The symphonic and concertante works of Aram Il’ich Khachaturian: a contextual and analytical study

Despite his prominent position in the history of Soviet music, Aram Il’ich Khachaturian remains a neglected figure in Western scholarship. There are a number of reasons for this state of affairs (one such being the prevailing view, originating from ideologically dubious Soviet publications, that the composer aimed to write in a style designed to appease the authorities), and these have resulted in a general lack of academic interest in Khachaturian’s music. Nevertheless, an examination of many of the works reveals that the composer’s musical language is distinctive and meticulously organised, and consequently merits extensive reappraisal. This thesis offers the first detailed analytical assessment of Khachaturian’s symphonic and concertante works (three symphonies, three concertos, and three concerto-rhapsodies), which stand among the composer’s most important contributions to the Soviet musical canon. These substantial investigations consider issues of formal, harmonic, and motivic construction, and follow the chronological progression of such musical parameters as a means of drawing conclusions of Khachaturian’s changing perception of symphonic and concertante composition. In order to provide a framework for these extensive analyses, Khachaturian’s contemporary standing is assessed in the first chapter, and the composer’s works are contextualised within the history of their genres in the second

Арам Хачатуријан и социјалистички реализам: ново разматрање

Aram Khachaturian remains a neglected figure in scholarship on Soviet music, his work often held as exemplifying Socialist Realism at its most conformist. In this article I suggest that folk music strongly influenced his style well before the imposition of Socialist Realism, and that his musical language and aesthetics have much more in common with those of contemporary composers in the West than has previously been assumed. A central focus of the paper will be to examine the role played by Soviet musicologists in placing questionable critical constructs on Khachaturian’s career and creative achievement.Премда се, на први поглед, највећи део опуса Арама Хачатурјана приклања нормама соцреалистичке естетике, посебно када су у питању његове стилизоване евокације грузијске и јерменске фолклорне музике, као и коришћење тропâ оријентализма и егзотизма, западноевропски аутори који су писали о овом композитору обично су превиђали чињеницу да су ови стилски елементи били присутни у његовом опусу много пре успостављања социјалистичког реализма као званичне естетике. Нема неких упадљивих разлика у композиторовом музичком језику пре и после 1934. године, што опонира тврдњама изнетим у стандардној литератури коришћеној на Западу да се Хачатурјан добровољно приклонио стаљинистичком „колонијалистичком” пројекту стварања националних музичких култура на Кавказу и у централноазијским републикама Совјетског Савеза. Претпоставка да је Хачатурјан био у обавези да пише бледа неоромантичарска дела по узору на традицију петорке представља драстично погрешно тумачење његове композиторске естетике. Хачатурјанов музички језик је далеко сложенији него што је сугерисано оваквим квалификацијама. Мада је руска музичка традиција играла значајну улогу у формирању његовог стила, чак и рана дела попут Трија (1932) и Плесне свите (1933) рефлектују широк дијапазон западноевропских модернистичких утицаја (а нарочито Равеловог опуса); њих одликује смео третман хармоније и звучних боја. Ова тенденција је настављена у Хачатурјановим наредним делима; чак је и у остварењу попут Треће симфоније, премијерно изведене 1947. године тј. на врхунцу Ждановљеве кампање, приметно одступање од конвенција социјалистичког реализма у неколико веома важних аспеката. У овом чланку заступам тезу да Хачатурјаново стваралаштво заслужује једно објективније разматрање, мање оптерећено предубеђењима него што је досад био случај. У закључку анализирам на који начин су вредносни судови о његовом опусу рефлектовали актуелну естетику и стилске предрасуде из доба Хладног рата

Discussant\u27s response to some thought on materiality

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/dl_proceedings/1137/thumbnail.jp

Riparian Management for Water Quality: The Bear Creek Example

To demonstrate the benefits of properly functioning riparian zones in the heavily row-cropped midwestern U.S., the Agroecology Issue Team of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the Iowa State Agroforestry Research Team (!StART) are conducting research on the design and establishment of integrated riparian management systems. The purpose of these systems is to restore the essential ecological functions that these riparian areas once provided. Specific objectives of such buffers are to intercept eroding soil and agricultural chemicals from adjacent crop fields, slow flood waters, stabilize streambanks, provide wildlife habitat, improve the biological integrity of aquatic ecosystems, and provide diversified marketable products (biomass, wood products, etc.

Raman fingerprints on the Bloch sphere of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

We explore the geometric interpretation of a diabatic, two-photon Raman process as a rotation on the Bloch sphere for a pseudo-spin-1/2 system. The spin state of a spin-1/2 quantum system can be described by a point on the surface of the Bloch sphere, and its evolution during a Raman pulse is a trajectory on the sphere determined by properties of the optical beams: the pulse area, the relative intensities and phases, and the relative frequencies. We experimentally demonstrate key features of this model with a $^{87}$Rb spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, which allows us to examine spatially dependent signatures of the Raman beams. The two-photon detuning allows us to precisely control the spin density and imprinted relative phase profiles, as we show with a coreless vortex. With this comprehensive understanding and intuitive geometric interpretation, we use the Raman process to create and tailor as well as study and characterize exotic topological spin textures in spinor BECs.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, submitted to the Journal of Modern Optics "20 Years of Bose-Einstein condensates" Special Issu

Riparian Buffer Systems in Crop and Rangelands

Riparian ecosystems occupy a narrow belt of land along streams and around lakes and wetlands and are characterized by plant and animal communities that are dependent on close proximity to water. These ecotones function as buffer zones for materials moving from the uplands toward the surface water. They control stream morphology and ecology and also maintain landscape biodiversity by providing diverse habitats and corridors for animals and plants. Most of the riparian zones in the Midwestern agroecosystems and arid and semiarid western rangelands have been extensively impacted by agricultural cropping and grazing activities. These impacts have generally decreased water quality, impaired riparian and instream biodiversity, increased water quantity, and modified the timing of streamflow. Riparian zones are generally resilient because of their moist, moderate and fertile environments. With proper management, this resiliency can be sustained. Proper management should include construction or restoration of multi-species buffer strips and deferred or rotational grazing or exclusion of livestock. Several riparian zone restoration and management strategies are discussed