Liu Sola: China’s Musically Eclectic Composer

Jazz in China ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 126-135
Author(s):  
Eugene Marlow
Keyword(s):  
Classical Music ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Art Exhibitions ◽  
Early Music ◽  
Musical Traditions ◽  
Art Colony ◽  
Musical Styles ◽  
Film Sound

This chapter presents an interview with composer, author, and vocalist Liu Sola, who has blended the musical traditions of China with jazz, blues, and improvisation. Since the 1980s, Liu Sola has scored many Chinese and international film sound tracks, as well as TV and drama productions. She has composed music for orchestra, ensemble, opera, modern theater, modern dance, and art exhibitions. This chapter presents an interview with composer, author, and vocalist Liu Sola, who has blended the musical traditions of China with jazz, blues, and improvisation. Since the 1980s, Liu Sola has scored many Chinese and international film sound tracks, as well as TV and drama productions. She has composed music for orchestra, ensemble, opera, modern theater, modern dance, and art exhibitions. Her range of musical styles includes classical music, jazz, early music, rock, traditional, and contemporary music. She is the founder of Liu Sola Music Studio, located in the Songzhuang art colony, a Beijing artist district. Liu Sola designed and built a music space for her ensemble to rehearse and record.

Why the Ancient Musical Essence is Still Retained in Dusun Tindal's Instrumental Music within its Modern Community?

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-31
Author(s):  
Chong Lee Suan
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Musical Instruments ◽  
Music Practice ◽  
Musical Styles

Objective - This paper examines Dusun Tindal's instrumental music practice within the context of modernity of the society in Tenghilan, a town that is located on northwest Sabah. The study looks into the driving modish musical styles and forms in the root of the ancient traditions especially in the aspects of musical natures, music compositions, musical functions, and philosophies. Methodology/Technique - The contemporary musical ensemble is a newly developed tradition combining a mixture of traditional and western musical instruments and styles. Due to the new mindsets and tastes of their young people, as well as to open up opportunities to venture into the exotic blooms of globalized musical festivals and tourism, their music is manifold and endeavoring in captive of the hearts of the global audience. Findings - The contemporary musical ensemble is a newly developed tradition combining a mixture of traditional and western musical instruments and styles. Due to the new mindsets and tastes of their young people, as well as to open up opportunities to venture into the exotic blooms of globalized musical festivals and tourism, their music is manifold and endeavoring in captive of the hearts of the global audience. Novelty - This study attempts to disclose the grounds and rationales behind the persistence of the Dusun Tindals in upholding their ancient musical essence until today Type of Paper - Empirical Keywords: Bamboo Orchestra; Dusun Tindal Contemporary Music; Dusun Tindal Music

The ‘open-earedness’ hypothesis and the development of age-related aesthetic reactions to music in elementary school children

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard Kopiez ◽  
Marco Lehmann
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
School Children ◽  
Elementary School Children ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Musical Preference ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Musical Styles

This study investigates age-related changes in musical preference in elementary school children. The tolerance towards unconventional musical styles has been called ‘open-earedness’ (Hargreaves, 1982a), and it is assumed to decline with increasing age. Musical preferences of 186 students from grade 1 to 4 (age range: 6–10 years) were measured by using a 5-point iconographic rating scale. Eight sound examples were presented in a sound questionnaire. Results showed a decline of open-earedness for unconventional music (classical, ethnic and avant-garde music) from grade 1 to 2 (age: 7–8 years). However, this effect disappeared when classical music was excluded from data analysis. Only a few absolute rejections of unconventional musical styles were found, and the mean preference ratings did not exceed the neutral mean range. Future studies will have to consider additional factors of influence to make clear predictions about the point in time when this transition occurs.

scholarly journals The Research of the Relationship of Preferred Musical Styles and Personal Features of Music Teachers

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna A. Kharzhevskaia
Keyword(s):  
Classical Music ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Personal Resources ◽  
Education Psychology ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Musical Styles ◽  
Musical Preferences

The present article researches the relationship of musical preferences of adolescence (pop, rock and rap) and modernity (classical, pop, rock, music lovers) with the display of personal features, such as empathy, emotional exhaustion, state and trait anxiety, pedagogical style and coping strategies. The musical genres and trends are considered as musical preferences and precedential musical phenomenon revealed empirically during the self-analysis by the subjects. The experimental study was carried out on the basis of Moscow Pedagogical State University and consisted of 4-5th-year students of Music Department. The connections between personal features and preferred musical styles of modernity were detected. The students considering classical music to be their favorite musical direction having a high level of personal resources. These results display the positive influence of classical music to the personal resources of future music teachers. This phenomenon demands further investigations and using in the field of musical education psychology. These results highlight necessity of detailed consideration on classical music relationship and personal features of bachelor students musical department during the educational process.

Learning Music Composers’ Styles: To Block or to Interleave?

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Shi Hui Wong ◽  
Amanda Chern Min Low ◽  
Sean H. K. Kang ◽  
Stephen Wee Hun Lim
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Aural Skills ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Teaching Music ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Musical Styles

The ability to recognize and distinguish among varying musical styles is essential to developing aural skills and musicianship. Yet, this task can be difficult for music learners, particularly nonexperts. To address this challenge and guide music education practice, this study drew on cognitive psychological principles to investigate the effect of interleaved presentation of music pieces by various classical music composers on learning to identify these composers’ styles. Participants with 4 or fewer years of musical experience were presented with music pieces from six composers in an interleaved manner (alternating between listening to different composers’ works) and music pieces from another six composers in a blocked fashion (listening to works by one composer at a time before moving on to the next). A later test in which participants had to classify novel pieces by the same 12 composers revealed the superiority of interleaved over blocked presentation, although most participants misjudged blocking to be more effective than interleaving. This finding provides evidence for the utility of interleaving in teaching music composers’ styles and extends the literature on the interleaving effect in category induction to the auditory domain. Practical implications and future directions for the use of interleaving in music education are discussed.

scholarly journals PETER MAXWELL DAVIES IN THE 1950S: A CONVERSATION WITH THE COMPOSER

Tempo ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 64 (254) ◽  
pp. 11-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Jones
Keyword(s):  
Classical Music ◽  
Early Music ◽  
Compositional Technique ◽  
Indian Classical Music ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Peter Maxwell Davies

The 1950s was a particularly important decade for Peter Maxwell Davies. It was the period when he established the fundamental elements of his compositional technique; the decade in which he composed his first acknowledged works; and a time, coinciding with his emergence as a composer of substance, when he travelled to Darmstadt, Paris and Rome. It was also the period that witnessed the publication of two of his own articles, and the decade in which his interest in early music – particularly plainchant – and Indian classical music began to influence his own compositional thinking and resulting works.

Remixed Metaphors

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Gibbons
Keyword(s):  
Classical Music ◽  
Mikhail Bakhtin ◽  
Cultural Theorist ◽  
Musical Styles

This chapter investigates games in which classical music is remixed with popular styles, a juxtaposition that challenges traditional concepts of highbrow and lowbrow musical styles. The chapter provides readings of several games including the arcade classic Gyruss, the indie game Fez, the downloadable music game Boom Boom Rocket, and the bizarre shooter series Parodius, which has been released only in Japan. In a discussion of the concept of “carnival” developed by the cultural theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, the chapter explores how games can create spaces in which even the most serious of classical works can become humorous or even surreal.

scholarly journals Consumers on Critique: A Survey of Classical Music Listeners’ Engagement with Professional Music Reviews

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 205920432093133
Author(s):  
Elena Alessandri ◽  
Dawn Rose ◽  
Olivier Senn ◽  
Katrin Szamatulski ◽  
Antonio Baldassarre ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Music Criticism ◽  
Professional Background ◽  
Musical Engagement ◽  
Streaming Services ◽  
Music Market ◽  
Typical Consumer ◽  
New Generation

Music criticism has a long tradition as a leading agent in the classical music discourse. However, some people question its function in the contemporary music market. We explored the topicality of classical music critique by asking: Who reads professional reviews today? And what do readers expect from review? Through an online survey (English/German), we profiled the listening habits of classical music listeners ( N = 1200) and their engagement with professional reviews. Our participants were more actively engaged with music, but contrary to the ‘highbrow’ stereotype, not more highly musically trained than the general population. They consumed music and opinion sources in a variety of ways. Approximately two-thirds ( n = 741) of the participants had recently engaged with professional reviews, which were perceived as the most useful form of opinion, followed by short written commentaries and, lastly, ratings. A multiple logistic regression model suggested that the typical consumer of professional music critique was older with higher levels of musical engagement and education, had a higher inclination to purchase music and lower usage of streaming services, and had a preference for detailed reviews from traditional sources (e.g. newspapers). According to review readers, reviews should cover a variety of topics and offer evaluations underpinned with reasons. Reviewers should be constructive, open-minded, respectful, and well informed; their professional background was less relevant. Professional reviews should not necessarily provide a recommendation on what to buy, but rather guide listeners’ musical appreciation and understanding. Professional criticism still has an audience, although more so among older, musically educated listeners. Critics need to explore various channels in order to connect to a new generation of classical music listeners.

A contemporary cultural policy for contemporary music?

2016 ◽  
Vol 158 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Homan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Cultural Nationalism ◽  
Cultural Economy ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Cultural Sector

Creative Nation confirmed the shift by federal governments to viewing popular music as part of the Australian cultural economy, where the ‘contemporary music’ industries were expected to contribute to economic growth as much as providing a set of creative practices for musicians and audiences. In the 19 years between Creative Nation and Creative Australia, much has changed. This article examines relationships between the music industries, governments and audiences in three areas. First, it charts the funding of popular music within the broader cultural sector to illuminate the competing discourses and demands of the popular and classical music sectors in federal budgets. Second, it traces configurations of popular music and national identity as part of national policy. Third, the article explores how both national policy documents position Australian popular music amid global technological and regulatory shifts. As instruments of cultural nationalism, Creative Nation and Creative Australia are useful texts in assessing the opportunities and limits of nations in asserting coherent national strategies.

scholarly journals Towards New Forms of Pianistic Improvisation Across Musical Boundaries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mark Donlon
Keyword(s):  
Classical Music ◽  
Main Element ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Musical Identity ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Musical Practice ◽  
Piano Trio ◽  
Free Improvisation ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Musical Traditions

<p>This thesis is practice-based. The main element in which the research outcomes are manifested is the portfolio of creative work. There are three CD albums of original music: Southern Shift, Between Moons, and Tales from the Diaspora. There are also three video recordings including a performance of my piece Saraband (for piano trio), along with my performance of two classical piano pieces by Rachmaninoff: Elegie op 3 no. 1 and Etudetableau op. 33 no. 5. There is a written exegesis which serves to inform the reader how the creative work may be understood or apprehended, as well as placing it in relevant context The creative work centres on contemporary piano improvisation and how diverse musical strands can be drawn together in a coherent improvised musical idiom. Models for contemporary improvised music, that constitute key external sources for my musical practice, include the work of pianists Keith Jarrett, Cecil Taylor, Matt Bourne, John Taylor, Misha Mengelberg, Gabriela Montero and Gwilym Simcock. How these pianists’ work relates to my music will be discussed in the exegetical text.  Several approaches and techniques, to free improvisation and jazz, will be explored through the creative practice and discussed in the exegesis. The ideas of scholars Nicholas Cook and Ed Sarath play a significant part in the concepts behind the music in this portfolio and in my thinking about improvisation in a wider sense. Cook suggests that improvisation represents a wider and more nuanced set of musical functionalities than is commonly understood by the one term ‘improvisation’. This is a key factor in this research.  Extemporaneous Composition is the most salient concept at work in the creative work. The aim is to explore how an improvisation can have elements of a controlled and structured musical argument, as a composed piece would. This connects to the issue of how improvisation and composition are closely linked as creative processes. The issue of how improvisation and the interpretive performance of composed music are linked will be an important topic, as will the relationship between aurality and textuality in creative musicianship. The two research questions are:   • When diverse and divergent aspects of musical practice, from traditions such as Western classical music, jazz and other African-based music are integrated into an improvised musical practice to give voice to a personal, creative musical identity, what can the nature of that music be? What perspectives will emerge about how creative performers operate?   • Textuality and aurality function differently in these musical traditions. Can improvisation, in its wider sense, be re-evaluated to account for the employment of these through a more complex and nuanced set of creative functionalities than is typically understood by the single term improvisation?</p>

The soloist in contemporary piano concerti

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ellen Ugelvik
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Research Question ◽  
New Music ◽  
General Level ◽  
General Lack ◽  
Research Material ◽  
The Subject

The project grew out of a need to improve my ability to tackle challenges I had faced playing contemporary piano concerti. The embodying of new aesthetics is a great challenge in premieres of new works. While the soloist has great potential for expressing personal artistic ideas within a large-scale concert-hall environment, the classical pianist education just does not cover all challenges of performing brand new concerti. The new music suffers. The general lack of contemporary music in educational repertoires has consequences for how the field of classical music develops, what kind of music we value, how we work and what kind of music we play and listen to in a musical society. I wanted to explore the potential of my role and investigate how I could behave and play to help to improve the sounding result of new piano concerti. I created this project with the overarching research question: Which abilities do I need to develop further, and to enable a progressive soloist role when faced with challenges in entirely new music, and what are the extended effects of such an expanded role awareness? As the project moved forward, this progressive role awareness, I discovered, was useful to me by giving me greater flexibility and confidence about the massive collective apparatus surrounding the new piano concerti. The project is based around five new piano concerti I have premiered at national and international venues: Diamond Dust by D. Fujikura, Konsertstykke i tre deler by M. Hegdal, at the tips of my fingers / on the tip of my tongue by B.L. Thorsen, Wowen Fingerprints by T.B. Ulvo and Theory of the Subject by T. Reinholdtsen. Through the evolution of these works, I examine the role of the soloist in all the processes of musical creation, from initialization to realisation in performance. The research material provides insights into how new music is dealt with in the standard classical music world. I provide rare awareness of the role of the soloist and suggest several improvements of how we lay the foundations for premiering new music. A central outcome of my project is a ‘toolbox’ of proposed techniques and approaches for pianists encountering new works. The toolbox, I argue, is also valuable when applied to older music and to how we approach any musical situation on a general level.

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