Journal of the Royal Musical Association - recent issues

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

A la recherche du vrai Socrate

Dossena, P. — 2008-05-02

Socrate, Erik Satie's self-acknowledged masterpiece, generated various interpretations but still remains problematic. This article adopts a genetic perspective and, through the analysis of the most interesting ‘key passage’ (bars 46–59 of Le banquet), adds to the understanding of the passage itself (the interpenetration between the figures of Satie, Socrates and Christ as sacrificial victims) and of the work as a whole. In this regard, the category of homogeneity is presented as the most relevant.

Masks, Minuets and Murder: Images of Italy in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci

Basini, L. — 2008-05-02

This article interprets Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci (1892) as a voicing of Italy's ‘Southern Question’ – the problem of the underdeveloped and socially troubled Italian South. Pagliacci juxtaposes cultural symbols that include a commedia dell'arte figure representative of the Italian South and antique genres perceived to be emblematic of ‘civilized’ northern culture. By interpreting the interaction of costumes and musical styles, I argue that the work incorporates images of southern Italy – that ‘violent’, ‘uncontrollable’, yet ‘picturesque’ region – into a broader, northern-dominated conception of Italian nationhood (an interpretative mechanism typical of contemporary image-making media such as magazines and novels).

The Fandango Scene in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro

Link, D. — 2008-05-02

This article concerns the use of dance in the Act 3 finale of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, starting from the problem articulated by Alan Tyson in his Mozart: Studies of the Autograph Scores. Tyson points out that the absence of the fandango from the Viennese musical sources is at odds with Da Ponte's statement that the dance scene was restored at the emperor's command. New evidence shows that the fandango was performed for the three performances that constituted a première at this time in Vienna and was then removed from the score. However, before its removal, the score with the fandango intact was copied for at least one other theatre, hence accounting for the two versions that circulated through Europe. The article goes on to consider the dramatic function of the fandango by exploring the nature of the dance itself and examining the stage directions in the autograph in combination with those in Beaumarchais's play, several early librettos and editions, and the original first-desk first-violin part.

Claver Morris, an Early Eighteenth-Century English Physician and Amateur Musician Extraordinaire

Johnstone, H. D. — 2008-05-02

Claver Morris (1659–1727) was a West Country physician and keen amateur musician. Based in Wells, he was the moving spirit (and possibly founder) of the local music society. A filleted version of his diaries and account books was published in 1934, but the originals have not been closely examined since. They offer a wealth of information about musical (and social) life in the provinces, and fascinating details of the music he heard, performed, bought and had copied.

Music and Philosophy: The Enlightenment and Beyond

Rumph, S. — 2008-05-02

Schumann: A Lover's Guide

Tunbridge, L. — 2008-05-02

The Dent Medal

2008-05-02

'Per mia particolare devotione': Orlando di Lasso's Lagrime di San Pietro and Catholic Spirituality in Counter-Reformation Munich

Fisher, A. J. — 2007-11-29

In his magisterial Lagrime di San Pietro (1595) Orlando di Lasso composed a cycle of 20 madrigals on texts by Luigi Tansillo on the theme of St Peter's denial of Christ and his subsequent remorse, capped by a Latin motet (‘Vide homo’) representing the rebuke of the crucified Christ. The Lagrime may be seen as a penitential gesture on Lasso's part, but a textual and musical analysis also suggests numerous parallels with contemporary Catholic spiritual exercises, particularly those of Ignatius of Loyola and Luis of Granada. The cycle thus takes its place in a broader Counter-Reformation discourse of meditation and penance.

'So to the wood went I': Politicizing the Greenwood in Two Songs by John Dowland

Gibson, K. — 2007-11-29

Figurations of woods as sites of solitude, political exile and authenticity are drawn upon in a number of John Dowland's songs. ‘Can she excuse’ quotes from the ballad tune Woods so wild, while ‘O sweet woods’ makes reference to Wanstead woods, associated with both Philip Sidney and Robert Devereux during their lifetimes. This article examines how courtly experiences of political withdrawal and exile are articulated through musical and literary references to woods in these songs.

Reforming Johannes: Brahms, Kreisler Junior and the Piano Trio in B, Op. 8

Moseley, R. — 2007-11-29

A comparison of the 1854 and 1891 versions of the Piano Trio in B, op. 8, explores how musical allusion can be interpreted to convey Johannes Brahms's attitudes to critics, friends, other composers and his own past. The young Brahms's attachment to E. T. A. Hoffmann's literary alter ego Johannes Kreisler helps explain the extent to which the music of others makes itself heard in the first version of the trio. Changing standards of criticism affected the nature and scope of Brahms's revision, which expunged perceived allusions; the older Brahms's more detached compositional approach shared elements with Heinrich Schenker's analytical perspective. There are also parallels between Brahms's excisions and the surgical innovations of his friend and musical ally Theodor Billroth. Both Brahms and Billroth were engaged with the removal of foreign bodies in order to preserve organic integrity, but traces of others – and of the past – persist throughout the revised trio.

Agency and Change: Berlioz in Britain, 1870 1920

Langley, L. — 2007-11-29

Far from being always unjustly neglected until the late twentieth century, as a recent view would have it, Berlioz's music enjoyed dedicated attention and considerable admiration a century earlier. His orchestral works, in particular, were taken up by a range of skilful players and conductors in Britain from the 1870s, yielding performances in the English regions, the London suburbs and in Scotland that impressed ordinary listeners much more than many experienced ones. I argue that structural change and professional competition within the British concert industry to 1920 assisted this remarkable reception – largely ignored in the historiography of Berlioz's reputation as well as in that of British musical culture – while imaginative musicians, astute promoters, writers and thousands of listeners continued to benefit from contact with his work. Berlioz's challenging music indeed became an agent of aesthetic change in Britain – a benchmark, and a calling-card, of modern orchestral presentation that was both standard and commonly accessible before the First World War.

Monumental Musicology

Tomlinson, G. — 2007-11-29