Portamento and musical meaning

Journal of Musicological Research

Volumn 25, Issue 3-4, 2006, Pages 233-261

  Leech Wilkinson, Daniel ^a  

^a King's College of Music

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34347293401     PISSN: 01411896     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01411890600859412     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. There is already a large bibliography on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century portamento. For a survey of evidence see John Potter, "Beggar at the Door: The Rise and Fall of Portamento," Music & Letters (forthcoming)
2. For more detailed studies see, among others, Clive Brown, "Bowing Styles, Vibrato and Portamento in Singing in Nineteenth-Century Violin Playing," Journal of the Royal Musical Association 113 (1988) 97-128
3. Clive Brown, "Joachim's Violin Playing and the Performance of Brahms's String Music," in Performing Brahms: Early Evidence of Performing Style, ed. Michael Musgrave and Bernard D. Sherman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 48-98
4. Deborah A. Kauffman, "Portamento in Romantic Opera," Performance Practice Review 5 (1992), 139-58
5. Richard Wistreich, "Reconstructing Pre-Romantic Singing Technique," in The Cambridge Companion to Singing, ed. John Potter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 178-91
6. Potter, "Beggar at the Door" (before note 52)
7. Ellen T. Harris, "Cercar della nota," Grove Music Online, ed. Laura Macy, http://www.grovemusic.com, accessed June 1, 2006. I owe this connection to Amy Carruthers
8. For an example, see the discussion of Caruso's sob in Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, "Using Recordings to Study Musical Performance," in Aural History: Essays on Recorded Sound, ed. Andy Linehan (London: The British Library, 2001), 1-12
9. Camille Saint-Saens, Havanaise for violin and orchestra, Op. 83 (1887), measures 265-72. I owe this example to Yang'en Xu
10. Go to http://www.arts.unco.edu/jmr/ for the following free resources: Sound Clip 2: Bach, Concerto in D minor for two violins, Largo, Fritz Kreisler and Efrem Zimbalist, HMV DB 587, matrix 2-07918 (recorded January 4, 1915). 0′ 0″-0′ 52″. Transfer by Daniel Leech-Wilkinson. The complete performance is available for download from http://www.kcl.ac.uk/music/ ksa/ksa_sound.html. Sound Clip 3: Brahms, Violin Concerto, Adagio, mm. 91-103, Bronislaw Hubermann (vln.), Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra cond. Artur Rodzinski (recorded January 23, 1944); CD reissue on Music & Arts 1122, track 2, 6′ 39″-7′39″. Reproduced by kind permission of Music & Arts Programs of America, Inc. Sound Clip 4: Schubert, Ständchen, D957, Emmy Bettendorf (soprano), acc. orch. cond. Otto Dobrindt, Parlophone E 10962, matrix 2-21496 (recorded August 17, 1929). 0′ 0″-1′ 27″. Transfer by Daniel Leech-Wilkinson. The complete performance is available for download from http://www.kcl.ac.uk/music/ksa/2- 21496.mp3
11. The relevant bibliography is vast. As introductions see Patrik N. Juslin, "From Mimesis to Catharsis: Expression, Perception, and Induction of Emotion in Music," in Musical Communication, ed. Dorothy Miell, Raymond Macdonald, David J. Hargreaves (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 85-115
12. and Klaus R. Scherer and Marcel R. Zentner, "Emotional Effects of Music: Production Rules," in Music and Emotion: Theory and Research, ed. Patrik N. Juslin and John A. Sloboda (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 361-92
13. A.M. Unyk, S. E. Trehub, L. J. Trainor, and E. G. Schellenberg, "Lullabies and Simplicity: A Cross-Cultural Perspective," Psychology of Music 20 (1992), 15-28
14. S.E. Trehub, A.M. Unyk, and L.J. Trainor, "Adults Identify Infant-Directed Music Across Cultures," Infant Behavior and Development 16 (1993), 193-211
15. Trehub, Unyk, & Trainor, "Adults Identify Infant-Directed Music Across Cultures."
16. Sandra Trehub, "Musical Predispositions in Infancy: An Update," in The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music, ed. Isabelle Peretz and Robert Zatorre (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 3-20 at 6
17. A. Fernald and P. Kuhl, "Acoustic Determinants of Infant Preference for Motherese Speech," Infant Behavior and Development 10 (1987), 279-93
18. and V.C. Tartter and D. Braun, "Hearing Smiles and Frowns in Normal and Whisper Registers," Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 96 (1994), 2101-7
19. Trainor et al. "The Acoustic Basis of Preferences," 393, note that imprecise rhythm in lullaby performance contrasts with the more rhythmical singing of play songs to children
20. Laurel J. Trainor, "Infant Preferences for Infant-Directed Versus Noninfant-Directed Playsongs and Lullabies," Infant Bevavior and Development 19 (1996), 83-92
21. Sandra E. Trehub, Anna M. Unyk, Stuart B. Kamenetsky, David S. Hill, Laurel J. Trainor, Joanna L. Henderson, and Myra Saraza, "Mothers' and Fathers' Singing to Infants," Developmental Psychology 33 (1997), 500-7, at 505
22. Unyk et al. "Lullabies and Simplicity," 15
23. Sandra Trehub, "Human Processing Predispositions and Musical Universals," in The Origins of Music, ed. Nils L. Wallin, Björn Merker, and Steven Brown (Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 2000), 427-48, at 437
24. Theodor W. Adorno, "Minima Moralia," in Gesammelte Schriften, ed. Rolf Tiedemann, vol. 4 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997), 61-2
25. Richard Capell, Schubert's Songs (London: Ernest Benn, 1928; 2nd ed. 1957; 3rd ed. rev. Martin Cooper, London: Duckworth, 1973)
26. Capell, Schubert's Songs [1928], 191
27. Daniel Leech-Willkinson, "Musicology and Performance," in Music's Intellectual History: Founders, Followers & Fads, ed. Zdravko Blazekovic (forthcoming, New York: RILM)
28. Phyllida Lloyd's production at English National Opera in April 2005
29. Edward Sackville-West and Desmond Shawe-Taylor, The Record Guide (London: Collins, 1951), 529, 578
30. Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (London: Heinemann, 2005), 37, chapter 2, passim. I am grateful to Bernard Sherman for drawing Judt's book to my attention
31. Karen Brecht, "In the Aftermath of Nazi-Germany: Alexander Mitscherlich and Psychoanalysis - Legend and Legacy," American Imago 52/3 (1995), 291-312
32. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, On and Off the Record: A Memoir of Walter Legge (New York: Scribner, 1982)
33. Lotte Lehmann, Eighteen Song Cycles, 24
34. Lawrence Kramer, Franz Schubert: Sexuality, Subjectivity, Song (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 140
35. Julia Kristeva, Revolution in Poetic Language, trans. Margaret Waller (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984). I am grateful to Eric Clarke and Julie Brown for discussion of this line of thought
36. Johan Sundberg, The Science of the Singing Voice (Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1987), 115-29
37. summarized by Sundberg in Potter, Cambridge Companion, 240-6
38. A. Fernald, "Intonation and Communicative Intent in Mothers' Speech to Infants: Is the Melody the Message?" Child Development 60 (1989), 1497-1510
39. For a summary of relevant literature see Trehub, "Human Processing Predispositions and Musical Universals," 437
40. On the changing performance style of modernist music, Boulez in particular, see LeechWilkinson, "Musicology and Performance."