# Musicology Research Thread



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I haven't made a thread in a while, and it's been a _long _time since I made a popular one. But I got inspired in the last few weeks to pick up my old hobby which is to study Glazunov, as well as other Russian composers and musicians connected to him. Reading newly published articles, memoirs, primary documents such as letters and things he wrote for publication. I translate some of it to English and publish on my blog here on TalkClassical.

I'd like to know if anyone else has a similar hobby/profession! Music aside, do you study the historical situation of the music you love, be it the personal lives of the composers, their careers, their connections, etc?

There is a brand new biography of Glazunov in English that was published about 4 months ago, and it's my goal to read it through and do a little analysis of it (probably post my review on Amazon). It's unlikely I'll learn much of anything new, but I will critique its language, presentation, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Possessed-Mu...1522687785&sr=1-1&keywords=Glazunov+biography

Professional and amateur/hobby musicologists are welcome to use this thread to describe what kind of research they do!


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Only when I'm analyzing some composer's music, I research into their style, development over time, and musical environment. I'm not interested so much in their personal lives, etc.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Phil loves classical said:


> Only when I'm analyzing some composer's music, I research into their style, development over time, and musical environment. I'm not interested so much in their personal lives, etc.


Could you describe a little more in detail some research that you have done? Any particular sources you have used and/or discovered?


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

The composer I was most fascinated with is Bartok. I did read about his life in general (his life in poverty), but focused more on how he organizes harmony in his music, and other analyses of his works including the different scales he used, both traditional and non-traditional scales. People have different ways to analyse his music, and they can't come into agreement. Bartok himself was silent on his techniques, other than what was obvious from the title, and preferred to have the music speak for itself.

A couple of sources were the books by Erno Lendvai, and Paul Wilson.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I haven't made a thread in a while, and it's been a _long _time since I made a popular one. But I got inspired in the last few weeks to pick up my old hobby which is to study Glazunov, as well as other Russian composers and musicians connected to him. Reading newly published articles, memoirs, primary documents such as letters and things he wrote for publication. I translate some of it to English and publish on my blog here on TalkClassical.
> 
> I'd like to know if anyone else has a similar hobby/profession! Music aside, do you study the historical situation of the music you love, be it the personal lives of the composers, their careers, their connections, etc?
> 
> ...


When I was a flute student, from ages 11 through 21, I knew very little about the historical development of the instrument itself and the music written for it. As an adult, I've built up quite a library of books, magazine and journal articles, and even exhibition, auction and manufacturer catalogs. These include, among others, the full-length biographies of Andersen, Taffanel, Barrere and Moyse, the autobiographies of de Lorenzo, Rampal and Galway, the historical treatises of Quantz, Tromlitz and Boehm, and the more recent books about the flute generally of Baines, Bate, Dorgeuille, Meylan, Solum, Toff, Krell and Powell. I've put the annotations and bibliographies included with many of these to good use. I've even had the chance to meet and speak or correspond with some flute history experts. And then there's the internet, of course. All of this has enriched my understanding of the instrument immeasurably. Of course, many of these resources were already available to me in my student days in some excellent music libraries, but for the most part I didn't take advantage of them then. Youth is wasted on the young, as they say!


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I haven't made a thread in a while, and it's been a _long _time since I made a popular one. But I got inspired in the last few weeks to pick up my old hobby which is to study Glazunov, as well as other Russian composers and musicians connected to him. Reading newly published articles, memoirs, primary documents such as letters and things he wrote for publication. I translate some of it to English and publish on my blog here on TalkClassical.


Out of curiosity, do you intend to visit any Russian archives as part of your research? I continue to be amazed by the kinds of discoveries musicologists are making just be combing library shelves-such as the rediscovery of Stravinsky's lost Funeral Song last year.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I think it's important to have knowledge of the lives of composers, the environments in which they lived, the historical events of their day etc . It's impossible to understand their music fully without this .
How can you understand the music of Beethoven without knowing about the life of his close contemporary Napoleon and how Beethoven felt about him, the wars and treaties which happened in the early 19th century etc ? Beethoven's music doesn't exist in a vacuum .


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Blancrocher said:


> Out of curiosity, do you intend to visit any Russian archives as part of your research? I continue to be amazed by the kinds of discoveries musicologists are making just be combing library shelves-such as the rediscovery of Stravinsky's lost Funeral Song last year.


Yes, one day I'll go to Russia and meet with a musicologist friend there that has access to a big archive there. She said there are hundreds of unpublished letters by Glazunov there.  I can't read cyrillic cursive though, so I need to get better at Russian.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Yes, one day I'll go to Russia and meet with a musicologist friend there that has access to a big archive there. She said there are hundreds of unpublished letters by Glazunov there.  I can't read cyrillic cursive though, so I need to get better at Russian.


That sounds like a wonderful treasure trove. Hopefully the hand isn't too difficult--as long as it's clear you should be able to transcribe the letters and study them at your leisure.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Blancrocher said:


> That sounds like a wonderful treasure trove. Hopefully the hand isn't too difficult--as long as it's clear you should be able to transcribe the letters and study them at your leisure.


She's been doing the work for a long time, I'll hopefully translate what she publishes into English, whatever is interesting.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

"I'd like to know if anyone else has a similar hobby/profession! Music aside, do you study the historical situation of the music you love, be it the personal lives of the composers, their careers, their connections, etc?"

Oh yes. One of the great joys in life is to study the life and historical context of a composer while listening to his (her) music. It really sinks in that way. The life of Xenakis, for instance, and his exposure to war that can be heard in some of the violence of his music: no one springs innocently or karma-free from the head of Zeus.


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