scholarly journals Webern's Op. 12, No. 2, Die geheimnisvolle Flöte: Text Setting, Form, and Pitch Orthography

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 275-299
Author(s):  
Yi-Cheng Daniel Wu
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Voice Leading ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Text Setting ◽  
Core Element ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Pitch Structure ◽  
Twentieth Century Music

Abstract In tonal music, pitch orthography reflects different structural and functional meanings of notes in various contextual and textural settings such as harmony, melody, and voice leading. At the turn of the twentieth century, many composers attempt to progress beyond the confines of traditional tonality, whose works, as generally perceived by most analysts nowadays, treat the twelve chromatic notes as the twelve enharmonically equivalent pitch-classes and thus present “the dissolution of … [the] notational conventions of earlier times” (Gillies 1993, 43). Contrary to this general sentiment regarding orthography, the present paper brings the significance of pitch notation into sharper focus by investigating its crucial role in the course of the text setting and form in Webern's op. 12, no. 2. I will demonstrate how Webern utilizes orthography to reinforce the structure of the text and the narrative of form, assisting the analyst in considering notation as a core element while examining the pitch structure of the early twentieth-century music.

scholarly journals Islamization, Gentrification and Domestication: ‘A Girls’ Islamic Course' and Rural Muslims in Western Uttar Pradesh

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Jeffery ◽  
Roger Jeffery ◽  
Craig Jeffrey
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
North India ◽  
September 11Th ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Shed Light

Girls' education has been enduringly controversial in north India, and the disputes of the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century still echo in debates about girls' education in contemporary India. In this paper, we reflect on the education of rural Muslim girls in contemporary western Uttar Pradesh (UP), by examining an Islamic course for girls [Larkiyon kā Islālmī Course], written in Urdu and widely used in madrasahs there. First, we summarize the central themes in the Course: purifying religious practice; distancing demure, self-controlled, respectable woman from the lower orders; and the crucial role of women as competent homemakers. Having noted the conspicuous similarities between these themes and those in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century textbooks and advice manuals for girls and women, the second section examines the context in which the earlier genre emerged. Finally, we return to the present day. Particularly since September 11th 2001, madrasahs have found themselves the focus of hostile allegations that bear little or no relationship to the activities of the madrasahs that we studied. Nevertheless, madrasah education does have problematic implications. The special curricula for girls exemplifies how a particular kind of élite project has been sustained and transformed, and we aim to shed light on contemporary communal and class issues as well as on gender politics.

scholarly journals On the Russian Concept of Lād, 1830–1945

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Ewell
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Harmonic Function ◽  
English Language ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Universally translated into English as “mode,” the Russian term лад (“lād”) first appeared in 1830 as a translation from German Tonart, which is usually translated into English as “tonality.” To Tchaikovsky a lād was, in fact, a tonality, but by century’s end lād had come to signify its pre-tonal cousin, mode. Boleslav Yavorsky’s work on the subject in the early twentieth century gave lād new post-modal and post-tonal meaning with respect to quasi-tonal and post-tonal music. In this article, I delve deeply into the history of this uniquely Russian concept, from its inception to its highly modified mid-twentieth century form. Rather than trying to find an English equivalent, I leave “lād” in its transliterated form, which disentangles it from inaccurate translations. I examine a 1945 Chopin analysis by Yavorsky’s student, Sergei Protopopov, which outlines new interpretations for Russian lād. Sketches for this analysis, from the Russian National Museum of Music, provide a backdrop for a reexamination of basic tonal constructs such as cadence, phrase, form, harmonic function, and melodic diminution. I then look at a famous 1930 conference on Yavorsky’s theories as an example of the high stakes involved in creating a Marxist musical science, in which lād played a primary role. I also briefly discuss Yavorsky’s theories as a counterweight to Hugo Riemann’s encroaching functionality, which was brought to Russia by Gregori Catoire in the early twentieth century. It is my hope that this work on lād will fill in many gaps for the English-language reader, and possibly spur further studies on this uniquely Russian concept.

Modalities of National Identity: Sibelius Builds a First Symphony

2011 ◽  
pp. 451-483
Author(s):  
James Hepokoski
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Jean Sibelius ◽  
Twentieth Century Music

This article discusses Jean Sibelius, a Finn composer who emerged during the golden age of Finnish nationalist art. It first studies the gap between the elite-urban European art and Finnish-revered originary culture. Preserved literary and musical collections, the concept of strategic triangulation, and the construction of Sibelius' first symphony are discussed. The article also proposes a methodological model that is generalizable to the study of other art-music inflections of nationalism in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century music.

Behind the Bandstand: Jay G. Sims and the Internal Workings of the Sousa Band

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin D. McAlister
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Exact Nature ◽  
Hiring Decisions ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Administrative Position ◽  
Personnel Manager

From 1919 to 1932 trombonist, Jay G. Sims, served as the personnel manager for the Sousa Band. The Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas at Austin holds Sim's business correspondences which divulge his crucial role in the band’s operations, shedding light on his contributions to the band's success as a touring group. Notwithstanding so, there is relatively little information about him in the existing scholarship on John Philip Sousa and the Sousa Band. This paper explores Sims’ position as personnel manager for the Sousa Band through an examination of his correspondences. There is particular focus on his day-to-day functions, including his input on hiring decisions and recruitment of members, as well as purchasing of equipment for the band’s performances. Furthermore, Sims’ correspondence offers a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Sousa Band, one of the most famous touring musical groups of the early-twentieth century. By using Sims’ own documents as a primary source, it is possible through letters and invoices, not only to determine the exact nature of Sims’ role within the Sousa Band, but also how his administrative position impacted the band’s operations.

Juxtaposition and Non-motion: Varèse bridges early modernism to electroacoustic music

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
GARY S. KENDALL
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Sound Structure ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century Music

Edgard Varèse's Poème électronique can be viewed as a bridge between early twentieth-century modernism and electroacoustic music. This connection to early modernism is most clearly seen in its use of musical juxtaposition, a favoured technique of early modernist composers, especially those active in Paris. Juxtaposition and non-motion are considered here, particularly in relationship to Smalley's exposition of spectromorphology (Smalley 1986), which in its preoccupation with motion omits any significant consideration of non-motion. Juxtaposition and non-motion have an important history within twentieth-century music, and as an early classic of electroacoustic music, Poème électronique is a particularly striking example of a composition that is rich in juxtapositions similar to those found in passages of early modernist music. Examining Poème électronique through the lens of juxtaposition and non-motion reveals how the organisation of its juxtaposed sounds encourages the experience of sound structure suspended time.

Early Twentieth-Century Music

Notes ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 1338
Author(s):  
John Thow ◽  
Jonathan Dunsby ◽  
David Lewin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century Music

scholarly journals Queue the Roll

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Wente
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Scientific Management ◽  
Music Culture ◽  
Labor Practices ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Industrial Labor ◽  
Twentieth Century Music

By the early twentieth century the machine aesthetic was a well-established and dominant interest. While this aesthetic has been examined in art and in literature, the representation of industrial labor practices and the role of the machine in musical compositions remain largely unexplored. In this article, I use labor theory to frame a discussion of a musical topic of the mechanical in various musical examples from the United States and Europe in the 1910s, 20s, and 30s. Each example imitates, showcases, or features the sounds of the machine, and illuminates the ways in which industrialized labor influenced music. I organize the machine sounds into three categories: music written to sound like or imitate the machine, music written to highlight the skills of virtuoso performers while also showcasing what the machine can do, and music written specifically for machines. These categories encompass a wide variety of performing bodies, audiences, and spaces, evidencing the ubiquitous presence of the machine aesthetic in early twentieth-century music culture. As the discussion of the examples in each part will show, the prevalence of machine sounds in music indicates the widespread influence of industrialization and its culturally dominant ideology, Frederick Winslow Taylor’s system of scientific management.

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