Journal of the Royal Musical Association - recent issues

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

Caustun's Contrafacta

Milsom, J. — 2007-09-12

The received view of the Tudor composer Thomas Caustun is of a minor and relatively uninteresting figure. That view is adjusted, however, by the discovery among his works of contrafacta of music by Nicolas Gombert, Philippe van Wilder, Rogier Pathie and Sebastiano Festa. This article considers the reasons why Caustun made these adaptations, and why they they were published under his name, rather than those of their true composers, in John Day’s anthology of Protestant church music, Mornyng and Evenyng Prayer and Communion (London, 1565).

Composition as an Act of Performance: Artifice and Expression in Purcell's Sacred Partsong Since God so tender a regard

Howard, A. — 2007-09-12

Since God so tender a regard is one of a small number of ‘domestic sacred’ pieces Purcell entered into his manuscript scorebook, London, British Library, Add. MS 30930. Its particular interest lies in its construction over a ground bass, and the range of artificial devices Purcell employs in its setting. Its background in seventeenth-century psalm settings, and its likely performance circumstances, allowed Purcell to turn these features to rhetorical advantage, with highly imaginative and individual results.

Searching for the Plot: Charles-Valentin Alkan's Souvenirs: Trois morceaux dans le genre pathetique, Op. 15

Waeber, J. — 2007-09-12

In the early nineteenth century, the piano étude was conceived as an outgrowth of the eighteenth-century exercice, perpetuating the idea of mechanical virtuosity devoid of any poetic meaning; but it was also shaped by the Romantic pièce de caractère. Drawing upon the context of Parisian musical life in the 1830s (notably the reception of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony), this article discusses Charles-Valentin Alkan's piano études Souvenirs: Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique, op. 15 (Paris, 1837). This work shows how virtuoso idiomatic figures can act as genre markers, thereby allowing the encoding of a specific extramusical meaning. It further addresses the issue of the privileged understanding between the composer and his performer that goes back to eighteenth-century tradition.

Catching Dreams: Editing Film Scores for Publication

Winters, B. — 2007-09-12

There is a need for published film-score editions in film musicology, both to preserve the contents of manuscripts and to aid critical readings of films. How to accomplish this, without re-inscribing the Romantic conceptions of authorship commonly associated with edition creation, is the subject of this article. After considering the relevant editorial problems and models, a postmodern ‘anti-edition’ is proposed, using examples drawn from Korngold's score for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).

The Politics of the Urlinie in Schenker's Der Tonwille and Der freie Satz

Clark, S. — 2007-09-12

The Dent Medal

2007-09-12