Music Reference Research Articles

In Harmony with Nature: The Sheep Episode in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, op. 35

In Harmony with Nature:The Sheep Episode in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, op. 35 Jeremiah Trujillo (bio) In Don Quixote, Sancho Panza rides with Don Quixote along a road and encounters clouds of dust (1.18). Don Quixote mistakes the clouds for two approaching armies, and Sancho warns that what appear to be armies actually are herds of sheep approaching. Don Quixote enters into battle against the wooly creatures and kills seven before two shepherds throw stones at him and knock out several of his teeth. In 1897, the German composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949) created a symphonic representation of this scene in the second variation of his symphonic poem Don Quixote, op. 35. Among many musical references within the work, Strauss recreates the baaing of the sheep, placing the listener in Don Quixote's position within the scene. The many representations of animals within nineteenth-century musical works merit close examination, both from a theoretical standpoint and for what they show us about contemporaneous views toward animals. The emerging field of nature musicology illuminates our understanding of how animals were viewed in the past. Nature musicology may be defined as the study of how non-human animals and natural landscapes are represented in musical works. Nature musicology scholarship examines how and why human composers represent phenomena associated with the outdoors. This differs from zoomusicology, in which scholars study the musical aspects of sound or communication made by non-human animals. For centuries, composers have used instruments and voices to replicate animal sounds, and historical musicologists have ignored these animal representations, dismissing them as unworthy of attention. In the Journal of the American [End Page 93] Musicological Society, music historian Peter Burkholder dismisses a mass by sixteenth-century composer Johannes Martini that includes the call of the cuckoo: "This last Mass uses borrowed material only in the broadest sense—interspecies borrowing, as it were—and will not be discussed here" (Burkholder 481). Similarly, current Animal Studies scholarship in the humanities neglects music, focusing mainly on literature and iconography. Animal representations are more frequent in late-nineteenth-century musical works than in works of other eras. One reason for their presence is the fact that Romanticism in art music emphasized a program or narrative, and portraying the human relationship with either nature or other powers beyond human control. The sheep episode is particularly apt for questioning how orchestral music represents animals, given the complexities of the sheep vocalizations, Don Quixote's character, and his perceptive delusion. In what follows, I compare music and animal communication, investigating how the sheep episode operates and the contributions of recent scholars. Afterwards, I analyze in detail Strauss's representation of sheep in Don Quixote, op. 35, focusing on how Strauss uses dissonance. Language: The Sonic and the Associations This essay problematizes American ethnologist Peter Marler's claim that both human music and animal songs are primarily nonsymbolic and affective (Jakobson 50). While human instrumental music is non-symbolic, the term "song" as defined in human language may not be appropriate for animal utterances that we do not understand. Marler notes that lexicoding (when signal elements are given meaning) is exclusively human (Marler 31). Many film and literary works imply that through the affective mode of communication, humans can express emotions to animals. For example, Kornél Mundruczó's 2014 film White God asserts the power of affective communication from human to animal. Near the film's ending, the young protagonist Lili sounds her trumpet in a Budapest street and assumes the physical position of an orchestra conductor, as an army of over two hundred canines halt [End Page 94] their advance and lie down before her in the half-circle position of an orchestra. Historically, trumpeters have signaled the onset of military attacks, and in cartoons, a person holding a trumpet often signifies an important news event. Moreover, trumpeters play taps at military funerals, a commemoration of the passing of a sentient being into another state. The scene in White God implies a parallel in the animal world: the canines interpret the trumpet sound as having significance. While we do not know exactly how the dogs interpret the piece of music...

Sentymentalizm a kultura repetycji. Rola nawiązań muzycznych w polskiej literaturze najnowszej

Sentymentalizm a kultura repetycji. Rola nawiązań muzycznych w polskiej literaturze najnowszej

String and chisel: personal and artistic attributes of Vinnie Ream.

The aim of this work is to tackle the significance of music in the career of American sculptor Vinnie Ream (1847-1914) by tracking musical references founded in primary and secondary sources dedicated to her life and work, paying special attention to the context and meaning of these references. Furthermore, the personal iconography Ream displayed in her photographed and painted portraits will be also analyzed, given that these images were an important tool to create her artistic and personal identity and to promote herself as a sculptress.

The ontology of the work: exploring the creative discourse

How do we understand the ontology of a work from its initial inception in the mind of a composer, to the final realisation in performance? This creative discourse is often more complex than at first appears. What is the nature of the unformed material; is this a specific apprehension of sound, an image or an extra musical reference? To what degree is this material then mediated by its own possibility in notation or even determined by various structural processes? Further, what are the relationships obtaining between notation and interpretation seen as potential form building elements; are there structures inherent in notation, which elicit material beyond a simple representation and if so, how might a composer exploit this as part of the work structure? This paper will examine the nature of the creative discourse in relation to my own compositional practice, which focuses on the symbiotic relationship between complex pre-compositional processes, notational potential and a more intuitive scanning of the material.

To Grunge or Not to Grunge on the Periphery? The Polish Grunge Scene of the 1990s and the Assimilation of Cultural Patterns

To Grunge or Not to Grunge on the Periphery? The Polish Grunge Scene of the 1990s and the Assimilation of Cultural Patterns

Searching for musical features using natural language queries: the C@merata evaluations at MediaEval

Musicological texts about classical music frequently include detailed technical discussions concerning the works being analysed. These references can be specific (e.g. C sharp in the treble clef) or general (fugal passage, Thor’s Hammer). Experts can usually identify the features in question in music scores but a means of performing this task automatically could be very useful for experts and beginners alike. Following work on textual question answering over many years as co-organisers of the QA tasks at the Cross Language Evaluation Forum, we decided in 2013 to propose a new type of task where the input would be a natural language phrase, together with a music score in MusicXML, and the required output would be one or more matching passages in the score. We report here on 3 years of the C@merata task at MediaEval. We describe the design of the task, the evaluation methods we devised for it, the approaches adopted by participant systems and the results obtained. Finally, we assess the progress which has been made in aligning natural language text with music and map out the main steps for the future. The novel aspects of this work are: (1) the task itself, linking musical references to actual music scores, (2) the evaluation methods we devised, based on modified versions of precision and recall, applied to demarcated musical passages, and (3) the progress which has been made in analysing and interpreting detailed technical references to music within texts.

Divas and deviance: Hip-hop feminism and black visuality in Lauren Ekué’s Icône Urbaine (2006)

abstractThrough a study of Lauren Ekué’s Icône Urbaine (2006), touted as France’s first Hip-hop feminist novel, I argue that Hip-hop aesthetics can be used to find a language, re-negotiate the deviance and pathologies associated with black femininity as either diva-hood or deviance. Using the Hip-hop feminist theory and the critical cultural analysis of black visuality in Nicole Fleetwood’s On Racial Icons: Blackness and the Public (2015), I frame Ekué’s portrayal of Flora D’Almeida, the novel’s heroine, as a negotiation of public images of black femininity in popular culture. I firstly read Flora’s pathological narcissism through Nicole Fleetwood’s association of racial iconicity – diva-hood – with hyperbolic consumption. I then use Hip-hop feminist theory to unpack the consumption practices of Hip-hop culture through the notion of “bling” and the “deviant” image of the video-girl. My final section then examines how denigration and veneration inform Flora’s negotiation of her sexual desire. Throughout the analysis I pay close attention to the novel’s hyperbolic narrative style, sampling of musical and literary references, as well as the re-mixing of linguistic codes to simultaneously represent the particularities of black France in relation to a globally mediated (African-American influenced) public image of blackness.

‘The Ghost in the Machine’: Thomas Koschat and the volkstümlich in Mahler’s Fifth Symphony

This article offers a solution to a long-standing mystery surrounding the identity of a melody by Carinthian folkloric composer Thomas Koschat used by Mahler in his Fifth Symphony. It first places such musical reference in the broader scholarly context of Mahler and the volkstümlich. Evidence surrounding the chronology and sketches of the symphony as well as Mahler’s intersection with Koschat and the latter’s reception is assessed. Musical materials are analysed in order to identify the source of borrowing in Koschat’s Liederspiel Am Wörther See (1880), and to understand the key structural and expressive roles it plays in Mahler’s work. The article concludes by reflecting on the possible socio-cultural meaning and significance of this case of Mahlerian allusive practice.

Some thoughts on the conventional alteration of rhythm

The article is dedicated to the problem of terminology concerning the main forms of the conventional rhythmic alteration in Baroque and partly Post-Baroque music. Beginning with the study by Arnold Dolmetsch who, in 1915 introduced into scholarly usage the lexeme conventional alteration of rhythm, many authorities have directed their scientific research toward the problem of the specific conventions which existed in rhythmic notation. As a result numerous related musical terms entered the thesaurus of contemporary research: ‘conventional alteration of rhythm’, ‘rhythmic alteration’, ‘notes inegales’, ‘inequality’, ‘overdotting’, ‘unequal’, and the like, which have become abundantly used. However, strict definitions and hierarchies among these terms are lacking in scholarly knowledge. Moreover, until the present day, one may uncover diametrically opposed and controversial interpretations of the basic concepts in the sphere of rhythmic alteration in thematically oriented music publications, reference and encyclopedic literature. The principal disagreements have arisen in connection with the French artistic technique of the notes inegales when a number of authors spread it far beyond the performance practice of French Baroque and Post-Baroque music contrary to, and without justification in, the opinions of early French musicians. This lead to great confusion in early music performance for those musicians who put much effort into their search for historically informed interpretation. The article attempts to reveal the most problematic aspects of modern ideas about the practice of rhythmic alteration in Western European music of the 17th and 18th centuries, and to point to the most characteristic and typological errors in the interpretation of historical sources by contemporary researchers.

The Pynchon Playlist: A Catalog and Its Analysis

The Pynchon Playlist is a catalog of 927 identified historical musicians and works of music in Thomas Pynchon's work to date. It allows for a bird's-eye view on the relative importance of different genres and time periods throughout Pynchon's career and is able to answer some questions that were hitherto mainly addressed in an intuitive manner: Which novels have the highest density of musical references? What musicians, works of music, genres, genders, performative settings are referred to most often? Are different groups of novels to be made out? If one were to draw two lines of influence for Pynchon's choice of musical material, it would be the technological and commercial developments on the one hand (in other words, a line that has much to do with a historically plausible depiction of the musical landscape) and Pynchon's own predilections and musical interests (or those of his and subsequent generations), which seem to have become less serious and less experimental as his career progressed.

Pieśń Mojżesza i Baranka. Znaczenie muzyki wokalnej, instrumentalnej i tańca w tekście biblijnym na podstawie Ap 15,2-4 – studium egzegetyczno-teologiczne.

Music is a companion to many of the events described in the Bible. The protagonists express their joy, thankfulness, worship, but also pain and despair. The whole biblical narration, especially the text of Revelation, shows that the quality and focus of music is a expression for the relationship between God and man. Through synchronic study and exegesis, the author tries to present the aforementioned dependency of music and faith in God. In this way answering the question about the meaning of musical references in the Bible.

Caimán: Antonio Buero Vallejo's Intermedial Collage in Homage to Max Ernst

ABSTRACTSpanish dramatist Antonio Buero Vallejo (1916–2000) has been called an intermedialist for his incorporation of visual art, music, and intertextual references in his theatrical works. The present study focuses on Buero's inclusion of Max Ernst's painting Los dioses oscuros (1957) in his play Caimán (1981). To date, interpretations of the painting's role in the play have been limited to its dark and somber tone and its foreboding presence, with scant attention being paid to how Ernst's artistic vision might have affected the drama. A thorough investigation of Ernst's collage aesthetic will reveal how the artist's influence on Caimán goes beyond the apparently superficial mention of one of his paintings to become part of the constructive principle of the play. In fact, Ernst is the reason why Buero's Caimán could be termed an intermedial collage.

ВЗАЄМОДІЯ ЛІТЕРАТУРИ Й МУЗИКИ В РОМАНІ Т. УАЙЛДЕРА «КАБАЛА»

The article investigates problems of art interaction in the novel of American writer Thornton Wilder “Cabala”. The strategy of the research is based on the latest achievements in the fi eld of comparative literature. Particularly the article deals with issues of literary-musical intermediality. Due to intermedial analyses techniques author’s emphasis on romanticism decline in the art of music has been revealed. Explicit and implicit musical references have been identifi ed. The whole structure of the novel has been compared to sonata form. Besides, the author’s European orientation has been defi ned as dominating on the topical level. At the same time, traces of jazz music, in particular, ragtime recoding techniques have been found in the stylistic features of “Cabala”. Artistic meanings of particular novel’s scenes have been analyzed from the point of view of musicalization in prose. The intermedial analysis allowed considering character’s involvement into the text of music a way of literary semiotic text composing. As a result, expanded functions of certain characters have been identifi ed in their close relation to jazz epoch in America. The problem of ethnic-cultural values raised in the novel through the means of intermediality techniques has been exposed. Writer’s masterful ability of dialogical interaction with pieces of musical art have been interpreted as basic features of jazz music implications.

Niobe w oku kamery. Projekt filmowy — między konkretyzacją a scenopisem

Niobe, a poem by Galczynski was interpreted with verse and musical references, in the context of Mediterranean culture and contemporary realities of the palace of Nieborow, where a copy of the Ancient sculpture is located. The author creates a “film theory of narratology” and proceeds with reflections on various relationships between literature and cinema, on natural sight and imagination, and takes into consideration the following perspective theories: intersemiotic comparative, Bergson, Ingarden, Helman, Ziomek. Next, he offers a film interpretation of the descriptive part of the poem through a Large Violin Concert.

Music, Intermediality, and Shock in Ulysses

This essay studies intermedial compo sitional practice in Ulysses, a text that extends musical reference and the phono-icon to reconfigure textual articulations of knowledge, sociality, and emotion. In Ulysses, music with its formal quali ties serves as a complex marker of affective surge and withdrawal, energy, and fatigue. Its production of consciousness as an “individuating rhythm” allows characters to admit music as an exemplary praxis especially able to hold attention, inform reality, and contain affect.

Temporalidades múltiplas: análise cultural dos videoclipes e da performance de Figueroas a partir dos mapas das mediações e das mutações culturais

Articulamos, nesse artigo, os mapas das mediações e das mutações culturais formulados por Martín-Barbero (2006; 2009a; 2009b; 2014) na análise dos videoclipes e performance do duo alagoano Figueroas. Essas escolhas teórico-metodológicas nos permitiram observar de que maneira esse produto se insere num contexto marcado por um entorno tecnocomunicativo que tensiona temporalidades e espacialidades distintas, justapondo matrizes culturais e referências musicais globais e regionais, em especial das regiões Norte, Nordeste e Sudeste do Brasil. Figueroas apela para o escracho, para a cultura dos memes e se insere em lógicas produtivas e de consumo características da internet, ­para vincular diferentes gêneros midiáticos, entre eles, a lambada, o brega e a guitarrada.

We Shall Not Be Moved/No Nos Moverán: Biography of a Song of Struggle by David Spener

<i>We Shall Not Be Moved/No Nos Moverán: Biography of a Song of Struggle</i> by David Spener

‘Música Para Los Reconciliados’: Music, Emotion, and Inquisitorial ‘Autos De Fe’ in early Modern Hispanic Cities

The autos de Je organized by the Spanish Inquisition tribunals were urban rituals in which music was deeply integrated. Music played a primordial role in every stage of the event: the proclamation of the day for the ceremony; the procession of the emblem of the Inquisition; the processions of penitents and Inquisition familiars; the religious ceremonies celebrated before and during the auto itself; and the reconciliation of the penitents with the Catholic faith. This article presents the results of an analysis of the musical references found in written accounts of the autos and in other documents related to ceremonies held in several cities in Spain and Latin America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The research reveals who contributed to the music performed at the autos and how members of the public who attended participated in music-making; it affords a glimpse of the musical genres represented; and it shows how music contributed to the evocation of the wide range of emotions experienced by those attending, and thereby to the exaltation of Catholic devotion.

Music in Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero

Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero uses musical references to enhance our understanding of how the story’s characters inhabit time and place. The book’s three parts unfold against a varied musical backdrop that can be experienced as a kind of soundtrack. Although musical allusions appear in Ondaatje’s earlier work, Divisadero is marked by its range of musical references, which run from classical compositions to jazz, opera to rock ’n’ roll, reggae to blues and British new wave. This article examines the way music directs us to see different narrative options in each of the novel’s three parts. One impulse behind the narrative is to connect us to the immediate, to locate the story in mimetic terms that are rooted in the California and Nevada settings that form the backdrop to the first part of the book. The musical references in this part serve to reinforce this sense of presence, as if history could be located and understood in terms of the themes and issues conveyed in particular songs. But another impulse is to work against the immediate, to cast the characters and their experiences as part of an allegorical universe in which actions and choices are symbolic, metaphoric, transhistorical.

Fetishizing Music as Rape Culture

ABSTRACTThe concept of “rapey music” has recently emerged as a social problem in feminist and mainstream contexts. Rapey music references songs that critics perceive as artifacts of “rape culture” because they allegedly perpetuate sexual violence, misogyny, and rape myths. This article draws on the concept of “fetishism” to analyze accusations that certain songs are rapey and argues that such songs can be recuperated through a kink lens. In the first part, I review the burgeoning category of songs that have been condemned in feminist media analyses and the weak evidence that connects certain songs to sexual coercion, arguing that the terms “rapey” and “rape culture” operate as negative fetish concepts. I then analyze the disproportionate and more vehement targeting of Black performers, contending that a racialized fetishization underlies this phenomenon. In the last part, I defend music branded as “rape culture” by suggesting that its pleasurable dynamic can be understood through a non-normative kinky fetish framework.