
Sounding Authentic
The Rural Miniature and Musical Modernism
Joshua S. Walden(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 30. January 2014
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-19-933466-7 (ISBN)
Description
Sounding Authentic considers the intersecting influences of nationalism, modernism, and technological innovation on representations of ethnic and national identities in twentieth-century art music. Author Joshua S. Walden discusses these forces through the prism of what he terms the "rural miniature": short violin and piano pieces based on folk song and dance styles. This genre, mostly inspired by the folk music of Hungary, the Jewish diaspora, and Spain, was featured frequently on recordings and performance programs in the early twentieth century.
Furthermore, Sounding Authentic shows how the music of urban Romany ensembles developed into nineteenth-century repertoire of virtuosic works in the style hongrois before ultimately influencing composers of rural miniatures. Walden persuasively demonstrates how rural miniatures represented folk and rural cultures in a manner that was perceived as authentic, even while they involved significant modification of the original sources. He also links them to the impulse toward realism in developing technologies of photography, film, and sound recording.
Sounding Authentic examines the complex ways the rural miniature was used by makers of nationalist agendas, who sought folkloric authenticity as a basis for the construction of ethnic and national identities. The book also considers the genre's reception in European diaspora communities in America where it evoked and transformed memories of life before immigration, and traces how many rural miniatures were assimilated to the styles of American popular song and swing. Scholars interested in musicology, ethnography, the history of violin performance, twentieth-century European art music, the culture of the Jewish Diaspora and more will find Sounding Authentic an essential addition to their library.
Furthermore, Sounding Authentic shows how the music of urban Romany ensembles developed into nineteenth-century repertoire of virtuosic works in the style hongrois before ultimately influencing composers of rural miniatures. Walden persuasively demonstrates how rural miniatures represented folk and rural cultures in a manner that was perceived as authentic, even while they involved significant modification of the original sources. He also links them to the impulse toward realism in developing technologies of photography, film, and sound recording.
Sounding Authentic examines the complex ways the rural miniature was used by makers of nationalist agendas, who sought folkloric authenticity as a basis for the construction of ethnic and national identities. The book also considers the genre's reception in European diaspora communities in America where it evoked and transformed memories of life before immigration, and traces how many rural miniatures were assimilated to the styles of American popular song and swing. Scholars interested in musicology, ethnography, the history of violin performance, twentieth-century European art music, the culture of the Jewish Diaspora and more will find Sounding Authentic an essential addition to their library.
Reviews / Votes
A rich and vital addition to the literature on 20th-century European music. * CHOICE * Walden unravels fascinating stories about assumed and gradually disintegrating claims of authenticity,and changes ofgeographic locations, functions, authorship, identities, media, and genres. * Klara Moricz, Music and Letters *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
15 halftones, 53 music examples
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
705 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-933466-7 (9780199334667)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
12/2013
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€25.49
Available for download
Person
Joshua S. Walden is a member of the musicology faculty of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. He has held an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Johns Hopkins and a Junior Research Fellowship at Merton College, University of Oxford. He is the editor of Representation in Western Music (2013) and The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Music (in progress) for Cambridge University Press. His articles appear in the Journal of the American Musicological Society and elsewhere.
Author
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral FellowAndrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University
Content
Introduction ; Part I: Aesthetic and Theoretical Approaches to the Rural Miniature ; Chapter 1: Musical Realism Reconsidered: The Rural Miniature and Representation ; Chapter 2: The Rural Miniature in Performance and Sound Recording ; Part II: Historical Case Studies ; Chapter 3: The Genre's Precedents: Representations of Rom Performance in Nineteenth-Century Violin Repertoire ; Chapter 4: The Rural Miniature Based on Spanish Folk Music ; Chapter 5: The Rural Miniature in the Culture of the Jewish Diaspora ; Chapter 6: Bela Bartok's Rural Miniatures and the Case of Romanian Folk Dances ; Conclusion ; Appendix ; Works Cited