scholarly journals PIANO SUITE DU MING XIN «MERMAID» AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE COMBINATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN MUSICAL LANGUAGE

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-104
Author(s):  
Cao Shiu ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Naomi A. Weiss

The Music of Tragedy offers a new approach to the study of classical Greek theater by examining the use of musical language, imagery, and performance in the late work of Euripides. Drawing on the ancient conception of mousikē, in which words, song, dance, and instrumental accompaniment were closely linked, Naomi Weiss emphasizes the interplay of performance and imagination—the connection between the chorus’s own live singing and dancing in the theater and the images of music-making that frequently appear in their songs. Through detailed readings of four plays, she argues that the mousikē referred to and imagined in these plays is central to the progression of the dramatic action and to ancient audiences’ experiences of tragedy itself. She situates Euripides’s experimentation with the dramaturgical effects of mousikē within a broader cultural context, and in doing so, she shows how he both continues the practices of his tragic predecessors and also departs from them, reinventing traditional lyric styles and motifs for the tragic stage.


1983 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Kofi Agawu
Keyword(s):  

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957) was the last compositional prodigy to emerge from the Austro-German tradition of Mozart and Mendelssohn. He was lauded in his youth by everyone from Mahler to Puccini and his auspicious career in the early 1900s spanned chamber music, opera, and musical theater. Today, he is best known for his Hollywood film scores, composed between 1935 and 1947. From his prewar operas in Vienna to his pathbreaking contributions to American film, this book provides a substantial reassessment of Korngold's life and accomplishments. Korngold struggled to reconcile the musical language of his Viennese upbringing with American popular song and cinema, and was forced to adapt to a new life after wartime emigration to Hollywood. The book examines Korngold's operas and film scores, the critical reception of his music, and his place in the milieus of both the Old and New Worlds. It also features numerous historical documents—many previously unpublished and in first-ever English translations—including essays by the composer as well as memoirs by his wife, Luzi Korngold, and his father, the renowned music critic Julius Korngold.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 100-113
Author(s):  
Y.V., Netsvitay T. V. Tararoev

Background. Goals In recent years, there is a growing interest in musical thinking, which is a key element of musicology and music philosophy, since music is a conscious, mental activity of a person and understanding the mechanisms of this activity, we can signifi cantly expand and deepen our understanding of music. The purpose of this study is to defi ne and supplement and clarify the concept of M. G. Aranovsky musical thinking our author’s approach, concretizing and clarifying the methodological and heuristic function of symmetry in musical thinking and its anthropological content. The work uses methods of comparison, analysis and synthesis. Musical thinking manifests itself in three forms of basic musical activity - composing, performing, listening, to which we also add theoretical (research) and pedagogical They are based on the processes of musical thinking and the fulfi llment of certain goals: the creation of an artifact, interpretation, reproduction, perception, analysis and theoretical understanding. The three spheres of realization of musical thinking are emotional-sensual, rational-logical and textual, semantic. These forms are closely intertwined and function on the basis of musical language, which is the foundation of any musical creative activity. The direct interaction of music and rationality is displayed in terms of “musical logic” and “architectonic musical ear”. Logic is the science of the most common laws of thought. These laws of thinking are expressed in the most abstract forms, patterns, rules that can be interpreted as conformity of something to specifi c norms, patterns. With regard to music, logic implies following certain standards and rules. Since the rational principle in music is closely associated with the irrational unconscious, the common logical norms that have been formed in a certain historical epoch within the framework of the dominant system of musical language are refracted through the individual stylistic features of the composer. A specifi c type of thinking - musical - generates the corresponding type of logic. Therefore, it is possible to express musical thinking by the sum of concepts - musical logic, musical speech and semantics of musical speech. M. G. Aranovsky identifi es four layers of musical logic: combinatorial, linguistic, contextual and artistic, i.e. those aspects (levels, edges) of the creative activity of a musician, in which there is logic. The lowest and at the same time fundamental level of musical logic is combinatorial, it is the sphere of primary elementary logical combinations of the simplest elements. However, the logic of this level extends to all scales of structures, from small motive links to sections of a one-part form. M. G. Aranovsky proposes to distinguish three types of logical combinations: 1. Identical - based on a constant repetition of structural units, where the formed elements are identical with each other (for example, AAAAAA). In terms of symmetry, this is a transformation of a simple movement along the time axis. It can again be noted as the simplest type of isomorphism, where only one characteristic changes - temporary. If we exclude it from consideration, then we can say that this is a “degenerate case” of isomorphism, which is an automorphism. 2. Equivalent - based on the modifi ed version of the repetition, in which there are both similarities and differences, i.e. incomplete identity is formed (for example, A1A2A3A4). From the point of view of symmetry, this combination of sequences represents the “unity” of the operation of symmetry, movement and violation of symmetry as such, i.e. in this sequence, some properties are repeated, while others change. This temporal process can be represented as isomorphism in the proper sense of the word, when some elements remain identical, while others change, and in general the objects are different, but similar. 3. Alternative - a combination of sequences of different units with complete exclusion of formal or obvious similarity (for example, ABC). Through symmetric transformations, this kind of logical combinations of primary elements can be described as an even greater symmetry violation, which preserves only the general “sequence of elements”, i.e. a small number of common properties, while these elements themselves are significantly different from each other. In this case, one can speak of a deep “transformation” of isomorphism, which can be called “metamorphism” (gr. Metamorphoómai - transformation of form). The basis of this transformation is a violation of the original symmetry in such a way that much more properties change than in the case of isomorphism. It can be schematically represented as A1 → B, A2 → C, etc. Thus, metamorphism can be considered both as a similarity, which has undergone a rather strong transformation, and as a symmetry violation, leading to a signifi cant complication of the structure. Thus, the result of this study is the position that, from the point of view of M. G. Aranowsky, the temporal process is the basis of musical thinking. The built-up chain “temporal process → musical logic → musical thinking” is the anthropological specifi city of human thought (in the musical sphere) associated with temporal processes in which a person is “immersed” and from which he cannot “exit” under any circumstances. Findings. we conclude that this chain can be called the “temporal-anthropological triad”. It represents the sequence “automorphism → isomorphism → metamorphism”. Each of its stages is different from the previous increase in the level of complexity. Of particular interest is the transition from isomorphism to metamorphism, since it is associated with the process of symmetry breaking. The mechanisms and principles of this disorder need further investigation.


Author(s):  
Downing A. Thomas

The fundamental assumption of commentators from the early modern period is that tasteful music functions simultaneously to express sentiment and to move listener-spectators. The three core elements of the baroque operatic spectacle—poetry, music, and dance—are defined by their ability to express and convey passion. Commentators point to the particular ability of musical language—and its combination with poetry and movement—to represent that which is out of reach of spoken language, or below the threshold of linguistic representation. Although both dramma per musica and the tragédie en musique arose and were fundamentally grounded in monarchical cultural worlds, both also endured successfully as public art forms. Aesthetically, baroque opera exhibits and revels in nested structures, manifested in plays within plays and in references that place the operatic moment within a social world outside the opera. Opera left this aesthetic behind as it moved into the second half of the eighteenth century, influenced by the views of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the works of Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck among others.


Author(s):  
Ryo Nishikimi ◽  
Eita Nakamura ◽  
Masataka Goto ◽  
Kazuyoshi Yoshii

This paper describes an automatic singing transcription (AST) method that estimates a human-readable musical score of a sung melody from an input music signal. Because of the considerable pitch and temporal variation of a singing voice, a naive cascading approach that estimates an F0 contour and quantizes it with estimated tatum times cannot avoid many pitch and rhythm errors. To solve this problem, we formulate a unified generative model of a music signal that consists of a semi-Markov language model representing the generative process of latent musical notes conditioned on musical keys and an acoustic model based on a convolutional recurrent neural network (CRNN) representing the generative process of an observed music signal from the notes. The resulting CRNN-HSMM hybrid model enables us to estimate the most-likely musical notes from a music signal with the Viterbi algorithm, while leveraging both the grammatical knowledge about musical notes and the expressive power of the CRNN. The experimental results showed that the proposed method outperformed the conventional state-of-the-art method and the integration of the musical language model with the acoustic model has a positive effect on the AST performance.


Tempo ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 68 (268) ◽  
pp. 20-33
Author(s):  
Laurence Osborn

AbstractThis article argues that Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern demonstrates a unique approach to music-drama that stems from the perceptual capacities of listeners, and their desire to search for meaning in what they hear. Beginning with the claim that Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern can be viewed as the culmination of an aesthetic project begun at the point of Lachenmann's emergence as a distinctive voice of the European avant-garde during the 1960s, the article first examines two major aspects of Lachenmann's aesthetics – musique concrète instrumentale and aura – outlining a composing philosophy that has been at the heart of Lachenmann's practice throughout his career. The article claims that Lachenmann sought to establish a rejuvenated semiotics, freed from cultural baggage and tied to the perceptual and cognitive capacities of listeners. Drawing upon the studies of Naomi Cumming and Luke Windsor, it outlines a theoretical framework that takes into account this composing philosophy and its implications, applying it in analyses of various excerpts from Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern. My analysis illuminates a music-drama that forms around the interplay of internally represented images and sensations, the emergence of which is facilitated by a musical language that prepares sounds to take on certain types of meaning. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the possible implications this has for audience members.


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