The interaction of tonal and modal principles of mode organization in the polyphonic cycle “34 Preludes and Fugues” by V. Bibik (based on Book III)

Statement of the problem. The article examines mode organization in the polyphonic cycle “34 Preludes and Fugues” by Ukrainian composer Valentin Bibik. The scientific novelty. The article explores modality and tonality as modeorganazing constituents in the polyphonic piano piece “34 Preludes and Fugues” by V. Bibik. The aim of the article is to indicate mode organization on the example of tonality and modality in polyphonic development of “The Third Notebook” (from the cycle “34 Preludes and Fugues”) by V. Bibik. The research methodology consists of integrated approaches to polyphonic music of the 20th century, including comparative and system-structural analyzes of musical works. Analysis of recent publications. The theoretical basis of the article is the latest publications by T. Bershadskaya (2008), N. Gulyanitskaya (1984), Yu. Kholopov (1972), M. Heinemann (2001), F. Hentschel (2006), I. Pustijanac (2016) and others. These studies investigate the compositional techniques of the twentieth century and their individual implementation into polyphonic works. When studying scientific sources, attention is focused on the interaction of polyphony and harmony since V. Bibik’s polyphonic cycle was chosen as the research material, in which polyphonic and harmonic patterns are closely intertwined, however, modal principles become the connecting factors, which is proved in the work. The presentation of the main material. The article investigates modern trends in the development of polyphonic music of the XX–XXI centuries, as well as the composer’s intention to create a mode organization in the cycle “34 Preludes and Fugues”. The article defines commonly used terms from the modern theory of musical modes regarding such phenomena as modality, tonality and their interconnection. The work presents the historiography of V. Bibik’s creative heritage in the context of the poliphony development. The work highlights the interaction of tonal and modal patterns in “The Third Notebook” (from the cycle “34 Preludes and Fugues”) by V. Bibik. Conclusions. The article argues the dominance of modality in structural organization of the cycle “34 Preludes and Fugues”. It is noted that the cycle accumulates a huge number of composer’s ideas regarding the interpretation of modern musical modes and tonal system. V. Bibik is not recognized as the author of the theoretical concepts of the mode organization in music, but the cycle itself is considered as a kind of composer’s creative manifesto, a vivid reflection of his conception of musical modes.

Evaluating animentary’s potential as a rhetorical genre

Multimodality scholarship has hitherto mainly focused on the combination of static visuals and written language (see Bateman et al., Multimodality: Foundations, Research and Analysis -- A Problem-Oriented Introduction, 2017; Tseronis and Forceville, Multimodal Argumentation and Rhetoric in Media Genres, 2017; and Forceville, ‘Multimodality’, in press, for discussion and bibliographies). However, drawing on visuals, written language, spoken language, music and sound, film is a multimodal medium par excellence. In this article, the authors specifically focus on documentary film. Documentary can be considered to be the cinematic equivalent of audiovisual rhetorical discourse, aiming to persuade its envisaged audience of something. Obviously, it is crucial for the credibility of documentaries that they are seen as indexically rooted in reality. But, recently, documentary film has witnessed the flourishing of a subgenre that may seem to challenge this indexicality: the ‘animentary’ – a documentary that consists to a considerable extent of animated images. While the completely constructed nature of animation means that animentaries’ indexical relation between audiovisual representation and represented world is loosened, or even absent, animentaries also – and importantly – enable perspectives on reality that live-action documentary cannot. This article analyses how the visual, verbal, sonic and musical modes function rhetorically in four feature-length animentaries that share the theme of ‘war’: Waltz with Bashir (dir. Ari Folman, 2008), 25 April (dir. Leanne Pooley, 2015), Chris the Swiss (dir. Anja Kofmel, 2018) and Another Day of Life (dir. Raúl de la Fuente and Damian Nenow, 2019). The authors conclude that the written and spoken verbal modes play a crucial role in safeguarding animentaries’ referential relation to reality.

Notes on Musical Imagery in the Poetry of Jāmi

The poet Nur-al-Din ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Jāmi (1414-92) is known to have been proficient in music theory; he also wrote a Resāla-ye musiqi (Treatise on Music Theory). In his poems he displayed an extensive and precise use of musical terms. To probe further into the elements of musical imagery, I scanned through his maṯnavis Haft awrang (The Seven Thrones) in search of lines dedicated to musical modes, instruments, and performers. Considering that musical imagery had a long-established tradition before his time, I pursued a comparative investigation and commented on some lines by way of examples. Finally, I argue that literary conventions shaped Jāmi’s poetry more than his expertise in music theory did.

Culturally responsive and meaningful music education: Multimodality, meaning-making, and communication in diverse learning contexts

Music is learned and taught in multiple ways dependent on the socio-cultural contexts in which learning occurs. The processes employed by music teachers have been extensively explored by music educators and ethnomusicologists in a range of contexts, although there has been limited research into which modes are most predominantly used in different socio-cultural contexts. Further, it is unknown how students make meaning in these different contexts. This article presents three distinct music learning and teaching contexts—Carnatic music, instrumental music in Australian schools, and online music learning. Using a socio-cultural semiotic tool to identify musical modes, this article examines the ensembles of modes used during music learning events and considers how this knowledge may improve the learning and teaching of music for all students, particularly those whose culture and language differs from the majority of the population. It aims to identify how students make meaning in learning contexts through distinct modes of communication. Findings demonstrated that different “ensembles of modes” were used in diverse learning contexts and that these approaches were influenced by socio-cultural contexts. It is important for teachers to understand that varied combinations of modes of communication are possible because students may find learning more meaningful when related to their own personal frames of reference. Without this knowledge, music learning and teaching practices may continue to privilege some modes over others.

Musical Modus: Perspectives for Ontological Interpretation

The article discusses a methodological position that allows interpreting modes and, fist of all, musical modes as cosmographic and ethical objects without losing the approach to them as musical phenomena proper. The study is based on musical theoretical data relating to the period of Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, as well as on the author's concept of modal ontology and the interpretation of modus as artistic content, developed by E.V. Nazaikinsky. In order to reveal the ontological prerequisites for the unity of the musical modus with a cosmographic or ethical phenomenon, the author analyzes the ancient Chinese system of tones lü, Indian ragas, ancient tetrachords, the voices of the Russian Orthodox znamenny chant. The features of the correspondence of these musical phenomena to the periods of the year or day, elements, archetypal states of the human spirit, social laws are revealed. In the course of the analysis, the question is formulated about the nature of the connection between musical modes and non-musical reality: was it exclusively conventional, established by virtue of tradition, or did it have other, essential reasons? The search for unconventional foundations of the unity of musical modes with natural and socio-ethical phenomena leads to its ontological interpretation. The relevance of this research method is argued in the process of critical analysis of the semiotic approach to musical modes as references or conventional signs of objects. It also demonstrates the unproductiveness of the psychoemotional interpretation of musical modes as stimuli that cause certain emotional states. The result of the research is the development of a specific musical-ontological approach based on the methodology of modal analysis. This analysis aims at a syncretic understanding of unity. In the light of this approach, it was concluded that the concept of musical modus not only clarifies the rhythmic and harmonic laws of the musical language, but also embodies the interconnection of the phenomena of music, human spirit, nature, and space.

Reorchestrating the Past

Taking its title from Australian novelist Alexis Wright’s description of her novel Carpentaria as a ‘long song, following ancient tradition’, this chapter considers how antipodean relations of place interrupt abstract notions of globalization as a financial system. The first section exemplifies this by focusing on Australian/American director Baz Luhrmann, whose version of The Great Gatsby (2013), filmed in Sydney, resituates Fitzgerald’s classic novel within an antipodean context. The second section develops this through consideration of Wright’s fiction, along with that of New Zealand/Maori author Keri Hulme, so as to illuminate ways in which spiral conceptions of time, where ends merge into beginnings, contest Western epistemological frames. In the final section, this ‘long song’ is related to the musical aesthetics of Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe and English composers George Benjamin and Harrison Birtwistle. The chapter concludes by arguing that musical modes are an overlooked dimension of postmodernist culture more generally.

The Essence and Evolution of Song. By Vladimír Úlehla. Translated by Julia Ulehla; edited by Katherine Freeze and Richard K. Wolf.

Vladimír Úlehla (1888-1947) uses his expertise in the biological sciences to perform an in-depth and ecologically situated study of folk songs from his native Czechoslovakia. His posthumous magnum opus Živá Píseň (Living Song, 1949) chronicled the musical traditions of Strážnice, a small town at the western hem of the Carpathian Mountains at the Moravian-Slovakian border. Informed by four decades of ethnographic inquiry, transcription, and several music-analytical methods, in Chapter VI Úlehla considers the songs from Strážnice as living organisms, links them to their ecological environs, and isolates musical characteristics that he believes correspond to stages of their evolution. He discusses modulation, vocal style, ornamentation, melodic and poetic structure, and identifies a diverse array of musical modes—evidence that he uses to refute the prevailing assumption of the day that folk music was derivative of art music.