have achieved virtually nothing since that last post.
but i have tidied my desk.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
random writing thoughts on bodies/music
2210
Well, I'm thinking of my article on bodies in sixteenth century music and I'm thinking about how daily music practice does in fact shape the body. I remember when I practiced singing every day my cheekbones were well defined. So my music practice shaped my face, shaped my physical appearance. Plus there must have been other ways in which my body was shaped--things not so visible to the eye, like stamina, larynx, that vocal agility (if only I could get it back). So, I'm wondering how sixteenth-century musicians bodies were shaped by their practice and in fact whether that is even viable as research questions. Well, I'm sure it's viable, I'm just not sure it's do-able.
But what sources could I look at?
Music treatises - Zarlino, Ganassi, that other guy. These might be places I could look for information on how bodies were instructed in 16th c. But I wonder if I will find anything?
What other possibilities are there?
Bodies come up in motets--there was that one I was looking at a number of weeks ago, Amo Christum.
4 minutes gone and I'm already running out of ideas.
Alessia mentioned to me the idea of the medieval body in relation to flagellation--all about opening the body to society.
Work on vocalising and bodies by not Nina Treadwell, erm. what is her name, must keep writing but her name is on the tip of my tongue Bonnie Gordon, that's it. Bonnie Gordon wrote a great piece on talking back and the ballo delle ingrate in which I seem to remember she discussed the early modern equation between open throat and sexual availability. I wonder whether that is a possible starting point? Or has it been done to death already?
What about the dialogue on Tarquinia Molza that Laurie looked at? There was that interesting comparison between the castrato singer and Molza which I think had something on bodies.
There's that new book/research paper on castrati tjat I must get hold of. Can't remember who that's by right now.
Gosh, this is very disorganised and still only 7 minutes in.
OK, poetry on musicking bodies - hah, that reminds me, I wonder if there's any mileage in that book in relation to early modern italy.
also that business about the book as the body, and the metaphor for how music works--I guess that's a philosophical thing. McClary's idea that when you sing from written music, your body is penetrated (McClary? Gordon deals with this too, I think) and you can't control your physical response. This seems to be denying the performer's agency. Is there any thing in sixteenth-century music theory, poetry, instruction mauals etc that discuss (however obliquely), the performer's agency?
Book as body, held in the hands of friends who in singing take the music into their bodies, first internalising it and then externalising it all sounds pretty cool *but* I don't think really describes what is going on. Surely they are not taking the music into their bodies in the way McClary seems to imply, but rather they are realising the music with their bodies--the music would not exist without their bodies--surely their bodies, the positions of the mouths, the angle of the neck, their stamina and physicality all impact and alter??? no, not alter, because that implies that the music exists already, but all impact upon how the music will sound or is sounded through, by, within??? their bodies. That is a more complicated model and doesn't suggest the passive performer model that McClary slips in to.
Elisabeth Grosz--I need to read that properly this time and consider different intellectual models and feminist theories of bodies.
The obsession with anatomy and the theatre of the body, the display of the body in anatomical diagrams (Talvacchia again) might be of relevance somehow but I wonder how. You see, that's all visual and what I'm really interested in is bodily knowledge, I guess.
Almost out of time and I am certainly out of ideas. I can see I need to spend a lot of time in the library and looking over different primary sources. Zarlino we have, Vicentino we should have.
2225
References:
Silvestro Ganassi, Title in here.
Bonnie Gordon, “Talking Back: The Female Voice in ‘Il ballo delle ingrate,’” Cambridge Opera Journal, 11/1 (1999): 1-30.
Elizabeth Grosz, Volatile Bodies.
Susan McClary, Modal Subjectivities.
Laurie Stras, 'Recording Tarquinia,' Early Music. (I think.)
Bette Talvacchia, Taking Positions.
Nicola Vicentino, Title in here.
Gioseffo Zarlino, Le institutione harmoniche.
Well, I'm thinking of my article on bodies in sixteenth century music and I'm thinking about how daily music practice does in fact shape the body. I remember when I practiced singing every day my cheekbones were well defined. So my music practice shaped my face, shaped my physical appearance. Plus there must have been other ways in which my body was shaped--things not so visible to the eye, like stamina, larynx, that vocal agility (if only I could get it back). So, I'm wondering how sixteenth-century musicians bodies were shaped by their practice and in fact whether that is even viable as research questions. Well, I'm sure it's viable, I'm just not sure it's do-able.
But what sources could I look at?
Music treatises - Zarlino, Ganassi, that other guy. These might be places I could look for information on how bodies were instructed in 16th c. But I wonder if I will find anything?
What other possibilities are there?
Bodies come up in motets--there was that one I was looking at a number of weeks ago, Amo Christum.
4 minutes gone and I'm already running out of ideas.
Alessia mentioned to me the idea of the medieval body in relation to flagellation--all about opening the body to society.
Work on vocalising and bodies by not Nina Treadwell, erm. what is her name, must keep writing but her name is on the tip of my tongue Bonnie Gordon, that's it. Bonnie Gordon wrote a great piece on talking back and the ballo delle ingrate in which I seem to remember she discussed the early modern equation between open throat and sexual availability. I wonder whether that is a possible starting point? Or has it been done to death already?
What about the dialogue on Tarquinia Molza that Laurie looked at? There was that interesting comparison between the castrato singer and Molza which I think had something on bodies.
There's that new book/research paper on castrati tjat I must get hold of. Can't remember who that's by right now.
Gosh, this is very disorganised and still only 7 minutes in.
OK, poetry on musicking bodies - hah, that reminds me, I wonder if there's any mileage in that book in relation to early modern italy.
also that business about the book as the body, and the metaphor for how music works--I guess that's a philosophical thing. McClary's idea that when you sing from written music, your body is penetrated (McClary? Gordon deals with this too, I think) and you can't control your physical response. This seems to be denying the performer's agency. Is there any thing in sixteenth-century music theory, poetry, instruction mauals etc that discuss (however obliquely), the performer's agency?
Book as body, held in the hands of friends who in singing take the music into their bodies, first internalising it and then externalising it all sounds pretty cool *but* I don't think really describes what is going on. Surely they are not taking the music into their bodies in the way McClary seems to imply, but rather they are realising the music with their bodies--the music would not exist without their bodies--surely their bodies, the positions of the mouths, the angle of the neck, their stamina and physicality all impact and alter??? no, not alter, because that implies that the music exists already, but all impact upon how the music will sound or is sounded through, by, within??? their bodies. That is a more complicated model and doesn't suggest the passive performer model that McClary slips in to.
Elisabeth Grosz--I need to read that properly this time and consider different intellectual models and feminist theories of bodies.
The obsession with anatomy and the theatre of the body, the display of the body in anatomical diagrams (Talvacchia again) might be of relevance somehow but I wonder how. You see, that's all visual and what I'm really interested in is bodily knowledge, I guess.
Almost out of time and I am certainly out of ideas. I can see I need to spend a lot of time in the library and looking over different primary sources. Zarlino we have, Vicentino we should have.
2225
References:
Silvestro Ganassi, Title in here.
Bonnie Gordon, “Talking Back: The Female Voice in ‘Il ballo delle ingrate,’” Cambridge Opera Journal, 11/1 (1999): 1-30.
Elizabeth Grosz, Volatile Bodies.
Susan McClary, Modal Subjectivities.
Laurie Stras, 'Recording Tarquinia,' Early Music. (I think.)
Bette Talvacchia, Taking Positions.
Nicola Vicentino, Title in here.
Gioseffo Zarlino, Le institutione harmoniche.
Monday, June 4, 2007
New projects on the go
Since my last post, the conference has happened, I've finished my marking, and I've presented at another conference (all within two weeks of each other). It's been a busy fortnight indeed.
Projects on the go:
1. Revise friendship paper (asap)
2. Paper for Eros collection (by 1 aug)
3. Review of Courtesan's Arts for JSMI (by end June)
4. Review for M&L (by end Sept)
5. Revise Castellino paper to send to Linda, and to Libby (over summer)
6. That dang sprezzatura piece (quite urgent now)
7. Entry on gender in Irish pop for EMIR (negotiate new deadline)
8. Paper on female vocality & dialect song (find out about conf proceedings for Angels & Devils)
9. Conference version of friendship paper (by Aug 11)
10. Decide whether to produce collection of papers from my conf
That'll be enough to keep me going.....
Projects on the go:
1. Revise friendship paper (asap)
2. Paper for Eros collection (by 1 aug)
3. Review of Courtesan's Arts for JSMI (by end June)
4. Review for M&L (by end Sept)
5. Revise Castellino paper to send to Linda, and to Libby (over summer)
6. That dang sprezzatura piece (quite urgent now)
7. Entry on gender in Irish pop for EMIR (negotiate new deadline)
8. Paper on female vocality & dialect song (find out about conf proceedings for Angels & Devils)
9. Conference version of friendship paper (by Aug 11)
10. Decide whether to produce collection of papers from my conf
That'll be enough to keep me going.....
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