Correction to: When Prevention Makes Good Music

We are often told that there is to-day a promising efflorescence of musical culture in this country; that the public for ‘good’ music is growing rapidly; and that more adequate provision must be made for music in the post-war reconstructed world. Substantially I believe all this is true; but it does also seem to me that much potential cultural vitality may be wasted if these conclusions are accepted too easily, without enquiry into the premisses on which they are based. What do we mean by musical culture? What do we expect music to give us? The mere quantity of music played tells us nothing; we want to know what kind of relation the noise has to the society that produces it, we want to know what bearing it has on the way people live. If we look back a moment to consider some of the things that music has meant to people living before us, we shall soon see that our problems are peculiarly difficult, and that we may well need a virtually new technique to deal with them. A refusal to see our educational problems against the background of history will lead to confusion and incompetence in musical culture as in everything else.

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FromThere's Magic in MusictoThe Hard-Boiled Canary: Promoting “Good Music” in Prewar Musical Films

Journal of the Society for American Music ◽

10.1017/s1752196318000068 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 151-178

Author(s):

GINA BOMBOLA

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

The United States ◽

Transitional Period ◽

Film Production ◽

World War ◽

Star Power ◽

The Great Depression ◽

Archival Documents ◽

Wide Debate ◽

Good Music

AbstractIn 1941, Paramount releasedThere's Magic in Music, a film about a soprano who sings opera in burlesque and wins a scholarship to attend Interlochen. The movie's utopian view of art music, however, caused difficulties for the studio in regard to marketing, leading to a studio-wide debate over the film's title. Archival documents positionThere's Magic in Musicas a valuable case study for investigating the transitional period of musical film production between the Great Depression and the onset of World War II, particularly with respect to operatic musicals. Just prior to the United States’ entry into the war, Hollywood moved away from the escapist fantasy of 1930s cinema toward the realism that would mark the 1940s. To reboot fading interest in musicals, studios toyed with the formula of the backstage musical to focus more on dramatic narratives and star power.There's Magic in Musicthus serves as a lens through which we might examine changes both in musical film production and in notions of “good music” at the eve of World War II.

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Music lessons from infants

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199298457.013.0021 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Sandra E. Trehub

Keyword(s):

Subsequent Development ◽

Musical Culture ◽

Music Lessons ◽

The World ◽

Good Music ◽

Musical Systems ◽

The Cost

What can we learn about music and musicality from infants? Sceptics may question the possibility of deriving fruitful answers to such questions from immature beings whose hearing is deficient (relative to adults) and whose exposure to ‘good’ music, even conventional music, is limited. This article considers the possibility of nature making some contribution to our musical beginnings and to our subsequent development. The story that emerges from infancy involves a rich musical environment, with mothers delivering performances which match the inclinations of their infants. Moreover, infants have predispositions or inborn preferences for musical features that are common across the world's cultures. Because musical systems across the world differ in notable respects, it makes sense that infants are open to the available alternatives. With increasing exposure to music, they gain expertise as listeners, but that expertise comes at the cost of diminished sensitivity to features which are irrelevant or infrequent in their own musical culture.

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Celebration of childbirth through dance and the demystification of the male child in the Igbo Patriarchal Society: A decisive exposition

Revista Brasileira de Gestão Ambiental e Sustentabilidade ◽

10.21438/rbgas(2020)071514 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (15) ◽

pp. 191-209

Author(s):

Christian Chima Chukwu ◽

Ignatius Sunday Ume

Keyword(s):

Y Chromosome ◽

Oral Tradition ◽

Special Kind ◽

Male Gender ◽

Male Child ◽

Original Form ◽

Girl Child ◽

Patriarchal Society ◽

Good Music

Celebration of childbirth, among the Igbo, is looked upon as an occasion of feasting and so every festal feature, especially good music is made available as a mark of thanksgiving to God. The birth of a new child is announced with a special kind of song called irri muo, and it is sung in celebration of the birth. Songs sung at childbirth are called umanwa, while in neighbouring communities, they are egwu omugho. Umanwa music is exclusively performed by women, and has survived until today in its original form through oral tradition. This paper, therefore, examines the celebration of childbirth through dance and the demystification of the male child in the Igbo Patriarchal Society. Among the findings, the paper acknowledges that there is always some excitement, merriment, joy and intoxication, mixed with some sparks of faith when the new entrant is added to a household. In addition, the paper recognizes that women are never fully recognized as mothers until the birth of a boy child. Disturbing as the preference is, this paper wonders and questions why women are being easily ridiculed, subjugated and divorced when and where the Y-chromosome, the sole determinant of the birth of the boy child is the exclusive preserve of the male gender. With this, the paper argues that since human personality, a prerogative and quality of every human being does not rest on gender, but on ability; the emphasis on the boy child is absolutely unnecessary because it does not add anything to ability. The paper further calls on the educated elite to enlighten their people to be aware that the dignity of the girl child is fundamentally, essentially and unquestionably equal to the dignity of the boy child. Finally, the paper concludes that, the male child has not in most cases fulfilled the long awaited expectations of being the second father in the house.

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Carl Nielsen and the Idea of English National Music

Carl Nielsen Studies ◽

10.7146/cns.v5i0.27764 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Fjeldsøe ◽

Jens Boeg

Keyword(s):

Theoretical Background ◽

Folk Song ◽

Ralph Vaughan Williams ◽

English Music ◽

A Value ◽

Good Music ◽

National Music ◽

English Composers ◽

Hearts And Minds ◽

Vaughan Williams

Why did Carl Nielsen achieve such a favourable reception in England from the 1950s on, compared to the rather reluctant recognition in continental Europe? We would suggest that one reason could be an affi nity of features in his music with the concept of English national music. This attempt to discuss the British reception of Nielsen does, of course, not imply that Nielsen’s music is English. From a constructivist position, national musics are based on cultural common-views in a population of people identifying themselves with a certain concept of a nation which they regard their own. The concept of English national music had Ralph Vaughan Williams as chief engineer and champion. Based on Cecil J. Sharp’s scientific investigation of the English folk song, Vaughan Williams developed a theoretical background on which English composers could (and later would) create their compositions, and his thoughts became prevalent through the English musical establishment. Such ideas of English music did not by accident or as some kind of revelation find their way to the hearts and minds of English listeners and critics. The success was due to a deliberate effort by a national movement, and a most crucial feature was the introduction of folk song singing in elementary schools, instilling these particular views into following generations of listeners. Though mainly concerned with the music of England, Vaughan Williams’ ideas were not limited by nationality as such, but were general guidelines for every composer in every nation of the world. In many ways Nielsen’s music can be seen to fi t Vaughan Williams’ characteristics for good music. When fi rst established, ideas of national music are embedded in a value system that considers such music of high quality and thus music – like Nielsen’s – which has affi nities with the image of English national music, is more likely to be recognized and appreciated as ‘good’.

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Good Music, Bad Music, and Youth Music

Cairo Pop ◽

10.5749/minnesota/9780816689279.003.0001 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 1-32

Author(s):

Daniel J. Gilman

Keyword(s):

Good Music ◽

Youth Music

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The Music of Andrzej Panufnik

Tempo ◽

10.1017/s0040298200018623 ◽

1974 ◽

pp. 7-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stephen Walsh

Keyword(s):

Western Europe ◽

Good Deal ◽

Eastern European ◽

National Importance ◽

Good Music

A good deal has been said recently, in these and other pages, about the wealth of good music now being written under conditions of at least relative artistic enlightenment in the countries of the Eastern European bloc. Nobody, I imagine, will suggest that we should pay any less attention than we do to that welcome phenomenon. But at the same time it would be a pity if we were to forget that Western Europe still harbours a number of composers who fled from the East during the years when music was still not free to take its own course there, and when there was no immediate reason to suppose that the situation would soon improve. Of these, only the Hungarian Ligeti, who lives in Vienna, has been taken up internationally. The Pole Andrzej Panufhik, a comparable figure who happens however to live in London, is at present hardly recognized as a composer of even national importance.

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