The Intimate Virtuoso: The Guitar, the Rhetoric of Transformation, and Issues of Spectacle in Music by Fernando Sor, Johann K. Mertz, and Giulio Regondi

<p>Studies of virtuosity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have tended to focus on the piano and the violin. These instruments were obviously virtuosic and lent themselves to visual and aural displays of power, most notably in the case of Liszt and Paganini. These virtuosi crafted spectacles that were often described with metaphors of power and violence. These spectacles came to characterise the virtuosity of the early nineteenth century. However, the guitar has been largely neglected in scholarship dealing with virtuosity from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This is due, in large part, to the status of the guitar within that period. Though popular as an accompanying instrument and in the home, the guitar struggled to find a secure position as a legitimate solo instrument in the public arena. While guitarists such as Dionisio Aguado and Mauro Giuliani were described as ‘virtuosi’, their instrument, unlike the piano and the violin, did not give itself to a spectacle that conveyed notions of power and violence. Rather, the guitar is an intimate instrument, quieter than the piano or the violin, and utilising small movements in the hands. These aspects of the instrument, so often perceived as ‘limitations’ led many writers to dismiss it as an inappropriate instrument for performance in the public spheres occupied by the piano and the violin. Guitarist-composers sought to play to the guitar’s strengths in ways that contrasted with the conventional metaphors of power and violence. Some of these attempts rhetorically aligned the guitar with genres and instruments that carried greater cultural capital. Composers used orchestral metaphors and emphasised the guitar’s ability to imitate other instruments. Other guitarist-composers sought to create a greater spectacle both in and beyond the music itself by emphasising physical movements within the music and writing extra-musical gestures into the music. The rhetoric of transformation was used either by or about the guitarist-composers Fernando Sor, Dionisio Aguado, Johann Kaspar Mertz, and Giulio Regondi, all of whom this exegesis focuses on, demonstrating a desire to legitimise the guitar at a time when it struggled not only to find traction as a ‘serious’ classical instrument, but also a place amongst more obviously virtuosic instruments.</p>

The Intimate Virtuoso: The Guitar, the Rhetoric of Transformation, and Issues of Spectacle in Music by Fernando Sor, Johann K. Mertz, and Giulio Regondi

<p>Studies of virtuosity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have tended to focus on the piano and the violin. These instruments were obviously virtuosic and lent themselves to visual and aural displays of power, most notably in the case of Liszt and Paganini. These virtuosi crafted spectacles that were often described with metaphors of power and violence. These spectacles came to characterise the virtuosity of the early nineteenth century. However, the guitar has been largely neglected in scholarship dealing with virtuosity from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This is due, in large part, to the status of the guitar within that period. Though popular as an accompanying instrument and in the home, the guitar struggled to find a secure position as a legitimate solo instrument in the public arena. While guitarists such as Dionisio Aguado and Mauro Giuliani were described as ‘virtuosi’, their instrument, unlike the piano and the violin, did not give itself to a spectacle that conveyed notions of power and violence. Rather, the guitar is an intimate instrument, quieter than the piano or the violin, and utilising small movements in the hands. These aspects of the instrument, so often perceived as ‘limitations’ led many writers to dismiss it as an inappropriate instrument for performance in the public spheres occupied by the piano and the violin. Guitarist-composers sought to play to the guitar’s strengths in ways that contrasted with the conventional metaphors of power and violence. Some of these attempts rhetorically aligned the guitar with genres and instruments that carried greater cultural capital. Composers used orchestral metaphors and emphasised the guitar’s ability to imitate other instruments. Other guitarist-composers sought to create a greater spectacle both in and beyond the music itself by emphasising physical movements within the music and writing extra-musical gestures into the music. The rhetoric of transformation was used either by or about the guitarist-composers Fernando Sor, Dionisio Aguado, Johann Kaspar Mertz, and Giulio Regondi, all of whom this exegesis focuses on, demonstrating a desire to legitimise the guitar at a time when it struggled not only to find traction as a ‘serious’ classical instrument, but also a place amongst more obviously virtuosic instruments.</p>

New Zealand Works for Contrabassoon

<p>The contrabassoon is seldom thought of as a solo instrument. Throughout the long history of contraregister double-reed instruments the assumed role has been to provide a foundation for the wind chord, along the same line as the double bass does for the strings. Due to the scale of these instruments - close to six metres in acoustic length, to reach the subcontra B flat’’, an octave below the bassoon’s lowest note, B flat’ - they have always been difficult and expensive to build, difficult to play, and often unsatisfactory in evenness of scale and dynamic range, and thus instruments and performers are relatively rare. Given this bleak outlook it is unusual to find a number of works written for solo contrabassoon by New Zealand composers. This exegesis considers the development of contra-register double-reed instruments both internationally and within New Zealand, and studies five works by New Zealand composers for solo contrabassoon, illuminating what it was that led them to compose for an instrument that has been described as the 'step-child' or 'Cinderella' of both the wind chord and instrument makers.</p>

New Zealand Works for Contrabassoon

<p>The contrabassoon is seldom thought of as a solo instrument. Throughout the long history of contraregister double-reed instruments the assumed role has been to provide a foundation for the wind chord, along the same line as the double bass does for the strings. Due to the scale of these instruments - close to six metres in acoustic length, to reach the subcontra B flat’’, an octave below the bassoon’s lowest note, B flat’ - they have always been difficult and expensive to build, difficult to play, and often unsatisfactory in evenness of scale and dynamic range, and thus instruments and performers are relatively rare. Given this bleak outlook it is unusual to find a number of works written for solo contrabassoon by New Zealand composers. This exegesis considers the development of contra-register double-reed instruments both internationally and within New Zealand, and studies five works by New Zealand composers for solo contrabassoon, illuminating what it was that led them to compose for an instrument that has been described as the 'step-child' or 'Cinderella' of both the wind chord and instrument makers.</p>

Genre and style specifics of Sonata for Double Bass and Piano by Paul Hindemith

Statement of the problem. The works of Paul Hindemith, one of the most outstanding composers of the twentieth century, is distinguished by its universality. P. Hindemith is known as the author of a large number of sonatas for various instruments, among which is Sonata for Double Bass and Piano. The genre and style specificity of P. Hindemith’s chamber sonatas cannot be considered in isolation from the peculiarities of the instruments chosen by the composer, the sound image of which contributed to the formation of certain specific genre features. Sonata for Double Bass and Piano, which became the culmination of the development of double bass music in the composer’s work, can be considered indicative in this respect. Analysis of recent research and publications. There is a great deal of research works devoted to P. Hindemit’s compositions, particularly chamber sonatas, as well as to the peculiarities of his style. One of the most fundamental works is the monograph by T. Levaya and O. Leontieva (1974), which deals with the works of the composer. Among other researchers who turned to the work of Hindemith, we should mention B. Asafev (1975), V. Polyakov (1987), T. Morgunova (2000), V. Batanov (2016). Despite the fact that the stylistic and genre principles of P. Hindemith’s work are outlined in detail in the works of domestic musicologists, most researchers have overlooked the Sonata for Double Bass and Piano by P. Hindemith, which certainly deserves a detailed analytical understanding both in the context of the genre and in terms of the development of double bass performance. Main objective of the study. Today, Sonata for Double Bass and Piano by Paul Hindemith, the performance of which requires significant technical and artistic skill from double bass players, occupies an important place in the double bass repertoire, which is why this article is relevant. The purpose of the article is to determine the genre and style specifics of Sonata for Double Bass and Piano by P. Hindemith in order to further understand the development of solo and orchestral double bass means of expression and rapidly increase the repertoire for double bass in modern art. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the insufficient study of P.Hindemith’s double bass work in the context of Ukrainian double bass school. As a result of the structural-compositional and genre analysis it was possible to conclude about the uniqueness of Sonata for Double Bass and Piano by P. Hindemith as a vivid example of the composer’s search for non-standard means of expression, which lies in choosing the timbre of the solo instrument and the specifics of formative factors. The research methodology includes the following scientific methods: &#9679; historiographic approach (in the aspect of clarifying the data on the double bass compositions by P. Hindemith); &#9679; stylistic approach (in connection with the study of the composer’s work); &#9679; genre approach (which is necessary for referring to certain genres of P. Hindemith’s work); ек &#9679; structural and functional approach (which is used in analytical descriptions); &#9679; comparative, which is applied in connection with the study of different editions of Sonata for Double Bass and Piano by P. Hindemith. Results. In the course of the study, a detailed structural and compositional analysis of P. Hindemith’s Sonata for Double Bass and Piano was carried out, as well as a comparative analysis of two editions of this sonata. The filling of the classical sonata form with modern musical language, the appeal to the means of polyphonic music, the introduction of the genre features of the instrumental concerto, the traditional German song Lied and operatic intonations make this work a vivid example of neoclassicism in the repertoire of double bass players around the world. The varied palette of lines and the flexibility of the imaginative sphere of the Sonata generalize the long-term composer’s search for individual means of expression in contrabass music. Conclusions. The result of the evolutionary path traversed by the double bass from a modest instrument of a symphony orchestra to a brilliant solo instrument was Sonata for Double Bass and Piano – a vivid example of P. Hindemith’s chamber work, which embodied the features of the composer’s mature period. Sonata for Double Bass and Piano by P. Hindemith poses difficult technical and artistic tasks for the performers, the solution of which must be associated not only with the use of all the skills and abilities of the musician, but also with a deep understanding of the internal structure and specifics of the compositional and dramatic solution of the author’s intention.

Bad Mother / Good Mother

Bad Mother / Good Mother is an audiovisual performance that explores societal perceptions about ideal and non-ideal motherhood through sound and projected visuals. The sound comes from an amplified breast pump, while the visuals are projected on a single screen. In the performance, the artist plays the breast pump at different speeds. She plays it as a solo instrument and as part of an arrangement, and---at certain points in the performance---processes the breast pump sound using filters. This paper situates the performance within a discussion of how audiovisual performance can help express the relationship between gender and invisible labor.

Cello

An instrument with remarkable stylistic range and timbral affordances, the violoncello (referred to in this Bibliography by its common English and German abbreviation, “cello”) is a bowed lute that is fretless, has four strings usually tuned in fifths (C-G-d-a), and is played between the legs. As the lowest member of the violin family, the cello serves a bass function in many standard ensembles, including string quartets and piano trios. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the instrument was a cornerstone of many continuo sections, and treatises attest that accompanimental playing was a foundational skill for any aspiring cellist. In 19th- and 20th-century orchestral writing, it filled a variety of roles, switching between bass and middle lines, punctuated by moments of melodic prominence. The cello is also prized as a solo instrument, due in part to its middle and upper registers, which are celebrated for their sweet tone and emotional immediacy. Attempts to establish the origins of the cello are complicated by the highly regional terminology used to describe a number of similar bass bowed lutes that proliferated throughout the late 16th and 17th centuries. The first use of the term “violoncello” was by Giulio Cesare Arresti in a publication from 1665, and by the beginning of the 18th century, the term was in frequent use. By the mid-18th century, the cello had become the dominant instrument of its kind and range throughout most of Europe. It found earliest success in Italian- and German-speaking lands, but was slower to infiltrate France, where there was competition from the basse de viole through the 18th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the cello was frequently employed as a solo instrument in concerti and sonatas, while still functioning as a bass instrument in chamber and orchestral ensembles. Research on its function outside the Western classical tradition is quite scarce and deserves further development; however, the cello has found a growing place in many styles, including jazz, popular, and non-Western musical traditions.

Henriette Renié: A Threefold Legacy

In 1810, Sébastien Érard patented a double-action mechanism that would dramatically alter the trajectory of the pedal harp. While this invention granted the harp a newfound voice in orchestral music, the harp still struggled to gain ground as a solo instrument. The harp’s increased complexity necessitated that harpists themselves explore the instrument’s abilities and demonstrate these to the musical world. It is to one such harpist, Henriette Renié, that the harp owes much of its credibility as an instrument worthy of the solo stage. From her prodigious beginnings at Paris Conservatoire, Renié’s concerts captivated musicians and the public alike. Her spirit on stage exuded a love of the harp and indeed, of beauty itself. Finding existing literature to be somewhat limited, Renié gifted the harp repertoire with significant works that showcased the harp’s virtuosic abilities and inimitable qualities. Yet, her influence might not have been so widespread had it not been for her love of teaching. Committed to cultivating a love of the harp in each of her students, Renié instructed numerous harpists, including Mildred Dilling, Marcel Grandjany, and Susann McDonald. This article demonstrates Mlle. Renié’s vital role in the advancement of the harp as a solo instrument by drawing on biographical information, interview transcriptions, student testimonials, and score study. Renié heralded the harp’s potential for the entirety of her career, and her legacy rightly serves as an inspiration to today’s harpists. In surveying the impact of her performances, compositions, and teaching, it is clear that Mlle. Renié’s mastery of the harp was outmatched only by her love for it.

The Image of a Solo Instrument Player as a Media Celebrity in the 21st Century

In the article entitled The Image of a Solo Instrument Player as a Media Celebrity in the 21st Century, the author analyses the profiles of three musicians promoted by the contemporary media. These artists are: Lola Astanova, Stjepan Hauser and David Garrett. All of them, apart from the fact they are technically skilful performers, are also media personalities. They combine classical playing style with pop-culture image and visual setting of their performances. The author attempts to uncover the sources of their popularity and explain the mechanisms how the demand for the artistic activity of instrumentalists creating art (both music interpretation and the widely understood setting of a performance) synthetising tradition and innovativeness is generated. The described phenomena include the topics related to: the specificity of the images of celebrity instrument players and their function in the society, the homogenous culture of the 21st century, the widely-understood media coverage, consumerism, etc. The article has two parts. The first part is theoretical and it is based on the analysis and description of academic literature connected with the chosen subject matter referring to sociological topics and modern tendencies connected with culture. Another point in this section of the article is the presentation of the profiles of the selected artists. The second part is the report from the academic study conducted by the author of the article. It is a description of interviews with responders who wanted to share their opinions about the recordings of Astanova, Hauser and Garrett which were presented to them. The interviews were conducted by means of the social media and phone. The studies showed how different the impressions related to the same recordings might be even in a small group of respondents. These conclusions might serve as an inspiration for the development of research studying the influence of transformations taking place in modern culture on the tastes of audiences and the actual demand for artists who are well-adjusted to the requirements of modern audiences in terms of their image.