Sursum Ductio. Reasoning Upward. An Investigation into the Vertical Structure of Dante\u27s Commedia.

This dissertation investigates “vertical readings” of the Commedia, i.e., the interpretive method that compares and contrasts same-numbered cantos in the three canticles of the poem: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Although there is a consensus that specific vertical readings are intentional, critics remain skeptical of extrapolating it into a totalizing system. This dissertation aims to delineate the methodology’s parameters, trace its emergence in the field of Dante studies, and anchor it within the context of Italian Duecento and Trecento culture. This research investigates the methodology by gathering vertical readings in Dante studies into a comprehensive archive. This catalog provides valuable information regarding the history and emergence of the method and its practitioners’ different theoretical bases. The dissertation is divided into three chapters, and each, in turn, is divided into two parts. The first chapter begins by analyzing the formal elements of Dante’s poem. It emphasizes how the poem’s structure, symmetries, numbers, and names given to its partitions by Dante prompt vertical readings through a desire to imitate the order of the universe and Scripture. The chapter’s second half is a systematic review of the literature on vertical readings. Since various scholars have done vertical readings with differing theoretical bases, a definition is formulated to maximize inclusiveness. The archive suggests two principal hypotheses to explain the poem’s co-numerary parallels. First, they are the product of a composition method based on the arts of rhetoric and memory, revealing the scaffolding Dante used to build his poem. Secondly, the poem’s structure is designed to elicit intratextual readings in imitation of Scripture, thus reframing the poem’s allegorical status. Despite the Commedia’s instantaneous success, there are no mentions of the poem’s vertical patterning before the twentieth-century. Chapter 2 explains this paradoxical situation. The first half is devoted to the thorny issue of Dante, allegory, and medieval literary theory. It analyzes Dante’s writings on the topic of allegory and his own exegetical practices. Notwithstanding the numerous clues embedded into his poem, Dante’s synthesis of the traditional critical apparatus made his innovations unrecognizable to most commentators, principally because they had to confront a plethora of issues regarding the poem’s truth-claims. Nevertheless, the data shows that the early commentary tradition, in its unfolding and successive iterations, was increasingly glossing the poem along co-numerary lines, particularly at the center of the poem. As a result, proto-vertical readings have been identified. In the chapter’s second half, the locus of recognition shifts from criticism to poetry because poets hold a privileged position in understanding Dante’s deployment of rhetorical strategies that involve matters of structure, form, and content. An investigation of two of Dante’s poem’s most notable imitations, Petrarch’s Trionfi and Boccaccio’s Amorosa visione, shows that the other two ‘crowns’ of the so-called “Tre corone” of Italian literature were indeed aware of the Commedia’s vertical hermeneutics. In the third and final chapter, vertical hermeneutics keep pointing outwards, beyond the sphere of literary influence, and toward unexpected homologous patterns and sources, such as Canon Tables and visual arts. The first half begins by looking at stylistic elements in some of Dante’s ekphrases in Paradiso and underlines their meta-textual nature and their use of spatial semiotics. Geometric features, such as the circle and horizontal and vertical lines, play a crucial role in Dante’s representation of the divine and, more importantly, guide the poem’s interpretation. They enact a semiotics that emphasizes the spatial relationships between various elements. This form of semiotics is homologous with contemporary visual arts such as the apsidal mosaics in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe and those of the San Giovanni Baptistery in Florence, as well as paratextual and interpretive tools that have their roots in the arts of rhetoric and memory. Special attention is given to the center of Paradiso and its vertical relationship with the figure of Brunetto Latini, Dante’s teacher and a prominent protagonist in the revival of the arts of rhetoric and memory. The consequence of this centrifugal movement, from Dante outwards, is the realization that vertical hermeneutics are part and parcel of a broader tendency, or at least that they had currency within a collective set of unstated assumptions about the arrangement of signs and their meanings during the Middle Ages. In turn, the methodology of spatial semiotics provides a better understanding of the role of structure and form in both the composition and exegesis of medieval cultural artifacts

Toward Octavio Paz: A Reading of His Major Poems, 1957–1976

The undisputed intellectual leadership of Octavio Paz, not only in Mexico but throughout Spanish America, rests on achievements in the essay and in poetry. In the field of the essay, he is the author of more than twenty-five books on subjects whose diversity—esthetics, politics, surrealist art, the Mexican character, cultural anthropology, and Eastern philosophy, to cite only a few—is dazzling. In poetry, his creativity has increased in vigor over more than fifty years as he has explored the numerous possibilities open to Hispanic poets from many different sources. The bridge that joins the halves of his writing is a concern for language in general and for the poetic process in particular. Toward Octavio Paz defines this process of creation through a close examination of the books that represent the summit of the poet\u27s development, three long poems and three collections. It is intended for readers of varied poetic experience who are approaching Paz\u27s work for the first time. By studying the relationship of the parts of the poem, particularly structure and theme, Fein traces the poet\u27s growth through approaches to the reader, each embodied in a separate work. From the divided circularity of Piedra de sol through the intensification of the subject of Salamandra, the multiple meanings of Blanco, the polarities of Ladera este, and the literary solipsism of Pasado en claro, to the silences of Vuelta, Paz has shaped his audience\u27s responses to his work through suggestion rather than control. The result is not only a new poetry but a new receptivity. John M. Fein, professor of Romance languages at Duke University, is the author of Modemismo in Chilean Literature: The Second Period.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_latin_american_literature/1004/thumbnail.jp

Perceptual categorization

The categorization of external stimuli lies at the heart of cognitive science. Existing models of perceptual categorization assume (a) information about the absolute magnitude of a stimulus is used in the categorization decision, and (b) the representation of a stimulus does not change with experience. The three experimental programs presented here challenge these two assumptions. The experiments in Chapter 2 demonstrate that existing models of categorization are unable to predict the classification of items intermediate between two categories. Chapter 3 provides empirical evidence that categorization responses are heavily influenced by the immediately preceding context, consistent with evidence from absolute identification showing people have very poor access to absolute magnitude information. A memory and contrast model is presented where each categorization decision is based on the perceived difference between the current stimulus and immediately preceding stimuli. This model is shown to account for the data from Chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 4 explores the claim that new features may be created on experience with novel stimuli, and that these features serve to alter the representation of stimuli to facilitate new categorization tasks. An alternative account is offered for existing feature creation evidence. However, experimental work re-establishes a feature creation effect. Consideration is given as to how feature creation and memory and contrast accounts of categorization may be integrated, together with extensive suggestions for the development of these ideas

Melodic Function and Modal Process in Gregorian Chant

This study proposes a theory and method of analysis for voice leading in the melody of Gregorian chant. It draws on historical theories and practices, particularly those of the cantus tradition which 1) pre-dates the imposition on Western ecclesiastical chant of scale theories based in the Ancient Greek science of harmonics, 2) observes and predicts actual melodic behavior, and 3) remains basic to pedagogy through the centuries. Central to cantus-tradition doctrine is the investment of melodic tones with structural functions which articulate modes as melodic archetypes; idiomelic antiphons are analyzed according to five melodic functions derived from formulaic psalmody in a framework modally conditioned by the qualitative and intervallic relationship of final and tenor. Medieval sources put forward this functional dyad as essential to modal cognition--sometimes as the basis of modal construction--through a widespread mnemonic I call the Re-la, re-fa Rule; these dyads are also embedded in the ninth-century Noanoeane and eleventh-century Primum quaerite melodic prototypes. Evidence gathered from sources including the Metz tonary, De octo tonis, Musica Enchiriadis, Commemoratio Brevis, and treatises of Aurelian, Hucbald, Guido, Johannes, Amerus, Petrus de Cruce, Marchetto, Coclicus, Wollick, and Ornithoparchus is examined in light of the predicables (genus, species, differentia, proprium, accidens) of Aristotelian dialectic, leading to critical re-evaluation of concepts such as repercussio. The dissertation draws upon the Schenkerian tradition, demonstrating structural levels and prolongation in dyadic contrapuntal progression. Melodic-functional analysis employs modern staff notation to trace directed motion of a structural voice of tenor function from a state of consonance to one of unity with a second structural voice of final function; hexachordal voces (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la) identify the qualities of structural tones as well as their order in the tenor-function Urlinie which passes through modal degrees toward the final-function Urpunkt; secondary modes projected by local, in-process dyads are noted in lower-case Roman numerals i-viii. Tenor and final remain inseparate in monadic structures logically preceding the dyadic (Claire\u27s modes of a single element). Other key terms: concinnity, tenorization, finalization, transfer of function, occursus, Hollywood kiss

Musicological Writings from the Modern Arab “Renaissance” in Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth-Century Syria and Egypt

Historians designate the early decades of the nineteenth century as the beginning of the modern era in the Middle East, initiated by Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt and the subsequent European colonial presence that extended into the twentieth century. This was a period of intense self-reflection, especially in Egypt, as Egyptians responded to their experience with colonialism, Westernized modernization, and new forms of national identity. In this environment, discourse concerning preserving tradition and pursuing innovation brought these contested issues into musical as well as social and political contexts. By the late nineteenth century, Arab authors and journalists were referring to a new Arab “renaissance (al-nahḍa, “rising, awaking, revival, renaissance”). In this dissertation, I examine four Arabic texts on music of this period, written between 1840 and 1936, by one Syrian and three Egyptian authors who contributed to the emergence of modern Arabic literature on music: Mikhā’īl Mashāqa, al-Risāla al-shihābiyya fī al-sinā‘a al-mūsīqiyya (The Shihābī Treatise on the Musical Art), 1840 (the only one of these texts translated into Western languages); Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl ibn ‘Umar Shihāb al-Dīn, Safīnat al-mulk wa-nafīsat al-fulk (The Ship of Royalty and the Boat’s Precious Gem), 1843; Muḥammad Kāmil al-Khula‘ī, Kitāb al-mūsīqī al-sharqī (The Book of Eastern Music), 1904/05; and Qusṭandī Rizq, al-Mūsīqā al-sharqiyya w’al-ghinā’ al-‘arabī (Eastern Music and Arab Song), 1936. From these texts, we learn of the environments in the Ottoman provinces of Syria and Egypt in which these authors developed their interest in the music of their regions and their contributions to Arabic literature on music in the new Arab “renaissance.” The 1840 treatise by Mashāqa is highly significant for his presentation of his conceptualization of the modern Arab tonal system and its application to his documentation of melodic modes current in Syria in the first half of the nineteenth century. His contemporary in Egypt, Shihāb al-Dīn, is known for his extensive song-text collection and commentary on the poetic origins of many of the songs, with historical and anecdotal commentary on numerous poetic genres he discusses. While demonstrating considerable knowledge of the “science of music” derived from ancient Greek concepts, his lack of understanding of the twenty-four tone octave presented by Mashāqa is indicative of the early stages of its adoption in Egypt. In their early-twentieth-century publications, Egyptians al-Khula‘ī and Rizq analyze the social and ideological dimensions of Arab music in the modernizing Arab world, demonstrating the need for integrating both old and new musical features, characteristic of Arab music throughout its history. Al-Khula‘ī stresses the need for understanding and preserving the heritage of traditional Arabic poetry as expressed in song, while explaining his interest in adopting Western models for Arab music, such as notation and recording devices, as a means for preserving the Arabs’ musical heritage. Rizq warns of the destructive dangers of “innovation” and “modernization” upon Arab music, while also defining acceptable adaptions of Western-style modernity for creating a modern Egyptian nation. From their individual perspectives, these four authors demonstrate their commonconcern with promoting the value of traditional Arab music as an essential element defining Arab identity, with the latter two stressing the need for preserving their musicsl heritage in a changing world by adapting it to inevitable processes of “innovation” and “progress” while retaining the traditional musical and poetic aesthetics

The Rhythm of Western Polyphonic Music from About 850-1300

Rhythm in early Western polyphonic music

Exploring mechanical assonance for impact energy harvesting using acoustic metamaterials

Acoustic metamaterials are engineered to possess unique dynamic properties that are not commonly found in nature. It has been demonstrated that customizing the characteristics of their local features can help optimize their dynamic performance under specific loading conditions. Drawing inspiration from the literary device called 'assonance,' the term 'mechanical assonance' may be ascribed to the dynamic phenomenon realized by sequencing oscillators with tuned responses within a waveguide to engineer a prescribed wave transformation across it. In this context, assonance provides a framework to utilize resonant local features within a host structure or material and interactive mechanisms thereof as building blocks to create enriched functionalities for acoustic metamaterials. Using a discrete element representation for an acoustic metamaterial barrier (AMB), a numerical case study is conducted to ascertain parametric dependence for assonant mechanisms related to resonator frequencies, their sequencing, and host material stiffness. Normalized metrics are extracted to estimate transmitted pulse mitigation under impact-type loading. It is found that resonator sets with octave spacing having the number of resonators of a specific frequency proportional to that frequency's amplitude in the input spectrum is desirable for lower transmissibility. Further, sequencing the lowest frequency resonator set closest to the incident-side gives better performance. Engineering a high degree of impedance mismatch between host material sections is also preferable. The energy sequestered by the local resonators is amenable to harvesting by utilizing the resonator's mass as the multifunctional kernel for a linear electromagnetic generator. A multiphysical model is developed to predict the harvested electric voltage and power from the AMB and validated using proof-of-concept experiments. Finally, various coil placement and voltage rectification schemes are also studied using simulations to ascertain preferable design configuration