Three Facets of Pau Casals\u27 Musical Legacy

Pau Casals (1876-1973, better known to American audiences as Pablo Casals) was a notable Catalan cellist, conductor and composer, also widely known as a humanitarian. He was raised in El Vendrell, a small village in Catalonia (Spain). He went into exile in Prades, France in 1939, towards the end of the Spanish Civil War, subsequently relocating to Puerto Rico in 1957. In October 1945, following the end of World War II, the lack of Allied intervention in Spain ignited Casals\u27 international artistic boycott, wherein Casals vowed not to perform in any country recognizing General Francisco Franco\u27s regime. To date, a group of over thirty biographies stand as rich and authoritative sources on Casals\u27 life and legacy. The biographers, however, tendentiously romanticized Casals\u27 persona by focusing on his musical accomplishments and political activism, providing a popular, yet distorted, image which continues to inform a wide audience of new and senior scholars, performers, music teachers, journalists, concert programmers, and music listeners. While a few scholarly works have touched on some biographical deficiencies (Chaitkin, 2001 and Mercier, 2008), nearly four decades after Casals\u27 death, no definitive scholarly biography exists. This dissertation takes a critical look at three facets of Casals\u27 legacy previously undocumented or misrepresented. Through newly discovered sources, Casals\u27 life is discussed on three dimensions of scale: personal, national and international. The first chapter examines Casals\u27 marriage to Susan Metcalfe illustrating the artist\u27s stratagems to regulate his biographical enterprise. This individual realm reveals the deeply personal nature of Casals\u27 vocal works--at the example of En Sourdine (1904). The second chapter features Casals\u27 entanglements with Puerto Rico\u27s cultural development plan (Operación Serenidad), wherein a neocolonialist lens seemed fitting to observe Casals\u27 musical legacy at a national (Puerto Rico) level. The third chapter covers the later part of Casals\u27 life and focuses on his engagements with the United Nations, the production of the Hymn to the United Nations, and his grandest musical aspiration--to redeem the world through his peace oratorio El Pessebre. At all three levels of analysis, this dissertation demonstrates that Casals enjoyed increasing notoriety through the construction of a positive widespread public image, because he wanted an enduring legacy transcendent of place and time. As an intellectual and cultural product of pre-World War I, however, Casals believed in moral certainty and cultural hierarchy. Being out-of-touch with major social, political and intellectual developments, Casals often served as a carrier of deep-seated social and cultural prejudices. Hence, his legacy is contested and fickle

A catalogue of twentieth-century cello ensemble music

This document contains over 700 entries of cello ensemble music written in the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries by 530 composers from around the world. Pieces presented in this catalogue are largely original works. A few exceptions have been allowed mostly when the composer arranged his/her own piece. For each entry, as much of the available information as possible is provided in the following general order: composer name, composer dates, title of the piece, approximate duration, and availability. Under a section named remarks, additional information is provided such as number and titles of the movements, first performance, sound recordings, record locator numbers, dedications, and other notes by the composer. The document also contains the following appendices: list of the publishers and music centers holding said entries, and an alphabetical list of the composers

Talk on Musical Interpretation — Visual Tools for Perceived Dynamics and Points of Gravity

Typical for Western classical music is the process of interpreting and conveying a written score into sounding music. However, sometimes the communication of musical issues between musicians may be experienced as aggravating. In educational contexts in a broad sense, it might be advantageous if this communication could be facilitated, for example, by using visual illustrations as a complement to the verbal language. The final aim of the present PhD project is to introduce a further investigation of the relationship between what musicians do when performing classical compositions and how the music will be experienced by listeners familiar with this kind of music. As an indispensable preparative step for this purpose, based on established conventions of melody phrasing, two special visual tools were developed: the Melody Phrasing Curve and a system for notating metrical points of gravity. In two empirical studies, the relevancy of these visual tools, intended to simplify the communication of matters linked to musical interpretation, was tested. This purpose includes the exploration of musical thoughts coming up when the tools are employed by professional musicians as instruments for illustrating their musical experiences. The Melody Phrasing Curve is a continuous line that is drawn by free hand into a special device indicating approximately the experienced dynamical fluctuations within the melody part of a composition. In the two phases of Study A, this phrasing curve was tested from the perspective of music professors listening to classical piano excerpts recorded on audio tape. The results indicate that the visual tool mentioned might be used as an instrument for illustrating the experienced changing dynamics of the melody part, primarily in piano music of a clear homophonic character. In the consecutive Study B, the other visual tool, the system for notating metrical points of gravity, was introduced. This tool was used by four professional musicians, together with the Melody Phrasing Curve, as an aid when preparing performances of three classical piano excerpts, as well as for the purpose of visually illustrating musical aspects of their recorded performances. The study included in-depth-interviews revealing some of the participants’ musical ideas. The results revealed that the participants respected the traditions of classical music, but they were also interested in further exploring the expressive potential of the music, in order to find new interpretative solutions. Moreover, the results indicate that the visual tools employed might be used in educational contexts as triggers for activating musicians’ self-reflection and for developing a bigger awareness when interpreting classical music. Aside from the participants’ diverging drawing styles, the results further support the functionality of the Melody Phrasing Curve as a visual tool for mirroring the experienced dynamical progression of the melody part. Finally, the phrasing curve may be used for the purpose of planning musical interpretations, as well as for illustrating a given performance

2013-2014 Lynn Philharmonia Season Program

Wind Ensemble September 15, 2013 at 4:00 PM The Wind Symphony, Movement 2 Kenneth Amis, director and conductor Symphonie Militaire / François Joseph Gossec -- Sinfonietta, op. 188 (1873) / Joseph Joachim Raff -- La Vita Symphony in Three Scenes (1998) / Yasuhide Ito -- Symphony for Winds and Percussion / Donald Grantham Philharmonia No. 1 October 5, 2013 at 7:30 PM and October 6, 2013 at 4:00 PM Jon Robertson, guest conductor Crown Imperial March / William Walton -- Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504 ( Prague ) / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- Symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major (1888 version) / Anton Bruckner Philharmonia No. 2 October 26, 2013 at 7:30 PM and October 27, 2013 at 4:00 PM Jon Robertson, guest conductor Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 / Johann Sebastian Bach -- Symphony No. 1 in D major, op. 25 ( Classical ) / Sergei Prokofiev -- Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, op. 95 ( From the New World ) / Antonín Dvořák Philharmonia No. 3 November 16, 2013 at 7:30 PM and November 17, 2013 at 4:00 PM 2013 Concerto Competition Winners Guillermo Figueroa, conductor ; Doniyor Zuparov, cello ; Anna Brumbaugh, clarinet ; Vladislav Kosminov, piano ; Timothy Nemzin, trumpet ; Brenton Caldwell, viola Overture to Benvenuto Cellini, op. 23 / Hector Berlioz -- Concerto in E Minor for Violoncello, op. 61 / Edward Elgar -- Concerto Fantasia on Motives from Verdi\u27s Opera Rigoletto / Luigi Bassi, orchestrated by Kenneth Lee Richmond -- Capriccio Espagnol, op. 34 / Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov -- Concerto No. 1 in C Minor for Piano, op. 35 / Dmitri Shostakovich -- Concerto for Viola (1962 version) / William Walton Philharmonia No. 4 January 18, 2014 at 7:30 PM and January 19, 2014 at 4:00 PM Guillermo Figueroa, conductor ; Carol Cole, violin ; David Cole, cello Overture to Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), K. 492 / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra in A Minor, op. 102 / Johannes Brahms -- Fandangos / Roberto Sierra -- Suite from Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose), op. 59 / Richard Strauss Philharmonia No. 5 February 8, 2014 at 7:30 PM and February 9, 2014 at 4:00 PM Guillermo Figueroa, conductor Overture to Guillaume Tell (William Tell) / Gioachino Rossini -- Don Juan, op. 20 / Richard Strauss -- Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, op. 36 / Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Philharmonia No. 6 March 22, 2014 at 7:30 PM and March 23, 2014 at 4:00 PM Guillermo Figueroa, conductor ; Abigail Santos Villalobos, soprano ; Gabriela García, mezzo-soprano ; Master Chorale of South Florida ; Brett Karlin, artistic director Symphony No. 2 in C minor ( Resurrection ) / Gustav Mahlerhttps://spiral.lynn.edu/conservatory_philharmonia/1017/thumbnail.jp

The Florida Room

Alexandra T. Vazquez listens to the music and history of Miami to explore the city’s sonic cultures and its material and social realities

Song and Dance

Program for the 2004 production of Song and Dancehttps://digitalcommons.daemen.edu/musicalfare_programs/1094/thumbnail.jp

2018-2019 Philharmonia No. 2

Concert Date & Time Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 7:30 PM Sunday, October 28, 2018 at 4:00 PM Program BinarIi / Matthew Carlton (*Winner of the 2018 Composition Competition) Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major, K. 218 / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Carol Cole, violin Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 ( Organ )https://spiral.lynn.edu/conservatory_philharmonia/1118/thumbnail.jp

Estrategias de la Memoria. Barcelona, 1977-2013

Entre los años 1977 y 2013, las estrategias de gestión del patrimonio y el arte público en la ciudad de Barcelona (España) en relación a la memoria de la IIª República (1931-1939), la Guerra Civil (1936-1939) y el Franquismo (1939-1975) pasan por diversas fases de evolución. La complejidad política y social asociada a estos periodos se refleja en las continuidades y discontinuidades de las distintas líneas de intervención llevadas a cabo desde el Ayuntamiento de la ciudad. Estas líneas se articulan alrededor de tres grandes ejes: la recuperación de monumentos eliminados y/o modificados durante el franquismo; la eliminación y/o substitución de símbolos y monumentos franquistas; y el homenaje desde la democracia. Destaca la política desarrollada en la última década, -la llamada década de la memoria histórica-, cuando el consistorio opta por la eliminación total de monumentos franquistas que aún perduraban en el espacio público, aunque sin simbología fascista. A este ejercicio de supresión no ha seguido una política clara de generación de nueva monumentalidad ni de nuevo espacio público, produciéndose espacios sin memoria. Esta estrategia contrasta con la política llevada a cabo a nivel autonómico a través del desarrollo de proyectos de dignificación y señalización de los llamados "espacios de memoria" por parte del Memorial Democràtic de la Generalitat de Catalunya desde el año 2008 hasta el 2011, antes de su estado actual de inoperancia