Luciano Berio’s Six Encores for piano solo

The anthology of the Six Encores (1965-1990) for piano solo, written by a major Italian modernist composer Luciano Berio (1925-2003), demonstrates a wide spectrum of compositional techniques and styles of 20^th-century musical experimental thought. To play the six short, one to four minutes each, pieces the performer must possess the highest level of preparation and impeccable knowledge of the instrument: yet virtuosity is only one aspect of the cycle. Four of the encores are dedicated to the four elements of nature – Water, Earth, Air and Fire, named in German as Wasserklavier, Erdenklavier Luftklavier and Feuerklavier; the other two, Brin and Leaf, are the epigraphic miniatures which symbolize the passage of an ephemeral entity. All of the Six Encores illustrate the spiritual visualization of scenic elements and depict a precise trajectory of their imagery stimulating listeners with improvisatory spontaneity mixed with stylistic logical calculation.

RUSSIAN DECADENCE AND SERGE PROKOFIEV’S OPERA “THE FIERY ANGEL”

Opera The Fiery Angel became a climax of S. Prokofiev’s creativity during the emigration period of his life 1918-1932. However unique and one-of-a-kind in opera genre of the time, Fiery Angel was not born as an occasional concept of the composer, but rather as a vertex of multidimensional philosophical and cultural flows in Russian Silver Age era (1890-1914). As a masterpiece of a specific cultural tradition, opera Fiery Angel should be analyzed through the lens of Russian Decadence and Symbolist movement. In Fiery Angel, the occult, precisely Satanism together with objectivism and Freudian philosophy find their way to speak to listeners through the prodigiously dramatic romantic story based on the Symbolist title novel of Valery Brusov.

The most conspicuous feature of both the novel and the opera is the intense demonic setting, which indicates the overt theme of Satanism penetrating the pieces.

PAULINE OLIVEROS’S ‘DEEP LISTENING’ METHOD IN THE CONTEXT OF MUSIC PERFORMANCE ANXIETY

Many, if not all of the music performers have experienced states of psychic excitement before and at the time of playing in public. Music theorists and psychologists explored the field of music performance anxiety or so-called stage fright in numerous researches. They comment on reasons for stage anxiety and excitation of musicians which may derive from various sources of psychological premises. Some reasons have to do with environmental conditions of a hall, significance of public judgment, current life circumstances of musicians, childhood traumas, social phobias, and also the level of performer’s preparation. Nevertheless to any of listed pathogens, both level and outcome of psychic excitement connected with public playing may vary depending on the personality of the performer. Some musicians report light excitation which helps them to build successful performance under any circumstances. Others require the help of professional therapists to overcome severe forms of stage anxiety. Psychologists and therapists who study these matters don’t have unified opinion on better ways to cope with music performance anxiety. Some of the main techniques for overcoming destructive forms of stage fright in modern scholarship include physical exercises and meditative practices. Pauline Oliveros’s method of Deep Listening takes the task of coping with music performance anxiety to a whole new level by combining the most innovative in all levels of matter.

What exactly is anxiety and how does it apply to music performance?

Curriculum and Aims in regards with music instruction

Thinking the curriculum is one of most complex issues in pedagogy. Music curriculum relates to an art subject, which, as well as is widely opened for interpretation, involves quite a significant number of established traditions and biases. Even though there are some prescribed prevailing elements in music curriculum, the details vary vastly among the different music and public schools, universities, conservatories, private studios, etc. In all the promiscuity of the music curriculum, some of the main flows remain the common ground with their beneficial and destructive consequences. The most prominent consequence to the current music curriculum indicates that while music education in the new century evolves as the one more humane and effective than a century ago, there’re less and less Western people who practice instrumental and vocal music making and provide music education to their kids.