Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology
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The Charter of the Kwidzyn (Marienwerder) Convivium Musicum of 1587 as a source for the history of musical culture in Prussian towns
Get PDFMusic societies, referred to in German documents as ‘Kantoreigesellschaften’, ‘Musikgesellschaften’ or ‘Musikkranzlein’, and in Latin records as ‘collegia musica’ or ‘convivia musica’, were founded in numerous towns in German-speaking territories during the veiy first years after the Reformation. They were of an elite character, comprising the most prominent burghers, including the mayor, aldermen, councillors, church officials (pastor, deacon, cantor, organist) and local schoolteachers. Pupils and students attending Protestant schools and universities in German-speaking regions also actively participated in musical performances given by the societies. Their members provided a polyphonic setting for the Mass and other services, as the convivia had the noble mission of singing to the glory of God and educating young people. There are few extant charters of sixteenth-century societies of this type. The present article provides a detailed description of the charter of the Convivium Musicum in Kwidzyn, a town located during the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century within the borders of Ducal Prussia. This society, founded on 18 February 1587, followed an early modem trend for creating music societies under the patronage of municipal councils and the Church. Its initiator was a local Protestant superintendent (‘Erzpriester’) and pastor, Salomon Klein, supported by deacons, a local teacher, an organist, mayors, aldermen, a notary, a municipal judge, town councillors and others. The article carefully examines each chapter of the charter, providing information on the Convivium’s structure, organisation and activities and the duties of its members
Apparebit repentina dies: Hindemith’s musical panorama of Judgment Day
Get PDFIn 1947, while teaching at Yale University, the German composer Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) wrote a composition for mixed chorus and brass ensemble based on an anonymous Latin hymn believed to date from the 8th century or before. This text, which he had discovered in The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse, tells in a poetic rewording of New T estament passages of the events to be expected on Judgment Day. Below a deceptively simple surface with regular trochaic tetrameters organized in 23 couplets that are launched by the consecutive letters of the alphabet, the hymn hides various dramatic perspectives. These include a narrator announcing what is to come and later describing what he witnesses in a vision, direct-speech dialogues between Christ as the Judge of the World and the two groups of the chosen and the damned, and a concluding moral admonishment addressed by the pious author to his contemporary listeners or latter-day readers. As the analysis of the musical structure and texture, meter and rhythm, thematic material and tonal organization shows, Hindemith achieves a semiotic rendering of these aspects and many finer nuances. Just as the medieval text ostensibly uses only one mode throughout without depriving the message of any of its colorful expressiveness, so Hindemith’s music uses only one constellation of sound colors — choral singing against or in alternation with ten brass instruments — to bring the multifaceted scene to life. This music is both text setting and scenic painting, replete with refined allusions as well as onomatopoeic depiction, weaving a web of signification with which the composer at once heightens and deepens the early poet’s message
Some observations on operatic singer’s intonation
Get PDFFundamental frequency (Fo) patterns are analysed in six recordings of the Romance from the First Act of Guiseppe Verdi’s opera Aida. Two of the recordings were sung by the late Swedish tenor Jussi Björling and the remaining four by other international premiere tenors. Fo tracking was carried out semi-automatically using the autocorrelation program of the Soundswell Signal Workstation™ software. Intonation characteristics were measured in relation to equally tempered tuning (ETT) based on the tuning of the orchestra. Great individual differences are found. The mean deviation from ETT varied between - 15 cent and + 30 cent. Only Björling tended to increasingly sharpen intonation, the higher he sang in his passagio region. Moreover, in the long sustained high note at the end of the Recitative he added a Portamento at the end, while the other singers increased Fo by about 40 cent over the same tone. Vibrato rate and extent were similar among the singers, but spectrum analysis of the vibrato waveform revealed various differences. The final descending octave interval exceeded the 2:1 frequency ratio in all singers except one. The results are discussed from the points of view of interval perception, performance practise and musical expression
Democritus’ hypothesis’ of the origins of music
Get PDFThe oldest conception of the origins of music in European culture was formulated by Democritus, who stated that music arose as an imitation of birdsong. This conception was the most serious working hypothesis on the beginnings of music before Darwin. In the musicography of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it constituted an alternative to the predominant creationistic theory, paving the way for the scientific positivist approaches which in the nineteenth century led to the eventual depreciation of thinking rooted in religion. In evolutionistically- and scientisticallyoriented comparative musicology the mimetic theory was rejected on the grounds of a lack of scientific evidence of the evolutionary link between birds and man and especially between birdsong and music.The aim of the article is to show that the mimetic theory of the origins of music was a relict of a mythical vision in which birds represented the materialised image of transcendence. The beginnings of music were linked to the voices of birds, which in many cultures symbolised human spirituality—above all spirituality manifest through death. Thus Democritus’ ‘hypothesis’ may be interpreted as a myth in which the ‘song of the beginning’ is identified with mournin
Electronic music in the perspective of semiotics
Get PDFThe aim of the present article is to describe the unique idiom of electronic music in the perspective of semiotics. The starting point of this reflection is an attempt at a definition of what electronic music is. It then moves on to questions concerning the explanation of the two main concepts of semiotics, sign and meaning. Here, the goal is to outline the general tendencies in interpreting these concepts in the context of Pierce’s theory of sign and in the context of other concepts utilized in the field of narratology, i.e. diegesis and mimesis; with the aim of transferring these interpretations to the field of electronic music. The important nodes of this reflection are illustrated with specific examples of electronic musical works. The article also explores the semantic and cognitive attributes of electronic music and the relationships between them. The understanding of meaning in electronic music is explained in terms of analogies between the characteristics of cognitive processing of the sounds of everyday life and sounds utilized in electronic music
Bonum ex integra causa... A dialogue with Mieczysław Tomaszewski’s concept of integral interpretation
Get PDF The article presents an in-depth and detailed reflection on the concept of „integral interpretation” put forward by the Polish musicologist Mieczysław Tomaszewski. The problematics of interpretation has for many years been the focus of Tomaszewski’s attention and interest, as evidenced by his numerous publications devoted to it. They culminate in the formulation of this concept, described by the author as the method of an adequate interpretation of a musical work. In contrast to many contemporary approaches to the issue of the scope of musicology’s subject area, for Tomaszewski the concept of a musical work is central to the discipline, and he poses questions concerning its ontology and understanding in the spirit of Roman Ingarden’s theory of musical work, to which he frequently refers. Tomaszewski regards the process of interpretation as a kind of „rising” to the level of the work, the meaning of which (intentio operis), often identified with the authorial meaning (intentio auctoris), stands at the highest point in the hierarchy of meanings ascribed - from this point of view - to the work. In turn, the work itself functions in different phases, existing as a score, a performance, a result of the processes of perception and as its reception within a culture. In my article I attempt not only to present Tomaszewski’s method, but above all to argue against its anachronicity and limitations resulting from a lack of reference both to contemporary artistic practice and contemporary research methodology in the humanities and in musicology
Between opera and the Lied - ‘Tre sonetti di Petrarca’ by Franz Liszt
Get PDFFranz Liszt composed his songs in the time when Europe was at the peak of the development of the Romantic form - das Lied. However, it seems that not all of Liszt’s songs should be discussed from this perspective, pointing at least at significant influences of the 19th century Italian opera. The second version of a set of Tre sonetti di Petrarca reflects not only some changes in the composer’s technique or style, but above all, constitutes an evidence of certain tendencies in perceiving vocal technique and the development of Italian and European vocal aesthetics. It might be assumed that, even though the music construction of the second version of the Sonnets - particularly in the layer of melody of the vocal part - brings to mind the Italian operatic aria in its almost purest form, the deeply emotional musical interpretation of Petrarch’s most beautiful love lyrics seems to strongly derive from the already shaped German Romantic song. On the whole, the masterpiece is a bit eclectic, which in the light of Liszt’s reference to the past (belcanto form of an Italian aria, Renaissance lyrics) constitutes - as it could be called today - the author’s postmodern reinterpretation
