1857 research outputs found
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The notion of personae in Brahms's "Bitteres zu sagen denkst du": op. 32, no. 7: a literary key to musical performance?
No full textMemory structures for encoding and retrieving a piece of music: an ERP investigation
No full textThis study examined behavioral and neural correlates of expert musical memory, specifically the hypothesis that particular bars within a complex piece of music would serve as structural markers for encoding to and retrieval from memory. Six pianists were asked to learn and memorize a set prelude by J.S. Bach for performance, and to identify bars that they employed for structuring the prelude into component sections. Following performance from memory, the participants took part in a visual recognition memory task, in which single bars from the prelude had to be distinguished from matched new bars. During the recognition task, the electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded, and event-related potentials (ERPs) from correctly identified prelude stimulus trials were averaged according to their hypothesized status into “structural” and “nonstructural” bars. The results showed that correct identification of structural bars was significantly faster (and tended to display higher accuracy) than recognition of non-structural ones. In addition, recognition of structural bars was associated with a significantly greater negative ERP peak of 300–400 ms latency and a right centro-parietal scalp distribution. This mid-latency negativity appears to index processing of stimuli that served as cues for encoding and retrieval of a complex semantic structure, and is qualitatively and conceptually different from other previously identified recognition memory ERPs (such as the “old/new” effect), as well as from the classic N400 ERP. The data support existing theories of expert memory and music cognition
Louis Andriessen: De Staat
No full textLouis Andriessen is one of the foremost composers in the world today. His music, with its distinctive blend of jazz, minimalism, Stravinsky and the European avant-garde, has attracted wide audiences internationally and made him a sought-after teacher among younger generations of composers. De Staat ('The Republic') brought Andriessen to international attention in 1976, and it remains his best-known work. This book is the first extended, single-author study of Andriessen in any language. It opens with a detailed account of Andriessen's involvement in the political upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s which formed the basis for his later views on instrumentation and musical style. The following chapters assess the principal influences on his music and the musical structure of De Staat. The book closes with an extensive discussion of the meaning of De Staat in the light of the composer's firmly held socio-political views. The downloadable resources include a thrilling live recording of De Staat from the 1978 Holland Festival, plus two earlier works not previously commercially available on compact disc - De Volharding and Il Principe
A guide to enhancing musical performance
No full textThis first chapter provides a concise introduction to each part of the book, previewing the chapters contained therein and placing them in the broader context of performance enhancement research. It then considers the extent to which the physical and psychological skills required of today's performers are amenable to improvement through scientifically tested, systematic training procedures. Finally, it discusses how one may begin to embark on a personal course of enhancement using the pragmatic advice offered in this volume
Il Museo degli Strumenti Musicali della Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze [The Museo degli Strumenti Musicali of the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence]
No full textAlcune fonti sulla produzione liutaria in Toscana nel XIX secolo [Some sources relating to violin making in Tuscany in the 19th century]
No full textVirtuoso codes of violin performance: power, military heroism, and gender (1789-1830)
No full textBeyond its glossy surface of virtuosity and lyricism, a violin concerto is replete with a vocabulary of hidden and (on second glance) not so hidden gestures. From Beethoven's timpani strokes to Paganini's marches and fanfares, the genre employs a host of "heroic" elements and gestures borrowed from military band music. In the period 1789-1830 these borrowings were hardly restricted to a purely musical level. Rather, I argue, military themes and ideas permeated virtually every aspect of a violin concerto's composition, performance, and reception. In the famous concertos as with countless now-forgotten works (of Viotti, Kreutzer, Rode, Baillot, Spohr, Alday, De Beriot, Lipinski, and Prume), the combination of military topoi with the soloist's leading role characterized the violinist as a military hero. Simultaneously, the tendency to compare violinists to mythological or historical figures became increasingly focused on the image of military leaders (Scipio, Alexander, and Napoleon). All the while, the act of performance exuded masculine codes of power, partly through the symbolism of the bow as a weapon. Taken together, it is these codes of military heroism and gendered power that shaped the culture of violin virtuosity, itself an outgrowth of a larger cultural trend stemming from Napoleon's own military heroism
The Concerto that wasn't: Paganini, Urhan and Harold in Italy
No full textIt was Paganini's request for a concerto that prompted Berlioz to embark on the composition that eventually became Harold in Italy. The legendary virtuoso, then at the height of his fame, had recently acquired a fine Stradivari viola and needed a suitable vehicle for introducing the instrument to the public. He was puzzled and disappointed by Berlioz's score. It certainly was not the anticipated virtuoso vehicle, and within months Paganini had composed a substitute for himself, the Sonata per la grand viola. Berlioz explained that his work was ‘a new kind of symphony and not a composition written to show off a unique talent like [Paganini's]’. Berlioz's programmatic symphony with solo viola – the concerto that wasn't – would appear on the surface to be utterly devoid of the established codes of the virtuoso concerto
Matthew Locke arr. Terence Charlston: thirteen keyboard pieces for harpsichord and organ
No full textPieces by Matthew Locke edited and arranged by Terence Charlston