Music Academy Research Articles

THE NEAPOLITAN PIANO SCHOOL: FROM ITS ORIGINS TO VINCENZO VITALE

This article is a journey through the Neapolitan keyboard tradition, from its origins to the school of Vincenzo Vitale, whose students still spread his music and pedagogical legacy all over the world, in music academies and on concert podiums. Nearly five hundred years of music: from the pre-classic harpsichord masters and composers, through the development of the music tradition in Neaples over the centuries, specifically the evolution of its music conservatories and their first piano teachers, to the fundamental pedagogues and their methods the XIX and XX centuries.

Cultural scientific school development of the Odesa National A. V. Nezhdanova Academy of Music

The article presents an overview of the current state of cultural studies of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Cultural Studies of the Odesa National A. V. Nezhdanova Academy of Music (ONMA), as well as an overview of modern scientific cultural studies of the mentioned higher educational institution. The purpose of the research is to determine the perspectives and directions of cultural studies of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Cultural Studies of the National Academy of Sciences. Research methods. To achieve the goal, general scientific and special methods were used, including: historical-cultural, structural-functional, analytical and informational to establish the specifics of cultural research works of ONMA scholars. The scientific novelty of the obtained results lies in the comprehensive analysis of the problems of applied cultural studies of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Cultural Studies of the leading higher educational institution of arts of the Odesa National A. V. Nezhdanova Academy of Music, which develops cultural studies in the musical aspect. Conclusions. Using the example of the department of theoretical and practical cultural studies of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, we traced how cultural studies transforms from an abstract philosophical field to a scientific and practical one. This opinion is based on a review of candidate's theses, which trace the movement towards applied cultural studies, which fully reflects the features of the modern state of scientific practice. The interdisciplinary nature of the field opens up great potential for a flexible understanding of cultural practices.

Radical Interpretations of Iconic works for Percussion

The artistic development project Radical Interpretations investigates two iconic works for solo percussion and re-composes these. The goal of the project was to develop new creative and transdisciplinary research in interpretation of musical works. Participants: percussionist Kjell Tore Innervik, Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH), composer Ivar Frounberg, NMH, designer Maziar Raein, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, experience designer Ståle Stenslie, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, and music recording producer Morten Lindberg. During the 3 years project, the team engaged with the music of Morton Feldman and Iannis Xenakis. The solo percussion pieces The King of Denmark and Psappha were the point of departure. The cd [UTOPIAS ](http://www.2l.no/pages/album/141.html)(2L) contains the pure audio version of the pieces in high definition and immersive sound.-><- On this site you will find other interpretations and iterations of the music made by the team.

“An Era More than Bleak”

AbstractFerenc Farkas, a remarkable twentieth-century Hungarian composer, was one of the most influential professors of composition throughout the history of the Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest. A less known chapter of his life is his involvement in the ethnicist and anti-Semitic political movements of Hungary, during the late 1930s and early 1940s. In 1940, he was among three musicians who elaborated a proposal to establish, in line with the rise of corporatism, a Hungarian Music Chamber. One of the main aims of the new organization would have been a total exclusion of Jewish musicians from all branches of Hungarian musical culture. The Chamber was never actually founded. In 1941, Farkas left Budapest for the Transylvanian city Kolozsvár (Cluj), where he was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatory. One of his first students was György Ligeti, a native Transylvanian, born into a Hungarian family suffering under the anti-Semitic legislation of the Hungarian state. As Ligeti recollected, Farkas “wanted to teach me everything he had learned from his teacher Ottorino Respighi.” Based on archival sources, this study offers new insights into the personal and professional connection between Ligeti and Farkas during the 1940s, and also follows Farkas's post-war path from relative isolation and marginalization to the elite of state socialist music culture.

Ensemble & Ensemble of Me – What I Think About When I Think About Improvisation

This exposition is a copy of Ivar Grydeland's artistic research fellowship project (2011-2015) at The Norwegian Academy of Music, financed by The Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme. The exposition was redesigned within The Research Catalogue in 2024. The content is identical to the original documentation. ________________________ Ensemble & Ensemble of Me is an artistic research fellowship project carried out at the Norwegian Academy of Music, as part of The Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme between 2011 and 2015. In this project I produced solo improvisations deriving from the music of two improvising ensembles to which I belong: Dans les arbres and Huntsville, and I produced collective improvisations with the ensembles. The project’s key questions: - What are my concepts when improvising with the ensembles and when improvising alone? - How do the ensemble improvisations inform my solo improvisations? - What do I think about when I think about our and my own improvisations? The Haruki Murakami-paraphrase in the sub-heading indicates a process of on-going reflection upon what I regard as key aspects when I improvise. More specifically, what I regard as key aspects in the music of Dans les arbres and Huntsville, as well as for my own solo improvisations. These reflections reveal key aspects and main challenges that emerged during my attempts to create solo works informed by the ensembles. The reflections are chiefly documented in the form of a personal encyclopaedia. The encyclopaedia includes audio and visual examples, both from the final artistic results and from artistic activity during the project.

Quartertone marimba

A PhD-level project in the Fellowship program for artistic research and development ("Stipendprogrammet for kunstnerisk utviklingsarbeid") at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, by Kjell Tore Innervik.

Júlia Hajdu (1925–1987) – Career of a woman operetta composer

AbstractThe object of this presentation is Júlia Hajdu (1925–1987), the first and only female Hungarian operetta composer. Although there is no abundance of female composers in either international or Hungarian music literature, most of the few were canonically mistreated, despite their creations being worthy of research. The author of choice, Júlia Hajdu, had a rather rich artistic career during which she excelled in various musical genres, such as the composition of dance songs, operettas, revues, dance suites, and incidental music. Besides composing, she was also an outstanding pianist. At the Zeneakadémia (Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music), her master teachers were Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) and György Ránki (1907–1992) – the latter, too, being a composer of operettas. Hajdu studied folk music from Kodály and jazz orchestration from Ránki. Hajdu's name was soon mentioned next to the best-known creators of popular genres by both her contemporaries and the critics of the age. Among others, she worked on the popular music shows of Magyar Televízió (Hungarian Television) and was employed as Hanna Honthy's piano accompanist. Hajdu recorded hundreds of dance songs, revues, and dance suites, as well as fourteen operettas, including those for radio and television broadcasts. Her career is to be explored within the cultural, political, and civilizational contexts of state socialism, thus understanding her work as not only another oeuvre of an operetta composer, but also as a representation of the artistic sentiment of a whole era. During her active years, she had to make compromises which she later interpreted as assertions of herself as a female artist in a male-dominated cultural milieu. After recognizing various narrative patterns in her creations, I aim to discuss Hajdu's career along two of the most prevalent and recurring issues: the “female composer as a sensation” narrative, and the “significance of the master teacher” narrative.

VIOLA CLASS AT THE TCHAIKOVSKY NATIONAL MUSIC ACADEMY OF UKRAINE: SCIENTIFIC VECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

To write the article, the author studied numerous dissertation researches devoted to various issues of viola performance, carried out by teachers and students of the department of the bowed string instruments at the P. I. Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. It was found that, despite the colossal potential of timbre and expressive possibilities, the viola for a long time remained in the shadow of its closest relatives from the string-bowed family - primarily in the aspect of solo performance. The path of the viola to recognition as an equal solo instrument is described, which began during Romanticism in the second half of the 19th century, gained rapid momentum in the first half of the 20th century, and, in fact, continues today. It is emphasized that the introduction of viola issues into scientific and musical circulation is one of the means of cultural propaganda of the instrument, along with its performance presentation. The presence of scientific potential among viola players is indicated, because in the period from 1971 to the present day, 9 candidate theses were defended in Ukraine, devoted to various problematic issues of viola performance, of which 5 were carried out by teachers and students of the viola class of the P. I. Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. The author provides information on the biographies of viola musicologists and characterizes each dissertation research. The relevance and progressiveness of the research topic, which is often ahead of its time, is noted. The importance of the further continuation of scientific research in the field of viola performance is emphasized. It has been proven that the department of bowed string instruments of the P.I. Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music of Ukraine today is not only a quantitative, but also a qualitative leader in the field of viola performance research.

Enabling and exploiting student expertise: the case of a Norwegian centre for excellence in education

ABSTRACT Student involvement has been advocated for and studied by educational scholars in recent years. Simultaneously, measures to increase student involvement have surfaced, such as the Norwegian Centres for Excellence in Education (CEE) initiative. This study explores how students, staff and leaders have experienced student involvement through a CEE in the Norwegian context by turning to sociological institutional theory, in which governance structures and change processes are interlinked. The Centre for Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE) was run from 2014 to 2023, situated at a music academy characterised by privatised teaching culture and a master/apprentice teaching model. In this instrumental case study, primary data were collected from 18 semi-structured interviews with students and staff who had occupied management roles at CEMPE/the Academy. Interview transcripts were triangulated with secondary data in the form of strategic documents such as annual reports, action plans, minutes from steering group meetings, applications and publication lists. The data were coded with thematic narrative analysis, and four distinct narratives on student involvement were identified: (1) students as participants; (2) students as creators; (3) students as facilitators; and (4) students as consultants. The findings indicate that the involved students were both empowered and burdened through their work in the centre. The paid student positions, in particular, enabled students to develop qualifications that staff members and the Academy benefitted from and where students took the roles as facilitators and consultants. However, student expertise can be exploited if not properly supported and fostered, which makes co-creation practices crucial in higher education.

Centre for Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE): an inquiry into institutional change processes in higher music education

ABSTRACT This study explores change processes in higher music education by following the development of the Centre for Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE) at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) over the period 2014–2023. The following research question is addressed: How has institutional change been enabled in a higher music education context through the activities of a Centre for Excellence in Education? The theoretical framework for the inquiry is drawn from institutional theory. Applying an instrumental case study design, data were collected from twelve semi-structured interviews with staff in management roles at CEMPE/NMH and from strategic documents, such as applications, action plans, annual reports, minutes from steering group meetings, and publication lists. The findings show that change was enabled through various leadership visions for change and the friction created through centre activities. The most significant area of change is reported to be increased student agency and involvement.

“Nobody Told Me”: First-Generation Music Educators’ Soundtracks to Navigating the Academy

First-generation college students (FGCSs) are the first in their families to receive a baccalaureate degree. As a result, they face multiple sociological, familial, and cultural challenges as they navigate their college and professional environments. The purpose of this study is to explore the cognitive soundtracks that FGCSs create to navigate the music academy, university culture, and their first few years of teaching. We conducted an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis with five first-generation music educators who successfully completed a bachelor’s degree in music education. We present the findings as individual soundtracks curated under a playlist titled “Nobody Told Me,” representing participants’ collective lived experiences. Findings suggest that FGCSs struggle with access to material resources, navigating hidden curricula, familial and cultural pressures, and an overarching fear of failure. Based on these findings, we present recommendations for programmatic changes and mentorship for music education programs and schools of music to better support FGCSs.

The Impact of (Jordan Academy of Music by its syllabus) on (music education) in Jordan

This study aims to shed light on Jordan Academy of Music as one of music higher education universities in Jordan and acknowledge its role in music education and learning in Jordan. The study used the analytical descriptive approach to analyze the study plan of the bachelor degree to identify the vision of the academy while preparing their students. In addition، the study took a look at the graduates of the academy and identified their major field work and contribution in thye field of music education. One of the major goals of this study is to acknowledge the Academy’s strategy while preparing its students، and its role in music education and learning in Jordan. One of the most significant conclusions of the study was emphasizing the important role of the Academy in music education and learning in Jordan، by focusing on both aspects: education and performance in its strategy. Keywords: music education، education syllabus، Jordan Academy of Music

Schönberg-Rezeption in Japan vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg: eine Diskursanalyse um Schönbergs Harmonielehre

The compositional reception of the twelve-tone technique started in Japan only around 1950. However, on an aesthetic as well as a literary level, Schönberg’s music and especially his Harmonielehre had been considered in Japan for several decades. This article explores that phase by analyzing Japanese pre-war music journals, demonstrating the aesthetic and theoretical reception of twelve-tone music in Japan before the start of its compositional reception. Schönberg’s Theory of Harmony was received very selectively in the circle of the New Composers’ Society in early 1930s Japan, as the composer Shūkichi Mitsukuri advocated Schönberg’s quartal harmony (and the music of Ravel and Debussy) as a model for a genuinely Japanese harmony, while functional harmonic systems were still dominant at the Tokyo Music Academy, where Klaus Pringsheim taught until 1937.

Live music in the intensive care unit – a beautiful experience

ABSTRACT Background The growing number of lightly or non-sedated patients who are critically ill means that more patients experience the noisy and stressful environment. Live music may create positive and meaningful moments. Purpose To explore non-sedated patients’ experiences of patient-tailored live music interventions in the intensive care unit. Design A qualitative study using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. Data were collected at two intensive care units from September 2019 to February 2020 exploring 18 live music interventions performed by music students from The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Denmark. Methods Observations of live music interventions followed by patient interviews. All data together were analysed using Ricoeur’s theory of interpretation. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist was used. Results Five themes emerged: 1) A break from everyday life, 2) A room with beautiful sounds and emotions, 3) Too tired to participate, 4) Knowing the music makes it meaningful and 5) A calm and beautiful moment. Conclusion Patient-tailored live music to awake patients is both feasible and acceptable and perceived as a break from every-day life in the ICU. Implications for practice Supporting health and well-being by bringing a humanizing resource into the intensive care setting for patients and nurses to enjoy.

Pertumbuhan Musik Klasik Barat di Kota Medan

Edward Van Ness is a violinist, conductor, writer and teacher who has lived and worked in Indonesia cumulatively for more than forty years. Composition and world music studies were completed at Wesleyan University, conducted at the Eastman School of Music, with further graduate studies also at Boston University. He undertook research on South Indian Classical Music, was a concert player in the Carnatic Vina, and founded the Madras Chamber Orchestra. He founded the music department in 1986 at the Medan International School and became head of the music and technology department at the Indonesian Music Academy, University of North Sumatra and HKBP Nommensen University. A founder of the Indonesian Promusik group. Also known as the conductor and artistic director of the first complete performance of Handel's historic Messiah with the Ensemble Nommensen and Promusika in 1987 (in the original Baroque performance style). He is also known as the first musician invited by the institution and the Vietnamese government by leading the orchestra with cellist Cecylia Barczyk from the Ho Chi Min Conservatory Orchestra in Vietnam in April 2005. Since 2003 he has led the Nusantara Symphony Orchestra in many concerts. . Most recently he was the music director and conductor of the Indonesian National Christmas celebration in December 2018 in Medan. Until now he is a Music Teacher at the Sumatra Conservatoire.

Historically Informed Performance as a Phenomenon of Artistic Culture of Ukraine: Creative and Educational Activities of the Orchestra of the Baroque Chapel at the Lviv Mykola Lysenko National Music Academy

The promotion of Historically Informed Performance (HIP) is an important aspect in the preservation and reproduction of the musical heritage of previous eras. One of the examples of successful creative and educational activities in the field of performance of ancient music and popularization of HIP can be the orchestra of the baroque chapel of the Lviv National Academy of Music named after M. V. Lysenko. Considering the history of creation, peculiarities of the team's development, and concert programs of the orchestra of the Baroque Chapel of the LNMA named after MV Lysenko, we can say that it was the participation in the concerts of the Festival of Early Music in Lviv that gave the orchestra the opportunity to gain artistic experience. The festival, with its high level of concerts and master classes, became a kind of creative laboratory that contributed to the professional growth of the orchestra.

Problematic overstudying, Big Five personality, and music performance anxiety: associations with well-being and GPA.

Problematic overstudying is a compulsive and pathological overinvolvement in studying leading to harm and considerable functional impairments. It is conceptualized as "study addiction," a precursor to work addiction. It has been investigated within the addictive behaviours framework in general populations of students for over a decade. A previous study analysed the problem among young musicians as a particularly vulnerable group. It found some important differences in potential personality risk factors among music academy students compared to general populations of students and showed an important role of social anxiety. The current study aimed to validate these findings in a separate larger sample and extend them by investigating the role of music performance anxiety (MPA). The study was conducted among 213 students of music academies. Valid and reliable measures of study addiction, MPA, Big Five personality and well-being were used. The results showed that MPA played a similar role as social anxiety in terms of being a predictor, mediator, and moderator of the main replicated effects supporting the hypothesised mechanisms regulating study addiction. However, extraversion was not associated with study addiction in multiple hierarchical regression analysis, but conscientiousness and neuroticism were. Study addiction was associated with indicators of decreased well-being, above and beyond MPA, and personality. These results show that MPA plays an analogous role to social anxiety and that the role of Big Five personality in study addiction among young musicians requires further investigation due to inconsistent findings.

Prolegomena about the cluster-network model organization of the educational system in musical academies of Ukraine

The article „Prolegomena about the cluster-network model organization of the educational system in the musical academies of Ukraine” discusses the complexity of higher musical education and the need for new scientific approaches to address the changing pedagogical reality. The authors propose a cluster-network model for organizing the educational system in musical academies, which is based on the following components: conceptual – tasks, methods, forms, means; axiological– values; psychological and pedagogical – mechanisms of learning values; organizational and management – management of elements of the educational structure. The cluster-network model aims to increase the competitiveness of the educational system by developing the students’ competencies that meet the requirements of the social order. It also emphasizes the importance of spirituality in education and the need for a holistic approach to human development. The authors argue that the ideal of human education is constantly changing, but the ability to correlate the concepts, ideas, and theories acquired during cognitive activity with an individual value system is a key indicator of successful education. The article highlights the importance of understanding the inner class and spiritual being of a person, as well as the need to implement some methods that contribute to penetrating into the phenomenological secrets of human consciousness for researching and revealing the most important mental structures of man. It also discusses the role of dialogue as a way of existing and coexisting- with the „other” in the communication process. The proposed model aims to address the challenges of the postmodern era, where the world is thought of as an open text not limited in its manifestations and interpretations. It emphasizes the importance of continuous education and the integration of knowledge from related disciplines to develop digital education and innovative work practices.

Микола Лисенко в інтелектуальних комунікаціях Наукового товариства імені Шевченка

The article reflects the cooperation of the outstanding Ukrainian composer M. Lysenko with the Shevchenko Scientific Society (SSS) in Lviv. The study aims is to try to determine the nature and essence of the composer’s intellectual communications within an academic institution. The research methodology built on the principles of historicism, system and comprehensiveness. Comparative, problem-chronological, historical-typological, logical, structural-systemic, analytical and generalizing methods used. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the integral reproduction of the page of M. Lysenko’s intellectual biography, connected with his musicological activity as part of the Ethnographic Commission of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. Conclusions. An important aspect of the composer's intellectual biography was his collaboration with the National Academy of Music in Lviv (1873 – 1912). The communication, based on the commonality of scientific research interests and worldviews, maintained an ideological connection with the interpersonal connections of M. Lysenko within the framework of the predecessor of the academic institution – the Shevchenko Literary Society. The intensity and dynamism of scientific interaction was strengthened by the negative manifestations of the cultural and national policy of the Russian tsar, censorship restrictions of Ukrainian life in Trans-Dnieper Ukraine in the second half of the 19 th and early 20 th centuries. The meaningful content of the composer's cooperation with the National Academy of Music was his activity as part of the Society's Ethnographic Commission, publishing and organizational contacts, direct participation in information practices, scientific, cultural, educational projects of the institution. M. Lysenko participated in writing textbooks for Ukrainian schools in Galicia, reviewing the works of young composers, organizing ethnographic field research, anniversary and commemorative events. The significant role of the educational activity of the artist in the formation of a positive cultural image of Ukraine at the international level.

Practical Teaching of Music Curriculum in Colleges and Universities Based on Multiple Intelligences Theory

Abstract Traditional piano teaching usually focuses on students’ mastery of music skills and music theory, but neglects the cultivation of students’ musical expression and creativity. In this paper, the multiple intelligence theory is used as the guiding theory, and the multiple hybrid teaching model of the piano course is established by combining the flipped classroom. The Fuzzy-CDF model is introduced to quantify students’ piano music cognitive level, the Apriori algorithm is used to generate piano music knowledge point sequences, and multiple algorithms are used to collaborate on personalized recommendations of piano music knowledge resources for students. For the application effect of the piano music multivariate hybrid teaching model established in this paper, a teaching experiment was conducted to analyze it with H Music Academy as an example. The results show that the combined ability of song arrangement and playing and singing of the experimental class improved by 9.74 and 11.10 points respectively compared with the performance of the control class, and the average value of the difference between the pre-and post-tests of the experimental class’s note recognition ability compared with that of the control class reached 5.8 points. The application of Multiple Intelligences Theory can stimulate the individual’s sensitivity to timbre, pitch, and meter, fully enhance students’ musical expression and creativity, and make piano learning more effective.