One of my most formative teachers who influentially shaped my way of thinking about music and art is the music theorist, double bassist, mathematician at heart, and philanthropist Stefan Prey. At the end of the current semester he will take his leave after four decades of teaching at Universität der Künste Berlin. His career has been a silent and dedicated one: never striving for publicity or reputation, but constantly focusing on the subject and the students’ interests in a way I have not experienced anywhere else. The appearance of his website tells more about him and his attitude than I can explain here. This is just to say that my approach to teaching and my general understanding of how music can be perceived and comprehended owes quite a lot to Stefan and his paragon. So I am grateful and humbled to contribute my bit to the online festschrift for his 65th birthday—an analytical paper on the music of Amy Beach, which is accessible here. Thank you so much!
Research
Diversifying (the History of) Music Theory
Only now I read Alexander Rehding‘s blogpost series »Can the History of Music Theory Be Decentered« in full length (original version here). The text originally dates from 2020, but was recently translated into German and published on the musiconn.kontrovers blog (see here). The article leaves me intrigued, deeply inspired, and a bit perplexed. Questioning the canon of Western music and theory is one thing (which I think I started a while ago), but taking the next step and setting out to diversify curricula and course content still poses a remarkable challenge for someone rooted in an essentially non-diverse academic environment. Well, I guess the process needs to commence in the heads, and takes some time to materialise. I’m on my way.
Copyright and the Russian Internet
I suppose that many musicians are familiar with Russian online sources from where you can obtain sheet music or writings that are not yet in the public domain. In fact, it would surprise me if somebody told me that, as a musician, they had never heard of ScorSer, the Tarakanov Archive and the likes. Yet there is one case that I find particularly striking: the website www.kholopov.ru, dedicated to the work of Yuri Nikolayevich Kholopov, includes an electronic library that offers scans of comparatively recent Russian, English, and German musicological and music-theoretical publications, and as such poses multiple copyright infringements under the name of one of the most prominent Russian music scholars of the twentieth century. I imagine it is very unlikely that this is going to change, given the current situation, but that doesn’t mean we needn’t be aware of this and similar cases. — NB: In 2004, the term of copyright protection in Russia has been extended from 50 to 70 years post mortem auctoris.
How to Connect Freelance Musicians
My analysis of German music associations, professional representation of interests, and the chances and difficulties of lobbying for freelance musicians have been published in this week’s VAN Magazine. I’d love to hear your opinions and perspectives on this multidimensional topic.