Was the musicologist Vladimír Helfert an adversary of Josef Suk’s works or not? The answer is given by following the development of Helfert’s opinion during the period 1912–1936. As a young musicologist, member of the editorial board of the journal Smetana, and a close co-worker of Zdeněk Nejedlý, Helfert was strongly influenced by him. At that time, he disliked the compositions of Antonín Dvořák (whose work he considered to be an outcome of an already outdated, uncultured and thoughtless musicianship) and also Leoš Janáček, and he was a determined adversary of the works of Josef Suk, which, at that time, he evidently did not understand (see the totally negative judgement of his symphony Asrael, the piano cycle Životem a snem [Things lived and dreamt], and others). Only after World War I and settling in Brno (1919), did Helfert gradually separate himself from Nejedlý’s influence and broke away from his opinions. Consequently he forsook his former aversion to the music of Dvořák and Suk, about whom he, in his book Česká moderní hudba [Czech Modern Music] (1936), had already written very positively. At that period, indeed, also other co-workers of the journal Smetana (Josef Bartoš, Otakar Zich) abandoned their former negative opinion of Suk’s music; only Z. Nejedlý further escalated his contest against Suk (and the Bohemian Quartet) after the foundation of the independent Czechoslovakia (1918). In contradiction to Nejedlý, and due to Helfert, Masaryk University in Brno awarded Suk the title Doctor Honoris Causa on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.
The study focuses on the repertory of the literary brotherhood in Roudnice nad Labem. It aims to evaluate a recently discovered inventory of 1591, and attempts to dating two musical manuscripts, currently kept in Roudnice priory (CS ROU A and CS ROU B). The first, a fragment of a multivolume gradual was identified as one of the items listed in the above-mentioned inventory. The second, rorate hymn-book with added polyphonic voices - whose pertinence to the repertory of the local literate brotherhood was, however, not possible to prove - contains extended quadriple voice mass with seven parts, which is analysed in detail by the study.
The article deals with several aspects of the dissemination and influence of Luca Marenzio's works in the Czech lands during the 16th and early 17th centuries. It investigates the present state of knowledge and uncovers hitherto unknown facts on the dissemination of Luca Marenzio's works in Central Europe. It presents a complete inventory of relevant sources.
Based on depictions and chronicle reports, the work focuses on participation of the horn-blowers and timpanists in the processions organised upon the occassion of bishops' entries to Olomouc between 1664-1748. Six of bishop's horn-blowers rode horses or went on foot near the bishop dressed up in beautiful costumes. Units of attending townsfolk, and municipal guards were acompanied only by drummers, or, eventually, by a piper playing the transverse flute. Town's musicians played wind instruments from the tower gallery. The ceremony went on with ringing bells, mortar cannonade, and volley fire from the cannons and muskets. Such processions were typical for the bishops of the Baroque period. After mid-eighteenth century they lost their pompous fashion or were not taking place through danger by war.
This talk introduces the world-famous composer, musicologist, folk music expert and educator Zoltán Kodály as an admirer of his mother tongue (and to some extent its researcher, too), on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of his birth and the 40th anniversary of his death. The speaker lists the factors that turned Kodály's attention towards studying the Hungarian language, with special emphasis on the role of the Eötvös College and Professor Zoltán Gombocz in that respect. Kodály's relevant public speeches and writings are then discussed, as well as which outstanding pieces of Hungarian poetry and prose he set to music and in what other ways he contributed to the musical (and in general, national) awareness of Hungarians. He was especially interested, obviously, in spoken language, in live speech. He spoke up against what he thought was the 'deterioration' of this language in 1937 (and in 1938 in a radio commentary). In fact, however, he devoted all his life to exploring Hungarian folk music and making his mother tongue a better, more flexible vehicle of communicating one's thoughts and feelings.
This article is rewritten from the authoress MA thesis, 'The Paris Reception of Bohuslav Martinu between 1923 and 1940', compiled in 2005 from material collected during her sabbatical at the Universite de Paris-Sorbonne. The article presents a continuous picture of the forms and changes of the reception of Bohuslav Martinu's personality and work in the contemporary Paris press during the course of the seventeen years of his life there. A survey of the reviews of his work, year by year, from twenty-two selected periodicals, is supplemented by a description of the periodicals and reviewers that are essential for the correct evaluation of the reviews.
The medieval poet and composer Zavis is known as author of religious and secular poetry, written in Latin and in Czech. Scholar works - both of musicologists and literary historians - mostly focused on his love song 'Jizt mne vse radost ostava', looking for its correct musical reconstruction and the proper place within the late-fourteenth-century vernacular literary tradition. The article deals with Zavis' less studied works, which represent typical additions to the repertory of the Latin liturgical poetry. It revises the hitherto authoritative Muzik's interpretation of the Zavis' 'lai O Maria, mater Christi' and its transmission, brings analysis of his tropes 'Kyrie Inmense conditor' and 'Gloria Patri et filio', and compares Zavis's output to the typical or exceptional works of the late-fourteenth / early fifteenth-century. The chants which can be today attributed to Zavis, show a strong influence by the late-medieval German repertory, knowledge of the chants once performed (only) in the St Vitus' Cathedral, and reveal a surprising link to the contemporary poetical repertory in Northern Italy. Following this, new arguments arise supporting older hypothesis about the identification of the autor ‘Zavis' as the influencial church official Zavis of Zapy.
Presented article focuses on identifying statistically significant differences in personal characteristics, in relation to favourite music genre and dominant use of music. Introductory part reviews hitherto published relevant research papers. Subsequent sections concisely describe particular components of the Five Factor model of personality. The sample consists of 128 adolescents, the students of comprehensive school. The personality dimension were assessed by Slovak mutation of NEO-FFI questionnaire, utilization of music was determined by Uses of Music Inventory and music preferences were divided to four consistent factors, delimited by foreign research. The data analysis confirms assumption of statistically significant differences in personal dimensions and in mode of music among listeners of various music genres.
This essay discusses several topics concerning the relations between language (linguistics) and music (musicology). The first section deals with the problems of the semiotic interpretation of music (instrumental and absolute) and finds that the difficulties in arriving at clear-cut solutions to them follow from the problematic and unclear status of the signatum of musical works. In the following section, the question of 'musical content' is discussed on the basis of two classically opposing standpoints: aesthetic autonomy and aesthetic heteronomy. A further issue examined is the existential mode of musical works (with emphasis on their interpretive essence) and the position of 'text' in musical discourse. A small set of established Italian and Czech terms indicating the manner of execution are examined and their semantic vagueness and heterogeneity stated. The final section briefly comments on the various manners and genres of talking and writing about music. In particular, several texts from sleeve notes are critically examined and the usefulness as well as the problematic musicological status and mixed linguo-stylistic qualities of various concert guides, program booklets, etc. are examined.
Relativism of special music-educational advance point out, that natural personable maturing and creative growth of another generations are pauperized. Non/differentiation access to the music teaching for the intending teachers of primary educational system is the result and source of their non/ample preparedness. The psychological aspects and possible effects of the evanescent targets from primary music pedagogy correspond with all societal relativism of value.
The article analyses Miloslav Kabelac's op. 50 (1965), the first of the series of his most mature works. In some way, words play an essential role in all these works by introducing great humanistic and philosophical subjects. Words represent substance sui generis, and enter the composition as an autonomous form (contact with such substance matures the long thought compositional concepts, together with Kabelac's tectonically combinatory thinking). The analysis of op. 50 focuses in detail on the key relationship between music and words. It seems that the space, in which both components meet is in the form of a litany. In its juxtaposition with bi-polar format conception (based on two contrasting sound platforms - drama and reconciliation), and with regards to the title of the composition 'Eufemias Mysterion' (The Mystery of Silence), it could be seen as a specific type of expression, a ritual and an initiation of space.
The study is the first attempt to map putting on stage of Mozart's operas and singspiels in Bohemia from the late 1780s till 1900 outside Prague. It focuses on theatre troupes that included Mozart's pieces in their repertory, on their directors and singers, as well as the places, where they performed. The information is drawn from such sources as archival official documents, collections of theatre posters in archive and museum collections, notes in contemporary press, contemporary theatre almanach, etc. As much as 106 performances of Mozart's scenical pieces were found, of which the most frequent were 'Don Giovanni' (35×), 'Die Zauberflöte' (32×) and 'Le nozze di Figaro' (25×). With regard to the fact that the article was written within a larger research looking closely at theatre activity in the Bohemian regions in the nineteenth century, the author is convinced that the list of locations, where professional execution of Mozart's opera could have taken place, is complete. Less guaranteed (especially in the period until the mid-nineteenth century) is the completeness of the titles performed, and their rendering - there could have been more of these.
Since the late 20th century, psychology of music has been pursued as a cognitive, empirical, data-driven discipline, building upon knowledge from musicology and psychology, as well as from the cognitive sciences and neurosciences. Currently, it covers various areas of research, including but not limited to music sensation, perception, cognition, and empirical investigations of the links between music and emotion; developmental music psychology, the issues of musical talent, the acquisition of musical skills, and the phenomenon of absolute pitch; music performance, composition and improvisation; neural correlates of listening to music and music-making; social aspects of music including its role in everyday life, in social, ethnic and broader cultural groups, as well as in educational and therapeutic settings. Empirical research in this specialised and interdisciplinary field has been underrepresented within the domestic academic community. The task of building up a systematic research base will require a collective effort of experts from related disciplines.
We are living in an era of omnipresent music, which is caused by the fact that the media enable us to use music any time and anywhere. Whether we like it or not, we encounter music everywhere, which leads to fatigue caused by sound excess resulting from the fact that music is treated functionally, mainly by the so-called muzaks, playing pieces selected in order to achieve some specific benefits. Consequently, music often seems to be noise, as, according to psychologists, all acoustic stimuli that disturb people who have to bear them are, in fact, noise. Today, music functions in our homes as a background to everyday life that does not require listening, as a result of which people become used to turning a deaf ear to it and, consequently, become indifferent to it and lose any musical sensitivity. The omnipresence of music is also enhanced by earphones that transmit it wherever we want, which has its good and bad sides. The advantage is that the listener does not impose his or her music on others; the disadvantage — according to otolaryngologists, the listener is at risk of gradually becoming deaf. The abuse of music is denounced mainly by musicians, who want to have some sensible, binding regulations in this respect. Unfortunately, they have had little success until now, so music keeps making a noise.
Migrant musicians contribute to the intercultural wealth of the societies they live in. They manifest their hybrid identities and convey transnational experiences through different forms of musical expression. On the one hand, they (re)discover their musical culture of origin and reinterpret it from a new, cosmopolitan perspective. On the other, their making music and experiencing music enable them to construct an “inner homeland” to identify with, while living abroad in constant balance (or contradiction) between cultures. Based on existing works originating from different national settings this essay aims to synthetically describe the relationship between migrants’ musical expression and different manifestations of cultural belonging. Its main focus lies in how hybrid transnational identities may be expressed through music. It also addresses the redefinition and reinterpretation of migrants’ musical traditions in the cosmopolitanized city of Lisbon, with a special regard to the Cape Verdean diaspora as a community shaped by music.
An interpretation of Macha's tale 'Marinka', focusing on some of its musical elements (for example, the inclusion of verse in composition, the harp motif). It points to factors made complicated by the development of Romantic idealization.
The aim of this paper is to present the archetypal interpretation of Orpheus as a representative of the classical musical myth. The text tracks the relationship between myth and music as well as explores possible melancholic features of the mythological character. The methodological basis is primarily the theory of archetype by Carl Gustav Jung. The mythological image of Orpheus in ancient literature is confronted with the former understanding of melancholy, taking account of the broader archetypal symbolization. Orpheus is incorporated into the mythological framework of Apollo and Orphism. The basic motifs of the myth include musical expression of the character (playing the lyre, singing), his journey to the underworld to retrieve Eurydice and his tragic death. There is an archetypal manifestation of the hero, the Self, the anima, the animus, the wise old man. The central motif is that of Orpheus turning around to look at Eurydice on the way from the underworld, it is an expression of unintegrated mental contents of individuation and the death of anima. The consequence of the described phenomenon is the death of the character by ripping his body to pieces by the women. The melancholy elements of myth show by moving towards the death based on the deficit of anima, on the next level the melancholy is initiated by the underworld experience and connection with music. The ancient view of Orpheus´s melancholy is connected to exceptional artistic abilities. By combining the archetypal approach to the myth and the interpretation analysis of melancholy, the amplified image of Orpheus has been created, which can be applied to interpretations of works of art.
This paper seeks to investigate Salzburg’s musical profile in its 20th century reception as an example of dealing with topographic facts in music history writing. In the face of awakening nationalism and the beginnings of a Mozart cult in the late 19th century, and its continuation after 1900, musicologist Constantin Schneider tried to deideolize the feature of geniality by presenting two exhibitions on Salzburg’s music history in the 1920s, and to create an overall view on the bases of sources. Soon afterwards, in 1935, when Schneider published his Geschichte der Musik in Salzburg von der ältesten Zeit bis zur Gegenwart, he relied on his former projects. With this study, Schneider established a topographically supported philological approach in musicology that neither his academic teacher, Guido Adler, nor other authors had realized and that would not have come into being without the idea of ‘regionality’ as a key concept in the historiography of music.
The present article that was originally conceived as an inaugural lecture on the occasion of opening the exhibition 'Klingende Denkmaeler: Musikwissenschaftliche Gesamtausgaben in Deutschland' in November 2006 at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Duesseldorf deals with the phenomenon and notion of 'heritage' (or 'art heritage') and its cultural-political contexts. It also stresses the fact that culture and politics have always been closely bound together. Only if one is aware of these close relations, does it seems possible to guarantee a contemporary cultural-political status for musical heritage as cultural heritage of the past as well as their appropriate reception and appreciation.
The article deals with Zdenek Fibich's (1850-1900) Variations in B major for piano which Vladimir Hudec, the author of the 'Tematicky katalog Zdenka Fibicha' (Thematic Catalogue of Zdenek Fibich's Works), believed to have been lost. Its complete autograph, however, was recently discovered by the author of this article in the music collection of the Prague Hlahol Choral Society. The discovery of this composition, therefore, has substantially changed the existing knowledge of this work - as shown in the following paper, describing its context, such as the Fibich sources linked to it (including the Moser catalogue and the estate of Stanislav Kamenicky). The article also points out the discrepancies found in the secondary literature.
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