Ulysses in Texas

717

Adorno in Czechoslovakia: Music, Theory, Aesthetics

The aim of this paper is to examine how Adorno's aesthetic and musicological thinking was received in Czech and Slovak musicology in the decades between the 60s and the 80s. The focus is on the Czech and Slovak translation of some of Adorno’s musicological treatises and lectures – especially those concerning his views on the Second Vienna School and the musical poetics of its immediate successors – which were published in former Czechoslovakia. The study offers an interesting perspective on Adorno’s relatively unknown lecture Form der neuen Musik (1965) and its related, although not identical, Czech version Formové princípy súčasnej hudby [Formal Principles of Contemporary Music] (1966) as well as on his discussion with some Slovak composers and musicologists published as Dnes je možné iba radikálne kritické myslenie [Today, Only Radical Critical Thinking is Possible] (1967). The study also considers other scientific texts by Adorno in relation to the above-mentioned translations of his works. The analysis, reflection, and interpretation of Adorno’s works in former Czechoslovakia, as well as their contemporary reception, turn out to be sporadic in the examined period. The purpose of this research is to revive awareness of their significance and to give a new impulse to their reassessment within the current musicological and philosophical reflection

25th ANNIVERSARY OF CLONING BY SOMATIC-CELL NUCLEAR TRANSFER: Scientific and technological approaches to improve SCNT efficiency in farm animals and pets

The birth of Dolly through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) was a major scientific breakthrough of the last century. Yet, while significant progress has been achieved across the technics required to reconstruct and in vitro culture nuclear transfer embryos, SCNT outcomes in terms of offspring production rates are still limited. Here, we provide a snapshot of the practical application of SCNT in farm animals and pets. Moreover, we suggest a path to improve SCNT through alternative strategies inspired by the physiological reprogramming in male and female gametes in preparation for the totipotency required after fertilization. Almost all papers on SCNT focused on nuclear reprogramming in the somatic cells after nuclear transfer. We believe that this is misleading, and even if it works sometimes, it does so in an uncontrolled way. Physiologically, the oocyte cytoplasm deploys nuclear reprogramming machinery specifically designed to address the male chromosome, the maternal alleles are prepared for totipotency earlier, during oocyte nuclear maturation. Significant advances have been made in remodeling somatic nuclei in vitro through the expression of protamines, thanks to a plethora of data available on spermatozoa epigenetic modifications. Missing are the data on large-scale nuclear reprogramming of the oocyte chromosomes. The main message our article conveys is that the next generation nuclear reprogramming strategies should be guided by insights from in-depth studies on epigenetic modifications in the gametes in preparation for fertilization

Interspecific ICSI for the assessment of sperm DNA damage: Technology report

Xenogenic mammalian sperm heads injected into mouse ovulated oocytes decondense and form pronuclei in which sperm DNA parameters can be evaluated. We suggest that this approach can be used for the assessment of sperm DNA damage level and the evaluation of how cer-tain sperm treatments (freezing, lyophilization, etc.) influence the quality of spermatozoa

THE TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICE PERFORMED BY PRE-SCHOOL TEACHERS DURING COVID 19 OUTBREAK

Covid 19 outbreak have made all sectors to switch their performance from face to face interaction to virtual ones; from massive gathering and meetings to social distancing. This is also applied in education sector. This study was intended to describe how teaching and learning process took place during the Covid 19 outbreak. This study focused on the teaching and learning process in pre-school level as the researchers wondered how teachers facilitated learning for young learners. From the interview, the researchers noticed that all teachers used WhatsApp to get themselves connected to their students. In addition, they also send the student work book to their students’ houses. Next, two teachers needed to teach some students in the classroom as learning from home did not work for few students, the numbers of the students and the meetings of course were limited. The findings of this studies were expected to give insights to stake holders, policy makers, education experts, and scientist to help teachers and learners at pre-school level so that they still can achieve the teaching and learning objectives during the Covid 19 outbrea

Fiktívne hudobné kompozície Th. W. Adorna v románe Thomasa Manna „Doktor Faustus“

Thomas Mann's novel Doktor Faustus. Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn erzählt von seinem Freunde (1947) arose from a cooperation between Th. Mann and and Th.W.Adorno. Adorno was not only a tutor in issues of the history of music, the theory of music and the aesthetics of music: he was in a sense, too, co-author of the novel: he was a „spiritus movens“ of the novel, who wrote analysis of music attributed to fictious musicians in the novel, to Leverkühn, Kretzschmar, and, of course, to Mefisto. We find a specific phenomenon of „fictious music“ in this novel. Adorno's task was to give a final version to Mann's notions and literary phantasies on music, to „compose“ and to depict non-existing compositions of a fictious composer Leverkühn. Adorno's „composition“ were devised in accordance to the real compositions of A.Schönberg and I. Stravinsky. Mann's/Adorno's fictious compositions are in the focus of many analysis of the novel and also the fucus of this study.

Román Thomasa Manna „Doktor Faustus“ a hudobná estetika Theodora W. Adorna

Thomas Mann's novel Doktor Faustus. Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn erzählt von seinem Freunde (1947) is one of the most known literary works of the 20th century. The creation of this novel was closely tied with an encounter of Thomas Mann with a philosopher and musicologist Theodor W. Adorno in their american exile during the World War II. Thomas Mann's novel represents literary fiction of Adorno's theory of music and musical aesthetics, as found in the study Philosophie der neuen Musik (1949)

Jiřímu Pecharovi k devadesátinám

111

Arnold Schönberg and musica artificiosa : a rationality in the musical composition

Concepts musica artificiosa and rationality are part of modern aesthetic-philosophical discours of music. Arnold Schönberg and Anton Webern can be considered an originators of the discours of rationalism. Schönberg as a theoretician and composer revived the ancient topic of music history and brought it to the fore. Music of the 20th century discovered its potential of rationality, which was possible due to new relationships between the theory of music and composition, strong involvement of composers in a theoretical reflection of their music. A personal union of a theoretician, philosopher, aesthetician and composer led even to blurring of a traditional border line between theoretical reflection and composition. Composers of the darmstadt serial avant-garde epitomize this cultural phenomenon of rationalism, but the originator was A. Schönberg. Th. W. Adorno was first schönbergian aesthetician-theoretician who explored phenomenon of Schönberg's rationality in its ambivalency and possible negative implications. His analyses in confrontation with Schönberg's reflection are the point of departure of this study