Dear colleagues and everybody involved in academic music education, I would like to share a first draft of my conception for teaching music theory on the basis of digital media, online platforms, and collaborative tools and documents. The strategies outlined here are the product of the past three years, reflecting the attempt to transfer methods and strategies from remote and hybrid teaching to in-person classes wherever convenient, and to develop an integrative model for the benefit of both students and teachers. Please feel free to comment and get in touch if you have any remarks, suggestions, or additions from your own experience.
Research
Scriabin and Medtner as Counterparts
I have been revisiting my paper from last year’s Scriabin @ 150 conference in Reading, hopefully to be published soon in a collective volume alongside other contributions from this event. The article discusses the relationship between the Muscovite composer-pianists Alexander Scriabin and Nikolai Medtner, who are often considered aesthetic antagonists and have rarely been researched in a mutual context. I explore biographical links and examine a couple of musical examples, revealing some latent influences and intercommunities between the two protagonists that merit a closer look. A preliminary version is now available online—please feel free to comment and share your thoughts!
A Little Research on DSCH Passacaglias
My examination of Dmitri Shostakovich‘s passacaglias of the 1940s, a conference paper from two years ago, has now been published in Vol. 13 of Shostakovich Studies, edited by Bernd Feuchtner. Included are discussions of the passacaglia movements from the Eighth Symphony, Op. 65, Second Piano Trio, Op. 67, Third String Quartet, Op. 73, and First Violin Concerto, Op. 77. See this link for more information on the volume.
Amy Beach’s Instrumental Cantilenas
Just wanted to share some insights from my Amy Beach analysis class, along with a number of listening recommendations. More to experience in my forthcoming lecture at this year’s conference of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, 22–24 September 2023, in Freiburg!
A core feature of Amy Beach’s creative approach is the re-working or re-cycling of vocal music in her instrumental works, such as passages or fragments from her own earlier songs, or by implementation of folk melodies. This goes well beyond similar tendencies in the oeuvres of Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, or Mahler—I tend to say that a significant portion of Beach’s instrumental cantilenas are derived from vocal music, being instances of »the song writ large«, as Adrienne Fried Block put it. Take a look, for example, at the slow movements from the Piano Concerto, Op. 45 (a transformation of the song Twilight, Op. 2 No. 1) and the Piano Trio, Op. 150 (which is based on the Heine setting Allein, Op. 35 No. 2); or check out how she integrates vernacular themes in her Gaelic Symphony, Op. 32 (which three of its four movements being based on Irish songs), the Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60 (which make use of Serbian and Macedonian melodies), or the single-movement String Quartet, Op. 89 (which is based on Inuit tunes), in order to create a pristine atmosphere and modally-coloured harmony. These are but the most striking examples of a fascinating compositional technique that I intend to further explore in the following weeks.
Statement on a MIZ Study
The association Deutscher Tonkünstlerverband Berlin has issued a statement on the recently published study of the income of professional musicians, issued by the Musikinformationszentrum of Deutscher Musikrat, which appears to be of limited significance for the concerns of freelancers.