Browse

Recordings are now the primary way we hear classical music, especially the more abstract styles of “absolute” instrumental music. This book argues that recording technology has transformed our understanding of art music. Contesting the laments of nostalgic critics, the author sees recordings as socially progressive and instruments of a musical vernacular, but also finds that recording and absolute music actually involve similar notions of removing sound from context. He takes stock of technology's impact on classical music, addressing the questions at the heart of the issue. This study reveals how mechanical reproduction has transformed classical musical culture and the very act of listening, breaking down aesthetic and generational barriers and mixing classical music into the soundtrack of everyday life.

Adaptive Strategies for Small-Handed Pianists brings together information from ergonomics, physics, biomechanics, anatomy, medicine, and piano pedagogy to focus on the subject of small-handedness. Chapter 1 presents an overview from historical, anatomical, and pedagogical perspectives and includes a discussion of small-handedness as a risk factor for piano-related injury. Chapter 2 establishes a basic understanding of work efficiency and the human anatomy, moves on to general observations about piano playing and the constraints of physics, and explains the principles of healthy movement at the piano. Chapter 3 is a focused analysis of piano technique as it relates to small-handedness. Chapters 4 to 7 deal with specific alternative approaches: redistribution, refingering, ways to maximize reach and power, and musical solutions for technical problems. Hundreds of examples taken from the standard intermediate and advanced piano literature show concrete applications of these strategies within appropriate musical contexts. Chapter 8 presents tables that pianists can use to diagnose and resolve commonly encountered problems and synthesizes the adaptive approaches outlined in the book. Reflective application points are provided as guides to further exploration. The book demonstrates that the specific physical and musical needs of the small-handed can be addressed in sensitive and appropriate ways and illuminates alternative paths to help pianists with small hands reach their musical goals.

This book tells the remarkable and inspiring story of the British early music movement (Early Music). Since the late-1960s this quietly influential cultural phenomenon has completely transformed the way in which we listen to ‘old’ music, revolutionizing the classical music profession in the process. Forty years on, the influence of historically informed performance (HIP) is everywhere to hear, in concert halls around the world, on radio and on disc. And yet the extraordinary rise of Early Music, founded on its apparently uncompromising agenda of ‘authenticity’, has been anything but uncontroversial. Early Music’s detractors have been quick to point out the many inconsistencies andin-authentic ‘modernist’ practices that underpin its success, highlighting its use of recordings, reliance on the market, and even its creativity (‘making it up’), as evidence ofits just notbeing what it said it was. The story of making Early Music work in the modern age(an age of disenchantment, division and split), is riven with conflict and contradiction; but it is also an altogether more upliftingnarrative about ‘re-enchanting art’, of living out the unfolding dialectic between old and new, head and heart, ‘text’ and ‘act’; and of over-coming separation, restoring the bonds betweenelements of life that we have otherwise become accustomed to holdingapart, such asour musicianship, scholarship, craftsmanship, and cultural entrepreneurship. Beyond itsfocus on the performance of classical music, therefore, this book offers the opening remarks ina much-neededconversation about the value of art and authenticityin our lives today.

Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Praxis examines the many ways that artists (amateur and professional), community artist-facilitators, educators, and scholars in music, dance/movement, theater, visual arts, poetry/storytelling, and media and technology conceive and deploy their abilities to advance democratic citizenship and human flourishing in local, national, and international contexts. Among the questions this book addresses are the following: What is the nature and scope of artistic citizenship? How do artists and scholars in different domains conceive the aims, concepts, practical strategies, problems, and “spaces and places” of artistic citizenship? What are the most effective strategies that artists, teachers, and students use to address local, national, and world problems, including violence and international conflicts, poverty, disease, and gender and racial discrimination? What qualities and abilities do amateur and professional artists need to practice, develop, and expand artistic citizenship? What connections exist between ethical-artistic action and artistic citizenship? What is the history of conceptualizing the “why, what, how, who, where, and when” of artistic citizenship? Do particular artistic endeavors have distinctive potentials for nurturing artistic citizenship? If so, what might they be? How can artistic citizenship be pursued without compromising the natures and values of particular artistic practices? What can arts education programs do to motivate artists of all ages and abilities to better serve their communities? How might artistic endeavors informed by a pragmatic “ethic of care” contribute to positive societal change?

All children must have an opportunity to share the joy of choral music participation—whether in school, church, or community choirs. What happens before the singing begins is critical to supporting, sustaining, and nurturing choirs to give every child the opportunity to experience the wonder of choral singing. Based on years of experience conducting and teaching, this book brings practical information about ways of organizing choirs. From classroom choirs, to mission statements, boards of directors, commissioning, auditioning, and repertoire, the book aims to inspire new ways of thinking about how choirs organize their daily tasks. The collaborative community that surrounds a choir includes conductors, music educators, church choir directors, board members, volunteers, staff, administrators, and university students in music education and nonprofit arts management degree programs.

It is as performance that music is loved, understood, and consumed, yet musicologists have traditionally treated it as a kind of text. They have seen meaning as written into the music, implying that performance merely reproduces what is already there: this paradigm of reproduction has prevented musicology from adequately engaging with performance. Beyond the Score is a thoroughgoing attempt to reconceive music as performance, in other words as a real-time practice that affords the production of meaning. That means rethinking familiar assumptions and developing new approaches. Focusing primarily but not exclusively on the Western “art” tradition, the book explores perspectives that range from close listening to computational analysis, from ethnography to the study of recordings, and from the social relations constructed through performance to the performing (and listening) body. It also has a strong historical emphasis, extending from the early days of recording to contemporary digital culture, and a number of themes weave through it. These include the relationship between the written and the oral in musical culture, and the need to move on from thinking based on the paradigm of reproduction to a semiotic approach grounded on the production of meaning. While the principal claim of the book is that thinking based on the idea of music as text has hampered the academic understanding of music, the book argues that it has also made the practices of performance less creative than they might be, and the book explores how we might escape from the textualist straitjacket.

Bob Fosse’s work continues to be the most recognizable of the great choreographers of Broadway’s post–World War II golden age. This book offers deep analysis of Fosse’s development as a choreographer, including the various dance influences he absorbed as a young performer. It examines key Fosse dances and contextualizes them across his career. It looks at how he influenced changes in the musical theater, particularly as a director, and how early mentors George Abbott and Jerome Robbins shaped his theatrical outlook. It compares his work to that of peers like Robbins, Gower Champion, Michael Bennett, and others. The book also examines his choreography for film and looks at how his film experiences influenced his stage work. It also considers the impact of his three marriages—all to dancers—on his career. Finally, the book investigates how Fosse’s evolution as both artist and individual mirrored the social and political climate of his era and allowed him to comfortably ride a wave of cultural changes.

This volume considers what a more inclusive, dynamic, and socially engaged curriculum of musical study might look like in universities. Its goal is to create dialogue among faculty, administrators, and students about what the future of college music instruction should be and how to transition to new paradigms. Critiques and calls for reform have existed for decades, but few publications have offered concrete suggestions as to how things might be done differently. This book suggests new concepts or guiding principles that might be used to reconceive applied music education at the university level and, based on existing experiments taking place nationally and internationally, how such principles might be implemented in practical terms. The book’s essays concentrate primarily on changes to performance degrees rather than other subdisciplines since the former constitute the center of activity in most institutions. Ethnomusicologists feature prominently among the contributors, but the volume also includes input from those with specialization in music education, theory/composition, professional performance, and administration.

This book addresses the needs of teacher-educators seeking to include composition pedagogy in music education curricula. Though several decades of scholarship have examined the processes and products of young composers and offered insight to their work, many teachers still report a significant degree of trepidation when asked to lead students in composition activities. This book provides guidance for developing pre-service and in-service teachers ability to confidently and effectively facilitate composition study in PreK-12 settings. Issues that frame the volume include why composition should be part of music education, and by extension, music teacher education; research bases in creativity and children's composition; and the changing nature of compositional practices in contemporary culture. Drawing on both research and practice, chapters provide models for leading composition study in elementary general music, choral and instrumental ensembles, and songwriting classes. Guidance is offered for those working with special needs populations and gifted-and-talented students, as well as those interested in expanding experiences beyond the classroom via technology. Moreover, specific programmatic approaches for addressing the professional development of pre-service and in-service teachers are offered in detail so that music teacher-educators may create environments where composition's potential to enliven and invigorate contemporary practices in music education can be fully embraced.

This book is an introduction to quantitative research design and data analysis presented in the context of music education scholarship. The book aims for readers to come away with a familiarity of prototypical research design possibilities as well as a fundamental understanding of data analysis techniques necessary for carrying out scientific inquiry. The book includes examples that demonstrate how the methodological and statistical concepts presented throughout can be applied to pertinent issues in music education. For the majority of Part I, the strategy is to present traditional design categories side by side with explanations of general analytical approaches for dealing with data yielded from each respective design type. Part II consists of chapters devoted to methodological and analytical approaches that have become common in related fields (e.g., psychology, sociology, general education research, educational policy) but are as yet not frequently exploited by music education researchers. Ultimately, this work is motivated by a desire to help scholars acquire the means to actualize their research curiosities and to contribute to the advancement of rigor in music education research throughout the profession at large.

The strong desire for knowledge and musical honesty sends musicians to the fortepiano—looking back to impact how to move forward. This book uncovers and examines eighteenth-century philosophical beliefs and fundamental principles surrounding Classical Era performance practices, c. 1750–1800. Affekt and “good taste,” the foundation on which the style is based, set the tone throughout the book. The Viennese five-octave fortepiano is introduced and compared to the modern piano. Eighteenth-century music notational language is examined and explained, as well as compared and contrasted to modern understanding. Tools (rather than rules) are revealed to get at the heart of an eighteenth-century sound aesthetic. These relevant tools make comprehensible what may have been baffling: application to modern playing. This book provides synthesis of primary sources and scholarly interpretations of eighteenth-century performance practice; specific answers to performance questions regarding period influences on the modern piano, including technique, dynamics, articulation, rhythm, ornamentation, and pedaling; and sample model lessons to demonstrate application of the style on the modern piano. Over a hundred music examples are presented to illustrate concepts. Each music example has been recorded and is presented in three instructive versions: (a) an uninfluenced modern interpretation on a Steinway M piano, (b) an influenced rendition on a 1978 Belt-Walter fortepiano replica of a c. 1780s five-octave Anton Walter fortepiano, and (c) a reconciled version demonstrating how the book influences delivery on the modern piano. The goal is to afford modern performers the freedom to craft an authentic, personal, historically informed performance style.

Experience and meaning in music performance is a multi-authored work that both draws on and contributes to current debates in a wide range of disciplines, including ethnomusicology, musicology, psychology, cognitive science and several other fields The eight distinct contributions focus in different ways on its three main themes: Experience, Meaning and Performance. Performance defines the principal object of study as the moment of production—of sound or of meaning—rather than on music as model, ideal or product. Experience focuses attention away from the ideal and the ideological and towards the phenomenal: what people actually do, and what they feel, while engaging in music. Meaning, too, is understood in a broad sense. On one hand, authors examine actions that are musically successful and socially consequential, but whose initial ‘meaning’ owes little to linguistic mediation. On the other hand, the authors retain a place for how discourse shapes music: for what people try to put into a performance, and what they think they (and others) ought to get out of it. Other themes impart cut across those of the volume’s title. Three chapters examine gesture and nonverbal forms of communication, illustrating how experiences of listening, performing and musical collaboration are shaped by movement and gesture. Another trio of essays focuses on elements of temporal organisation in music, particularly pulse, rhythmic patterning, metre and groove. These chapters explore how musicians from different traditions entrain to regular patterns of pulsation in music.

This book is not so much about how to teach as it is about how to think as a teacher confronting a variety of learning challenges. The challenge for music education, for music teachers, is to create meaningful learning opportunities for all children, preparing them to participate happily and successfully in rewarding music experiences throughout their lives. The principal features that characterize such experiences are universal in the sense that they are applicable in ways that engage diverse groups of children in common experiences that are valued by their teachers, their parents, and their peers. This book focuses on a universal approach that recognizes the needs of individual students and includes learning environments in which all students participate in the same activities, experience personal success, and contribute to the success of their classmates. The four chapters focus on the uniqueness of children, biases, and stereotyping; designing meaningful music programs; using governing principles to guide decisions (e.g., increasing positive peer interactions, fostering self-determination, collaboration), and accomplishing music goals using universal strategies. The book provides context with a historical timeline and chapters tracing the development of laws and significant changes in teaching practices, including those concerning music and the disabilities movement, laws, and music education.

This book is an investigation into Johann Sebastian Bach’s compositions for the organ. It provides numerous new perspectives on the stylistic orientation and historical context of these masterpieces. The study opens with a consideration of recent scholarship, a discussion that culminates in an edition of a previously unpublished fugue by the Bach pupil Schübler. Based on Bach’s “Little” Fugue in G Minor, Schübler’s work suggests that the subject of Bach’s fugue is not an original melody but is borrowed from a folk song. The next chapter involves Bach’s use of the “varied Stollen” in over twenty of his chorale preludes, a hitherto unexplored topic that bears implications for the entire corpus of baroque organ chorales. The remainder of the book concerns the diverse ways in which Bach’s organ works have been received from the composer’s own lifetime to the present. Individual chapters are devoted to Felix Mendelssohn as a performer; to Robert Schumann as an editor and critic; to César Franck as a performer, pedagogue, and composer; and to Edward Elgar as a performer, critic, and transcriber. A final chapter explores the reception of particular pieces not only by various luminaries from the realm of classical music but also within such disparate contexts as film, literature, politics, and rock music.

Make Arts for a Better Life: A Guide for Working with Communities provides a groundbreaking model for arts advocacy. Drawing upon methods and theories from disciplines such as ethnomusicology, anthropology, folklore, community development, and communication studies, the Guide presents an in-depth approach to researching artistic practices within communities and to developing arts-based projects that address locally defined needs. Through clear methodology, case studies from around the world, and sample activities, the Guide helps move readers from arts research to project development to project evaluation. It addresses diverse arts: music, drama, dance, oral verbal arts, and visual arts. Also featured are critical reflections on the concept of a “better life” and ethical issues in arts advocacy. The Guide is aimed at a broad audience including both scholars and public sector workers. Appendices and an accompanying website offer methodology “cheat sheets,” sample research documents, and specific suggestions for educators, researchers, and project leaders.

This book contains the results of interviews with twenty-one of today’s top international opera singers. With questions centered on what must be done to perform on the major stages of the world, the artists offer practical and concise advice on a variety of performance-related topics. Six chapters cover questions on vocal technique, role preparation, recording, recital work, memorization, acting, performance anxiety, and more. The artists interviewed are Stephanie Blythe, Lawrence Brownlee, Nicole Cabell, Joseph Calleja, David Daniels, Joyce DiDonato, Christine Goerke, Denyce Graves, Greer Grimsley, Thomas Hampson, Alan Held, Jonas Kaufmann, Simon Keenlyside, Kathleen Kim, Ana María Martínez, Lisette Oropesa, Eric Owens, Dimitri Pittas, Ewa Podleś, Jennifer Rowley, and Gerhard Siegel.

This book offers advice for all performers to achieve performance mastery. It defines performance in the broadest terms as being applicable to many life situations and challenges in many professions. Through real life experiences and pre-performance exercises, the book offers highly practical advice on every aspect of performance. It analyzes motivation, assesses talent levels, sets performance goals, suggests levels of energy needed, and develops a performance philosophy. It deals with building technique, practice routines, the role of repetition and drill, changing bad habits, and developing a secure memory. It discusses performance anxiety or stage fright and how to deal with it. It explores psychological states during performance, evaluation after performance, audience reaction, and challenges faced during a lifetime of performance, including career planning, plateaus, and burnout. Finally, it relates performance to the development of a spiritual life.

Although Mendelssohn was most famous during his lifetime as a composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor, he also enjoyed an enviable reputation as a highly skilled organist. The instrument had fascinated — one might almost say mesmerized — him from earliest youth, but aside from a year or so of formal training at the age of about 12 or 13, he was entirely self-taught. He never held a position as church organist, and never had any organ pupils. Nevertheless, the instrument played a uniquely important role in his personal life. In the course of his many travels, whether in major cities or tiny villages, he invariably gravitated to the organ loft, where he might spend hours playing the works of Bach or simply improvising. Although the piano clearly served Mendelssohn as an eminently practical instrument, the organ seems to have been his instrument of choice. He searched out an organ loft, not because he had to, but because he wanted to, because on the organ he could find catharsis. Indeed, as he once exclaimed to his parents after reading a portion of Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, “I must rush off to the monastery and work off my excitement on the organ!” Mendelssohn's public performance on the organ in Germany was rare, and he gave but one public recital: in the Thomas-Kirche in Leipzig in 1840. In England, however, he evidently felt more comfortable on the organ bench and played there often before large crowds. Indeed, he performed as Guest Organist twice at the Birmingham Music Festivals in 1837 and 1842. Given Mendelssohn's profound affinity for the organ, it is remarkable that he composed but relatively little for the instrument, and assigned an Opus number to only two works: his Three Preludes and Fugues for Organ (Op. 37) and his Six Sonatas for the Organ (Op. 65). A small number of organ works, plus sketches and drafts, were scattered among his musical papers; most of these only gradually found their way into print, and it was not until the late 20th century that an edition of his complete organ works was finally published. This volume is intended as a companion to that edition.

To optimize the lifetime benefits of music enjoyment, students need to learn how to devise independent strategies for listening to music that they can employ long after their formal education is completed. Since music listening is likely to be the predominant musical activity for most students throughout their lives, this book is devoted to helping teachers facilitate student music-listening skill development. Music listening strategies and effective expression of music appreciation are lifelong skills, and they undergird every other musical behavior (e.g., performing, composing, improvising, and critiquing). This book is intended for practicing music educators, as well as collegiate pre-service music-education students. The focus is on how music educators can help PK-12 students develop music listening skills, using a host of multisensory educational tools-mapping, movement, and verbal descriptions-that can be applied in both general music and performance ensemble classes. Here, music-education students and teachers will learn and acquire multisensory tools and strategies that theycan adapt to fit their own music learning communities. This broad approach gives teachers the flexibility to choose their own musical selections, genres, and styles. Specifically, this book includes: (1) multisensory pedagogical tools and procedures for PK-12 music-listening skill development that help students transform internal musical impressions into external expressions; (2) sample lesson ideas, movement sequences, and listening maps that are adaptable to a variety of teaching environments, including multi-age general music and ensemble settings; (3) a companion website with examples of teachers and students using these multisensory tools in PK-12 general music and ensemble classrooms; and, (4)suggestions for the objective assessment of students’ music listening development.

This volume addresses topics of change in music teaching and learning in the twenty-first century. Using the musical experiences that result from performance, composition, improvisation, and listening as a base, this book provides new thinking about long-standing teaching practices. Chapters focus on both the philosophical and the practical aspects of teaching music in today’s educational environment, which reflects social and cultural settings of great complexity. In so doing, the reader is challenged to consider avenues for reform in music education while respecting the traditions of past generations. The work was produced as part of a symposium at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, that celebrated twenty-five years of research achievement by members of the doctoral program in music education at Northwestern.