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"Early music"
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Playing with History
Why do we feel the need to perform music in a historically informed style? Is this need related to wider cultural concerns? In this 2002 study, John Butt sums up debates on the nature of the early music movement and historically informed performance, calling upon a seemingly inexhaustible fund of ideas gleaned from historical musicology, analytic philosophy, literary theory, historiography and theories of modernism and postmodernism. He develops the critical views of both supporters and detractors of the movement, while claiming ultimately that it has more intellectual and artistic potential than its detractors may have assumed. He also asks whether the phenomenon of historically informed performance reflects changes in the culture of western music and how it, in turn, may have influenced that culture, particularly in regard to such issues as the status of the composer, the work, intentionality and notation.
eBook
The Sense of Music
The fictional Dr. Strabismus sets out to write a new comprehensive theory of music. But music's tendency to deconstruct itself combined with the complexities of postmodernism doom him to failure. This is the parable that framesThe Sense of Music,a novel treatment of music theory that reinterprets the modern history of Western music in the terms of semiotics.
Based on the assumption that music cannot be described without reference to its meaning, Raymond Monelle proposes that works of the Western classical tradition be analyzed in terms of temporality, subjectivity, and topic theory. Critical of the abstract analysis of musical scores, Monelle argues that the score does not reveal music'ssense.That sense--what a piece of music says and signifies--can be understood only with reference to history, culture, and the other arts. Thus, music is meaningful in that it signifies cultural temporalities and themes, from the traditional manly heroism of the hunt to military power to postmodern \"polyvocality.\"
This theoretical innovation allows Monelle to describe how the Classical style of the eighteenth century--which he reads as a balance of lyric and progressive time--gave way to the Romantic need for emotional realism. He argues that irony and ambiguity subsequently eroded the domination of personal emotion in Western music as well as literature, killing the composer's subjectivity with that of the author. This leaves Dr. Strabismus suffering from the postmodern condition, and Raymond Monelle with an exciting, controversial new approach to understanding music and its history.
eBook
Rap it up!
From scribbling words on the page to spitting rhymes on the mic, this joyful text guides readers through the emotions, literary techniques, structures and motifs that help make rap so amazing. With vibrant illustrations that leap off the page, this book inspires readers to create their own verses. Celebratory and informative, 'Rap it Up!' invites us to see where our imaginations may lead. Get ready to drop some beats, express yourself, and let the world hear what you've got to say!
BOOK
The end of early music : a period performer's history of music for the twenty-first century
Its performing traditions lost to time, early music has become the subject of significant controversy across the world of classical music and presents numerous challenges for musicians, composers, and even listening audiences. The studies of instruments and notes on early manuscript pages may help to restore early music to its intended state, yet the real process is interpretive, taking place within performers themselves. This book is about historical performance practice in its broadest sense. The book begins by identifying the most common performing styles, using and comparing sound recordings from the past. To help musicians distinguish between Period and Romantic styles, the book engages with the most current and controversial topics in the field in defining the differences between them. Throughout, it presents many compelling arguments for using pre-Romantic values as inspiration to re-examine and correct Romantic assumptions about performance. From Werktreue and the Urtext imperative to formality in ritualized performances and authenticity as an industry standard, this book offers straightforward explanations of the most significant questions in the field. Two chapters compare Baroque expression through rhetoric and gestural phrasing to the Romantic concept of autobiography in notes. The book argues that performances are more pleasing and convincing to contemporary performers and listeners not through the attempt to return to the past, but rather by endeavoring to revive as best we can the styles and techniques that originally produced the music.
eBook
Kitab adab al-ghina' : The book for the completion of musical knowledge
\"The Book for the Completion of Musical Knowledge is one of two unique treatises coming down to us from the 11th century; the other is Encompasser of the Arts of Ibn al- Tahhan al-Musiqi. Both are written by practicing musicians and composers, and as such provide, a most welcome musical practices supplement to the tenth-century legacy of music theory and literature, namely, the works of al-Farabi and al-Isfahani. In composition, al-Katib provides useful details regarding the process to set a poem to music; in education, he advises students on how to choose a good teacher; in performance, he advises students about to breathe properly and how to ornament vocal and instrumental music\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
The Grand Guru of Baroque Music
In the 1960s, Gustav Leonhardt transformed from a locally successful Dutch harpsichordist into a global phenomenon. Ironically Leonhardt, an advocate for historical performance and building preservation, achieved critical and commercial success during an era marked by the rhetoric of social protest, renewal and technological progress.
An analysis of Leonhardt’s American reception reveals paradoxes of taste, aesthetics and political engagement. Record company advertisements, interviews and other materials promoted Leonhardt not only as a virtuoso performer-conductor, but also as a serious and scholarly persona. Leonhardt’s recordings demonstrate an ‘authenticist’ stance, contrasting with the Romantic subjectivity of earlier Bach interpreters and the flamboyant showmanship of competing harpsichordists. Complementing this positioning were Leonhardt’s austere performances in Straub-Huillet’s 1968 film Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, his advocacy for historical instruments, and his uncompromising repertory choices. Associations with the Fulbright program and prestigious American universities further strengthened his reputation as a scholar-performer.
To a conservative older generation, Leonhardt represented sobriety and a link to the past. Nonetheless, Leonhardt’s staid persona had broader appeal: an unlikely ‘guru’, he attracted flocks of devotees. Younger musicians, inspired by his speech-like harpsichord articulation and use of reduced performing forces, viewed his performances as anti-mainstream protest music—despite Leonhardt’s own self-consciously apolitical stance. Moreover, the antiquity of the harpsichord and historical instruments complemented concurrent interests in craftsmanship, whole foods and authenticity; yet early music’s popularity was dependent upon technological mediation, especially high-fidelity recordings. Leonhardt thus emerges as a complex figure whose appeal transcended generational boundaries and bridged technological mediums.
Journal Article
From Landowska to Leonhardt, from Pleyel to Skowroneck
There is a tendency to dismiss early 20th-century harpsichords as inferior to the supposedly faithful reproduction of historical harpsichords made during the second half of the century. This belief in an organological progress in harpsichord-making does not, however, do justice to the makers and players; during the first half of the 20th century, Wanda Landowska’s notion of the harpsichord and of playing it shaped the acknowledged standard of harpsichord playing, based on the idea of the harpsichord as a ‘stringed organ’ rather than as the predecessor of the pianoforte. During the 1950s, Gustav Leonhardt, along with some other performers, departed from this idea: for them, the harpsichord was based not just on objectivity, but also on the idea of the harpsichord as a ‘mechanical lute’. This shift replaced the previous emphasis on richness in instrumental colours with a focus on touch. These musicians found allegedly original evidence in surviving instruments and in copies of them. There was thus a second revival of the harpsichord and harpsichord playing, which had very little to do with the first. Gustav Leonhardt was to become the leading figure in the early years of the second revival.
Journal Article