Idris Sardi’s Influence on Musical Development and Education in Indonesia

Idris Sardi is known as a music maestro in Indonesia. This study aims to reveal the influence of Idris Sardi on the development of music and its implications in music education. This study uses a qualitative method with a narrative approach. The data were collected through observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. The research informants were carefully selected from the family, violin students, and colleagues of Idris Sardi in Jakarta and Bogor, West Java. The data were analyzed by organizing data and creating codes, describing codes in chronological categories and themes, developing interpretations, and visualizing data. The results showed that Idris Sardi was influential in developing (1) keroncong music by varying the tempo and expanding the repertoire; (2) the violin playing techniques included unique characters such as vibrato, glissando, and octave variations; (3) ethnic and popular music were made through orchestrations and collaboration with orchestral music. The implications in music vocational education were (1) problem-based learning by creating a new keroncong style to be accepted by society; (2) the improvement capability by exploring skills to play the violin; (3) life-based-learning by raising local and popular music to be qualified while enhancing the level of society’s music appreciation. In conclusion, Idris Sardi provided a strong influence on the music development in Indonesia, and the implication could be a new strategy to improve the quality of music education.

‘Poor, pale, Rusalka’: The Polymorphic Nature of the Heroine of Dvořák’s Rusalka

<p>Rusalka, the protagonist of Antonín Dvořák’s eponymous opera, is probably one of the most unique operatic heroines. Rusalka’s burning desire to become human in order to be with one and have a soul takes her on an interesting, yet tragic journey. From water nymph to human to will-o-the-wisp, Rusalka goes through three different states and two metamorphoses that leave her desire unfulfilled and cause her to suffer continuously. The two metamorphoses cause Rusalka to remain between the natural and human worlds, both of which reject her. This in turn leads to her eternal suffering. Her tragic fate and constant agony portray her as a victim. And yet Rusalka is also a powerful character who is in command of her own story: as the opera’s sole protagonist, we are encouraged to identify with her perspective. She is constantly present throughout the opera. Even in the scenes that do not require her presence, she communicates with us through absence and through other characters that are, like us, influenced by her presence. And when Rusalka is silent, she connects with us through the language of orchestral music; her mute exterior on stage eludes us and seeks our understanding and sympathy. Thus, her powerful presence and the complexity of her nature draw us as the readers/listeners/spectators to experience Rusalka’s story through her subjective perspective. In order to reveal the nature of the character and how it affects us as readers/listeners/spectators, I will use various approaches, with an emphasis on psychological concepts that will provide a new insight into Rusalka and the opera as a whole. My research will also suggest the impact of fin-desiècle misogyny on Rusalka and specifically her silence, which is the perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the opera and its protagonist. The thesis will follow Rusalka’s journey, from the time and culture of its creation to modern times, as portrayed in some of the more recent dramatic productions that resituate these themes in light of more current perspectives. I will expose in turn the layers in Rusalka: from the libretto and the music, to the use of voice, and finally the playing with meaning in a few representative stage productions. In the second and third chapters, focusing on the libretto and music respectively, I discuss the ways Rusalka articulates her nature, using the Freudian structural model of the psyche for the analysis of the narrative and repetition in the libretto and music. The analysis of music also points toward repetition as a key method, and I suggest connections with the psychological concept of repetition, linked with desire and the death drive, as observed by Slavoj Žižek and Renata Salecl. In the fourth chapter, I focus on the voice, more specifically the cry, in order to explore the ways in which we experience the voice, which I believe is the central element that causes a painful enjoyment (jouissance) in some of us, and in turn is key to our sympathetic empathy with Rusalka. Finally, with Rusalka on stage, I explore the ways in which we, as audience, relate to Rusalka’s suffering, focusing mainly on her silent state. With the addition of the layer of the gaze, I focus on the spectators’ reaction to mute Rusalka and how, in a way, they participate in these moments of suffering precisely through the gaze. Throughout the thesis, I demonstrate how Rusalka communicates with us through the opera’s layers and how in return we respond to them, either by sympathising or identifying with the protagonist.</p>

‘Poor, pale, Rusalka’: The Polymorphic Nature of the Heroine of Dvořák’s Rusalka

<p>Rusalka, the protagonist of Antonín Dvořák’s eponymous opera, is probably one of the most unique operatic heroines. Rusalka’s burning desire to become human in order to be with one and have a soul takes her on an interesting, yet tragic journey. From water nymph to human to will-o-the-wisp, Rusalka goes through three different states and two metamorphoses that leave her desire unfulfilled and cause her to suffer continuously. The two metamorphoses cause Rusalka to remain between the natural and human worlds, both of which reject her. This in turn leads to her eternal suffering. Her tragic fate and constant agony portray her as a victim. And yet Rusalka is also a powerful character who is in command of her own story: as the opera’s sole protagonist, we are encouraged to identify with her perspective. She is constantly present throughout the opera. Even in the scenes that do not require her presence, she communicates with us through absence and through other characters that are, like us, influenced by her presence. And when Rusalka is silent, she connects with us through the language of orchestral music; her mute exterior on stage eludes us and seeks our understanding and sympathy. Thus, her powerful presence and the complexity of her nature draw us as the readers/listeners/spectators to experience Rusalka’s story through her subjective perspective. In order to reveal the nature of the character and how it affects us as readers/listeners/spectators, I will use various approaches, with an emphasis on psychological concepts that will provide a new insight into Rusalka and the opera as a whole. My research will also suggest the impact of fin-desiècle misogyny on Rusalka and specifically her silence, which is the perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the opera and its protagonist. The thesis will follow Rusalka’s journey, from the time and culture of its creation to modern times, as portrayed in some of the more recent dramatic productions that resituate these themes in light of more current perspectives. I will expose in turn the layers in Rusalka: from the libretto and the music, to the use of voice, and finally the playing with meaning in a few representative stage productions. In the second and third chapters, focusing on the libretto and music respectively, I discuss the ways Rusalka articulates her nature, using the Freudian structural model of the psyche for the analysis of the narrative and repetition in the libretto and music. The analysis of music also points toward repetition as a key method, and I suggest connections with the psychological concept of repetition, linked with desire and the death drive, as observed by Slavoj Žižek and Renata Salecl. In the fourth chapter, I focus on the voice, more specifically the cry, in order to explore the ways in which we experience the voice, which I believe is the central element that causes a painful enjoyment (jouissance) in some of us, and in turn is key to our sympathetic empathy with Rusalka. Finally, with Rusalka on stage, I explore the ways in which we, as audience, relate to Rusalka’s suffering, focusing mainly on her silent state. With the addition of the layer of the gaze, I focus on the spectators’ reaction to mute Rusalka and how, in a way, they participate in these moments of suffering precisely through the gaze. Throughout the thesis, I demonstrate how Rusalka communicates with us through the opera’s layers and how in return we respond to them, either by sympathising or identifying with the protagonist.</p>

Instrumental Music and Urban Gravitas

Bands, chamber ensembles, and (especially) orchestral societies acted as indicators of the musical maturity of urban centers. Together with conservatoires and opera houses, orchestras formed centers of gravity often overseen by town councils as an interconnected unit or as a set of overlapping units. A relative lack of state regulation resulted in less focus on centralization and more on internal organization (including dealing with the progressive unionization of musicians), rivalries between concert societies, and distinctive patterns in repertory selection and programming. Nevertheless, a strong touring circuit for composer-conductors, the soft power of Parisian institutions (notably the Concerts Populaires of Jules Pasdeloup), and town council demands for standard repertory rather than new music, meant that regionalist particularism had little part to play. Angers, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nancy, and Toulouse provide case-studies of the intersections of local politics, concert administration and orchestral professionalization; Lyon, Lille, and Strasbourg emerge as centers with an especially distinctive mix of chamber and orchestral music, especially during the Third Republic.

Composing And Performing Complex Systems: From The Quantum To The Cosmological

This paper discusses the creation and development of a large distributed immersive multimedia computation system and environment based on the discipline of orchestral music composition, concert hall design, and performance. Just as the orchestra evolved through mechanical engineering to become a large distributed multi-user instrument whose information can be transmitted either by a client-server model as in orchestra-conductor, or a client-to-client model, as in an instrumental ensemble, large-scale distributed multi-media computational platforms can be modeled in the same way, facilitating the users as performers of the system. Multiple researchers can mine large, complex data sets to uncover important relationships in their spatio-temporal structures.

“The Hall Does Not Make the Space”: Disrupting Concert Hall Norms in Hannibal's One Land, One River, One People

Hannibal's cheering and shouting along with his request for audience participation during the 2015 premiere of his composition One Land, One River, One People caused a stir and created discomfort among the Philadelphia Orchestra audience. I interpret his work as an example of a successful musical direct action within contemporary orchestral music. By exposing and subverting the traditions of the classical concert experience, One Land, One River, One People highlights social boundaries within the genre of classical music itself. I apply Robin James's (2015) concept of Multiracial White Supremacy, or MRWaSP, to contemporary orchestral classical music of the United States. Under late capitalism, MRWaSP helps to explain the potential appeal to an orchestra of commissioning Hannibal, who is known as a “genre-crossing” composer rooted in classical and jazz. Yet I argue that the way in which Hannibal performs his identity along with the piece's inclusion of audience participation allow the music to resist functioning as expected under MRWaSP. Rather than promoting a sense that—as one might expect from the title—we are all “one people,” I see the piece as revealing racial difference and as speaking truth to power.

The Resolution of Musical Chords: A Physical Paradigm

In any form of music, the fundamental aspect which gives the most of an essence is the tune of the composition. An integral concept in orchestral music is chords. Chords usually follow the notes of the song, making it harmonious with the overall progression of the performance. Chords are often interchangeable within the scale of the song. The mellifluous effect of chords and the harmony it portrays are self-explanatory and pleasant. There lies a mathematical and physical reason behind the working of these chords and the movement shown by them during the piece. In this study, we look at the fundamental tonal frequencies associated with the notes of the chords and analyze the patterns exhibited and draw meaningful conclusions corroborating the scientific relationship with music and its play, while proposing a new musical phenomenon called ‘tonal inertia’ that seems to potentially explain the musical conventions using physical bases.