The Unbearable Sound: the Strange Career of Musicoclashes

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2002

The claim that an object is a musicoclash may be made by the author or it may be attributed to an intention to act by commentators. In both cases, if a musical work affects me to the point of hearing it as a musicoclash, then I have activated a function of empathy which makes me react when I listen to it or to the commentaries made about it. I take this particular type of emotional involvement to be aesthetic. Since this aesthetic behavior is intentional, it is artistic, according to a demarcation revived by Gérard Genette. I therefore speak of an artistic rather than of an aesthetic commitment. (Gérard Genette, L'OEuvre de l'art. La relation esthétique, Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1997).

Perspectives in musicology: Inaugural lectures of the Ph.D. Program in Music at the City University of New York, 1972

ICONOLOGY of music deals with the lessons that pictures can teach the music historian. A more sophisticated definition would be: the analysis and interpretation, by the historian of music, of pictorial representations of musical instruments, their players, singers, groups of performing musicians, and all other kinds of musical scenes.

AM Journal of Art and Media Studies

President, Association Répertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale (RIdIM) Dear Delegates I would like to personally welcome each of you to the 18 th International Conference of Association Répertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale (RIdIM), this year organised in collaboration with Canterbury Christ Church University. It is an exciting time for Association

• Illo Humphrey, PhD-HDR | CNU-18 | Iconography as a source for Music History • RMA Study Days-8 & 9-XI-2019 | SOAS – University of London (SOAS) | under the direction of Patrick Huang (SOAS) & Susan Bagust (RMA) | Report of Day 2: November 9, 2019 | Academia.edu | 22-XI-2020 • • ¶1 Introduction: The Royal Music Association Research Study Days – 2019, entitled Iconography as a source for Music History, were organised by Patrick Huang (SOAS) and Susan Bagust (RMA) at the School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS], University of London. These Study Days explored what one may legitimately call iconographic proto-philology – that is to say, a composite approach and methodology, allowing one to determine and to identify by critical deduction the invisible ties between the intangible and tangible elements of a given research, and thereby to formulate well-founded hypotheses, and to arrive at sound conclusions concerning studies in Iconographia. Within the context of the RMA Study Days – 2019, iconographic proto-philology is by definition a research method which takes into account the interplay of various aspects of general culture inherent in an iconographic study, namely: music, musicology, organology (the history and study of the classification and manufacture of musical instruments), mathematics, geometry, astronomy, liturgy, chromatology, chemistry, terracotta, ceramics, ceramic painting, black-figure pottery, mural painting, frescoes, metallurgy, sculpture, archæology, architecture, palæography, semiology, codicology (the study of manuscript making), secular and biblical history, art history, literature, poetry, philosophy, political science, sociology, etc., and, at the same time, reconstitutes the missing links in a given chain of events (linguistic, literary, poetic, artistic, musical, etc.), making this composite approach of iconographic proto-philology a most reliable and valuable research tool in studying the sources of music history presented during the RMA Study Days – 2019 organised by the University of London (Institute of Musical Research [IMR]) at the School of Oriental and African Studies. • ¶2 This report will limit itself to the presentations of Panels 4, 5, and 6 of the RMA Study Days – 2019, held on Saturday, the 9th of November at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London, and will feature 8 lectures scheduled on the final program, namely numbers 11, 13 through 19, presented respectively by: (11) Konstantinos Karagounis & Zoe Naoum (Volos Academy for theological Studies, Thessalias, Volos, Greece): “Musical aspects on the works of Greek folk painter Theofilos Hatzimichael ” • (13) Richard J. Dumbrill (Royal Hollaway, University of London | ICONEA): “Does seal TH 95-35 suggest orchestral performance? ” • (14) James Lloyd (University of Reading, UK): “Greek Black-Figure Pottery (590 – 490 BCE): Images of regional music” • (15) Claudina Romero Mayorga (University of Reading, UK): “The Sound of Silence: Harpocrates and the role of music in Greco-Roman cults” • (16) Niroshini Senevirachne (University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka): “Descriptions of Women Musicians in Ancient Sri Lankan Temple Frescoes (with special reference to Mulkirigala Temple)” • (17) Manoj Alawathukotuwa (University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka): “Depiction of Musical Instruments, Social Status Gender of Musicians through Temple Paintings of Sri Lanka” • (18) Fueanglada “Organ” Prawang (Bangor University, UK): “The reverence of Giants and the challenge it creates for performing Thai opera” • (19) Illo Humphrey (University of Bordeaux Montaigne, 33607 Pessac [Bordeaux], France): “Observations on the elements of music and philosophy in the Carolingian illumination David rex et prop[heta], frontispiece of the Book of Psalms in the monumental Bible in-folio known as the 1st Bible of Charles the Bald (*823-†877), conserved in the codex Paris, BnF, Fonds latin 1, f. 215v, written in the 9thcentury between 844-851at the scriptorium of Saint-Martin of Tours” • • ¶3 The present report passes in review the 8 presentations, indicating respectively: the name and position of the lecturer, the title of the lecture with pertinent iconographic examples, when possible, a short synthesis of the lecture with key words, key names, key concepts, and for each lecture a brief bibliography. • Nota bene: Lecture Nr. 12 “You can take the Rat out of the Ghetto…Urban Art and its Journey from Street to Gallery”, scheduled to be given by Dr. Debra Pring on 9-X-2019, was not presented. • ¶4 Conclusion: The RMA 2019 Study Days, Iconography as a source for Music History, revealed the emergence of what one may legitimately call iconographic proto-philology – that is to say, a new approach and a new methodology of image analysis that was spontaneously applied in the majority of the lectures presented. The main theme of the RMA Study Days – 2019, suggested implicitly the fusion of multiple disciplines, such as: the philosophy of image, the science of colours, dyes, and pigments, the philosophy of music, musicology, organology, the philosophy of numbers and proportions, the philosophy of the written word, the philosophy of education, the philosophy of culture, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of politics, the philosophy of ethics, the philosophy gender studies, the protection and safeguard of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage and cultural diversity of humanity, etc. This theme gave rise to interesting scientific, historical, and socio-cultural analyses, hypotheses, and subsequent discussions, based on a combination of fundamental and universal concepts, namely: the genesis of the soul-consciousness, the cognitive process, sense perception, musical harmony based on the regime of the octave, musical and vocal sound, the essence of number, measured structure and form, educational and cultural diversity, the sevenfold canon of the Liberal Arts, politics – that is to say, the governance and the management of the State and its citizens, the Sovereign divine and human Good: including both theology and ethics-morality, and of course, the Carolingian renaissance, Charlemagne’s Capitularium XXII Admonitio generalis, and the concept of the Unity of culture in the building of civilisations, etc. Indeed, this coherent set of fundamental concepts, most of which were discussed in the lectures of Panels 4, 5, and 6, are among the conducting threads in all civilisation management and civilisation development, observable in the Tradition of Knowledge of the East and of the West, of the Southern and the Northern hemispheres, from China to Thailand, Thailand to India, India to Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka to Babylonia, Babylonia to Egypt, Egypt to Timbuktu, Egypt to Greece, Greece to Rome, and from Rome to Great Britain, etc. • ¶5 Keeping this in mind, the RMA Study Days – 2019, organized under the auspices of the University of London (SOAS), show once again that the identification of invisible ties between the intangible and tangible elements of iconographic research by critical deduction is altogether possible, and that this new approach of iconographic proto-philology can engender well-founded hypotheses and sound scientific conclusions. • ¶6 In behalf then of all the participants, we wish to express our full gratitude to the Royal Musical Association, and especially to the outstanding team of organisers, namely: Patrick Huang, Susan Bagust and their colleagues, for this very stimulating 2-day symposium held on the 8th and 9th-X-2019, featuring very diverse aspects of Iconography as a source for Music History. • ¶7 In fine, it is useful to remind ourselves that the cultural and educational reforms of the Carolingian renaissance were impulsed by the cultural legislation of Charlemagne, namely the Capitularium XXII entitled Admonitio generalis, cf. article 72: “Sacerdotibus” (“To the attention of the Clergy”). This important legislation, drafted, so it seems, by Charlemagne’s remarkable minister of Education and Culture, Alcuin of York, was promulgated die lunae, decimo kalendas aprilis, anno Domini, septingentesimo octogesimo nono – that is to say, Monday, the 10th day before the Calends of April, i.e. the 23rd of March, Year of the Lord, 789, and since that historical date, the Admonitio generalis, which stimulated greatly the development of the Fine Arts in the 9th-century– thus making possible the creation of the illumination David rex et prop[heta], has never ceased to be an important source of the European Unity of Culture and Education • Explicit • • © Illo Humphrey, PhD-HDR-CNU-18 | Directeur-Fondateur des Colloquia Aquitana • • Mediævalist – Musicologist – Proto-Philologist – Concert-Baritone – Trilingual simultaneous Interpreter • • scripsi et subscripsi • • Die dominico• decimo kalendas decembres• anno Domini intercalario ED• bis millesimo vicesimo • • IH | ih | PhD-HDR | scripsi et subscripsi •

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 2010

Geschiere's prescient work has two broad objectives: ªrst, to describe how the language of autochthony-a primal form of belonging based on a special tie to the soil (223)-acquires similarly self-evident persuasiveness in widely divergent circumstances and, second, to differentiate the intensity of the emotional appeal that the concept possesses in these varied settings. The ªrst goal is achieved with clarity and artfulness. The second, because of the nuance that it encompasses, raises more questions than it resolves, perhaps as the author intended. Building on earlier work that analyzed autochthony discourse as part of a "global conjuncture of belonging," this research engages in an impressive sweep of comparison-from ancient Athens to historical and current France,

Organised Sound, 2017

Sound art as a category has no clear definition, and there are several opinions about what the essential characteristics of sound art are. Is the key feature combinations of sounds that through their referential character provoke new associations and interpretations, or is sound art essentially concerned about space and the deliberate construction of spacesand consequently about the more 'objective' aspects of psychoacoustics and human perceptionor is sound art best characterised as experiments in music as an expanded field, in the tradition of, for example, Cage, Lucier and de Monte Young? These different understandings bring different theories to bear in the exchanges about singular works and which traditions they can best be placed in, and often fall between existing discourses in music and the visual arts. It is this lack of correspondence and coherence in the discourses that initially triggered the editors of this book to gather the colloquium that the book is based on. The book is composed by provocations, responses and discussions from the colloquium with the same title Sound Art-Music, hosted by the editors in 2012 at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts. The agenda of the colloquium was to contribute to the current debate about the relationship between sound art and music, and more specifically to investigate the possibility of arriving at a common framework for discussion and criticism-'on whether and how sound art and music meet in practice, in discourse and in listening' (p. 3). Colloquium participants were

Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy

This commentary presents an experimental-composer’s perspective on contemporary music therapy practice. I begin by offering my impressions of the field, gathered through interviews with practising music therapists, and an examination of the relevant literature. Then, the commentary first draws upon G. Douglas Barrett’s radical post-sonic theorisation of music to question the future of existing music in therapy, before instrumentalising avant-garde aesthetics to imagine what music may become in music therapy. This exploration will pay particular attention to the impacts of the dematerialisation of the art object in contemporary art, and the potential benefits a similar decentering of sound in contemporary music practices may provoke—specifically, the creation of theoretical frameworks that further suppress the authority of canonical forms, and increased contributions from previously-marginalised groups. Next, the commentary presents an analysis of two recent musical compositions that...

Published in Regine Allayer-Kaufmann (ed.), World Music Studies. Logos Verlag, Berlin. 2016

2023

The following considerations are the result of my increasing distress in the context of my most recent examination of visual source material with musical subiect matters.l The disturbance is based, firstly, on the highly disparate spectrum of so-called "travelling" theoretical and methodological paradigms,' and secondly, on the fact that in spite of the broad application of "travelling theories" in musiciconography research, a profound examination and debate about theoretical and methodological concepts hardly exist within the discipline itself. The following considerations attempt to present and discuss some of the numerous existing and sometimes even contradictory ideas about pictures and images since such ideas are momentous regarding the definition of the ontological status of the Picture and even more, considerably influence any music iconography venture with regard to methodological and epistemologicäl issues. Thus, the following considerations are not intended as recommendations but rather as a stimulus to reflect upon issues that are highly relevant for any research venture that aims at generating relevant knowledge. One fundamental question that arises in this context relates to the epistemic surplus of visual source material within music tesearcha field of research that is not primarily defined by visual media apart from musical notation that is, however, only tentatively considered from the perspective of its visual dimensions. Nevertheless, in connection with research topics related to music, one repeatedly refers to both visual ob.lects and visualised musical matters. Notable and wellknown examples are Sebastian Virdung's Musica getutscht of L51.73 (fig. t) and the second volume of Michael Praetorius's Syntagma nusicium of 76I9a €ig. Z) but also 1 The considerations explored in this essay are closely related to an essay that was written almost at the same time and sometimes even in parallel work processes. The two essays therefore constitute a close network of ideas, thoughts, and refection without completely merging into each other. They speak with and to each other and complement one another. They resemble each other at times and-in a figurative senseare like fraternal twins who retainepistemologically arguedtheir uniqueness. The sibling is: Antonio Baldassarre, "Musik im Blick: Im Dickicht der Positionen," in Musik im Blick: Vkuelle Perspektiuen auf auilitiue Kuhuren, ed. Caroia Bebermeier and Sabine Meine (Cologne: Böhlau, 2023),5019. 2 Concerning the notion of travelling concepts and theories see Edward W. Said, "Traveling Theory," in The World, the Text, and the Ctitic (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press' 1983), 226-247; and Mieke Bel, Trauelling Corceltts in the Hunanitler (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002). 3 ' Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht und auf;gezogez (Basel: Michael Furter, 1511)' 4 Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum, vol. 2 (Wolfenbüttel: Elias Holwein, 1619). 8 ,'Die visuelle Brillanz, die etwa die Molekuiarbiologie, die Nanorechnologie, die bildgebende Medizin oder die Klimaund weltraumforschung erreichen, geht über den Begrif[der Illustration weit hinaus." Horst Bredeka rnp, Theorie des Bildakts (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2013), 14. All translations by the author unless otherwise stated. 9 Winternitz,"The Iconology of Music: potential and pitfalls," g0. 10 See Michael Ann Holly, Panofsky and the Foundation of Art History (Ithaca, N.y.: cornell lJniversiry Press,1985). 1'1 Erwin Panofsky, Stüilies ifl leonology: Humanistic Thernes in the Art of Renaissan ce (New yorl<: oxford University Press, 1939). 'l'2 Erwin Panofsky, The Llfe and Art of Albrecht Dürer (Pünceton, NJ.: princeton university press, 1'94,3); Erwin Panofsky, cothic Architectute and Scholasticisffi (L^tro;e, pA: Archabbey p."ri tsst); and Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlanilish Painting: Its oigins and character (camüridge, tvtass.: