Robi z nami to, co robi. O „Chwale supermanom…” Przemysława Witkowskiego (Recenzja: Przemysław Witkowski, „Chwała supermanom. Ideologia a popkultura”, Instytut Wydawniczy Książka i Prasa, Warszawa 2017, ss. 318.)

Hail to the Supermen: Ideology and Pop Culture (Chwała supermanom. Ideologia a popkultura) by Przemysław Witkowski has been considered by Przemysław Czapliński as ‘the monograph’ of pop culture created in the last thirty years. In his essay, Witkowski has made several attempts to reveal how the neoliberal and nationalistic ideologies are related to the popular or mass movies, TV series and shows, music, books, and other pop cultural phenomena. This article is a review of Hail to the Supermen… The author reconstructs the main assumptions and points out some of the most noticeable simplifications and general problems with the book.

Կոմիտասի գրադարանը

Կոմիտասից պահպանված գրականությունն ընդգրկում է 300-ից ավելի գիրք, որը չի կազմում նրա գրքացանկի ամբողջական թիվը։ Կոմիտասի գրքերն ուղեկցել են նրան իր կյանքի և գործունեության տարբեր ժամանակահատվածներում, ունեցել են տարբեր գործառույթներ և ծառայել են տարբեր նպատակների՝ կրթությունից մինչև մասնագիտական հետազոտություններ։ Հոդվածում դասակարգված է Կոմիտասի գրականությունը՝ ըստ մասնագիտական, գեղարվեստական և այլ ոլորտների, ներկայացված են տեղեկություններ որոշ գրքերի մասին, ինչպես նաև Կոմիտասի կրթության և գործունեության ճանապարհին այդ գրքերի դերն ու նշանակությունը։ Կոմիտասի գրադարանում ծավալուն տեղ են զբաղեցնում երաժշտական գրքերը՝ ներառյալ հոդվածներ, կլավիրներ, պարտիտուրներ, օպերաների լիբրետոներ և այլն։Կոմիտասի հիմնավոր երաժշտական կրթությունը, տարբեր երկրների և ժամանակների երաժշտության պատմության մասին աշխատությունները, հայ եկեղեցական և հոգևոր երաժշտության մասին մեծ թվով գիտական (ներառյալ խազաբանական) հետազոտությունները, կոմպոզիտորական, խմբավարական, կատարողական գործունեությունը առիթ են եղել բազմաբնույթ գրքերի ձեռքբերմանը։ Հարուստ և բազմատեսակ գրականության ձեռքբերմանը նպաստել են նաև Կոմիտասի մի քանի լեզուների իմացությունը, հետաքրքրությունը հայ և արտասահմանյան գեղարվեստական գրականության, արվեստի և գիտության այլ ճյուղերի հանդեպ։ Կոմիտասի երաժշտական գրականությունն ընդգրկում է երաժշտատեսական, պատմական, գեղագիտական, միջնադարագիտական, ֆոլկլորագիտական, կոմպոզիտորական, կատարողական, մանկավարժական-մեթոդաբանական գրքեր։ The preserved literature that we have received from Komitas includes more than 300 books, which is not the complete number of books on his list. Komitas's books accompanied him in different periods of his life and activities. They had different functions and served different purposes, from education to professional research. In this article, Komitas’s literature is classified according to professional, artistic, and other spheres. Their role and significance in Komitas’s education and activities is presented. Information about special books is also presented. Music books occupy a large place in Komitas's library, including articles, pianos, scores, librettos of operas, etc. Komitas's thorough musical education, works on the history of music of different countries, times, numerous scientific (including “Khaz”) studies on Armenian church music, composing, conducting, and performing activities have been the occasion for acquiring various books. The acquisition of rich and diverse literature was also facilitated by Komitas's knowledge of several languages, his interest in Armenian and foreign fiction, art, and other branches of science. Komitas's musical literature includes music theory, historical, aesthetic, medieval, folklore, composition, performance, and pedagogical-methodological books.

Musician and Poet

Music-making was a popular leisure activity in aristocratic households in the early seventeenth century and a growing number of courtier poets wrote and exchanged verse in aristocratic salons and literary coteries. Chapter 12 continues the exploration of Herbert’s intellectual achievements and reputation as a polymath. It traces his interest in playing the lute and singing, and the musical preferences and fashions demonstrated by the music books he owned and the preludes, fantasias, pavanes, galliards, courantes, voltes, sarabands, and airs assembled in his unique manuscript lute book. It probes his inclusion among the metaphysical poets, exploring the influence of John Donne and Giambattista Marino, but also that of Ben Jonson, Thomas Carew, and Sir Philip Sidney, and of Horace, Juvenal, and Ovid. It uses the themes of love, beauty, immortality, and death to examine examples of his sonnets, elegies, epitaphs, satires, and lyrical poems, some of which were published posthumously as The Occasional Verses of Lord Herbert of Cherbury in 1665, and looks briefly at his Latin philosophical poems and his rough draft for a masque. It explores his preference for deploying verbal ingenuity and erudition rather than feelings, his deployment of metaphysical conceits and concepts, his innovative experimentation with rhyme and the extent of his participation in the literary coterie culture of the times. It claims a place for him among the leading minor poets and suggests that this was an impressive achievement for a man heavily engaged in other intellectual fields as well as political and estate matters.

Oblong formaten en liedboeken in de zestiende eeuw

This article examines the earliest example of a Dutch printed songbook without musical notation in oblong format: Een Schoon Liedekensboeck (Antwerp, 1544), commonly known as the Antwerp Songbook. Its oblong format was probably inspired by music books, even if the advantages attached to this format only partially applied to songbooks without scores and notes. Even so, the Antwerp Songbook’s typography and lay-out do facilitate performance of the songs to some degree. Additionally, unlike contemporary books in oblong, this songbook’s title page is rotated 90 degrees to portrait orientation. This article contends that this hybrid shape underlines the book’s hybrid function: it was a music book intended for those who cannot or have no inclination to read music. Similarly, Een devoot ende profitelijck boecxken (Antwerp, 1539) stands out for having a comparable hybrid shape: it combines elements of music books (such as notes and the oblong format) with elements of vernacular song tradition and a title page in portrait orientation.

Assets (Nominated play, excerpt)

A dystopian play representing a world based entirely on the number of assets people have. (Assets - points equal to the cash owned by each person.) People accumulate assets since childhood; the number of their assets determines their education, access to food, medicines, work. The main conflict is between the material represented by the Branch Managers who direct the assets flow, and the spiritual, represented by those who oppose them. The play is set in a city recently taken by the Branch. The new government promises progress and better life and most people support it. But there are others who disagree because they cannot stand the prohibition of music, books, parties.

(Re)creating the Eglantine Table

The Eglantine Table at Hardwick Hall (c.1568) was probably crafted to commemorate marriages made between the Hardwick-Cavendish and Talbot families. In addition to various heraldic symbols, the table’s friezes depict gaming paraphernalia, thirteen musical instruments, and several music books, including a stacked score of a devotional song by Thomas Tallis: ‘O Lord, in thee is all my trust’. While there is thorough existing scholarship on what the Eglantine Table depicts, this article explores what can be inferred about the contemporary value of musical recreation from how meaning was produced in the table’s iconography using a ‘material approach’ to music as both an object and also a sounding body. This article demonstrates why recreation, including music-making, is defined most prominently by why people choose to engage in it and the human actions that make recreation happen. Viewed in this fresh light, the Eglantine Table, including its musical iconography and notation, offers insight into the meaning of musical recreation and the values that shaped domestic interiors, objects and social bonds in an early modern English aristocratic home.

Consumerism and the Materiality of Music Books

Well-to-do amateur musicians were consumers of luxury goods. Consumer culture in the early American republic was heavily reliant on imports. Not only was sheet music imported, often from Britain, but the raw materials out of which manuscript books were made relied on global trade. Although amateurs’ music books were not particularly fine, making the books required time, expense, and effort—all of which meant they were considered luxuries. The music books of Sarah Brown [Herreshoff] and Elizabeth Van Rensselaer demonstrate the importance of consumer expertise and decision-making, while their elite upbringing in wealthy homes contextualizes their collecting habits. Furthermore, Sarah Brown’s family wealth stemmed from overseas trade, including the transatlantic slave trade, implicating her privileged music consumerism with regimes of oppression. The refined and leisurely labor of collecting and creating music books is contrasted with the invisible, immiserated labor of foreign workers who produced the raw materials of those same books.