Academic literature on the topic 'Popular instrumental music – 2011-2020'

The music that children are exposed to in their everyday lives plays an important role in shaping the way they interpret the world around them, and television soundtracks are, together with their direct experience of reality, one of the most significant sources of such input. This work is part of a broader research project that looks at what kind of music children listen to in a sample of Latin American and Spanish TV programmes. More specifically, this study focuses on children’s programmes in Spain, and was addressed using a semiotic theoretical framework with a quantitative and musical approach. The programme «Los Lunnis» was chosen as the subject of a preliminary study, which consisted in applying 90 templates and then analysing them in terms of the musical content. The results show that the programme uses music both as the leading figure and as a background element. The most common texture is the accompanied monody and the use of voice, and there is a predominance of electronic instrumental sounds, binary stress and major modes with modulations. Musical pieces are sometimes truncated and rhythmically the music is quite poor; the style used is predominantly that of foreign popular music, with a few allusions to the classical style and to incidental music. The data reveal the presence of music in cultural and patrimonial aspects, as well as in cognitive construction, which were not taken into account in studies on the influence of TV in Spain. Such aspects do emerge, however, when they are reviewed from the perspective of semiotics, musical representation, formal analysis and restructuring theories.La música de la vida cotidiana del niño tiene uno de sus referentes, junto a su experiencia real, en la banda sonora de la televisión, configurando una parte de su interpretación de la realidad. Este trabajo forma parte de una investigación más amplia sobre la escucha televisiva infantil en una muestra iberoamericana. El objetivo, conocer qué escuchan los niños en la programación infantil de «Televisión Española», ha sido estudiado desde un marco teórico semiótico con un enfoque cuantitativo y musical. El artículo presenta un resumen de los resultados obtenidos en un primer análisis del programa «Los Lunnis» mediante la aplicación de noventa plantillas y sus análisis musicales correspondientes. Estos resultados indican que el programa utiliza la música como fondo y figura, textura de monodía acompañada y utilización de la voz, predominio del sonido electrónico instrumental, acento binario y modo mayor con modulaciones. Aparecen piezas musicales cortadas y cierta pobreza rítmica, su opción estilística es la música popular no propia, con algunos guiños al estilo clásico y a la música incidental. Los datos muestran la presencia de la música en aspectos culturales, patrimoniales y de construcción cognitiva no considerados en los estudios sobre la influencia de la TV en España, pero que emergen cuando son revisados desde la semiótica, la representación musical, el análisis formal y las teorías de la reestructuración.

Investigations into style-shift in singing led to the proposal of genre-specific musical sociolects [Coupland, 2011, J. of Soc. 15]. Gibson [2019, Univ. of Canterbury Dissertation] demonstrated that style-shift in popular music is automatic. Additionally, Mageau et al. [2019, Phonetica 76] found non-native English speakers have a less perceptible foreign accent while singing than speaking. These findings provide possible behavioral analogues to the differential processing of speech and song. Gibson [2019, UofCanterbury Dissertation] accounts for this using Todd et al’s [2019, Cognition 185] exemplar theory, emphasizing the role of sung and spoken contexts in perception. We investigate the role of musical context in accent identification. 24 participants completed a dialect-identification task of 32 musical clips from two genres with strong sociocultural associations: country and reggae. 16 clips contained the original instrumental-removed vocals, and 16 different clips from the same songs additionally underwent monotonization and rhythm-normalization. Responses to the manipulated stimuli were more varied than the original vocals. Listeners’ judgements may be more closely tied to country and reggae’s sociocultural associations than speech information itself. These findings counter Mageau et al., illuminating a more complex relationship between accent perception, music, and genre. Future work will investigate this for dialect-nonspecific genres and adjust approaches to stimuli manipulation.

The article raises the issue regarding the possibilities of using musical noise instruments in the process of mass art education. The relevance of the topic is predetermined by these facts: a) insufficient attention of representatives of musical education to the use of musical noise instruments; b) the growing importance of this type of instrument in academic and popular music; c) increasing interest of modern youth in instrumental music making; b) the low degree of development of the theory and methodology of playing musical noise instruments. The goal of the work is to consider the phenomenon of musical noise instruments from the education viewpoint as well as to determine their pedagogical potential. The content of the article. Based on the analysis of special literature, the classification concept “musical noise instruments” has been specified. Their mechanical, acoustic, plastic, cultural and educational properties have been characterised. The features of musical noise instruments that determine the possibility and expediency of their use in the practice of musical education have been determined. The results of the study. It is proposed to understand “musical noise instruments” as acoustic mechanical devices that allow creating more or less plastic broadband and colour noises. It has been established that musical noise instruments have an important educational value, which can be explained by a number of factors: a) these instruments belong to the oldest sound generation devices in the history of mankind, familiarity with them serves to expand cultural knowledge and gnostic motivation for art education; b) mastery of them opens the way for developing traditions of the native national art and the wealth of other national cultures; c) musical noise instruments primarily serve to reproduce the musical rhythm in all its expressiveness and structural complexity; involvement of schoolchildren in playing music with musical noise instruments promotes the development of their musical and rhythmic abilities, perceptions and skills; d) since the role of musical noise instruments today has significantly increased in the practice of classical, jazz and popular music, the acquaintance of students with these instruments should be considered as one of the ways to master the poetics and artistic language of modern music in its various style and genre manifestations; e) musical noise instruments have a high potential in attracting preschool children and primary school pupils to active ensemble music playing. Modern pedagogy of higher education should study and develop the didactic capabilities of musical noise instruments in training future teachers of musical art: the formation of their sense of rhythm, texture, architectonics, timbre palette, intonational expressiveness; arranging skills, expanding musical and cultural experience. These tasks require an appropriate technique, the development of which is the author’s further task.

Background. George Gershwin is often considered as a composer who wrote mainly songs and musicals, but this is a misconception: beside the pieces of so-called “light” genres, among the composer’ works – two operas, as well as a number of outstanding instrumental compositions (“Cuban Overture” for a symphony orchestra, two Rhapsodies, Variations for piano and orchestra and Piano Concerto etc.). Gershwin had a natural pianistic talent, and there was almost not a single piece of his own that he did not perform on the piano, and most of them were born in improvisation (Ewen, 1989). The basis for the creation of this study was the desire to increase interest in the work of Gershwin as a “serious” composer and to draw the attention of domestic academic pianists to the value of his piano works, presented not only the “Rhapsody in Blue”, which has been mostly played lately. The purpose of our research is to prove the relevance of the performance of Gershwin’s instrumental works in the academic concert environment as the music of the classical tradition, tracing the formation of specific features of the composer’s instrumental creativity and their reflection in the cycle of “Three Preludes for Piano” in 1926. Studies of the life and work of G. Gershwin, illuminating a special path in music and the unusual genius of an outstanding musician, were created mainly in the 50–70s of the XX century. D. Ewen – the author of the most detailed biography of the composer (first published in 1956, the Russian translation – in 1989) – was personally acquainted with the great musician and his family, took numerous interviews from the composer’s relatives, friends and teachers, had access to his archives (Ewen, 1989: 3–4). The author of the book enters into the details of the life and creative work of the genius and creates a portrait of the composer as a person “in relationships” – as a son, brother, friend. A separate chapter devoted to the music of Gershwin is in the fundamental work of V. Konen (1965) “The Ways of American Music”, an extremely useful study of the folklore origins and musical foundations of jazz. Cognitive is the “popular monograph” by V. Volynskiy (1988) about Gershwin, carefully structured chronologically and thematically. The Internet-pages of A. Tikhomirov (2006–2020) on the resource “Classic Music News.ru” are also very valuable, in particular, thanks to retrospective photographs and audio recordings posted there. From the point of view we have chosen, the piano Preludes by G. Gershwin have not yet been considered by domestic researchers. Research methodology is based on comparative analysis and then synthesizing, generalization and abstraction when using data from biographical literature, and tested musicological approaches when considering musical samples and audio recordings of various versions of the Preludes (including the author’s playing). The results of reseaching. G. Gershwin, despite his Jewish-Slavic family roots (his parents emigrated to America from the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century), is undoubtedly a representative of American culture. Outstanding artists have almost always turned to the folklore of their country. In Gershwin, this trait manifested itself in a special way, since American folklore, due to historical and political circumstances, is a very motley phenomenon. Indian, English, German, French, Jewish, African, Latin American melodies surrounded Gershwin everywhere. Their rhythms and intonations, compositional schemes were melted, transformed in professional music (Konen, 1965: 231–246). The first musical teacher of Gershwin was the sound atmosphere of New York streets. This is the main reason that the style of his musical works is inextricably linked with jazz: Gershwin did not encounter this purely American phenomenon, he grew up in it. Among the numerous other teachers of Gershwin who significantly influenced on the formation of his music style, one should definitely name the pianist and composer Charles Hambitzer, who introduced his student to the music of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel (Ewen, 1989: 30–32). The most part of Gershwin’s creativity consisted of working on musicals, a typically American genre. The work with the musicals gave the composer the basis for writing his first jazz opera “Blue Monday“, 1922 (other name – “135th Street”), which became the predecessor of the famous pearl of the new genre, “Porgy and Bess” (1935). Following the production of “Blue Monday”, Gershwin began collaborating with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, who was impressed by the piece. On the initiative of the latter, Gershwin created his masterpiece, “Rhapsody in Blue” (1924), which still remains a unique musical phenomenon, since the composer brought jazz to the big stage, giving it the status of professional music (Ewen, 1989: 79–85; Volynskiy, 1988: part 4). V. Konen (1965: 264–265) believes that Gershwin is a representative of symphonic Europeanized jazz, since he uses it in musical forms and genres of the European tradition. However, we cannot agree that Gershwin “used” jazz. For him, jazz was organic, inseparable from the author’s style, and this is what makes his music so attractive to representatives of both classical and pop traditions. For Gershwin, due to life circumstances, turning to jazz is not an attempt at stylization, but a natural way of expression. “Three Preludes for Piano” are significant in the composer’s work, because it is the only known concertо work for solo piano published during his lifetime. At first, Gershwin planned to create a cycle of 24 Preludes, but only seven were created in the manuscript, then the author reduced the number of works to five. A year after the creation of the Piano Concerto, in 1926, Gershwin presented this new opus. The pieces performed by the author himself sound impeccably technically and even austerely-strictly (audio recording has been preserved, see ‘Gershvin plays Gershvin 3 Preludes’, video on You Tube, published on 2 Aug. 2011). It can be noted that Gershwin is close to the European pianistic style with its attention to the accuracy of each note. The cycle is built on the principle of contrasting comparison: the first and third Preludes are performed at a fast pace, the second – at a slow pace (blues-like). The analysis of the cycle, carried out by the author of the article, proves that “Three Preludes” for piano reflect the main features of Gershwin’s creative manner: capriciousness of syncopated rhythms, subtle modulation play, improvisational development. Breathing breadth, volumetric texture, effective highlighting of climaxes bring the cycle closer to the composer’s symphonic works. Jazz themes are laid out at a high professional level, using traditional European notation and terminology. Thus, although Gershwin was a brilliant improviser, he made it possible for both jazz pianists and academic performers to master his works. Conclusions. The peculiarities of Gershwin’s development as an artist determined the combination of the jazz basis of his works with the compositional technique of European academic music. The versatility and musical appeal of the Preludes are the key to their long stage life. Plays are well received both in cycles and singly. Their perception is also improved by the fact that the original musical speech is combined in them with the established forms of academic music. The mastery of the Preludes by pianists stimulates the development of technical skill, acquaints with jazz style, sets interesting rhythmic problems. The pieces are bright and winning for concert performance. Thus, the presence of the composer’s piano pieces and other his instrumental works in the programs of classical concerts seems appropriate, useful and desirable.

This study empirically analyzes how the Hallyu (Korean Wave) phenomenon affects Korea’s consumer goods exports to China using Chinese provincial-level panel data covering the period from 2011 to 2020. This paper adopts Baidu Index big data with the keywords “Korean drama”, “Korean movie”, “Korean music”, and “Korean entertainment” as proxy variables for Hallyu. The paper investigates the impact of Hallyu on Korean consumer goods exports by subdividing consumer goods into seven processing steps. In addition to the effect of the composite Hallyu index, the effect of each Hallyu content is also examined. Moreover, this study also investigates the impact of the political issue of the deployment of the THAAD American anti-ballistic missile defense system by dividing the period from 2011 to 2020 into before and after 2016. An export equation that includes income level, the Hallyu index, as well as other variables recognized as factors affecting Korea’s exports in existing studies, is used. Several interesting conclusions have been reached. First, Hallyu in China has a significant impact on Korea’s exports of non-durable consumer goods and processed household food and beverages to China. Second, the political issue of the deployment of THAAD has a negative impact on Korea’s exports of consumer goods to China. Third, among the four types of Hallyu content, dramas, as the most popular content in China, have the greatest influence on Korea’s exports of consumer goods to China.

Radio is all about intimacy and words (Balsebre, 1994). Since radio’s significant shift from verbal to musical content, songs have been able to create a special bond between broadcasters and audiences across the world. Nevertheless, selecting songs is far from being an innocent choice; it is part of a cultural framework (Ala-Fossi, 2005; Gjerdingen & Perrott 2008). Recently, scholars explained radio’s alliances with the music industry and the adaptation to audiences’ preferences (Kaplan, 2013; Uimonen, 2017), thus arguing that the music in radios’ playlists is far from diverse, especially on stations owned by the private sector. This article draws upon the premise that a more comprehensive approach towards this topic is needed. Inspired by previous studies on commercial radio musical policies (Uimonen, 2011; Hellman & Vikko 2019), this research makes use of a methodological tool to characterize music diversity in the two most popular Portuguese commercial radio broadcasters. After two weeks of observation, in March 2020, the authors of this article analysed 2366 song entries, concluding that the general policies for the playlists seem to be similar: a typical predominance of international singers/bands, male artists and English-spoken songs, including the overwhelming presence of worldwide labels associated to the majority of the songs. However, these national broadcasting stations seem to have their own set of artists, especially when it comes to Portuguese singers/bands. Future research should aim at analysing artists’ and broadcasters’ views on this cultural framework, as a way to expand the possibilities of understanding this complex and decisive topic within radio broadcasting and music industries.

The long-awaited times of Independence opened wide opportunities for Ukrainian ethnomusicologists. In the last issue of Problems of Ethnomusicology”, we began to review the achievements of the latest Ukrainian musical folklore studies during the years of Independence: we identified the main ethnomusicological centers and characterized their activities, considered ethnomusicological pedagogy, achievements in the field of documenting folk music – its collection and archiving. In this issue, we want to focus on such important areas as scientific, publishing and conference activities. The relevance of our research is due to the need to paint a general picture of the achievements and, possibly, omissions of domestic ethnomusicology over the past 30 years. This will significantly complement the existing historiographical studies, focusing mainly only on certain aspects or certain periods of development of Ukrainian musical folkloristics. Scientific research is a more expressive result of the work of Ukrainian ethnomusicologists of the period of Independence. They show a variety of interests, depths in scientific research, openness to knowledge and increasing the achievements of world ethnomusicology. There are such more important research areas of Ukrainian scientists: the theory of ethnomusicology, areal-typological research, historical studies, organology, ethnochoreology, resource science, ethnoculturology and ethnomusical sociology, folk music culture of ethnic minorities in Ukraine, professional music of the oral tradition of the East, folk music acoustics, etc. These directions are different in terms of achievements, fullness, and degree of innovation, but each of them is a contribution to the pan-European and world folk music science. Publishing activity clearly demonstrates the results of the work of Ukrainian ethnomusicologists. It was able to develop in Ukraine only after Independence when Soviet censorship disappeared. This direction has become important not only for scientific institutions themselves, but also for higher educational institutions. Thus, two professional Ukrainian annual ethnomusicological collections of articles and materials were launched at the Kyiv and Lviv Music Academies, respectively: “Problems of Ethnomusicology” (1998–2021) and “Ethnomusic” (2006–2021). Ethnomusicological articles are published in other scientific collections, mainly periodical and serial. An important place in publications of the period of Independence is occupied by the publication or reprint of the heritage of predecessors, including the epistolary. A lot of different folk music collections with vocal and instrumental folklore of different Ukrainian regions were also published. The conference activity of Ukrainian scientists deserves special attention. One of the most important forums is the Lviv “Conferences of folk music researchers of Chervona Rus’ (Halychyna and Volodymyria) and neighboring lands” (1991–2021). The series of specialized ethnomusicological conferences was later (2011) started in Kyiv, Dnipro (2018, 2020 and 2022). It is also worth mentioning the Lviv “Kolessa’s readings” (from 2007). Young researchers also have their own conferences. Ukrainian scientists constantly participate in international scientific conferences, including ICTM (The International Council for Traditional Music) conferences. In general, in our brief review, presented by two articles, we tried to draw a line under the modern achievements of Ukrainian musical folkloristics. Such reviews should be done regularly since Ukrainian ethnomusicology is constantly evolving. Today, researchers are working in extremely difficult conditions due to russia’s military aggression, but all of all, the work continues.

Statement of the problem. Recent research and publications. The piece titled “Lacrimosa” for six instruments by Oleksandr Shchetynsky has been written in the beginning of full-scale war, when the Russian troops were dislocated near Kyiv, when the city was shelled every day. The relevancy of this topic of research is caused by a need for musicological comprehension of a musical piece, written in the times of war as a critical situation. Theoretical basis of the article is founded on the sources from the different spheres of humanitarian knowledge. The usage of the term “crisis” caused appeal to the works on psychology, philosophy and aesthetics (Bulakh, 2016; Stasevska, 2016; Frankle, 2020; Fromm, 2013) with the aim to accentuate personal, spiritual aspect of this phenomenon. The main theses of the article by Australian scholars (Meyrick & Barnett, 2020) are used to emphasise importance and necessity of creative activity as a mechanism allowing to preserve humanity in the conditions of a crisis. The work by А. Erll (2011) became a foundation of the idea about musical text being a reminiscence about traumatic past or present times. The research by P. Rud (2021 a, 2021 b) is an important addition to studying O. Shchetynsky’s work. Objectives and scientific novelty of the studу. The purpose of the article is to research Oleksandr Shchetynsky’s “Lacrimosa” for six instruments (2022) in the context of a spiritual crisis that took place in the beginning of full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine. Novelty of the study is caused by comprehension of a musical work in several dimensions: 1) as one that was written “here and now”, one being an objectification of artist’s reflection on the war; 2) one continuing the row of instrumental works on spiritual themes in the context of the composer’s creativity, his search in the spheres of sonority and organization of the sound in the time and space; 3) the one being the part of Ukrainian and European musical cultures of XXI century. Research results and conclusion. O. Shchetynsky’s “Lacrimosa” continues a row of spiritual works by the composer, being a text of memory, which bears the information about traumatic present codified in it. The concentration on today (“darkness”) is combined with a semantic vector directed to the future (“victory over it”) determines the specifics of the temporal organization of the work, where there is a movement towards a cathartic melody in the spirit of a Ukrainian folk song. Semantic multidimensionality of the prayer, that becomes a code programming the composition, defines the organization of sound space as well, which has lines and layers of different significance interacting with each other, as well as work with the sound and sound matter, that is essential for O. Shchetynsky’s compositional technique. Elegant construction of the composition is caused by well-thought organization of different attributes: pitches, motives, themes, rhythms, textures and timbres. Thus, the end result is an artistic unity, with the experience of creating and understanding it is a way to overcome destructive influence of critical situation, allowing to realize the idea of productive creative life, “spiritual energy of harmony”

Statement of the problem. Recent research and publications. Chinese composers, influenced by European musical norms since the late 19th century, face a critical challenge in navigating their national traditions within academic music. China piano music is a progressive sphere, which allows to identify and analyze the most relevant directions of creative searches of Chinese composers. The work of individual representatives of the piano composer school, including Luo Maishuo, is still incompletely studied. Luo Maishuo’s leadering positions in China piano music is determined by adept fusion of traditional and contemporary components in his work. Researching his programmatic compositions with the viewpoint of their semantics provides a perspective for understanding the intricate connections between Chinese musical heritage and national mentality and philosophy. The works dedicated to Luo Maishuo’s creativity are represented by Bian Jingjing’s (2016) and Wang Aiguo’s (2009) articles, as well as Huang Zhongjun’s (2020) and Zhuang Junjie’s (2021) studies, which reveal the composer’s contribution to the Chinese piano music. However, it is necessary to research such a phenomenon as the semantic component of various genre samples in his piano music in the aspect of preserving traditional culture. Obiectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of this article is to analyze the semantics of the names Luo Maishuo’s piano etudes in order to reveal the process of transformation of national musical traditions in his music and to determine the connections between the content of the works and the traditional cultural contexts. The innovative aspect of the research is the first analysis of Luo Maishuo’s piano etudes in view of the reflection of national cultural patterns in the program titles of his works; the study is designed to determine how the composer embodies the principle of preserving national musical traditions through the symbolic semantics of the names of his etudes. This new perspective allows not only to present Luo Maishuo’s work as a bright page of musical history, but also to reveal his role in the preservation and reinterpretation of national cultural concepts through program music. The historical and cultural approach made it possible to present the broad context of cultural, historical and social realities, the philosophical and cultural background of traditional values reflected in the titles of the composer’s works. Semantic and musicological types of analysis were used to consider the symbolism and imagery of etudes, and to select the illustrative musical fragments. In addition, we relied on the key propositions of Lu Jie’s dissertation (2017: 6–7), who believes that “the terms ‘concept’ and ‘conceptosphere’ are appropriate for revealing the way of thinking of Chinese musicians”. which is “different from European transcendental dimensions”. Research results. The article considers Luo Maishuo’s cycle of 12 Etudes, which consists of two equal parts. The first part (6 Etudes op. 19) was created in 2010–2011, the second (6 Etudes op. 3) – in 2013–2016. Their visual and semantic features are reflected in the program titles, which represent the original fusion of national and non-national elements. Op. 19: 1. “Music of the wind”, 2. “Flea”, 3. “Wind”, 4. “Running water”, 5. Basso ostinato, 6. Fugue; Op. 23: 1. “Circle"” 2. “Contrast”, 3. “Bamboo”, 4. “F 1”, 5. “Painting with ink”, 6. Variations. The titles of some works refer to certain genres of European music (Basso ostinato, Fugue, Variations); “F 1” – to extremely high speeds of ring races in “Formula-1”. The names of the rest of the etudes are related to the national theme expressed either as a comparison with specific iconic phenomena (“Wind Music”, “Bamboo”, “Painting with ink"), or more indirectly, through ideas-images of Chinese philosophy (“Circle”, “Contrast”). Our attention is focused on the names of the First book of Etudes (op. 19), indicative in the aspect of belonging to the Chinese national tradition. Some of them, according to Lu Jie’s classification (2017: 8), represent the conceptual sphere of nature (Etudes No. 1, 3, 4) and direct the imagination of the performer and listener to its eternal primordial forces, the images of which are deeply rooted in the folklore of various peoples of the world, in particular, in the Chinese national tradition. The latter interprets them in a very original way: the images of wind and running water, widespread in Chinese culture, are primarily associated with deep philosophical ideas about the essence of the world. The image of water is also likened to one of the highest moral values – kindness – and is combined with the Tao. An illustration of the multidimensionality of hidden subtexts can be considered the title of the first Etude op. 19 –“Wind Music”, which refers not only to the sphere of nature, but also to another conceptual sphere of the Chinese tradition – “ritual” (ceremonial). This name is related not only to the image of the wind as such, but also to the fairly common practice of installing small bells under the roofs of temples that ring when there is a current of air. The Etude’s piano texture, based on alternating hands in the upper register, almost reproduces their sound. Conclusion. Luo Maishuo’s cycle of Etudes occupies a special place in the modern piano culture of China. The composer, presenting a practical “artistic study” of the techniques of modern pianism, created one of the most ambitious projects in the instrumental etude genre. At the same time, the traditional national component is realized by an extremely multifaceted way: the names of the compositions appeal both to philosophical and generalized concepts and to the images-symbols characteristic of China culture. Such approach allows to consider the cycle as a kind of “catalogue” of signs characteristic of the national tradition.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE PALMS: The Selected Works of David Eugene Smith by Tristan Abbey, ed. Alexandria, VA: Science Venerable Press, 2022. xii + 155 pages, including a Glossary of Biosketches. Paperback; $22.69. ISBN: 9781959976004. *David Eugene Smith (1860-1944) may not be a household name for readers of this journal, but he deserves to be better known. An early-twentieth-century world traveler and antiquarian, his collaboration with publisher and bibliophile George Arthur Plimpton led to establishing the large Plimpton and Smith collections of rare books, manuscripts, letters, and artefacts at Columbia University in 1936. He was one of the founders (1924) and an early president (1927) of the History of Science Society, whose main purpose at the time was supporting George Sarton's ongoing management of the journal ISIS, begun a dozen years earlier. Smith also held several offices in the American Mathematical Society over the span of two decades and was a charter member (1915) and President (1920-1921) of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). *Smith is best known, however, for his pioneering work in mathematics education, both nationally and internationally. In 1905, he proposed setting up an international commission devoted to mathematics education (now the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction) to explore issues of common concern to mathematics teachers on all levels, worldwide. He was actively involved in reviving this organization after its dissolution during the First World War and served as its President from 1928 to 1932. Nationally, Smith was instrumental in inaugurating the field of mathematics education, advancing this discipline professionally both in his role as mathematics professor at the prestigious Teachers College, Columbia University (1901-1926) and as an author of numerous best-selling mathematics textbooks for elementary and secondary schools. These texts were not focused solely on mathematical content; they also dealt substantively with teaching methodology, applications, rationales for studying the material, and significant historical developments. *Throughout his life Smith championed placing mathematics within the wider liberal arts setting of the humanities, highlighting history, art, and literary connections in his many talks, articles, and textbooks. For him there was no two-cultures divide, as it later came to be known. While acknowledging the value of utilitarian arguments for studying mathematics (he himself published a few textbooks with an applied focus), he considered such a rationale neither sufficient nor central. For him, mathematics was to be studied first of all for its own sake, appreciating its beauty, its reservoir of eternal truths, and its training in close logical reasoning. But again, for him this did not mean adopting a narrow mathematical focus. In particular, given his wide-ranging interest in how mathematics developed in other places and at other times, he tended to incorporate historical narratives in whatever he wrote. *This interest led him later in life to write a popular two-volume History of Mathematics. The first volume (1923) was a chronological survey from around 2200 BC to AD 1850 that focused on the work of key mathematicians in Western and non-Western cultures; the second volume (1925) was organized topically around subjects drawn from the main subfields of elementary mathematics. His History of Mathematics was soon supplemented by a companion Source Book in Mathematics (1929), which contained selected excerpts in translation from mathematical works written between roughly 1475 and 1875. Smith wrote at a time when the history of mathematics was beginning to expand beyond the boundaries of Greek-based Western mathematics to include developments from non-Western cultures (Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic), a trend he approved of and participated in professionally. *Smith's interest in broader issues extended even to exploring possible linkages between religion and mathematics. His unprecedented parting address to members of the MAA as its outgoing President is titled "Religio Mathematici," a reflection on mathematics and religion that was reproduced a month later as a ten-page article in The American Mathematical Monthly (1921) and subsequently reprinted several times. Smith's article "Mathematics and Religion" appearing in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' sixth yearbook Mathematics in Modern Life (1931) touched on similar themes. These two essays maintain that mathematics and religion are both concerned with infinity, with eternal truths, with valid reasoning from assumptions, and with the existence of the imaginary and higher dimensions, "the great beyond," enabling one to draw fairly strong parallels between them. Thus, a deep familiarity with these facets of mathematics may help one to appreciate the essentials of religion. Mathematics itself was thought of in quasi-religious terms, as "the Science Venerable." Smith's farewell address partly inspired Francis Su in his own presidential retirement address to the MAA in 2017 and in its 2020 book-length expansion Mathematics for Human Flourishing (see PSCF 72, no. 3 [2020]: 179-81). Su's appreciation of Smith's ideas also led him to contribute a brief Foreword to the booklet under review, to which we now turn. *First a few publication details: In the Shadow of the Palms is an attractive booklet produced as a labor of love by someone obviously enamored with his subject. Tristan Abbey is a podcaster with broad interests that include being a "math history enthusiast," but whose primary professional experience up to now has been focused on the environmental politics of energy and mineral resources. This work is the initial (and so far the only) offering by a publication company Abbey set up. Its name, Science Venerable Press, was chosen in honor of Smith's designation for mathematics. *One might classify this work non-pejoratively as a coffee-table booklet. It contains 50 excerpts (Su terms them "short meditations") from a wide range of Smith's writings, selected, categorized, and annotated by Abbey, along with full-page reproductions of eight postcards mailed back home by Smith on his world travels, and two photos, including Smith's Columbia-University-commissioned portrait. Smith's excerpted writing occupies only 109 of the total 167 pages, nearly two dozen of which are less than half full. The amply spaced text appears on 3.25 inches of the 7 inch-wide pages, the outer margins being reserved for Abbey's own auxiliary notes explaining references and allusions that appear in the excerpt. This gives the book lots of white space; in fact, eighteen pages of the booklet are completely blank. Another nine pages contain 75 short biographical sketches of mathematicians taken from Smith's historical writings; these are unlinked to any of the excerpts, but they do indicate the breadth of his historical interests. Unfortunately, no index of names or subjects is provided for the reader who wants to learn whether a person or a topic is treated anywhere in the booklet; the best one can do in this regard is consult the titles Abbey assigns the excerpts in the Table of Contents. *The booklet gives a gentle introduction to Smith's views on mathematics, mathematics education, and the history of mathematics. The excerpts chosen are more often literary than discursive. Smith was a good writer, able to keep the reader's attention and convey the sentiments intended, but these excerpts do not develop his ideas in any real length. They portray mathematics in radiant--sometimes fanciful--terms that a person disposed toward the humanities might find attractive but nevertheless judge a bit over-the-top: mathematicians are priests lighting candles in the chapel of Pythagoras; mathematics is "the poetry of the mind"; learning geometry is like climbing a tall mountain to admire the grandeur of the panoramic view; progress in mathematics hangs lanterns of light on major thoroughfares of civilization; and retirement is journeying through the desert to a restful oasis "in the shadow of the palms." Some passages are parables presented to help the reader appreciate what mathematicians accomplished as they overcame great obstacles. *While the excerpts occasionally recognize that mathematics touches everyday needs and is a necessary universal language for commerce and science, without which our world would be unrecognizable, their main emphasis--in line with Smith's fundamental outlook--is on mathematics' ability on its own to deliver joy and inspire admiration of its immortal truths. These are emotions many practicing mathematicians and mathematics educators share; Smith's references to music, art, sculpture, poetry, and religion are calculated to convey to those who are not so engaged, some sense of how thoughtful mathematicians value their field--as a grand enterprise of magnificent intrinsic worth. *In the Shadow of the Palms offers snapshots of the many ideas found in Smith's prolific writings about mathematics, mathematics education, and history of mathematics. It may not attract readers, though, who do not already understand and appreciate Smith's significance for these fields. Abbey himself acknowledges that his booklet "only scratches the surface of [Smith's] contributions" (p. 4). A recent conference devoted to David Eugene Smith and the Historiography of Mathematics (Paris, 2019) is a step toward recognizing Smith's importance, but a comprehensive scholarly treatment of Smith's work within his historical time period remains to be written. *Reviewed by Calvin Jongsma, Professor of Mathematics Emeritus, Dordt University, Sioux Center, IA 51250.

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A pesquisa parte da pergunta: Como ocorre (ou o que é) a prática musical da Associação de Koto de Belém? Para respondê-la parto da abordagem Etnomusicológica e do método da Cartografia para abordar esta prática musical, realizando uma cartografia que visa compreender este objeto de pesquisa. Pareyson (2005) emerge na pesquisa como método de estruturação e formação da dissertação, onde há vivências, relatos e dados de pesquisa, e do próprio instrumento musical (o koto) para desenvolver as Invocações que constituem o corpo principal do texto. Parto da imersão enquanto membro do grupo e de autores da etnomusicologia que estudaram o instrumento musical koto. Entre estes conceitos que compartilho nessa pesquisa há: Transterritorialização musical (PELINSKI apud SATOMI, 2004), Mudança musical (NETTL, 2005; BLACKING, 1995) e energia musical (NETTL, 2005), três dos principais conceitos utilizados para dialogar com essa realidade, esse objeto de pesquisa dentro da abordagem etnomusicológica. A pesquisa mostrou diversas particularidades da prática musical em questão. No decorrer que as invocações vão sendo apresentadas, questões vão sendo levantadas de modo que possam desencadear reflexões sobre a pesquisa e a prática musical.
The research part of the question: How is (or what is) the musical practice of the Association of Koto of Belém? To answer it delivery of ethnomusicological approach and cartography method to address this musical practice, performing a mapping that aims to understand this object of research. Pareyson (2005) emerges in the survey as structuring method and training of the dissertation, where there are experiences, reports and research data, and own musical instrument (koto) to develop the invocations that constitute the main body text. Immersion delivery as a group member and ethnomusicology of authors who have studied the koto musical instrument. Among these concepts that I share in this research there are: musical Transterritorialization (PELINSKI apud SATOMI, 2004), musical Change (NETTL, 2005; BLACKING, 1995) and musical energy (NETTL, 2005), three of the main concepts used to engage with this reality, this research object within the ethnomusicological approach. Research has shown various characteristics of musical practice in question. During the invocations are being presented, questions are raised so that they can trigger reflections on research and musical practice.