The Middle Generation

Tempo ◽  
1969 ◽  
pp. 25-33
Author(s):  
Péter Várnai
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Composition Studies ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Administrative Positions ◽  
Classical Sense ◽  
Piano Works ◽  
Musical Continuity ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Middle Generation

Gábor Darvas (b. 1911) emigrated to Chile soon after completing his composition studies under Kodály, where he worked with Erich Kleiber. He returned to Hungary in 1958, and has since held numerous administrative positions. His development as a composer came unusually late. After his early pieces in the manner of Kodály and Bartók he was unproductive for many years, occupying himself with writing musical textbooks, and orchestration of piano works by Liszt and others. The continuation of his own creative work, after much preparatory thought, experiment, and study of many major contemporary works, came only in the 1960s. His ‘Improvisations symphoniques’ for piano and orchestra (1963), performed in 1966 at the Stockholm ISCM Festival, is virtually his Op. 1, an attribute that shows in the extremely varied and sometimes conflicting means it employs. But it has one distinctive feature which seems to be characteristic of the modern musical movement in Hungary generally: musical continuity. This does not necessarily mean thematicism, indeed it is perfectly reconcilable with post-Webernian abandonment of theme and development in the classical sense. It is more a matter of contrast. One of the weaknesses of much music today is the absence of contrasts of tempo, and the abandonment of the principle of construction by movements or sections of opposed character. What Darvas has sought in this work is to use contrast again as one of the means of sustaining continuity.

Radical translation and radical interpretation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger F. Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Radical Interpretation ◽  
Truth Theory ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

Radical translation is the setting of a thought experiment conceived by W.V. Quine in the late 1950s. In that setting a linguist undertakes to translate into English some hitherto unknown language – one which is neither historically nor culturally linked to any known language. It is further supposed that the linguist has no access to bilinguals versed in the two languages, English and (what Quine called) ‘Jungle’. Thus, the only empirical data the linguist has to go on in constructing a ‘Jungle-to-English’ translation manual are instances of the native speakers’ behaviour in publicly recognizable circumstances. Reflecting upon the fragmentary nature of these data, Quine draws the following conclusions: - It is very likely that the theoretical sentences of ‘Jungle’ can be translated as wholes into English in incompatible yet equally acceptable ways. In other words, translation of theoretical sentences is indeterminate. On the assumption that a sentence and its translation share the same meaning, the import of indeterminacy of translation is indeterminacy of meaning: the meanings of theoretical sentences of natural languages are not fixed by empirical data. The fact is, the radical translator is bound to impose about as much meaning as they discover. This result (together with the dictum ‘no entity without identity’) undermines the idea that propositions are meanings of sentences. - Neither the question of which ‘Jungle’ expressions are to count as terms nor the question of what object(s), if any, a ‘Jungle’ term refers to can be answered by appealing merely to the empirical data. In short, the empirical data do not fix reference. The idea of radical interpretation was developed by Donald Davidson in the 1960s and 1970s as a modification and extension of Quine’s idea of radical translation. Quine is concerned with the extent to which empirical data determine the meanings of sentences of a natural language. In the setting of radical interpretation, Davidson is concerned with a different question, the question of what a person could know that would enable them to interpret another’s language. For example, what could one know that would enable the interpretation of the German sentence ‘Es regnet’ as meaning that it is raining? The knowledge required for interpretation differs from the knowledge required for translation, for one could know that ‘Es regnet’ is translated as ‘Il pleut’ without knowing the meaning (the interpretation) of either sentence. Beginning with the knowledge that the native speaker holds certain sentences true when in certain publicly recognizable circumstances, Davidson’s radical interpreter strives to understand the meanings of those sentences. Davidson argues that this scenario reveals that interpretation centres on one’s having knowledge comparable to an empirically verified, finitely based, recursive specification of the truth-conditions for an infinity of sentences – a Tarski-like truth theory. Thus, Quine’s radical translation and Davidson’s radical interpretation should not be regarded as competitors, for although the methodologies employed in the two contexts are similar, the two contexts are designed to answer different questions. Moreover, interpretation is broader than translation; sentences that cannot be translated can still be interpreted.

In Search of Eden

Experiment ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 260-296
Author(s):  
Lynn Garafola
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Southern California ◽  
The United States ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
Professional Careers ◽  
A Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
The 1960S

Bronislava Nijinska spent the last thirty-two years of her life in Southern California. Beginning with her first visit to Hollywood in 1934 to choreograph the dances in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this essay examines her activities in California both as a teacher and a choreographer. It looks closely at her Hollywood bowl season of 1940, when she staged three of her ballets, all new to the United States; the dancers she trained who went on to distinguished professional careers, and her approach to teaching. It briefly summarizes her activities in the 1940s, when she choreographed for Ballet Theatre, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and Ballet International; the 1950s, when she worked for the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas; and the 1960s, when the revival of Les Noces and Les Biches by the Royal Ballet brought her most celebrated works back into repertory. Finally, it speculates on the reasons she settled in California, given the limited opportunities it offered her for creative work.

The Klezmer Accordion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Horowitz
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
Italian American ◽  
Integral Element ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
At Home ◽  
Solo Instrument

This chapter takes a closer look at the role of the accordion in klezmer music. Like the pioneering Italian American virtuoso accordionists, Jewish musicians felt equally at home playing classical and folk music. The select analysis of early accordion playing styles and stylistic characteristics sheds light on the interaction and interplay of klezmer musicians with their surrounding worlds—Old and New. A distinctive feature of the early “klezmer sound” was the accordion's imitation of the human voice heard in liturgical, paraliturgical, and Yiddish song. By the late 1930s, the accordion was often used for chordal accompaniment (rather than as a solo instrument). It was an integral element of the popular Hasidic bands of the 1960s and the “klezmer ensembles” that embraced the new Israeli music as well as earlier “Palestinian” music. Although it was often deemed “an outsider,” for the revivalists of the 1980s and beyond, the accordion has been characteristic of the klezmer style.

Grasp the Weapon of Culture! Radical Avant-Gardes and the Los Angeles Free Press

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Mount
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Arnold Schoenberg ◽  
Geographic Proximity ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Second Viennese School ◽  
Piano Works ◽  
Recorded Lecture ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Transmission Of Values

In the 17 June 1966 issue of the Los Angeles Free Press, members of a group calling themselves the Los Angeles Hippodrome advertised an upcoming event: an “Homage to Arnold Schoenberg.” The ad seems to suggest nothing out of the ordinary: a recital of the composer’s complete piano works along with a slideshow of his visual art and the playing of a recorded lecture. The facing page, however, paints a very different picture. There, the Free Press reproduced a series of manifestos written by the event’s organizers. The manifestos range in content from lengthy ruminations on the death of art to a cartoon of a dog-like creature brandishing a knife and poised to cut off the head of a snake above the words “GRASP THE WEAPON of CULTURE!” With their absurdist humor and heady, abstract proselytizing, these statements stand in marked contrast to the refined poise of the music of the Second Viennese School. To address this incongruity, one must look beyond the Los Angeles Hippodrome to several other closely related communities. Dorothy Crawford (1995) provides an invaluable account of one such group in Los Angeles, focusing primarily on a circle of modernist music enthusiasts who organized and attended the Monday Evening Concerts series. But the individuals behind the “Homage to Schoenberg” were in equally close contact with participants in the Freak Movement, a Los Angeles manifestation of the 1960s counterculture led by iconoclastic rock guitarist Frank Zappa. Despite superficial differences, the political affinities and geographic proximity of these groups facilitated a free transmission of values and ideas that blurred the boundaries between them.

The Two Cultures of English

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Composition Studies ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Organizational Patterns ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Fredric Jameson ◽  
De Man

The Two Cultures of English examines the academic discipline of English in the final decades of the twentieth century and the first years of the new millennium. During this period, longstanding organizational patterns within the discipline were disrupted. With the introduction of French theory into the American academy in the 1960s and 1970s, both literary studies and composition studies experienced a significant reorientation. The introduction of theory into English Studies not only intensified existing tensions between those in literature and those in composition but also produced commonalities among colleagues that had not previously existed. As a result, the various fields within English began to share an increasing number of assumptions at the same time that institutional conflicts between literary studies and composition studies became more intense than ever before. Through careful reconsiderations of some of the key figures that helped shape (and were shaped by) this new landscape—including Michel Foucault, Kenneth Burke, Paul de Man, Fredric Jameson, James Berlin, Susan Miller, John Guillory, and Bruno Latour—the book offers a more comprehensive map of the discipline than one would find from histories on either side of the literature/composition divide.

Scriabin – piano music in the context of the composer’s creative ideology. Part 2

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
pp. 103-121
Author(s):  
Mateusz Piechnat
Keyword(s):  
Piano Music ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Piano Sonata ◽  
Piano Works

The article is the second part of the text devoted to the profile and piano works of Alexander Scriabin. The composer had an extraordinary piano talent and the ability of coloured hearing. He worked out an innovative musical language based on a unique harmonic style. He was an unprecedented visionary of art, he had knowledge on philosophical topics, he was also a mystic who wanted to save the mankind thanks to his creative output. Throughout the period of around 20 years, Scriabin’s musical language transformed drastically, which is most fully shown in his piano pieces, especially miniatures and sonatas. The second part of the article presents a general characterisation of Scriabin’s piano compositions and musical language in subsequent stages of his creative work. The analysis refers to style and form-related topics, melodics and harmony he used, texture and timbre phenomena and the connections between piano and symphonic pieces. The author of the article reflects on the essence of Scriabin’s artistic orientation and the fact whether the change of his musical language can be called an “evolution” as such. An important element of the article is the presentation of the structure of each piano sonata. The included characterisation of the change of his musical language is an addition to the first part of the cycle, enabling the reference to the stages of the composer’s life juxtaposed there with the description of the transformation of his artistic views.

A Fractal Universe and the Identity of Indescernibles

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 86-94
Author(s):  
Matteo Casarosa ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Relational Theory ◽  
Identity Of Indiscernibles ◽  
New Thought ◽  
Classical Sense ◽  
Better Than

The principle of Identity of Indiscernibles has been challenged with various thought experiments involving symmetric universes. In this paper, I describe a fractal universe and argue that, while it is not a symmetric universe in the classical sense, under the assumption of a relational theory of space it nonetheless contains a set of objects indiscernible by pure properties alone. I then argue that the argument against the principle from this new thought experiment resists better than those from classical symmetric universes three main objections put forth against this kind of arguments.

Love and a Female Monarch: The Case of Elizabeth Tudor

1999 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith M. Richards
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political System ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Henry Viii ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Political Studies ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Political Pamphlets

Much of the importance of what we call “political ideas” lies precisely in their being political-operative and effective to the extent that they are deployed in actual situations, in the relationships that are characteristic and constitutive of concrete political system.It is a commonplace of Tudor history that one distinctive feature of the reign of Elizabeth Tudor was the panache with which she wooed her English subjects. Such activity has been treated much more as an aspect of her “instinct for romantic leadership,” much less as a subject for serious historical study. This article sets out to redress that dismissive stance and argues that the language and processes of her “wooing” encapsulated an intersection of humanist beliefs and Tudor policy, with serious political purposes and significant political implications. Since the 1960s, a new orthodoxy in the study of political thought has stressed the importance of paying attention to the audiences for whom, and the contexts within which, particular political ideas were expressed, but there has been little effect of this trend on Tudor political studies. Historians have paid only passing attention to whole new genres of Tudor political discourse, let alone to the increasing Tudor range of strategies for presenting fundamental political propositions to an ever-widening audience. The introduction of print, the polemical function of Tudor homilies, Tudor royal proclamations, and court-sponsored political pamphlets all carried important messages. Such evolving forms contained within them implied redefinitions of relationships between subject and monarch. The reign of Henry VIII reflected the evolution of a qualitatively new concept of the sovereign monarch, drawing on an increasingly unqualified doctrine of allegiance.

scholarly journals Leedu draama retseptsioon Eestis

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-240
Author(s):  
Anneli Saro
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The 1960S

Eesti teatril on ajaloolises plaanis kõige tihedamad sidemed olnud saksa- ja venekeelse ning angloameerika kultuuriruumiga, kuid sidemed lõunapoolsete lähinaabritega on olnud üsna sporaadilised. Käesolev uurimus käsitleb Leedu draama vastuvõttu Eestis ja Eesti teatris. Artikli eesmärgiks on (1) anda statistiline ajalooline ülevaade Eestis ilmunud ja lavastatud Leedu näitekirjandusest ning (2) uurida Leedu draama retseptsiooni Eestis, tuginedes näidendite lähilugemisele, audio- ja videosalvestustele ja ilmunud kriitikale ning tõlgendades nimetatud allikaid Eesti kultuurikontekstist lähtuvalt.Abstract. Anneli Saro: Reception of Lithuanian drama in Estonia. The article has two aims: (1) to give a statistical overview of Lithuanian drama published and staged in Estonia, and (2) to investigate the reception of Lithuanian drama in Estonia, relying on close reading of the plays and analysis of audiovisual recordings and criticism, and interpreting the sources in the Estonian cultural context. The term “reception” here covers the creative work of translators, directors, actors, scenographers, etc., as well as diverse mental activities of readers and spectators. The first part of the article tackles the historical development of cultural relations between Estonia and Lithuania in the field of theatre, listing the Lithuanian plays published and staged in Estonia during different epochs and contextualizing the reception. In the second part, the plays of four influential playwrights are analyzed: works by Juozas Grušas, Kazys Saja, Justinas Marcinkevičius and Marius Ivaškevičius. There are approximately forty Lithuanian plays translated into Estonian, most of them by Mihkel Loodus. Twenty plays have been staged in professional theatres, and twenty have been published, although some are still in manuscript. There are three groups of plays translated into Estonian: (1) plays depicting Soviet society, staged in Estonia in the second half of the 1950s and in the first half of the 1960s, 2) plays depicting Lithuanian history, mostly published as books, and 3) existential plays that form the majority of Lithuanian drama in Estonian.Keywords: Lithuanian drama; Estonian theatre; reception; cultural relations between Estonia and Lithuania

scholarly journals The Girl You Don't See

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Williams
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Creative Agency ◽  
Extensive Collection ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

Drawing on new and established approaches to film costume, this article examines the creative work of the costume designer, contextualizing it as a gendered profession. It takes the career of the British film costume designer Julie Harris as its illustrative case study, tracing her working practice and sense of creative agency through interviews and press coverage as well as the BFI's extensive collection of her annotated costume sketches. Special emphasis is placed on Harris's negotiation of changing modes of postwar British film production, and her management of the professional tensions between costuming in the service of narrative or costuming as spectacle—in Stella Bruzzi's words, the dilemma of whether to look at or through the clothes on-screen. It culminates in a detailed analysis of Harris's Oscar-winning costume work for Darling (1965) and her ambivalence toward the youth-oriented off-the-rack fashions of the 1960s. In conclusion, it emphasizes the significance and complexity of the costume designer's creative labor, and the need for that work to be granted greater visibility.

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