scholarly journals Nielsen's Symphonic Waves. Energetics, the Sinfonia Espansiva, and German Music Theory

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Grimley
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Gustav Mahler ◽  
The Third ◽  
Northern European ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Twentieth Century Music ◽  
Musical Motion ◽  
Wave Forms

The first published analysis of Carl Nielsen’s music appeared only in the final year of the composer’s life. Povl Hamburger’s article, ‘Formproblemet i vor tids musik med analyse af Carl Nielsen’s Sinfonia Espansiva (1 Sats)’ ( Dansk Musiktidsskrift 5/6 (May 1931)), was greeted sceptically by Nielsen himself. Nevertheless, Hamburger’s analysis suggests some interesting parallels with trends in contemporary German music theory, particularly the work of Hans Mersmann. Re-reading the Sinfonia Espansiva in the light of such work offers insights into Nielsen’s approach to symphonic structure, particularly his employment of energetic wave forms, and problematises his approach to the genre. Such wave forms, I argue, are fundamental to Nielsen’s understanding of symphonic design, and can be fruitfully applied to earlier works, such as the first movement of the Second Symphony, as well as informing the tone and design of later symphonies such as the Fourth (‘The inextinguishable’). Nielsen’s idea of the symphony is underpinned by a powerfully organicist view of musical motion, one which is in tune with many of the vitalist currents in northern European culture at the start of the century. But in the Third Symphony, Nielsen also strikes a more complex, modernist note. Through comparison with the symphonic music of his contemporaries, notably Gustav Mahler and Edward Elgar, Nielsen emerges characteristically as a critical, but ultimately affirmative voice in early twentieth-century music.

The Macroform in Post-Tonalmusic. Listening and Analysis

2003 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Baroni
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Extreme Points ◽  
Musical Time ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
Hierarchical Levels ◽  
Twentieth Century Music ◽  
Recorded Performance ◽  
A Performance

Form in classical music is fundamentally a question of organising musical time in order to facilitate a listening corresponding to author's expectations. In the past this was obtained by coordinating different parameters towards a single goal. In twentieth century music, the more detached relationship between the composer and the listener meant that less importance was given to the idea of “correct” listening and to the coordination of parameters. This article is devoted to one of the extreme points in this process: A quartet by Bruno Maderna composed in 1956 under the influence of the ideologies of Darmstadt. The quartet was examined by three different groups of analysts. The first group examined the score of the quartet, while the third group only had a recorded performance at its disposal; the second group analyzed both the score and the performance. The three groups had to describe the form of the piece in terms of three hierarchical levels: Its microform {i.e. the organisation of minimal units not divisible into smaller parts); its macroform (i.e. its division into the minimum possible number of parts); the medium form {i.e. a collection of minimal units that could also be interpreted as an acceptable division of the parts at a macroformal level). Two basic criteria were used: Segmentation (local parametric discontinuity between two adjacent parts) and similarity (coherence between the parameters within each part). The results of the three analyses were somewhat diverse, thus demonstrating the tendency to relax the sense of form in such a quartet, as well as the presence of different procedures used when listening to a performance and analysing a score.

The Old Rhetoric

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-68
Author(s):  
Anthony Ossa-Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Philosophical Analysis ◽  
Persuasive Communication ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
The West ◽  
The Third ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The World ◽  
Persuasive Speech

This chapter discusses the Old Rhetoric, sketching the long persistence in the West—from Aristotle to the early twentieth century—of a ‘single meaning model’ of language, one that takes ambiguity for granted as an obstacle to persuasive speech and clear philosophical analysis. In Aristotle's works are the seeds of three closely related traditions of Western thought on ambiguity: the logicosemantic, the rhetorical, and the hermeneutic. The first seeks to eliminate ambiguity from philosophy because it hinders a clear analysis of the world. The second seeks to eliminate ambiguity from speech because it hinders the clear and persuasive communication of argument. The third, an extension of the second, seeks to resolve textual ambiguity because it hinders the reader's ability to grasp the writer's intention. The chapter then considers Aristotle's two types of verbal ambiguity: homonym and amphiboly. The solution to both—whether their presence in a discussion is accidental or deliberate—is what Aristotle calls diairesis or distinction, that is, the explicit clarification of the different meanings involved.

REPRESENTATION, STRUCTURE AND AGENCY: DIVORCE IN THE FRENCH SOUDAN DURING THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD ROBERTS
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Legal Action ◽  
The Third ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Representation Structure ◽  
The Subject ◽  
French Soudan ◽  
Domestic Affairs

On 5 October 1905, Baia Bari of Gassin village went before the tribunal de province of Segu seeking a divorce from her husband, Tiemoko Boaré of Koila. Both Baia Bari and Tiemoko Boaré were Muslims. Baia Bari claimed that Tiemoko Boaré had mistreated her and that she was prepared to return the bridewealth. In addition, Baia Bari sought the return of 27,000 cowries she claimed Tiemoko Boaré had taken from her, although she did not present any ‘proof’. Tiemoko Boaré agreed to the divorce but denied having taken the money. The court pronounced the divorce and called for Tiemoko Boaré to recover the bridewealth he and his kin had provided to Baia Bari's kin. The court dismissed Baia Bari's claim for the return of 27,000 cowries, because she had failed to produce evidence of the alleged ‘loan’. Neither Baia Bari nor Tiemoko Boaré appealed the court's verdict.How Baia Bari came to bring suit for divorce against her husband for mistreatment and how the provincial court, presided over by the leading African notables of Segu, saw fit to intervene in the domestic affairs of the Boaré household is the subject of this article. The data provided in the ‘Register of Civil and Commercial Judgements Rendered by the Provincial Court of Segu during the Third Quarter of 1905’ are not detailed enough for us to ‘hear’ Baia Bari's complaints about marital mistreatment. Nor does the register tell us anything about how the members of the court understood the evidence of mistreatment, which they accepted, and Baia Bari's claim for the return of 27,000 cowries, which they rejected. Despite the sparse annotation of this case, Baia Bari's legal action raises at least two questions. First, from where did the provincial court ‘receive’ the authority to intervene in the domestic affairs of the Boaré household? Second, why did Baia Bari turn to the provincial court to seek the dissolution of her marriage?

scholarly journals Martyrs made in the sky: the Zénith balloon tragedy and the construction of the French Third Republic's first scientific heroes

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-386
Author(s):  
Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
The Third ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Claude Bernard ◽  
Made In

Following the balloon's invention in 1783, the French greeted the technology with enthusiasm, speculating extensively about its potential scientific and practical applications. However, the lack of progress in navigating against the winds discredited ballooning, and in the following decades it became the domain of spectacular forms of entertainment and of swindlers trying to defraud public subscriptions. All of this changed after the 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War, during which balloons were used to breach the siege of Paris. This essay explores how the aeronautical community, led by the recently established Société Française de Navigation Aérienne, mobilized the memory of the war to transform the balloon into a symbol of a heroic republican science. Paramount in that process was the Zénith 's 1875 high-altitude ascent that killed two aeronauts—Joseph Crocé-Spinelli and Théodore Sivel. The tragedy reverberated beyond France's scientific community, and through popular acclaim the two aeronauts became the Third Republic's first scientific martyrs, anticipating the eventual apotheoses of figures like Claude Bernard and Louis Pasteur. The ballooning revival in the last third of the century helped strengthen the association between France and aeronautics, thus setting the stage for the country to acquire a central position in the field by the early twentieth century.

Errata

Urban History ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-168
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Infant Death ◽  
Research Funding ◽  
Women's History ◽  
The Third ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Women’S History

‘Suburbia and infant death in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Adelaide’ by Philippa Mein Smith and Lionel Frost, volume 21 pt. 2 (October 1994) pp. 251-272.The publisher very much regrets that proof corrections were not incorporated in this article, and it thus included a number of errors.On page 251, line 20 should read ‘… various institutions which provided research funding and access to material’. In footnote 3, lines 1 and 3, ‘womens’ history’ should read ‘women's history’.Ten lines were missing that should have been represented on page 267. There were also eight lines repeated on pages 267-268 and an extra footnote 41 placed at the bottom of page 267, with a reference to footnote 42 that in fact refers to footnote 46 on page 268. We reproduce below the corrected text from the beginning of the third paragraph of page 266 to the end of the first paragraph on page 268. The above page references refer to the original article.

Modalities of National Identity: Sibelius Builds a First Symphony

2011 ◽  
pp. 451-483
Author(s):  
James Hepokoski
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Jean Sibelius ◽  
Twentieth Century Music

This article discusses Jean Sibelius, a Finn composer who emerged during the golden age of Finnish nationalist art. It first studies the gap between the elite-urban European art and Finnish-revered originary culture. Preserved literary and musical collections, the concept of strategic triangulation, and the construction of Sibelius' first symphony are discussed. The article also proposes a methodological model that is generalizable to the study of other art-music inflections of nationalism in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century music.

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