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The subject of this article is the parallels and contrasts between two works, based on the same source of inspiration, Ondine. The authors of which are two contemporary composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, who have distinct compositional styles, and their own unique approaches to the piece. We will also look at the role the inspiration had in shaping their respective work as well.The Russian music also had a powerful influence on both composers’ life, music that was frequently performed on the Parisian scenes. The two composers were strongly influenced in their use of modality, unique harmonies, and ostinato technique by the music of Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin. Ravel, due to the fact that he included the text of the poem by Aloysius Bertrand in the publishing of the suite Gaspard de la Nuit, acknowledges Bertrand as a source of inspiration. Ravel’s piece was printed in 1908. On the other hand, the source of inspiration for Debussy’s Ondine is less proven. Ondine is the eight Prelude out of twelve, from the second book of the piano Preludes composed between 1910-1913. Ravel’s Ondine is a work of great virtuosity compared to Debussy’s composition, which doesn’t require such a versatile technique. Because of the narrative character, structurally speaking the form is obscure, but one can still distinguish two musical ideas. There are two main themes at its base and both are mo-dal themes introduced in the left hand moving at small intervals. As opposed to Ravel’s Ondine, Debussy’s work reveals a totally different perception. The length of the piece is much more reduced, and although the piece is structured in several sections based on motivic themes and gestures, it offers a unitary perspective. As in Ravel’s case, the form is not a definite one. If in Ravel’s Ondine the dominant element is a homophonic texture of an accompanied tune, in Debussy’s case we can distinguish a counterpoint layer technique of exposition and juxtaposition of the sono-rous material: the pedal-tone which appears several times during the piece together with the ostinato rhythm.
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The dramatic repertoire calls for special voices with an extraordinary adaptability, whether we talk about Verdi's or Puccini's compositions. Born or obtained by technique and study, these remarkable abilities are as follows: agility, enough volume to overcome the orchestra, dramatic high-power accents, pianissimo on long phrases, high-woven (tessitura), good representation of the low and medium register, and generally a darker color of the voice. Generally, the typologies of dramatic roles can be divided into dramatic coloratura roles and dramatic line roles. The dramatic coloratura roles, we encounter especially at Giuseppe Verdi, while in the verist repertoire the vast majority of the roles present, are dramatic line roles. I chose as the representative roles Abigail from Nabucco and Aida from Aida by Giuseppe Verdi.
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In the new social, cultural and performative context of the 21st century, the profile of the opera conductor takes on new meanings, in agreement with the new tendencies of contemporary opera creation and the new forms of performative expression promoted especially by the new generation of directors who made their names in opera theatres around the world. I believe that now more than ever the stance of a godlike conductor is expected and necessary, as he needs to remodel his means of expression alongside the new requirements of his partners (directors, choreographers, managers, etc.) in the performative production; at the same time, he must be persuasive and determined in his endeavour to correct the occasional excesses in the actual rewriting of the original libretto of landmark scores in the literature or in the deletion or redundant additions of scenes and characters that cancel the crucial data of the authentic musical-dramatic discourse, which bears the musician’s and the librettist’s signatures. My paper discusses all these issues. The opera conductor must militate for the protection of the performance’s “spine” and for the emphasis on the beauty and depth of the musical-dramatic metalanguage. Otherwise, we will be faced with countless situations promoting entropic alienating productions with no dramatic and musical consistency.
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The percussion instruments experienced the most impressive development in the 20th century. Different instruments have been invented, leading to the emergence of new concepts such as unconventional percussion, an attractive concept, particularly appreciated by the public. Simultaneously with the appearance of innovative instruments, the authors of the genre also proposed the use of the human body as a percussion instrument. Thus, as a subdivision of the unconventional, a new concept was propelled – body percussion. In this paper I will highlight and detail both the transition from conventional, to non-conventional instruments of percussion and the fusion of the two. I will also present the inception of a new type of artist, the percussionist-actor and the importance of syncretic art in a new type of stage representation. Globally, among the most prominent representatives of this concept are Stomp, Blue Man Group or Mayumana. In Romania the originator of this concept is the musician, entrepreneur and pedagogue Zoltán Tóth, the founder of the group Sistem.
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Although the basic conducting patterns have little changed in the two- century history of orchestral conducting, there does not exist any acknowledged system of conducting which could be universally taught to orchestral players. The institutionalised conducting education covers less than half of this two-hundred- year time span, and it has been traditionally sanctioned that a Maestro may be the autodidactic, using his own intuitive - more or less efficient - technique of conducting. The players, too, are supposed to respond intuitively to the set of gestures and signs, even though they discuss this collaboration in terms of ‘understanding’ conductor’s intention. Conductors’ education comprises little if any experience or knowledge of efficient verbal communicating with an orchestra. They are taught how to explore and make music, while rehearsing much involves dealing with people, both individually and as the assembly, in a particular given space and the limited time frames. Therefore, the two orchestral paradoxes are that orchestral players are not familiarised with the theory of conductor’s gestures while conductors’ training is little concerned with people factor in this profession. One impossible without another, orchestral player and conductor are educated in astonishing separation.
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The aim of the study is an approach to Thomas Mann’s literature in terms of its many-sided musical implications. Some similarities are identified between the Wagnerian pattern and the texture of Mann’s novels: ”the composition with its psychological grounded motifs”, ”the polyphonic structure”, ”the endless melody of Wagner” vs. ”Mann’s musical prose” and so on. The German writer’s acquaintance with the new sociology of music, especially with works by Georg Lukàcs, Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno, is also closely observed. Not only characters like Leverkühn (Doctor Faustus) or Aschenbach (Death in Venice) illustrate the influence of these theories, but also ”the figure of Adorno was used by the author as the projection of the devil himself ”.
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Jean-Jacques Nattiez’s study advances a modern musicological perspective on Brăiloiu’s ethnomusicological thought. The present critical approach of this theoretical corpus, more than five decades after Brăiloiu’s death, highlights, on the one hand, his predictive outlook („without him the essential perspectives of research in the ethnomusicology of the 21st century could not have been broached”). Thus, the author identifies the contribution of the Romanian ethnomusicologist „to establishing the study of peasants or non-Western music as a legitimate scientific subject-matter and to weakening of aesthetic racism”. Among the very creative points of the Brăiloiu’s theory are his advocacy for a “general musicology”, his demonstration with regard to “the possibilities and the necessities to bring to light the universals of music”, his technique of the synoptic table which represents an avant la lettre use of the “paradigmatic model” in musicology and so on. On the other hand, „a scientific paradigm as strong as that of Brăiloiu’s” has its own vulnerabilities, since it is “the porter of potentiality for developments that could not be imagined in the moment of its elaboration”. Also, Nattiez brings into discussion some concepts that have been refined or even challenged by the musicology of the last decades. For instance, the dichotomy learned art / traditional art seems “today too exact”. In connection with Brăiloiu’s “collective musical creation” concept, up-to-date ethnomusicology cannot accept, as he used to assert, that ”the more it progresses the less does research lead to a real history, to data or names, to an author”. Nattiez refers also to the dissemination of Brăiloiu’s works, almost ignored in the United States, but very appreciated by French and Italian ethnomusicologists, concerned with the systematic research: typologies of improvisation (Lortat-Jacob), vocal techniques (Léothaud), musical ensembles (Giuriati), organisation of musical time (Arom), scales and modes (Fernando), relationships between music and text (Giannattasio) and polyphonic techniques (Arom a.o.).
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Chopin asked his students to come close to the musical work, to ascend to its level and not distort it. Chopin sustained constantly that music should be given absolute autonomy. He thought that the meaning of a musical work should not consist of a story, by transforming it into a programmatic work. He stimulated his young disciples to play as they felt, never mechanically and indifferently. At the same time he never accepted emotional overreactions in piano playing and demanded a perfect self-control and very good taste. In his opinion, music bears resemblance to natural speech. His ideal involved large, generous phrases, which could ensure the integrity of musical thought. Referring to the rhythmical pulse, on the much disputed issue of Chopin’s rubato, we evoke testimonies of many contemporary friends and pupils. The liberties assumed by the composer are strictly related to the limits of a very well organized rhythm. This study will focus on the piano apparatus in Chopin’s manner: how to obtain an expressive playing, how to reach suppleness and freedom of fingers, how to deal with legato, touch, creative fingering and use of the pedals, how to “sing” at the piano. Chopin’s contribution in the harmonic field of music is also researched, trying to define a specific musical ethos: we stand before a triumph of the yin element against the yang one.Chopin brought the change especially in the field of musicality, of delicacy and refinement, lyricism and poetry, expressing musical contents naturally, with simplicity. For him, technique was the perfect equipment to express the most profound content of music. Due to the accomplished harmony and balance between musical contents and means, due to the spontaneity and directness of his musical discourse, due to the total lack of pomposity and at the same time the splendour and elegance of speech, Frédéric Chopin remains a modern musician.
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Jörg Widmann (b. 1973) is one of the most productive German composers of his generation, the chief characteristic of his work being a dialogue with the classical legacy. Going beyond postmodernism, Widmann poses the question as to how the energies of the classic musical tradition can be translated into contemporary achievements and how they might resonate with our present-day experience. In order to understand the dialectics of this discourse with the past, we can requisition Walter Benjamin’s interpretation of the relation of Franz Kafka to religious traditions, this serving as our prime investigatory model.
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The study rebuilds one of the manifold conceivable Beethoven’s images, namely that reflected by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. In a time when the construction of the Beethovenian myth was in full swing, Mendelssohn’s point of view seems to be a nuanced one, distinct from those expressed by some other romantic composers like Liszt, Schumann, Wagner. (It is known that their influence on the general opinion was considerable). The main source documents for the study are represented by the Mendelssohn’s mail. Mostly in the letters between November 1816 and June 1830, Beethoven is mentioned more frequent than Bach or Mozart, for instance. Persuasive quotations from letters illustrate Mendelssohn’s discourse about Beethoven, sounding generally „full of deference and enthusiasm, but devoid of religious devoutness”. Sometimes, Mendelssohn formulates even some critical remarks. His letters highlight also the relationship between Mendelssohn and Beethoven’s music, at least as regarding Mendelssohn’s contribution to the promotion of the Beethovenian works into the concert life and also Beethoven’s influence about Mendelssohn’s own creation.
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Through some of his works from the 1930s, Paul Constantinescu (1909- 63) appears today as one of a large part of Romanian composers who, during the interwar period, engaged in an explicit move toward the European artistic modernity of the early twentieth century, a modernity understood in its broadest sense, as a complex of attitudes and artistic practices dominated by the key- concepts of the new and the changing. For the majority of those who followed this orientation, aiming toward modernist coordinates of musical language did not imply abandoning the expression of national identity. The apparently paradoxical merging of traditional ethnic values with those diverging from tradition and imposed by the Western modernism, was a solution already proved as viable by Stravinsky and Bartók in the first two decades of the century. The desire for modernity, however, implied in equal measure a change of attitude vis-à-vis the question of “national specificity:” the Romanian musical works of the interwar period displayed not only new, updated techniques of composition, but also a nonconformist, lucid and detached way of expressing the “national style.” Among the features that illustrate the modernity of P. Constantinescu’s interwar works, the significant ones are: (1) the tendency to elude the tonal through polymodal or chromatic-modal structures and mechanisms; (2) an “aggressive,” quasi-arbitrary multivocal treatment of folk-quoted or folk-inspired material; (3) the use in a parodic manner of quotations from or allusions to various popular idioms.
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In the present study, the author highlights, systematizes and analyzes, in a brief and summarizing manner, some aspects of the biography, the professional career, the creation as instrumental folk performer, arranger and composer of maestro Constantin Baranovschi, a notorious member of the great gallery of the leading artists in the professional folk “Folclor” Orchestra. As a source of inspiration in the outline of the research issues, there were, on the one hand, some data and materials, novel to a great extent, provided by the archive funds of Tele-Radio Moldova, in particular, the Minutes of the Artistic Council, the musical scores, the files of the creations in the institution’s filing cabinets, and on the other hand, audio interviews, made personally with the protagonist and other artists of the „Folclor” Orchestra, including the vintage photos from the artist’s archive, which are accompanied by some information appeared in the press and in certain publications related to the theme.
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The aim of this article is to familiarize the reader with the current trends of academic choral composition and to examine various aspects and achievements inherited from the previous century’s stylistic periods. Having studied numerous publications and electronic sources, the author of the article has selected to present some of the most impressive, in the opinion of Western music critics, spiritual choral works by composers from different countries, continents, and cultures. The synthesis of the styles of European and Latin American music, those of India, Israel and the Far East, the innovations of Polish, British, US and Baltic choral art combine in a new crucible of mutual discoveries. A similar phenomenon is now being witnessed in the Republic of Moldova. The accomplishments of the Moldavian school of composition in this domain are also noted in this study.
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In the present article, the author undertakes a phenomenological-musicological analysis of the electronic music, namely of the works signed by Mihail Afanasiev, composer from the Republic of Moldova. The Western European tendencies in electronic music combined with the multi-stage electronic processing technique are reflected in the studio music of the composer M. Afanasiev. The composer’s concerns in developing a musical discourse of untempered origin and, at the same time, of a “high informational density” were highlighted in the first creations composed in the early 1990s - No Dream, No Light, No Sadness (1996) and SBA (2001) - both works present technological, aesthetic and musical innovations. Investigating studio music requires a complex approach, the application of traditional methods of musicology proves to be ineffective in many aspects. The author of the present study uses the phenomenological tools to reveal certain issues regarding to the electronic music phenomenon.
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The relationship between composition and mathematics is long-standing, broad and multifaceted and crosses several topics and disciplines. In this context, the aim of this research is to offer a brief insight on how mathematics have been and could be used explicitly and willingly in the specific field of music composition, serving and nourish the artistic practice as a useful and reliable option that can lead to unique findings, outputs and aesthetics at different levels. In this regard, it is shown and discussed how mathematics can be a powerful tool that is useful for composers not only for studying musical elements, for shaping them and for solving specific musical issues, but even as a means for unique aesthetic aims and as an actual peculiar instrument that can potentially trigger new musical ideas. Illustrative examples are then given from the techniques and aesthetics of different notable composer within the framework of Western art music culture, along with instances from the Author’s composition practice.
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This article aims to introduce into the national scientific circuit some theories that deal with the specificity of jazz at the present stage of its evolution through the theory and practice of postmodernism. Some concepts are briefly presented and analyzed, which can complement the methodological basis of the works dedicated to the analysis of national jazz phenomena at the confluence of the 20th-21st centuries. Based on the concepts of international researchers, a verifiable scientific apparatus is endorsed in the analysis of universal jazz phenomena. Intertextuality, deconstruction of artistic and cultural meanings, semantic re-codification and other methods are highlighted.
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