Orchestral Performance Research Articles

Musik als Special Effect


 Music as special effect: »perfect« and »imperfect« orchestral performances in fictional and documentary contexts: Musical cues both in fictional and documentary films are not only taken from recordings and performances. They are also part of the pre- and post-production and thus can be described as a specific form of a filmic special effect. Several examples are discussed in which an »imperfect« and a »perfectionistic« version of the same musical work are heard in filmic contexts. Theories of narration and diegetic music can be refined by a comparison of these intentionally produced examples of non-intentional musical errors.

PENG XIUWEN AND HIS CONCEPT OF NATIONAL ORCHESTRA REPERTOIRE

Composer and conductor Peng Xiuwen (1931-1996) went down in the history of musical art of the 20th century not only as one of the organisers of the national orchestra model, but also as a founder of Chinese orchestral music, a creator of the main directions of its repertoire. Building and developing the repertoire for a barely formed young orchestra was a matter of paramount importance for the musician. Peng Xiuwen was aware of the fundamental importance of the artistic content of the works that would form the basis of national orchestral performance. He understood that with arrangements of the available opuses of Western music or simple adaptations of folk songs, the orchestra, consisting of Chinese traditional instruments, would remain an instrumental collective “for internal use”. At the same time, as a sensitive and gifted musician, he felt an enormous aesthetic potential of this collection of Chinese instruments organised into an orchestra, which was unlike any other in the history of music. The article is devoted to famous compositions for orchestra of national instruments by Peng Xiuwen, which he created in the process of developing repertoire directions of orchestral music.

Orchestral Wind Instruments Performance in Slobozhanshchyna in the Middle of the XIX and Early XX Centuries

The history of the development of academic orchestral wind instruments performance in Slobozhanshchyna in the XIX — early XX century has many bright pages that have entered the annals of unique artistic events of the city, as well as those that have not yet been analyzed in modern musicology, but significantly enrich the overall picture of the cultural life of the capital of Sloboda Ukraine. References to publications on the pages of the local newspapers “Kharkovskie gubernskie vedomosti” and “Yuzhny kray” significantly supplement certain lacunae that still exist in the understanding of the multi-vector process of formation of the domestic instrumental wind tradition.
 The purpose of the article: demonstrate the facts of the introduction of orchestral performance on wind instruments in Slobozhanshchyna, not yet used in scientific circulation, and reflecting the perception of these numerous creative actions by the local cultural community.
 The methodology is based on the principles of a comparative analysis of the principles of activity in Slobozhanshchyna region, and in particular, in Kharkiv region, of serf, military and amateur brass bands, as well as the application of the induction method, which made it possible to generalize the principles of the existence of these collectives in the local cultural space and their contribution to artistic life of Slobozhanshchyna, Kharkiv and other cities of the region in the middle of the XIX and early XX centuries. The musical and local history method was also applied, which contributed to the analysis of the specifics of the musical and cultural preferences of Kharkiv residents.
 The results. The given examples of the active activity of serf bands, military and amateur student brass bands on the territory of Kharkiv and Kharkiv region testify to their prevalence in the XIX and early XX centuries among different strata of the Kharkiv community and in general a favorable attitude towards such orchestras by both local music lovers and the average public.
 After the gradual decline of serf orchestras in the 1840s and 1850s on the territory of Slobozhanshchyna in the second half of the XIX century, they were replaced by the performances of the so-called “trumpet choirs” — brass bands of military units stationed in Kharkiv, or specially arrived for the summer season at the invitation of the directorate of recreation gardens. The popularity of wind music in the city led to the emergence of a number of similar amateur student groups at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries, which existed until the time of the national liberation struggles of 1917–1921.
 Along with the introduction of wind instrument lessons at the music school of the Kharkiv branch of the Imperial Russian Music Society and the performances of young brass musicians in student concerts and the participation of many professional wind instrument performers in theater and opera orchestras. Their activities are analyzed in the works of V. Bogdanov and A. Ovchar. These serf, later military and amateur wind music orchestras, often led by talented conductors, formed a powerful general cultural foundation of Kharkiv and Slobozhanshchyna as a whole.
 Prospects for further research. Study the possibility of further thorough work in the Kharkiv archives to provide a more complete and detailed panorama of the spread of wind instruments performance in our region.

Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman

Architecture Against Theatre

Architecture Against Theatre

The Marechek Family in the Musical life of Kharkiv and Prague 19–20 Centuries

The relevance of the study. From the mid-1870s to the early 1950s, the Kharkiv musical community was well acquainted with the Czech surname Mareček, as several generations of this family worked in the city, covering various spheres and vectors of musical activity. However, at the beginning of the XXI century. the contribution of this family to the development of the musical culture of the city was practically forgotten and not appreciated by anyone. The revival of unjustly forgotten names of this family, who, among others, were the builders of the musical and cultural foundation of Kharkiv in the last third of the XIX - first half of the XXth century is especially relevant in recent times, when Ukraine proves its political and cultural identity and independence against the aggressive Russian.
 Analysis of sources and publications. The history of Kharkiv's musical culture, despite the ascetic research activities of a number of well-known and devoted scientists and music local historians of different times — T. Bakhmet, V. Berlin, V. Bogdanov and L. Bohdanova, Y. Vakhraniov, N. Zymohliad, O. Kononova, V. Kravets, M. Linnyk, L. Lysenko, Y. Loshkova, J. Myklashevskyi, V. Osadcha, O. Pinchuk, I. Polsky, I. Polska, A. Rumiantseva, H. Tiumeneva, O. Chepalova, Yu. Shcherbinin, Z. Yuferova and others, still has a lot of unexplored, but very bright pages. A number of names of musicians of the past, who made an invaluable contribution to the formation of professional music education and performance in Kharkiv, are now either half-forgotten or completely unknown not only to the broad musical and cultural community of Slobozhanshchina, but also to many experts in this field.
 The purpose of the study is to fill one of the gaps in the study of the history of musical culture of Kharkiv by analyzing the activities of the Marechek family in the city. The scientific novelty of the study is the presentation and analysis of the activities in Kharkiv of these outstanding personalities who played a very significant role in various spheres of musical culture of the city for three quarters of a century, as well as an attempt to reconstruct their life and creative paths.
 This goal led to the following research objectives:
 
 to outline the spheres of musical activity in Kharkiv of three generations of the Marechek family;
 on the basis of analyzed documents from Kharkiv periodicals, reference publications, individual scientific and Internet publications, as well as found archival materials to reconstruct the way of life and recreate creative biographies of numerous members of the Marechek family who were associated with music; 
 to determine the role of the Marechek musical family in the musical and cultural life of the city in the last quarter of the XIX - first half of the XX century.
 
 Methodological basis. In order to perform the tasks in the work were used:
 
 historical approach, which allowed to analyze the life and work of the characters of this intelligence in the context of historical, cultural and political processes that took place at the time;
 the method of biographical reconstruction, with the help of which the most significant facts in the life and creative biographies of the representatives of the Marechek family were revealed;
 musical and local lore method, which contributed to the study of the problem in inseparable connection with the musical and cultural realities of Kharkiv in the late nineteenth - first half of the twentieth century.
 
 Conclusions. The attempt to reconstruct fragments of biographies and cover the diverse musical activities of three generations of the Kharkiv Czech-Russian Marechek family confirms the importance of the contribution of many of its representatives to the musical life of one of the largest Ukrainian cultural centers of different nationalities, sincere and dedicated service to the development of various spheres of musical activity (military orchestral performance, music-trade and music-publishing sphere, music pedagogy, piano performance, organization of repair and production of piano, etc.).
 The discovery of the fact of fruitful long-term work of Kharkiv resident E. Marechek as a professor at one of the oldest in Europe, the Prague Conservatory, as well as a number of mysterious and as yet unexplained facts from the biographies of this family provides prospects for further research.

Orkestra sebagai Peristiwa Mediasi: Jakarta City Philharmonic, Tubuh dan Materialitas

The Covid-19 virus has infiltrated the recesses of human life around the world. The phenomenon that arises from restrictions on movement in offline spaces is the massive effort by humans to adapt to online media. We can see many artists and musicians performing through various digital platforms, including the Jakarta City Philharmonic (JCP) orchestra. This article will describe the changing process of orchestral space-time in online media which has eliminated bodily interactions as an essential element in musical performances. Through contemporary anthropology, we argue that technology allows orchestras to exist as mediating events through their role as mediators; which reassembles the connections and negotiations between the body and the materiality of the orchestra. The virtual ethnographic method was used through online observations and in-depth interviews with artistic directors, assistant musicians, and orchestra musicians. The results showed that the JCP orchestra experienced an embodied experience arising from technological disassembly and reassembly as a connecting tissue. It can be seen from the relation between actants, and their implications for evaluating artistic values and performativity of orchestral performances.

Orkestra sebagai Peristiwa Mediasi: Jakarta City Philharmonic, Tubuh dan Materialitas

The Covid-19 virus has infiltrated the recesses of human life around the world. The phenomenon that arises from restrictions on movement in offline spaces is the massive effort by humans to adapt to online media. We can see many artists and musicians performing through various digital platforms, including the Jakarta City Philharmonic (JCP) orchestra. This article will describe the changing process of orchestral space-time in online media which has eliminated bodily interactions as an essential element in musical performances. Through contemporary anthropology, we argue that technology allows orchestras to exist as mediating events through their role as mediators; which reassembles the connections and negotiations between the body and the materiality of the orchestra. The virtual ethnographic method was used through online observations and in-depth interviews with artistic directors, assistant musicians, and orchestra musicians. The results showed that the JCP orchestra experienced an embodied experience arising from technological disassembly and reassembly as a connecting tissue. It can be seen from the relation between actants, and their implications for evaluating artistic values and performativity of orchestral performances.

Alpha oscillations related to self-other integration and distinction during live orchestral performance: A naturalistic case study.

Ensemble music performance requires musicians to achieve precise interpersonal coordination while maintaining autonomous control over their own actions. To do so, musicians dynamically shift between integrating other performers' actions into their own action plans and maintaining a distinction between their own and others' actions. Research in laboratory settings has shown that this dynamic process of self-other integration and distinction is indexed by sensorimotor alpha oscillations. The purpose of the current descriptive case study was to examine oscillations related to self-other integration and distinction in a naturalistic performance context. We measured alpha activity from four violinists during a concert hall performance of a 60-musician orchestra. We selected a musical piece from the orchestra's repertoire and, before analyzing alpha activity, performed a score analysis to divide the piece into sections that were expected to strongly promote self-other integration and distinction. In line with previous laboratory findings, performers showed suppressed and enhanced alpha activity during musical sections that promoted self-other integration and distinction, respectively. The current study thus provides preliminary evidence that findings from carefully controlled laboratory experiments generalize to complex real-world performance. Its findings also suggest directions for future research and potential applications of interest to musicians, music educators, and music therapists.

Post-Pandemic Concert: What Would Have Changed For Orchestral Performance in Indonesia

The pre-pandemic era has been established the settled living ecosystem for orchestral musician in Indonesia, nevertheless, due to the government's policy to combat the virus since March 2020 which is applying the social restriction on a large scale, those within creative sectors have totally ceased their activities. As time goes by, online-virtual-concert has enlivened musical creating and performing. It spread globally and was responded as an opportunity by the state representation so did by the private sectors who have developed the platforms to accommodate the musician rights as brought by UNESCO discourses, one of formulated as follows “musicians can express themselves through music and get fair remuneration from it.” The developed platforms had played a big role as a leverage, both during the pandemic and in the post-pandemic as has predicted and discussed in a two-way Focus Group Discussion methods (FGD), it taken from any webinars sessions involved the expert, officials, and the practitioners which concluded that instead of waiting a crisis assumed just taken place for a moment while waiting for the usual state return, it has been realized globally as an evidence as well as a signs that the new living ecosystem for orchestral musicians in Indonesia have just begun to change.

“MUSICIANS’ PARADISE” IN MANNHEIM DURING THE REIGN OF KARL THEODORE

Statement of the problem. In the history of music culture of the mid-18thcentury, the emergence of Mannheim, as one of the centers of orchestral and ensemble art among the unanimously acknowledged Western European cultural capitals (Berlin, Vienna, Paris), was quite unexpected and sensational. A town that in 1719 housed a population of about 5000 rose to the top of the European musical Olympus in the 1750–60s and gained their resistible in formal status among artists as the “musicians’ paradise”. Such rapid rise to the European recognition can be explained by a whole mix of musical, educational and socio-economic factors of the cultural policy of the Palatinate Electorate, which resulted from the reforms of one of the “most educated princes of Germany” Karl Theodor. His work continues to be underestimated and underresearched in national musicology and requires a more detailed study. Analysis of recent research and publications. Among the latest works in Ukrainian and Russian, whose authors touch upon this issue, it is necessary to point out the dissertations and publications of V. Horbal, V. Darda and А. Dvornitskaya. Focusing on the issues of orchestral performance, the viola concerto genres in the works of Mannheim composers and the musical culture of Mannheim of a particular period, each of the researchers only sketchily mentions the personality of Karl Theodore. The purpose of the article is to reveal the role of Karl Theodor in the development of the music art of Mannheim and identify the main economic factors that influenced the formation of cultural policy in the Palatinate. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the identification of economic factors in Karl Theodor’s cultural policy and a comparative analysis of the financing of court musicians of the Palatinate and Prussia. The methodology of the research is based on the general scientific principles of historical reality cognition, where the central method is that of historicism and comparative analysis. The integrity and comprehensiveness of the study were implemented using a systematic method. The results of the research. The research explicates the role of KarlTheodor in the structure formation of the musical-theatrical complex and the court chapel of the Palatinate. It also reveals the main stages of the symphony orchestra formation under the direction of J. Stamitz and C. Cannabich and their contribution to creating a music-educational system to train the orchestra musicians. A comparative analysis of the level of funding for the court chapels of Prussia and the Palatinate has been carried out. The main financial and economic factors of Karl Theodor’s cultural policy and their influence on the process of forming the staff of the Mannheim court chapel have been determined. Conclusions. The importance of Karl Theodor’s contribution into the development of music art of the Electorate of the Palatinate is to create an effective system of mixed public and private funding of the court chapel and a high level of material support for musicians. Guaranteeing high socio-economic standards and comfortable conditions for creative growth of talented artists, Karl Theodor managed to unite them into a single community to create a new “truly European, universally recognized performing and compositional styles” (Würtz, 1992: 37).

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS (APPEARANCE, TYPES, FUNCTIONS) REFLECTED IN ARCHEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS AND WRITTEN SOURCES

Central Asian scholars’ treatises on music, fiction, and painting allow us to some extent restore some of the broken links in the long chain of historical development of Uzbek folk instruments that have survived to the present day. Hundreds of years have passed, and musical instruments have survived to this day, taking their place in solo, ensemble, and orchestral performance.

Peter Brown—An appreciation

Peter Brown—An appreciation

The formation of the original repertory for the Folk Instruments Orchestra of Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts as a historical mission of Kharkiv composers (1950–1960)

Statement of the problem. The Folk Instruments Orchestra of Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts has been performing for more than 90 years. However, the original works composed for this orchestra have never been the subject of serious scientific interest. The relevance of the problem is determined by the necessity to generalize the previous generations of composers’, performers’ and teachers’ experience in the field of folk instrumental art, in particular, the training in the orchestra of folk instruments as a concert unit. Analysis of recent publications shows, that the study on folk instruments orchestral performance has not been reflected in national scientific journals for a long while, but currently this is considered as an up-to-date issue. The articles by N. Bashmakova and V. Kikas and Yu. Fedotov (2018), Z. Stelmashchuk (2014), K. Maidenberg-Todorova (2019), I. Fedun (2020) are confirming this statement. The main purpose of the article is to find basic principles of the original repertoire formation for the Folk Instruments Orchestra of Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts related to the creative activities of Kharkiv composers in the 1950–1960s. For the first time, the historical mission played by Kharkiv composers in the original repertoire formation of the Folk Instruments Orchestra of Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts is determined. The concept of the article is based on the interdisciplinary interaction of historiographical, holistic, genre-stylistic and performing methods of researching, as well as a phenomenological approach to the analysis of the individual style of a composer based on the example of the particular works. Results and conclusions. The selected works by O. Steblyanko, D. Klebanov, V. Borisov, B. Alekseev, I. Kovach, P. Haydamaka and V. Podgorny included in the concert program of the creative project of 2021 have been analyzed due to their compositional, intonation and dramaturgical structure. The compositions that have been arranged for the folk instruments orchestra from the scores of symphony orchestra or ones instrumented from the compositions for accordion, domra ensemble, domra accompanied by piano were identified. According to the results of analysis, the creative approach of the composers of Slobozhanshchina in the 1950s–1960s was based on the thematic development of folklore material (song and dance prototypes) or the creation of the original themes, which are as close as possible to the folk samples. Having created large forms for domra and balalaika, Kharkiv composers fulfilled a historical mission in the formation of the original repertoire and, correspondingly, genre and stylistic priorities of the Folk Instruments Orchestra of KhNUA named after I. P. Kotlyarevsky. Due to the arrangements of these works for the folk instruments orchestra, a high academic status of playing folk instruments was demonstrated. It is necessary to emphasize the genre and stylistic orientation of these works on the Western European tradition. Along with the traditional forms of processing and arrangement, the folk instrumental art received the entire genre palette of European music, from miniatures to suites and concerts (in terms of timbre and texture capabilities of the folk instruments). On this way we see the keys to the academic status of the folk instruments orchestra. The prospects for further development of the theme. On the basis of the formed original repertoire at a certain historical moment it is possible to substantiate other leading principles of the orchestra as a concert and educational unit: the combination of an orchestra performer’s training, the formation of his professional skills with the ensemble’s concert activity; the introduction of academic approaches in the training of the folk instruments performers, conductors etc.

Unraveling Musical Relativity: Following in the Footsteps of 19th-century Conductors

When listening to early orchestral recordings, we are immediately confronted with a musical reality far detached from our own. Many aspects of these recordings sound quite alien to modern listeners and performers alike. Yet, the same recordings are often remarkably expressive and display great freedom which breathes fresh life into works which we now sometimes tend to take for granted. This expressiveness and freedom seems to a great degree to stem from a very different, more fluent, concept of musical time. In this research I wanted to understand these recordings better, to see what can be learned from them and how it can be applied in modern practice. I asked the question: how can analyses of recordings by Felix Weingartner, Willem Mengelberg and Pierre Monteux aid the use of 19th-century stylistic traits in modern orchestral performance practices? This research question was answered by first conducting detailed quantitative analysis on unnotated use of tempo flexibility and portamento on recordings made by these conductors. This was followed by an experimental practice-based phase where these findings were applied. The most striking finding of my analyses is the ways in which all three conductors used un-notated tempo flexibility. Using the structuralist and rhetorical terminology of Nicholas Cook (2013), in slightly altered form, their interpretations all exhibit rhetorical tendencies, with Weingartner being the most structuralist, Mengelberg the most rhetorical, and Monteux somewhere in the middle. Additionally, several concrete style elements connected to the use of unnotated tempo flexibility were identified, internalized, and applied in the practice-based phase. Having engaged deeply with the interpretations of these three conductors, I now feel freer to make my own interpretations without feeling restricted by traditions or modern performance practices. Most importantly, this takes the form of my increased use of un-notated tempo flexibility as an expressive tool.

EVOLVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF PRESENTATION FORMS OF CONDUCTER'S PERFORMING ART IN THE SCREEN CULTUREOF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The article outlines the main cinematic techniques of both documentary screen recording of the conductor's performing art (the reproductive level) and production methods of creating a truly musical film that synthesizes the languages of music and the screen (the productive one). The author highlights the main stages of the evolution of screen interpretation techniques and the most promising forms of visualization of conducting and orchestral performance.

Developing emplaced performance knowledge in professional symphony orchestras

ABSTRACT During an investigation into learning in professional orchestral performance, space and place was observed to be important to the musicians’ development of orchestral practices. Emplacement is advanced here as a useful concept to explain this spatial aspect of orchestral performance knowledge. Originating in sensory ethnographic research, emplacement refers to the process of construing cultural and embodied knowledges within socially negotiated and co-constituted places, such as an orchestral environment. From this perspective, place is a way of constructing understandings of environments that are contingent on individuals’ physical locations, movement patterns, and responses to the affordances of their environment. The participant musicians’ performance knowledge was found to be emplaced in and around the physical spaces of their specific musical and social environments. Thus, emplacement is put forward as a broadly-based cognitive process that connects bodily perception, environment, and learning by accounting for how individual musicians change their knowledge as they act together.

Exploring the impact of live music performances on the wellbeing of community dwelling people living with dementia and their care partners

• Music based initiatives can enhance the wellbeing of people living with dementia. • Music based initiatives can enhance the wellbeing of people dementia care partners. • Self-report perspectives provide a holistic picture of what works and why. • Supportive live music cafés can enhance participation of people living with dementia. Music-based initiatives cover a wide range of activity, including music therapy in either an individual or group capacity, choirs, orchestral performances, and apps on digital technology enabling people to engage with individual playlists. The impact of live music performances on the wellbeing of people living with dementia in the community is less well understood. To explore if attending a live music café impacts the wellbeing of community dwelling people living with dementia and their care partners. Twelve live music performances were hosted at a purpose refit facility at the authors’ institution, once a month between April 2018 and March 2019. Participants consenting to be part of the research included 7 people living with dementia, 7 care partners and 3 former care partners. Baseline semi-structured interviews explored the meaning of music and expectations of the upcoming music cafés. Dementia Care Mapping captured ‘in the moment’ experiences of each music café. Follow-up semi-structured focus groups explored the impact of music on wellbeing and if participant expectations had been met. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. The findings demonstrate that attending the music café benefitted the self-reported and observable wellbeing of participants in three particular ways: first, by offering opportunities for peer support and a reduction in feelings of isolation through a shared love of music; second, creating opportunities to increase wellbeing through music ‘in the moment’ that can have lasting effects long after the event; third, group interaction with music meets an unmet need for meaningful musical experiences in supportive enabling environments. Live music is a powerful medium to promote wellbeing for community dwelling people living with dementia and care partners. A ‘music café’ format promotes wellbeing through opportunities to interact with others in non-judgemental and supportive environments to experience a shared joy of music.

The role of children's wind orchestra in the development of young talents of Ukraine

The purpose of the article is to highlight the musical path of some bright performers on wind instruments from among the members of children's wind groups, as well as to reveal the role of collective music-making at the initial stage of mastering a musical instrument. The methodology is based on historical-biographical and analytical methods. Due to the lack of a source base, the method of individual interview was used on some issues. Scientific novelty. The initial stage of learning on wind instruments and children's orchestral performance lay the foundation for the formation of the performer's personality. Acquainting students with the work of bright wind performers has a positive effect on their attitude to musical performance. For the younger generation of performers, contemporary examples are more understandable, so covering the musical path of today's famous young performers can be a good example to follow. Conclusions. Identification of gifted students in children's orchestras and further development of their abilities will certainly result in the emergence of bright performers. In orchestras, young musicians gain useful experience of collective playing, thoroughly study music, develop musical hearing, memory, and sense of rhythm, gain skills in performing various genres of music, which helps to expand the worldview of future professionals. From the given examples we see that if the executor besides talent has also purposefulness, he has all chances to become the recognized executor. Through the involvement of a wide range of children in collective music, it is possible to find among them real talents, which in the future will be the drivers of spiritual performance culture.

Polish Music Published by Moeck 1958 to 1967 – a (Failed?) Transfer from East to West

From the end of the 1950s, the West German publisher Moeck officially represented the state-led music publishing house PWM ‘in the West’ with the permission of the Polish Ministry of Culture. Beside the distribution of score editions and orchestral performance materials by the PWM, Moeck also represented the interests of Polish composers in the Federal Republic of Germany directly in his own catalogue. Among the first authors of the new series of editions were Kotoński, Lutosławski, Penderecki, Serocki and Szalonek. They belonged to a circle that regularly participated in West German musical life in the 1960s. Despite the spirit of optimism and advantages for the composers, this cooperation also led to problems on several levels. These included the billing of performance materials and the handling of international copyright. This made the participants aware of various limits and led to conflicts – especially on the Polish side. Translation of Polish texts in vocal works into German and English was also not as straightforward as originally planned. The article offers new insights into Polish–German cooperation in the cultural field of music, which went on despite the difficult relationship between the two states then and also beyond the borders of the Cold War.