A Podcast with Paul Tshuma – Musician/Composer/Producer (Transcript)

Montreal-based musician, composer, and music producer Paul Tshuma talks about his career and his musical process with special issue editors Ash McAskill and Samuel Thulin. Tshuma was one of the two opening keynote speakers for the VIBE symposium. Tshuma edited the audio interview/podcast included in this issue of the CJDS. The transcript of the interview, conducted on 8 April 2019, is included here.

MANGAJI: REINTERPRETASI SASTRA LISAN DALAM KOMPOSISI MUSIK

Komposisi “Mangaji” merupakan bentuk pengkaryaan programa, yang dilatar belakangi oleh sastra lisan pasambahan Minangkabau sebagai ide penciptaan karya. Sastra lisan yang merupakan sajian yang selalu bersentuhan dalam kehidupan masyarakat Minangkabau digarap secara reinterpretasi oleh pengkarya dengan melihat aspek-aspek yang dimiliki sastra lisan, mampu menjadi penawaran baru dalam penggarapan komposisi musik. Penyusunan karya “Mangaji” menggunakan empat tahapan sampai karya menjadi rangkaian yang utuh, yaitu,: rangsangan awal, observasi dan pengumpulan data, eksplorasi, dan terakhir penyusunan hasil dari ekplorasi sebagai materi komposisi. Proses explorasi pada komposisi terdiri atas dua bentuk, yaitu pencocokan sumber dengan ide garap dan penyusunan materi dari hasil pencocokan sebelumnya, dengan menggunakan proses musikal. Proses ini meliputi menentukan tema, sub tema, penentuan aspek komposisi seperti dinamika, pengembangan motif dan penggarapan rasa pada setiap bagian. Komposisi “Mangaji” diharapkan menjadi alternatif, referensi, dan rujukan dalam penggarapan karya baru dalam ranah akademisi maupun dalam lingkup luas, sebagai manfaat yang edukatif dalam lingkup penciptaan musik baru.The composition of "Mangaji" is a form of program work, which is based on the Minangkabau post-added oral literature as the idea of creating works. Oral literature, which is a presentation that always touches the life of the Minangkabau people, is reinterpreted by the author by looking at the aspects of oral literature that can become a new offering in the cultivation of musical compositions. The creation of "Mangaji" uses four stages until the work becomes a complete series, they are: Initial Stimulation, Observation and Data Collection, Exploration, and finally composing the results of the exploration as material composition. The process of exploration in the composition consists of two forms, namely matching the source with the working idea and arranging the material from the previous matching results using the musical process. This process includes determining themes, sub themes, determining aspects of composition such as dynamics, developing motifs and cultivating tastes in each section. The composition of Mangaji is expected to be an alternative, reference, and recomendation in the cultivation of new works in the academic real or in a broad scope, as an educational benefit in the scope of new music creation..

Boris Asafiev and soviet musical thought: Reputation and influence

The theories of Boris Asafiev, including musical process, symphonism, and intonatsiya, proved to be hugely influential in the Soviet Union and beyond. While Asafiev?s ideas were widely adopted by theorists and audiences alike, they were also appropriated by a generation of music critics. As composers struggled to come to terms with what might constitute socialist-realist music, critics built a discourse of projecting meaning onto works via Asafiev?s theories. At the same time, multiple theorists developed and expanded his ideas. The picture that emerges is of a multitude of applications and responses to a multivalent body of work that became a vital part of musical discourse in the latter half of the Soviet Union. In this article, I survey the main theories from Boris Asafiev?s writings on music, and their significance after his death. I begin by defining key terms such as symphonism, musical process, and especially intonatsiya. I then discuss the 1948 Zhdanovshchina and Asafiev?s involvement, and the less well-known 1949 discussions on Musicology. For the remainder of the article, I provide examples of key studies from Soviet music theorists using Asafiev?s terms to illustrate how their usage expanded and, in some cases, moved away from Asafiev?s myriad intentions.

Situating the Concert for Piano and Orchestra

This chapter provides the background and the conditions for the composition of the Concert for Piano and Orchestra. It discusses, on the basis of sketch material, how Cage composed the predecessor pieces, Music for Piano and Winter Music. It discusses the hidden influence of Cage’s teacher, Schoenberg, on his thinking about musical process, and details Cage’s imperfect, but significant, knowledge of jazz.

THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN MUSIC AND RHYTHMIC EDUCATION

Although the development of rhythmic and intonation models of the main genres has not been widely spread in music pedagogy, it is very relevant for the music and rhythmic education for beginners. From this point of view, the article substantiates the expediency of continuous work on selecting rhythmic intonations as semantically significant structural units of the musical process for rhythmic lessons, providing targeted music and rhythmic education. The article discusses from different angles the defining value of a thoughtful attitude to the meaning of sounding intonations, which is especially important for adequate orientation in the semantics of musical genres and subsequent motor embodiment. The article reveals the need to significantly expand the content of the “Rhythmic” discipline through the plastic modeling of speech intonations, especially poetic (rhythmically organized) speech, vocal music, as well as various genres of instrumental music.

Neo-impressionistic traits in the creativeness of Eugene Bozza (on the example of wind solo’s compositions)

The purpose of this represented scientific article is revealing the most character-logical traits in relation to composer style of the French master E. Bozza, which are binding with the particularities of the neo-impressionistic vector in the European academic art from the second half of the 20th century. The series of methods concerning this signified investigation are making from the applying of comparative, axiological, structurally analytical, as well as functional approaches relatively studying of the designated theme. The utilization of methods such as performing analysis and synthesis are having the specific importance. The scientific newness of denoted article is stipulated by designation of style traits regarding little investigated compositions for wind professional instruments by E. Bozza, which were written in performing form of academic instrumental solo (wind solo). That is stage-single musical process, a namely „Improvisation and capriceˮ for saxophone-alto solo, „Imageˮ for flute solo as well as Etude-caprice № 5 for saxophone solo. Conclusions. First of all, the local grinding of the specific musically expressive color, artistic paint on the motive differentiation, separation, peculiar intonation divisionism belong to the most characteristic, maximally singular traits of E. Bozzaʼs neo-impressionistic style in the professional compositions of academic wind solo. In this way, the clear sounding of determined wind academic instrument with the particular motive intonation locality, with concentration on the precisely denoted artistic expression create maximal characterization for neo-impressionistic development of musical material. Artistic content of concentrative motive evolution in relation to musical thought of E. Bozza is intensified by dominant signification of generalizing type of musical program. The flexible possibilities concerning free ideally imaginative interpretation of artistic content as a performer and listener is created by using of that program kind.

Mental virtuosity: A new theory of performers’ attentional processes and strategies

In contrast to the widespread approach of the notion of “virtuosity” highlighting mechanical dexterity, I advance the view that a crucial feature of both technical virtuosity and musical expressivity is a specific ability to readily and quickly adapt the attention to various constantly changing aspects of the musical process while performing. In this sense, virtuosity can be likened to general mental capabilities such as intelligence. Based on concepts taken from performance analysis, pedagogical practice and sports science (especially from recent research of attentional control in sports), I attempt to define and discuss key features of performance virtuosity as “mental dexterity”. This includes the ability to quickly position oneself into different temporal perspectives in real time during performance; the ability to quickly shift the attentional focus, as well as to quickly modulate the depth of attention; furthermore, to promptly position oneself into different empathic perspectives, similarly to projecting oneself into another person’s position.

Acoustics in Solfeggio - Effect and Outcomes in Educational Practice

In the tradition of Western European music, the musical process of tuning tones has undergone various stages. Although fixed and confirmed as such, the pitch oscillates due to natural inertia. The Herz – determined tuning of the reference tone is the most applied in both instrumental and vocal-instrumental music. In these cases we witness the strong relationship between acoustics and solfeggio in auditory and performing domain.

Instrumental Theater in the Modern Ukrainian Composers’ Creativity

Relevance of research. Instrumental theatre as a specific phenomenon of musical creativity was first recognized in the mid-1960s. Researchers note the following features of the instrumental theatre: the search for a new musical language; the presence of sound drama; appeal to the voice and the word as a background or semantic subtext; hidden polyphony; openness to protest and provocation; the stage game of the musicians-performers. However, this original artistic phenomenon remains little investigated in Ukrainian musicology. The purpose of the article is to actualize the samples of the instrumental theatre in Ukrainian musicology, presented in the works of L. Yurina, S. Zagitchka and S. Yarunsky, and based on the analysis of new works to conclude the directions of the development of contemporary musical thinking. Methods of the research – analytical, the complex of musicological methods’ research (based on the classification of works by the number of participants). Conclusions. Regardless of the genre variety, practically for all considered opuses, characteristic fixation in the scores of the smallest nuances of execution is common. Changing the paradigms of writing, performing and perceiving music, in many works the spectacular factor dominates over the actual musical, the increasing visualization and theatricalization of the musical process became evidence of the transformation of modern musical thinking. Practical significance. The instrumental theatre is a relatively new phenomenon both in world culture and in Ukrainian music. Further research of this phenomenon will help not only to distinguish its specific features, but also to realize new spiritual constants of the present.