KEYBOARD-DUO ARRANGEMENTS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MUSICAL LIFE

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-214
Author(s):  
REBECCA CYPESS
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Chamber Music ◽  
Chamber Ensemble ◽  
Verbal Description ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Chamber Works ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Physical Gestures

ABSTRACTIt is well known that the instrumentation of eighteenth-century chamber music was highly flexible; composers frequently adapted their own works for a variety of instruments, and players often used whatever combinations they had available. One type of arrangement little used today but attested to in both verbal description and musical manuscripts of the period is that of trios and other chamber works adapted for two keyboard instruments. Players often executed such keyboard-duo arrangements on instruments with different mechanisms and timbres – for example, harpsichord and piano together – thus capturing something of the variety of timbres available in a mixed chamber ensemble.Keyboard duos were often played by members of a single family, or by teachers and students together, a practice that allowed for the construction of a sense of ‘sympathy’ – mutual understanding through shared experience and sentiment – between the players. These players shared common physical gestures at the instruments, which reinforced the emotional content of the music; this fostered the formation of a sympathetic connection even as players retained their individual identities.

HAYDN’S MELANCHOLY VOICE: LOST DIALECTICS IN HIS LATE CHAMBER MUSIC AND ENGLISH SONGS

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
NANCY NOVEMBER
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Chamber Music ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Edmund Burke ◽  
Chamber Works ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Francisco Goya

AbstractFrom the nineteenth century onwards the stereotype of Haydn as cheerful and jesting has dominated the reception of his music. This study contributes to the recent scholarship that broadens this view, with a new approach: I set works by Haydn in the context of eighteenth-century ideas about melancholy, those of Edmund Burke, Francisco Goya, Henry Home (Lord Kames), Immanuel Kant and Johann Georg Zimmermann. Their conceptions of melancholy were dialectical, involving the interplay of such elements as pleasure and pain, freedom and fettering, and self-reflection and absorption. I consider the relevance of these dialectics to Haydn’s English songs, his dramatic cantata Arianna a Naxos and two late chamber works. Musical melancholy arises, I argue, when the protagonist of a work – be it the vocal character in a song or the ‘composer’s voice’ in an instrumental work – exhibits an ironic distance from his or her own pain. The musical dialectics in these works prompt listeners, for their part, to take a step back to contemplate the borders and limits of emotional experience and communication.

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.

Ephemera

2020 ◽  
pp. 168-188
Author(s):  
Catherine Massip
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Short Life ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Major Medium

Among the documents which give access to musical life and its various events, ephemera occupy a special field. The word (ephemeron singular; ephemera plural) covers several kinds of written or printed documents largely scattered but being produced for a short life and not subject to be handled and stored in a permanent way. “Those papers of the day” as defined in eighteenth century were produced on a large scale in the nineteenth century when newspapers became the major medium for publicity. The main purpose of these documents was primarily information and publicity. This chapter argues how ephemera may be read not as mere sidelines to culture but as central documents pertaining to the wide and complex intellectual issues in music.

Compositional and Performance Mapping in Computer Chamber Music: A Case Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 64-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Lyon ◽  
R. Benjamin Knapp ◽  
Gascia Ouzounian
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
Musical Instruments ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Mapping Problem ◽  
Software Interfaces ◽  
Digital Synthesis ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Physical Gestures ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Musical Interaction

The mapping problem is inherent to digital musical instruments (DMIs), which require, at the very least, an association between physical gestures and digital synthesis algorithms to transform human bodily performance into sound. This article considers the DMI mapping problem in the context of the creation and performance of a heterogeneous computer chamber music piece, a trio for violin, biosensors, and computer. Our discussion situates the DMI mapping problem within the broader set of interdependent musical interaction issues that surfaced during the composition and rehearsal of the trio. Through descriptions of the development of the piece, development of the hardware and software interfaces, lessons learned through rehearsal, and self-reporting by the participants, the rich musical possibilities and technical challenges of the integration of digital musical instruments into computer chamber music are demonstrated.

P. A. LOCATELLI AND J.-M. LECLAIR: LEGACY IN THE XIX CENTURY FONDAZIONE MIA, BERGAMO, 17–19 OCTOBER 2014

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-276
Author(s):  
LUCA LÉVI SALA
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
North America ◽  
Chamber Music ◽  
Fiftieth Anniversary ◽  
The Third ◽  
Xix Century

In October 2014 scholars from Europe and North America took part in a conference dedicated to two important figures active during the eighteenth century as composers and virtuosos of the violin, to mark the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of their death: Pietro Antonio Locatelli (Bergamo, 1695–Amsterdam, 1764) and Jean-Marie Leclair l’aîné (Lyon 1697–Paris, 1764). The event was organized by the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini (Lucca) in partnership with the Fondazione MIA of Bergamo and the Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de Musique Romantique Française in Venice, and also with the collaboration of the Edizione Nazionale Italiana delle Opere Complete di Locatelli. Accommodated in the magnificent Sala Locatelli of the Fondazione MIA, the conference was subdivided into six sessions. First came ‘Pietro Antonio Locatelli and His Legacy’, with speakers Paola Palermo (Bergamo), Christoph Riedo (Universität Freiburg, Switzerland) and Ewa Chamczyk (Uniwersytet Warszawski), followed by ‘French Routes’, featuring Étienne Jardin (Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de Musique Romantique Française), Candida Felici (Conservatorio di Musica di Cosenza) and Paola Besutti (Università di Teramo). The third session, ‘Pierre-Marie-François de Sales Baillot’, was held to mark the bicentenary of Baillot's foundation of his séances de musique de chambre (chamber music concerts).

L’artigiano gentiluomo or, Larinda e Vanesio

10.31022/c009 ◽  
1979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann Adolf Hasse
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Chamber Music ◽  
Comic Opera

This early intermezzo, which predates Pergolesi's La serva padrona, sheds new light on the eighteenth-century Italian comic opera. Scholars and performers will welcome this contribution to a neglected genre of vocal chamber music and to the further study of Hasse.

Symphonies Reframed

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gjertrud Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
String Quartet ◽  
Chamber Ensemble ◽  
Educational Value ◽  
Chamber Ensembles ◽  
String Trio ◽  
Original Works ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Core Questions ◽  
First Time

Symphonies Reframed recreates symphonies as chamber music. The project aims to capture the features that are unique for chamber music, at the juncture between the “soloistic small” and the “orchestral large”. A new ensemble model, the “triharmonic ensemble” with 7-9 musicians, has been created to serve this purpose. By choosing this size range, we are looking to facilitate group interplay without the need of a conductor. We also want to facilitate a richness of sound colours by involving piano, strings and winds. The exact combination of instruments is chosen in accordance with the features of the original score. The ensemble setup may take two forms: nonet with piano, wind quartet and string quartet (with double bass) or septet with piano, wind trio and string trio. As a group, these instruments have a rich tonal range with continuous and partly overlapping registers. This paper will illuminate three core questions: What artistic features emerge when changing from large orchestral structures to mid-sized chamber groups? How do the performers reflect on their musical roles in the chamber ensemble? What educational value might the reframing unfold? Since its inception in 2014, the project has evolved to include works with vocal, choral and soloistic parts, as well as sonata literature. Ensembles of students and professors have rehearsed, interpreted and performed our transcriptions of works by Brahms, Schumann and Mozart. We have also carried out interviews and critical discussions with the students, on their experiences of the concrete projects and on their reflections on own learning processes in general. Chamber ensembles and orchestras are exponents of different original repertoire. The difference in artistic output thus hinges upon both ensemble structure and the composition at hand. Symphonies Reframed seeks to enable an assessment of the qualities that are specific to the performing corpus and not beholden to any particular piece of music. Our transcriptions have enabled comparisons and reflections, using original compositions as a reference point. Some of our ensemble musicians have had first-hand experience with performing the original works as well. Others have encountered the works for the first time through our productions. This has enabled a multi-angled approach to the three central themes of our research. This text is produced in 2018.

FROM LAVAPIÉS TO STOCKHOLM: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY VIOLIN FANDANGOS AND THE SHAPING OF MUSICAL ‘SPANISHNESS’

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-199
Author(s):  
ANA LOMBARDÍA
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Chamber Music ◽  
Musical Identity ◽  
Violin Sonata ◽  
Violin Music ◽  
Musical Traditions ◽  
Solo Violin

ABSTRACTSince the mid-eighteenth century the fandango has been regarded as the epitome of Spanish cultural identity. It became increasingly popular in instrumental chamber music, as well-known examples by Domenico Scarlatti, Antonio Soler and Luigi Boccherini show. To date, published musicological scholarship has not considered the role of solo violin music in the dissemination of the fandango or the shaping of a ‘Spanish’ musical identity. Now, eight rediscovered pieces – which can be dated to the period 1730–1775 – show that the violin was frequently used to perform fandangos, including stylized chamber-music versions. In addition to offering evidence of the violin's role in the genre, these pieces reveal the hybridization of the fandango with foreign musical traditions, such as the Italian violin sonata and French courtly dances, demonstrating hitherto overlooked negotiations between elite and popular culture in mid-eighteenth-century Spain. Analysis of these works’ musical features challenges traditional discourses on the ‘Spanishness’ of the fandango and, more broadly, on the opposition between ‘native’ and ‘foreign’ music in eighteenth-century Spain.

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