[+] Iber, Michael. “Soundalike: Sounds Like Sounds We Like.” Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 166, no. 6 (November-December 2005): 16-17.
The context in which we hear a piece of music deeply influences how we understand how it is “supposed” to sound. The background noise of a concert hall, the imperfections of a recording, or hearing a transcription rather than an original version of a work can imprint a specific set of meanings and values in a listener. Drawing on a long tradition of transcription through listening, the “soundalike” project attempts to capture the unique qualities of a specific performance or interpretation of a piece by using software to create a graphical transcription of a recording. A “soundalike” transcription of a chamber orchestra arrangement Schumann’s “Träumerei” captures many of the details that make the sound event unique, including tempo fluctuations and overtones. The project ultimately treats a single recording or performance as a one-off event, even an “original” work with its own distinctive qualities, and spurs renewed discussions about the relationship between authorship, score, recording, and the musical work itself.
Index Classifications: General
Contributed by: Matthew G. Leone
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[+] Igoe, James Thomas. "Performance Practices in the Polyphonic Mass of the Early Fifteenth Century." Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1971.
Index Classifications: 1400s
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[+] Irving, John. "John Blitheman's Keyboard Plainsongs: Another Kind of Composition?" Plainsong and Medieval Music 3 (October 1994): 185-93.
Although John Blitheman is best known for his virtuosic keyboard compositions and as the teacher of John Bull, close inspection of his plainsong variations show that he was highly innovative in terms of thematic integration and development. His four verses, or variations, on the hymn Eterne rerum each present a unique setting of the plainsong. Blitheman's cadences are usually derived from the phrases of the original chant, and melodic motives, taken from the openings of each variation, are treated with intervallic and rhythmic flexibility. In the fourth variation, three distinct motives are developed using retrograde motion and inversion. In Eterne rerum, as well as his setting of the Compline hymn Christe qui lux es, Blitheman integrates the cantus firmus into the imitative motives of the surrounding polyphony.
Works: John Blitheman: Eterne rerum (186-88), Christe qui lux es (188).
Sources: Hymn: Eterne rerum (186-88); Compline Hymn: Christe qui lux es (188).
Index Classifications: 1500s
Contributed by: Randy Goldberg
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[+] Isherwood, Robert. Farce and Fantasy: Popular Entertainment in Eighteenth-Century Paris. Oxford University Press, 1986.
Index Classifications: 1700s
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[+] Ismer, Ursula, and Hanna John. “Variationsthema von Georg Friedrich Händel in neuer Gestalt: Eine Studie zu den Händel-Variationen B-Dur op. 24 für Klavier von Johannes Brahms.” In Georg Friedrich Händel, Ein Lebensinhalt: Gedenkschrift für Bernd Baselt (1934-1993), ed. Klaus Hortschansky and Konstanze Musketa, 297-314. Halle an der Saale: Händel-Haus; Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1995.
Index Classifications: 1800s
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[+] Ives, Charles E. Memos. Edited and with appendices by John Kirkpatrick. New York: W. W. Norton, 1972.
Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s
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[+] Ivry, Benjamin. "Too Strong for Fantasias: Does the Popularization of Opera Themes breed Familarity--or Contempt?" Opera News 53 (21 January 1989): 20-21, 46.
Virtuosic transcriptions of opera themes became very popular in the nineteenth century. In many cases this led to an overfamiliarity that resulted in contempt. Among composers who made arrangements of opera arias were Liszt, Chopin, Huten, Czerny, Thalberg, Herz, Krebs, Rummel, and Heller. Some arrangements were for several pianos. Others were variations by several composers on the same theme.
Works: Czerny: Fantasy on themes from Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable (21); Thalberg: Fantasy on Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, Op. 20 (21); Herz: Variations on Ein feste Burg (21).
Index Classifications: 1800s
Contributed by: Cathleen Cameron
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