Steven Rings
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195384277
- eISBN:
- 9780199897001
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195384277.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition, History, Western
This book employs transformational theory to illuminate the experience of tonal music. In addition to providing an accessible primer on transformational theory, the book introduces new theoretical ...
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This book employs transformational theory to illuminate the experience of tonal music. In addition to providing an accessible primer on transformational theory, the book introduces new theoretical constructs to model familiar tonal effects. Two effects are central: the infusion of sounding pitches with tonal qualities (or qualia) and the orientation of pitches toward a tonic. Tonal qualities are modeled via a Generalized Interval System (or GIS), while tonic directedness is modeled by oriented transformational networks. The arrows in such networks animate a special class of transformational action called tonal intention—the directing of the listener's awareness toward a tonal center. The book divides into two parts. Part I addresses theoretical and methodological issues, while Part II comprises four extended analytical chapters. The analytical chapters explore the E-major Fugue from Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier; the aria “Un’aura amorosa” from Mozart's Così fan tutte; Brahms's A-major Intermezzo, op. 118, no. 2; and the slow movement from Brahms's String Quintet, op. 111. Analytical vignettes are present throughout Part I as well, demonstrating the efficacy of the book's theoretical ideas in music from Bach to Mahler. The analyses place the book's novel technologies in dialogue with existing methods for tonal analysis, including Schenkerian theory and neo-Riemannian theory.Less
This book employs transformational theory to illuminate the experience of tonal music. In addition to providing an accessible primer on transformational theory, the book introduces new theoretical constructs to model familiar tonal effects. Two effects are central: the infusion of sounding pitches with tonal qualities (or qualia) and the orientation of pitches toward a tonic. Tonal qualities are modeled via a Generalized Interval System (or GIS), while tonic directedness is modeled by oriented transformational networks. The arrows in such networks animate a special class of transformational action called tonal intention—the directing of the listener's awareness toward a tonal center. The book divides into two parts. Part I addresses theoretical and methodological issues, while Part II comprises four extended analytical chapters. The analytical chapters explore the E-major Fugue from Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier; the aria “Un’aura amorosa” from Mozart's Così fan tutte; Brahms's A-major Intermezzo, op. 118, no. 2; and the slow movement from Brahms's String Quintet, op. 111. Analytical vignettes are present throughout Part I as well, demonstrating the efficacy of the book's theoretical ideas in music from Bach to Mahler. The analyses place the book's novel technologies in dialogue with existing methods for tonal analysis, including Schenkerian theory and neo-Riemannian theory.
Daniel R. Melamed
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195169331
- eISBN:
- 9780199865376
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195169331.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Johann Sebastian Bach's two surviving passions—St. John and St. Matthew—are an essential part of the modern repertory, performed regularly both by professional ensembles and amateur groups. These ...
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Johann Sebastian Bach's two surviving passions—St. John and St. Matthew—are an essential part of the modern repertory, performed regularly both by professional ensembles and amateur groups. These large, complex pieces are well-loved; but because of our distance from the original context in which they were performed, questions and problems emerge. Bach wrote the passions for a particular liturgical event at a specific time and place; we hear them hundreds of years later, often a world away and usually in concert performances. They were performed with vocal and instrumental forces deployed according to early 18th century conceptions; we usually hear them now as the pinnacle of the choral/orchestral repertory, adapted to modern forces and conventions. In Bach's time, passion settings were revised, altered, and tampered with both by their composers and by other musicians who used them. Today, we tend to regard them as having fixed texts, to be treated with respect. Their music was sometimes recycled from other compositions, or reused itself for other purposes. We have trouble imagining the familiar material of Bach's passion settings in any other guise. We can learn about these issues by exploring the sources that transmit Bach's passion settings today, performance practice (including the question of the size of Bach's ensemble), delving into the passions as dramatic music, examining the problem of multiple versions of a work and the reconstruction of lost pieces, exploring the other passions in Bach's performing repertory, and sifting through the puzzle of authorship.Less
Johann Sebastian Bach's two surviving passions—St. John and St. Matthew—are an essential part of the modern repertory, performed regularly both by professional ensembles and amateur groups. These large, complex pieces are well-loved; but because of our distance from the original context in which they were performed, questions and problems emerge. Bach wrote the passions for a particular liturgical event at a specific time and place; we hear them hundreds of years later, often a world away and usually in concert performances. They were performed with vocal and instrumental forces deployed according to early 18th century conceptions; we usually hear them now as the pinnacle of the choral/orchestral repertory, adapted to modern forces and conventions. In Bach's time, passion settings were revised, altered, and tampered with both by their composers and by other musicians who used them. Today, we tend to regard them as having fixed texts, to be treated with respect. Their music was sometimes recycled from other compositions, or reused itself for other purposes. We have trouble imagining the familiar material of Bach's passion settings in any other guise. We can learn about these issues by exploring the sources that transmit Bach's passion settings today, performance practice (including the question of the size of Bach's ensemble), delving into the passions as dramatic music, examining the problem of multiple versions of a work and the reconstruction of lost pieces, exploring the other passions in Bach's performing repertory, and sifting through the puzzle of authorship.
Joel Lester
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195120974
- eISBN:
- 9780199865406
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195120974.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The structural and stylistic features of Johann Sebastian Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and the history of these works, are the focus of this book. Historical topics include Bach as a ...
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The structural and stylistic features of Johann Sebastian Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and the history of these works, are the focus of this book. Historical topics include Bach as a violinist, the autograph score of the work, the published editions, and the history of performance traditions. Eighteenth-century notions of thoroughbass, harmony, keys, counterpoint, cadences, and rhetoric are the basis of Bach's music, from point-to-point musical continuity to the shape of the construction of movements. A general principle underlying all Bach's music is the heightening of activity as musical materials succeed one another and return in more elaborate guises. The solo-violin works are related to Bach's compositions in other genres and differentiated from music by later composers. This leads to thoughts on performing these works so as to bring to life these 18th-century features, while making the music alive in our own time.Less
The structural and stylistic features of Johann Sebastian Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and the history of these works, are the focus of this book. Historical topics include Bach as a violinist, the autograph score of the work, the published editions, and the history of performance traditions. Eighteenth-century notions of thoroughbass, harmony, keys, counterpoint, cadences, and rhetoric are the basis of Bach's music, from point-to-point musical continuity to the shape of the construction of movements. A general principle underlying all Bach's music is the heightening of activity as musical materials succeed one another and return in more elaborate guises. The solo-violin works are related to Bach's compositions in other genres and differentiated from music by later composers. This leads to thoughts on performing these works so as to bring to life these 18th-century features, while making the music alive in our own time.
Russell Stinson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195171099
- eISBN:
- 9780199865239
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195171099.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter examines Bach's organ works through the points of view of the most prominent composers in all of music history—Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schumann, and Lizst. It discusses that these prominent ...
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This chapter examines Bach's organ works through the points of view of the most prominent composers in all of music history—Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schumann, and Lizst. It discusses that these prominent composers borrowed from Bach's organ compositions in creating their own masterpieces. It also investigates how the four composers influenced one another in this regard.Less
This chapter examines Bach's organ works through the points of view of the most prominent composers in all of music history—Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schumann, and Lizst. It discusses that these prominent composers borrowed from Bach's organ compositions in creating their own masterpieces. It also investigates how the four composers influenced one another in this regard.
Daniel R. Melamed and Michael Marissen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195304923
- eISBN:
- 9780199865468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304923.003.0010
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter presents resources that deal with Bach as a composer. These cover topics such as Bach’s compositional process, his contact with the work of other composers, and dance types and their ...
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This chapter presents resources that deal with Bach as a composer. These cover topics such as Bach’s compositional process, his contact with the work of other composers, and dance types and their appearance in Bach’s instrumental music.Less
This chapter presents resources that deal with Bach as a composer. These cover topics such as Bach’s compositional process, his contact with the work of other composers, and dance types and their appearance in Bach’s instrumental music.
Kevin C. Karnes
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195368666
- eISBN:
- 9780199867547
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195368666.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter considers the nationalist underpinnings of late-century musicology by examining the diverse and even contradictory cultural associations that Adler forged through the medium of his work. ...
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This chapter considers the nationalist underpinnings of late-century musicology by examining the diverse and even contradictory cultural associations that Adler forged through the medium of his work. In his publications on the medieval origins of harmony, Adler distanced himself from attempts to claim exclusively Germanic origins for polyphonic phenomena. But in essays on Bach, Handel, and Mozart, penned in the mid-1880s, he indulged a brand of cultural chauvinism associated with Wagner and his followers. In his work on the Monuments of Music in Austria series of editions, Adler embraced a supranational vision of Austrian cultural identity endorsed by Habsburg officialdom, yet in his 1904 monograph on Wagner he declined to engage the composer's most inflammatory statements on race and identity. Each of these cases illuminates Adler's response to a specific crisis that shook his society, and together they testify to the difficulties of defining the German in the late-century musicological discourse.Less
This chapter considers the nationalist underpinnings of late-century musicology by examining the diverse and even contradictory cultural associations that Adler forged through the medium of his work. In his publications on the medieval origins of harmony, Adler distanced himself from attempts to claim exclusively Germanic origins for polyphonic phenomena. But in essays on Bach, Handel, and Mozart, penned in the mid-1880s, he indulged a brand of cultural chauvinism associated with Wagner and his followers. In his work on the Monuments of Music in Austria series of editions, Adler embraced a supranational vision of Austrian cultural identity endorsed by Habsburg officialdom, yet in his 1904 monograph on Wagner he declined to engage the composer's most inflammatory statements on race and identity. Each of these cases illuminates Adler's response to a specific crisis that shook his society, and together they testify to the difficulties of defining the German in the late-century musicological discourse.
Simon Morrison
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195181678
- eISBN:
- 9780199870806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181678.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter describes Prokofiev's gradual rehabilitation within the Stalinist cultural and political establishment, his successful fulfillment of commissions for pallid works on themes of youth ...
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This chapter describes Prokofiev's gradual rehabilitation within the Stalinist cultural and political establishment, his successful fulfillment of commissions for pallid works on themes of youth (notably Winter Bonfire and On Guard for Peace), and his collaborations with the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. It also chronicles Prokofiev's hospitalizations and his solitary existence with his second wife Mira Mendelson in Nikolina Gora, where, in his final months, he conceived a series of works in the spirit of Bach. The chapter concludes with an assessment of Prokofiev's posthumous legacy.Less
This chapter describes Prokofiev's gradual rehabilitation within the Stalinist cultural and political establishment, his successful fulfillment of commissions for pallid works on themes of youth (notably Winter Bonfire and On Guard for Peace), and his collaborations with the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. It also chronicles Prokofiev's hospitalizations and his solitary existence with his second wife Mira Mendelson in Nikolina Gora, where, in his final months, he conceived a series of works in the spirit of Bach. The chapter concludes with an assessment of Prokofiev's posthumous legacy.
Mary Oleskiewicz (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041488
- eISBN:
- 9780252050084
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041488.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This volume investigates topics surrounding Johann Sebastian Bach and his five musically gifted sons. Robert Marshall takes on a deeply psychological perspective by examining how each of the Bach ...
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This volume investigates topics surrounding Johann Sebastian Bach and his five musically gifted sons. Robert Marshall takes on a deeply psychological perspective by examining how each of the Bach sons personally dealt with Sebastian’s imposing legacy. Mary Oleskiewicz investigates the Bach family’s connections to historical keyboard instruments and musical venues at the Prussian court of Frederick “the Great.” David Schulenberg argues that Emanuel Bach’s most significant contribution to European music is the large and diverse body of keyboard music he composed for harpsichord, fortepiano, organ and the clavichord. Evan Cortens’s chapter takes a detailed view of Emanuel Bach’s singers, vocal performance materials, and pay records in Hamburg and concludes that, as in most other parts of Germany at that time, one singer per part was the norm for Emanuel’s liturgical music after 1767. Finally, Christine Blanken’s essay continues research into Breitkopf’s publishing firm. Her discovery of unknown manuscripts by several members of the Bach family demonstrates much about what we can still learn about musical transmission, performance practice, and concert life in Bach’s Leipzig.Less
This volume investigates topics surrounding Johann Sebastian Bach and his five musically gifted sons. Robert Marshall takes on a deeply psychological perspective by examining how each of the Bach sons personally dealt with Sebastian’s imposing legacy. Mary Oleskiewicz investigates the Bach family’s connections to historical keyboard instruments and musical venues at the Prussian court of Frederick “the Great.” David Schulenberg argues that Emanuel Bach’s most significant contribution to European music is the large and diverse body of keyboard music he composed for harpsichord, fortepiano, organ and the clavichord. Evan Cortens’s chapter takes a detailed view of Emanuel Bach’s singers, vocal performance materials, and pay records in Hamburg and concludes that, as in most other parts of Germany at that time, one singer per part was the norm for Emanuel’s liturgical music after 1767. Finally, Christine Blanken’s essay continues research into Breitkopf’s publishing firm. Her discovery of unknown manuscripts by several members of the Bach family demonstrates much about what we can still learn about musical transmission, performance practice, and concert life in Bach’s Leipzig.
Katharine Ellis
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195365856
- eISBN:
- 9780199867738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195365856.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter focuses on a period when the expansion of early music activity began to cause adverse comment: was it a reactionary threat to living composers? Developments in music publishing attest to ...
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This chapter focuses on a period when the expansion of early music activity began to cause adverse comment: was it a reactionary threat to living composers? Developments in music publishing attest to a burgeoning domestic and performance market; the performed repertory both diversifies and becomes more selective, with keyboard and other instrumental music appearing more frequently (but provoking gender-related protest) on the concert stage; amid expressions of self-doubt about musical richness nationwide and the quality of new composition, there are concerted attempts to create a musical France via amateur and orphéon performance of early choral masterworks. The chapter extends from the demise of La Moskova's “Palestrinian” society and the end of the July Monarchy, beyond the Franco-Prussian War, to the eve of stable Republican government in France. Change is most clearly signalled in new Second-Empire educational ventures in sacred music (the École Niedermeyer, with its focus on plainchant, Palestrina, and Bach; the rise of “Palestrinian” maîtrises at Langres, Rouen, Moulins, and Autun); transition is evident in continued attention to democratization, in repeated attempts to rehabilitate “la musique française” and in the increasingly nationalist rhetorics of historical and critical writings on early music.Less
This chapter focuses on a period when the expansion of early music activity began to cause adverse comment: was it a reactionary threat to living composers? Developments in music publishing attest to a burgeoning domestic and performance market; the performed repertory both diversifies and becomes more selective, with keyboard and other instrumental music appearing more frequently (but provoking gender-related protest) on the concert stage; amid expressions of self-doubt about musical richness nationwide and the quality of new composition, there are concerted attempts to create a musical France via amateur and orphéon performance of early choral masterworks. The chapter extends from the demise of La Moskova's “Palestrinian” society and the end of the July Monarchy, beyond the Franco-Prussian War, to the eve of stable Republican government in France. Change is most clearly signalled in new Second-Empire educational ventures in sacred music (the École Niedermeyer, with its focus on plainchant, Palestrina, and Bach; the rise of “Palestrinian” maîtrises at Langres, Rouen, Moulins, and Autun); transition is evident in continued attention to democratization, in repeated attempts to rehabilitate “la musique française” and in the increasingly nationalist rhetorics of historical and critical writings on early music.
Katharine Ellis
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195365856
- eISBN:
- 9780199867738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195365856.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter continues the exploration of repertorial change, beginning with an examination of the almost entirely masculine virtuoso cult of early organ music, given new impetus by Alexandre ...
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This chapter continues the exploration of repertorial change, beginning with an examination of the almost entirely masculine virtuoso cult of early organ music, given new impetus by Alexandre Guilmant's Trocadéro concerts from 1878. The contributions of Guilmant and Louis Diémer to Bach organ music and French clavecin music, respectively, are discussed intensively, as is the rise of Bach as a profound, Romantic, Wagnerian, and universally Christian composer. In a largely anticlerical age, religious politics reappear with a discussion of the Chanteurs de Saint-Gervais and the early Schola Cantorum as, in part, moderate ultramontane initiatives aimed at reconciling the differences of pro-Gregorian and pro-Palestrinian clerics. Intensifications of nationalist fervour result in new attempts to rehabilitate la musique française: in addition to Diémer's contribution, a first collected edition of French opera (Michaëlis, 1877-84); and Carpentras, Goudimel, Lassus, and Rameau performances by Charles Bordes and his Chanteurs from 1892. Regionalist imperatives underpin the first modern staging of Adam de la Halle's Jeu de Robin et de Marion, in Arras (1896).Less
This chapter continues the exploration of repertorial change, beginning with an examination of the almost entirely masculine virtuoso cult of early organ music, given new impetus by Alexandre Guilmant's Trocadéro concerts from 1878. The contributions of Guilmant and Louis Diémer to Bach organ music and French clavecin music, respectively, are discussed intensively, as is the rise of Bach as a profound, Romantic, Wagnerian, and universally Christian composer. In a largely anticlerical age, religious politics reappear with a discussion of the Chanteurs de Saint-Gervais and the early Schola Cantorum as, in part, moderate ultramontane initiatives aimed at reconciling the differences of pro-Gregorian and pro-Palestrinian clerics. Intensifications of nationalist fervour result in new attempts to rehabilitate la musique française: in addition to Diémer's contribution, a first collected edition of French opera (Michaëlis, 1877-84); and Carpentras, Goudimel, Lassus, and Rameau performances by Charles Bordes and his Chanteurs from 1892. Regionalist imperatives underpin the first modern staging of Adam de la Halle's Jeu de Robin et de Marion, in Arras (1896).
Katharine Ellis
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195365856
- eISBN:
- 9780199867738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195365856.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter examines how the politicized nature of Handel's reception in the late 1860s caused enthusiasm for his choral music to reach a nationalist peak at Bach's expense shortly after war ended. ...
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This chapter examines how the politicized nature of Handel's reception in the late 1860s caused enthusiasm for his choral music to reach a nationalist peak at Bach's expense shortly after war ended. Presented as a quasi-Latin and quasi-Republican figure, Handel the oratorio composer appeared accessible, macho, indomitable, and expressive of social cohesion. The chapter centers on debates about France's relatively weak musical capital in comparison with Protestant countries, especially an ascendant Germany. The state of the nationwide orphéon tradition, seemingly in crisis with musically illiterate participants and a simplistic repertory, fuelled calls to overhaul France's choral traditions. The chapter examines this short-lived, almost expedient, revival of Handel ode and oratorio as an example of cosmopolitan nationalism intensified by the experience of defeat. It offers telling evidence of a French need for a masculine musical culture and of their inability to find such a combination of brute strength and stylistic accessibility among native composers. It closes with an account of the post-Handelian return to Bach's choral music and the ideologies underpinning it.Less
This chapter examines how the politicized nature of Handel's reception in the late 1860s caused enthusiasm for his choral music to reach a nationalist peak at Bach's expense shortly after war ended. Presented as a quasi-Latin and quasi-Republican figure, Handel the oratorio composer appeared accessible, macho, indomitable, and expressive of social cohesion. The chapter centers on debates about France's relatively weak musical capital in comparison with Protestant countries, especially an ascendant Germany. The state of the nationwide orphéon tradition, seemingly in crisis with musically illiterate participants and a simplistic repertory, fuelled calls to overhaul France's choral traditions. The chapter examines this short-lived, almost expedient, revival of Handel ode and oratorio as an example of cosmopolitan nationalism intensified by the experience of defeat. It offers telling evidence of a French need for a masculine musical culture and of their inability to find such a combination of brute strength and stylistic accessibility among native composers. It closes with an account of the post-Handelian return to Bach's choral music and the ideologies underpinning it.
Katharine Ellis
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195365856
- eISBN:
- 9780199867738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195365856.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This concluding chapter takes in the entire century, highlighting continuities and disjunctions, repertorial patterns, absences, and disappearances. It addresses the ways in which early music's ...
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This concluding chapter takes in the entire century, highlighting continuities and disjunctions, repertorial patterns, absences, and disappearances. It addresses the ways in which early music's increasing normality related to aesthetic conservatism after around 1840, discusses the reasons for certain works' totemic allure, cautions against the rigid association of certain aesthetic choices with particular political persuasions, and foregrounds pervasive feelings of French musical decadence as a driving force for revivalism of both French and foreign music. Paradoxically, after decades of disdain, French Baroque dance and keyboard music — low-status “feminine” repertories — became the focus for turn-of-the-century composers writing explicitly “French” music, while Bach became a “universal” reference point. Finally, the book returns to its opening (Le Vieux Paris, 1900), broadening to address the general question of what revivalism can tell us about the ideological premises that underpin cultural life.Less
This concluding chapter takes in the entire century, highlighting continuities and disjunctions, repertorial patterns, absences, and disappearances. It addresses the ways in which early music's increasing normality related to aesthetic conservatism after around 1840, discusses the reasons for certain works' totemic allure, cautions against the rigid association of certain aesthetic choices with particular political persuasions, and foregrounds pervasive feelings of French musical decadence as a driving force for revivalism of both French and foreign music. Paradoxically, after decades of disdain, French Baroque dance and keyboard music — low-status “feminine” repertories — became the focus for turn-of-the-century composers writing explicitly “French” music, while Bach became a “universal” reference point. Finally, the book returns to its opening (Le Vieux Paris, 1900), broadening to address the general question of what revivalism can tell us about the ideological premises that underpin cultural life.
David Brown
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231829
- eISBN:
- 9780191716218
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231829.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter explores the religious experience through the power of music, in particular classical music. It begins with a detailed discussion of the sort of reservations that generated Christian ...
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This chapter explores the religious experience through the power of music, in particular classical music. It begins with a detailed discussion of the sort of reservations that generated Christian resistance to instrumental music. It then considers the neglected features of the biblical witness that, in fact, strongly support a more positive approach, not least in the book of Chronicles. It is argued that as in the Temple's worship envisaged in Chronicles, so elsewhere music can help break down the barriers between the invisible world of the divine and our own. In other words, certain features of music help an already present God to be perceived. The works of some key composers in the classical tradition are examined, including Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, and Bruckner.Less
This chapter explores the religious experience through the power of music, in particular classical music. It begins with a detailed discussion of the sort of reservations that generated Christian resistance to instrumental music. It then considers the neglected features of the biblical witness that, in fact, strongly support a more positive approach, not least in the book of Chronicles. It is argued that as in the Temple's worship envisaged in Chronicles, so elsewhere music can help break down the barriers between the invisible world of the divine and our own. In other words, certain features of music help an already present God to be perceived. The works of some key composers in the classical tradition are examined, including Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, and Bruckner.
Wm. A. Little
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195394382
- eISBN:
- 9780199863556
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394382.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Performing Practice/Studies
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 ...
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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.Less
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.
Daniel R. Melamed and Michael Marissen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195304923
- eISBN:
- 9780199865468
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304923.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This work is a comprehensive guide to the resources and materials of Bach scholarship, both for students beginning work in the enormous literature on J. S. Bach, and for the Bach specialist looking ...
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This work is a comprehensive guide to the resources and materials of Bach scholarship, both for students beginning work in the enormous literature on J. S. Bach, and for the Bach specialist looking for a convenient and up-to-date survey of the field. Covering a broad range of both primary and secondary sources, the book describes the principal tools of Bach research and how to use them. With clear descriptions and explanations, the multiple bibliographies and tables help students and instructors to quickly find the most appropriate sources on Bach’s life, his repertory, approaches to his music, and many other topics. Additionally, this volume provides insights into potentially confusing sources, and detailed information on the technical topics important to all Bach scholars.Less
This work is a comprehensive guide to the resources and materials of Bach scholarship, both for students beginning work in the enormous literature on J. S. Bach, and for the Bach specialist looking for a convenient and up-to-date survey of the field. Covering a broad range of both primary and secondary sources, the book describes the principal tools of Bach research and how to use them. With clear descriptions and explanations, the multiple bibliographies and tables help students and instructors to quickly find the most appropriate sources on Bach’s life, his repertory, approaches to his music, and many other topics. Additionally, this volume provides insights into potentially confusing sources, and detailed information on the technical topics important to all Bach scholars.
David Manning
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195182392
- eISBN:
- 9780199851485
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195182392.003.0100
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The musical form known as “passacaglia,” which is first cousin to the “chaconne” and “ground” of Henry Purcell, has always been a favorite device with composers. The violin chaconne and the organ ...
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The musical form known as “passacaglia,” which is first cousin to the “chaconne” and “ground” of Henry Purcell, has always been a favorite device with composers. The violin chaconne and the organ passacaglia of Johann Sebastian Bach are well known. The Variations in C minor of Ludwig van Beethoven and the Finale of Johannes Brahms' Fourth Symphony are also in the passacaglia form, though not so called. The device consists in a melodic or rhythmical pattern that persists without interruption throughout the piece, usually in the bass, surrounded by simple or complex figuration as the composer desires. The “well-known” theme on which Gordon Jacob founds his passacaglia is the tune “Oranges and Lemons,” whose bell-like character is well suited to contrapuntal treatment.Less
The musical form known as “passacaglia,” which is first cousin to the “chaconne” and “ground” of Henry Purcell, has always been a favorite device with composers. The violin chaconne and the organ passacaglia of Johann Sebastian Bach are well known. The Variations in C minor of Ludwig van Beethoven and the Finale of Johannes Brahms' Fourth Symphony are also in the passacaglia form, though not so called. The device consists in a melodic or rhythmical pattern that persists without interruption throughout the piece, usually in the bass, surrounded by simple or complex figuration as the composer desires. The “well-known” theme on which Gordon Jacob founds his passacaglia is the tune “Oranges and Lemons,” whose bell-like character is well suited to contrapuntal treatment.
Richard D. P. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780198164401
- eISBN:
- 9780191713781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198164401.003.0010
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter focuses on Bach's Orgelbüchlein chorale. It argues that the gulf in style and quality between Bach's early chorales and the Orgelbüchlein is so immense that it is difficult to account ...
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This chapter focuses on Bach's Orgelbüchlein chorale. It argues that the gulf in style and quality between Bach's early chorales and the Orgelbüchlein is so immense that it is difficult to account for it in terms of a continuous process of development. The distinctive type of chorale setting that Bach developed in the Orgelbüchlein is virtually without precedent among his early works. Six organ chorales are considered which appear to witness Bach in the process of evolving certain key features of the Orgelbüchlein chorale.Less
This chapter focuses on Bach's Orgelbüchlein chorale. It argues that the gulf in style and quality between Bach's early chorales and the Orgelbüchlein is so immense that it is difficult to account for it in terms of a continuous process of development. The distinctive type of chorale setting that Bach developed in the Orgelbüchlein is virtually without precedent among his early works. Six organ chorales are considered which appear to witness Bach in the process of evolving certain key features of the Orgelbüchlein chorale.
Richard D. P. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780198164401
- eISBN:
- 9780191713781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198164401.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter explores Bach's cantatas for the Easter season, Christmas season, Lent-Easter, Trinity season, and Advent. Bach was exposed to much new Italian music at the Weimar court, guiding his own ...
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This chapter explores Bach's cantatas for the Easter season, Christmas season, Lent-Easter, Trinity season, and Advent. Bach was exposed to much new Italian music at the Weimar court, guiding his own creativity in new directions. And his encounter with the new operatic style of libretto for the sacred cantata was clearly a decisive factor. Whereas the old type of cantata text, still used in Bach's early cantatas, consisted largely of biblical words and chorales, the new type was at first made up exclusively of madrigalian verse, designed to be set in an alternation of recitative and arias. Not long afterwards, however, the new type of libretto was modified by reintroducing biblical words and chorales alongside the madrigalian verse, thereby creating an element of continuity with past traditions. This mixed type is most relevant to Bach's Weimar period, for it was employed by Salomo Franck, resident poet at the Weimar court, during the years (1713-16) in which he collaborated closely with the composer.Less
This chapter explores Bach's cantatas for the Easter season, Christmas season, Lent-Easter, Trinity season, and Advent. Bach was exposed to much new Italian music at the Weimar court, guiding his own creativity in new directions. And his encounter with the new operatic style of libretto for the sacred cantata was clearly a decisive factor. Whereas the old type of cantata text, still used in Bach's early cantatas, consisted largely of biblical words and chorales, the new type was at first made up exclusively of madrigalian verse, designed to be set in an alternation of recitative and arias. Not long afterwards, however, the new type of libretto was modified by reintroducing biblical words and chorales alongside the madrigalian verse, thereby creating an element of continuity with past traditions. This mixed type is most relevant to Bach's Weimar period, for it was employed by Salomo Franck, resident poet at the Weimar court, during the years (1713-16) in which he collaborated closely with the composer.
Richard D. P. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780198164401
- eISBN:
- 9780191713781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198164401.003.0012
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter presents a synthesis of discussions in Part II of this book. It argues that Bach arrived at full maturity by about the middle of the Weimar period (around 1713), which is attested by the ...
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This chapter presents a synthesis of discussions in Part II of this book. It argues that Bach arrived at full maturity by about the middle of the Weimar period (around 1713), which is attested by the stylistic and technical assurance, and the consistently high standard of his writing at that time, both for keyboard and for vocal and instrumental ensemble. During the mid-to-late Weimar years (1713-17), he produced some of his greatest masterpieces, never to be eclipsed by anything he composed in later years at Cöthen or Leipzig.Less
This chapter presents a synthesis of discussions in Part II of this book. It argues that Bach arrived at full maturity by about the middle of the Weimar period (around 1713), which is attested by the stylistic and technical assurance, and the consistently high standard of his writing at that time, both for keyboard and for vocal and instrumental ensemble. During the mid-to-late Weimar years (1713-17), he produced some of his greatest masterpieces, never to be eclipsed by anything he composed in later years at Cöthen or Leipzig.
Richard D. P. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780198164401
- eISBN:
- 9780191713781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198164401.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of Bach's family background and his childhood musical experiences. It then details the start of his study of composition and his early music. The ...
More
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of Bach's family background and his childhood musical experiences. It then details the start of his study of composition and his early music. The influence of his early exposure to church music on his own music is also described.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of Bach's family background and his childhood musical experiences. It then details the start of his study of composition and his early music. The influence of his early exposure to church music on his own music is also described.
