Musical Landscape Research Articles

Making an American Opera Career: Conductor May Valentine (1890–1974) and a Woman's Role(s) in the Business of Opera

Making an American Opera Career: Conductor May Valentine (1890–1974) and a Woman's Role(s) in the Business of Opera

The Topological Model in the Works of Yuasa Jōji

The oeuvre of Japanese composer Yuasa Jōji holds a singular place in the contemporary musical landscape. From the artist collective Jikken Kōbō, in which he took part during the 1950s, to his later pieces for large orchestra, and through his innovative electroacoustic and mixed-music, Yuasa single-handedly explored a vast number of musical issues across the twentieth century. This article aims to shed a new light on the composer’s substantial musical output through his interest in topological theories. It will be a question of showing through examples, the different outcomes of the application of this mathematical model in the musical domain, all the while demonstrating how it takes place within his nexus of influences, as a centre towards which many other of Yuasa’s interests converge.

Gamelan Girls: Gender, Childhood, and Politics in Balinese Music Ensembles

Gamelan Girls: Gender, Childhood, and Politics in Balinese Music Ensembles

Unleashing the Untapped Choir: AI Opens Doors to New Music Education Markets

Traditionally limited by geography, finances, and physical boundaries, music education often excludes many aspiring musicians. This untapped potential, a vast "choir" yearning to create and learn, remains largely inaccessible. Artificial intelligence (AI) emerges as a game-changer, disrupting this static landscape and opening doors to new music education markets. This paper explores how AI-powered platforms and tools democratize music education, reaching previously underserved communities, non-traditional learners, and individuals with disabilities. We analyze the market segments AI unlocks, examining the diversity of learning styles and cultural contexts it caters to. Additionally, we delve into the economic impact of AI music education, assessing its potential for creators, educators, and technology providers. Moving beyond theoretical possibilities, we explore specific AI solutions like personalized learning algorithms, accessible composition tools, and virtual teaching assistants. We examine their effectiveness, functionalities, and ethical considerations, ensuring responsible use and inclusivity in AI-powered music education. Through concrete case studies, we showcase successful initiatives leveraging AI to reach diverse audiences and illustrate the real-world impact of these innovations. This paper paints a vibrant picture of a future where AI empowers musical expression for all. We call upon stakeholders to embrace this transformative technology and orchestrate a symphony of inclusivity, unlocking the boundless creativity of the "untapped choir" and enriching the global musical landscape.

Some Additional Notes on the Ancient Side Flute

Abstract Literary, archaeological, and iconographic testimonies attest to the side flute as an instrument that, from the 4th century BC to the 3rd century AD, played its part in the Greco-Roman musical landscape. Building on the conclusions of recent studies, this contribution aims to add to the discourse some further elements regarding both the panorama that the sources allow us to draw and the structural and acoustic features of the ancient side flute. A detailed analysis of the sources sheds light on more than a name, more than one typology, more than a performative context, for an instrument whose life extended far from the bucolic cliché. Plus, the side-blown reedless headjoint is a distinctive feature of the ancient side flute, documenting an experimental journey through acoustic effectiveness that sees eye to eye with the solutions adopted by modern craftsmanship to enhance sonority and focus.

When Brazil Got the Blues: The Diffusion of Blues in Brazil

Thisarticlewillexamine theintroduction of blues in Brazil (1985-1992), a phenomenon thathas not yet been addressed in scholarly spheres until now. By highlighting the processes of globalization and the Brazilian blues band from Riode Janeiro, Blues Etílicos, I ask what were the spaces, places, and venues that helped to disseminate blues throughout Brazil? How does an African-American-based genre adopted and popularized by upper-and-middle-class white urbanites in Brazil? To answer these questions, I discuss the process ofglobalization and the Geography of music, political, musical,and cultural backdrops, and the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1985, which overlappedwith a major Brazilian rock festival, “Rock in Rio,” and later, Brazil’s first blues festival in Ribeirão Preto in 1989. This article adds to the scholarly literature of music geography by looking at ongoing discussions of Brazil’s changing political, cultural, and musical landscapes.

When Brazil Got the Blues: The Diffusion of Blues in Brazil

The focus of this article is to understand and examine the phenomenon of the introduction of blues as a musical genre in Brazil (1985-1992), which has never been studied. By highlighting the processes of globalization and the Brazilian blues band from Rio de Janeiro, Blues Etílicos, I ask what were the spaces, places, and venues that helped to disseminate blues throughout Brazil? How does an African-American-based genre adopted and popularized by upper-and-middle-class white urbanites in Brazil? To answer these questions, I examine political, musical, and cultural backdrops, and the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1985, which overlapped with a major Brazilian rock festival, “Rock in Rio,” and Brazil’s first blues festival in Ribeirão Preto in 1989. This article adds to the scholarly literature of blues and music geography by looking at ongoing discussions of Brazil’s changing political, cultural, and musical landscapes.

Парижская консерватория и развитие скрипичного исполнительства

The opening of the Paris Conservatoire in 1795 played a huge role in the 19th century development of French and wider European performing arts. The article discusses the uniqueness of violin education in the 18th century France and identifies the reasons for the emergence of the world's first educational institution that provided free tuition to all its students regardless of their social background. The article is supplemented with the Russian language translation of the law on the establishment of Paris Conservatoire and a list of its first professors. The article provides a detailed analysis of the initial stage in the development of violin training associated with the names of such famous French violinists as Pierre Gaviniès, Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Rode, and Pierre Baillot. Their wellcoordinated methodological efforts and commitment to common aesthetic ideals encouraged the development of a very powerful violin school that left the rest of Europe behind. The Paris Conservatoire concentrated the best of the country’s artistic potential, thus shaping the musical landscape of France. It also served as a role model for other secular educational institutions located in Europe’s major musical centers.

Musical Landscape of Osijek and the Region

Musical Landscape of Osijek and the Region

Hearing the inaudible

This article considers multiple ways in which, one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hong Kong experimental music scene has been impacted by the global health crisis and the social restrictions it has imposed on its actors. Using insights from three active local experimental music musicians and event organizers, it argues that three main tendencies are currently at play in the scene: adaptation, internationalization and extinction. It concludes that while the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed some actors the possibility to break down the relative isolation characteristic of the Hong Kong experimental music landscape, it appears to largely compound pre-existing structural issues within the scene.

Gender politics, UK jazz festivals and COVID-19

Music festivals offer a valuable glimpse into the state of the current musical landscape. Through them we can follow the career trajectories of particular artists, spot genre trends and divergences, identify connections and differences, and make sense of emerging scenes. Equally, music festivals lay bare the continued inequalities that exist; inclusions and absences are starkly visible in festival line-ups, and marketing and communications provide inspiration for public debate and the fuel for change. For scholars, festivals offer a context through which to examine the complex politics of music, condensed into a specific time and place yet engaging with global trends and debates, with international artists and audiences, with the past and the future, all within the economic and social context of the music industries. From spring 2020, we could clearly plot through music festivals the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on live music as we have previously known it, the government-driven lockdowns and social distancing regulations bringing an abrupt halt to live performance and threatening the existence of many music festivals. This period of disruption extended also to the outreach, education, artist development, fundraising, partnership working, and overall strategies of festival teams, to include festival-driven and global attempts to address significant issues relating to access and diversity within the music industries. This article explores gender politics from the stage of UK jazz festivals and considers the momentum of gender-focused initiatives during a period of international crisis.

TOOLS FOR ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION OF VOCAL MUSIC AMONG SELECTED UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

Vocal music performance occupies a dominant position in Kenya’s musical landscape yet academic study has raised numerous debates concerning its assessment and evaluation. It has been realized that performance in the arts presents an intricate problem and an absence of certain theoretical frameworks that stimulate vocal music discourses. Indeed in all levels of vocal music performance there is a need for instructors to provide a thorough documentation of student performance. Guided by Constructive Alignment Model (Biggs, 2003), this paper sought to analyse the tools and techniques used in assessing students’ feedback in vocal music performance by selected universities in Kenya. Twelve (12) universities that offer music were purposively sampled out of which random sampling technique was used to select six (6) universities. Students of music were selected using stratified sampling to acquire gender representation before simple random sampling technique was used to acquire the actual sample size n=30% of the population. This paper attempts to enlighten and improve the understanding of the tools used in assessment and evaluation of vocal music in Kenyan universities. Data was collected using opinionnaires for individual student responses, questionnaires for voice instructors and heads of the departments, focus group discussion for students, observation schedule by the authors and content analysis then presented in bar charts and frequency tables. Content analysed data was presented thematically. The study findings established that evaluation tools such as goal setting forms, templates for practice guidelines, lesson journals were inadequate. Therefore, the authors conclude that tools for assessment and evaluation of vocal music are of great significance to the growth of students’ vocals.

Music, Digitalization, and Democratic Elections: The Changing Soundtrack of Electoral Politics in the UK

ABSTRACT This article considers the position of music in UK General Elections. It begins by looking at mainstream Party Election Broadcasts, and then discusses the fragmentation of this electoral and musical landscape through the technological and communicative affordances of digital media. Considering campaigners as “produsers”, it examines how musical campaign content illustrates the shifting outputs of those operating within, and outside of, party political structures. These changes relate to broader questions of the extent, or limits, of digitalization’s potential for democratizing political communication. Considering the musical aesthetics of election campaigns is a step toward examining the decision-making processes that underpins them.

Ritual

Ritual

Teddie’sLandschaft

AbstractThis article considers the concept of cultural landscape (Kulturlandschaft) from Theodor W. Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory, exploring how the philosophy of natural beauty in relation to historical built environments resonates with ideas of musical landscape and experiences of peripatetic listening. If Adorno’s mature thought is marked by the fractured experience of exile, his late evocations of displacement actually echo youthful experiences on holiday—notably, the striking volcanic terrain of a summer vacation in Italy, which is transformed soon thereafter into a reflection on landscape, alienation, and song. Throughout the recurrences of the trope of landscape in Adorno’s writings before Aesthetic Theory, the philosophy of nature and history and experiences of tourism and exile constellate into an aesthetic that contemplates sublimity and kitsch side by side: modernist philosophy as shaped by experiences of music, travel, and landscapes of distance and estrangement.

E-Learning Gamelan Ensemble Playing Techniques

2020 is a very challenging year because of the covid-19 pandemic and this completely changed the music education landscape. In the past, learning musical instruments could be done face to face, now it is impossible. If no action is taken, this situation could cause stress among students, especially those who learning gamelan ensemble instruments. Unlike other musical instruments, the ensemble gamelan is expensive and student cant afford to buy it. That is why set of gamelan is only owned by the university and placed in the faculty only. Due to this, students who live far away are unable to practice their gamelan instrument due to movement control order these days. Therefore, this study introduces Gamelan E-Learning Techniques, which is the concept of learning gamelan basic hand techniques using a simulation methods for keromong, gambang, saron and gendang. The uniqueness of this study is due to the emphasis on the basic hand techniques of gamelan. By using google class application as well, lecturers can upload learning videos as well as assessment of student game techniques online can be done. This study uses experimental case study method with qualitative approach. The participants consisted of second semester of 36 students who attended the AME 3082 gamelan course at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI).

The Nation, the Festival, and Institutionalized Memory: Transoptic Landscapes of the Welsh National Eisteddfod

Each year the National Eisteddfod alternates between north and south Wales in a festival that consistently redefines itself and what it means to be and perform Welshness. As a publicly funded and organized national institution, the National Eisteddfod’s performances, competitions, and pavilions reflect aspects of Welsh memory and heritage through traditional poetry, dance, and music. Likewise, this space is central to the continuing evolution of Welsh memory and Welsh music. The work of memory, language, and music during the annual ten-day festival in 2018 experienced numerous structural changes from customary eisteddfodau. Through musicals, folk music, carnivals, and other performances, music and memory in Cardiff Bay intersected with transatlantic identities, protest, and the deindustrialized urban setting. Using interviews and a transoptic landscape analysis, this paper explores the musical, performative, and national landscapes of the 2017 and 2018 National Eisteddfodau to better understand these emerging postcolonial, post-industrial, performative, and pluralized memories in Wales.

Review: Switched-On Bach, by Roshanak Kheshti, and Wendy Carlos: A Biography, by Amanda Sewel

Review: <i>Switched-On Bach</i>, by Roshanak Kheshti, and <i>Wendy Carlos: A Biography</i>, by Amanda Sewel

The Poetics of Engagement

of two volumes comprising three special issues in total. In these special issues, we invited musicians, performers, scholars, arts presenters, and other cultural workers to reflect on the extraordinary challenges posed by the pandemic and to begin envisaging a post-pandemic musical landscape. The editorial to Volume II includes the introduction from the previous issue, slightly altered to reflect new developments in the weeks since we published the first volume, as well as new writing that provides an overview of the contents of this volume specifically. In this second volume, contributors continue the work of imagining a more equitable and sustainable musical landscape post-pandemic. One year into the pandemic, with tropes of exhaustion vs. resilience circulating like viral contagions in their own right, the voices here suggest something else: the beginnings of a dream of liveness. This is not to say that exhaustion is not present in this volume; it is, in spades, but paired with a determined call to action. Resilience, too, is here, but grounded in the knowledge that celebrating resilience must go hand-in-hand with systemic change. And the dreaming that happens in these pages is tempered by recognition of the voyeurism and biases of social media, where so much music-making occurs at present; the fundamental inequities of present-day structures for compensating creative labour; and the profound injustices of our society. And yet, dreams of liveness, of being and improvising together, persist.

The ASCAP-BMI Feud, Status Panic, and the Struggle for Cold War Consensus

AbstractBy the 1950s, ASCAP and its associated songwriters and composers seemed out of touch with contemporary musical tastes and industry trends. With the introduction of competition in the form of BMI in 1939, many members of ASCAP were experiencing a sense of status anxiety, an anxiety exacerbated by the many cultural, social, political, and economic changes that swept across postwar US society. Rather than adapt to the changing musical landscape of the 1950s, some members argued that ASCAP's fading cultural prestige and diminished influence within the music industry were the result of a conspiracy perpetrated by the broadcast networks and BMI. This article examines how, in an attempt to reassert the status and prestige they had enjoyed before the war, ASCAP and its supporters exploited contemporary Cold War anxieties as part of their ongoing feud with BMI. In congressional hearings from 1956 and 1958, individuals and organizations sympathetic to ASCAP portrayed BMI as part of a coordinated conspiracy that not only threatened free market practices through the establishment of an alleged “electronic curtain,” but also sought to foist an inferior product on audiences who were being manipulated by “hidden persuaders.” I suggest that the rhetoric that dominated both of these hearings reflects ideological debates that were being fought at the height of the Cold War, debates involving the culture of consensus and the image of the “American Way.”