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>

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>

Arab students’ perceptions of university music education in the United Arab Emirates: A discussion of music education and cultural relevance

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 524-535
Author(s):  
Emily Good-Perkins
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Cultural Relevance ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Musical Identity ◽  
Personal Connection ◽  
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy ◽  
Musical Traditions

The purpose of this study was to explore with five Arab young adults their perceptions of Western and Arabic musical cultures as well as their perceptions of the Western classical vocal teaching they experienced at an American-modeled university in the United Arab Emirates. Of interest were issues of cultural relevance and the role of music and music education in Arab society. Data collection methods for this study included individual, semi-structured interviews with each participant and three focus group discussions. This paper will explore the following four themes from the interviews: Theme 1: Western classical university music teaching was incongruent with Arabic classical music teaching. Theme 2: Despite the incongruencies, participants found the university music experience to be transformative. Theme 3: Participants have a strong personal connection to Arabic music. Theme 4: Lack of music education has cultural ramifications; however, it is a complex issue. Using Paris’ conception of culturally sustaining pedagogy as a theoretical lens through which to view participants’ perceptions of music and music education in the United Arab Emirates as well as the juxtaposition of heritage and emergent musical traditions within a globalized traditional society, issues of cultural relevance, personal transformation, and musical identity will be further discussed.

scholarly journals Creativity Unbound: The Interaction of Disciplinary Contexts and Extradisciplinary Thinking in Creative Processes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Peacock ◽  
Gregory Tate ◽  
Rebecca Hoyle
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
The Relationship

This article explores how academics in different disciplines articulate the role creativity plays in their work. Instead of attempting to test a pre-existing theoretical model of creativity, 32 qualitative interviews and 4 focus groups were conducted in which 7 academics working in diverse fields were encouraged to explore creativity in their own terms and discuss the extent to which it was relevant in their disciplines. Thematic analysis of their data generated a number of themes; those presented here describe the relationship between creativity and disciplinarity. Participants in different fields shared a tendency to characterise creative work as drawing on ideas and practices commonly utilised in their particular discipline but also requiring methods and styles of thinking falling outside those norms. Creative work in academic disciplines, therefore, may require both a fluency in one’s own disciplinary ways of working and the capacity to transcend those conventions when required. Practitioners in different disciplines placed different degrees of emphasis on these two elements and drew upon different language when describing the relationship between them. This paper uses these points of comparison to investigate how ideas about creative working interact with and sometimes transcend disciplinary contexts.

Latviešu komponistu adaptācijas varianti pēckara Eiropā

Letonica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnolds Klotiņš
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Paris Conservatory ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Compositional Technique ◽  
Traditional Language ◽  
Language Of Music ◽  
National Romanticism ◽  
Second World

Keywords: classical music, style, national romanticism, transformation of creative works, modernism, avant-garde This article discusses the stylistic and aesthetic transformation of the work of the most prominent Latvian composers, who, as refugees of the Second World War, arrived in Western Europe in 1944 and encountered a different, innovative musical environment there. For those whose creative work in Latvia had been focused on traditional national romanticism, the encounter with musical expressionism and the avant-garde caused a certain shock. The stark differences in style were not only a matter of compositional technique; they also revealed the contradiction between a positivistic worldview and a more adequate musical reflection of the common man during the era. Longīns Apkalns learned from the ideas and style of expressionism most radically, but Alberts Jērums was much more moderate in this respect—he had already approached expressionism during his studies at the Latvian Conservatory. In his studies at the Paris Conservatory (1945-1950), Tālivaldis Ķeniņš studied the traditions of French neoclassicism and constructivism. Volfgangs Dārziņš adapted neoclassical trends in combination with Béla Bartók’s interpretation of folklore. Jānis Mediņš radicalized his traditional language of music, but did not abandon the paradigm of the music of romanticism. Similarly, Jānis Kalniņš’ music, even in the pre-war period, was not unfamiliar with the border between romanticism and expressionism. The composers who, with their creative work, chose to serve only Latvian society in exile continued in the romantic style.

The Phenomenon of ‘Translation’ in Russian Musical Culture of the 1920s and Early 1930s: The Quest for a Soviet Musical Identity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Raku
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Communication ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
Musical Identity ◽  
Musical Rhetoric ◽  
Musical Traditions

This chapter examines the problematic attempts to evolve a new Soviet musical culture on the basis of extant musical traditions, and the debates concerning how musical material of earlier periods could be transformed in a way that would render it suitable for use by Soviet composers. Musical ‘speech’ was regarded as an analogue of verbal communication and subjected to philological ‘decoding’ in quest for a new kind of musical rhetoric. The chapter concludes by examining Soviet debates about the possibility of ‘translating’ between musical words into words, and what this reveals about the constructs of Soviet identity that were in the process of formation at the period.

The Fiery Debate

2021 ◽  
pp. 91-112
Author(s):  
Douglas W. Shadle
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
African American ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
American Music ◽  
The Political ◽  
Antonin Dvorak ◽  
Musical Identity ◽  
African American Music ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Vernacular Music

About eight months after Antonín Dvořák became director of Jeannette Thurber’s National Conservatory of Music in New York, he weighed in publicly on the question of American musical identity and argued that African American vernacular music (or “negro melodies”) should become the foundation of a national classical style. The New York Herald, which first printed his remarks, stoked a months-long debate that exposed deep-seated anti-Black racism throughout the country’s classical music industry as many musicians rejected the Bohemian’s suggestions outright. Dvořák remained supportive of African American music and musicians but did not fully understand the political implications of his positions.

FROM LAVAPIÉS TO STOCKHOLM: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY VIOLIN FANDANGOS AND THE SHAPING OF MUSICAL ‘SPANISHNESS’

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-199
Author(s):  
ANA LOMBARDÍA
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Chamber Music ◽  
Musical Identity ◽  
Violin Sonata ◽  
Violin Music ◽  
Musical Traditions ◽  
Solo Violin

ABSTRACTSince the mid-eighteenth century the fandango has been regarded as the epitome of Spanish cultural identity. It became increasingly popular in instrumental chamber music, as well-known examples by Domenico Scarlatti, Antonio Soler and Luigi Boccherini show. To date, published musicological scholarship has not considered the role of solo violin music in the dissemination of the fandango or the shaping of a ‘Spanish’ musical identity. Now, eight rediscovered pieces – which can be dated to the period 1730–1775 – show that the violin was frequently used to perform fandangos, including stylized chamber-music versions. In addition to offering evidence of the violin's role in the genre, these pieces reveal the hybridization of the fandango with foreign musical traditions, such as the Italian violin sonata and French courtly dances, demonstrating hitherto overlooked negotiations between elite and popular culture in mid-eighteenth-century Spain. Analysis of these works’ musical features challenges traditional discourses on the ‘Spanishness’ of the fandango and, more broadly, on the opposition between ‘native’ and ‘foreign’ music in eighteenth-century Spain.

Cultural Differences in Creative Professional Domains

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vlad Petre Glăveanu ◽  
Todd Lubart
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic System ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Contextual Influences ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
Norms And Values

This chapter offers a new conceptualization of culture, focusing on domains of professional activity. Culture is understood as a dynamic system integrating material, symbolic, and social elements and describing the context of human action. From this perspective, culture exists not only between nations but also within nations, at the level of different groups and communities. Professional groups are cultural units, which bring together people who share a number of norms and values, work within a given set of material constraints, and co-construct a common identity. Artists, scientists, and designers represent distinctive professional groups associated with recognized forms of creative activity. Research is presented concerning (a) the factors involved in creative expression in art, science, and design, and (b) the creative processes specific for different stages of creative work within each of these domains. The findings are interpreted in terms of cultural and contextual influences.

scholarly journals Formation and development of Mykola Kostomarov's historiosophical views

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Serhii Ivanovych Svitlenko
Keyword(s):  
Creative Work ◽  
Cultural Revival ◽  
Content Structure ◽  
World Outlook ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Ethnic Factors

The domestic and foreign factors of formation and formation of the historiosophical views of the young M. I. Kostomarov are considered. It was shown that during the Kharkiv period the formation of the historiosophical vision of M. I. Kostomarov took place, and in Kiev the formation of the main features of his historiosophical concept. It was proved that in the mid–1830s − mid–1840s M. I. Kostomarov was formed and established as a Ukrainian philosopher of romantic, nation-loving, Slavophil and christocentric world outlook. In the creative work of the thinker found a reflection on such historiosophical problems as histogenesis of mankind, including the Slavs, the purpose, motive, content, structure and prospects of Ukrainian history. In the center of the historiosophy M. I. Kostomarov was the Ukrainian people as a motive of historical existence with their peopleʼs idea, character and needs. According to the thinker, the key factor in the progress of history was the issue of faith, which was interwoven with social, political, military and ethnic factors. The purpose of history was the realization of the main popular idea of Ukrainians, which they saw as independence and freedom. M. I. Kostomarov formulated the idea of national-cultural revival of Ukraine and the creation of a democratic and republican society within the federation of Slavic peoples, which was an alternative to the imperial regimes. Contradictions in the thinkerʼs outlook are associated with the presence of double loyalty and identity.

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