In the Era of Computers, Internet and Multimedia, are we still Teaching Composers to become Chapel-Masters?

The ongoing paradigm shift from traditional methods of teaching music composition towards new approaches based on computer technology for sound production is the main focus of the article. The paper reviews the evolution of teaching methods throughout the Classical, Romantic and Modern periods, demonstrating how certain standard practices from former ages, based on the professional profile of the Chapel-Master, become theoretical golden principles for subsequent periods. After the French Revolution the traditional method of individual practical exchange between master and disciple was upgraded at the Conservatory. Classes for groups of students required a new approach based on theory abstraction. Although none of these teaching methods have been abandoned up today, a new paradigm appears when the tools of computer technology became widespread. An unpredictable equilibrium between the traditional methods and the new techniques of computer-assisted or computer-generated music composition tends to emerge

Henri Rivière, Japonsime, and Les Trente-Six Vues de la Tour Eiffel

Title from PDF of title page viewed June 8, 2020Thesis advisor: Joseph R. HartmanVitaIncludes bibliographical references (pages 157-161)Thesis (M.A.)--Department of Art and Art History. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2020Les Trente-Six Vues de la Tour Eiffel is a bound book that contains 36 lithographs by Henri Rivière printed in 1902. These lithographs reflect the social, political, and artistic changes that had occurred in Paris by the end of the nineteenth century. The lithographs also reflect the powerful influence of Japonisme, the study of Japanese art and design by European artists, in the latter half of the nineteenth century. While many have noted Rivière’s local and global influences, none have fully examined the broader societal forces in the latter half of the nineteenth century that shaped Rivière’s work. Those forces included technical advances in lithograph printing; the extensive reshaping of Paris under Emperor Napoleon III and his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, from 1853 to 1870; the rise of flânerie; and an increased interest by artists and writers to portray the city of Paris as a primary theme. Rivière was particularly inspired by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai and his book Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji, printed between 1830 and 1832. Hokusai, in this series, used Mt. Fuji as the common element that oriented and unified his landscape prints. Similarly, Rivière chose the Eiffel Tower to orient and unify his lithograph series of Paris, Les Trente-Six Vues de la Tour Eiffel. This thesis uses a formal evaluation of Rivière’s plates in comparison with the Japanese woodblock prints and other sources that may have served as his inspiration. Although there are many similarities in subject and composition between individual plates in Les Trente-Six Vues de la Tour Eiffel and Japanese woodblock prints, Rivière did not produce a slavish, European replication of Hokusai’s masterpiece. Rivière particularly differed from Hokusai by depicting themes of individual isolation and alienation in an urban environment in his lithographs that reflected the anxiety over modernization felt by many Parisians at the fin-du-siècle. In the end, Rivière produced one of the purest examples of Japonisme in Western art and a remarkable portrait of Paris at the beginning of the twentieth century.Introduction -- The Transformation of Paris -- Le Flâneur in Paris -- Early life of Henri Rivière -- Japonisme and its influence on French artists -- Henri Rivière and Japanese woodblock prints -- La Tour Eiffel -- Henri Rivière woodblock printing, and lithography -- A note on lithography and its importance -- Lithography and Les Trente-six Vues de la Tour Eiffel -- Conclusions -- Appendix: Discussion of the Individual Plate