SPECIFICITIES OF STIMULATING MUSICAL TALENT WITHIN FORMAL MUSICAL EDUCATION

The authors studying gifted and talented persons agree that adequate boosting of their development requires either specialized curricula or adaptation of the existing ones by acceleration and/or differentiation. The paper focuses on the specificities of boosting talent for music, taking into account the organized system of formal music education in Serbia. A special attention is paid to solfege teaching, as it constitutes the basis of musical literacy of future professional musicians. It is presumed that the implementation of the procedures highlighted in the paper, coupled with a special attention paid to the problems of organizing the work with talented pupils and students can lead to a degree of development enabling them to participate in various musical activities with a high level of motivation and no fear of lacking skills. The paper also points to the need to stimulate musical talent according to the pupils' and students' individual abilities, and in line with the specificities of the chosen field of specialization.

VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF NATIVE AMERICANS IN COLONIAL AMERICA

The article presents some of the most common visual representations of Native Americans from the colonial period and the Age of Exploration of the Americas. Visual representations were a part of a broader colonial discourse and were based on the representational practices applied by the dominant Western European culture. After establishing a broader theoretical framework based on the post-colonial and cultural studies insights, the author singles out and analyzes several visual representations of Native Americans. The emphasis is on the Noble vs. Ignoble Savage stereotypes and tropes and how they are reflected in visual arts.

THE DEFECTS OF A REIGNING THEORY

Contemporary theoretical musicology, and especially its anglophone section, has been heavily influenced by the ideas and analytical methods of Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935) who was an Austrian. Schenkerian-inspired theory, once imported in the United States from Austria, spread widely on American soil, where it was “enriched” conceptually, and was then re-exported to Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and other English speaking countries. The old American school of harmony that stemmed from the best German, French, and Russian traditions, found itself pushed to the wall by the ever growing Schenkerian school of thought which was erecting a cult of his creator. A “new order” in harmony and analysis was gradually established that regarded tonality as a business between tonic and dominant alone, the rest of the chords being of peripheral importance. This mentality shut the door to diversity and freedom in functional thinking, and opened the door to highly biased harmonic and formal analyses which erased harmonic cadences, presented tonality in black and white, breached syntactical units to create a new way of hearing music (the so-called "distance hearing" or "structural hearing”), and inevitably ended up with the same fundamental structure in melody and harmony, named “Ursatz”. This essay discusses major defects of Schenkerian theory and their negative impact on traditional harmony and analysis.

THE EFFECT OF MUSICAL GESTURES ON AN AUDIENCE: EXAGGERATED OR DEADPAN GESTURES

In the last two decades the scope of scientific papers related to the study of musical gestures increased enormously thanks to the development of data collection technology. The aim of this paper was to contribute to this topical area of psychology of music through the study of musical gestures during performance, i.e. to explain and systematise the visual experience of the audience when a performer made exaggerated or deadpan gestures during performance. This study was based on the questionnaire research method where examinees rated the performance of two performers by using a scale from 1 to 5. During his performance the first performer made exaggerated gestures, while the other made deadpan ones. The results that we obtained proved that exaggerated gestures disturbed visual experience of the listeners regardless whether they were formally educated in music or not. The results also showed considerable achievements in the domain of musical gestures and could be largely used for both pedagogical and performing purposes.

THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN SOLOIST AND ORCHESTRA WITHIN THE CONCERTO PRESENTED THROUGH PEIRCE'S “THEORY OF SIGNS”

The dichotomy between individualism and collectivism, deeply rooted in the development of social life, reflects an anthropological aspect that is also reflected in the art of music. This opposition, which is manifested through the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra within the concerto, is one of its main genre features. It survives despite all the changes that have taken place throughout history, but it is still subject to modifications. However, the role of these entities, apart from the style of the epoch, was also influenced by the composer`s personal style which must also be taken into account when considering the work from any point of view. The proposal to apply the method of Charles Peirce's “Theory of Signs” is to help to elucidate the meanings that this type of dialogue produces and which are hierarchically arranged and positioned within the pyramidal structure. Accordingly, the theme of the paper aims at showing the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra, showing what their function is within the concerto, as well as how their roles have changed throughout the change of epochs in history and the meaning this type of dialogue conveys.

THE CHURCH HYMN “CHRIST RECEIVETH SINFUL MEN”: ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE GERMAN ORIGINAL AND ITS ADAPTATION BY AMERICAN AND KOREAN HYMNALS

In the 19th century, German Protestant hymns were translated into English and have been sung in its language area. By evangelizing Korea, Western – including some German – church hymns were introduced. However, it is noticeable that content as well as linguistic and musical differences between the German and Korean versions could occur in the translation process. This paper examines one particular church hymn, namely “Christ Receiveth Sinful Men”, that was included in the Korean hymnals at the end of the 19th century. This church hymn has an interesting history; its text is originally from Germany, whereby the origin of the music is the United States. This paper explores the questions of how the text and the music were combined and how changes took place in their transmission. Methodologically, sources were compared that were relevant at the time of adaption. The intercultural relationships between the hymns of other countries would be of interest not only to hymnological scholars, but also to missiologists and musicologists, as well as church musicians.

THEATRE MANAGEMENT INVESTIGATION OF FEMALE PROMISCUITY: PREGNANCY AND ABORTION IMPACT ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATIONAL THEATRES IN NIGERIA

This study investigates promiscuity impacts, pregnancy impacts and abortion impacts of female undergraduates on management of the University of Benin educational theatre program, with implications on general theatre practice including Muson and Nollywood, in Nigeria. There are widespread speculations that female undergraduate theatre students are promiscuous and therefore highly prone to pregnancies and abortions for reasons or factors not confirmed by research. At least no such specific extensive study has been carried out in the University of Benin Theatre on this topic. Yet many female students are branded and treated merely as ‘debased females and prospective prostitutes’, and do not enjoy the goodwill, support, respect and honor their counterparts in the social, basic and environmental sciences as well as other fields of academic studies enjoy. This would be tantamount to a great disservice and injustice that need to be urgently addressed if a rigorous academic inquiry proves otherwise. Not to mention the undiscovered negative impacts the problem may have had, or currently be having on the training and practice of theatre arts in Nigeria: hence this investigation. The methodology, the subjects of study and study sample were carefully and systematically determined. The findings are mostly positive regarding the negative behavior investigated. Hence the recommendations point to measures aimed at checking and restricting these vices as well as their impact to a minimum as well as towards improving the moral, academic and managerial framework of educational theatre programs in Nigeria.

FEDERICO FELLINI'S FILM ORCHESTRA REHEARSAL FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF NEW MUSICAL/INSTRUMENTAL THEATER

The genre of new musical/instrumental theater represents a new and complex endeavor in the field of art. Its complexity includes various artistic aspects such as acting, music, dance, performance, stage design, etc. The specificity of the plot of Fellini's film Orchestra Rehearsal (Prova d’Orchestra) provides a possibility to be interpreted from the perspective of the new musical theater. Different discourses that have permeated the film (e.g. verbal, musical, visual discourse, physical movements, and body language) represent the basic idea of the new genre. In the Orchestra Rehearsal, Federico Fellini managed to merge together different discourses of artistic expression in an extraordinary way, and thus bring his film closer to the genre of new musical theater.

POLYPHONIC MUSIC AND ASPECTS OF ITS PERCEPTION

This paper presents several different studies which suggest that music in more musical voices (voice multiplicity) tends to be perceived more positively. These empirical studies emphasize the importance of horizontal organiztion on music perception. According to the author Vinoo Alluri (Alluri, 2012) the polyphonic timbre has been found to be a significant perceptual component of music, especially in studies that involve tasks such as genre identification, categorization, or emotional affect attribution.

TREATMENT OF RECAPITULATION OF THE FIRST MOVEMENTS IN THE SONATA FORM OF BEETHOVEN’S STRING QUARTETS OP. 18

The paper focuses on the function of recapitulation in the sonata form relying on the example of the first movements of Beethoven's string quartets Op. 18 No. 1–6. With regard to the fact that recapitulation is commonly described as a restatement of the exposition with tonal alterations of the second theme and the closing section, analytical deliberations most often do not go beyond recording such alterations. However, some analysis point to the new role of the recapitulation exactly on account of the essence of the undertaken alterations, i.e. on account of the idea that the composer wants to accomplish at the level of sonata form through recapitulation. The research is conceived as a continuation of the previous studies (Zdravić Mihailović 2006, 2007a, 2007b, 2015a, 2015b). These studies focused on the genre of string quartet of Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, where recapitulation was proven to be a remarkable phenomenon as its role was not merely to restate the exposition’s content with the usual tonal alterations. On the contrary, it can be a place of a new treatment of the sections of the exposition, and gives it some completely specific features.