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The authors of "Defragmentation: Curating Contemporary Music," a special issue of the Darmstädter Beiträge zur Neuen Musik published in 2019, considered all aspects of any given artistic event as fair game for curation. They suggested that not only could the choice of pieces, soloists, conductors, and ensembles be (re)tooled (including even site-specific aspects), but the roles of the musicians and audience and even value regimes could be instrumentalized to accord with the artistic demands of the curator. In her introduction to the special issue, Dorothee Richter argued that curation should be a "practice that is deeply involved in the politics of display, politics of site, politics of transfer and translation, and regimes of visibility." If we understand politics with Jacques Rancière as "giving form to the social," then Richter suggests that every thinkable manner in which people relate can, and should, be weighed when programming a concert. Curators need to reflect and act upon the way relationships in our world are displayed, the interplay involved on site, the participation or lack thereof of an audience, the participants' ability to understand, enjoy, and be entertained, and even the audience's and presenter's perceived positions in society and how they play out in concert. Writing as a performer-researcher, a cultural-sociologist, and a musicologist, and drawing on previous research in the visual arts, we discuss the impact of the curator within the European new music world. We question the curator's central role and probe shifts in power relations between festival directors, receptive venues, and performing ensembles. In our view, the rise of the curator in the new music world leads us in at least two distinct directions. First, as in the visual arts world, the individual curator may assume the role of the new protagonist, displacing the performing artists from their throne. When this occurs, curating takes place in a game of mutual competition, distinction, and exploitation, in which illustration of an abstract idea or concept prevails over musical experience. Alternatively, curating may become a collective affair and responsibility along the lines of commoning principles, in which curating returns to its etymological roots as a form of caring for each other and for both the tradition and the future of music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The histories of finance and music are more interconnected than they might at first appear. From ancient ideas on the mathematical harmony of the universe to ultra-contemporary approaches driven by networked data, the flow of sounds and the circulation of capital have long traced one another's shadow. Indeed, since the publication of Jacques Attali's Noise in 1977, musicologists and sound scholars have been probing how music as an expression of mathematical knowledge has intersected with a range of intellectual, social, and economic shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an interview with John Michael Cooper talking about musicologist's journey from percussionist to scholar, highlighting their shift from performing to exploring music history and theory. Topics include focus on Felix Mendelssohn and later Florence Price and Margaret Bonds; and transition from performance to musicology, the fascination with Mendelssohn's work and identity, and the discovery of lesser-known composers like Florence Price and Margaret Bonds.

The sciences aim to get at the truth about the nature of the world. Do the humanities have a similar goal—namely, to get at the truth about things like novels, paintings, and historical events? I consider a few different ways in which the humanities aim at the truth about their objects, in the process giving rise to epistemic goods such as knowledge and understanding. Two works in the humanities are used as test cases: the historian Tyler Stovall's , Paris Noir (1996) and the musicologist Susan McClary's article, 'The Blasphemy of Talking Politics During Bach Year' (1987). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic elements in Yoga are 1-Yamas (ethics) 2-Niyamas (guidelines) 3-Āsanas (postures) 4-Prāṅāyāma (breath) 5-Pratyāhāra (awareness) 6-Dhāraṅā (concentration) -Dhyāna (reflection) 8-Samādhi (meditation). A deeper comparison and analysis unveil all these characteristics are embedded in Bharatiya Shastriya Sangeet (BSS). Music revolves around sound and its expression (vocal or instrumental music) is a manifestation of emotions (rasas as in Indian parlance) which has the ethics of production of sruti madhur or pleasing melody of sounds, niyama/guidelines for expression of a melody which requires voice culture, through varied combinations of notes and so on which have been discussed in this article. In Indian music, the most important creation of the musicologists/musicians is rāga which is synonymous with classical music. Different types of expressions through a variety of forms with svara and tāla, ascent and descent prescribed for the particular rāga, path/chalan, guidelines like vādi, samvādi, anuvādi, vivādi, jātis, etc. are the elements for a unique structure. The technique to manifest requires awareness, concentration, breath control, creative analysis and reflection. The technicality requires aesthetics to breathe in and release nāda which is the most important aspect of Music considered the main centre of energy. This invigorates the soul for the apt deliverance of a rāga. In Yoga, all exercises may appear to be showcasing the art of exercising the limbs or different parts of the body but on critical analysis each action deepens the insight for reflection, to create a semblance of the mind and body invoking virtues like inner serenity and harmony, giving ānanda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hexachordal theorem is an intriguing combinatorial property of the sets in Z=12Z, discovered and popularized by the musicologist Milton Babbitt (1916-2011). It has been given several explanations and partial generalizations. Here we enhance how this phenomenon can be understood by giving both a geometrical and a probabilistic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous pages have already been filled out about Astor Piazzolla's operita Maria de Buenos Aires. What I aim to bring anew through this work is the delineation of the musical dramaturgy within this work, with an emphasis on the orchestral ensemble, instrumental architecture, general developmental principles, organization of musical material, created effects, and how they assist in constructing each section. Additionally, I aspire to bring this Piazzollian masterpiece closer to the public. Despite premiering in May 1968, it remains relatively unknown and rarely staged. Librettist Horacio Ferrer employs a "coded," enigmatic language that is challenging to understand even for Spanish speakers. But the musicality and rhythm provided by his text contribute masterfully to the construction of the work's dramaturgy, with the operita's libretto perfectly fitting Piazzolla's language. Maria de Buenos Aires is an important lesson in composition and orchestration, as well as a model of musical dramaturgy construction. It is also a truly source of inspiration for instrumentalists, singers, composers, orchestrators, or musicologists, as well as for actors, directors, choreographers, and poets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of the frst examples of the ghazal-romance genre in Azerbaijan in the 40s of the 20th century is connected with the name of the genius composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli. In 1941, U. Hajibeyli composed the ghazal-romances «Sensiz» and «Sevgili canan» on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the birth of the great Azerbaijani poet N. Ganjavi. This study analyzes the ghazal-romances composed by Azerbaijani composers based on the poet›s ghazals on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Muhammad Fuzuli›s death. The purpose of this study is to analyze the ghazal-romances written by Azerbaijani composers based on the poet›s ghazals, to reveal the individual musical concepts of the ghazal-romances, to take a systematic look at the composers› use of fret-intonation features, the unity of music and words, and the principles of using compositional techniques. This study is important for musicologists, vocal performers, and those working in relevant felds such as music literature, and can also be used as additional resources in music educational institutions. The presented article provides information about the origins of the romance genre in Europe, Russia and Azerbaijan, as well as about Asef Zeynalli, the frst composer of romance in Azerbaijan, and the romances he composed. In the study, the researches conducted in Azerbaijan regarding ghazal-romances, their historical development, and the unity of words and music were mentioned. In the next chapter, the ghazals-romantics written by S. Rustamov, A. Rzayeva, A. Abbasov S. Alasgarov, R. Mustafayev, O. Zulfugarov to M. Fuzuli›s ghazals are presented as the subject of research. Composers› ghazal-romances were examined based on note samples. The texts of the musical examples of ghazal-romance included in the study are presented in the latin alphabet for the frst time. Document analysis, one of the qualitative research types, was used as the research model. According to the results; it becomes clear that in the analyzed ghazal-romances, the form, fret-intonation, metrorhythmic and rules of their use, as well as the variety of writing style in the ghazal-romances created by the composers at diferent times, the variety of tone-intonation use, from which point of view the principles of approach emerged in the modern era. In future studies, ghazal-romances written to the words of other Azerbaijani poets can be analyzed and compared based on this analysis method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kunqu, one of the oldest forms of Chinese opera, features a unique artistic expression arising from the interplay between vocal melody and the tonal quality of its lyrics. Identifying Kunqu's character tone trend (vocal melodies derived from tonal quality of the lyrics) is critical to understanding and preserving this art form. Traditional research methods, which rely on qualitative descriptions by musicologists, have often been debated due to their subjective nature. In this study, we present a novel approach to analyze the character tone trend in Kunqu by employing computer modeling machine learning techniques. By extracting the character tone trend of Kunqu using computational modeling methods and employing machine learning techniques to apply cluster analysis on Kunqu's character tone melody, our model uncovers musical structural patterns between singing and speech, validating and refining the qualitative findings of musicologists. Furthermore, our model can automatically assess whether a piece adheres to the rhythmic norms of 'the integration of literature and music' in Kunqu, thus contributing to the digitization, creation, and preservation of this important cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arbitrium is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study focuses on the musical style in Scarlatti’s sonata K. 288, as K. 288 has not yet been explored in detail in the Scarlatti scholarship. Not only the form, but also other musical elements, such as melody, harmony, and rhythm are being explored. Furthermore, irregular groupings are discussed. By examining some characteristics shown in K. 288, this paper shows Scarlatti’s ‘originality’ and contributes to discovering Scarlatti as “the interesting historical figure” (Sutcliffe 2003, 1). In addition to the analysis, the scope of this paper was expanded by including a comparison with a contemporary pastiche composition by the author of this paper. This pastiche composition was written to emulate Scarlatti’s style, and this paper discusses the similarities and differences between the two pieces. In this way, theory and practice are combined, which would broaden the horizon of musicology and music theory. Therefore, this research would be of interest to not only musicologists but also musicians and composers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the subject of the ekphrastic description of experiencing music. It shows the main differences between ekphrasis and commonly used analysis in music theory and musicology. In approaching the problem of ekphrasis with what is called pure music, I emphasize its ancient understanding, thus differing from Lydia Goehr (2010) and Siglind Bruhn (2000 , 2001 , 2019). The ekphrastic analysis of the first movement of Arnold Schoenberg's Six Little Piano Pieces Op. 19 conducted in this article uses the methodology developed by Gottfried Boehm (2014) and Georges Didi-Huberman (2005 , 2015 , 2017 , 2018) in the discipline of art history. This article aims to delineate a new way of researching the art of music, an essential feature of which is the combination of the traditions of analytic philosophy and phenomenology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does it say about you if you enjoy sexist humour? One answer to this question holds that finding sexist humour funny reveals that you have sexist beliefs, whilst another holds that it reveals nothing deeper about you at all. I argue that neither of these answers are correct, as neither can capture the feeling of unwilling complicity we often get from enjoying sexist jokes. Rather, we should navigate between these two positions by understanding the sense of humour as a kind of sensibility or taste, analogous to Anne Eaton's account of erotic taste. This allows for a fleshing out of the purely belief-centred understanding of the sense of humour, adding emotional, perceptual and motivational aspects to it. Finally, I propose that one's sense of humour is shaped the representations one engages with, which suggests a possible avenue for habituating it in a more egalitarian direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ivo Stolařík was certainly the most important researcher in the field of music-historical and ethnographic research in northeast Moravia and "Czech" Silesia. The authors of the study evaluate the lifelong contribution of this scholar to music history and folklore studies. Stolařík was the first (before the arrival of other musicologists in Ostrava in the second half of the 20th century, graduates of musicology from the universities in Brno or Olomouc, such as Vladimír Gregor, Miroslav Malura, Karel Boženek and others) to begin to systematically research the musical culture of the wider Ostrava region. This was firstly in the Department of Musicology of the Silesian Study Institute in Opava (from 1958 the Silesian Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences) where he virtually laid the foundations for systematic research into the musical culture of the region. Stolařík was very active both in scientific publishing and in his other jobs, as Director of the Ostrava State Philharmonic (renamed the Janáček Philharmonic in 1971), A&R Specialist of the Supraphon record label in Prague, and before his retirement at the Wallachian Open Air Museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. The paper also presents analytical probes into Stolařík's two most important monographs, Umělecká hudba v Ostravě 1918-1938 (Art Music in Ostrava 1918-1938) and Hrčava. Monografie goralské obce ve Slezsku (Hrčava. A Monograph of a Goral Village in Silesia). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Musica Theorica is the property of Musica Theorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The relationship between performance and analysis has been a consistent point of discussion in music discourse for at least the past four decades. This article uses Johannesburg Etude No. 1 (2012) by South African composer Clare Loveday as a case study to explore ways in which searches for musical meaning may proceed from insights generated in and through a performer's body – how bodily knowledge may become an entry point into music analysis. I draw on musicologists Nicholas Cook and Suzanne Cusick to establish frameworks through which performance may be approached not as an 'end point' of structural music analysis, but rather as the primary point of entry into analytical endeavours. I offer a 'bodily analysis' of Johannesburg Etude No. 1, which I first performed in 2014 as part of the Cape Town public arts festival Infecting the City. This analysis is connected to notions of an 'urban imaginary', an affect which I suggest is characteristic of an African metropolis such as Johannesburg.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Musical Impressionism is one of the currents that reflected the anti-romantic discourse of the beginning of the 20th century, having a resonance only in the French cultural space - where the preference for suggestion, for deliberately imprecise tone and nuance has always worked. Although musicological studies do not display very important differences in attitude when it comes to defining impressionist compositions, musicologists’ opinions sometimes diverge. However, taking into consideration the extent to which the comparative method and the stylistic analysis, applied to music, can be conditioned by subjective experiences, the discrepancies can be said to be almost negligible. Basically, the opinion is that the elements of Impressionism in the first half of the 20th century were the most marked in certain compositions by Petar Konjović (1883-1970), Miloje Milojević (1884-1946) and Stevan Hristić (1885-1958), and to a lesser degree (only in the case of a few parameters of the musical language) we can see them in certain compositions by other composers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music has been primarily conceived as a temporal art. However, over the last two centuries or so, researchers across different disciplines including musicology, psychology, and philosophy, have been intrigued by the spatial nature of music and sounds, using spatial concepts to define music. This paper aims to demonstrate that an understanding of music perception from a temporal perspective inherently implies a certain spatial dimension. To do this, first, I briefly examine some key arguments that lead to conceiving sound perception in temporal terms. At the same time, I highlight some of the limitations of a purely temporal account of sound perception which necessitate the incorporation of spatial considerations into the conceptualization of sound perception. Consequently, I move on to consider prominent spatial accounts of musical sounds that have been elaborated by psychologists, musicologists, and music composers. In conclusion, I discuss some of the challenges arising from the analogy between music and space, whether conceived in perceptual or cognitive terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attends to what emerges as, however unlikely, Africanist musical practice in the work of Stephen Sondheim. My analysis considers Sondheim's use of instrumental vamps as the threshold of song, the articulation of character and the means to dramaturgies of transformation and mood. I hear Sondheim's vamps as Africanist musical practice, resonating with the African pianism articulated by Akin Euba and J. H. Kwabena Nketia, the appropriated structures of Ghanaian drumming in works by Steve Reich, and the function of African American gospel vamps theorized by musicologist and theologian Braxton D. Shelley. I linger with moments from recent Broadway revivals of Company and Into the Woods, and with feedback I received from Sondheim on my own work as a composer/lyricist and musical dramatist creating songs for West African characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Central Asian Journal of Art Studies is the property of Central Asian Journal of Art Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Letonica is the property of University of Latvia, Institute of Literature, Folklore & Art and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Research on the origins and functioning of the Wroclaw School of Musicology in the first half of the 20th century. is relevant, since the development of new approaches in modern Ukraine requires the broadest historical generalizations, while the general indicator of the genesis and results of the development of the relevant links of educational institutions indicated in the special literature is not sufficiently covered in the scientific works of Ukrainian and foreign musicologists until our time. This is connected not only with the discovery and analysis of new documentary materials and facts, but also with the unfortunate lack of regular cooperation between the musicology centers of Wroclaw and Lviv at the scientific and educational and methodological levels in the modern period. University musicology of the Wrocław school in the forms of musicological embodiments of the concept of a higher school has become an important factor in the educational completeness of professional musical training, taking into account the organic interaction of the higher level of music schooling with primary and secondary levels, which is broken in the modern Western European musiceducational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Or voit tout en aventure by Guido is often regarded as an archetype of the late-medieval notationally and rhythmically complex style that musicologists term the ars subtilior. Transmitted in Chantilly, Mus'ee Cond'e, MS 564, the ballade has gained notoriety for both its self-reflexive text and its idiosyncratic notation. The song's narrator laments the invention of new and confusing figures, but the song's notation incorporates a collection of special note shapes--lozenge-shaped figures with appended stems and flags. Previous studies have emphasized the obscurity of the notation of Or voit. Three of its note shapes represent the same duration, leading scholars to suggest that the notation of the song is unnecessarily and thereby ironically complex and redundant. Analyzing Or voit from the psychological perspective of hypothetical performers as they think through the notation of the piece allows a new reading of the song to emerge. The notation of Or voit is not ambiguous but projects distinct gestures from which localized notational hierarchies can be inferred. The humor of Or voit can thus be located not in the notation but in the text, which claims dishonestly that the notation is "not well done." Rereading Or voit from the performer's psychological perspective illustrates that reflecting on the contrasting conceptual frameworks of historical notations can help to resolve music-analytical problems that, at face value, seem to arise from the playful incompetence of historical thinkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the development of the library of the International Mozarteum Foundation after Austria's annexation by Nazi Germany, 1938 to 1945. Although the Mozarteum Foundation was under direct government control, it nominally remained a non-governmental institution even during the Nazi era. Therefore, although it was not directly involved in the National Socialist system of cultural property theft, it made intensive efforts to expand its holdings from collections expropriated by the National Socialists. The driving force behind this was the musicologist Erich Valentin, who was also responsible for the library; he worked closely with the Viennese professor of musicology, Erich Schenk. Various, entirely unsuccessful attempts to profit from the expropriation of Jewish collectors (like Stefan zweig) are described. In contrast, the intensive efforts of the Mozarteum Foundation to take over expropriated libraries of ecclesiastical institutions, such as St Peter's Abbey in Salzburg with its valuable historical holdings, were successful. The article also deals with the restitutions after World War II, which only began a decade after the end of the war and were not carried out systematically. Therefore, looted property could still be identified in recent years, the restitution of which is also addressed. An important concern of the article is also to point out the importance of a thorough documentation of the results of provenance research (not only in regard to the Nazi period). All the information ascertained about the provenance of the individual sources should be permanently documented in the catalogues, if possible, in standardised form. Cet article examine le développement de la bibliothèque de la Fondation internationale Mozarteum après l'annexion de l'Autriche par l'Allemagne nazie, de 1938 à 1945. La Fondation Mozarteum était certes sous le contrôle direct de l'État, mais elle restait nominalement une institution non gouvernementale même pendant la période nazie. Elle n'a donc pas été directement impliquée dans le processus national-socialiste de spoliations de biens culturels, mais elle a déployé des efforts considérables pour accroître ses fonds à partir de collections spoliées par les nationaux-socialistes. Le musicologue Erich Valentin, également responsable de la bibliothèque, en étroite collaboration avec le professeur de musicologie viennois Erich Schenk, a joué un rôle moteur dans cette entreprise. Diverses tentatives, totalement infructueuses, de profiter de l'expropriation de collectionneurs juifs (tels que Stefan zweig) sont décrites. En revanche, les efforts intensifs de la Fondation Mozarteum pour récupérer les bibliothèques confisquées d'institutions ecclésiastiques, telles que l'abbaye Saint-Pierre de Salzbourg et ses précieux fonds historiques, ont été couronnés de succès. L'article aborde également les restitutions effectuées après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, qui n'ont commencé qu'une décennie après la fin de la guerre et n'ont pas été menées de manière systématique. C'est pourquoi des biens spoliés ont encore pu être identifiés ces dernières années, et leur restitution est également évoquée. L'un des principaux objectifs de cet article est de souligner à quel point il est important de documenter minutieusement les résultats des recherches sur la provenance (pas seulement en ce qui concerne la période nazie). Toutes les informations relatives à la provenance devraient être documentées de manière permanente dans les catalogues, si possible sous une forme standardisée. Der Beitrag untersucht die Entwicklung der Bibliothek der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum nach dem Anschluss Österreichs an Nazi-Deutschland in der zeit zwischen 1938 und 1945. Die Stiftung Mozarteum stand zwar unter direkter staatlicher Kontrolle, blieb aber nominell auch während der NS-zeit eine nichtstaatliche Einrichtung. Daher war sie zwar nicht unmittelbar in das nationalsozialistische System des Kulturgüterraubes eingebunden, bemühte sich aber intensiv darum, ihren Bestand aus von den Nationalsozialisten enteigneten Sammlungen zu erweitern. Treibende Kraft war dabei der Musikwissenschaftler Erich Valentin, der auch für die Bibliothek zuständig war; er arbeitete eng mit dem Wiener Professor für Musikwissenschaft Erich Schenk zusammen. Beschrieben werde verschiedene, durchweg erfolglosen Versuche, von der Enteignung jüdischer Sammler (hier insbesondere Stefan zweig) zu profitieren. Erfolgreich waren im Gegensatz dazu die intensiven Bemühungen der Stiftung Mozarteum um die Übernahme von enteigneten Bibliotheken kirchlicher Institutionen wie dem Stift St. Peter in Salzburg mit seinen wertvollen historischen Beständen. Der Beitrag geht auch auf die Restitutionen nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg ein, die erst ein Jahrzehnt nach dem Ende des Krieges begannen und nicht systematisch durchgeführt wurden. Daher konnte auch in den letzten Jahren noch Raubgut identifiziert werden, dessen Restitution ebenfalls thematisiert wird. Ein wichtiges Anliegen des Beitrages ist es auch, auf die Bedeutung einer sorgfältigen Dokumentation der Ergebnisse der Provenienzforschung (nicht nur im Blick auf die NS-zeit) hinzuweisen. Alle ermittelten Informationen zur Provenienz der einzelnen Quellen sollten in den Katalogen, möglichst in standardisierter Form, dauerhaft dokumentiert werden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a review of the book "Jacinto Valledor (1744-1809). Tonadillas. Volume 2. Works from 1785 onwards", edited by Aurèlia Pessarrodona. The book includes 24 tonadillas by the composer Jacinto Valledor, of which 11 were composed between 1785 and 1797 in Madrid. Pessarrodona's critical study provides a biographical synthesis of the composer, analyzes the tonadillas in their musical context, and traces Valledor's evolution and contribution to this popular genre in the 18th century. The edition includes meticulous editorial criteria and is accompanied by librettos and musical manuscripts, making it relevant for musicologists, literary scholars, and performing arts enthusiasts. The research updates and rehabilitates Valledor's memory as a composer of tonadillas, highlighting the importance of continuing to study this scenic genre. [Extracted from the article]

How did musical activity intersect with imperialism and colonialism in the Cold War period (1948–89)? While musicologists have started to explore this question, most current research has focused on the role of the U.S.A. rather than declining European powers, and has frequently foregrounded those efforts at engagement and exchange that Christina Klein has termed 'Cold War Orientalism'. With reference to the archival records of one Cold War colonial encounter in British Guiana, this article reveals a more disturbing strain of postwar cultural relations, one in which efforts at rapprochement were obstructed by imperial powers, and in which colonial cultural voices were denied or dismissed. At the same time, the article considers the surprising case of a British communist musician – Alan Bush – who, in spite of these barriers to encounter, was able to attempt a form of cultural hybridity in his opera The Sugar Reapers (1962–1965). Ultimately, this article demonstrates the importance of interpreting cultural artefacts like Bush's opera as musical embodiments of complex colonial connections, and of exploring more deeply those Cold War encounters in which the imperial past was painfully present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the science and art of music have been in constant change due to various controversies throughout history, Iranian classical music has also been changed normally. Iranian music, in which the pre-Islamic "rah" instruction was applied, was replaced by the "advar" and "maqam" systems after Islam. This operating system has been changed again and is now known as "destgah". The reasons for the transition of the "Heft (seven) Destgah" system, its historical process, the concept and why it was seven have not been met with any clear explanation in the musical tracts and historical sources. The results of the work of musicologists and researchers of our time also have not been given a definitive explanation. According to our research on Destgah, the oldest explanation is found in Osman Dede's Persian verse Rabt-ı Tagyîrât-ı Mûsikî, written on the subject of music. Osman Dede quoted the system applied in Iran with the phrase "Heftgane" (seven). In this article, after the information about Iranian music and the "destgah" system, Osman Dede's life, sources and his comments about Iranian music and the "destgah" system in Rabt-ı Tagyîrat-ı Musiki are included and evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lesser-known chapter of religious creation belonging to the composer Ion Vidu is that of the carols that he collected from romanian villages and harmonized throughout his life. Although the catalog of Vidu's religious creation, drawn up in the 60's of the last century by the Romanian musicologist Viorel Cosma, records a larger number of works belonging to this genre, however, in present time, in the research carried out by us in the Banat musical archives, we could only identify four carols whose scores are still to be found. As a result of this state of affairs, in the following, we briefly describe each of the four carols we have found and at the end of this article we publish them in their entirety, in order to return them to the Romanian music interpretive circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a genealogical investigation through a postcolonial perspective about gamelan discourses in South Korea. Gamelan is known as a traditional orchestra representative of Indonesia, especially in academic circles. Whereas Indonesian culture is still not well known in South Korea, Indonesian traditional instruments are not limited to gamelan. There are also a great many other traditional instruments on each island and among different ethnic groups in the nation. How and why has gamelan come to be seen as such a representative Indonesian musical instrument within South Korea? Knowledge of gamelan or Indonesian music is a more recent issue in South Korea where there has been no long history of Indonesian musical discourse. The aim of this article is therefore to understand how gamelan was decontextualized from its origin through orientalism and colonial era research into the performing arts, and how this led to it becoming a representative Indonesian traditional music form in South Korea through Foucault’s theory of discourse. To do this, historical data was investigated using genealogical methodology. Gamelan was one of the popular objects during the colonial era for Western musicians and musicologists. The popularity of gamelan has been parallel with the development of ethnomusicology, and it has flown into South Korea with increasing Korean students who study in the West and through interactions between musicologists in the ethnomusicology field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One thing above others is known widely about the so-called 'English' cadence: that it is not English. Ever since musicologists of the mid-twentieth century named it, the cadence has laboured under the guise of its deceptiveness. However, as argued in this article, the cadence has much to tell us about the musical culture of England at the end of the sixteeenth and into the seventeenth century, during which period it was popular. The 'English' cadence shines a light on the movement towards tonality, the twilight period of solmization, and the understanding of false relations. An etymology of the cadence, making use of etymology's older, more playful, punning role as the rhetorical trope etymologia , demonstrates that (English or not), the cadence has much to tell us about this poignant period of English history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raaga is the heart of Indian Classical Music. A raaga is an arrangement of 12 notes in the octave. Like Indian classical music, Sankari Sangeets which are composed 500 years ago are also based on raaga. The musicologist of Sankari Sangeet found nearly 26 different raagas in Sankaree Sangeet. Each of these raagas has some specific characteristics such as Aruhana (Ascending order of notes), Avaruhana (Descending order of notes), Pakad, Time of Singing, Vadi swara (Dominant/Important Note), Samvadi swara (Second Dominant Note), etc. This piece of work considers all of the 26 raagas of Sankari Sangeet to statistically cluster on the basis of 18 features extracted from each raaga. For clustering of the raagas, k-prototypes clustering technique is used which gives four clusters of sizes 9, 4, 6, and 7. Also, a comparison is carried out between the clusters obtained from k-prototypes clustering and existing theoretical Thaat -based classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taksim and Doina are two traditional genres of improvisational music that have a long history in different regions of the world. Taksim originated from the Middle East and Turkey, while Doina has its roots in Romanian folk music. Both genres are characterized by their expressive nature and improvisational structure, allowing the musician to display his individual skill and creativity. Sant was chosen as the instrument of reference which spread to various countries of the East and West where it was used and adapted according to the needs of each people.The purpose of this article was to analyze and compare two improvisational music genres, the Taksim and Doina, through the lens of the traditional instrument Sant(o)uri. The study aimed to identify the distinctive characteristics of each genre, the role of Sant(o)uri in their performance, and the influence of regional differences on their development.To achieve this, the study employed a qualitative research methodology that included interviews with expert musicians, musicologists, and scholars, as well as audio and video recordings of live performances. The collected data was analyzed using a thematic analysis approach to identify recurring themes and patterns.The results of the study indicated that both Taksim and Doina share similarities in their use of free rhythm and ornamentation, but differ in their origins and musical structure. Taksim is rooted in Middle Eastern classical music and emphasizes the use of maqams, while Doina has its origins in Romanian folklore and is characterized by its expressive and personal nature.The study also highlighted the crucial role of Sant(o)uri in the performance of both genres, with the instrument being used to provide the melodic and harmonic framework for the improvisation. Furthermore, the analysis revealed the influence of regional differences on the development and performance of both genres, with distinct variations noted in different areas of Romania and the Middle East.In conclusion, this study contributes to a better understanding of the Taksim and Doina genres and their significance in traditional music. The research findings provide valuable insights into the role of santur and regional variations in the performance of these improvisational genres, opening new avenues for future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the transition from the oral mode of memorized song to the visualization of written musical notation. Modern music notation, unlike writing, emerged as a product of the medieval era. Musical forms burst information capacity boundaries sometime around fifteen centuries ago when unison cantillated plain-chant (one cantor) evolved into diversified organum (harmonious voices) in sacred ceremonies. New modalities of visually codifying song were required to keep pace with the growing possibilities of rhythm and harmony. Musical notation took recognizable shape roughly four hundred years prior to the printing press and some twelve hundred years after the onset of the phonetic alphabet. Moreover, musical notation, the ability to recreate from visual symbols polyphonic pitch and rhythmic complexity, was firmly in place centuries before the onset of the Renaissance. Although song and the spoken word coevolved naturally over perhaps hundreds of thousands of years, the split from orality to literacy eventually required a visual technology to 'hold' song in stasis similar to the alphabet's capturing of speech. This article focuses attention on the history of the neume, the musical staff and the mensural rhythm system as fundamental building blocks in the architecture of modern musical notation. This suggests that modes of visual specialist separation and tendencies towards individualist learning in the form of musical practice were embodied prior to and synergistically inspired the social transformations shaped by literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyse piano compositions by A. Schoenberg (Six pieces, Op. 19) and A. Berg (Sonata, Op. 1) in the context of a performance reading based on the symbolist aestheticism of expressing the reviving string-plucking analogy of the keyboard-piano expression. The methodological basis is the intonation approach of B. Asafiev's school in the works of Ukrainian musicologists, including T. Verkina, O. Kozarenko, I. Lyashenko, O. Markova, O. Sokol and others, using research methods of comparative-stylistic, hermeneutical, biographical-descriptive, and analytical- typological. The scientific novelty lies in the originality of the observation of the compensatory aestheticism of the performance perspective of the above music by A. Schoenberg and A. Berg and the correspondence of the latter to the neo-symbolist tendencies of contemporary creative thinking. Another independent conclusion is the nature of this performing choice, which meets the audience's expectations and is correlated with the game-mosaic worldview of our time to exclude dramatic and tragic angles of the content of the musical classics. Conclusions. The neo-symbolist eclecticism of the post-avant-garde revived the keyboard string- plucking analogy in piano sound production, giving pianistic expression a salon-like spiritualised "lightness" that reoriented the expressionist-salon tendencies of the piano heritage of the Novovidenians to a compensatory aestheticism of pro-symbolist meaning. The reality of performing compositions by A. Schoenberg and A. Berg is that the music of their works, including those performed by the author of this essay, approaches the character of salon cordiality of sound, which rejects expressionist anti- aestheticism in favour of pro-Schubertian greetings of the post-post-avant-garde. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important question in Stephen Lett's provocative article is K'eguro Macharia's, "Who is gathered by your invitation?" (2021). Lett outlines how the founders of the Society for Music Theory staked out territory for the discipline to establish theorists as separate from composers, musicologists, and pedagogues, and how they assessed who was to be invited by determining what theory as a discipline was and what it was to be. He then discusses how others have been (and still are) invited or excluded based on principles present since the founding of the society and offers suggestions for how to make SMT as an institution more welcoming by using the ideas of homemaking and world-building. My response addresses two topics: first, that the narrow view of the discipline of music theory present at its inception created an anti-pedagogy bias that exists to this day; and second, that this narrow view is perpetuated by graduate programs, which can and should be changed in order to achieve the goal of diversification of the discipline and its members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1913, French composer Claude Debussy hosted Sufi mystic and (in Debussy's own words) "musician-philosopher" Hazrat Inayat Khan at his home, where they performed for each other their music. Taking this brief meeting as my opening, this paper compares Khan's "musical ontology" to similar beliefs held by the French Symbolists in Debussy's milieu. Khan's assertion that a vibratory, spiritual plane is the source of material, everyday existence is related to the beliefs of musicologist and bookstore owner Edmond Bailly; the "cenesthetic" poetics of Symbolists like Charles Baudelaire; Paul Gauguin's "musical" paintings; and Debussy's implementation of silence in his music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]