Music Scene Research Articles

Imported Sophistication: The Ballets Russes Tours of the 1930s–50s and Toronto's Quest for Cultural Significance

Imported Sophistication: The Ballets Russes Tours of the 1930s–50s and Toronto's Quest for Cultural Significance

Guest Editor's Introduction: The Ballets Russes in North America

Guest Editor's Introduction: The Ballets Russes in North America

Why does a creative city need its local music? A study of the contemporary Wroclaw jazz scene


 
 
 The aim of the article is to look at serious musical leisure activities in selected places in Wroclaw, in order to explain their significant contribution to making the capital of lower Silesia a creative city. Taking the perspective of research on music scenes and leisure studies, the author tries to demonstrate that the music scene in Wroclaw, although it didn’t develop its original sound, functions in a very effective way, providing a space for personal development, shaping the identity of individuals and the entire city. The discussed places not only serve as a physical space for a performance but primarily are communities based on internal and external cooperation. They are real “meeting places,” as the promotional slogan of Wroclaw says, for audiences and performers, amateurs, and professionals alike. The article is based on research on the Wroclaw music scene conducted since 2019. live performances that took place before the COvID-19 pandemic and between subsequent lockdowns were taken into account.
 
 

‘Nothing to practice’: Julius Eastman, queer composition, and Black sonic geographies

I trace the musical performances and life of Black, queer composer Julius Eastman, considering Eastman’s oeuvre as a heterotopia defined by both revolutionary freedom and tragic capture. Eastman lived on the margins of 1970s and 1980s avant-garde minimalist music scenes unable and unwilling to comport to white norms of esthetic innovation and cultural acceptability. Eastman’s infusion of camp performativity with minimalist music and his Blackness and queerness challenged (and ultimately nullified) the avant-garde esthetic claims made by white composers. Whereas the white avant-garde insisted upon a tabula rasa, a separation from history to create (supposedly) new sonic forms, Eastman’s melding of genres, provocative song titles, playful disposition to the world, and his very presence in concert halls and university auditoriums challenged the racialized norms embedded within minimalist music. Eastman ruptured assumed codes of composition and performance yet was punished for these transgressions, barred from work and ultimately dying alone and homeless at the age of 49. Pursuing a creative life encased by erasure exemplifies the ways in which Blackness is parantological, constantly escaping from the fixity of racial ontologies that erase Blackness in the name of white supremacy. Examining Eastman’s artistic work and conflict with minimalist music prefigures the contemporary moment in which efforts to prioritize materiality, affective reality, and being over culture, signification, and discourse often belie white racialized standpoints. Intertwined with these theoretical concerns, I sketch how Eastman disrupts overwrought notions of scale, direction, rigidity, and intent through what Camilla Hawthorne calls ‘everyday practices of Black space-making’.

Ecstasy tablets: Rapid identification and determination of enantiomeric excess of MDMA

The consumption of psychoactive substances is a worldwide problem and the sheer number of their seizures is alarming. These substances also include the synthetic drug 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA), also known as ecstasy, which is very often abused and widespread around the world. The number of ecstasy tablet seizures testifies to their popularity, especially on the dance music scene. One chiral center can be found in the MDMA molecule and therefore it may occur as two enantiomers, which are characterized by different physiological activity. Therefore, knowledge of the enantiomeric excess in the seized tablets is highly desirable. Within the work, dimensional and weight analysis were performed supported by photographic documentation. In addition, Raman and infrared (IR) spectroscopy were used to verify the content of the active substance in the tablets. Subsequently, the electronic circular dichroism (ECD) was used to construct a calibration curve for the determination of the enantiomeric excess of MDMA in the seized tablets. The obtained results show that most of the seized tablets contained MDMA as a racemate.

Influence of the Listening Environment on Recognition of Immersive Reproduction of Orchestral Music Sound Scenes

Influence of the Listening Environment on Recognition of Immersive Reproduction of Orchestral Music Sound Scenes

The Role of the Third Program of Radio Belgrade in the Presentation, Promotion, and Expansion of Serbian Avant-Garde Music in the 1960s and 1970s

This article details the various activities at the Third Program of Radio Belgrade that contributed to the presentation, promotion, and expansion of ‘new music’ in Serbia (then a constituent republic of the SFR Yugoslavia) during the 1960s and 1970s. These activities ranged from the foundation of the first professional Electronic Studio in Serbia in 1972 to the organisation of concerts by soloists and ensembles, mostly from abroad, specialising in performing the most advanced contemporary music at the time. Moreover, the music broadcast on the Third Program inspired the most adventurous Serbian composers to embark on mastering the newest compositional techniques and the latest technologies of that time. My aim is to discuss the numerous ways in which the Third Program contributed to the development and flourishing of the avant-garde music scene in Serbia.

Serbian Late Twentieth-Century Neo-Avant-Garde: Minimalist Music by Vladimir Tošić and Miroslav Miša Savić

This article examines selected minimalist compositions by Vladimir Tošić and Miroslav Miša Savić, two members of the neo-avant-garde composers group, Opus 4, whose activities created a unique artistic paradigm on the Serbian art music scene. While the group's work clearly referred to experimental trends in the United States (minimalism, Fluxus, multimedia, and conceptual art), it also retained a significant ‘trace’ of European post-war modernism, embodied in the group's commitment to serialist modes of organising musical material. Thus, the ‘integral minimalism’ of Savić and Tošić (within the unique aesthetics of Opus 4) unites both European and American post-war neo-avant-garde concepts. This study situates Tošić's and Savić's minimalist works within the Serbian late twentieth-century ‘new music’ context and is dedicated to the neo-avant-garde minimalist oeuvres of the two composers.

Digital feminisms in Palestinian hip hop

Hip hop is central to the Palestinian ‘alternative’ (badila) music scene. Recently, some rappers in the scene started making feminist tracks and sharing them using video-sharing and social media platforms. In this article, I analyse artists’ music videos as well as interviews with musicians to examine what happens when hip hop gets feminist and goes online in the Palestinian context. My argument is twofold. First, I suggest that rappers circulate songs and videos on social media that transgress gender and sexuality norms. Second, however, while these productions do critical identity work in Palestine, they also often iterate liberal ‘solutions’ to structural asymmetries. I therefore conclude that Palestinian hip hop mediates contradictory feminisms as it travels online. Neither dystopic nor utopian, digital culture makes room for gendered critiques that coexist and compete with depoliticized ideas about liberal personhood and individual agency.

Place-bound attributes in music scenes. Evolution of the independent electronica music scene in Brisbane since the mid-1980s

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the evolution of a small electronic music scene in Brisbane from the mid-1980s to the present. Drawing upon the concept of scene and highlighting its local and trans-local dimensions, we assess how the place-bound attributes of Brisbane (cultural and political history, climate, built form) are still relevant when analyzing the emergence and development of an electronic music scene. The place-bound attributes of Brisbane played a strong role in shaping this scene: the sub-tropical climate enabling outdoor parties; the development of a strong trans-local character due to isolation; ‘scene hopping’ strategies from electronic artists, as well as bands; the hostile political and social environment that characterized Queensland, have all influenced the development of its electronic scene and informed the local/interlocal/virtual dimensions of this scene.

Tomorrowland Around the World 2020: A Virtual Pilgrimage

The year 2020 was devastating to electronic music festivals and their attendees as the COVID-19 pandemic forced most festivals to cancel their events. Because attendance at these festivals is a sacred experience for many of their participants, this manifested as a loss for participants. Tomorrowland, however, created a virtual festival through filming DJ performances and working with visual effects teams. Tomorrowland Around the World functioned to constitute a global public. This paper will situate the electronic music scene in a spiritual context that promotes the well-being of its participants. Next, the paper will explain how the DJ performances worked with the visual production teams to create a sacred virtual space that promoted unity, love, life, and a general sense of well-being.

Creative Crisis? Performing Artists in Vienna’s Live Music Scene in the Age of COVID-19

Cultural workers are affected more than many other working populations by the pandemic COVID-19. Especially, live music as an antidote to crisis highlights the benefits of performing art in times of isolation; a practice that risks normalizing the idea that musicians are performing for free. This article discusses the intersection of live music with social and cultural issues, focusing on Vienna’s popular music scene. I begin my inquiry with an insight into the area of live music research, based on the works of Philip Auslander and Simon Frith. Throughout the text, I turn a critical eye to the broad impacts of the pandemic on music-making, the ways in which the potentials of emerging communities are leading to changed forms of appreciation, and emphasize the “sense of community” (Auslander) by way of three case studies. Ultimately, I aim to shed light on the strategies through which musicians deal with the crisis.

JOSEPH BOULOGNE, THE CHEVALIER DE ST GEORGE: MUCH FORGOTTEN BLACK COMPOSER OF THE 18TH CENTURY FRANCE

Joseph Boulogne, the Chevalier de St George is one of the interesting and fascinating characters of the 18th century France. He was one of the first black musicians of his time. He was a master of fencing, a classical music composer, personal music teacher to Marie Antoinette, an active abolitionist and a colonel to the Legion of Saint Georges, the first black regiment formed in France and Europe. The aim of this research to introduce this mostly forgotten and underestimated violinist and composer to the Turkish reader. Among the research done the course of this work, very little information was found in Turkish about this black composer. To be precise a badly translated version of what is found on Wikipedia. It is hoped that this black composer will be introduced to the Turkish music scene and his works will be of interest to the readers.

Delocalization of Sound Recording and Development of Transnational Networks: Music Production in the Post-COVID Era

The recording studio traditionally constitutes a part of a network which helps to define the concept of the music scene. The digital revolution has caused the definitive uprooting of the physical device, providing a concept of space in which new creative scenarios are generated within a virtual community. The global pandemic has forced people to work “in the box” a term we associate with performing the mixing and mastering processes inside the computer and without the use of any external processing device, using network connections, even among the most sceptical professionals. This fact poses a paradigm shift in the relationships (both in a professional and human level) between producer, sound engineer and artist, definitively modifying the traditional methods of music production. The main objective of this research is to analyse, using a non-experimental descriptive methodology based on non-participant systematic observation, the influence of digital development of music production and the resignification of the recording studio and the concept of scene, from the new reality that is generated in the professional environment of music production by the impact of COVID-19.

“SUICIDE” ON THE KHARKIV STAGE: MUSIC AND STAGE READING BY S. PASICHNYK – H. FROLOV

Statement of the problem. The article examines the theatrical heritage of Les Kurbas, the founder of Shevchenko Kharkiv Academic Ukrainian Drama Theatre (originally called «Berezil»). Les Kurbas is the reformer of the Ukrainian theater; his theatrical ideas demonstrate a new understanding of the synthesis of the arts. He concentrated his creative aspirations not only on acting, but also on all components of the performance, in particular on music. The paper examines methodically the application of the basic principles of Les Kurbas Theatre – the co-authorship of the director and composer – in Kharkiv theatre. The article also studies the works by H. Frolov – talented Kharkiv composer. The critical legacy dedicated to the works of Les Kurbas does not fully illuminate the uniqueness of his views regarding directing and the originality of the musical language in the genre of dramatic performance (CherkashynaHubarenko, 2002; Hordieiev, 2003; Yermakova, 2012; Labinska, 2012). There are a number of works devoted to the issues of music in theater (Kurysheva, 1984; Kozyurenko, 1986; Tarshis, 2010; Matsepura, 2013; Lesakova, 2017; Oseeva, 2019; Kovalchuk, 2017; Nurtazin, 2013; Spagnolo, 2017). The novelty of our research. The paper investigates musical component in the current practice of Shevchenko Kharkiv Academic Ukrainian Drama Theatre and creative method of its leading composer H. Frolov. The aim of the article is to reveal the interconnection of music with the stage elements of the performance. The study of the stage play “Suicide” in Kharkiv Drama Theater required the implementation a number of scientific approaches: historical and genetic, studying the modern function of music in the analyzed dramatic performance in Kharkiv Drama Theater, the origins of which go back to Kurbas “Berezil”; a comparative analysis, revealing the ways of preserving old traditions in modern performance; genre analysis, investigating the embodiment of the comedy dell arte in the musical scenes; stylistic analysis, revealing the composer’s thinking in making the director’s decision regarding stagecraft. The presentation of the main material. The article analyzes a musical component in the stage performance “Suicide” based on the play by Nikolay Erdman (1928), reinterpreted by our contemporaries – the stage director Stepan Pasichnyk and the composer Henadii Frolov. The work reviews the production itself and the acting troupe. The article outlines the inheritance and development of the traditions in Les Kurbas Theatre regarding the mutual work of the composer and director, aimed at the organic fusion of the stage action and musical accompaniment of the performance. Conclusions. Dramaturgical and genre-compositional analyzes of the performance detected such distinctive features of the individual style of H. Frolov as: musical organization of the stage with one intonation, which, depending on the drama, can be flexible and transformative, acquiring new meanings and qualities and thus making the musical development monothematic; unity of the figurative and semantic layers of music with the director’s concept of the performance; transformation of genre features of tragic farce and commedia dell’arte.

Spending Time Together Outside of the Clubs: Cross‐gender Rapport Building and Interview Recruitment in Music Scene Ethnography

This article examines the politics of cross‐gender interview recruitment in popular music scene ethnography. It specifically focuses on how complexities surrounding gender, race, and presumed intention impact efforts to build rapport and recruit interviewees. To do this, I present a series of accounts from my dissertation research—conducted twenty years ago—and reflect on the challenges I faced as a straight, cisgender, Black male researcher interacting with (non‐Black) women within various hip‐hop nightlife settings. In the process, I introduce the concepts of intimate counterpublics and aggregate counterpublics as means to spatially mapping different degrees of subcultural investment (based on levels of familiarity, intimacy, and trust) and the types of connections they enable. I conclude by offering suggestions, for researchers working within popular music scenes or other youth‐oriented spaces, on how to negotiate such challenges. I also propose that ethnographers should be more attentive to nuances of interview requests and how embodied situational research transactions can serve as bases for ethnographic understanding.

Positively Monstrous!

Positively Monstrous!

Nonmusicians as “Pillars” and “Icons” of US DIY Music Scenes

Nonmusicians as “Pillars” and “Icons” of US DIY Music Scenes

Louth Contemporary Music Society, ‘We Sing for the Future’, 14–18 April 2021, online

The Louth Contemporary Music Society festival, based in Dundalk, only six miles from the border with Northern Ireland, is now an established presence on the contemporary music scene. Thanks to its founder, Eamonn Quinn, it attracts both local musicians and major international figures and also issues CDs. This year, the programme featured a strong Irish connection and a lot of music that is quiet, meditative and minimal. Music for guitar formed another theme, with new work by the Norwegian guitarist/composer Fredrik Rasten and the Cuban Leo Brouwer.

Becoming and being goth: How goths remember the scene’s transition from the eighties into the nineties

Goth emerged from post-punk, and by the 1980s became an identifiable feature of the popular music scene and wider popular culture. Fuelled by the success of bands such as the Sisters of Mercy, goth music and culture spread around the world, interacting with wider alternative, gothic fashions. At the end of the 1980s, goth reached a peak of interest followed by retrenchment into the alternative, subcultural spaces from which it had emerged. Nonetheless, it survives. In this article, we interview goths who became active in the 1980s and who remain engaged in order to understand how they became goths and what goth meant to them then. Using memory work, we are interested in how these goths construct their own histories and mythologies, and what this might tell us about the political and sociological importance of goth as a counter-hegemonic space at a time of globalization, consumption and commodification. We explore how they remember goth emerging from the post-punk scene with its radical politics and alternative, anti-mainstream culture. We examine the way these individuals remember becoming goth and their awareness of being in a goth scene. We then show how they remember and construct stories of when goth retrenched in an alternative underground that reconstructed the counter-hegemonic politics of punk and post-punk. Finally, we show what happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s and argue that the scene, or that part of the scene represented by our goths, is following a dialectical path carved out of the neo-Gramscian concept of negotiation when faced with the culturally and aesthetically hegemonic effect of a dominant culture.