Musicological Explorations Archive

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/1828/20578

Publication Lifespan: 1995-2018

Fermata (1995-2002)
Musicological Explorations (2004-2012, 2014, 2018)

ISSN: 1201-6624 (Fermata), 1711-9235 (Musicological Explorations)

History of the Journal:

The journal commenced its publication journey in 1995 under the title Fermata, initiated by music graduate students with partial funding from the School of Music and the Graduate Student Society. This title was maintained until January 2002. In the spring of 2004, musicology graduate students revitalized the journal, rebranding it as Musicological Explorations.

Focus & Scope:

Fermata invited graduate students to submit relevant, previously unpublished articles on historical and systematic musicology, analysis, criticism, interdisciplinary studies, and performance practice. It also welcomed book and record reviews. Upon its revival, as Musicological Explorations it expanded the scope to encourage diverse musicological research, including interdisciplinary work. This mission guided the journal until its final issue in 2018.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 103

A place for music: The importance of music education in the public school system (elementary grades 1-6)
(Fermata, 2001) Orford, Emily-Jane
Aesthetic appropriation of electronic sound transformations in Ligeti’s Atmosphères
(Musicological Explorations, 2011) Davachi, Sarah
The technical and aesthetic foundations of György Ligeti's concept of micropolyphony, which he employed most prominently in his 1961 orchestral work, Atmosphères, can be credited, in part, to his post-emigration experiments with electronic composition at the studios of the NWDR in Cologne in the late 1950s. Although Ligeti had already theorized general concepts of musical texture and space prior to his emigration to the West in 1956, the nature of the micropolyphony he employs in his later work is characteristically distinct, exhibiting a greater sensitivity to density and timbre in addition to processes of aural integration and interaction. To this end, this analysis examines the way, and more importantly the extent to which, Ligeti’s often overlooked work in electronic music directly influenced his approach to the implementation of sound-mass in his later methodology. This is done through a comparison of Pièce Électronique No. 3, an electronic work begun in 1957, and Atmosphères. This comparison lends support to the contention that, despite his rejection of the electronic medium as a tool for practical implementation, Ligeti maintained several aesthetic sensibilities specific to electronic music-making practices; namely, the treatment of texture and the transformation of sound.
An interview with Allan Gordon Bell
(Musicological Explorations, 2012) Zaborowski, Monika
Alberta-born composer Allan Gordon Bell is a well-known representative of what is a true “Canadian” music. Bell's music is not contemporary in the sense that he is trying to confuse the audience and apply theories that can only be understood by the few academics that wish to analyze it. Instead, his music derives its sounds from aural experiences from the Albertan landscape. Bell is fascinated with the outer world of his land. Mapping the musical sounds of his environment through ‘pure’ listening, Bell has developed a compositional language that challenges listeners to find experiential connections in his music, calling out for us to find our place in this land we call Canada. His music evokes aural memories of our Canadian surroundings, to inform us and remind us of the beauty we so often neglect. Bell is a Professor of Music at the University of Calgary, and former President of the Canadian Music Centre. I spoke with the composer via telephone on October 20, 2011.
An interview with Christopher Butterfield
(Musicological Explorations, 2012) Rayner, Mary-Ellen; Yang, Crystal
On November 14, 2011, we [Rayner and Yang] interviewed composer Christopher Butterfield in his office at the University of Victoria. He started his musical life at the age of eight as a chorister in King's College Choir, Cambridge, and decided he wanted to be a composer at the age of eighteen. He has always had an interest in performance, whether he was fronting a rock band, conducting, making performance art, or reciting sound poetry. As performers ourselves, we were especially interested in his relationship to performance and performers: In Montreal this fall, he reprised his acclaimed interpretation of Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate, and in May he will be giving a recital of Erik Satie's Socrate in Toronto. In addition to performance, we asked him about literature, his own compositional language, and specifically his 2009 piece, Bosquet, written for twenty-two flutes and one cello.
An interview with Jeff Enns
(Musicological Explorations, 2012) Gillis, Iain
Jeff Enns has won a number of composition competitions and had his music performed across North America, as well Ireland, the U.K and Japan, and was recently the composer-in-residence for the Canadian Chamber Choir. He has been widely commissioned, by groups that include Victoriabased Vox Humana. It was that choir’s director, Brian Wismath, who first introduced me to Jeff and his music. Jeff teaches violin at the Beckett School in Kitchener, and is music director of St. James Lutheran church in Elmira, ON. In his typically generous way, he agreed to speak to me on the phone from his home in Elmira, where he lives with his family and is a stay-at-home father of 2, in late October 2011.
An interview with Jordan Nobles
(Musicological Explorations, 2012) Koerbler, Sasha
Vancouver composer Jordan Nobles writes spatial music. Inspired by the architecture of a specific public venue, he utilizes its acoustic qualities to produce a motion of sound that will surround the audience—immerse it in music—and enable its members to freely move within it. Having composed almost a hundred works, not all of them spatial, he has mastered a technique of “hearing” the acoustic potential of a specific venue and crafting a composition that will effectively infuse its architecture with music. The original sound of Nobles’s music, as well as the openness and accessibility of the public venues attract large audiences to his concerts. Many Vancouver venues have hosted performances of his music, among them the atrium of the Vancouver Public Library, the Rotunda of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the WOSK Centre for Dialogue, the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, and the Pendulum Gallery located at a branch of the HSBC bank on West Georgia Street. Nobles’s music has also been performed throughout Canada, the US, Europe and Asia, engaging symphony orchestras, choirs, chamber ensembles, and soloists. At the age of 42, Nobles has been commissioned over twenty times, and counts over fifty performances of his works per year, some of which have led to CD recordings. He is a co-Artistic Director of the Redshift Music Society and has been organizing and presenting concerts of new music for the past ten years. On November 5, 2011 the Society presented a concert at the atrium of the Vancouver Public Library. The concert was part of the “Vertical Orchestra” series, conducted by Leslie Dala. It featured two compositions by Nobles, Hive and æther, the latter receiving its premiere.
Anarchic practices in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Ocean
(Musicological Explorations, 2018) Sit, Janet
In 1994, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company premiered Ocean, a large-scale production that featured a dance on a round stage with choreography by Merce Cunninghanm, orchestral music for over 100 musicians by Andrew Culver, and an electronic music component by David Tudor. The creation of the dance and music components utilized anarchic practices, such as chance operations and the I Ching, which drew upon the compositional processes and music of John Cage. In this paper, I examine Ocean through its use and employment of anarchic practices in its dance and music components, with a primary focus on the music component. My discussion begins by exploring the story behind Ocean's creation and the influence of James Joyce and John Cage on this work. This is followed by an exploration of the multi-layered integration of anarchic practices within each component, with a detailed discussion on the construction and performance of the musical components. The discussion finishes with how the multi-layered incorporation of anarchic practices might parallel the scientific concept of synchronicity, based on the writings of Andrew Culver. In addition to published articles and documentation, I interviewed three musicians who were involved in this work: Andrew Culver, Ocean's orchestral composer, John D. S. Adams, sound engineer and assistant to David Tudor, John King, electronic musician for David Tudor's component, and I contacted Gordon Mumma, a close friend to David Tudor and longtime member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
Aspects of time in the later music of Morton Feldman
(Musicological Explorations, 2006) Jurkowski, Edward
During the 1960s, Morton Feldman abandoned the elements of indeterminacy that had characterized his scores since the early 1950s and instead began a remarkable compositional journey in which he relied on his intuition and acute sense of orchestration to create works of ferocious difficulty in which every note and rhythm was notated to formidable precision. Concomitantly, Feldman's composition also became increasingly greater in duration—although given Feldman's life-long predilection for painting, it is perhaps more appropriate to speak of his works in terms of space rather than duration. While it has been frequently acknowledged that Feldman's passion towards Turkish rugs played a vital role in how these expansive compositions from his last decade are structured, in this paper I argue that their design may be more profitably explained by studying the composer's deeper appreciation of the large canvases of such painters as Philip Guston and Mark Rothko. For instance, uncovering Feldman's relationship with these New York-based painters proves valuable to not only comprehend his frequent use of the term "scale" to describe the form and length of these expanded musical compositions (an obviously problematic expression, given its association to portray the visual instead of the temporal art of music), but also the rationale behind his conscious attempt to disorient memory in his late works, an attribute that directs to what is Feldman's crowning compositional achievement—namely, a innovative means to experience musical time.
Bassa Selim: Mozart's voice of clemency in Die Entführung aus dem Serail
(Musicological Explorations, 2008) Baron-Woods, Kristina
Initially requested by Emperor Joseph II as entertainment for visiting Russian royalty, Mozart's singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail represents the first comic opera of the composer's mature career in Vienna. For Mozart, the honor of having his opera performed in such company would have presented an opportunity to present his work to the Viennese court, an important event that, if successful, could potentially ensure royal patronage for years to come. Therefore, it is understandable that he wished to edify Joseph II before his guests. To achieve this end, Mozart and Johann Gottlieb Stephanie created in the role of the Turkish Pasha an "Enlightened Renegade," a character of great nobility who displays the ultimate show of power, that of mercy toward his worst enemies. By insisting on changes to Stephanie's libretto - including a new scene for the Pasha that shows him wrestling with himself over how forceful to be with his captive Konstanze, and the final scene which depicts his noble act of clemency - Mozart can be seen as attempting to curry favor with Joseph II and espouse ideals of the Enlightenment. However, since the opera's premiere in 1782, scholars have debated the merit of the Pasha's act of clemency, and have considered its artistic implication within the Singspiel genre, and its philosophical implication within the framework of the Enlightenment. While the motivations for the composition of the opera and the portrayal of an enlightened, magnanimous ruler may appear conflicting, the role of the Pasha undoubtedly offers a study of extreme power.
Beverly Emmons: Composing light for Merce
(Musicological Explorations, 2018) Carolan, Claire
There is an increasing interest in the performance and analysis of stage lighting design as a unique artistic discipline with a logic and language of its own that serves a creative purpose outside of simple performance illumination. This article suggests that the lighting design work of Beverly Emmons in collaboration with Merce Cunningham and John Cage – can be analyzed and perceived in similar ways to music composition. The improvisational processes and practice often associated with the Cunningham and Cage aesthetic, were present in all aspects of their staged works, including the lighting design. The key production discussed in this article is “Winterbranch” for which Emmons designed/composed the lighting in the 1960’s and again in 2012. At the core of this article is a 2015 conversation with Beverly Emmons on her experience in moving from a career path as a dancer to that as an emerging female lighting designer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the 1960’s, balancing audience expectation with experimentation, re-imagining another artist’s work, composition “by chance” and being female in a predominantly male occupation. Emmons recollections of her work with Cunningham and Cage offer unique insight into her experience with the avant-garde artists and the effect on her own approach to the composition of stage lighting.
Biographies
(Musicological Explorations, 2005) Banagale, Ryan R.; Baron-Woods, Kristina; Kučinskas, Darius
Biographies
(Musicological Explorations, 2010) Gillis, Iain; Sagrans, Jacob; Smith, Annalise
Biographies
(Musicological Explorations, 2004) Richter, Annett; Star, Allison; Sheridan, Daniel
Biographies
(Musicological Explorations, 2014) Bunzel, Anja; Dauer, Tysen; Dias, Michael; Krebs, Harald
Biographies
(Musicological Explorations, 2007) Hyndman, Sheena; Lind, Stephanie; Boucher, Cynthia
Biographies
(Musicological Explorations, 2009) Fehr, Nikolas; Herdman, Jessica; Horvath, Nina; Kattari, Kim
Biographies
(Musicological Explorations, 2018) Carolan, Claire; Fillion, Michelle; Riedstra, David; Roussin, Rena; Sit, Janet
Biographies
(Musicological Explorations, 2011) Bakker, Twila; Davachi, Sarah; Duncan, Stuart Paul; Olaveson, Heather
Biographies
(Musicological Explorations, 2006) Lockey, Nicholas; Bomback, Larry; Jurkowski, Edward
Biographies
(Musicological Explorations, 2012) Carr-Richardson, Amy; Kimura, Kiyomi; Lachat-Sarrete, Priscille; Lorre, Sean

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