Ricardo Lorenz: A Post-Colonial/Modern Latin(o) American Composer

European art music was brought into the Euro-baptized American continent by the Spaniards and Portuguese as an art discipline that supported the conversion to Catholicism, and, in general, its colonization. Nevertheless, Latin American composers—using agency, creativity and the process of transculturation—appropriated and transformed this music tradition to produce their innovative and hybrid art music works according to their culture and history. The article examines a selection of composer Ricardo Lorenz (Venezuela, 1961) musical works, philosophy, and artistic persona. In order to understand how and why postcolonial/modern theories opened up new paths for Lorenz’ musical works, this article introduces Ricardo Lorenz as composer and cultural agent related to Latin American and Latino communities in the United States with his positions of Interim Director of the Latin American Music Center at Indiana University (1987-1992), Chicago Symphony Orchestra Composer-in-Residence, Armonía Musicians Residency Program (1998-2002) and Latin IS American (2013-?) at Michigan State University’s College of Music. Then it discusses some of the ideas, such as the cultural monopoly of constructing an art music canon; building a racial/cultural division of the “Self” and the “Others,” the global music industry’s imposition of marketing tastes and distribution channels, and the representation of Latin American art music works and composers as exotics, within Lorenz text “Voices in Limbo: Identity, Representation and Realities of Latin American Composers” (1999). This methodology prepares us to engage with a conceptual analysis of two works by Lorenz—Mambozart for piano (1995) and the Pataruco Concerto for maracas and orchestra (1999)—to demonstrate Lorenz’s musical language and aesthetic, which reflects his fluency in cultural diversity and political philosophy in addition to reminding us what the process of transculturation stands for in Western art music composition and sounds

Fertility is low when there is no societal agreement on a specific gender role model

"Many authors argue that societal fertility levels are a function of changing gender relations, but the mechanism behind this association remains unclear and mainly untested. This paper argues that the variation in realized gender roles and gender role attitudes influences fertility: a great variation in attitudes among potential partners causes uncertainty and conflicts, which decreases people's propensity to choose to have a first or an additional child. How this idea is tested: macro-level regressions are run on 24 countries. A measure for the average gender role attitude as well as the dispersion in attitudes are regressed on the level of fertility. Attitudes are computed through factor analysis and capture opinions towards the gendered division of given tasks and privileges, such as childrearing or the uptake of parental leave. The measure includes attitudes towards different female and male roles. The dispersion in attitudes is the standard deviation of the factor variable in the given country. Attitudinal information are from the ISSP 2012. The analysis gives support to the hypothesis: the greater the variation in gender role attitudes, the lower is the fertility. The association is considerably strong, significant, and holds against various robustness checks." (author's abstract

Having power, having babies? Fertility patterns among German elite politicians

Members of the political elite have far-reaching influence on the overall society. In this paper, we analyse fertility patterns among the German political elite for two reasons: First, we learn more about the living circumstances of a subgroup that makes crucial decisions and could serve as a role model for the general population. Second, we gain insight into the association between social status and fertility patterns at the top tier of the status distribution. We collect biographical data from all high-rank politicians in Germany in 2006 and/or 2017, comprising 184 women and 353 men. We compare fertility patterns in this subgroup to the general population, as well as we differentiate the number of children by politicians’ gender, region (eastern/western Germany), party affiliation, and other variables. Results show that, on average, male politicians have relatively many children: 2.0 in western Germany, and 2.2 in eastern Germany. Female politicians have very few children in western Germany (1.3) and relatively many in eastern Germany (1.9). The east-west gap between men and women is entirely driven by differences in childlessness. For men, the observation of high fertility in this high-status group could hint towards a positive association between social status and fertility at the top of the status distribution. For women, large east-west differences in this subgroup could mean that the association between social status and fertility at the top of the status distribution might be negative or positive, depending on macro-level characteristics such as gender norms and work-family reconciliation policies.Mitglieder der politischen Elite üben erheblichen Einfluss auf das gesellschaftliche Zusammenleben aus. Aus zwei Gründen analysieren wir in diesem Artikel Fertilitätsmuster von deutschen Spitzenpolitikern: Erstens, um mehr über die Lebensumstände einer Gruppe zu erfahren, die wichtige Entscheidungen trifft und eine Vorbildfunktion für die Bevölkerung einnehmen kann, und zweitens, um ein besseres Verständnis über den Zusammenhang zwischen Sozialstatus und Fertilität am oberen Ende der Sozialstatus-Skala zu erhalten, indem wir exemplarisch eine Gruppe mit besonders hohem Sozialstatus analysieren. Wir sammeln biographische Daten von allen Personen, die in Jahr 2006 und/oder 2017 eine politische Elitenposition in Deutschland innehaben (184 Frauen und 353 Männer) und vergleichen die Kinderzahl der Politikerinnen und Politiker mit denen der Gesamtbevölkerung. Zusätzlich analysieren wir die Kinderzahl der Personen in politischen Ämtern nach Geschlecht, Region (Ost/West), Parteizugehörigkeit sowie weiteren Variablen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass männliche Politiker im Durchschnitt relativ viele Kinder haben, 2,0 in West-, und 2,2 in Ostdeutschland. Politikerinnen in Westdeutschland haben im Durschnitt sehr wenige Kinder (1,3); Politikerinnen in Ostdeutschland haben dagegen vergleichsweise viele Kinder (1,9). Die Ost-West-Unterschiede der durchschnittlichen Kinderzahl lassen sich komplett durch Unterschiede in den Übergangsraten zum ersten Kind erklären. Die vergleichsweise hohe Kinderzahl männlicher Spitzenpolitiker könnte ein Hinweis darauf sein, dass der Zusammenhang zwischen Sozialstatus und Fertilität für Männer im oberen Bereich der Statushierarchie positiv ist. Die großen Ost-West-Unterschiede bei Politikerinnen könnten darauf hindeuten, dass der Zusammenhang zwischen Sozialstatus und Fertilität in Abhängigkeit von Makro-Level Faktoren wie Geschlechternormen und die Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie positiv oder negativ sein könnte