The Sonata as an Ageless Principle: Nikolai Medtner’s Early Piano Sonatas: Analytic Studies on their Genesis, Style, and Compositional Technique

The dissertation focuses on the early piano sonatas of Russian composer Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (1880–1951). It approaches them in the context of genre history, confronts them with other composers' works, and discusses them from various analytic perspectives. A special goal is to consider the pieces in the aesthetic environment of their time, and to regard them as peculiar instances of the ›sonata principle‹, an ageless conception of musical form. The study is subdivided in three large parts, the first of which presents a summary of sonata composition before Medtner, exploring lines of tradition in Western Europe and Russia. The second part concentrates on Medtner’s musical language and its stylistic features. The third and most comprehensive part provides detailed examinations of eight of Medtner’s piano sonatas, including aspects of their genesis and reception, and making use of recent methods of musical analysis.Die Dissertation widmet sich den frühen Klaviersonaten des russischen Komponisten Nikolaj Karlovič Metner (1880–1951), die im Kontext ihrer Gattungsgeschichte und im Vergleich mit Musik anderer Urheber betrachtet werden. Ein Hauptanliegen der multiperspektivischen Analysen ist es, den Werkkorpus in ästhetische Kontexte der Entstehungszeit einzubetten und die Einzelwerke als Spezialfälle des ›Sonatenprinzips‹, eines zeitlosen Formkonzepts, darzustellen. Die Studie gliedert sich in drei Sektionen, deren erste die Entwicklungen des Sonatenkomponierens vor Metner zusammenfasst und Traditionslinien in Westeuropa und Russland nachzeichnet. Der zweite Teil ist eine Darstellung der Tonsprache Metners und ihrer stilistischen Merkmale. Der dritte und umfangreichste Teil präsentiert Detailanalysen von acht Klaviersonaten Metners und untersucht die Notentexte mit Hilfe aktueller Analysemethoden

A time series analysis of wages in deregulated industries: A study of motor carriage and rail

Using time series techniques, we contrast the impact of deregulation in trucking and rail labor markets. During regulation both labor markets were characterized by wages considerab y higher than manufacturing wages. In fact, trucking and rail wages had a stable, deterministic relationship prior to deregulation. After deregulation, however, the mean trucking wages fell considerably, approaching manufacturing wages, while rail wages remained relatively constant. We also find that deregulation’s negative impact on trucking wages was nondiscrete and occurred primarily between 1980 and 1984.deregulation, trucking, rail

Differential Effects Rail Deregulation in the U.S. Grain Industry

The efficiency benefits of U.S. rail industry deregulation are well documented in previous studies of rail productivity and declining rail rates. This research provides new insight regarding the accrual of these benefits within the grain industry. A disaggregate study of corn, wheat, and soybean rates across nine producing regions, shows that in recent years the railroads ability to differentiate markets based on competitive environment has shifted relatively more of the benefit to regions with the most competitive market environments. Regions with less competitive pressure will continue to be relatively more disadvantaged in the rates that are an important determinant in grain market flows and producer profitability if these trends continue.Marketing, Public Economics,

The Effects Of Unions On Wages By Occupation In The Public Sector

This study examines union wage premiums by occupation in the public sector in the U.S. for the 2000-2004 period.  In examining union-nonunion wage differences for public sector workers in occupations accounting for 66 percent of all public workers in the 2000-2004 Current Population Survey, we find positive and statistically significant union premiums for 27 out of 41 occupations examined.  We also find large differences among occupations, with miscellaneous teachers and instructors receiving a 61 percent premium, secretaries and administrative assistants receiving a 5 percent premium, and 14 occupations receiving no statistically significant premium.  In comparing union premiums by occupation between the private and public sectors, we find, in most cases, that private sector premiums are larger than public sector premiums.  Finally, an Oaxaca decomposition shows that the majority of the differential between private sector union premiums and public sector union premiums appears to be due to differences in the way unions reward workers in the private and public sectors, not because of differences in the types of workers in the private and public sectors

Transportation quality indices for economic analysis of non-metropolitan cities

It is generally agreed that transportation plays a role in economic development, but it often is assumed away in empirical work due to data voids or under implicit assumptions that it is largely an inert factor. This paper seeks to add to the quantitative material by offering estimates of the relative quality of surface freight transportation service resources available to non-metropolitan cities across the US. Indicators suggest that cities located in the Midwest have relatively higher freight transport service quality, and that a cluster of north-eastern states are at a disadvantage, considering the quality of freight service for non-metropolitan areas. Transportation quality indicators developed in this research offer a new opportunity to consider transportation in analysis of economic development policies and strategies

Sonatentheorien des Ostens. Zum Transfer einer westeuropäischen Formidee nach Russland und in die Sowjetunion bis 1945

Der Aufsatz untersucht, inwieweit im musiktheoretischen Schrifttum russischer und sowjetischer Autor*innen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts eine Orientierung am westeuropäischen Kanon musikalischer Formen stattfindet und in welchem Umfang dieser durch russische Übersetzungen von Lehrbüchern aus dem Westen reflektiert wird – insbesondere bezogen auf das akademische Paradigma der Sonatenform. Durch eine Gegenüberstellung des in den diskutierten Schriften gebrauchten Vokabulars werden außerdem Rückschlüsse auf den Transfer analytischer und satztechnischer Terminologie im Lichte verschiedener ästhetischer Ideen der Sonatenform ermöglicht. Die Studie konzentriert sich auf den Zeitraum ab der Gründung der beiden Konservatorien in Sankt Petersburg und Moskau bis zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs. // This article examines the extent to which the orientation toward Western European theories of musical form – in particular, the academic paradigm of sonata form – is reflected in the writings of Russian and Soviet scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well as in Russian translations of German and English treatises. By comparing how sonata terminology is used in the discussed writings, conclusions are developed concerning the transfer of analytical and compositional vocabulary from Western to Eastern Europe in the light of aesthetic theories associated with sonata form. The study covers a period from the foundation of the Saint Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories to the end of World War II

Die Übersteigerung der Sonatenform: Zu Nikolaj Metners Klaviersonate e-Moll op. 25/2

Der russische Komponist Nikolaj Karlovič Metner (1880–1951) hat vierzehn Klaviersonaten veröffentlicht, die in ihrer Gesamtheit eine erstaunliche Vielfalt an Formen und dramaturgischen Konzepten aufweisen. Der Werkkorpus beinhaltet sowohl kompakte einsätzige Sonaten, die mitunter in Zyklen von Charakterstücken eingebettet sind, als auch große Strukturen von geradezu symphonischen Dimensionen. Die Sergej Rachmaninov gewidmete Sonate in e-Moll op. 25/2 (1910–12) ist mit ca. 35 Minuten Spielzeit das längste und vielschichtigste Solowerk Metners; ihre spieltechnischen Anforderungen transzendieren den Anspruch der meisten zu dieser Zeit entstandenen Klavierkompositionen. Damit markiert sie einen Höhepunkt in Metners Sonatenschaffen und nimmt auch im Vergleich mit anderen Sonatenkonzepten des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts eine besondere Stellung ein. In einer strukturell ambivalenten, einsätzigen Großform integriert das Werk nicht nur gattungstypische Merkmale (zwei sonatensatzartige Teile, die durch eine ausgedehnte Einleitung und deren Reiterationen miteinander verschränkt werden), sondern auch Elemente der Ritornellform und verschiedene Kanon- und Fugato-Techniken. Die Beigabe eines lyrischen Mottos von Fëdor Tjutčev (»Wovon heulst du, Wind der Nacht?«) und eine suggestive Vortragsbezeichnung (»Das ganze Stück [ist] in einem epischen Geist«) legen außerdem eine hermeneutische Deutungsebene nahe, die auf Einflüsse durch die Philosophie und Literatur des russischen Symbolismus verweist. Alle diese Eigenschaften lassen das Werk als einen Kulminationspunkt in der Gattungsgeschichte der Klaviersonate erscheinen. Dieser Beitrag diskutiert die genannten Aspekte aus analytischer, musikästhetischer und rezeptionshistorischer Perspektive.The Russian composer Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (1880–1951) wrote fourteen piano sonatas, which, in their entirety, show an astonishing variety of musical forms and dramaturgic conceptions. This body of work features compact single-movement sonatas of different types – some of which are embedded in cycles of piano miniatures—as well as large structures of quasi-symphonic dimension. The E minor Sonata, Op. 25 No. 2 (1910–12) is Medtner’s most complex and extensive work for solo piano, with its interpretive and technical challenges surpassing the demands of most other piano literature from that time. In this way the sonata (which is dedicated to Sergei Rachmaninov) marks a climax in Medtner’s sonata output and also holds a prominent position in comparison to other sonata conceptions of the early twentieth century. In a large and structurally ambiguous single-movement form, the sonata incorporates not only features typical of the genre (such as two separate sonata-allegro sections, linked by an extended introduction and its reiterations), but also elements of ritornello form, as well as canon and fugato techniques. In addition, a poetic motto by Fyodor Tyutchev (»What do you howl about, night wind?«) and an imaginative performance indication (»The whole piece [is] in an epic spirit«) suggest a hermeneutic interpretation, with particular reference to philosophy and literature of the Russian Symbolist movement. These traits and qualities allow the work to be seen as a culmination point in the history of the genre of piano sonata. The present article discusses the abovementioned aspects from the perspectives of music aesthetics, analysis, and history of reception