Music’s Textual Dilemma

Music is sound: audible, unique, ephemeral. For music composed before the advent of electronic recording a century and a quarter ago, musical texts — the unique arrangements of musical symbols by which music is represented in visible form — are our principal evidence for how that music sounded when it was created. But the texts in which Western music of the past is preserved are not necessarily accurate representations of the music they record. Although the symbols that make up Western musical notation have remained relatively stable over the centuries, much that they represent has changed. Tunings and temperaments have varied — from repertoire to repertoire and from place to place. So have styles of singing and of playing instruments. So have the instruments themselves. Most important in the present context, the conventions for realizing texts have varied substantially; the idea that performers should follow their texts closely dates only from the mid eighteenth century. In these contradictions lies music’s textual dilemma: music historians and performers must depend upon texts, but even supplemented by research in performance practice, texts do not necessarily provide the information necessary to support informed discussion.

The Identity Construction Through Music Notation of The Indigenous Style of Gitar Tunggal Lampung Pesisir

This study aims to reveal the meaning of music notation writing of gitar tunggal Lampung Pesisir written by Imam Rozali. Imam is a gitar tunggal player who wrote his technique and playing style in notation symbols. This article uses a case study research design with pattern matching techniques (Yin, 2018). Data were collected through observation, interviews, document analysis, and audio recordings. A series of tests were carried out on the notation and other supporting information to improve the validity of the data. Laboratory analysis was carried out to describe signs, interpret symbols, and compare Western musical notation. As a result, (1) the music notation written by Imam Rozali is a musical expression used as a medium for remembering; (2) the writing of Imam Rozali’s musical notation constructs his musical identity as a Gitar tunggal Lampung Pesisir player; (3) Imam Rozali’s music notation symbolizes an indigenous style which has its concept of gitar tunggal music; (4) Imam Rozali tries to add value to his musical identity among gitar tunggal players because the notation is a symbol of intellectuality.

„W półsłowa” i „w półdźwięku”… O relacji Zygmunta Krasińskiego i Fryderyka Chopina

The article presents the relationship between Frédéric Chopin and Zygmunt Krasiński both on the biographical level and in the relationship between the word and the sound that Krasiński often wrote about in his letters. A special expression of the dialogue between poetry and music described by the poet are Chopin’s compositions to the words of poets contemporary to him, which is especially true about the words of the motto from Krasiński’s poem Ostatni (The last poem). It is extraordinary in the context of Chopin’s songs as it is not only a musical illustration, but also a sophisticated interpretation of the text through music. The attempts to present poetic content through musical notation presented in the article lead to the conclusion about Chopin as a conscious recipient of a literary work who, like Krasiński, saw in the symbiosis of word and sound the possibility for expressing internal experience.

Digitale Musikanalyse mit den Techniken der Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) am Beispiel von Kompositionsstudien Anton Bruckners

Studying the harmonic structures of a musical work and exploring its origins is one of the main tasks of traditional musicology. Since the advent of computer technologies, new tools for musical analysis emerged to gain new perspectives on well-known compositions. In the field of digital musical editions, the markup language MEI (Music Encoding Initiative) plays a prominent role for encoding musical notation with a musicological demand. This paper presents the current state of the project "Digital Music Analysis with MEI using the Example of Anton Bruckner's Compositional Studies". Its aim is to encode the "Kitzler Study book" written by Bruckner and to present it in a digital Edition. Also, the project explores the capability of MEI for an automatic or half-automatic harmonic analysis.

The deconstruction of Byzantine mode-organization and the new Chrysanthine ‘order’

This paper was written to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of musical treatise by Archbishop Chrysanthos of Madytos (c.1770-1846), the first work towards a ‘scientific’ treatment of Greek ecclesiastical music (1821)[1]. Chrysanthos attempted to reorganize the modal and rhythmic theory of this music, and reform the musical notation that has remained to this day. The paper deals with an aspect of Chrysanthine modal system that has not received due attention so far: the abandonment of the traditional authentic-plagal order and its substitution by a new one that does not make sense if placed outside its cultural context and historical antecedents. Chrysanthos’ main point of reference seems to be the Ottoman makam system that had already penetrated post-Byzantine chant but was now given a new momentum[2]. Before that, Greek composers used the Byzantine modal division into four authentic (kurioi) and four plagal (plagioi), positioned a fifth apart from each other. The authentic modes were mostly ascending in terms of melodic movement, whereas the plagal were descending (though one has first to ascend in order to get down!). Otherwise, every authentic-plagal pair shared the same melodic scale (usually an octave), which they traversed according to certain melodic motifs (some common to all, others unique to every mode).[1] Chrysanthos, Εισαγωγή εις το θεωρητικόν και πρακτικόν της Εκκλησιαστικής Μουσικής / συνταχθείσα προς χρήσιν των σπουδαζόντων αυτήν κατά την νέαν μέθοδον παρά Χρυσάνθου του εκ Μαδύτων, Διδασκάλου του Θεωρητικού της Μουσικής (Paris: Rigny, 1821).[2] In this paper, the Turkish terms have been rendered into their original script except for makam (mode) and usul (rhythm), the Anglicized plural form of which (makams and usuls) has been preferred instead of the longer makamler and usuler. The Greek names have been transliterated into Latin according to British Standard for transliteration of Cyrillic and Greek characters (BS), 1958.

Creation of musical pieces At GUITAR PRO 6 (Part 2)

The purpose of the article is to find out the specifics and methods of creating music in the sequencer GUITAR PRO 6. Methodology. The article uses a systematic approach, and also applies methods of comparison and generalization. Scientific novelty. For the first time in domestic musicology, innovative methods of working in the modern computer program sequencer GUITAR PRO 6 were discovered and proposed. The application of the methods and rules presented in the study provides the opportunity to transfer the work of a composer, arranger, sound engineer, musician, with a computer to a completely new stage in the development of musical creativity, which significantly improves the result of the study of musical texture, expanding the ways of existence of the work and the like. Conclusions. This software product is a powerful editor that allows you to create original scores at a professional level for subsequent editing. The program presents many useful tools with which the user can work with a different set of symbols of musical notation, as well as with a wide range of regulation of sound dynamics and tempo, which allows you to create samples of musical scores that sound and their phonograms. It has a powerful built-in MIDI editor, chord builder, player, metronome, and many other useful instruments for musicians. Ability to run Guitar Pro 6 on Windows, Linux, Mac OS platforms. Widely used by composers, arrangers, and sound engineers. Also, the methods of work in Guitar Pro 6 can be used for study by students who master the relevant specialties.

Communication in the music: the interaction between the author’s text and interpretation in the Baroque clavier music

The purpose of the article is to show the features of the formation of a musical notation as information transmission media from the composer to the performer in a historical context. A special is given to the time when the functions of the authors and the interpreters of their music have been divided. The article outlines some reference points in today’s permanently changing informational field. The methodology of the research consists of the use of observation, induction, generalization, modeling. This approach allows one to formulate certain rules of interpretation of the musical text which can serve as a guide for both scholars and performing musicians. The scientific novelty of this study is in the formulation of certain factors affecting the conventions within various historical types of music notation, and in the consideration of certain rules of the decoding (i.e., interpretation) of such notational conventions. Conclusions. The work with musical text requires a musicologist and/or a performing musician to have profound knowledge of the historical context in which the music has been created, the performing traditions and conventions of the appropriate period, as well as the scholarly sources, e.g., the written treatises and methodological writings by composers. This information creates an important communicative field, in which the interpreter of a musical text can find or create the best options from the point of view of artistic persuasiveness and stylistic compliance.

Oblong formaten en liedboeken in de zestiende eeuw

This article examines the earliest example of a Dutch printed songbook without musical notation in oblong format: Een Schoon Liedekensboeck (Antwerp, 1544), commonly known as the Antwerp Songbook. Its oblong format was probably inspired by music books, even if the advantages attached to this format only partially applied to songbooks without scores and notes. Even so, the Antwerp Songbook’s typography and lay-out do facilitate performance of the songs to some degree. Additionally, unlike contemporary books in oblong, this songbook’s title page is rotated 90 degrees to portrait orientation. This article contends that this hybrid shape underlines the book’s hybrid function: it was a music book intended for those who cannot or have no inclination to read music. Similarly, Een devoot ende profitelijck boecxken (Antwerp, 1539) stands out for having a comparable hybrid shape: it combines elements of music books (such as notes and the oblong format) with elements of vernacular song tradition and a title page in portrait orientation.

Archiepiscopal Archetypes, Printed Books, and Parish Practices: Musical Notation in Editions of the Missale Salisburgense (1492-1515)

In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, successive archbishops of Salzburg attempted to consolidate their power and implement ecclesiastical reforms by means of commissioned printed liturgical books. Achieving uniform worship, however, proved difficult. In editions of the Missale Salisburgense, the revised musical mass prefaces required typographically challenging red notation. The addition or omission of coloured notes by printers and users reveals that the technical limitations of printing together with variable performance practices hindered liturgical uniformitas.