Arno Nadel (1878–1943): A Contributor to Modern German-Jewish Identity from Vilnius

The phenomenon of Arno Nadel (1878–1943) is presupposed by his extremely diverse activities in art, scholarship, and musical journalism. A music arranger, musicologist, music journalist and collector, composer, choirmaster, pianist and organist, as well as a poet, playwright, painter and translator, Arno Nadel was born in a religious Jewish family in Vilnius and spent his first twelve years there. Having lived and studied in Königsberg for five years, in 1895 Nadel settled in Berlin, one of the largest centres of German Jewish cultural life before the National Socialists came to power in 1933. Nadel was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943. So far, his creative legacy has not been studied in Lithuania. The aim of this article is to bring Nadel back on the horizon of multinational Lithuanian cultural history and to review his contribution to the formation of modern German-Jewish identity in the context of Nadel’s Vilnius origins and his diverse musical activities. Nadel’s original compositions, arrangements of traditional Jewish liturgical music and folk songs, research in and texts about Jewish music contributed to a new approach towards cultural connections between the Jews of Eastern Europe and Germany, and were important for the development of German Jewish music in the first half of the twentieth century, as well as for the documentation and renewal of Jewish liturgical music. Although Arno Nadel composed music in a variety of genres himself, it was his work as a scholar and arranger of Jewish music and as a musicologist that received the most attention among his contemporaries and in the articles written after the Second World War.

The application of the teaching methods of Opher Brayer in the compositions of jazz pianist Yaron Herman: Developing a portfolio of original compositions based upon these concepts

<p>Yaron Herman is a talented and influential Israeli-born jazz musician, currently residing in Paris. At the age of 31, he has released six albums, the first when he was 21. What is more remarkable is that he only started learning the piano at the age of 16 (following a sports injury that curtailed his basketball career dreams), under the tutelage of Opher Brayer, who used a combination of philosophy, mathematics and psychology. The intent of this research is to firstly, identify and understand the key concepts of Brayer’s methods as applied by Yaron Herman, and secondly, develop a portfolio of compositions utilising these principles. A recital of these tunes will then be presented.</p>

The application of the teaching methods of Opher Brayer in the compositions of jazz pianist Yaron Herman: Developing a portfolio of original compositions based upon these concepts

<p>Yaron Herman is a talented and influential Israeli-born jazz musician, currently residing in Paris. At the age of 31, he has released six albums, the first when he was 21. What is more remarkable is that he only started learning the piano at the age of 16 (following a sports injury that curtailed his basketball career dreams), under the tutelage of Opher Brayer, who used a combination of philosophy, mathematics and psychology. The intent of this research is to firstly, identify and understand the key concepts of Brayer’s methods as applied by Yaron Herman, and secondly, develop a portfolio of compositions utilising these principles. A recital of these tunes will then be presented.</p>

The Integration of Chinese Opera Traditions into New Musical Compositions

<p>Almost fifty years ago Chinese composer Chou Wen-chung proposed a musical “re-merger” of East and West. For many Chinese composers of today a sense of historical continuity and an awareness of inherited musical traditions are important contributor to cultural identity, and a basis on which to build the future. The generation that emerged after the Cultural Revolution found new freedoms, and has become, at the beginning of the twentyfirst century, a significant presence on the international musical stage, as the paradigm shifts away from being European-centered, to a culture belonging to the “global village”. As with many other Chinese composers of my generation, the creation of new compositions is both a personal expression and a manifestation of cultural roots. Techniques of “integration” and “translation” of musical elements derived from traditional Chinese music and music-theatre are a part of my musical practice. The use of traditional Chinese instruments, often in combination with Western instruments, is a no longer a novelty. The written exegesis examines some of the characteristic elements of xìqǜ (the generic term for all provincial Chinese operas), including dǎ (percussion - an enlarged interpretation of dǎ, as found in chuānjù gāoqiāng Sichuan gāoqiān opera), bǎnqiāng (The musical style that characterizes Chinese xìqǚ), and niànbái (recitation and dialogue), as well as the kuàibǎnshū (storytelling with percussion) of qǚyì (a term to use to include all folk genres), and shāngē (mountain song). The techniques employed in integrating and translating these elements into original compositions are then analyzed. In the second volume of the thesis the scores of five compositions are presented, four of the five works are set in Chinese, exploring the dramatic aspects of language, and may be considered music-theatre, one being an opera scene intended for stage production.</p>

The Integration of Chinese Opera Traditions into New Musical Compositions

<p>Almost fifty years ago Chinese composer Chou Wen-chung proposed a musical “re-merger” of East and West. For many Chinese composers of today a sense of historical continuity and an awareness of inherited musical traditions are important contributor to cultural identity, and a basis on which to build the future. The generation that emerged after the Cultural Revolution found new freedoms, and has become, at the beginning of the twentyfirst century, a significant presence on the international musical stage, as the paradigm shifts away from being European-centered, to a culture belonging to the “global village”. As with many other Chinese composers of my generation, the creation of new compositions is both a personal expression and a manifestation of cultural roots. Techniques of “integration” and “translation” of musical elements derived from traditional Chinese music and music-theatre are a part of my musical practice. The use of traditional Chinese instruments, often in combination with Western instruments, is a no longer a novelty. The written exegesis examines some of the characteristic elements of xìqǜ (the generic term for all provincial Chinese operas), including dǎ (percussion - an enlarged interpretation of dǎ, as found in chuānjù gāoqiāng Sichuan gāoqiān opera), bǎnqiāng (The musical style that characterizes Chinese xìqǚ), and niànbái (recitation and dialogue), as well as the kuàibǎnshū (storytelling with percussion) of qǚyì (a term to use to include all folk genres), and shāngē (mountain song). The techniques employed in integrating and translating these elements into original compositions are then analyzed. In the second volume of the thesis the scores of five compositions are presented, four of the five works are set in Chinese, exploring the dramatic aspects of language, and may be considered music-theatre, one being an opera scene intended for stage production.</p>

New Vox in Poetic Inquiry

As a doctoral candidate ever-deepening my understandings of arts-based research methods, in general, and performative and poetic methods of inquiry in particular, this paper advances several new theories of Vox in poetic inquiry (Prendergast, 2009, 2015, 2020), playing with the generative possibilities found with/in such poeticizing as writing method, performative gesture, and reflexive praxis, while addressing intersections between the personal/public and poetry as political currency. Woven as a métissage of poetic offerings within theoretical exposition, this essay links theory, research methods, and personal explorations with/in poetic inquiry. Found poems and original compositions punctuate the proposal of several new Vox to help elucidate our myriad voices within a growing chorus of poetic inquirers singing to a variety of purposes. A journey through methodological praxis unfolds, poses further questions, and encourages ongoing exploration and practice of poetic research methodologies in diverse, rhizomatically fruiting tendrils and directions.

Beyond the Studio: Embedding the island in music production on the Isle of Eigg

Over the last four decades a number of recording studios have been developed on small islands. The first group of these were in warm water locales, exploiting the standard appeal of the tropics as places of rest and tranquillity. More recently a number of studios have developed in cold water islands, promoting the natural environment (and sometimes less than temperate weather) as encouraging reflection and creativity. This article analyses one aspect of the latter, in the form of the Visitations artist- in-residency programme run by Lost Map Records on the Scottish Isle of Eigg. Several of the musicians who have participated in residencies collected sounds from around Eigg that were embedded in original compositions. This has involved the extension of the studio space into the landscape in a process that stands in contrast to the traditional role of studios to insulate recordings from the external world. This article identifies that the first series of Visitations residences produced musical engagements with Eigg that represent the emotional geographies experienced by the musicians in relation to the landscape, providing more locally grounded projects than those produced in more traditional studios on warm water islands.

Transcription for a synth keyboard (the case study of the work of A. Artemiev, V.Martynov, Yu. Bogdanov - the disc “Metamorphoses”)

The author analyzes the experience of transcription of the compositions of J. Bull, C. Monteverdi, J. Bach, C. Debussy and S. Prokofiev for a synth keyboard Synthi 100 done by the Russian composers A. Artemiev, V. Martynov, Yu. Bogdanov in 1980, and released on the disc &ldquo;Metamorphoses&rdquo;. The author also considers the composers&rsquo; range of artistic tasks and sound solutions and the variants of work with the texture of the original compositions. The electronic interpretations, contained in the &ldquo;Metamorphoses&rdquo;, not only demonstrate the examples of transcribing the original text for a synth keyboard, but also illustrate the 4 criteria of electronic music formulated by K. Stockhausen: unified temporal structuring (a common temporal field), the disintegration of sound, a multidimensional spatial composition, and the equality of the tone and the noise.&nbsp; In spite of the fact that the transcription of classical music pieces for a synth keyboard was carried out by the Russian composers several decades ago, this experience hasn&rsquo;t been studied yet. Probably, it is explained by the fact that the analysis and description of electronic music using traditional means is complicated, since the material under study is not noted: all transformations carried out by the interpreter are fixed only in the audiorecord.&nbsp; The analysis of transcriptions is complicated by the fact that electronic instruments are regularly upgraded and transformed, and therefore their artistic capacity is increased. The change of instruments caused the transformation of approach to music art. The article analyzes the transformation of the author&rsquo;s text, the transformation of a piano texture into the electronic score, and the role of the arranger as a co-author of the composition.&nbsp;&nbsp;

You are mine. I see now, I'm a have to let you go.

Critical Art Encounters offer sustained and at times meditative engagements with contemporary artworks. This Critical Art Encounter is a kind of reprise, a return to a joint performance by visual artist Suné Woods, poet and theorist Fred Moten, and musician and theorist James Gordon Williams. Titled You are mine. I see now, I'm a have to let you go, the piece was performed live at the Hammer Museum during their 2018 biennial event “Made in L.A.” This special section of liquid blackness aims to sample the fully realized collaboration and audiovisual experimentation that took place in the largely improvised art event. This Critical Art Encounter includes the intimate ecological exploration that takes place in Woods's video work; Moten's poem “the general balm,” which was written in part for the performance and later published in his book of poetry and criticism all that beauty (2019); and finally, a conversation with Erin Christovale, an associate curator at the Hammer who helped organize the event. Although not all three artists are featured (Williams's original compositions can be heard in the footage from the performance), we were fortunate to expand this creative dialogue by including a curatorial perspective. Thus we are able to consider how this work expresses liquidity as both a concern of contemporary black art and a call to the congregation.