and stylistic preferences of the orchestras for which they were destined. Information for about thirty European cities in which Mozart collaborated with orches-tras is presented. Three regional types of orchestras are posited (French, Italian and Central European) as well as two schools of instrument-making (Central European and Anglo-French), and an attempt is made to link these to stylistic features in some of Mozart's symphonies.
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Isolde Ahlgrimm and Vienna's historical keyboard revival, Peter Watchorn, XVII 1994, p19
The eightieth birthday of one of the most important pioneers in the field of early keyboard performance, the Viennese harpsichordist and fortepianist Isolde Ahlgrimm, fell in July 1994. In this article, written to coincide with publication in Vienna of his complete biography of her, the author argues the importance of Ahlgrimm's contribution to the re-introduction of a style of harpsichord performance based far more on historical traditions than hitherto had been the case. In addition, the author credits Affigrimm with the first systematic use in Europe of original Viennese fortepianos in the performance of the music of Mozart and Haydn (dating from her first historical concert in 1937) as well as with the production of an important series of recordings of almost all of the harpsichord output of J.S. Bach. The author also believes that many of the current big names in early instru-merit performance owe a great deal to Ahlgrimm's pioneer-ing work in the use of period instruments: keyboard, strings and winds. This article was written with the approval an co-operation of Isolde Ahlgrimm, and is offered as a birthday tribute to a remarkable musician.
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Edmund Gurney's The Power of Sound (1885): 1. Context, Jamie C. Kassler, XVII 1994, p19
In his 1880 treatise, Edmund Gurney argued that music is superior to other arts in the culture it supplies to the mind. Because his thesis has escaped the notice of modern interpreters, this article aims to contextualise that thesis by examining how Gurney utilised, for his own purposes, cer-tain premisses from aesthetics, evolutionary theory and ex-perimental psychology.
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Lauded by a number of contemporary critics and fellow musicians as the great hope of English music in the early decades of this century, Josef Holbrooke was an eccentric composer given to monumental conceptions. His operatic trilogy, The Cauldron of Annwn, was based on two distinct Welsh mythological tales, linked by the librettist through the device of metempsychosis or reincarnation. This paper concentrates on the thematic connections between the three operas, The Children of Don, Dylan and Bronwen, to determine the extent to which Holbrooke underwrote musically the convoluted literary connections devised by his librettist.
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An examination of Schumann's literary and musical output during the 1830s suggests the gradual evolution of a narrative style - an attempt to translate the techniques studied in the early literary efforts into music. Schumann's first published writing demonstrates his adaptation of contemporary narrative techniques into a highly distinctive literary style. The process of translation of the literary techniques into music begins in 1828 with Papillons op. 2, in which specific episodes from Jean Paul's novel are depicted; it culminates in Kreisleriana op. 16 (1838), in which the deeper structural layers, rather than the superficial features, of the literary models are exposed.
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Des pas sur la neige: Debussy in Bilitis's footsteps, Nicholas Routley, XVI 1993, p19
The prelude Des pas sur la neige is more than an evocation of a bleak and wintry landscape. With its many references to both the text and the music of Le tombeau des naïades, the third of the songs in Debussy's Trois chansons de Bilitis, and other cross-references within the composer's work, this prelude constitutes a profound re-reading of Pierre Louÿs's poem.
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Although the influence of the conductor Hans von Bülow on the formative years of the composer Richard Strauss was decisive, it has been largely overlooked in recent writings. By analysing memoirs and written correspondence, one can deduce that it was Bülow who was responsible for introducing Strauss to the music of the 'mad extremists', opening an entirely different perspective from the conservative musical upbringing favoured by Strauss's father Franz. In addition, Bülow provided much practical experience on the art of conducting, and was concerned with every aspect of the young composer's developing career.
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Ravel, rhythm and form, Roy Howat, XVI 1993, p39
Ravel's interest in the Malay pantun poetic form, as used by Baudelaire, has previously been demonstrated by Brian Newbould in relation to one piece of music, the 'Pantoum' of Ravel's Piano Trio. Pantun, however, has several musical resonances, and study of Ravel's music in general reveals that various of the characteristics of pantun can be found more widely in Ravel's music, in ways that relate small-scale rhythmic devices to large-scale forms. Two piano works in particular are studied here: the suite Le Tombeau de Couperin of 1915-17 and 'Alborada del gracioso' from the Miroirs of 1904-5.
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Save the last dance - for me?, Richard Moyle, XVI 1993, p48
The implications of 'authenticity' in non-literate cultures are examined using Polynesia as a model: reconciliation of a desire for constant innovation with the acknowledged importance of preserving national identity, and the coexistence of widely constrasting styles and genres. The influence of tourism provoked fundamental changes in repertoire, style, poetic content, interaction between performer and audience, and perceptions of change. The paper questions whether any single definition of 'traditional' music can be justified and offers suggestions for an objective measure of 'authenticity'.
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Anonymous IV as Chronicler, Hendrik van der Werf, XV 1992, p3
Medieval literature contains many references to 'great' or 'old' books that may never have existed. Medieval chroniclers wrote of many 'great' persons who may never have lived and of many 'great' events that may never have taken place. Accordingly, we should go slowly in believing the belated and anonymous information about a Magnus Liber produced by a Leoninus who was an 'optimus organista' and edited by a Perotinus Magnus who was even 'better' than Leoninus. Unbiased research of the music reveals that the cantusfinni came not from one but from several churches and that many composers must have been involved in producing the extant organa for two voices. Analysis of the manuscripts suggests that, at some time in the thirteenth century, organa and related genres became collectors' items. Although the collections were compiled by musicians, they were not performance editions.
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In Search of a Model for Transplanted Music in Migrant Communities, Jehoash Hirshberg, XV 1992, p26
The study of the role music plays in the migrant experience has led to a re-examination of methodologies and of existing models of musical change. This paper, in keeping with its first version which was given at the annual meeting of the Musicological Society of Australia in Perth, September 1990, represents a search for a comprehensive model of musical change.
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The literature on Central Australian Aboriginal song has frequently made reference to the techniques used by performers to accommodate texts of different lengths (with their constantly-associated rhythms) to a fixed melodic contour. There are differing positions taken by researchers which range from that of Barwick, who postulates that "each act of performance involves constant checking of all levels of the rhythmic and melodic construction in the course of making decisions about fitting the text on the melody" (1990:75), to that of Tunstill (1987:128) who states that "[t]he broad rise and fall of the nyiinyi melody is determined by absolute duration and not textual elements". The present paper examines in detail every layer of the rhythmic hierarchy, clarifying where various units of measurement connect one layer with another, and where these units disconnect structural layers, displaying each inde- pendently. By this means the paper shows that both Barwick and Tunstill may be correct, as indeed may other authors who have proposed different measurement processes. The paper concludes with details of rhythmic and durational performance principles that must be known to knowledgeable song leaders, and shows a complex web of choices that have to be made by them when they perform any small song, with its correct text locked to its set rhythmic pattern contained within the con- straints of the melodic outline which characterises the songline.
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Santiago de Murcia's twenty-eight passacalles for five-course (baroque) guitar are contained in his manuscript Passacalles y 0bras ... (1732), along with eleven dance suites orobras. An exami nation of the passacalles, as opposed to his French-influenced dance suites, reveals that an alternative stringing may be appropriate for Murcia's passacalles as well as for other Spanish and Italian works of this period. In particular, this study suggests the use of an octave stringing for the third course of the baroque guitar. The practice of placing higher octave strings on the 'bass' side of the relevant courses of the guitar is examined in relation to the octave stringing of the third course in particular.
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Debussy and Baudelaire's Harmonie du Soir, Nicholas Routley, XV 1992, p77
Baudelaire's poem Harmonie du soir received two important readings from Debussy - the song which is the second of Cinq poèmes de Ch. Baudelaire, and the fourth Prélude for piano. Both form and content of the poem are reflected in both pieces. This is evident in the song, but hidden in the prelude. The unravelling of these reflections is the focus of this paper, and leads to a possible re-evaluation of the ways in which Debussy's aesthetic was imbricated with that of Wagner.
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Claiming the Rite, Helen Payne, XV 1992, p83
In this paper I focus on the processes by which women claim and reaffirm their rites. I refute the notion that there is a level of predictability in the site-rite-individual interrelationship, suggesting instead that a high level of flexibility characterizes, and indeed may always have been an intrinsic part of, this interrelationship.
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Many of Stockhausen's works from the early fifties consciously attempted to use serial organisation in a way which corresponded to Stockhausen's own Catholic/mystic conception (at that time) of the Divine Creation: a universe always in perfect balance, yet never repeating itself. In these works, everything from local detail to the overall formal structure is generated by the same basic proportions. Because of its innate complexity, and a series of revisions that obscured its basic structure, Klavierstück VI has previously resisted attempts to reconstruct its composition process. The sketches and the early, unpublished versions of the work reveal that, at least in one of its transitional forms, it was not only a subtle and complex example of Stockhausen's approach to serialism, but also his final and most spectacular attempt to give acoustic form to his early theological preoccupations.
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Tippett's most recent opera, New Year, recalls the structure and sources of his first opera, The Midsummer Marriage. Both works include dance and supernatural events to add a ritual and mythical dimension in order to chart the spiritual and psychologicaljoumey of its protagonists. New Year, however, is novel in its synthesis of modem Britain and a utopian Nowhere, and is musically distinguished by a motto which unites the wide spectrum of characters and events.
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Wangga songs of northwest Australia: Reflections on the performance of Aboriginal music at the Symposium of the International Musicological Society '88, Allan Marett in association with Martin Anggalidi Warrigal and Robert Ilyerre Daly, XIV 1991, p37
This critical examination of presentations of Aboriginal music at the Symposium of the International Musicological Society in Melbourne in 1988 discusses a number of issues concerning representational politics. A paper written by Marett in association with Aboriginal performers, Martin Anggalitji Warrigal and Robert Ilyerre Daly and presented immediately prior to a performance by Warrigal and Daly of wangga songs from northwest Australia, is presented here in an unaltered form. In an Introduction and a subsequent Reflection, Marett outlines the representational strategies adopted and assesses them in the light of recent literature and the reactions of both the audience and participants.
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Same tunes, different voices: Contemporary use of traditional models in the Italian Folk Ensemble's Ballata grande per Francesco Fantin (Adelaide 1990), Linda Barwick, XIV 1991, p47
This paper discusses the Ballata grande per Francesco Fantin, a piece of musical theatre performed by the Italian Folk Ensemble (IFE) in Adelaide in March 1990 to accompany a photographic exhibition on the life and death of the Italian anarchist, killed by Fascist countrymen in 1942 in South Australia's Loveday Internment Camp. This quintessentially Australian Italian story is recounted through a mixture of spoken word and narrative song: for the latter, the IFE set new words to melodies taken from the recorded repertoire of the cantastorie (travelling popular singers) of Northern, Central, and Southern Italy. Through discussion of the textual and musical changes evident when comparing the IFE's performance with the source recordings, issues of reproduction and adaptation of traditional musical practices are addressed. The focus of the musical discussion is on the extent to which the Ensemble's performance has in fact maintained the 'same tunes', while the textual analysis points to the ways in which these 'different voices' have incorporated new material within the formal constraints of the musical model adopted.
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Chromaticism in Thomas Weelkes's 1600 collection: possible models, Kenneth S. Teo, XIII 1990, p2
This paper aims to identify possible models for Weelkes's adventurous use of chromaticism in his 1600 collection of madrigals. Towards this end, a large number of manuscript and printed sources containing English and Continental music dating from ca. 1540 were examined. The evidence suggests that Weelkes probably owed most to Morley, Dowland, and in particular, the Italian composers Marenzio and Monteverdi, whose chromatic works appeared also to have influenced many other Elizabethan and Jacobean composers. Through his assimilation of modem chromatic techniques, Weelkes himself also made an important contribution to the development of chromaticism in England.
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Systematic analysis and pretonal repertoires, Fiona McAlpine, XIII 1990, p15
Do pretonal repertories demand their own criteria for analysis regardless of trends and fashions in analysis as a discipline? Have analysists any right to make forays into areas which are so unlike those for which their theories have been developed? Can "early musicians" in fact claim to be uninfluenced not only by current intellectual trends but also by the many hundreds of hours they will have spent hearing tonal music? This paper seeks to show that systematic and graphic analysis of various European pretonal repertories, particularly the earlier monophonic ones, is useful not only for dealing with problems specific to these repertories, such as those of transmission, notation, and variation, but also in proposing performance possibilities which are based on the intrinsic nature of the material, and which can thus operate as a control on the performer's inescapable aural conditioning.
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In the Middle Ages, the development of a technical language for the discussion of music involved a number of experimental usages. An example of this process is the use of the words spatium and intervallum, at first with specific meanings, but then later in the period interchangeably to mean "interval." Two distinct uses of the word intervallum occur in early treatises, one to indicate an interval, the other to indicate a step, that is, adjacent notes of the scale. By the year 1100, with the development of staff notation, spatium was being used to denote the space between the lines of the staff.
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Puccini and Verga's she-wolf, Vincent Cincotta, XIII 1990, p28
The resounding success of Maseagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, which was based on a short story/play by Giovanni Verga, prompted Giacomo Puccini together with the Ricordi music publishing firm to work with Verga on another example of Sicilian verismo, his short story La Lupa. This Verga-Ricordi-Puccini operatic venture came to naught after more than two years of collaboration when Puccini finally admitted hecould not be inspired to write music for a libretto that lacked a lovelorn female protagonist. Verga's Pina in La Lupa was not in the same category as Manon, Miral or Flora Tosca. La Lupa was at last performed as a play in 1896: it was eventually set to music by Pier Antonio Tasca and had its premiere as an opera in 1933.
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Tokyo's Ueno Park with its museums and leafy walkways offers inexhaustible delights to residents and scholars alike. One such delight is the discovery of a beautiful weatherboard building standing among the trees at a point farthest from the thronging crowds at Ueno station. Founded in the late nineteenth century, on March 27, 1987 it came alive once more to the sounds of Western music after a long and chequered history as the Tokyo School of Music and spiritual home of many famous Japanese musicians. The story of this building, known as the Sogakudo, is synonymous with that of the introduction and establishment of Western music in Japan. The Sogakudo as a building not only provides an understanding of Japan's growth to maturity in the presentation of Western music, but also offers insights into the extraordinary enthusiasm with which Western music is performed and admired in Japan today.
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A common attitude to the pursuit of music: an Australian opportunity, Peter Platt, XI-XII 1988-89, p2
This paper attempts to show that the great range of music available in Australia (from the classical Western tradition, the Australian Aboriginal and neighbouring traditions, the urban and rural migrant traditions) places Australia in a unique position, providing a chance for a truly holistic view of the subject, in which performance, composition, scholarship and music education are clearly seen as mutually supportive essentials. The paper adopts a central (Western) viewpoint that music can be thought of as pitches, rhythms and timbres in constructions but insists that if this view is not to remain merely ethnocentric, we must always recognise that we are talking of the crucial difference that these musical parameters make to the human psyche, (through verbal texts, dances, rituals, conviviality and so on). It is urged that musicians in whatever field have a life long responsibility to cultivate sensitivity to musical possibilities, and should recognise the enormous difficulties faced by their colleagues in all branches of the subject.
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Australian ethnic music: a reflection of divergence, Mike Ryan, XI-XII 1988-89, p14
In Australia, the term "ethnic music" has been used mainly in reference to so-called ethnic minority groups; the "ethnic music event" to a time when colourfully costumed ethnics re-enact commonly shared traditions from their former homelands. Contrary to the consensus beliefs of ethnic group homogeneity, ethnic group membership is often marked more by divergence of social, economic, occupational, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. When viewed from that perspective, idiosyncratic divergence and the dynamic uses and function of such music in terms of an Australian musical identity emerge as primary factors in understanding urban ethnic music. This paper focuses on the importance of idiosyncratic divergence as a vital factor in Australian ethnic music, changes to that music, and the interpretation of those changes.
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Interpretive strategies in Australian musical scholarship, Jamie C. Kassler, XI-XII 1988-89, p24
Please note that no abstract for this article is available
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Informants' words and musicians' statements: some remarks on the place of discourse in understanding music, Jean-Jacques Nattiez, XI-XII 1988-89, p27
This paper outlines some theoretical and epistemological proposals about how discourse about music may be used in analysing and understanding music. All discourse is regarded as autochthonous, including, for example, a Pygmy's statements and Wagner's writings. The discourse of non-Western musicians is examined in relation to the analysis of the music of a culture, while the status of Western discourse is viewed in relation to attempts to understand a work's creative process, and its interpretation or perception. Discourse is defined as a metalanguage not identical with the music itself nor with the processes of production and reception, although it has a reciprocal relation with each of these dimensions. Discourse about music is therefore only one component of the complete musical "fact".
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This paper focusses on the interaction between transcribers and performers of traditional songs before the ready availability of sound recording. What acts did the collectors perform to produce the written documents that are our only record of the performing traditions of that time? How did they represent this activity to themselves and others? Although the purposes for which these documents were made may be no longer relevant, exploring how they were shaped by the historical context of their collection may enable contemporary researchers to revalidate an often rejected resource, as well as reminding us that our own work is shaped in similar ways.
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Temperamentology in ancient Chinese written records, Chen Yingshi, XI-XII 1988-89, p44
Ancient Chinese temperamentology has had a history of more than 2,000 years, as written in Chinese records. Although during this process the guqin (sevenstringed zither) arose, leading to research into natural lü and the discovery of the harmonic series, and although lü pipes were used, leading to research into "mouth correction", nevertheless, looking at ancient Chinese temperamentology overall, we can see that the central part of the research was inspired by the cyclical movement of heavenly bodies. Therefore there was the need to solve the problem raised in ancient times that the "one third reduction and addition" (OTRA) lü (first records of which date from the seventh century BC: translators' note) could not return in a cycle to the original lü, nor modulate. By the end of the sixteenth century, Zhu Zaiyu of the Ming dynasty had invented the Xinfa Milü, finally solving satisfactorily this problem. The Xinfa Milü discovered by Zhu Zaiyu was by no means widely popularised in the China of his day, and therefore it did not have any influence on musical life at that time. Looked at from a historical perspective, Zhu Zaiyu merely suggested an ideal for twelve equal temperament lü and a concrete scheme for realising the ideal. Fortunately, through the efforts of European scholars, Zhu Zaiyu's ideal of twelve equal temperament lü was finally realised throughout the modern world, with the aid of keyboard instruments. Even China had to introduce from the West this lü system which had originally been invented long before by her own scholars.
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Ediang is a type of love song sung by the young adults of the Han people in Danxian of Hainan Island, China. Some aspects of the ediang, such as the related local customs and some characteristics of the songs, are unique in Chinese Han culture. They show influences of outside cultures. In contrast to the strong Han tradition and the general tendency toward decline of Chinese folk songs, the ediang has not only survived but developed continuously and flourished. It deserves further research, which may yield significant results not only for the study of ethnomusicology, but also for the studies of folklore and sociology.
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Japanese nagauta notation and performance realities, William P. Malm, XI-XII 1988-89, p87
Standard shamisen and drum notations are shown and analysed and historical records translated to show that much musicological data is available in the study of Japanese music. The actual performance of a piece, however, often varies from that seen in the written sources because each guild of performers provides subtle differences that identify the provenance of the sonic event. Thus accuracy and relativity work together to maintain the vitality of the music.
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This paper examines the use of the words "preservation" and "conservation" in environmental science, explores the implications of these meanings when applied to music, and discusses the present state of preservation and conservation of Australian Aboriginal music and Australian folk music.
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Debussy, Masques, L'isle joyeuse, and a lost Sarabande, Roy Howat, Volume X 1987, p16
Debussy's piano pieces Masques and L'isle joyeuse were initially intended to surround a "2e Sarabande" in a triptych entitled Suite bergamasque - a title eventually given instead to four pieces dating from 1890 and published in 1905. The change of plan resulted partly from financial exigencies, and also had to do with Debussy's elopement to Jersey in mid-1904 with Emma Bardae. This background suggests that the pieces, having begun in 1903 as a reflection of the commedia dell'arte, became more autobiographical before their completion in mid-1904. Analysis shows that the two pieces in their final forms are still structurally and symbolically interdependent, explaining Debussy's initial wish to publish them together. Symbolic and musical links are traced with Chopin's third Ballade, Ravel's 'Scarbo', Stravinsky's Petrushka, and Debussy's own Fêtes galantes and D'un cahier d'esquisses. The characteristics of D'un cahier d'esquisses make it quite an apt piece to play in place of the lost "Sarabande", allowing Masques and L'isle joyeuse to be heard in a triptych setting.
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In the writing of this song cycle Larry Sitsky exploits a particular aspect of the poetry of Georg Trakl in which certain evocative words recur with great frequency. Sitsky's system consists of illustrating each main word in a characteristic musical way which is repeated with the recurrence of the word. The musical structure depends, therefore, on the poetic structure and the order of the poems is chosen so that the greatest concentration of recurring images comes towards the end, thus the term 'cycle'. In the initial stages an unusual type of serialism is used to lend coherence but as the work progresses the row becomes more and more loosely applied as the recurring images gradually assume the structural mantle.
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In the performance traditions of central Australia, musical knowledge is but one facet of an extremely complex ritual life. Through analysis of the musical variation observed between a number of different recordings of one composite Pitjaritjatjara and Antekirinya songline, the authors attempt to clarify the structural features of the songline's musical system, which as a whole is much more stable than the associated extramusical exegesis. Although the musical code is learnt through performance and is not explicitly verbalised, analysis suggests that abstract principles of musical construction are taught by the technique of juxtaposition of minimally varying small songs. The increased technical difficulty in some restricted versions of the songline is compensated for by greater structural clarity.
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Current musicology is reluctant to apply its methods to either the repertoire or the performance practice of contemporary music. One likely consequence is the loss of knowledge concerning twentieth-century performance practice. Moreover, the widespread failure of 'traditional musicologists' to integrate the recent past into the overall framework of their discipline is arguably a contributory factor to the alienation of new music from its public, and may profoundly affect the general standing of music as an art form within Western culture.
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Lukah menari ('The dancing fish trap') is a spirit-possession ceremony indigenous to Minangkabau and Malay-speaking areas of Sumatra and West Malaysia. It is an unusual example of inanimate possession whereby a spirit is induced to enter and possess an ordinary fish trap, making it move ('dance') from side to side of its own accord. Of pre-Islamic origin, this type of ceremony is closely associated with the animistic beliefs and practices of Malay people, although it is performed today principally as a form of village entertainment. Two shamans are responsible for a performance of lukah menari which involves certain preparatory procedures for purification of the fish trap as well as the chanting of a special spirit-invocation song. Ritualistic, linguistic and musical procedures are all highly integrated and contribute to a successful invocation, possession and performance.
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Recent research into early sources for Togaku, a repertory of music imported into Japan from China during the seventh to the ninth centuries and performed to this day at the Japanese court, has yielded findings with important implications for both the history and analysis of this ancient genre. The present paper is an account of how, through the work of a number of scholars, the research has unfolded: Laurence Picken's early discovery of links between the partbook notations used for Togaku today and certain medieval Chinese sources is outlined; a number of detailed investigations of the notations of Japanese sources from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries are discussed; finally, data from Markharn's recent study of Saibara, which provides strong and independent support for the findings of the earlier studies, is presented.
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Two features distinguish shawms of the Indian Ocean region; an attached bell and a double reed made from multiple layers of leaf material. The origin of both characteristics possibly lies in a type of wind instrument mentioned in an Indian text from ca. A. D. 300. A comparison of contemporary ethnographic data in South and Southeast Asia with ancient textual descriptions and definitions suggests that these early instruments were reedpipes made from a spiralled strip of leaf. Continuity between these instruments and the two identifying features of shawms in the Indian Ocean region is advanced as a working hypothesis.
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Percy Grainger's 'Nordic revolt against civilization', Bruce Clunies Ross, Volume IX 1986, p53
From his boyhood, Percy Grainger was inspired by Scandinavian literature, and especially by the Icelandic sagas. He travelled extensively in Scandinavia before the First World War and during summers at Svinklov in Denmark he encountered a circle of friends who encouraged his interest in Scandinavian culture. Between 1922 and 1928 Grainger made three collection expeditions to Jutland with the Danish folklorist Evald Tang Kristensen, where they recorded and notated over 170 Jutish folk songs. These were an important inspiration to Grainger, as they introduced him to one of his folk heroes and to a regional culture which embodied some of his ideals. In these years, and for the rest of his life, Grainger was formulating a theory of Nordic culture which would account for his sense of himself as a nationalist composer. Grainger saw the colonial situation as rich in cultural possibilities, and sensed a parallel between colonial Australia and the Nordic world, particularly as it was represented in the sagas. He therefore felt that as a white Australian he was in a unique position to recover a tradition of Anglo-Nordic culture.
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