Georges Auric

Author(s):  
Colin Roust

Although Georges Auric (1899–1983) is best remembered today for his affiliation with the Groupe des Six, his musical career was long, productive, complex, and intimately attuned to the realities of modern life. His polyvalent career—as a composer of concert, theatrical, ballet, popular, film, and television music; music critic; opera director; and arts administrator—reveals a diversity of engagements that speak to a reconfiguration of the role of the composer in the modern world. Auric was a product of his time, with deep connections to France’s artistic, social, and political elites. At the same time, he drew on his prestige and privilege to improve the country’s musical life in tangible ways, whether with regard to musical education and accessibility or to the establishment of fair copyright laws. He took artistic collaboration, already a hallmark of the short-lived Groupe des Six, to a level that surpassed any of the other members of that group. Diverging from the romantic trope of individual creation, Auric’s legacy troubles conventional ideas of what it means to be a composer.

Letonica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Māra Grudule

The article gives insight into a specific component of the work of Baltic enlightener Gotthard Friedrich Stender (1714–1796) that has heretofore been almost unexplored — the transfer of German musical traditions to the Latvian cultural space. Even though there are no sources that claim that Stender was a composer himself, and none of his books contain musical notation, the texts that had been translated by Stender and published in the collections “Jaunas ziņģes” (New popular songs, 1774) and “Ziņģu lustes” (The Joy of singing, 1785, 1789) were meant for singing and, possibly, also for solo-singing with the accompaniment of some musical instrument. This is suggested, first, by how the form of the translation corresponds to the original’s form; second, by the directions, oftentimes attached to the text, that indicate the melody; and third, by the genres of the German originals cantata and song. Stender translated several compositions into Latvian including the text of the religious cantata “Der Tod Jesu” (The Death of Jesus, 1755) by composer Karl Heinrich Graun (1754–1759); songs by various composers that were widely known in German society; as well as a collection of songs by the composer Johann Gottlieb Naumann (1741–1801) that, in its original form, was published together with notation and was intended for solo-singing (female vocals) with the accompaniment of a piano. This article reveals the context of German musical life in the second half of the 18th century and explains the role of music as an instrument of education in Baltic-German and Latvian societies.


Author(s):  
S.L. Mertsalova

The article considers the role of English language in the modern world. The spheres of human life in which English plays an important role are presented. A number of professions for which English is an integral part have been considered.


Author(s):  
Sheila Murnaghan ◽  
Deborah H. Roberts

The preceding work is summed up as a study of adults’ attempts over a century-long period to make sense of their own childhood experiences of antiquity and to recreate those experiences for new generations through the medium of absorbing pleasure reading. Such experiences are valued for their capacity to stimulate the imagination, to expand moral understanding, to pave the way for further education, and to bring renewal or redemption to the disturbed modern world. The chapter ends with a brief survey of developments in classical mythology and historical fiction for children and young adults from the mid-1960s until the present, including the emergence of new forms of fantasy literature and the role of new media such as video games and fan fiction.


1939 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertrand Russell
Keyword(s):  

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Louise Wood

At the turn of the last century, circus elephants who had, in fits of distemper, killed circus trainers, workers, or spectators were regularly put to death. That alone is not extraordinary. What is fascinating is that the killings of these animals were not infrequently staged as public executions, with the elephant playing the role of the menacing criminal facing his just rewards before a crowd of eager witnesses. News accounts in turn reported these events as they would criminal executions, framing them as stories of murder, remorse, and retribution. This article treats these remarkable events as complex rituals through which larger tensions and conflicts surrounding crime and punishment in this period became manifest. These executions, performed as extensions of the modern circus, were commercial spectacles in and of the industrial age. Still, like circuses, they were also events full of ambivalence about this new age, as they acted out popular controversies over the nature of criminality, the meaning of justice, and the role of vengeance in modern life.


2021 ◽  
pp. 186810342110278
Author(s):  
Inaya Rakhmani ◽  
Muninggar Sri Saraswati

All around the globe, populism has become increasingly prominent in democratic societies in the developed and developing world. Scholars have attributed this rise at a response to the systematic reproduction of social inequalities entwined with processes of neoliberal globalisation, within which all countries are inextricably and dynamically linked. However, to theorise populism properly, we must look at its manifestations in countries other than the West. By taking the case of Indonesia, the third largest democracy and the largest economy in Southeast Asia, this article critically analyses the role of the political campaign industry in mobilising narratives in electoral discourses. We use the Gramscian notion of consent and coercion, in which the shaping of populist narratives relies on mechanisms of persuasion using mass and social media. Such mechanisms allow the transformation of political discourses in conjunction with oligarchic power struggle. Within this struggle, political campaigners narrate the persona of political elites, while cyber armies divide and polarise, to manufacture allegiance and agitation among the majority of young voters as part of a shifting social base. As such, we argue that, together, the narratives – through engineering consent and coercion – construct authoritarian populism that pits two crowds of “the people” against each other, while aligning them with different sections of the “elite.”


2021 ◽  
pp. 6-21
Author(s):  
L. Grishaeva

The author writes about the historical role of the United Nations in the modern world. About the historical origins of many of the problems facing the UN at the present time. About the UN as a global organization with universal competence and a broad representative composition. On the UN Charter, which is the basis for the legitimacy of decision-making to maintain peace and strengthen international security. On the urgent need to restore the rule of international law in solving global problems. On the erosion of the Yalta system and the need to preserve the unique architecture of the UN. About the reasons allowing the UN to prevent a new world war for 75 years.


2021 ◽  
pp. 89-95
Author(s):  
Oksana Stasevska ◽  
Illia Malanchuk

Problem setting. The study of the potential of cultural diplomacy has been growing rapidly in recent times. This is due to the realization of the failures of traditional and «force» diplomacy, which often demonstrate the inability to ensure the successful solution of important international problems. Researchers note the need to use cultural diplomacy to intensify and increase the effectiveness of international cooperation. Target of research. Understanding the actualization of cultural diplomacy of Ukraine in the modern world, an attempt to analyze its legal basis. Analysis of resent researches and publications. The concep «cultural diplomacy» is more common in scientific discourse. Scientists such as D. Vedeneev, V. Kostrov, T. Peresunko, N. Musienko, V. Tsyvaty, M. Kulinich, O. Rozumna, and others have contributed to the development of the role of cultural diplomacy in the foreign policy vector of the Ukraine. Political science works predominate among the researches. Few works analyze the legal aspects of cultural diplomacy. Article’s main body. In the context of globalization there is a loss of national origins. Therefore, states must use all their potential to preserve and enhance their own and the world’s cultural heritage, mutual understanding and support of interethnic harmony. International legal thought defines the concept of «diplomacy» in different ways, sometimes identifying it with international law or foreign policy. However, diplomacy is one of the most important tools of foreign policy, along with its components such as the armed forces, intelligence, economic ties, and so on. Cultural diplomacy is a type of diplomacy that uses the country’s cultural heritage as a means to an end. The role of cultural potential in international relations is highly valued. It is cultural diplomacy, not the use of force to impose political, ideological ideas, which aims to unite countries. Ukraine is returning to the active use of cultural diplomacy tools in the XXI century, when there was an urgent need for broad international support for the implementation of ambitious European integration plans. The system of coordination, stimulation and organization of cultural activities at the international level allows identifying the tasks of cultural diplomacy of Ukraine. Ukrainian cultural diplomacy based on international legal instruments ratified by Ukraine and acts of national legislation. The analysis of the problem allows determining the urgent task of creating a favorable legislative framework for the maximum effectiveness of cultural diplomacy. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The filling of legal gaps in cultural diplomacy should take place in the vector of recognition of culture as a subject of foreign policy, awareness of its reputational and social potential. Ukraine faces the task of updating old and finding new cultural images and symbols to create a decent image of the country, as well as to create an appropriate legal framework for the effective implementation of the tasks of cultural diplomacy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 398-408
Author(s):  
Tatiana A. Tsvetkovskaya

The article analyses the cantata “Frau Musica” by the German composer P. Hindemith. This work has come to be widely understood as an example of Gebrauchsmusik in the works of O. Leontieva, K.-D. Krabiel, M. Breivik. Gebrauchsmusik is often identified as utility music, which means that it is created for some specific purpose; but the purpose does not have to be utilitarian. In order to assess the profoundness of the composer’s concept and to clarify specifics of the descriptive term, it is necessary to go back to the basics of the theoretical debates about the social role of art that unfolded in the 1920s. Their main participants were H. Besseler and T. Adorno. A valuable source of information is the programs of music festivals in Donaueschingen and Baden-Baden, where Gebrauchsmusik was evolving as a multi-genre artistic experiment. Hindemith played the leading role in this process. It is also important to understand the reasons that prompted the composer to use M. Luther’s text in the cantata “Frau Musica”.Today the Gebrauchsmusik’s ideas — revitalization of the audience, expanding access to musical education and practical musical activities that evolve collaborative work — have gained the most relevance. According to the author’s hypothesis, “Frau Musica” can be regarded as an illustrative example of a work that combines different views on the nature of musical participation: a spiritual act, a collective work, the highest level of musical accessibility. In this particular composition, Hindemith intuitively found the most promising ways for the development of creative interaction between the composer and the listener, which subsequently led to the creation of a whole corpus of participatory works, including Tod Makover’s “City Symphonies”, Alexander Radvilovich’s “Baltic Music”, Paul Rissman’s “Supersonic”.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document