Hot Music Theory Courses (熱門課程)
AMusTCL -- 音樂理論考試研習課程 AMusTCL 初級文憑音樂 理論考試研習課程 本考試研習班 課程不單為裝備學員參予 Trinity Guildhall - AMusTCL 初級樂理文憑的專業公開考試而設 , 也同時提供相等於學位第一年程度相若的和聲學知識予學員,幫助他們掌握各類風格的和聲寫作和分析,...
Article & Poem (詩詞文章)
Recent Comments (近期迴響)

    Ways of Listening: Aesthetics, Metaphors, and Quotations in Music – Part V

      引言:

    真的很久沒有寫新的文章了。教學越來越忙,雖然這表示我的收入多了,生活穩定了,但,這並不是我最喜歡的情況。不過,我已前也確實寫了不少文章,當然以英文寫的佔多,因為我的中文打字很慢。所以,我也只好出版多一些英文寫的文章了。以下的是一篇絕對有實力的學術文章,也是我往後開拓現代音樂美學,意義研究的啟蒙文章。以自己寫的文章作為自己的啟蒙老師,怕是由我開始的了。以下的文章也有數千字,所以會分期刋載。如讀者是喜歡音樂分析的,必能從這篇文章得益。

    Part V:

    Whether the borrowed tune and the last fading sound is an experience of mourning for the nostalgic loss, or acclaim of the past, a preserved value of the childhood or any other kind is no longer the matter.  What is most important is that the series of quotations juxtaposed in this song is a perception of the sonic world which denies interconnectedness, continuity, but which confers on each moment the character of a mystery, leaving a space for us to search what happened and what was there.  The Quotations in the form of song, therefore, is as evocative as the photo images in a private album.  They can always be capable of linking our distant past with that of the present, bringing us a sense of emotional responses in that particular moment.      

     

    If the different quotations in The Things My Father Loved are like the “photos” collected in an private sonic album, Ives’ another piece, Country Band March, which comprises a hotchpotch of borrowed tunes of March, Folk and Pop, will somewhat resembles a “photo” or “painting” which contains many other sonic photos or paintings.  This comes to the discussion of the second metaphor of quotation. 

    Quotation: “Paintings” inside a Sonic Painting

     

    Paintings/photos often depict things.  Things depicted, albeit an image, often have values.  To have things painted and pout on a canvas or recorded down on a photo is unlike buying it and putting it in your house.  If you have a painting/photo, you obtain also the sense of the value of the “thing” it represents.”[1] An art lover is possible to possess all the paintings he liked by owning a painting painted with his all beloved, just like the following painting, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in His Private Picture Gallery by David Teniers (1582-1649, see example 1).

    Example 1: Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in His Private Picture Gallery by David Teniers

    Numbers of paintings inside a painting can show Archduke Leopold Wilhelm’s sights: sights of what he may possess and want to possess.  This painting of private picture gallery could be a symbol of his wealth, fame, taste, and contribution.  But these quotes might have more values that they actually acquired.  When we appreciate such painting, we also appreciate the value of the entire collection bestowed upon it.  It is not necessary for a viewer to identify all paintings, but more important is the emotional responses aroused from such perceptive experiences.

    Similarly, all quotations collected in Ives’ private sonic album, the piece Country Band March, are “things,” and thus possess values.  Country Band March, in fact, is a vivid sonic picture of an amateur band playing with beats dropped and added, parts of step, miscues, mistranspositions, spontaneous solos and general high spirits.  Interestingly, Wiley Hitchcock calls it “an American equivalent of Mozart’s Musical Joke.”[1]  The borrowed fragments consist of various styles of tune: London Bridge, The Girl Left Behind Me, The Battle Cry of Freedom, Arkansas Traveler, Semper Fideles March, Yankee Doodle, British Grenadiers and at least two popular songs, Violets and My Old Kentucky Home.[2]  Some of the quotes are patriotic and celebrative, while others are nostalgic, folk and popular.  To Ives, capturing all sonic elements of the past in this piece could be a way of preserving the most valued “things.”  These sonic “things” belong to the past, for example, a sense of remembrance and love, or nostalgia of a beloved person, and place, or an experience of past life.  By appearing in form of quotations, these “past” things become present, become values.  When listeners are invited to search what were there inside this collection of sonic photos, what values could we find? 

    To Be Continued………

    David Leung (theorudavid0

    2012-01-11 (published)




    [1] Hitchcock, Ives, 73.

    [2] James Sinclair lists all borrowed tunes in the program notes of the full score of Country Band March (Bryn Mawr,   Pennsylvania: Merion Music Inc, 1976).




    [1] John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London: Biritish Broadcast Corporation and Penguin Books, 1972), 83.

    Music and Arts: Articles and Poems
    I-and-the-village-Chagall
    I and the village Chagall

    Learn Contemporary Music?

    The Lute Player — Franc Hal
    This is Young Mozart!

    Presentation of young Mozart to Pompadour 1763 Vicente de Paredes

    Life Long Learning is a Pleasure -- Contact Leung Sir

    Lady sit At the Virginal — Vermeer
    SC 2012 Concerts (1800 attendants)


    Pierre-Auguste-Renoir
    Pierre Auguste Renoir


    monet-sunrise
    Sunrise - Monet


    JeanHonore-Fragonard-The-Swing
    The Swing - JeanHonore Fragonard


    JastrowDuckFliegende
    Jastrow Duck Fliegende


    The Music -- Klimt (Modernism in Vienna)
    The Music - Klimt (Modernism in Vienna)


    Distorted-image-Korean-artist
    Distorted image - Korean Artist


    Placidity-SQ3_Page_01
    Placidity-SQ3_Page_01


    IMG_0645


    David-Teniers-and-the-Cabinet-of-Archduke-Leopold-William
    David - Teniers and the Cabinet of Archduke Leopold William
    Jastrow Duck Fliegende


    Toulouse-lautrec-Two-women-waltzing
    Two-women Waltzing - Toulouse-lautrec


    Kandinsky-Composition2
    Composition - Kandinsky


    Violin-Sonata-Classical-Style

    Violin Sonata in D major - midi composition modelling


    Elizabeth-at-the-Piano-Eakins
    Elizabeth At The Piano - Eakins


    The-Love-letter-Vermeer
    The Love letter - Vermeer


    Armand Guillaumin - Young Girl at PianoYoung Young Girl at Piano - Armand Guillaumin