scholarly journals Judith Weir's Instrumental Music as Description

Per Musi ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 59-78
Author(s):  
Kheng K. Koay
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Piano Quartet ◽  
Musical Motion

Abstract This study explores Judith Weir's abstract descriptive technique in her instrumental music, Distance and Enchantment (1988) for piano quartet and Musicians Wrestle Everywhere for ten instruments (1994). Folksongs and a location used and described in the music, respectively, are interpreted and "produced" through musical characters and mood. In most cases musical characters and gestures have a tendency to associate musical motion to arouse images. The decisions, ideas and styles in these compositions may be applied to works in other genres and her later works, as well.

scholarly journals PIANO QUARTETS OF L. BEETHOVEN: MOZART’S PROTOTYPES AND AUTHOR’S INITIO

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (58) ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
Dar’ia Kutluieva
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Sound Field ◽  
Piano Concerto ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Piano Quartet ◽  
Stringed Instruments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Violin And Piano ◽  
Piano Quartets

Background. The article provides an analysis of L. Beethoven’s piano quartets through the prism of the ensemble writing and composition experience by W. A. Mozart. The disclosure of the successive ties between the two great Viennese classics in the field of chamber instrumental music contributes to the scientific understanding of the history of this genre, which is not sufficiently covered in musicology. The analysis revealed that the four piano quartets of L. Beethoven are focused on Mozart’s prototypes, or rather, on sonatas for violin and piano. It was found that the formative principles of Beethoven’s piano quartets grow from the above-mentioned compositions by W. A. Mozart, but the content and the ensemble-dramatic solution reflect the independence and originality of the young composer’s thinking, revealing the sprouts of a future mature style. The purpose of this article is to disclose the ways of rethinking the prototypes of Mozart in the piano quartets of L. Beethoven. The piano quartets of the latter serve as the musical material of the article: No. 1 Es-dur, No. 2 D-dur, No. 3 C-dur WoO 36, and No. 4 Es-dur op. 16. Results. L. Beethoven changes the algorithm of ensemble events contained in Mozart’s opuses, where the theme is presented in turn by piano, violin, followed by the conversation of the two. The composer immediately includes all members of the quartet in the presentation of the leading material, which specifies this genre, revealing its “intermediateness” between the intimacy of the trio and the “representativeness” of the concerto. Since the genetic origins of the genre of the piano quartet are the trio sonata, the string quartet and the clavier concerto with the accompaniment of a string ensemble, these genres influenced the type of Beethoven’s piano quartets. Thus, Beethoven’s Bonn quartets resemble in their writing a string quartet; and the piano quartet Es-dur op. 16 resembles a clavier concerto with orchestra. These compositions are related to the first of the above mentioned prototypes by the consistent application of the trio principle, which is expressed in various combinations of ensemble voices. In the timbre refraction, the trio-principle underlies the pairing of stringed instruments, where the bowed instruments form a strictly homophonic vertical with the traditional functional relationship according to the “upper voice ‒ bass ‒ middle” model. Another dimension of the trio principle arises when one of the string parts of the piano is displaced, as a result of which a multi-timbre sound field is formed. There is an obvious desire of the composer for the equality of four voices in the piano quartet. At the same time, the timbre uniqueness of the piano and the virtuosity of its part make it possible to recognize in it the leader of the ensemble union. Conclusion. The leading role of the piano in L. Beethoven’s piano quartets brings this genre closer to a piano concerto. At the same time, the piano has a variety of role functions: it can act as an equal partner, being one of the voices of the quartet score; as a concert instrument demonstrating its virtuoso capabilities; as a leader of an ensemble, a kind of conductor, giving impetus to performance, initiative in ensemble play. Similar functions can be observed in W. A. Mozart’s sonatas for violin and piano, which L. Beethoven was guided by.

Maxim Berezovsky C-dur symphony in a context of new biographical scenario of artist’s life-creativity

2018 ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Olha Shumilina
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Spiritual Direction ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Orchestral Music ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
Mental Modeling ◽  
Independent Work

Relevance of the study. The article studies recently found symphony of the prominent Ukrainian composer of the second half of the eighteenth century Maxim Berezovsky. He is widely known now as the author of cyclic spiritual concerts written for the Orthodox worship, and is practically unknown as a musician instrumentalist associated with the imperial theater and the court musical life. The work of M. Berezovsky as a secular musician determined the creative interest in composing instrumental music intended for secular chamber and orchestral music. Main objective of the article is a clarification of M.Berezovsky symphony as one of secular field artworks in the light of new summaries about artist’s life-creativity. Methodology. Taking into account peculiarities of the material and the analytical approach to its study, the methods of theoretical research have been chosen(abstraction, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, mental modeling, ascension from abstract to concrete, etc.). Conclusions. As a result of a study the symphony analysis in a context of new authentic statements about M.Berezovsky’s life-creativity. It was stated that this artwork was written not accidentally and detects absolute awareness of the artist in all composer’s niceties – how to build a topic and build a homophonic construction based on it, in a technique of orchestral construction, form creations of that time and etc. From the beginning of his creative career, M. Berezovsky was well aware of the possibilities of the orchestra as a performer, attached to the Italian opera and instrumental music. Symphony enriches our imagination about the works of M. Berezovsky in the field of secular instrumental and operatic music and extends the range of works of the artist beyond the spiritual direction. Some signs indicate that the Symphony was not an independent work, but an overture to the opera Demofont.

Maxim Berezovsky C-dur symphony in a context of new biographical scenario of artist’s life-creativity

2018 ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Olha Shumilina
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Spiritual Direction ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Orchestral Music ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
Mental Modeling ◽  
Independent Work

Relevance of the study. The article studies recently found symphony of the prominent Ukrainian composer of the second half of the eighteenth century Maxim Berezovsky. He is widely known now as the author of cyclic spiritual concerts written for the Orthodox worship, and is practically unknown as a musician instrumentalist associated with the imperial theater and the court musical life. The work of M. Berezovsky as a secular musician determined the creative interest in composing instrumental music intended for secular chamber and orchestral music. Main objective of the article is a clarification of M.Berezovsky symphony as one of secular field artworks in the light of new summaries about artist’s life-creativity. Methodology. Taking into account peculiarities of the material and the analytical approach to its study, the methods of theoretical research have been chosen(abstraction, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, mental modeling, ascension from abstract to concrete, etc.). Conclusions. As a result of a study the symphony analysis in a context of new authentic statements about M.Berezovsky’s life-creativity. It was stated that this artwork was written not accidentally and detects absolute awareness of the artist in all composer’s niceties – how to build a topic and build a homophonic construction based on it, in a technique of orchestral construction, form creations of that time and etc. From the beginning of his creative career, M. Berezovsky was well aware of the possibilities of the orchestra as a performer, attached to the Italian opera and instrumental music. Symphony enriches our imagination about the works of M. Berezovsky in the field of secular instrumental and operatic music and extends the range of works of the artist beyond the spiritual direction. Some signs indicate that the Symphony was not an independent work, but an overture to the opera Demofont.

Wandering Archetypes in Schubert's Instrumental Music

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Kinderman
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music

Queering Musical Biography in the Writings of Edward Prime-Stevenson and Rosa Newmarch

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-118
Author(s):  
Kristin M. Franseen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Benjamin Britten ◽  
Twentieth Century Music ◽  
History Of ◽  
Music Research ◽  
Symphonic Music ◽  
Biographical Knowledge

Beginning with the “open secret” of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears's relationship and continuing through debates over Handel's and Schubert's sexuality and analyses of Ethel Smyth's memoirs, biography has played a central role in the development of queer musicology. At the same time, life-writing's focus on extramusical details and engagement with difficult-to-substantiate anecdotes and rumors often seem suspect to scholars. In the case of early-twentieth-century music research, however, these very gaps and ambiguities paradoxically offered some authors and readers at the time rare spaces for approaching questions of sexuality in music. Issues of subjectivity in instrumental music aligned well with rumors about autobiographical confession within Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique) for those who knew how to listen and read between the lines. This article considers the different ways in which the framing of biographical anecdotes and gossip in scholarship by music critic-turned-amateur sexologist Edward Prime-Stevenson and Tchaikovsky scholar Rosa Newmarch allowed for queer readings of symphonic music. It evaluates Prime-Stevenson's discussions of musical biography and interpretation in The Intersexes (1908/9) and Newmarch's Tchaikovsky: His Life and Works (1900), translation of Modest Tchaikovsky's biography, and article on the composer in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians to explore how they addressed potentially taboo topics, engaged with formal and informal sources of biographical knowledge (including one another's work), and found their scholarly voices in the absence of academic frameworks for addressing gender and sexuality. While their overt goals were quite different—Newmarch sought to dismiss “sensationalist” rumors about Tchaikovsky's death for a broad readership, while Prime-Stevenson used queer musical gossip as a primary source in his self-published history of homosexuality—both grappled with questions of what can and cannot be read into a composer's life and works and how to relate to possible queer meanings in symphonic music. The very aspects of biography that place it in a precarious position as scholarship ultimately reveal a great deal about the history of musicology and those who write it.

Brahms, Rhythm, and the Renaissance

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Heisey
Keyword(s):  
Compositional Style ◽  
The Past ◽  
Piano Quartet ◽  
Look Back ◽  
Variations On A Theme

Johannes Brahms’s deep engagement with the past contributed to his compositional style in many ways. This article considers Brahms techniques that look back to and expand on those of Renaissance composers, in particular metric conflict and cadences, voice displacement, changes in proportion, rhythmic augmentation and diminution, and the hocket. Examples are taken from Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, Variations On A Theme By Haydn, Piano Quartet in A Major, and Symphony No. 3 in F Major.

“Little Trio” for clarinet, bassoon and piano

2018 ◽  
pp. 75-79
Author(s):  
N. Yakovchuk
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Instrumental Ensemble ◽  
Interesting Phenomenon ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Classical Traditions ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Instrumental Ensembles ◽  
Written Compositions ◽  
First Time

The chamber-instrumental ensemble music in the Ukrainian musical culture of the last third of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries occupies one of the leading places and is characterized by powerful processes in its development. Such circumstances caused the Ukrainian musicologist interests to the problems of chamber-instrumental music creativity and performance. There are appeared researches in the field of theory, history and performance problems covering the most important questions like chamber music definitions, specific genre issues, the growing function of piano in the Ukrainian chamber music, the increasing questions of technique and timbre importance of modern instrumental ensembles. In the significant multifaceted creative work of contemporary Ukrainian composer, Oleksandr Yakovchuk, the genre of chamber instrumental ensemble music represents a complex and interesting phenomenon. Original and skillfully written compositions reflect artistic world of the composer of postmodern time and gained recognition in music life of Ukraine and beyond. These works are highly appreciated in performing practice of our days. The purpose of the article is to analyze the work — “Little Trio” for clarinet, bassoon and piano (1980), which has the signs of neoclassical tendency in the composer’s style. The methodological basis of this research is a comprehensive approach in theoretical understanding of the subject of research (the methods of textology, source study as well as the method of interviewing the author were used). The scientific novelty of this article is in the priority of its main provisions, since the “Little Trio” entered the scientific circulation for the first time. The three-movement “Little Trio” (1980) is notable for the light feeling of timbre colours and the shape clarity. The Ist movement — Allegretto giocoso — is written in a sonata form following all classical traditions. Quite interesting are the two monologues of clarinet and bassoon from the IInd movement, they represent very modern line in Ukrainian chamber music — the possibility of sincere confession which comes through the solo cadence. In the IIIrd movement, the composer took advantage from the folk Ukrainian dance “hopak” using the rhythm of it and creating dance character of the Final.

Musik ohne musikalische Gehalte – Warum auch nicht?

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-105
Author(s):  
Gerson Reuter
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Actual Loss

Wir sind es gewohnt, auch Instrumentalmusik in semantischen Begriffen zu beschreiben. Derartige Musik scheint – nimmt man unsere Urteilspraxis beim Wort – beispielsweise Gedanken und Emotionen ausdrücken zu können. Dass Musik solche (und ähnliche) Gehalte hat, können wir, so die vorherrschende Meinung, im Zuge der Musikwahrnehmung auch hören. Der vorliegende Text ist im Kern ein Plädoyer dafür, dass wir derartigen Behauptungen mit Skepsis begegnen sollten. Nicht nur lassen sich Zweifel an ihrer Plausibilität anmelden; darüber hinaus dürfte es letztlich auch keinen wirklichen Verlust für unsere Musikerfahrung darstellen, zumindest einige dieser Weisen des Redens über Musik aufzugeben. Der Text ist allerdings nicht nur kritisch gehalten. Unterbreitet werden auch zwei Vorschläge, wie man einige der besonders tief in unserer Urteilspraxis verankerten derartigen Behauptungen verstehen könnte, ohne dabei vorauszusetzen, dass Musik – in typischen Situationen der Musikwahrnehmung – Gehalte aufweist.<br><br>We are used to describe instrumental music in semantic terms. Many of our judgements about music – at least if taken literally – seem to implicate that music is capable of expressing thoughts and emotions, for example. Moreover, in the course of listening to music, we actually seem to hear that music has such (and similar) contents. The main aim of the paper consists in presenting reasons for being skeptical towards such claims. Not only are these claims less plausible than one might think at first glance. What is more, at least some of these ways of talking about music are dispensable: we can give them up without any actual loss. The paper is not solely critical, though. It introduces two ideas aiming to show that some claims which are deeply anchored in our practice of articulating musical experiences can be understood without presupposing that the perceived music has some kind of content.

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