The Role of Music in the System of Spiritual Values and Culture of the Medieval Ancestors of Tatars

Research objectives: To reveal the specificity of folk and professional musical traditions and their moral and aesthetic significance in the life of the medieval ancestors of Tatars. Research materials: The study uses general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, generalization, and the main methods of historical research – namely, the historical-comparative method and the method of historical periodization. Following the principle of historicism, the author analyzed a significant number of historical sources that reflect the development of musical culture among the ancestors of Tatars from its beginnings to the middle of the sixteenth century. Also, she used the results of archaeological and ethnographic research presented in monographs, articles, and other academic publications. Basic information about the development of musical culture among the medieval ancestors of Tatars is contained in the monuments of oral and written poetry (epic legends of the ancient Turks, the dastan “Idegey”, the poems of Muhammadyar, etc.), as well as in the notes of Arab and European travelers (Ahmed ibn Fadlan, Ibn Dasta, William of Rubruck, and John of Plano Carpini). Some aspects of this phenomenon are considered in a number of historical, musicological, and ethnomusicological studies (M. Khudyakov, L. Gumilev, M. Nig­medzyanov, G. Makarov, G. Saifullina, etc.). Results and novelty of the research: The study revealed that the origins of the musical traditions of the Tatar ethnos, formed mainly in the Middle Volga region, extend back to the common Turkic forms of artistic creativity. Later, music acted as an invariable attribute of socially significant and everyday forms of artistic activity (cult, court, military, folklore) of the Tatars’ ancestors in Volga Bulgharia, the Golden Horde, and Kazan Khanate. During the Middle Ages, there was an active development of diverse genres of both vocal and instrumental music. Its stable original basis was noticeably enriched with new intonations and rhythms emanating from the repertoire of musical traditions of various ethnic groups. A special mission in the spiritual life of society was carried out by the types and genres of spiritual and secular poetry closely related to music (chanting performances, including some with instrumental accompaniment). They functioned as an effective means for moral and aesthetic education, combining a variety of pedagogical functions with strong emotional impact. By the sixteenth century, the musical culture of the Tatar people formed into an integral, reified, and original system.

History of the Samba Schools

Samba schools are musical and recreational associations linked to carnival, created in Rio de Janeiro between 1928 and 1932 approximately. The first competitive samba school parade was held during the 1932 carnival, and since then they have held annually, always during carnival. Samba schools were also created in São Paulo later in the 1930s and gradually spread throughout Brazil, expanding internationally from the 1970s onwards. Since the end of the 1950s, the samba school parade has been recognized as the principal event in the Rio de Janeiro carnival. It is characterized as a performance involving music, dance, costume, and artwork. In the 1930s, each school sang up to three different sambas: the rule of just a single samba per parade was established later. Instrumental accompaniment is produced by the bateria, a set of membranophones and idiophones, which is perhaps the most the most characteristic element of a samba school. In addition, a small group of guitars and cavaquinho (a type of ukulele) provide the harmonic base for the singing. A group of judges mark the competition: points are organized by theme, music, dance, and outstanding features. The parade has gone through numerous transformations over the years. One such was the growing importance of the enredo, the central theme or story guiding the parade as a whole. In the 1950s, the composition of the sambas for the parade came to be driven by the need to present each aspect of the enredo in the music and lyrics, which led to the creation of a new type of samba, the samba-enredo. At time, the sambas performed in the parades were not very different from the sambas released on records and sung in different contexts in festivities. In the 1960s, the coordination of all aspects of the parade, with the aim of showing the enredo in the best manner possible, led to the emergence of a new role, the carnavalesco, who is charged with choosing the theme and designing and planning everything related to the parade’s visual and scenic dimensions. Increasing public interest in the samba schools was accompanied by the growth of the parade itself, implying ever greater costs, connections, and conflicts with the public authorities and with different private economic agents, including in some cases illegal economic activities, such as gambling. The importance of the parade of the samba schools for the city of Rio de Janeiro was expressed in the construction in 1983–1984 of a new and immense urban structure, known as the Sambódromo. Designed to shelter the parades without disturbing urban circulation, as had happened until then in the mounting and dismantling of stands, the Sambódromo is used throughout the year. Its open spaces host various festive events in the city, while the closed ones are used for activities linked to public education.

AGREEMENT AMONG HUMAN AND AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPTIONS OF GLOBAL SONGS

Cross-cultural musical analysis requires standardized symbolic representation of sounds such as score notation. However, transcription into notation is usually conducted manually by ear, which is time-consuming and subjective. Our aim is to evaluate the reliability of existing methods for transcribing songs from diverse societies. We had 3 experts independently transcribe a sample of 32 excerpts of traditional monophonic songs from around the world (half a cappella, half with instrumental accompaniment). 16 songs also had pre-existing transcriptions created by 3 different experts. We compared these human transcriptions against one another and against 10 automatic music transcription algorithms. We found that human transcriptions can be sufficiently reliable (~90% agreement, κ ~.7), but current automated methods are not (<60% agreement, κ <.4). No automated method clearly outperformed others, in contrast to our predictions. These results suggest that improving automated methods for cross-cultural music transcription is critical for diversifying MIR.

ON THE ISSUE OF HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHAMBER AND VOCAL PIANO WORKS

One of the leading groups of genres in which the interaction of vocal and instrumental principles is possible is chamber-vocal works, where one of the participants in the creative dialogue is the piano. The development of chamber and vocal works demonstrated the vitality and leading importance of the genre for musical culture. In the context of the history of music, we can distinguish various forms of interaction between voice and piano. The field of chamber and vocal creativity has repeatedly attracted the attention of scientists. However, due to the fact that it has been developing since the XIX century, the period of its existence to this day often remains little studied. Accordingly, the question of the formation of chamber and vocal piano works is a problem that opens a significant field for studying aspects of the formation of this group of genres. The combination of vocal and instrumental principles has an extremely long history. For a long period of time, vocal was given priority over the instruments that accompanied it. Regarding the question of the unity of vocal and instrumental principles in one work, it was present as early as the times of ancient cultures. As a rule, the instrumental accompaniment played a secondary function in relation to the voice, providing support, tuning, shading the voice or simply filling in the pauses necessary for the rest of the vocalist. With the advent of the Renaissance and the development of various secular vocal genres, there are various works, both purely vocal (polyphonic) and vocal-instrumental. Among the polyphonic genres can be distinguished barcarole, villanelli, frottoli, madrigals, canzones. They are dominated by a polyphonic composition, which provides for «equality» of all voices. Chamber-vocal piano works occupy an important place in the singer's activity. The process of forming a duet of voice and piano had a long prehistory. The stage of the final formation of this genre falls on the XVIII century, and this is facilitated by a number of factors – the arrival of the piano to replace keyboard instruments, its predecessors, and the worldview of the Classicist era. A very important factor is the formation of dialogue between the instrument and the voice, which changes the priority of the vocals. During this period, a kind of summary of the achievements of previous centuries is carried out and conditions are laid for the following directions, in which chamber vocal-instrumental piano works will acquire a fundamentally different quality level.

Motives and Motivations

A broad survey of Britten’s compositional output reveals a predilection toward linkage technique––the carrying over of pitches from the end of one phrase or segment to form the beginning of the next. Whereas linkage can be found in many genres, Britten frequently employs this technique in his operas to depict certain aspects of a character’s thoughts and motivations, either spoken or unspoken, as the drama continues to unfold on stage. Consideration of musical texture reveals three typical uses: (1) accompaniment linkage between the vocal melody and the instrumental accompaniment, (2) interlude linkage between vocal phrases separated by an intervening instrumental interlude, and (3) character linkage between the music sung by different characters in an opera. Consideration of linkage has practical implications for performers, directors, and choreographers, who may use insights gained through score analysis to craft a staged, gestural interpretation at moments of linkage.

Conception and Origination of folk tune in Long March Cantata(长征组歌)

Thoughtful introduction of Chinese choral repertoire, the Long March cantata is contemporarily highly recognized music heritage of large-scale choral work of 10 movements last century in China. The cantata is composed to commemorate 30th anniversary of Long March. The journey of the Long March covered 11 provinces over 4,000 miles and crossed 24 rivers and 18 mountain ranges for over 370 days. The libretto is a set of narrative poetry by General Hua Xiao in Sept, 1964. "Long March Cantata" is conceptually composed based on "Where to go and where to say, when you hear the melody, the audiences will realize that it’s Guizhou, Yunnan, North Shaanxi ... Wherever the music is performed, it should restore the imaging of local feeling". This article mainly discusses its absorption of Chinese folk music based on Chinese pentatonic scales in music composition. Among them, movement one "Farewell (Leave the Base Area)" uses Jiangxi folk tunes, and the movement three "The Zunyi Conference, the Brilliance" use Guizhou tunes according to composers. For examples, in the movement four " Raid of Four times Cross Red Water ", Yunnan tunes are used, and in the movement seven "Arrive Wuqi Town", the northern Shaanxi tunes are used. In movement eight “Cheers" and movement nine "Annunciation", the tune of Changsha in Hunan and Northeast Jiangxi were selected to salute the southeast soldiers respectively. With the instrumental accompaniment of the full western orchestra, bel canto and national folk style signing (non-classical voicing) are well balanced. In order to match folk tune and regional congruency, Chinese traditional musical instruments, erhu (二胡), pipa (三弦), zhudi (bamboo flute, 笛子), suona (Chinese trumpet唢呐), kuaiban (bamboo castanets, 快板) as well as other Chinese percussion etc. were used with the western symphony orchestra according to historical context.

The singer as the co-author: the features of the representation of Ukrainian folk songs in the concert and art space of the present

Background. Turning to the original sources of Ukrainian musical culture, we should point out the greatest achievements that appear to be the folk-song tradition. The problem of authorship of musical folklore was not considered for well-known reasons: its decisive features are oral, anonymous, collective way of creation. If the phenomenon of authorship is present in various manifestations of musical creativity (composing, performing, directing, etc.) and works in various forms of musical art of the past and present, today the study of the role of the singer as a co-author in the contemporary representation of Ukrainian folk song has not yet become a subject of a special scientific interest. The stated problem opens the prospect of developing the interpretation science as a science of the phenomenology of the artist’s creative personality in various artistic discourses. The urgency of the topic is to study the peculiarities of the representation of Ukrainian folk songs in the contemporary concert repertoire on the example of the activities of the iconic representatives of the national culture: Kvitka (Kacey) Cisyk, Nina Matvienko, and Taras Kompanichenko. Objectives. The purpose of the research is to substantiate the role of the singer as the co-author in representing the Ukrainian folk song in the contemporary concert and artistic space on examples of multi-genre patterns (folk song, song-romance, spiritual chants). Methods. The methodology of the research is based on the genre, structurally functional and interpretive scientific approaches. Results. In order to highlight the peculiarities of the representation of Ukrainian folk songs in the concert and artistic space of today, within the framework of the scientific article, let us dwell on the consideration of the following genres of folk song: folk song, song-romance, and chant. In the unique performance by Kvitka Cisyk (1953–1998) of the chosen folk song “Verse, my verse” the singer appears as the co-author of the song. As one knows, this folk song has no authorship (being an example of the collective folk-song tradition). The level of co-authorship of the singer can be defined as the one corresponding to the traditional performance (the performer as the author). Another example considered is G. Skovoroda’s “Every City Should Have Its Character and Rights” in two versions (N. Matvienko and T. Kompanichenko) and two genre dimensions. Thus, in the detailed analysis of the sample, it can be argued that in the performance of N. Matvienko it sounds like a song-romance, and T. Kompanichenko’s interpretation makes clearer its genre attribution as a spiritual chant (the ethical basis). The song-romance performed by N. Matvienko appears as a bright theatrical performance. The singer represents the song in an elegant manner, appealing to the style basics of the musical baroque. In the instrumental accompaniment of the Ensemble of Ancient Music of K. Chechenia (Konstantin Chechenia), the baroque sound-ideal of the court secular culture was embodied. N. Matvienko, as the co-author of this composition, refined the baroque sounding (the deep understanding of the verbal text by G. Skovoroda, organic in the embodiment of the aesthetic and musically-immanent principles of the baroque style). “Every City Should Have Its Character and Rights” performed by T. Kompanichenko is characterized by such features as: 1) the introvert nature of the expression as a notable feature of the kobza-lyre tradition; 2) the interpretation by the performer of the “Skovoroda” song as an example of the spiritual chant (the correspondence of the repertoire of the traditional singing); 3) the organic and indissoluble nature of the vocal and instrumental components (singing performance (spivogra) as an attributive quality of the kobza-lyre tradition). Conclusions. The role of K. Cisyk as the co-author of the folk song “Verse, my verse” is evidenced in the fact that the singer managed to reach the level of the standard of interpretation of Lemko folk song, as much as possible tending to perform the song without any change. The subtle feeling of Ukrainian melody with the introduction of the contemporary sound (the high artistic orchestral arrangements by J. Cortner) is stated as a manifestation of the national sound ideal (according to O. Bench). In N. Matvienko’s performing interpretation of the song-romance “Every City Should Have Its Character and Rights” in the framework of the modern concert stage (with the sound of timbres of unique Ukrainian baroque musical instruments), the national baroque style constants (the concept of “the world as a theatre”) became more visible. The performing interpretation by T. Kompanichenko is aimed at the completeness of the disclosure of the concept of the composition as an ideological and aesthetic orientation of the kobza-lyre tradition. Without violating its style basics, the singer, as the co-author of the composition performed, appears to be the driving force behind the enrichment and development of the established stylistic principles of the kobza-lyre tradition. The provided multi-genre samples performed by the iconic representatives of the national culture are based on the established tradition of folk song and express the integrity of the creative personality of the performers as bearers of the spiritual tradition of ethnic culture. The prospects for further research in this direction may be related to the study of the iconic phenomena of the performing music culture of Ukraine, which find an appeal in the socio-cultural and research space of today

The vocal cycle “Facelia”: the experience of “sound existence” in Sofia Gubaidulina’s early creativity

The basis for the topic. S. Gubaidulina’s appeal to the poem “Phacelia” by M. Prishvin in 1956 was not accidental. Literary scholars interpret this work as an example of lyrical and philosophical prose of the middle of the 20th century. The composer’s perception of the “break” of the two worlds – “macrocosm” (the nature) and “microcosm” (subjective illusions and human hopes) developed organically and immediately that was reflected in the early vocal cycle called “Phacelia”. For her, the musical and sound symbolism turned out to be consonant with the philosophy of a human’s “inclusion” into the nature, merging with it: the middle parts of the vocal cycle (3–5) are imbued with this idea. The method of comparing two figurative spheres as an existential problem was intensively discussing in the work of not only composers, but also writers of the generation of the 60s of the 20th century, and this discourse stays an actual today. The object of this study is S. Gubaidulina’s vocal cycle “Phacelia” (based on the literary work by M. Prishvin) as a reflection of the philosophy of existentialism in the music of the 60s of the 20th century; the subject is a genre-semantic analysis of the composer concept of the cycle as “sound existence” – the characteristic feature of the early vocal style of S. Gubaidulina. The vocal cycle “Phacelia” is among the discoveries made by the young S. Gubaidulina, which are least discussed in musicology. Hovewer, the composer repeatedly emphasized the absence of a radical transformation, a “breakdown” of style in her creative work: “From the very beginning I go along approximately the same path What I am creating now is approximately the same to what I created when I was young. I wrote then the composition called “Phacelia”, and now everything is about the same.” (Gubaidulina, as cited in Munipov, 2016). The purpose of the article is to consider the concept of this vocal cycle in terms of understanding the artistic tasks of the performing embodiment of the early style of S. Gubaidulina (the Kharkov premiere of this work was held in 2012 in the National University of Arts named after I. P. Kotlyarevsky, in performing by the author of this article as pianist together with soprano Marina Chernoshtan). The methodological basis of the work is the theory of expression parameters by V. Kholopova (1999, p. 155), from which the genre-semantic and stylistic analysis of the work of S. Gubaidulina proposed in the article is pushed. The presentation of the main material. As the analysis demonstrated, the binary nature determines the structure and dramaturgy of the cycle, organizes its semantic space at two levels: the philosophical concept of the composition and the sound-like semantics of the musical language. The essence of the principle of binary opposition in the analysed vocal cycle is to create a set of musical expression means, the semantics of which is fixed as an “expression parameter” and stably characterize one of the two semantic fields of dramaturgy of the vocal cycle: Macrocosm and Microcosm. The main methods of the sound existence of literary images are revealed: the genre-style re-semantization, the creation of the author’s musical lexemes; the tonal-harmonic openness of structures; the polymodality; the combination of the principles of end-to-end, parallel and editing dramaturgy; the stratification of time when showing two plans of the being of the consciousness of a hero. The features of the manifestation of binary oppositions from the point of view of means of expression have been considered: melos, meter and rhythm, texture, articulation, which is very important for the performers of this complex composition. According to existential philosophy, the path of a human is an emotional experience and existential truth must be experienced. Therefore, the “directorial dramaturgy” by S. Gubaidulina creates its own configuration of meanings as the existential answer of the author: – the distance of “I” from the external world, memories (the 1–2 parts of the cycle: tension, despair); – the “contact” of “I” with Macroworld, its involvement in the Microcosm (the 3–5 parts: contemplation, enthusiasm, surprise); – the rethinking of the existential experience of “I” (the 6 part: humility, anxiety, followed by insight). On the whole, the idea of the duality of the being in the consciousness of a suffering person is embodied in music by S. Gubaidulina as a binary system that goes back to the foundations of existential philosophy. Hence the choice of parallel dramaturgy, which is associated with the re-creation of different time layers in music (lasting time, present time, accomplished time, time elapsed from the position of the present). Conclusions. Based on the results of the genre-semantic analysis of the vocal cycle, the conclusions are drawn about the nature of the early style, the principles of the dramatic organization of the artistic whole, and the sound symbolism of the instrumental accompaniment. “Phacelia” is one of the brightest examples of the composer “stage directing” of primary text as the experience of translating a literary work into a sound symbolic form. In it, the composer’s early-style methods were formed (binariness, creation of author’s lexemes, genre-style re-semantization, tonal-harmonic openness of individual structures, sound symbolism, and the sound depiction elements), which will go through as end-to-end ones into her later compositions.

'Salimu': from Memory to Literary Narrative in Twentieth-Century manding Culture

This essay explores the creation of new literary narratives, many inspired by true incidents, from the late nineteenth century to the present, among Manding- (specifically Maninka-) speakers in Mali and Guinea. It simultaneously queries the relationships between Manding and Western literary categories, showing that the traits typically associated with African ‘epics’ – including poetic language, alternation of sung and recited passages to continuous instrumental accompaniment, and multi-generic qualities – characterise some (but not all) examples of several distinct Manding literary categories (fasa, tariku and maana); furthermore, these traits appear in narratives of various lengths, centred on sentimental as well as heroic themes. It then focuses on the stories and songs inspired by the apparently contradictory personality of Salimou Haidara (ca. 1930-1991), an eccentric who claimed sharifian descent. A performance by Amadou Kouyaté and Jekoriya Doumbia, a bard couple based in the village of Dabadou near Kankan (Guinea), is transcribed, translated, and analysed1. KEYWORDS: EPIC, LITERARY GENRE, GRIOTS, MANINKA, KANKAN (GUINEA), CHEIKH MOUHAMMAD CHÉRIF

‘Salimu’: From Memory to Literary Narrative in Twentieth-Century Manding Culture

This essay explores the creation of new literary narratives, many inspired by true incidents, from the late nineteenth century to the present, among Manding- (specifically Maninka-) speakers in Mali and Guinea. It simultaneously queries the relationships between Manding and Western literary categories, showing that the traits typically associated with African ‘epics’ – including poetic language, alternation of sung and recited passages to continuous instrumental accompaniment, and multi-generic qualities – characterise some (but not all) examples of several distinct Manding literary categories (fasa, tariku and maana); furthermore, these traits appear in narratives of various lengths, centred on sentimental as well as heroic themes. It then focuses on the stories and songs inspired by the apparently contradictory personality of Salimou Haidara (ca. 1930-1991), an eccentric who claimed sharifian descent. A performance by Amadou Kouyaté and Jekoriya Doumbia, a bard couple based in the village of Dabadou near Kankan (Guinea), is transcribed, translated, and analysed.