scholarly journals Musical idioms in Șerban Marcu’s Toccatas

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-168
Author(s):  
Tatiana Oltean
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Tone Poem ◽  
Musical Genre ◽  
Chamber Ensembles ◽  
Musical Tradition ◽  
Musical Discourse ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
The Creation

AbstractThe present research focuses on the toccata in a contemporary stylistic context, as a revival of the Baroque toccata in the creation of a Romanian composer from Cluj-Napoca, Șerban Marcu. He is a representative of the mature school of composition, studying under the tutorship of the celebrated Romanian composer Cornel Țăranu. His style unveils a series of constant traits, such as the programmatic feature and the preference towards musical forms and genres pertaining to the Western musical tradition, among them the madrigal, the song, the bagatella, the variations, the suite, the étude, the tone poem, the ballet or even the opera. He wrote five toccatas over the span of a decade. The toccata – understood both as a musical genre and a composing technique – is to be found in his output either as a movement in a mini-suite (Free Preview, 2008), or as an autonomous work, written for solo instruments as the piano (Toccatina, 2017), the organ (Balkan Toccata, 2018), as well as for various chamber ensembles, each featuring, among other instruments, the piano (tocCaTa brevissima, 2014, Toccata impaziente, 2018). The analysis unfolds by taking as focal point a series of keywords that have circumscribed the term toccata within the musicological literature. These core concepts are further placed in relationship with various techniques – neo-baroque as well as modern ones – which are to be identified in Șerban Marcu’s output of toccatas. The analytical procedures focus on highlighting the tradition/innovation binomial and are layered by taking into discussion the parameters of the musical discourse, namely the form, the musical language, the idiomatic instrumental writing, the compositional techniques, as well as aesthetic aspects such as the playfulness, the comic, the irony, the bizarre, the caricature and the paraphrase.

scholarly journals "Exoticism” in the opera Gilgamesh by Rudolf Brucci in Ralph Locke’s “All the music in the full context” paradigm

Muzikologija ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 105-125
Author(s):  
Nemanja Sovtic
Keyword(s):  
Third World ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Creative Behavior ◽  
Musical Tradition ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
French Composers ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Horizon Of Expectations

In this text, Rudolf Brucci?s opera Gilgamesh is viewed in the light of Ralph Locke?s ?All the Music in the Full Context? Paradigm which promotes the approach that one should search for the exotic elements in musical works first in the discursive components (title, program, accompanying notes), visual representations (costume, scenery) and a ?horizon of expectations? of a particular culture, and only then to observe exoticism as the aspect of a musical style. In the light of this Paradigm, ?exoticism? of the opera Gilgamesh is detected at the level of the music material and compositional procedures, but not in the dramaturgical profiling of characters, narrative adaptation of the Sumerian epic, costumes and scenery. The plot, costumes and the scenery of the opera do not construct the Orient with either positive or negative projections attributed to it by the Western European Orientalist discourse, but portray Gilgamesh and Enkidu as ancient mythic protagonists on the margin of the (not-always) exoticist once/now binarism. The musical language of the opera, which abounds in the usage of oriental musical scales and citations, indicates that oriental/exotic was one of the author?s ?target levels? when conceiving and composing Gilgamesh. Brucci, however, did not build the ?ethnological model? in his opera, but gave oriental scales and ?exotic? musical citations their meaning within the Western musical tradition, which is why his approach can be compared with the ?veiled exoticism? of the French composers of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. In the light of the self/other binarism, reaching for the exotic in Gilgamesh can be presented as an auto-exotic creative behavior of Brucci as a composer who perceives his ?minority identity? in a relation to an imaginary referential system of the Center. However, I am more inclined to see Brucci?s identificational intention in his advocacy of the Yugoslav NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) project, and his dealing with the ?exotic? as part of his strategy to support cultural achievements of the Third World which predominantly participated in that project.

Parallelism between Linguistics and Music – Noam Chomsky and Heinrich Schenker

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (62) (SI) ◽  
pp. 287-294
Author(s):  
Botond SZOCS
Keyword(s):  
Heinrich Schenker ◽  
Musical Analysis ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Transformational Grammar ◽  
Verbal Language ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Musical Discourse ◽  
Linguistic Categories ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Structural Levels

The paper aims to compare musical language with verbal language, creating a new perspective on music and natural language. The three categories of linguistics, phonology, syntax and semantics are analyzed. Bernstein highlights the analogies between the linguistic categories and music, researching the same three components of linguistics in music. The possibility of applying the transformational grammar procedures to the musical text is studied. In the second part of the paper, the authors investigate the method of analysis based on harmony and counterpoint, differentiating several structural levels conceived by the theoretical musician H. Schenker. Schenkerian analyzes are a relatively recent appearance in the field of musical analysis, which proposes as an innovation in the field of musical analysis the structural vision of musical discourse.

Tonality

Music ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Christensen
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Evolutionary Models ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Pitch Organization ◽  
Musical Discourse ◽  
Diatonic Scale ◽  
Hybrid Forms

Tonality is a ubiquitous term in musical discourse as indispensable as it is obfuscating. Typically, the term tonality (and more generally, “tonal music”) references the pitch-centric “common-practice” language of the transposable major and minor key system within which most classical music has been composed in the West from at least the mid-17th century through the early 20th century. Many theorists have highlighted certain empirical features of melody or harmony as being particularly characteristic or even essential to the tonal system (e.g., the content and structure of the diatonic scale, hierarchies of scale degrees and chord functions, or the cadence in defining or stabilizing tonal centers). At the same time, many theorists have emphasized the psychological power of tonal music for evoking strong affective responses from listeners by arousing strong expectations of tonal behavior that may be realized, delayed, or even thwarted. Clearly, then, any study of tonality needs to take into account the varying and often conflicting ways the concept is understood and used by given writers. But the concept of tonality has also been useful to musicologists for constructing evolutionary models of musical development while also describing—and contrasting—other musical styles and historical languages of music that do not always follow the norms of Western “common-practice” music. Particularly important in this regard is the chromatic language of many late-19th- and early-20th-century composers that is thought to have extended, deviated from, or even negated normative tonal syntax. Here Wagner’s use of chromaticism and extended modulation is usually cited as the progenitor of this process, one that is seen by many of these same observers to have led in the 20th century to the gradual dissolution of classical tonality in favor of a non-hierarchic kind of pitch organization, termed by neologisms such as “suspended tonality,” “post-tonality,” and perhaps most conventionally, “atonality.” Of course, tonality did not pass away; it continued to thrive as a common musical language through the 20th century, particularly in popular music idioms, even as it evolved into numerous dialects and hybrid forms within our globalized and digitalized musical marketplace. Yet the persistence of this myth of tonal evolution and devolution in Western histories of music suggests how high the stakes are in defining the content and perimeters of tonality. Tonality seems to be simultaneously an object and an ideal that continues to exert unparalleled influence—and not a little anxiety—to this day.

Icarus Soaring: the music of John Pickard

Tempo ◽  
1997 ◽  
pp. 2-5
Author(s):  
Guy Rickards
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
String Quartets ◽  
Tone Poem ◽  
Choral Works ◽  
Piano Trio ◽  
The Past ◽  
Chamber Ensembles ◽  
Brass Band ◽  
Orchestral Works ◽  
Almost All

Although John Pickard's music has received a good many performances and radio broadcasts over the past decade, it was the relay of his dazzling orchestral tone poem The Flight of Icarus (1990) during the 1996 Proms1 which brought him to the notice of the wider concert–going and –listening public. There is some justice in that piece attracting such attention, as it is one of his most immediate in impact, while completely representative of his output at large. That output to date encompasses three symphonies (1983–4, 1985–7, 1995–6) and five other orchestral works, three string quartets (1991, 1993, 1994; a fourth in progress), a piano trio (1990), sonatas for piano (1987) and cello and piano (1994–5), vocal and choral works, pieces for orchestral brass (Vortex, 1984–5) and brass band – the exhilarating Wildfire (1991), which crackles, hisses and spits in ferocious near–onomatopoeia, and suite Men of Stone (1995), celebrating four of the most impressive megalithic sites in Britain, one to each season of the year. There are other works for a variety of solo instruments and chamber ensembles, such as the intriguing grouping of flute, clarinet, harpsichord and piano trio in Nocturne in Black and Gold (1983) and the large–scale Serenata Concertante for flute and six instruments of a year later. Still in his mid-thirties – he was born in Burnley in 1963 – Pickard has already made almost all the principal musical forms of the Western Classical tradition his own, with only opera, ballet and the concerto as yet untackled.

Composing on Stage: Schoenberg and the Creative Process as Public Performance

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 064-093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Auner
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
First Century ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
Fundamental Feature ◽  
General Integral ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Musical Discourse ◽  
Present Context

Drawing on published and unpublished sources, this article traces the changing ways in which Schoenberg made his sketches, fragments, and the creative process in general integral aspects of both his identity as a composer and the reception of his music. One side of this story is Schoenberg's well-known concern for how posterity would view him, evident in his obsession with demonstrating his stature as a genius and defining his place in history as the first to break with tonality and as the inventor of "the method of composing with twelve tones related only to one another." But as significant for the present context are the ways that, beginning in the first decade of the century, he started to make his Nachlass known through the dissemination of manuscripts, sketches, and fragments, and by means of discussions of the creative process and compositional techniques in his voluminous writings. Schoenberg's interjection of the act of composition into public musical discourse has clear origins in the nineteenth century, but it also has important implications for the blurring of boundaries between the work, the creative process, the artist, and the audience, a characteristic of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art and now a fundamental feature of our cultural life.

scholarly journals Classical “non-classical” metodology of analysis by M. D. Tits (to upcoming 125th birthday of the scholar)

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (23) ◽  
pp. 7-26
Author(s):  
Halyna Poltavtseva
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Musical Form ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Compositional Structure ◽  
Classical Methodology ◽  
Theoretical Generalization ◽  
Baroque Era ◽  
Comprehensive Classification

Background. The goal of given article is to reveal methodology of M. D. Tits’s analysis on the premise of textbook “About thematic and compositional structure of musical pieces” (1972), to comprehend uniqueness, innovation and research value of some theoretical postulates in his approach to analysis of a melody, to typology of themes, thematic development and period. The study of the methodology of Tits’s analysis was not the subject of a special study. This is the scientific novelty of the proposed article. Conclusions. Textbook “About thematic and compositional structure of musical pieces” is a synthesis between a textbook and scholar research. It is founded on non-classical methodology of analysis of musical work, supposing start of the course not from basic elements of musical language, but from complex holistic phenomena of melody, themes, period. M. D. Tits’s methodology might be seen as some sort of resistance to analysis of abstract, dogmatic superficial approach. Non-classical methodological approach on the new level and in conditions of a new genre (textbook) continues tradition of classical analysis, founded by E. Kurt, B. Asafyev, M. Arkadyev, regarding process of musical form, as well as connected with another researchers of energetic and intonational essence of music. M. D. Tits’s textbook showed new level of theoretical generalization due to encyclopaedical knowledge of the author. The course embraces different eras, styles, genres, compositional techniques. M. D. Tits’s approach to melody, unlike one of L. A. Mazel, is mainly a teaching on melodical movement, where it is not notes that are important, but the movements from one tone to another, connections between sounds, inside the pauses. This analysis supposes unique results as it embraces intuitive and sensual comprehension of melodic process. The textbook contains valuable thought about diversity of forms of thematic material. M. D. Tits distinguished three main types of themes, introduced concept of “thematic nucleus” on thematicism. M. D. Tits suggested the most comprehensive classification of four main principles of thematic development, without contradictions between levels of motives and themes; without terminology burdened by connotations with defined musical forms. M. D. Tits developed classification of period on the basis of structural and thematic factors. He introduced period of “unfolding” type, with its variants reaching outside the baroque era. We must state that this article outlines the most basic moments of M. D. Tits’s methodology of analysis in his textbook. However, the significance if the theoretic scholar for analysis and practice is much bigger and can not be limited to these postulates.

scholarly journals To the problem of interpreting the genre of choral miniatures in the creation of Lesya Dichko (on the example of choral miniatures on poetic texts „Winter”, „Na chovni”, „Spring”)

2019 ◽  
pp. 5-17
Author(s):  
І. М. Рябцева
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Complex Analysis ◽  
Scientific Investigation ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Choral Works ◽  
Poetic Text ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Poetic Texts

The purpose of the article is to identify the features of the genre ofUkrainian choral miniature and to identify the basic principles of theirimplementation in the choral works by Lesya Dychko. The purpose of thework determines the relevant tasks, which are in identifying the genrestyle landmarks of the musical language of L. Dichko, available in selectedchoral miniatures for poetic texts and, based on their analysis, outline anumber of immanent features inherent in the creativity of the composer.The methods of the research is formed by the using of empiricalapproaches of scientific investigation, namely observations, analyzes and generalizations, which allow the practical implementation of this studyingthemetic destination. The textological and semantic analytical approachesof the poetic text are also used in the work. The scientific novelty of thearticle is determined by the factor of primacy of the complex analysis ofselected choral miniatures from the standpoint of revealing immanentgenre-stylistic traits of L. Dychko’s creativity. Conclusions. The analysisof choral miniatures „Winter”, „Na chovni”, „Spring” on poetic textsallows to classify them as extremely bright, artistically expressiveexamples of modern interpretation of the genre with a relief display ofnationally characteristic stylistic features, which can be considered as anexample of the synthesis of neo-folklore neo-romantic orientation ofcreativity of L. Dychko. The choir miniature of Lesya Dychko is nowfirmly in the repertoire of numerous choirs of Ukraine. The composerforms a comprehensive outlook model of being in interaction with creativethinking. Her vision of the artistic text takes place at the same time in thedimension of literature, music and painting due to the constantinvolvement of elements of the visual arts vocabulary in her works,orientation to „painting”, and work with poetic images.

scholarly journals REINTERPRETASI DAN SINERGITAS TEORI PENCIPTAAN ALAM

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilhamuddin Ilhamuddin
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
Religious Doctrine ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Synergetic Theory ◽  
The Universe

Abstrak: Ilmuwan-ilmuwan modern telah berusaha mengkaji hakikat alam dengan beragam pendekatan. Teori-teori mereka tentang penciptaan alam didasari dan dipengaruhi oleh paradigma keilmuan masing-masing, dan terkadang perbedaan pendekatan telah memunculkan beragam penafsiran tentang eksistensi. Sebagian ahli memiliki kecenderungan membenturkan beraneka teori tentang penciptaan alam, dan menilai bahwa semua teori tersebut memiliki beragam kontradiksi. Lewat artikel ini, penulis melakukan reinterpretasi terhadap hakikat teori para ahli tentang penciptaan alam dan menemukan sinergitas antara teori-teori mereka. Penulis menegaskan bahwa tidak ada kontradiksi antara teori saintis, teolog, filsuf dan mufasir tentang penciptaan alam. Dengan demikian, teori teologi, filsafat dan sains dapat mengokohkan doktrin agama tentang alam semesta. Lebih penting lagi, artikel ini mengokohkan pendapat bahwa tidak ada pertentangan antara temuan akal dan informasi wahyu. <br /> <br />Abstract: Reinterpretation and Synergetic Theory of the Creation of the Universe. Modern scholars have made all due efforts to study the essence of the universe through a variety of approaches. Their theory on the creation of the universe is based on respective science paradigm, and at times different approach has led into distinct interpretation on the existence. Many an expert tents to conflict various theories of the creation of the universe, and conclude that those theories contradict one another. Through this article, the author reinterprets the focal point of such theories on the creation of the universe, and finds the synergy amongst those theories. In addition, he asserts that there is no contradiction between theories found within the boundaries of scientist, theologian, philosophers and the exegetes on the creation of the universe, and therefore, every single theory may support the truth of religious doctrine on the cosmos. What’s more, this article affirms the view that there is no contradiction between the findings of the intellect and the Divine information.     <br /> <br />Kata Kunci: teori penciptaan alam, pemikiran Islam, teologi, filsafat, sains, tafsir

scholarly journals Problems of variability of the musical genre reng in the mugham performing arts of youth

2021 ◽  
pp. 68-74
Author(s):  
Fidan Ildyrymly
Keyword(s):  
Folk Music ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
Sheet Music ◽  
Sound Recordings ◽  
Musical Genre ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Musical Heritage

Consideration of the variability of the musical genre of rang in mugam performing arts showed that ranks arose and developed in the art of mugam as a form of vocal-instrumental music. Their melodic structure is directly related to the sections of mugam. There are numerous varieties of this relationship. Based on the analysis of the musical notation of the ranks, it was determined that in practice of performing mugam the ranks are directly related to the vocal-instrumental mugam, and this is especially important for their compositional structure. In this regard, in almost every version of mugham destgahs there is a set of different ranks, including tesnifs. The analysis of various musical records of the ranks in the musical performing arts helps to identify the features of the manifestation of this form of folk music in mugam, as well as the further development of this musical genre and musical culture as a whole. We consider it appropriate to study, primarily, the vocal-instrumental interpretation of mugham when studying mugam destgyahs and the melodic interconnections of rangs and tesnifs with sections (shobe) of mugam. After analyzing various musical notations of mugam dastgahs, we were able to trace how rengi relate to mugam shobe. It can be noted that many rengi are used in the recordings of these works associated with various performances in relation to various shobe of mugams. This feature is inherent in various mugham dastgahs – "Shur", "Segah", "Chahargah", "Bayati-Shiraz", "Shushter", "Humayun", etc. All this can be traced in musical notations, as well as in live mugham singing and sound recordings, which helps to determine the numerous variants of rengs related to these mugams. Within the framework of each mugham, dozens of rengs were created and included in musical practice. Part of this rich musical heritage is captured and preserved in sound recordings and sheet music. We believe that it is advisable to study rengi, grouping them into mugham families in order to analyze their musical language and reveal their inherent variability.

Bartók’s Viola Concerto manuscript: Some questions and speculations

2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 69-84
Author(s):  
Elliott Antokoletz
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Viola Concerto ◽  
Final Version ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Viola Repertoire ◽  
And Function ◽  
Abstract Types ◽  
Source Materials

The question of authenticity in the creation of Bartók’s Viola Concerto has been one of the most enigmatic in the viola repertoire. Inconsistencies among revisions of the work by different scholars since the first attempt by Tibor Serly in 1946 reveal that the task of uncovering an authentic final version by scrutinizing the manuscript itself is not always a clearcut or “purely mechanical” endeavor. Following a brief overview of the manuscript’s layout, this article addresses some ambiguous details based on a number of puzzling indications. Some of these questions can only be resolved by acquiring an in-depth knowledge of Bartók’s musical language. The manuscript draft is thereby approached not only by studying the primary-source materials alone, but also by means of a theoretic-analytical approach. The latter takes into account principles of modality, polymodal combination, and more abstract types of pitch sets, such as hybrid modes, the octatonic scale, and other more chromatic configurations. General types of scalar or modal construction are discussed as basic determinants in performing certain figural details. Such principles as diatonic expansion, chromatic compression, and polymodal chromaticism are shown, for instance, to be essential for understanding the content and function of the trill figures and the larger linear constructions to which they belong. Thus, we may assume that the combined levels of research and analysis suggested above are essential in arriving at Bartók’s authentic conception.

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