Transcript History of Music

History of Music
Researching and writing
programme notes
Philip Shields
January 2013
Nature and purpose of programme notes
• Should be seen as essential part of concert
preparation and an integral part of the recital
• Provide background information on work(s) and
composer(s). Generally includes:
• Brief biographical information
• Historical context of work and genre
• Description of the work itself (possibly
analytical but not too hard-core!)
• For vocal works: texts & translations of any
songs or Lieder
Nature and purpose of programme notes (2)
• May also include:
• Reception history of work
• Performance history of work
• A well-chosen relevant quote from the
composers or their contemporaries can be
highly effective
Writing style
• Not necessarily overly academic, but still needs to
be authoritative, based on reliable sources (which
should be acknowledged if quoted from, but full
footnoting is not required). Your approach to research
will be the same as for essays
• While the language used may be more informal than
academic writing, it should not be colloquial, slangy
or too intrusively subjective
• Strike a balance: not overly technical (too dry and
hard to assimilate for general readers), but not too
flowery or fanciful either!
• Above all, keep the reader’s interest: programme
notes are read in half-lit halls in the context of a live
performance
• Be concise! The main purpose of programme notes
is to communicate effectively essential information to
non-specialist readers
Information sources (1)
• Biographical Information: Grove online ; composer
biographies ; contemporary composers’ own
websites. National music information centres for
various countries (e.g. www.cmc.ie for Ireland;
www.iamic.net internationally
• Style and historical context: general histories
(Grout, Palisca, Bukofzer – also volumes on specific
genres, e.g. H. Smither History of the oratorio)
• Individual works: This can be the most problematic
information to find. Sources can include:
•
Composer biographies, or books on a composer’s
genre e.g. Lester Bach’s works for solo violin
•
CD liner notes (evaluate these sources critically)
•
Naxos Music Library – scanned liner notes in PDF
(also not to be used uncritically)
•
Some record companies (e.g. Hyperion) websites
have their liner notes online
Information sources (2)
• Individual works (cont.): some more recent and
scholarly music editions from Peters and Wiener
Urtext can have excellent information in the preface:
e.g. Nichols’ edition of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit
• Songs and lieder: texts and translations in reference
works, e.g. Eric Sams The songs of Hugo Wolf; also
online at www.recmusic.org (the Song and Lieder
Text page)
• Reception history of composers: changing
attitudes over time to a composer or work can be
revealed by older editions of a standard work, e.g.
Master Musician series, or Grove’s Dictionary (we
have all 7 editions ranging from 1879 - 2001!)
Information sources (3)
• Dictionaries of quotations: An encyclopedia of
quotations about music ed. Nat Shapiro (London:
David & Charles, 1978); The Wordsworth dictionary
of musical quotations, ed. Derek Watson (Ware:
Wordsworth Reference, 1991)
Guides to programme note writing
• Associated Board: Nigel Scaife, Writing programme
notes: a guide for diploma candidates: a “must-read”.
Available online
• Other guides: Type guide to writing programme
notes into google. Look for sites ending with .edu or
.ac.uk (US and UK university sites)
• General writing guides: Richard Wingell Writing
about music (New Jersey, 2002) – has a section on
programme note writing p. 91-97
Example – Research Bach’s Partita no. 4 BWV 828
Find books on Bach’s Partitas
Note:
• Truncation marker $ - finds partita,
partitas etc
• not violin – the not filters out
irrelevant terms (so excludes writings
on Bach’s Violin partitas)
Narrow search to Books
Example – Research Bach’s Partita no. 4 BWV 828
3 results – 2 relevant.
Example – Research Bach’s Partita no. 4 BWV 828
Alternatively, do broader search on Bach’s keyboard
music
Example – Research Bach’s Partita no. 4 BWV 828
Broader search: 16 results – 9 possible relevant
Example – Research Bach’s Partita no. 4 BWV 828
Search for recordings in the library (could contain useful
liner notes or sleeve notes). Note: the search below
excludes the organ, flute, violin partitas.
Sort by: New to old –
Brings the most recent recordings to the
top of the list
Example – Research Bach’s Partita no. 4 BWV 828
Naxos Music Library – contains scanned liner notes in PDF
for Naxos’s own label recordings.
Note:
• Naxos Music Library indexes every
track on each recording, so you can
always search for the specific work
• Include the term naxos in the
search so you only retrieve Naxos’
own label recordings (most of the
others labels do not have CD lines
notes in PDF format)
Example – Research Bach’s Partita no. 4 BWV 828
A good source is online liner notes from record companies – e.g.
Hyperion, where the notes are often written by established scholars/
performers (e.g. Mervyn Cooke, Graham Johnson, Angela Hewitt)
Other examples – Schubert “Gretchen am Spinnrade”
Hyperion has complete Schubert song edition with excellent and
detailed notes on each by Graham Johnson. Text and reliable
translations also available in the scanned PDF booklet.
Internet sources: general principles of
evaluation
Authority
• Is there an author? Is the
article/page signed?
• Authors qualifications and
credentials?
• Is the page from an
organisation with
established reputation (e.g.
www.indiana.edu)?
• For an online journal: is the
journal peer-reviewed?
Currency
• Check copyright date, if
available, at the end of the
article
• Look at “Page last updated”
info. if available
• Links still current? (Broken
links are a sign the page is
outdated)