bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The mythical antecedents of the Ciris
Authors: Fulkerson Laurel
Published: October 2020

The pseudo-Vergilian Ciris is often treated as an epyllion, and so compared to other epyllia (by Catullus, Calvus, Cinna, and Valerius Cato). This chapter focuses on what is at stake in comparisons between the Ciris and these (mostly imaginary) poems. Scholarship has for many decades sought to pick the Ciris apart scene by scene, suggesting that over two-thirds of it was adapted, incompetently, from other poems that we can no longer read; likewise, it has been compared to a cento. This chapter suggests that such comparisons are worse than useless: they introduce questions of originality to a genre in which it is inappropriate. By way of contrast, a typology of allusions (direct quotation, fairly-certain quotation, reuse of motif) is offered, followed by discussions of particular passages within the nurse scene of the Ciris that can be interpreted more generously than scholars have usually interpreted them.
Volcanic wonder
Authors: Williams Gareth
Published: October 2020

This chapter argues that the Aetna is a far more searching commentary on didactic form than is usually acknowledged in scholarship. It posits special points of linkage between the Aetna and Manilius’ Astronomica. Beyond its singularity of topic, the Aetna stands apart within Latin didactic because of the tight synergy it contrives between text and subject, Aetna and Etna. This synergy marks a compressed co-efficiency of form that runs counter to the spaciousness of Manilius’ five-book star-mapping. In approaching the Aetna as a subterranean complement to the Astronomica, the chapter focuses on the invocation to Apollo in the Aetna’s preface. In sum, the Aetna poet acknowledges, reacts against, and varies Manilius’ unusual redirection of familiar Callimachean claims to originality. The chapter stresses above all the relationship that results from our poet’s deliberate configuration of the Aetna as the Astronomica’s antipodean relative.
The authorship of Tibullus 3.9
Authors: Fabre-Serris Jacqueline
Published: October 2020

Corpus Tibullianum 3.8–18 have often been considered a self-contained unit. Gruppe (1838) attributed poems 14–18, written in the first person, to Sulpicia, and poems 8–13 to the so-called amicus Sulpiciae (8, 10, 12 are in the third person; 9, 11, 13 in the first). This division was widely accepted until Parker (1994) argued that all the poems in the first person were by Sulpicia. This chapter supports Parker’s view, examining [Tib.] 3.9 as a case study for discussions of authorial identity across Sulpicia’s oeuvre. After examining the intertextual references made in [Tib.] 3.9 to Virgil, Tibullus and Propertius, and variations on these poets’ themes, it is suggested that the poem’s author is Sulpicia, since the stylistic features that appear to be specific to poem 9 are common to poems 13 and 18 as well.
The authorship of Sulpicia
Authors: Fielding Ian
Published: October 2020

This chapter explores a model of collaborative authorship for the Sulpicia elegies in the Appendix Tibulliana ([Tib.] 3.8–18). These poems represent the largest corpus of extant women’s writing in Latin from pre-Christian antiquity—but their authenticity is doubted by some. Such doubts are partly prompted by the presentation of Sulpicia—especially the switch to the third person in 3.8, 3.10, 3.12. It is argued here, however, that Sulpicia would have been required partially to conceal her authorial identity; attention is drawn to the evidence of the place of Roman women at recitationes in Pliny’s Epistles. It is suggested that Sulpicia’s poetry may originally have been recited by a lectrix. The possibility is considered that Sulpicia’s poems might have been written in partnership with other members of her household. Finally, a reading of [Tib.] 3.13 shows Sulpicia reaching out to the literary community of which she was not allowed full membership, and inviting women readers to engage with her in collaboration.
Plumbing the Ovidian Halieutica
Authors: Volk Katharina
Published: October 2020

Remaining agnostic about the question of authenticity, this chapter argues that the Halieutica is a pronouncedly ‘Ovidian’ poem. As a didactic poem, it sits well alongside Ovid’s erotodidactic oeuvre, and, like those texts, it expertly wields the traditional tropes of the genre while also mildly parodying them. The stress on ars also fits well with Ovid’s preoccupation with art, artistry, and artfulness throughout his career. In the Halieutica, fishermen need to rely on ars for the very reason that fish, too, are characterized by craftiness and deceit: pursuer and pursued are equally matched and engaged, as it were, in a battle of wits. This is reminiscent of the hunting, fowling, and fishing of the Ars amatoria. Re-semanticizing a dead metaphor is a typical Ovidian move, and the implied anthropology of the Halieutica—that man is essentially a homo artifex—is germane to Ovid’s world view.
The lovers and the rebel
Authors: Vuković Krešimir
Published: October 2020

A series of six poems exchanged between lovers (known as the double Heroides) is normally placed at the end of the collection of Ovid’s single Heroides. Their attribution has been questioned in recent decades. Much of the argument has devolved on stylistic features, especially polysyllabic pentameter endings. This chapter briefly revisits the issue by analysing some exilic passages in the Fasti and the Metamorphoses. Rather than making grand claims based on supposed stylistic features, the focus is on reading Ovid as a rebellious poet, a trait that consistently appears across his work from the Amores to the Tristia. By comparing passages from the exilic works with the text of the double Heroides, it is argued that reading Ovid as the author of both fits with our perspective on the great poet of nequitia. The conclusion is subjective, but opens up possibilities in reading the double letters as an exilic text.
The Nux attributed to Ovid and its Renaissance readers
Authors: McGowan Matthew
Published: October 2020

This chapter examines Erasmus’ commentary on the Nux against a period of religious writing that put him at the centre of the controversies driving the Reformation. In the poem, the tree presents a case against passers-by who pelt it and steal its fruit: the maxim is ‘not to harm those who help’. Like the poem, Erasmus’ commentary is didactic; it is dedicated to John More (Thomas More’s son). Beyond its amusing conceit (a talking tree), its brevity, style, and rhetorical polish made it an attractive subject for commentary; it was edifying too. Erasmus’ work explicates the tree’s arguments and comments on Latinity. The poem’s subject—an innocent’s self-defence against mistreatment—speaks to Erasmus’ personal circumstances, caught as he was between extremists using his discoveries to make arguments against him. This chapter suggests that, in his commentary, Erasmus not only returns to boyhood games by ‘playing with nuts’, but retreats to that time in his life where he was least encumbered and happiest.
The Alternatives to a Bite or a Bark: After Launching Article 7 TEU Against the Hungarian Government
Authors: Halmai Gábor
Published: October 2020

On 12 September the European Parliament—for the first time ever—launched Art 7 TEU proceedings against Hungary. The decision was based on a report denouncing various violations of EU values by Viktor Orbán’s government. But triggering Art 7 TEU came too late, and meant also too little, because besides the important political function of naming and shaming Hungary as a violator of EU values, the chances of reaching the corrective arm of the procedure are extremely low. Hence, the chapter argues, instead of Art 7 alternative means from the toolkits of the EU may be more effective. Infringement actions as alternatives have not really worked so far in the case of Hungary, but cutting off EU structural funds for regional development or other forms of assistance as a value conditionality approach has not really been tried as yet.
Constitutional Security in a State of Emergency
Authors: Wyrzykowski Mirosław
Published: October 2020

The countries admitted to the European Union in 2004, in particular (but not only) Hungary and Poland, are places of growing processes of erosion of constitutionalism, the rule of law, democracy, and human rights. Less attention is paid to constitutional security having a material (substance) dimension concerning the essence of the constitution and its fundamental role in the political system, and a procedural dimension, related primarily to the guarantees of preservation and development of the constitutional order of the state. This chapter discusses the dismantling of constitutional security and how this is always a process in which, after exceeding a critical point, the State becomes a failed State.
Reinvigorating Democracy in the European Union
Authors: Búrca Gráinne de
Published: October 2020

This chapter begins with a brief summary of two sets of democratic challenge facing Europe—the original ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU and the more recent growth of populist illiberalism—which have in common the erosion of trust in conventional political institutions and processes. It considers these democratic challenges alongside another contemporary phenomenon, namely the growth of interest in alternative forms of citizen participation, whether deliberative, popular, digital, or other, in various parts of the world. The chapter moves on to examine in more detail a recent experiment with deliberative citizen participation in one EU Member State, namely Ireland’s use of citizens’ assemblies to introduce constitutional and public policy change, and asks whether Ireland’s experience could offer any possible lessons to address some aspects of the EU’s democratic ills.
A Social Theory of Constitutional Imaginaries
Authors: Přibáň Jiří
Published: October 2020

This chapter focuses on the concept of constitutional imaginaries and their classic legitimation semantics of topos-ethnos-nomos. Constitutional imaginaries are considered internal symbolic constructs of self-constituted positive law and politics which make it possible to describe functionally differentiated modern society as one polity and distinguish between legal and political legitimacies and illegitimacies in this polity. They are not limited by the unity of topos-ethnos-nomos and evolve in national as well as supranational and transnational constitutions. In the context of European constitutionalism, general imaginaries of common market, universal rights, and democratic power are thus accompanied by specific imaginaries of European integration through economic performativity, social engineering, legal pluralism, and political mobilization. These imaginaries show that political constitutions include a poietic societal force impossible to contain by autopoietic legal norms and political institutions.
Two Charters and a Pillar
Authors: de Witte Bruno
Published: October 2020

This chapter retraces the post-enlargement trajectory of the protection of fundamental social rights in Europe. The chapter selects three years that signpost this trajectory: 2000, when the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights was adopted, with the inclusion of a social rights chapter; 2009, when the Lisbon Treaty seemed to contain a renewed promise of social progress in the Union; and 2017, when the European Union launched a European Pillar of Social Rights, as part of an effort to revitalize the social protection agenda of the European Union after the disappointing post-Lisbon years.
Breaking Down the Meaning of Constitutional Breakdown
Authors: Daly Tom Gerald
Published: October 2020

This chapter argues that Wojciech Sadurski’s work on the deterioration of Polish democracy suggests the Polish context may present a bridge between two key conceptual frameworks: democratic breakdown and democratic decay. In his 2019 book Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown Wojciech employs the term ‘constitutional breakdown’ to describe how the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has seriously degraded the democratic constitutional order since 2015. The concept of ‘breakdown’, which has a long pedigree, has fallen out of favour in contemporary literature on the deterioration of democracy worldwide, which rather emphasizes the decline of total breakdown and argues that slower, subtler dismantling of democracy is the dominant threat. This chapter explores the relationship between these frameworks by reflecting on why Wojciech frames the Polish experience as ‘breakdown’ rather than ‘erosion’ or ‘decay’, whether ‘breakdown’ literature offers useful insights beyond ‘democratic decay’ literature, and why Wojciech refers to ‘constitutional’ rather than ‘democratic’ breakdown.
An Enlightened Man
Authors: Issacharoff Samuel
Published: October 2020

Wojciech Sadurski has been the translator, interpreter, and clarion of the post-1989 transformation of Eastern Europe for an attentive public of constitutionalists. This chapter discusses his work, which has chronicled the transition from a concern for the most basic of human rights under authoritarian rule to the challenges of democratic governance. The compelling rights discourse of an earlier period gave way to a more delicate claim of abuse of majoritarian prerogatives as the hopes of liberal democracy encountered the power of illiberalism. Across his writings, one sees in Sadurski the constant need to redefine the structures of constitutionalism as the source of vulnerability shifts from the individual to the polity.
Diffuse Constitutionality Review in Germany
Authors: Möschel Mathias
Published: October 2020

This contribution analyses the cases in which ordinary German judges have annulled statutes for being unconstitutional and thus exercise what is also known as ‘diffuse constitutionality review’. In the past, this used to be the case under the Weimar Constitution and in West Berlin. However, what is less known is that even today, certain statutes that are deemed to be pre-constitutional or certain legislative provisions from the former GDR can be declared as conflicting with the German Constitution. This contribution argues that such diffuse constitutionality review might also have contributed to a further strengthening of the rule of law in Germany. Ultimately, from a comparative constitutional law perspective, this contribution also provides a more nuanced view of the German model of constitutionality review, which has been traditionally classified as belonging to the centralized ‘European’ or ‘Kelsenian’ model, with a specific constitutional court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht, having the monopoly over such review.
Public Reason and Illiberal Democracy
Authors: Śledzińska-Simon Anna
Published: October 2020

Illiberal democracy is characterized by four features: pretending to play the democratic rules of the game; instrumental use of the law to gain political advantage; location of the source of political legitimacy in majority rule; and recourse to religiously driven morality as a basis for state action. Paradoxically, in this regime, both legislators and constitutional adjudicators continue to use rational justification to legitimize public policies and court decisions, but the reasons they provide do not indicate an overlapping political consensus on a given matter. This contribution aims to demonstrate that in illiberal democracy public reason ceases to fulfil its two main functions: to discipline those who dominate the political process and to protect the autonomy of those who are prevailed upon. Hence, it argues, public reason in illiberal democracy has a new meaning: it denotes a hierarchy of values that prevail over individual rights and interests.
Epilogue
Authors: Weiler J.H.H.
Published: October 2020

This teaching of Jesus seems so compelling, the question of why Jews persist in observing the rules of kosher eating is more than a curiosity. It explains more than anything else the deep-rooted Christian sense of religious superiority (and barely concealed contempt) vis-à-vis Judaism, which is considered as obsessed with meaningless and primitive rituals compared to Christianity concerned with ethics and the heart. At a deeper level it defines the ontological difference between Christianity and Judaism. So why do Jews observe Kosher?
Introduction
Authors: Schiltz Michael
Published: October 2020

This chapter lays out the conceptual framework needed to grasp the challenges facing exchange bankers in late nineteenth-century Asia. It borrows from the transaction cost literature underlying the study of the structure of the international monetary system; and it subscribes to the notion that such structure is the product of international currency competition. In the historical literature, applications of these insights are surprisingly scarce. Yet it is demonstrated that, by (1) settling on the existence of a distinction between ‘center’ and ‘periphery’ and (2) the existence of ‘network effects’, the transaction cost approach may explain the persistence of monetary arrangements in the long run. Remarkably, seemingly ‘retreating’ currencies retain a degree of superiority that would not be warranted in case network effects were absent; vice versa, non-liquid currencies have only a very small chance at climbing the ladder of currency prestige—they are structurally disadvantaged. It is argued that the distinction between center and periphery is real, not just analytical, and has had tangible implications for monetary and financial policy makers in the fields of sovereign debt and trade finance.
Are the “Randomistas” Evaluators?
Authors: Picciotto Robert
Published: October 2020

In an article published in 2012 the author concluded that the surge of enthusiasm in randomization was bound to be short lived. But he had underestimated the public appeal of RCTs and their alignment with the evolving demands of a contemporary evaluation market dominated by vested interests. By now, it has become clear that the randomization bubble will not burst any time soon. Grounded in deep historical roots, favored by power-holders and considered uniquely rigorous by an ill-informed public, RCTs will continue to be commissioned even though they are severely constrained by statistical imperatives and ethical concerns, can only tackle narrow social research questions and are ineffective as tools of organization accountability and learning.
Using Priors in Experimental Design
Authors: Vivalt Eva
Published: October 2020

I argue that a big issue facing all academic studies is whether and how to leverage decision-makers’ priors in study design. Both RCTs and non-RCTs could more efficiently inform policy-making if priors were taken into consideration. Non-RCTs can exploit deterministic assignment to maximize the information value of the study. On the other hand, non-RCTs also appear more subject to specification searching, which should lead to decision-makers being more uncertain about how to interpret a study’s results and consequentially perhaps being more convinced by evidence from RCTs and willing to experiment more with leveraging prior beliefs. I discuss these issues and explore the potential value of information benefits to using priors in study design by simulation.
The Analysis of Causation
Authors: Noordhof Paul
Published: October 2020

Causation is a dependency relation that need not be general. Consequently, we should focus on counterfactuals rather than regularities and laws for analysing causation. The plausibility of indeterministic cases of causation indicate that there should be appeal to probabilities, which is more successfully developed by appeal to counterfactuals rather than conditional probabilities. The analysis focuses on the nature of causation rather than our concept of it and will have reductive aims. The analysis draws upon everyday knowledge of causation in our lives and so should not be characterized as developed a priori and is not threatened by issues raised about analysis by experimental philosophers.
Non-Causal Counterfactual Dependence and Intrinsicality
Authors: Noordhof Paul
Published: October 2020

When counterfactuals hold concerning entities with properties that stand in some kind of loose existential dependency relation, counterfactual dependence only indicates a causal relationship if part of their corresponding minimal supervenience bases satisfies the analysis of causation. The idea has application even if properties are understood in ways proponents of a powers ontology recommend. An analysis of intrinsic properties in this chapter appeals to three features—External Independence, Duplication Characterization, and Maximizing Recombination—each of which, by itself, doesn’t quite work to demarcate what we have in mind. This provides a second way of approaching the issue as well as assisting with later analysis of varieties of Humean supervenience.
Processes and Prevention
Authors: Noordhof Paul
Published: October 2020

The proposed analysis of causation is compatible with allowing that there are ways to distinguish the variety that falls under it. The same characteristics as those who take causation to involve substantial causal processes characterize kinds of causation without these characteristics themselves serve to characterize causation in general. This is an advantage because the theories that make an appeal to substantial processes in understanding causation face considerable difficulties. The attempt to tie causation to the presence of substantial causal processes between cause and effect fails to be justified by appeal to responsibility, or by its capacity to make sense of causal locality and the intrinsic character of causal processes. Some claim that a counterfactual theory closes off certain options with regard to the property understanding of Bell inequalities. This is not the case.
Causal Non-Symmetry
Authors: Noordhof Paul
Published: October 2020

Causation is a non-symmetric rather than asymmetric relation. Different bases of causal non-symmetry include an asymmetry of overdetermination, the independence condition, and agency. Causal non-symmetry can be rooted in one or more of these three while also recognizing a fourth non-symmetry appealing to a primitive non-symmetric chance-raising. Each counts as an appropriate basis for causal non-symmetry because it is a (partial) realization of non-symmetric chance-raising. Key moves involve a refinement of how to understand the way in which the asymmetry of overdetermination works, and how it interacts with the revised similarity weighting, the contribution of the independence condition to a proper understanding of the transition period, the role that appeals to primitive non-symmetric chance-raising should play in the treatment of problem cases, the circumstances in which an appeal to an interlevel non-symmetry of agency may be appropriate, and the priority ordering of these various realizations of causal non-symmetry.
Humean Supervenience and Possible Worlds
Authors: Noordhof Paul
Published: October 2020

The position defended is compatible with a coherent development of a reductive account of modality. It is less significant for the principle of recombination than previously thought and the principle of recombination is unlikely to play successfully its role as a principle of plenitude in any event. The distinct existences principle is defended against an argument that it is necessarily false. In fact, by comparison, we have more reason to believe in the possibility of worlds in which Humean supervenience is true and there is causation, than in physicalism about phenomenal consciousness. The counterfactual theory of causation, and surrounding framework, explains why this is the appropriate verdict at which to arrive. Some aspects of the variety of causation may be understood as a determinate-determinable relation but the different vertically fundamental bases are better understood as partial realizations. Causation is one horizontally fundamental metaphysical category but there may be others.
Thomas Adès in Five Essays
Authors: Massey Drew
Published: October 2020

The British composer, conductor, and pianist Thomas Adès (b. 1971) has achieved a level of recognition and celebrity within the concert world shared by very few living musicians today, and his compositions enjoy a degree of widespread acclaim that places him among the most widely heard composers working now. His critical and popular successes, at least inside the insulated world of classical music, place him within the absolute mainstream of concert life today. Is he merely pecking over the carcass of a tradition, soon to be subsumed by or abandoned in favor of some other cultural practice? Or does his work suggest possibilities for a concert world waiting to be born? This book, which is the first full-length study of Adès’s work as a whole in English, seeks to answer—or at least articulate the terms of response to—these questions and others. In recognition of the diversity of Adès’s output, this book is structured as a series of essays. These essays are organized thematically. The first two essays considers Adès’s arrangements and serialist compositions, respectively. The third looks at how his opera The Tempest illuminates much of his music’s beguiling contradictions. The fourth considers how Adès has been understood as a “surrealist” composer, and the final chapter considers the cosmic sweep of some of his most recent works.
The Twelve Tones
Authors: Massey Drew
Published: October 2020

Serialism retains its cachet as one of the most severe, learned styles to have been developed in the last one hundred years. Adès seldom uses serialism on its own, but rather in concert with other compositional techniques. For example, he opens The Four Quarters (2010) with a striking juxtaposition of serialism and isorhythm. In a somewhat different vein, Adès relies on what he calls a “magnetic” approach to serialism in Polaris (2010), which artfully masks intricate row relations behind a gradually additive structure. Taken as a whole, Adès’s serial works demonstrate his comfort with not only the history and techniques of serialism, but also the potential for certain strict compositional styles to achieve particular affective ends in diverse contexts.
TERENCE ALLBRIGHT (b. 1946)Two Songs (1999)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter describes the work of composer-pianist Terence Allbright. Two Songs is a brief but distinctive cycle that is freely atonal but meticulously worked and rhythmically inventive. These characteristics demonstrate a deep affinity with the poetry of Stevie Smith. Through this piece, Allbright conveys introspection and the finer subtleties of meaning underlying the texts’ spare lines. Nothing is overstated, but an inner turbulence is palpable. Words are set with clarity and sensitivity, and vocal phrasing is not difficult. The darker colours of the baritone voice are used to considerable effect, with dynamic nuances precisely calibrated. The singer's principal challenge is thus to negotiate the varied rhythms, so that they seem to flow without effort.
PETER ASTON (1938–2013)Five Songs of Crazy Jane (1960)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter describes the first acknowledged work of Peter Aston, Crazy Jane. Here, Crazy Jane, now a raddled hag, recalls the lusty passions of her youth, reflecting bitterly on the cruel reality of spent beauty. This is a dramatic scena with strong elements of folk song that can give the performer a chance to demonstrate vocal quality, flair, and musicianship. Consistency of tonal centres and rhythmic patterns gives the music cohesion, and lines move effortlessly through a wealth of subtle modulations. The basically tonal idiom moreover does not create a difficult challenge for an inexperienced singer. Double bar-lines divide each of the five songs into further clear sections, forming a disciplined framework which should be apparent in performance.
MILTON BABBITT (1916–2011)The Widow’s Lament in Springtime (1959)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter examines a brief but beautiful example of composer Milton Babbitt’s oeuvre—The Widow’s Lament in Springtime. This modestly proportioned song blends both sides of his composing persona—the lyrical and the unabashedly modernistic. The vocal writing is graceful and fluid. It is possessing of an exceptionally wide range, constantly swooping and dipping, yet is perhaps smoother and less fragmentary. Singers with a high level of musicianship will find it exhilarating to sing such lines, as long as problems of pitch and rhythm can be solved. They may even conceal vocal blemishes as the voice cruises over intervals in a curving legato. The tessitura is low enough to suit an alto, but higher pitches should take care. The low-pitched writing, moreover, aids clear enunciation, but flexibility is still a prerequisite for anyone undertaking this piece.
DAVID BEDFORD (1937–2011)Come in Here, Child (1968)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter considers a highly distinctive and memorable work from David Bedford—Come in Here, Child. Coming from a musical family, Bedford displays an especially refined ear for vocal timbres. His simple and characteristic example of 1960s contemporary music has a natural, unaffected beauty of its own, and can fascinate and delight even the most straight-laced audience. The chapter shows that, while the score may appear dauntingly ‘avant-garde’ at first, it is actually quite straightforward to perform. Lines flow easily and note patterns are constantly repeated, giving ample chance for attaining pitch orientation. Space-time notation, innovative at the time the piece was written, gives flexibility of rhythm and an agreeable sense of freedom to the performer.
JOHN CASKEN (b. 1949)Ia Orana, Gauguin (1978)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter explores one of John Casken’s more demanding cycles, Ia Orana, Gauguin. This is an enthralling and rewarding showpiece for both singer and pianist. The soprano's full range is deployed with consummate skill and flair, incorporating some highly original technical feats. In keeping with the subject matter, the atmosphere is exotic and colourful. The composer has evolved an ingenious and evocative amalgam of French and English words, employing painterly images with much alliteration. Syllables are used to striking vocal effect: bocca chiusa (humming) reiterations and elisions of nasal French consonants are especially telling. Text and music are pleasingly blended in true Lied tradition, and variable phrase lengths give added flexibility. The modernistic musical idiom also pays homage to French impressionism.
RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGER (1901–1953)Five Songs (1929)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter considers the works of Ruth Crawford Seeger, whose music employs the fine settings of poet Carl Sandburg. The music is subtly distinctive, though straightforward to the eye. Words are set with unaffected simplicity and piano writing is idiomatic and evocative. Mostly fragmentary, understated vocal lines are underpinned by contrastingly elaborate, flowing keyboard writing. On its own, the voice part should pose few technical problems, except that of maintaining a clear tone. Crawford Seeger shows real mastery of the art song in the balanced relationship between the two performers. She habitually played her own accompaniments, which clearly require a confident player. Conventional notation is employed throughout, with time (but not key) signatures.
SIMON EMMERSON (b. 1950)Time Past IV (1984)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter examines Simon Emmerson’s Time Past IV, a hauntingly beautiful work which is highly accessible thanks to its consistent tonality and economical construction. This piece is based entirely on a single hexachord and its transposition. The vocal part consists of mellifluous syllabic fragments taken from Shakespeare’s well-loved Sonnet XXX. Space-time notation is employed, affording a degree of freedom within the disciplined structure. The music moves along quite naturally, and it is only in the more frenetically active passages that timing could go awry. The chapter illustrates how Emmerson is punctilious in every detail. The work describes a logical arc, from its soft, rapt beginning, through a period of manic activity, and back to a poignant, contemplative ending. The text is used imaginatively: there are speech effects such as whispering, and diphthongs are stretched out, mutating gradually through their components. The pre-recorded electronic accompaniment provides a multicoloured palette of vocal attacks and timbres, with babbling syllabic repetitions that overlap and constantly transform themselves.
COREY FIELD (b. 1956)Three Lullabies (1990)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter focuses on works by Corey Field. Field has added two songs to his earlier Escape at Bedtime to form a nicely balanced trio of lullabies. Each movement is neatly constructed, and shows considerable flair and sensitivity to the relationship of voice and piano. The first poem also comes from Robert Louis Stevensons’s A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885), but the third sets a W. B. Yeats text (from The Rose, 1893). The cycle is relatively undemanding vocally and has an attractive immediacy. It will suit either a tenor or soprano, giving them a chance to shine vocally, while the piano’s luminous contribution gives strong rhythmic support. The style is a fresh, accessible mix of tonality and light chromaticism, with strophic verses treated conventionally but never rigidly. Each song has its own distinctive character. The simpler outer songs frame a middle movement that is a little more ambitious, and the work begins and ends with piano solos.
DARON HAGEN (b. 1961)Muldoon Songs (1989 and 1992)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter explores the Muldoon Songs by Daron Hagen. This succinct, appealing cycle comes from a generous, attractively presented volume, replete with notes by both the composer and Paul Sperry, who has done so much for contemporary art song. This cycle consists of seven contrasting songs; the third and fourth mere fragments. The sixth was added last, at the request of Paul Sperry, who commissioned the piece. Much of the intriguingly acerbic text is set straightforwardly. Through this cycle, Hagen shows a masterly grasp of the voice–piano idiom, along with a love of words, and a refined instinct for setting them. His writing seems unfettered and entirely natural, encompassing an exceptionally wide range of styles with unerring craftsmanship and sometimes deceptive simplicity. Indeed, as this chapter shows, the music breathes freely, maintaining elasticity and rhythmic verve.
KEITH HUMBLE (1927–1995)Eight Cabaret Songs (1985–1989)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter introduces eight cabaret songs by Keith Humble. These songs are quirkily original and distinctly offbeat. Humble has said that, rather than representing cabaret tradition, the pieces are redolent of the period in France just after the Second World War, when groups of artists engaged in political and existential discussion. The texts themselves concern the eternal themes of love and death. As may be expected, piano parts are especially striking and wide-ranging in character. The work’s history is somewhat chequered, however: Humble originally wrote five songs, but added others later, adjusting their order over time. The last is by far the most elaborate.
MATTHEW KING (b. 1967)Dives and Lazarus (1994)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter examines Dives and Lazarus. This impressive piece supplies a fresh slant to the traditional cantata on a biblical theme. It demonstrates the versatile gifts of the composer-pianist Matthew King. Christian faith is of great importance to him, and this deeply felt work has a rarefied spiritual atmosphere. Delicate ornamentation and arresting interplay between voice and piano are salient features. The piece runs in one continuous movement, with fluctuating time signatures and tempos. Discreet pitch cues guide the singer through changes of tonality, and dynamics and nuances are carefully judged. Harmonic relationships, including dissonances between voice and piano, need to be defined clearly. There are, however, many unisons and convergences on to tonal centres, especially at cadences.
BENJAMIN LEES (1924–2010)Songs of the Night (1952)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter takes a look at six songs by Benjamin Lees. Here, the songs are well balanced to complement one another. The fourth, with its evocative, pictorial piano figurations and ecstatically floating vocal lines, is the most substantial. This cycle needs a singer with a distinctive, sumptuous but focused tone, and the requisite stamina to scale long, luxuriant phrases which go from rapturous lyricism to forthright declamation. The chapter shows how the singer is often left suspended on high notes at the ends of phrases, which means keeping a firm grip on support muscles up to the very last moment. Arrestingly bold piano parts pilot the voice along, and illustrate the words in a manner reminiscent of French vocal masters. The resonant texts are by a poet whose work Lees has often set, and with whom he feels a strong kinship.
CECILIA McDOWALL (b. 1951)Four Shakespeare Songs (1991)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter examines Cecilia McDowall's works. It shows that the cycle featured here is suitable for a youthful, light-voiced soprano with a well-placed upper range. McDowall, justifiably admired for her choral writing, has a great empathy with the way the voice works and feels, and she consistently displays a deft touch and fine ear, combined with a strong awareness of practicalities. The four songs are well contrasted, and they offer ample scope for the singer to exhibit a degree of vocal virtuosity without being unduly stretched in portraying these disparate characters with skill and aplomb. The tonal idiom, notated in standard fashion, replete with key signatures, is agreeably fresh and direct, and the music flows along with a natural momentum and openness of expression. A relatively simple but effective piano part supports the voice, often illustrating and embellishing the texts. Vocal lines cover a broad compass, and some sit rather high, but in these instances the composer wisely avoids strain by allowing the voice to relax while refocusing on the lower range.
JAMES MacMILLAN (b. 1959)Three Scottish Songs (1991–1995)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter explores the work of James MacMillan. It examines a brief cycle, which demonstrates his ability to scale down and simplify his style without lowering his standards or resorting to pastiche. Seemingly naïve, strophic settings have an appealing freshness here, bearing the stamp of someone with an innate understanding of the practicalities and subtler natural nuances of the voice. The piano writing, too, is arresting, and musical ideas are deployed with economy and skill. Although the three songs were written for different occasions—the first was originally for voice and ensemble—they work extremely well as a sequence, since the endings of the first and second settings imply a continuity, proceeding attacca into the next.
ANTHONY MILNER (1925–2002)Our Lady’s Hours (1959)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter showcases the sterling quality of Anthony Milner’s output through his beautifully balanced cycle, Our Lady's Hours. This cycle is set to texts which reflect his deep religious faith. His style is assured and bracingly vigorous, combining elements of neoclassicism with flashes of earlier English Romantics. Although the appearance of the score is conventional, with key and time signatures, the music displays a rich chromaticism and powerful rhythmic drive, as well as a special sensitivity to keys and their distinctive colours. The vocal writing is wide-ranging and often highly decorative, and piano parts are full of vibrancy and panache. The substantial central song of the three is an extended scena, framed by a simple introduction and a flowing, densely textured Adagio finale.
RONALD PERERA (b. 1941)Five Summer Songs (1972)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter considers a cycle by Ronald Perera. His songs show a special delicacy and flair in creating clear, well-balanced textures. The cycle will suit a light, flexible mezzo, able to negotiate a broad range of dynamics without becoming too weighty. Piano accompaniments are fluent and well varied, with repeated figures a regular feature. The musical style is straightforward and disciplined, with some recognizable nods to Stravinskian neoclassicism. There is considerable rhythmic verve, and a fine sensitivity to vocal timbres. The piano part contains abundant cues—even unisons—so there should be no problems with pitching. The composer's lucid instructions are a reliable guide for the performers.
JULIAN PHILIPS (b. 1969)An Amherst Bestiary (1997)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter studies a series of vignettes by Julian Philips, based on the poems of Emily Dickinson. This format allows the performers to concoct their own groups, ‘mixing and matching’ according to personal taste, and adapting them to fit different occasions and contexts. Ever-practical, he gives suggestions for viable selections lasting three, five, or seven minutes. For a more substantial concert item, he recommends framing groups with the ‘Prelude’ (for solo piano), ‘Foreword’, and ‘Afterword’. Here, the vividness of Dickinson’s verses is matched by music of captivating brio and sensitivity, with settings that go from infectious energy to poignant simplicity. Only three pieces last over two minutes, and the shortest, ‘The Robin’, is a peppy forty seconds.
JAMES PRIMOSCH (b. 1956)Three Sacred Songs (1989)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter takes a look at some examples of James Primosch’s sacred music. It shows how the solo song cycle Three Sacred Songs exemplifies his consistency, integrity, and technical skill. Here, assured craftsmanship is welded to sincere spiritual conviction—a winning combination, which communicates strongly and directly. Three widely contrasting movements form a satisfyingly balanced whole. The vocal writing is modal and mellifluous, and eminently practical, avoiding extreme demands of range or technical virtuosity. Sopranos, tenors, light mezzos, and even high baritones can take it on board. The piano parts supply a wealth of translucent, well-balanced textures, which are entirely idiomatic and lie comfortably under the hands. The general tone is radiant and joyful—a welcome antidote to the more melancholy aspects of religious music. The piece is ideal for a church recital, and a resonant acoustic will add bloom to its sonic beauty.
KATE ROMANO (b. 1971)Who Killed Cock Robin? (1999)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter discusses a miniature cycle by Kate Romano. In Who Killed Cock Robin? Romano sets the six verses of a much-loved nursery rhyme with consummate flair, writing for soprano with innate understanding and an acute ear for timbre. In addition, the composer makes particularly astute use of the upper register’s natural flexibility. The words prove an ideal vehicle for imaginative expansion and embellishment: oft-repeated words suggest witty simulations of bird calls, in a dazzling range of figurations. Contrast is supplied by legato writing, especially in the second and fifth stanzas. It is only in the last verse that the lowest note occurs—the highest comes amongst the smoothly sliding lines of the fifth verse. Piano parts, skilfully tailored to each vocal setting, are nimble and varied, often exploiting higher resonances to complement the voice.
TIMOTHY SALTER (b. 1942)Life (1988)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter describes Life by Timothy Salter. This piece demonstrates Salter’s talents in choral music and solo voice as well as his unfailing versatility, musicality, and empathy with the voice. He could perhaps be described as an accessible mainstream modernist, with an uncluttered, highly individual language characterized by attractive, chromatic harmonies and a strong sense of vocal colour. An accomplished pianist, Salter creates lucid, fluent textures that never drown the singer in Life. Such intuitive, highly concentrated music carries a strong element of spirituality, especially fitted to Geroge Herbert’s tenderly introspective, but affirmative poem. A resonant church acoustic moreover can enhance the feeling of spaciousness in this piece.
JOSEPH SCHWANTNER (b. 1943)Two Poems of Agueda Pizarro (1980)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter presents a highly energetic and dramatic showpiece by Joseph Schwantner. The two substantial settings of poems by the Colombian-American surrealist poet Agueda Pizarro were written for the versatile gifts of Lucy Shelton. The score also bears a message from the poet, expressing her delight at the result. Even though Schwantner has chosen to set the English translations, the music’s sparkling fluidity and elan evoke the colour and spirit of the Spanish language. There is no doubt that a high standard of musicianship is required to negotiate pitches and rhythms with seeming effortlessness. Furthermore, the musical language has an immediate appeal, with a perceptible tonal basis underlying even the most heavily embellished lines.
HOWARD SKEMPTON (b. 1947)The Maldive Shark (1990)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter showcases Howard Skempton’s miniature, The Maldive Shark. It is dedicated to his friend, the composer and singer Brian Dennis (1941–98). The captivating text ruminates on the relationship between the shark and the smaller fish that encircle it, as it makes its ponderous progress. The poem’s imagery is often lurid (‘sawpit of mouth’, ‘charnel of maw’) and is laden with alliteration (‘white triple tiers of glittering gates’), giving the singer the opportunity to relish the sounds as they roll off the tongue. Despite all this verbal detail, a seamless overall legato has to be preserved, with notes given their full value. The piece lies comfortably within the baritone’s natural compass, and the vocal dynamic is mezzo piano throughout, so a good degree of tonal control will prove advantageous.
IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971)The Owl and the Pussy-Cat (1966)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter studies Igor Stravinsky's final work, The Owl and the Pussy-Cat. With typical sly relish, Stravinsky seems to be mocking any pomposity in his admirers, confounding everyone by leaving the stage with a brief, light-hearted coda to his cherished large-scale achievements. This well-loved nonsense verse by Edward Lear was the first poem his wife Vera got to know, and the piece is dedicated to her. This chapter reveals that the song has a strong connection between English and Russian schools of absurdist humour. To add to the fun, Stravinsky even here adheres to a strict twelve-tone system, affectionately lampooning the method he favoured for his last works.
PETER WIEGOLD (b. 1949)Les Roses (1998)
Authors: Manning Jane
Published: October 2020

This chapter features Peter Wiegold’s Les Roses. It shows how this cycle carries intriguing detail and fascinating effects which come off brilliantly, despite demands of range and flexibility. The Jo Shapcott poems, written from the rose’s viewpoint, and set impeccably, are her personal response to a sequence by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). Wiegold’s notation is admirably clear and precise—he resorts to space-time notation at key moments for added freedom. Expressive instructions are succinct and always to the point. He even allows the singer licence for occasional improvisation around held notes, and discreet embellishments to written trills and slides. Thus, his innate sensitivity to the performer’s need for spontaneous creativity is as exemplary as it is unusual.