To Love Another Person Is To See the Face Of God

This chapter discusses the emergence of the through-song British musical, also known as “pop opera.” This can be dated from the afternoon of March 1, 1968, when parents (mainly mothers) of students at Colet Court School watched an end-of-term performance of a twenty-minute version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. By 1991, Lloyd Webber and Rice had officially created the first performance in the history of pop opera which was Jesus Christ Superstar (1971). Lloyd Webber's ability to compose consistently in a single voice, or to eclecticize, in other words, to teach the audience to navigate the action through musical signifiers is not appreciated enough. Tim Rice's ease in “conversationalizing” the bigger-than-life figures that pop opera delights in is similarly underrated, because he makes it look easy. The biggest hit in this period of musical history is Les Misérables (1985). This show's saga started when Alain Boublil sees Superstar and decides to write something comparable. It was written with composer Claude-Michel Schönberg.

THE GOD-AWFUL SMALL AFFAIR OF THE INVISIBLE ORGANIST: DAVID BOWIE TRANSLATED

Following the sudden death of David Bowie in January 2016, perhaps the least expected tributes were the various organ renditions of his 1973 single ‘Life On Mars’ played by the organists of St Albans Cathedral, Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow and Dublin’s St Joseph’s Church. Becoming instant social media sensations, what are we to make of these different versions of Bowie’s song played on the pipe organ, the so-called ‘King of Instruments’, and why did the organists choose ‘Life On Mars’ over any other Bowie song? In this essay, I consider these and other related questions from a range of theoretical perspectives, initially drawing on philosopher and musicologist Peter Szendy’s notion of the musical arrangement as translation, whilst also conceding that as a translation, something in the process of arrangement is lost. What might that ‘something’ be? Understanding him to be one of the most conspicuous musical artists of our time, I go on to employ media philosopher Sybille Kramer’s transmission theory of communication, positing Bowie as a messenger-translator who is also a powerful cultural interferer. As such, he is the antithesis of the church organist who, like the person of the textual translator as outlined by translation theorist Lawrence Venuti, has occupied a marginal if not abject space within musical history. Given this relegated position, how does Bowie’s own use of the organ sit with its use as an instrument of elegy in the various renditions referred to above, and can it tell us anything else about translation?

Musical history and cultural landscape of Shamakhi in the research of the scientist Seyfaddin Ganie

The article is dedicated to the life and work of Seyfaddin Ganiyev, a well-known folklorist, scientist and pedagogue of Shamakhi, his long-term research in the field of music, mugam and ashug art in Shamakhi region and the essence of many books created from this research. The attitude to music, mugam, ashug art in the mentioned works is from the point of view of folklorist, philologist. However, at the same time, S. Ganiyev added the views and memories of a professional master to his thoughts, further enhanced the scientific nature of the writings, and enriched his research with important facts encountered during the research. Also, the article provides an explanation of the points related to music in the book and scientific writings of the valuable scientist of Shamakhi S. Ganiyev about the traditional musical environment of Shamakhi from the point of view of ethnomusicologist.

TWISTING THE ARM OF MICHAEL MAIERHOF: COMPOSER, PERFORMER, CONCERT ORGANISER

The German composer Michael Maierhof took a curious and unusual path to becoming a professional composer, performer and concert organiser, one that gives him a unique perspective on the German art music scene. This interview with Maierhof took place on 17 January 2020 in Maierhof's apartment in Hamburg, Germany and forms part of my research into the artistic and socio-economic motivations that composers and artistic directors employ when utilizing a conductor. The interview explores his personal history, compositional techniques, and perspective on the course of contemporary musical history before going on to consider his views on conductor's responsibilities and their role in contemporary music.

Ancient Greece

This chapter outlines the evidence for musical history in ancient Greece, connecting it to philosophical approaches represented by Plato and others, as well as to recently elucidated documents with Ancient Greek musical notation. Ideas of ethos and mimesis are related to what may be known about the sounds of ancient Greek music as elicited from descriptions, surviving scores, and replicas of instruments such as the aulos (double pipe). The chapter seeks to elucidate the notion of mousikē (‘music’, as derived from the name of Greek divinities Mousai, the Muses) in its cultural context, and to connect elements of ancient musical traditions such as metre and harmonics to contemporary aural and musical realities.

Prologue

This sets the scene for the story of North Carolina music, with the author’s introduction to the state’s music via the 1952 compilation “Anthology of American Folk Music.” Through vignettes and interviews with an array of figures, historical as well as contemporary, it sets the stage for a narrative of musical history with a through-line of underdog working-class populism. Old-time legend Alice Gerrard, Piedmont blues guitarist Etta Baker, pianist Ben Folds, Kruger Brothers Uwe Kruger, and Hiss Golden Messenger leader M.C. Taylor all figure prominently.

Hearing Perfection

This chapter examines the formation of a particular rhetoric and constellation of values surrounding the violin through the lens of comparative tests between new and old violins. Since the nineteenth century, new violins have consistently won out over old ones. This is part of an ongoing process of mutual calibration between old and new violins: the old violins are updated to meet new playing needs; new violins are made as copies of older instruments. The continual blurring of distinctions between new and old produces what this chapter calls mendacious technology: an instrument that lies about its own historicity. Mendacious technology performs a productive, even essential, role within musical history. The violin itself has undergone many significant, though underplayed, technological alterations, but what has endured is the very notion that the instrument has endured. The musical canon—and meaningful access to it—depends on this careful obfuscating of technological history.