About
Diagonal: An Ibero-American Music Review is the open access online journal of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Music at the University of California, Riverside. Its purpose is to highlight the latest research into the vast musical heritage of Iberia and Latin America, as well as other regions once under Iberian colonial rule whose cultural traditions bear some imprint of Spanish or Portuguese influence, e.g., the Philippines or parts of the United States. The name refers to the fact that the journal's mission cuts across disciplinary and regional boundaries. It accepts contributions in Spanish, Portuguese, or English from scholars in musicology, ethnomusicology, and related disciplines. Diagonal: An Ibero-American Music Review is a peer-reviewed journal with an editorial board, and it conforms to the highest standards of modern humanistic scholarship.
Volume 1, Issue 2, 2016
ARTICLES
"El Militar Retirado" de Pedro Jiménez de Abrill (Arequipa, 1784-Sucre, 1856): Una Tonadilla Inédita en el Perú Independiente.
La tonadilla escénica, género hispano de teatro breve musical de fines del siglo XVIII, ha despertado un creciente interés de análisis en la última década. Sin embargo, y pese a que su difusión por todo el espectro americano ha sido reconocida, existen aún pocos estudios sobre ella fuera del marco español, principalmente debido a la escasez de fuentes musicales. Este trabajo se adentra en las posibilidades que pudo dar la tonadilla como medio de comunicación de las ideas de la independencia peruana a través de un caso que se conserva completo en música y libreto, El Militar Retirado, y a través de él proponer nuevos modos de compresión de la importante transición cultural de colonia a república en Hispanoamérica.
The Secret Nightingale: When Utterance and Silence Co-exist; Susan Metcalfe-Casals and the Genesis of “En Sourdine”
The overwhelming presumption about songs is that they are meant to be sung. In the curious case of “En Sourdine” (“Muted”; 1904), composed by Pau Casals (1876–1973), we see an exquisite discrepancy: a love song that is both romantic utterance and yet muteness. The paradoxical genesis of “En Sourdine” stems from Casals’s then secretive relationship with lieder singer, Susan Metcalfe, during their performance engagements in and around New York City circa 1904. In “Musicology for Art Historians”, Jonathan Hicks tells us that musicology relentlessly promoted the association of “composerly authority with a masculine subject.” This focus obfuscated many aspects of compositional impetus and relegated the role of other historical agents to oblivion, particularly the roles of “singer, instrumentalist, patron, etc.—that women have most often been in positions to perform.” “En Sourdine,” a song that significantly appears in Casals’s catalog without a date, reveals the deeply personal nature of his vocal works. An analysis of “En Sourdine” reveals the song’s function as a form of sensual communication, not intended for public dissemination. This study contributes to a reassessment of the role of singer and muse, as well as a discussion of one of Casals’s 34 songs.
"Demofonte": A Luso-Brazilian Pastiche?
Description and brief analysis of the manuscripts catalogued as G-Prática 51b in the Musical Archive of the Palácio Ducal de Vila Viçosa, Portugal. Identification of authorship and sources of 11, out of the 12 or 13 numbers that comprise the set, titled Demofonte [sic]. Discussion on the casting and order of numbers of two possible performances in Rio de Janeiro during the 1780s and 1790s. Further considerations on the use of the term “pastiche” in the context of eighteenth-century Luso-Brazilian theater.