Pietro Antonio Locatelli

Pietro Antonio Locatelli (b. Bergamo, 1695–d. Amsterdam, 1764) was an Italian composer and a virtuoso violinist. He started his career in his hometown, among the violinists of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. In 1711 he moved to Rome, probably to study with Arcangelo Corelli, the maximum musical authority of the time. The severe illness and the death (1713) of the great master frustrated the young violinist’s plans, however. Probably Locatelli had to fall back on Giuseppe Valentini, a virtuoso violinist trained at Corelli’s school. In the meantime, Locatelli worked in many places and institutions. His first employment was with Michelangelo X Caetani, duke of Cisterna and Sermoneta and prince of Caserta; he then performed with the musical chapel of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and Monsignor Camillo Cybo, the latter the dedicatee of Locatelli’s Op. 1. From 1716 to 1722 he was a member of the Congregatione generale dei musici di Santa Cecilia. Locatelli was in Rome until the spring of 1723. He then started a tour that led him to the main European musical centers. In 1723 Locatelli was in Venice, where made the acquaintance of the patrician Girolamo Michiel Lini, Op. 3’s dedicatee. In 1725 he was in Mantua, where was appointed “virtuoso di camera” by Philipp von Hessen-Darmstadt. In 1727 Locatelli left Italy, never to return. He had short stays in Munich (1727), Berlin, Frankfurt, and Kassel (1728). In 1729 he moved to Amsterdam, where remained until his death. There he started to print his nine Opus numbers composed during the years of pilgrimage. Locatelli wrote only instrumental music, in the genres of concerto grosso, violin concerto, violin sonata, and trio sonata. Le Cène, Van der Hoeven, and Covens were the publishers of his orchestral works, while his chamber works were instead published at his own expense. In addition, he gave weekly private concerts, taught a few rich patricians of the city, and traded in prints, books, and musical items. Studies on Locatelli’s time, life, and works are covered in several book-length studies, a complete edition, and numerous articles.

Sketches on the creative portrait of the composer A. B. Mulear

This article attempts to present sketches of the compositional creativity of Alexandr Boris Mulear (1922–1994), who is one of the most important figures of the music culture in the Republic of Moldova and belongs to the older generation of composers, as his glory years were between 1950 and 1980. The composer’s record contains a valuable artistic heritage that is appreciated by performers but the study of his works is not in the center of interest of musicologists yet. However, the article will present some examples of the Mulearian creativity. Analyzing the composition portfolio of A. Mulear, the author shows that chamber works predominate for the most part in his creativity, including suites, quartets, sonatas, miniatures and musical pieces, with a wide range of instrumental groups: from the duo (violin and piano, piano and voice) to the symphony orchestra. In conclusion, it is noted that the composer manifested himself in an original way in chamber music, which is more innovative and bright and reveals diverse forms of classical music in terms of style and genre.

Contrasting Effects of World Perception as a Principle of Sofia Gubaidulina's Musical-Philosophical Thinking

Контрастность в представлении о мире была свойственна философии и искусству в разные исторические времена. Причем в западном мышлении она более развита, чем в восточном. С. Губайдулина ощутила в себе это свойство из-за рождения в русско-татарской семье, с перекрещиванием Запада и Востока. Как типичный «шестидесятник», свидетель Второй мировой войны, она всю жизнь думает о коллизиях в жизни людей, что и ввело контрастность в ее музыку любых жанров. На них основаны симфонические полотна, такие как симфония «Слышу...Умолкло...», «Pro et contra». А в концерте для скрипки «Диалог: Я и Ты» она претворила двойственные идеи философа М. Бубера. Контраст же Запада и Востока стал основой драматургии кантаты «Ночь в Мемфисе», концерта для солирующего исполнителя на ударных инструментах и оркестра с участием певицы «Час души», камерных сочинений «Чет и Нечет», «Сад радости и печали». Губайдулина выработала свою, эффективную систему «консонансов» и «диссонансов» всякого рода, которые приносят ясность всей ткани ее музыки. Масштабным духовным сочинением стала ее оратория «О любви и ненависти» на тексты молитв разных собраний. The contrast in the view of the world is characteristic of philosophy and art in different historical times. Moreover, in Western thinking, it is more developed than in the east. S. Gubaidulina felt this property in herself because of her birth in a Russian-Tatar family, with the crossing of the West and the East. As a typical “sixties,” witness of the Second World War, she thinks all her life about the conflicts in people's lives, which introduced contrast to her music of all genres. They are based on the symphonic canvases-the Symphony “I Hear. Silenced...,” “Pro et contra.” And in the violin concerto “Dialogue: Me and You,” she embodied the dual ideas of the philosopher M. Buber. The contrast of the West and the East became the basis of a dramatic cantata “Night in Memphis,” a concert for solo percussion and orchestra with the participation of the singer for “Hour of the soul,” in chamber works “Even and Odd,” “Garden of joy and sorrow.” Gubaidulina developed her own, effective system of “consonances and dissonances” of all kinds, which bring clarity to the entire texture of her music. A large-scale spiritual composition was her oratorio “On Love and Hate” on the texts of prayers of various congregations

Relation between durability and mechanical properties on glass fiber reinforced slag-based geopolymer

This work seeks to improve the understanding of the durability of pure slag-based geopolymer composites containing glass fibers. Degradation by attack of saline mist, simulated by the salt-spray essay, was carried out for a period of 30 days. The test simulates the conditions found in the sea and nearby environments. The chamber works at relative humidity ∼97%, by nebulizing sodium chloride solutions with a concentration of 5% at 35 + 2 °C, solution pH between 6.5 and 7.2. After the cycle, the loss of mass and the compressive strength of the specimens were measured. The efflorescence formation in slag-based geopolymers is also assessed in this study to provide a better understanding of the effect of the synthesis parameters. It is noted that physical and chemical properties of geopolymers, and environmental exposure conditions can affect the rate of efflorescence formation. Besides the control set group, two different solutions to prevent efflorescence were tested, MgO and an efflorescence reduction agent from Sika®. The work aims to examine the effect of efflorescence formation on mechanical properties, through flexural and compressive strengths. A compromise between durability and mechanical properties was found for specimens enriched with 2% of efflorescence reduction agent.

Piano in the land of unsaid love – musical contexts of emotional lives of married female characters in Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks and Sándor Márai’s Embers

In The Sorrows of Young Werther, an epistolary novel by J.W. Goethe, we can find a literary portrait of a beloved woman playing a keyboard instrument. This is the motif Adam Mickiewicz referred to in his Dziady, Part 4. Both texts describe unrequited love to a woman belonging to another man. Belles-lettres reflect repertoire issues – at the turn of the 19th century girls from a proper home performed simple pieces, often dances. Subsequent decades of the 19th century came with the development of piano methodics, and composers wrote pieces which today constitute part of concert canon, whereas the piano became the perfect musical tool. The plot of Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks is set in the second half of the 19th century. Music plays an important role in that novel. Mann depicts the problem of clashing views in the marriage of Thomas, who was fond of “pretty melodies”, and Gerda, a magnificent violin and piano player who performed ambitious compositions and showed no mercy in criticising her husband’s musical taste. An important motif is the appearance of a young officer who visits Gerda in order to perform chamber works together. Thomas fears the mysterious bond between his wife and the lieutenant on the one hand and people’s opinions on the other. The motif of music as a platform for communication between a man and a woman can also be found in the novel Embers by Sándor Márai. Here as well it is a connection unavailable to the husband of the main heroine. At the end of his life, Henri, Christine’s husband, refers to music as the “melodious and obscure language” which allows “certain people” to communicate. Both novels include the motif of the end of an era and death of the characters for whom music was extremely significant and who performed compositions of the highest artistic value. Texts by Mann and Márai reflect a decline of a certain stage in the history of culture. It is also the end of the typical ways how burgesses and aristocrats spent their leisure time, how they treated the sphere of emotions and communed with the widely understood art. The result of these changes is the dethronement of the piano, which no longer was one of the most important pieces of furniture in a drawing room nor the most important instrument – as it used to be in the 19th century culture.

Beethoven’s Symphonies in the Musical Life of Nineteenth-Century Laibach

Nineteenth-century concert life in Laibach (Ljubljana), capital of the Habsburg Carniola, was shaped and led by the local Philharmonic Society. Until the establishment of the Musical Society in 1872, it was the only musical institution in Carniola. Even after the establishment of the Musical Society, the Philharmonics remained the principal and representative leader of concert life. In the mid-nineteenth century, the main European centers had their own operatic and concert civil orchestras, however, Laibach did not have a concert symphony orchestra. In order to lead and perform regular symphonic concerts, the Philharmonic Society had to hire musicians from the military chapel, which also collaborated with the Opera and, at the end of the nineteenth century, participated in the concerts of the Music Society. The history of the Philharmonics exhibits not only a rich tradition but also illustrates the program endeavors of the artistic leaders, the musical trends of the time and social circumstances, which sometimes encouraged and at other times hindered its work. The first preserved program notes indicate that at that time (1816) challenging symphonic works were already played and in this regard Beethoven’s role was evident. In 1808 the Society already attempted to elect Beethoven as an honorary member of the society, but this happened only in 1819. A year before the local premiere of his Symphony No. 6, and for this opportunity, the composer sent a manuscript with his own corrections. Until then his Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 7 and probably 4 were already performed there. The program notes of the Society indicate that Beethoven’s works were played at least (but usually more than) once in a season. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the appeal and the interest in the composer’s creative output grew even stronger, alongside the appreciation of the memory of the composer. It is also significant to note that his chamber works became regularly performed in the chamber concerts of the Philharmonics. Even though from the very beginning the composer’s overtures had a stable and regular place within the repertoire, the first full performance of his Symphony No. 9 took place only in 1902 (the first three movements were already performed a decade earlier).

I. B. KRAMER’S PIANO WORK IN THE ASPECT OF INTERRELATION OF PERFORMANCE AND COMPOSITION

Background. The article is devoted to the piano work of the famous English pianist, teacher and composer Johann Baptist Kramer (1771–1858), whose 250th anniversary is celebrated in 2021. I. B. Kramer, like other pianists of the late XVIII – early XIX centuries, tried to solve a significant problem – mastering the basics of composition, its laws, principles, techniques, their combination with the game nature and capabilities of the piano. Objectives. The purpose of the article is to reveal the relationship between performing and compositional means in I. B. Kramer’s piano works. Methods. The basis of the methodology is a systematic approach, through which musicological research methods are combined with historical ones. The main document of the era in the field of musicological research is the musical text, so the analysis of musical works is carried out from the standpoint of performance at the levels of performing technical means, musical thinking of the composer and performer. Other components of the texture, the development of its individual layers in the whole system, as well as the coverage of one or another feature of the playing nature of the piano are also taken into account. Conclusions. I. B. Kramer’s pedagogical system is considered, which is a system of technical means of performance, which contributed to the embodiment of the game nature of the instrument. In works of art, the composer used these techniques as needed to create a certain figurative sphere. Analyzed “Pathetic Fantasy” op. 87 (1837), four notebooks Suite – arrangements for piano chamber works of classical composers, where the composer embodied ensemble thinking on the piano, introduced the principles of dialogicity and comparison of registers as a method of artistic development of musical material. Results. Continuing the work of his teacher M. Clementi, I. B. Kramer contributed to the development of concert activities in Europe, the differentiation of pedagogy, performance and composition into independent musical activities. His methodical works and opuses of etudes were the basis of pedagogy for the next generations of pianists, defined the foundations of piano pedagogy as a scientific discipline. The piano instructional material created by I. B. Kramer allowed to master the techniques of piano playing in a short time. Along with L. V. Beethoven, I. B. Kramer made an important contribution to deepening the content of musical works by means of composer’s writing. The perfection of the presentation of piano technique had a positive effect on the development of compositional techniques in the works of the musician – the development of contrasting themes, the principles of development of musical material, the improvement of musical forms. The sphere of dramatic pathos and heroism defined the image of pathos in music, which corresponded to the possibilities of the instrument and at the same time contributed to the formation of a romantic style in piano art.

Beethoven's String Quintet in C major, Op. 29, and Brahms's String Sextets: A Wallflower Blooms

Beethoven's String Quintet, Op. 29, has been described as a ‘wallflower’ work that, without enough suitors, remains on the sidelines of the string chamber music repertoire. But in the nineteenth century it had a prominent champion, Joseph Joachim, whose performances of the quintet must have attracted the attention of his close friend, Johannes Brahms. The opening theme of Brahms's String Sextet, Op. 18, is clearly reminiscent of the beginning of Beethoven's quintet. Evidence from Donald Francis Tovey's recollections of Joachim, Joachim's correspondence with the Brahms biographer Max Kalbeck, and the manuscript of Op. 18 shows that Joachim influenced an important revision that aligns the beginning of Brahms's sextet closely with the opening of Beethoven's Op. 29 also in terms of texture and formal design. The striking tremolo opening and virtuosic scale passages in the finale of Beethoven's quintet prefigure similar elements in the last movement of Brahms's Op. 36 sextet. But the deeper relationship between these movements lies in certain shared formal elements: a common emphasis on sound, texture and sharp contrasts between agitato and pastoral elements as defining features of the overall form – and several distinctive similarities of contrapuntal strategy, form and tonal design between the substantial fugatos that dominate the development sections of both movements. It is often observed that Brahms wrote chamber works in pairs. Scholars have often posited that his two string sextets form such a pair, but the separation of four years in their inceptions and his extensive use of Baroque-style materials composed in the 1850s in the later sextet have made this argument tenuous. It now emerges that an unusual pairing feature of Brahms's string sextets is that both works respond to Beethoven's ‘wallflower’ masterpiece.