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In the shadows of song: Birtwistle’s Nine Movements for String Quartet
No full textBirtwistle’s Nine Movements for String Quartet have a complicated compositional history. They emerged, not as a single incorporated work, but piecemeal over a period of five years, in response to various different commissions. Their identity as a cycle has additionally been blurred by their eventual combination with Birtwistle’s settings of the poetry of Paul Celan, under the collective title Pulse Shadows. It was in this form that the quartet movements received their first complete performance in April 1996. The Celan settings themselves emerged in a similarly protracted manner. Figure 4.1 summarizes the complex evolution of both cycles
Review of 'The musical society community bands of Valencia, Spain: A global study of their administration, instrumentation, repertoire, and performance activities' by Richard Scott Cohen
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Composer in interview: Robin Holloway
No full textRobin Holloway this year turns 60, the age when most composers feel able to relax a little, and graciously accept the marks of status – honorary degrees, birthday profiles, retrospective festivals and so on. But there's no sign of Holloway easing into a settled status and self-image. It has to be said this is partly because the traditional marks of status are not much on offer. The birthday commissions and tributes are thin on the ground, which he tries to be philosophical about. But you get the sense that if they were on offer, he wouldn't feel comfortable with them. Provisionality self-doubt, a permanent restlessness are the hallmarks of the man. That's true of any real composer rather than a career-composer, but it's especially true of Robin Holloway. Everything about him refutes his age and seniority, as if to acknowledge it in any way – even in unconscious things like body-language – would be a sort of betrayal. He has exactly the same slender frame he had when he arrived in Cambridge as a fellow of Gonville and Caius College in 1969, the same lean, delicately chiselled features, always registering a pained sensitivity as if the world is too bright or loud
Evaluating evaluation: musical performance assessment as a research tool
No full textMuch applied research into musical performance requires a method of quantifying differences and changes between performances; for this purpose, researchers have commonly used performance assessment schemes taken from educational contexts. This article considers some conceptual and practical problems with using judgments of performance quality as a research tool. To illustrate some of these, data are reported from a study in which three experienced evaluators watched performances given by students at the Royal College of Music, London, and assessed them according to a marking scheme based on that of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Correlations between evaluators were only moderate, and some evidence of bias according to the evaluators' own instrumental experience was found. Strong positive correlations were found between items on the assessment scheme, indicating an extremely limited range of discrimination between categories. Implications for the use of similar assessment systems as dependent measures in empirical work are discussed, and suggestions are made for developing scales with greater utility in such work
An overview of Villa-Lobos’ compositions for the violoncello
No full textThis article is available open access at the 'Official URL' given below
Konvention als Kritik? Mozarts 'klavier sonate mit begleitung einer Violin' KV 526 [Convention as criticism? Mozart’s piano sonata with violin accompaniment K.526]
No full text‘Expressivity comes from within your soul’: a questionnaire study of music students’ perspectives on expressivity
No full textMuch has been written about expressivity by philosophers, composers, musicologists, and psychologists, but little is known about how the musicians of tomorrow — music students — approach this subject. This paper reports an exploratory study in which 135 students from music conservatories in three countries (England, Italy, Sweden) filled out a questionnaire that addressed four themes: (a) conceptualizing expressivity, (b) expressivity in everyday practice, (c) expressivity in music teaching, and (d) novel teaching strategies. The results suggest that students define expressivity mainly in terms of communicating emotions and `playing with feeling'. Expressive skills are regarded as highly important by students, and they would like to practice more on expressivity than is currently the case. However, most students are skeptical toward using computers in teaching of expressivity since they cannot see how such applications could work. The results suggest that expressivity deserves more attention in music education than has hitherto been the case
Hans Keller and the BBC: the musical conscience of British broadcasting 1959-1979 [reissued 2017]
No full textOriginally published in 2003, Hans Keller and the BBC is a vivid portrait of the changing face of British broadcasting seen through the work of one of its most significant personalities. Starting with an examination of Keller’s early psychological interests, and the evolution of his method of ‘functional analysis’ of music (with which the BBC was intimately concerned), the book charts the huge contribution Keller made to British music during his BBC years. Also explored in detail are the successive crises of the Third Programme and its replacement by Radio 3, together with Keller’s leading role in opposing the decline of the BBC’s cultural idealism. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, much of which has never been previously examined, this study paints a striking picture of Keller’s personality in combination with the BBC’s turbulent inner workings, showing the effect of one remarkable individual on the most powerful musical institution in 20th-century Britain
Death's bright angels: review article
No full textReview of the following books: 'Nineteenth-century British music studies volume 2' ed. Jeremy Dibble and Bennett Zon; 'The business of music' ed. Michael Talbot; 'The English musical Renaissance and the press 1850-1914: watchmen of music' by Merion Hughes