Vocal Line Research Articles

Notation and performance in Bartók’s folksong settings for the piano and in his vocal music

Performance markings in the vocal lines of Bartók’s compositions are surprisingly sparse compared to how carefully the instrumental parts are furnished with detailed instructions to indicate the desired interpretation. The few markings in vocal parts, especially in the folksong settings, are mostly meant to create special effects. One possible explanation for this discrepancy might be found in the spontaneous, simple performance of the folk singers Bartók came across during his research. He presumably intended his vocal folksong settings to be performed in the same unaffected way that characterized the original folk performance. Comparison of recordings of folksongs and the sound recordings that preserved Bartók’s vocal folksong settings with the composer at the piano can put this assumption to the test.

Dramatic Text, Music Text:

Even in the midst of their dubious claim that “philosophers did not go to the opera very often,” Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar cannot escape acknowledging the combination of “the splendor of court spectacles, the pomp of national myths, and the sentimental melodramas” that have traditionally driven opera in its social contexts (1).1 Discussions of the Restoration dramatic stage follow the same tripartite preoccupations—they also typically focus on the return of theater to London after the Interregnum, the appearance of women on stage in drama, and the increasing importance of music to theater life before the full arrival of opera seria in the eighteenth century with Georg Friedrich Handel’s appearance in London. However, the specifically interactive relationship between English nationalism, literature, theater, and music is often overlooked. In particular, the role of musical form in these displays of nationalism, especially in conjunction with patriotic libretti, is largely ignored, despite its ability to bridge the divisions between each disciplinary field. Textual studies of libretti rapidly recognize the pro-Imperial feeling that followed the restoration of the monarchy with Charles II in 1660, the Exclusion Crisis’s attempts to prevent the Catholic James II from ascending to the throne in 1685, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when James (the last Catholic monarch of England) was displaced by the Hanoverian Protestant William III and Mary II (formalized in 1689). This is readily seen in the histories of John Dryden, Nahum Tate, John Crowne, and many others. Moreover, anti-Papist sentiments frequently appear in an only vaguely coded form as resistance to tensions based on the French and Italian influences via Catholicism on James II and Charles II.

Songs in Motion: Rhythm and Meter in the German Lied (review)

Songs in Motion: Rhythm and Meter in German Lied. By Yonatan Malin. (Oxford Studies in Music Theory.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. [xx, 236 p. ISBN 9780195340051. $49.95.] Music examples, tables, bibliography, index. In 1817 article in Allgemeine Musika lische Zeitung, composer, critic, and publisher Hans Georg Nageli predicted new era of lied composition that would be characterized by an as of yet unrecognized polyrhythm, so that rhythm of speech, singing, and playing will be subsumed into higher artistic whole (Hans Georg Nageli, Die Liederkunst, Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung 45 [1817]: 765-66). often overlooked relations between these rhythms of poetry and music lie at heart of Yonatan Malin's valuable contribution to study of German art song. In Songs in Motion Malin draws on wealth of past and present approaches to song analysis and metric theory (including his dissertation, Metric Dissonance and Music- Text Relations in German Lied [Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 2003]) to critically examine songs by Fanny Hensel nee Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Hugo Wolf. Whereas recent studies of rhythm and meter have largely focused on specific songs or collections, Songs in Motion presents broad picture of genre and changing approaches to lied composition in nineteenth century. Malin's stated aim of book is a deepened awareness of temporal flow in song and union of musical and poetic rhythms (p. vii), and his readily comprehensible analytical methods and straightforward prose help realize goal. Perhaps counterintuitively, in order to understand how song is set in motion, it must first be suspended in time; each layer of song-text, vocal line, and accompaniment-is studied independently, then joined together to observe resultant polyrhythm that propels song forward. opening two chapters (Part One: Rhythm and Meter in German Lied) provide number of tools to do so by introducing methodologies and providing background on analysis of poetic and musical rhythms of lieder. In first chapter, The Rhythms of Poetry and Song, Malin offers concise overview of poetic rhythms and meters before turning to discussion of musical rhythm, in which he identifies number of declamatory schemas commonly used by nineteenthcentury composers to translate trimeter, tetrameter, and pentameter poetic lines into given musical meter. These declamatory schemas, which outline declamatory rhythms and indicate patterns of text setting, provide simple yet effective method for comparing different composers' approaches to combining poetic and musical rhythms, and Malin utilizes this particular approach repeatedly throughout Songs in Motion. Chapter 2, Theories of Musical Rhythm and Meter, introduces number of recent developments in metric theory, using distinction between meter and rhythm as point of both departure and conclusion. Meter is defined not as static temporal frame, but as an infinitely variable structuring of periodic motion formed by recurring accents and parallel structures, while rhythm is understood as the changing pattern of durations (pp. 64-65). This more flexible conception of meter underlies many of recent development in metric theory. Malin offers succinct explanations of these theories (including those of periodicity, hypermeter, metric perception and entrainment, phrase rhythm, shadow meter, and metric conflict), taking care to apply these concepts to short examples within lied genre in preparation for more extended analyses of part 2. Chapters 3 through 6 (Part Two: Songs in Motion) turn to closer readings of specific songs that represent in some way aforementioned composers' approaches to rhythm and meter. Although these two musical elements provide entry points into various songs, Malin neglects neither cultural contexts in which songs were written (he provides brief background information pertinent to understanding each song) nor other musical and poetic aspects of songs, including poetic meaning, harmony, form, musical texture, and dynamics. …

PIERRE BOULEZ IN INTERVIEW, 1996 (II) SERIALISM REVISITED

EG: Analyzing Pli selon pli, I went to the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basle and studied your sketches. There were some astonishing findings. As an example, let us look at the vocal line in Improvisation I sur Mallarmé. I wanted to take a restricted material and investigate it, and I wanted to find out how this vocal line was generated. If we look at these music examples: First, here are the pitches of the vocal line, ‘Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hu,’, etc. [Example 1, my notation, EG.]

"Ich bin eine Englanderin, zur Freyheit geboren": Blonde and the Enlightened Female in Mozart's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail

In Mozart’s Singspiel, Blonde is the antipode to her oppressor and would-be lover, the Turk Osmin. This article investigates the values Blonde embodied, why a blonde Englishwoman represented these notions, and how, in adapting Bretzner’s original libretto, intemperance crept into what had been a rational character. Re-reading Mozart’s music for Blonde through this history, we can see how Mozart laid gendering aside to emphasize the triumph of ‘blonde’ Enlightenment. The syntax of Enlightenment theatre, by merging emblematic with mimetic representation, could make gender stand for public politics and visa versa. Within this syntax, refinement of private sentiment typically led to public virtue. Females might lead instruction in refinement – as they did traditionally in salons and ‘Polite’ households – but the action, by focusing on romance, kept female initiatives outside the public sphere. Blonde exemplifies this syntax. By opposing Osmin, she shows the superiority of European over Turkish civilization in a discourse about female empowerment through love. Instructing Osmin in European etiquette, she envoices three ideals: liberty from tyranny, consensual marriage, and a rejection of physical abuse. Blondeness overcomes Darkness: having rejected her advice, Osmin’s violence, sexual appetite, and belief in autocracy lead to his dissolution in the finale. Blonde’s Englishness marks ‘her’ ideals as modern. For German playwrights, English plays had recently become models for exploring civil liberties through dramatis personae of lower orders. In writing the libretto in Leipzig, Bretzner updated his Italian source (La schiava liberta), deploying Englishness as a metonym for freedom to re-invent the servant as Blonde. Through this role he also articulated female rights recently championed in Leipzig, where Eliza Haywood’s Female Prompter had been a template for the first women’s periodical in German. Bretzner’s demonizing of ‘Oriental’ impulses fit perfectly the agenda of Joseph II. The Singspiel was originally scheduled to premiere during a visit by the Consul of Russia, whose support Joseph was courting for a military offence against Turkey. Spicing up his adaptation, the playwright Stephanie undermined Blonde’s claim to rationality, turning her verbal threat against Osmin into an attempt to scratch out his eyes. Mozart, however, unequivocally championed Blonde(ness). The rondo form of her first aria allows her to repeat her etiquette lesson. Out of its naive opening, her voice uncoils subtly, soaring gracefully up to e’’’ at the conclusion. In her duet with Osmin, her voice takes over. In the first section she mocks him by burlesquing his note of E’ flat, the polar (and darkened) opposite of her e’’’. In the duet’s second section the vocal lines are contrapuntally opposed; by singing the leading tones, Blonde moves the music to new tonal areas. Blonde, rather than Osmin, starts the final section, where Osmin must sing uncomfortably in his top range. In motioning her eye-scratching, she sings the section’s first full melodic statement, and Osmin begs her to desist by repeating her tune. Blonde prophesies the triumph of her values in her last aria whose simplicity and scoring – two flutes, and two oboes – symbolize light and union. In Mozart’s music, European Enlightenment, instantiated in blondness, banishes Oriental darkness.

Word level automatic alignment of music and lyrics using vocal synthesis

We propose a signal-based approach instead of the commonly used model-based approach, to automatically align vocal music with text lyrics at the word level. In this approach, we use a text-to-speech system to synthesize the singing voice according to the lyrics. In this way, aligning the music signal with the corresponding text lyrics becomes the alignment of two audio signals. This study uses the results of music information modeling and singing voice synthesis. In music information modeling, we study different music representation strategies for music segmentation, music region indexing and region content descriptions; in singing voice synthesis, we generate singing voice by making use of music knowledge to approximate the target vocal line in terms of tempo. The experimental results on a 20-song database show 26.3% and 36.1% word level alignment error rates at eighth note and sixteenth note alignment tolerances respectively. The proposed approach presents an alternative and effective solution to music-lyrics alignment which may require less training dataset.

Prices of Music Monographs and Scores as Reflected in Notes, 2003–2008

Prices of Music Monographs and Scores as Reflected in Notes, 2003–2008 Paula Hickner (bio) All numbers presented here are based on data drawn from this journal’s “Books Recently Published” and “Music Received” columns. Books and scores reviewed in Notes and imprints before 2006 are not included in the 2008 figures. No distinction is made between paperback and hardback editions, or between volumes issued with accompanying materials (CDs, CD-ROMs, etc.) and those without. If prices are available for both paperback and hardback editions, the price of the hardback edition has been used. Likewise, if a book is available in hardcopy and as an electronic text, the price of the hardcopy has been used. Book and score counts are based on the number of titles rather than the number of volumes. Price trends for books are given as a whole and also by language: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Out of 1,291 books from the “Books Recently Published” columns in 2008, 1,063 (82 percent) have been used in calculating this year’s price trends. Not included in the 2008 figures are 201 books with imprints before 2006, and twenty-seven books without available prices. Broken down by language, the total number of books included in this year’s figures is: English 758 of 837 (91 percent); French, 76 of 99 (77 percent); German, 128 of 184 (70 percent); Italian, 33 of 52 (63 percent); and Spanish, 68 of 119 (57 percent). Data for scores as a whole is given first, followed by six score categories. Categories of scores used in “Music Received” do not always correspond directly with categories in this column. In those cases, this compiler has placed the score in the most appropriate or closely related category. “Music Received” columns for 2008 listed 431 scores. Of the 431 scores, 326 (76 percent), met the criterion of having an imprint date of 2006 or later and were not choral octavos. Prices were available for all scores in this survey. All prices are reported in U.S. dollars and reflect retail prices; they do not reflect discounts or special sale pricing. When given, prices listed in the “Music Received” columns were used in compiling the data. Prices not given in Notes were obtained from a number of online sources including, [End Page 262] but not limited to: Amazon.com and its various international sites ( www.amazon.com ); Casalini Libri ( www.casalini.it ); Otto Harrassowitz ( www.harrassowitz.de ); Theodore Front Musical Literature ( www.tfront.com ); and individual publishers’ sites. Prices were converted to U.S. dollars on 7 May 2009 using the Universal Currency Converter ( http://www.xe.com/ucc ). Although every effort was made to collect and report data accurately, errors and inconsistencies may exist; please use the data with this in mind. This column is intended to show general trends in pricing of music materials and should be used only as a guide to collection-development planning. The definitions for the categories are: Monographs: Books that are typically classified in the Library of Congress classification schedule at ML or MT. All books with an imprint date of 2006, or later, whether issued as installments in a publisher’s continuation under a distinctive series title or issued individually, are included. Historical and monumental editions: Critical editions of scores usually representing specific ethnic, national, geographical or chronological repertories, or the compositions of a particular individual. Theses scores are typically classified in the Library of Congress classification schedule at M2, M3, and M3.1. Historical and monumental editions usually appear with critical apparatus, and include facsimile editions not intended primarily for performance. Titles issued with parts or an accompanying volume of critical notes are counted as one item. Large instrumental works: Orchestral works, concertos, wind ensembles, and band music. Full scores present the notation for all the performing forces required by a composition simultaneously, by means of vertical and horizontal alignment and placement upon each page. Multivoice vocal works: Operas, oratorios, choral works, and musicals. Both full and vocal scores are included. Vocal scores present the text and notation for all the vocal lines required by a composition, but present the notation for all the accompanying instrumental forces...

Romantic Subjectivity and West German Politics in Wolfgang Rihm's "Jakob Lenz"

Romantic Subjectivity and West German Politics in Wolfgang Rihm's Jakob Lenz In the late 1970s, the German composer Wolfgang Rihm was still in his late twenties, but he had already gained international recognition. He had established himself through a compositional style that incorpo rated historical allusion while aiming toward intense expressivity. The intended expressive immediacy of his music has often been understood in stark contrast to the complex, highly intellectualized compositional techniques of preceding years.1 Particularly illustrative of this style isJakob Lenz, a chamber opera that Rihm composed in 1977-78. The opera's libretto is based on a narrative textwritten by Georg Biichner around 1835. Buchner's text is about an episode in the life of a real historical figure: the eighteenth-century Sturm und Drang writer, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1751-92).2 True to Buchner's Lenz, themost obvious topic of Rihm's one-act opera is the psychological condition of itsprotagonist. Jessica Balik Wolfgang Rihm'sJakob Lenz 229 Rihm's opera depicts the subjective state of the character Lenz. More specifically, the opera's drama emphasizes tension between general, socio-historically established conventions and Lenz's individual, subjective state. Similarly, Rihm's music also exudes tension between the historical conventions to which it alludes and the unique music that Rihm nonetheless creates. Through both the depiction of itsprotagonist and the construction of its music, therefore,Jakob Lenz engages with the idea of preserving subjectivity against established theories and conventions. This paper cites examples of the tension, and explains two ways that such concern for the preservation of individual subjectivity can be understood in relation to the sociopolitical climate fromwhich this opera emerged: West Germany during the 1970s.3 Subjectivity vis-A-vis Convention Biichner's text and the opera's libretto portray Lenz as a psychologically unstable character. In both texts, Lenz is sent by a friend named Kaufmann on a journey through themountains to find a pastor named Oberlin. Kaufmann hopes that Oberlin can nurse Lenz to health. Although Lenz does find Oberlin, Oberlin is unable to help him. The opera ends with Kaufmann and Oberlin binding Lenz in a straitjacket, and with Lenz sufferingamental and emotional breakdown. While this ending makes Lenz's psychological agitation clear, itdoes not explain what underlies Lenz's affliction. In a study of Biichner's text, Gundula Sharman understands Lenz's instablity to concern external frameworks that conventionally imbue human lifewith stability and meaning. They fail for Lenz.4 Nature is one example. Sharman notes that walking through the mountains is a trope of German Romanticism that usually yields "rejuvenation" and "communion with nature."5 Although Biichner's Lenz is indeed a piece of German Romantic literature that references this trope, Lenz's journey through themountains does not produce any salubrious effects. Another example of an external framework that fails to keep Lenz psychologically sound is religion. In Rihm's opera, for instance, Kaufmann reminds Lenz that his father would like for him to return home. Even if it is not made explicit in the opera, Lenz's biography makes it clear that his father is a pastor who is disappointed about Lenz's refusal to become a pastor himself.6 Kaufmann and Oberlin both suggest that Lenz should return home and obey his father, but near the close of the opera's sixth scene, Lenz responds with incredulity that he cannot.7 230 Perspectives of New Music Just as Lenz's dramatic narrative does not adhere to these conven tional frameworks for creating a psychologically stable life, so too does Lenz's musical line tend to eschew convention. One example occurs in the ninth scene. Rihm's performance indication at its beginning reads "Quasi Sarabande."8 It opens with the cellos establishing a stately triple meter. They also reference the second-beat accents and dotted rhythmic patterns that characterize the Sarabandes of many eighteenth-century dance suites, even though they also distort these characteristics by playing pizzicato. In so doing, Rihm references this dance in part by distancing his own music from its conventions; therefore, the adjective "quasi" within his performance indication is indeed crucial (see Example When Lenz's vocal line enters this scene, the...

The Gilbert & Sullivan Critical Edition and the Full Scores that Never Were

The critical edition of the “Savoy Operas” of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan provides a useful example of the ways in which scholarly editions of performing works can alter important elements of the sources on which they are based. The accepted form for the presentation of a critical edition of an opera is the “full score”, but for no Savoy Opera did a real full score ever exist—nor was one ever intended. The sources closest to full scores were the copying masters that Sullivan prepared for use by copyists extracting parts for performers, but these are skeletons into which Sullivan often did not enter revisions. In preparing critical texts of Savoy Operas, editors have been obliged to take different elements of the text from different sources:the instrumental parts from Sullivan’s holographs (with ambiguities clarified by surviving early band parts); the vocal lines andunderlaid words from printed vocal scores; and the dialogue and stage directions from printed libretti. Thus are created full scores that not only “never were” but that were never intended.

Counterpoint in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail

ABSTRACTCounterpoint plays a surprisingly large role in the musical language of Mozart’s Die Entführung au dem Serail. In solo material for the deep bass voice of the character Osmin Mozart suggested contapuntal relationships with other parts to give the vocal line independence from the instrumental bass. In ensemble numbers like Osmin and Blonde’s duet No. 9 the composer strongly suggested a contrapuntal relationship between lines sung by antagonistic characters. In Osmin and Belmonte’s duet No. 2, represented in the sources in a nearly complete sketch, Mozard used numerous contrapuntal techniques in support of the dramatic situation. Though the work was composed right around Mozart’s well-known Bach year of 1782, most of the counterpoint is not particularly Bachian. But the polyphonic textures and contrapuntal thinking mark the work as stylistically connected with the composer’s most mature music. Contrapuntal analysis turns out to be a useful perspective of Mozart’s operatic writing.

Prices of Music Monographs and Scores as Reflected in Notes, 2001-2006

Prices of Music Monographs and Scores as Reflected in Notes, 2001–2006 Paula Hickner (bio) As in previous years, all numbers presented here are based on data drawn from this journal's "Books Recently Published" and "Music Received" columns. Books and scores reviewed in Notes and imprints before 2004 are not included in the 2006 figures. No distinction is made between paperback and hardback editions, or between volumes issued with accompanying materials (CDs, CD-ROMs, etc.) and those without. If prices are available for both paperback and hardback editions, the price of the hardback edition has been used. Likewise, if a book is available in hardcopy and as an electronic text, the price of the hardcopy has been used. Price trends for books are given as a whole and also by language: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Out of 1,459 books from the "Books Recently Published" columns in 2006, 1,237 (85 percent) have been used in calculating this year's price trends. Not included in the 2006 figures are 165 books with imprints before 2004, and fifty-seven books without available prices. Broken down by language, the total number of books included in this year's figures are: English, 740 of 852 (87 percent); French, 152 of 170 (89 percent); German, 234 of 268 (87 percent); Italian, 35 of 47 (74 percent); and Spanish, 76 of 122 (62 percent). As with books, data for scores as a whole are given first, followed by six score categories. Categories of scores used in "Music Received" do not always correspond directly with categories in this column. In those cases, this compiler has placed the score in the most appropriate or closely related category. "Music Received" columns for 2006 listed 533 scores. Of the 533 scores, 462 (87 percent) met the criterion of having an imprint date of 2004 or later and were not choral octavos. Prices were available for all scores in this survey. All prices are reported in U.S. dollars and reflect retail prices; they do not reflect discounts or special sale pricing. When given, prices listed in the "Music Received" columns were used in compiling the data. Prices not given in Notes were obtained from a number of online sources including, but not limited to: Amazon.com and its various international [End Page 248] sites (www.amazon.com); Casalini Libri (www.casalini.it); Otto Harrassowitz (www.harrassowitz.de); Puvill Libros (www.puvill.com); Theodore Front Musical Literature (www.tfront.com); and individual publishers' sites. Prices were converted to U.S. dollars on 4 and 7 May 2007 using the Universal Currency Converter (http://www.xe.com/ucc). Although every effort was made to collect and report data accurately, errors and inconsistencies may exist; please use the data with this in mind. This column is intended to show general trends in pricing of music materials and should be used only as a guide to collection-development planning. The definitions for the categories are: * * * Monographs: Books that are typically classified in the Library of Congress classification schedule at ML or MT. All books with an imprint date of 2004 or later, whether issued as installments in a publisher's continuation under a distinctive series title or issued individually, are included. * * * Historical and monumental editions: Critical editions of scores usually representing specific ethnic, national, geographical, or chronological repertories, or the compositions of a particular individual. These scores are typically classified in the Library of Congress classification schedule at M2, M3, and M3.1. Historical and monumental editions usually appear with critical apparatus, and include facsimile editions not intended primarily for performance. Titles issued with parts or an accompanying volume of critical notes are counted as one item. * * * Large instrumental works: Orchestral works, concertos, wind ensembles, and band music. Full scores present the notation for all the performing forces required by a composition simultaneously, by means of vertical and horizontal alignment and placement upon each page. * * * Multivoice vocal work: Operas, oratorios, choral works, and musicals. Both full and vocal scores are included. Vocal scores present the text and notation for all the vocal lines required by a composition, but present the notation for all the accompanying instrumental forces condensed and arranged...

The Distribution of Authority in the Performance of North Indian Vocal Music

This paper examines subtle interactions between vocalist and melodic accompanist in North Indian classical music. Data are based on transcription and analysis sound recordings, observations of performances and interviews with both singers and accompanists. Descriptions of the melodic accompanist's role usually emphasise ‘following’ the vocalist and replicating their lines. This paper shows that though the singer holds musical primacy in the construction and direction of the performance, the accompanist presents an individuated voice, and performance becomes a site of subtle contestation, without its viability being compromised. Accompanists take temporary control over the performance during passages when they play alone, and may also present subtle but consistent variations of the vocal lines in their replication. Though no single paradigm of authority may be shown to dominate, the manner in which authority is being negotiated within, and may be apprehended from, performance, is clarified. The paper validates the individual authority over the music system demonstrated by accompanists even within their subordinate role. Finally, the paper draws attention to two possible ways of ‘hearing’ performances: one focusing on the soloist as central, the other on the ensemble.

Listening to the Music Itself

In “Music and the Time Screen” (1976), Elliott Carter outlines rhythmic procedures in several of his pieces, and then indicates that he has discussed only “the outer shell” and remained silent on “the issues and visions most important and significant during the act of composing.” Following up on these comments, I present a two-part analysis of his “In Genesis” from In Sleep, In Thunder (1981). Part I (“The Shell”) focuses on techniques emphasized in Carter’s writings—large-scale polyrhythms, metric modulations, notated accelerandi and all-interval twelve-tone chords. Part II (“Breaking Through”) deals with other topics: pitch relationships involving the perfect fifths that articulate the large-scale polyrhythms and notated accelerandi, focal pitches that encapsulate the divinity/humanity dichotomy in the poem, motivic unity in the vocal line, and other spontaneous interrelationships that contribute local and long-range coherence.

Estimating the pitch of polyphonic vocal music using comb filters connected in parallel and singular value decomposition

AbstractPitch estimation processing is an essential process in the automatic scoring of music. In this paper we propose a method for estimating the pitch of polyphonic vocal lines, an area that has received almost no research. The proposed method estimates pitch by using 12 comb filters connected together in parallel (corresponding to the 12 notes of an octave) together with singular value decomposition (SVD). The approach is based on the fact that a comb filter (H(z)=1−z−N) is able to eliminate all the harmonic components of the note to which it corresponds and also that the SVD of the matrix of signal samples enables us to distinguish the number of harmonic components in the signal from the number of singular values obtained. In other words, together with the above‐mentioned structure we are able to use the SVD to detect outputs in which the number of harmonic components has been reduced and thereby estimate the pitch of a note. We confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method by presenting the results of estimating pitch using the proposed method on polyphonic vocal music with both two and three voices singing at the same time. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 2, 90(9): 62–74, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjb.20381

Swinging Bach: Bobby McFerrin and Guests (review)

Reviewed by: Swinging Bach: Bobby McFerrin and Guests Jim Farrington Swinging Bach: Bobby McFerrin and Guests. DVD. Presented by Nina Ruge and Alan Bangs. With Bobby McFerrin, Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony, Jacques Loussier Trio, King’s Singers, German Brass, Ji´ri Stivin and Collegium Quodlibet, Turtle Island String Quartet, Quintessence Saxophone Quintet, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Christian Gansch. Leipzig, Germany: EuroArts Music International, 2000. 2050406. $19.99. Crossover. The very word strikes a range of emotions from disgust to greed to benign satisfaction to curiosity and back to horror on the part of the music-buying public. Readers will recognize where they fit into this continuum. Those who look down their noses at music that takes from a variety of traditions and makes something else neglect centuries of musicians and composers doing the same thing. Today's so-called "crossover" music (which can trace its history back to any vernacular musician appropriating melodies by composers of art-with-a-capital-A music) is enjoyed by millions who simply enjoy music, and yet is reviled by those for whom classical, jazz, or a particular kind of ethnic music is their primary if not sole musical pleasure. The concert under consideration here was held in Leipzig in 2000, part of the "24 Hour Bach" celebrations commemorating the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's death. This was an outdoor concert in the Marketplatz using several stages, plus a balcony for the remarkable German Brass. Thousands of appreciative people crowded the plaza despite rain throughout much of the evening, providing a palpable energy. Unfortunately the weather seemed to wreak havoc with some of the intonation, particularly that of the Quintessence Saxophone Quintet. Not everything on the concert was of the crossover variety, but everything was based at least in part on the music of Bach, who of course spent the last twenty-seven years of his life in Leipzig. Production qualities throughout are very high, with two surround sound options (Dolby Digital and DTS), and subtitles in three languages. The two hosts, who speak at times in both English and German, introduce most of the performers and works, and attempt to explain the musical context that the concert is trying to capture, but ultimately are superfluous. The packaging and marketing of this disc would lead one to believe that Bobby McFerrin is the central performer. While he may be the most recognized name, he is present on only four segments. Nevertheless, McFerrin steals the show with his remarkable audience participation rendition of "Ave Maria," during which he sings the moving Bach accompaniment while the audience sings the soaring Gounod vocal line. Another high point is the King's Singers lone contribution to the video, "Deconstructing Johann," showing all the wit, panache, and remarkable vocalizing for which the ensemble is famous (and what may be the best use I've seen of an otherwise corny ringtone at the opportune moment). With such a large number of performers and wide variety of styles, some unevenness is inevitable. For example, flutist Jiři Stivin's performance of two movements from the Orchestral Suite, BWV 1067 with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig are [End Page 681] almost painful to hear, such is the stylistic disconnect between ensemble and soloist; once he walks to the adjacent stage midway through the "Badinerie" to finish that movement with his jazz group, all is well. Something would have been missing had Jacques Loussier not been present. In the late 1950s, his Play Bach Trio promoted this kind of crossover music specifically with Bach's works in mind, selling millions of copies. Critics were not kind at the time, and the last several decades have not improved their opinion of the genre. Jim Farrington Eastman School of Music Copyright © 2007 the Music Library Association, Inc.

Rameau at Fontainebleau

notation to the detriment of the performer. Given the expertise of organists of the period as improvisers (as evidenced by, for example, the solo organ music of Purcell and Blow, much of which has the unmistakeable character of written-down improvisation), and given that copyists took this expertise for granted in full sections, it seems reasonable to assume that even prescriptive-looking notation might be a more subtle combination of signs to the player than Herissone's argument tends to allow. For example, in the places she cites where the right hand departs from the vocal line into a cadential cliche, would an experienced player actually need the notation to alert him to the cadence, or would the bass part, his ears and his experience already be doing the job? Furthermore, given the preponderance of psalm settings in the repertory, and the regularity with which the psalter was otherwise performed liturgically, many players would not have needed an underlaid text (p.55) to be able to tell that their music was departing rhythmically from the singer's. I wonder, then, if it is entirely safe to assume that the copyists, though evidently practical in intent, were 'absolute' notators. The act of notating an organ part (perhaps at speed) may have had a performative, unfixed element which Herissone, keen to attach intentionality to all details of the notation, possibly overlooks. The similarity between the accompaniments notated by Blow and Gostling (who was not a composer) suggests that the experience the copyists brought to their work was primarily that of performer-and, as we know, the immediacy of performance influenced the business of being a composer (and, whether by association or definition, a copyist) much more then than today. But, then again, copyists went to the trouble of notating right-hand parts in a huge number of pieces in a variety of sources: this would be an odd way to spend one's time if the only point were to give organists the option of being lazy. Beyond (or between) the notes and their implications for performance practice, a little cultural historiography creeps in now and again: Herissone discerns a possible shift away from colla voce accompaniments at the turn of the 18th century (p.73); the motivically complex, highly 'worked' accompaniment style of Matthew Locke may have been considered 'impolite' (to quote Roger North) at the Catholic chapel of Catherine of Braganza (p.87). Given that the Restoration was a period of marked upheaval in English music, the reader might expect a bit more of this: continuo style as a weathervane of Continental influence, or secularisation, or something. But there might be rather more (or less) than a Royal Musical Association Monograph in that. Better to forbear from such matters for now, and concentrate on editing and performing the music in response to Herissone's challenging conclusions.

'Ah Clara, I am not worthy of your love': Rereading 'Frauenliebe und Leben', the Poetry and the Music

In setting Chamisso's Frauenliebe und Leben, Schumann discovered in the poems a subtext that he reflected in the music. Although the heroine of the poems manifestly aspires to be humble and submissive, as was widely expected of women in her day, she emerges, to those who read closely, as more independent and spirited than she herself knows. By shaping details in his songs' vocal line, Schumann captures the heroine's independence of spirit, as well as her resentment when her husband proves unequal to her high expectations; and by casting the piano as the heroine's husband, Schumann gives voice to a man's inner fears of disappointing or injuring the woman he loves. Schumann's music thus offers a penetrating insight into the Frauenliebe poems, even while expressing the composer's own deep anxieties, on the eve of his marriage, about his worthiness to wed the prodigiously gifted Clara Wieck.

Fidelio (review)

Reviewed by: Fidelio Steve York Ludwig von Beethoven. Fidelio. DVD. Opernhaus Zürich Chorus and Orchestra / Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Recorded live at the Opernhaus Zürich on 1502 2004. With Camilla Nylund, Jonas Kaufmann, Günther Groissböck, Alfred Muff, Lázló Polgár, Elizabeth Rae Magnuson, Christoph Strehl. Ratingen, Germany: TDK, 2005. DVUS-OPFID. $29.99. Zürich Opera's performance of Beethoven's only opera is minimalist in terms of staging and sets, which leaves the listener/ viewer to enjoy a fine overall vocal and orchestral performance. The well-prepared video production enhances the performance by emphasizing dramatic moments through creative camera work and close-ups. Some of the most interesting video work appears during the well-known overture. We see close-up views of orchestral playing on cue as individual solos and sectional soli occur, and a unique view of the conductor from the musicians' vantage point. The orchestra's outstanding performance continues throughout, and thankfully, Harnoncourt does not allow them to overpower the singers. Fidelio's plot is steeped in deceit and intrigue. Leonore disguises herself as Fidelio in order to gain employment at a high-security prison to free her husband, who has been sentenced to death. The jailer's daughter falls in love with her/him and Leonore/Fidelio must agree to marriage in order to maintain secrecy. Eventually, Leonore/Fidelio shocks everyone by challenging the prison governor and placing herself between the executioner's knife and her weakened husband. The opera is full of ensemble singing, and the fine vocalists, along with restraint from the orchestra allow one to hear each vocal line clearly. The first act quartet featuring Leonore/Fidelio, Rocco, Jaquinio, and Marzelline is an example. The camera edits greatly aid non-German speakers' understanding of the plot as the video cues showing individual characters singing different text correspond well with subtitles. Individually, the singers are all quite capable as well. Camilla Nylund as Leonore/ Fidelio takes on this demanding role with authority and strength (both vocally and [End Page 171]dramatically). Lázló Polgár's Rocco is also worthy of note. Polgár has one of those bass voices that one is equally satisfied to hear speaking as singing. The few sections of his spoken dialogue bring to mind some of the best performances of Sarastro from Die Zauberflöte.Alfred Muff, as Pizarro, gives perhaps the most dramatic performance of the cast. Although vocally not as stunning as Nylund or Polgár, Muff portrays the murderous, psychotic prison governor in a way that only close-up video cameras can accurately show. The power of minimal staging and atmospheric lighting, whether on video or live in the opera house, is apparent in the prison scene in which Leonore/Fidelio persuades Rocco to let the prisoners spend some time in the yard (in hopes that she might find her husband among them). The prisoners, with shaved heads and numbers painted on their foreheads, sing standing very close together, lit with a bluish hue, give us the impression that even the coveted prison yard is crowded, dark, and dirty, conjuring images from Orwell's 1984. This subtle lighting does not always work, with some scenes being so dark that the singers can barely be seen during important solo sections. Because Fideliois Beethoven's only foray into this genre, great care is usually taken when mounting a production of this opera. Clearly, Zürich Opera's video production was as important as the stage production, and the sound quality for orchestra, chorus, and soloists is exceptional. Although sung in German, the disc's main menu offers optional subtitles in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish, and scene selection within each act. Steve York Christopher Newport University Copyright © 2006 the Music Library Association, Inc.

Sir Peter Pears: An Annotated Bibliography

INTRODUCTION There are few operatic or recital voices as unique and recognizable as that of British tenor Peter Pears. His bright timbre and musicality were hallmarks of British operatic and concert stages in the middle part of the twentieth century. Pears premiered several important British operatic roles, most notably those penned by Benjamin Britten, and was known for his intellect as much as his musicianship. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Cambridge, Sussex, and York universities, and received a knighthood in 1977. 2006 marks the twentieth anniversary of his death on 3 April 1986. Born in Farnham in Southeast Great Britain on 22 June 1910, Pears became renowned for his ability to produce a smooth vocal line while retaining clear diction. A natural and perhaps less refined voice, he was equally at home performing both modern operatic roles with angular vocal lines, and the linear, more melodic songs of John Dowland and his contemporaries. He met Benjamin Britten in 1937, and they developed a deep personal and professional relationship that would last until Britten's death. They spent nearly thirty years living together in the Red House, near the Aldeburgh Festival facilities. It was in this house that each of them died, Britten in 1976, and Pears in 1986. Together they created some of the great operatic moments of the twentieth century. They regularly collaborated on musical and textual aspects of Britten's and other composers' works, and many of Britten's vocal and operatic works were written for and dedicated to Pears (Pears also had early ambitions as a composer, but famously claimed that those aspirations disappeared once Britten entered his life). In addition to his operatic success, Pears was a regular on the recital stage, performing works by such composers as Bach, Schubert, and Dowland, and receiving accolades especially for his sensitivity to the text. Would Pears have had the same success on the operatic and concert stage had he not met Britten? We will never know, but Pears had started a professional vocal career prior to meeting Britten, and he performed a number of standard operatic roles before and after Britten began creating roles for him. One could easily argue that Britten's success as an operatic composer relied directly on Pears, whose voice Britten had in mind when creating many of his operatic roles and other vocal works. Pears's interpretations of Britten's characters are still the benchmark as his operas are produced. Aside from performing, Pears's other passions involved writing articles and essays, conducting master classes, and offering his artistic and historical expertise to audiences as a lecturer. If one were able to ask Pears what he would consider to be the legacy of his life's work, he might mention his many premieres of operatic roles and stylistically diverse recordings, but it is just as likely that he was most proud of his involvement in the founding of the English Opera Group in 1946, the Britten-Pears School for Young Artists (now known as the Britten-Pears Programme) in 1972, and especially England's Aldeburgh Festival in 1948. Pears and Britten poured their lives into these annual Aldeburgh events and considered the festival to be among their most important vehicles for offering new music as well as classical masterworks to the British audiences. They were both active as performers in festival events, and they were especially influential in the programming of works to be performed. Pears, in fact, spent his last day of life offering a master class on the Evangelist's recitatives in Bach's St. Matthew Passion. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND DISCOGRAPHY Scope Christopher Headington included a bibliography as part of his 1992 Peter Pears biography which cited some of the works listed below. The present bibliography expands upon his list, especially in terms of published articles and essays written by Pears. It also adds entries for post-1992 publications and incorporates older items not included in Headington's work. …

King Arthur, and: Teseo (review)

Reviewed by: King Arthur, and: Teseo John Holland Henry Purcell. King Arthur. DVD. Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor and Concentus Musicus Wien / Nikolaus Harnoncourt. With Barbara Bonney, Michael Schade Oliver Widmer, Birgit Remmert, Isabel Rey. Stuttgart, Germany: EuroArts Music International, 2005. 2054508. $44.99. George Frideric Handel. Teseo. DVD. Lautten Compagney Berlin / Wolfgang Katschner. With Jacek Laszczkowski, Sharon Rostrof-Zamir, Maria Riccarda Wesseling, Martin Wölfel, Mariam Meyer, Thomas Diestler. Leipzig, Germany: Arthaus Musik, 2004. 100 709. $34.99. I can't help wondering what composers such as Handel and Purcell would make of our recent fascination with the musical theater of the 17th and 18th centuries. Generations came and went without any performances of these works, most of which were intended for performance at a certain time in a specific place with no thought of revival. Should another city or royal court express an interest in a second production, it was not uncommon for the composer to overhaul the piece for a different cast of singers and the tastes of the local populace. In these days, when "authenticity" is the operative word, how does one decide what is "authentic"? We can select a specific musical text from the various editions: the Vienna edition of Gluck's Alceste, for example, instead of his vastly altered version for Paris, but what about the staging? Should we be "musicologically correct" and attempt a recreation of what we think 18th century audiences saw, or should we remove these works from the museum and present them in a way which can speak more readily to a contemporary audience? A good stage director and design team can make either approach work—or not, as the case may be. With the exception of Dido and Aeneas, the theatrical works of Henry Purcell are seldom encountered except as concert works. His so-called "semi-operas" were what we might consider plays with incidental music except that characters from the play are called upon to sing on occasion. The difficulty in finding singing actors who can play Restoration drama and negotiate Purcell's florid vocal lines has relegated these large scale works to the pages of the history books and concert performances of the music only. In 2004, the Salzburg Festival attempted to change this. Employing a German translation based on John Dryden's original text, which was adapted further by stage director Jürgen Flimm and conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the production uses stage actors and singers (often doubling one another in identical costumes) to present this pageant-like work and make it accessible to a modern audience. There is no attempt to recreate a period production; instead we see warring Saxons and Britons from all historical eras plus quite a bit of extravagant silliness which would not be out of place in a British pantomime. Presented in Salzburg's cavernous Felsenreitschule, the production employs 21st century stage and lighting techniques to bring this forgotten work to life, but be forewarned: it is the sort of production which might be dismissed by more conservative viewers as Eurotrash. Musically, the production is in very strong hands. Harnoncourt is one of the gurus of the period instrument movement, and while Purcell's music has never figured largely in his repertoire, he knows what to do with it and elicits first rate performances from his orchestra and soloists, who include Barbara Bonney and Michael Shade, singing in the original English. Of the actors and the spoken dialogue, I suspect that much is lost if one is not fluent in German. The subtitles do not always make it clear who the characters are, and the plot is obscure at best. Fortunately, Dryden's text seems to be heavily abbreviated, and the DVD is programmed so that the dialogue scenes can be skipped by selecting "music only" from the menu. The DVD also offers a choice of subtitles and audio. Handel's third opera for London, Teseo, has never achieved the popularity of his later operas and is encountered rarely, so any new recording of it should be an occasion for celebration. Unfortunately, this DVD production filmed at the Schlosstheater Neues Palais at Sanssouci in Potsdam is a missed opportunity. Produced under the auspices of...