A nostalgic return to the past or sound searching? On the use of contemporary harpsichords in early music performance

The article is based on the materials used for the author’s doctoral dissertation entitled Contemporary performance of 17th century German harpsichord toccatas in the context of instrument selection. Its main part is an analysis of the changes which occured in the harpsichord builiding before the end of the 19th century and the change in approach to early music at the beginning of the 20th century. The article is an attempt to answer the question to which extent instrument selection determines our today’s performance. Is it only a harpsichord being an exact copy of historical instruments that allows us to deliver an authentic and fresh interpretation? While listening to 20th century harpsichordists playing 20th century instruments (i.e., using contemporary models, not historically-based), we discover a different world of early music, which may even be more experimental than today’s performance sound-wise. It seems that the openness towards contemporary harpsichords while preserving historical practices at the same time may help discover new sound qualities in early music pieces.

Kinesisk yoga? Sinificering af yoga-begrebet i sinologiske, terapeutiske og nyreligiøse sammenhænge

This article provides a conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte) of the use of the word yoga in the context of both scientific, therapeutic, and religious approaches to Chinese cultural history, with a focus on somatic practices commonly associated with Daoist traditions. Under the heading Chinese yoga, the author investigates how historical practices such as neidan, daoyin, kaimen, zhanzhuang, gusha, fangzhongshu as well as new therapeutic innovations are referred to as types of yoga such as Taoist yoga, meridian yoga, yin yoga, and sexual yoga. The article traces the origins of variations of the concept of Chinese yoga to the 1920s and 1930s in publications by Richard Wilhelm and C. G. Jung, Cary F. Baynes, and Arthur Waley, follows its reception in the hippie milieu of the 1960s and 1970s, and demonstrates how references to various forms of Chinese yoga have been, and are still being used in both academic research, and therapeutic and new religious milieus.

Recorder Use in Sacred Music during the Spanish Siglo de Oro: Archival Evidence, Historical Practices, and Applications in Performance - Audio_Files

This article presents findings and conclusions from a recently completed Ph.D. project which researched the use of recorders in performing sacred music in Spanish cathedrals and churches during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This study also examined interactions of the historical findings with artistic questions arising in twenty-first-century performance of sacred music repertoire. Paradoxically, while numerous sets of recorders were purchased by ecclesiastic institutions during the sixteenth century, most contemporary compositions did not specifically call for their use. As well, surviving sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century documentation is highly fragmentary regarding the participatory role of recorders in sacred repertoire of this period. Scholarly research and writing had not addressed this issue, and many questions persisted regarding any role of recorders in this repertoire. Sacred music of this era offers the modern musician an extensive and rich potential repertoire of supreme quality and beauty. Therefore, in seeking an historically informed basis for performance, this project asked if recorders were used in such works in Spanish ecclesiastic institutions during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and, if so, how.

Recorder Use in Sacred Music during the Spanish Siglo de Oro: Archival Evidence, Historical Practices, and Applications in Performance - Audio_Files

This article presents findings and conclusions from a recently completed Ph.D. project which researched the use of recorders in performing sacred music in Spanish cathedrals and churches during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This study also examined interactions of the historical findings with artistic questions arising in twenty-first-century performance of sacred music repertoire. Paradoxically, while numerous sets of recorders were purchased by ecclesiastic institutions during the sixteenth century, most contemporary compositions did not specifically call for their use. As well, surviving sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century documentation is highly fragmentary regarding the participatory role of recorders in sacred repertoire of this period. Scholarly research and writing had not addressed this issue, and many questions persisted regarding any role of recorders in this repertoire. Sacred music of this era offers the modern musician an extensive and rich potential repertoire of supreme quality and beauty. Therefore, in seeking an historically informed basis for performance, this project asked if recorders were used in such works in Spanish ecclesiastic institutions during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and, if so, how.

Vernacular historical practices on Holocaust non-sites of memory in Poland

The approach employed by memory activists to sites of memory often involves historical practices. This paper presents the results of the examination of historical practices undertaken in locations of Holocaust violence during World War II and the disposal of victims’ remains that were not memorialised properly according to local residents or other groups with an interest in the sites’ past. The analysed practices were observed in the course of field research in various locations in Poland. The goal of the research was to describe these practices, discuss their critical potential, and indicate their distinct features as activities pertaining to contested sites of memory. A central tool for approaching this task is found in concepts of “non-site of memory” and “vernacular historian” as introduced to the debate by Claude Lanzmann and Lyle Dick. As a result, the article presents the cases of four vernacular historians whose practices are experimental combinations of the components of the work of professional historians and ways of working conditioned by local cultural environments, individual experience and commitment to communal life. Although vernacular history is sometimes considered of little value by academic historians, the research shows that the practices in question have the potential to produce new, socially relevant knowledge. Two distinct features of vernacular historical practices in non-sites of memory were observed: these unmarked sites of burial attract activists and prompt them to undertake historical practices; vernacular historians of these locations often undertake unconventional, sometimes experimental activities..

Writing on Communist History in Central Europe: Introduction

What challenges have we met while writing the history of communist countries before and after 1989? This article introduces a special section devoted to the historiography of the recent past in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. It shows that many of the methodological choices made after 1989 eschewed any critical examination and replicated or denied choices made before 1989 without reflecting on them. The section also reflects upon personal continuities. And it finally shows that history writing has been instrumentalized for political purposes after 1989 just as it had been before 1989. In other words, it acutely raises the question of continuities in historical practices despite the 1989 political rupture.

Sources for building intellectual potential of businesses during the transition to digital economy

During the period of digitalization and building the knowledge economy the conditions and nature of human labour (including people’s intellectual work) are significantly changing. The author analyzes a vast amount of publications on the topic and concludes that building intellectual potential is largely dependent on the effectiveness of models of crossfunctional and interpersonal coordination used, as well as on how various groups (hierarchy levels) of the company are prepared to cooperate with each other. Therefore, the author points out a vital role of social and cultural factors, following tradition and ensuring the continuity of development for success in enlarging intellectual potential. The article emphasizes the importance of preserving key social skills of the employees in the context of development of digital technology and remote interaction. The author points out the limited potential of “creative class” representatives in an industrial company which makes development of tools for internal entrepreneurship, implemented with the support of its own staff, even more acute. So, the new reality presupposes that the most important task of increasing intellectual potential of an industrial company and obtaining dynamic capabilities essential for its development should be solved with the consideration of the action of inertial forces. Thus the process will be of more uniform and stable character, and it will ensure the continuity of various social and historical practices which existed in Russia and the USSR. The institutional environment for reproduction of innovation formed at the corporate level should involve modern international models and methods of job organization and take into account cultural and historical peculiarities of development of the Russian society.

A Multifunctional Model of a Modern Listener’s Behavior

The article focuses on strengthening positions of a modern listener in the context of the development of academic musical art. Since the end of the last century, there has been a surge in scientific interest in studying the audience of classical music. Listening experience is being analyzed on an equal basis with composition and performing. Interdisciplinary researches touch upon historical practices, semantic aspects and communication characteristics. However, today the very nature of listeners’ relationship with art is changing, too. The listener becomes an active participant in musical events, playing new roles — that of a musical critic, manager, expert, and even a co-author and performer of works. The formation of new listener’s functions in addition to the perception of music requires a revision of the audience evaluation factor, now based only on the sophistication of the “listening function”. The issue of justifying a new scheme, which would take into account the positions of all participants in a musical event in relation to each other, is extremely relevant. The public refuses the “vassal” role and steadily strengthens its position in the intergroup hierarchy by choosing new behaviors. While the leitmotif of the musical life of the 20th century was the theme of educating a wide audience of genuine taste and a deep understanding of musical content, today the listeners defend their freedom of choice. It is important to understand the reasons and predict the consequences of the increasing emancipation of not only the experienced listener, but also of the neophyte. Music streaming services make a significant contribution to this process. The growing popularity of two youth subcultures demonstrating a high interest in classical art — Dark Academia and Light Academia — deserves attention too.

The Eurocentrism of neo-Roman republicanism and the neglect of republican empire

Republicanism is an approach within political theory that seeks to secure the values of political liberty and non-domination. Yet, in historical practice, early modern republics developed empires and secured their liberty through policies that dominated others. This contradiction presents challenges for how neo-Roman theorists understand ideals of liberty and political freedom. This article argues that the historical practices of slavery and empire developed concurrently with the normative ideals of republican liberty. Republican liberty does not arise in the absence of power but is inherently connected to the exercise of power.