bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Rhythm and Time-Measurement in South Asian Art-Music: Some Observations on tāla
Authors: Widdess D. R.
Published: January 2007

The Sanskrit word tāla, and its common vernacular forms tāl (Hindi) and tālam (Tamil), denote, in musical terminology, both rhythmic organization in general, and specific patterns of organization. Among various non-musical meanings the most significant, perhaps, is ‘slapping the hands together or against one's arm’ (Monier-Williams), since in Indian art-music, patterns of claps and silent gestures with the hands are traditionally used for beating time. The earliest Indian musicological texts show that this practice was already elaborately developed by the early first millennium a.d. In modern practice, tāla implies a steady pulse-beat: no fluctuation of this pulse is permitted, apart from a tendency to accelerate in the north Indian tradition, and music in free tempo (such as ālāp) is not considered to exhibit tāla. Tālā further implies a pulse organized into measures, each measure containing the same number of pulse-beats; the first beat of each measure, called sam, is accented, and is regarded as the culmination of the preceding measure as well as the beginning of a new measure. The measure is therefore conceived, in Indian terminology, as a cycle (āvārd or āvartanam).
The Influence of Balakirev on Tchaikovsky
Authors: Garden Edward
Published: January 2007

In examining the relationship between Tchaikovsky and Balakirev, I shall investigate in some detail the influence upon the Moscow composer of the leader of the St Petersburg group or ‘mighty handful’ (which included, besides Balakirev himself, Cui, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov). Balakirev's group had been established before the St Petersburg Conservatoire of Music was founded by Anton Rubinstein in 1862; this, coupled with the fact that there were no textbooks on the theory of music in the Russian language, meant that Balakirev and his protégés had had no formal musical education, but had learned the technique of composition solely by studying the actual works of other composers, past and present. Tchaikovsky, on the other hand, had been a student at the Conservatoire from the time of its foundation till 1865, his graduation exercise taking the form of a setting of Schiller's ‘Ode to Joy’ which was performed at the end of that year and was torn to pieces by Cui in a typically vituperative article. By the time this article had appeared early in 1866 Tchaikovsky had already moved to Moscow to take up a teaching post at the new Conservatoire there. According to Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev's group knew Tchaikovsky only as having composed a Symphony in G minor (his First) of which the two middle movements had been performed at a concert of the Russian Musical Society in St Petersburg in February 1867. As a product of the despised Conservatoire, they viewed Tchaikovsky askance.
Liszt, Mahler and the Chorale
Authors: Williamson John
Published: January 2007

An index reference in Donald Mitchell's study of Mahler's ‘Wunderhorn’ years seems to promise an appraisal of Mahler's debt to Liszt; on the page, however, an assumption precedes an exhortation to ‘serious research and documentation’. The debt is located in Mahler's ‘consistent and brilliant’ use of transformation of themes with particular reference being made to the ‘Faust’ Symphony. Elsewhere, Mitchell cites a trumpet tune from the finale of the ‘Resurrection’ Symphony and its subsequent transformation into a chorale as an example of ‘how closely Mahler had studied Liszt’. The species of transformation demonstrated is common in Liszt, mood and association being altered by radically changing the context while leaving melodic, harmonic and rhythmic contour relatively untouched. All of this, however, Mahler might have learned from Wagner, Smetana, Weber or many another composer of dramatic or programmatic music. Real documentation, in the form of letters or recorded comment, has always taken place in discussion of Mahler's debt to Liszt to the pursuit of technical and aesthetic parallels; Constantin Floras' study in progress is typical in that copious motivic and thematic cross-reference, and extensive documentation with regard to Mahler and Liszt individually far outweigh recorded discussion by Mahler of Liszt's personality and music.
Wagner's Individual Sketches for Parsifal
Authors: Tucker Gillian
Published: January 2007

Wagner's compositional procedure, as shown by surviving sketch material, has been widely discussed, firstly in the pioneering work of Otto Strobel, and more recently by Curt von Westemhagen, Robert Bailey and John Deathridge. Detailed studies of this type concern Rienzi, Siegfrieds Tod, Der Ring and the first act of Tristan. Discussions of sketches for Parsifal, however, have either been restricted to arguments of nomenclature or to a general description of their nature rather than their content; that is, we are merely made aware of the fact that there are two musical drafts of the complete opera, to use Strobel's terminology, the ‘composition sketch’ and the ‘orchestral sketch’, the first being written in pencil on two instrumental staves under a vocal line, and the second more detailed version being in ink with the instrumental parts now on up to four or five staves, and the vocal parts on as many as two to three staves. This apparent neglect seems even more curious when one discovers the wealth and nature of the sketch material that survives for Parsifal.
Bowing Styles, Vibrato and Portamento in Nineteenth-Century Violin Playing
Authors: Brown Clive
Published: January 2007

There are many aspects of nineteenth-century violin playing that have received little attention from scholars. The subject is a vast and complicated one, far beyond the scope of a short article to treat adequately, but there are a number of important areas in which problems have not even been recognized, let alone investigated. For instance, the most substantial recent work on this subject, Robin Stowell's Violin Technique and Performance Practice in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries (Cambridge, 1985), provides a useful digest of what the major violin methods of the period say, but because it is mainly confined to these sources, ignoring for the most part journalism and other contemporary accounts, and because it has a rather artificial terminal date of 1840, it fails to illuminate major underlying patterns of continuity and change in nineteenth-century violin playing. It may be valuable, therefore, to put forward a few ideas and suggest a few fruitful lines of enquiry which have until now remained largely unconsidered.
Evidence of Lay Patronage in Sacred Music in a Recently Discovered Document of 1631
Authors: Gianturco Carolyn
Published: January 2007

It is common practice in the Catholic Church for friends and relatives of the deceased to have religious services held for their souls. That is, a donation is offered to a priest, a church or a monastery so that one or more Masses may be said in their remembrance. This is certainly not a surprising tradition in a religion which believes in life after death, in the value of prayer, and in the possibility that the prayers of the living may lessen the punishment of the sins of the dead. As musicologists we are, of course, all aware that many Requiem Masses were written over the centuries for just this purpose, but recent research suggests that there were yet other important musical consequences of this particular religious belief and practice.
Alfred: Dvořák's First Operatic Endeavour Surveyed
Authors: Smaczny Jan
Published: January 2007

Alfred, Dvořåk's first opera, has long hovered at the edge of our awareness of the composer. If there are signs of a growing realization that opera was to Dvořåk quite as important as other areas of his output, the detail needed to flesh out the picture of ‘Dvořåk the opera composer’ is to a large extent lacking. In the case of the composer's first six operas the inaccessibility of material has meant that an assessment of his early work in the area is still very much the province of specialist scholars. Published vocal scores exist for only three of these early operas, and none of them are in any sense scholarly editions; in the case of Krål a uhlíř (King and Charcoal-Burner) the available edition is of a revision of the score made 13 years after the work was composed, with an entirely recomposed final act. Vanda, the fascinating first version of Krål a uhlíř, and Alfred remain unpublished, although a vocal score of Krål a uhlíř has been submitted to the Czech publishing house Artia.
A Treatise on Musicians from ?c. 1400: The Tractatulus de differentiis et gradibus cantorum by Arnulf de St Ghislain
Authors: Page Christopher
Published: January 2007

The historian John Keegan was one of the first to ask the simple yet searching question: what actually happens in combat? It is well known that English footsoldiers received a charge by French knights at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, but what took place when men and horses collided? Keegan gives his answers in The Face of Battle, and it may be time for musicologists to modulate the sonorous questions that he poses there for their own purposes. What actually happened, for example, when a motet by Johannes Ciconia was performed in northern Italy c 1400? When friends and associates gathered together to hear such music, what was the nature of their various musical aptitudes and interests? Did women participate in the performances? What was the role of instrumentalists? Some of these questions, no doubt, will never find an answer; there are no medieval chronicles devoted to musical gatherings as there are chronicles – and many other writings – devoted to battles like Agincourt. None the less, literary and iconographical sources are among those which may still have something to reveal about ‘the face of performance’ (to coin a phrase after Keegan's own), and the purpose of this article is to examine the contents of one that has been unjustly neglected: the Tractatulus de differentiis et gradibus cantorum by Arnulf de St Ghislain. This brief treatise classifies the kinds of musicians who performed or admired polyphonic music and is therefore quite exceptional among the works loosely classified as medieval music theory.
The Orchestras of Bach and Handel
Authors: Prout Ebenezer
Published: January 2007

Some years ago I had the honour of reading before this Association a paper on the growth of the modern orchestra during the past century. In that paper I expressly excluded Bach and Handel from the scope of my remarks, because, both in its composition and in the manner in which it was employed, the orchestra in their day differed widely from that of the present time. Your council have now asked me to talk about the orchestras of Bach and Handel—I presume, as a kind of supplement to my previous paper; and I have had great pleasure in acceding to their request, not only because the subject is itself full of interest, but because it is one upon whch considerable misconception prevails. It is very often supposed that there is very little variety of orchestral effect in Bach or Handel. The exact opposite is the case; it will, indeed, be quite impossible, within the limits assigned to me, to do more than touch, so to speak, on the edge of the subject, on which it would be perfectly easy, without needless repetitions, to write a small volume. I must therefore ask your indulgence for the necessarily superficial character of this paper; were I not addressing an audience of musicians I should also feel it needful to apologise for its technical nature.
On the Position of Organs in Churches
Authors: Gore Ouseley Frederick A.
Published: January 2007

In a time like the present when so many new churches are built, the great majority of which are furnished with organs, it cannot but be a question of exceptional interest to all who are mixed up with church architecture or church music to find out the best position in such buildings to be occupied by the organ. Nor is the problem an easy one to solve, on account of the great number of more or less extraneous considerations which enter into the subject. Besides which, it is just one of those matters concerning which it is impossible to lay down any one great, general law which shall apply to every case. So many mistakes are continually made, however, and so much jealous difference of judgment exists between the organ builders and the architects, that it may be useful, and also (possibly) entertaining, to discuss the whole question from various aspects in such a paper as the present. It is, therefore, proposed to treat of the subject: (1) Historically; (2) From a consideration of Continental practice; and (3) With special reference to English places of worship at the present time.
The Life and Work of Sir G. A. Macfarren
Authors: Banister H. C.
Published: January 2007

More than fifty years since a violoncellist, who was distinguished for his discernment and the desire to encourage rising talent, gave to a young composer, who, though making his mark, was still little known, and quite in the struggling stage, a commission to write some small works for the violoncello, with pianoforte accompaniment. The means of the violoncellist were but limited, and the honorarium was probably of no great amount, though I feel sure the principle was acted on that “the labourer is worthy of his hire.” But it was the young composer's first commission, and right proudly did he go home that day at having a commission to write anything at all on any terms. The works produced were twelve Ariettes and three Rondos, very fresh and charming, although little known now. It was from a business point of view the commencement of a long, honourable, and though chequered and marked by many disappointments which had to be patiently borne, an eminently successful career as a composer. He looked back to it and referred to it with grateful recollection of the timely recognition and kindly held out helping hand. The appreciative violoncellist passed away forty years ago, but the young composer lived on, with recognition of his powers gradually accorded to him, and with increasing honour and acknowledgment, not only by his own countrymen, but wherever music is known throughout the world. He also has passed away full of years, and by a pleasant, though melancholy co-incidence, by quite the reverse of what is sometimes termed the irony of events, the son of that violoncellist has been honoured with the commission to offer the first publicly spoken tribute to the memory of him whom his father was one of the first to recognise. The violoncellist was Henry Joshua Banister, remembered by very few here, but remembered with respect and honour; the composer was George Alexander Macfarren, and the tribute offered with great diffidence this evening is offered with a desire to be in sympathy with the old injunction—“Thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not,” or, as one may justifiably amplify it, “forget not,” for he to whom my father was a friend, was a friend to me all along his professional course, and it is peculiarly grateful to me that in consideration of these facts I have had entrusted to me this task, one of the greatest professional honours ever conferred upon me.
The Instincts of Musical Form
Authors: Turpin E. H.
Published: January 2007

Fully aware of the ambiguous character of the title, which for want of a better heading I have ventured to give to the paper I am permitted to read before you upon this occasion, it may be well to explain my general position with regard to the subject-matter I desire now to lay before you.
A Neglected Aspect of Harmony
Authors: Prout Louis B.
Published: January 2007

In teaching harmony, I have again and again been struck with the very inadequate attention given in most text-books to its tonal aspect—that is, to the relation of notes and chords, especially dissonances, to the tonic or key-note as well as one to another. It is with the view of emphasizing this aspect of the subject that the following notes have been written. Whether or not I have over-estimated its importance, I must leave it to my audience to decide; but at least it must be conceded that to study harmony without giving any attention to the question of tonality would be absurd—nay, would not be to study harmony at all.
The Notation of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
Authors: Maitland J. A. Fuller
Published: January 2007

I have been asked to tell you something about the contents and the peculiarities of notation of what is, perhaps, the most important collection of virginal pieces in existence—the book formerly known as “Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book,” which is preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. That title, it has been amply proved, is altogether false and misleading, and indeed that it should have ever arisen is only an illustration of the carelessness with which musical manuscripts were examined in past times. For against one of the pieces, the “Ut, Re, Mi,” of Sweelinck, on p. 216, there occurs the date 1612, when Queen Elizabeth had been dead nine years. And another piece, “Dr. Bull's Juell,” exists in a manuscript in the British, museum, where it is dated December 12, 1621. Probably the name, for which Hawkins is responsible, arose from the fact that all the composers represented rank among those of the Elizabethan era. I may assume, I suppose, that the general outline of the history of the book, as brought to light by Mr. William Chappell and latterly by Mr. W. Barclay Squire, is known to you all.
National Opera in Russia (Third Paper)
Authors: Newmarch
Published: January 2007

In my last paper on the development of Russian opera, I spoke of Dargomijsky and Moussorgsky, whose dramatic and realistic tendencies separated them to some extent from the direct influence of Glinka; and I also gave some account of Serov, the one thorough-going disciple of Wagner whom Russia has produced. To-day, I return with Borodin to that original type of national, lyric opera which Glinka inaugurated in “A Life for the Tsar.”
On Some Points in the Harmony of Perfect Consonances
Authors: Bosanquet R. H. M.
Published: January 2007

The study of Harmony is the study of the combinations or chords which are formed from musical notes.

The Harmony of Perfect Consonances is the study of combinations or chords formed from notes which have been constructed by tuning perfect consonances.
The Principles of Vowel Pronunciation
Authors: Aikin W. A.
Published: January 2007

To build a bridge between the art of music and the physical and physiological sciences of sound was the task that Helmholtz set himself when he entered upon the classical work which has served ever since as the basis of all research in this field. How far he succeeded in accomplishing his object we need not discuss here, but he certainly laid the foundation of a very extensive practical science, devoted alone to the investigation of the laws of sound in all the varied forms in which we meet them in music. The phonologist, as he should be called who is occupied with this study, finds himself, however, in a somewhat isolated situation. The schools of experimental physics are generally too busy with electricity and kindred subjects to give much thought to sound, although the telephone and phonograph have to some extent forced their attention in that direction. Among physiologists, very few are occupied with sound, and the peculiar skill required in studying the vocal organs, which has necessitated the formation of a special branch of medicine, diminishes their number still further.
The Mutilation of a Masterpiece
Authors: Cummings William H.
Published: January 2007

The responsibilities of one who undertakes the editorship of the work of a deceased musician are many and serious: he is bound to present the text in its integrity, correcting of course any obvious clerical error, and where any point of ambiguity or doubt arises to call attention to it, and, if he please, suggest such an emendation as would appear in his judgment to carry out the intentions and exact meaning of the author. It is absolutely indispensable that an editor of music should be an expert musician, thoroughly conversant not only with the works of the composer he edits but also the methods and traditions of the period in which that composer lived. The editor will frequently have to decide on the authenticity of conflicting manuscripts and copies and to accept or reject this or that reading; but if he mutilate or add to the original draft of the author, he is like a fraudulent trustee and deserves the reprobation of all earnest workers. The annals of music, if carefully searched, would present numerous instances of unfair or unwise editorship. In passing one may mention Dean Aldrich, who edited and appropriated, I think without due acknowledgment, the music of Palestrina, Carissimi, and other Italian composers. The music of Purcell has notably suffered at the hands of unscrupulous or unskilful editors. Doubtless you are familiar with Dr. Boyce's treatment of Purcell's great Te Deum in D. He tried to Handelize it, probably with the best intention, but by expansion and additions he made it about a third longer than the composer's original draft. This same Te Deum was treated in a far more shameful manner by Stafford Smith. He published the work with the following title, “Mr. Purcell's grand Te Deum Alter'd and Digested for the Use of His Majesty's Chapel Royal, also adapted for the Organ or Harpsichord only, by John Stafford Smith, Being Proper for all Chorus and places where they sing in parts.” This is one of the most impertinent pieces of vandalism I am acquainted with. The work is transposed a note lower throughout, and is rightly described as having been “altered and digested.” Smith's digestion must have been of a remarkable character; he reduced the length of the composition by about one-third, and introduced much of his own composition or decomposition into the remaining two-thirds. I have brought a copy of this Smith concoction for your inspection, and also the first printed edition of the Te Deum published by Purcell's widow.
Permanent Musical Criteria
Authors: Tovey Donald Francis
Published: January 2007

I most apologise for the misleading appearance of my synopsis, but a line of argument such as I propose to follow always looks more complicated and disjointed in a synopsis than it really is. The real argument may prove to be a series of logical steps so gradual and so obvious as to seem a pile of platitudes, while the synopsis, which can only give the chief points, and those only in the shortest possible phrases, may seem to be a bundle of paradoxes. The most popular work on a philosophical subject looks ten times as technical and crude in the synopsis than it is in the text; and I fear that I shall seem to have come before you under false pretences, having promised something very abstruse and new, whereas I have only a few very obvious ways of putting together the plainest general truths about music, and have nothing more to say except to emphasise these particular and very familiar ways of putting them together.
The Function of the Organ in Accompanying Choral and Orchestral Works
Authors: Statham H. Heathcote
Published: January 2007

The main object of this paper is to consider the treatment of the organ in accompanying chorus and orchestra in combination. A word may be said first, however, as to the organ and the orchestra in instrumental compositions. Handel, as we know, wrote concertos for organ and orchestra, of some importance in their day, in which the organ was treated—as the pianoforte is treated in a modern concerto—as a solo instrument alternating with the orchestra, or partially accompanied by it. This combination, however, does not seem to have been often attempted since.
The Evolution of the Flute
Authors: Southgate T. Lea
Published: January 2007

From time to time not a few examples of examination curiosities come before me for observation and criticism. I sometimes think that those who set these papers, and who are responsible for this modern outcome of to-day's musical position, are more desirous of plucking unfortunate candidates than of ascertaining the practical value of their knowledge. I could mention items which would puzzle not a few old and experienced musicians to answer. I remember seeing in a paper by a Welsh examiner the directions : “Give an account of Church Music from the 16th to the 19th century”! Another : “What would be the mathematical value, if added together, of a dotted crotchet, a dotted quaver, a double dotted semiquaver, and a double dotted demisemiquaver, all contained in a bar, value of one semibreve ?”
Brahms in his Pianoforte Music
Authors: Howard-Jones E.
Published: January 2007

The ideas and opinions expressed in the following little paper must not be taken to be more than my own personal opinions and deductions, guided I hope by some sense of the general canons that are true of all great Art, and helped I hope by an enthusiasm which does its utmost to see the good and the beautiful, rather than to spy out the weaknesses and faults. But before all else, these ideas and opinions are based on a sympathy that is one of those indescribable operations of the sentiments and emotions that can only be traced to affinity or inborn predilection. To allow this affinity to influence one's artistic judgments is sometimes held to be an evidence of bias, and consequently to show a state of mind the reverse of critical and even prejudiced; but as without the emotional attitude one can have no enthusiasm, and without enthusiasm true appreciation is impossible, so it has always seemed obvious to me that true artistic criticism can only be of the constructive or synthetic type; seizing that which is good in a work and holding it up to the more general gaze.
Graduate Work in Music in America, with a Survey of the Conditions on Which it Rests
Authors: Stanley Albert Augustus
Published: January 2007

A superficial study of the rise of universities in Europe places England in a significant position in the lead, while a careful investigation of her influence on the world of scholarship, and her specific relation to the development of music as an educational asset, compels astonishment and gratitude in equal measure. It requires, therefore, considerable courage to write upon the comparatively meagre results of the attempts of educational institutions on the Western shores of the Atlantic to follow so admirable and so inspiring a guide. This statement is not to be construed as an apology, but rather as an indication that the subject is approached with full realisation of its inherent difficulties, and with no small measure of hesitation.
Music a Science of Numbers
Authors: Chappell William
Published: January 2007

The subject which I submit for your consideration this afternoon is the influence of numbers in music, as in the various combinations of consonances and dissonances which we hear every day, and to show how these are explained by the fundamental laws of the science.
Suggestions for a More Expeditious Mode of Writing the Time-Notes in Music
Authors: Helmore T.
Published: January 2007

The title of my paper seems to forbid any tedious method of bringing its subject before the Musical Association.

It would be incongruous, in the advocate of greater expedition in writing music, to weary you by any unnecessary beating about the bush in explaining the proposed method of attaining it.
Purcell's Fantazias and Sonatas
Authors: Bridge J. Frederick
Published: January 2007

Although our chief attention to-night is to be given to Purcell's Sonatas, I feel it would add to the interest of these illustrations if I asked you to listen to an earlier specimen of his writing for strings.
The Instruments with Sympathetic Strings
Authors: Southgate T. Lea
Published: January 2007

The reason underlying my appearance before you this afternoon may be ascribed to an after-dinner talk I once had with Sir John Stainer (then the President of this Association) on the usefulness of the group of musical instruments possessing sets of sympathetic wire or catgut strings, in addition to their main strings played upon by the bow.
The Purpose Behind Shakespeare's Use of Music
Authors: Scholes Percy A.
Published: January 2007

The lavish use Shakespeare makes of musical allusion has often been the subject of comment Several well-known books exist which explain his references to music. They are antiquarian treatises of high value, describing to their readers the lute, the viol, and the recorder, giving the sources of the songs that are sung, and expounding the character of the dances. Technical expressions are explained, musical stage-directions enumerated, and the place of music on the Elizabethan stage set out.
The Intermezzi of the Opera
Authors: Pulver Jeffrey
Published: January 2007

Imagine yourselves in a tropical forest. You see here pendulous trails of brilliantly-coloured flowers; there, bunches of gaudy fruits: high up, above your heads, filmy fronds of foliage wave in the breeze; at your feet gnarled and far-rambling roots wander in every direction. You wonder if you are beholding some fabled creeper of monstrous growth, or whether fruit, flowers and foliage belong to different plants that have become inextricably entangled. You attempt to follow a young shoot to its parent stem, and thence to its root; you find yourself baffled and baulked at every turn. Set yourselves the task of tracing the history of the creations named Intermezzi, Intermedii, Intermèdes, or Interludes to their source or sources, and you will experience similar feelings.
Latin Church Music by Early English Composers.—Part II
Authors: Collins H. B.
Published: January 2007

Four years ago, in a paper read before this Society, I attempted (with such materials as were at my command) a short review of Latin Church music by English composers of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At the kind invitation of your Council I propose to continue the subject this afternoon, and especially to deal with some composers whom I was obliged to pass over on the last occasion owing to lack of time or lack of data. As before, I labour under the disadvantage of having to describe music which is to a large extent inaccessible at the present day—most of which never appeared in print even at the time it was written—and which has to be sought, collected, and compared from such manuscripts (scattered up and down the country) as have escaped the ravages of time and of political and religious changes.
The Modern Spirit in Music
Authors: Heseltine Philip
Published: January 2007

To begin with, I should like to make it quite clear that in this paper I have not attempted to give a catalogue, description or summary of contemporary composers and their works, but rather to state a particular point of view from which they may be regarded. I have confined myself rigorously to this one point of view, and perhaps some will think that I have laid undue emphasis on various issues arising from it. However, I shall not be sorry if certain utterances which may appear to you to be too sweeping and dogmatic provoke considerable opposition afterwards, in the discussion for which we have here such admirable opportunities.
The Point of Perfection in XVI Century Notation
Authors: Warner S. Townsend
Published: January 2007

Looking back upon the development of any art, one is tempted to think of it as a more or less straight line leading towards the culminating achievement of the spectator. But just as saplings grow by putting out branches, first to one side and then to the other, so do Arts develop laterally. Music has so developed, and musical notation has followed and recorded its deviations. Their interdependence is so great that in many cases where one can only understand the music through knowing the notation, one can only understand the notation through being in sympathy with the music. Because a particular brand of notation is inadequate to express our modern ideas, it is idle to condemn it as being clumsy and obscure; it is foolish to suppose it has nothing to teach us. I have no doubt but that to those accustomed to it, the dots and dashes and tendrils of neumatic notation conveyed far more feelingly than any modern system can, the refinements of melismatic plain-song. Contemporary music makes enormous use of dynamic contrasts: accordingly its notation is very rich, though not rich enough, in dynamic signs of all descriptions. The music of this polyphonic period excelled in variety and subtlety of rhythm, and the most interesting and significant notational devices of that age have all the same object—to convey and articulate the rhythmical structure.
Suppositional Hearing
Authors: Chadfield Edward J.
Published: January 2007

The whole circle of musical science includes the science of sound, as a necessary part of the process of the production of music. But many parts of that process are silent, and yet they are none the less essential for its completion.
Paul Hindemith: His Music and Its Characteristics
Authors: Scott Marion
Published: January 2007

Not long ago I happened to mention to a clever business woman who is an acquaintance of mine, that I proposed speaking on Hindemith. “What is Hindemith?” she replied, and by her manner I gathered she thought he was a new kind of Vim, Bovril, or Mothball from the Fatherland. I hastened to explain that, young though he is, Hindemith is the acknowledged leader of the “new music” and of those composers in Germany, who believe in a radical adaptation of music to modern needs and conditions. He is hailed as their chief, his compositions are chronicled, and his developments docketed, with a reverence and care thoroughly German. Outside Germany, on the other hand, he is known as the “enfant terrible” of Europe and his music frequently produces the same effect on his audiences as that produced by Browning's “Sordello” in old days on the jolly Philistine who said “There are only two lines in the poem I understand—the first one says: ‘Who will, may hear Sordello's story told, and the last one isn't true, for it says: ‘Who would has heard Sordello's story told.’”
Mozart and Modern Research
Authors: Oldman Cecil
Published: January 2007

The Mozart Celebrations of 1931 do not seem to have created much stir, perhaps because there is no very compelling magic in the numbers 175 and 140—for it was, you will remember, the 175th anniversary of the composer's birth and the 140th of his death—but it produced, as all such occasions do, a considerable crop of literature, good, bad and indifferent, the perusal of which must have caused many readers besides the present lecturer to reflect on the great change that has taken place in critical opinion about Mozart in recent years. The simple nineteenth century view which saw in Mozart the supreme master of formal beauty, and tended to take for granted the elements of which that beauty is made up, has given way to a spirit of inquiry which will take nothing on trust, and seeks to find out exactly what we mean by the Mozartian style before appraising it in general terms.
Form in the Instrumental Music of the Seventeenth Century
Authors: Meyer Ernst Hermann
Published: January 2007

There are periods in the history of music when the problems of musical form seem to have been solved once and for all. At such times, there are fixed formal schemes, there are species each of which has its average length, and with each of which the musical world of the particular time can associate something definite, familiar and often apparently unchangeable that has always been and always will be. With a perfectly safe tradition behind them, the composers of such a period see no need to strive for new and ever new forms, and are content to demand a certain amount of freedom or variety within the established tradition. Such a time was, for instance, the age of Mozart, Beethoven and the Romantics, which had its Sonata form with three or four movements each of which was a type that meant something more or less well known to everybody, which had also the Rondo form, Aria form, Opera and Lied form, and so on.
The Place of “Hearing” in Theory about Music
Authors: Lloyd Llewelyn S.
Published: January 2007

The science of the musical research worker has a Looking-Glass complexion. Romantic musings and fabulous mathematics inspire it in turn.

Bernard Van Dieren.

The musician can hardly take up any of the writings of those who expounded their ideas of musical theory, say, in the early days of this Association, without feeling some of the bewilderment that Alice experienced when she went through the Looking-Glass and made the acquaintance of the White Queen. The more he reads, the more perfect will he find the analogy to be.
A Perspective of the Literature on Conducting
Authors: Grosbayne Benjamin
Published: January 2007

Orchestral conducting, of all branches in the realm of musical interpretation, calls for the most profundity, versatility and musicianship. It is puzzling, therefore, why so little has been done to list and to codify the literature about it. That practically nothing has been done in this regard may come somewhat as a surprise to many, as it did to me a few years ago, when I first began to make a bibliography of works in this and related fields. It is difficult to hazard an explanation why this is so when one considers the tremendous interest and almost overpowering fascination the orchestral conductor exerts upon the minds of most concert-goers.
An Inquiry Into the Origin and Growth of Certain Musical Idioms and Expressions
Authors: Turpin E. H.
Published: January 2007

The title of my paper expresses the direction rather than the purpose of the observations I am indulgently permitted to offer for your consideration this evening. My proposition may be described as two-fold; in the first place I shall endeavour to show that original and soul-stirring music is not necessarily produced by the studied avoidance of accepted idioms, but rather by the skilful use of figures which have become recognised forms of the language of music; and in the second place it is my desire to protest that, accepting music as a modern art, we are too apt, in contemplating its comparatively recent achievements, to neglect the study of its primary impulses, which, having moved the hearts of all men in all ages, will ever remain the source of all that is true and strong.
A Concise View of the Law of Copyright as Affecting Composers of Music
Authors: White F. Meadows
Published: January 2007

There are many aspects in which the subject of copyright might be regarded by the writer of a paper appointed to be read before this Association. It might be treated historically, and dressed with amusing anecdote; instances of bad or good fortune attending on certain well-known compositions might be recorded; lessons might be drawn from the high rewards obtained by the comic song or the dance tune, as compared with the poor financial results realised by the classical work of high intention and, it may be, of high achievement. Or, again, each composer or publisher might well and effectively occupy the attention of a meeting of the Association for the limited period allotted for discussion in treating this subject of copyright from the standpoint of his own special grievance or experience or criticism, and in offering for acceptance his own peculiar remedy or suggestion for amendment of the law. Or, again (to give as illustrations two points in the law of copyright so special in their character that they will need no further notice in this paper), the reader might treat the subject from the side of paradox. Eg. gr.: it is a maxim in the law of copyright that there can be no copyright in immoral publications: can there be immorality in music? Could we apply this maxim and deny copyright to a musical composition so trivial, so commonplace, or with so many consecutive fifths in it as to amount to musical immorality? Or again, the fifth section in the Copyright Act of 1842 empowers the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, on complaint that the proprietor of the copyright in any book (including printed music), after the death of its author, has refused to republish or allow the republication of the same, and that by reason of such refusal such book may be withheld from the public, to grant a license to the complainant to publish such book in such manner and subject to such conditions as they think fit; and the complainant may publish such book according to such license. Question raised: Would it be expedient to extend the principle of this provision to cases in the lifetime of the author, as, e.g., when the proprietor of the copyright in a musical composition has got possession of the plates and locked them up in his cellars, and refuses to reprint; and the composer, who sees in the publication of the work the passport to the recognition of his genius, laments the loss to the world of such a precious possession?
Music and Philosophy
Authors: Haydon Glen
Published: January 2007

“Suppose that, on leaning down to tie up your shoe laces, your hands suddenly grasped a knife and a fork, and, then, instead of your shoes, there appeared a plate of beefsteak; that, on cutting into the steak, you discovered not a juicy morsel, but five hairy beetles; and that these, instead of running to the edge of the plate, opened their mouths and sang ‘Hail Columbia!’ in deep bass voices.”
Domenico Scarlatti: His Unique Contribution to Keyboard Literature
Authors: Dale Kathleen
Published: January 2007

When I chose the title of this paper, not without difficulty, some months ago, I had in mind only the unique nature of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard compositions themselves, for my approach to this composer had always been musical rather than bibliographical or historical. I am, indeed, no bibliographer or historian, but merely a practical musician whose only qualification to speak on Scarlatti's works is that of having long known them fairly intimately with my fingers. I have played each one of the 550 Scarlatti pieces I possess several times, and a great many of them countless times, though never upon the type of instrument for which they were designed. To my infinite regret I am not a harpsichordist, but in playing my Scarlatti illustrations on the piano I am fortified by a remark made by our President at the first meeting of the Session, to the effect that in performing early music upon modern instruments, musicians were interpreting it as a living art.
Matthew Locke: A Dynamic Figure in English Music
Authors: Lewis Anthony
Published: January 2007

The seventeenth century is conspicuous in musical history for the picturesque and unorthodox personalities that flourished during its span. None of them was more vigorous, colourful or intrepid than that robust and adventurous character, Matthew Locke. Born about 1630, and therefore the older contemporary of Buxtehude and Lully, Locke grew up in an age that was largely occupied in trying to absorb the new doctrines expounded or implied by the Florentine revolutionaries at the beginning of the century. The pupil of Christopher Gibbons, his musical lineage thus sprang in direct succession from the great Elizabethan polyphonic school, and the conflict between that tradition and the new methods infiltrating from the continent was the perpetual undercurrent of his development. The earlier generation of composers, which included such men as William Child and Christopher Gibbons himself, had been inclined to evade the issue, and let it be understood that it was too late for them to undertake so fundamental a reorientation. But it was impossible to ignore any longer the changing aspect of European music; the new influences abroad had to be incorporated into the national idiom, however drastic the process involved. Locke was not one to decline such a difficult and, in many ways, thankless task; on the contrary the challenge afforded him a certain stimulus. It demanded a man of dauntless fibre, and Locke was tough, both personally and musically. He had need to be, for as if his artistic problems were not sufficient, they were set against a background of social upheaval. His youth was spent under the early Stuarts, the Commonwealth witnessed his progress to maturity, and the climax of his career was reached during the Restoration. He is thus of unusual interest historically, since his life not only spans the artistic gap between the last survivals of the Elizabethan period and the widespread adoption of the Italian manner, but also links two political eras separated by a succession of events that profoundly changed the whole constitutional scene.
The Classical Grand Pianoforte, 1770–1830
Authors: Gough Hugh
Published: January 2007

All those who cultivate the ancient and beautiful art of playing keyboard instruments must for ever be indebted to a generation of craftsmen and technicians who in a very short space of time carried out most of the essential research and experiment which made possible the development of the fine and sonorous piano of our own day. These men had their own problems to solve, and they produced for their generation very perfect musical instruments, but perhaps without knowing it they set the course of development for many years after their day. I hope to show here how in the course of a single lifetime the pianoforte emerged from the stage of being only a modified harpsichord into a musical intrument of power and expressiveness, scientifically designed to work efficiently and to continue to do so. This development took place between about 1770 and 1830, and it has never been exceeded in rapidity by the development of any other musical instrument.
Goethe's “Prometheus”
Authors: Mackworth-Young G.
Published: January 2007

Bedecke deinen Himmel, Zeus,Mit Wolkendunst,Und übe, dem Knaben gleich,Der Disteln köpftAn Eichen dich und Bergeshöhn;Musst mir meine ErdeDoch lassen stehen,Und meine Hütte, die du nicht gebaut,Und meinen Herd,Um dessen GlutDu mien beneidest.Ich kenne nichts ÄrmeresUnter der Sonn', als euch, Götter!Ihr nähret kümmerlichVon OpfersteuemUnd GebetshauchEure MajestÄt,Und darbtet, wÄrenNicht Kinder und BettlerHoffnungsvolle Toren.
Music of the Coronation Over a Thousand Years
Authors: Hughes Dom Anselm
Published: January 2007

When this title was rashly proposed to your Secretary last year I was rather vague as to how much of the material might be new, and therefore worth producing before this Association. On the whole I have been rather disappointed on this point, for it is always more pleasant to be able to communicate facts to people which they might be unlikely to find elsewhere. Fifty years ago, for the coronation of Edward VII, a similar paper was read to the Association; but the author seems to have been unsuccessful in finding very much directly concerned with the music of the rite, and contented himself with rather speaking round his subject.
The Work of Anne Geddes Gilchrist, O.B.E., F.S.A. 1863–1954
Authors: Dean-Smith Margaret
Published: January 2007

When, in 1935, Sir Richard Terry was editing the Scottish Psalter-tunes and was looking for information concerning the Revd. Neil Livingston, whose monumental recension of the Psalter he so greatly admired, he found the nearest surviving relative of this divine and scholar, Anne Gilchrist, living outside Lancaster in a spacious Victorian house high above the estuary of the Lune. Its windows looked westwards to the lakeland mountains, the sea, and the countryside where as a girl she had walked, sailed and fished, and exchanged plants with the future Regius Professor of Botany, and where she made the archæological discoveries cited at her election to the Society of Antiquaries. At that time she was just over 70, still in the prime of her intellectual life, and with another twenty years before her.