The Sound of the English Picturesque in the Age of the Landscape Garden

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-212
Author(s):  
STEPHEN GROVES
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Vocal Music ◽  
Apparent Absence ◽  
Nature Tourism ◽  
Scenic Beauty ◽  
English Music ◽  
Contemporary Writers ◽  
Sister Arts ◽  
Song Texts

ABSTRACTIn eighteenth-century England, painting, poetry and gardening were often labelled the ‘sister arts’. An increasing interest in English landscape scenes and an emerging taste for ‘nature tourism’ gave rise to the ‘picturesque’ movement. Contemporary writers seldom considered English music as part of this ‘sisterhood’, however, or treated music as a medium for conveying national scenic beauty. When the picturesque was discussed in connection with music, eighteenth-century critics tended to use the concept to explain the tactics of novelty and surprise encountered in German instrumental music. Plays with regularity and expectation were analogous to the surprises and irregularities of picturesque ‘beauty spots’ – natural features studied and imitated by contemporary landscape gardeners. Accordingly, recent musicological studies of the picturesque have also preferred to emphasize its kinship with the unconventional or subversive formal schemas in instrumental music by German composers.This article addresses the silent aporia in this discourse: the apparent absence of any participation in the picturesque movement by composers from England, the country most closely associated with this aesthetic. Focusing on the pictorialism and pastoralism of eighteenth-century English song texts and their musical treatment, this article reveals previously ignored connections between the veneration of national landscape and English vocal music. In consequence, the glee – a decidedly marginal genre in traditional eighteenth-century music historiography – emerges at the centre of contemporary aesthetic concerns, as the foremost musical vehicle for the expression of a distinctively English, painterly engagement with national landscapes.

Formenlehre goes to the opera: Examples from Armida and elsewhere

2010 ◽  
Vol 51 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 387-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Martin
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Vocal Music ◽  
American Music ◽  
Musical Form ◽  
Classical Form ◽  
Sonata Theory ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Recent Developments

One of the more surprising developments in recent American music theory has been the revival of interest in traditional, as opposed to Schenkerian, approaches to musical form. Spearheading this renewal are William Caplin’s 1998 treatise Classical Form , and James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy’s more recent Elements of Sonata Theory (2006). Both treatises, however, ignore the eighteenth-century operatic repertory entirely. And while valuable studies of eighteenth-century aria-forms exist (notably by James Webster and Mary Hunter), such studies generally predate the advent of the new American Formenlehre . There is, as a result, a gap between the most recent developments in the theory of Classical form and our current understanding of formal processes in late-eighteenth-century opera.This paper sketches one possible way across that gap. Even a casual survey of Haydn’s Eszterháza operas suggests that formal processes play out in ways related to, but nonetheless distinct from, their articulation in Haydn’s instrumental music (in response, no doubt, to the particular exigencies of writing texted music for the operatic stage). Thanks to its characteristic attention to the smallest possible form-functional units — the presentational, continuational and cadential phrases that subsist at the intra-thematic level — Caplin’s approach to Classical form proves particularly adaptable to this new context. The paper illustrates the analytic usefulness of Caplin’s approach for analyzing vocal music through a consideration of representative examples from Armida and Il mondo della luna .

Maxim Berezovsky C-dur symphony in a context of new biographical scenario of artist’s life-creativity

2018 ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Olha Shumilina
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Spiritual Direction ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Orchestral Music ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
Mental Modeling ◽  
Independent Work

Relevance of the study. The article studies recently found symphony of the prominent Ukrainian composer of the second half of the eighteenth century Maxim Berezovsky. He is widely known now as the author of cyclic spiritual concerts written for the Orthodox worship, and is practically unknown as a musician instrumentalist associated with the imperial theater and the court musical life. The work of M. Berezovsky as a secular musician determined the creative interest in composing instrumental music intended for secular chamber and orchestral music. Main objective of the article is a clarification of M.Berezovsky symphony as one of secular field artworks in the light of new summaries about artist’s life-creativity. Methodology. Taking into account peculiarities of the material and the analytical approach to its study, the methods of theoretical research have been chosen(abstraction, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, mental modeling, ascension from abstract to concrete, etc.). Conclusions. As a result of a study the symphony analysis in a context of new authentic statements about M.Berezovsky’s life-creativity. It was stated that this artwork was written not accidentally and detects absolute awareness of the artist in all composer’s niceties – how to build a topic and build a homophonic construction based on it, in a technique of orchestral construction, form creations of that time and etc. From the beginning of his creative career, M. Berezovsky was well aware of the possibilities of the orchestra as a performer, attached to the Italian opera and instrumental music. Symphony enriches our imagination about the works of M. Berezovsky in the field of secular instrumental and operatic music and extends the range of works of the artist beyond the spiritual direction. Some signs indicate that the Symphony was not an independent work, but an overture to the opera Demofont.

Maxim Berezovsky C-dur symphony in a context of new biographical scenario of artist’s life-creativity

2018 ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Olha Shumilina
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Spiritual Direction ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Orchestral Music ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
Mental Modeling ◽  
Independent Work

Relevance of the study. The article studies recently found symphony of the prominent Ukrainian composer of the second half of the eighteenth century Maxim Berezovsky. He is widely known now as the author of cyclic spiritual concerts written for the Orthodox worship, and is practically unknown as a musician instrumentalist associated with the imperial theater and the court musical life. The work of M. Berezovsky as a secular musician determined the creative interest in composing instrumental music intended for secular chamber and orchestral music. Main objective of the article is a clarification of M.Berezovsky symphony as one of secular field artworks in the light of new summaries about artist’s life-creativity. Methodology. Taking into account peculiarities of the material and the analytical approach to its study, the methods of theoretical research have been chosen(abstraction, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, mental modeling, ascension from abstract to concrete, etc.). Conclusions. As a result of a study the symphony analysis in a context of new authentic statements about M.Berezovsky’s life-creativity. It was stated that this artwork was written not accidentally and detects absolute awareness of the artist in all composer’s niceties – how to build a topic and build a homophonic construction based on it, in a technique of orchestral construction, form creations of that time and etc. From the beginning of his creative career, M. Berezovsky was well aware of the possibilities of the orchestra as a performer, attached to the Italian opera and instrumental music. Symphony enriches our imagination about the works of M. Berezovsky in the field of secular instrumental and operatic music and extends the range of works of the artist beyond the spiritual direction. Some signs indicate that the Symphony was not an independent work, but an overture to the opera Demofont.

Vasyl Bezkorovayny’s vocal works in Ukrainian music of the first half of the XX century

2019 ◽  
pp. 500-515
Author(s):  
Nataliia Kosaniak
Keyword(s):  
Choral Music ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Symphony Orchestra ◽  
Vocal Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Western European ◽  
Vocal Works ◽  
Post War ◽  
Talented Artist

Vasyl Bezkorovayny (1880–1966) was a talented artist, an active figure in the musical life of Galicia and a representative of post-war Ukrainian emigrants in the United States of America. He wrote more than 350 works of various genres. Among them are compositions for symphony orchestra; vocal works — for chorus, ensembles or solo singing; chamber and instrumental music — for piano, violin, zither, cello; music for dramatic performances. The article deals with the archival and musicological analysis of expressive and stylistic features of V. Bezkorovayny’s vocal works, based on the materials of Stefanyk Lviv National Library of Ukraine. Attention is paid to the place of the composer’s vocal masterpieces in the context of Ukrainian vocal music of the first half of the XX century. The most important achievements of the composer related to the genres of choral and chamber vocal music. In style, the composer’s works combine the influences of M. Lysenko, composers of the «Peremyshl school» and Western European romantic and post-romantic models. The original secular choral music of V. Bezkorovayny covers genres of songs, plays, and large-form choirs. In his solo songs the influences of romantic western European music and Ukrainian folk songs affected the formation and approval of the composer’s style. Keywords: vocal music, chorus, solos, melodic-intonation means, harmony, rhythm.

Musical training improves memory for instrumental music, but not vocal music or words

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-159
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. P. Wilbiks ◽  
Sean Hutchins
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Vocal Music ◽  
Verbal Material ◽  
The Other ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Facilitative Effect ◽  
Musical Excerpts ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Brain

In previous research, there exists some debate about the effects of musical training on memory for verbal material. The current research examines this relationship, while also considering musical training effects on memory for musical excerpts. Twenty individuals with musical training were tested and their results were compared to 20 age-matched individuals with no musical experience. Musically trained individuals demonstrated a higher level of memory for classical musical excerpts, with no significant differences for popular musical excerpts or for words. These findings are in support of previous research showing that while music and words overlap in terms of their processing in the brain, there is not necessarily a facilitative effect between training in one domain and performance in the other.

scholarly journals Bandung’s Image as a Tourist Destination: An Application of Quantitative and Qualitative Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustinus Februadi ◽  
Nono Wibisono ◽  
Dewi Purnamasari
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Method ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Tourist Destination ◽  
Nature Tourism ◽  
Scenic Beauty ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
The Right ◽  
Functional Attribute

Bandung is a popular tourist destination in Indonesia and a gateway for tourists who visit destinations around greater Bandung areas. Currently, Bandung is also known as a culinary, shopping, and nature tourism destination. Past studies have measured the image of Bandung as a tourist destination. However, the measurements were done partially due to the use of quantitative method only. Thus, the results were not comprehensive. To resolve the drawbacks of the previous studies, this study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data were collected from 430 domestic tourists by ways of structured and unstructured interviews in 20 different destinations in Bandung and the surrounding. Data were processed by descriptive statistical methods, factor analysis and content analysis. The results of quantitative analysis show that, in term of functional-attribute, Bandung was positively perceived as a destination characterized with natural scenic beauty, many interesting places, and various exotic foods. In terms of the psychological-attribute, Bandung was perceived as the right place for shopping and culinary tourism. The results of qualitative analysis indicate that, functionally, Bandung was a destination with natural scenic beauty, pleasant weather and provide various exotic foods. Psychologically, the tourists experienced calm and tranquil atmosphere, happiness, and comfort.

scholarly journals A Historical Perspective of Mangalavattiyam

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Suganya Aravinthon
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Vocal Music ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Musical Instruments ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Solo Music ◽  
Musical Genres ◽  
Over Time

From the earliest days of the Tamil music tradition, music was considered to be a combination of vocal music, instrumental music and dance. Each of these musical genres is closely intertwined. Knowledge of one helps to know about the other. Instrumental music has been interpreted as accompaniment to solo music and dance and as a solo specialty. In Bharata's book 'Natyashasthram', musical instruments are generally divided into four categories as nerve (tata) hole (kasira) ¸ skin (avanatta) ¸ kana (kanja). In this context, it is a research paper on the history and use of the Nagaswaram and thavil instruments, which are referred to today as the Mangala Vaathyam, which the Tamils ​​have merged with their culture.  This article also examines in detail the ideological changes that have taken place over time in the use of these two musical instruments. At the same time, the use of these instruments in the sociological context is taken into account. Finally, this article is a historical study of the lineage of musicians who have mastered these instruments.

Effects of Background Music on Phonological Short-Term Memory

1989 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Salamé ◽  
Alan Baddeley
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Exclusion Process ◽  
Vocal Music ◽  
Background Music ◽  
Theoretical Interpretation ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Noise Condition ◽  
Trained Subjects ◽  
Immediate Memory

Immediate memory for visually presented verbal material is disrupted by concurrent speech, even when the speech is unattended and in a foreign language. Unattended noise does not produce a reliable decrement. These results have been interpreted in terms of a phonological short-term store that excludes non-speechlike sounds. The characteristics of this exclusion process were explored by studying the effects of music on the serial recall of sequences of nine digits presented visually. Experiment 1 compared the effects of unattended vocal or instrumental music with quiet and showed that both types of music disrupted STM performance, with vocal music being more disruptive than instrumental music. Experiment 2 attempted to replicate this result using more highly trained subjects. Vocal music caused significantly more disruption than instrumental music, which was not significantly worse than the silent control condition. Experiment 3 compared instrumental music with unattended speech and with noise modulated in amplitude, the degree of modulation being the same as in speech. The results showed that the noise condition did not differ from silence; both of these proved less disruptive than instrumental music, which was in turn less disruptive than the unattended speech condition. Theoretical interpretation of these results and their potential practical implications for the disruption of cognitive performance by background music are discussed.

scholarly journals Idealism and the Aesthetics of Instrumental Music at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 387-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Evan Bonds
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Musical Thought ◽  
Absolute Music ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Aesthetic Principle

The growing aesthetic prestige of instrumental music in the last decades of the eighteenth century was driven not so much by changes in the musical repertory as by the resurgence of idealism as an aesthetic principle applicable to all the arts. This new outlook, as articulated by such writers as Winckelmann, Moritz, Kant, Schiller, Herder, Fichte, and Schelling, posited the work of art as a reflection of an abstract ideal, rather than as a means by which a beholder could be moved. Through idealism, the work of art became a vehicle by which to sense the realm of the spiritual and the infinite, and the inherently abstract nature of instrumental music allowed this art to offer a particularly powerful glimpse of that realm. Idealism thus provided the essential framework for the revaluation of instrumental music in the writings of Wackenroder, Tieck, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and others around the turn of the century. While this new approach to instrumental music has certain points of similarity with the later concept of "absolute" music, it is significant that Eduard Hanslick expunged several key passages advocating idealist thought when he revised both the first and second editions of his treatise Vom Musikalisch-Schönen. The concept of "absolute" music, although real enough in the mid-nineteenth century, is fundamentally anachronistic when applied to the musical thought and works of the decades around 1800.

Handel’s Transformative Compositional Practices

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-502
Author(s):  
David Ross Hurley
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Vocal Music ◽  
Original Music ◽  
Developing Variation ◽  
Compositional History ◽  
Early Eighteenth Century ◽  
Musical Transformations ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
First Time ◽  
Variation Process

In recent decades singers of Handel’s music have made great strides in recapturing the art of embellishing his music, thus breathing new life into forms such as the da capo aria. Yet Handel’s own “variations”—his development and transformation of musical material in his vocal music, important for understanding his compositional practice with borrowed as well as (presumably) original music—are not yet fully explored or appreciated. Admittedly, scholars have discussed musical procedures such as inserting, deleting, and reordering musical materials, as well as other Baroque combinatorial practices in Handel’s arias, but the musical transformations I discuss here are closer to a specifically Handelian brand of developing variation. To my knowledge, the concept of developing variation has never before been applied to early eighteenth-century music. I explore the relation of developing variation to drama (also rarely done) in two of Handel’s arias, providing a close examination of “Ombre, piante” from the opera Rodelinda and new thoughts about “Lament not thus,” originally intended for the oratorio Belshazzar. Although these arias belong to different genres and different stages of Handel’s career, they both exhibit material that undergoes a kind of progressive variation process that has tangible musical and dramatic ramifications, of interest to opera specialists and performers. Furthermore, both arias have a complicated compositional history; I offer fresh insights into the aesthetic qualities of each version, thereby throwing light on Handel’s possible compositional intentions. This article also discloses for the first time some recurring musical passages shared between “Lament not thus” and other pieces that could influence the listener’s interpretation of certain musico-dramatic gestures.

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