The article aims to indicate the roots of musical time and musical forms in various types of mythopoetical thought, of which we propose the consideration of musical time within an interdisciplinary context, engaging philosophical concepts and art history studies of mythology. Among the objectives is the necessity to reveal the implicit connections of typical compositional structures in the European opera of the modern era with mythological prototypes; to demonstrate the ways of synthesizing mythological temporal concepts. The subject of research here includes the following aspects: a) mythological time in Wagner’s musical dramas as a synthesis of pagan and Christian ideas (independent of plot), cyclic and finite time; b) time of theatrical play in R. Strauss’s opera Salome; and c) R. Strauss’s composition as an aesthetic deconstruction of Wagner’s musical mythology. Wagner’s legacy inspired many ways to exhibit such deconstruction; among these, R. Strauss’s opera Salome can be considered the most impressive and significant. Wagner’s ideas of Liebestod (in his Tristan und Isolde) and the Christian mystery (in Parsifal) were deconstructed in Strauss’s Salome. An investigation concerning cyclicity in the composition of the opera with its different mythological backgrounds is the main purpose of this research.

Difference has always been an interest of mine – the different gestures, methods and materials utilised by various post-colonial artists to question authorial identity and to “speak”. In my art practice these ideas are interrogated in relation to the question “What difference does it make who is speaking?”. This question is intended to expose the invisible mechanism of power that exists within authorship, raising questions such as who determines who gets to speak, how they speak, what is spoken about and who speaks on behalf of whom.

This is the study of four nationalist composers and their contributions to the nationalist music of Ireland, which this author proposes are the continuation of the native music of Ireland, namely Fleischmann, Ó Riada, Bodley, and McGlynn. While other regions saw the rise in nationalist music in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the long British rule and subversion of Irish culture delayed this musical evolution until much more recently, especially in the choral repertoire. These composers used the Irish language in a manner that honored and sought to promote it as a living entity, and they used literature and folklore as primary sources of material. In addition to creating arrangements of traditional or folk songs, they used or quoted them in their original compositions, thus creating a unique, individual voice through an ancient medium. And, rather than succumbing to the experimental or serial ideas that were most prevalent on the European continent through much of the Twentieth century, all of these composers forged a harmonic language that, while modern, atonal, or tonal, was also rooted in the modality found in the ancient music of Ireland.

This paper examines the rhetoric used by Socrates in Plato's Apology through the lens of Social Identity Theory and Burke’s concept of identification. Considering rhetoric as the art of persuasion through the orator’s invocation of shared group identity with the audience, the analysis explores the extent to which Socrates aligned himself with widely accepted conventional norms, values, and beliefs to establish rapport with the dicasts. Remaining steadfast to truth, his principles, and his divine mission, Socrates emerged as a nonconformist to the majority of the contemporary audience. Nonetheless, he managed to establish himself as the prototype philosopher, advocating for an elevated identification based on virtue with his followers and successors across all generations.

Religion plays vital role in the governing system of a country. Particularly in a Democratic country, it is an arguable issue that whether the religion should have a place in the governing system or not. Or it should have a neutral or private role which should be protected by the Government. In this regard, the constitutional philosophy of Indian democracy and the views of the founders of Indian Democracy like Gandhi, Ambedkar and Nehru are to be considered as a matter of discussion. In this paper attempt has been made to discuss about the relevance of Religion in Democracy in the mentioned context and it is examined here that a third means to maintain the relation between Religion and Democracy is feasible or not.

Luciano Berio, one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century, contributed with an enormous compositional legacy for several instruments and formations, namely through his famous Sequenze. These works resulted in a set of virtuous compositions for solo instruments, including idiomatic writing and extended techniques, with the aim of exploring the maximum, mechanical and technical capacities of instruments and instrumentalists, in a period of time that extended from 1958 to 2002. Sequenza XIII (Chanson), for Accordion, appeared in 1995 and reflects the evolution of a multitimbric instrument, whose repertoire ranges from popular to erudite.

By means of ecocritical perspectives, we can build meaningful and relevant connections between the STEM fields and the Humanities. Literary works, above all, whether from the Middle Ages or the modern world, read through that lens, can yield important new perspectives about the relationship between humans and nature. In this study, the focus rests on rivers as reflected in fictional works. After highlighting the symbolic significance of rivers in some of the major medieval German, Italian, and English poems, the article, leaping to the twentieth century, investigates the role of the river in two novellas by the Baltic-German author Werner Bergengruen (d. 1964) and identifies them as indirect but powerful contributions to the new movement of ‘magic realism’ that had not yet reached the German audiences at that time. While Bergengruen is mostly disregarded today for political and ideological reasons, the ecocritical message contained in his texts promises to uncover the true literary quality of his narratives and their relevance for ecocritical awareness regarding rivers as a protagonist’s lifeline. In many ways, we can recognize in his work a direct reflection of medieval thought, yet he transcended those and cast them in his own concept and value system.

Suburban Gothic fiction explores the latent dysfunctionality that lies beneath residential areas despite their apparently blissful image upholding the ideals of the American dream. Insofar as suburban Gothic is rooted in domestic Gothic and, by extension, female Gothic, it underscores the inextricable relation established between gender and aging, particularly with regard to the Victorian trope of arrested development, which acquires different connotations along gender lines. As representative of the early origins of suburban Gothic, Ira Levin’s novel The Stepford Wives (1972) portrays the arrival of a female newcomer at a conservative community comprising suburban housewives who never seem to grow old. As a postmodern exponent, Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands (1990) tackles how an eternally young and androgynous humanoid is introduced in a suburban neighbourhood of middle-aged residents and their adolescent children. This article aims to analyse the intertextualities between these two paradigmatic narratives of suburban Gothic and, in particular, in relation to gender and aging—bearing in mind that, as suggestive of the metaphor of arrested development, the trope of old age remains invisible—and how these narratives evince either submission or rebellion with regard to gender and age conventions.

This paper examines the link between social capital and a virtual choir. During the recent COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, with an intensified perception of alienation, community, church, and university choirs used the format of a virtual choir to continue the singing and performance practice of choral music. Created by a user-generated choir with uploaded videos and audio, a virtual choir is the final synchronized mix of these various files producing a unified performance. The challenge is to maintain and grow the virtual experience. A living sense of community and connection with others is a characteristic of the choral music process. Obstacles to overcome in the preparation and execution of a virtual choir participation include familiarity and facility with current technologies, the alienation of individually learning, preparing, and performing the singer’s part and the lack of the traditional choral experience of interacting with individuals on a personal and sonic level. Using testimonials of singers involved in a virtual choir experience and current research regarding varied examples of developed choral practices, a clear demonstration of social capital is evident. Social capital is the value created by social relationships with likely returns in the form of good will, sympathy, and social networks.