Symphony Orchestra Research Articles

Kategorie czasu i formy muzycznej w II Koncercie na wiolonczelę i orkiestrę symfoniczną Pawła Mykietyna

The Categories of Time and Musical Form in Paweł Mykietyn’s Concerto No. 2 for Cello and Symphony Orchestra The paper supplements the research on the latest Paweł Mykietyn's work. It broadens the spectrum of problems related to the technique of deconstruction in his works and allows for a better understanding of the structure of the Concerto No. 2 for cello and symphony orchestra. The main research method is descriptive analysis, bringing Paweł Mykietyn's musical language closer to the harmonic material, textural systems, agogic-metric structures, and the concept of form. The analysis is based on the score of the 2nd Concerto for Cello and Symphony Orchestra, published in 2019 by the PWM Edition in Kraków. The structure of the paper includes: introduction, three paragraphs and a summary. The characteristics of Paweł Mykietyn’s work contained in the introduction will allow the reader to become familiar with stylistic tendencies at various stages of the composer's work. The section devoted to the genesis and reception aims to present the history of the creation of the analysed work, as well as its contexts and resonance. The analytical sketch in the context of the issues of time and form will allow to present selected aspects of the compositional technique.

End of the Day.

Philip Alexander, MD, is a native Texan, retired physician, and accomplished musician and artist. After 41 years as an internal medicine physician, Dr. Phil retired from his practice in College Station in 2016. A lifelong musician and former music professor, he often performs as an oboe soloist for the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra. He began exploring visual art in 1980, evolving from pencil sketches-including an official White House portrait of President Ronald Reagan-to the computer-generated drawings featured in this journal. His images, which first appeared in this journal in the spring of 2012, are his own original creations. If you would like to see your art published in the Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal, submit your creation online at journal.houstonmethodist.org as a "Humanities" entry.

Orchestra Musicians' Work Environment and Health Versus General Workforce.

Our cross-sectional epidemiological study compared the work-environment harms and job uncertainties of orchestral musicians to those of the general population and their impact on health, work, and quality of life. Musicians of all the Finnish domestic symphony orchestras and a population sample from the Finnish work force completed questionnaires, each group answering the same questions on their work environment and on health, ability to work, and quality of life. Noise disturbed the musicians 8 and poor lighting 22 times as often as these problems disturbed the controls. Musicians experienced mental violence or bullying considerably more often than did controls, with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 3.0 (2.0-4.7). Noise issues and poor lighting are well-known problems for orchestra musicians, but mental violence or bullying are less well known. Research should focus on such areas.

A Conversation with Amanda Forsythe, Part 1

A Conversation with Amanda Forsythe, Part 1 Leslie Holmes (bio) THE VOCAL POINT Soprano Amanda Forsythe, who specializes in Baroque and early Classical music, has performed around the world. She has been highly praised by Opera News for her "light and luster" and "wonderful agility and silvery top notes." She has sung with over 16 early music groups, plus opera companies such as Covent Garden, Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich), Die Komische Oper (Berlin), and the Rossini Festival in Pesaro. Amanda has been a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, The New York Philharmonic, among others. Of her performance of Jemmy in Guillaume Tell, one critic wrote, "the best singing of this crucial part I've ever encountered." Her recent solo CD of Handel arias has received wide critical acclaim. Click for larger view View full resolution Amanda Forsythe Leslie Holmes: Talking with Amanda Forsythe, May 18, 2022—my sister's birthday. You are in the midst of an amazing career and I'm so happy for you, because of it. Covid has certainly not been helpful, I'm sure. Amanda Forsythe: No. Actually, the pandemic has been hard for careers, but, I think, for my mental health it was a reprieve from a very busy time. The two years previous, 2018 and 2019, I'd been traveling a lot, working a lot. This, sort of, forced vacation ended up being a great thing for me. I'd moved houses recently … I'd gotten a divorce … so it gave me some time to be in my new space. The most wonderful thing was being able to spend time with my kids, who were home schooling for a year. LH: They must be about 10 and … AF: 10 and 12. Two boys, fourth grade and sixth grade, very different interests, but both musical. LH: That's nice. AF: Yeah, they both recently have taken an interest [in music]. They've been taking piano lessons since they were little kids, but neither of them really had any great affection for the piano. Then, we enrolled my older son in the Handel and Haydn Youth Chorus, which he's been doing this year. So, he's developed an [End Page 255] interest in singing. Also, through his public school they do instruments. He's started the violin at school. Sarah Darling, a local treasure, has been giving him violin lessons. He's doing well. Actually, both my kids are doing a production of Pirates of Penzance. This is supposed to be about me, and I'm telling you about my kids. [laughs] LH: But you see, this is the kind of thing that people love to read in the Journal. It is such human interest, instead of about technique or kinds of music. The readers love those items, too, but they really enjoy having some intimate ideas about who singers really are in their personal lives. It's very important to hear about your children. AF: They are a very important and influential part of my career and my decision making. I would have also liked to be in Pirates, but you had to be in the eighth grade or younger. [laughs] LH: Mabel is a wonderful role. I performed it when my husband was in medical school. AF: Yeah, I would love to sing that. Actually, my son wanted to sing Mabel, but he got cast as the Major General. LH: She [Mabel] walks on stage and says something like, "Yes. 'Tis Mabel," with lots of roulades. It is quite an entrance. When you were growing up did you play an instrument? AF: I played the piano, and I still play the piano fairly badly, but enough that I can read through music that I'm learning. Actually, I think playing the piano badly has, somehow, helped my memorization process. Because I really have to stop and stumble, and figure everything out, I go much more slowly and, somehow, this lodges it into my brain. That's my theory, anyway. I think people who are very good sight-readers have a hard time memorizing. LH: Yes, I did. I could sight...

Benefits, co-operation and development—The relationship between a music academy and four amateur symphony orchestras

The focus in this study is the relationships between one tertiary music academy and four amateur orchestras. In this study the kinds of cooperation that exist, how students benefit from participating in amateur orchestras, and how cooperation can be further developed is identified. Four administrators from the academy and four conductors were interviewed. The study shows that the bases for cooperation are informal arrangements and personal contacts between individuals. What the interviewees considered as the main benefit for students was that participating in amateur orchestras provided opportunities for orchestral playing that were lacking within their formal education. Policy decisions were based on the interviewees ideas about students’ benefits, which could be social, musical and professional. The interviewees also respected the students’, and teachers’, autonomy in choosing their own musical and professional paths. Both the academy administrators and the amateur orchestra conductors value the cooperative relationships between academy and amateur orchestras.

Improving arts management/marketing efficiency: optimizing utilization of scarce resources to produce artistic outputs

PurposeThis longitudinal research examines US symphony orchestra sector organizations to determine individual efficiencies in allocating resources (donations, governmental/private funding, etc.) for desirable outputs (concerts, educational programs, community outreach). It provides researchers and managers with a tool for identifying, assessing and mitigating organizational inefficiencies.Design/methodology/approachThis study assesses relative efficiencies in performing arts organizations using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a widely-used nonparametric data-intensive benchmarking technique that determines an optimal “production frontier” of best-practice organizations among their peers and assesses their abilities to turn multivariate inputs into multivariate desired outputs.FindingsThis analysis highlights efficiency differences in a wide range of orchestras in converting available resources into performance-related outputs. It provides individual arts organizations with useful results for developing practical benchmarks to achieve organizational efficiency improvement.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides constructive benchmarking guidance for improving efficiencies of relatively-inefficient organizations. Future analysis can expand the scope to utilize a two-stage DEA model to provide more specific guidance to arts organizations.Practical implicationsThis pragmatic analysis enables arts/culture institutions to assess their organizational efficiencies and identify opportunities to optimize resources in producing social outputs for their target markets.Social implicationsEfficiency improvements enable performing arts organizations to provide additional artistic/social services, with fewer resources, to larger audiences.Originality/valueThis research demonstrates the abilities of DEA analysis to assess both a sector and its individual organizations to determine efficiencies, identify sources of inefficiencies and assess longitudinal efficiency trends.

Global Perspectives on Orchestras: Collective Creativity and Social Agency

Global Perspectives on Orchestras: Collective Creativity and Social Agency

Old meets new: 3-D printing and the art of violin-making

Since violin-making emerged in the early 16th century, luthiers have incorporated new technology and scientific principles into their craft in an effort to create different sounds, increase resonance, amplify volume, and create more ease of playing. In late 2018, a Canadian interdisciplinary team spearheaded by the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra asked the question: What happens when you transpose those same principles to the 21st-century? In this session, participants will hear the story of the 3-D printed instruments that made international news from the perspective of the lead musician on the team, discover the manufacturing iterations and materials that led to the final versions used in the premiere of the first-ever concerto written for 3-D printed instruments and symphony orchestra, and explore the sound concepts behind these instruments as the centuries-old tradition of violinmaking meets 21st century technology. Join us as we delve into the juncture of old and new, examine the results of such interdisciplinary work and look to the future of 3-D printing in the realm of classical music and beyond.

Training Method of Flute Breath Based on Big Data of Internet of Things

As a traditional musical instrument, the flute has a long history and is loved by people. The flute has a wider range, and its timbre has strong penetrating and expressive power. This is not only a unique solo instrument but also occupies an important position in the symphony orchestra. Breath training on the flute is an essential step in flute learning. However, in the traditional flute breath training process, teachers cannot observe the students’ practice in real time, and the training process is relatively simple, resulting in the final training effect not being obvious and the students’ breath stability not being significantly improved. In order to solve this problem, this paper applied the Internet of Things (IoT) big data technology to the flute breath training process. The flute breath training system based on big data of Internet of Things was used to conduct professional breath training for students. Through the tests of the trained students, it was found that the training method of flute breath using the big data of the Internet of Things improved the students’ leg strength and chest, abdomen, and back strength. In the long-tone practice, the students’ exhalation time increased by 1.472 seconds, and the students’ breath stability increased by 7.1%, which laid a good foundation for the students to learn the flute in the future.

Raising public awareness in N. O. Yeshchenko’s performance activity

The article is dedicated to an outstanding personality, Merited Artist of Ukraine, professor of Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts. Nataliia Olexandrivna Yeshchenko (1926–2015) is the pianist, teacher, artist, scientist, who devoted her entire life to music. In her work she preserved traditions of the Kharkiv piano school, the founders of which were P. Lutsenko, O. Horovyts, M. Khazanovskyi. Her rich and fruitful activity left a noticeable mark in the history of piano performance in Ukraine. The work of the famous performer attracted the attention of reviewers and researchers, but it did not specifically focus on such an aspect as public awareness. The purpose of this article is to consider the educational direction of N. O. Yeshchenko’s performance as an important aspect of the work of an outstanding pianist of the 20th century. In the course of the research, it became necessary to turn to archival materials, in particular personal documents of the pianist, reviews of her concerts in periodicals, audio recordings of her works, her repertoire list. Based on the analysis of the mentioned source base, we support the idea that the performance art of N. O. Yeshchenko had a clearly defined educational orientation. Unforgettable was her concert-educational activity, which manifested itself in various aspects of her performance: numerous monographic concerts dedicated to the works of great composers, performances with a symphony orchestra, playing in a piano duet, accompaniment to vocalists and instrumentalists. She willingly took part in concert lectures, performed in front of a wide audience in sponsor concerts, also took part in various concerts in remote areas of the country. She bequeathed such a broad vision of the musician’s performing mission to her students. Thanks to music she constantly had a dialogue with the audience through numerous publications in periodicals. By including little-known or, unfortunately, forgotten works she showed the audience the layers of beautiful music, and was the first performer of works by Ukrainian composers, including Kharkiv authors. Programs (often organized in collaboration with a musicologist) featuring works of a certain genre, such as waltz, rondo, transcriptions, miniatures, introduced the listener to the world of genres still unknown or little known to them. A significant contribution to the treasure trove of Ukrainian performance was the concert performance of world-famous complex cycles of piano literature: 12 F. Liszt`s “Transcendental Etudes” and “24 Preludes” by S. Rachmaninoff. So, the analysis of N. O. Yeshchenko’s performance art shows that raising public awareness in the performance field was the main direction of her activity.

Tuscany Valley.

Philip Alexander, MD, is a native Texan, retired physician, and accomplished musician and artist. After 41 years as an internal medicine physician, Dr. Phil retired from his practice in College Station in 2016. A lifelong musician and former music professor, he often performs as an oboe soloist for the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra. He began exploring visual art in 1980, evolving from pencil sketches—including an official White House portrait of President Ronald Reagan—to the computer-generated drawings featured in this journal. His images, which first appeared in this journal in the spring of 2012, are his own original creations.If you would like to see your art published in the Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal, submit your creation online at journal.houstonmethodist.org as a “Humanities” entry.

Workplace Social Capital as Buffer for Emotional Demands and Perceived Stress in Symphony Orchestras: A Danish Cross-Sectional Survey.

High workplace social capital (WSC) is associated with improved occupational health in the common occupational areas. However, little is known on WSC and its effect on the emotional demands and stress seen in the work of classical symphonic musicians. To investigate whether WSC moderates the associations between emotional demands and stress in the professional musicians working in Danish symphony orchestras. This cross-sectional study builds on existing data collected on a sample of 341 Danish classical symphonic musicians. An interaction model based on multiple regression with bias corrected boot-strapping was used to assess the moderating effect of low, medium and high levels of WSC on the association between emotional demands and perceived stress. WSC had a significant moderating effect on the association between emotional demands and perceived stress: b = -0.01, t(212) = -2.40, p = 0.018. At low levels of WSC the effect of emotional demands on stress was strongest, declining at higher levels of WSC in a dose response pattern: low-WSC, b = 0.23, t(212) 3.20, p = 0.002, medium-WSC, b = 0.11, t(212) = 2.40, p = 0.017, and high-WSC, b = 0.04, t(212) = 0.75, p = 0.455. The study indicates a buffering effect of WSC on the association between emotional demands and stress in the work of orchestra musicians. Thus, enhancement of WSC could be a potential stress-preventing strategy in symphony orchestras and should be investigated in future studies on musicians' mental health.

THE DOUBLEBASS: HISTORY AND CONTEMPORANEITY

The author aims to outline a broad picture of the historical developments of the double bass, an instrument rooted in the rich medieval European tradition of building stringed instruments. The early forms of the double bass, the terminology, the tunings are presented, the role of the instrument in the instrumental formations and the establishment of its place in the classical symphony orchestra are appreciated. An important repertoire for double bass is reviewed, the composers who approached its sonority, are presented the most famous performers, representatives of different schools and directions of interpretation. The author talks about the importance of knowing all these aspects for research and evaluation of the role of this instrument in contemporary music.

A seismic-resilient multi-level framework for distribution network reinforcement planning considering renewable-based multi-microgrids

In this paper, a new resilient framework is presented for distribution network reinforcement planning (DNRP) with the consideration of renewable-based multi-microgrids (RMGs) to mitigate seismic risks. For this aim, the proposed framework is formulated as a non-convex mixed-integer nonlinear four-level optimization problem. The first level outlines a short-term corrective measures problem to remedy seismic risks using feeder reconfiguration and distributed energy resources rescheduling. The second level represents an earthquake-related catastrophic failures problem in which peak ground acceleration and distribution component vulnerability are modeled through attenuation functions and fragility curves, respectively. The third and fourth levels, however, describe coordination of a decentralized double-layer multistage microgrid reinforcement planning (MGRP) problem and a centralized cost-effective multistage DNRP problem to characterize seismic-resilient optimal reinforcement plans. Due to its desirable handling of multi-level optimization problems having a non-convex mixed-integer nonlinear nature, the multi-computational-step, multi-dimensional, multiple-homogeneous improved melody search algorithm, referred to as a symphony orchestra search algorithm (SOSA), is used to solve the proposed framework. The performance of the newly developed framework is numerically analyzed through implementing it to the standard 33-, 54-, 119- and 136-node distribution test networks. The numerical results well corroborate the sufficiency and profitableness of the proposed framework in achieving low vulnerability and high resilience to seismic risks.

Conversation With Maestro Riccardo Muti Music Director Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Conversation With Maestro Riccardo Muti Music Director Chicago Symphony Orchestra

OLEG NEGRUŢA’S ELEGY FOR TROMBONE AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA IN THE VISION OF THE PERFORMERS ANDREI TSUKANOV AND VLADIMIR ŞANDOV: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

This article presents the musicological and interpretive analysis of Oleg Negruţa’s Elegy for trombone and chamber orchestra. The deeply melancholy piece is a tribute to the memory of the composer’s father – Petru Negruţa, who was a trombonist in the Odessa Opera House Orchestra. The analysis was based on sound recordings performed by Andrei Tsucanov (Odessa, Ukraine), winner of international competitions, and Vladimir Şandov (Chişinău, Republic of Moldova), soloist of the S. Lunchevich Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic. The study focuses on the comparative analysis of the interpretive versions of the two trombonists, also containing some recommendations regarding the interpretation of the nominated creation.

The Challenges of Professional Competence of Lviv Region Military Conductors in the First Decades of the XXth Century

"Internal application and social functions of the orchestras of different military formations on the territory of Ukrainian lands during the first half of the XXth century had their own history, including Lviv Region. This Region as the whole Galicia had gone through the numerous political transformations and changes of political systems. Each of such transformation put forward new requirements to the military musical art, thus, to the activity of military conductors. The aim of the article is the analysis of the tasks, demands, social and cultural background of the conditions of work, potential audience, the peculiarities of performance repertoire, professional training of the membership of the orchestra companies and the conductors of the orchestra’s groups of the Regular Army during the first decades of the XXth century. Such investigation based on historical, structural and systemic methods has been made for the first time. The military subunits of Lviv region of the period of Austrian regime (infantry regiments 10, 15, 23, 30, 55, 80) involved in their units Germans, Czechs, Austrians, Hungarians and less numerously presented Russians and Poles (55 and 80 infantry regiments that had their headquarters in Lviv and dislocated partially in Stryj and Zolochiv). Each of them obligatory had their own musical groups: mainly brass or competent symphony orchestra which included numerous Czech musicians and trumpeters as a separate unit. Each orchestra performer, as a rule, played two different instruments (brass and stringed). Their work was supervised by bandmaster and warrant officer – tambour major (who supervised group’s training as a conductor of the orchestra and their preparation to the defile), they were mainly Austrians, Germans and Czechs. Besides applicable military functions the orchestras took part in the civilian ceremonies, divine services and funeral ceremonies, every week at holidays and Sundays they carried out unmounted and hoarse defile along the city with march and light music of European authors under arrangements of their conductors (namely, arrangements of folk songs and dances), performed programs of European classical music in concert halls; and in public places: in park platforms, skating rigs; they also made guest-performance tours to the recreation resorts. In 1918 with the formation of Polish State there were some transformations in musical sphere of Polish Army and the USS Army. The conductors of military orchestras of Lviv region of the first decades of the XXth century faced the vast complex of tasks: the ability to work with the variety of personnel in the open air (in the field), in the square, hoarse defile and unmounted defile) in the covered concert-theatrical, theatrical buildings; mastering, providing, creation and adaptation of the universal repertoires to the real performance, potential and concert conditions, ensuring the training conditions of the new generation to the range of professional orchestras of academic level, the creation of programs, which provide with image and representative functions of the army, as well as to satisfy the needs of social and cultural topicality. Keywords: military conductors, tambour-major, performance repertoire of military orchestras, social and cultural functions of orchestra music. "

Gendhing Sekaten. (2010) 2020Gendhing Pahargyan. (2012) 2020Gendhing Kurmat Dalem. 2020Gendhing Gati. (2015) 2020Gendhing Gati Volume 2. 2020Gendhing Soran Volume 1. 2021

Gendhing Sekaten. (2010) 2020Gendhing Pahargyan. (2012) 2020Gendhing Kurmat Dalem. 2020Gendhing Gati. (2015) 2020Gendhing Gati Volume 2. 2020Gendhing Soran Volume 1. 2021

“If That Be Treason, Let Them Make the Most of It!”: Olin Downes, the Spanish Civil War, and Civil Liberties in the United States

“If That Be Treason, Let Them Make the Most of It!”: Olin Downes, the Spanish Civil War, and Civil Liberties in the United States

Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian - Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian, Welcome Party. Horrocks-Hopayian, Ziazan, Clowes, Giles, London Symphony Orchestra, Hargreaves, Morant, Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, Wilson. NMC, NMC D268.

Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian - Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian, Welcome Party. Horrocks-Hopayian, Ziazan, Clowes, Giles, London Symphony Orchestra, Hargreaves, Morant, Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, Wilson. NMC, NMC D268. - Volume 76 Issue 301