Journal articles on the topic 'Wind instruments Wind instruments Intonation (Musical pitch)'

Logical reason for research. Modern performance on wind instruments, in particular on the trumpet, is characterized by a powerful development. It is an object of listening interest and composing, and today it has a fairly large repertoire of both transpositions and original works in many instrumental compositions (from solo to various ensembles and orchestras) in different styles and genres. This situation in music practice requires theoretical understanding and generalization, however, we can state that at the moment, music science highlights the performance on the wind instruments without any system, mostly from the methodological viewpoint. Innovation. The article under consideration deals with the organological aspect of studying the specificity of the performance on the trumpet, which combines a number of historical and practical questions and allows them to be answered in connection with the requests of both music science and music practice (from the peculiarities of the sound production on various instruments of the trumpet family at different times (from the historical origins of trumpet performance to the present) to the technical and artistic tasks faced by the trumpet performer, as well as by the composers who create both transpositions of time-tested music for trumpet and original trumpet pieces that take into account technical, timbre, artistic and expressive capabilities of this instrument). Objectives. The purpose of research is to reveal connection between the historical-organological and practical specificity of the performance on the trumpet in the past and at present. Methods. The main methods of the research are historical and organological. Results and Discussion. Trumpet as a musical instrument is one of the oldest musical instruments in the world. Its earliest prototypes are revealed in archaeological studies of the historical past of humanity. The prototypes of embouchure instruments are horn, bone, and tusk pipes with conical bore, mostly curved, which are ancestors of the horn family; instruments with straight cylindrical pipes formed a family of trumpet. The art of playing wind instruments was a significant development in ancient Egypt, where the state placed musical art at the service of rulers and worship. Musicians in those days accompanied festive events and rituals; what is more, wind and percussion instruments became the basis for the creation of military orchestras. A straight metal trumpet appeared in Europe in the Middle Ages. In the countries of Central Asia, Iran, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan copper brass instruments were played. China’s music and performing culture employed bronze trumpets of various sizes. In the 14th-15th centuries the evolution of metal instruments underwent qualitative changes. Forms of curved trumpets were born. In addition to this, trumpets were split into low and high ones; later, middle-register instruments appeared. The so-called natural trumpets, used then, were very close in sound to the modern trumpet. In Europe there were masters who made metal instruments; eminent experts in this field, the Heinlein Schmidt family, the Nagel family, English masters Dudley, U. Bullem worked in Nuremberg from the 15th and up to the 19th century. The emergence of a slide trumpet, a trumpet with a sliding crook, is connected with the attempts to improve the instrument for the sound production of more chromatic sounds (we must distinguish the achievements of Anton Weidinger). An important step in the evolution of the chromatic trumpet was the use of horn invention (croooks). In the mid-nineteenth century, having improved the inventory system with a valve mechanism, the trumpet finally gained its place in the orchestra as a chromatic instrument. At the present time, a trumpet with a piston valve mechanism (in jazz, variety, modern music) has become very popular. At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, trumpets of different structures, such as in C, in D, in Es, in F, were constructed; the designs of these trumpets are almost indistinguishable from the design of the modern trumpet. The piccolo trumpet was designed for a solo performance of ancient music (clarinet style); to amplify the low sounds, the alt trumpet in F and the bass trumpet became popular. Compared to fixed-mode instruments, the trumpet is a semifixed-pitch instrument. Therefore, a skilled performer is able to adjust the pitch within a certain area and correct defects in the setting of separate modeless sounds. The "planned" inaccuracy of the trumpet intonation is related to the use of a third valve. To correct the intonation associated with this, the trumpet has a device for extending an additional pipe of the third valve. There is no precise theoretical prediction of the given problem, so the correction of modeless sounds requires from the performer well-developed musical ear and knowledge of the specific features of their instrument. Conclusions. The summarized results of the presented article indicate that the organological aspect of the research in the field of performance on wind instruments, in particular, on the trumpet, is important and illustrative. It is an indispensable link that binds the theoretical and practical vectors of the study of trumpet art as a single set of knowledge; helps to identify the connection between the historical, organological and practical aspects of the performance on the trumpet, both past and present; promotes awareness of the specificity of playing a particular instrument, especially, understanding and assimilation of the design features of the trumpet in all its historical variants, and the corresponding principles of sound production with technical-acoustic and artistic effects; outlines the theoretical, scientific and methodological tasks for performers and composers whose work is related to the art of playing the trumpet. These are the directions in which further avenues for researching music related to the performance on the trumpet of different times, styles and genres can be seen.

We studied music majors’ perception of intonation in accompanied solo performances of trumpet, violin, and voice. We were interested in whether listeners would judge pitch deviations of equal magnitude in the three solo performances as equivalent in intonation. Participants were 150 graduate and undergraduate music majors drawn from two large music schools and included 50 students representing each of the following areas of applied music study: voice, wind instruments, and string instruments. Listeners heard solo trumpet, violin, and soprano performances of Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod) accompanied by piano. Pitch performances of the soloists were altered in four sections of the excerpt and deviated in either the sharp or flat direction within a section by 0, 10, 20, and 30 cents relative to the accompaniment. Listeners judged pitch deviations in the flat direction as more out of tune for the trumpet than equivalent alterations of violin and voice, especially for magnitudes of 20 and 30 cents. In sharp direction changes, violin and trumpet were heard similarly and as more out of tune than the vocal soloist. Additionally, differences in pitch judgments were found between listener groups representing different areas of applied study.

Background. The article deals with the interaction of the constructive evolution of the instrument and the development of bassoon performing of the 16–17 centuries. The aesthetics of that time was associated with the search for new expressive means, realization of which could be ensured by new instruments with rich and expressive sound. One of such instruments is bassoon; it was during the Baroque era when the bassoon took its shape and the sound image we know today. Thanks to technical evolution, the instrument acquired new artistic capabilities and new sound quality. A new repertoire was formed; bassoon became the part of such instrumental genres as sonata and concerto, it was firmly fixed in the score of the symphony orchestra. In music science, there are a number of studies devoted to wind instruments, the most significant of which are researches by G. Abadzhyan, V. Apatskiy L. Belenov, V. Berezin, V. Bohdanov, N. Volkov, V. Gromchenko, Yu. Dolzhikov, V. Kachmarchyk, V. Lebedev, V. Popov, I. Pushechnikov, Yu. Usov, and A. Kiziliayev. There are works, which focus on the bassoon, its history, expressive and technical capabilities (G. Abadzhyan, V. Apatskiy, V. Bubnovich, N. Karaulovsky, S. Levin, V. Leonov, V. Popov, V. Starko, Anthony Baines). It is worth noting the rather important and comprehensive work by V. Apatskiy “Bassoon from A to Z”. There are numerous scientific publications of international woodwind performers associations, such as the International Double Reed Society, the Australian double reed community, the British double reed community, the Japan bassoon society, the Finnish double reed community. The purpose of the article is to reveal the specifics of the relationship between the structural improvements of the bassoon and the performance on the bassoon in the period of 16–17 centuries. Achieving this goal will help to perform tasks such as a historical overview of the development of the bassoon in the Baroque era and identify the relationship between constructive changes, artistic possibilities, repertoire potential (including the genre palette of the instrument) and composer work for the bassoon of this period. The presented article is a material used in the candidate’s dissertation, which is devoted to a wide range of issues of performance on the bassoon from the origins to the present. Methodology. The main research methods are historical, organological and performing. The historical method is associated with the characterization of the historical conditions of origin and development of the bassoon; the organological method is necessary to establish the connection between the constructive changes of the instrument with the new quality of its sound; the performing method helps to reveal new tendencies in bassoon performance of the 16–17 centuries from the new repertoire to the functional purpose of the instrument. Research results. Around the middle of the 17th century, fundamental changes occurred in the construction of the bassoon. They were caused by the need to regulate the overall tuning system of the instrument in such a way that it could participate in joint music-making with other instruments, as well as by the desire to make the instrument more portable. At the turn of the 16–17 centuries, in the process of bassoon chromatization as the result of complication of composer creativity, fundamental changes were made in the design of the instrument: new “chromatic” holes and valves, as well as fork fingering appeared. It was all connected with the formation of certain musical and aesthetic needs and developed along with them. So, the evolution of the bassoon 16–17 centuries led to such qualitative changes in the sound of the instrument as: softness of the tone, pitch control, expansion of the working range, great power of sound, ease of playing the instrument. The above-mentioned factors entailed fundamental changes in the composers’ attitude towards the instrument. The bassoon enters a more complex functional level in the works of various music genres (interlude to the comedy “La Pellegrina” by Girolamo Bargalia, “Sacrae symphoniae” by Giovanni Gabrieli, “Messa a 4 voci et Salmi” by C. Monteverdi, “Fantasy for basso continuo” by Bartolome deSelma-i-Salaverde, sonata “Lamonica” by PhilipFriedrich Bodekher, nine sonatas for solo bassoon and basso continuo by Giovanni Antonio Bertoli, sonata for two bassoons by Philipp Friedrich Buchner, opera “Il pomo d’oro” by Antonio Cesti, singspiel “Seelewig” by Sigmund Theophil Staden). The role of Antonio Vivaldi in the formation of the concerto, including concerto for bassoon, is difficult to overestimate, and thirty-nine Vivaldi’s concertos for bassoon are evidence of that. The creative work of Antonio Vivaldi affected Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote bassoon parts in his works of different genres. George Philippe Telemann, Bach’s contemporary, is known for a large number of pieces with bassoon parts. Conclusions. Constructive changes resulted in the arrival of the bassoon to a new timbre, figurative-intonational, genre, and performance level. Meanwhile, there is a linear rather than reciprocal relationship between the above-mentioned levels. On the one hand, there is a direct dependence in the evolution of bassoon performance: new constructive features – technical capabilities of the instrument – more individual timbre character – new expressive possibilities – solo parts – solo pieces. On the other hand, all this creates new requirements both for the performer and for the instrument, which brings the situation back to the need for further search. The results of this research can be used in further studies devoted to the history and theory of bassoon performance in the historical, organological and genre-stylistic directions.

In the first of two experiments, subjects ( N = 137) were band students with 1, 2, 3, or 4 years of formal instrumental performance experience. Subjects tuned to a single prerecorded tuning pitch and subsequently played along with a prerecorded four-measure melody. Direction and magnitude of pitch deviation were analyzed for the single tuning pitch and four selected target pitches within the melody. Responses to the tuning pitch were more accurate than for the melodic pitches. There was a high positive correlation among the four melodic pitches, but a low positive correlation between the melodic pitches and tuning pitch. In a second experiment, high school musicians ( N = 167) played along with the same prerecorded melody after either (a) tuning their instrument to a single pitch, (b) receiving verbal instructions to perform “in tune,” or (c) receiving no information. No differences were observed among the three conditions. Students who first tuned to a single pitch were more accurate at this task than at melodic performance. A high correlation was observed among melodic pitches but not between melodic and tuning pitches. Across both experiments, subjects erred most often in the sharp direction; a stronger tendency toward sharp errors was noted among more experienced students. Performance accuracy was observed to improve with experience.

Today, knowledge concerning the relationship between temperature and musical pitch shapes many dimensions of Western musical practice, from the ambient conditions of performance sites to the design of musical instruments, and performers’ routines and techniques. But the history of how temperature came to play such a defining role in musical cultures remains unexamined. This article lays the foundations for such work by approaching musical instruments as sites of negotiation between acousticians, instrument makers, and players on the one hand, and music's variegated environments on the other. First, the article shows that the conceptualization of pitch in relation to temperature was a by-product of nineteenth-century international negotiations over musical standardization. These debates reveal that, while assessing the relation between pitch and temperature may seem like a decisive step toward the regulation of musical frequencies, in fact it was the source of countless epistemological and sociopolitical problems. Next, the article turns to David J. Blaikley, a British maker of wind instruments, whose experiments on the influence of extreme temperature variations on army-band instruments revealed the limits of Western attempts to control sound on a global scale, including in colonial contexts. Finally, I trace the implications of this new awareness of the interplay between sound and the environment to expose the silent ways in which that awareness continued to inform Western musical practice into the 1940s and beyond.

The purpose of this represented scientific article is revealing the most character-logical traits in relation to composer style of the French master E. Bozza, which are binding with the particularities of the neo-impressionistic vector in the European academic art from the second half of the 20th century. The series of methods concerning this signified investigation are making from the applying of comparative, axiological, structurally analytical, as well as functional approaches relatively studying of the designated theme. The utilization of methods such as performing analysis and synthesis are having the specific importance. The scientific newness of denoted article is stipulated by designation of style traits regarding little investigated compositions for wind professional instruments by E. Bozza, which were written in performing form of academic instrumental solo (wind solo). That is stage-single musical process, a namely „Improvisation and capriceˮ for saxophone-alto solo, „Imageˮ for flute solo as well as Etude-caprice № 5 for saxophone solo. Conclusions. First of all, the local grinding of the specific musically expressive color, artistic paint on the motive differentiation, separation, peculiar intonation divisionism belong to the most characteristic, maximally singular traits of E. Bozzaʼs neo-impressionistic style in the professional compositions of academic wind solo. In this way, the clear sounding of determined wind academic instrument with the particular motive intonation locality, with concentration on the precisely denoted artistic expression create maximal characterization for neo-impressionistic development of musical material. Artistic content of concentrative motive evolution in relation to musical thought of E. Bozza is intensified by dominant signification of generalizing type of musical program. The flexible possibilities concerning free ideally imaginative interpretation of artistic content as a performer and listener is created by using of that program kind.

The phenomenon of the formation of the woodwind instrument art in China of the 20th century is due to the unique synthesis of Western European traditions and the experience of playing traditional national wind instruments. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the growth of professionalism among musicians-performers stimulates composer creativity, producing the development by Chinese composers of the styles and genres of Western European music. In turn, the combination of styles and genres of academic art with intonation and expressive means of national Chinese music creates new, interesting examples of musical compositions by contemporary Chinese composers, worthy of a separate in-depth study. The purpose of the article is to consider the prerequisites, features of the formation of the performing art of woodwind instruments in China, as well as identifying possible prospects for its development. The leading approach to the study of the problem is a comparative approach in assessing the development of the art of playing woodwind instruments in China and in Western Europe and America. A close relationship between performing, composing and musical education is revealed. It is proved that the development of performing arts should be aimed at enhancing the ensemble qualities of musicians, which is due to the priority of the chamber-instrumental genres in modern concert practice. The significance of the article, both in theoretical and practical terms, is due to the fact that its results can be used as elements of a methodological base for further research on the issues identified.

Introduction. The widespread use of percussion instruments is a worldwide trend in artistic practice of the 20th – early 21st centuries, whose existence is due to the constant development of composer creativity and the performing art of percussion instruments playing. The named vectors of musical activity are linked inextricably, since one direction contributes to the development of another. Nevertheless, there are not still fundamental scientific works would investigate the evolution of wind instruments from the beginnings to the present in the designated context of the interaction between composer and performing arts. The questions remain open: why, over time, composers were more and more attracted to the sound images of percussion instruments? How did the formation of sound images of percussions take place and what tendencies can be distinguished in this process in connection with the development of various musical styles and genres, as well as with individual, unique composer ideas? What works contributed to the evolution of percussion instruments? The aim of the proposed research is an attempt to examine, in the context of evolutionary processes, the practice of the modern use of percussion instruments in composing and performing art. In addition to questions of their direct use in the works of composers, the sound image of percussions is considered, which can be reproduced with the help of articulation and other techniques on various instruments (piano, strings, harp, guitar etc.). Literature review and methodology of the research. This research in a factual aspect based on the works of G. Blagodatov (1969) and A. Kars (1989). However, percussion instruments are not the subject of special consideration in the works of these authors. In addition, we note that the methodological approach of the named researchers is opposite to the proposed analytical model. G. Blagodatov and A. Kars examine evolutionary processes in the history of a symphony orchestra and orchestration. However, they highlight the typical, not the special and unique, while is this interest that determines the specifics of our research. The historical and cultural approach that takes into account the historical experience of both musical and other types of art helps to “decode” the unique composer ideas. The historical and genetic research method is used when considering evolutionary processes and searching for features of historical continuity in the interpretation of sound images of percussion instruments. Findings. Modern interest in percussion instruments in the practice of playing music is associated with a new interpretation of the means of musical expression in compositions of the 20th – early 21st centuries. The reason for this interest should be sought in the correspondence of the sound image of the percussions to certain characteristics of the “picture of the world”, which develops in the work of artists throughout the XX–XXI centuries, a time of rapid total changes, when the “shock” and rigid “rhythm” become the symbols of the time, requiring, in turn, psychological relaxation and detachment. Accordingly, two main trends in the embodiment of percussion sound images formed. The first is associated with the emancipation of the rhythmic principle up to its complete liberation from the melodic one (the appearance in musical works of independent themerhythms, of expanded rhythmic structures, semantically significant rhythmic ostinatі, solo percussion instruments, in particular, in the works of the concert genre). The second is sonorous-coloristiс, revealing the wide timbre possibilities of percussion instruments, involving, among other things, exotic, archaic, atypical author’s methods of sound production, untempered sounds. In the 20 century, composers tried to free music from the power of even tempered tuning (for example, when using microtonal music in creative experiments carried out by A. Hába, Ch. Ives, I. Wyschnegradsky) and percussion instruments, by their nature, fit this tendency. Going beyond the limits of even tempered tuning concerns both pitch organization and concentration on timbre colors, sonorism. The second of the tendencies, in our opinion, responds to the hedonistic preferences of the listeners, and also corresponds to the widespread aesthetic concept of the naturalness of artistic creativity, where percussion appears as the most suitable instrument for reproducing natural biorhythms of the Universe and a Human in musical rhythms. The semantic content of percussion sound images demonstrates multidimensionality and poly-variety, up to opposite expressive meanings. Features of the use of percussion in musical works of the XX–XXI centuries are often determined by a unique composer intention, which performers and researchers should decode based on the cultural and historical experience of musical art. For example, the sound image of bells, which clearly reveals the sonor-color qualities of the percussiveness, acquires different semantic meanings depending on the author’s concept. It is possible to use sound images of percussion instruments from the standpoint of symbolism. Historical, in particular, national origins can also affect the interpretation of sound images of percussion instruments. Continuity and evolutionary changes are demonstrated by examples from the practice of using timpani, which for centuries were part of a symphony orchestra, and in the XX–XXI centuries became participants in a joint game and even soloists in different performing groups. The main section of the manuscript gives examples of all directions in the interpretation of sound images of percussion instruments. Conclusion. So, the proposed complex analytical model, taking into account the historical, national, evolutionary factors in the interpretation of sound images of percussion, which differs in different eras, seems promising, making it possible to trace the continuity in the new and the features of the cultural dialogue arising one way or another in the “big time” (M. Bakhtin) of art.

Relevance of the study. Samuel Barber’s musical legacy is unevenly covered in musicological literature, in particular, “Capricorn Concerto” is on the periphery of scientific attention — the work that is not only bright and interesting, but also indicative of the composer’s creativity as a whole. In addition, researchers, as a rule, do not associate the semantic and stylistic features of a concert with its genre specificity, which ultimately determines the integrity of the artistic structure.The main objective of the study is to identify the relationship between genre, style and content parameters of Capricorn Concerto.The methodology of the research includes the historical and biographical approaches used to study the circumstances of S. Barber’s life and creativity during the period of work on the “Capricorn Concerto”, as well as structural-functional, genre-style and intonational-dramatic methods necessary for a comprehensive analysis of this work.Results and conclusions. “Capricorn Сoncerto” by S. Barber is considered in the unity of content, style and genre characteristics. The existing hypotheses about the links between the program content of the work and the name of the composer’s house in Mount Kisco are presented. The character and dramatic functions of musical themes representing the house and its inhabitants are analyzed, the idea of the personification of the wind instruments’ timbres and the reflection of the generalized program of the work through the game thematic logic and timbre dramaturgy is put forward. The stylistic influences in “Capricorn Сoncerto” are characterized. The connections with baroque music and the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 by J. S. Bach, presented at the timbre, textured, compositional, intonation levels, as well as in the methods of melodic development, are traced. The unification of the Baroque style elements with modern means of musical expression, in particular those associated with the music of I. Stravinsky, is emphasized. The place of “Capricorn Сoncerto” in S. Barber’s concert legacy is designated. The correspondence of all his four concerts to the basic requirements of the genre is noted, and at the same time specificity of “Capricorn Сoncerto”, manifested in its instrumental composition (three solo wind instruments and a string orchestra), structural organization (subordination of the compositional structure to the through development of the concert principle of dialogue) and the ratio of parties (multilevel dialogical processes) is emphasized. The interrelation of content, style and genre features of “Capricorn Concerto” is substantiated. It is concluded that the most important intentions of S. Barber’s work are reflected in this work: careful preservation of genre traditions, genetic connection with the styles of previous eras, deeply hidden, but always tangible resonance between personal biography and creativity

Background. One of the integrating, determining and identifying forces of the social progress of the entire human community is the custom and folklore tradition of the smallest sub-ethnic units / constituents individual nations and peoples, their verbal and ethno-cultural (including ethno-musical) sources, that, like rivers and brooks, fill the ocean of culture promoting for life and further development. The structure of the traditional Ukrainian musical culture, along with the well-known the old practices of group singing, itinerant kobzars and lira players, also consists of a powerful musical-instrumental component (herdsman’s folklore, calendarian-ritual chanting and dance). The aim and methods of the research. This article examines the phenomenon of traditional instrumentalism from the point of view of its fundamental influences on the worldviews regarding the formation and functioning of the ethnic sound of Ukrainians based on the longtime field-type, theoretical, pedagogical and practical (scientific and reconstructive musical performing) the experience of the author. The research results. Especially effective and such that, in recent years, was involved in the processes of salvation and “strengthening” (the term by S. Hrytsa) of traditional musical aesthetics, is the method of scientific and executive reconstruction of old folk music genres and forms. Systematic scientific-theoretical and structural-typological analytical work aimed at reproducing prototypes and structural details of reconstructed objects, forms, genres and actions of traditional Ukrainian musical culture, including instrumental, was reflected primarily in the research of S. Hrytsa (2000; 2002; 2015), A. Ivanytskyi (2007), I. Matsiievskyi (2012), B. Kindratiuk (2012), V. Yarmola (2014) and the author of these lines (Khai, M., 2011a; 2011b; 2013 and others). The author of the article thoroughly considers special issues of indexing musical instruments according to the system of E. Hornbostl – K. Sachs with the principle of division into classes, subclasses, categories, subdivisions; for the first time in Ukrainian ethnoorganology he carrys out a complete and consistent grouping of Ukrainian folk musical instruments. It is stated that the most important criteria of all classifications are: form, construction, structure, way of playing, repertoire, manner of performance. The criteria of traditionalism and functioning of folk instruments are determined separately (see: Khai, M., 2011a: 145–261). Based on this, Ukrainian folk musical instruments are considered in the following groups: 1) folk idiophones (self-sounding), 2) folk membranophones; 3) folk chordophones (strings); 4) folk aerophones (wind). Analyzing the existing classifications of national instrumental music, the author puts forward the thesis: areas of distribution and “density of ingrowth” of non-ethnic and authorial elements in the traditional centers of Ukrainian national instrumental music are mostly related to factors of geographical proximity, of natural extinction and administrative-repressive planting of alluvial and so-called “parallel” culture. Experiments on the instrumental traditions of Ukrainians, along with the autochthonous traditional instrumental repertoire, testify to the active functioning at the level of reception / ingrowth of works of other national origin. The interethnic and inter-genre transformation of the folk-instrumental style is connected with the spread of the Moscow, Polish, Romanian and Jewish intonation elements on the territory of the country. Touching the extremely complex and topical problems of archetypal traditional culture, interethnic relations of nations in the modern kaleidoscope of globalization processes, the article focuses on the negative (forced, administrative-aggressive absorption and destruction) and the positive (diversity, enrichment) interactions of the mentioned cultural elements. Characterizing from the positions mentioned here the main features of the ethnic sound ideal in the instrumental tradition of Ukrainians, the author defends its “European model” (tendency to cantilena sound of violin and flute ) as opposed to the type, which dominates the ethnosonic aesthetics of East – tremolo on one string. For the first time in these studies, the thesis is asserted that sounds that imitate the human voice or complement it predominate in Ukraine: flute cantilena, bandura-kobza and partly cymbal arpeggio, which differ significantly and fundamentally from the “Asian” coloristics of one-string tremolo. Conclusions. The final outcome of the study, about the cathartic function of traditional instrumentalism and musical culture in modern social-sublimation processes of human development and, conversely – about neglecting it as a manner to the complete destruction of human civilization as such, steers away from pessimism, inspiring hope for survival in the cataclysms of nature and society as a whole.

Logical reason for research. The flute art has its own history of development, which is marked by different traditions – the performing, composing, and pedagogical. The mentioned traditions outline the ways of the development of the flute art of the present and the future; they have a certain originality of geographical and cultural orientation. Today, the flute art is the subject of the audience demand, the performing and composing creativity, and has a solid repertoire in various styles and genres of both translations and original compositions in many instrumental compounds, ranging from solo to various ensembles and orchestras. This situation in music practice requires the theoretical understanding and generalization, including those in the projection of national and cultural traditions of different countries and regions. However, we can state that, at the moment, music science addresses the performance on the flute not systematically, mostly in a methodological direction. The Ukrainian flute art is closely related to the traditions of the flute music of Western European and Eastern European music art, but it also has its originality, which exists owing not only to musical (intonation, genre, and repertoire), but also to the historical, national-cultural or human reasons. Kharkiv, as one of the historical and cultural centres of Ukraine, has a rich musical history, and traditions of the flute art are its important component. Innovation. The presented article is devoted to the research of the Kharkiv flute art in the aspect of unity and interaction of the performing and pedagogical traditions. This aspect combines a number of historical, theoretical, and practical questions, and allows finding their answers related to the demands of both music science and music practice. We are talking about a number of aspects of the study of the flute art in the aspect of music regionalism, from organology and common European traditions of the flute art to the peculiar features of its development in Kharkiv in all the directions – the composing, performing, and pedagogical. Objectives. The purpose of the study is to identify the specifics of the performing and pedagogical traditions of the flute art in Kharkiv in the aspects of the continuity from European musical art and the identity of the Ukrainian, in particular, Kharkiv flute school. Methods. The main methods of the presented research are the historical one and the systematic one. The first one is related to the historical factors of the development of the flute art both in the European and Ukrainian historical cultural and artistic context. The second one allows one to represent the performing and pedagogical traditions associated with the flute art in their legacy and cultural and regional specification. Results and Discussion. Kharkiv is one of the most important historical and cultural centres of Ukraine. Its military purpose determined the nature of music playing (the regimental music of the Kharkiv Cossack Regiment), its instruments (primarily the wind instruments) and the genre direction. The relevant performing and pedagogical traditions of the Kharkiv musical culture are still marked today by the significant influence of the Kharkiv Wind Instruments School, known both in Ukraine and abroad. The flute art is an important and illustrative part of this historical process. The regimental music influenced the development of music education and training of musicians in Kharkiv – the opened schools for teaching children also had a "military profile" (from the nature of the student recruitment to instrumentation and repertoire). In the 18th-19th centuries the flute was spreading in the general education system in Ukraine. Many Ukrainian art and culture figures started their musical training with the flute and perfectly mastered the instrument; the spread of the flute in the musical life of the 18th century is mentioned in the writings by M. Zagaykevych, O. Schreyer-Tkachenko, I. Pyaskovsky and others. The musical activity of the national enlightener G. Skovoroda can be considered essential in this sense; the flute was his companion in many years of his legendary travels about Ukraine. The subsequent opening of schools and vocal-instrumental classes at Kharkiv College demonstrated the expansion of the character of the performing and pedagogical foundations of the flute art in Kharkiv, connected not only with military music, but also with the development of noble-house culture and theatrical and amateur practice. Flute performers were one of the first orders to European teachers. The flute was a part of practically all the variants of ensembles and orchestras of Kharkiv and Slobidska Ukraine. This stimulated the development of performing skills, music pedagogy, composing creativity. It is important that the most skilled flute performers in Kharkiv were, as a rule, the leading teachers and educators. In addition, the Kharkiv wind instruments performance and pedagogy were characterized by such a quality as multi-instrumentalism. At different times, the flute art in Kharkiv (both the performing one and the pedagogical one) was glorified by such artists as I. Vitkovsky, I. Lozynsky, K. Kestner, E. Prill, F. Kuchera, A. Boroznin, E. Krychevsky, G. Heck, D. Rykov, F. Prokhachev. Representing various national schools, they ensured the multicultural development of the Kharkiv flute art. In the 20th-21st centuries the activity of the teachers and students of Kharkiv National University of Arts named after I. P. Kotlyarevsky who were putting their forces into the creation of the local ensembles and orchestras played a decisive role in the development of the flute art in Kharkiv. Conclusions. The "genetic memory" of Kharkiv’s history as a city-military frontier was reflected in the performing and pedagogical traditions of wind instruments music, in particular, the flute art, in its performing (genres, repertoire, and performing stylistic) and pedagogical specificity. The further development of the flute music in the Kharkiv region has enriched these traditions of European music with its diverse repertoire in all genres and styles, but the Kharkiv specificity remains its recognizable core. The summarized results of the presented article indicate that the selected aspect of the study, related to the characteristic of the performing and pedagogical traditions of the flute art in Kharkiv through the prisms of continuity and interaction, is the link that integrates the theoretical and practical directions of studying the art of the flute playing into the whole complex of knowledge, that helps to understand the universal and specific in the processes of the development of the flute art in different aspects – the historical, cultural-regional, and artistic, etc.

The orchestration of Karabyts’ Third Concerto for Orchestra “Holosinnia” (“Lamentations”) has been studied. The relevance of the study. Despite a number of research works on Karabits’ Third Concerto its orchestration remains little studied yet. Therefore, the main objective of the paper is to examine orchestration of the Third Concerto for orchestra and to research the interaction between ‘traditional’ and ‘innovative’ traits in Concerto’s orchestration. The methods of the research. The score analysis lies in the core of the paper but historical, comparative, and semiotic methods of analysis have been applied as well. Attention is focused on the combination of traditional and innovative origins which paved the way for the composer to rethink the methods of presentation in the orchestra. Thus, these transformations reflect the original (author’s) approach to the genre. It was emphasized that Karabyts interprets the synthetical character inherent to the concerto for orchestra genre particularly wide. It is emphasized that this approach allows the composer to identify a palette of genres of instrumental music: for one performer, different combinations of chamber ensembles, concerto grosso and solo instrumental concerto. In particular, the opposition between two groups was strengthened not only due to unequal quantity of performers in each of them (concerto grosso), but also by relying on the different nature of the material or the use of bells or tube, quite rare in this role, to solo (solo concerto). The combination of traditional and innovative is reflected in the composition of the orchestra (paired with a large percussion group) and the approach to percussion instruments (endowing them with melodic, semantic, formative and other functions). It is emphasized that Karabyts repeatedly applies “percussion-like" interpretation in relation to other instruments. Such an approach results in a qualitative transformation of the instruments: the inherent warmth of a string timbre decreases; the singularity of each wind color neutral-lizes. Complications of semantics at each rhythmic, intonation, and timbre ostinato formulas are revealed. The introduction of a particular (author’s) approach to the baroque tradition of combining the functions of a soloist and a capellmeister, the manifestation of which is the solo of bells perso-nally made by Karabyts, has been noticed. The conclusions state that the Concerto’s orchestration plays important role in dialectically combination of “objective” and traditional (the passage of time, the history of the people, destiny) with “subjective” and individual (the author’s attitude to events and their rethinking). Such an approach is typical for the twentieth-century musical art. The significance of the research is that it reveals the importance of orchestration as a means of expression and thus brings better understanding of the functional potential of orchestration within the frame of the twentieth-century art tendencies.

Background. The article focuses on articulating the role of chromatic button accordion in the modern sociocultural system of Ukrainian musical art, based on the case of one leading school established in 1951 on the basis of Kharkiv National Kotlyarevskyj University of Arts. Objectives. The objective of the article is to provide an analysis of Kharkiv regional accordion school (since the second half of the 20th century to the present day), as well as its personalities using as an example five generations of performersteachers. Methodology of the study includes researching of the history and practice of performing chromatic button accordion (the fundamental works of M. Imkhanycjkyj, U. Loshkova, I. Snjedkov, A. Mirek, А. Stashevskyj) Results. After the invention of the chromatic button accordion a little over 100 years ago, it went from a primitive musical instrument satisfying everyday needs to one recognized on the professional concert stage. The status of the instrument has been changing hand in hand with its improvement and the creation of original repertoire. Now the chromatic button accordion is on par with other academic instruments recognized worldwide. Currently there are four chromatic button accordion schools in Ukraine - in Kyiv, Odessa, Lviv and Kharkiv. Kharkiv has been viewed as a regional center of development of the chromatic button accordion performing since early 20-ies of the 20th century. However, the original “Kharkiv school of performing” was fully established with the opening of the chromatic button accordion class at the orchestra department of the University in 1951. This event became final in the formation of the system of professional chromatic button accordionists and teachers preparation. It is as follows: music school, music college, conservatory. The founder of the chromatic button accordion class was L. M. Horenko (1925- 1989). Volodymyr Yakovych Podgornyj (1928-2010), an outstanding performer, composer and teacher, played the key role in the formation of Kharkiv original chromatic button accordion school. His unique compositional and performing style dramatically changed the teaching methodology, performance priorities, approaches to transcription and translation of works for an chromatic button accordion, the “harmonic mindset”. Volodymyr Yakovych contributed greatly to the creation of original chromatic button accordion repertoire which surpassed existing samples in its quality, giving a new direction to the chromatic button accordion development not only in Kharkiv, Ukraine but also abroad. Thus, L. M. Horenko and V. Y. Podgornyj became the first generation of chromatic button accordion teachers in Kharkiv National Kotlyarevskyj University of Arts. The second generation of teachers at the department including Podgornyj’s students O. I. Nasarenko and A. P. Ghaidenko used to uphold these principles, but they also brought additional details generally related to their inherent features of character. The representatives of the third generation at the department - professors O. V. Mishhenko and I. I. Snjedkov brought innovative characteristics to the general terms of the performing school. They have been known to pay attention to the logic of dramatic development, conciseness of musical forms, technical perfection, academicism, the balance of the emotional and rational performance components, the perfection of small intonation pieces. The fourth generation includes Andrij Ghetman who`d been working since 1995 to 2007, and Andrij Strilets who started his career in 1998. They both were students of Kharkiv chromatic button accordion school taught by Professor I. I. Snjedkov. Following general principles of “Podgornyj school”, those personalities deviate significantly from the original source. A. Ghetman’s performing is characterized by specific academicism both in the quality of performing and in selecting a concert repertoire. A. Strilets distinguishes by advanced orchestral thinking, focused work with the viewer, attention to a musical phrase structure, expressiveness and emotional completeness of performance. The fifth generation consists of Dmytro Zharikov (a soloist of the regional Philharmonic society) who has received a Master’s degree at Rostov Academy of Music named after. S. V. Rakhmaninov under the direction of the world-famous accordion player Yurij Shyshkin and Yurij Djjachenko (a student of O. I. Nasarenko) who teaches the conducting course. They have worked at the department since 2015. Conclusion. The modern chromatic button accordion through developing in the plane of professional instrumental performing, repeats the path of other famous academic musical instruments. Moreover, Kharkiv regional accordion school, being one of the leading development centers of the chromatic button accordion in Ukraine, has entered the value system of the 21st century culture. Its development and increasing authority in the world arena are related to: 1) the further integration into the extensive network of European music universities; 2) experience exchange not only at the level of teaching methods, but also through the introduction of exchange programs with students from leading conservatories of different countries worldwide; 3) the creation of the conditions for the training of a certain unification specialists according to the existing genre and stylistic directions of performance on chromatic button accordion; 4) the orientation on the implementation of all the advanced instruments constructive capabilities (sound production and strokes) and timbral coloring; 5) the search for forms of the chromatic button accordion (as an academic instrument) creative synthesis: from established forms of ensembles (such as strings or wind) to modern theatrical, vocal and dance performances, music and light show.

Formulation of the problem. An analysis of the genre-dramaturgical patterns in a poorly studied composition by the Chinese composer Zhao Jiping (2011) has been proposed. The relevance of the topic and the novelty of the received results of the genre-semantic analysis of the chosen vocal cycle are concluded in the search for the definition dictated by the artistic concept of its author – a cantata-type vocal poem (a small choir is introduced into the score). Among its criteria there are reliance on the orchestral accompaniment, the timbre variation of each song of the cycle, the poetry dictated by the presence of the image of the Poet, the symbolization of the poetic and intonation language, the cultural chronotope uniting the Time of History and its inclusion into the culture of the 21st century. The purpose of the article is to perform a genre-semantic analysis of “The Eight Songs” for Zhao Jiping’s voice and orchestra and to identify the main sound-image concepts of “the Chinese world view” that make up the drama of the vocal cycle. Analysis of the recent publications on the topic. In the second half of the 20th century, a new compositional approach to organizing vocal songs into a whole, poemness, appeared. In the articles by A. Belonenko (about “Petersburg” by G. Sviridov) and T. Zharkikh (about “Poemes pour Mi” by O. Messiaen), the research emphasis is placed on other problems of the organization of the vocal whole. For the first time, in the conditions of the poly-timbre vocal and orchestral synthesis and the national picture of the world poemness becomes the subject of a special interest of the singer-researcher. Research methods: the structural-functional analysis concerns the components of the composer’s text (the vocal melody and textural and timbre thematism of the orchestral part); the semantic one – reveals the symbolism of poetic texts; the genre analysis – aims to identify the individual interpretation of typical models of vocal music. The presentation of the main material. The poem principle became the embodiment of the author’s desire to unite several vocal miniatures into a single musical universe based on the common concept – the image of the Poet. The philosophical and religious feelings and thoughts contained in the texts chosen by the composer reflect not only his worldview, but also the national mentality and psychology of the world view of the “Chinese world view” (the chronotope of History). This rare quality of poetry – to unite the personality (I) and society (We) into a single “national image of the world” – is the essence of the symbolism of the ancient Chinese poetry of the Tang era. The desire to individualize the timbre composition in each of the parts of the cycle is a characteristic feature of many vocal and instrumental compositions of the 20th century. However, in Zhao Jiping’s work, the search for diversity acts simultaneously with the desire to preserve the timbre constants. As such, with this composer this role is represented by a string and bow group, as the carrier of the song beginning, which performs the function of the instrumental “nimbus” (more rarely, of the dialogue-counterpoint) in relation to the singer. In contrast to Western composers, Zhao Jiping does not seek to use “pure” timbres: vocals and xiao can be duplicated with the wind and plucked strings. The composer does not look for contrasting timbres in search of the associative community: on the contrary, he creates single-timbre groups (pipa + guzheng + harp, triangle + bells + cymbals) to vary the shades of the poetic text. Their “consonance” is close to assonance in poetry (from assono – “I sound in tune”), which in the musical context creates the timbre assonance. The symphonic instruments are combined in timbre groups (string, wind), and the ethnic often perform an individualized function (for example, guzheng with its irregular glissando in No. 2–4 gives a national flavour). The orchestral density, along with the gradual “academic turning” of timbres, increases from the second half of the sound of the cycle (No. 5) to the final. Xiao is replaced by the wind and brass (with No. 5), while the ethnic plucked is replaced by the harp. The gradual increase in the timbre multidimensionality of the texture also has the “opposite effect”, since it is combined with the enhancement of the timbre contrast in the final parts of the cycle and as a result of the “aggravation” of the chamberness. The most chamber part is number 6, where the brass is for the first time silenced, and only the pipa and guzheng are heard. The culmination of the “chamberness” is in the first stanza of the final: a duet of the voice and harp. Conclusion. The vocal-instrumental synthesis in the poem genre, identified in Zhao Jiping’s “The Eight Songs”, is characterized by the organic interaction of the national and European principles of musical thinking. The performers are faced with complex technical and psychological tasks that require a developed orchestral-timbre hearing, intellectualism and associative thinking. A vocal-instrumental poem is a way of modelling spiritual reality, in which the unity of time and space is manifested due to the poetic text, in which the integral sense-image of the Poet acts, personifying the sound-like concepts of the culture of its time and the history of an entire people (“national view of the world”), their “inclusion” into the musical chronotope of the 21st century.

Formulation of the problem. The creative work of the bright representative of the Italian opera U. Giordano consists of eleven operas. Despite the fact that the composer is considered a bright representative of verismo, not all his operas belong to this direction. For example, in the late period of his creativity (1910–1920), U. Giordano departs from the traditions of verismo and aims his search for the comedy genre («La cena delle beffe», «Dinner with Jokes»), the genre of opera novels («The King»). But all the same, the main, repertoire operas (as early as «Mala Vita», «Marina», and the mature ones like «Andrea Chenier», «Fedora») are the quintessence of the tradition of verismo. The opera «Siberia» is also considered to be such. The emergence of new productions of the opera in the 21st century gives a reason to appeal to this opus and analyse it in terms of stability of the traits of the composing style of U. Giordano. The purpose of the study is to identify the role of the opera «Siberia» in the context of creativity by U. Giordano. Analysis of recent publications on the topic of the article. U. Giordano’s creative work is systematically presented in the study of M. Morini (1968), where he collected articles not only written by himself, but also by other researchers of the composer’s creative work. Today it is the most complete publication of his letters and reviews on the opera productions. Vincenzo Therenzio reflects on the basics of the style of U. Giordano, Giovanni Ugolini resorts to the analysis of the traditions of verismo in the creative work of the composer. Carmine Ruizzo’s research is devoted to the manifestations of verismo in the creative work of U. Giordano. In relation to creativity (general characteristics) of U. Giordano one should list the encyclopaedic articles and the book by Alan Mallach, which covers the path of the Italian opera on the border of the 20th – 21st centuries from verismo to modernism. Regarding the opera “Siberia”, we should mention the review article by M. Morini and the articles directly devoted to the productions in the «Helikon-opera». We do not find a detailed analysis of the score of the opera in any scientific sources. Statement of the main content of the article. The plot of the opera «Siberia» is the love story of the officer Vasyl and the courtesan Stefana, who, after Vasyl was arrested, follows him to Siberia. The pimp Hleb cannot quarrel the lovers, but after an unsuccessful escape the injured Stefana dies. This tragic story is presented by the composer and librettist (Illik) on the background of the Russian reality, which creates a certain context of the love line of the main heroes. And the interpretation of the plot, and the musical concept in general, corresponds to the guides of the opera creativity of U. Giordano. Thus, generalizing the observations of G. Marqezi, M. Morini, and V. Therenzio, one can determine the following features of the composer’s opera style, among which there is the theme of love in the centre of the plot, the ability to create bright and exciting portraits of the main characters, the «stylistic equilibrium» (V. Therenzio), the reliance on the traditions of the Italian musical theatre, the combination of the purity of the picture and expression, the inclusion of reminiscences, the severity of orchestration, the provision of the national character to the score (by incorporating the musical material of the region in which the action takes place). All of them are embodied in the opera «Siberia». The analysis of the main scenes of the opera “Siberia” with the participation of the protagonists – Stefana and Vasyl – is presented, and it is proved that this opera (along with «Fedora» and «Andrea Chenier») is the quintessence of the traditions of verismo. Conclusions. In the context of the creative work of U. Giordano, the opera «Siberia» takes up the prominent place. It, along with the operas of the mature style («Fedora», «Andrea Chenier»), embodies the typical features of the opera style of the composer. So, the images of the protagonists are vivid in their musical characteristics. In addition, the musical images of Vasyl and Stefana are presented by the composer in the development. The very Vasyl owns almost all the main motives of the opera, which often appear before the listener in a slightly transformed form. Often there is just a reminder of them with similar intonations and rhythm. It should be noted that the musical material characterizing the image of Vasyl, in its expressiveness and intonation wealth, is not inferior to the woman’s party of Stefana, in contrast to the “La Traviata” by G. Verdi, where the main emphasis is on the main character – Violet. As for the orchestration of the opera, in general, it has a strict character, although the composer includes the simulation of a characteristic instrument for the colour provision. Thus, the vivid contrast in the scene of Stefana’s death is a picture of folk feasts under the sounds of the balalaika (which in the orchestra is imitated by the mandolin). The instrument symbolizes that somewhere far away, life continues to go on its own. The orchestral score of the opera “Siberia” is distinguished by the transparency of the texture, most of the material is laid out in the string group and the group of the wooden brass instruments. The timbres of the copper wind instruments are rare, as well as the great dynamic nuances. The feature that gives the opera “Siberia” a similarity to the best examples of the Italian theatre is the intonation concept. For example, the typical resemblance to G. Verdi’s “La Traviata” is that all the musical material of this picture from the lives of ordinary people is permeated with household song and dance intonations and rhythms. They fill both the recitative episodes and the aria ones. If in “La Traviata” the main theme of Alfred is presented in a waltz manner, with a three-part size, the themes of the hero of the opera “Siberia” of Vasyl are described predominantly in four-part sizes (including 12/8), which is more attractive to the song-romance composition. The parallel with “La Traviata” is still that the hero Alfred had to fight not only with the public condemnation about the choice of his beloved woman who led an unworthy way of life but also with the personal condemnation from his father and family. Vasyl also struggled for his beloved woman, who was also a courtesan, but for him it was not so important what Stefana’s being was like, the problem was her financial dependence on another man. The prospect of further study of the topic. In the modern theatre (after a long oblivion) both the directors and performers return their interest to the opera “Siberia”, which makes it possible to analyse the composition by U. Giordano from the point of view of the performing analysis.

Every act of art is able to reveal, balance and revive the relations between a territory and its inhabitants (François Davin, Southern Forest Sculpture Walk Catalogue)Introducing the Understory Art in Nature TrailIn February 2015, a colossal wildfire destroyed 98,300 hectares of farm and bushland surrounding the town of Northcliffe, located 365 km south of Perth, Western Australia (WA). As the largest fire in the recorded history of the southwest region (Southern Forest Arts, After the Burn 8), the disaster attracted national attention however the extraordinary contribution of local knowledge in saving a town considered by authorities to be “undefendable” (Kennedy) is yet to be widely appreciated. In accounting for a creative scene that survived the conflagration, this case study sees culture mobilised as a socioeconomic resource for conservation and the healing of community spirit.Northcliffe (population 850) sits on a coastal plain that hosts majestic old-growth forest and lush bushland. In 2006, Southern Forest Arts (SFA) dedicated a Southern Forest Sculpture Walk for creative professionals to develop artworks along a 1.2 km walk trail through pristine native forest. It was re-branded “Understory—Art in Nature” in 2009; then “Understory Art in Nature Trail” in 2015, the understory vegetation layer beneath the canopy being symbolic of Northcliffe’s deeply layered caché of memories, including “the awe, love, fear, and even the hatred that these trees have provoked among the settlers” (Davin in SFA Catalogue). In the words of the SFA Trailguide, “Every place (no matter how small) has ‘understories’—secrets, songs, dreams—that help us connect with the spirit of place.”In the view of forest arts ecologist Kumi Kato, “It is a sense of place that underlies the commitment to a place’s conservation by its community, broadly embracing those who identify with the place for various reasons, both geographical and conceptual” (149). In bioregional terms such communities form a terrain of consciousness (Berg and Dasmann 218), extending responsibility for conservation across cultures, time and space (Kato 150). A sustainable thematic of place must also include livelihood as the third party between culture and nature that establishes the relationship between them (Giblett 240). With these concepts in mind I gauge creative impact on forest as place, and, in turn, (altered) forest’s impact on people. My abstraction of physical place is inclusive of humankind moving in dialogic engagement with forest. A mapping of Understory’s creative activities sheds light on how artists express physical environments in situated creative practices, clusters, and networks. These, it is argued, constitute unique types of community operating within (and beyond) a foundational scene of inspiration and mystification that is metaphorically “rising from the ashes.” In transcending disconnectedness between humankind and landscape, Understory may be understood to both culturalise nature (as an aesthetic system), and naturalise culture (as an ecologically modelled system), to build on a trope introduced by Feld (199). Arguably when the bush is cultured in this way it attracts consumers who may otherwise disconnect from nature.The trail (henceforth Understory) broaches the histories of human relations with Northcliffe’s natural systems of place. Sub-groups of the Noongar nation have inhabited the southwest for an estimated 50,000 years and their association with the Northcliffe region extends back at least 6,000 years (SFA Catalogue; see also Crawford and Crawford). An indigenous sense of the spirit of forest is manifest in Understory sculpture, literature, and—for the purpose of this article—the compilation CD Canopy: Songs for the Southern Forests (henceforth Canopy, Figure 1).As a cultural and environmental construction of place, Canopy sustains the land with acts of seeing, listening to, and interpreting nature; of remembering indigenous people in the forest; and of recalling the hardships of the early settlers. I acknowledge SFA coordinator and Understory custodian Fiona Sinclair for authorising this investigation; Peter Hill for conservation conversations; Robyn Johnston for her Canopy CD sleeve notes; Della Rae Morrison for permissions; and David Pye for discussions. Figure 1. Canopy: Songs for the Southern Forests (CD, 2006). Cover image by Raku Pitt, 2002. Courtesy Southern Forest Arts, Northcliffe, WA.Forest Ecology, Emotion, and ActionEstablished in 1924, Northcliffe’s ill-founded Group Settlement Scheme resulted in frontier hardship and heartbreak, and deforestation of the southwest region for little economic return. An historic forest controversy (1992-2001) attracted media to Northcliffe when protesters attempting to disrupt logging chained themselves to tree trunks and suspended themselves from branches. The signing of the Western Australian Regional Forest Agreement in 1999 was followed, in 2001, by deregulation of the dairy industry and a sharp decline in area population.Moved by the gravity of this situation, Fiona Sinclair won her pitch to the Manjimup Council for a sound alternative industry for Northcliffe with projections of jobs: a forest where artists could work collectively and sustainably to reveal the beauty of natural dimensions. A 12-acre pocket of allocated Crown Land adjacent to the town was leased as an A-Class Reserve vested for Education and Recreation, for which SFA secured unified community ownership and grants. Conservation protocols stipulated that no biomass could be removed from the forest and that predominantly raw, natural materials were to be used (F. Sinclair and P. Hill, personal interview, 26 Sep. 2014). With forest as prescribed image (wider than the bounded chunk of earth), Sinclair invited the artists to consider the themes of spirituality, creativity, history, dichotomy, and sensory as a basis for work that was to be “fresh, intimate, and grounded in place.” Her brief encouraged artists to work with humanity and imagination to counteract residual community divisiveness and resentment. Sinclair describes this form of implicit environmentalism as an “around the back” approach that avoids lapsing into political commentary or judgement: “The trail is a love letter from those of us who live here to our visitors, to connect with grace” (F. Sinclair, telephone interview, 6 Apr. 2014). Renewing community connections to local place is essential if our lives and societies are to become more sustainable (Pedelty 128). To define Northcliffe’s new community phase, artists respected differing associations between people and forest. A structure on a karri tree by Indigenous artist Norma MacDonald presents an Aboriginal man standing tall and proud on a rock to become one with the tree and the forest: as it was for thousands of years before European settlement (MacDonald in SFA Catalogue). As Feld observes, “It is the stabilizing persistence of place as a container of experiences that contributes so powerfully to its intrinsic memorability” (201).Adhering to the philosophy that nature should not be used or abused for the sake of art, the works resonate with the biorhythms of the forest, e.g. functional seats and shelters and a cascading retainer that directs rainwater back to the resident fauna. Some sculptures function as receivers for picking up wavelengths of ancient forest. Forest Folk lurk around the understory, while mysterious stone art represents a life-shaping force of planet history. To represent the reality of bushfire, Natalie Williamson’s sculpture wraps itself around a burnt-out stump. The work plays with scale as small native sundew flowers are enlarged and a subtle beauty, easily overlooked, becomes apparent (Figure 2). The sculptor hopes that “spiders will spin their webs about it, incorporating it into the landscape” (SFA Catalogue).Figure 2. Sundew. Sculpture by Natalie Williamson, 2006. Understory Art in Nature Trail, Northcliffe, WA. Image by the author, 2014.Memory is naturally place-oriented or at least place-supported (Feld 201). Topaesthesia (sense of place) denotes movement that connects our biography with our route. This is resonant for the experience of regional character, including the tactile, olfactory, gustatory, visual, and auditory qualities of a place (Ryan 307). By walking, we are in a dialogue with the environment; both literally and figuratively, we re-situate ourselves into our story (Schine 100). For example, during a summer exploration of the trail (5 Jan. 2014), I intuited a personal attachment based on my grandfather’s small bush home being razed by fire, and his struggle to support seven children.Understory’s survival depends on vigilant controlled (cool) burns around its perimeter (Figure 3), organised by volunteer Peter Hill. These burns also hone the forest. On 27 Sept. 2014, the charred vegetation spoke a spring language of opportunity for nature to reassert itself as seedpods burst and continue the cycle; while an autumn walk (17 Mar. 2016) yielded a fresh view of forest colour, patterning, light, shade, and sound.Figure 3. Understory Art in Nature Trail. Map Created by Fiona Sinclair for Southern Forest Sculpture Walk Catalogue (2006). Courtesy Southern Forest Arts, Northcliffe, WA.Understory and the Melody of CanopyForest resilience is celebrated in five MP3 audio tours produced for visitors to dialogue with the trail in sensory contexts of music, poetry, sculptures and stories that name or interpret the setting. The trail starts in heathland and includes three creek crossings. A zone of acacias gives way to stands of the southwest signature trees karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor), jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata), and marri (Corymbia calophylla). Following a sheoak grove, a riverine environment re-enters heathland. Birds, insects, mammals, and reptiles reside around and between the sculptures, rendering the earth-embedded art a fusion of human and natural orders (concept after Relph 141). On Audio Tour 3, Songs for the Southern Forests, the musician-composers reflect on their regionally focused items, each having been birthed according to a personal musical concept (the manner in which an individual artist holds the totality of a composition in cultural context). Arguably the music in question, its composers, performers, audiences, and settings, all have a role to play in defining the processes and effects of forest arts ecology. Local musician Ann Rice billeted a cluster of musicians (mostly from Perth) at her Windy Harbour shack. The energy of the production experience was palpable as all participated in on-site forest workshops, and supported each other’s items as a musical collective (A. Rice, telephone interview, 2 Oct. 2014). Collaborating under producer Lee Buddle’s direction, they orchestrated rich timbres (tone colours) to evoke different musical atmospheres (Table 1). Composer/Performer Title of TrackInstrumentation1. Ann RiceMy Placevocals/guitars/accordion 2. David PyeCicadan Rhythmsangklung/violin/cello/woodblocks/temple blocks/clarinet/tapes 3. Mel RobinsonSheltervocal/cello/double bass 4. DjivaNgank Boodjakvocals/acoustic, electric and slide guitars/drums/percussion 5. Cathie TraversLamentaccordion/vocals/guitar/piano/violin/drums/programming 6. Brendon Humphries and Kevin SmithWhen the Wind First Blewvocals/guitars/dobro/drums/piano/percussion 7. Libby HammerThe Gladevocal/guitar/soprano sax/cello/double bass/drums 8. Pete and Dave JeavonsSanctuaryguitars/percussion/talking drum/cowbell/soprano sax 9. Tomás FordWhite Hazevocal/programming/guitar 10. David HyamsAwakening /Shaking the Tree /When the Light Comes guitar/mandolin/dobro/bodhran/rainstick/cello/accordion/flute 11. Bernard CarneyThe Destiny Waltzvocal/guitar/accordion/drums/recording of The Destiny Waltz 12. Joel BarkerSomething for Everyonevocal/guitars/percussion Table 1. Music Composed for Canopy: Songs for the Southern Forests.Source: CD sleeve and http://www.understory.com.au/art.php. Composing out of their own strengths, the musicians transformed the geographic region into a living myth. As Pedelty has observed of similar musicians, “their sounds resonate because they so profoundly reflect our living sense of place” (83-84). The remainder of this essay evidences the capacity of indigenous song, art music, electronica, folk, and jazz-blues to celebrate, historicise, or re-imagine place. Firstly, two items represent the phenomenological approach of site-specific sensitivity to acoustic, biological, and cultural presence/loss, including the materiality of forest as a living process.“Singing Up the Land”In Aboriginal Australia “there is no place that has not been imaginatively grasped through song, dance and design, no place where traditional owners cannot see the imprint of sacred creation” (Rose 18). Canopy’s part-Noongar language song thus repositions the ancient Murrum-Noongar people within their life-sustaining natural habitat and spiritual landscape.Noongar Yorga woman Della Rae Morrison of the Bibbulmun and Wilman nations co-founded The Western Australian Nuclear Free Alliance to campaign against the uranium mining industry threatening Ngank Boodjak (her country, “Mother Earth”) (D.R. Morrison, e-mail, 15 July 2014). In 2004, Morrison formed the duo Djiva (meaning seed power or life force) with Jessie Lloyd, a Murri woman of the Guugu Yimidhirr Nation from North Queensland. After discerning the fundamental qualities of the Understory site, Djiva created the song Ngank Boodjak: “This was inspired by walking the trail […] feeling the energy of the land and the beautiful trees and hearing the birds. When I find a spot that I love, I try to feel out the lay-lines, which feel like vortexes of energy coming out of the ground; it’s pretty amazing” (Morrison in SFA Canopy sleeve) Stanza 1 points to the possibilities of being more fully “in country”:Ssh!Ni dabarkarn kooliny, ngank boodja kookoorninyListen, walk slowly, beautiful Mother EarthThe inclusion of indigenous language powerfully implements an indigenous interpretation of forest: “My elders believe that when we leave this life from our physical bodies that our spirit is earthbound and is living in the rocks or the trees and if you listen carefully you might hear their voices and maybe you will get some answers to your questions” (Morrison in SFA Catalogue).Cicadan Rhythms, by composer David Pye, echoes forest as a lively “more-than-human” world. Pye took his cue from the ambient pulsing of male cicadas communicating in plenum (full assembly) by means of airborne sound. The species were sounding together in tempo with individual rhythm patterns that interlocked to create one fantastic rhythm (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Composer David Pye). The cicada chorus (the loudest known lovesong in the insect world) is the unique summer soundmark (term coined by Truax Handbook, Website) of the southern forests. Pye chased various cicadas through Understory until he was able to notate the rhythms of some individuals in a patch of low-lying scrub.To simulate cicada clicking, the composer set pointillist patterns for Indonesian anklung (joint bamboo tubes suspended within a frame to produce notes when the frame is shaken or tapped). Using instruments made of wood to enhance the rich forest imagery, Pye created all parts using sampled instrumental sounds placed against layers of pre-recorded ambient sounds (D. Pye, telephone interview, 3 Sept. 2014). He takes the listener through a “geographical linear representation” of the trail: “I walked around it with a stopwatch and noted how long it took to get through each section of the forest, and that became the musical timing of the various parts of the work” (Pye in SFA Canopy sleeve). That Understory is a place where reciprocity between nature and culture thrives is, likewise, evident in the remaining tracks.Musicalising Forest History and EnvironmentThree tracks distinguish Canopy as an integrative site for memory. Bernard Carney’s waltz honours the Group Settlers who battled insurmountable terrain without any idea of their destiny, men who, having migrated with a promise of owning their own dairy farms, had to clear trees bare-handedly and build furniture from kerosene tins and gelignite cases. Carney illuminates the culture of Saturday night dancing in the schoolroom to popular tunes like The Destiny Waltz (performed on the Titanic in 1912). His original song fades to strains of the Victor Military Band (1914), to “pay tribute to the era where the inspiration of the song came from” (Carney in SFA Canopy sleeve). Likewise Cathie Travers’s Lament is an evocation of remote settler history that creates a “feeling of being in another location, other timezone, almost like an endless loop” (Travers in SFA Canopy sleeve).An instrumental medley by David Hyams opens with Awakening: the morning sun streaming through tall trees, and the nostalgic sound of an accordion waltz. Shaking the Tree, an Irish jig, recalls humankind’s struggle with forest and the forces of nature. A final title, When the Light Comes, defers to the saying by conservationist John Muir that “The wrongs done to trees, wrongs of every sort, are done in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, for when the light comes the heart of the people is always right” (quoted by Hyams in SFA Canopy sleeve). Local musician Joel Barker wrote Something for Everyone to personify the old-growth karri as a king with a crown, with “wisdom in his bones.”Kevin Smith’s father was born in Northcliffe in 1924. He and Brendon Humphries fantasise the untouchability of a maiden (pre-human) moment in a forest in their song, When the Wind First Blew. In Libby Hammer’s The Glade (a lover’s lament), instrumental timbres project their own affective languages. The jazz singer intended the accompanying double bass to speak resonantly of old-growth forest; the cello to express suppleness and renewal; a soprano saxophone to impersonate a bird; and the drums to imitate the insect community’s polyrhythmic undercurrent (after Hammer in SFA Canopy sleeve).A hybrid aural environment of synthetic and natural forest sounds contrasts collision with harmony in Sanctuary. The Jeavons Brothers sampled rustling wind on nearby Mt Chudalup to absorb into the track’s opening, and crafted a snare groove for the quirky eco-jazz/trip-hop by banging logs together, and banging rocks against logs. This imaginative use of percussive found objects enhanced their portrayal of forest as “a living, breathing entity.”In dealing with recent history in My Place, Ann Rice cameos a happy childhood growing up on a southwest farm, “damming creeks, climbing trees, breaking bones and skinning knees.” The rich string harmonies of Mel Robinson’s Shelter sculpt the shifting environment of a brewing storm, while White Haze by Tomás Ford describes a smoky controlled burn as “a kind of metaphor for the beautiful mystical healing nature of Northcliffe”: Someone’s burning off the scrubSomeone’s making sure it’s safeSomeone’s whiting out the fearSomeone’s letting me breathe clearAs Sinclair illuminates in a post-fire interview with Sharon Kennedy (Website):When your map, your personal map of life involves a place, and then you think that that place might be gone…” Fiona doesn't finish the sentence. “We all had to face the fact that our little place might disappear." Ultimately, only one house was lost. Pasture and fences, sheds and forest are gone. Yet, says Fiona, “We still have our town. As part of SFA’s ongoing commission, forest rhythm workshops explore different sound properties of potential materials for installing sound sculptures mimicking the surrounding flora and fauna. In 2015, SFA mounted After the Burn (a touring photographic exhibition) and Out of the Ashes (paintings and woodwork featuring ash, charcoal, and resin) (SFA, After the Burn 116). The forthcoming community project Rising From the Ashes will commemorate the fire and allow residents to connect and create as they heal and move forward—ten years on from the foundation of Understory.ConclusionThe Understory Art in Nature Trail stimulates curiosity. It clearly illustrates links between place-based social, economic and material conditions and creative practices and products within a forest that has both given shelter and “done people in.” The trail is an experimental field, a transformative locus in which dedicated physical space frees artists to culturalise forest through varied aesthetic modalities. Conversely, forest possesses agency for naturalising art as a symbol of place. Djiva’s song Ngank Boodjak “sings up the land” to revitalise the timelessness of prior occupation, while David Pye’s Cicadan Rhythms foregrounds the seasonal cycle of entomological music.In drawing out the richness and significance of place, the ecologically inspired album Canopy suggests that the community identity of a forested place may be informed by cultural, economic, geographical, and historical factors as well as endemic flora and fauna. Finally, the musical representation of place is not contingent upon blatant forms of environmentalism. The portrayals of Northcliffe respectfully associate Western Australian people and forests, yet as a place, the town has become an enduring icon for the plight of the Universal Old-growth Forest in all its natural glory, diverse human uses, and (real or perceived) abuses.ReferencesAustralian Broadcasting Commission. “Canopy: Songs for the Southern Forests.” Into the Music. Prod. Robyn Johnston. Radio National, 5 May 2007. 12 Aug. 2014 <http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/intothemusic/canopy-songs-for-the-southern-forests/3396338>.———. “Composer David Pye.” Interview with Andrew Ford. The Music Show, Radio National, 12 Sep. 2009. 30 Jan. 2015 <http://canadapodcasts.ca/podcasts/MusicShowThe/1225021>.Berg, Peter, and Raymond Dasmann. “Reinhabiting California.” Reinhabiting a Separate Country: A Bioregional Anthology of Northern California. Ed. Peter Berg. San Francisco: Planet Drum, 1978. 217-20.Crawford, Patricia, and Ian Crawford. 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Telephone interview. 3 Sep. 2014.Relph, Edward. Place and Placelessness. London: Pion, 1976.Rice, Ann. Telephone interview. 2 Oct. 2014.Rose, Deborah Bird. Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and Wilderness. Australian Heritage Commission, 1996.Ryan, John C. Green Sense: The Aesthetics of Plants, Place and Language. Oxford: Trueheart Academic, 2012.Schine, Jennifer. “Movement, Memory and the Senses in Soundscape Studies.” Canadian Acoustics: Journal of the Canadian Acoustical Association 38.3 (2010): 100-01. 12 Apr. 2016 <http://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/2264>.Sinclair, Fiona. Telephone interview. 6 Apr. 2014.Sinclair, Fiona, and Peter Hill. Personal Interview. 26 Sep. 2014.Southern Forest Arts. Canopy: Songs for the Southern Forests. CD coordinated by Fiona Sinclair. Recorded and produced by Lee Buddle. Sleeve notes by Robyn Johnston. West Perth: Sound Mine Studios, 2006.———. Southern Forest Sculpture Walk Catalogue. Northcliffe, WA, 2006. Unpaginated booklet.———. Understory—Art in Nature. 2009. 12 Apr. 2016 <http://www.understory.com.au/>.———. Trailguide. Understory. Presented by Southern Forest Arts, n.d.———. After the Burn: Stories, Poems and Photos Shared by the Local Community in Response to the 2015 Northcliffe and Windy Harbour Bushfire. 2nd ed. Ed. Fiona Sinclair. Northcliffe, WA., 2016.Truax, Barry, ed. Handbook for Acoustic Ecology. 2nd ed. Cambridge Street Publishing, 1999. 10 Apr. 2016 <http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/Soundmark.html>.