Chamber Music Research Articles

Maurice Greene's Vocal Chamber Music on Italian Texts

Maurice Greene (1696–1755), best known for his sacred and secular vocal music on English texts, left a substantial corpus of vocal chamber music set to Italian texts that remained unpublished during his lifetime and has not been studied in detail until now. It comprises ten cantatas for soprano and continuo, one cantata and seven chamber arias for voice, violin and continuo, four chamber duets and a cycle, scored variously for soprano and bass voice with continuo, of 15 settings of Anacreontic odes translated into Italian by Paolo Rolli. Greene was the only major English composer contemporary with Handel to produce such a quantity and variety of ‘Italian’ vocal music, and these compositions, which evidence a very good knowledge of the Italian language and Italian musical style, are of a quality to match their Handelian counterparts. They are subtle, responsive to the text and in certain respects very distinctive and original.

Making the Switch: Encouraging Good Violinists to Become Great Violists through Chamber Music Study

Making the Switch: Encouraging Good Violinists to Become Great Violists through Chamber Music Study

Music Regulators in Two String Quartets: A Comparison of Communicative Behaviors between Low- and High-Stress Performance Conditions.

In ensemble performances, group members use particular bodily behaviors as a sort of “language” to supplement the lack of verbal communication. This article focuses on music regulators, which are defined as signs to other group members for coordinating performance. The following two music regulators are considered: body gestures for articulating attacks (a set of movements externally directed that are used to signal entrances in performance) and eye contact. These regulators are recurring observable behaviors that play an important role in non-verbal communication among ensemble members. To understand how they are used by chamber musicians, video recordings of two string quartet performances (Quartet A performing Bartók and Quartet B performing Haydn) were analyzed under two conditions: a low stress performance (LSP), undertaken in a rehearsal setting, and a high stress performance (HSP) during a public recital. The results provide evidence for more emphasis in gestures for articulating attacks (i.e., the perceived strength of a performed attack-type body gesture) during HSP than LSP. Conversely, no significant differences were found for the frequency of eye contact between HSP and LSP. Moreover, there was variability in eye contact during HSP and LSP, showing that these behaviors are less standardized and may change according to idiosyncratic performance conditions. Educational implications are discussed for improving interpersonal communication skills during ensemble performance.

Playing Chamber Music at a Rock Festival? The Social Construction of Reality in US Sociology

Starting from the metaphor of “playing chamber music at a rock festival” used by Peter L. Berger in 1992 to describe the impact of The Social Construction of Reality on US sociology, this article works out how the book’s somewhat puzzling legacy as a bestseller and a classic with remarkably rare direct follow-ups in the US discourse can indeed be conceived. I argue that one needs to take into account the theoretical-historical context in which Berger and Luckmann developed their ideas, including the specific forms of knowledge production in US sociology at the time, the institutional background of the book’s emergence at the New School for Social Research and the author’s biographical trajectories. On this basis, on can explain why Berger and Luckmann’s reformulation of the sociology of knowledge both perfectly met the 1960s Zeitgeist (which made it a bestseller) and at the same time remained theoretically marginal.

Music Received

Music Received Compiled by David Knapp INTRODUCTION This column presents a comprehensive list of new music publications that have been sent recently by publishers and distributors for possible review in Notes. Self-published music is listed when a source of acquisition is provided. The primary aim of the column is to provide brief listings of a broad range of new editions of music, thereby assisting in selecting and ordering for libraries or personal collections. After the list is prepared, the publications are sent selectively to Keith Cochran, column editor for Notes Music Reviews. ORGANIZATION AND SCOPE NOTES Scholarly & Historical Editions: Primarily volumes of collected editions and monumental series. Extensive critical apparatus is generally assumed and therefore not noted in the entries. Facsimile Editions: Limited to publications presenting a reproduction of an item that emphasizes its nature as a primary source rather than its simple intellectual content. Orchestral Music: Works for full and chamber orchestra, and chamber groups of more than nine players. Full scores of concertos are included, but reductions for solo instrument(s) with keyboard are listed in the appropriate chamber music category. Band Music: Brass and wind ensemble music intended for more than one player to a part, and wind chamber groups of more than nine players. Choral Music: Includes all types of nondramatic choral works, in full scores or vocal scores. Dramatic Music: Operas, musicals, and ballets, in full or vocal scores. Chamber Music with Strings; Chamber Music without Strings: Duets through nonets other than one instrument with keyboard. “Strings” includes harp and guitar, but excludes keyboard instruments. String Instrument with Keyboard; Woodwind Instrument with Keyboard; Brass Instrument with Keyboard: Includes reductions for one solo instrument with keyboard (including organ). Music for more than one instrument with keyboard is listed as Chamber Music. Music for solo instrument with basso continuo is listed here, however, since the bass part is often presented as optional or for a choice of instruments. Solos for Bowed or Plucked Strings, Unaccompanied; Solos for Wind Instruments, Unaccompanied: Music for single solo instrument. Studies are included here unless they are technical exercises, orchestral studies, or methods. Music for Organ: Solo organ music, duets, arrangements, and reductions. Music for Piano or Harpsichord: For any keyboard instrument other than organ. Includes solo music and like-instrument ensembles such as 4-hand piano and 2-piano duets, keyboard reductions of piano concertos, and larger keyboard ensembles. Music for Percussion: Includes percussion solos (with or without keyboard accompaniment) and ensembles. Chamber music with other instruments is listed in the appropriate category above. Music for Voice: Music for one or more solo voices (one singer per part) with any accompaniment, including chamber ensemble. Opera excerpts, such as collections of arias, are included, but complete opera vocal scores are listed under Dramatic Music. Other works for solo voices with chorus are listed under Choral Music. Methods and Studies: Includes method books, technical exercises, and orchestral studies; studies that might be used in performance are listed above as solo music. [End Page 171] Music for Children: Materials designed for study and performance by children of pre-school or elementary school age. Miscellaneous: For music that defies inclusion in the categories above. CITATION STYLE Citations include publishers’ numbers or plate numbers, ISBN, and ISMN, where available. In order to keep the citations brief, description of introductory notes, critical reports, etc., is not included unless the material is considered unusual for the type of publication, or an indication of languages is warranted. Abbreviations for publishers are listed at the end of the column with complete imprints, U.S. distributors, and Web sites. Some well-known collected works series titles are abbreviated according to usage in works lists of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. Most other abbreviations follow The Chicago Manual of Style and the Notes Style Sheet. Cloth and spiral bindings are noted. The term “miniature” is applied to scores measuring twenty-two centimeters or smaller. Size in centimeters is also noted for unusually large publications. SCHOLARLY & HISTORICAL EDITIONS Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel. Arrangements of Orchestra Works II. Edited by Jonathan Kregor. (Works 2005. I/10.2.) Packard, 2008. ISBN 978-1-933280-39...

"Performance Practices in Johannes Brahms's Chamber Music" by Clive Brown, Neal Peres da Costa, and Kate Bennett Wadsworth

Brown, Clive, Neal Peres da Costa, Kate Bennett Wadsworth. Performing Practices in Johannes Brahms's Chamber Music. Kassel, Basel, London, New York, Praha: Bärenreiter, 2015 [2nd printing 2016].

Navigating through Harmony

Name: Karst de Jong Main subject: Music Theory & Improvisation Research coaches: Michiel Schuijer & Thomas Noll Title of research: Navigating through Harmony Research question: How can spatial representation of harmony contribute to the understanding and teaching of harmonic progressions in tonal improvisation? And does the application of the directional approach provide an effective navigation tool for the improviser while shaping the harmony? Summary of results: The navigation system can help in the choice of logical harmonic progressions while improvising. As a navigation tool it allows harmonic movement to be felt as opposed to calculated. As a tool for invention, the arrows challenge the obvious progressions one makes habitually as an improviser and one develops a sense of the basic movements in harmony: prolongation, movement and consolidation. It is clear that a simpler organization of harmony in the improviser's mind stimulates an active imagination, stands less in the way of the creative process, and leaves more time to anticipate what lies ahead. The research experiences have reconfirmed the importance of playing with one's ears wide open while improvising. As a teaching tool the directional approach is promising, although new materials have to be developed. This is work in progress. Clearly this research is not finished here. The next step is to take the results as a starting point for changes in the teaching of improvisation. One wish is to integrate the directional ideas with certain elements from the Partimento tradition. Then there is further research needed on the relationship between the upper structures and the underlying fundamental melody, dealing with stylistic elements such as chord forms and voice leading. The presentation has the format of a report (45 minutes) as it is in fact a portfolio of many activities leading up to this very moment, including a case study and experiments with teaching an ensemble. The presentation will consist of a summary of the theoretical background, followed by improvisations played on the piano and by an ensemble to demonstrate the ideas behind the directional approach. Biography Karst de Jong studied Classical Piano with Geoffrey Douglas Madge and Music Theory at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and started teaching early at the conservatoires of Amsterdam and The Hague. In 2003 he was appointed professor of composition techniques and improvisation at the ESMUC in Barcelona, and has since been pursuing the practice of improvisation as an integral part of the curricula of higher music education. He has given many concerts with improvisations for solo piano or with ensembles in Europe, China and Japan. He taught in many international festivals, among them the International Chamber Music Festival Schiermonnikoog, the Piano-Pic Festival in Bagneres de Bigorre and the Paul Badura Skoda Vila-seca Music Festival in Spain. In 2012 he released his first solo CD with improvisations entitled "Improdisiac". Karst de Jong currently lives in Barcelona.

Beethoven’s Theatrical Quartets: Opp. 59, 74 and 95 by Nancy November (review)

EARLY AND LATE ROMANTICS Beethoven's Theatrical Quartets: Opp. 59, 74 and 95. By Nancy November. (Music in Context.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. [xiii, 282 p. ISBN 9781107035454 (hardcover), $95; ISBN 9781107496798 (e-book), $76.] Music examples, illustrations, facsimiles, tables, bibliography, index.Nancy November's Beethoven's Theatrical Quartets: Opp. 59, 74, and 95 is the first fulllength study of Beethoven's five middleperiod quartets since Gerald Abraham's 1942 monograph for Oxford's Musical Pilgrim series (Beethoven's Second-Period Quartets [London: Oxford University Press, 1942]). While the 71 years separating these two publications have yielded numerous and diverse studies of Beethoven's quartets- most notably Joseph Kerman's groundbreaking exegesis of the entire cycle (The Beethoven Quartets [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966; reprint, New York: W. W. Norton, 1979])-scholars have tended to conceive of the middle-period quartets as transitional works, works that forecast but do not quite achieve the complexity and expressive depth of the last five quartets (plus the Grosse Fuge ), the beating heart of Beethoven's late period.Until recently, the literature has also had relatively little to say on these quartets' historical and cultural context. In part because of the string quartet's symbolic status as the epitome of abstract, absolute musical expression, the notion that these works ought to be studied in relation to the time and place of their composition long thought to be superfluous. The introductory essays in The Beethoven Quartet Companion, edited by Robert Winter and Robert Martin (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), represented an important first step toward a more holistic approach. Such an approach, however, has been slow to emerge. Angus Watson's survey of the entire chamber music oeuvre (Beethoven's Chamber Music in Context [Woodbridge, Suffolk, Eng.: Boydell Press, 2010]) perhaps comes closest, but as a practical listening guide, it necessarily sacrifices depth for breadth.November's book addresses both of these scholarly lacunae, but it also does more than this. Drawing together reception history, music analysis, social and cultural backgrounds, historiography, performance practice, and sketch studies, it offers sophisticated and original perspectives both on individual quartets and on the five quartets as a group. It also contributes new insights to a growing literature that considers how our understanding of Beethoven's music has been mediated by ideological forces that emerged during his lifetime and have remained intrinsic to musical culture ever since.The book is divided into an introduction and eight chapters. The introduction and first two chapters establish the book's agenda and explore the middle-period quartets in broad outline, focusing on such issues as genre, function, canonicity, historiography, and performance. Each of the next five chapters is devoted to a single quartet. The final chapter weaves together a number of loose strands regarding the quartets' reception and offers some provocative concluding thoughts.November begins by critiquing three core paradigms in Beethoven studies: the division of his career into three style periods, the notion of heroic Beethoven, and the persistent analytical focus on the musical score, as opposed to the music's physicality, visual codes, and social meanings (p. 3). While all three critiques will be familiar to Beethoven scholars, they have particular resonance in the context of these five quartets, works that have often been understood in relation to Beethoven's middle-period symphonic style rather than on their own terms. She seeks to carve out some new aesthetic spaces (p. 2) for these works by considering each quartet alongside the contemporary theories, practices, and ideas that informed its design.In lieu of the traditional tripartite view of Beethoven's career, and crucially for her thesis, November posits a epoch (roughly 1800-1815) during which Beethoven was particularly engaged with, and sought further involvement with, theatrical works and theatrical concepts (p. …

Between Freedom and Determination: Marios Joannou Elia's Music for Guitar

BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DETERMINATION: MARIOS JOANNOU ELIA’S MUSIC FOR GUITAR VERA GRUND ARIOS JOANNOU ELIA CALLS THIRTEEN WORKS of his oeuvre “music for guitar.” Five pieces are for solo instrumentation: In Between (1999), Ontologie Parallel (2001), Soliloquy (2002), Maneuver (2006), and Cursed (2008). The remainder consists of guitar duet (Ontologie Kubik, 2001), quartet (Apophis, 2001/08 and Staubzucker, 2007), or mixed instrumentation containing bowed, brass, and percussion instruments . His works for solo guitar can also be considered as chamber music in the manner of their construction.1 Elia’s style is typified by the use of differentiated sounds not only played in the conventional method but also through prepared instruments . Another characteristic is the complex rhythmical structure. His music is imbued with different timbres, leading to subtle expressions that surprise the listener with their dramatic effects. In this way, together with approaches regarding musical structure and extra-musical meanings, Elia’s music relates to ancient dramatic art-forms. Staubzucker (2007), a virtuoso piece for guitar quartet, uses not only the instrument but also the instrumentalists to simulate M 178 Perspectives of New Music percussion instruments. The composer creates myriad possibilities to provoke specific sounds by using non-usual playing techniques. The complexity of the score demands and challenges its performers to imitate the sounds of 23 percussion instruments. Additionally, the instrumentalists must create sounds with their own voices and bodies by clapping and by flipping or rubbing paper. These unconventional techniques provoke specific sounds, which create theatrical and musical expressivity. It is a piece which, undoubtedly, demands high concentration for its performance. The score hints at the composer’s purpose: “Since the happily failed meeting of Odysseus with the Sirens, all songs have ailed.”2 Powdered sugar (Ger.: Staubzucker) has a sweet taste, which is most often regarded as pleasurable. However, it can also be used in the production of highly explosive mixtures, which can bring catastrophe. Likewise, the Sirens—those beautiful creatures from Greek mythology, who played melodious songs to capture Odysseus—could become extremely dangerous, even fatal. Since the Sirens can be paralleled with powdered sugar in terms of their bipolar meaning (i.e., pleasure versus catastrophe , beauty versus death), the composer was led to give the specific title to the piece. In this guitar quartet, the guitar becomes “ill,” it is almost “destroyed,” for instead of being used in its “traditional” melodious way, it is treated as a percussion instrument. Actually, it is not the destiny of the Greek hero that attracts the composer but the means by which his literary creator, Homer, causes tension. Homer’s technique of using parallel plots, flashbacks, introductions , perspective, and narrator changes is the inspiration for Elia, who declares: “Like powdered sugar (Staubzucker) that can be used for a highly explosive alloy the sound of the guitars bursts like the ‘diseased’ songs from the sirens.”3 The piece was commissioned in memory of Wolfgang Roscher, the late dean of the Mozarteum University, and was premiered in Salzburg ’s Solitär Concert Hall in 2007. It has received over a hundred performances around Europe, South America, and the United States and was described in a review by Classical Guitar Magazine as a piece “the performance of which one is not likely to forget.”4 The Miscelanea Guitar Quartet Salzburg won several international competitions performing Staubzucker in 2008: the Competition for Contemporary Music in Salzburg, the Chamber Music Competition in Thessaloniki, and the International Guitar Competition “Luys Milan” in Valencia. Apophis is also for guitar quartet and references the Egyptian god of darkness and chaos. The constitutive musical device consists of imitations or imitations-in-pretense. Lyric parts using flageolets are disturbed Between Freedom and Determination 179 by violent unison parts. The morbid character of the piece is defined by the emphatic use of the chromatic interval. It commences in a homophonic way with two duets in rhythmic accord. The highest degree of polyphonic part-writing is focused on the middle of the piece, symbolizing the chaos which the ancient Egyptian goddess Apophis represents. Apophis, originally composed for clarinet quartet in 2001, was recommissioned for guitar by the Miscelanea Guitar Quartet and premiered at the Aula Magna Rectorado of the Carlos III...

Writing Modern Ireland, ed. by Catherine E. Paul

Reviewed by: Writing Modern Ireland, ed. by Catherine E. Paul Martha C. Carpentier (bio) WRITING MODERN IRELAND, edited by Catherine E. Paul. Clemson: Clemson University Press, 2015. 268 pp. $120.00. In an era when publishers are imposing stricter limits on the number of previously printed essays they will allow to be included in essay collections, one has to wonder about the decision-making behind Writing Modern Ireland, published by the Clemson University Press and edited by Catherine E. Paul. Sixteen of the nineteen essays in the collection have been previously published, also by the Clemson University Center for Electronic and Digital Publishing, in a special issue of the South Carolina Review, "Ireland in the Arts and Humanities."1 This is a colloquia issue, derived from papers given at the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Southern Regional American Conference for Irish Studies, held at Clemson University. In addition, the complete issue is available online, since the South Carolina Review is digitized, through the EBSCO subscription service. So why a book? There is nothing thematically or theoretically linking these essays cohesively together, other than that they are all about Irish literature. To apply the term "modern" is a bit disingenuous for essays covering the work of W. B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Kate O'Brien, Mary O'Donnell, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Seamus Heaney, Michael Coady, Keith Ridgway, Anne Enright, the Cuala Press, and the challenges of editing Irish poetry in America. It is not [End Page 722] enough to state that all of the essays are about twentieth-century Irish literature, nor is it convincing to claim, as Paul does in her introduction, that the "volume takes up questions of what it means to write modern Ireland" or that the essays are united by themes of nationhood or national identity (vii). Virtually all twentieth-century Irish literature deals with national identity in some form, either explicitly or implicitly, constructively or deconstructively, so as an organizing principle it means little at this point. Paul more accurately concludes that "even as we identify thematic strands among the contributions, it becomes clear that no one essay belongs to a single strand" (vii). In other words, the volume is a hodge-podge. Nevertheless, there are many fine essays here that deserve reprinting. In particular, there are eight strong discussions of Yeats, not organized in any apparent order but mostly focusing on his late work, beginning with Ronald Schuchard's beautifully written "Yeats in Extremis," in which the author considers Yeats's lifelong association of death with "tragic joy and ecstasy," from his earliest essays on magic through his elegiac ennobling of "Pearse and Connolly … Robert Gregory, and others" to his final "dream visions of Cuchulain" (4, 11). We also learn much about the aged Yeats from Jonathan Allison's "'The Old Moon-Phaser': Yeats, Auden, and MacNeice." After a brief biographical opening, Allison explicates several late poems before turning to Auden's and MacNeice's evolving attitudes toward the master from the 1930s to the end of their lives. Wim Van Mierlo challenges several critical truisms about Joyce and Yeats, first by separating the historical facts from the iconic fictions of their first meeting, then by examining the prosody and diction of Chamber Music and minimizing the perceived Yeatsian influences; Van Mierlo concludes that the true "affinity" between Joyce and Yeats lies in "their conceptions of art and artist" (55). Two essays discuss Yeats's The Only Jealousy of Emer from different critical approaches, both contributing in interesting ways to an understanding of that play.2 Alexandra Poulain analyzes the theatrical strategies Yeats employs to embody Cuchulain's absence onstage: the doubling of his mask, his representation through Emer's speech, and his restoration by Bricriu, who ironically turns Emer into a "spectator" as well as a specter, a "tragic heroine whose renouncement means a kind of death" (103). On the other hand, Ken Monteith uses disability studies to explore how Bricriu's withered arm represents not so much his evil nature but "his alterity, and his role as a bringer of truth" (105). Monteith's attempt to establish Emer's sacrifice as a form of disability is less convincing; however, he concludes with the...

Vietnam: Le don ca tai tu: Musique de chambre du delta du Mékong / The Don Ca Tai To: Chamber Music ofthe Mekong Delta. 2014. INEDIT / Maison des Cultures du Monde W 260148. Recorded by Trď Hai Đăng and Đoàn Thanh Tùng. Annotated by Nguyņ Thùy Tiên, 28-page booklet with notes in French and English. French translation by Pierre

Vietnam: Le don ca tai tu: Musique de chambre du delta du Mékong / The Don Ca Tai To: Chamber Music ofthe Mekong Delta. 2014. INEDIT / Maison des Cultures du Monde W 260148. Recorded by Trď Hai Đăng and Đoàn Thanh Tùng. Annotated by Nguyņ Thùy Tiên, 28-page booklet with notes in French and English. French translation by Pierre Bois. Colour photographs, map, reference list. CD, 16 tracks (75:37). Recorded in the field between October 2010 and January 2011. - Volume 47

Collaborative Composing in High School String Chamber Music Ensembles

The purpose of this study was to examine collaborative composing in high school string chamber music ensembles. Research questions included the following: (a) How do high school string instrumentalists in chamber music ensembles use verbal and musical forms of communication to collaboratively compose a piece of music? (b) How do selected variables (music performance and composing experience, quality of group collaboration, gender grouping, perceptions of the project) influence the process of composing collaboratively in a high school chamber music ensemble? and (c) What variables influence the quality of the resulting collaborative composition? High school string instrumentalists ( N = 37) formed eight chamber music ensembles. Participants completed a presurvey regarding music performance and composing experiences, were videotaped while composing chamber music compositions, and completed a postsurvey regarding their project experiences. All groups spent a larger percentage of time engaged in task-directed musical communication than in verbal communication. Balance of collaboration had a strong relationship with composition quality. Mixed-gender groups had a stronger balance of collaboration than same-gender groups. Postsurvey data indicated that enjoyment of the project was found to have a strong relationship with composition quality.

Oratorio by Khaçadur Avedisyan (review)

Reviewed by: Oratorioby Khaçadur Avedisyan Esra Berkman (bio) Oratorio. Khaçadur Avedisyan [Khachatur Avetisyan], lyrics by Ludvig Duryan. The Ensemble of National Instruments of the Armenian National Radio, conducted by Manvel Beglaryan; soloists Ararat Petrosyan ( shvi), Angela Atabekyan ( kanun). The Chamber Music Choir of the Armenian National Radio, conducted by Tigran Hekekyan; soloists Araks Mansuryan (soprano), Arzas Vokanyan (tenor). KALAN Music Publishing. Produced by Hasan Saltık, 2009. One CD with eight pages of Turkish and English notes (34 minutes). $15.00. Released by KALAN Music in 2009, this CD set is the first presentation of Avetisyan’s Oratoriofor listeners in Turkey. 1Two earlier releases were in 1999 by Editions NECH (Paris) and in 2004 by Narek Music Publishing (Yerevan). The seven-movement, symphonic work was composed in 1985 by Khachatur Avetisyan for the 70th Anniversary Commemoration of the Medz Yeghern(Great catastrophe). Medz Yeghernrefers to the forced deportation of Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire by the Ottoman government in 1915. These events are considered part of the deportation policy by Turks, yet are memorialized by Armenians as genocide because many Armenians lost their lives. Composers can sometimes be perceptive to events that compose a part of and have significance for the collective memory of their time. The 1812 Overturecomposed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to commemorate the defense of motherland Russia against Napoleon’s invading troops in 1812 and performed in Moscow in 1882 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the event is one such example of this musical phenomenon. In the same vein, Krysztof Penderecki dedicated his Polish Requiem, composed from 1980 to 1984 and expanded in 1993 and again in 2005, to the heroes and victims of Polish history (Bolesławska-Lewandowska 2011, 181). These two examples reveal composers with perceptiveness similar to that shown by Avetisyan in composing his work Oratorio. In order to fully comprehend the Armenian phenomenon, it is critical to understand the significance of the events of 1915 in the collective memory of Armenians. The events of 1915 were not commemorated officially in Armenia until 1965. The Republic of Turkey and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk were treated as [End Page 160]allies in Lenin’s policies because of their oppositional stance toward Western imperialism. During Stalin’s rule, there were attempts to change the borders between Turkey and Armenia, but the onset of the Cold War once World War II ended and Turkey’s siding with the United States rendered all attempts to change the border impossible. During the rule of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, Armenian communist leaders seized autonomy from the central Soviet leaders. On April 24, 1965, the 50th anniversary of the Medz Yeghernwas commemorated officially at the Yerevan Opera House. Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms lent more liberty to Armenians and other nationalities of the USSR to enjoy their national identities and culture. At the time Avetisyan composed his Oratorioin the mid-1980s, the Soviet policy toward different ethnicities reflected relative moderation (Suny 2005). Avetisyan’s Oratoriomakes direct reference to nineteenth-century Armenian musical traditions. He employs musical ideas and instruments associated with the ashughner, Armenian traveling musicians. These minstrels used wind instruments such as the zurna, duduk, shvi, blul, and shepherd’s pipe, as well as string instruments like the tar, kemenche, kanun, and santur(Muratyan 1970, 17). Armenians gradually became familiar with European musical traditions as well—a trend that gained momentum after they became part of the Russian Empire (ibid., 518). Following the establishment of the republic as part of the USSR in 1920, the Armenians founded their folk music ensembles in increasingly similar organizational form to that of European academic music orchestras (Prudyan 2001, 42, 91). They also removed microtonal or modal intervals from their music systems while gradually incorporating Western harmony and polyphonic practices into Armenian folk traditions (ibid., 47). Although microtonal intervals were eliminated, folk music melodies in stylized forms suggesting those modalities are still found in the works of many Armenian composers, as is the case in Oratorio. As noticeable in the recording reviewed here, Avetisyan’s use of folk music instruments, the shviand the kanun, should be regarded as a conscious...

Fact and Fiction in the Life Story of Luigi von Kunits

Luigi von Kunits (1870–1931) had a substantial impact on classical music in Toronto. Born and educated in Vienna, he emigrated to Chicago in 1893 and then moved to Pittsburgh in 1896 as the concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Orchestra. After 17 years in the USA, he returned to Vienna for two years, before moving to Toronto to take up a teaching position at the Canadian Academy of Music. From the time of his arrival in Toronto in 1912 to his death in 1931 he was active on many fronts: teaching violin, composing, editing The Canadian Journal of Music (1914–1919), performing as a chamber musician and violin soloist, and serving as the conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1922–1931). To many he seemed the very embodiment of the great Central European musical tradition: a pupil of Bruckner and Hanslick, associated with Brahms and acquainted with celebrated European musicians and composers. Much of what we know about Kunits derives from statements issuing from the musician himself or his immediate circle, with little or no corroborating evidence to support his assertions. As a result, it is difficult at this remove to separate fact from fiction. This article takes stock of the sources of information that are available and attempts to construct as accurate an account of his life and activities as possible.

Tríos para dos violines y violonchelo. Series VI y VIII ed. by Lluís Bertran Xirau, and: Cuartetos de cuerda L184–L199 ed. by Miguel Ángel Marín, Jorge Fonseca (review)

Gaetano Brunetti. Trios para dos violines y violonchelo. Series VI y VIII. Edicion critica Lluis Bertran Xirau. (Musica Hispana, Serie B: Musica Instrumental, 48.) Madrid: Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, 2012. [Introd. in Spa., Eng. (including editorial criteria, description of the sources, and critical notes), p. vii-xxx; scores, p. 3-283. ISMN 979-09013192-5-7 (recte, 979-0-9013192-7-1). 35 [euro].] Gaetano Brunetti. Cuartetos de cuerda LI 84-El 99. Edicion critica Miguel Angel Marin, Jorge Fonseca. (Musica Hispana, Serie B: Musica Instrumental, 51.) Madrid: Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, 2012. [Introd. in Spa., Eng. (including description of the sources, and editorial criteria), p. ix-xl; scores, p. 3-392. ISMN 979-0-9013192-5-7. 40 [euro].] It can truly be said that Gaetano Brunetti (1744-1798) has been a discovery of American musicology; at a time when the composer had remained forgotten for some 150 years, the slow process of recovering Brunetti's music was set in motion by Newell Jenkins, who recorded three of his symphonies in the 1950s, thanks to the Haydn Society, and it was mainly in the United States where Brunetti's music was first published through the 1960s; also, the first two doctoral dissertations and the first master's thesis on the composer were also written in North American universities. But Brunetti remains an obscure composer in the European panorama of the late eighteenth century, partly due to the scarcity of recordings, scores, and a long-standing and sustained scholarly tradition. It may be useful to remember that Brunetti and Luigi Boccherini were the main composers active in Spain in the second half of the eighteenth century. Both were Italians and moved to Spain early in their careers, entering the service of the royal family in 1770 and 1769, respectively. Brunetti followed multiple career paths: he was a violinist in the Royal Chapel, maestro de musica to the Prince of Asturias, chamber musician, composer and, although he published only four of his works, he was the main provider of music at the Spanish court between 1770 and 1798. His extensive compositional oeuvre includes seventy-four sonatas, thirteen duos, forty-seven string trios, fifty quartets, sixty-six quintets, twelve sextets, forty-one symphonies and orchestral works, and twenty-five vocal works of different kinds. Together with Boccherini, Brunetti was the most prolific author of symphonies and chamber music in Spain in the last third of the eighteenth century. Nevertheless, only twenty-four of his works have been recorded in the last twenty years, while four of his symphonies (the releases from the 1950s) are hard to find. At the same time, the scarcity of modern editions of Brunetti's compositions has effectively limited the number of recordings of his music and its diversity: there are two versions of symphonies no. 22 and no. 23, and three versions of no. 33, while only five symphonies (out of thirty-six) are commercially available nowadays. I believe this situation is already changing. In 2012 and 2013 two recordings have been released (Gaetano Brunetti: String Quartets, performed by Ensemble Carmen Veneris [Lindoro NL-3011]; and Retrato de maniatico: Arias y sinfonias de Gaetano Brunetti, performed by the Orquesta barroca de Sevilla, cond. Chrlstophe Coin, soprano Raquel Andueza [OBS 08]); and another one is due this year (Gaetano Brunetti: Divertimenti para trio de. cuerda, Serie IV, performed by Ensemble Carmen Veneris [Lindoro NL-3021]). This equals the number of Brunetti compact discs recorded in the previous seventeen years: 3 Sinfonien performed by Concerto Koln (Capriccio 10489 [1994]); Siring Quartets, performed by the Schuppanzigh Quartett (CPO 999 780-2 [2001]); and Sei quintetti per due violini, viola, fagotto e violoncello, op. 2, performed by the Quartetto Sandro Materasi with Paolo Carlini (Tactus TC742701 [2002]). The same goes for the editions: Newell Jenkins published twelve symphonies in the 1960s and 1970s (these were the first Brunetti editions since 1776: II maniatico, Sinfonia no. …

Fanfares and finesse: a performer's guide to trumpet history and literature

List of Illustrations Author's Note Acknowledgements 1. Fanfares and Finesse: An Introduction 2. The Natural Trumpet 3. The Modern Baroque Trumpet with Vent Holes 4. The Cornetto 5. The Slide Trumpet 6. The Quest for Chromaticism: Hand-Stopping, Keys, and Valves 7. Bugles, Flugels, and Horns 8. The Cornet 9. Changing of the Guard: Trumpets in Transition 10. Smaller Trumpets 11. Pitch, Temperament, and Transposition 12. Early Repertoire and Performance Practice 13. Baroque Repertoire 14. Classical Repertoire 15. Signals, Calls, and Fanfares 16. Strike up the Band 17. The Modern Orchestral Trumpet 18. Jazz and the Trumpet 19. Solo Repertoire after 1900 20. Brass Chamber Music 21. Trumpeting in the Twenty-First Century Appendix A: List of Names and Dates Appendix B: Significant Events in Trumpets History Appendix C: Selected Recordings: An Annotated List Appendix D: Museums with Instrument Collections Appendix E: Period Instrument Resources Notes Bibliography Index

Speak the Music: Robert Mann and the Mysteries of Chamber Music Directed by Allan Miller (review)

Speak the Music: Robert Mann and the Mysteries of Chamber Music Directed by Allan Miller (review)

Harmonious Healthcare Teams: What Healthcare Professionals Can and Cannot Learn from Chamber Musicians

Background: As healthcare becomes increasingly team based, we need new ways of educating trainees to be collaborative team members. One approach is to look to other professions that have developed highly effective ways of collaborating. Doctors have already turned to musicians for specific lessons; however, as of yet, there has been little empirical study of the ways that musicians interact in ensembles, or analysis of how this might provide insights for healthcare. Our hypothesis is that healthcare teams might learn from understanding collaborative practices of chamber musicians.Methods and Findings: We undertook an exploratory study of professional musicians playing in non-conducted ensembles. We used semi-structured interviews to explore factors the musicians considered important for effective group function. The interviews were transcribed and coded thematically. We identified three prominent themes that have relevance for healthcare teams.Conclusions: The highly individual nature of each musical group’s identity suggests that a focus on generic interprofessional education skills development may be insufficient. Furthermore, musicians’ understanding of the fundamental role of non-melodic parts provides the possibility of more nuanced leadership models. Finally, essential differences between musicians’ interactions in rehearsals and performances highlight the importance of varied forms of group interactions.

A Study of Sustainable Chamber Music Culture (Punglyubang) and the Identity of the Performers and Audience of Chamber Music Scenes －Focused on the Case of Chamber Music Scenes in Jeonbuk Province

전통사회에서는 적지 않은 지역에서 줄풍류가 전승되어 왔지만 지금은 익산, 정읍, 전주, 부안, 구례, 대전 등지에서 활동하고 있는 풍류 집단에 의해서 명맥이 유지되고 있다. 음악분야 이기는 하지만 경향(京鄕)간의 이분법적 선율 분석 연구는 서울을 근거로 발달한 음악이 전국적으로 확산되어 있다는 사실을 알게 하는 이상으로 이해의 차원을 높이지 못한다. 풍류 집단 구성원 중에서도 전통적인 가치를 중요하게 강조하는 몇몇 회원들은 풍류를 “멋있게 놀면서 주위로부터 인정받을 수 있고, 나눔의 정신으로 전환시켜낼 수 있는 문화”가 되어야 한다고 말한다. 즉 진정한 의미에서 풍류음악과 풍류방 문화의 전승은 지역주민들과의 관계에서 이루어낼 수 있는 것이다. 작품의 음악적 수준을 떠나서 왜 풍류방 문화가 보전되어야 하는지 시대적 소명과 명분이 필요하며, 풍류 집단의 지속은 어떤 문화적 의미를 갖고 있는지 살필 수 있어야 한다고 생각한다. 본 연구는 앞서 밝힌 연구목적을 해결하기 위해서 현재 활동하고 있는 풍류집단들의 사례를 비교 연구하는 것을 목적으로 하고 있다. 또 다른 한편으로는 집단 유지의 작동원리가 무엇인지 어떠한 경험을 통해 현대적인 의미의 새로운 ‘풍류방 문화’를 창조하고 있는지 분석하는 것을 지향하고 있다. 본 연구는 지역적인 배경을 둔 전통음악이 전승되는 과정에서 음악적 변이뿐만 아니라 다양하게 발현되는 문화적 특성을 밝히는 학술작업이다. 무형문화유산에 대한 새로운 해석과 방법론 더불어 전통의 지속가능한 계승의 필요성에 대한 인식이 높아지는 요즈음 기?예능적인 측면만을 강조한 연구만으로는 그 소임을 다할 수 없다. 지식의 본질이나 내용을 온전히 살피기 위해서는 현재 ‘풍류음악’이라는 문화적 표현물 보다는 ‘풍류방 문화’에 내포되어 있는 상징성과 그것이 현대에 와서도 매우 유효한 것으로 살아남아 전승되는 맥락을 이해해야 한다.

David Moritz Michael: Complete Wind Chamber Music. By David Moritz Michael. Edited by Nola Reed Knouse. Recent Researches in American Music, vol. A59; Music of the United States of America, vol. 16. Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2006.

David Moritz Michael: Complete Wind Chamber Music. By David Moritz Michael. Edited by Nola Reed Knouse. Recent Researches in American Music, vol. A59; Music of the United States of America, vol. 16. Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2006. - Volume 8 Issue 2