10. The Bible in high and popular culture

‘The Bible in high and popular culture’ reflects on how the Bible has had a formative influence on the language, the literature, the art, and the music of all the major European and North American cultures. It continues to influence popular culture in films, novels, and music. From elaborate retellings of the narratives in great novels and in musical representations like Bach’s St Matthew Passion, through Rembrandt’s intimate depictions of biblical scenes and narratives, to echoes of biblical metaphor and motifs in poetry and fiction, there is a huge range of use. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) provides a powerful contemporary example. It comments directly on the Bible’s role in the struggle of women.

Jacqueline du Pré as 'The Cellist' (2020)

Few musicians of the twentieth century are as recognisable as Jacqueline du Pré. Her dazzling and distinctive talent, said to have enraptured audiences the world over, was overcome by a tragic diagnosis of MS. This sense of tragedy was all the more heightened by Du Pré’s famed physicality on the stage, leading critics to use all manner of analogies in describing her playing as a physical (and even sexual) experience. Her status as a musical celebrity, further intensified as she became one half of a classical music power couple, has led to numerous dramatic retellings and reimaginings of her biography, played out in film and TV, and now on stage. The most recent example of this fascination with Du Pré is the ballet The Cellist, Cathy Marston’s new work for the Royal Ballet, premiered in February 2020 to much critical acclaim. Its score, composed by Philip Feeney, features a cello soloist and interweaved repertoire extracts that have become so associated with Du Pré. Along with the characters of Barenboim, Du Pré, and her family, her 1673 Stradivarius cello is given a starring role in the form of Marcelino Sambé, a new take that makes this a distinctive contribution to media representations of Du Pré. This article examines the interactions across this complex web of musical representations of musical personae engrained in the cultural consciousness. It considers acts of musical performance, the musical instrument as living companion, and the representation of classical musical culture of the 1960s and 1970s, drawing attention to key features of Du Pré’s narrative re-presented in a new artistic form.

Learning and Retention of Novel Words in Musicians and Nonmusicians

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether long-term musical training enhances the ability to perceive and learn new auditory information. Listeners with extensive musical experience were expected to detect, learn, and retain novel words more effectively than participants without musical training. Advantages of musical training were expected to be greater for words learned in multitalker babble compared to quiet. Method Participants consisted of 20 young adult musicians and 20 age-matched nonmusicians, all with normal hearing. In addition to completing word recognition and nonword detection tasks, each participant learned 10 novel words in a rapid word-learning paradigm. All tasks were completed in quiet and in multitalker babble. Next-day retention of the learned words was examined in isolation (recall) and in the context of continuous discourse (detection). Performance was compared across groups and listening conditions. Results Performance was significantly poorer in babble than in quiet on word recognition and nonword detection, but not on word learning, learned-word recall, or learned-word detection. No differences were observed between groups (musicians vs. nonmusicians) on any of the tasks. Conclusions For young normal-hearing adults, auditory experience resulting from long-term music training did not enhance their learning of new auditory information in either favorable (quiet) or unfavorable (babble) listening conditions. This suggests that the formation of semantic and musical representations in memory may be supported by the same underlying auditory processes, such that musical training is simply an extension of an auditory expertise that both musicians and nonmusicians possess.

Trabajo artístico detrás de los símbolos de la protesta docente

A partir del concepto de artista-docente hemos focalizado sobre las formas que asume la participación, de estos/as trabajadores/as, en las marchas y manifestaciones de reclamos salariales, convocadas por la Asociación de Trabajadores de la Educación de Neuquén (Argentina). Nos proponemos aquí realizar una etnografía de la protesta docente, prestando especial atención a los símbolos y sus representaciones plásticas y musicales. Consideraremos a estas como el resultado del trabajo artístico de un sector de la docencia militante. Nos interesará mostrar de qué manera pesa sobre estas tareas una cultura del trabajo artístico docente, atravesada por las representaciones de la Modernidad, en torno del arte y la docencia. Munidos de las herramientas provistas por la Antropología, hemos analizado la relación establecida entre el mundo simbólico y el mundo material-laboral del/la artista docente. De esa manera, a partir de un marco referencial provisto por la Historia Cultural del Arte, hemos detectado cómo “vocación” y “donación de sí”, dos categorías presentes en la concepción del artista, desde los albores de la Modernidad, se solapan con las mismas exigencias, en la construcción social de la docencia. Desde un abordaje etnográfico de la protesta gremial docente, nos interesa subrayar la dialéctica familiaridad –extrañamiento y la necesidad de considerar a las emociones como parte del estudio antropológico en terrenos como el abordado.Palabras clave: Artista-Docente. Trabajo. Protesta Gremial. Etnografía. The work behind the symbols of protest. An ethnography of the teacher marches (Neuquén 2017-2019)Abstract: Based on the concept of artist-teacher we have focused on the forms assumed by the participation from these workers in public protests and wage claims called by the Association of Education Workers of Neuquén (Argentina). We propose here to carry out an ethnography of the teacher protest, paying special attention to the symbols and their plastic and musical representations. We will consider these as the result of the artistic work of a militant teaching sector. We will be interested in showing how a culture of teaching artistic work weighs on these tasks, crossed by representations of Modernity around art and teaching. In addition to the tools provided by anthropology, we have analyzed the relationship established between the symbolic or ideetic world and the material-work world of the/the teaching artist. In this way, from a reference framework provided by the Cultural History of Art, we have detected how "vocation" and "donation of self", two categories present in the conception of the artist from the dawn of Modernity, overlap with the same requirements in the social construction of teaching. From an ethnographic approach to teacher union protest, we are interested in highlighting the dialectic familiarity -strangement and the need to consider emotions as part of anthropological study in areas such as we addressed. Keywords: Artist-Teacher. Work. Union protest. Ethnography. O trabalho por trás dos símbolos do protesto. Uma etnografia das marchas docentes. (Neuquén, 2017-2019)Resumo: A partir do conceito de artista-professor, focalizamos as formas assumidas pela participação dos professores-artistas nas marchas e manifestações de reivindicações salariais convocadas pela Associação de Trabalhadores da Educação de Neuquén (Argentina). Propomos aqui fazer uma etnografia do protesto docente, dando especial atenção aos símbolos e às suas representações plásticas e musicais. Vamos considerá-los como fruto do trabalho artístico de um setor pedagógico militante. Teremos interesse em mostrar como uma cultura do ensino do trabalho artístico pesa sobre essas tarefas, atravessada pelas representações da Modernidade em torno da arte e do ensino. Além das ferramentas fornecidas pela antropologia, analisamos a relação estabelecida entre o mundo simbólico ou ideético e o mundo material-trabalho do / do artista docente. Desse modo, a partir de um referencial proporcionado pela História Cultural da Arte, detectamos como "vocação" e "doação de si", duas categorias presentes na concepção do artista desde os primórdios da Modernidade, se sobrepõem com as mesmas exigências. na construção social do ensino. A partir de uma abordagem etnográfica ao protesto sindical docente, interessa-nos destacar a dialética familiaridade-estranhamento e a necessidade de considerar as emoções como parte do estudo antropológico em áreas como as abordadas.Palavras-chave: Professor-artista. Trabalho. Protesto de Guilda. Etnografia.

Falling Up

This article investigates melodic figures and harmonic sequences that miraculously only step up to illuminate an aesthetic lineage that connects gospel to electronic dance music. It argues that the synth-risers and ever-opening filters of contemporary euphoric rave music like happy-hardcore and uplifting-trance find precedence in compositional devices that made their way into funk/soul and disco/garage from Black gospel music, and that these gospel inventions were derived from the Afro-diasporic ring-shout. Cognitive linguistic and psychoacoustic theories premise an analytical framework for musical representations of endless ascent. Through close readings of representative recordings—a 1927 Pentecostal sermon by Reverend Sister Mary Nelson, James Cleveland’s “Peace Be Still,” Chic’s “Le Freak,” Trussel’s “Love Injection,” and DJ Hixxy’s remix of Paradise's “I See the Light”—the article examines various historical intersections with parlour music, European art music, and modal jazz, and suggests that musical ascent has a non-causal but, nevertheless, objective relationship with a type of spiritual transcendence.

Learning at Half Capacity

First, this chapter provides an overview of current research on international students' academic acculturation under the lens of self-determination theory in relation to international students' psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Next, the authors report on a recent study that explored academic acculturation experiences using musically enhanced narrative inquiry, a unique form of arts-based research that produces musical representations of the stories of six international student participants studying at a Canadian university. Lastly, the authors propose future directions for Canadian higher education stakeholders to become more supportive and inclusive of international students on Canadian university campuses.

Introduction

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about musical representations of Russia’s Orient in nineteenth-century art song. It situates the topic within the historical context of the Russian people’s extraordinarily complex relationship and ambiguous attitude of toward their oriental neighbors. Throughout the nineteenth century there were significant fluctuations in the representations of Orientals, most of which were dictated by changes in the political atmosphere in the empire growing to the East. This chapter also touches on the scholarly debate surrounding Russia’s unique (or non-unique) approach to its colonized peoples and clarifies my usage of terms, such as Orientalism, the Orient or oriental, orientology, Asia, the East, and inorodtsy.