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Music from the Middle Ages to Today

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Music from the Middle Ages to Today 28 DISCOVERY | VOLUME 8 TODAY THE $125 BILLION MUSIC INDUSTRY IS GOING THROUGH A MONUMENTAL SHIFT. THE MEDIUMS WE USE TO TRANSMIT, RECEIVE, AND PURCHASE MUSIC HAVE TRANSFORMED HOW WE EXPERIENCE MUSIC IN OUR DAILY LIVES AND HOW MUSIC'S CULTURAL VALUE HAS CHANGED OVER TIME. THE ONGOING RESEARCH OF THE MUSICOLOGISTS WILLIAM SHERRILL, Ph.D, DREW STEPHEN, Ph.D, MARK BRILL, Ph.D, AND ERIC SCHNEEMAN, Ph.D, USES A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE TO PLACE THIS CHANGING INDUSTRY INTO A CULTURAL, HISTORICAL CONTEXT. VOLUME 8 | DISCOVERY 29 aim of Brill’s research attempts to valve horn, which we’re familiar with uncover the impact of globalization today. It’s too complicated to explain and Westernization on the music of the difference between the horns the indigenous populations of the here, but you can watch Stephen’s western hemisphere from the 17th to demonstration of the natural horn 19th centuries. His research has taken online at: https://medialibrary.utsa. him to archives throughout Mexico, edu/Play/9637. Furthermore, you can and in 1995, Brill uncovered a hitherto hear Stephen play the natural horn with unknown treasure trove of music the Austin Baroque Orchestra and other manuscripts at the Oaxaca Cathedral. music organizations in the area. His work has brought about a new repertoire for ensembles to perform for On another level, Stephen’s research the public: recently the Austin Baroque draws the horn into larger cultural THE WORK OF WILLIAM SHERRILL focuses Orchestra performed these rediscovered practices by examining the instrument’s on the emergence of musical notation in works at Mission Concepcíon in San association with the hunt. We may the 11th century. Though hundreds of Antonio. Currently he is working with think of the hunt as a solitary sport in years stand in between the Middle Ages UTSA music students and ensembles to which silence is key to stalking animals, and today, the problems still remain the perform a setting of the Catholic Mass but from its inception to the 19th same. Sherrill’s research demonstrates by the 18th-century Mexican composer century, the horn was an integral part of that musical notation developed in Manuel de Sumaya. As Brill notes, “my the hunting experience, as its rhythmic various guises and under the auspices research is satisfying on many levels: and melodic signals were used to bring of the Roman Catholic Church to bringing long-forgotten music back to organization to the hunting activities. ensure that the music of the Latin Mass life is one of the most gratifying (and remained the same from church to useful) endeavors I can pursue as a In his most recent publication, “The church and from country to country. In musicologists. Additionally, exposing Wild Hunter, the Wandering Jew, and many ways, this is the first attempt to students to these traditions, and having the Flying Dutchman: The Hunt In build a global music industry in Europe: them engage in the task of recreating Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer” Sherrill is examining manuscripts that this music is also rewarding. San (Intersections Vol. 33, No. 2), Stephen were written in the Aquitanian region Antonio, with its remarkable culture shows how mystical legends of the of France after receiving the music and history, is exactly the place where Wild Hunter and the Wandering repertoire from Rome. According to we should be exploring and performing Jew informed the composer Richard Sherrill, though the notation may look Mexican and Latin-American music and Wagner’s conception of the opera. By kind of strange, “it’s actually similar to culture.” When he’s not researching the examining the cultural meanings of our modern notation.” The reason that music of Mexico, Brill also examines the hunt in the historical context of the musical notation developed in Europe “exoticism” in the film music of Bernard 19th century, Stephen provides a richer was the need of Church leaders to create Herrmann. context for understanding the opera a musical system that transmitted the for listeners today, who are largely necessary information to performers in Musicologists unfamiliar with the hunting motif and various regions. Sherrill’s work shows research not unaware of its implications. us some of the earliest steps toward only the scores developing that system. and musical Stephen is currently working on a notation but also monograph about Johannes Brahms’s Whereas the development Trio for Piano, Violin and Horn (Op. Sherrill looks of instruments 40), which addresses the composer’s at the influence of medieval themselves and how changes to unusual instrumentation and its European instruments impact performance broader cultural meaning in the context cultures upon and compositional practices. DREW of late 19th-century modernization. each other, STEPHEN has made the history of the Ultimately as Stephen sees the role MARK BRILL has dedicated his research horn the central focus on his research. of musicology as the study of “a to the cross-fertilization of European His examinations are twofold: on collaborative effort that involves a and indigenous musical practices one level, his research examines the large number of people and mediating during the colonization of Mexico performance practices related to the factors. By connecting musical texts and Latin America. The secondary natural horn compared to the modern to their social contexts and seeking to 30 DISCOVERY | VOLUME 8 understand their creation and continued existence as a process condition that mirrors our own experience. Additionally, of collective social activity, I further our understanding of Schneeman likes to analyze the sampling techniques in musical works as cultural constructions that reflect societal hip-hop music, having written on the biography and music of beliefs and values through the medium of sound.” Curtis Jackson III, who performs under the name 50 Cent. It’s this cultural aspect of music history When they are not digging in archives or writing articles, that fascinates and informs ERIC UTSA’s musicologists are participating in San Antonio’s $1.2 SCHNEEMAN’S current research projects. billion culture industry by performing in ensembles, writing Focusing on the music and culture of concert notes, or providing pre-concert lectures. Stephen, for 19th-century Germany, Schneeman example, performs the natural horn with the Austin Baroque has demonstrated the manner in which Orchestra, while Schneeman serves on the board of Music politicians, writers, and historians Offerings to help with repertoire selection and providing pre- have manipulated and appropriated the biographies of past concert lectures. In this manner, they can use their research composers to further their own political, aesthetic, and to assist performing arts organizations address the cultural ideological agendas. needs of their constituents. Musicologists also contribute to San Antonio and American culture industry by reviewing Using archival materials from the Staatsbibliothek zu books, recordings, and films. Through our evaluations of Berlin (The National Library in Berlin), his recent article, these materials we help foster thoughtful considerations of “Perceptions of Musical Cosmopolitanism in Eighteenth- and music among the general public. Furthermore, their research Nineteenth-century Europe: The Case of Christoph Gluck is a vital part of the classroom experience as students assist in and Giacomo Meyerbeer” (Oxford Handbook Online), ongoing research projects and discover works from long- examines how 19th-century German critics used the forgotten composers. biography of the 18th-century composer Gluck to justify the cosmopolitan career of the 19th-century German-Jewish composer Meyerbeer. In the end, his article upends current ideas of 19th-century German history, which have typically emphasized the growth of nationalism and nation building, showing instead that many 19th-century thinkers considered cosmopolitanism an important aspect of the German identity. Schneeman also has an interest in the intersections of music and literature, and is currently finishing up an article about music and noise pollution in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s fiction and music criticism. Schneeman sees the 19th century as a time when music pervaded and intermingled with daily life — a VOLUME 8 | DISCOVERY 31.
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