AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND LANGUAGE

This paper is the result of a research aimed at finding new ways of approaching a musical text, to release the music embedded in a musical score and reveal its deeper meanings. The close connection between music and language makes it difficult to define borders. According to scholarly hypotheses, the earliest communication form was a sound system, a musical protolanguage, as Darwin and Bernstein defined it. The study conducted herein aims to identify and analyse possible structural convergences between music and language. Therefore this relationship was investigated based on recent research in bio linguistics, language acquisition, and sonorous linguistic systems

THE UNIFYING POWER OF MUSIC IN MARSILIO FICINO’S VISIO

This paper emphasizes the most significant moments of Marsilio Ficino’s life and work. Due to his many talents and his expertise in various areas (Philosophy, religion, sciences) his creation greatly influenced the works of important Renaissance figures. The most important ideas and concepts in Ficino’s writings and their relationship with the values and achievements of his time are described herein. Ficino’s translations of important Platonical writings as well other classical Greek authors contributed to a change in the concepts of the Catholic church officials. Ficino’s interpretations and comments about the classical ancient works opened a new perspective on how of human reason relates to religious belief. He outlined a new interpretation of the concept of „human being” as seen by the religious and secular authorities

THE “WILD BEAUTY” OF BRAHMS’S RHAPSODIES, OP. 79. STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCES

The present paper focuses on the Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79 which, along with Op. 119 No. 4, form the triad of Brahms’s rhapsodies for piano. Devised according to the ancient notion of the rhapsody, with the development of the epic tension, these works evoke the “Charites and the Heroes”, following the technical and compositional patterns laid out in the piano miniatures in Op. 76, at the same time, recalling the ideas that lay at the basis of the Ballads Op. 10. In the first part of the paper, aspects regarding the analysis of the structure are revealed, the aim of the research being the disclosure of the constituting structure, which will inspire the performing artist to convey and reveal the composer’s intentions. A system of structural ramification has been made, starting from the overall image to the smallest details, represented in tables that contain the following aspects: structure, main structural elements, thematic material, tonal scheme. Within the analysis, the harmonic and rhythmic dimensions will be indicated as well. The second objective of the research concerns three important renditions of pianists Radu Lupu, Martha Argerich, and Murray Perahia – three distinct conceptions regarding the performance, the style, and technique as well. Elements pertaining to the following dimensions will be observed: agogic accents and dynamics, phrasing, tempo, faithfulness towards the score, the identification of attack techniques, touch of the keys, and use of pedals, along with the resulting sonority and the semantic connotations of the sound. Rezumat. „FRUMUSEȚEA SĂLBATICĂ” A RAPSODIILOR BRAHMSIENE, OP. 79 – ANALIZA STRUCTURALĂ ȘI REPERE INTERPRETATIVE COMPARATE. Prezentul articol face referire la Rapsodiile op. 79 care, împreună cu op. 119 nr. 4, fac parte din triada rapsodiilor brahmsiene pentru pian. Concepute în accepțiunea antică a noțiunii de rapsodie, cu dezvoltări ale tensiunii epice, acestea evocă „grațiile și eroii”, urmărind tiparele tehnico-componistice ale Miniaturilor op. 76 și amintind totodată de concepția Baladelor op. 10. În prima parte a articolului sunt prezentate elementele de analiză structurală, scopul acestui demers fiind evidențierea suportului constitutiv pe baza căruia artistul cuprinde și relevă viziunea compozitorului. S-a realizat sistemul de ramificare structurală, de la imaginea de ansamblu, până la cele mai mici detalii, recurgându-se la metoda reprezentării grafice a tabelului, care conține următoarele aspecte: forma, principale unități de structură, material tematic, schema tonală. Se vor puncta în cadrul analizei și valori ale suportului armonic, cât și a fundamentului ritmic. Cel de-al doilea obiectiv al articolului vizează trei interpretări de referință ale pianiștilor Radu Lupu, Martha Argerich, Murray Perahia, trei concepții interpretative distincte ca stil și tehnică. Se vor monitoriza elementele de agogică și dinamică, frazare, tempo, fidelitate față de text, identificarea tehnicilor de atac, tușeu și pedalizare, cât și sonoritățile rezultate, cu conotațiile semantice ale acestora. Cuvinte cheie: Brahms, pian, Rapsodiile op. 79, analiză structurală, interpretări comparat

UNDERSTANDING INDIAN TRADITIONS IN MUSIC THERAPY

The hypothesis according to which music can be used to cure, comfort or stimulate has a special echo for any expert or student who is interested in Asian music. Some of the oldest Indian sources regarding the theory of music have provided information about the tight relations between music and medicine or physiology, especially aspects related to the genesis of the musical sound. The aesthetics of the Indian music strongly focuses on psychology and the structural aspects of music. The way an Indian musician inspires a listener can provide ways to comfort pains or any other therapy related actions. There are experts in music therapy both in India and outside the Indian subcontinent. There are doubts whether they apply either the theory or their therapeutic methods as related to the classical Indian tradition. It really seems surprising that both the literature about the traditional Indian musicology and the indigenous Indian medicine of Ayurveda have little to say with reference to this issue. Nevertheless, the Indian medicine refers to music therapy. Although there is no clear evidence as regarding this issue, it is pretty obvious that the Indian medical treatments involve magical-religious related phrases and incantations - mantras - related both to the preparation of medicines and to the cure of some diseases

SIGNIFICANT PERSONALITIES AS TURNING POINTS IN THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF JOHANNES BRAHMS

This paper aims to reveal the turning points in the life and work of German composer Johannes Brahms. These main events were influenced by certain figures of the epoch, whose encounters marked the artistic activity of Brahms. In explaining the reasons that lay behind the composition of a work, emotion is one of the most specific criteria. Personal experience becomes the indispensable condition of artistic creation and lays at the core of the creative impulse. The paper is structured according to the following four aspects: the first friends (together with Albert Dietrich and their mentor, Robert Schumann, Brahms contributed to the composition of the FAE Sonata for piano and violin, Julius Otto Grimm is the witness of Brahms’ love for Agathe von Siebold, while Julius Stockhausen emerges as the master of the Brahms lieder), the conductors who became the composer’s close friends and promoted his symphonies (Hermann Levi, Hans Richter, Hans von Bülow, the latter a genuine emissary of Brahms’s works, the author of the Three B syntagm – Bach, Beethoven, Brahms), the Viennese friends (the critic Eduard Hanslick, who characterized the works in Opp. 117-119 as genuine monologues and Joseph Hellmesberger, founder of the quartet name after him, with whom Brahms performed gems of the chamber music repertoire), and the confidants of Brahms, permanent figures in the life of the composer (the surgeon Theodor Billroth and Joseph Viktor Widmann, the author of the memoirs that revealed significant aspects of the composer’s life and works). REZUMAT. RECONSTITUIREA IDENTITĂȚII BRAHMSIENE – PERSONALITĂȚI MARCANTE ÎN VIAȚA ȘI OPERA LUI BRAHMS. Prezentul articol face referire la principalele evenimente din viața și creația lui Johannes Brahms prin prezentarea personalităților care i-au marcat activitatea artistică. Criteriul definitoriu în alegerea motivelor unei opere este acela al emoției personale, experiența proprie devine condiție indispensabilă a creației artistice și stă la baza impulsului creator. Articolul vizează patru aspecte: Primii prieteni: împreună cu Albert Dietrich și cu al lor mentor, Robert Schumann, creează Sonata FAE pentru pian și vioară, Julius Otto Grimm, martorul iubirii pentru Agathe von Siebold și maestrul liedurilor brahmsiene, Julius Stockhausen. Se vor afirma prietenii dirijori, promotori ai erei simfonice brahmsiene: Hermann Levi, Hans Richter, Hans von Bülow – un adevărat emisar al creației brahmsiene, autorul sintagmei celor 3 B-uri (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms). Al treilea aspect prezintă prietenii vienezi, criticul Eduard Hanslick, cel care caracterizează opusurile 117-119 drept veritabile monologuri, Joseph Hellmesberger conducătorul renumitului cvartet cu același nume, cu care a interpretat bijuterii muzicale camerale. În final se conturează personalitățile celor doi confesatori, prezențe permanente în viața lui Brahms: chirurgul Theodor Billroth și Joseph Viktor Widmann, cel din urmă fiind autorul memoriilor care au scos la lumină multe aspecte revelatoare ale vieții și creației compozitorului. Cuvinte cheie: viața și creația brahmsiană, personalități marcante, prieten

VOCAL IMPROVISATION – A COGNITIVE AND A PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESS

The purpose of this article is to compare the neurophysiological processes of the brain during vocal improvisation and the psychological implications of a spontaneous composition of melody. By taking command of the present, while at the same time bringing forward to the audience an extensive amount of musical knowledge and specific vocal techniques, vocal improvisation is an extensive field of interest for jazz singers and jazz voice educators alike, and its distinct processes are yet to be fully understood and explained. In my years of studying and practicing vocal improvisation, I have sought to understand the balance between these two components – the cognitive and the psychological coordinates of the vocal improvisation and the implications of these coordinates on our everyday life, outside the performing arts frame. The reasons why a singer makes certain musical choices when creating spontaneously, while avoiding others, together with the reasons why improvisation is important in our everyday lives, these reasons make the object of this study

VOCAL DEPERSONALIZATION IN SCAT SINGING

The purpose of this paper is to question the amount of personal investment in exploring the voice as an impersonal sound, in scat singing. Jazz singers and jazz voice teachers follow vocal practices that aim to control and distort the vocal timbre, to master microtonal intervals, to push and eventually overcome the voice’s limits. In scat singing, the boundaries of gender are subdued to the impulse of improvisation, thus, even though the timbre is a biological and a physical memory, influenced by the singer’s culture and experiences, the gender encoding can be reshaped inside the licks and patterns of the improvisation section. The current paper aims to prove that scat singing is the neutral ground where aspects of the voice can blend and disappear into one another: voice gender, vocal timber, technique, individual materiality, experimentation. REZUMAT. DEPERSONALIZAREA VOCALĂ ÎN IMPROVIZAŢIA VOCALĂ DE TIP SCAT. Scopul acestei lucrări este să verifice în ce măsură investim în explorarea vocii ca sunet impersonal, atunci când improvizăm în scat. Vocaliştii de jazz şi pedagogii de jazz vocal urmează tehnici vocale care urmăresc controlul asupra timbrului vocal, precum şi transformarea acestuia, cu scopul de a excela în controlul intervalelor microtonale, de a împinge şi a doborî limitele vocii. În improvizaţia de tip scat, limitele impuse de diferenţele de gen sunt subjugate impulsului improvizatoric, de aceea, deşi timbrul aparţine memoriei fizice şi biologice, şi este influenţat de cultura şi experienţele vocalistului, codificarea genului poate fi remodelată în cadrul motivelor scurte şi lungi din interiorul secţiunii improvizatorice. Prezentul articol îşi propune să dovedească faptul că improvizaţia de tip scat este terenul neutru, pe care diferitele aspecte ale vocii (genul vocal, timbrul vocal, tehnica vocală, materialitatea individuală, nevoia de experimentare) se pot întrepătrunde şi disipa unele între altele. Cuvinte cheie: scat, improvizație, jazz, vocalis

THE ROLE OF THE HUNGARIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH COMMUNITY SONG IN THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS OF THE ARMENIAN LITURGICAL REPERTOIRE IN TRANSYLVANIA

This article presents and briefly discusses the transformation process of the Armenian liturgical repertoire in Transylvania, through the prism of contemporary descriptions and manuscript sources dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As known, most of the Armenian population settled in the Transylvanian area in the seventeenth century. In time, there followed a gradual and definitive assimilation into the native Hungarian (Szekler) population, during which Transylvanian Armenians lost their mother tongue. Schools with Armenian as the language of instruction gradually closed, and the Armenian liturgy also underwent major changes following the adherence of Armenians to the Roman Catholic Church. Currently the Armenian language and culture are on the verge of extinction, most Armenian churches open only on pilgrimage days, once a year. The Armenian population retains only the language of the liturgy and some traditions (more of a gastronomic nature), which in fact represents the danger of the disappearance of everything that this ethnic group has built beneficially in the service of the community over the centuries. Rezumat. ROLUL CÂNTECULUI COMUNITAR AL BISERICII ROMANO-CATOLICE UNGUREȘTI ÎN PROCESUL DE TRANSFORMARE A REPERTORIULUI LITURGIC ARMEAN DIN TRANSILVANIA. Acest articol prezintă și discută pe scurt procesul de transformare a repertoriului liturgic armean din Transilvania, prin prisma descrierilor contemporane și a surselor manuscrise din secolele al XVIII-lea și al XIX-lea. După cum se știe, cea mai mare parte a populației armenești s-a stabilit în zona Transilvaniei în secolul al XVII-lea. În timp, a urmat o asimilare treptată și definitivă cu populația autohtonă maghiară (secuiască), în timpul căreia armenii transilvăneni și-au pierdut limba maternă. Școlile cu limba de predare armeană s-au închis treptat, iar liturghia armeană a suferit, de asemenea, modificări majore în urma aderării armenilor la Biserica Romano-Catolică. În prezent, limba și cultura armeană sunt pe cale de dispariție, majoritatea bisericilor armenești fiind deschise doar în zilele de pelerinaj, o dată pe an. Populația armeană păstrează doar limba liturgică și unele tradiții (mai mult de natură gastronomică), ceea ce reprezintă de fapt pericolul dispariției a tot ceea ce acest grup etnic a construit în mod benefic în slujba comunității de-a lungul secolelor.  Cuvinte cheie: Armenească, Transilvania, muzică liturgică, cântece populare religioase, Frumoasa, Gheorghen

THE EVOLUTION AND MULTICULTURALITY OF THE OPERETTA GENRE

This article present how the musical genre of operetta has evolved from one time period to another, how it has been influenced by the tradition and the folklore of each country, and the kind of imprints it left on the culture that approached it. Starting from the fact that music is the universal language that includes ethnicities, nationalities, and geographical divisions, it is the one that brings together people from all backgrounds and it unites them in appreciation, participation, and education. The advantages derived from the approach of multicultural music education can be illustrated through all these elements - a much wider and interesting openness

EXPLORING CHINESE CULTURAL IDENTITY IN THE LIANG ZHU VIOLIN CONCERTO: AN INTERCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE ADAPTATION OF TRADITIONAL ELEMENTS IN WESTERN CLASSICAL MUSIC LANGUAGE

This article examines the phenomenon of interculturality through the lens of the Liang Zhu Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang. Interculturality is no longer merely a means of elevating the axiological value of a given context but has become a necessity for authenticating contemporary discourse. The role of interculturality in shaping the expression of creative intentions is amplified, as it attenuates divergences determined by the incongruity of individuals’ backgrounds by comprehensively observing the uniqueness of foreign elements from a familiarity-based perspective. The Liang Zhu Violin Concerto exemplifies the adaptation of East Asian culture to the context of the Western language and means of expression while preserving its Chinese cultural identity. This concerto has significant value and desirability for consumption due to the proportion of originality and familiarity which it upholds and determines its overall appeal. Ultimately, this article aims to explore how the Liang Zhu Violin Concerto achieves originality at a global level while preserving its Chinese cultural identity