Animaciones musicales: Danza Eslava Nº.7 de Dvorak, tormenta.

Se trata de una animación realizada sobre un fragmento de la Danza Eslava no.7 en do menor op.46 de Antonin Dvorak. Se ha optado por una estética visual con elementos figurativos de la naturaleza y sus fenómenos que se emplean para resaltar la forma musical y otros parámetros sonoros y psicológicos de la obra. En el proyecto Animaciones Musicales, a las alumnas y alumnos del grado de Educación Infantil dentro de la asignatura de Didáctica de la Música se pedía elegir libremente una pieza musical instrumental de entre 1 y 4 minutos de duración y, tras su análisis (forma, carácter, parámetros sonoros y elementos más relevantes...), realizar sobre esa base musical una creación visual de animación (empleando el programa PowToon o similar) en la que hubiera coherencia formal entre música e imagen. Se dio plena libertad en la elección de tema, estética visual, parámetros musicales representados, tipo de música... y se fomentó la originalidad en los planteamientos. Los vídeos resultantes se vieron y analizaron colectivamente en clase y también se expusieron públicamente en una pantalla de televisión ubicada en uno de los accesos a la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación coincidiendo con la Exposición de cotidiáfonos “Se ruega tocar” en la que se mostraban trabajos también realizados por los alumnos de la misma asignatura.

Intermidialidade músico-literária em Luiz Antonio de Assis Brasil: aproximações entre O inverno e depois e o Concerto para violoncelo e orquestra

Este estudo possui como objetivo compreender a presença da intermidialidade no romance O inverno e depois, de Luiz Antonio de Assis Brasil. O autor parte de relações entre o universo literário e o musical para construir sua narrativa ficcional, onde o Concerto para violoncelo e orquestra, do compositor checo Antonín Dvořák, torna-se a base influenciadora da estrutura romanesca construída por Assis Brasil. Nesse sentido, buscamos evidenciar como os aspectos musicais que compõem essa primeira mídia (o concerto), são utilizados para a construção da segunda mídia (o romance assisiano), uma vez que, ainda que pertençam a códigos semióticos distintos, um ao literário e o outro ao musical, a obra de Luiz Antonio de Assis Brasil é influenciada diretamente pelo concerto de Antonín Dvořák, de modo especial em sua estrutura narrativa.

The Fiery Debate

About eight months after Antonín Dvořák became director of Jeannette Thurber’s National Conservatory of Music in New York, he weighed in publicly on the question of American musical identity and argued that African American vernacular music (or “negro melodies”) should become the foundation of a national classical style. The New York Herald, which first printed his remarks, stoked a months-long debate that exposed deep-seated anti-Black racism throughout the country’s classical music industry as many musicians rejected the Bohemian’s suggestions outright. Dvořák remained supportive of African American music and musicians but did not fully understand the political implications of his positions.

The Welcome Arrival

New York-based philanthropist and entrepreneur Jeannette Thurber (1850–1946) founded the National Conservatory of Music in 1885 to provide a world-class but low-cost professional music education to students from across the United States. Though it progressed in fits and starts, the conservatory eventually earned a congressional charter in 1891, giving it a unique stature compared to national rivals. A year later, Thurber hired Antonín Dvořák, the famous Bohemian composer, to be its executive musical director—easily the highest-profile individual to hold the position. The US public expected Dvořák to transform the National Conservatory into the international powerhouse Thurber had always envisioned.

The Racial Challenge

After the US Civil War, African American musicians and intellectuals had increasingly turned to European classical music as a tool of socioeconomic advancement while acknowledging the importance of antebellum vernacular music for defining racial identity. Violinist and composer Will Marion Cook (1869–1944) used the platform of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to demonstrate Black achievement in the arts. Meanwhile, Jeannette Thurber and Antonín Dvořák had opened the National Conservatory to Black students free of charge, thus expanding educational opportunities for talented Black musicians. The premiere of the New World Symphony in December 1893 reignited a widespread and vicious public debate about the place of Black music and musicians in American national life.

The National Question

Although European composers had turned to folksongs for inspiration while writing instrumental pieces in the first half of the nineteenth century, their counterparts in the United States were much slower to adopt the practice. Given the country’s ethnically and racially diverse population, musicians did not reach a consensus about what folk music would be most appropriate to project an American national musical identity in the first place. By the early 1890s, however, the leading critic Henry Krehbiel had begun to argue that Antonín Dvořák would help US composers develop a folk-based style during his tenure as director of the National Conservatory.

The Iowa Bird That Inspired Antonín Dvořák's American String Quartet in 1893: Controversy over the Species’ Identity and Why It Matters

Antonín Dvořák composed the String Quartet in F major (op. 96, the ‘American’) in June 1893 while visiting the town of Spillville, Iowa, USA. Based on accounts from Dvořák's secretary Josef Kovařík, portions of the quartet's Scherzo movement were inspired by birdsong Dvořák heard in Spillville. Kovařík's account included both Dvořák's visual description of the bird that inspired him and a transcribed fragment of the birdsong Dvořák reportedly used. In 1954, Clapham identified the bird as a scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea), based mainly on the visual description. This widely accepted identification was questionable because of the poor match of the tanager's song to musical material in the Scherzo. In 2016, Floyd proposed the red-eyed vireo (Vireo olivaceus) as Dvořák's inspiration, based on song rather than appearance. The vireo's song is clearly identifiable in the Scherzo as well in the birdsong fragment recorded by Kovařík. The mismatch between the visual description and the transcribed song fragment could have occurred when Dvořák heard and recorded the persistent singing of a cryptic red-eyed vireo, but misidentified the song's source when he caught sight of a brightly coloured tanager. Correct identification of the birdsong changes the interpretation of the movement. Previously, birdsong has been considered the source of a short secondary motif. But red-eyed vireo songs are highly variable, and a slight variation of Kovařík's song fragment could be the basis of the main theme of the Scherzo. Therefore, Dvořák may have used American birdsong in the movement considerably more than previously appreciated.

The 1880s and 1890s

New York grew dramatically in population and musical activity in the 1880s and 1890s. Bristow was still respected and admired but now as a venerable musician who was out-of-step with current developments (he was never a Wagnerian). His performing activity diminished; he resigned from the Philharmonic Society in 1882. He joined the New York Manuscript Society, suggesting continued support for American musicians. He resumed writing songs and character pieces for piano (including “Plantation Melodies,” perhaps in response to Antonin Dvořák). He revised Rip Van Winkle and wrote the overture Jibbenainosay (1886) as well as the Mass in C (1885) and his choral symphony, Niagara (1893).