Kenneth Hamilton, After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance (Oxford University Press, 2008) (original) (raw)

Talking the Intangible: Contemporary Classical Pianists on Elusive Aspects of Music-Making

2018

Placing the perceptions of ten contemporary professional pianists at its centre, this study explores how 'intangibles' in contemporary piano performance can be approached, understood, communicated and operationalised. Through a methodological approach of in-depth interviews recorded on video, coded and placed in the context of relevant literature and the experiences of other musicians, this study aims to locate the spaces in which intangibles play a role in classical piano performance, and determine the factors that influence how performers access and engage with intangible aspects of their music-making. In this way, it seeks to complement a vast body of literature on more tangible aspects of the instrument and its music, and contribute to a broader, more inclusive and balanced understanding of the constructs underlying piano performance as a process rather than product. It brings to the fore the actual voices of those who perform, yet have been downplayed or forgotten in mu...

Performance as Conversation: Dialogic Aspects of Music Performance and Study

Disciplinary applications of information literacy threshold concepts, 2017

What does a photo have to do with a piece by Gershwin? A recently discovered photograph identified the pitches of taxi horns used in a 1929 performance of An American in Paris supervised by Gershwin. Scholars at University of Michigan’s Gershwin Initiative have used this finding, in conjunction with a recording of the same performance, to justify the change from the traditional realization of the taxi horns for the new scholarly edition of this piece. Flexibility is a requirement for the modern musicologist; discoveries and breakthroughs can come in a variety of formats, and not just printed music. Although much of the classical music repertory is centuries old, musicians, musicologists, and fans participate in ongoing and lively conversations in an increasing variety of arenas. New insights on old works now surface thanks to technological innovations, from data-rich digital humanities projects to casual online forums, where media and text can be posted and discussed. The study and performance of a musical work—typically, the combination of sound, notation, and performance—is informed by a variety of sources in a wide array of formats.

Paradoxes of communication: The case of modern classical music

Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication, 2010

This article examines how the twentieth-century composer dealt with the paradox of communicating with the composer's own self and with other musicians, but not with the public at large.

Piano Performance in a Semiotic Key: Society, Musical Canon and Novel Discourses

2014

In an attempt to expand and enrich the existing trends of musical performance studies, as well as exploit the potentials of semiotic analysis, "Piano Performance in a Semiotic Key" offers the theoretical perspective that enables the unfolding of the multiple meanings generated by and communicated through the performer s art. Without denying that musical performance is inevitably associated with the opus, the semiotic approach, it is proposed here, should study performance as encompassing all the exogenic meanings that do not necessarily depend on a musical work. Thus, the focus of the present study is the figure of a classical music performer as a significant part of society, as well as cultural, institutional and personal discourses that both generate the art of music performance and originate from it. The main targets here are mapping the predominant tendencies of the art of musical performance during the twentieth century and proposing a form of semiotic analysis of different representations and self-representations that musical performers, pianists in particular, put into action in their interactions with social and cultural contexts (including different types of performer-listener communication processes, scholarly analyses, the various media through which the art of music performance is disseminated, and aspects related to the marketing and ideologizing of today s performance practices). Part 1 introduces a semiotic framework for studying musical performance. Part 2 discusses a variety of meanings communicated through the performers art as well as the media in which the art of classical piano music performance is operating. Part 3 positions the performers art within the Western musical canon by examining Beethoven interpretations as played by pianists of various cultural and historical backgrounds. The concluding Part 4 presents novel discourses on the art of musical performance by analyzing 11 personal websites of Lithuanian classical pianists as an important vehicle of contemporary performers for communicating their artistic identities. It is claimed in this work that the combination of semiotic and musicological approaches is relevant and revealing in the study of musical performance art in that it strongly make a case for current musicology to elaborate increasingly interdisciplinary paradigms and modes of investigation.

Composers' Intentions?: Lost Traditions of Musical Performance

2015

These selected essays by conductor Andrew Parrott reflect the thinking behind some four decades of his ground-breaking performances and recordings. Bringing together seminal writings on the performance expectations of, amongst others, Monteverdi, Purcell and J. S. Bach, this volume also includes the full version of a major new article calling into question the presumed historical place of the 'countertenor' voice. Focusing primarily on vocal and choral matters, the time span is broad (some five centuries) and the essays multifarious (from extensive scholarly articles to radio broadcasts). Authoritative, provocative and readable, Parrott's writing is packed with information of value to scholars, performers, students and curious listeners alike. ANDREW PARROTT is the founder and director of the Taverner Consort, Choir and Players. His book The Essential Bach Choir (The Boydell Press, 2000) has been acclaimed as 'a brilliant piece of research' (BBC Radio 3); 'ut...