Activities of music societies of Eastern Galicia as a prerequisite for the development of professional performance (ist third of the XX century)

The purpose of the article is to present the activities of music societies in Eastern Galicia during the late nineteenth – first third of the twentieth century, which laid the foundations for the development of national professional music education and performance, including piano. The methodological basis of the publication is historical-stylistic and comparative approaches, methods of historical-cultural discourse (V. Cherkasov), fundamental historical-musicological positions (L. Korniy, L. Kianovska, etc.). Problems of musical culture, education, and performance were considered by Galician musicians of that time (S. Lyudkevych, V. Barvinsky, N. Nyzhankivsky, etc.) in the broader context of national and cultural life, cooperation of Ukrainian cultural and educational societies, the active position of composers, performers, and teachers, which contributed to the development of professional education and performance, music culture in general. This methodological approach was continued by modern musicologists (M. Zagaykevych, L. Kiyanovska, L. Korniy, L. Mazepa, M. Cherepanin, etc.), who interpret the cultural and artistic life of Galicia in the second half of the nineteenth - early twentieth century. as a turning point in the process of formation of professional musical culture, due to the adoption of the so-called "cultural autonomy" (1867). Scientific novelty. A significant role in this process was played by music centers founded by the Society for the Distribution of Music in Galicia, the Galician Music Society (hereinafter - the Polish Music Society), the GMT Conservatory (1854) as the main musical educational institution in Galicia in the second half of the nineteenth century. The role of Ukrainian music societies was important, most of all – the centers of "Boyan" and "Union of Boyans", Music Society M. Lysenko, which became the basis for the establishment of the Ukrainian professional music institution – Higher Music Institute (1903), then - Lysenko Higher Music Institute (VMIL), the activities of an extensive network of its branches in various cities of Galicia. Significant educational activities of cultural, educational, and musical societies have encouraged professional composers to create original musical works, arrangements of folk songs, compiling the appropriate professional repertoire. In turn, this necessitated the development of professional music criticism in the Ukrainian periodicals. Analyzing the socio-cultural context of music societies, we relied on the developed classifications of their activities (N. Kobrin). This allowed us to outline the role of numerous monographic and thematic concerts dedicated to Ukrainian and Western European composers, solo concerts of prominent Ukrainian vocalists, and instrumentalists in the growth of performing skills of Ukrainian artists of this period. Conclusions. Conclusions are made about the decisive role of the network of cultural, educational, and musical societies of Eastern Galicia in the late nineteenth - first third of the twentieth century. in the process of development in the region of musical performance and musical culture in general. Keywords: musical culture of Western Ukraine, end of XIX – first third of XX century, cultural-educational and musical societies, musical performance.

Pensato: A Virtual Reality Framework for Musical Performance

<p>This thesis presents the design for a method of controlling music software for live performance by utilising virtual reality (VR) technologies. By analysing the performance methods of artists that use either physical or gestural methods for controlling music, it is apparent that physical limitations of musical input devices can hamper the creative process involved in authoring an interface for a performance. This thesis proposes the use of VR technologies as a central foundation for authoring a unique workspace where a performance interface can be both constructed and performed with. Through a number of design experiments using a variety of gestural input technologies, the relationship between a musical performer, interface, and audience was analysed. The final proposed design of a VR interface for musical performance focuses on providing the performer with objects that can be directly manipulated with physical gestures performed by touching virtual controls. By utilising the strengths provided by VR, a performer can learn how to effectively operate their performance environment through the use of spatial awareness provided by VR stereoscopic rendering and hand tracking, as well as allowing for the construction of unique interfaces that are not limited by physical hardware constraints. This thesis also presents a software framework for connecting together multiple musical devices within a single performance ecosystem that can all be directly controlled from a single VR space. The final outcome of this research is a shared musical environment that is designed to foster closer connections between an audience, a performer and a performance interface into a coherent and appealing experience for all.</p>

Pensato: A Virtual Reality Framework for Musical Performance

<p>This thesis presents the design for a method of controlling music software for live performance by utilising virtual reality (VR) technologies. By analysing the performance methods of artists that use either physical or gestural methods for controlling music, it is apparent that physical limitations of musical input devices can hamper the creative process involved in authoring an interface for a performance. This thesis proposes the use of VR technologies as a central foundation for authoring a unique workspace where a performance interface can be both constructed and performed with. Through a number of design experiments using a variety of gestural input technologies, the relationship between a musical performer, interface, and audience was analysed. The final proposed design of a VR interface for musical performance focuses on providing the performer with objects that can be directly manipulated with physical gestures performed by touching virtual controls. By utilising the strengths provided by VR, a performer can learn how to effectively operate their performance environment through the use of spatial awareness provided by VR stereoscopic rendering and hand tracking, as well as allowing for the construction of unique interfaces that are not limited by physical hardware constraints. This thesis also presents a software framework for connecting together multiple musical devices within a single performance ecosystem that can all be directly controlled from a single VR space. The final outcome of this research is a shared musical environment that is designed to foster closer connections between an audience, a performer and a performance interface into a coherent and appealing experience for all.</p>

‘Making, Not Filling Time’

Improvisation and notation are frequently opposed in terms of transience versus permanence, an opposition that reflects broader Eurocentric ideas of orality and literacy. Confronting such binary distinctions, Schuiling describes the use of notation by three groups of improvising musicians, showing how notations mediate their understanding of time. This forms the basis of a critique of Alfred Schütz’s influential account of social interaction in musical performance. Schuiling argues that Schütz’s distinction of an ‘inner time’ of music and an ‘outer time’ mapped by the score remains tied to a work-centred musical ontology, and fails to attend to the making of time in the course of performance. Drawing on his fieldwork, Schuiling reconsiders the work of Maurice Halbwachs, the primary target of Schütz’s argument. Rather than understanding music as an object of inner contemplation, Halbwachs provides a view of music and temporality as a way of opening up to the world.

Paying a Church Musician in the Nineteenth Century: Between Possibilities and Necessities

In Europe, the nineteenth century had its own kind of an impact on the development of church music: fellowships that looked over the repertoire of music played in churches and encouraged research into the sources of the old church music and the Gregorian chant started emerging in many different countries. In the middle of the said century, the Holy See released documents that repeatedly and strictly regulated music and especially the music played during masses. Bishops were ordered to establish new music schools, reinforce the existing ones, and form committees in charge of the repertoire, musical performance and care of musicians in dioceses. The salary of the members of church chapels depended on the length of their work and the level of their professionalism. Sometimes the best musicians earned as much as the chapel leader. The leader, who received a certain amount of money to be spent on salaries from the seniors of the church every quarter of the year, distributed it on their own accord, taking into the account the intensity and quality of the instrumentalists’ performance. Each choir singer received the same amount of money, and the salary of the organist depended on the number of masses. Gregorian chanters received smallest salaries. Often the musicians were paid in kind: in food, candles, clothes, footwear, vodka, beer, honey, and the like. Some church chapels even had a cook who prepared breakfasts and lunches specifically for the musicians. Unfortunately, at the end of the nineteenth century, the financial situation of church chapels the financial situation of church chapels changed for the worse much worse.

Musculoskeletal Pain and Musical Performance in First and Second Violinists of Professional Youth Chamber Orchestras: A Comparative Study

OBJECTIVE: First and second violinists in orchestras use identical instruments, but the motor patterns used to execute the different notes may vary between the two groups and the biomechanical gestures may influence musculoskeletal complaints. The primary objective of this study was to compare the pain intensity and interference in musical performance of first and second violinists of professional youth chamber orchestras. Second, to investigate the correlation between pain and the musical practice profile in this population. METHODS: This cross-sectional study enrolled 74 violinists, aged 12 to 17 years, from three professional youth chamber orchestras in Brazil. Participants completed a validated self-administered questionnaire, the Musculoskeletal Pain Intensity and Interference Questionnaire for Musicians–Brazilian version (MPIIQM-Br). Variables related to musical practice profiles were also recorded. Data analysis applied t-tests for independent samples and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The sample of first violinists (n=39) presented 23 males and 16 females, and the second violinists (n=35) included 23 females and 12 males. The mean age was 13.9 yrs (SD 1.1) and 14.1 yrs (1.0) for the first and second violinist groups, respectively. Most participants (n=66, 89%) reported pain in at least one moment of their career, and 54 (76%) reported pain at the time of data collection. A higher pain prevalence was identified in the right shoulder (37.7%), in 28.2% of the second violinists and 9.4% of the first. The second violinists presented higher scores for most variables related to pain intensity and pain interference in performance (p < 0.05). A correlation was observed between time working at a professional level and the number of affected areas on the body pain map (r=0.30; 95% CI 0.23–0.42) and between the hours of daily practice and the number of affected areas on the body pain map (r=0.39; 95% CI 0.29–0.45). CONCLUSION: Second violinists had more complaints of pain and difficulty in playing their instrument compared to the first violinists. The study also found a correlation between the number of body areas with pain complaints and variables linked to the violinists’ practice profile.

The Boundaries of Funniness and the Dilution of Audience Identity in the Musical-Dramatic Art

This paper sets out to examine the transformation of comedy in the history of European theatre. Musical performance extends the semiotic space of the original genre into a field of fluid and open meanings and signs incorporating and suggesting many interpretations, some of which are ironic. It is argued in contemporary aesthetics that, on the one hand, art cannot exist without a discourse interpreting it, while on the other, there exists the demand to avoid interpretation, which at once legitimizes the aesthetic effect and castrates the object of art. Provocation is used as an instrument for solving the problems of observing the object of art in a new way and understanding modern reality, and provocation is not complete without irony and self-irony. Wit, irony, and comicality are transformed as fitting into the style of the absurd and deconstructing the border between the funny and the serious. The purpose of such provocations is to put the viewer into a position of uncertainty and aesthetic shock, and this stupor inexorably leads the beholder to encounter the object of art and nurtures a new understanding of their own self. This clash of the spectator’s viewpoint created by provocative shows dispossesses theatre productions of the status of “museum exhibits”. This paper will examine the organicness of elements of the laughter culture and comic devices for musical and dramatic theatre.