Bartók: ‘Bear Dance’

2008 ◽  
Vol 49 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 341-367
Author(s):  
László Vikárius
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Market Place ◽  
Piano Solo ◽  
Publication History ◽  
Personal Crisis ◽  
Album For The Young ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Minor

‘Bear Dance’ (German ‘Bärentanz’) appears to have been a lesser-known nineteenth-century character piece exemplified by Schumann’s two related compositions in A minor, Twelve Pieces for Four Hands , op. 85, no. 2 and its early version, for piano solo, composed for the Album for the Young but left unpublished, as well as Mendelssohn’s F-major occasional piece. These pieces are all characterized by a very low ostinato-like tone-repetition in the base (recalling the clumsy movements of the bear in Schumann’s pieces while imitating the leader’s drumming in Mendelssohn’s) and a melody in high register in imitation of the leader’s pipe tune. Bartók must have had this particular genre in mind when composing his closing piece for the Ten Easy Piano Pieces (1908), herald of later fast ‘ostinato’ movements, in which the amusing topic, a market place event, is turned into something wild and eerie. The composition and publication history of the piece is reinvestigated on the basis of documents, letters and compositional manuscripts, partly unpublished so far. ‘Bear Dance’ is closely related to the compositions, such as Bagatelles nos. 13 and 14, resulting from the composer’s personal crisis in 1908, due to his unrequited love to the violinist Stefi Geyer, and it also uses a version of the leitmotiv generally named after Geyer by theorists. The employment of characteristics derived from folk music ( kanásztánc [herdsman’s dance] or kolomeika rhythm, strophic structure, etc.) is analyzed as well as the composer’s modernist preference for harmonies integrating minor second/major seventh clash and large-scale tritonal tensions. Bartók’s encounter with a special (but distinctly different) musical type accompanying ritual peasant dances in Romanian villages of Transylvania is also briefly discussed as one of his arrangements of a violin piece, the second movement of the Sonatina for piano (1915) was also entitled as ‘Bear Dance’.

“Big History” Old and New: Presuppositions, Limits, Alternatives

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 306-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Megill
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Innovative Approach ◽  
Human History ◽  
Comparative History ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Big History

In recent years David Christian and others have promoted “Big History” as an innovative approach to the study of the past. The present paper juxtaposes to Big History an old Big History, namely, the tradition of “universal history” that flourished in Europe from the mid-sixteenth century until well into the nineteenth century. The claim to universality of works in that tradition depended on the assumed truth of Christianity, a fact that was fully acknowledged by the tradition’s adherents. The claim of the new Big History to universality likewise depends on prior assumptions. Simply stated, in its various manifestations the “new” Big History is rooted either in a continuing theology, or in a form of materialism that is assumed to be determinative of human history, or in a somewhat contradictory amalgam of the two. The present paper suggests that “largest-scale history” as exemplified in the old and new Big Histories is less a contribution to historical knowledge than it is a narrativization of one or another worldview. Distinguishing between largest-scale history and history that is “merely” large-scale, the paper also suggests that a better approach to meeting the desire for large scale in historical writing is through more modest endeavors, such as large-scale comparative history, network and exchange history, thematic history, and history of modernization.

The Origin, Formation and Early History of the Chikunda of South Central Africa

1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Isaacman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Linguistic ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Military History ◽  
Early History ◽  
South Central ◽  
History Of

Although historians have examined the process of pre-colonial political integration, little attention has been paid to the complementary patterns of ethnic and cultural assimilation. The Chikunda, who were initially slaves on the Zambezi prazos, provide an excellent example of this phenomenon. Over the course of several generations, captives from more than twenty ethnic groups submerged their historical, linguistic, and cultural differences to develop a new set of institutions and a common identity. The decline of the prazo system during the first half of the nineteenth century generated large scale migrations of Chikunda outside of the lower Zambezi valley. They settled in Zumbo, the Luangwa valley and scattered regions of Malawi where they played an important role in the nineteenth-century political and military history of south central Africa.

Narrative

2019 ◽  
pp. 23-46
Author(s):  
Michelle Burnham
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Travel Narratives ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Publication History ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shared Narrative

This chapter reviews the publication history of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century genre of Pacific travel narratives, and examines its narrative features. During this period, ships moved with increasing regularity on incredibly risky voyages between the world’s oceans. At the same time, novels came to dominate the literary world of fiction. These developments are related by their shared narrative dynamics, especially in the relationship between narrative suspense and numerical speculation, between words and numbers. The short-term risks and losses that attended these voyages were offset by their long-term profits, as the pleasure of accumulation concealed but also depended on the horrors of violence.

scholarly journals The Power of Shop Culture

1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Olssen ◽  
Jeremy Brecher
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scientific Management ◽  
The Political ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Labour Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
Hiring And Firing ◽  
A Minor

SummaryThis paper investigates the history of the labour process in New Zealand's state-owned railway workshops and questions the idea that large-scale industry inevitably destroyed whatever agency skilled workers had enjoyed. It also shows that relations of production vary with the political and cultural contexts. Craft control of the labour process survived in New Zealand's state-owned railway workshops and the union played only a minor role. Jop control was more important in achieving bureaucratic instead of autocratic control over such matters as hiring and firing; the retention of apprentice-based crafts; the institutionalization of seniority; and in resisting both de-skilling and the “premium bonus”. The strength and vitality of shop culture, based on craft control of the labour process, also survived and modified the Government's vigorous attempt to introduce “scientific management”. In brief the article concludes that productive processes do not inevitably determine social relations of production, that capitalism has been neither homogeneous nor uniform, and that mechanization never inevitably results in de-skilling.

scholarly journals Reappraisals of the Academy Movement

2001 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Tolley ◽  
Nancy Beadie
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public High Schools ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Educational Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
History Of

The presence of academies in the United States spans roughly three centuries. Originating in the colonial era, academies spread across the country by mid-nineteenth century. Such institutions generally served students between the ages of eight and twenty-five, providing a relatively advanced form of schooling that was legally incorporated to ensure financial support beyond that available through tuition alone. According to one contemporary source, by 1850 more than 6,100 incorporated academies existed in the United States, with enrollments nine times greater than those of the nation's colleges. Nineteenth-century supporters portrayed academies as exemplars of the nation's commitment to enlightenment and learning; opponents argued that they were harmful to the public interest. Those in favor of a large-scale system of public high schools dismissed academies as irrelevant and outmoded institutions. The culmination of this controversy is well known, because it is reiterated in every secondary text on the history of American education. As a widespread system of public higher schooling supplanted the academies in the twentieth century, private and independent schools dropped out of the mainstream of American educational discourse. The following essays seek to recover something of the long history of academies in the United States and to reconsider the historical significance of these institutions in society.

scholarly journals The Artistic Profile of Aleksander Zarzycki: A Forgotten Composer of the Romantic Era

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-37
Author(s):  
Klaudia Popielska
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Piano Concerto ◽  
Polish Music ◽  
Romantic Era ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Performance ◽  
A Minor ◽  
National Style

The second half of the nineteenth century is a neglected period in the history of Polish music, in the aspects of both research and performance. Works by many composers from this period have unfortunately been forgotten. One such composer is undoubtedly Aleksander Zarzycki (1834–1895), also a teacher and piano virtuoso, the author of more than 40 opuses, including many solo songs with piano accompaniment, which have frequently been compared to the songs of Stanisław Moniuszko. Similarly as Poland’s most famous song composer, Zarzycki created two songbooks that belong to the trend of egalitarian songs. He was also renowned for his short piano pieces, written in the salon style with virtuoso elements. One of his most famous works is the Mazurka in G major, popularised by the Spanish virtuoso violinist Pablo Sarasate. Also of note is his Piano Concerto in A-flat major Op. 17, drawing on Fryderyk Chopin’s Piano Concerto in A minor and Józef Wieniawski’s Concerto in G minor. Zarzycki’s works are characteristic of his era, and contain elements of folklore, national style, virtuosity, and the so-called ‘Romantic mood’.

scholarly journals Voices from the beginning: The early phase of musical historiography in Serbia

Muzikologija ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 77-90
Author(s):  
Vesna Peno ◽  
Aleksandar Vasic
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Early Phase ◽  
Initial Phase ◽  
Short History ◽  
Literary Expression ◽  
History Of ◽  
School Youth

The beginnings of Serbian musical historiography can be traced back to the nineteenth century. The first half of that century is marked by the work of musical amateurs, and later professionals were gradually trained. The beginnings of Serbian musical historiography can be found in articles published in memorials of singing societies, as well as in periodicals. These were portraits of composers and performers, texts on church and folk music, obituaries and other articles. The first history of music in the Serbian language appeared in 1921 in Pancevo. Its author was Ljubomir Bosnjakovic (1891-1987), composer and conductor. This short history of music is written in a popular way, as a guide-book for concert and opera audiences, and as a manual for school youth. It includes a professional approach and a free, literary expression. This study paints a picture of the initial phase of the development of musical historiography in Serbia, as well as an analysis of Ljubomir Bosnjakovic?s book.

George Sand and Music Ethnography in Nineteenth-Century France

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Marcoline
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Folk Songs ◽  
George Sand ◽  
Rigorous Approach ◽  
Personal Significance ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Nineteenth Century France ◽  
History Of

In Les Visions de la nuit dans les campagnes (1851–1853), George Sand responded to the French government’s newly announced project of collecting the ‘popular’ or folk songs of France, with a critique of their methods of collection as perfunctory. Sand was adamant not only about a more rigorous approach to amassing the nation’s folk songs but also about the inclusion of the music with the lyrics, and her concise, insightful critique of archival methods came after nearly two decades of her own occupation with rendering music in her fiction and, more immediately, a decade focused on folk music in many of what are known as her ‘rustic’ novels. In particular, I bring to the fore in this article discussions in Sand’s expansive novel Consuelo; La Comtesse de Rudolstadt (1842–1844) which both insist upon the historical, cultural and personal significance of the preservation of folk music and navigate the tensions of preserving an art form that is fundamentally non-static and ephemeral, in order to articulate the value Sand places on musical sensibility, memory and heritage. I argue that Les Visions de la nuit dans les campagnes stands along with Sand’s fiction as an ardent defense against the loss of the musical heritage of provincial France in the hands of the state’s archivists. This article thus situates George Sand’s investment in the cultural production from the Berry region within the early history of nineteenth-century music ethnography in France, while maintaining Sand’s own understanding of her cultural production as poetic rather than scientific.

The History and Historiography of Guild Hierarchies in the Middle Ages

2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (04) ◽  
pp. 685-696
Author(s):  
Étienne Anheim
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Social Ordering ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Master Craftsman ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
A Minor

Philippe Bernardi’s Maître, valet et apprenti au Moyen Âge. Essai sur une production bien ordonnée, examines the traditional triptych of master craftsman, journeyman, and apprentice, considered to be characteristic of medieval production. By focusing on “work statuses,” Bernardi moves away from an overly narrow legal approach to social status, in which production tends to go largely unanalyzed or else is considered only in curtailed form—as in the model of the three orders where, applying solely to “those who work,” forms of production play only a minor role in social ordering. The originality of his approach lies in the way he constructs his object of study: work hierarchies. These are systematically addressed both in historical terms, on the basis of medieval archives (using the example of Provence in from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century), and in historiographical terms, by examining the models according to which these archives have been interpreted since the nineteenth century. Applying tools drawn from the history of science to medieval history, Bernardi thus uncovers the mechanisms that have shaped our knowledge of medieval society since the nineteenth century, showing that the master-journeyman-apprentice triptych is a representation originating in normative sources that has become a historiographical model, but which does not account for medieval production as it appears in sources relating to practice. Moving beyond this normative view, Bernardi shows that work statuses were mostly relational and functioned as a series of binary oppositions—a reality concealed behind a historiographical discourse woven not only through intellectual experience and critical thinking, but also by beliefs, values, and forms of activism.

The Vaitupu Company Revisited: Reflections and Second Thoughts on Methodology and Mindset

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 221-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug Munro
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Island Communities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Whaling Industry ◽  
The Moment

It has been said that “Old movies seen again after many years seem different not because they have altered but because we have.” For the same reason, a rereading of older historical texts will convey different meanings, and reveal deficiencies and perhaps even profundities that were not initially apparent. In this paper, these observations are applied to a piece of research that was special to me at the time. I now see more clearly the extent to which my methods and mindset were a product of time, of place, and of my own training and preferences. So I will retrace my footsteps—insofar as is possible after all these years—and consider how the preconceptions and expectations of the moment affected the outcome. In other words, to reflect on the nature of thinking and writing.My research was not concerned with African but Pacific Islands history. From the mid 1970s through to the early 1980s I engaged in dissertation work in the nineteenth-century history of Tuvalu, formerly the Ellice Islands. Older maps will identify Tuvalu as the southern portion of a British dependency, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony (astride the equator and just east of the International Date Line). The nine Tuvalu islands are tiny even by the standards of coral atolls; by far the largest is Vaitupu at about six square kilometers, and the group remains economically unimportant and strategically insignificant. During the nineteenth century Tuvalu was incorporated into the world economy through the whaling industry and the copra trade, and further exposed to Western influences by missionization. The paucity of exploitable resources, however, coupled with an inhospitable environment and smallness of scale, rendered the islands unsuitable for large-scale European settlement and muted the potential disruptions of outside contacts. But there were aberrant events, such as the Vaitupu Company, which placed individual island communities under strain from time to time.

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