Glenn Gould in six scenes

Glenn Gould’s legacy revolves around his retirement from the concert hall in 1964. Studies of his artistry often reflect on that by following a particular impulse: to seek out the rational underpinnings of this decision and to explain them in terms of a larger technological or aesthetic vision. Drawing in particular on the work of Virginia Held and Sara Ahmed, this article conceptualises Gould’s abandonment of the concert hall as an act of self-care, a mechanism for coping with the increasingly intrusive and exploitative celebrity musical culture into which he was catapulted as a young musician. Thus, this article frames Gould’s self-care in terms of six overlapping scenes, as he performed in the concert hall and recording studio, in interviews and essays, and in front of the camera as photographic subject and television actor, culminating with a case study based on an excerpt from Bruno Monsaingeon’s documentary Glenn Gould: The Alchemist. The study concludes by suggesting that Gould’s artistic choices (and achievements) had much more to do with cultivating caring relations that allowed him to thrive than they did with an individual pursuit of a grand musical philosophy.

Oleksii Chumakov’s Creative Activity

The article analyzes various aspects of Oleksii Chumakov’s creative activity. Oleksii Chumakov’s activity can be considered as striking in its variety of creative manifestations. His singing career is harmoniously combined with his work as a composer and arranger. The purpose of the article is to identify the specifics of stylistic dimensions of O. Chumakov’s work. The article analyzes various aspects of O. Chumakov’s activity, which impresses with the variety of creative manifestations. The artist harmoniously combines the singer’s career with composing and arranging skills. The research methodology consists oftheoretical methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization, biographical method), as well as empirical ones to observe the multifaceted work of O. Chumakov. The scientific novelty of the research is that the main features of O. Chumakov’s work are revealed, it is found out that the artist’s vocal skill is manifested in the use of soul singing. The style of Chumakov's compositions makes it possible to use the traditions of the gospel. The dominant directions in which his songs were written are funk, fusion, pop. Conclusions. It is noted that singers, who combine performance with composing, arranging, working in a recording studio, can rightly be considered professionals in their field. Having practical vocal skills, the composer takes into account the technical capabilities of singers, trying to emphasize their strengths. Oleksii Chumakov is also a presenter, writer and actor. All these qualities testify his versatility and high professionalism. In the concert performances of the singer, there is no bright effect or extraordinary scenography, because the performer prefers the ‘classical’ type of stage behaviour when the main emphasis is on the musical side of the compositions. Vocal skill, which manifests itself in the use of various vocal manners, intonation accuracy and stylistic sophistication, are the dominant elements of O. Chumakov’s performances.

The Listener

Practically speaking, listening is the primary reason music exists at all. Providing a meaningful sonic experience for others is largely the reason that composers work so hard on their creations and performers enter the stage or recording studio. Human beings’ love of music can be seen in common music listening is in everyday life today. In this respect, it may seem strange to consider “the listener” as a musical role, let alone to regard music listening as a skill that people develop, even to specialized expert levels. Be that as it may, listening is an extremely important topic in the psychology of music. Many people would never consider themselves “musicians” still enthusiastically fill the role of serious listeners. This chapter offers in depth consideration of music listening, beginning with an examination of the processes of human hearing. It addresses the multiple types of listening in which people engage, from hearing music in the background while doing other things to focused listening for the purpose analyzing or evaluating the music heard. Special emphasis is given to music’s capacity to evoke strong emotions in music, sometimes to the point of physiological responses such as tears, shivers, and a racing heart.

From Columbia Studio B to Carnegie Hall: The Studio-to-Stage Creative Trajectory in the Fusion Jazz of Miles Davis

<p>This thesis proposes an interrelationship between the creative processes of the recording studio and the concert stage in the fusion jazz of Miles Davis. Recent scholarship highlights the importance of the recording studio to fusion jazz musicians as they developed unique approaches to composition and improvisation. While providing valuable insight into the studio-derived creative processes distinctive of fusion jazz, this scholarship inadvertently obscures some of the live performance practices of fusion jazz musicians. Turning attention towards live performance, yet without neglecting the insights of this recent scholarship, I consider how the creative processes forged by Davis in the recording studio manifested in his activities as a concert artist. Combining commentary on Davis’s formative fusion jazz studio recordings (produced between 1969 and 1972) with analyses of the live album Dark Magus (exemplary of his mid-1970s concert performances), this thesis suggests a reorientation in Davis’s conceptions of improvisation and composition during this period by highlighting some of the creative processes he engaged in, both in the recording studio and on the concert stage. Drawing on the accounts of several musicians who worked with Davis in the recording studio during the late-1960s and early-1970s, I consider how post production tape editing allowed Davis and his band a new means for composing and improvising in the studio. Then, to demonstrate what I have termed a studio-to-stage creative trajectory, I analyse two creative processes common to Davis’s mid-1970s concerts as evidenced in Dark Magus: Davis’s on-stage direction of sudden, rhythm section cuts in the midst of lead instrumentalists’ improvisations; and the featured use of two accompanimental instruments unusual to jazz performance—a YC45 electric organ (played by Davis ) and a drum machine (played by percussionist James Mtume). Finally, framing this studio-to-stage creative trajectory in terms of performance theorist Philip Auslander’s concept of liveness, I claim that Davis’s fusion jazz stands as an example of mediatization rich in human agency. I then suggest that the work of other fusion jazz musicians and musicians associated with other jazz styles could be usefully reappraised using a similar methodology that explores the role of record production in creative process</p>

From Columbia Studio B to Carnegie Hall: The Studio-to-Stage Creative Trajectory in the Fusion Jazz of Miles Davis

<p>This thesis proposes an interrelationship between the creative processes of the recording studio and the concert stage in the fusion jazz of Miles Davis. Recent scholarship highlights the importance of the recording studio to fusion jazz musicians as they developed unique approaches to composition and improvisation. While providing valuable insight into the studio-derived creative processes distinctive of fusion jazz, this scholarship inadvertently obscures some of the live performance practices of fusion jazz musicians. Turning attention towards live performance, yet without neglecting the insights of this recent scholarship, I consider how the creative processes forged by Davis in the recording studio manifested in his activities as a concert artist. Combining commentary on Davis’s formative fusion jazz studio recordings (produced between 1969 and 1972) with analyses of the live album Dark Magus (exemplary of his mid-1970s concert performances), this thesis suggests a reorientation in Davis’s conceptions of improvisation and composition during this period by highlighting some of the creative processes he engaged in, both in the recording studio and on the concert stage. Drawing on the accounts of several musicians who worked with Davis in the recording studio during the late-1960s and early-1970s, I consider how post production tape editing allowed Davis and his band a new means for composing and improvising in the studio. Then, to demonstrate what I have termed a studio-to-stage creative trajectory, I analyse two creative processes common to Davis’s mid-1970s concerts as evidenced in Dark Magus: Davis’s on-stage direction of sudden, rhythm section cuts in the midst of lead instrumentalists’ improvisations; and the featured use of two accompanimental instruments unusual to jazz performance—a YC45 electric organ (played by Davis ) and a drum machine (played by percussionist James Mtume). Finally, framing this studio-to-stage creative trajectory in terms of performance theorist Philip Auslander’s concept of liveness, I claim that Davis’s fusion jazz stands as an example of mediatization rich in human agency. I then suggest that the work of other fusion jazz musicians and musicians associated with other jazz styles could be usefully reappraised using a similar methodology that explores the role of record production in creative process</p>

Glenn Gould

James Beasley utilizes Glenn Gould’s self-interviews to demonstrate how Gould’s contrapuntal strategies have many similarities with the density of Kenneth Burke’s "countergridlock" style. Through the interview process, Beasley also demonstrates how Gould’s mixing and splicing in the recording studio allowed Gould to imagine the role of technology in ethical performance practices.

Gould’s Creaking Chair, Schoenberg’s Metric Clarity

The audible creaking of Glenn Gould’s loose-jointed piano chair has historically been the subject of apologetic liner notes and recording studio memoirs. These chair creaks are here recognized as “sounded movements” of Gould’s body. This article triangulates the score of Schoenberg’s Sechs kleine Klavierstücke, op. 19, no. 1, published analyses of its unique rhythmic unfolding, and new micro-temporal measurements of Gould’s September 1965 recording of the work. Quantifying Sanden’s concept of “corporeal liveness,” spectrographic tools are used to generate a proper census of all the sounds captured by the microphone in order to map their rhythmic interaction. A notable “creak gap” in Gould’s recording is linked to published observations regarding the work’s process of emerging metric clarity, and one of Gould’s vocal elaborations is recognized for its augmentation of Schoenberg’s pitch material. Overlaying analytical literature with microtiming data reveals a correlation between the composition’s trajectory of metric clarification and the decrease in Gould’s physical motion. The findings are used to question the pervasive and disturbing suppression of non-notated sounds that accompany the recording of notated music. Recognizing sounds that are normally marginalized, this study fuses theoretical observations about Schoenberg’s composition with the audio artifacts of Gould’s corporeality.