Search Results

This chapter delves into aspects of music style and performance practice in the California missions, including canto llano (plainchant), canto figurado (accompanied homophony in a steady meter), canto de órgano (vocal polyphony in a steady meter), and música moderna or estilo moderno (roughly equivalent in style to Baroque or Classical music). In discussing plainchant, a comparison is made between Gregorian chant and the Mozarabic tradition emanating from Toledo, paying particular attention to chant books in the friars' possession. The chapter explains how Narciso Durán attempted to reduce the chant repertoire to a handful of reusable tunes. The choice of instruments and type of accompaniments that the friars employed are discussed in detail. Ultimately, the chapter explores the characteristics of the mission style—not only as seen in California but also as it developed in the Jesuit and Franciscan missions throughout the Americas.

This chapter discusses the importation and reproduction of European music in Manila and the Philippines, examining evidence of the transmission of commodities such as music scores, music treatises, and musical instruments. It reveals that many travelers to the colony possessed practical and theoretical skills in music—including composition, performance, and instrument building—which contributed to the creation of a colonial musical culture. European music, once it had taken root in Manila, became a powerful tool in the Spanish colonialists' pursuits of trade, diplomacy, and proselytization in the Asia‐Pacific region, and evidence illustrating this phenomenon is evaluated. The chapter also explores the cultural ramifications of the British occupation of Manila (1762–1764), giving examples of English musical practices that were introduced to the capital and then disseminated relatively rapidly to distant parts of the Philippine Archipelago.

Although never an easy feat, tracing the connections between sounds, spaces and objects becomes easier the higher up the social scale one goes in the Early Modern period. The survival of documentary and material evidence helps to identify musical repertories that were known to have been performed in specific spaces on particular instruments. Given the lack of comparative sources at lower social levels, is it possible to establish relationships between these three elements in non-courtly contexts? This chapter considers non-courtly ‘music-rooms’, addressing how practical material and conceptual motivations forged links between music and domestic space in this period. It goes on to examine broader, perhaps unexpected, connections between musical sound and the material culture of the Early Modern domestic interior.

Visual representation of instruments and musical practice has long been integral to the study of the iconology and archaeology of early music. Critical to any assessment of such evidence is an understanding of the authority of the artist, and his/her knowledge and degree of participation in musical culture. Contemporary sources reveal that music played a variety of roles in the lives and public perception of the Renaissance artists. Its most tangible manifestation was that of the artist-musician, of whom Leonardo da Vinci is one of the best-known examples. An association with courtliness was one of several markers of status conferred by musical practice. This chapter investigates the domestic setting of the artist, whether in a courtly environment or in a republic, to develop themes of the social elevation of the artist, entertainment and performance, as well as creativity.

This chapter considers the role of music and dance in the definition of identity by families and individuals in Renaissance Venice, with particular reference to the use of domestic space for music-making. The integration of music into its social and architectural context is discussed in terms of the class identity of different groups. The contexts range from domestic entertainment to family festivities such as marriages. The chapter goes on to explore the kinds of music-making in different spaces in the Venetian dwelling, in terms of the size and loudness of the instrument; the type of music performed; and the size, function and decoration of the room. During the sixteenth century, increasingly specialised rooms were created for music-making, often linked to theatrical performance and/or dance. In parallel, the employment of professional musicians by elite families began to supersede amateur participation on important festive occasions.

This chapter investigates the locations and modes of musical performance in the residences of the nobility in seventeenth-century Rome, indicating the differences between this period and the Renaissance. In particular, instances of music-making in the courts of princes and cardinals are identified and described, in relation to considerations of etiquette, social conventions and anthropology. This research, based on first-hand documentary research in the archives of Roman noble families, has revealed unexpected locations for music-making, which cannot always be justified in terms of acoustic or aesthetic criteria. Particular attention is paid to the places where instruments were stored, as recorded in inventories, and their typology.

This chapter examines the tensions between the sacred and profane in attitudes towards the art of music as manifested in Venetian Renaissance painting. Choirs of pious music-making angels playing a variety of musical instruments were a notable feature of Venetian altarpieces from the fourteenth century on. And yet, by the early years of the sixteenth century, these concerts of sacred music were eclipsed by secular images of flute-playing shepherds and lute-strumming youths. While household inventories tell us that musical instruments played a central role in family congeniality, paintings of the time also associate musical performance with ladies of dubious respectability. Thus, while music was treasured for its spiritual enlightenment and contribution to refined domesticity, it was also suspect because of its seductive sensuality.

In music ontology, “pure” formalists regard musical works as “colorless” sound structures. One alternative, known as timbral sonicism, accepts that a musical work's orchestral color is a factor in its identity, but denies that the use of the specified instruments is required for an authentic rendition of the work provided that sounds as of those instruments is achieved. This position has been defended by Julian Dodd. In arguing against his view, I appeal to empirical work showing that composers, musicians, and listeners typically hear through music to the actions that go into its production. In this respect, musical listening reflects the standard account of “ecological hearing”; we appreciate sounds as providing information about their sources rather than for their intrinsic qualities. On this basis, I suggest that musical instruments are not merely means to the production of the sounds of performances; their use is mandated if such performances are to be properly formed. More specifically, when composers are able to make the instrumentation of their compositions central to the identity of those compositions, accurate performances must involve the appropriate use of the specified instruments.

This chapter discusses students' ways of using cultural tools in aural-based and notation-based instrumental music lessons. It examines two teachers' ways of working — one in a notation-based music environment, the other in an aural-based music environment — in order to illustrate the complex interplay between, and varying functions of, tools and artefacts such as notated (printed scores) and aural (performances) presentations of musical works. It considers the ways in which these teachers draw on their knowledge as culture bearers of the musical (Western classical music and Zimbabwean marimba ensemble respectively) and pedagogical (Suzuki piano instruction and aural-based group teaching) traditions within which they work, in order to use notated, aural, and embodied presentations of the music to prompt student thought and practical activity. In these environments, the teachers use student performances as cultural tools for reflection and understanding in their own learning as teachers, as well as that of their students. The chapter also illustrates the varying functions a musical instrument might play in students' learning, as, for example, a mechanical tool for practising or experiencing specific aspects of technique, or as a cultural tool for the expression of musical meaning.

This chapter presents the reflective musical life-story of Tristram. His musical life seems to capture what the changing self might look or sound like musically, from his early sampling of musical instruments, his rejection of drumkit ‘coolness’, his strong sense of being a mallet percussionist, his impressive journey as a bassoon player and composer, only to make a dramatic realignment as a young adult as an aspiring writer, dancer, and singer, having rejected instrumental music almost entirely — for the time being.

Form and content give rise to the question of function in the Saletta delle Dame of the Palazzo Salvadego. It is a uniquely decorated space in which frescos cover the four walls, treating the viewer to an all-round vista of the countryside. Mediating between illusion and reality are eight life-size depictions of women in contemporary dress, whom, set in pairs behind a fictive balustrade, focus their attention towards the centre of the room. In the vaulted ceiling are painted musical instruments, suggesting a possible use for this space. The decorative effect is unlike any other room from this period. This chapter explores the imagery of the Saletta and considers its function within the broader context of frescoed Italian Renaissance rooms.

Singing and meditating upon hymns has been a characteristic of Methodism since its beginning. Hymnals functioned both as prayer books and as theological primers; changing patterns and emphases in the organization of the official hymnals testify to shifts in perspectives, piety, and practices. The evolution of the hymn books, tune books, and music practices also reveal a tendency to adapt to the broader culture, though these changes did not come without controversy. Prohibitions against the use of choirs (in favor of congregational singing) and musical instruments were soon relaxed, and various popular musical styles were adopted.

This chapter considers music-making and the material culture of music in the French domestic interior (1500–1600) with the primary aims of outlining the field; discussing the context for entertaining, particularly in châteaux; as well as investigating the kind of music-related objects found in houses. Châteaux and other élite domestic settings often housed vibrant households, with music as a key part of inhabitants' leisure activities. From services in the chapel to banquets in the great hall, music was a common feature of privileged life. The chapter falls into two halves. First, it discusses the use of inventories in investigating music in châteaux, looking at the range of documents available dating from the sixteenth century, their limitations and, finally, the evidence they offer. Secondly, it takes the grande salle as a case study and examines the use of music as entertainment in this space.

This chapter takes a look at the social and political environment of the nineteenth century and how this affected the production of classical music as well as the manufacturing and sales of musical instruments. During this period, musical instruments had become tradable commodities, manufactured and sold in large quantities. This was due partly to the expansion of the middle class, which led to more fragmented patterns of musical consumption. These changes, however,were experienced mostly in Paris, which became the centre of instrument manufacturing during this period—and the reason why Adolphe Sax wanted to permanently establish himself there. Patents for brass and wind instruments also increased in popularity in the years 1840–70. The impact all this had on instrument manufacturing was significant, and Sax's factory was granted the saxophone patent by 1846. The chapter thus explores how the saxophone emerged during this period of industrial growth.

The lute was the instrument on which the luthiers and string-makers of the past expended the greatest effort in order to achieve the best possible acoustic balance between the instrument and its strings. Formidable skills in the design and making of instruments were necessitated by the low tension of the strings, the sound produced simply by plucking with the fingers (rather than stroking with the bow) and the huge difference in frequency between the highest and lowest strings (especially in the versions with ten or eleven strings on the same fingerboard). The lute-makers of the Renaissance designed their instruments starting from the mechanical and acoustic properties of the strings, rather from the characteristics of existing instruments. It can thus be asserted that the lute guaranteed its success thanks to the best possible reconciliation of certain variables, in order to achieve the optimum balance between the rules of statics and acoustics.

The years 1760 to 1840 are usually associated with the Industrial Revolution. They also encompassed a series of significant musical developments that led from Galant music to the Romantic/Canonic aesthetic. During this period, every kind of musical instrument underwent a fundamental transformation from the Baroque type to the Romantic. String instruments were rebuilt, mainly in order to make them louder and reduce the overtones, giving them a rounder, thicker sound. Woodwinds were redesigned so that each semitone was played with its own dedicated tone hole; this meant adding keys to close those holes when they were not used. The general system of tuning changed fundamentally, as leading tones became high rather than low and a new simplifying universal tuning, equal temperament, became common. This chapter discusses Period instruments and the influence of musical instruments on performing style, violins, and hardware and software for Period instruments.

This chapter traces the accordion's history from its arrival at Colombia's Atlantic shores to its ubiquitous presence in popular vallenato music. Accordions and harmonicas were assimilated into local musical culture as early as the 1860s, combined with scrapers or other rhythm and percussion instruments, such as the triangle and side drum. Trading routes along the main rivers into the interior of the country allowed for the dispersion of accordions and their music during the economic boom in the tobacco-, banana-, and coffee-growing zones. With vallenato's increasing national popularity in the mid-1980s, the accordion, which was firmly rooted in the lower strata, needed a new social veneer. Soap-opera actor and vallenato accordionist and singer Carlos Vives' international success in the mid-1990s reached a level of visibility that validated the music, despite vallenato's infamous and unbroken connection with the Colombian mafia.