Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland

Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland PDF Author: Árni Heimir Ingólfsson
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253044065
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
In Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland, Árni Heimir Ingólfsson provides a striking account of the dramatic career of Iceland's iconic composer. Leifs (1899–1968) was the first Icelander to devote himself fully to composition at a time when a local music scene was only beginning to take form. He was a fervent nationalist in his art, fashioning an idiosyncratic and uncompromising 'Icelandic' sound from traditions of vernacular music with the aim to legitimize Iceland as an independent, culturally empowered nation. In addition to exploring Leifs's career, Ingólfsson provides detailed descriptions of Leifs's major works and their cultural contexts. Leifs's music was inspired by the Icelandic landscape and includes auditory depictions of volcanos, geysers, and waterfalls. The raw quality of his orchestral music is frequently enhanced by an expansive percussion section, including anvils, stones, sirens, bells, ships' chains, shotguns, and cannons. Largely neglected in his own lifetime, Leifs's music has been rediscovered in recent years and hailed as a singular and deeply original contribution to twentieth-century music. Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland enriches our understanding and appreciation of Leifs and his music by exploring the political, literary and environmental contexts that influenced his work.

Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland

Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland PDF Author: Árni Heimir Ingólfsson
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253044065
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland, Árni Heimir Ingólfsson provides a striking account of the dramatic career of Iceland's iconic composer. Leifs (1899–1968) was the first Icelander to devote himself fully to composition at a time when a local music scene was only beginning to take form. He was a fervent nationalist in his art, fashioning an idiosyncratic and uncompromising 'Icelandic' sound from traditions of vernacular music with the aim to legitimize Iceland as an independent, culturally empowered nation. In addition to exploring Leifs's career, Ingólfsson provides detailed descriptions of Leifs's major works and their cultural contexts. Leifs's music was inspired by the Icelandic landscape and includes auditory depictions of volcanos, geysers, and waterfalls. The raw quality of his orchestral music is frequently enhanced by an expansive percussion section, including anvils, stones, sirens, bells, ships' chains, shotguns, and cannons. Largely neglected in his own lifetime, Leifs's music has been rediscovered in recent years and hailed as a singular and deeply original contribution to twentieth-century music. Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland enriches our understanding and appreciation of Leifs and his music by exploring the political, literary and environmental contexts that influenced his work.

Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland

Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland PDF Author: Árni Heimir Ingólfsson
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253044073
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
In Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland, Árni Heimir Ingólfsson provides a striking account of the dramatic career of Iceland's iconic composer. Leifs (1899–1968) was the first Icelander to devote himself fully to composition at a time when a local music scene was only beginning to take form. He was a fervent nationalist in his art, fashioning an idiosyncratic and uncompromising 'Icelandic' sound from traditions of vernacular music with the aim to legitimize Iceland as an independent, culturally empowered nation. In addition to exploring Leifs's career, Ingólfsson provides detailed descriptions of Leifs's major works and their cultural contexts. Leifs's music was inspired by the Icelandic landscape and includes auditory depictions of volcanos, geysers, and waterfalls. The raw quality of his orchestral music is frequently enhanced by an expansive percussion section, including anvils, stones, sirens, bells, ships' chains, shotguns, and cannons. Largely neglected in his own lifetime, Leifs's music has been rediscovered in recent years and hailed as a singular and deeply original contribution to twentieth-century music. Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland enriches our understanding and appreciation of Leifs and his music by exploring the political, literary and environmental contexts that influenced his work.

The Northern Silence

The Northern Silence PDF Author: Andrew Mellor
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300265492
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
An essential exploration of Nordic composers and musicians, and the distinctive culture that continues to shape them Once considered a musical backwater, the Nordic region is now a musical powerhouse. Conductors from Denmark and Finland dominate the British and American orchestral scene. Interest in the old masters Sibelius and Grieg is soaring and progressive pop artists like Björk continue to fascinate as much as they entertain. Andrew Mellor journeys to the heart of the Nordic cultural psyche. From Reykjavik to Rovaniemi, he examines the success of Nordic music’s performers, the attitude of its audiences, and the sound of its composers past and present—celebrating some of the most remarkable music ever written along the way. Mellor peers into the dark side of the Scandinavian utopia, from xenophobia and alcoholism to parochialism and the twilight of the social democratic dream. Drawing on a range of genres and firsthand encounters, he reveals that our fascination with Nordic societies and our love for Nordic music might be more intertwined than first thought.

The Nature of Nordic Music

The Nature of Nordic Music PDF Author: Tim Howell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315462834
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The Nature of Nordic Music explores two distinctive yet complementary understandings of the term ‘nature’: the inherent features, characters and qualities of contemporary Nordic music, and how the elemental forces of nature, the phenomena of the physical world (landscape, climate, environment), inspire and condition creativity here. Within a broader debate about the meaning of ‘Nordicness’, 12 case studies challenge our assumptions about a ‘Nordic tone’ to reveal a creative energy that is diverse and cosmopolitan in outlook. Each of the three parts of the book – ‘Identities’, ‘Images’ and ‘Environments’ – accommodates an eclectic array of musical genres (classical, popular, jazz, folk, electronic). This book will appeal to anyone interested in Nordic music and culture, especially students and researchers.

Musics Lost and Found

Musics Lost and Found PDF Author: Michael Church
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 178327607X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
This ground-breaking book is the first-ever study of the role played in musical history by song collectors.This is the first-ever book about song collectors, music''s unsung heroes. They include the Armenian priest who sacrificed his life to preserve the folk music which the Turks were trying to erase in the 1915 Genocide; the prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp who secretly noted down the songs of doomed Jewish inmates; the British singer who went veiled into Afghanistan to learn, record and perform the music the Taliban wanted to silence. Some collectors have been fired by political idealism - Bartok championing Hungarian peasant music, the Lomaxes bringing the blues out of Mississippi penitentiaries, and transmitting them to the world. Many collectors have been priests - French Jesuits noting down labyrinthine forms in eighteenth-century Beijing, English vicars tracking songs in nineteenth-century Somerset. Others have been wonderfully colourful oddballs.Today''s collectors are striving heroically to preserve endangered musics, whether rare forms of Balinese gamelan, the wind-band music of Chinese villages, or the sophisticated polyphony of Central African Pygmies. With globalisation, urbanisation and Westernisation causing an irreversible erosion of the world''s musical diversity, Michael Church suggests we may be seeing folk music''s ''end of history''. Old forms are dying as the conditions for their survival - or replacement - disappear; the death of villages means the death of village musical culture.This ground-breaking book is the sequel to the author''s award-winning The Other Classical Musics, and it concludes with an inventory of the musics now under threat, or already lost for ever.rve endangered musics, whether rare forms of Balinese gamelan, the wind-band music of Chinese villages, or the sophisticated polyphony of Central African Pygmies. With globalisation, urbanisation and Westernisation causing an irreversible erosion of the world''s musical diversity, Michael Church suggests we may be seeing folk music''s ''end of history''. Old forms are dying as the conditions for their survival - or replacement - disappear; the death of villages means the death of village musical culture.This ground-breaking book is the sequel to the author''s award-winning The Other Classical Musics, and it concludes with an inventory of the musics now under threat, or already lost for ever.rve endangered musics, whether rare forms of Balinese gamelan, the wind-band music of Chinese villages, or the sophisticated polyphony of Central African Pygmies. With globalisation, urbanisation and Westernisation causing an irreversible erosion of the world''s musical diversity, Michael Church suggests we may be seeing folk music''s ''end of history''. Old forms are dying as the conditions for their survival - or replacement - disappear; the death of villages means the death of village musical culture.This ground-breaking book is the sequel to the author''s award-winning The Other Classical Musics, and it concludes with an inventory of the musics now under threat, or already lost for ever.rve endangered musics, whether rare forms of Balinese gamelan, the wind-band music of Chinese villages, or the sophisticated polyphony of Central African Pygmies. With globalisation, urbanisation and Westernisation causing an irreversible erosion of the world''s musical diversity, Michael Church suggests we may be seeing folk music''s ''end of history''. Old forms are dying as the conditions for their survival - or replacement - disappear; the death of villages means the death of village musical culture.This ground-breaking book is the sequel to the author''s award-winning The Other Classical Musics, and it concludes with an inventory of the musics now under threat, or already lost for ever.sic''s ''end of history''. Old forms are dying as the conditions for their survival - or replacement - disappear; the death of villages means the death of village musical culture.This ground-breaking book is the sequel to the author''s award-winning The Other Classical Musics, and it concludes with an inventory of the musics now under threat, or already lost for ever.

The Search for Medieval Music in Africa and Germany, 1891–1961

The Search for Medieval Music in Africa and Germany, 1891–1961 PDF Author: Anna Maria Busse Berger
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022674048X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
This innovative book reassesses the history of musicology, unearthing the field’s twentieth-century German and global roots. In the process, Anna Maria Busse Berger exposes previously unseen historical relationships such as those between the modern rediscovery of medieval music, the rise of communal singing, and the ways in which African music intersected with missionary work in the German colonial period. Ultimately, Busse Berger offers a monumental new account of the early twentieth-century music culture in Germany and East Africa. ?The book unfolds in three parts. Busse Berger starts with the origins of comparative musicology circa 1900, when early proponents used ideas from comparative linguistics to test whether parallels could be drawn between nonwestern and medieval European music. She then turns to youth movements of the era—the Wandervogel, Jugendmusikbewegung, and Singbewegung—whose focus on joint music making influenced many musicologists. Finally, she considers case studies of Protestant and Catholic mission societies in what is now Tanzania, where missionaries—many of them musicologists and former youth-group members—extended the discipline via ethnographic research and a focus on local music and communities. In highlighting these long-overlooked transnational connections and the role of global music in early musicology, Busse Berger shapes a fresh conception of music scholarship during a pivotal part of the twentieth century.

Dissonant Landscapes

Dissonant Landscapes PDF Author: Tore Størvold
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
ISBN: 081950050X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
During the past three decades, Iceland has attained a strong presence in the world through its musical culture, with images of the nation being packaged and shipped out in melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. What 'Iceland' means for people, both at home and abroad, is conditioned by music and its ability to animate notions of nature and nationality. In six chapters that range from discussions of indie rock ballads to 'Nordic noir' television music, Dissonant Landscapes describes the capacity of musical expression to transform ideas about nature and nationality on the northern edges of Europe.

Most Unimaginably Strange

Most Unimaginably Strange PDF Author: Chris Caseldine
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1789144736
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
For all who yearn to travel to the home of the sagas, a beautifully illustrated companion to the terrain of Iceland—from puffins to ponies, glaciers and volcanoes to legendary trolls. Described by William Morris as “most unimaginably strange,” the landscape of Iceland has fascinated and inspired travelers, scientists, artists, and writers throughout history. This book provides a contemporary understanding of the landscape as a whole, not only its iconic glaciers and volcanoes, but also its deserts, canyons, plants, and animals. The book examines historic and modern scientific studies of the landscape and animals, as well as accounts of early visitors to the land. These were captivating people, some eccentric but most drawn to Iceland by an enthrallment with all things northern, a desire to experience the land of the sagas, or plain scientific and touristic curiosity. Featuring many spectacular illustrations, this is a fine exploration of a most singular landscape.

The Sounds of Place

The Sounds of Place PDF Author: Denise Von Glahn
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252052951
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 569

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Book Description
Composers like Charles Ives, Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich created works that indelibly commemorated American places. Denise Von Glahn analyzes the soundscapes of fourteen figures whose "place pieces" tell us much about the nation's search for its own voice and about its ever-changing sense of self. She connects each composer's feelings about the United States and their reasons for creating a piece to the music, while analyzing their compositional techniques, tunes, and styles. Approaching the compositions in chronological order, Von Glahn reveals how works that celebrated the wilderness gave way to music engaged with humanity's influence--benign and otherwise--on the landscape, before environmentalism inspired a return to nature themes in the late twentieth century. Wide-ranging and astute, The Sounds of Place explores high art music's role in the making of national myth and memory.

A Cultural History of the Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries 1950-1975

A Cultural History of the Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries 1950-1975 PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004310509
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 879

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Book Description
A Cultural History of the Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries 1950-1975 is the first publication to deal with the postwar avant-garde in the Nordic countries. The essays cover a wide range of avant-garde manifestations in arts and culture: literature, the visual arts, architecture and design, film, radio, television and the performative arts. It is the first major historical work to consider the Nordic avant-garde in a transnational perspective that includes all the arts and to discuss the role of the avant-garde not only within the aesthetic field but in a broader cultural and political context: The cultural politics, institutions and new cultural geographies after World War II, new technologies and media, performative strategies, interventions into everyday life and tensions between market and counterculture.