Fall 2012 AMS-GNY Meeting
0 Comments Published by AMSGNY President on Sunday, September 23, 2012 at 12:27 PM.
Saturday, October 13, 2012 - Hofstra University - New Academic Building Room 10
10:15:-11:45
Jane Schatkin Hettrick: “Requiem per me”: Antonio Salieri’s Plans for His Funeral
Jessica Chisholm: A Sixteenth-Century Cambridge Manuscript and Evidence for the Continuation of a Fifteenth-Century English Compositional Practice
Robert F. Waters: Power and Politics in Paris: Regionalism and Nationalist Identity at the Schola Cantorum
12:00-1:00 Lecture recital: Sarah Hoover: Joseph Haydn and Brigida Banti in London--The 1795 Premiere of Scene di Berenice
1:00-1:30 Lunch
1:30-2:30 Panel discussion--The Future of Musicology
2:45-4:15
Anna Knecht: Beckmesser in a New Light: Die Meistersinger in Gustav Mahler’s Seventh Symphony
David Hurwitz: The Audible Influence of Verdi and the Italian School on Mahler’s Musical Idiom
Getting to Hofstra is easy by car and public transportation. A free shuttle bus meets the Long Island Railroad (which you can get in Brooklyn, Manhattan, or Queens). You can access a map of the campus here: http://www.hofstra.edu/
Bill Hettrick has prepared the following detailed information:
By Car
By Car
Take the 8:25 a.m. LIRR train from Penn Station to Mineola, arriving at 9:00 (or an earlier train if you wish to walk around Mineola a bit). The Hofstra shuttle bus (painted blue and identified as such) arrives at the Mineola station at 9:23 and leaves for Hofstra at 9:28. The trip takes about 20 minutes, is free, and no identification is required of passengers. Get off at The Netherlands residence hall (no. 33 on the map), located on Oak Street, not far from Hempstead Turnpike (Fulton Avenue). Walk south on Oak St., crossing Hempstead Tpk. (either on street level or on the pedestrian bridge, which can be reached by both stairs and an elevator). You will then be in Parking Field 5. Continue south on either side of Weed Hall (no. 26 on the map) and enter Parking Field 3. Walk to the New Academic Building (big, square, metallic; no. 73 on the map) at the southeastern end of the field. Proceed as indicated above.
If you will be coming to the meeting later in the day, Hofstra shuttle busses will also similarly meet trains arriving in Mineola at 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, etc. Instructions will be given during the meeting for the return trip.
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Jane Hettrick: “Requiem per me”: Antonio Salieri’s Plans for His Funeral
Antonio Salieri composed a Requiem Mass in 1804 intended for his own obsequies, twenty-one years before his death in 1825. A rarity in the history of music, this work is steeped in mystery: why did he write it, and why then? can we resolve the contradictions in documents related to the Requiem? how did government and ecclesiastical regulation of funeral/burial ceremonies impact its composition and performance? when and where was it first performed? This paper will attempt to answer the many questions surrounding Salieri’s “Picciolo Requiem.”
Jessica Chisholm: A Sixteenth-Century Cambridge Manuscript and Evidence for the Continuation of a Fifteenth-Century English Compositional Practice
The fifteenth-century English term "square" has come to be defined by modern scholars as a tenor melody in measured notation that most likely originated as the lowest part of a previously existing polyphonic composition, and was extracted for use in one or more later compositions (usually sacred). Cambridge University Manuscript 4405(9) provides one of the few references to squares with a musical title, yet the music is unfortunately missing. What can this manuscript tell us about the missing piece, as well as the longevity of squares?
Robert Waters: Power and Politics in Paris: Regionalism and Nationalist Identity at the Schola Cantorum
After French composer and Schola Cantorum founder Vincent d’Indy became a member of the nationalist organization La ligue de la patrie française, he began appearing on the league’s platform accompanying patriotic songs on the piano. He recruited composer Ernest Chausson into the organization and when the Schola Cantorum was in serious financial difficulties, d’Indy was writing letters of thanks to the league, thereby alluding to a financial association between the two organizations. Certain scholars have even argued that the league helped support the institution in order to use the establishment as a vehicle to disseminate its doctrine. D’Indy and other French composers began including French folk songs in their works as a regionalist and nationalist gesture, a compositional approach antithetical to that emphasized by most composition professors at the Paris Conservatoire, whose administration emphasized a narrow range of genres and sanctioned styles in order for their students to advance to the final round of the Prix de Rome. This paper will argue how this narrow emphasis regarding genre stressed by the Paris Conservatoire administration inspired d’Indy to create the Schola Cantorum, and how his evolving nationalist associations led him to underscore regionalist and nationalist works within the Schola Cantorum curriculum.
Sarah Hoover: Joseph Haydn and Brigida Banti in London--The 1795 Premiere of Scene di Berenice
At the end of the eighteenth century two celebrated foreign musicians arrived in London – an Austrian composer, Joseph Haydn, and an Italian prima donna, Brigida Giorgi Banti. Their two careers intersected on the evening of Monday, May 4, 1795 when at Haydn’s final benefit concert they presented a new piece of music to the English public, a cantata for soprano and orchestra entitled Scena di Berenice. It
appeared to have been an all-star line-up, but extant documents suggest that, although “Mr. Haydn’s night” was a financial, personal, and critical success, the new Scena was not. This paper will examine the musical material of Haydn’s cantata in light of what we know about Banti’s voice and artistry to consider the obstacles which may have been in the way of a successful performance and reception of Haydn’s “aria per la Banti.”
Anna Knecht: Beckmesser in a New Light: Die Meistersinger in Gustav Mahler’s Seventh Symphony
The Finale of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony clearly alludes to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. While the fact has been widely acknowledged since the symphony’s premiere in 1908, the function and broader implications of this connection have not been explored in depth. I suggest that references to Meistersinger may be heard at various levels throughout the whole symphony – as well as in sketches – and that they significantly crystallize around the figure of Beckmesser, the pedantic critic who believes that the meaning of music lies in its form, and who was conceived by Wagner as a caricature of the aesthetician Eduard Hanslick. This paper explores the idea that the strong presence of structural markers in the Seventh may be heard in dialogue with an aesthetic debate on form and meaning opposing Wagner and Hanslick; and, further, it suggests that Mahler’s references to Wagner lead us to tease out questions about his own relationship with the German cultural tradition, particularly as represented in Meistersinger.
David Hurwitz: The Audible Influence of Verdi and the Italian School on Mahler’s Musical Idiom
One of the most intriguing and little remarked influences on Mahler’s style was that of Italian opera, and Verdi in particular. The Verdi connection makes great sense, since Mahler spent much of his early career in provincial opera houses conducting such classic Italian works as Rigoletto and La Traviata. Most biographers and musicologists, however, have missed this audibly tangible connection, while having few problems remarking on the impact of Beethoven, Wagner, Weber, Schumann, and other members of the 19th century German school. This discussion examines the degree to which stylistic elements borrowed from the Italian school contributed to Mahler’s mature compositional voice.
Benjamin Bierman: John Benson Brooks and Harold Courlander’s Negro Songs From Alabama
Benjamin Bierman, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Music, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, has essays in Pop-Culture Pedagogy in the Music Classroom, Jazz Perspectives and The American Music Review. Upcoming publications include an essay in The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington and an introduction to jazz textbook for Oxford University Press. Bierman is a composer, trumpeter, and bandleader in NYC. In his compositions, he incorporates elements of jazz, blues, Latin music, and the Western art music tradition. He has performed with such diverse artists as B.B. King, Archie Shepp, Machito, Celia Cruz, Johnny Copeland, and Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Jane Hettrick: “Requiem per me”: Antonio Salieri’s Plans for His Funeral
Antonio Salieri composed a Requiem Mass in 1804 intended for his own obsequies, twenty-one years before his death in 1825. A rarity in the history of music, this work is steeped in mystery: why did he write it, and why then? can we resolve the contradictions in documents related to the Requiem? how did government and ecclesiastical regulation of funeral/burial ceremonies impact its composition and performance? when and where was it first performed? This paper will attempt to answer the many questions surrounding Salieri’s “Picciolo Requiem.”
Jessica Chisholm: A Sixteenth-Century Cambridge Manuscript and Evidence for the Continuation of a Fifteenth-Century English Compositional Practice
The fifteenth-century English term "square" has come to be defined by modern scholars as a tenor melody in measured notation that most likely originated as the lowest part of a previously existing polyphonic composition, and was extracted for use in one or more later compositions (usually sacred). Cambridge University Manuscript 4405(9) provides one of the few references to squares with a musical title, yet the music is unfortunately missing. What can this manuscript tell us about the missing piece, as well as the longevity of squares?
Robert Waters: Power and Politics in Paris: Regionalism and Nationalist Identity at the Schola Cantorum
After French composer and Schola Cantorum founder Vincent d’Indy became a member of the nationalist organization La ligue de la patrie française, he began appearing on the league’s platform accompanying patriotic songs on the piano. He recruited composer Ernest Chausson into the organization and when the Schola Cantorum was in serious financial difficulties, d’Indy was writing letters of thanks to the league, thereby alluding to a financial association between the two organizations. Certain scholars have even argued that the league helped support the institution in order to use the establishment as a vehicle to disseminate its doctrine. D’Indy and other French composers began including French folk songs in their works as a regionalist and nationalist gesture, a compositional approach antithetical to that emphasized by most composition professors at the Paris Conservatoire, whose administration emphasized a narrow range of genres and sanctioned styles in order for their students to advance to the final round of the Prix de Rome. This paper will argue how this narrow emphasis regarding genre stressed by the Paris Conservatoire administration inspired d’Indy to create the Schola Cantorum, and how his evolving nationalist associations led him to underscore regionalist and nationalist works within the Schola Cantorum curriculum.
Sarah Hoover: Joseph Haydn and Brigida Banti in London--The 1795 Premiere of Scene di Berenice
At the end of the eighteenth century two celebrated foreign musicians arrived in London – an Austrian composer, Joseph Haydn, and an Italian prima donna, Brigida Giorgi Banti. Their two careers intersected on the evening of Monday, May 4, 1795 when at Haydn’s final benefit concert they presented a new piece of music to the English public, a cantata for soprano and orchestra entitled Scena di Berenice. It
appeared to have been an all-star line-up, but extant documents suggest that, although “Mr. Haydn’s night” was a financial, personal, and critical success, the new Scena was not. This paper will examine the musical material of Haydn’s cantata in light of what we know about Banti’s voice and artistry to consider the obstacles which may have been in the way of a successful performance and reception of Haydn’s “aria per la Banti.”
Anna Knecht: Beckmesser in a New Light: Die Meistersinger in Gustav Mahler’s Seventh Symphony
The Finale of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony clearly alludes to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. While the fact has been widely acknowledged since the symphony’s premiere in 1908, the function and broader implications of this connection have not been explored in depth. I suggest that references to Meistersinger may be heard at various levels throughout the whole symphony – as well as in sketches – and that they significantly crystallize around the figure of Beckmesser, the pedantic critic who believes that the meaning of music lies in its form, and who was conceived by Wagner as a caricature of the aesthetician Eduard Hanslick. This paper explores the idea that the strong presence of structural markers in the Seventh may be heard in dialogue with an aesthetic debate on form and meaning opposing Wagner and Hanslick; and, further, it suggests that Mahler’s references to Wagner lead us to tease out questions about his own relationship with the German cultural tradition, particularly as represented in Meistersinger.
David Hurwitz: The Audible Influence of Verdi and the Italian School on Mahler’s Musical Idiom
One of the most intriguing and little remarked influences on Mahler’s style was that of Italian opera, and Verdi in particular. The Verdi connection makes great sense, since Mahler spent much of his early career in provincial opera houses conducting such classic Italian works as Rigoletto and La Traviata. Most biographers and musicologists, however, have missed this audibly tangible connection, while having few problems remarking on the impact of Beethoven, Wagner, Weber, Schumann, and other members of the 19th century German school. This discussion examines the degree to which stylistic elements borrowed from the Italian school contributed to Mahler’s mature compositional voice.
Benjamin Bierman: John Benson Brooks and Harold Courlander’s Negro Songs From Alabama
Benjamin Bierman, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Music, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, has essays in Pop-Culture Pedagogy in the Music Classroom, Jazz Perspectives and The American Music Review. Upcoming publications include an essay in The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington and an introduction to jazz textbook for Oxford University Press. Bierman is a composer, trumpeter, and bandleader in NYC. In his compositions, he incorporates elements of jazz, blues, Latin music, and the Western art music tradition. He has performed with such diverse artists as B.B. King, Archie Shepp, Machito, Celia Cruz, Johnny Copeland, and Stevie Ray Vaughn.
