THE BUSINESS OF COMPOSITION Strykowski, Derek R.
Notes (Music Library Association),
06/2018, Letnik:
74, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
For the nineteenth-century composer, the cultivation of a stable professional relationship with a major publishing house could mean the difference between an economically successful career and the ...need to pursue alternative forms of employment. While the oft-studied writings of composers such as Franz Schubert largely support this position, opportunities for its systematic investigation have rarely been pursued. Issued on a monthly basis between 1798 and 1838, the Intelligenz-blatt zur Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung offers a lengthy record of the printed musical editions that its publisher, Breitkopf & Härtel, released during the early nineteenth century. A quantitative study of the 779 composers and arrangers whose works are advertised in its pages reveals the frequency with which Breitkopf & Härtel entered into new professional relationships, and the strength with which those relationships endured, as measured not only by their typical length but also by the average rate at which the publisher brought a composer’s work to press. Despite the firm’s best efforts, most relationships lasted for less than one year. Together, these observations illustrate in demographic terms both the challenges and the opportunities by which a composer could pursue economic success in the nineteenth-century musical marketplace.
Although two of the madrigals from his Third Book of 1615 end in lovelorn questions, Sigismondo d'India furnishes one of them with a far stronger final cadence than the other. To understand why, this ...corpus study investigates the expressive meaning of cadences in a quantitative analysis of the 85 madrigals that d'India published within his first five books (1606–16). Three determinants of cadential strength-cadence type, fullness, and modal degree of resolution-test the hypothesis that the cadences which d'India employs at the close of interrogative sentences will tend to be weaker than those he employs at the close of other sentences. The results are consistent with the argument that d'India sought to account for the sense and intonation of an interrogative sentence when setting it to music, yet also suggest that such concerns sometimes conflicted with his obligation to present a coherent musical structure.
Text painting is a defining characteristic of the sixteenth-century madrigal style, especially in association with references to height. Whereas composers cannot have given musical illustration to ...every such reference contained within the text of a madrigal, the question of whether or not the music that accompanies a particular reference to height constitutes an actual example of text painting is sometimes unclear. To explore this problem empirically, the frequency with which musical excerpts from a corpus of 201 madrigals composed by the Italian composer Luca Marenzio satisfied three proposed definitions of height-related text painting was measured. The three definitions required a vocal part to contain either a large leap, stepwise motion, or an extreme of pitch. Positive correlations were observed between the appearance of music conforming to each of the respective definitions and the presence of height-related imagery in the text, yet only in passages that satisfied more than one definition. The research suggests that no single definition is a reliable indicator of height-related text painting, and that most legitimate examples rely on multiple compositional devices.
Alban Berg set his only serialist opera, Lulu, in the tumultuous and often noisy present of interwar Europe. During several scenes, Berg uses diegetic techniques to supply his characters with music ...that is appropriate to the depicted location. To accommodate such episodes, Berg must reinterpret popular genres within the opera's twelve-tone context while preserving enough of the styles to render them familiar to the listener. The diegetic music of Lulu therefore exposes an artistic conflict between Berg's compositional autonomy and his dramaturgical commitment to the realistic musical representation of a non-serialist world.
The Negotiation of Nineteenth-Century Style Strykowski, Derek R.
International review of the aesthetics and sociology of music,
12/2018, Letnik:
49, Številka:
2
Journal Article
The study of music composition as a historical activity helps to explain the artistic paradigms that can influence the work of composers even today. One such paradigm arises from the economic ...relationships between composers and publishers. Sheet music sales were a primary source of income for composers of nineteenth-century art music. The letters of many prominent composers demonstrate how the business of music publishing influenced not only their livelihood but, through it, their artistry and style. These observations enhance our theoretical knowledge of a key paradigm in the artistry of the modern composer.
Istraživanje glazbenih kompozicija kao povijesna aktivnost pomaže nam da identificiramo umjetničke paradigme koje mogu utjecati na rad skladateljâ čak i danas. U moderno doba jedna takva paradigma počiva na našem razumijevanju ekonomskih odnosa između skladatelja i onih koji objavljuju ili na neki drugi način distribuiraju njihovu glazbu. U ovom se članku istražuje vrlo plodna studija slučaja: prodaja tiskanih partitura kao primarnih izvora prihoda skladateljâ umjetničke glazbe u 19. stoljeću.
Premda je stilski utjecaj toga posla rijetko priznat u literaturi, podatci u korespondenciji između istaknutih skladatelja i njihovih izdavača dokumentiraju međusobne kolegijalne odnose u kojima su zahtjevi glazbenog tržišta ublažavali osobne stilove pojedinih skladateljâ, pa čak i žanrove u kojima su oni odabirali raditi, kao što su prije svega i oni stilovi i žanrovi oblikovali to tržište. Takva zapažanja proširila su rad povjesničara kao što su William Weber i David Bruenger koji su sugerirali da posao objavljivanja glazbe nije utjecao samo na sredstva za život nego na taj način i na umjetničkost i stil najistaknutijih skladatelja umjetničke glazbe 19. stoljeća.
Na nomotetičkoj razini identificiranje nekoliko tipičnih načina ponašanja unaprjeđuje naše teorijsko znanje o ključnoj paradigmi umjetničkosti suvremenih profesionalnih skladatelja. Rezultati nam pružaju pojmovne temelje za proučavanje bilo kojeg stila u kojem objavljivanje glazbe tvori značajne umjetničke okolnosti, što će reći proučavanje gotovo svakog stila za koji je uopće postojalo tržište njegovih izdanja.
Alban Berg set his only serialist opera, Lulu, in the tumultuous and often noisy present of interwar Europe. During several scenes, Berg uses diegetic techniques to supply his characters with music ...that is appropriate to the depicted location. To accommodate such episodes, Berg must reinterpret popular genres within the opera"s twelve- tone context while preserving enough of the styles to render them familiar to the listener. The diegetic music of Lulu therefore exposes an artistic conflict between Berg"s compositional autonomy and his dramaturgical commitment to the realistic musical representation of a non-serialist world. (Author abstract)
The historical development of a musical style (“stylistic development”) reflects the artistic dispositions and circumstances (“artistry”) of the composers who participate in it. This dissertation ...investigates the theory that similar kinds of artistry can encourage similar modes of stylistic development no matter the style, taking as a case study the pattern of gradual stylistic intensification (“maximalism”) found in nineteenth-century orchestral music. The analysis of a representative set of seventeen orchestral works composed between 1803 and 1899 demonstrates the musical characteristics that provide the repertory with a common stylistic identity as well as other characteristics that its composers (Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Schumann, Glinka, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Smetana, Dvo?ák, Mahler, and Elgar) intensified and augmented through a maximalist process of stylistic development. The subsequent analysis of primary-source documents relating to each of the twelve composers reveals the influence of a shared artistry, elements of which included the artistic dispositions of historicism and Romanticism and the artistic circumstances of the concert hall and the music publishing industry. Finally, the consideration of psychological and economic theories of human behavior helps to illuminate how certain elements of that artistry are likely to have promoted the maximalist development of the style, leading to the broader conclusion that a composer engaged in non-price competition is likely to develop his or her musical style in a maximalist manner when his or her artistry also comprises a disposition that encourages social comparison or a circumstance in which habituated listeners value music having an increased arousal potential.
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