MUSIC.OLOGY.ECA

Editorial

Liam Clark — 2023-10-12

[Issue 4 Editorial]

The Key Debates of Musical Exoticism and Orientalism in Historical Musicology

Sharon Yang — 2023-10-12

Edward W. Said’s book, Orientalism, covers direct and indirect relations between the West and the Orient, the European world and the Asian world, in terms of politics, geography, ethnic traditions, morals, and cultures through past centuries. These vibrant crosscurrents have had a significant influence on the spread of humanism in civilization, and most importantly, have emboldened introspection in almost every academic discipline, encouraging racial equality within the development of modernity. Derived from Said’s theory of Orientalism, this paper reviews the key academic debates of musical exoticism and Orientalism within the last thirty years. Sindhumathi Revuluri’s musical reflection on Orientalism, Ralph P. Locke’s analytical methodology, and a case study of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly by Ping-hui Liao, Dorinne K.Kondo, and Mari Yoshihara from each of their respective and diverse focuses, all extend the theory of Orientalism into the domain of historical musicology.

Order and Continuity in Igor Stravinsky’s Music:

Tian-Yan Feng — 2023-10-12

The works of Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) have been criticised for the tendency of their compositional technique towards ‘repetition,’ ‘stasis,’ ‘non-progression,’ ‘block juxtaposition,’ and even ‘discontinuity’ by musicologists and analysts including Taruskin (1996), Whittall (1997), Cross (1998), and Boulez (1968). However, more and more contemporary theorists argue that his music is not only characterised by repetition or consistency, but also that many structural phenomena and musical parameters have distinct development within the internal structure. Moreover, they point out that characteristics of both discontinuity and continuity are found at different structural levels within his compositions (Cone; Horlacher 2018; Wang 2004; Kramer 1986, 1988).

Taking the above scholarship into consideration, this essay analyses several musical elements to explore features of order, regularity, continuity, and consistency in the first movement of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat, “Marche du Solda”. Closer analysis reveals that this movement exhibits many tendencies of order and consistency within individual parameters, but this order is broken when considering all parameters together, as each has its own pace and structural pattern. The analytical results presented in this essay align with the emphasis by contemporary musicologists and scholars on Stravinsky’s tendency towards consistency and order in his compositions, affirming that his music does indeed possess these features, but they require a different perspective to observe.

Music Therapy: an embodiment of the ‘interdisciplinary problem’.

Katja Taits — 2023-10-12

This article explores the interdisciplinary problem historians of medicine face when attempting to research history of the music therapy profession within the UK. Focusing on social history methodology, and why this kind of research needs to be done, the article reaches two conclusions. The first is that more research of all kinds, including historiographical research, is needed in order to support the continuation of the music therapy profession. The second conclusion is that interdisciplinary and collaborative research will be the most effective way forward when approaching this task.