Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology
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The teleology of the sign user
Get PDFIn my 2009 book A Theory of Musical Narrative, I argued that narrativity in music can be productively understood according to the principle of transvaluation as defined by the American semiotician James Jakob Liszka. An important aspect of this principle — and hence of musical narrative — is what Liszka describes as “the teleology of the sign user”: that is to say, the critical role played by the interpreter’s cognitive, cultural, and ideological perspective in formulating and presenting an interpretation. When this role is considered at all, it is frequently confined to a general, cautionary usage wherein the notion of a single, “correct” narrative interpretation of a work is repudiated and a sensitivity to context encouraged. In this chapter, I attempt to move beyond this general usage to consider ways in which it might be more fully characterized and formalized. To that end, I consider certain interpretive perspectives that might be characterized as possessing a cognitive (as opposed to a situational or cultural) component and understood within a framework of binary oppositions. In particular, I call attention to the fundamental formative roles that such perspectives can play in shaping and directing interpretive details. For example, the perception of — and hermeneutic engagement with — patterns deemed to be of narrative significance can arise either from a bounded (or centripetal) perspective, in which case the interpretive details tend to reinforce one another, circling around a relatively unified and coherent narrative, or they can arise from an unbounded (or centrifugal) perspective, in which case the interpretive details tend to push outward, suggesting the possibility of other non-selected yet viable alternative narratives. These and other binary formulations to be discussed are applied to musical narratives but also have implications for narrative interpretation in general
Seventeenth-century chant manuscripts held at University of Warsaw Library in the context of Bernardine musical culture
Get PDFThe Music Department at Warsaw University Library is in possession of three seventeenthcentury chant manuscripts. All three were probably produced in the Bernardine community, although only two of them contain provenance notes which allow us to establish more precisely where they were compiled or used. In the present paper, the focus is on one of those manuscripts, which formerly belonged to the Bernardine nuns of Łowicz. This source provides valuable information on such subjects as the exchange of musical experiences and cooperation among various congregations
The mysterious provenance and uncommon repertoire of the music collection belonging to the Dominican Pius Hancke
Get PDFFather Pius Hancke’s music collection includes numerous pieces written for harp. Its outstanding repertoire and provenance distinguishes it from other monastic collections. Hancke expanded it throughout his life and took it with him when moving home. He spent the last thirty years of his life in the Dominican monastery in Nysa. Music for the liturgy contained in his collection (masses, litanies) was certainly used there and is currently the only testimony of that monastery’s musical culture. Besides liturgical compositions, Hancke’s collection includes a number of instrumental pieces for harp with the accompaniment of other instruments and contrafacta of operatic arias. The latter often include parts arranged for harp, probably by Hancke himself. The scriptors’ names link this collection to a unique manuscript containing a Credo ascribed to Antonio Vivaldi
Liszt and the issue of so called Gypsy music
Get PDFThe article attempts to shed light on Liszt’s connections with so called Gypsy music, with particular emphasis on the sources and manifestations of the composer’s interest in the subject. The paper also shows the effects of Liszt’s thought on his academic successors. Liszt’s fascination with Gypsy music and culture is discussed by outlining his childhood memories as well as indicating numerous personal contacts he had with renowned Gypsy musicians. The author of the paper also links Liszt’s enchantment with Gypsy culture with his readiness to identify his travelling virtuoso status with that of a Gypsy-wanderer. Special attention in the article is put on Liszt’s book Des Bohemiens et de leur musique en Hongrie (1859). The author of the article claims that Liszt’s cosmopolitanism may be a key factor while explaining the composer’s predilection to Gypsy culture and music. While focusing on the reception of Liszt’s views on so called Gypsy music by the posterity Bartok’s interpretation of Liszt’s ideas is reminded. Discussed are also their repercussions in the second half of the twentieth century and early twenty first century
Old polish Christmas carols by contemplative nuns (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries)
Get PDFOld Polish Christmas carols in the contemplative female orders of Benedictine nuns, Poor Clares and Carmelite nuns were written and functioned at the junction of traditions - Polish and European, lay and religious, noble and elite, monastic and folk - and also in the Polish borderlands, which exhibited great diversification in terms of nationalities, religious denominations and cultures. The numerous versions of carols confirm not only their popularity, but also the fact that they functioned in specific environments, with the mutual influence of various motives, particularly noticeable in this genre, which was susceptible to all sorts of interference. The singing of carols, including those types which were characteristic of the monastic environment, such as lullabies, religious carols, songs of the nativity and of adoration and New Year carols, was a traditional part of Christmas celebrations. Performed both as part of the liturgy and outside it, they constituted a sort of a paratheatrical spectacle, characteristic of the Baroque mentality and of the spirituality of a specific order
Theatrical drama and Franciscan simplicity in oratorios by Ferenc Liszt
Get PDFThe works of Ferenc Liszt are both influenced by the romantic mood and various opposing trends of the church music of his era. In his oratorios Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth and Christus, as well as in the unfinished St Stanislaus, one may discern such features as drama, mysticism, universalism, and national elements. In these vocal-instrumental works the composer makes use of two languages, German and Latin, as well as of various types of the archaisms such as quotations from Gregorian melodies. In Liszt’s compositions, choral monodies become ‘motifs’ - the recurring themes which appear frequently and in a variety of versions. Dramatic expression and lyricism are particularly dominant in St Elisabeth. The Christus oratorio, which resembles a misterium, because of the absence of a libretto and the use of liturgical texts, is characterised by the abundance of harmonic solutions. The oratorios reveal both the composer’s uncommon piety and his striving to reform the church music of his times
Reference to the realm of nature in the theoretical reflections and the music of Ludomir Michał Rogowski
Get PDFBesides an abundant musical output, the rich legacy of Ludomir Michał Rogowski (1881-1954) also contains numerous writings, a special place among which is held by Muzyka przyszłości [The music of the future], written in 1919 and published three years later. In this work Rogowski asserted that the possibilities for composing music on the basis of the major, minor and chromatic scales were exhausted. He went on to propose an expansion of the repertoire of scales, giving two criteria for the choice of scales: ‘naturalness’ and ‘rhythmicity’. A ‘natural’ scale is one which can be read from the sequence of fifth steps of the twelve-note chromatic scale in equal temperament. The simplest example is the anhemitonic pentatonic scale. The concept of the renewal of tonal material is central to Muzyka przyszłości, but its author formulates an idea about the rhythmic essence of musical form as well. In his considerations on this subject, he proceeds from the nature-related phenomenon of symmetry. He treats the simplest symmetrical pattern, the ternary form ABA, as an elementary manifestation of rhythm expanded into form. References to nature also occur in Rogowski’s texts on national music. In this context, folk music represents such values connected with nature as simplicity, honesty and freshness; it is devoid of all artificiality or posture, free from all convention. In Rogowski’s musical output, a fascination with nature became a powerful source of inspiration, from which many symphonic works of a programmatic character emerged. The connection with nature and joy of life - the crucial values of Mediterranean culture - are conveyed by the music of Cortege de Dionysos and by the whole of composer’s oeuvre. Rogowski confirmed his belonging to the culture of the South not only with his music. When, in 1926, he left Warsaw for Dubrovnik, he confirmed it also with his life
A Polish saint. Historical-national themes in Franz Liszt’s oratorio ‘St Stanislaus’
Get PDFSaint Stanislaus, a Polish bishop murdered in 1079 by King Boleslaus the Bold, is the title character of Franz Liszt’s oratorio St Stanislaus. The libretto of St Stanislaus has several authors - the first author was the Cracow man of letters and folklore scholar Lucjan Siemieński, whom Liszt asked to write a text for his oratorio. The libretto, completed in 1869, was translated by Peter Cornelius, who made certain changes to the order of events. Not until 1874 did Liszt set about writing the music for his oratorio in earnest, and that was when he asked Cornelius to revise the libretto. The author’s premature death thwarted that intention, and so Liszt was forced to seek other authors. The version prepared several years later by Karl Erdmann Edler finally met the composer’s expectations. In its final version, the libretto comprises four scenes, which form a logical sequence of events and at the same time serve to emphasise Stanislaus’ spiritual strength and the causative power of his actions. Liszt did riot succeed in setting the whole text of the libretto; the extant material covers only scenes 1 and 4. The musical style of St Stanislaus indicates that the composer drew on various types of musical inspiration and technique. Hence the work is characterised by a certain heterogeneity - a synthetic character that encapsulates a nineteenth-century aesthetics. Nevertheless, the oratorio is undoubtedly one of the most distinctive manifestations of Liszt’s interest in Polish subjects. The presence of quotations from the Polish songs ‘Boże, coś Polskę’ and ‘Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła’ lends the work a distinct national colouring and evokes a mood of solemnity and religious contemplation, as well as the aura of triumph, victory and domination. Such an attitude may be symptomatic of the typically nineteenth-century perception of Poland as a tormented nation deprived of its statehood, which thanks to its valour and resilience will ultimately regain its independence
The musical works of Tobias Zeutschner (1621-75), as documented in occasional school prints. Working on a thematic catalogue of the Breslau [Wroclaw] Organist
Get PDFTobias Zeutschner (b. 1621, d. 1675), organist of St Mary Magdalene’s in Breslau, was not a teacher at the Magdalenaeum gymnasium school affiliated to that church. However, occasional prints preserved in the Silesian-Lusatian Collection of Wroclaw University Library confirm his active participation in the musical life of that school. Until now, the scenarios of plays performed by the Magdalenaeum’s pupils have never been the object of musicologists’ interest. And yet they allow us to add several previously unknown, albeit not extant, items to Zeutschner’s oeuvre. Consequently, the thematic catalogue of compositions by Tobias Zeutschner (prepared by the author) contains 83 items, as compared to the 47 listed by Reinhold Starke in 1900. At least ten of the new titles were noted in the school’s occasional prints. What is more, the Magdalenaeum pamphlets offer additional information about known compositions that is particularly helpful in establishing their chronology. For example, previously we had only an approximate date for the Christmas biblical history ‘Halleluja, höret an die Geburt unsers Herren’, a major work by Zeutschner, whereas now it is possible to propose 29 January 1660 as the date of its first rendition