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Singing, Dragons and Beyond: Oper Forward. Opera Forward Festival, Amsterdam, 18–31 March 2017

Author(s): Jelena Novak / Language(s): English Issue: 23/2017

A recent review of two books about contemporary opera used for its title an antique cartographers’ saying referring to the unknown territories: “Hic sunt Dracones” (Here be Dragons).1 It insinuates that there might be some strange or terrifying surprises at the boundaries of opera since it is barely known what is actually ‘hiding’ beyond conventionally accepted norms. Charting new territories is, however, essential for the development of any discipline. Academic research that takes contemporary opera as its theoretical object started to develop rather recently, while artists themselves have probed beyond the confines of conventional opera for at least forty years. There are also institutions such are several opera festivals and academic conferences (for example, the activities of the Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre, University of Sussex) that support novel paths in discovering what it is that propels opera further, beyond the borders. And those borders are complex – borders of what is conventionally called opera, borders of the institution of the opera house, borders beyond and towards the site specific and inclusive projects, borders between the singing voice-bodies as we usually know them

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Overcoming the Crisis of Tonality – Resemantised Tonality of Modernism

Author(s): Srđan Teparić / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2016

In this article I analyse the context and features of resemantized tonality, historically linked with the first half of the 20th century. The renewed interest in tonality occurred after the crisis of tonality — the system that prevailed in music until its ‘collapse’ in the late 19th and early 20th century. The consequence of the crisis was the emergence of atonality, as well as different tonal idioms which are here collectively referred to as “resemantized tonality”. This reaction led to a whole series of works based on the concept of linguistic-stylistic resemantization in the context of modernist expression. I will discuss some of the basic characteristics and linguistic strategies of the resemantized tonality that have established it as an autochthonous linguistic-grammatical system. Furthermore, I will analyse two highly illustrative works: Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 Classical and Paul Hindemith’s cycle of solo songs The Life of Virgin Mary.

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Crisis Concealing Light

Author(s): Katy Romanou / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2016

In this article I discuss the blossoming of musical life in Greece that begun in 1974, simultaneously with the growth of the debt crisis. Communist musicians returned from exile and they were hailed as heroes while their music became indispensible to pre-electoral gatherings. Connected to the return to democracy, music and musicians became extremely important to politicians and loved by the people, and were offered a substantial portion of the money that poured in from the EU. Cold War cultural politics played their role in promoting avant-garde music as well. In comparison, today Greece has a great number of excellent musicians and the architectural infrastructure for the performance and study of music, but these are concealed by the daily hammering of crisis news.

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A Peasant’s Interview with a Foreign Journalist by Predrag Milošević in Relation to the Question of Socialist Realism in Serbian Music History

Author(s): Milan Milojković / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2016

Bearing in mind the position occupied by Yugoslav postwar music, in this article I review certain compositional strategies implemented by Predrag Milošević in his piece A Peasant’s Interview with a Foreign Journalist, by means of which this modernist composer stepped into the field of socialist realism. I will analyze the score in order to identify the most significant compositional-technical strategies used by the composer. Further analyses will encompass an interpretation of the piece with respect to the theories of socialist realism, while a separate segment of this article will be dedicated to some aspects of the relationship between this composition and writings published at the time of its creation. I will then use these analyses to emphasize some points in Milošević’s work where one can observe connections with the theoretical output of his contemporaries, as well as with recent writings that focus on understanding the place of socialist realism in Serbian music history.

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VRSTE PRISTUPA U NAUČNOM ISTRAŽIVANJU MUZIKE

Author(s): Sanja Srećković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 4/2019

The paper deals with the approaches to researching music from the scientific perspective. It is argued that the scientific literature concerning music contains two different methodological approaches which significantly determine the range of possible conclusions to be reached by the research. The approach „from the outside“ investigates music by automatically applying to music the more general conclusions concerning human cognition and other capacities and behaviors. Thus, this approach omits music’s internal factors. In contrast, the approach „from within“ consists in empirically investigating reactions to music, capacities necessary for its understanding, performing, etc., and their relationships with the reactions and capacities outside the domain of music. The paper shows that, even though the scientific research of music is still in the beginning stage, the approach from within enables more complete explanations concerning music, due to taking into account a larger number of factors relevant for philosophical understanding of the phenomenon of music.

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Усуд постмодерног света: о Меланхолији и Револту Милана Михајловића

Author(s): Ivana Vuksanović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 21/2016

The musical оеuvre of Milan Mihajlović (b. 1945) enjoys a high reputation and position in contemporary Serbian music. This has been proven by the many awards he has received, countless performances of his compositions at home and abroad, and especially by the warm and approving reactions of the audience. The stylistic consistency in his oeuvre is a result of his creative use of Scriabin’s scale. The concept of this scale was first theoretically elaborated in an extensive study written by Mihajlović in 1980 and, since then the scale has been functioning as a crucial cohesive element in all Mihajlović’s compositions. The novelty in his oeuvre, composed during the 1990s, were intertextual references made by using citations from his own works and those of other composers (Monteverdi, Mozart, Stravinsky, Rachmaninov, Vasilije Mokranjac). The most characteristic features of his mature style are also recognizable in his recent works Melancholy (2014) and Rebellion (2015). The interval structure of Skriabin’s scale is projected along the horizontal (melodical) and vertical (harmonical) axes of the both works while the formal design resulted from shifts of tensions and relaxations. Developmental sections are based on variation and improvisation of the small number of different motifs (three basic ones in Melancholy, four in Rebellion) above the metrically moveable ostinato layers and the releases are marked by change of tempo, dynamic, meter and texture. The most significant and radical release is the one which marks the abrupt ending of Rebellion by the physical gesture of slamming down the keyboard lid. As the composition was written for the BUNT festival (Belgrade) it fits the festival’s idea of expressing resistance to the government’s neglect of academic musicians and institutions. In the wider sense, it becomes a sign of the resistance to the world we live in, and that is the world of lost ideals. Both works are composed for the wind instrument and the piano quartet and in the both cases the author’s voice, with its figures of sorrow and anger, is personified in singing, narrative lines of the wind instrument (the oboe in Melancholy and French horn in Rebellion respectively). These two compositions also demonstrate the specific concept of a circle that is intuitively searched for and ingeniously implemented. It is manifested by the cyclic concept of Scriabin’s scale and projected in all of the author’s compositional procedures as a vehicle for the expression of lament and resignation.

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The place of ‘Russian music’ on the Мulticultural Map of Europe

Author(s): Anna G. Piotrowskа / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2016

Both Russian and non-Russian composers and music critics willingly used the notion of Russian exoticism to differentiate the Russian musical legacy from the (western) European tradition, especially in the 19th century. At the same time, various Russian musical practices were considered to be exotic in Russia itself. In this article it is suggested that these two perceptions of Russian music influenced each other, having an impact on the formation of Russian national music. It is further claimed that Russian music served both as an internal and external tool for defining the country’s musical culture on the multicultural map of Europe.

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Radio Ljubljana and its Music Policies 1928–1941

Author(s): Leon Stefanija / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2016

The main programming issue faced by Radio Ljubljana was connected to its function: was it a new medium basically intended for cultural advancement and democratic information distribution or was it a new medium primarily serving as an entertainment platform for different types of listener? The question had been one of the key topics from the beginnings of Radio Ljubljana’s broadcasting in 1928. This paper discusses the answers to this question through an analysis of the musical programming from 1928 until the Luftwaffe destroyed Radio Ljubljana’s transmitter in Domžale on April 11, 1941.

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Listening to “the Human Without a Soul” – Outline for an Audience Centred History of Broadcasting in Communist Albania

Author(s): Eckehard Pistrick / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2016

The paper proposes a study of broadcasting in one of the most tightly isolated regimes of the communist Eastern Bloc, beyond the paradigms of radio as a pure propaganda medium and of radio history as pure institutional history. Instead of a macro-history from above, this contribution proposes an ethnographically grounded micro-perspective alongside the lines of “audience studies”, informed by “oral history” methods. It proposes focusing on the social effects of radio listening and, in a broader perspective, on how radio broadcasting was embedded into larger modernization agendas of the regime of Enver Hoxha.

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Улазак у Коларчеву задужбину: културна делатност и музичка публика

Author(s): Sabina Hadžibulić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 21/2016

The Foundation of Ilija Milosavljević Kolarac (also known as Kolarac Foundation; in Serbian: Kolarčeva zadužbina) was established simultaneously with the development of the most important modern cultural institutions in Serbia in the 19th century. The quality and diversity of the program, the ability to recognize important topics in the current time, as well as preservation of the old and encouragement of new ideas in almost all domains of art and science have contributed to its unquestionable reputation throughout the region. However, there have been no significant academic attempts to approach its work analytically and, in particular, its audience. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the work of Kolarac Foundation by presenting the origin and history of the institution, followed by an analysis of the program of all its activities in the first ten seasons of the new millennium. The central part of the paper is an analysis of its cultural activity in the given period. Finally, by using empirical data, the music audence of Great Hall (Velika Dvorana) of Kolarac Foundation is profiled through its basic socio-demographic characteristics and music practices. The music audience mainly consisted of women, highly educated professionals with a high material standard. The share of the oldest and those from 21 to 30 years old is the highest and, at the same time, equal. This audience is authentically fond of music, with no exceptions at all. Its members listen to music on everyday basis, and they were attending concerts in the year before the investigation. They find music to be an inevitable part of their lives, and cannot imagine emotional expression or making friendships without it. Finally, they sincerely like coming to Kolarac Foundation since they find it to be a place that has all the positive treats of a good cultural institution.

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Интерпретация классических музыкальных произведений в польской и русской анимации как основа творческого диалога

Author(s): Olga Vasil’evna Bochkareva / Language(s): Russian Issue: 21/2016

Animated musical film, lying at the intersection of the two creative worlds and representing a dialogue between the musician and painter, is a living process of the visual interpretation of the artistic image of a musical work. A dialogue between the director of an animated film and the composer of a musical masterpiece can take place only if there is intonational (term used according to B. Asaf’ev’s writing) “equalization” of the artistic and validation determinants of merger-related, personal, emotional states. The author emphasizes that within the artistic image of an animated film, the inner essence of the “I” is made on the basis of the artist’s expression, the unity and consistency of color, sound, plastic solutions, coupled with deep philosophical generalizations, cultural, and value-semantic in their nature. The article provides examples of interpretations of classical music masterpieces in animated films by Russian and Polish filmmakers.

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Музикографија Весника Јужнословенског певачког савеза (1935–1938)

Author(s): Aleksandar Vasić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 21/2016

During 1935, 1936. and 1938, in Belgrade was published a monthly magazine The Southslavic Choral Union Herald [Vesnik Južnoslovenskog pevačkog saveza]. Three years represent 16 issues or 119 articles, or 216 pages. The first editor was Milenko Živković (1901–1964), a Serbian composer of the younger generation, the chief secretary of the Southslavic Choral Union. The magazine was conceived as a newsletter. Choral societies, members of the South Slavic Choral Association, were given the opportunity to stay informed about the work of the Union and the activities of choral societies throughout the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Therefore, Herald published numerous news, informative articles, speeches and obituaries. However, the Herald got physiognomy of a music magazine thanks to essays on the significant figures of Serbian music (Davorin Jenko, Stevan Mokranjac), texts about the problems of choral technique and interpretation, critical reviews of sheet music, and musical criticism. These texts were written by the leading Serbian musicians of the time: Milenko Živković, Branko Dragutinović, Petar Krstić, Mihailo Vukdragović, Miloje Milojević and Richard Schwartz. The Herald represented the ideology of integral Yugoslavism. The assassination of Yugoslav king Alexander Karadjordjević during his visit to Marseilles in 1934 strongly affected the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which has long been in the political crisis. However, the Herald and the Southslavic Choral Union have remained faithful to the ideology of Yugoslavism and to King Alexander as its symbol.

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Силви Нисефор, ИВАН ЈЕВТИЋ. КОМПОЗИТОР НА ПУТЕВИМА СЛОБОДЕ / Sylvie Nicephor, IVAN JEVTIC. ITINÉRAIRE D’UN MUSICIEN LIBRE

Author(s): Jelena Janković-Beguš / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 21/2016

Review of: Силви Нисефор, ИВАН ЈЕВТИЋ. КОМПОЗИТОР НА ПУТЕВИМА СЛОБОДЕ / Sylvie Nicephor, IVAN JEVTIC. ITINÉRAIRE D’UN MUSICIEN LIBRE, превод с француског на српски Мила Катарина Ђуровић и Милена Анђелић, Београд: Српска академија наука и уметности и PAIDEIA, 2016.

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Ивана Медић (ур.) Радио и српска музика

Author(s): Bojana S. Radovanović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 21/2016

Review of: Ивана Медић (ур.) Радио и српска музика. Београд: Музиколошки институт Српске академије наука и уметности, 2015.

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Селена Ракочевић (прир.), Tрадиционални плесови Cрба у банату. Антологија. Етнокореолошки теренски видео снимци

Author(s): Nathan Greenhagh,Nick Green / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2016

Review of: Selena Rakočević (prod.), Traditional Dances Of The Serbs In Banat. An Anthology. Ethnochoreological Field Research Video Recordings/Селена Ракочевић (прир.), Tрадиционални плесови Cрба у банату. Антологија. Етнокореолошки теренски видео снимци. Multimedial DVD. Belgrade: CIOTIS, 2014.

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Discophonia: Dance Music for Listening. A Contribution to the Early History of Electronic Music in Lithuania

Author(s): Mykolas Bazaras / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Discophonia is the title of the debut album by the Lithuanian band Argo, one of the pioneering electronic music ensembles in the Soviet Union. It was released in 1981 by the Melodia pressing plant in Rīga and reached a run of around one million copies. The acclaim of Argo was evident and proved by the fact that in 1979–1986 the band performed around 50 concerts per year, touring around socialist states and taking part in TV shows. The title of the discussed album is prominent: “disco” is a short term for “discotheque” and “phonia” defines disco as an aural experience. The ambitions of the ensemble are materialized not only on the vinyl record’s envelope. Profound composi- tional ideas become evident when considering merits of the creative founder and lead- er of the band, Giedrius Kuprevičius. A prominent academic music composer himself, Kuprevičius mentions the composition technique of The Beatles, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Isao Tomita, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Yes as influential and important for Argo next to Bach, Mozart, Berio and Stockhausen.The music analysis of the album’s ontologically “thick” sonic material and manuscripts reveals the true purpose of the endeavor of the Argonauts. The article will display cre- ative musical means by which Argo urged the audience to perceive their music as one to which they can dance, but also listen.

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The Afterlife of Incidental Music: Two Case Studies

Author(s): Monika Novaković / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Remediation as a concept is seldom regarded in connection with incidental music, whether as a technique that composers use in post-theatrical music or a form of study material for researchers when attempting to recreate and understand incidental music. In this article, it is argued that the potential of original incidental music pieces remains largely unexplored and underdeveloped due to the volatile nature of the theatrical act as well as various demands and tasks that are placed upon it within the confines of a play. Remediation, as suggested by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, is viewed through a musicological lens in order to understand its importance for the composers and authors of incidental music who intentionally (as well as unintentionally) utilize it. This method can also help us research into post-theatrical life of incidental music when it gains new contexts. This article, therefore, seeks to explore the existence and the usage of remediation based on two case studies: Ivana Stefanović’s incidental mu- sic to the play Otac (The Father) by August Strindberg, and Zoran Erić’s incidental music to the play Pogled u nebo (Skylight) by David Hare. A brief review of socio-eco- nomic and cultural context in which incidental music in Serbia flourished is given, as it is a driving force behind many authors’ decisions to explore the genre of incidental music during the 1990s.

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The Issue of Spiritual Revival in Post-Soviet Georgian Music (Drawing on the Example of Eka Chabashvili and Maka Virsaladze)

Author(s): Gvantsa Ghvinjilia / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The article analyzes the consequences of the Russian annexation of Georgia in post-Soviet Georgian music. In the relationships with Russia, Georgia saw a chance of re-integration with European culture, viewed as its natural intellectual environment, but this was rendered impossible by Russian and Soviet policies. As Georgian Ortho- dox chants were driven out of the Georgian church, this layer musical tradition was unknown to the first Georgian composers, which prevented the opportunity to explore this source as a symbol of national identity when new professional music appeared. The second Annexation of Georgia at the time of the establishment of the Soviet socialist regime, along with the ensuing isolation of the country from the Western world, precluded any further integration with contemporary European music. Geor- gian composers remained within the limits of the tonal language of Romanticism (1920s-1950s). The generation of the 1960s and especially the 1990s had to overcome the backlog and detachment from recent developments in European music. Post-So- viet Georgian music reflected not only secondary Soviet traumas but also all the pain inflicted on the nation by the Russian annexations, usually accompanied by a fear of an uncertain future. All of that gave rise to the need for a more mystical perception of the world and, as a result, religious themes dominate post-Soviet Georgian music.

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Sound, Image, Performance. The 2020 Sacrum Profanum Festival Between Real and Virtual Space

Author(s): Karolina Golemo / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Sacrum Profanum is a festival with a long tradition and one of the flagship musical events of Krakow. The festival—offering the so-called contemporary classics, elec- tronic music, jazz, and other genres—is known for experimenting, presenting bold arrangements and combining traditions with avant-garde. The organizers’ intention to cross borders and explore unconventional forms of musical expression is accompanied by the search for new channels of communication. In 2020, due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic, the Sacrum Profanum festival radically changed its format. From a “live” event, it turned to an online event, but the way virtual space was used was significantly different from the online editions of other festivals. The experimental format of the 2020 festival made it possible to expose the multimedia dimension of Sacrum Profanum, as well as to show its performative and staging potential. It also allowed to test new forms of interaction with the audience and new possibilities of connections between sound and image. The aim of this article is to discuss the exper- imental 2020 onlineedition of the Sacrum Profanum festival, with emphasis on its multimedia dimension. Particular attention will be paid to the impact of new tech- nologies on the reorganization of the festival space and the emergence of new types of festival experiences. The analysis will be based primarily on the material from field research carried out as part of the project “European Music Festivals, Public Spaces, and Cultural Diversity” (www.festiversities.org).

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The Beat of Nature: Aspects of Sámi Culture in the Game Skábma: Snowfall

Author(s): Tomasz Bonikowski / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Rather than older, overly simplified, colonial and harmful representations of indige- nous cultures in cultural texts, more recent productions tend to depict these cultures in a more affirmative light, focusing on a somehow deeper understanding of them. These productions often rely on visual and textual references, such as clothing, choreography and language, but traditional music is missing despite consultations and the religions they present are uniformized or even superficial. In this paper, I will analyze the Skáb- ma: Snowfall game, which is an exception belonging to the trend of positive folklor- izm. First, I will show that the Sámi people are considered to be the witchcraft nation in the European tradition, which is Christian and colonial. They are stereotypically demonized and misunderstood. In reality, however, their beliefs focused simply on sustaining a connection with nature. Next, I will present the main occurring parapher- nalia: the Sámi drum, goavddis, and the magic the main character uses by drumming. Focusing on this element is connected with the Saami tradition. In Skábma, Sámi culture is taken very seriously, without deformation coming from assimilating it with more known cultures (especially, the Siberian shamanism). I propose that the game approach to colonial themes shows a new understanding of the disenclosure of the world, bringing fresh ideas to the field

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