Collected Writings of the Orpheus Institute – Serie

This is a collection of essays based on lectures presented at the International Orpheus Academy for Music and Theory on "Historical Theory, Performance, and Meaning in Baroque Music". The often complex connections and intersections between, e.g., modal and tonal idioms, contrapuntal and harmonic organisation, were considered from various perspectives as to the transition (towards tonality) from the Renaissance to the Baroque era.

In New Paths, five renowned scholars discuss a variety of topics related to Romanticism, focusing especially on the years 1800–1840. In a much-needed historical and critical overview of the concept of organicism, John Neubauer ranges from its origins in Enlightenment biology to its aftermath in postmodernism. Janet Schmalfeldt shows that not only Beethoven's op.47 should be called the Bridgetower rather than the Kreutzer Sonata but also that this makes a difference as to its meaning. Scott Burnham explains extreme contrasts between emotional and mechanical types of music in late Beethoven as stagings of the limits of human subjectivity. Jim Samson discusses Chopin's little-known musical upbringing in Warsaw, arguing that his grounding in eighteenth-century aesthetics (as opposed to theory) has thus far been neglected. Finally, Susan Youens's case study of Franz Lachner's Heine songs sheds light on radical experimentation by a so-called epigone in the period between Schubert and Schumann's miracle song year.Contributors: Scott Burnham, Princeton University; John Neubauer, University of Amsterdam; Jim Samson, Royal Holloway, University of London; Janet Schmalfeldt, Tufts University; Susan Youens, University of Notre Dame

Questions concerning music and its inextricably intertwined and complex interface with time continue to fascinate musicians and scholars. For performers, the primary perception of music is arguably the way in which it unfolds in "real time." For composers a work appears "whole and entire," with the presence of the score having the potential to compress, and even eliminate, the perception of time as "passing." The paradoxical relationship between these two perspectives, and the subtle mediations at the interface between them with which both performers and composers engage, form the subject matter of this collection of essays. The contributors address the temporal significance of specific topics such as notation, tempo, meter, and rhythm within broader contexts of performance, composition, aesthetics, and philosophy. The aim is to present novel ideas about music and time that provide particular insight into musical practice and the world of artistic research. Contributors: Bruce Brubaker, New England Conservatory; Pascal Decroupet, University of Liege; Mark Delaere, Catholic University of Leuven; Justin London, Carleton College; Ian Pace, University College Falmouth

The three Mozart/Da Ponte operas offer an inexhaustible wellspring for critical reflection, possessing a complexity and equivocation common to all great humane works. They have the potential to reflect and refract whatever locus of contemporaneity may be the starting point for enquiry. Thus, even postmodern and postmillennial concerns, far from seeming irrelevant to these operas, are instead given new perspectives by them, whilst the music and the dramatic situations have the multivalency to accept each refreshed pallet of interpretation without loss of their essential character. These operas seem perennially ‘new'. In exploring the evergreen qualities of Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro, this collection of studies does not shun approaches that have foundations in established theory, but refracts them through such problems as the tension between operatic tradition and psychological realism, the co-existence of multiple yet equal plots, and the antagonism between the tenets of tradition and the need for self-actualization. In exploring such themes, the authors not only illuminate new aspects of Mozart's operatic compositions, but also probe the nature of musical analysis itself. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

The process of practising is intrinsic to musical creativity. Practising may primarily be thought of as technical, but it is often also musically meaningful, including elements of interpretation, improvisation, and/or composition. The practice room can be a space in which to explore a field of creative possibilities; a place to experiment and to refine ideas. To date, the literature on practice has been primarily pedagogical and psychological. Little attention is paid to the significance of practice, and especially to the role of embodied experience - of understanding gained through doing - in the forming of musical ideas. The Practice of Practising is primarily concerned with considering practising as a practice in itself: a collection of processes that determines musical creativity and significance. The volume comprises four diverse case studies, in relation to music by J. S. Bach, Elliott Carter, Alfred Schnittke, and Morton Feldman, presenting both solo and ensemble perspectives.

Studying improvised music is always a challenge, due to its volatility and unpredictability. But what about studying musical improvisation from before the age of sound recordings? In this book, three experts give their view on aspects of musical improvisation in the late medieval, renaissance, and early baroque periods. Historical sources show us how improvisation was an integral part of music education and how closely improvisation and composition were linked. This gives new insights into the way music was played in its original historical context and a new way to look at written scores from the past. Improvising Early Music will appeal to anyone interested in the historical background of our written musical heritage and to musicians who want to gain a deeper insight in the way this music was created. Contributors: Johannes Menke (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Basel), Peter Schubert (Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal), Robert C. Wegman (Princeton University)

The musical thought and practice of canonical composersWhat can music tell us—without words? Can it depict scenes, narrate stories, elucidate beliefs? And can it be an instrument through which we access the inner lives not only of musicians from the past but of ourselves, today?In Ohne Worte five scholars and performers probe these and related questions to illuminate both the experience and performance of nineteenth-century music. Drawing on a rich range of sources, they reveal the musical thought and practice of canonical composers like Berlioz, Mendelssohn, and Schumann. Their work challenges us to reconsider our musical practices and the voices manifested in them, and it encourages the creation of an art that is both historical and transcendental. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).ContributorsJean-Pierre Bartoli (Université Paris–Sorbonne), Hubert Moßburger (Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart), Jeanne Roudet (Université Paris–Sorbonne), Douglass Seaton (Florida State University School of Music), Edoardo Torbianelli (Hochschule der Künste Bern)