Critical Reflections on the Operatic Canon

2020 ◽  
pp. 524-533
Author(s):  
John Rockwell
Keyword(s):  
Musical Theater ◽  
George Frideric Handel ◽  
Early Music ◽  
West Side ◽  
Half Century ◽  
West Side Story ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Early Music Revival ◽  
Critical Reflections

This chapter looks back at the core canon in opera, tracing its evolution and mutation during the half century when its author served as a professional critic and then festival director. The chapter sees the core canon as either fixed or shrinking over the last ninety years. The public’s resistance to Modernist dissonance led to an explosion of repertory in areas immediately outside what had been the traditional canon. The need for novelty has been sated by directorial innovation (Regietheater), the early music revival (with George Frideric Handel the principal operatic beneficiary), and the ceaseless search for new curiosities to revive from the past. Moreover, the operatic canon has been enlarged by lighter forms of musical theater (West Side story and Sweeney Todd) and also by influence from non-Western cultures bearing their own canonic traditions and repertories. This chapter is paired with Kasper Holten’s “Inside and outside the operatic canon, on stage and in the boardroom.”

scholarly journals Evolution versus Authenticity: Johannes Brahms, Robert Franz, and Continuo Practice in the Late Nineteenth Century

2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Johannes Brahms ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Early Music ◽  
The Past ◽  
Baroque Music ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
High Level ◽  
Early Music Revival

The early-music revival provoked much heated debate in the second half of the nineteenth century. The leading scholars of the era, Philipp Spitta and Friedrich Chrysander were keen to encourage performances and editions of early music that presented it in the spirit in which it was conceived. This approach met with vociferous opposition from Robert Franz and his supporters, who embraced a Darwinian aesthetic. Although committed to reviving the past, Franz believed that the tastes of nineteenth-century listeners had become too sophisticated to enjoy early music in its original state and modernized it accordingly. The source of the most heated debates was the issue of continuo realization, a topic in which Brahms, through his performing and arranging activities, had a vested interest. Franz, who dismissed the musicologists as artistic philistines, found a difficult adversary in Brahms. Brahms's scholarly inclinations have been well documented, and predictably, his approach to reviving Baroque music reflected a high level of historical awareness. He was, however, first and foremost a creative musician, and as a consequence, aesthetic issues were paramount in his performances and publications. Considerable tensions arose between Franz, and Brahms, and Chrysander, which are explored here in relation to the latter's editions of Handel's Italian duets and trios. The difficulties surrounding continuo practice were not confined to opposition from Franz; even among musicologists there was much disagreement about how the music should be performed. Brahms's approach to continuo realization is considered in this context.

The Baroque Violin & Viola

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter S. Reiter
Keyword(s):  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Successful Performance ◽  
Early Music ◽  
The Past ◽  
Baroque Music ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Voice ◽  
Early Music Revival ◽  
The Voice

The Early Music revival has had far-reaching consequences on how music of the past is performed, both by specialists and non-specialists. This timely book is a practical step-by-step course of lessons for violinists and violists in both these categories, covering the interpretation, technique, culture, and historical background of the Baroque violin repertoire. Written by a violinist and teacher specializing in Baroque music over many years, it guides readers from the basics (how to hold the violin) to Bach, via music from a wide variety of styles. Avoiding obscure musicological jargon, it is eminently readable and accessible. Packed with information, detailed observations on the music under discussion, and relevant quotations from historical and contemporary sources, it covers everything the Baroque violin student should know and may be considered the equivalent of two to three years of individual lessons. The book contains over 100 exercises devised for and tested on students over the years. The author’s holistic approach is evident through the exercises aimed at bringing out the individual voice of each student, and his insistence that what happens within, the identification and manipulation of affects, is a vital part of successful performance. Imitating the voice, both spoken and sung, is a constant theme, beginning with the simple device of playing words. There are fifty lessons, including five Ornamentation Modules and ones on specific topics: temperament, rhetoric, the affects, and so on. All the music, transcribed for both violin and viola, is downloadable from the website, where there is also a series of videos.

Robbins, Jerome (1918–1998)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia L. Foulkes
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
York City ◽  
Musical Theater ◽  
West Side ◽  
West Side Story ◽  
Combine Movement ◽  
Goldberg Variations ◽  
Artistic Director ◽  
The Town

Jerome Robbins was one of the master choreographers of the twentieth century who transformed musical theater and ballet. Beginning with Fancy Free (1944), Robbins left his mark on both disciplines by his use of humor and character, and by his ability to combine movement originating in multiple idioms. This auspicious beginning led to more ballets—Interplay (1945), Afternoon of a Faun (1953), and The Concert (1956)—as well as a number of hit Broadway shows: On the Town (1944), West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), and Fiddler on the Roof (1964). He traversed different genres with ease, moving from Broadway to ballet, dance to choreography, and then to directing plays, films, and television programmes. Although he made his earliest ballets for Ballet Theatre (now the American Ballet Theatre), his longest affiliation was with the New York City Ballet, where he was appointed associate artistic director in 1949, and to which—after a hiatus of more than a decade—he returned in 1969 to choreograph some of his most acclaimed ballets, including Dances at a Gathering (1969) and The Goldberg Variations (1971). Robbins’s work often defined the historic moment, marrying music, movement, and expression with such quality and intensity that his works have endured as historical and artistic landmarks.

Music in museum (second half of 20th century, Ukraine)

2018 ◽  
pp. 61-65
Author(s):  
N. Svyrydenko
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Early Music ◽  
Performance Style ◽  
Russian Art ◽  
The Past ◽  
Music Collection ◽  
Concert Programs ◽  
Early Music Revival

Due to the process of early music revival, started in the USSR from the 60s of the 20th century, there are searches of the appropriate premises, in which early music could be perceived naturally, where one can feel a single style in combination of rooms, music, instrumentation and performance style that would increase the perception of each of the components of the creative process. Such most suitable premises are found out to be the halls of museums — former mansions, or palaces, which serve as museums in our time. The practice of conducting concerts in museums was introduced in Western Europe in the first half of the 20th century as a part of the overall process of early music revival and became an example for other countries including Ukraine.The Museum of Ukrainian Fine Arts was one of the first museums where concerts of early music were held in 1988. The concert programs featured the music of prominent Ukrainian composers of the 16th–18th centuries. Since 1989, the «Concerts in Museum» began to be held at the Museum of Russian Art, where one could hear music from the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century from «The Music Collection of the Razumovsky Family». Since 2003, the door has opened for concerts at the National Museum of History of Ukraine, where, in addition to chamber music, the visitors watched the whole performance — the chamber opera by D. Bortniansky «Sokil». The performance of this opera was also held at other museums of Ukrainian cities, as well as in Poland.Ancient instruments in some museums, that have lost its sound and artistic qualities, attracted attention of the musical experts. In association with scholars and the administration of museums, restoration work was carried out and brought back the old tools to life, which made it possible to hear the true «voice of the past «. This happened from the pianoforte at the Museum of Ukrainian History, the Lesia Ukrainka Museum in the village Kolodyazhny of Kovelsky District in Volyn and the Memorial Museum of Maxim Rylsky in Kyiv. Nowadays many museums in Ukraine have become centres of culture, both visual and musical. Due to this process, contemporaries’ views about the past art have expanded, the recordings of ancient music phonograms initiated film-making.

Taking the Reins

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-144
Author(s):  
Liza Gennaro
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Musical Theater ◽  
Peter Pan ◽  
West Side ◽  
West Side Story ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Artistic Vision ◽  
Male Dominated ◽  
Bob Fosse

The genesis of the present-day director-choreographer, starting with de Mille’s role as director-choreographer on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ill-fated Allegro (1947), is explored. How she employed dance as a narrative and metaphorical device in support of the allegorical structure of the libretto, and how her artistic vision conflicted with her collaborators is investigated. De Mille’s directorial oeuvre is considered in the context of the male-dominated world of Broadway. Robbins’ ascendance as the most influential director-choreographer of twentieth-century musical theater is examined in a close analysis of his choreography for and direction of Pajama Game (1954 [co-directed with George Abbott, co-choreographer Bob Fosse]), Peter Pan (1954), Bells Are Ringing (1956 [in which he collaborated with Bob Fosse]), Gypsy (1959), and Fiddler on the Roof (1964). West Side Story (1957) will be discussed here as an anomaly in Robbins’ musical theater career. I argue that Robbins’ interest in movement innovation in relation to his choreography for the “Jets” in West Side Story (1957) differs from his previous musical theater works. In addition, I will examine Robbins’ West Side Story collaboration with co-choreographer Peter Gennaro.

Dance in the Broadway Musicals of Shakespeare

2019 ◽  
pp. 302-326
Author(s):  
Ray Miller
Keyword(s):  
Musical Theater ◽  
Leonard Bernstein ◽  
West Side ◽  
Stephen Sondheim ◽  
George Balanchine ◽  
West Side Story ◽  
Broadway Musicals ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Shakespeare’s plays have served as inspiration for a score of Broadway musicals. These musicals have contributed to the development of the musical theater libretto from a loose collection of sketches to an integrated “book musical” that equally values text, music, design, directing, and dance. While many are familiar with some of the most popular hits from those shows—including “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” from the Cole Porter’s musical, Kiss Me, Kate, or the balcony scene song, “Maria,” from the Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim collaboration, West Side Story, the contribution of choreographers and dancers to the translation of Shakespeare-inspired music, text, and scenography to the musical theater stage has not received due scholarly attention. This chapter considers the partnership between text and dance in selected Broadway musicals that have been based on the works of Shakespeare, focusing on choreography for musicals by George Balanchine, Hanya Holm, and Jerome Robbins.

Performing the Commodity-Sign: Dancing in the Gap

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-22
Author(s):  
Colleen Dunagan
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Musical Theater ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
West Side ◽  
Movement Sequences ◽  
West Side Story ◽  
Vernacular Dance

Between 1998 and 2000, the Gap clothing company produced three advertising campaigns whose visual images consisted of choreographed movement sequences based on vernacular dance forms, theatrical jazz dance, and the codes and conventions of the Hollywood musical: “khakis,” “that's holiday,” and “West Side Story.” Each campaign produced a series of commercials that employed dance and musical theater in an attempt to bridge the gap between entertainment and advertising, and between popular culture and art. By manipulating standard advertising conventions, the Gap framed these televisual texts as performances or artworks, rather than as advertisements, creating choreographic, performance-oriented commercials that became the sign of Gap clothing. As a result, the commercials have been identifiable, just as the clothes have been, by style alone.

Soziale Disziplinierung im flexiblen Kapitalismus

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (136) ◽  
pp. 339-356
Author(s):  
Tobias Wölfle ◽  
Oliver Schöller
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Second Step ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Municipal Level

Under the term “Hilfe zur Arbeit” (aid for work) the federal law of social welfare subsumes all kinds of labour disciplining instruments. First, the paper shows the historical connection of welfare and labour disciplining mechanisms in the context of different periods within capitalist development. In a second step, against the background of historical experiences, we will analyse the trends of “Hilfe zur Arbeit” during the past two decades. It will be shown that by the rise of unemployment, the impact of labour disciplining aspects of “Hilfe zur Arbeit” has increased both on the federal and on the municipal level. For this reason the leverage of the liberal paradigm would take place even in the core of social rights.

Adaptations of Time Travel Narratives in Japanese Multimedia: Nurturing Eudaimonia across Time and Space

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Ae Lee
Keyword(s):  
Travel Narratives ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Life Styles ◽  
Concern For Others ◽  
The Future ◽  
Live Action

To displace a character in time is to depict a character who becomes acutely conscious of his or her status as other, as she or he strives to comprehend and interact with a culture whose mentality is both familiar and different in obvious and subtle ways. Two main types of time travel pose a philosophical distinction between visiting the past with knowledge of the future and trying to inhabit the future with past cultural knowledge, but in either case the unpredictable impact a time traveller may have on another society is always a prominent theme. At the core of Japanese time travel narratives is a contrast between self-interested and eudaimonic life styles as these are reflected by the time traveller's activities. Eudaimonia is a ‘flourishing life’, a life focused on what is valuable for human beings and the grounding of that value in altruistic concern for others. In a study of multimodal narratives belonging to two sets – adaptations of Tsutsui Yasutaka's young adult novella The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Yamazaki Mari's manga series Thermae Romae – this article examines how time travel narratives in anime and live action film affirm that eudaimonic living is always a core value to be nurtured.

Reframing the Sciences of the Long Eighteenth Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 58-66
Author(s):  
Giuliano Pancaldi
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Half Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Eighteenth Century ◽  
Past Half

Here I survey a sample of the essays and reviews on the sciences of the long eighteenth century published in this journal since it was founded in 1969. The connecting thread is some historiographic reflections on the role that disciplines—in both the sciences we study and the fields we practice—have played in the development of the history of science over the past half century. I argue that, as far as disciplines are concerned, we now find ourselves a bit closer to a situation described in our studies of the long eighteenth century than we were fifty years ago. This should both favor our understanding of that period and, hopefully, make the historical studies that explore it more relevant to present-day developments and science policy. This essay is part of a special issue entitled “Looking Backward, Looking Forward: HSNS at 50,” edited by Erika Lorraine Milam.

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