The quest for myriad strains

In the era in which the web is fully demonstrating its archival potential, more and more composers make use of sound, melody and computer library repositories. It is a clear trend in popular music, which is increasingly being extended also to ‘academic’ composition: today authors can access and contribute to a vast array of audio materials, of procedures and languages, where historicity and innovation coexist in an eternal present. At first glance it may seem a revolution. However, a closer look reveals ancient roots in the history of music that audio reproduction has made only more evident: the fixation of music on tape, at first, has led some composers (e.g. Bruno Maderna) to create sound libraries to be reused in different works, thus blurring the borders of the Opera; later on, the dematerialization and atomization of procedures in IT have pushed towards a philosophy of sharing (e.g. libraries for Computer Assisted Composition systems) – exalted today by the capillarity of the lightning-fast web distribution – raising deep questions about the concept of author itself. Moving further backwards, to the re-uses in Rossini and Mozart, or to the anonymous formulas in Gregorian chant, could we not find the recurrence of a quest for that world of «myriad strains that once shall sound», where the composer can stretch forth a hand for a musical idea, so wonderfully glimpsed by Busoni in his Sketch for a New Esthetic of Music?

Embodiment, process, and product in ensemble expression

To what extent do musicians need to have a common idea about the music in order to give a coherent, joint performance? An expressive performance is traditionally seen as generated from a cognitive representation of music, which predicts that a shared musical idea should be central. An embodied and enactive perspective on performance, in contrast, emphasizes the emergent and externalized character of performance, as “togetherness” is achieved in the sounds, movements, and material performed. Reconsidering cognitive processes from an embodied perspective challenges us to find new ways to measure and conceptualize ensemble performance. This includes how we measure musical coordination as something that is achieved not between pairs of individuals, but in relation to the joint sonic output. It also includes how we conceive of expression and aesthetics in performance contexts, as an emergent product that is the outcome of embodied processes and ways of interacting.

Music and Literature Synthesis in Paul Dukas's Aesthetics

Рассмотрев и систематизировав представления о синтезе искусства Поля Дюка, автор статьи приходит к выводу об их оригинальности: в постоянном диалоге с вагнеровской идеей совокупного произведения искусств французскому композитору удалось изложить новый подход к интеграции музыки и слова. Обладая изысканным и утонченным литературным стилем, Дюка выражает свои мысли довольно туманно и неопределенно. Чтобы описать взаимодействие различных видов искусства, он использует понятия, относящиеся к концептам идеи («поэтическая идея» и «музыкальная идея») и эмоции («поэтическая эмоция» и «музыкальная эмоция»). Конечным результатом синтеза становится «поэма», в которой музыка и слово комплементарны друг другу и функционируют по единым законам. Having studied and systematized Paul Dukas's concept of synthesis of arts, the author of the article comes to conclusion that it possesses authentic originality: in a constant dialogue with Wagner's idea of Gesamtkunstwerk, the French composer had the capacity of introducing a new approach towards music and literature fusion. Having established a rather sophisticated poetic style, Dukas expresses his thoughts in a vague and ambiguous way. To illustrate the interaction of various art forms, he resorts to using certain definitions that refer to the concepts of idea (“poetic idea” and “musical idea”) and emotion (“poetic emotion” and “musical emotion”). The endpoint of this interaction is poeme, which suggests that both elements are now subjected to universal laws and are complementary.

A Piece of Music as a Result of the Artistic Research

In the late 20th and 21st centuries, implementation of artistic research into the educational system has become increasingly intensive, both in the field of art as well as in the fields where arts collaborate with sciences. The subject of the paper is artistic research in the musical arts; how valuable is a piece of music created as a result of research from an artistic and scientific standpoint? The purpose of our study is to identify common and distinctive features of two different types of creative processes. To determine this, we use empirical and comparative research methods. To solve a scientific problem, we set a task - to compare the process of creating a piece with the process of artistic research, which results into a musical work. As artists describe their own creative process best of all, the paper is based on creative experience of Eka Chabashvili – the author of the current paper - as a composer. Two of her works are selected to describe the course and sequence of events that occurred in consciousness during their creation. The artistic process is divided into three main stages: 1) Source of inspiration and formation of the idea; 2) Transformation of the idea into musical notion and projection; 3) Materialization of the musical idea – its realization. Both compositions represent the combination of different components of artistic and technical ideas. Intuitive and rational tasks interchange with each other. The paper aims to determine the intuitive and rational ways of constructing musical concept.

Spontaneous creativity: An overview of theories crucial to musical idea generation

The aim of this article is to present selected concepts related to idea generation in musical com-position. Different approaches towards creativity are discussed in order to delineate how they describe spontaneous creativity. The typological view of composers and theories of the creative process are discussed. Further advances in studies of creative cognition are scrutinized: research on unconscious and conscious processes in creation, followed by the development of the concept of innovative Involuntary Musical Imagery (InMI) in composers. Current research on internal auditory phenomena suggests that composers’ InMI can be potentially innovative and serve composers as a source of ready ideas to be used in their compositions. The current overview is informed by cognitive sciences and creative process studies, especially compositional studies.

HUMAN STRAINS: JAMES CLARKE AND THE MUTATING MUSICAL IDEA

James Clarke, successfully completing a PhD in composition as he turned 60, has never been afraid of challenging convention. A recent piece for unaccompanied violin, 2017-V, takes a typically abrasive look at a long-established instrumental genre, and relishes the obvious restrictions – four strings, two hands – in a forceful exploration of a single, multivalent musical idea. That idea evolves through febrile transformations to promote a connected yet never entirely stable music discourse. Various appropriate contexts are referenced in order to define and underline the music's distinctiveness.

Variation and Developing Variation under a Transformational Perspective

The present article introduces the current version of an analytical model, which proposes a transformational conception for musical variation. According to this perspective, an archetypical variation is considered as a generic function capable to transform a referential musical idea into another one to which is related by some degree of similarity. The study addresses a number of co-related concepts, classifications, and assumptions whose interaction aims at consolidating this new theoretical formulation. The last section presents a typology for Schoenberg's principle of developing variation under the transformational point of view.

Auditory Mirrors

With the general goal of describing “how music understands itself socially and politically,” Sabine Sanio starts out by focusing on the musical neo-avant-garde, and especially on John Cage, and continues by discussing aspects of the musical idea of space. Although her chapter draws on several threads reaching back to the beginning of the twentieth century, the central topics of the chapter are current issues dealing with musical explorations of the sound itself, modern data technologies, and public spaces. Using a number of examples, Sanio discusses how the relationship between composers and audiences is both socially and aesthetically challenged by redefinitions of the concept of space and character of the musical live event—or live-like event.

KARAWITAN TARI TOPENG SEKARTAJI TUNGGAL

Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal is dance which is inspired from the inner turmoil of the Dewi Sekartaji, a beloved daughter of protagonist Panji Asmarabangun commonly contained in narratives of Serat Panji. This research aims to know karawitan dance musical idea "Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal" corresponding to shape and work on choreography and describe the creative process when it embodies the idea of a musical idea into a tangible form gamelan musicians dance "Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal". This research uses the steps that consists of three stages, namely 1) Design the idea of Musicians: the Sekartaji mask dance with) the idea of the contents; b) work on the idea; and c) preparation of the implementation. 2) Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal dance Musicians composition process: a) Determine Material Repertoire; and b) process of the exercise. 3) Results of the work: a) results of Product; b) refinements to the Follow-up. The research results obtained are know karawitan idea design, process, and outcomes karawitan Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal dance. Keywords: design idea, kekaryaan, karawitan, Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal. AbstrakTopeng Sekartaji Tunggal merupakan tarian yang terinspirasi dari gejolak batin Dewi Sekartaji, seorang tokoh protagonis putri kekasih Panji Asmarabangun yang umum termuat dalam kisah-kisah “Serat Panji”. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk Mengetahui ide gagasan musikal karawitan tari “Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal” yang sesuai dengan bentuk dan garap koreografi tariannya dan mendeskripsikan proses kreatif ketika mewujudkan ide gagasan musikal menjadi bentuk nyata gending karawitan tari “Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal”. Penelitian ini menggunakan langkah-langkah yang terdiri dari tiga tahap, yaitu 1) Rancang Gagasan Karawitan Tari Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal: a) Gagasan Isi; b) Gagasan Garap; dan c) Persiapan Penggarapan. 2) Proses Kekaryaan Karawitan Tari Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal: a) Menentukan Materi Gending; dan b) Proses Latihan. 3) Hasil Kekaryaan: a) Capaian Hasil Kekaryaan; b) Tindak Lanjut Penyempurnaan. Hasil penelitian yang diperoleh adalah mengetahui rancang gagasan karawitan, proses kekaryaan karawitan, dan hasil kekaryaan tari Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal. Kata kunci: rancang gagasan, kekaryaan, karawitan, Topeng Sekartaji Tunggal.

Serialism/Twelve-Tone Technique

Serialism or the twelve-tone technique is a way of composing music that involves replacing major and minor scales with a fixed ordering of the pitches in the chromatic scale. This generates a structure that, in principle, remains in place throughout the composition in question. Prior to the modernist age, the idea that a musical composition should establish a fixed order of pitches, intervals, rhythmic values, and dynamic values would have seemed intolerably restrictive and mechanical. The additional requirement that a composition must maintain specific serial ordering throughout, either through literal repetition or by using any of the possible transpositions of the chosen series (thereby changing the pitch sequence while retaining the interval sequence) would have reinforced such negative conclusions and connotations. In earlier music, such fixed ordering applied only when motifs or themes were stated and literally repeated. Earlier music generally featured an interest more in the transformation and development of multiple, contrasting themes than in the reiteration of a single musical idea. Music preceding modernism made use of a major/minor key system based on a ‘‘common practice’’ of harmonic identities and functions. While distinct from a composition’s thematic material, this gave composers a comprehensive set of musical procedures from which to create coherent thematic processes.