From the Lexington Stage to a New York Park Bench

This wide-ranging chapter follows Harry Dean Stanton in his first years after military service. He returned to Lexington, Kentucky, and enrolled at the University of Kentucky, eventually making his way to the university's Guignol Theatre where a performance as Alfred Doolittle in Pygmalion convinced him to pursue a career in acting. He continued his studies at the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse in California, spending several years there before signing up with a traveling, all-male chorus group that took him across the country. Like many actors, including his fellow Kentuckian and future friend Warren Oates, Harry Dean tried to put his training to work in New York City, but after spending more time on park benches than the stage he joined with the Strawbridge Children's Theater and was back traveling cross-country. He tired of this before long, and it was back to California, this time for good.

A music work portraying common ups and downs in Central Europe - based on music perceived by the young in Poland, Germany and Ukraine

Three outstanding music works have been presented in the article – “Polish Requiem” for 4 solo voices, mixed chorus and symphonic orchestra by Krzysztof Penderecki, “Panachyda za zmarłych z głodu” [A memorial service for those who died of hunger] for soloists, two mixed choruses, a reciter and symphonic orchestra by Jewhen Stankowycz, as well as Ocalały z Warszawy [A Survivor from Warsaw], a melodrama, op. 46, for a reciter, male chorus and orchestra by Arnold Schönberg. The works exemplify the idea of a composer's synthesis, present a programme of important, quite often tragic fates constituting the area of common ups and downs of Central Europe - Poles, Germans, Jews and Ukrainians. For that reason, the author has deemed it necessary to include these works in the school’s music curriculum, as an inter-cultural project, intentionally preparing the young for a dialogue and meetings. The thesis has been divided into two parts: The first one included a meaning and content-related analysis of music works in their mutual relations and differences in treating the language of artistic statement, similarity of topics formulated as a symbolic and narrative programme, as well as in references to religion and understanding the sacred sphere. The second part expresses pedagogic contributions which, during the musical education process, may constitute inspiration for the artistically-oriented inter-cultural education achieved by making the artistic activity available for the young. From among the trends, the following didactic and educational conceptions have been distinguished: a) Music educating by stimulating the cultural memory, b) Religious music in the “pedagogy of remembrance” trend, c) Music of martyrdom in the inter-cultural educational programme in the process of dialogue and assimilation.

Hearing conspecific vocal signals alters peripheral auditory sensitivity

We investigated whether hearing advertisement calls over several nights, as happens in natural frog choruses, modified the responses of the peripheral auditory system in the green treefrog, Hyla cinerea . Using auditory evoked potentials (AEP), we found that exposure to 10 nights of a simulated male chorus lowered auditory thresholds in males and females, while exposure to random tones had no effect in males, but did result in lower thresholds in females. The threshold change was larger at the lower frequencies stimulating the amphibian papilla than at higher frequencies stimulating the basilar papilla. Suprathreshold responses to tonal stimuli were assessed for two peaks in the AEP recordings. For the peak P1 (assessed for 0.8–1.25 kHz), peak amplitude increased following chorus exposure. For peak P2 (assessed for 2–4 kHz), peak amplitude decreased at frequencies between 2.5 and 4.0 kHz, but remained unaltered at 2.0 kHz. Our results show for the first time, to our knowledge, that hearing dynamic social stimuli, like frog choruses, can alter the responses of the auditory periphery in a way that could enhance the detection of and response to conspecific acoustic communication signals.

Mixed choruses and marriage songs: a new interpretation of the third stasimon of the Hippolytos

This article uses evidence drawn from hymenaios and wedding ritual to reach a new interpretation of the third stasimon of the Hippolytos, and its rôle in the play. There is longstanding contention about whether a second (male) chorus participates in the ode, singing in antiphony with the existing tragic chorus. Even scholars who accept that a second chorus is present have tended to regard it as an aberration which needs to be explained away, rather than a deliberate choice with poetic significance. I discuss the cultural implications of such a chorus, examining our evidence for real-life mixed choruses, and then applying this to the ode itself. The evidence for mixed choruses suggests they are strongly associated with marriage. Looking more closely at the language and imagery of the ode, there are allusions to the topoi of wedding songs and ritual running through it. The ode can use these as a device to trigger deep-rooted responses and associations from the audience, as these motifs are drawn from the cultural tradition which the audience shares. The topoi tie in with the theme of marriage and sexuality within the Hippolytos as a whole. But while their usual purpose is to set up conventional models and ways of thinking, the way they are deployed in the ode in fact serves to undermine these models, and to put a darker spin on the norms of sexual behaviour. This strand of imagery therefore also provides a filter for interpreting Hippolytos' own attitude towards sexuality, and a guide to how we are meant to respond to it.

Reinventing the Past: Mendelssohn's Antigone and the Creation of an Ancient Greek Musical Language

ABSTRACT In 1841, Sophocles's Antigone was performed at the Prussian court theater with staging by Ludwig Tieck and music by Felix Mendelssohn. Commissioned by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, this production aimed to re-create aspects of Greek tragedy by, among other things, using J. J. Donner's 1839 metrical translation and having an all-male chorus sing the odes. Mendelssohn initially experimented with imitating the purported sound of ancient music by composing primarily unison choral recitative and limiting the accompaniment to flutes, tubas, and harps; but he quickly abandoned this approach in favor of a more traditional one. Yet despite his overall adherence to modern convention, he did employ several strategies to evoke ancient Greek practice and thus to meet the unique demands of the Prussian court production. Highlighting important distinctions between verse-types in the original poetry, Mendelssohn retained a vestige of his initial approach by composing unison choral recitative to indicate the presence of anapestic verse while turning to melodrama for the lyric verse of the play's two main characters. In addition, he reproduced the poetic meter by shaping the rhythm of the vocal line to reflect both the accentual pattern of Donner's translation and, in some cases, the long and short syllables of Sophocles's Greek verse. Owing largely to the irregular line lengths characteristic of Donner's text, the music is marked by conspicuously asymmetrical phrases, which serve to defamiliarize the otherwise straightforward choral styles being employed to convey the various moods of Sophocles's choruses. In the opening chorus, Mendelssohn alludes to the familiar sound of a Mäännerchor accompanied by a wind band, thereby suggesting the ode's celebratory and martial associations while recalling his own Festgesang written for the 1840 Leipzig festival commemorating the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg's printing press. The listener is thus presented with a thoroughly recognizable musical idiom and yet simultaneously distanced from it in a way that underscores the historical remoteness of ancient Greek tragedy.

"Friese im Innern": Strauss's Public and Private Worlds in the Mis 1930's

In the context of the most prolific and tumultuous decade in Strauss's life, the 1930s, this essay focuses on the years 1935-36, a time of significant change in the history of the Nazi regime. This period also saw significant changes in Strauss's life and worldview. Strauss lost a prized librettist (Stefan Zweig) in 1935, the same year that their opera, Die schweigsame Frau, was banned. Strauss was then fired from the presidency of the Reichsmusikkammer and within twenty-four hours was negotiating reluctantly with a new librettist of modest abilities (Joseph Gregor). On a broader level, this period saw the formation of the Nuremberg Race Laws, a reconfiguration of the Reichskulturkammer, and Hitler's four-year plan for war. As the Nazis expanded, Strauss grew inward, turning to his late nineteenth-century roots in German Romanticism and Innerlichkeit informed by Goethe and Nietzsche. The relationship between Strauss's public and private worlds is explored through discussions of his completed works as well as a fragmentary cello concerto and works for male chorus in a sketchbook from this time.