On Musical Self-Similarity : Intersemiosis as Synecdoche and Analogy

Self-similarity, a concept taken from mathematics, is gradually becoming a keyword in musicology. Although a polysemic term, self-similarity often refers to the multi-scalar feature repetition in a set of relationships, and it is commonly valued as an indication for musical coherence and consistency . This investigation provides a theory of musical meaning formation in the context of intersemiosis, that is, the translation of meaning from one cognitive domain to another cognitive domain (e.g. from mathematics to music, or to speech or graphic forms). From this perspective, the degree of coherence of a musical system relies on a synecdochic intersemiosis: a system of related signs within other comparable and correlated systems. This research analyzes the modalities of such correlations, exploring their general and particular traits, and their operational bounds. Looking forward in this direction, the notion of analogy is used as a rich concept through its two definitions quoted by the Classical literature: proportion and paradigm, enormously valuable in establishing measurement, likeness and affinity criteria. Using quantitative qualitative methods, evidence is presented to justify a parallel study of different modalities of musical self-similarity. For this purpose, original arguments by Benoît B. Mandelbrot are revised, alongside a systematic critique of the literature on the subject. Furthermore, connecting Charles S. Peirce s synechism with Mandelbrot s fractality is one of the main developments of the present study. This study provides elements for explaining Bolognesi s (1983) conjecture, that states that the most primitive, intuitive and basic musical device is self-reference, extending its functions and operations to self-similar surfaces. In this sense, this research suggests that, with various modalities of self-similarity, synecdochic intersemiosis acts as system of systems in coordination with greater or lesser development of structural consistency, and with a greater or lesser contextual dependence.

ELGAR AND MART&: THE CELLO WORKS AND MUSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TWO REMARKABLE, SELF-TAUGHT, NATIONALISTIC COMPOSERS

The British Edward Elgar and Czech Bohuslav MartinB were two of the most prominent Nationalistic composers of their respective countries during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their musical patriotism incorporates the unique paths of their lives as socially isolated and self-taught composers as expressed their outstanding Nationalistic compositions produced through the period of history encompassing the two World Wars.In the first chapter of this dissertation, a brief biography of Elgar is presented and the essential aspects of his formative years influencing him to become a self-taught musician are discussed. The second chapter demonstrates Elgar's musical characteristics through the study of a selection of his masterpieces. In the third chapter, a brief biography of Martinti is presented along with a history of his musical development, characterized by his social isolation during four different periods of his life-his residences in PoliCka, Prague, Paris, and then in the United States. The fourth chapter considers MartinB's musical characteristics as revealed through the study of a selection of his greatest works. In support of this doctoral project, I performed two recitals of cello works by Elgar and Martini3 at the University of Maryland, College Park. The first recital, accompanied by Susan Slingland and Hiroko Yamazaki, included three of Martini3's works, Sonata No. 2 for Cello and Piano (1941); Variations on a Theme of Rossini for Cello and Piano (1 942); and Sonata No. 3 for Cello and Piano (1952). The second recital, accompanied by Wonyoung Chang and Naoko Takao, presented Martini3's Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano (1939) and Elgar's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra Op. 85 in E minor (1 919).

Sikh Sabad Kirtan as a Musical Construction of Memory

The performance of devotional music in India has been an active, sonic conduit where spiritual identities are shaped and forged, and both history and mythology lived out and remembered daily. For the followers of Sikhism, congregational hymn singing has been the vehicle through which text, melody and ritual act as repositories of memory, elevating memory to a place where historical and social events can be reenacted and memorialized on levels of spiritual significance. This dissertation investigates the musical process of Shabad Kirtan, Sikh hymn singing, in a Sikh musical service as a powerful vehicle to forge a sense of identification between individual and the group. As an intimate part of Sikh life from birth to death, the repertoire of Shabad Kirtan draws from a rich mosaic of classical and folk genres as well as performance styles, acting as a musical and cognitive archive. Through a detailed analysis of the Asa Di Var service, Shabad Kirtan is explored as a phenomenological experience where time, place and occasion interact as a meaningful unit through which the congregation creates and recreates themselves, invoking deep memories and emotional experiences. Supported by explanatory tables, diagrams and musical transcriptions, the sonic movements of the service show how the Divine Word as Shabad is not only embodied through the Guru Granth Sahib, but also encountered through the human enactment of the service, aurally, viscerally and phenomenologically.

FOLLOWING THE TRAIL OF THE SNAKE: A LIFE HISTORY OF COBRA MANSA "COBRINHA" MESTRE OF CAPOEIRA

This dissertation is a cultural biography of Mestre Cobra Mansa, a mestre of the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira angola. The intention of this work is to track Mestre Cobrinha's life history and accomplishments from his beginning as an impoverished child in Rio to becoming a mestre of the tradition-its movements, music, history, ritual and philosophy. A highly skilled performer and researcher, he has become a cultural ambassador of the tradition in Brazil and abroad. Following the Trail of the Snake is an interdisciplinary work that integrates the research methods of ethnomusicology (oral history, interview, participant observation, musical and performance analysis and transcription) with a revised life history methodology to uncover the multiple cultures that inform the life of a mestre of capoeira. A reflexive auto-ethnography of the author opens a dialog between the experiences and developmental steps of both research partners' lives. Written in the intersection of ethnomusicology, studies of capoeira, social studies and music education, the academic dissertation format is performed as a roda of capoeira aiming to be respectful of the original context of performance. The result is a provocative ethnographic narrative that includes visual texts from the performative aspects of the tradition (music and movement), aural transcriptions of Mestre Cobra Mansa's storytelling and a myriad of writing techniques to accompany the reader in a multi-dimensional journey of multicultural understanding. The study follows Cinezio Feliciano Pe anha in his childhood struggle for survival as a street performer in Rio de Janeiro. Several key moves provided him with the opportunity to rebuild his life and to grow into a recognized mestre of the capoeira angola martial art as Mestre Cobra Mansa ("Tame Snake" in Portuguese). His dedicated work enabled him to contribute to the revival of the capoeira angola tradition during the 1980's in Bahia. After his move to the United States in the early 1990's, Mestre Cobrinha founded the International Capoeira Angola Foundation, which today has expanded to 28 groups around the world. Mestre Cobra returned home to Brazil to initiate projects that seek to develop a new sense of community from all that he has learned and been able to accomplish in his life through the performance and study of capoeira angola.

AHRC-DFG Project "Songs of the Revolution of 1848 and their Reception History in Germany"

This on-line project consists of commentaries and critical editions of the songs of the 'Vormaerz' and the 1848 Revolution which have shaped the cultural memory of this period in Germany. Looking at both textual and musical developments the research deals with the history of reception of key 1848 songs by established as well as anonymous poets. These together have formed an enduring corpus in the repertoires of singers of German political song. One of the main findings is how songs are not static: they evolve musically and textually and can undergo changes of function during a process of historical reception which is often ideologically motivated.

On the Musical Reception of the 'Badisches Wiegenlied' in the German Folk Movement

This is a single-authored extended essay on the history of reception (musical and textual) of the Badisches Wiegenlied in the German folk song movement in both East and West Germany. As such it expands on the co-written short essay on the song Badisches Wiegenlied also published in the Liederlexikon. This is part of the AHRC and DFG funded project 'The History of Reception of the Songs of the 1848 Revolution' (2009-2013).

Intégration et désintégration dans le concept de matériau musical d’Adorno

Ce mémoire se propose d’aborder le concept adornien de matériau musical selon deux de ses moments essentiels : l’intégration et la désintégration. Dans un premier temps, il s’agira d’analyser la critique de l’Aufklärung, selon laquelle la rationalité éclairée, par la domination progressive de la nature, se transforme en son contraire, le mythe. Cette analyse servira de base théorique pour la compréhension du concept de matériau. Dans un deuxième temps, il conviendra d’examiner la tendance progressiste—exemplifiée dans la sonate classique de Beethoven—vers l’intégration du matériau musical, comprise comme un moment dans le processus plus large de rationalisation sociale identifié par Max Weber. Dans un troisième temps, il conviendra d’examiner la tendance régressive—exemplifiée dans les œuvres du Beethoven tardif, de Mahler et de Berg—vers la désintégration du matériau musical, une tendance qui reflète les aspects noirs de l’Aufklärung, à savoir la fragmentation sociale et la réification. Enfin, nous évaluerons quelques commentaires critiques soulevant des doutes quant à la validité d’un concept de matériau musical basé sur une philosophie de l’histoire qui, malgré ses distances, ne s’échappe pas de ses origines hégéliennes.

Un festival de jazz en monde rural : analyse sociologique d’un conflit qui dure : le cas français d'Uzeste Musical et de ses relations conflictuelles avec la localité qui l'accueille

L’étude de cas qui compose ce mémoire de maîtrise cherche à expliquer sous l’optique sociologique la pérennité des relations conflictuelles qu’entretiennent le festival permanent Uzeste Musical et le village du même nom, peuplé de 450 habitants et dans lequel il se déroule depuis plus de 35 ans. Fondée sur une enquête de terrain mêlant approche ethnographique et entretiens semi-dirigés au sein de ce village du sud ouest de la France, l’analyse combine in vivo une description ethnographique du conflit à différents éléments théoriques susceptibles d’en rendre raison. Principalement, le recours à la théorie des champs et des sens pratiques de Bourdieu et à celle, pragmatique, de Boltanski et Thévenot, permet de saisir dans le discours des différents acteurs du conflit les raisons pour lesquelles un festival de jazz comme celui-ci se révèle être à bien trop d’égards étranger aux structures et à la culture d’un tel village pour s’y faire pleinement accepter. Il permet également de rendre compte de la manière par laquelle ces mêmes acteurs tendent à redéfinir un conflit – dont la longévité pourrait a priori sembler insoutenable – en des termes qui leur sont familiers, posture qui leur permet alors de relativiser une conflictualité qu’ils assimilent à l’histoire ordinaire de leur village et avec laquelle ils sont ainsi en mesure de composer.

A educação musical sob a perspectiva da pedagogia histórico-crítica

This work, from of theorist perspective of Historical-Critical Pedagogy, presents the school Music Education like a social mediator environment between the practices, listening and musical everydaylife knowledges and the not-quotidian, which are constitution and accumulated, throughout the centuries of History, by the human societies. The purpose is to present a possible theorist foundation to define the importance of Music Education insert in the elementary school, like a subject destined to guarantee the whole children formation and the enrichment of their relations with the music. It is a theorist reflection that indicates the importance of observation of the quotidian and not-quotidian knowledges characteristics, moreover of complete importance of formal education and, in specific, of school Music Education on human development.

Subsídios para a gênese da imprensa musical brasileira e para a história do Hino da Independência, de Dom Pedro I

Este artigo tem por objetivos rever, mediante análise bibliográfica e de fontes primárias, a história de um de nossos símbolos musicais pátrios, o Hino da Independência, de Dom Pedro I, bem como trazer novos subsídios para o estudo da gênese da imprensa musical brasileira. Tem, igualmente, por escopo divulgar peculiaridades de uma antiga e pouco conhecida partitura desse hino, já não mais presentes em modernas edições de tal composição.

Música e civilização: a atividade musical no Rio de Janeiro oitocentista (1808-1863)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A representação do sertão na metrópole: a construção de um gênero musical (1929-1940)

Pós-graduação em História - FCHS

Iniciação musical ao piano para crianças: um olhar sobre a prática pedagógica em conservatórios da cidade de São Paulo

Pós-graduação em Música - IA

A história da atividade musical na Igreja Presbiteriana Unida de São Paulo: uma fisionomia possível

Pós-graduação em Música - IA

Tudo está dito ?: um estudo sobre o conceito de obra musical

Pós-graduação em Música - IA