Comparing Notes: Recording and Criticism

This chapter charts the ways in which recording has changed the nature of music criticism. It both provides an overview of the history of recording and music criticism, from the advent of Edison’s Phonograph to the present day, and examines the issues arising from this new technology and the consequent transformation of critical thought and practice

Wider Still and Wider: British Music Criticism since the Second World War

This chapter provides the first historical examination of music criticism in Britain since the Second World War. In the process, it also challenges the simplistic prevailing view of this being a period of decline from a golden age in music criticism

Food Interactions Between Utah Prairie Dogs and Cattle

This study examined the food interactions between Utah prairie dogs (Cynomys parvidens, Allen) and cattle (Bos taurus), During 1974 and 1975, three prairie dog colonies near Panguitch, Utah, were studied intensely: Oldfield was chosen to represent colonies near fields of alfalfa (Medicago sativa); Lowercrested was chosen to represent colonies below 2,200 meters above sea level (a. s. 1.) which were not near alfalfa, and Uppercrested was chosen to represent colonies above 2,200 meters a.s.l. which have been planted with crested wheatgrass. Visual observations were made of Utah prairie dogs to determine their diets. Livetrapping of prairie dogs provided data for estimates of population sizes and animal weights, which were used to calculate forage requirements. Cattle diets and forage intake per individual were derived from the literature. Much more forage was available to prairie dogs than to cattle. About 80 percent of the forb phytomass ingested by prairie dogs at Uppercrested never would have become available to cattle. Prairie dogs foraged more selectively than cattle are capable of doing. Neither animal showed a general dietary preference toward either grasses or forbs: each plant life form contained bath preferred and avoided species. Bath animals had a low preference for shrubs. Oldfield\u27s area tripled between 1971 and 1974, but Uppercrested did not expand. Between 1 June, 1974, and 1 June, 1975, Oldfield\u27s population increased from about 42 to 70 adult prairie dogs, and the colony\u27s area increased proportionately; however, Uppercrested\u27s population appeared to decline from approximately 22 to 19 adults. The dissimilar expansion rates, at least between 1974 and 1975, probably were due to differences in behavior, forage availability, nutrition, and predation. Oldfield\u27s prairie dogs gained weight much faster than did Uppercrested\u27s animals. Thus, the average number of active Utah prairie dogs ingesting as much forage as a cow and calf from March through October (prairie dogs fed little during other months) was 410 at Oldfield, compared to 500 at Uppercrested. Numbers concerning total utilization may be even higher: prairie dogs waste little vegetation, but cattle probably trample much. On the other hand, prairie dogs clip closer to the ground and earlier in the growth season than do cattle; consequently, prairie dogs may cause a greater reduction in primary production for the same amount of forage intake. Population densities of prairie dogs in late June, one month after the young first emerged, were 35/ha at Oldfield, 16/ha at Lowercrested, and less than 2.3/ha at Uppercrested. Prairie dogs used over 70 percent of the primary production of perennial herbage at Oldfield and about 10 percent of it at Lowercrested. Uppercrested\u27s prairie dogs used approximately 3 percent of the primary production of crested wheatgrass, a preferred forage. Within any one year, cattle probably rarely reduce population s of Utah prairie dogs, and possibly may increase populations in colonies with high primary production. Prairie dogs apparently have reduced the primary production of perennial herbage at bath Oldfield and Lowercrested. Vegetational canopy coverage was greater on mounds than off mounds in the low use portion of Uppercrested. Heavy grazing by livestock in the past probably has eliminated much Utah prairie dog habitat: swales have been destroyed and early spring forage has been reduced

The Gender Paradox: Criticism of Women and Women as Critics

In May 2014 a storm erupted in the British classical music world when five established male critics fat-shamed Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, who was performing Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at Covent Garden. Instead of focusing upon Erraught’s technique or interpretation, the critics ridiculed her physique. Writing in the Financial Times Andrew Clark referred to Erraught as ‘a chubby bundle of puppy-fat’; Michael Church in The Independent and Rupert Christiansen in The Telegraph both described her as ‘dumpy’; Andrew Clements in The Guardian called her ‘stocky’; and Richard Morrison in The Times characterised her as ‘unbelievable, unsightly and unappealing’. Although these sexist comments drew widespread condemnation, they are symptomatic of a centuries-old tendency for empowered male critics to fail to produce objective assessments of female musicians

Critiquing the Canon: The Role of Criticism in Canon Formation

Music critics wield great power. Their writing influences public opinion and contributes to how audiences receive works. They focus attention upon specific works and musicians, thus justifying these as most worthy of public recognition and debate. They help works to achieve repeat performances, and thereby to establish their places within the performing canon. In the age of recorded sound, they influence sales and affect charts. Although some claim that with the recent rise of ubiquitous digital critical commentary (much of it amateur) professional critics have lost their traditional authority, online criticism continues to exercise considerable sway. In a very real way, critics have been – and continue to be – the gatekeepers of the canon. As Roy Shuker has observed, ‘popular music critics … function as significant gatekeepers and as arbiters of taste’

Spanish music criticism in the twentieth century: writing music history in real time

This chapter examines how the documenting and reflecting on current musical life carried out by two Spanish music critics whose careers spanned most of the twentieth century – Adolfo Salazar (1890–1958) and Federico Sopeña (1917–91) – provided a crucial foundation for the historiography of Spanish music after 1900. For decades, Salazar and Sopeña have shaped our thinking about Spanish twentieth-century music; their works are still regarded as authoritative to a considerable extent and they are frequently cited as secondary sources in studies of Spanish music. Indeed, it is only in the last decade that their writings and biographies have started to be examined with a view to identifying and critiquing the master narratives they crafted to present and explain Spanish music of the twentieth century: the music they were immersed in and, in some cases, turned into history almost from the moment they heard it for the first time

Catalysing Latin American identities: Alejo Carpentier’s music criticism as a Cuban case study

Despite the rich diversity of cultures, language and musical tradition in the Latin American world, the vast lands of Central and South America have often been considered a monolithic cultural area when viewed from a European perspective. While some scholars have suggested that concepts of Latin American identity remain fluid, others have observed that the fascination for European culture generated anxiety about the perceived cultural and historical gap between the Old continent and the New, a tension which resulted in the pendular movement between servile imitation and militant rejection of European influences that has become a feature of the Latin American cultural consciousness since the early twentieth century. Exploring a range of European musical influences, this essay considers issues of identity through a Cuban lens by investigating the music criticism of Alejo Carpentier who was not only one of the most influential writers of twentieth-century Latin America and uniquely placed through birth, education and up-bringing to question the European-Latin American dichotomy, but also a vigorous champion of European modernism, this providing a paradoxical catalyst for his advocacy of a distinctive Latin American identity