Music and Letters - current issue

Nigel Fortune Retires After 28 Years as Editor of Music & Letters

Olleson, E. — 2008-04-25

Richard Dering's Few-Voice 'Concertato' Motets

Wainwright, J. P. — 2008-04-25

Richard Dering (c.1580–1630) was one of the first English composers to be influenced by early seventeenth-century Italian concertato techniques. This article focuses on the Latin motets for one to three voices and basso continuo (the subject of a forthcoming volume in the series Musica Britannica). The motets were especially popular in England after 1625 and had such widely differing performance contexts as the private chapel of Queen Henrietta Maria (Charles I's Roman Catholic queen) and the chambers of Oliver Cromwell. The musical heritage of the motets is explored—locating them in relation to early seventeenth-century Roman and Venetian music in particular—and, following an examination of the sources of Dering's motets, a number of additions to the accepted canon is proposed. The article concludes with an examination of the dissemination and publication of the motets.

Beethoven Instrumentalized: Richard Wagner's Self-Marketing and Media Image

Vazsonyi, N. — 2008-04-25

Wagner's ‘theatricality’, his tendency to make a production of himself, has been explained as evidence of his megalomania and as an attempt at self-aggrandizement. In this article Wagner's extravagant behaviours and utterances are placed on a different discursive plane, as imaginative and highly successful forms of self-marketing. Beethoven, central to Wagner's iconoclastic historiography of music and legitimation of his aesthetic project, was also a crucial element in Wagner's effort to create his own distinct persona and to establish a ‘unique’ niche for his works. A close reading of Wagner's novella A Pilgrimage to Beethoven (1840) and an analysis of his publicity campaign to attract and prepare the Dresden audience for his 1846 performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony reveal both the complexity and the mechanics of Wagner's highly constructed self-image and talent at drawing a crowd. They also explain how and why Wagner's instrumentalization of Beethoven needs to be viewed from this perspective as well.

Who is the Father? Changing Perceptions of Tallis and Byrd in Late Nineteenth-Century England

Cole, S. — 2008-04-25

The extensive prefatory material of the Cantiones sacrae of 1575 casts Tallis and Byrd jointly as the parents of English music, but during the nineteenth century Tallis's position as ‘Father of English Church Music’ was undisputed, while Byrd's music was relatively neglected. The turn of the twentieth century, however, saw the beginning of a re-evaluation of the respective merits of the two composers. This article examines the nineteenth-century reception of Tallis and Byrd, paying particular attention to the change in attitude that occurred towards the end of the century, and to the role of Roman Catholicism in the early twentieth-century Byrd revival.

Loyalty and Longevity in Audience Listening: Investigating Experiences of Attendance at a Chamber Music Festival

Pitts, S. E., Spencer, C. P. — 2008-04-25

There is currently much concern among arts organizations and their marketing departments that audiences for classical music are in decline, yet there has been little investigation so far of the experiences of long-term listeners that might yield insights into audience development and retention. This paper presents a case study of the Music in the Round chamber music festival, conducted over a three-year period that included the retirement of the host string quartet, the appointment of a new resident ensemble, and associated changes in audience attitudes and priorities. Questionnaire and interview data revealed the challenges faced by audience members in shifting their loyalty to a new ensemble and reappraising their own listening habits and stamina. The interaction between individual listening and collective membership of an audience is discussed, and the potential considered for understanding classical concert-goers as ‘fans’ or ‘consumers’.

Music in Medieval Europe: Studies in Honour of Bryan Gillingham. Ed. by Terence Bailey and Alma Santosuosso.

Hornby, E. — 2008-04-25

The Musical World of a Medieval Monk: Ademar de Chabannes in Eleventh-Century Aquitaine. By James Grier.

Hornby, E. — 2008-04-25

William Byrd and his Contemporaries: Essays and a Monograph. By Philip Brett and ed. by Joseph Kerman and Davitt Moroney.

Neighbour, O. — 2008-04-25

J. S. Bach's Concerted Ensemble Music: The Ouverture. Ed. by Gregory Butler.

Talbot, M. — 2008-04-25

Explaining Tonality: Schenkerian Theory and Beyond. By Matthew Brown. * Structure and Meaning in Tonal Music: Festschrift in Honor of Carl Schachter. Ed. by L. Poundie Burstein and David Gagne.

Drabkin, W. — 2008-04-25

Society, Culture and Opera in Florence, 1814-1830: Dilettantes in an 'Earthly Paradise'. By Aubrey S. Garlington.

Budden, J. — 2008-04-25

Franz Liszt and his World. Ed. by Christopher H. Gibbs and Dana Gooley.

Loya, S. — 2008-04-25

Schumanns Albumblatter. Ed. by Ute Jung-Kaiser and Matthias Kruse.

Tunbridge, L. — 2008-04-25

Vincent d'Indy et son temps. Ed. by Manuela Schwartz with the assistance of Myriam Chimenes.

Hart, B. — 2008-04-25

French Music since Berlioz. Ed. by Richard Langham Smith and Caroline Potter.

Hart, B. — 2008-04-25

Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano. By Walter Aaron Clark.

Christoforidis, M. — 2008-04-25

Debussy and the Fragment. By Linda Cummins.

Code, D. J. — 2008-04-25

Theodor W. Adorno and Alban Berg: Correspondence 1925-1935. Ed. by Henri Lonitz. Trans. by Wieland Hoban.

Chadwick, N. — 2008-04-25

Sergey Prokofiev: Diaries 1907-1914. Prodigious Youth. Ed. by Anthony Phillips.

Fairclough, P. — 2008-04-25

Lou Harrison. By Leta E. Miller and Fredric Lieberman.

Dickinson, P. — 2008-04-25

Remembering the Future. By Luciano Berio.

Earle, B. — 2008-04-25

Sing, Ariel: Essays and Thoughts for Alexander Goehr's Seventieth Birthday. Ed by Alison Latham.

Mark, C. — 2008-04-25

Arsenio Rodriguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music. By David F. Garcia.

Baker, G. — 2008-04-25

Empire of Dirt: The Aesthetics and Rituals of British Indie Music. By Wendy Fonarow.

Moore, A. F. — 2008-04-25

Sound Ideas: Music, Machines, and Experience. By Aden Evens.

Gritten, A. — 2008-04-25

Claude le Jeune, Livre de melanges 1585. Ed. by Isabelle His. * Paschal de L'Estocart, Sacrae Cantiones 1582. Ed. by Annie Coeurdevey and Vincent Besson. * Jacotin, Chansons. Ed. by Frank Dobbins and Marie-Alexis Colin. * Eustache Du Caurroy, Missa pro defunctis. Ed. by Marie-Alexis Colin.

Freedman, R. — 2008-04-25

Alban Berg, Sonate fur Klavier op. 1 UE33070. Ed. by Klaus Lippe.

Chadwick, N. — 2008-04-25

Notes to Contributors

2008-04-25

'Music & Letters' Awards

2008-04-25

Books Received

2008-04-25