Kay Dickinson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195326635
- eISBN:
- 9780199851676
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326635.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This book offers a study of how certain alliances of music and film are judged aesthetic failures. Based on a fascinating and wide-ranging body of film-music mismatches, and using contemporary ...
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This book offers a study of how certain alliances of music and film are judged aesthetic failures. Based on a fascinating and wide-ranging body of film-music mismatches, and using contemporary reviews and histories of the turn to post-industrialization, the book expands the ways in which the union of the film and music businesses can be understood. Moving beyond the typical understanding of film music that privileges the score, the book also incorporates analyses of rock 'n' roll movies, composer biopics, and pop singers crossing over into acting. By doing this, it provides a fuller picture of how two successful entertainment sectors have sought out synergistic strategies, ones whose alleged “failures” have much to tell about the labor practices of the creative industries, as well as our own relationship to them and to work itself.Less
This book offers a study of how certain alliances of music and film are judged aesthetic failures. Based on a fascinating and wide-ranging body of film-music mismatches, and using contemporary reviews and histories of the turn to post-industrialization, the book expands the ways in which the union of the film and music businesses can be understood. Moving beyond the typical understanding of film music that privileges the score, the book also incorporates analyses of rock 'n' roll movies, composer biopics, and pop singers crossing over into acting. By doing this, it provides a fuller picture of how two successful entertainment sectors have sought out synergistic strategies, ones whose alleged “failures” have much to tell about the labor practices of the creative industries, as well as our own relationship to them and to work itself.
Clive Brown
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198161653
- eISBN:
- 9780191716263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198161653.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This introductory chapter discusses the book's intention, namely to investigate key issues relevant to understanding the intentions, expectations or assumptions of late 18th-century and 19th-century ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the book's intention, namely to investigate key issues relevant to understanding the intentions, expectations or assumptions of late 18th-century and 19th-century composers, and the conventions that informed the practice of musicians in general. The book focuses on the relationship between notation and performance, drawing upon written evidence and early recordings. It seeks to show how knowledge of historical practice can inform and enrich modern performance, broadening the performer's range of options and encouraging a more adventurous approach to the interpretation of Classical and Romantic repertoire. It argues that the late 20th century's rather strict adherence to the literal meaning of the notation is often unfaithful to the composer's expectations and invites a freer, more creative approach to the performance of this repertoire.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the book's intention, namely to investigate key issues relevant to understanding the intentions, expectations or assumptions of late 18th-century and 19th-century composers, and the conventions that informed the practice of musicians in general. The book focuses on the relationship between notation and performance, drawing upon written evidence and early recordings. It seeks to show how knowledge of historical practice can inform and enrich modern performance, broadening the performer's range of options and encouraging a more adventurous approach to the interpretation of Classical and Romantic repertoire. It argues that the late 20th century's rather strict adherence to the literal meaning of the notation is often unfaithful to the composer's expectations and invites a freer, more creative approach to the performance of this repertoire.
Wanda Brister and Jay Rosenblatt
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781949979312
- eISBN:
- 9781800341449
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781949979312.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This book is the first scholarly biography of Madeleine Dring (1923–1977). Using diaries, letters, and extensive archival research, the narrative examines her career and explores her music. The story ...
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This book is the first scholarly biography of Madeleine Dring (1923–1977). Using diaries, letters, and extensive archival research, the narrative examines her career and explores her music. The story of Dring’s life begins with her formal training at the Royal College of Music, first in the Junior Department and then as a full-time student, a period that also covers her personal experience of events both leading up to and during the early years of World War II. Her career is traced in detail through radio and television shows and West End revues, all productions for which she wrote music, as well as her work as an actor. Dring’s most important contemporaries are briefly discussed in relation to her life, including her teachers at the Royal College of Music, professional connections such as Felicity Gray and Laurier Lister, and her husband Roger Lord. Her musical compositions are surveyed, from the earliest works she wrote as a student to the art songs she wrote in her last years, along with various popular numbers for revues and numerous piano pieces for beginning piano students as well as those suitable for the concert hall. Each chapter singles out one or more of these works for detailed description and analysis, with attention to the qualities that characterize her distinctive musical style.Less
This book is the first scholarly biography of Madeleine Dring (1923–1977). Using diaries, letters, and extensive archival research, the narrative examines her career and explores her music. The story of Dring’s life begins with her formal training at the Royal College of Music, first in the Junior Department and then as a full-time student, a period that also covers her personal experience of events both leading up to and during the early years of World War II. Her career is traced in detail through radio and television shows and West End revues, all productions for which she wrote music, as well as her work as an actor. Dring’s most important contemporaries are briefly discussed in relation to her life, including her teachers at the Royal College of Music, professional connections such as Felicity Gray and Laurier Lister, and her husband Roger Lord. Her musical compositions are surveyed, from the earliest works she wrote as a student to the art songs she wrote in her last years, along with various popular numbers for revues and numerous piano pieces for beginning piano students as well as those suitable for the concert hall. Each chapter singles out one or more of these works for detailed description and analysis, with attention to the qualities that characterize her distinctive musical style.
Christi-Anne Castro
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199746408
- eISBN:
- 9780199894758
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199746408.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This book is a cultural history of the Philippines from 1898 to1998, outlining the role of music in defining nation and the influence of national-level politics on shaping musical expression. The ...
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This book is a cultural history of the Philippines from 1898 to1998, outlining the role of music in defining nation and the influence of national-level politics on shaping musical expression. The work traces three themes that suffuse the musical articulation of nation and nationalism. The first is a broad concern with modernism as an impulse in the development of Philippine national character in a postcolonial setting and, more specifically, how modernism becomes apparent in music. The second theme is the inescapable condition of hybridity that pervades nationalistic expression as much as it does other aspects of individual, community, and national identity. The third theme deals with cultural politics, including the tensions between official statements and the multifarious expressions of artists that are variously in compliance with and in contestation against the aims of the state. The main topics of the book include nationalist composers of the early twentieth century; folkloric performance of the nation by the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company; the institutionalization of culture through the Cultural Center of the Philippines under the Marcos regime; the musical ambassadorship of the Philippine Madrigal Singers; alternate expressions of nationalism during the first People Power Revolution of 1986; and the products of musical nationalism created for the 1998 centennial of independence from Spain.Less
This book is a cultural history of the Philippines from 1898 to1998, outlining the role of music in defining nation and the influence of national-level politics on shaping musical expression. The work traces three themes that suffuse the musical articulation of nation and nationalism. The first is a broad concern with modernism as an impulse in the development of Philippine national character in a postcolonial setting and, more specifically, how modernism becomes apparent in music. The second theme is the inescapable condition of hybridity that pervades nationalistic expression as much as it does other aspects of individual, community, and national identity. The third theme deals with cultural politics, including the tensions between official statements and the multifarious expressions of artists that are variously in compliance with and in contestation against the aims of the state. The main topics of the book include nationalist composers of the early twentieth century; folkloric performance of the nation by the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company; the institutionalization of culture through the Cultural Center of the Philippines under the Marcos regime; the musical ambassadorship of the Philippine Madrigal Singers; alternate expressions of nationalism during the first People Power Revolution of 1986; and the products of musical nationalism created for the 1998 centennial of independence from Spain.
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.
Jane A. Bernstein
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195141085
- eISBN:
- 9780199871421
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195141085.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter considers the influence the music-printing industry had upon its clients. It reveals the ways composers could augment their income by underwriting and then selling their own editions ...
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This chapter considers the influence the music-printing industry had upon its clients. It reveals the ways composers could augment their income by underwriting and then selling their own editions and, in some cases, even entering into the business of printing and publishing. The role of the patron and the involvement of the composer in the printing process are also addressed.Less
This chapter considers the influence the music-printing industry had upon its clients. It reveals the ways composers could augment their income by underwriting and then selling their own editions and, in some cases, even entering into the business of printing and publishing. The role of the patron and the involvement of the composer in the printing process are also addressed.
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/9780195181678.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter chronicles Prokofiev's relocation to Moscow in the spring of 1936, his reaction to the denunciation of Shostakovich in Pravda; the composition of the ballet Romeo and Juliet and the ...
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This chapter chronicles Prokofiev's relocation to Moscow in the spring of 1936, his reaction to the denunciation of Shostakovich in Pravda; the composition of the ballet Romeo and Juliet and the Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of October; the censorship of those two works, and Prokofiev's service as a cultural representative for the Soviet regime during his last two trips abroad. The chapter addresses his collaborations with the director Sergey Radlov (who conceived a happy ending for Romeo and Juliet) and Nataliya Sats (who commissioned Peter and the Wolf for the Moscow Children's Theater), his fraught relationship with the Chairman of the Committee on Arts Affairs Platon Kerzhentsev, and his speeches at the Union of Soviet Composers. The description of his last trip to the United States corrects inaccuracies in the historical record concerning his interest in Hollywood film composition. Prokofiev was monitored throughout the trip by Soviet officials working for the VOKS organization and the Embassies in London and Washington.Less
This chapter chronicles Prokofiev's relocation to Moscow in the spring of 1936, his reaction to the denunciation of Shostakovich in Pravda; the composition of the ballet Romeo and Juliet and the Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of October; the censorship of those two works, and Prokofiev's service as a cultural representative for the Soviet regime during his last two trips abroad. The chapter addresses his collaborations with the director Sergey Radlov (who conceived a happy ending for Romeo and Juliet) and Nataliya Sats (who commissioned Peter and the Wolf for the Moscow Children's Theater), his fraught relationship with the Chairman of the Committee on Arts Affairs Platon Kerzhentsev, and his speeches at the Union of Soviet Composers. The description of his last trip to the United States corrects inaccuracies in the historical record concerning his interest in Hollywood film composition. Prokofiev was monitored throughout the trip by Soviet officials working for the VOKS organization and the Embassies in London and Washington.
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.
Walter van de Leur
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195124484
- eISBN:
- 9780199868711
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195124484.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This book investigates and analyzes the music of Billy Strayhorn. Over seventy musical examples, drawn from his original autograph scores, provide insight in the development of his style, in his ...
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This book investigates and analyzes the music of Billy Strayhorn. Over seventy musical examples, drawn from his original autograph scores, provide insight in the development of his style, in his advanced harmonic language and in his orchestral technique. The book traces the origins of Strayhorn’s music, rooted in European and American idioms, and uncovers hitherto unknown works which cast a new light on his development as a jazz composer and orchestrator. It addresses the mythical, thirty-year partnership of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. Through research on their autograph scores, it redefines their musical collaboration. The book argues that as opposed to general accepted views, Ellington and Strayhorn were not musical alter-egos, but two distinctively individual composers who worked from different musical perspectives. This book also details how those distinctions stem from the respective musical backgrounds of the two composers, and how that affected their collaboration. The differences between Ellington’s and Strayhorn’s music are clearly audible, yet have eluded most listeners since Ellington — as the main interpreter of his collaborator’s music — played a crucial role in our perception of Strayhorn’s work. The book untangles Strayhorn from Ellington’s shadow, identifies all of his contributions to the Ellington repertory, and points listeners to the most salient features that distinguish Strayhorn’s musical style from Ellington’s.Less
This book investigates and analyzes the music of Billy Strayhorn. Over seventy musical examples, drawn from his original autograph scores, provide insight in the development of his style, in his advanced harmonic language and in his orchestral technique. The book traces the origins of Strayhorn’s music, rooted in European and American idioms, and uncovers hitherto unknown works which cast a new light on his development as a jazz composer and orchestrator. It addresses the mythical, thirty-year partnership of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. Through research on their autograph scores, it redefines their musical collaboration. The book argues that as opposed to general accepted views, Ellington and Strayhorn were not musical alter-egos, but two distinctively individual composers who worked from different musical perspectives. This book also details how those distinctions stem from the respective musical backgrounds of the two composers, and how that affected their collaboration. The differences between Ellington’s and Strayhorn’s music are clearly audible, yet have eluded most listeners since Ellington — as the main interpreter of his collaborator’s music — played a crucial role in our perception of Strayhorn’s work. The book untangles Strayhorn from Ellington’s shadow, identifies all of his contributions to the Ellington repertory, and points listeners to the most salient features that distinguish Strayhorn’s musical style from Ellington’s.
Daniel Goldmark and Kevin C. Karnes (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691198293
- eISBN:
- 9780691198736
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691198293.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957) was the last compositional prodigy to emerge from the Austro-German tradition of Mozart and Mendelssohn. He was lauded in his youth by everyone from Mahler to ...
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Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957) was the last compositional prodigy to emerge from the Austro-German tradition of Mozart and Mendelssohn. He was lauded in his youth by everyone from Mahler to Puccini and his auspicious career in the early 1900s spanned chamber music, opera, and musical theater. Today, he is best known for his Hollywood film scores, composed between 1935 and 1947. From his prewar operas in Vienna to his pathbreaking contributions to American film, this book provides a substantial reassessment of Korngold's life and accomplishments. Korngold struggled to reconcile the musical language of his Viennese upbringing with American popular song and cinema, and was forced to adapt to a new life after wartime emigration to Hollywood. The book examines Korngold's operas and film scores, the critical reception of his music, and his place in the milieus of both the Old and New Worlds. It also features numerous historical documents—many previously unpublished and in first-ever English translations—including essays by the composer as well as memoirs by his wife, Luzi Korngold, and his father, the renowned music critic Julius Korngold.Less
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957) was the last compositional prodigy to emerge from the Austro-German tradition of Mozart and Mendelssohn. He was lauded in his youth by everyone from Mahler to Puccini and his auspicious career in the early 1900s spanned chamber music, opera, and musical theater. Today, he is best known for his Hollywood film scores, composed between 1935 and 1947. From his prewar operas in Vienna to his pathbreaking contributions to American film, this book provides a substantial reassessment of Korngold's life and accomplishments. Korngold struggled to reconcile the musical language of his Viennese upbringing with American popular song and cinema, and was forced to adapt to a new life after wartime emigration to Hollywood. The book examines Korngold's operas and film scores, the critical reception of his music, and his place in the milieus of both the Old and New Worlds. It also features numerous historical documents—many previously unpublished and in first-ever English translations—including essays by the composer as well as memoirs by his wife, Luzi Korngold, and his father, the renowned music critic Julius Korngold.
Elizabeth Eva Leach
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449338
- eISBN:
- 9781501704864
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449338.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
At once a royal secretary, a poet, and a composer, Guillaume de Machaut was one of the most protean and creative figures of the late Middle Ages. Rather than focus on a single strand of his ...
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At once a royal secretary, a poet, and a composer, Guillaume de Machaut was one of the most protean and creative figures of the late Middle Ages. Rather than focus on a single strand of his remarkable career, the book encompasses all aspects of his work, illuminating it in a distinctively interdisciplinary light. It provides a comprehensive picture of Machaut's artistry; reviews the documentary evidence about his life; charts the different agendas pursued by modern scholarly disciplines in their rediscovery and use of specific parts of his output; and delineates Machaut's own poetic and material presentation of his authorial persona. The book details Machaut's central poetic themes of hope, fortune, and death, integrating the aspect of Machaut's multimedia art that differentiates him from his contemporaries' treatment of similar thematic issues: music. In restoring the centrality of music in Machaut's poetics, arguing that his words cannot be truly understood or appreciated without the additional layers of meaning created in their musicalization, the book makes a compelling argument that musico-literary performance occupied a special place in the courts of fourteenth-century France.Less
At once a royal secretary, a poet, and a composer, Guillaume de Machaut was one of the most protean and creative figures of the late Middle Ages. Rather than focus on a single strand of his remarkable career, the book encompasses all aspects of his work, illuminating it in a distinctively interdisciplinary light. It provides a comprehensive picture of Machaut's artistry; reviews the documentary evidence about his life; charts the different agendas pursued by modern scholarly disciplines in their rediscovery and use of specific parts of his output; and delineates Machaut's own poetic and material presentation of his authorial persona. The book details Machaut's central poetic themes of hope, fortune, and death, integrating the aspect of Machaut's multimedia art that differentiates him from his contemporaries' treatment of similar thematic issues: music. In restoring the centrality of music in Machaut's poetics, arguing that his words cannot be truly understood or appreciated without the additional layers of meaning created in their musicalization, the book makes a compelling argument that musico-literary performance occupied a special place in the courts of fourteenth-century France.
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.
Jonathan P. J. Stock
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262733
- eISBN:
- 9780191734502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262733.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter examines how music becomes inscribed with social power. Topics considered include the reorganization of huju troupes in the new People's Republic of China, post-1949; the impact of the ...
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This chapter examines how music becomes inscribed with social power. Topics considered include the reorganization of huju troupes in the new People's Republic of China, post-1949; the impact of the specialist composer since the 1950s; the changing role of the performer; and the expression of political content in dramatic situations, words, actions, and music. Regional opera styles, such as Shanghai opera, it turns out, led the way in the reform of traditional opera in mainland China, with adaptations applied in these styles later transplanted to more established historical forms such as Beijing opera. It is argued that music in huju makes a special contribution to the ‘envoicing’ of the weak, a tendency that becomes problematic at times when the ordinary folk who people these operas must be portrayed as dauntless revolutionaries. Ironically, perhaps, the operas produced at the most publicly politicized periods of China's recent history are those that now appear the least eloquent in terms of their political argument.Less
This chapter examines how music becomes inscribed with social power. Topics considered include the reorganization of huju troupes in the new People's Republic of China, post-1949; the impact of the specialist composer since the 1950s; the changing role of the performer; and the expression of political content in dramatic situations, words, actions, and music. Regional opera styles, such as Shanghai opera, it turns out, led the way in the reform of traditional opera in mainland China, with adaptations applied in these styles later transplanted to more established historical forms such as Beijing opera. It is argued that music in huju makes a special contribution to the ‘envoicing’ of the weak, a tendency that becomes problematic at times when the ordinary folk who people these operas must be portrayed as dauntless revolutionaries. Ironically, perhaps, the operas produced at the most publicly politicized periods of China's recent history are those that now appear the least eloquent in terms of their political argument.
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 ...
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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.
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/9780198164401.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter focuses on Bach's early cantatas. The musical style Bach employs in his early cantatas is rooted in Lutheran tradition, though he takes full advantage of the immense range of formal and ...
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This chapter focuses on Bach's early cantatas. The musical style Bach employs in his early cantatas is rooted in Lutheran tradition, though he takes full advantage of the immense range of formal and technical procedures available to Lutheran composers around 1700 and shows himself to be alive to ‘modern’ trends imported from Italy. There is no doubt that he must have learnt much from the sacred works of his predecessors and older contemporaries, such as Hammerschmidt, Rosenmüller, Buxtehude,Pachelbel, Schelle, and Kuhnau, as well as from prominent members of his own family, such as Johann Michael and Johann Christoph Bach.Less
This chapter focuses on Bach's early cantatas. The musical style Bach employs in his early cantatas is rooted in Lutheran tradition, though he takes full advantage of the immense range of formal and technical procedures available to Lutheran composers around 1700 and shows himself to be alive to ‘modern’ trends imported from Italy. There is no doubt that he must have learnt much from the sacred works of his predecessors and older contemporaries, such as Hammerschmidt, Rosenmüller, Buxtehude,Pachelbel, Schelle, and Kuhnau, as well as from prominent members of his own family, such as Johann Michael and Johann Christoph Bach.
Walter van de Leur
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195124484
- eISBN:
- 9780199868711
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195124484.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This concluding chapter looks at Strayhorn’s importance as a jazz composer, which lies first and foremost in his hundreds of contributions to the repertory of the Ellington orchestra. From the moment ...
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This concluding chapter looks at Strayhorn’s importance as a jazz composer, which lies first and foremost in his hundreds of contributions to the repertory of the Ellington orchestra. From the moment Strayhorn joined the Ellington organization in 1939 until his untimely death, virtually every performance and almost every studio session of Duke Ellington and His Orchestra did include arrangements and original compositions by Strayhorn. Through this work, he exerted an important influence on other composer-arrangers, including Claude Thornhill, George Handy, Gil Evans and Charles Mingus. As a tribute to his long-time collaborator Ellington recorded … And His Mother Called Him Bill, a widely acclaimed tribute album. The chapter concludes with an overview of the appreciation of Strayhorn in the decades after his death.Less
This concluding chapter looks at Strayhorn’s importance as a jazz composer, which lies first and foremost in his hundreds of contributions to the repertory of the Ellington orchestra. From the moment Strayhorn joined the Ellington organization in 1939 until his untimely death, virtually every performance and almost every studio session of Duke Ellington and His Orchestra did include arrangements and original compositions by Strayhorn. Through this work, he exerted an important influence on other composer-arrangers, including Claude Thornhill, George Handy, Gil Evans and Charles Mingus. As a tribute to his long-time collaborator Ellington recorded … And His Mother Called Him Bill, a widely acclaimed tribute album. The chapter concludes with an overview of the appreciation of Strayhorn in the decades after his death.
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/9780195182392.003.0102
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The year of the Leith Hill Musical Festival, in common with the rest of Europe, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Brahms, which took place in Hamburg on 7 May 1833. Brahms is ...
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The year of the Leith Hill Musical Festival, in common with the rest of Europe, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Brahms, which took place in Hamburg on 7 May 1833. Brahms is the last of the group of great German composers that for 150 years made the terms “classical” and “Teutonic” synonymous in music. In this group none has been more essentially Teutonic than Brahms, and of his works none is more essentially Teutonic than the German “Choruses from the Requiem.” The words that Brahms has set have, of course, nothing to do with the Roman rite—Brahms calls it “Ein deutsches Requiem.” It was to be for the German people what the “Missa pro defunctis” is for the Latins. Brahms chose words from the Lutheran Bible to illustrate the mysteries of death and the future life.Less
The year of the Leith Hill Musical Festival, in common with the rest of Europe, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Brahms, which took place in Hamburg on 7 May 1833. Brahms is the last of the group of great German composers that for 150 years made the terms “classical” and “Teutonic” synonymous in music. In this group none has been more essentially Teutonic than Brahms, and of his works none is more essentially Teutonic than the German “Choruses from the Requiem.” The words that Brahms has set have, of course, nothing to do with the Roman rite—Brahms calls it “Ein deutsches Requiem.” It was to be for the German people what the “Missa pro defunctis” is for the Latins. Brahms chose words from the Lutheran Bible to illustrate the mysteries of death and the future life.
Marina Frolova-Walker (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691182711
- eISBN:
- 9780691185514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691182711.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
This introductory chapter examines the rich correspondence between Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the soprano Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel, who was his muse between 1898 and 1904. This particular ...
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This introductory chapter examines the rich correspondence between Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the soprano Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel, who was his muse between 1898 and 1904. This particular correspondence stands apart from the rest because of the strong currents of emotion running just below the surface. It was selected for this volume for two purposes: it has much to tell about how Rimsky-Korsakov dealt with the performers and theater management involved in productions of his operas, but it also gives a unique insight into the composer's inner world which he kept hidden under the surface of his respectable professorial existence. Indeed, the correspondence between Rimsky-Korsakov and Zabela-Vrubel should do much to humanize Rimsky-Korsakov, softening his image.Less
This introductory chapter examines the rich correspondence between Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the soprano Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel, who was his muse between 1898 and 1904. This particular correspondence stands apart from the rest because of the strong currents of emotion running just below the surface. It was selected for this volume for two purposes: it has much to tell about how Rimsky-Korsakov dealt with the performers and theater management involved in productions of his operas, but it also gives a unique insight into the composer's inner world which he kept hidden under the surface of his respectable professorial existence. Indeed, the correspondence between Rimsky-Korsakov and Zabela-Vrubel should do much to humanize Rimsky-Korsakov, softening his image.
Anna Nisnevich
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691182711
- eISBN:
- 9780691185514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691182711.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
This chapter analyzes Rimsky-Korsakov's creative crisis by considering his opera Mozart and Salieri. With Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov was compelled to interrogate directly—for the first time in his ...
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This chapter analyzes Rimsky-Korsakov's creative crisis by considering his opera Mozart and Salieri. With Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov was compelled to interrogate directly—for the first time in his life—the very core of his professional being, and so query the very grounds of composerly worthiness. Indeed, in his Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov summoned historical styles not to comment on history, but to confront the contemporaneity that appeared increasingly incapacitated by what he'd identified in 1892 as metaphysical excess, but what he was now coming to see as a more widespread ailment, “the indifference of taste”—the loss of familiar experiential connection, of active kinship between life and art. His opera did not just celebrate the creator sympathetically aligned with his environment; it offered an object lesson in the proliferation of sentience.Less
This chapter analyzes Rimsky-Korsakov's creative crisis by considering his opera Mozart and Salieri. With Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov was compelled to interrogate directly—for the first time in his life—the very core of his professional being, and so query the very grounds of composerly worthiness. Indeed, in his Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov summoned historical styles not to comment on history, but to confront the contemporaneity that appeared increasingly incapacitated by what he'd identified in 1892 as metaphysical excess, but what he was now coming to see as a more widespread ailment, “the indifference of taste”—the loss of familiar experiential connection, of active kinship between life and art. His opera did not just celebrate the creator sympathetically aligned with his environment; it offered an object lesson in the proliferation of sentience.
James Bohn
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496812148
- eISBN:
- 9781496812186
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496812148.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
Music in Disney’s Animated Features: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Jungle Book investigates how music functions in Disney Animated films. The book identifies several techniques used in a ...
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Music in Disney’s Animated Features: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Jungle Book investigates how music functions in Disney Animated films. The book identifies several techniques used in a number of Disney animated movies. In addition it also presents a history of music in Disney animated films, as well as biographical information on several of the Studios’ seminal composers. The popularity and critical acclaim of Disney animated features is built as much on music as it is on animation. From Steamboat Willie through Bambi, music is the organizing element of Disney’s animation. Songs that establish character and aid in narrative form the backbone of the Studios’ animated features from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs through The Jungle Book and beyond. In the course of their early animated features the Studios’ composers developed a number of techniques and models that have been used throughout their oeuvre. Instrumental instances of a given film’s songs are used to comment on various character’s thoughts, as well as on the plot and action. Songs featured in Disney films are often transitioned into or out of using rhymed, metered dialog, functioning in much the same way as recitative in opera. The book also explores the use of theme and variation technique, leitmotif, theatrical conventions, and song archetypes.Less
Music in Disney’s Animated Features: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Jungle Book investigates how music functions in Disney Animated films. The book identifies several techniques used in a number of Disney animated movies. In addition it also presents a history of music in Disney animated films, as well as biographical information on several of the Studios’ seminal composers. The popularity and critical acclaim of Disney animated features is built as much on music as it is on animation. From Steamboat Willie through Bambi, music is the organizing element of Disney’s animation. Songs that establish character and aid in narrative form the backbone of the Studios’ animated features from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs through The Jungle Book and beyond. In the course of their early animated features the Studios’ composers developed a number of techniques and models that have been used throughout their oeuvre. Instrumental instances of a given film’s songs are used to comment on various character’s thoughts, as well as on the plot and action. Songs featured in Disney films are often transitioned into or out of using rhymed, metered dialog, functioning in much the same way as recitative in opera. The book also explores the use of theme and variation technique, leitmotif, theatrical conventions, and song archetypes.
