Academization of the Ukrainian Bandura by the Proficient Bandura-Craftsmens of the XX – Early XXI Centuries

Among the main signs of Ukrainian culture, its instrumental artifact, the bandura, which is the nation-building component of Ukraine, holds a significant place. The proposed paper attempts to characterize the bandura development from the diatonic instrument at the beginning of XX century, developed by the prominent Ukrainian bandura craftsmen in their creative activity – O. Korniievskyi, I. Skliar, V. Herasymenko, – to the modern “chromatic” instrument with dual-diatonic scale, wide sound range and technical characteristics. Only two from among several play methods that existed in the traditional popular-professional performance of the past epochs became firmly established before the twenties of XX century – Chernihiv method, subsequently named as Kyiv method, and Kharkiv method. Each was associated with different way of holding the instrument – perpendicular to and parallel to the performer's body. In both cases, the performers held the bandura vertically, pointing the neck upwards, which was consistent with the stable parameters of the national instrumental tradition of performing on zittern-like instruments. Starting with psalters depicted, in particular, on the fresco “Musicians” at the Cathedral of St. Sofia and other iconographic artifacts of the Middle Ages and Baroque era. The paper considers the academicization of both bandura types in terms other prominent bandura craftsmen activity, who worked during the Soviet period as part of big associations – Chernihiv and Lviv Factories of Musical Instruments. Particular emphasis is placed on the activities of craftsmen of the Chernihiv Academic Bandura – O. Korniievskyi, designer of one of the first modern hybrid instruments, and V. Tuzychenko, an adherent of the Chernihiv Bandura. The development of not only the Chernihiv-Kyiv but also the Kharkiv bandura types is associated with the name of I. Skliar. The work of Lviv craftsman and prominent bandura player V. Herasymenko on the creation of the Lviv-type bandura and new models of Kharkiv diatonic and “chromatic” bandura, which are nowadays adapted to the tradition of modern bandura performance, became the turning point in the activity of prominent Ukrainian craftsmen.

Various Tonal Systems and Phenomena in the 19th and 20th Centuries

This study – without claiming completeness – takes into account systems and phenomena in which the organising of pitches is different from that of functional tonality. A central topic is how the principle of symmetry prevails, along with possible interpretations of the notion of tonality. The starting point of the most important manifestations of symmetry is the equal division of the octave, from which the issues of the distance scales are inseparable. The study presents the interactions of diatonic scale and pitch-organization based on the principles of symmetry, which casts a new light on the phenomenon of polytonality. The study relies on important research published abroad during the last few decades – mainly in relation to Stravinsky’s music – but which may be lesser known in Hungary. Keywords: “Ungar” scale, symmetry, polytonality

Angklung Tradisional Sunda: Intangible, Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Penerapannya dan Pengkontribusiannya Terhadap Kelahiran Angklung Indonesia

Angklung consists of two to four bamboo tubes suspended in a bamboo frame, bound with rattan cords. The tubes will produce certain notes when the frame is shaken or tapped. Each angklung produces a single note or chord, so several players must collaborate in order to play melodies. Traditional Angklungs use the pentatonic scale, but in 1938 musician Daeng Soetigna introduced Angklungs using the diatonic scale, known as angklung padaeng. Angklung is closely related to traditional customs, arts and cultural identity in Indonesia, played during ceremonies such as rice planting and harvest. Angklung education is passed down orally from generation to generation, and increasingly in educational institutions (Prodi Angklung and Musik Bambu ISBI Bandung. Angklung has been included in the UNESCO’s (United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization) list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. This paper discusses the interesting things about the angklung. Especially the process of traditional angklung that developed into the modern angklung and then both has been worldwide as Indonesian culture heritage.

Tonality

Tonality is a ubiquitous term in musical discourse as indispensable as it is obfuscating. Typically, the term tonality (and more generally, “tonal music”) references the pitch-centric “common-practice” language of the transposable major and minor key system within which most classical music has been composed in the West from at least the mid-17th century through the early 20th century. Many theorists have highlighted certain empirical features of melody or harmony as being particularly characteristic or even essential to the tonal system (e.g., the content and structure of the diatonic scale, hierarchies of scale degrees and chord functions, or the cadence in defining or stabilizing tonal centers). At the same time, many theorists have emphasized the psychological power of tonal music for evoking strong affective responses from listeners by arousing strong expectations of tonal behavior that may be realized, delayed, or even thwarted. Clearly, then, any study of tonality needs to take into account the varying and often conflicting ways the concept is understood and used by given writers. But the concept of tonality has also been useful to musicologists for constructing evolutionary models of musical development while also describing—and contrasting—other musical styles and historical languages of music that do not always follow the norms of Western “common-practice” music. Particularly important in this regard is the chromatic language of many late-19th- and early-20th-century composers that is thought to have extended, deviated from, or even negated normative tonal syntax. Here Wagner’s use of chromaticism and extended modulation is usually cited as the progenitor of this process, one that is seen by many of these same observers to have led in the 20th century to the gradual dissolution of classical tonality in favor of a non-hierarchic kind of pitch organization, termed by neologisms such as “suspended tonality,” “post-tonality,” and perhaps most conventionally, “atonality.” Of course, tonality did not pass away; it continued to thrive as a common musical language through the 20th century, particularly in popular music idioms, even as it evolved into numerous dialects and hybrid forms within our globalized and digitalized musical marketplace. Yet the persistence of this myth of tonal evolution and devolution in Western histories of music suggests how high the stakes are in defining the content and perimeters of tonality. Tonality seems to be simultaneously an object and an ideal that continues to exert unparalleled influence—and not a little anxiety—to this day.

Perception of Pitch and Time in the Structurally Isomorphic Standard Rhythmic and Diatonic Scale Patterns

The three experiments reported here investigate how pitch and time interact in perception using the standard rhythmic pattern and the diatonic scale pattern, which share the intervallic structure of 2 2 1 2 2 2 1. They share a number of theoretical properties, including being cyclic with seven unique rotations. Experiment 1 measured rhythmic stability by dynamically accenting each of the events in each rhythm, called the probe accent; listeners rated how well the probe accent fit the rhythm. Listeners heard the rhythms in subgroups and with reference to a syncopation-shifted metrical hierarchy. Experiment 2 used the probe tone technique to measure the tonal stability of each tone in each mode beginning and ending on C. Higher ratings were given to tones earlier in the contexts and tones closer to C on both the chroma circle and the circle of fifths; influences were also found of tonal hierarchies of diatonic scales with corresponding accidentals. A measure of similarity derived from the probe ratings found the same order for the rhythms and modes which matched theoretical proposals of inter-rhythm and inter-mode distances. Experiment 3 presented all combinations of rhythms and modes; listeners judged how well the rhythm fit the mode. These judgments did not depend on the intervallic isomorphism between tone duration and interval size. Instead, the judgments depended on whether tonally stable events occurred where accents were judged as fitting well with the rhythm. Overall, the standard and diatonic patterns follow different perceptual hierarchies while sharing similar cognitive principles between rhythms, between modes, and across dimensions.

SHANGHAI JAZZ MUSIC FROM 1930 TO 1949

Jazz music emerged in Shanghai, China between the late 1920s and early 1930s. This paper documented and analysed Shanghai jazz music that was recorded from 1930 to 1949. Shanghai jazz music recorded and performed within this period was selected through stratified random sampling technique. All samples were analysed in terms of melody, harmony, rhythm and form. The results showed that Western diatonic scale was apparent in the melodies, instead of the usual Chinese pentatonic scale; primary chords were prevalent with minimal use of secondary chords in the harmony; the “oom-pah” rhythm in duple meter was most widely utilized; and the musical form has evolved from the earlier through-composed song form to the later “AABA” form. In conclusion, this research characterised Shanghai jazz music that were recorded between 1930 to 1949. It served to elevate the identity of this music and to prompt further research into Shanghai jazz music spanning from 1950s until present time.

Taking Harmony Into Account

Probabilistic models have proved remarkably successful in modeling melodic organization (e.g., Huron, 2006a; Pearce, 2005; Temperley, 2008). However, the majority of these models rely on pitch information taken from melody alone. Given the prevalence of homophonic music in Western culture, however, surprisingly little attention has been directed at exploring the predictive power of harmonic accompaniment in models of melodic organization. The research presented here uses a combination of the three main approaches to empirical musicology—exploratory analysis, modeling, and hypothesis testing—to investigate the influence of harmony on melodic behavior. In this study a comparison is made between models that use only melodic information and models that consider the melodic information along with the underlying harmonic accompaniment to predict melodic continuations. A test of overall performance shows a significant improvement using a melodic-harmonic model. When individual scale degrees are examined, the major diatonic scale degrees are shown to have unique probability distributions for each of their most common harmonic settings. That is, the results suggest a robust effect of harmony on melodic organization. Perceptual implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Roll Over Beethoven? An Initial Investigation of Listeners’ Perception of Chords Used in Rock Music

Popular mainstream music (hereafter, rock) employs the basic set of chords built on the diatonic scale but also many others (de Clercq & Temperley, 2011; Stephenson, 2002). In an initial investigation of listeners’ perception of rock harmony, we adapted a rating task developed by Krumhansl (1990) in her pioneering studies of the common-practice harmonic hierarchy. Participants provided surprise and liking ratings for 35 (major, minor, dominant 7, and control) target chords that followed short key-establishing musical passages (a major scale + tonic major triad, or a major pentatonic scale + tonic major triad) or white noise. Liking ratings for targets that followed a musical passage indicated that listeners prefer some chords that are common in rock, but that lie outside the basic diatonic set, to atypical chords; this effect depended on chord quality and was clearest for major target chords. The findings provide an impetus for further research exploring the harmonic hierarchy in listeners with varying musical backgrounds; it appears to be more inclusive and less differentiated than is commonly thought.