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- The Concept of Craftsmanship as a Reaction to Modernity in GermanicallyPublication . Bastos Machado, Luís; Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical (CESEM - NOVA FCSH)The shocks of modernity in German-speaking lands during the second half of the nineteenth century originated what Marion Deshmukh has coined as an ‘ambivalent modernism’ in society and the arts: an acceptance of certain aspects and values of modernity together with a reaction against others deemed as incompatible with a genuinely German spirit. How did musical interpretation reflect this ambivalence? In the Germanic imaginary at the turn of the twentieth century, the glorification of craftsmanship was one of various axes on which the struggle against the ills of modernization rested. By incorporating traditional artisanal techniques and values in otherwise avowedly modernist aesthetics, some artists staged a resistance against the massification of industrialized production, in which the quality of dedicated individual work was lost with the mechanization of tasks. In this paper, we shall explore in which ways the thought of various Germanically- trained pianists born around the last two decades of the nineteenth century can be framed in a context of ambivalent modernism, specifically in what concerns the value of craftsmanship in their discourse and performance aesthetics. By relying on Richard Sennett’s conceptualization of craftsmanship, and drawing from writings and critical editions made by various performers, we propose an outline of this aspect of interpretive thought as it appeared among that early- modernist generation. Our study shows that the idea of craftsmanship presented itself in complex forms. Within a prevalent aesthetic paradigm of absolute music, ‘craft’ was often associated with the purely physical – therefore inartistic and insufficient –aspects of playing. The appreciation of craftsmanship can, however, be read chiefly as a rejection of formulaic and systematic interpretive solutions, emphasizing the need for individuation and the value of heterogeneity. A critical and dynamic engagement with the specific musical material at each moment was promoted, with important repercussions in the relationship with the notation.
- '... Any Unnecessary Movement Was Discouraged.'Publication . Bastos Machado, Luís; Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical (CESEM - NOVA FCSH)The idea of absolute music has pervaded the Austro-German tradition since the nineteenth century. By the early twentieth century, the concept became aligned with a more formalist outlook with spiritual overtones. Those sustaining this autonomist perspective considered the performing body an external element to the work, raising fundamental questions on the problematic relationship between an idealized composition and its performance. Could the idea of the work be satisfyingly achieved in sounds through physical gestures? If so, how could a performer minimize their bodily interference in its objective, ideal nature? In short, how was the ideology of absolute music, in its early twentieth-century form, cultivated in the gestural language of performers? For Philip Auslander, the gestural dimension is a fundamental part of the performative act beyond the mere sound phenomenon: it is a source of potential social, cultural, and personal readings of the performer’s persona. Furthermore, musical meaning is not only conveyed by the ‘purely technical’ gestures that materialize the notated music, since both the spectator’s musical experience and the performer’s own conceptualization are also influenced by movements often considered to be merely ancillary and interpretively ‘neutral’. In light of these considerations, we shall look into performance-driven discourses and practical examples in pianists who were active in the first half of the twentieth century, and explore ways in which the aesthetics of absolute music became entwined with specific views on the physicality of performance. We propound that this ideology expressed itself as a gestural phenotype often with audible interpretive consequences: the performer’s body was muted, gestures reduced to what was perceived as bare essentials, as part of an attempt to strip subjectivity from performance. For those performers, the negation of the body as a producer of meaning was a way of cultivating in (the reduction of ) gesture their ideological principles.
- The Perception of Music Textural Aspects on Modern Orchestral MusicPublication . Raimundo, Luís; Mestre, Ricardo; Centro de Estudos em Música (CESEM - NOVA FCSH)In this study, researchers explore the challenges faced by common listeners when it comes to understanding contemporary classical music. They aim to determine what aspects of this music attract or repel the listener and how different types of musical gestures are perceived. The study involves human subjects reacting to brief musical excerpts from musical orchestral works by composers such as Penderecki, Ligeti, Xenákis, Haas, and Ruzicka. A multimodal approach, including auditory, visual, tactile, and emotional aspects, is used, and semantic descriptors and visual icons are employed. The focus is on textural elements such as "sound masses" and sound continuums in orchestral works from the last fifty years. The study draws conclusions from data collected through an online survey involving subjects of diverse age groups and musical knowledge, shedding light on how people perceive the meanings in the orchestral music of these composers.
- O exercício da profissão musical em Lisboa na década de 1920Publication . Santos, Luís M.; Departamento de Ciências Musicais (DCM); Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical (CESEM - NOVA FCSH)Na viragem para a década de 20, beneficiando da retoma optimista que se observou após a Grande Guerra, a vida musical lisboeta, que na década anterior tinha testemunhado um florescimento sem precedentes do interesse pelos concertos sinfónicos públicos, assistia a uma nova e vigorosa vaga de desenvolvimento, o que proporcionou a concretização de diversas iniciativas de relevo no domínio musical. Foi neste contexto, marcado pela polarização concorrencial entre os empreendimentos sinfónicos estabelecidos — nomeadamente aqueles albergados pelo Teatro da República e pelo Teatro Politeama —, que se verificou o surgimento de duas tentativas sérias, mas efémeras, de rompimento com práticas e interesses instalados, a vários níveis. Em Junho de 1923 estreava-se, sob a regência de Francisco de Lacerda, a nova Filarmonia de Lisboa, uma iniciativa cujo rápido malogro foi envolto numa polémica seguida de perto pela imprensa. Pouco depois, na sequência de questões laborais que se arrastavam — a relação entre os membros das orquestras e os empresários teatrais há muito eram problemáticas —, os músicos mobilizavam-se no sentido de avançar com um empreendimento sinfónico autónomo — a Sociedade Portuguesa de Concertos Sinfónicos —, a qual lograria realizar apenas cinco concertos no início da temporada 1925/26, sob a direcção de Emil Cooper e de Joaquim Fernandes Fão. É justamente este quadro que esta comunicação se propõe abordar, procurando esclarecer, de um ponto de vista histórico, as circunstâncias do percurso efémero de ambas as iniciativas, e dando ênfase em particular às implicações do sistema concorrencial vigente na organização da vida musical, bem como à controversa relação entre músicos e empresários, uma apreciação que permitirá descortinar dados relevantes sobre as condições do exercício da profissão musical na Lisboa dos anos 20.
- Gibberish as a place of transformation for Portuguese music education major students and their internship classesPublication . Pereira, Ana Isabel; Rodrigues, Helena; Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical (CESEM - NOVA FCSH); Departamento de Ciências Musicais (DCM)Gibberish consists of meaningless speech sounds, i.e., without semantic meaning. When used in theater exercises as a dialogue (see Spolin, 1985), it is possible to listen to distinct patterns of timing and exaggerated melodic narratives, such as those encountered in mother-infant communication, described as a form of communicative musicality (Malloch & Trevarthen, 2009). As part of a master’s in music teaching at a Portuguese university, 10 music education major students took part in a project connecting theory, research, and practice over the course of one year using gibberish as a leitmotif. The project was twofold: 1) in the first semester, to engage students in an exploratory study at a university research seminar, trying to answer, “What is the nature of a Gibberish conversation?”; 2) in the second semester, to support students in implementing a research music project with their internship classes of 5th and 6th graders based on gibberish. This approach encompasses the need to address the key elements of the research process by helping students develop research skills and providing them with a systematic way to reflect on their own practice (Conway et al., 2014). It also emphasizes that educational practice can be transformed through the curriculum and that teachers should be able to make choices on how to deliver it (Jorgensen, 2003). First, students recorded and analyzed gibberish dialogues according to temporality, frequency, intensity, and melodic contours using the software Praat; in their classrooms, gibberish gave place to graphic notation, use of technology, Orff arrangements, scat singing, and addressing emotions. Musical outputs and written statements from pupils were analysed. The project emphasised the musical nature of gibberish and how it triggered creative music-making in the classroom. Gibberish can be used as a powerful tool to promote communication, which is the essence of musical art.
- 19th-century European Dances Adapted for Machete and ViolaPublication . Esteireiro, Paulo; Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical (CESEM - NOVA FCSH)In comparisons made between dances for cavaquinho from Brazil, present in a Brazilian manuscript with music by Mário Álvares (1876-1909), and dances for machete from Portugal, in manuscripts by musicians such as Cândido Drummond de Vasconcelos (fl. 1841-1882/3), it was possible to observe similarities in the type of dances cultivated. In this context, an investigation was carried out that unites researchers from Portugal and Brazil with the purpose of conducting a comparative study between the manuscripts, in order to define the similarities and differences through a musical analysis of the works of these two active composers throughout the 19th century. The repertoire present in these manuscripts is quite varied, consisting of waltzes, polkas, square dances, mazurkas, contradanzas, schottisches, dances with geographical indications (e.g., African, Spanish, Turkish, pastoral), maxixes, tangos, among others. The current study presents some conclusions that aim to contribute to a more complete definition of the rhythms and forms that define the observed dances. Taking into account the social relevance of these dances in an urban context, the study also contemplates a sociological aspect, which seeks to understand the social institutions in which these dances were cultivated and the profile of the musicians who composed and interpreted these compositions. The participants of this panel have carried out studies in the domain of popular chordophones, in the area of dance, either from a musical analysis perspective or from a sociological perspective.
- Exploring Suitnanomusic projectPublication . Galacho, Cristina; Rocha, Luzia Aurora; Apolinário Simões Pinto Correia , André; Coutinho, Mathilda L.; Tsoupra, Anna; Pires, Ema; Belchior, Susana; Ayres de Abreu, Edward; I. Girginova, Penka; Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical (CESEM - NOVA FCSH); DCR - Departamento de Conservação e Restauro; Instituto de História Contemporânea (IHC); Instituto de Etnomusicologia - Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança (INET-MD - NOVA FCSH)In this communication we present case studies of two groups of ceramic artefacts with musical iconography studied in the frame of the on-going exploratory project Suit- NanoMusic (IN2PAST). Combining knowledge derived from different areas, such as Chemistry, Conservation Science, Musical Iconography and Humanities and Social Sciences, the project triggers an interdisciplinary discussion on the preservation of tangible musical heritage. The studied artefacts represent two groups of the wider collection of faience plates, the “Ratinho” and the Viúva Alfredo de Oliveira (V.A.O.) pottery faience, a production inspired by the ‘Ratinho’ faience. They had been produced in Coimbra region in Central Portugal at different time frames and belong to the Museu Nacional da Música (Portugal). To further understand the chronology of production the technology of the faience plates the chemical composition of the glaze and colouring elements were analysed by means of hand- held x-ray fluorescence, and the colourants were identified combining the information acquired by hyperspectral imaging and colorimetry. The colours in both types of plates present similarities, nevertheless, the analysis suggests that there was some innovation regarding the colour palette with the introduction of new materials. Regarding the glaze composition, the presence of zinc in the V.A.O. glaze is the only differentiation detected among the two productions. The Musical Iconographic and Organological studies reveal distinctively characteristic within the decorative repertoire of “Ratinho” plates. Musical instruments play a central role in the iconographic representation in both kinds of productions, where a female musician playing a cittern and a child playing a transverse flute have been depicted. Studying these ceramic plates reveals key insights into their production techniques and the historical, artistic, and cultural dimensions of musical iconography, highlight- ing the depiction of music and musicians across various eras and contexts, specifically of rural workers which have few coeval written sources exist.
- Musical cryptographyPublication . De Luca, Elsa; Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical (CESEM - NOVA FCSH)
- "Essas mãos são, elas próprias, um poema sinfónico"Publication . Santos, Luís Miguel Lopes dos; Departamento de Ciências Musicais (DCM); Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical (CESEM - NOVA FCSH)Nas décadas de 1910 e 1920, Lisboa testemunhou um florescimento sem precedentes do interesse pelos concertos sinfónicos públicos há muito ambicionados pelos críticos. Estas séries de concertos parecem ter desempenhado um papel importante, num período em que estava em curso um processo de mudança na vida musical lisboeta. A presente comunicação considera o discurso que nesse quadro floresceu referente à ratificação da autoridade de intérpretes e de determinados modos de comportamento e de interpretação, focando especificamente o caso dos directores de orquestra. Pretende-se, por um lado, identificar as práticas e modelos promovidos pelos próprios regentes — sem esquecer a sua articulação com a actuação da crítica —, tendentes a uma ritualização e sacralização da interpretação e do evento concertístico. Por outro lado, pretende-se igualmente explorar os mecanismos discursivos envolvidos neste processo, para, finalmente, avaliar as implicações de tudo isto na construção de uma determinada visão sobre a música sinfónica.
- Fragments of a (fragmentary) tonaryPublication . Seiça, Alberto Medina de; Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical (CESEM - NOVA FCSH)Among the several hundred dismembered plainchant fragments that the Lost&Found project team has analysed, Manuel Pedro Ferreira noticed parts of what seems to be a former tonary, scattered as covers for polyphonic choir books now preserved in the University Library of Coimbra. The fragments not only display tones both for the office (psalms and responsory verses) and the mass (introit verses) but also include mnemonic formulas on biblical verses different from the more common Primum quaerite models. In this communication, after a brief insight on the reconstruction process, I focus on the structure and modal features of what has survived of this (fragmentary) tonary.