Journal of the Royal Musical Association - current issue

The Articulation of Virginity in the Medieval Chanson de nonne

Colton, L. — 2008-11-03

The chanson de nonne presents stereotypical images of young women whose bodies and voices are trapped within the confines of a nunnery. Close examination of the architectural metaphors used to describe virginity and chastity in the Middle Ages allows comparisons to be made between the structures – metaphorical, musical and textual – that held fictitious nuns within the frame of the clerical imagination at the centre of thirteenth-century motet production.

Opera for Sale: Folksong, Sentimentality and the Market

Goose, B. — 2008-11-03

The Lautenlied from Korngold's Die tote Stadt and the Schlummerlied from Schreker's Die Schatzgräber flaunt their ‘folksong’ style in ways that are clearly similar. Contemporary criticism reveals the significance of this stylization. Folksong symbolized genuineness, but also, in its supposedly degenerate form, emotional manipulation of the masses. Both topics informed critics’ reaction to these two arias. Alongside analysis of the many recordings of Korngold's aria up to 1933, the article suggests how folksong characterization contributed to the opera's plot.

On Ballet at the Opera, 1909-14, and La fete chez Therese

Caddy, D. — 2008-11-03

This article is broadly centred on the ballets staged at the Paris Opéra during the era in which Diaghilev's Ballets Russes were resident in the French capital. I seek initially to define the ways in which both troupes, the Opéra Ballet and the Russian, were received in the period press: in short, how the French company was implored to take its lead from Russian choreographic and scenic developments. My principal aim, though, is to offer a ‘thick’ description of one particular ballet – a commission from the Opéra entitled La fête chez Thérèse, set to music by French salon composer Reynaldo Hahn and premièred on 16 February 1910. A close reading of Thérèse's narrative, structure and musical design reveals something of the ballet's cultural resonance: a resonance that extends from the ballet-pantomimes of the July Monarchy, through the extra-curricular endeavours of the composer Gustave Charpentier, to contemporary ideals of womanhood, social parity and dancers’ skirts. A new historical perspective emerges, one that prompts a revision of the taxonomies according to which narratives of the pre-war balletic scene are usually plotted, along with a reassessment of the dominant historiographical strategy itself.

'Parisomania'? Jack Hylton and the French Connection

Mawer, D. — 2008-11-03

Like many figures in popular music, the British dance bandleader and entrepreneur Jack Hylton (1892–1965) has been largely forgotten. Through concert tours of France and nostalgic recordings with Chevalier, Hylton forged a connection which peaked at the Paris Opéra. Despite his large French-related repertory, which included ‘jazz’ arrangements of Stravinsky's Mavra, Ravel's Boléro and chansons, his American-influenced style was ultimately international. If his obsession justified the quip of ‘Parisomania’, there was reason in his madness.

Representing Sonatas

Whittall, A. — 2008-11-03

When did German Music Lose its Innocence?

Minor, R. — 2008-11-03