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Encounters with the émigré experience: discovering the chamber music and songs of Peter Gellhorn
No full textThis chapter retraces the author’s journey of discovery during the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded research project ‘Exile Estates and Music Restitution – The Legacy of Conductor/Composer Peter Gellhorn’ at the Royal College of Music in 2016. Born in Breslau, Peter Gellhorn (1912–2004) studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Berlin (1929–34). His father was Jewish, and in 1935 he emigrated to the UK. From 1935 to 1939 he worked at Toynbee Hall, an arts centre dedicated to social reform in East London. Following his internment on the Isle of Man in 1940/41 he worked for the Vic-Wells opera company in London. After the war, he embarked on a successful career as a conductor and chorus master, with tenures at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne Opera and the BBC. Around the time of his emigration, at Toynbee Hall, during internment and occasionally after the Second World War, Gellhorn wrote a substantial amount of chamber music, piano music and songs, the manuscripts of which are now in the British Library. In 2016, a team of musicians and researchers at the Royal College of Music (RCM) prepared editions from these manuscripts and performed many of the pieces in workshops, concerts and recordings. This article explores these musical works in the context of Gellhorn’s story as a resourceful and influential musician in Britain
Russian music and Fabergé
Get PDF‘Fabergé and Anglo-Russian Quartets’ is a 19-minute Royal Philharmonic Society award film of the live concert by the
London Chamber Ensemble – curated by violinist Madeleine Mitchell – presented at the Victoria and Albert Museum on
21st January this year to accompany the museum’s exhibition ‘Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution’ (20th November
2021 to 8th May 2022). The 19-minute fi lm contains beautiful Fabergé images kindly supplied by Wartski;* fascinating
archive footage from the Royal College of Music, including Tchaikovsky’s signature in the Visitors’ Book; letters from
Tchaikovsky and Glazunov to Sir Ch arles Villiers Stanford; and Herbert Howells’ ‘Luchinushka’ manuscript. There is also footage of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral near the Victoria and Albert Museum, linking the architect Lewis Vulliamy, a fellow Huguenot, with Fabergé. The film can be seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/J_ChAdTj4x
Chit chat: music for two clavichords
No full textThis commercial audio CD recording of contemporary music for two clavichords includes eight world première recordings. It contains repertoire originated and performed by Terence Charlston and Julian Perkins over the last five years in concerts and workshops. The recording brings together a selection of the pieces and arrangements that the duo have explored, commissioned and written themselves. The CD will help disseminate their work to a wider audience and encourage more people to discover a new, and unusual sound world. The composers represented are Alexander J. Blustin, Terence Charlston, Peter Maxwell Davies, Nicola LeFanu, Timothy Roberts, Peter Thorne. Special techniques are sometimes used to conjure up unusual sounds, such as the use of cloth wedges to strum the strings and fingers pressed against the strings to create plucking effects. The recording features two unfretted clavichords: one based on an instrument from about 1775 by Johann Heinrich Silbermann and made by Peter Bavington in London; the other based on Johann Emanuel Schön from 1748 and made by Andreas Hermert in Berlin
Effects of choir singing on physiological stress in Japanese older adults: its relationship with cognitive functioning and subjective well-being
Get PDFBackground:
Leisure activities are believed to contribute to healthy ageing. We compared the effects of choir singing and go playing on cortisol levels in Japanese older adults. We also examined its relevance to the older adults’ emotional affect and cognitive performance.
Methods:
Thirty-six older adults participated either in choir or go playing, within a 2 (groups)×2 (time points) design. Dependent measures included levels of salivary cortisol, as well as key psychological, cognitive, and neuropsychological measures.
Results:
A significant two-way interaction was observed, showing that levels of salivary cortisol decreased for the choir but increased for the go groups. The decrease in salivary cortisol for the choir group correlated with the participant’s negative affect and their degree of cognitive impairment.
Conclusion:
Choir singing has the potential to reduce Japanese older adults’ physiological stress. The decreases can be seen more prominently for people with stronger negative affect and cognitive impairment. Further research is required to replicate these effects
Chapter interlude V: considering gender, equality, diversity, and inclusion in teaching composing
No full textWomen composers as well as composers of color are marginalized in the Western classical canon, which dominates concert programs as well as school music books. The interlude describes existing inequalities. Further, it shows how these inequalities were reproduced, e.g., showing how students get access to composing experience, to possibilities to expand it, and to its preconditions like expensive instrumental lessons. Further, it shows ways to change the state of the art. The importance of diverse role models in the music classroom is discussed as well as the reflection of own practices of doing difference to change the narrative
Karl Rankl: Songs Op. 5-10
Get PDFRCM Editions of Songs Op. 5-10 by Karl Rankl (1898-1968):
A Chinese Picture-Book Op. 5; Seven Songs for Baritone Op. 6; Nine Songs for Soprano Op. 7; Seven Songs for Tenor Op. 8; Six Songs for Mezzo Soprano Op. 9; War: Eleven Songs for Baritone Op. 10.
These editions have been prepared for the research project ‘Music, Migration and Mobility - The Legacy of Migrant Musicians from Nazi Europe in Britain’ (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, reference AH/S013032/1), a performance-led and multi-disciplinary project that aimed to better understand the significance of migration and mobility for music.
Created for research and performances at the Royal College of Music, these performing editions are faithful transcriptions of the manuscripts. Digital reproductions of Rankl’s manuscripts are available publicly on the website of the KUG Library: https://phaidra.kug.ac.at/
***** COPYRIGHT NOTICE: These editions: © 2023 Royal College of Music, London (graphic rights only), music copyright held by Kunstuniversität Graz. Made available with kind permission from Kunstuniversität Graz. ****
Specialist support for performers: occupational health specialist
No full textLearn how an occupational health specialist can help performers manage their mental and physical health
The Spohr Collection vol. 2
No full textMusic by Antonio Vivaldi, Jean-Marie Leclair, CPE Bach, Johann Joachim Quantz, Michel Blavet and Robert Woodcock. Internationally acclaimed flutist Ashley Solomon and period ensemble Florilegium present “Spohr Collection, Vol. 2”. Ashley Solomon: “The opportunity of playing original flutes from the 18th century is a rare occurrence. Whenever the chance presents itself, it must be seized immediately!”.
On Solomon’s remarkable Spohr Collection, Vol. 1 (CCS43020), he set himself a challenge to record on 9 original flutes, mostly domestic chamber music, together with his colleagues from Florilegium. This new release, Spohr Collection, Vol. 2, features six flute concertos from the 18th century on six unique flutes; some made of ivory, various woods (boxwood and ebony), and one of porcelain and gold. Each instrument is matched with repertoire from the same period it was initially made and played in. This offers a unique insight into the world of the flute virtuoso in the 18th century.
These concertos by Vivaldi, C.P.E. Bach, Quantz, Leclair, Blavet and Woodcock invite the listener to experience and enjoy the rich sound world that each of these original flutes conveys
Perspectives on musical care throughout the life course: introducing the Musical Care International Network
Get PDFIn this paper we report on the inaugural meetings of the Musical Care International Network held online in 2022. The term “musical care” is defined by Spiro and Sanfilippo (2022) as “the role of music—music listening as well as music-making—in supporting any aspect of people's developmental or health needs” (pp. 2–3). Musical care takes varied forms in different cultural contexts and involves people from different disciplines and areas of expertise. Therefore, the Musical Care International Network takes an interdisciplinary and international approach and aims to better reflect the disciplinary, geographic, and cultural diversity relevant to musical care. Forty-two delegates participated in 5 inaugural meetings over 2 days, representing 24 countries and numerous disciplines and areas of practice. Based on the meetings, the aims of this paper are to (1) better understand the diverse practices, applications, contexts, and impacts of musical care around the globe and (2) introduce the Musical Care International Network. Transcriptions of the recordings, alongside notes taken by the hosts, were used to summarise the conversations. The discussions developed ideas in three areas: (a) musical care as context-dependent and social, (b) musical care's position within the broader research and practice context, and (c) debates about the impact of and evidence for musical care. We can conclude that musical care refers to context-dependent and social phenomena. The term musical care was seen as useful in talking across boundaries while not minimizing individual disciplinary and professional expertise. The use of the term was seen to help balance the importance and place of multiple disciplines, with a role to play in the development of a collective identity. This collective identity was seen as important in advocacy and in helping to shape policy. The paper closes with proposed future directions for the network and its emerging mission statement
The new "Yellow Peril" in "Western" European symphony orchestras
No full textThe “Yellow Peril”—a term referring to the historical racist phobia of invasion by foreigners, specifically East Asians—also describes a current problem among professional Western European orchestras. Interviews with ethnically Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese musicians reveal that bullying, microaggressions, and discrimination occur in a range of settings from conservatoires to auditions, rehearsals, concerts, and tours. The reasons why the pervasive stereotypes of the soulless automaton or the perpetual outsider persist ultimately appear to be structural: the deeply entrenched Eurocentric hypocrisy that the “universal” language of classical music belongs exclusively to white people reflects a white supremacist ideology. While US scholars (Yoshihara, 2007; Yang, 2014; Wang, 2015) have documented racism against East Asian and Asian-American classical musicians, Yellow-Perilism in Berlin, London, or Vienna has received less attention in academic literature. Acknowledging existing inequality is a necessary first step if orchestras are to become truly more diverse and inclusive