Performance potential of Stationers’ Hall collections

No abstract available

Mapping Changes to the Songs in The Gentle Shepherd, 1725-1788

Examines the varying ways in which the songs in Allan Ramsay\u27s ballad-opera The Gentle Shepherd were published between the 170s and the 1780s, noting variation in how particular songs were titled, in which songs were included and how they were placed within the dramatic text, in which tunes were used for which song-texts, and in how words were related to music in editions providing both. The discussion is supported by extensive tables and lists of 18th century Ramsay editions, and illustrated with transcriptions of the music in two editions. Concludes that the addition of the music in later editions served over time to stabilize the placement of the songs within the dramatic text.

Mapping changes to the songs in The Gentle Shepherd, 1725-1788

Examines the varying ways in which the songs in Allan Ramsay's ballad-opera The Gentle Shepherd were published between the 170s and the 1780s, noting variation in how particular songs were titled, in which songs were included and how they were placed within the dramatic text, in which tunes were used for which song-texts, and in how words were related to music in editions providing both. The discussion is supported by extensive tables and lists of 18th century Ramsay editions, and illustrated with transcriptions of the music in two editions. Concludes that the addition of the music in later editions served over time to stabilize the placement of the songs within the dramatic text

Practitioner report: The burning circle: (pre)history, performance and public engagement

In recent years, there has been a change of culture in the academic environment: researchers are now strongly encouraged to collaborate across disciplines and develop strategies to engage non-specialist publics with the processes and results of their work. Often, artistic researchers are brought in to provide the ‘window dressing’ that allows other research disciplines to more effectively communicate their ‘hard data’. However, in Burning the Circle, a project that emerged from a collaboration between researchers in Archaeology, History, Music and Theatre Studies, and industry partners Northlight Heritage and National Trust for Scotland, emphasis was given to how artistic activities, in this case performance, produce formally specific insights through their particular mediality and the modes of sensorial engagement they produce. In this article, we approach the event from our perspective as artist-scholars in performance-based disciplines to begin to consider how performance might play a more central and productive role in interdisciplinary public engagement events.Publisher PD

Accessibility, interdisciplinarity and practice:The benefits and challenges of hosting an online, interdisciplinary conference on singing

In May 2020, the Spheres of Singing conference, which was initially intended as an in-person event, was instead hosted online. A key ambition was to make the conference accessible for both practitioners and researchers from various disciplines. The conference exceeded in its aim in several ways. It was free and featured contributions from around the world, including 45 presentations, four workshops, six open discussions and three lecture-recitals. The interdisciplinary array of sessions included: health and wellbeing, practice research, musicology, teaching, conducting, pedagogy, and virtual choirs. In terms of attendee interest, all 450 live attendance tickets sold out in 24 hours, with additional tickets made available to allow asynchronous attendance. Such enthusiasm demonstrates an interdisciplinary event on singing was both timely and necessary. The organisers developed a survey to gather feedback, measure impact, and help determine future directions. A significant finding is that practitioners were motivated to attend, specifically because it was an online event. However, there were challenges caused by moving the conference online, particularly when it came to relying on technology and integrating live singing activities. By analysing the feedback gathered from delegates, the article will consider three areas: creating an inviting event for practitioners and researchers, technological challenges when hosting an online conference on singing, and integrating live, synchronous singing activities into an online conference

The silencing of Bel Canto

The castrato voice is lost to modern ears, but was a significant and influential phenomenon in music history, which continues to fascinate researchers. It has been noted by Katherine Bergeron that „the figure of the castrato offers a kind of chilling embodiment of that truth, a poignant testimony to things that can never be recovered‟, (Bergeron, 1996, p. 167) and yet as Michel Poizat points out „there is every reason to expect that attempts to yield something that may once more conjure up its echo will continue‟ (1992, p. 95). Without the physical embodiment of this voice type, there are many limitations in constructing what the castrato voice may have sounded like, and yet the lasting legacy of the phenomenon is of significant importance to opera due to the dominance of the castrato during the development of the genre and, by extension, the development of vocal education. John Potter has theorised that throughout the 18th century castrati were responsible for the development and cultivation of the art of singing. He further suggests that the loss of the castrato voice and their „irrecoverable skills‟ created the „myth of bel canto‟ (2007, pp. 99). Bel canto is a style of singing that has a number of contradictory definitions and time periods that it encompasses. Rodolfo Celletti in his brief overview of the history of bel canto entitled A History of Bel Canto, describes a resurrection of the bel canto tradition in the 20th century with singers such as Maria Callas (1996). However, to Potter, bel canto and the castrato vocal technique are one and the same and with the loss of the castrato, the skills and techniques that once built this vocal style became blurred in the oral tradition, leaving nothing but the myth of their art of singing, which can be defined as bel canto. In this article, I will take a closer look at the link between the castrati and the bel canto tradition reconstructing the key vocal technique of flexibility, which is often referred to in vocal education books published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

"My love to war is going”: Women and song in the Napoleonic era

No abstract available

WWA Reflection: Building Writing Momentum: A Year of Digital Conferences

This reflection, which considers the positive impact of attending online conferences on building writing momentum is in response to the ABO Call for Short Reflections (500-750 words) on Writing and Research during the Pandemic

Venanzio Rauzzini and the Birth of a New Style in English Singing

Since the eighteenth century, the one-to-one singing lesson has been the most common method of delivery. The scenario allows the teacher to familiarize and individualize the lesson to suit the needs of their student; however, it can also lead to speculation about what is taught. More troubling is the heightened risk of gossip and rumor with the private space generating speculation about the student-teacher relationship. Venanzio Rauzzini (1746–1810), an Italian castrato living in England who became a highly sought-after singing master, was particularly susceptible since his students tended to be women, whose moral character was under more scrutiny than their male counterparts. Even so in 1792, The Bath Chronicle proclaimed the Italian castrato: "the father of a new style in English singing." Branding Rauzzini as a founder of an English style was not an error, but indicative of deep-seeded anxieties about the Italian invasion on England’s musical culture. This book places teaching at the center of the socio-historical narrative and provides unique insight into musical culture. Using a microhistory approach, this study is the first to focus in on the impact of teaching and casts new light on issues of celebrity culture, gender and nationalism in Georgian England

Music from home: Symonds sheet music collection and the Scots in Australia

No abstract available