Ahmed Abdel-Gawad
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789774164873
- eISBN:
- 9781617971099
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774164873.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
In the Nile Valley and desert oases south of Cairo—Upper Egypt—surviving domestic buildings from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries demonstrate a unique and varied strand of ...
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In the Nile Valley and desert oases south of Cairo—Upper Egypt—surviving domestic buildings from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries demonstrate a unique and varied strand of traditional decoration. Intricate patterns in wood, iron, or plaster adorn doorways, balconies, windows, and rooflines in towns and villages throughout the region. One of the most distinctive cultural features of these traditional homes is the decorated wooden balcony-screen—with jigsaw-cut patterns often based on creative repetitions, inversions, and mirrorings of the Arabic letter waw—which was designed to veil the residents from public view while allowing them to take the air and watch the outside world go by. Here, Ahmed Abdel-Gawad presents a wide range of these exuberant and largely unknown designs, in both photographs and detailed architectural drawings, for the use and appreciation of designers, decorators, artists, and lovers of vernacular architecture.Less
In the Nile Valley and desert oases south of Cairo—Upper Egypt—surviving domestic buildings from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries demonstrate a unique and varied strand of traditional decoration. Intricate patterns in wood, iron, or plaster adorn doorways, balconies, windows, and rooflines in towns and villages throughout the region. One of the most distinctive cultural features of these traditional homes is the decorated wooden balcony-screen—with jigsaw-cut patterns often based on creative repetitions, inversions, and mirrorings of the Arabic letter waw—which was designed to veil the residents from public view while allowing them to take the air and watch the outside world go by. Here, Ahmed Abdel-Gawad presents a wide range of these exuberant and largely unknown designs, in both photographs and detailed architectural drawings, for the use and appreciation of designers, decorators, artists, and lovers of vernacular architecture.
Clive Brown
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198161653
- eISBN:
- 9780191716263
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198161653.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
Despite the continuing interest in historically informed vocal and instrumental performance practice, the relationship between a composer's notation and the sounds it was intended to elicit remains ...
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Despite the continuing interest in historically informed vocal and instrumental performance practice, the relationship between a composer's notation and the sounds it was intended to elicit remains problematic. Early recordings reveal a strikingly different sound and style from modern practice, and written sources indicate that earlier practice was even more radically different. This book looks beyond modern responses to the notation in an attempt to understand how Classical and Romantic composers may have expected to hear their music realized in performance. Theories of accentuation and their relationship to practice are discussed in relation to the notation of accents and dynamics. Similarly, articulation and phrasing are examined in theory and practice as well as in relation to composers' articulation markings and slurs. String bowing is treated as a special case, since detailed bowing instructions provide particularly important evidence of the difference between historical and current practice. Aspects of tempo are covered in detail in four chapters: evolving tempo conventions, the impact of the metronome, the range of meanings of tempo terms, the practices of particular composers, and various types of tempo modification are examined. Changing attitudes to embellishment, ornamentation, and improvization during the period are discussed in general; and individual chapters examine particular issues relating to appoggiaturas, trills, turns and other ornaments, vibrato, and portamento. A final section deals with the fermata, recitative, arpeggiation in keyboard playing; the variable dot of prolongation and other aspects of rhythmic flexibility; and the conventions of ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ performance.Less
Despite the continuing interest in historically informed vocal and instrumental performance practice, the relationship between a composer's notation and the sounds it was intended to elicit remains problematic. Early recordings reveal a strikingly different sound and style from modern practice, and written sources indicate that earlier practice was even more radically different. This book looks beyond modern responses to the notation in an attempt to understand how Classical and Romantic composers may have expected to hear their music realized in performance. Theories of accentuation and their relationship to practice are discussed in relation to the notation of accents and dynamics. Similarly, articulation and phrasing are examined in theory and practice as well as in relation to composers' articulation markings and slurs. String bowing is treated as a special case, since detailed bowing instructions provide particularly important evidence of the difference between historical and current practice. Aspects of tempo are covered in detail in four chapters: evolving tempo conventions, the impact of the metronome, the range of meanings of tempo terms, the practices of particular composers, and various types of tempo modification are examined. Changing attitudes to embellishment, ornamentation, and improvization during the period are discussed in general; and individual chapters examine particular issues relating to appoggiaturas, trills, turns and other ornaments, vibrato, and portamento. A final section deals with the fermata, recitative, arpeggiation in keyboard playing; the variable dot of prolongation and other aspects of rhythmic flexibility; and the conventions of ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ performance.
Nicholas Cook
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195170566
- eISBN:
- 9780199871216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195170566.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
Music editing formed a key part of Schenker's programme to restore the values and practices of classical musical culture. Taking as its starting point Schenker's treatise on ornamentation (1903), ...
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Music editing formed a key part of Schenker's programme to restore the values and practices of classical musical culture. Taking as its starting point Schenker's treatise on ornamentation (1903), this chapter pursues an extended comparison between his work and the contemporary Viennese debate about ornamentation in the visual arts and particularly architecture: the aim is to set Schenker's thought in its broad cultural context and to locate the tension between its modernist and conservative dimensions. A similar tension can be found in the architectural and critical practice of Adolf Loos, while key aspects of Schenker's thought resonate with the writing of the art historian Aloïs Riegl.Less
Music editing formed a key part of Schenker's programme to restore the values and practices of classical musical culture. Taking as its starting point Schenker's treatise on ornamentation (1903), this chapter pursues an extended comparison between his work and the contemporary Viennese debate about ornamentation in the visual arts and particularly architecture: the aim is to set Schenker's thought in its broad cultural context and to locate the tension between its modernist and conservative dimensions. A similar tension can be found in the architectural and critical practice of Adolf Loos, while key aspects of Schenker's thought resonate with the writing of the art historian Aloïs Riegl.
Joel Lester
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195120974
- eISBN:
- 9780199865406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195120974.003.04
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The Siciliana lightens the tone of the G-minor Sonata with its dance-like rhythms (a siciliana being a dance related to the gigue) and with its looser construction into a series of parallel sections ...
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The Siciliana lightens the tone of the G-minor Sonata with its dance-like rhythms (a siciliana being a dance related to the gigue) and with its looser construction into a series of parallel sections with heightening activity, both within sections and in the recurrence of sections. Comparison with some other parallel-section movements by Bach in many genres (including the C-major Two-Part Invention, two movements of the Sonata in A major for Violin and Keyboard, and the first movement of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2) highlights the construction of this movement and the slow movements to the other solo-violin sonatas. All these slow movements welcome ornamentation.Less
The Siciliana lightens the tone of the G-minor Sonata with its dance-like rhythms (a siciliana being a dance related to the gigue) and with its looser construction into a series of parallel sections with heightening activity, both within sections and in the recurrence of sections. Comparison with some other parallel-section movements by Bach in many genres (including the C-major Two-Part Invention, two movements of the Sonata in A major for Violin and Keyboard, and the first movement of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2) highlights the construction of this movement and the slow movements to the other solo-violin sonatas. All these slow movements welcome ornamentation.
Joseph Herl
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195365849
- eISBN:
- 9780199864263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195365849.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the role of the organ changed from performing the liturgy in alternation with the choir to accompanying a singing congregation or choir. Organ accompaniment of ...
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Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the role of the organ changed from performing the liturgy in alternation with the choir to accompanying a singing congregation or choir. Organ accompaniment of hymns gave support to the people and encouraged them to sing, putting the final nail into the coffin of the choral liturgy among Lutherans. Genres of organ music included interludes (Zwischenspiele), preludes, and postludes; features of it included melodic ornamentation and text expression. In some localities, the length of the prelude was a cause for concern.Less
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the role of the organ changed from performing the liturgy in alternation with the choir to accompanying a singing congregation or choir. Organ accompaniment of hymns gave support to the people and encouraged them to sing, putting the final nail into the coffin of the choral liturgy among Lutherans. Genres of organ music included interludes (Zwischenspiele), preludes, and postludes; features of it included melodic ornamentation and text expression. In some localities, the length of the prelude was a cause for concern.
Bernard D. Sherman
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195169454
- eISBN:
- 9780199865017
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195169454.003.0014
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
George Frideric Handel was the first composer in history whose works never fell out of the concert repertory. But despite the reverence for him, only a little of his music was actually performed in ...
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George Frideric Handel was the first composer in history whose works never fell out of the concert repertory. But despite the reverence for him, only a little of his music was actually performed in the 19th century. Messiah was one of them, of course, sung with increasingly gargantuan choruses and orchestras, and so were Samson, Israel in Egypt, and Judas Maccabeus. But such masterpieces as Theodora, Giulio Cesare, Jephtha, Orlando, and L’Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato occupied few beyond the occasional scholar. The coincidence of the Handel revival with the historical-performance movement has raised a number of issues. A more basic issue is the works themselves. When certain works by a widely revered composer are almost never played, one might be forgiven for suspecting that these works are of lesser quality. Such suspicions have faded in recent decades, but doubts about the stageworthiness of the operas persist. This chapter presents an interview with Nicholas McGegan on Handel, use of countertenors for the operatic roles written by Handel for castrati, early music singing in Handel, improvisation with Baroque orchestras, ornamentation in Handel’s works, harmony, rubato, Handel’s rhythmic notation, technical perfection, period pronunciation in English-language oratorios, and overdotting.Less
George Frideric Handel was the first composer in history whose works never fell out of the concert repertory. But despite the reverence for him, only a little of his music was actually performed in the 19th century. Messiah was one of them, of course, sung with increasingly gargantuan choruses and orchestras, and so were Samson, Israel in Egypt, and Judas Maccabeus. But such masterpieces as Theodora, Giulio Cesare, Jephtha, Orlando, and L’Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato occupied few beyond the occasional scholar. The coincidence of the Handel revival with the historical-performance movement has raised a number of issues. A more basic issue is the works themselves. When certain works by a widely revered composer are almost never played, one might be forgiven for suspecting that these works are of lesser quality. Such suspicions have faded in recent decades, but doubts about the stageworthiness of the operas persist. This chapter presents an interview with Nicholas McGegan on Handel, use of countertenors for the operatic roles written by Handel for castrati, early music singing in Handel, improvisation with Baroque orchestras, ornamentation in Handel’s works, harmony, rubato, Handel’s rhythmic notation, technical perfection, period pronunciation in English-language oratorios, and overdotting.
Sean Williams and Lillis Ó Laoire
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195321180
- eISBN:
- 9780199893713
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195321180.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music, History, American
Joe Heaney came from a regional tradition with a particular style of singing that included complex practices of ornamentation and close attention to poetic rhythm and meter. His performance practice ...
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Joe Heaney came from a regional tradition with a particular style of singing that included complex practices of ornamentation and close attention to poetic rhythm and meter. His performance practice brought those features into public notice both at home and in the United States, whether he sang in the Irish language or in English. This chapter explains some of the governing features of Heaney's choices in ornamentation and performance practice. Heaney's song lyrics often featured aspects of metaphor and implication. Because part of his intention was to instruct his audience members and students on proper performance style, he insisted that using a vocal vibrato was inappropriate; his own voice, however, had a vibrato. In addition, though he presented himself as an Irish-language singer, most of his songs performed in the United States were in the English language.Less
Joe Heaney came from a regional tradition with a particular style of singing that included complex practices of ornamentation and close attention to poetic rhythm and meter. His performance practice brought those features into public notice both at home and in the United States, whether he sang in the Irish language or in English. This chapter explains some of the governing features of Heaney's choices in ornamentation and performance practice. Heaney's song lyrics often featured aspects of metaphor and implication. Because part of his intention was to instruct his audience members and students on proper performance style, he insisted that using a vocal vibrato was inappropriate; his own voice, however, had a vibrato. In addition, though he presented himself as an Irish-language singer, most of his songs performed in the United States were in the English language.
Martin Clayton
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195339680
- eISBN:
- 9780199851935
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195339680.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter tries to apply the distinction between rāg-oriented (melismatic) development and text-oriented (syllabic) development by analyzing vocal and instrumental performance. The main categories ...
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This chapter tries to apply the distinction between rāg-oriented (melismatic) development and text-oriented (syllabic) development by analyzing vocal and instrumental performance. The main categories of development in vocal music are: ālāp, the quasi-free rhythm exposition of the rāg, bol banāo and bol bānt, both defined as operations carried out on the text; and tāns of various kinds. The specific techniques used, and their progression, depends on genre and individual style. Development in instrumentalgats is generally underpinned by the syllabic structure of the composition. In rāg development, this structure is concealed by the use of melismatic ornamentation or syncopation, but is still detectable.Less
This chapter tries to apply the distinction between rāg-oriented (melismatic) development and text-oriented (syllabic) development by analyzing vocal and instrumental performance. The main categories of development in vocal music are: ālāp, the quasi-free rhythm exposition of the rāg, bol banāo and bol bānt, both defined as operations carried out on the text; and tāns of various kinds. The specific techniques used, and their progression, depends on genre and individual style. Development in instrumentalgats is generally underpinned by the syllabic structure of the composition. In rāg development, this structure is concealed by the use of melismatic ornamentation or syncopation, but is still detectable.
Theo Davis
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190467517
- eISBN:
- 9780190467531
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190467517.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
This book argues that ornamental aesthetics are central to the writing of Thoreau, Dickinson, and Whitman. It explores the stakes of such an ornamental aesthetics through a parallel investigation of ...
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This book argues that ornamental aesthetics are central to the writing of Thoreau, Dickinson, and Whitman. It explores the stakes of such an ornamental aesthetics through a parallel investigation of the ornamental aspects of Heidegger’s phenomenological philosophy. It advances a new theory of ornament as a practice of attending, honoring, and noticing, in contrast to more familiar theories in which materiality, handcrafting, or historical grounding are emphasized. Literary criticism and theory are largely organized around a representational core, in which materially embodied forms are interpreted for their underlying meaning; in contrast, ornamental poetics and aesthetics shift the attention to how persons notice, come into contact with, and elaborate interest in objects, ideas, and experiences. Connecting phenomenology, theories of ornamental poetry and rhetoric, and references to Buddhist teaching, the book argues for the central, rich, and undetermined quality of the immediate experiences of aesthetic attending that ornamentation yields. At the same time, it insists on the non-self-evident qualities of such immediate aesthetic experiences, and critiques the emphasis on surface in critical approaches emphasizing readerly non-intervention. It argues against the antihumanism and materialism of much literary criticism, and offers ornamentation as a means to retheorize the centrality of immediate experience to the field of literary studies.Less
This book argues that ornamental aesthetics are central to the writing of Thoreau, Dickinson, and Whitman. It explores the stakes of such an ornamental aesthetics through a parallel investigation of the ornamental aspects of Heidegger’s phenomenological philosophy. It advances a new theory of ornament as a practice of attending, honoring, and noticing, in contrast to more familiar theories in which materiality, handcrafting, or historical grounding are emphasized. Literary criticism and theory are largely organized around a representational core, in which materially embodied forms are interpreted for their underlying meaning; in contrast, ornamental poetics and aesthetics shift the attention to how persons notice, come into contact with, and elaborate interest in objects, ideas, and experiences. Connecting phenomenology, theories of ornamental poetry and rhetoric, and references to Buddhist teaching, the book argues for the central, rich, and undetermined quality of the immediate experiences of aesthetic attending that ornamentation yields. At the same time, it insists on the non-self-evident qualities of such immediate aesthetic experiences, and critiques the emphasis on surface in critical approaches emphasizing readerly non-intervention. It argues against the antihumanism and materialism of much literary criticism, and offers ornamentation as a means to retheorize the centrality of immediate experience to the field of literary studies.
Simon Morgan Wortham and Gary Hall
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823228140
- eISBN:
- 9780823240975
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823228140.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The subtle, but precarious delineation of the aesthetic idea came to a head later with the advent of modernist abstraction in the twentieth century. At once, the fine line between modern abstract art ...
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The subtle, but precarious delineation of the aesthetic idea came to a head later with the advent of modernist abstraction in the twentieth century. At once, the fine line between modern abstract art and design patterns or ornamentation appeared to have become frayed — meaning that the fine line between autonomous, purposeless art and purposeful design was not always readily apparent. At such moments, the recourse to Kantian formulations became quite pronounced in criticism, even though Kantian philosophy was rarely examined in any detail. In a general survey of art of the 1960s, Thomas Crow asserts that the vital issue for formalist accounts of art was the assumption that abstract painting — in contrast to design or ornamentation — constitutes an “expressive communication” between an artist and a “contemplative spectator.”Less
The subtle, but precarious delineation of the aesthetic idea came to a head later with the advent of modernist abstraction in the twentieth century. At once, the fine line between modern abstract art and design patterns or ornamentation appeared to have become frayed — meaning that the fine line between autonomous, purposeless art and purposeful design was not always readily apparent. At such moments, the recourse to Kantian formulations became quite pronounced in criticism, even though Kantian philosophy was rarely examined in any detail. In a general survey of art of the 1960s, Thomas Crow asserts that the vital issue for formalist accounts of art was the assumption that abstract painting — in contrast to design or ornamentation — constitutes an “expressive communication” between an artist and a “contemplative spectator.”
Russell Stinson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199917235
- eISBN:
- 9780199980321
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199917235.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Performing Practice/Studies, History, Western
This chapter investigates Bach's use of the “varied Stollen” in over twenty of his chorale preludes. He tended to employ this technique during his youth and early adulthood, when he was composing ...
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This chapter investigates Bach's use of the “varied Stollen” in over twenty of his chorale preludes. He tended to employ this technique during his youth and early adulthood, when he was composing under the influence of the North German organ school, and he utilized it in highly diverse and imaginative ways. For the most part, the compositional procedures involved are ornamentation, re-harmonization, invertible counterpoint, and the migration of the chorale tune from one voice to another.Less
This chapter investigates Bach's use of the “varied Stollen” in over twenty of his chorale preludes. He tended to employ this technique during his youth and early adulthood, when he was composing under the influence of the North German organ school, and he utilized it in highly diverse and imaginative ways. For the most part, the compositional procedures involved are ornamentation, re-harmonization, invertible counterpoint, and the migration of the chorale tune from one voice to another.
William K. Hayes, Ronald L. Carter, Martin Wikelski, and Jeffrey A. Sonnentag
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520238541
- eISBN:
- 9780520930117
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520238541.003.0012
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology
This chapter discusses the lek mating system of marine iguanas. Marine iguanas along the coastlines of the Galápagos Islands exhibit a lek mating system in which males cluster during the mating ...
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This chapter discusses the lek mating system of marine iguanas. Marine iguanas along the coastlines of the Galápagos Islands exhibit a lek mating system in which males cluster during the mating season and defend small, symbolic territories that lack material resources. This chapter identifies possible criteria females might use to evaluate male quality. It examines the contribution of behavior, body size, condition, ornamentation, and ectoparasite load to relative mating success.Less
This chapter discusses the lek mating system of marine iguanas. Marine iguanas along the coastlines of the Galápagos Islands exhibit a lek mating system in which males cluster during the mating season and defend small, symbolic territories that lack material resources. This chapter identifies possible criteria females might use to evaluate male quality. It examines the contribution of behavior, body size, condition, ornamentation, and ectoparasite load to relative mating success.
Luca Giuliani
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226297651
- eISBN:
- 9780226025902
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226025902.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, History of Art: pre-history, BCE to 500CE, ancient and classical, Byzantine
This chapter describes the decline in the production of red-figure vases and the shift to the manufacture and successful export of a type of black-glazed ceramics closely resembling metal vessels. ...
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This chapter describes the decline in the production of red-figure vases and the shift to the manufacture and successful export of a type of black-glazed ceramics closely resembling metal vessels. Prosperous clients now increasingly came to prefer vessels made of bronze or silver, while less prosperous clients had to make do with ceramic copies. As a rule, these copies feature a monochromatic slip without figured decoration; embellishments are limited to plant motifs, wreaths, and tendrils, which hardly require interpretation. Even those who used the vessels would have had no reason to regard this ornamentation as a basis for telling stories. Ceramics featuring figured ornamentation were extremely rare in Hellenistic Greece. The majority of finds come from Macedonia and Thessaly, and Macedonia, where casting molds for the production of such vessels have also been found, was probably home to the most important production centers.Less
This chapter describes the decline in the production of red-figure vases and the shift to the manufacture and successful export of a type of black-glazed ceramics closely resembling metal vessels. Prosperous clients now increasingly came to prefer vessels made of bronze or silver, while less prosperous clients had to make do with ceramic copies. As a rule, these copies feature a monochromatic slip without figured decoration; embellishments are limited to plant motifs, wreaths, and tendrils, which hardly require interpretation. Even those who used the vessels would have had no reason to regard this ornamentation as a basis for telling stories. Ceramics featuring figured ornamentation were extremely rare in Hellenistic Greece. The majority of finds come from Macedonia and Thessaly, and Macedonia, where casting molds for the production of such vessels have also been found, was probably home to the most important production centers.
Nancy Yunhwa Rao
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040566
- eISBN:
- 9780252099007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040566.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
Cantonese opera aria was a primary form of musical utterance in Chinatowns in the 1920s. They were heard not only at theaters but also as aria song on phonograph records at laundries, canneries, or ...
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Cantonese opera aria was a primary form of musical utterance in Chinatowns in the 1920s. They were heard not only at theaters but also as aria song on phonograph records at laundries, canneries, or stores, or through life performance at clubhouses of family associations. As an introduction to this sound world, this chapter examines a popular aria from that decade: Li Xuefang’s “Shilin Jita” from Madame White Snake. The lyrics are comprised of couplets of ten-syllable verses, and the aria is a fanxian erhuang type. Focusing on the transcription of a historical recording, the chapter delves into analyses of the relationship between text and music, the phrase structures, mode, ornamentation styles, rhythmic scheme, etc. Two versions of the same arias are also compared. A discussion of vocal sliding tones at the end of the chapter points to additional consideration of the singing style typical of Cantonese opera singing. While this chapter focuses on a single aria from a large body of repertoire, it nevertheless introduces important aspects of the musical characteristics and aesthetics of Cantonese opera in the 1920s.Less
Cantonese opera aria was a primary form of musical utterance in Chinatowns in the 1920s. They were heard not only at theaters but also as aria song on phonograph records at laundries, canneries, or stores, or through life performance at clubhouses of family associations. As an introduction to this sound world, this chapter examines a popular aria from that decade: Li Xuefang’s “Shilin Jita” from Madame White Snake. The lyrics are comprised of couplets of ten-syllable verses, and the aria is a fanxian erhuang type. Focusing on the transcription of a historical recording, the chapter delves into analyses of the relationship between text and music, the phrase structures, mode, ornamentation styles, rhythmic scheme, etc. Two versions of the same arias are also compared. A discussion of vocal sliding tones at the end of the chapter points to additional consideration of the singing style typical of Cantonese opera singing. While this chapter focuses on a single aria from a large body of repertoire, it nevertheless introduces important aspects of the musical characteristics and aesthetics of Cantonese opera in the 1920s.
Philip Gossett
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226304823
- eISBN:
- 9780226304885
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226304885.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
This book is an account of how opera comes to the stage, filled with the author's personal experiences of triumphant—and even failed—performances, and suffused with his passion for music. Writing as ...
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This book is an account of how opera comes to the stage, filled with the author's personal experiences of triumphant—and even failed—performances, and suffused with his passion for music. Writing as a fan, a musician, and a scholar, the author brings to life the problems, and occasionally the scandals, that attend the production of some of our favorite operas. The book begins by tracing the social history of nineteenth-century Italian theaters in order to explain the nature of the musical scores from which performers have long worked. It then illuminates the often hidden but crucial negotiations between opera scholars, opera conductors, and performers: What does it mean to talk about performing from a critical edition? How does one determine what music to perform when multiple versions of an opera exist? What are the implications of omitting passages from an opera in a performance? In addition to vexing questions such as these, the author also tackles issues of ornamentation and transposition in vocal style, the matters of translation and adaptation, and even aspects of stage direction and set design. Throughout this work, the text enlivens a personal history with reports personal own experiences with major opera companies at venues ranging from the Metropolitan and Santa Fe operas to the Rossini Opera Festival at Pesaro.Less
This book is an account of how opera comes to the stage, filled with the author's personal experiences of triumphant—and even failed—performances, and suffused with his passion for music. Writing as a fan, a musician, and a scholar, the author brings to life the problems, and occasionally the scandals, that attend the production of some of our favorite operas. The book begins by tracing the social history of nineteenth-century Italian theaters in order to explain the nature of the musical scores from which performers have long worked. It then illuminates the often hidden but crucial negotiations between opera scholars, opera conductors, and performers: What does it mean to talk about performing from a critical edition? How does one determine what music to perform when multiple versions of an opera exist? What are the implications of omitting passages from an opera in a performance? In addition to vexing questions such as these, the author also tackles issues of ornamentation and transposition in vocal style, the matters of translation and adaptation, and even aspects of stage direction and set design. Throughout this work, the text enlivens a personal history with reports personal own experiences with major opera companies at venues ranging from the Metropolitan and Santa Fe operas to the Rossini Opera Festival at Pesaro.
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226304823
- eISBN:
- 9780226304885
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226304885.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
A completed opera would be rehearsed for about a month. In dire circumstances, rehearsals would begin before the last act had been drafted. Composers often tailored their scores to the abilities of ...
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A completed opera would be rehearsed for about a month. In dire circumstances, rehearsals would begin before the last act had been drafted. Composers often tailored their scores to the abilities of their singers and made many modifications for artistic reasons, independent of the predilections of individual singers. Revision and polishing continued throughout the rehearsal period, often creating confusion in the subsequent transmission of an opera. The texts transmitted through written sources do not embody the performance traditions. Only rarely does a particular reworking of an opera, by later performers, become part of a continuous written record, although some transmitted reworking has had a pernicious influence on the history of a work. The occasional publication of an aria with the ornamentation of a favorite singer almost never influenced the text of the work from which the aria was taken.Less
A completed opera would be rehearsed for about a month. In dire circumstances, rehearsals would begin before the last act had been drafted. Composers often tailored their scores to the abilities of their singers and made many modifications for artistic reasons, independent of the predilections of individual singers. Revision and polishing continued throughout the rehearsal period, often creating confusion in the subsequent transmission of an opera. The texts transmitted through written sources do not embody the performance traditions. Only rarely does a particular reworking of an opera, by later performers, become part of a continuous written record, although some transmitted reworking has had a pernicious influence on the history of a work. The occasional publication of an aria with the ornamentation of a favorite singer almost never influenced the text of the work from which the aria was taken.
Julie S. Field and Windy K. McElroy
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824839895
- eISBN:
- 9780824868369
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824839895.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
This chapter examines artifacts of shell, bone, and invertebrate ornaments from Nuʻalolo Kai. The ornaments from the Bishop Museum's 1958–1964 archaeological excavations at Nuʻalolo Kai total almost ...
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This chapter examines artifacts of shell, bone, and invertebrate ornaments from Nuʻalolo Kai. The ornaments from the Bishop Museum's 1958–1964 archaeological excavations at Nuʻalolo Kai total almost 650 items, making it the largest known archaeological collection from Hawaiʻi. Made primarily from marine shell, bone, ivory, and mammal tooth, the collection has the potential to offer important insights into the diversity of ornamentation, especially the use of animal-derived materials. Several artifacts retain their original fiber cordage. This chapter provides a classification and analysis of beads and pendants made from shell, bone, tooth, and echinoderm spine from Nuʻalolo Kai. The artifacts include shell ornaments, dog tooth ornaments, pig tooth ornaments, and whale ivory ornaments. The chapter also discusses ornamentation throughout the history of Nuʻalolo Kai.Less
This chapter examines artifacts of shell, bone, and invertebrate ornaments from Nuʻalolo Kai. The ornaments from the Bishop Museum's 1958–1964 archaeological excavations at Nuʻalolo Kai total almost 650 items, making it the largest known archaeological collection from Hawaiʻi. Made primarily from marine shell, bone, ivory, and mammal tooth, the collection has the potential to offer important insights into the diversity of ornamentation, especially the use of animal-derived materials. Several artifacts retain their original fiber cordage. This chapter provides a classification and analysis of beads and pendants made from shell, bone, tooth, and echinoderm spine from Nuʻalolo Kai. The artifacts include shell ornaments, dog tooth ornaments, pig tooth ornaments, and whale ivory ornaments. The chapter also discusses ornamentation throughout the history of Nuʻalolo Kai.
Dennis Shrock
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- July 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190469023
- eISBN:
- 9780190469061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190469023.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Historical discussion focuses on the lineage of the Bach family, compositions determined by circumstances of employment, the composition of Lutheran Masses, the possible rationale for composing a ...
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Historical discussion focuses on the lineage of the Bach family, compositions determined by circumstances of employment, the composition of Lutheran Masses, the possible rationale for composing a Catholic Mass, and the history of the B Minor Mass in terms of manuscripts, performances, and editions. Musical discussion focuses on parody technique, the assemblage of four disparate units of composition into the B Minor Mass, comparisons of stile antico and stile moderno characteristics of the Mass, and formal and musical structures of the Mass, with special attention to structural balance and mirror dispositions. Performance practices include singers and instrumentalists and their arrangements in performance, meter as it affects tempo, rhythmic alteration, and ornamentation.Less
Historical discussion focuses on the lineage of the Bach family, compositions determined by circumstances of employment, the composition of Lutheran Masses, the possible rationale for composing a Catholic Mass, and the history of the B Minor Mass in terms of manuscripts, performances, and editions. Musical discussion focuses on parody technique, the assemblage of four disparate units of composition into the B Minor Mass, comparisons of stile antico and stile moderno characteristics of the Mass, and formal and musical structures of the Mass, with special attention to structural balance and mirror dispositions. Performance practices include singers and instrumentalists and their arrangements in performance, meter as it affects tempo, rhythmic alteration, and ornamentation.
Dennis Shrock
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- July 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190469023
- eISBN:
- 9780190469061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190469023.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Messiah is discussed in reference to Handel’s operas, other choral works in general, and other oratorios in specific, with focus on the librettos. Additional historic information covers the premiere ...
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Messiah is discussed in reference to Handel’s operas, other choral works in general, and other oratorios in specific, with focus on the librettos. Additional historic information covers the premiere of Messiah, audience reactions, and subsequent performances, including the beginning of its popularity after performances in the Foundling Hospital Chapel and large-scale and re-orchestrated festival performances in the 1780s. Musical topics address Handel’s compositional process (e.g., speed of writing, parody of previously composed works, and revision of works from performance to performance) and factors of musical organization. Performance practices issues include vocal and instrumental timbre, pitch, vibrato, metric accentuation, rhythmic alteration, recitative, and ornamentation.Less
Messiah is discussed in reference to Handel’s operas, other choral works in general, and other oratorios in specific, with focus on the librettos. Additional historic information covers the premiere of Messiah, audience reactions, and subsequent performances, including the beginning of its popularity after performances in the Foundling Hospital Chapel and large-scale and re-orchestrated festival performances in the 1780s. Musical topics address Handel’s compositional process (e.g., speed of writing, parody of previously composed works, and revision of works from performance to performance) and factors of musical organization. Performance practices issues include vocal and instrumental timbre, pitch, vibrato, metric accentuation, rhythmic alteration, recitative, and ornamentation.
Geoffrey E. Hill
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- June 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198818250
- eISBN:
- 9780191859465
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198818250.003.0008
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
At each new generation, sexual reproduction creates new combinations of nuclear and mitochondrial genes, and the potential arises for mitonuclear incompatibilities and reduced fitness. Sexual ...
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At each new generation, sexual reproduction creates new combinations of nuclear and mitochondrial genes, and the potential arises for mitonuclear incompatibilities and reduced fitness. Sexual selection plays a key role in maintaining mitonuclear coadaptation across generations because it enables pre-zygotic sorting for coadapted mitonuclear genotypes. In this chapter, I present data that individuals engaged in mate choice select partners with correct species-typical mitochondrial and nuclear genotypes as well as individuals with highly functional cellular respiration. The implication is that mate choice for compatible nuclear and mitochondrial genes can play a significant role in generating the patterns of ornamentation and preferences observed in animals.Less
At each new generation, sexual reproduction creates new combinations of nuclear and mitochondrial genes, and the potential arises for mitonuclear incompatibilities and reduced fitness. Sexual selection plays a key role in maintaining mitonuclear coadaptation across generations because it enables pre-zygotic sorting for coadapted mitonuclear genotypes. In this chapter, I present data that individuals engaged in mate choice select partners with correct species-typical mitochondrial and nuclear genotypes as well as individuals with highly functional cellular respiration. The implication is that mate choice for compatible nuclear and mitochondrial genes can play a significant role in generating the patterns of ornamentation and preferences observed in animals.
