Musical life stories coherence through musicking in the prison setting

Despite the strong relationships evidenced between music and identity little research exists into the significance of music in prisoners’ shifting sense of identity. This article explores musicking as part of the ongoing identity work of prisoners in light of theory on musical performance, narrative and desistance and discusses implications for penal practice and research. Through the presentation of an ethnographic study of music therapy in a low security Norwegian prison we show how participation in music activities afforded congruence between the past, the present and the projected future for participants by way of their unfolding musical life stories. Complementing existing conceptualisations of music as an agent for change, our study suggests that musicking afforded the maintenance of a coherent sense of self for participating prison inmates, whilst offering opportunities for noncoercive personal development. We argue that research into musicking in prison offers fruitful ways of tracing how the complexities inherent in processes of change are enacted in everyday prison life, and that it can advance our knowledge of relationships between culture, penal practice and desistance.

Im geschützten Raum

This article explores the musical events organized by the Goethe Institute during the Chilean dictatorship (1973–1990). An examination of the cultural and political discussions around these musical programmes demonstrates that the function of music as a tool for promoting democracy was understood in the context of the cultural activities of the Federal Republic of Germany in Chile. I explore the ways in which projects from the fields of jazz and contemporary music were understood as vehicles of democratic ideals, the consequences of the resulting musical transfers for the local musical life, as well as the shaping of a particular image of West Germany in Chile. (Vorlage)

„In naives Plaudern“ geraten?

Kurt Pahlen’s activities in the Ibero-American region from 1939 to approximately 1970 were based on his musicological studies and musical activities in Vienna until 1938. Certificates of his studies at the university or press reports on his engagements in Vienna’s musical life shed light on Pahlen’s formation before his emigration to Switzerland, Argentina and Uruguay. In exile, he transmitted his knowledge of classical music to the Spanish-speaking world via articles and books on music history or radio and television broadcasts. His writings were commercially successful and, after their first edition in Latin America, they were often translated into German. As a result, Pahlen acted as translator between cultural contexts, audiences and media. An analysis of selected paragraphs of the books demonstrates, however, that he mainly transmitted his particular view of music, which was extremely time-bound and lost its relevance in later reprints. The reason for the divergent opinions of Kurt Pahlen’s work Spanish- and German-speaking scientific communities can be found in his rejection of academic musicology as he had got to know it in Vienna, and the increasingly superficial and subjective prose in his German reeditions. (Vorlage)

THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUSICAL CULTURE OF BASHKIRIA IN THE 1950S - MID-1980S

In the 1950s-1980s. the musical culture of Bashkiria was further developed, acquiring specific forms. As a result of the influence of various musical cultures, forms of professional art that were not inherent in traditional national culture were actively developing in the republic. Historically, the artistic and aesthetic experience of Bashkiria was limited to monodic forms of folk music (monophonic songs and instrumental tunes). The problem of overcoming the predominance of traditional monody in professional musical culture was urgent. Having adopted and creatively using the best traditions of classical and Soviet music, Bashkir professional music has gone an accelerated path from traditional monophonic folk music to complex genres of professional art. For several decades, such genres as opera, symphony, ballet were created in Bashkiria. Already in 1950-1970. a national style is formed on the basis of the creative implementation of folklore and the interaction of national and international in musical art. In the 1960s. against the background of the continuous interest of Bashkir composers in chamberinstrumental and chamber-vocal genres, the center of gravity is shifting to the field of musical-theatrical, symphonic music. In the musical life of the republic, great importance was attached to the popularization of musical culture. Bashkir radio paid great attention to the promotion of musical knowledge and works. Back in the early 1960s. musical and educational programs were conducted in the Bashkir and Russian languages, concerts of Bashkir, Chuvash and Russian composers were broadcast. Often, the radio played works by amateur composers with the participation of the authors themselves. At the same time, with the huge genre diversity of the musical culture of Bashkiria, significant and talented works of many authors remained outside the active cultural life, unable to popularize them and bring them to the mass audience. As a result, a serious gap was noticeable between the musical culture itself and its consumer. The low level of culture of perception of music by the population, due to the lack of professional musical education, formed preferences for pop, popular music.

"Moonlight and Roses", and other things they played: Organ Recitals in New Zealand, 1870-1920

<p>The early history of pipe organs in New Zealand, and the music which was played on them, has long been of interest to organists and domestic organ builders alike. The primary focus of this exegesis is the performers themselves and the repertoire they chose to present to the public through the medium of the organ recital during a fifty-year period from 1870–1920. A case study approach is adopted, where two centres, one metropolitan and one provincial, have been selected from each of the two main island of New Zealand. Using primary source materials, including contemporary newspapers and concert programmes, details of a significant selection of organ recitals held in Wellington, Christchurch, Southland, and Hawke’s Bay can be tabulated. This allows for some discernment of trends in musical preferences. New Zealand was no exception to the world wide practice by organists of utilising in their performances works not originally written for their instrument. In a wider Australasian context, organ recitals were conduits for the dissemination of symphonic, operatic and chamber music, particularly on larger instruments. The balance between transcriptions and works for the organ in these recitals is one of the study’s areas of investigation. This also requires some discussion of the instruments themselves. Another is the extent to which music was considered a formative social influence, particularly since most nineteenth-century recitals were played in churches, rather than civic (secular) auditoria, and were considered to take on the character of the venue. The research also uncovers details about the origins and career paths of the performers. Some were private teachers, choral and/or instrumental conductors or accompanists. Still others had regular employment as schoolteachers or purveyors of instruments and sheet music, and a third group found primary employment outside the musical sphere either as civil servants or in private enterprise. Analysis of the wealth of surviving information (concerning organists and their performances) demonstrates that the organ recital was a ubiquitous and popular event in New Zealand prior to World War I. Alongside other musical activities these programmes play a role in the development of society’s musical life, both in its own right and as the accompanying instrument for various choral societies (before the development of fully-fledged orchestral groups). Society was changed with the advent of hostilities; after they ended, there were new norms and expectations. Outside the main text, the collations of raw data are provided on an accompanying CD, along with biographical details of those who made small contributions to the recital scene, or were present in New Zealand for only a limited time.</p>

"Moonlight and Roses", and other things they played: Organ Recitals in New Zealand, 1870-1920

<p>The early history of pipe organs in New Zealand, and the music which was played on them, has long been of interest to organists and domestic organ builders alike. The primary focus of this exegesis is the performers themselves and the repertoire they chose to present to the public through the medium of the organ recital during a fifty-year period from 1870–1920. A case study approach is adopted, where two centres, one metropolitan and one provincial, have been selected from each of the two main island of New Zealand. Using primary source materials, including contemporary newspapers and concert programmes, details of a significant selection of organ recitals held in Wellington, Christchurch, Southland, and Hawke’s Bay can be tabulated. This allows for some discernment of trends in musical preferences. New Zealand was no exception to the world wide practice by organists of utilising in their performances works not originally written for their instrument. In a wider Australasian context, organ recitals were conduits for the dissemination of symphonic, operatic and chamber music, particularly on larger instruments. The balance between transcriptions and works for the organ in these recitals is one of the study’s areas of investigation. This also requires some discussion of the instruments themselves. Another is the extent to which music was considered a formative social influence, particularly since most nineteenth-century recitals were played in churches, rather than civic (secular) auditoria, and were considered to take on the character of the venue. The research also uncovers details about the origins and career paths of the performers. Some were private teachers, choral and/or instrumental conductors or accompanists. Still others had regular employment as schoolteachers or purveyors of instruments and sheet music, and a third group found primary employment outside the musical sphere either as civil servants or in private enterprise. Analysis of the wealth of surviving information (concerning organists and their performances) demonstrates that the organ recital was a ubiquitous and popular event in New Zealand prior to World War I. Alongside other musical activities these programmes play a role in the development of society’s musical life, both in its own right and as the accompanying instrument for various choral societies (before the development of fully-fledged orchestral groups). Society was changed with the advent of hostilities; after they ended, there were new norms and expectations. Outside the main text, the collations of raw data are provided on an accompanying CD, along with biographical details of those who made small contributions to the recital scene, or were present in New Zealand for only a limited time.</p>

The Other Otto Dresel: Public and Private Musical Identities in a German-American ‘Forty-Eighter’ and his Family, c. 1860–1880

This essay explores the musical life of a German-American ‘Forty-Eighter’ and his family, with particular attention to their domestic musical preferences as reflected in five surviving sheet-music albums. Otto Dresel, easily confused with the far more prominent German musician of the same name who settled in Boston, was a gifted amateur whose public musical activities, both choral and instrumental, typified those of many German arrivals of that generation. This was a largely male realm of affirmative, expansive ideals; here the stress was on civic virtues, happy fraternal bonds, and the celebration of German musical culture as an elevating force in America. The family albums suggests that the music he shared with his wife and children at home in Columbus, Ohio, served quite different purposes. It was performed intimately, in an often melancholy and even mournful mode that reflected the need for personal consolation and was thus more in keeping with typical Victorian attitudes toward the domestic, womanly sphere. Evidence about the troubled course of Dresel's life helps us understand his growing need to take refuge in his home and family as well as in music that helped him and his loved ones deal – for a time, at least – with deepening feelings of regret, failure and loss. This marked contrast between the public and private sides of the Dresels’ musical lives points to a need for greater attention to the distinctive character and functions of intimate family music-making in nineteenth-century America, especially during the years of widespread disillusionment and cultural reorientation that followed the Civil War.

The Viennese Ballroom in the Age of Beethoven

The repertoire of the early Viennese ballroom was highly influential in the broader histories of both social dance and music in nineteenth-century Europe. Yet music scholarship has traditionally paid little attention to ballroom dance music before the era of the Strauss dynasty, with the exception of a handful of dances by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. This book positions Viennese social dances in their specific performing contexts and investigates the wider repertoire of the Viennese ballroom in the decades around 1800, most of which stems from dozens of non-canonical composers. Close examination of this material yields new insights into the social contexts associated with familiar dance types, and reveals that the ballroom repertoire of this period connected with virtually every aspect of Viennese musical life, from opera and concert music to the emerging category of entertainment music that was later exemplified by the waltzes of Lanner and Strauss.

Music education of Zhytomyr in terms of the creative period of Victor Kosenko in the city (dedicated to the 125th anniversary of his birth)

The purpose of the article is to study the music education of Zhytomyr on the eve and during the creative path in the specified city of Viktor Kosenko. Research methodology. The methodology of work is based on the application of analytical, systematic, biographical methods, which revealed the place and significance of the figure of V. Kosenko in the development of the musical culture of Zhytomyr during the life and work of the composer in this place in 1918-1929. Features of tendencies in the educational musical movement of that period, in particular, sociocultural and artistic factors of formation of music education and its positioning in the context of musical life of the specified period. The scientific novelty of the article is that for the first time the level of development of music education in Zhytomyr during the stay of the famous composer V. Kosenko (1918-1929) was analyzed and evaluated, which influenced the further development of educational and cultural branches of Zhytomyr region. Conclusions. The article outlines the peculiarities of music education in Zhytomyr on the eve and during the period of creativity in the city of Viktor Kosenko. It is established that at the beginning of the last century Zhytomyr was one of the important cultural and educational centers of the Right Bank of Ukraine, where there were schools and gymnasiums, theological and teacher's seminaries, as well as dozens of educational institutions of various specializations. It was found that one of the first in Ukraine in Zhytomyr opened a public library, theater, and cinemas. It was found out that the stay in Zhytomyr was a unique opportunity for V. Kosenko to be in Ukrainian (and not Russian or Polish) center (after Warsaw and St. Petersburg, where the urban cultural tradition prevailed, oriented differently) (not only Ukrainian but also European culture). It was important for Ukrainian music to position itself as European, and for the composer to have a kind of shelter from the control of the Soviet government, he had the opportunity to delve into himself, to find his own style.