Investigating the canon in A-Level music: Musical Prescription in A-Level Music Syllabuses (for first examination in 2018)

The canon forming the backbone of most conceptions of Western music has been a feature of musical culture for decades, exerting an influence upon musical study in educational settings. In English school contexts, the once perceived superiority of classical music in educational terms has been substantially revised and reconsidered, opening up school curricula to other musical traditions and styles on an increasingly equal basis. However, reforms to GCSE and A-levels (examinations taken aged 16 and 18 respectively) which have taken place from 2010 onwards have refocused attention on canonic knowledge rather than skills-based learning. In musical terms, this has reinforced the value of ‘prescribed works’ in A-level music specifications. Thus far, little attention has been paid to the extent to which a kind of scholastic canon is maintained in the Western European Art Music section of the listening and appraising units in current A-level music specifications. Though directed in part by guidance from Ofqual (Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation, the regulatory body for qualifications in England), there is evidence of a broader cultural trend at work. The present article seeks to compare the historical evidence presented in Robert Legg’s 2012 article with current A-level specifications. Such a comparison establishes points of change and similarity in the canon of composers selected for close study in current A-levels, raising questions about the purpose and function of such qualifications

Musical Exemplarity in the Notational Treatises of Johannes Tinctoris (c. 1435-1511)

The notational treatises of Johannes Tinctoris are among the most studied music theory texts of their age. The level of meticulous detail and apparent rigour, twinned with a fairly comprehensive survey of most aspects of practical music that the fifteenth-century musician would need to know, make his treatises invaluable to understanding musical practices and pedagogy of the later part of the Middle Ages. Although not conceived as a set as such, his twelve music treatises contain some significant interdependencies, particularly those focussing on specific areas of mensuration and notation practice. Despite much scholarly attention being directed towards his texts, particularly his De arte contrapuncti and Proportionale musices, the use of musical examples in his notational treatises has remained largely underexplored. Indeed, the broader field of musical examples in music theory treatises has been much neglected, both in modern scholarship and in critical editions, something that this thesis begins to address. This study sets out, for the first time, a methodology for interpreting the exemplary content found in music theory treatises of the manuscript tradition, particularly those of the late fifteenth century. It synthesises Tinctoris’s strategies of exemplification into three distinct models: instantiation; citation; extrapolation. In examining musical examples, it is clear that this relatively little explored resource can be used to better understand the readership(s) for music theory and the ways in which musical notation could be read in the fifteenth century. Indeed, the methodology established through this study opens up new avenues for exploration in scholarly research. Due to the variety of musical examples found in Tinctoris’s works, his treatises make an ideal test case for this methodology, showing it to be sufficiently rigorous to be applied to a variety of other texts in the future. Thus, this thesis contends that musical examples, which are often treated poorly in modern scholarly editions, can reveal great insights into the intended function of particular texts, and yield new findings to inform our study of the period

Teacher perceptions of A-level music: tension, dilemmas, and decline

A-level music, a qualification taken most often in English and Welsh school contexts around the age of 18, has been a long standing feature of the musical training of many musicians. Historically bound up with Western European Art Music, the qualification has somewhat broadened its horizons in recent times, though with mixed success in opening up new ways of thinking about music. Recent research has highlighted the seemingly precarious nature of A-level music in many English schools (Bath, Daubney, Mackrill, & Spruce, 2020). The reasons for this picture of decline are highly complex and difficult to disentangle, and are part of a much broader diminishing of creative subjects in the school curriculum. Decreasing number of A-level music entries run somewhat counter to popular policy discourse which celebrates flagship announcements of £79 million given to Music Education Hubs (in 2019-2020) each year, and 2018 survey results that reported more than 700,000 children learning to play a musical instrument each year through music hub provision. However, behind these headlines, although there are many children having the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, few continue through to A-level and beyond. Despite its declining numbers, A-level music is recognised as a valuable qualification amongst music teachers, offering something distinct from graded music examinations and other Level 3 musical qualifications. This article presents the results of a recent nationwide survey of A-level music teachers to offer an insight into teacher perceptions of current A-level music specifications, the extent to which it prepares students for entry into higher musical education, and its appropriateness for aspiring young musicians

Sounding Jacqueline du Pré through ballet: classical music and The Cellist (2020)

Few cellists of the twentieth century were as recognisable as Jacqueline du Pré. Her dazzling and distinctive talent, said to have enraptured audiences the world over, was overcome by a tragic diagnosis of MS. This sense of tragedy was all the more heightened by Du Pré’s famed physicality on the stage, leading critics to describe her playing as a physical (and even sexual) experience. Her status as a musical celebrity, further intensified as she became one half of a classical music power couple, has led to numerous dramatic retellings and reimaginings of her biography, played out in film and TV, and now on stage. The most recent example of this fascination with Du Pré is the ballet The Cellist, Cathy Marston’s new work for the Royal Ballet, premiered in February 2020 at the Royal Opera House (London) to much critical acclaim. Its score, composed by Philip Feeney, features a cello soloist and interweaves extended extracts from repertoire that became so associated with Du Pré alongside newly composed musical materials. Along with the characters of Barenboim, Du Pré, and her family, her 1673 Stradivarius cello is given a starring role in the form of Marcelino Sambé, a new take that makes this a distinctive contribution to media representations of Du Pré. This article examines the interactions across this complex web of musical representations of musical personae by analysing depictions of acts of musical performance and the representation of a performer-instrument relationship in The Cellist. Ultimately, it considers the ways the disciplinary partnership of music and dance combine to establish new layers of interpretive meaning and to represent classical music. Key words: ballet music; classical music; cello; Jacqueline du Pré

The Gribov horizon and the one-loop color-Coulomb potential

We recalculate the color-Coulomb potential to one-loop order, under the assumption that the effect of the Gribov horizon is to make i) the transverse gluon propagator less singular; and ii) the color-Coulomb potential more singular, than their perturbative behavior in the low-momentum limit. As a first guess, the effect of the Gribov horizon is mimicked by introducing a transverse momentum-dependent gluon mass term, leading to a propagator of the Gribov form, with the prescription that the mass parameter should be adjusted to the unique value where the infrared behavior of the Coulomb potential is enhanced. We find that this procedure leads to a Coulomb potential rising asymptotically as a linear term modified by a logarithm.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Clinical Efficacy of Romidepsin in Tumor Stage and Folliculotropic Mycosis Fungoides

AbstractBackgroundTumor stage and folliculotropic mycosis fungoides are uncommon subtypes of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) with an aggressive disease course. Romidepsin is a histone deacetylase inhibitor approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for patients with CTCL who have received ≥ 1 previous systemic therapy. In the present study, we examined the efficacy and safety of romidepsin in patients from the pivotal, single-arm, open-label, phase II study of relapsed or refractory CTCL with cutaneous tumors and/or folliculotropic disease involvement.Materials and MethodsPatients with CTCL who had received ≥ 1 previous systemic therapy received romidepsin at 14 mg/m2 on days 1, 8, and 15 of 28-day cycles. Responses were determined by a composite endpoint (assessments of the skin, blood, and lymph nodes). Patients with cutaneous tumors and/or folliculotropic disease involvement were identified by review of diagnosis and histology reports.ResultsThe objective response rate to romidepsin was 45% in patients with cutaneous tumors (n = 20) and 60% in patients with folliculotropic disease involvement (n = 10).ConclusionRomidepsin is active in subtypes of CTCL with less favorable outcomes, such as tumor stage and folliculotropic mycosis fungoides