Shall We (Math and) Dance?

Can we use mathematics, and in particular the abstract branch of category theory, to describe some basics of dance, and to highlight structural similarities between music and dance? We first summarize recent studies between mathematics and dance, and between music and categories. Then, we extend this formalism and diagrammatic thinking style to dance.Comment: preprin

Proceedings of the 25th International Seminar of the ISME Commission on Research. Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil

This book includes twenty-three contributions developed form papers presented at the 2014 Research Commission Seminar of the International Society for Music Education (ISME). This was the 25th biennial ISME Research Commission Seminar, making it the most established research gathering of its type in the world. Over three hundred and seventy pages of peer-reviewed contributions are penned by scholars from the five continents working in the field’s state-of-the-art. Embracing diverse methodologies authors focus on topics including early childhood, inclusion, creativity, performance, perception, instrumental teaching, teacher education, primary, post-primary and informal education. Founded in 1954, affiliated to UNESCO and present in over eighty countries, ISME is the premiere international organisation for music education

Proceedings of the 25th International Seminar of the ISME Commission on Research. Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil

This book includes twenty-three contributions developed form papers presented at the 2014 Research Commission Seminar of the International Society for Music Education (ISME). This was the 25th biennial ISME Research Commission Seminar, making it the most established research gathering of its type in the world. Over three hundred and seventy pages of peer-reviewed contributions are penned by scholars from the five continents working in the field’s state-of-the-art. Embracing diverse methodologies authors focus on topics including early childhood, inclusion, creativity, performance, perception, instrumental teaching, teacher education, primary, post-primary and informal education. Founded in 1954, affiliated to UNESCO and present in over eighty countries, ISME is the premiere international organisation for music education

WIENIAWSKI’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE CULTURE OF EXPRESSION: Understanding The Aesthetics Of Violin Music In The Nineteenth Century

Numerous studies relevant to Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) have been conducted on context and performance aesthetics, and while many recording analyses of nineteenth century violin repertoire have been undertaken, a gap between these two approaches exists. This research aims to investigate the link between eyewitness reports of Wieniawski’s performances of his own works and early recordings of Wieniawski’s music by performing artists who were contemporaries of the composer. From this discussion we can contextualize Wieniawski’s own performances via comments made by writers of the period to the recordings mentioned as the performing artists who recorded the composer’s works had a direct connection with Wieniawski. Based on concert reports, numerous eyewitnesses attested to the profound expressiveness of Wieniawski’s playing style. This study therefore explores the aesthetics and importance of Henryk Wieniawski’s violin music, particularly in the light of selected measurable expressive devices in performance. It is informed by literature analysis, recording analysis, musical analysis and reflective practice: (1) The literature analysis contextualises this study by providing a broader understanding. It includes the exploration of both reports from Wieniawski’s performances and other documents contextualising nineteenth-century ideals and concepts of expression. (2) The recording analysis analyses the interpretations of selected early recordings by violinists closely connected with Wieniawski’s musical performance practice, including specific observations facilitated by Sonic Visualizer. (3) The musical analysis briefly identifies the expressive instructions enshrined in the scores, and their implications. (4) The performance aims to explore and demonstrate the findings of this study practically. The outcomes of this study should provide violinists with an improved understanding of Wieniawski’s position in the nineteenth century, while offering suggestions for the performance of his music

A Composite Modernist Composer : A Study of Intersections between Composition, Theorizing, and Performance in Olivier Messiaen

Different professional roles within music change over time. The evolution of modernism in twentieth century art music elevated the composer to the pinnacle of musical creativity. Accomplished modernist composers came to be regarded as intellectuals, and were expected to hold rational conceptions of their individual styles. An increased focus on intentionality in composition, and on notated scores as representations of fixed works, went hand in hand with a tendency to neglect performance in common discourses on art music. This dissertation investigates such intersections between professional roles in the influential French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908‒1992). The study builds upon a noticeable revival of modernist studies in musicology in the twenty-first century. Scholars working on twentieth century music have typically moved away from a previous reliance on composers’ own conceptualizations of their music, in the act bringing methods and concerns from postmodern musicology into their methodologies. Messiaen has frequently been treated as self-standing figure among twentieth century composers. As a contrast, his self-understanding as a composer is here historicized and investigated as part of typical intellectual predispositions among leading modernists. The study draws on recent musicological advances on composers’ writings and their recorded performances. It establishes a theoretical framework for critical approaches to both kinds of sources, as valuable complements to notated scores in investigations of what here is called composite work ontologies. In methodological terms, the dissertation builds a novel connection between analyses in specialized Messiaen scholarship and methods in textual interpretation that originated in German Romantic philosophy. Messiaen’s writings have recurrently been found wanting in systematicity and in discursive expositions of pivotal concepts and methods in composition. His manner of writing provides an example of a phenomenon that within musicology have prompted calls for a gapology, i.e., studies of discontinuities and omissions in composers’ prose and conceptualization of their own music. A fundamental premise in the dissertation is that both human selfconsciousness and communal discourses are to be expected to contain such blind spots. Consequently, scholars often need to reconstruct fundamental thought patterns that operate below the surface level in writings. This understanding and concomitant methods are put to work in two discrete articles, investigating the pivotal impact of plainchant in Messiaen’s aesthetics and the intellectual reception of his music by the philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Messiaen’s interpretations of his own organ music are investigated in a third article, in which performance analysis is informed by deepened attention to the composer’s ideals of successful interpretations. The methods and theoretical framework formulated in the cover essay are also integral parts of the dissertation’s findings. They propose that a current broader revisiting of musical modernism provides a fertile framework for further work on Messiaen, performance and intellectual ideas operative in his compositions. The hermeneutical stance developed here is intended to serve similar carefully contextualized investigations of the composer’s writings and activities. The first article shows that Messiaen’s musical thought and some of his methods in composition were more thoroughly ingrained in a late Romantic paradigm of expressivity than many scholars have noted. It also reveals how he adopted vital theoretical premises from previous authors, turned them into musical ideas, and continued to adapt his use of them to developments within his own musical style. The second article opens new vistas for more thorough analyses of Messiaen as a composer-performer on the organ. In a novel manner, it suggests the need of considering Messiaen’s distinct ideas concerning the aims of musical interpretation, and their impact on his style of playing. This approach stresses the centrality of communicating the musical ideas and narrative content in individual pieces, to which notated scores are a means. The analysis shows that Messiaen at times perceived such ideas in a piece quite differently in his roles as a composer and as a performer. The third article corroborates previous observations concerning how Messiaen’s verbalization of his own music shaped its reception. At the same time, it highlights the impact of his student Pierre Boulez’s historiography of musical modernism, including the particular historical role it ascribed to Messiaen. The study also reveals how Deleuze and Guattari grasped pivotal aspects of Messiaen’s compositional methods on purely theoretical grounds, in the act facilitating philosophical employments of key musical techniques well beyond the composer’s stated understanding of them.Professionella roller inom musiken förändras över tid. Inom 1900-talets modernism kom tonsättarens ställning att höjas över andra roller inom musiklivet. Framstående tonsättare kom att betraktas som del av kategorin intellektuella i samhället och förväntades presentera välmotiverade ställningstaganden bakom sina kompositioner. En förhöjd värdering av sådana rationella aspekter gick hand i hand med en syn på noterade partitur som representationer av fixerade verk. Samtidigt framhävdes interpreters betydelse typiskt sett inte i diskussioner och analyser av konstmusik. Denna avhandling undersöker skärningspunkter mellan olika musikaliska yrkesroller hos den inflytelserike franske tonsättaren Olivier Messiaen (1908‒1992). Dess angreppssätt bygger på en ny våg av musikvetenskapliga studier av modernism som epok och begrepp. Studier kring 1900-talets konstmusik har rört sig bort från tonsättares egna sätt att teoretisera kring sin egen musik, i många fall inspirerade av metoder och frågeställningar i postmodern musikvetenskap. Messiaen har ofta behandlats som en fristående gestalt inom 1900-talets musik. Som en kontrast historiseras och undersöks här hans egna uppfattningar om rollen som tonsättare, inklusive dess växelspel med teoretiska idéer om musik samt med interpretation, som en del av mer generella tankemönster bland ledande modernistiska tonsättare. Avhandlingen tar intryck från nya musikvetenskapliga tolkningar av tonsättares skrifter och deras inspelade framföranden. Den etablerar ett teoretiskt ramverk för kritiska förhållningssätt till båda typerna av källor, som här betraktas som värdefulla komplement till partitur i undersökningar av vad som här kallas komplexa verkontologier. I metodologiskt avseende etablerar avhandlingen ett nytt samband mellan analyser inom den specialiserade Messiaenforskningen och texttolkningsmetoder med ursprung i tysk romantisk filosofi. Messiaens skrifter har återkommande funnits brista i systematik och diskursiva förklaringar av centrala begrepp och kompositionsmetoder. Hans skrivsätt utgör därmed ett exempel på ett fenomen som fått musikvetare att påtala behovet att studera diskontinuiteter och innehållsliga luckor i tonsättares prosa och teoretiserande av sin egen musik. En grundläggande utgångspunkt i avhandlingen är att både mänskligt självmedvetande och gemensamma diskurser kan förväntas innehålla sådana blinda fläckar. Följaktligen behöver forskare ofta rekonstruera grundläggande tankemönster som präglar skrifter, men utan att explicit exponeras i deras ytskikt. Denna syn, och metoder som växer ur den, präglar två av avhandlingens artiklar. Dessa undersöker den påtagliga betydelsen av gregoriansk sång i Messiaens estetik, samt receptionen av hans musik i filosoferna Gilles Deleuzes och Félix Guattaris skrifter. Messiaens tolkningar av sin egen orgelmusik undersöks i en tredje artikel, där interpretationsanalys tillåts präglas av ett fördjupat intresse för tonsättarens egna ideal kring lyckade uttolkningar. De metoder och teoretiska ramar som formuleras i kappan utgör delar av avhandlingens resultat. De indikerar att en vidare förnyad forskning kring musikalisk modernism utgör ett fruktbart ramverk för framtida studier av Messiaen och teoretiska idéer som präglar hans kompositioner. Den hermeneutiska hållning som utvecklas här är avsedd att tjäna som underlag även för liknande noggrant kontextualiserade studier av tonsättarens skrifter och aktiviteter. Den första artikeln visar att Messiaens musikaliska tänkande och flera av hans kompositionsmetoder var mer grundligt förankrade i ett senromantiskt expressivt paradigm än vad många forskare har noterat. Den visar också hur han anammade centrala teoretiska utgångspunkter från tidigare författare, omvandlade dem till musikaliska idéer, och fortsatte att anpassa sitt bruk av dem i takt med förändringar inom hans egen stil. Den andra artikeln presenterar ingångar för djupare analyser av Messiaen som interpret av sina egna orgelverk. Studien visar, på ett nytt sätt, på ett behov att överväga Messiaens specifika idéer om syften med musikalisk interpretation, och betydelsen av dessa idéer för hans eget sätt att spela. Denna ansats framhäver ett fokus på att kommunicera de musikaliska idéerna och det narrativa innehållet i enskilda verk, ett ändamål för vilket partitur är ett medel. Analysen visar att Messiaen i vissa fall förstod sådana idéer i ett stycke påtagligt annorlunda i sina roller som tonsättare och som interpret. Den tredje artikeln bekräftar tidigare iakttagelser om hur Messiaens egen teoretiska uttolkning av sin egen musik format dess reception. Samtidigt understryker den betydelsen av hans student Pierre Boulez historiografi kring musikalisk modernism, inklusive den specifika roll som denna tillskriver Messiaen. Studien avslöjar också hur Deleuze och Guattari lyckades analysera väsentliga aspekter av Messiaens kompositionsmetoder på rent teoretiska grunder, och därmed möjliggöra deras filosofiska användning av centrala musikaliska tekniker bortom tonsättarens egen förståelse av dem

Edwin Fischer and Bach Performance Practice of the Weimar Republic

Edwin Fischer (1886-1960) provided a synthesis of approaches to Bach pianism that resolved dialectical tensions of long standing between schools that opposed one another throughout the nineteenth century. I argue that Fischer’s synthesis––which permits exegetical interpretation while maintaining a preservationist stance toward the integrity of the text––resembles both Felix Mendelssohn’s bifurcated approach to Bach’s music and Moses Mendelssohn’s description of a similar duality within modern Judaism. Such resemblance may not be coincidental or superficial, given that Fischer married into the Mendelssohn family at the height of its cultural influence in Weimar-Era Berlin. Although pieces of the Mendelssohnian construct were in circulation well before Fischer’s HMV recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier (recorded between 1933 and 1937), that recording served to codify and promulgate his synthesis, which was based on a crucial new approach. The foundations of this approach, which I call musical interpretation through structural amplification, we laid by Ernst Kurth, Karl Straube, Albert Schweitzer, and Ferruccio Busoni, all of whom were in Fischer’s personal circle. Fischer’s exegetical manner of approaching Bach’s keyboard music, through a combination of analysis and amplifying commentary (via pianistic interpretation), appears to have been instrumental in altering Bach pianism in the long term. Despite Fischer’s significance, however, nothing yet has been written that analyzes his Bach-performance practice. I attempt to address that lacuna with this work, the execution of which stems from my belief that conducting a performance practice analysis alone would be insufficient, that such an analysis is best viewed within the complex matrix of Bach-reception in the Weimar Republic; in other words, as an exercise of network science. Fischer’s network was rife with nationalist sentiment that gathered around a revolving diorama of Bach, Dürer, and German Gothic art and architecture during, and just prior to, Fischer’s formative years; with statements of belief regarding the apotropaic power of Bach’s music, which emerged naturally from the German social construction known as Kunstreligion; and with the aesthetics of das neue Bauen that were manifested by the Bauhaus, with which Fischer was very closely associated. In pursuing my investigation and report of findings in this way, I also employ techniques and theories that I have borrowed from cognitive science, especially as it relates to religion, and from the social anthropology of art. On the whole, I suggest that performance practice change takes place within complex systems––which behave in ways that differ fundamentally from those of simple systems––and that such changes in performance styles are poorly described and understood if one indulges in conjuring notions of hovering entities (e.g., “modernist Bach-performance”) in place of describing networks and processes