Features of Irish Dance Music

"The focus of this paper is to bring into light the traditional categories of Irish dance music, emphasizing the musical characteristics that differentiate them. Energetic and effervescent, Irish dance music is rarely analyzed, with Irish folklore lacking a school of dedicated musicologists. The topic of this article is important in the context of the tensions related to globalization, commodification, and transformations in Irish Traditional Music, that scholars are examining. The paper includes musical examples of the traditional Irish dance music categories, for a better view of the phenomenon. Keywords: Irish music, dance music, ethnomusicology. "

Narratiiv ja topos Heino Elleri “Sümfoonilises legendis”

This article focuses on the narrative analysis of late-romantic instrumental music. Having adopted the structuralist-semiotic conception of musical narrative as proposed by Byron Almén (2008) as the transvaluation of an opposing hierarchy, and the concept of the musical topic as musical elements with specific stylistic-cultural associations, I analyse the expressive form of Heino Eller’s early symphonic poem “Symphonic Legend” (1923). Narrative logic was found to permeate the musical work despite its collage or suite-like form, as the composer introduces characteristic musical actors that re-appear in different musical contexts. These actors are largely distinguished by musical topics, the conventional stylistic associations related with their musical characteristics as Eller’s piece presents a wide synthesis of styles – from musical impressionism and expressionism to lyrical or chromatic late-romantic; and various topics, such as fantastic, ombra, apassionata, pianto, heroic, and pastoral. Further, I propose a layered narrative structure for the “Symphonic Legend”, as the jarring and abrupt changes in musical material, affect and topic between different movements of the piece suggest shifts in the level of musical discourse and a framed narrative, as proposed by Hatten (1994). The primary order-imposing hierarchy is identified as the pastoral-impressionist topic that acts as the introduction and coda to the entire piece while the transgressive hierarchy is carried by antagonistic musical material associated with fantastical and dysphoric topics (whole-tone scale, chromaticism, fanfare-like brass and ombra) and with the main theme-actor of the piece (a theme strongly resembling the main theme of the first part of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherezade”). While the pastoral beginning and end of the piece (1st and 11th sections) suggest a narrative trajectory of a romance or “the victory of the order-imposing hierarchy over the transgression”, the abrupt shifts that occur between those sections and the middle-sections of the piece suggest that these take place at a different level of discourse, placing the narrative weight in sections 2–10, where the primary conflict seems to be between the antagonistic material and the theme-actor. In the middle sections Eller seems to problematize the typical narrative trajectory of dysphoric to euphoric in 19th-century symphonic poems, as the theme-actor’s heroic apotheosis in the 9th section is undermined by its reprise in section 10 and ultimate inability to be united with the order-imposing hierarchy in the coda, suggesting an ironic narrative. This reading is hopefully the first of many narrative analyses of Eller’s and other Estonian composers’ unique late-romantic and early modern symphonic poems.

Critical Analysis of the Composition Techniques and Devices Used in Troy Roberts' Album 'The XenDen Suite'

<p>Troy Roberts is a jazz saxophonist, originally from Perth, West Australia. At present, no academic research has been done on Roberts’ compositions or playing, making this research project a positive way of contributing new information to the academic body of knowledge. His album, ‘The Xen-Den Suite’ was chosen as the material best suited to provide insight into Roberts’ musicianship (particularly focussing on his compositional and arranging techniques), as it is both intellectually complex and also musically innovative. The aim of the study was to identify and describe the use of various techniques and devices (including their relevance, purpose and function) present in Roberts’ music. Through this study, this researcher attempted to gain a basic overview of Roberts’ musical characteristics, with the objective to be able to utilise this information to further this researcher’s musical development (including compositions, arrangements and saxophone playing). The findings were useful for direct application (i.e. the techniques could be used in the same manner as they appeared in the XenDen Suite, and could therefore be immediately applied to other areas such as composition, arrangement and improvisation), but the many different ways in which the techniques were used compositionally by Roberts provided a more insightful look into broader musical concepts, and their application.</p>

Critical Analysis of the Composition Techniques and Devices Used in Troy Roberts' Album 'The XenDen Suite'

<p>Troy Roberts is a jazz saxophonist, originally from Perth, West Australia. At present, no academic research has been done on Roberts’ compositions or playing, making this research project a positive way of contributing new information to the academic body of knowledge. His album, ‘The Xen-Den Suite’ was chosen as the material best suited to provide insight into Roberts’ musicianship (particularly focussing on his compositional and arranging techniques), as it is both intellectually complex and also musically innovative. The aim of the study was to identify and describe the use of various techniques and devices (including their relevance, purpose and function) present in Roberts’ music. Through this study, this researcher attempted to gain a basic overview of Roberts’ musical characteristics, with the objective to be able to utilise this information to further this researcher’s musical development (including compositions, arrangements and saxophone playing). The findings were useful for direct application (i.e. the techniques could be used in the same manner as they appeared in the XenDen Suite, and could therefore be immediately applied to other areas such as composition, arrangement and improvisation), but the many different ways in which the techniques were used compositionally by Roberts provided a more insightful look into broader musical concepts, and their application.</p>

Genre poetics of R. Wagner’s “Parsifal” in the context of Gesamtkunstwerk idea

Background. Over the course of the last decades, musicology was marked by a revival of interest in the phenomenon of artistic synthesis. This paper considers it in view of “general unity” as one of techniques of understanding the 19th century culture. Such a mindset can be defined by various terms, including Gesamtkunstwerk. The scholars today do not narrow this term down to a mere synthesis of arts, but add immersion into cultural history to it. This allows us to view Gesamtkunstwerk as a way of cultural memory existence, and genre poetics of R. Wagner’s musical drama as a bearer of this memory. In this context, special place belongs to “Parsifal”, which in this article is presented as an absolute embodiment of the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk. The aim of the article is to reveal compositional devices, through which references of “Parsifal” poetics and other genres of different arts create “general unity” under the sign of “Gesamtkunstwerk”. A genre method, a systematic method based on interdisciplinary approach, and a comparative one are chosen as methods of research. Research materials used in the paper relate to different branches of Humanitarian knowledge, including theatre arts (S. Mokulsky), literature (M. Bakhtin), medievistics (A. Gurevich), musicology (M. Veremiova, N. Vieru, E. Makhrova, K. Richter, A. Philippov etc.). It is noted that the definition of “B&#252;hnenweihfestspiel” indicated in the score speaks of the relatedness of this work to the genre of medieval mystery. We have detected some common features of “Parsifal” like slow-paced events, their rather low concentration in time and meticulous development of verbally-acoustic matter. In the musical drama under consideration both a word and a system of leitmotifs function as an instrument for the above-mentioned scrupulosity; thus, poetics of a mystery is transformed into poetics of musical drama. The references of “Parsifal” to medieval epics are noted. Its plot contains only essential for the main storyline events. Cumulative method is chosen as the basic one which defines the algorithm of compositional movement, making it somewhat discrete. At the same time, the continuous flow of leitmotif development contributes to endless disclosure of the sense and its symbolization. Duality of time contributes to appearance of spatiality in genre poetics of “Parsifal”, which also corresponds to the epic poetics. There are some references between genre poetics of “Parsifal” and such types of novel as “Erziehungsroman” and “adventure novel”. The features of “Erziehungsroman”, based on a choice of constantly evolving protagonist as a plot-creating device are embodied to the fullest extent in a presentation of the main hero of “Parsifal”. In the work he passes the way from a na&#239;ve youth to the saviour of The Holy Grail, doing the deed of all-embracing love, thus the portrayal of his image is done according to the principle of development. At the same time, there have been revealed differences between the last work of the composer and “Lohengrin”. Unlike Elsa, with her gradual transformation, Parsifal undergoes this process almost instantly. But R. Wagner, using leitmotiv system, reveals subconscious psychological development, thus using it as a nonverbal explanation of one of the essential plot events in the work. The links between “adventure novel” and “Parsifal” lie in the type of intrigue, localization of space-time, due to which it is differentiated into adventurous, legendary, psychological etc. The hero, shifting into another spacetime dimension, transforms his image. This paper shows it on example of Kundry. This heroine in her cyclic “death – resurrection” transformations completely belongs to poetics of the myth, although the composer here does not use it as an example, as he fills musical characteristics of Kundry with all the traits of opera character. The article explores references of “Parsifal” to Passions by J. S. Bach. It is pointed out that in this case R. Wagner does not follow their specific traits, as he chooses the most essential features of poetics of this genre. A сonclusion is made that genre poetics of “Parsifal”, reflecting the features of poetics of another genres, incorporates their essential traits, which are then intertwined into general texture of musical drama, creating inseparable fusion, according to the Gesamtkunstwerk idea.

Tibetan Folk Songs and Dances in Diebu – The Musical Characteristics of Gerba (Gar Pa)

Folk songs and dances originated from people’s sacrificial activities in the struggle against nature in the primitive society. Their origins are related to the ideology and living environment of the people at that period of time. These activities were expressed in the form of primitive songs and dances, and gradually evolved into folk songs and dances. The gar pa song and dance from Diebu, in Gannan region, is a unique song and dance of a Tibetan region on the eastern edge of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Its content and form are unique. It still retains the original trinity feature which includes poem, music, and dance. The production of songs and dances contains rich cultural connotations and unique local characteristics. This article elaborates the characteristics of Diebu’s gar pa song and dance in terms of its music and performance form.

Research on the Influence of Music

As for question 1, based on the directed relationship between influencers and followers, we building a network of musicians based on influential relationships. A Music Influence Evaluation Model (MIEM) was also established, and the model formula is shown in the text. We then select the top 200 artists in the “music influence” ranking to build a subnet. The larger the subnet node, the more lines are extended. Indicating that the node represents the musician’s influence is large and extensive. From the graph, we can see that Bob Dylan is influential, but the breadth of influence is not enough; Miles Davis influenced a wide range of music factions.As for question 2?We have developed a Music Similarity Evaluation Model (MSEM) to calculate the contribution parameters of fifteen different music metrics. Using fully connected neural networks combined with triple loss to solve the answer. According to the characteristics of Triple Loss, we can make the similar nodes in the space closer together and the dissimilar nodes further apart. After training, our neural network is able to distinguish artists very well. The results were obtained: artists within genres are far more similar than artists between genres, and a classification image of musicians from different genres was produced.As for question 3, a comparative plot of characteristics revealed that music genres also have their own particular musical characteristics. The comprehensive analysis concludes that the difference between genres is mainly reflected by the six features of valence, tempo, mode, key, acousticness, and instrumentalness, and this result is verified by k-means clustering. By plotting the percentage of influence as well as the change of musical characteristics, it was concluded that the influence of genres changes over time; some musical characteristics in genres also change over time. Finally, the similarity between each faction is calculated and plotted as a heat map, and the genres with high similarity must have interrelated relationships with each other.As for question 4, we have developed a Music Influence T-test Model (MITM). We hypothesized that “influencers” would not influence followers to create music, and a t-test using SPSS rejected the original hypothesis and concluded that “influencers” would influence followers to create music. Additionally, Contagious Evaluation Model(CEM) was also be created. We established the “contagious” index and calculated the Pearson correlation coefficients between “contagious” and 15 musical characteristics, and obtained the results: energy, loudness, and acousticness are more “contagious” than other characteristics. Results: energy, loudness and acousticness are more “contagious” than other features.As for question 5, a time series plot of the variation for each musical characteristic with year was plotted and the analysis yielded the following conclusion: There are characteristics that signify revolutions in musical evolution from these data. For example, the music after 1960s showed changes characterized by higher rhythmicity, faster tempo, and fewer spoken words. Based on these musical evolutionary changes, combined with the “musical influence” we calculated earlier, we select five musical change-makers: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix.As for question 6, we combined musical influences to identify the most influential musicians in each genre in each era as dynamic influencers to represent the music of the genre in that period. Creating images of their musical characteristics over time and analyzing them in relation to the history of musical development led to the conclusion that an artist’s musical identity changes with technology, social development, and changes in genre representation?As for question 7, a Network Connectivity Evaluation Model(NCEM) was developed to measure which artists in the music network were heavily influenced by external factors during the time period. The first and middle of the 20th century were found to be highly connected online, and this period coincided with a period of social upheaval, with the Cold War, World War II, the Industrial Revolution, and the rapid development of the Internet having a great impact on music, from which many new musical styles were born.

CHARLES WESLEY, METHODISM AND NEW ART MUSIC IN THE LONG EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

ABSTRACTThis article considers eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Methodism's relationship with art music through the original settings of poetry by Charles Wesley by five notable musicians: John Frederick Lampe, George Frideric Handel, Jonathan Battishill, Charles Wesley junior and Samuel Wesley. It argues that the strong emphasis on congregational singing in popular and scholarly perceptions of Methodism, including within the movement itself, masks a more varied engagement with musical culture. The personal musical preferences of John and Charles Wesley brought them into contact with several leading musical figures in eighteenth-century London and initiated a small corpus of original musical settings of some of the latter's hymns. The article examines the textual and musical characteristics of these the better to understand their relationship with both eighteenth-century Methodism and fashionable musical culture of the period. It argues that Methodism was not, contrary to popular perception, uniformly opposed to or detached from the aesthetic considerations of artistic culture, that eighteenth-century Methodism and John and Charles Wesley cannot be regarded as synonymous and that, in this period, sacred music encompasses rather more than church music and cannot be narrowly defined in opposition to secular music.