#Mozarteum

[jangruenwald]

How to Dank Images – Methoden der Bildanalyse im Kontext des visuellen Kontrollverlusts

Das Worklab HOW TO DANK IMAGES schließt an das Worklab ‘Dank Images, Tiktok und Apokalypse. Bildhandeln im Internet’ an und extrapoliert die in 2021 identifizierten Diskurse und Leerstellen, die auf ein komplex(er)es Verständnis gegenwärtiger politischer, sozialer und medialer Kommunikation zielen. Ausgehend von der Annahme, dass neuartigen Bildphänomenen Raum gegeben werden muss, unternimmt das Worklab eine methodische Sondierung und Sammlung von Praktiken des Forschens. Denn gerade (Online-)Bilder kommunizieren über unzählige Formen des Alltäglichen und kommentieren politische und gesellschaftliche Ereignisse in Echtzeit. Insbesondere Krisenszenarien befeuern dabei die Bildproduktion und lassen z. B. Memes zu politischen Akteur*innen werden, die besondere Aufmerksamkeit in der Analyse und Diskussion erfahren, und angepasste Methoden erfordern. 

Das Worklab fand am 27.&28.10.2023  online statt und näherte sich dem Forschungsthema experimentell über verschiedene offene Austauschformate, partizipative Explorationsräume, sowie Kurzinputs der Teilnehmenden. 

WEB: http://kunst.uni-koeln.de/dankimages

[editionriedenburg]

Liebe Fans von The Magic Flute, so sieht unsere Festung in Salzburg tatsächlich aus. Für die andere müsst ihr nach Werfen auf die Burg Hohenwerfen fahren. Schön, dass die paar km im Film nur wenige Schritte voneinander entfernt sind 😁 Toller Film, großartige Musik von #mozart und dem Mozarteumorchester Salzburg klare Empfehlung! 💪🎻 #themagicflute #cineplexx #emmerich #movie #mozarteum #schlossleopoldskron #salzburg #festunghohensalzburg #burghohenwerfen #werfen #editionriedenburg https://www.instagram.com/p/ClDZUeOLPfy/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[blueiscoool]

Unknown Mozart Music Discovered in Germany

A previously unknown piece of music likely composed by a teenage Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was recently uncovered at a library in Germany.

The piece, which dates to the mid- to late-1760s, consists of seven miniature movements for a string trio. It lasts around 12 minutes, researchers with the Leipzig Municipal Libraries said in a statement.

Researchers discovered the work at the city's music library while compiling the latest edition of the so-called Koechel catalog, the definitive archive of Mozart's musical works.

The piece is referred to as "Ganz kleine Nachtmusik" in the new Koechel catalog, according to the Leipzig libraries.

The Koechel catalog describes the piece as "preserved in a single source, in which the attribution of the author suggests that the work was written before Mozart's first trip to Italy", according to the municipal libraries.

The newly discovered manuscript, which consists of dark brown ink on medium-white handmade paper, was not penned by Mozart himself but is believed to be a copy made around 1780, the researchers said.

The young Mozart had been known to researchers up until now "mainly as a composer of piano music, arias and symphonies", Ulrich Leisinger of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg said in a statement.

A list by Mozart's father had alerted academics to the existence of "many other chamber music compositions" by the young artist, which were all thought to have been lost until the emergence of the string trio, Leisinger said.

"Since the inspiration for this apparently came from Mozart's sister, it is tempting to imagine that she kept the work as a memento of her brother," Leisinger said.

Born in 1756, Mozart was a child prodigy and began composing at a very early age under his father's guidance.

The piece was performed by a string trio at the unveiling of the new Koechel catalog in the Austrian city of Salzburg on Thursday. It will receive its German premiere at the Leipzig Opera on Saturday.

[mozartbachtoven]

Photo Above: Mozart’s Violin

Photo Below: Mozart’s Viola

The violin is more or less in its original state. It was built in Mittenwald, a community located 60 miles south of Munich, along an important trade route to Italy. It established itself as a very important center of violin making in the final decades of the 18th-century. The Mozart concert violin was most likely built by a member of the violin-making family Klotz, and was built in 1700 or a bit later. The Mozarteum Foundation bought it in 1956, ten years before we bought the viola. The violin is really a remarkable document of what Mozart understood of the violin sound—[it] really gives a big picture and a very good impression of how he felt the sound and how he heard it. It’s really in a very good and original condition.

These instruments give us a good idea of what sound Mozart himself had in mind when writing, let's say, his violin concertos and Sinfonia Concertante. There were no loud, romantic sounds: Everything was incredibly intimate. For one, because the instruments were small and strung with gut strings, and for two, Mozart would not have played in large halls, ironically, where many performances of his music are being played today. Actually, *Mozart refused to perform on his violin in public at all, which might have been due to his not practicing the instrument, which his dad scolded him in letters for. He premiered his Sinfonia Concertante on viola*

The earliest evidence for the violin is a certificate by Marie Trestl from August 1842, stating that the instrument had been acquired by her father, Leopold Trestl in 1820 from Mozart’s sister, Nannerl Mozart. Around 1879 the instrument was in the personal possession of Adalbert Lenk—he was a violin professor at the Mozarteumand the violin remained in private possession until it was acquired by the Mozarteum Foundation in 1956—we bought it from the family of Josef Brandner. The fact that the instrument was not modernized in the 19th century makes it clear that it was regarded as a relic early on. So it is really in a very very good shape. And if you come to the Boston Early Music Festival where we will present the instruments, we will have a baroque violinist, Amandine Beyer, and you really can hear it in a fantastic situation, in a trio, and it gives a great impression of the sound of Mozart’s time.

These instruments get us much closer to hearing what Mozart himself had in his head when he was composing, though until somebody invents a time machine, that's about as far as we are going to get.

Maybe a working flux capacitor is somewhere in the near future ..👨‍🔬?

The viola has a remarkably warm tone, but has probably lost some of its former volume as a result of the adaptation of its size, but it’s a really very nice-sounding instrument. It was reduced to standard size during the 19th-century by cutting off the margins of the top and back considerably. It is assumed that the instrument originally was at least 13mm longer. At the same time, the original scroll was replaced by a new one taken from a German or Austrian instrument.

Hear Mozart’s instruments played here 👇

Live in concert in the WGBH Fraser

Performance Studio, violinist Daniel Stepner and violist Anne Black get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform a work by Mozart on instruments that the composer himself owned and played. From Classical New England's "Mozart Comes to America" special, produced in conjunction with the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation (owner of the instruments) and the Boston Early Music Festival, Stepner and Black play the Finale of the Duo in G, K. 423, by Mozart.

🎶 🎻 🎵 🎻 🎶 🎻 🎵 🎻 🎶 🎻 🎵

[diana-damrau]

Olá São Paulo! It is so wonderful to be here 🇧🇷 I was so humbled to see everyone at our last concert at Sala São Paulo the other night! You were all incredibly welcoming - I was very touched 🥰 We have one more concert here tomorrow with the fantastic Orquestra Acadêmica Mozarteum Brasileiro and I hope to see you there!!

[str4wanzerin]

Wenn Ivo doch auf Franz' Musikgeschmack kommt ;)

War gerade bei einem musikalischen Abend mit Miro und es war großartig! Wer es nicht weiß: ja, der gute Herr Nemec ist am Mozarteum ausgebildeter Musiker!

[opera-ghosts]

Bella Paalen as Fricka; Vienna, 1919

Bella Paalen was born as Isabella (Izabella) Pollak in Pásztó, Komitat Nógrád, in Austro-Hungarian Hungary on December 9, 1881. She was the oldest of the three children of a Jewish couple – Laura Pollak neé Jamnitz, and Ernst Pollak. Ernst was initially a factory director, and later a representative for commercial trade agencies. The Pollaks lived in the Austro-Hungarian capital and Imperial Residence city of Vienna.

Isabella Pollak studied voice at the Conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music. Her voice teacher was a prominent interpreter of Richard Wagner’s operas: Rosa Papier. Her son Bernhard Paumgartner became head of the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

In the autumn of 1905, Isabella Pollak, whose stage name was Bella Paalen, was employed as an alto (alto voice) in Graz. In its 1905/06 season the Graz Opera House was able to achieve brilliant successes under its artistic director Alfred Cavarn.

A sensational highlight was the Austrian premiere of the opera Salome by Richard Strauss in the presence of the director of the Vienna Court Opera Gustav Mahler. Mahler had been unable to produce it himself because of censorship by the Viennese court.

In Graz, the Vienna Court Opera singer Jenny Korb, a soprano, sang the title role of »Salome«. Bella PAALEN was heard in the small alto part of »The Page of Herodias«.

On December 3, 1906, Bella Paalen sang the alto solo in Gustav Mahler’s 3rd Symphony for the first time in the Graz Opera House: an orchestral concert conducted by the composer himself. Gustav Mahler was so impressed by Bella PAALEN that he engaged the 25-year-old contralto at the Vienna Court Opera on September 1, 1907.

Bella Paalen was part of the ensemble of the Vienna Court (and later Vienna State) Opera for three decades. She sang the alto parts »Fricka«, »Erda«, »Grimgerde« and »Norn« in The Ring of the Nibelung opera cycle, »Magdalena« in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, »Brangäne« in Tristan and Isolde and »Ortrud« in Lohengrin – all by Richard Wagner, as well as »Klytämnestra« in Elektra and »Annina« in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss along with other roles, mostly small alto parts.

»Annina« was Bella Paalen’s star role at the Court/State Opera: 173 performances between 1911 and 1937. The famous bass singer Richard Mayr also shone in Der Rosenkavalier as »Ochs von Lerchenau«.

Mayr’s birthplace, Salzburg, has a memorial for this. What has been forgotten, however, is that Bella PAALEN was part of the Mayr family’s circle of friends.

After the end of WWI, in 1919, Bella Paalen made her first summer vacation in the Salzburg spa Hofgastein. She was one of the prominent spa guests who participated in charity events and gave recitals every now and then. Bernhard Paumgartner, the son of her singing teacher Rosa Papier, had been director of the Mozarteum in Salzburg since 1917 and he acted as her piano accompanist on one occasion.

In 1920 Bella Paalen’s parents, Ernst and Laura Pollak bought house no. 34 in Hofgastein, called the »Haidenhäusl«. Her parents both died in 1935. Her father first, then soon afterwards her mother during a performance of the opera Lohengrin at the Vienna State Opera, which caused a sensation because Bella PAALEN broke off her performance as »Ortrud« when she learned about her death:… Miss Bella Paalen’s mother, who was well into her seventies, has always been the most attentive fan of her daughter, who is not only one of the most popular members of the [opera company], but also the one who has been here for the longest, namely since 1907. The elderly Frau Paalen wasn’t only nervous, she suffered from a serious heart condition that had made her daughter very anxious when the old lady attended the opera … Kleine Volks-Zeitung, May 19, 1935

Bella Paalen inherited her parents’ house in Hofgastein. Her younger brother, the artist Benedict Fred Dolbin, emigrated to the USA in October 1935. Her youngest brother Otto Friedrich Pollak had died in the First World War as a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army.

It has been said that Bella Paalen was honored with the title »Austrian Chamber Singer« in 1933, but that isn’t correct. In fact she only received the title in September 1937 when she was 56 years old and already »retired«.

Bella Paalen was 52 years old when she first appeared in a small alto role at the Salzburg Festival in 1934: as »First Maid« in the opera Elektra. In the 1936 summer festival she had the small role as »Manuela« (the maid of Juan Lopez) in the Hugo Wolf opera Der Corregidor.

The festival audience was able to see and hear Bella Paalen again in the summer of 1937, lastly on August 22nd, as »First Maid« in the opera Elektra – with only a few appearances that hardly received any attention in the reviews.

Bella Paalen made her last glamorous appearance at the Vienna State Opera as »Marthe« in Charles Gounod’s opera Margarethe on July 6, 1937. Irene Harand’s philosemitic magazine Gerechtigkeit [Justice] reported:… The last two performances of the current opera year took place in front of a sold out house; this extraordinary public interest was not only aroused by the guest performances of Elisabeth Rethberg and Ezio Pinza, but also in the farewell to an artist whose whole life and all her strength were dedicated to our company for thirty years … The drastic Marthe was Bella Paalen, to whom the audience gave a roaring farewell with frenetic applause; and when she bowed for the last time, it was certainly not only she who had tears in her eye. Ks. Gerechtigkeit, July 15, 1937

What went unmentioned, however, was that Bella PAALEN, who had retired, was Jewish and had not converted to Christianity to further her career. Not coincidentally the reasons why she had been honored only so late in her career remained obscure:Bella Paalen, who retired at the end of the previous season, was awarded the title of Austrian Chamber Singer. Even if this honor came a little late, it will please everyone who is indebted to the artist for great experiences over countless years. Ks. Gerechtigkeit, September 16, 1937

Despite her retirement, the artist was unable to quit her thirty year career so quickly. In the annals of the Vienna State Opera it is recorded that Bella Paalen had two more appearances: as »Palmatica, Countess Nowalska« in Millöcker’s Bettelstudent on October 11, 1937 and as »Filipjewna« in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin on March 11, 1938.

Bella Paalen, who lived in the 1st district, probably left National Socialist Vienna only after the »Reichskristallnacht« pogroms of November 1938. At least it is on record that the 57 year old singer arrived in New York as a »Hebrew« on the transatlantic liner Hansa on January 13, 1939.

Bella Paalen didn’t have any engagements as a singer after her arrival in New York. She was however very successful as a voice teacher. In the 1950s she sold her house in Hofgastein and lived temporarily in Vienna. Her last address was in New York City – on 85th St. in Jackson Heights Queens.

Bella Paalen died at age 83 in the Elmhurst Hospital, Queens New York, on July 28, 1964. Her urn was placed in the Vienna Central Cemetery grave of her parents on December 3, 1964.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Those who have achieved all their aims probably set them too low.

- Herbert von Karajan

The Soprano Christa Ludwig described him as ‘Le bon Dieu’, while scores of musicians, reviewers and listeners have long regarded him as simply untouchable in the art of conducting. There was, however, much about Herbert von Karajan that was distinctly ungodlike. Ruthlessly ambitious as a young man and grimly autocratic in his later years, his life story is marked by bitter rivalries, feuds and, most notoriously, membership of the Nazi party.

But then, just listen to the results. It’s fascinating to look at the career, the controversy and the achievements of a conductor who still intrigues fans and detractors like no other musician long after his death.

The early career of Herbert von Karajan continues to be swathed in controversy.

Was he an ardent Nazi or an ambitious opportunist? If he was a zealous party member, should we revere his recordings as much as we do? To what extent should any moral accountability weigh against Karajan’s musical achievement? And how much latitude can we extend to people who have artistically given so generously?

Karajan is not alone in occupying this uncomfortable situation during this era. Similar debate surrounds Richard Strauss, Carl Orff and Karl Böhm. Indeed, Wagner also evokes hostility in certain quarters with regard to his racial sentiments.

When Adolf Hitler swept to power in January 1933, the 24-year-old Austrian Herbert von Karajan had already notched up nearly four seasons as an up-and-coming opera conductor in the South German city of Ulm.

Born in Salzburg in 1908 into a prosperous family, he had demonstrated gifts as a pianist and conductor while studying in Vienna. After graduation, his debut orchestral concert with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra in January 1929, featuring works by R Strauss, Mozart and Tchaikovsky, caused a local sensation and helped to secure him the contract in Ulm.

Karajan seized on the opportunity to learn his trade in Ulm and cut his teeth on much of the operatic repertory from Mozart and Beethoven to Puccini and R . Strauss, including the opera Schwanda der Dudelsacker by the Czech Jewish composer Jaromir Weinberger.

Yet, after the Nazi take-over, Karajan’s future wasn’t assured.

In early 1933, German operatic life was thrown into turmoil as the regime hounded out musicians that were deemed politically and racially unacceptable, and also pursued a protectionist policy to limit employment for non-Germans.

Against this context, Karajan’s decision to join the Nazi Party in Salzburg in April 1933 should be understood as an opportunistic move which was probably designed to safeguard his position at Ulm. Whether it also signalled enthusiasm for Nazi policy is open to speculation, though he no doubt hoped that the strong-arm methods of the Nazis would bring cultural stability to Germany.

Karajan retained his Ulm job for a further season, during which he expanded his repertory to include a praised account of Strauss’s opera Arabella. But in March 1934 he was fired for professional intrigue involving a potential Jewish rival.

He did not have to wait long for a new post. Three months later he was made general music director in Aachen.

Working in a larger theatre enabled Karajan to tackle more ambitious repertory, such as Wagner’s Ring cycle, Verdi’s Otello and Strauss’s Elektra. He also consolidated his reputation in the concert hall, taking charge of Aachen’s annual season of orchestral and choral concerts. One pre-condition for accepting was that he should re-apply for membership of the Nazi Party, his earlier membership in Salzburg having lapsed. This was confirmed in March 1935.

Although in his denazification trial in March 1946 Karajan argued that he had joined the Party to further his career, he could not escape his obligation as Aachen’s general music director to provide the musical background for political occasions.

On 29 June 1935 he took part in a huge open-air orchestral and choral concert that celebrated the NSDAP Party Day and at a similar ceremony four years later he conducted the close from Wagner’s Meistersinger. But his concert programmes seemed untainted by political interference – works by Debussy, Ravel, Kodály and Stravinsky rubbed shoulders with German ones. In 1938 he flouted the law by programming Dukas’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Party authorities must have overlooked that Dukas was of Jewish descent.

Karajan conducts Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony No. 9, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

By 1937 Karajan’s achievements in Aachen were attracting national interest.

In a special edition devoted to Germany’s conducting legacy, the journal Die Musik singled him out as a man who ‘can lead the new organisation of our cultural life in the spirit and direction which National Socialism demands’. Concert engagements in Gothenburg, Vienna, Amsterdam, Brussels and Stockholm helped to spread his name beyond Germany.

Yet for all this, Karajan set his sights even higher by hoping to make an impact in Berlin. This ambition was realised in 1938 with a ‘Strength through Joy’ concert with the Berlin Philharmonic and engagement as conductor at the Berlin State Opera in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in October of the same year.

Karajan may not have anticipated that with his move to Berlin he was stepping into a political cauldron over which he would have little control.

It began with a review of his Tristan which appeared in the Berliner Zeitung. Under the title ‘Karajan the Miracle’, the critic Edwin von der Nüll lavished praise on the performance suggesting that in conducting Wagner’s score from memory the 30-year-old conductor had achieved ‘something our great men in their fifties might envy’.

This was calculated to offend the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler who had previously ruled the roost in the same theatre. Karajan was set up as a pawn in the struggle for control of Berlin’s cultural institutions between Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, a Furtwängler supporter, and Minister of Interior Hermann Goering, the patron of the Berlin State Opera.

In June 1939 Karajan conducted Wagner’s Die Meistersinger at the State Opera without a score. The performance collapsed when the baritone, a drunk Rudolf Bockelmann, made a serious error. Alas Hitler, in the audience, was furious, blaming instead Karajan’s insufficiently Germanic approach to Wagner by conducting from memory.

Further problems arose over his marriage in 1942 to the quarter Jewish Anita Gütermann, technically against the law.

Yet, despite this and the continuing hostility and suspicion of Goebbels and Hitler and Furtwängler’s jealousy, his career prospered during the war. He conducted Bach’s B Minor Mass in Paris for the occupying German soldiers in 1940 and returned to the French capital in 1941 to present his performance of Tristan with the Berlin State Opera.

From 1940 he appeared in Italy and gave concerts in Romania and Hungary. A major achievement was to secure popularity for Orff’s Carmina Burana, a score that had aroused some hostility from the Nazi hierarchy at its first performance in 1937 before Karajan’s performances in Aachen and Berlin during the early 1940s.

Driven by a fanatical love of music and a desire to advance his career, there’s little doubt that Karajan’s involvement with the Nazi regime was opportunistic.

Doubtless though there were also areas of Nazi policy that may well have chimed in with his own views. At the same time falling foul of the regime on occasions, his personal ideology can be best described as a montage of greys; nothing is ever clear-cut and nor perhaps should be our assessment of his work.

[unofficialbabayaga]

so so funny that when he wants to practice my cousin will close the doors to the sitting room & dining room at the b&b and then expects us not to be able to hear him, a semi-retired professional opera singer with vocal projection that he learned at the mozarteum

[jangruenwald]

Tagung: CRINGE OR WORTHY – Lebenswelten in Kunst- und Musikpädagogik

Mit Kolleg*innen aus Salzburg habe ich eine Tagung über die Relevanz von Jugendkulturen für die Pädagogik organisiert...die (unserer Meinung nach) ein voller Erfolg war :)

[jpbjazz]

LÉGENDES DU JAZZ

L’UNIVERS DE STANLEY COWELL 

‘’The wonder of Stanley Cowell will live forever.” 

- Charles Tolliver

Né le 5 mai 1941 à Toledo, en Ohio, Stanley Cowell était le fils de Stanley Cowell Sr. et de Hazel Lytle. Homme d’affaires, le père de Cowell avait construit la première ville modèle. Il était également violoniste amateur.

Cowell avait commencé à étudier le piano classique à l’âge de quatre ans. Enfant-prodige, Cowell avait commencé à composer dès son plus jeune âge. Élevé dans une famille musicale, Cowell avait trois soeurs, Mary, Dolores et Esher, qui avaient toutes étudié le piano. Cowell avait également une nièce qui était devenue musicienne professionnelle. Comme Cowell l’avait expliqué plus tard, ‘’J’ai étudié la musique avant même d’avoir atteint l’âge de 4 ans. A trois ans, mes sœurs m’avaient déjà enseigné pas mal de choses au piano.’’ Se rappelant de ses débuts, Cowell avait ajouté: ‘’Mon père jouait du violon. Il accompagnait les prédicateurs ambulants et jouait avec eux au coin des rues. […] Il jouait des hymnes, de la musique religieuse pendant que le reste de la famille écoutait et chantait.’’

Propriétaire d’un motel à Toledo qui était un des seuls endroits ouverts aux visiteurs de couleur, le père de Cowell opérait également un magasin de disques et un restaurant. Le père de Cowell était également très proche du pianiste Art Tatum. À l’invitation du père de Cowell, Tatum avait d’ailleurs interprété le standard “You Took Advantage of Me” en duo avec le jeune pianiste qui n’était alors âgé que de six ans. Comme Cowell l’avait précisé plus tard, ‘’Art Tatum est venu à la maison une fois, en 1947, j’avais 6 ans. Mon père lui avait demandé de jouer pour moi. Art a répondu qu’il préférait que je joue le premier […]. Art a joué "You Took Advantage of Me”. C’est la seule fois où j’ai vu Art Tatum jouer live.’’

Excellent pianiste de stride un peu comme Jaki Byard et Roland Hanna, Cowell pouvait passer très naturellement d’un style à l’autre. Comme beaucoup de musiciens de jazz, Cowell avait d’abord commencé à jouer dans les offices religieux. Il expliquait: ‘’J’ai été l’organiste et un temps le directeur de la chorale dans une église épiscopale quand j’étais adolescent. Les cloches des églises, les chœurs, les tambourins, les pianos et les claquements de mains se mélangeaient et se fondaient en une expérience sonore. Cette expérience peut m’avoir entraîné à inclure de l’improvisation dans les préludes, interludes et conclusions.’’

Après avoir d’abord étudié le piano et l’orgue, Cowell avait suivi des cours de musicien classique jusqu’au milieu de l’adolescence. À l’âge de seulement quinze ans, Cowell avait interprété le Concerto pour piano no 3 de Dmitry Kabalevsky avec le Toledo Youth Orchestra. Après ses études secondaires, Cowell avait étudié le piano classique avec le légendaire Emil Danenberg au Oberlin Conservatory of Music, en Ohio. En 1973, Cowell avait d’ailleurs rendu hommage à Danenberg dans sa suite "Musa: Ancestral Dreams". C’est dans le cadre de son séjour à Oberlin que Cowell avait fait la rencontre du multi-instrumentiste Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Cowell avait aussi étudié à la Mozarteum Academy, de Salzbourg, en Autriche. Il avait aussi fait des études aux universités du Michigan, de Wichita, au Kansas, et de Southern California.

DÉBUTS DE CARRIÈRE

Après avoir obtenu une maîtrise en piano classique à l’Université du Michigan à Ann Arbor, Cowell s’était installé à New York en 1966. La même année, Cowell avait fait ses débuts sur disque avec le saxophoniste de free jazz Marion Brown et son ancien camarade de classe Roland Kirk, dans le cadre de l’enregistrement de l’album ‘’Three for Shepp’’.

C’est dans le cadre de sa collaboration avec Brown et Kirk que Cowell avait fait la rencontre de l’ancien percussionniste de John Coltrane, Rashied Ali, qu’il avait accompagné lors de ses débuts comme leader au Slugs en mai 1967. La même année, Cowell s’était joint au quintet de Max Roach avec qui il avait participé au Festival de jazz de Newport. Faisaient également partie du groupe le trompettiste Charles Tolliver et le saxophoniste Odean Pope (qui fut bientôt remplacé par Gary Bartz). Cowell était demeuré avec Roach durant trois ans. La collaboration de Cowell à l’album ‘’Don’t Get Weary’’ (1968) de Roach avait joué un grand rôle dans sa formation de compositeur. L’’album ‘’Don’t Get Weary’’ comprenait d’ailleurs deux compositions de Cowell: “Equipoise” et “Effi”.

Grâce à la crédibilité qu’il avait acquise dans le cadre de sa collaboration avec Roach, Cowell avait pu enregistrer un premier album comme leader intitulé ‘’Blues for the Viet Cong’’ (1969), qui était très influencé par la musique électronique et le jazz-fusion. Très engagé politiquement et socialement, Cowell avait abordé dans son travail de compositeur plusieurs enjeux majeurs de l’époque comme les problèmes sociaux, l’histoire des Afro-Américains et le mouvement de la Conscience noire.

Après avoir quitté le groupe de Roach, Cowell avait fait une tournée avec Miles Davis, avant de se joindre aux groupes du vibraphoniste Bobby Hutcherson et des saxophonistes Harold Land et Stan Getz.

Durant la même période, Cowell avait également fait une incursion dans le jazz modal dans le cadre de collaborations aux albums ‘’Patterns’’ (1968) et ‘’Spiral’’ (1979) du vibraphoniste Bobby Hutcherson, qui mettait aussi en vedette le saxophoniste Harold Land (ce dernier avait également participé à Brilliant Circles, un des premiers albums de Cowell en 1969). À la même époque, Cowell avait aussi collaboré avec le batteur Jack DeJohnette dans le cadre de l’enregistrement de l’album ‘’Complex’’, qui mettait également en vedette Bennie Maupin, Miroslav Vitous, Eddie Gomez et Roy Haynes.

Décrivant cette période comme ‘’the beginning of everything’’, Cowell avait collaboré de 1969 à 1973 avec le trompettiste Charles Tolliver, un ancien collaborateur et protégé de Roach, avec qui il avait fondé le groupe Music Inc. C’est en se produisant avec le big band de Tolliver que Cowell avait amorcé sa carrière de compositeur et d’improvisateur, tout en devenant un collaborateur de premier plan avec plusieurs sommités du bebop et du free jazz.

Considérant Cowell un peu comme son frère jumeau, Tolliver avait déclaré plus tard:

“If ever there were two people on this planet who were twins and alter-ego matched it was Stanley and I. From our first meeting at the first rehearsal after being summoned by Max Roach to join his new quintet in 1967, there was an unbroken steadfast musical and personal immortal bond. Stanley’s importance as a great artist and my lifelong comrade can best be explained in that scripture-based hymn, ‘[the Lord] God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.’ The wonder of Stanley Cowell will live forever.” 

À l’époque, des rumeurs avaient laissé entendre que Cowell succéderait bientôt à Herbie Hancock dans le groupe de Miles Davis. Même la rumeur ne s’était pas matérialisée, le seul fait que Cowell ait été mentionné sur un pied d’égalité aux côtés de Chick Corea comme successeur potentiel de Hancock était une bonne indication de sa crédibilité comme pianiste à l’époque.

En 1969, tout en voyageant en Europe avec Hutcherson et Getz, Cowell avait accompagné le violoniste Jean-Luc Ponty à Paris aux côtés de Jean-François Jenny-Clarke et Bernard Lubat. Lors d’un séjour à Londres, Cowell avait enregistré un album (toujours demeuré inédit) avec la section rythmique de Bobby Hutcherson composée de Reggie Johnson et Joe Chambers. C’est d’ailleurs lors de ce séjour à Londres que Cowell avait enregistré son premier album pour leader, ‘’Blues for the Vietcong’’ avec la section rythmique du groupe de Tolliver. Cowell avait enregistré un dernier disque avant de rentrer aux États-Unis, ‘’Ringer.’’

Après avoir collaboré dans le cadre du Detroit Jazz Ensemble, Cowell et Tolliver avaient fondé en 1971 la compagnie de disques Strata-East, avec qui ils avaient enregistré deux albums: ‘’Charles Tolliver Music In’’ (une captation d’un concert au club Slugs de New York en mai 1970) et ‘’Music Inc. & Big Band’’. En plus des albums du duo, la compagnie avait également produit des albums comme ‘’Winter in America’’ de Gil Scott-Heron et Brian Jackson (1974). La compagnie avait aussi collaboré avec de grands noms du jazz comme Clifford Jordan, Billy Harper, Sonny Rollins, les frères Heath et Charlie Rouse. Avec les maisons de disques Black Jazz et Tribe, Strata-East avait ainsi formé une sorte de sainte-trinité des compagnies de disques indépendantes contrôlées par des musiciens de couleur.

En plus de diriger la compagnie de disques et de participer à plusieurs sessions comme accompagnateur, Cowell avait trouvé le temps de participer à de nombreux projets comme leader de ses propres formations. Parmi ceux-ci, on remarquait ‘’Brilliant Circles’’ (avec Woody Shaw et Bobby Hutcherson en 1969) et ‘’Illiusion Suite’’ (1972), un excellent album en trio avec le contrebassiste Stanley Clarke et le batteur Jimmy Hopps, ‘’Musa-Ancestral Dreams’’ (dans lequel il avait utilisé le piano à pouces africain, 1973), ‘’Talkin’s Bout Love’’ (1978) et ‘’New World’’ (1981). Dans les années 1970, Cowell avait également enregistré avec Joe Henderson, Art Pepper, Johnny Griffin et Roy Haynes.

En 1972, Cowell avait aussi mis sur pied un groupe très innovateur qui était composé de sept (et parfois jusqu’à neuf !) pianistes, le Piano Choir. Cowell avait eu l’idée de former le groupe après avoir appris que James Reese Europe, un chef d’orchestre afro-américain du début du 20e siècle, avait déjà donné un concert en utilisant un total de quatorze pianos. Comme Cowell l’avait expliqué au cours d’une entrevue qu’il avait accordée au Washington Post en 2000: “I thought it was a possibility that hadn’t been exploited in modern jazz.’’

Cowell avait également fait partie des membres fondateurs du Collective Black Artists Inc., une organisation à but non lucratif qui avait pour but de donner aux musiciens de couleur plus de contrôle sur leurs compositions, leurs enregistrements et leurs performances sur scène. En 1974, Cowell avait aussi collaboré avec d’autres compositeurs et arrangeurs de talent comme Gil Evans et Sy Oliver dans le cadre d’un concert à Carnegie Hall présenté par la New York Jazz Repertory Company.

Après avoir mis fin à son association avec Tolliver, Cowell avait voyagé en tournée avec les Heath Brother et Roy Haynes durant une dizaine d’années à partir de 1974. Dans le cadre de ces différentes collaborations, Cowell avait un peu joué le rôle d’un facteur ‘’X’’, en ce sens qu’il avait le don de mettre en évidence le talent de ses collaborateurs. Par exemple, sur la pièce ‘’Dr, Jackle’’ avec Cecil McBee et Haynes en 1977, certains des phrasés de Cowell étaient tantôt inspirés par le bebop et tantôt par un jazz plus modal.  En 1975, Cowell avait enregistré l’album ‘’Regeneration’’, dans lequel il avait tenté de réaliser une symbiose entre les instruments d’origine occidentale avec les instruments d’origine africaine.

DERNIÈRES ANNÉES

En 1980, Cowell a enregistré l’album ‘’In the Tradition’’ avec le saxophoniste de free jazz Arthur Blythe dans le cadre d’une session qui comprenait également la section rythmique du Air Trio composé de Fred Hopkins et Steve McCall. Durant la même décennie, Cowell avait également enregistré l’album ‘’Such Great Friends’’ avec Billy Harper, Reggie Workman et Billy Hart, ainsi que ‘’We Three » avec Buster Williams et Freddie Waits.

À la fin des années 1980 et au début des années 1990, Cowell avait fait partie du quartet du tromboniste J.J. Johnson.

Également professeur, Cowell avait enseigné à la Mason Gross School of the Arts, une composante de l’Université Rutgers, au New Jersey, jusqu’à sa retraite en 2013. Cowell avait aussi été professeur au Amherst College, au Lehman College in New York (1988-99) et au New England Conservatory (1988-89).

En plus de continuer de travailler régulièrement en studio et en tournée, Cowell avait collaboré de façon intensive avec le guitariste de jazz-fusion Larry Coryell, en plus de se produire au Japon avec son trio We Three. Durant cette période, Cowell avait également enregistré plusieurs excellents albums comme leader, et plus particulièrement dans le cadre de ses enregistrements en trio ‘’Sienna’’ (1989), ‘’Departure No 2’’ (1990) et ‘’Live at Copenhagen Jazz House’’ (1993). Parallèlement, Cowell avait aussi composé certaines oeuvres de longue durée comme son Piano Concerto No 1 (composé en hommage à son idole Art Tatum), qui a été présenté en grande première en 1992 par le Toledo Symphony Orchestra. Même si sa carrière de professeur l’avait tenu très occupé jusqu’à la fin de vie, Cowell avait continué de se produire régulièrement dans le cadre de réunions avec ses amis, de projets avec ses étudiants et d’improvisations en piano solo. Parallèllement, Cowell avait continué de diriger à l’occasion ses propres groupes.

En 1999, Cowell avait enregistré l’album ‘’Dancers in Love’’ (d’après la célèbre composition de Duke Ellington) avec Tarus Mateen à la contrebasse et Nasheet Waits à la batterie. Dans les années 2000, Cowell avait commencé à se produire avec sa fille Sunny, une violiste et chanteuse.

Dans les années 2010, Cowell avait continué d’enregistrer régulièrement avec de petites compagnies de disques comme Steeplechase. Parmi ses dernières parutions, on remarquait ‘’Welcome To The New World’’ (2013), ‘’Are You Real ?’’ (2014) et ‘’No Illusions’’ (2017). Après avoir pris sa retraite de l’Université Rutgers, Cowell avait enregistré en 2015 un album intitulé ‘’Juneteenth’’, qui comprenait plusieurs compositions pour piano solo inspirées par les mouvements des droits civiques et du Black Power. Un peu comme l’album ‘’The Prisoner’’ d’Herbie Hancock, le disque avait souvent été sous-estimé malgré l’excellence de sa musique et le message politique qui réflétait plusieurs des préoccupations de l’époque. Rejeté par les maisons de disques américaines, l’album avait finalement été publié par une compagnie française.

Toujours en 2015, Cowell s’était produit durant une semaine au Village Vanguard de New York avec un trio qui comprenait le saxophoniste Bruce Williams. Cowell, qui n’avait jamais cessé d’innover jusqu’à la fin, avait utilisé lors du concert un système appelé Kyma, qui permettait de transformer le son du piano artificiellement grâce à la technologie digitale. La même année, Cowell avit joué au club Barbica de Londres, en Angleterre, dans le cadre d’une réunion avec ses anciens collaborateurs de Strata-East. En 2019, quelques mois avant sa mort, Cowell avait interprété sa suite Juneteenth avec un orchestre de cordes, voix et percussions au An Die Musik Live de Baltimore.

Stanley Cowell est mort le 17 décembre 2020 au Bayhealth Hospital de Dover, au Delaware. Le décès de Cowell avait été attribué à un problème de circulation sanguine (choc hypovolémique). Il était âgé de soixante-dix-neuf ans. Cowell laissait dans le deuil sa troisième épouse Sylvia Potts, sa fille Sunny, une musicienne et avocate de Baltimore, sa fille Sienna (issue de son second mariage), une soeur et deux petits-enfants. Cowell, qui s’est marié trois fois, avait d’abord épousé Effi Slaughter (elle s’était remariée plus tard au maire de Washington, D.C., Marion Barry) et Victoria McLaughlin. Le doyen du Conservatoire d’Oberlin où Cowell avait fait ses études lui avait rendu hommage après sa mort en déclarant:

“On behalf of the Oberlin Conservatory community, I extend my deepest condolences to Mr. Cowell’s family, friends, and loved ones. Stanley Cowell was a towering figure in the history of jazz, and the history of 20th- and 21st-century music more broadly. As a composer, performer, and thinker, his contributions shaped contemporary musical life in profound and lasting ways, and we join with colleagues around the globe in celebrating his life and honoring his memory.”

Ce n’était qu’un juste retour des choses pour Cowell. En 2010, lorsque le Odabin College avait inauguré le Bertram and Judith Kohl Building qui abritait le site des études jazz de l’université, Cowell avait fait partie intégrante des festivités. Sans même avoir été annoncé, Cowell avait gravi les marches de la chapelle Finney et s’était assis sur le banc de piano à côté de Stevie Wonder. Cowell avait joué durant quarante-cinq minutes accompagné par Wonder à l’harmonica. L’ancien directeur des études jazz de l’université, le professeur de guitare Bobby Ferrazza, qui assistait au concert, avait commenté plus tard: “Stanley was an extremely kind, thoughtful person. We once had a conversation about the details of some of J.J. Johnson's music, and Stanley subsequently sent me one of J.J.'s lead sheets. He was a great musician and a truly thoughtful one.”

Cowell avait livré sa dernière performance en octobre 2020 dans le cadre du concert inaugural du club Keystone Corner de Baltimore, le seul club des États-Unis à permettre une assistance de 25% durant la pandémie de la Covid-19. Le concert avait été enregistré et avait donné lieu à la publication de l’album ‘’Live at Keystone Korner Baltimore’’. Le concert mettait également en vedette le trompettiste Freddie Hendrix et le saxophoniste Bruce Williams, ainsi que la fille de Cowell, Sunny, au chant.

Le proprétaire du Keystone Corner, Todd Barkan, qui collaborait avec Cowell depuis de nombreux années, lui avait rendu hommage en ces termes: “As a composer and player Stanley Cowell was one of the great voices of jazz piano. He had a unique compelling expression in his playing and composing. His composition ‘Equipoise’ captures the essence of his compositions and playing style. I enjoyed working with him for over 50 years as an artist and friend.”

Pianiste complet et très polyvalent, Cowell pouvait passer très facilement d’un style à l’autre, qu’il s’agisse du stride, du jazz d’avant-garde, du jazz-fusion ou de la musique classique. Au cours de sa carrière, Cowell s’était produit avec plusieurs sommités du jazz, de Marion Brown à Max Roach, en passant par Bobby Hutcherson, Charles Moore, Art Pepper, Joe Henderson, les frères Albert, Jimmy et Rodney Heath, Woody Shaw, Miles Davis, Gary Bartz, Johnny Griffin, Roy Haynes, Charles Tolliver, Clifford Jordan, Arthur Blythe, Harold Land, Sonny Rollins et Stan Getz.

Cowell a enregistré plus de trente albums comme leader au cours de sa carrière. Il a aussi collaboré à de nombreux autres albums en compagnie d’autres artistes. Décrivant le style de Cowell, le critique Owen McNally avait écrit en 2013: “Always unfolding dramatically is never pretentious, never afflicted with arcane, elitist self-indulgence posing as cosmic significance to be comprehended by only a chosen few.’’

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

Geza Anda: Preludes, Op. 28, Nos. 19 through 24 (Chopin) 

Hungarian pianist Geza Anda (1921 - 1976) performs Chopin's Preludes, Op. 28, Nos. 19 through 24.  In 1941, he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwängler, who dubbed him "troubadour of the piano."  In the mid 1950s, Anda gave masterclasses at the Salzburg Mozarteum, and in 1960 he took the position of director of the Lucerne masterclasses, succeeding Edwin Fischer.  

He recorded the Op. 28 Preludes for Deutsche Grammophon in 1960.

Vivace  E-flat major Largo  C minor Cantabile  B-flat major Molto agitato  G minor Moderato  F major Allegro appassionato  D minor

[two-hearts-beat]

Hey, hab gerade deinen Post zu Daniel gesehen. magst du deine Quellen teilen, i'm curious 🙈 über insta lässt sich da nicht viel finden 😂

Also erstmal, ich will seine Privatsphäre respektieren. Da das alles aber öffentlich einsehbar ist und ich es innerhalb von fünf Minuten gefunden hatte, denke ich mal es ist okay das hier zu teilen 🤔

Es steht auf der Website der Goldenen Kamera und er hatte heute (ich schätze zum sechsten Geburtstag des Kleinen) den Post der Mutter, Schauspielerin/Hebamme Janina Schauer, auf seiner Story geteilt :)

Ich schätze die beiden kannten sich noch aus Uni Tagen, am Mozarteum in Salzburg

Die werte Janina Schauer geht auf ihrem Insta nicht (mehr) mit Sträßer aber mit einigen Frauen auf 'Tuchfühlung' (vielleicht ist sie poly? oder nur sehr in ihre Kumpellinen vernarrt?), aber wenn ich eine Interpretation wage, dann spricht sie von Schauspielkollegin Barbara Dussler wie von einer romantischen Partnerin [Edit: oder auch nicht]

Anyway, die drei waren auf jeden Fall sehr cute 😊

[gonzalezrigual]

Rafael Cadenas

Rafael Cadenas (Barquisimeto, Venezuela, 1930) pertenece a la generación venezolana de 1960. Formó parte del grupo Tabla Redonda, junto con Arnaldo Acosta Bello, Jesús Guédez, Ángel Eduardo Acevedo, Darlo Lancini, José Barroeta y Sanoja Hernández. Es traductor de poesía inglesa, fue profesor universitario y cuenta con una amplia obra de ensayo considerada una referencia del pensamiento literario contemporáneo en español, con títulos como 'En torno al lenguaje' y los 'Apuntes sobre San Juan de la Cruz y la mística'.

Cadenas, que sigue activo, es autor de más de veinte libros de resonancia internacional, entre ellos, 'Cantos iniciales' (1946), 'Una isla' (1958), 'Los cuadernos del destierro' (1960, 2001), el poema 'Derrota' (1963), 'Falsas maniobras' (1966), 'Intemperie' (1977), 'Memorial' (1977) 'Amante' (1983), 'Dichos' (1992), 'Gestiones' (1992), 'Antología' (1958-1993, 1996, 1999), 'Amante' (2002), 'Poemas selectos' (2004, 2006, 2009), 'El taller de al lado' (2005), 'Sobre abierto' (2012), 'En torno a Basho y otros asuntos' (2016) o 'Contestaciones' (2018).

La obra poética y ensayística de Rafael Cadenas lo ha hecho merecedor de reconocimientos, entre los cuales se encuentran el Premio San Juan de la Cruz (1992), el Premio de la Fundación Mozarteum de Venezuela (1993), el Premio FIL de Literatura en Lenguas Romances (2012), el Premio Internacional de Poesía Federico García Lorca (2015), el Premio Reina Sofía de Poesía Iberoamericana (2018), y diversos reconocimientos en su país, como el doctorado honoris causa de la Universidad Central de Venezuela y el Premio Andrés Bello de la Academia Venezolana de la Lengua, entre otros.

El poeta y Profesor Universitario recibió hoy en Madrid de manos del Rey de España, el Premio Cervantes de las letras, correspondiente a 2022. Es realmente un orgullo para todos los venezolanos que el poeta Cadenas haya sido recocido con este galardón, el más importante de las letras castellanas. Siendo el único venezolano en recibirlo en la historia de ese premio. Felicitaciones apreciado y admirado maestro.

[franceshumbolt]

This made me think of this short documentary. Play based education is so important.

thinking about when i was small, how my mom told me that pipe cleaners were just a tool until people started idly shaping things with them and it grew so popular that they were marketed as crafting materials. and that story about how the original frisbees were disposable pie plates that students flattened to throw. and how when i was a child i had a wooden mancala set with shiny, colorful stones, but on invention it was played with rocks and grooves dug into the dirt. and middle school, paper football and tic-tac-toe and mash and mad libs, games that just need pen and paper. and before that, games of pretend with pirates and princes and masked marauders. how at slumber parties after lights out, we used to whisper storytelling games, i say one sentence and you say the next. and shadow puppets. and the way all the kids in the neighborhood used to divide into teams and throw fallen pine cones at one another. and the floor is lava game, and the quiet game, and the games i play with my coworkers that are just words and retention. and "put a finger down" on the high school bus. and little girls clapping together, and how the first jump-rope was undoubtedly just a length of rope who knows how long ago, and how natural it is to play, how we seek play at every age and with any resources we have and with whatever time we can squeeze it into in a day. i'm not an anthropologist or a psychologist but i think after food and shelter and water and air what comes next is games and stories and laughter. i think that there is nothing -- not sex or fighting or forming unlikely bonds with animals -- there is nothing more human than to play.