3,734 research outputs found
'Wagner and Literature: New Directions' (special issue of Forum for Modern Language Studies volume 50 issue 4)
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Richter's Wagner: a new source for tempi in Das Rheingold
No full textDespite the number of musicological studies that have focused upon Wagner’s theories of tempo modification, the basic speeds adopted in practice in early performances of Wagner’s music dramas have been more difficult to identify. This article focuses upon an important new source of information concerning Wagnerian performance – a list of metronome timings made by Edward Dannreuther at the first dress rehearsal of Das Rheingold at Bayreuth in July 1876. After considering the practical difficulties of tempo measurement, and briefly placing the broad implications of Dannreuther’s timings in the context of Wagner’s theories and practice, the dress rehearsal tempi are considered in more detail in terms of their interpretative potential. Six readings of Das Rheingold from the recorded canon (Bodanzky, Furtwängler, Knappertsbusch, Soli, Karajan, Boulez) provide a suitable comparative perspective from which to discuss how these tempi might affect perceptions of physical distance, the nature of motifs related to characters or events, tempo relationships within a musical scene, and larger-scale tempo connections in Das Rheingold as a whole. In particular, the very quick tempi identified by Dannreuther (especially in relation to modern sensibilities) might encourage a reassessment of practical possibilities in the realisation of Wagner’s scores, along with a reconsideration of Wagner’s music and its meanings
Self-compression of 4.9 µm pulses to sub-40 fs with 2 mJ energy in Zinc Sulfide
No full textNonlinear self-compression of few-cycle multi-mJ pulses at 4.9 µm in ZnS is presented. 80 fs input pulses are compressed to 37 fs with 2.1 mJ energy at a 1 kHz repetition rate. © 2024 The Author(s
"A canvas of endless extent": Granville Bantock, Robert Southey and The Curse of Kehama project
No full textThis article focuses upon the little-known musical refiguring of Robert Southey’s The Curse of Kehama by the British composer Granville Bantock (1868-1946). After noting parallels between the poet and composer’s creative difficulties associated with their respective projects, and issues highlighted in the reception of both ‘texts’, two aspects of Bantock’s project (a significant document in the reception of Southey’s poetry) are discussed in more detail: his attempts to unify an extended musico-poetic structure, and his response to the sense of ‘other’ in Southey’s poem. In terms of the latter, and in the context of Bantock’s complex relationship with the East, two specific ideas from Southey scholarship are identified as having a real potential in helping us to understand Bantock’s refiguring: the concept of layers of otherness in Southey’s poetry, and the panoramic mode. The application of these ideas in a musical context offers further parallels and contrasts between poet and composer, leading to a richer understanding of the complexities involved in creative responses to oriental material in literary and musical forms
Bantock and Southey: Musical Otherness and Fatalism in Thalaba the Destroyer
No full textThis article focuses upon the epic poem Thalaba the Destroyer by Robert Southey (1774-1843), and its musical refiguring as an ‘orchestral poem’ of 1899 by the British composer Granville Bantock (1868-1946). Just as the recent reappraisal of Southey’s literary status has focused upon concepts of orientalism and imperialism, this ideological framework can be used to explore Bantock and Southey’s contrasting attitudes towards the East. The complexities highlighted in Southey’s orientalism find a parallel in a range of stylistic layers identified in Bantock’s musical refiguring of ‘otherness’ in Thalaba; these include musical tropes associated with Tchaikovsky, confirming Bantock as a significant figure in the reception of Russian music in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. Bantock’s approach to musical structure in Thalaba, contextualised via James Hepokoski’s theory of sonata deformation, highlights his experimental approach to the relationship between musical text and paratext, suggesting that Bantock’s status should be reassessed
Contemporary music in Aldous Huxley's music criticisms
No full textAlthough the music column that Aldous Huxley wrote for The Weekly Westminster Gazette in 1922-23 raises a wide range of issues (the status of music technology, the nature of the child prodigy, programme music versus abstract music, performers and their choice of repertoire), at the heart of his music criticism is the idea of ‘value’ and specifically, the thorny question of how to gauge the relative worth of composers’ musical works. After briefly outlining Huxley’s credentials as a music critic, and the Wirkung-Rezeption relationship at the core of any study of music reception, this article provides an overview of Huxley’s responses to a range of composers writing during the early decades of the twentieth century (including Schoenberg, Webern, Hindemith, Bartók, Bax and Delius). In explaining some of these specific reactions, it is clear that composers of an earlier age (Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven) were consistently used by Huxley as a comparative measure of musical value; and given Huxley’s self-confessed status as an ‘intellectualist reactionary’, the contemporary works that he admired fulfilled specific requirements: formal clarity and logic, melodic imagination, emotional sincerity, and a blend of tradition and innovation. Situating Huxley's views within early twentieth-century music criticism in Britain allows specific parallels to be made with those promoting Schoenberg's music in particular; furthermore, these opinions allow us to contextualise some of the references contained in Huxley's novels
Refiguring the Poetic Elegy in Music: The Rhetoric of Mourning in Parry’s Elegy For Brahms
No full textOf Hubert Parry’s relatively neglected works, his Elegy for Brahms for orchestra (1897) is particularly intriguing. Written to mark Brahms’s death, it was not premiered until Parry’s own memorial concert in 1918. After contextualizing the work in terms of Parry’s clear admiration for Brahms and highlighting significant British orchestral elegies at the turn of the twentieth century, this article suggests how studies of the poetic elegy can be used as a hermeneutic tool to identify a musico-rhetorical structure at the heart of Parry’s composition. Specifically, elegiac conventions and devices identified by Peter Sacks as significant features of poetic models (including the use of repetition, elegiac questioning, processional, the division of mourning voices, and the issue of fame and inheritance) can be identified in Parry’s musical design. This interdisciplinary approach not only creates a distinctive new reading of Parry’s Elegy, but has wider implications for elegiac music in general
Temporaries and Eternals: the music criticism of Aldous Huxley, 1922-23
No full textMarking the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), Temporaries and Eternals focuses on the music column that Huxley wrote for The Weekly Westminster Gazette in 1922-23. Readers of Huxley’s novels, essays and travel writing will be aware of the wealth of musical detail in these works, and this book suggests that such references can only be fully understood in the context of the opinions voiced in Huxley’s music criticism. Not only does Huxley’s column offer a fascinating snapshot of musical life in 1920s Britain, but several of the themes that Huxley explores continue to have contemporary relevance; these include music and technology, the composer-performer relationship, the nature of the child prodigy, musical tradition and innovation, the suitability of opera libretti, or how to write about music effectively. However, Huxley’s central theme, reflected in the title of this book, is the problematic question of how to judge the significance and potential longevity of specific composers and their works, from Palestrina to Schoenberg. After an extended introduction placing Huxley’s music criticism in the context of his other writings, the book reproduces all 64 of Huxley’s weekly articles, with footnote commentary to help the reader appreciate his wide-ranging textual references
The Diva and the Beast: Susan Strong and the Wagnerism of Aleister Crowley
No full textAlthough the occultist Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) remains a fascinating and controversial figure, his connections with Richard Wagner have not been fully explored. In identifying several of Crowley’s literary works from c.1900 onwards (poetry, prose, drama) that make overt reference to Wagner’s compositions, this article suggests one possible catalyst for this burst of activity – the American soprano Susan Strong (1870-1946), to whom Crowley was briefly ‘engaged’ (according to his autohagiography) in 1899. In addition to exploring the Crowley-Strong relationship, the significant aspects of Strong’s musical career, and her status as one of a series of musical women to whom Crowley was particularly attracted, Crowley’s Wagnerian works are discussed in the context of Strong’s potential impact, offering a new perspective from which to appreciate his particular brand of Wagnerism
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