Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini

forthcoming

Vol. 23 – Music and Propaganda in the Short Twentieth Century

edited by Massimiliano Sala

Vol. 22 - Rethinking Stravinsky. Sounds and Gestures of Modernism

edited by Massimiliano Locanto

Vol. 21 – Music and Francoism

edited by Gemma Pérez Zalduondo and Germán Gan Quesada

coming soon

Vol. 20 - «Grandeur et finesse»: Chopin, Liszt and the Parisian Musical Scene

edited by Luca Sala, Turnhout, Brepols, 2013 (Speculum Musicae, 20), pp. XII+362, ISBN: 978-2-503-54884-5

Due to its plethora of concert halls, publishing houses and piano factories, Paris was one of the leading European capitals of nineteenth-century piano music, able to attract the greatest interpreters of the bravura tradition. The present book takes as its subject the significance and ouput of the two-composer-pianists mentioned in the title, approaching them from historical, analytical and aesthetical points of view. In so doing the book encompasses many aspects of the Parisian musical scene in which the two composers were involved or to which they were in some way connected. The authors featured are: Michele Calella, Céline Carenco, Andrew Davis, Mariacarla De Giorgi, Christoph Flamm, James Garrat, Inès Guittard, Andrew Haringer, Magdalena Oliferko, Anne Penesco, Cécile Reynaud, David Rowland, Michael Saffle, Laure Schnapper, Rohan H. Stewart-MacDonald, Renata Suchowiejko, Andrzej Tuchowski.

Contents

published

Vol. 19 - From Stage to Screen: Musical Films in Europe and United States (1927-1961)

edited by Massimiliano Sala, Turnhout, Brepols, 2012 (Speculum Musicae, 19), pp. XIV+338, ISBN: 978-2-503-54614-8

Via a collection of essays using different analytical perspectives, the aim of the present volume is to track a heterogeneous path through the world of the musical. The approaches of the twenty contributions, as the title implies, coalesce around two central objectives: the first objective is to deal with the topic chronicling the life of the American musical in its progression from its theatrical format to the cinema. With the birth of the sound film, the cinema could begin to compete with the theatre, and the film musical had therefore to confront both pre-existing forms (theatrical and cinematic) and its alter ego, the stage musical. But which line of continuity, if any, has been maintained in this process of transition from stage to screen? Hence the second central objective is to define otherness but also to trace the borrowings and influences passing between American and European musical cinema, including the different ways with which pre-existing forms of musical theatre were adapted for the screen in a lengthy and varied path of transfiguration; how this process of adaptation to the new medium developed on the two opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, in the period during which, with Show Boat (1927), Jerome Kern had given to Americans perhaps one of the most important musical comedy of all time, one of the first examples of what would become the musical comedy of the forties and fifties?

Contents

Vol. 18 - The Legacy of Richard Wagner

edited by Luca Sala, Turnhout, Brepols, 2012 (Speculum Musicae, 18), pp. XVI+460, ISBN: 978-2-503-54613-1

In the context of the social culture of Europe, the rise and fall of Wagnerism ushered in a structural change of artistic forms, a process which in some sense manages to lay bare the transformations of modern culture over two entire centuries. What is presented rather as a complex psycho-sociological theorization of the process involved in producing a work of art, in fact manifests itself as a reformulation of ideas in literature and theatre, in criticism and cinema, providing us with a vast and articulate sketch of an almost endless series of those influences which Wagner's oeuvre has been able to give rise to. The purpose of the present work is to expand, in this very direction, the thorough study of a system of convergences and dissonances, whether in the sphere of aesthetics, or in the context of that which remains of the oeuvre in the complex and as yet unfinished history of its reception. The editor's aim has been to examine the Wagnerian influence which is present in the process of politico-geographical transformation of Europe, Russia and the United States from the fin de siècle to the middle of the 20th century. Furthermore, on the same topic, he has striven to cover also the silent revolution which Wagnerism precipitated in literature and in the field of social sciences, its legacy and the inevitable transformations it brought about.

Contents

Vol. 17 - Michela Niccolai, La dramaturgie de Gustave Charpentier

pp. xxxiv + 540, 2011, ISBN: 978-2-503-54340-6.

Gustave Charpentier is one of the most original fin de siècle composers. His musical output — in particular Le couronnement de la muse (1897) and Louise (1900) — has to be understood in the appropriate political and social context. Charpentier's dramaturgical view reflects his social project, the concrete realization of which was the foundation of the Chambre Syndicale des artistes musiciens de Paris (1901) and the Conservatoire populaire de Mimi Pinson (1902). Up until now, the success of Louise has eclipsed the output of a composer who wished to be in touch with the workers, without remaining isolated in a purely artistic dimension. Our analysis aims to reconstruct the origin and the evolution of both of Charpentier's masterpieces; and to do that we will make use of unpublished and original documents.
Focusing on music, our attention has been drawn by the visual element; this is the most significant - indeed the principal – stimulus for the composer's creativity. Charpentier was in fact among the first artists to adapt his works to the new communications media of radio and cinema, experimenting with a method of composing closely connected to them. The music of Gustave Charpentier reveals to us a world in which music and social history are inextricably associated; his music sheds light on the contradictions which enlivened fin de siècle France.

Contents

Vol. 16 - Beyond Notes: Improvisation in Western Music of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

edited by Rudolf Rasch, pp. xii+392, 2011, ISBN: 978-2-503-54244-7.

Improvisation is an important aspect of music, not only in jazz and other 'improvised music', but also of classical music. Pianists may add improvised interludes to their recitals and cadenzas to a concerto they perform. They may conclude their recitals by playing compositions composed on the spot, freely invented or on themes handed to them by the public. Violinists and other instrumentalists may do the same. Singers may add embellishments to their arias which are not notated in their scores, a practice widely spread in nineteenth-century opera. For the listener it may perhaps not make very much difference whether or not what he hears is improvised or composed, but for the performer it does, of course. In fact, the improviser shows that he is a real master of the art: he can do at once, without preparation, what others can do only with preparation. But there is also a genre of written compositions which is supposed to sound as improvisations, especially those entitled Improvisation, Fantasy, Impromptu, Prelude, and so forth.
Beyond Notes: Improvisation in Western Music of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries brings together twenty essays that do confirm the many sides of the concept of 'improvisation' and the wide range of approaches that can be taken to it. Because of the collective nature of this volume, the approaches do indeed vary greatly. Some contributions deal with improvisation from the conceptual point of view: what really is improvisation? Others deal with certain repertoires, or with specific examples. Some deal with improvised additions, others with improvisational aspects of written compositions. The contribution on the improvisations of the French organist Louis Vierne deals directly with recorded improvisations. The contribution on the flute-cadenza in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor encompasses recorded material, but this was rather semi-improvisational, prepared certainly, but not necessarily notated and not necessarily performed identically every time. Contemporary descriptions of improvisations are found in contributions on Italian music theorists and musicians in general, and in those on composers such as Hummel, Paganini, Bériot, Clara Wieck Schumann, Czerny, Liszt and Henselt. Compositions in improvisatory style are discussed in several of these contributions and in one on nineteenth-century Hungarian or so-called 'Gypsy' music. Ad libitum ornamentation is discussed in relation to Tartini's violin sonatas and nineteenth-century operatic arias. Other contributions discuss the instability that is a property of nearly all music or the migration of motives and schemes from one composition to another, processes that pave the way for improvised additions. Several contributions provide theoretical reflections on improvisation.

Contents

Vol. 15 - The Opéra-comique in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

edited by Lorenzo Frassà, x+394 pp., 2011, ISBN 978-2-503-52781-9.

This volume presents sixteen essays, ranging from the reception of the genre's foremost masterworks to the artistic productions of its protagonists, and finally to strictly aesthetic and musical issues. The book's central goal is to illustrate the foremost traits of this form of musical theatre (which is also an institution) and so to allow the reader (especially the general reader) to appreciate its richness and complexity of traditions, expressions and practices. They form a landscape that is extremely elusive, yet exceptionally lively and vibrant.

Contents

Vol. 14 - Music and Dictatorship in Europe and Latin America

edited by Roberto Illiano and Massimiliano Sala, XIV+767 pp., 2009, ISBN 978-2-503-52779-6.

In this book, edited by Roberto Illiano and Massimiliano Sala, twenty-four scholars investigate the relationship between music and dictatorship in twentieth-century Europe and Latin America. The music is explored as a political phenomenon in fifteenth nations under totalitarian regimes: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, and Hungary. Historical and aesthetical articles face both individual people (for instance, Chavez, Ligeti, Massarani or Villa-Lobos) as well whole generations of composers operating under dictatorship (for example, in the communist regimes of Poland and Serbia; in France under Vichy; in Franco's Spain, Salazar's Portugal, or in Revolutionary Cuba).

Contents

Vol. 13 - Vivaldi, Motezuma and the Opera Seria. Essay on a Newly Discovered Works and Its Background

edited by Michael Talbot, Turnhout, Brepols, 2008.

Vol. 12 - Daniele Filippi, «Selva Armonica». La musica spirituale a Roma tra Cinque e Seicento

Turnhout, Brepols, 2008.

Vol. 11 - Agnese Pavanello, Il 'concerto grosso' romano. Questioni di genere e nuove prospettive storiografiche

Turnhout, Brepols, 2006.

Vol. 10 - Italian Music during the Fascist Period

edited by Roberto Illiano, Turnhout, Brepols, 2004.

Vol. 9 - Christian Speck, Das italienische Oratorium 1625-1665. Musik und Dichtung

Turnhout, Brepols, 2003.

Vol. 8 - The Eighteenth-Century Diaspora of Italian Music and Musicians

Turnhout, Brepols, 2001.

Vol. 7 - Melania Bucciarelli, Italian Opera and European Theatre, 1680-1720: Plots, Performers, Dramaturgies

Turnhout, Brepols, 2000.

Vol. 6 - Robert Zappulla, Figured Bass Accompaniment in France

Turnhout, Brepols, 2000.

Vol. 5 - Galliano Ciliberti, Musica e società in Umbria tra Medioevo e Rinascimento

Turnhout, Brepols, 1998.

Vol. 4 - Livia Pancino, Johann Adolf Hasse e Giammaria Ortes. Lettere (1760-1783). Edizione e commento

edited by Albert Dunning, 2 voll., Lucca, Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1995.

Vol. 3 - Emanuele Senici, La clemenza di Tito di Mozart. I primi trent'anni (1791-1821)

Turnhout, Brepols, 1997.

Vol. 2 - Fulvia Morabito. La romanza vocale da camera in Italia

Turnhout, Brepols, 1997.

Vol. 1 - Intorno a Locatelli. Studi in occasione del tricentenario della nascita di Pietro Antonio Locatelli (1695-1764)

edited by Albert Dunning, 2 voll., Lucca, Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1995.