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(1) Anthony Young

(b c1685; d London, bur. 8 May 1747). Organist and composer. He was organist at St Clement Danes, London, from 1707 and was probably the Anthony Young who was a chorister at the Chapel Royal until March 1700, but he was never organist at St Katherine Cree, as Burney believed. Seven of his songs appeared in The Monthly Mask of Vocal Music between 1705 and 1709, he published A New Collection of Songs (1707), and in 1719 Walsh and Hare brought out his Suits of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnet. In 1739 he was a founder member of the Society of Musicians.

(2) Charles Young

(b London, bap. 11 Feb 1683; d London, 12 Dec 1758). Organist, brother of (1) Anthony Young. He may have been a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral in the late 1690s and was organist of All Hallows, Barking-by-the-Tower, from 1713 until his death. He composed a few songs. He was the father of (3) Cecilia, (4) Isabella (i), (5) Esther and of Charles, a clerk at the Treasury, whose daughters were (6) Isabella (ii), (7) Elizabeth and (8) Mary (Polly).

(3) Cecilia Young [Mrs Arne]

(b London, bap. 7 Feb 1712; d London, 6 Oct 1789). Soprano, daughter of (2) Charles Young. A pupil of Geminiani, she sang in concerts from March 1730 and first appeared on stage in English operas by Lampe and Smith in 1732–3. According to Burney, she had ‘a good natural voice and a fine shake [and] had been so well taught, that her style of singing was infinitely superior to that of any other English woman of her time’. Handel chose her for the premières of his Ariodante and Alcina (both 1735), Alexander’s Feast (1736) and Saul (1739), and for the first London performance of Athalia. After marrying Thomas Arne in 1737 she appeared in his stage works (notably Comus, Rosamond and Alfred) in London and for two seasons in Dublin (1742–4) and performed his songs at Vauxhall Gardens. The marriage proved unhappy and she was often ill, making only occasional appearances after 1746; her last new Arne role was in Eliza (1754). In 1748 she went to Dublin with her sister and brother-in-law, the Lampes, to sing in the winter concert season and returned there with Arne in 1755 to perform in his works at Smock Alley Theatre. Here their marriage broke down and Arne went back to London, leaving her in Ireland with her young niece Polly, and in 1758 Mrs Delany found her employed as a singing teacher by a charitable Irish family. She returned to London with Polly in 1762 and seems to have made only one more public appearance, at a benefit concert for Polly and her husband, F.H. Barthélemon, in 1774. She was reconciled with Arne shortly before his death in 1778, after which she lived with the Barthélemons. There were suggestions that she could be unreliable and that she drank too much, but Burney, a pupil of Arne’s, remembered her with affection, and Charles Dibdin wrote: ‘Mrs Arne was deliciously captivating. She knew nothing in singing or in nature but sweetness and simplicity’.

(4) Isabella Young (i) [Mrs Lampe]

(b London, ?bap. 3 Jan 1716; d London, 5 Jan 1795). Soprano, sister of (3) Cecilia Young. She had small singing roles at Drury Lane in 1733–4 but otherwise appeared only in concerts until she sang the heroine Margery in John Frederick Lampe’s burlesque opera The Dragon of Wantley in 1737. In the middle of its long run she married the composer and subsequently created roles in all his stage works, including Thisbe in Pyramus and Thisbe (1745). The Lampes went to Dublin in 1748 and she appeared for two seasons at the Smock Alley Theatre, and sang in concerts and at the Marlborough Green pleasure gardens. In November 1750 they went to Edinburgh and, according to Burney, were soon ‘settled very much to the satisfaction of the patrons of Music in that city’. However, Lampe died there of a fever in July 1751 and she returned to Covent Garden to sing her old roles and some new ones in musical afterpieces. She remained in the company until the 1775–6 season, often singing with her sister Esther, although in the later years they were only members of the chorus. Her son Charles John Frederick Lampe took over as organist at All Hallows, Barking-by-the-Tower, after the death of his grandfather (1) Charles Young, and her daughter-in-law sang for a time as Mrs Lampe at the pleasure gardens and Sadler’s Wells Theatre.

(5) Esther [Hester] Young [Mrs Jones]

(b London, 14 Feb 1717; d London, bur. 6 June 1795). Contralto, sister of (3) Cecilia Young. She appeared in concerts from 1736 and created the role of Mauxalinda in Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley. She had other Lampe roles, played Lucy in John Gay's The Beggar’s Opera for many years and in 1744 sang Juno and Ino in the première of Handel’s Semele. It is sometimes stated that she went to Ireland with the Arnes in 1755, but in fact she sang at Covent Garden throughout the 1755–6 season and in every year after that until her retirement in 1776. She married the music seller and publisher Charles Jones on 8 April 1762; by December 1785, a few years after his death, impoverished and seriously ill, she was being cared for with ‘unremitting Tenderness’ by her sister Mrs Lampe.

(6) Isabella Young (ii) [Mrs Scott]

(d London, 17 Aug 1791). Mezzo-soprano, niece of (3) Cecilia Young. She studied with the bass Gustavus Waltz, first appearing in a concert with him on 18 March 1751, and sang in Arne’s Alfred, Rosamond and Eliza in 1754. She became a distinguished concert and oratorio singer in London and the provincial festivals. She sang for Handel in the last few years of the composer’s life and was Counsel (Truth) in the first performance of The Triumph of Time and Truth in March 1757. She was a soloist in the Messiah performances at the Foundling Hospital on a number of occasions. After appearing at Drury Lane as Titania in J.C. Smith’s opera The Fairies (February 1755), she performed there regularly until 1777, singing between the acts, in musical interludes and afterpieces. She created roles in George Rush’s English operas The Royal Shepherd and The Capricious Lovers. After her marriage to the Hon. John Scott (December 1757) she usually sang in concerts and oratorios as Mrs Scott, but on stage she continued to describe herself as Miss Young until 1769.

(7) Elizabeth Young [Mrs Dorman]

(d London, 12 April 1773). Contralto, sister of (6) Isabella Young (ii). She went to Dublin with the Arnes in 1755, singing Grideline in his Rosamond at the Smock Alley Theatre. She returned to England with Arne in 1756, and was a shepherdess in his Eliza that December. After playing Lucy in The Beggar’s Opera in June 1758 (billed as making her first appearance on any stage) she sang regularly at Drury Lane until 1772 and in some seasons at Finch’s Grotto Gardens. Her lower voice meant she was given male or older women’s parts. She created the roles of Agenor in Rush’s The Royal Shepherd (1764) and the duenna Ursula in Dibdin’s The Padlock (1768). She married the violinist Ridley Dorman in 1762.

3. Kosovo and related Albanian musical traditions.

(8) Polly [Mary, Maria] Young [Mrs Barthélemon]

(b London, 7 July 1749; d London, 20 Sept 1799). Soprano, composer and keyboard player, sister of (6) Isabella Young (ii). She went with the Arnes to Ireland and impressed audiences in Dublin by singing ‘perfectly in Time and Tune’ in Arne’s Eliza at the age of six. She remained in Ireland with Mrs Arne and in 1758, after hearing her play the harpsichord, Mrs Delany wrote: ‘the race of Youngs are born songsters and musicians’. She appeared on stage in Dublin, where O’Keeffe admired her ‘charming face and small figure’ as Ariel in The Tempest. She returned to London to make her Covent Garden début in September 1762, singing and playing between the acts; the Theatrical Review commented on the agreeable innocence of her appearance: ‘Her performance on the harpsichord, is equal to her excellence in singing’. After two seasons she moved to sing minor roles with the Italian opera company at the King’s Theatre, where the violinist and composer François Hippolyte Barthélemon was leader of the orchestra. She married him in December 1766 and afterwards appeared mainly with him, in occasional seasons at the Italian opera, in oratorios and at the pleasure gardens. There were visits to Ireland, and a highly successful tour of the Continent in 1776–7. She sang in her husband’s oratorio Jefte in Florence and gave concerts before the Queen of Naples and Marie Antoinette, at which their young daughter Cecilia Maria also sang. However, their careers did not flourish after this; in an injudicious letter (Morning Post, 2 November 1784) she complained of being refused engagements, styling herself ‘an English Woman, of an unblemished reputation’. Haydn visited the Barthélemons when he was in England and at a concert in May 1792 he accompanied her in airs by Handel and Sacchini.

Maria Barthélemon published six sonatas for harpsichord or piano and violin (1776) and a set of six English and Italian songs op.2 (1786). The Barthélemons lived in Vauxhall and attended the Chapel at the Asylum for Female Orphans, where they came under the influence of the Swedenborgian preacher, Duché. She composed three hymns and three anthems op.3 (1795) for use at the Asylum and Magdalen Chapels, The Weaver’s Prayer for a concert in aid of unemployed weavers and an ode on the preservation of the king op.5 (1795), with words by another Swedenborgian, Baroness Nolcken.

Young [Youngs], (Basil) Alexander

(b London, 18 Oct 1920; d Macclesfield, 2 March 2000). English tenor. He studied at the RCM with Steffan Pollmann and made his début as Scaramuccio (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival. In 1953 he sang Tom Rakewell in the English première of The Rake’s Progress, a BBC studio production; he recorded his classic reading of this role in 1964 under Stravinsky’s direction. He created Charles Darnay in Benjamin’s A Tale of Two Cities (1953, BBC) and Philippe in Berkeley’s A Dinner Engagement (1954, Aldeburgh), and sang in the British premières of Searle’s The Diary of a Madman (1960, Sadler’s Wells) as Poprichin and Henze’s The Bassarids (1968, BBC) as Dionysus. He appeared at Covent Garden (1955–70), notably as Matteo (Arabella) and Britten’s Lysander; at Sadler’s Wells, where his roles included a highly amusing Count Ory, Almaviva, Gluck’s and Monteverdi’s Orpheus, Belmonte and Handel’s Jupiter and Xerxes; and with the WNO and Scottish Opera, creating Cicero in Hamilton’s The Catiline Conspiracy (1974, Stirling). He also sang extensively in concert and oratorio, and from 1973 to 1986 was director of singing at the RNCM. Young was a stylish singer with a silvery tenor which he used with innate musicianship, as can be heard in his many recordings of operas and oratorios by Handel.

HAROLD ROSENTHAL/ALAN BLYTH

Young, Douglas

(b London, 18 June 1947). British composer. He won the composition scholarship to the Royal College of Music, London (1966–70) and continued postgraduate studies with Milner and Pousseur. He won the Karl Rankl Prize for orchestral composition in 1970, by which time he was working professionally as a freelance composer. In 1974 he founded the ensemble Dreamtiger.

His early work The Listeners (1967) holds the key to his later development. It interleaves two contrasting poems by Walter de la Mare – one set to magical gamelan sonorities, the other to dynamic music redolent of Stravinsky and Berg. The implicit conflict between East and West was explored further in Canticle (1970), with its sinuous melodies and Messiaen-like rhythmic structure. Throughout the 1970s Young aimed to absorb and transcend the influence of the postwar avant garde. Increasing interest in non-European culture and popular music (from Irish folk music to rap) progressively transformed his work, and the driving rhythms and pure melodic energy of Slieve League (1979) announced a decisive change. His scores for the Royal Ballet led to a commission from the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich for a full-length ballet. The result, Ludwig (1986), with its kaleidoscopic fusion of musical languages, was hailed by the German press as a perfect exemplar of postmodernism, although it was only later that Young became acquainted with the work of writers such as Queneau, Calvino and Kundera who then influenced his artistic outlook. During the 1990s Young concentrated almost exclusively on chamber music. The string quartet Mr Klee Visits the Botanical Gardens (1990–93) is the first in a series of works inspired by Klee and other 20th-century painters (in whose work Young finds a freedom of invention lacking in music). In his collection of piano pieces Herr Schoenberg Plays Ping-Pong (1992–9) Young widened his scope to encompass jazz, popular dance music, film scores and even advertising jingles – transformed into a personal musical universe that has the same sense of fun and daring as Calvino's Cosmicomics.

MSS in GB-Lbl

WORKS

(selective list)

Stage: Ludwig ‘Fragments from a Mystery’ (ballet, 2), DAT tape, Munich, 1986; The Tailor of Gloucester (op, 4, Young, after B. Potter), London, 1989; The Lost Puzzle of Gondwana (children's adventure story, M. Blackman), London, 1999

Orch: Departure, 1970; Aubade, small orch, 1972–3; Circus Band & Other Pieces (after Ives), 1977–80; Virages, vc, large orch, 1978; Night Journey under the Sea, large orch, 1980–82; Lament, sitar, orch, 1984

Chorus and orch: Railway Fugue (R.L. Stevenson), spoken chorus, perc ens, 1965; The Listeners (dramatic cant., W. de la Mare), S, female chorus, perc ens, chbr ens, 1967; The Hunting of the Shark (dramatic cant., L. Carroll), nar, chorus, pf, small orch, 1982; Actualité (Current Affairs) (cabaret cant., various texts), chorus, str, pf, perc, 1997–9

Choral unacc.: Canticle (W.H. Auden: New Year Letter), SATB/SSATBB, 1970; Lullaby of the Nativity (medieval anon.), SSA, 1978

Other vocal: 4 Nature Songs (R. Herrick, W. Shakespeare, W.B. Yeats), S, pf, 1964–77; Chbr Music (J. Joyce), S, gui, 1976–82; 2 Cabaret Songs (A. Brownjohn), S, ens, 1987; Cada canción (F. García Lorca), v, pf, 1987

Inst: Columba, in memoriam Luigi Dallapiccola, pf, 1977; Trajet/inter/lignes, a fl/fl/pic, perc, 1978; Slieve League, vn, va, 1979; Dreamlandscapes ‘Portrait of Apollinaire’, pf, 1979–85; Symbols of Longevity (on Korean Paintings), cl, 1983–99; Lines Written on a Sleepless Night, str trio, 1985–99; Mr Klee Visits the Botanical Gardens, str qt, 1990–93; Wolferl at Berggasse 19, vc, pf, 1991–9; Sir Edward at Garmisch, vn, 1992–6; Herr Schoenberg Plays Ping-Pong, pf, 1992–9; The Excursions of Monsieur Jannequin, pf, 1997–; ‘… if, on a Winter's night, Schubert … ’, vc, pf, 1997–9; The Eternal Waterfall (Microcosmicomics), vc, pf, 1998

Arrs.

MSS in GB-Lbl

BIBLIOGRAPHY

G. Larner: ‘Douglas Young’, MT, cxiv (1973), 787–90

K.-M. Hinz: ‘Verschmelzung des Disparaten: der Komponist Douglas Young’, MusikTexte, no.19 (1987), 5–16

PETER HILL

Young, John

(b ?London, c1672; d London, c1732). English music printer, publisher and instrument maker. The researches of Dawe, together with those of Ashbee, have helped clarify the identification of members of this family. Young's father was also John, but since he was still alive in 1693, he was evidently not, as earlier surmised, the John Young who was appointed musician-in-ordinary to the king as a viol player on 23 May 1673 and who had died by 1680 (according to the Lord Chamberlain's records). Young junior was apprenticed to the music seller and publisher John Clarke, and was established on his own by 1695. His publications included A Choice Collection of Ayres for the Harpsichord or Spinett by Blow and others (1700), William Gorton's A Choice Collection of New Ayres, Compos'd and Contriv'd for Two Bass-Viols (1701), The Flute-Master Compleat Improv'd (1706), the fifth and sixth editions of Christopher Simpson's Compendium (1714) and other works. Some were issued in conjunction with other publishers, including Henry Playford, Thomas Cross, John Cullen, John Walsh and John Hare, so that such works as Jeremiah Clarke's Choice Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinett (1711), and editions of The Dancing Master, Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy and Purcell's Orpheus britannicus include his imprint. A number of interesting works known to have been published by Young are now lost, including John Banister's The Compleat Tutor to the Violin (1699), Philip Hart's A Choice Set of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinet (1702) and Alex Roathwell's The Compleat Instructor to the Flute (1699). Young also had a high reputation as a violin maker. His violin-playing sons, John (b London, 23 Aug 1694) and Talbot (b London, 25 June 1699; d London, bur. 24 Feb 1758), both joined the business. John in turn had a son, yet another John Young (b London, 1 March 1718; d London, 30 April 1767), who was a violinist and organist. Talbot Young became the best-known violinist of the family and was a member of the King's Music from 1717. With his father, Maurice Greene and others, he established a series of weekly music meetings from about 1715. Held initially at the Youngs' premises, they eventually moved to nearby taverns, and from the mid-1720s became known as the Castle Society concerts. Talbot was also organist of All Saints, Bread Street (1729–58), and a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal from 1719. About 1741 the Youngs' business passed into the hands of Peter Thompson, who had probably had an association with the firm since about 1731.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AshbeeR, i, v

BDA (‘Young, Talbot’)

Day-MurrieESB

EitnerQ

HawkinsH

Humphries-SmithMP

KidsonBMP

J. Pulver: A Biographical Dictionary of Old English Music (London, 1927/R)

M. Tilmouth: A Calendar of References to Music in Newspapers Published in London and the Provinces (1660–1719), RMARC, no.1 (1961, repr. 1968)

P.M. Young: The Concert Tradition from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century (London, 1965)

D. Dawe: Organists of the City of London, 1666–1850 (Padstow, 1983)

PETER WARD JONES

Young, La Monte (Thornton)

(b Bern, ID, 14 Oct 1935). American composer and performer. As a child he learned the guitar and cowboy songs from his aunt Norma before taking up the saxophone at the age of seven. He studied first with his father Dennis, a sheep-herder, then with his great-uncle Thornton, a bandleader, and from 1951 to 1954 at the Los Angeles Conservatory with William Green, who also taught him the clarinet. Young played extensively in blues and jazz bands in Los Angeles throughout the mid-1950s, as well as in the orchestra, dance band and jazz combo at Los Angeles City College (1953–6), while studying counterpoint privately with Leonard Stein (1955–6). He took undergraduate courses at Los Angeles State College (1956–7) and at UCLA (BA 1958), where he studied with Robert Stevenson, and did postgraduate work at the University of California in Berkeley (1958–60). Early in his first term he showed the Trio for Strings (1958) to his composition teacher Seymour Shifrin, who organized its first performance at his home in an unsuccessful attempt to show Young the error of his ways. The Trio – composed entirely of long tones and rests, some lasting a minute or more – is now generally recognized as a defining work in the minimalist movement, and Young as its founder.

The spaciousness of the piece, which remains a model for Young's output as a whole, is on one level a reflection of the spaciousness of his upbringing until his teens and, on another, of his fascination with variegated environmental drones – from the wind blowing through the logs of the cabin where he was born, to the transformer he would listen to beside his grandfather's gas station, to the motors he would sing along with in the machine-shop where he worked after school. Young himself cites gagaku and the static elements of Webern – which he ‘telescoped’ by extending them exponentially – as the principal musical influences on the Trio. He encountered another major influence at Stockhausen's (1959) Darmstadt summer course seminar, which featured the music of Cage, much of it performed live by David Tudor. Back in Berkeley, Young's performances of Cage-inspired scores drew ridicule on campus but found a sympathetic ear in the choreographer Ann Halprin, who invited Young and his fellow student Terry Riley to accompany her troupe with outré friction sounds, such as tin cans scraped across glass for the duration of a performance.

In 1960 Young went to New York on a Hertz travelling fellowship to study electronic music with Richard Maxfield at the New School for Social Research. He organized the first loft-concert series in the city at Yoko Ono's studio shortly after his arrival and edited the proto-Fluxus An Anthology of avant-garde art (published after numerous delays in 1963), including his own Compositions 1960. Termed ‘concept art’ by the writer Henry Flynt, these pieces ranged from the purely abstract (e.g. no.15 ‘This piece is little whirlpools in the middle of the ocean’) to those with a minimal aural component (e.g. no.2 ‘Build a fire in front of the audience’). In 1963 Young founded the Theatre of Eternal Music, playing virtuoso sopranino saxophone with the viol player John Cale, the violinist Tony Conrad, the percussionist Angus MacLise, and the vocal drone of the calligrapher and light artist Marian Zazeela, whom he married that year.

It was Riley's In C (1964) which inaugurated the style of modular repetition adapted by other minimalists. Nonetheless, although Riley's innovation grew out of his own early tape-loop compositions, Young had himself experimented with radical repetition as early as arabic numeral (any integer) in 1960, the integer in question being the number of times a note, chord or sound (in ‘923’ a gong struck with a mallet, in ‘1698’ a forearm piano cluster) was repeated in a given realization. However, his more profound influence on minimalism, new age music and rock was in his gradual extension of durations, beginning with the radical sustenance of the Trio, moving on to the even longer tones of Four Dreams of China and reaching the fully fledged drones of The Tortoise, his Dreams and Journeys in 1964. With the departure of MacLise for India, the rhythmic element was removed and the Theatre, singing and playing over the drone of, first, the aquarium motor of the eponymous tortoise, and later of sine wave oscillators which could theoretically extend tones ad infinitum, more closely approximated the ‘eternal music’ of its title. In the same vein Young and Zazeela began creating Dream Houses – long term installations comprised of the otherworldly beauty of Zazeela's light art uncannily complementing that of Young's drones. (A six-storey Dia Art Foundation environment in Tribeca operated from 1979 to 1985; the most recent Dream House, projected to last seven years, opened nearby in 1993.) By 1964 those drones were tuned in just intonation, and Young's revival of this tuning rivals in importance that of his extended durations.

His research bore fruit in The Well-Tuned Piano, a riposte to The Well-Tempered Clavier in its rejection of equal temperament and its compromises. Beginning as a 45-minute tape piece in 1964, the work has now extended to 384 minutes in performance, developing from an intriguing experiment to an epic masterpiece. The work explores often exotically named chordal areas, alternating slow single-note sections with ‘clouds’, in which the keys are struck in such rapid succession as to create the illusion of a sustained chord with their haze of harmonics. The slower sections evoke the alap of classical Indian music, which Young studied with master Kirana vocalist Pandit Pran Nath from 1970 until his death in 1996. Those studies have also borne fruit in Young's return to his blues roots in the 1990s with the Forever Bad Blues Band. While his early improvisational performances with the band were, by Young's standards, short (under an hour) explorations of a standard 12-bar blues progression in just intonation, more recent performances, prefaced with a slow mode-establishing section again reminiscent of alap, have extended to nearly three hours. As with The Well-Tuned Piano, the elaboration has been qualitative as well as quantitative, a visionary exfoliation of the spirituality of the visceral blues form in a manner hitherto unimagined.

After several rescorings of the Trio, Young returned to long-tone string writing in Chronos Kristalla, commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. A constant in all these varied efforts has been his desire, as he has put it, to ‘get inside a sound’ – whether a set of computerized harmonics held for the duration of an installation or the I, IV or V chords of the blues explored over a pedal for 15 minutes. The same desire to confront the listener on a neurological level led him earlier in his career to extreme dynamic levels, causing him, in 1964, to withdraw his soundtracks for Andy Warhol films when the management of the Lincoln Center insisted on lowering the volume. More recently, Young has achieved his aim more subtly with electronic equipment capable of generating bass frequencies that are felt as much as heard.

His uncompromising perfectionism has unfortunately restricted recordings and thus, despite international touring, Young is perhaps more widely heard of than heard. He withdrew from a Columbia Records contract in 1968 rather than accept an overdub, and remained relatively obscure while later exponents of minimalism gained notoriety. However, his work has appeared on Edition X, Shandar, Disques Montaigne, Bridge and most notably Gramavison, which released a five-disc The Well-Tuned Piano (18-8701-2, 1987), The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer (R279467, 1991), and a two-disc recording of the Forever Bad Blues Band entitled Just Stompin' (R279487, 1993).

WORKS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

EDWARD STRICKLAND

Young, La Monte

WORKS

electronic, mixed-media, and sound environments

[untitled], live friction sounds, 1959–60; Poem for Chairs, Tables, Benches, etc., chairs, tables, benches, unspecified sound sources, 1960; 2 Sounds, pre-recorded friction sounds, 1960; [untitled], collage of elec and concrete sounds, 1960

[untitled], sopranino sax, vocal drones, various insts, 1962–4; realizations incl.: B Dorian Blues, 1963, The Overday, 1963, Early Tuesday Morning Blues, 1963; Sunday Morning Blues, 1964

Pre-Tortoise Dream Music, sopranino sax, s sax, vocal drone, vn, va, sine waves, 1964

The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys, vv, various insts, elec drones, 1964–; realizations incl.: Prelude to The Tortoise, 1964; The Tortoise Droning Selected Pitches from The Holy Numbers for The Two Black Tigers, The Green Tiger and The Hermit, 1964; The Tortoise Recalling The Drone of The Holy Numbers as They Were Revealed in the Dreams of The Whirlwind and The Obsidian Gong and Illuminated by The Sawmill, The Green Sawtooth Ocelot and The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer, 1964

Sunday Morning Dreams, tunable sustaining insts and/or sine waves, 1965; Map of 49's Dream The Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery, vv, various insts, sine wave drones, 1966–; The Two Systems of Eleven Categories, 1966–; More Periodic Irrationals, 1966–7; Chords from The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys, sine waves as sound environments, 1967; Claes and Patty Oldenburg Commission, sound and light box, sound environment, 1967; Drift Studies, sine waves, 1967–; Frequency Environments, sine wave drones, 1967–; Robert C. Scull Commission, sine waves, 1967; Chords from The Well-Tuned Piano, sound environments, 1981–; The Big Dream, sound environment, 1984; Orchestral Dreams, orch, 1985

The Big Dream Symmetries nos.1–6, sound environments, 1988; The Symmetries in Prime Time from 144 to 112 with 119, sound environments, 1989; The Lower Map of The Eleven's Division in The Romantic Symmetry (over a 60 cycle base) in Prime Time from 144 to 112 with 119, tunable sustaining insts in sections of like timbre, sound environment, 1989–90; The Prime Time Twins, sound environments, 1989–90; The Symmetries in Prime Time from 288 to 224 with 279, 261 and 2 X 119 with One of The Inclusory Optional Bases: 7; 8; 14:8; 18:14; 8:16:14; 18:16:14:8; 9:7:4 or The Empty Base, sound environments, 1991–

for conventional forces

Rondo, d, pf, c1953; Scherzo, a, pf, c1953; Annod, dance band/jazz ens, 1954; Wind Qnt, c1954; Young's Blues, 1955–9; Variations, str qt, 1955; Five Small Pieces for String Quartet ‘On Remembering a Naiad’, 1956; Fugue, d, vn, va, vc, c1956; Op.4, brass, perc, 1956; Canon, any 2 insts, 1957; for Brass, brass octet, 1957; Fugue, a, any 4 insts, 1957; Fugue, c, org/hpd, 1957; Fugue, e, brass/other insts, 1957; Fugue, f, 2 pf, 1957; Prelude, f, pf, 1957; Variations, a fl, bn, hp, vn, va, vc, 1957; for Guitar, 1958; Trio for Str, 1958, arr. str qt, 1982, arr. str orch, 1983, arr. vn, va, vc, db, 1983, arr. va, vc, db, 1984; Study, vn, va, c1958–9; Sarabande, any insts, 1959; Studies I, II, inc., III, pf, 1959; [untitled], jazz-drone improvisations, pf, 1959–62; Vision, pf, 2 brass, rec, 4 bn, vn, va, vc, db, 1959; arabic numeral (any integer), to H.F., gong/pf, 1960

Target for Jasper Johns, pf, 1960; Young's Dorian Blues, G, c1960–1; Young's Dorian Blues, B, c1960–1; Death Chant, male vv, carillon/large bells, 1961; Young's Aeolian Blues, B, 1961; The Four Dreams of China, tunable, sustaining insts of like timbre in multiples of 4, 1962; The Second Dream of The High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer from The Four Dreams of China, any insts that can sustain 4-note groups in just intonation, 1962; [improvisations], sopranino sax, vocal drones, insts, 1962–4; Studies in The Bowed Disc, gong, 1963; The Well-Tuned Piano, prepared pf, 1964–; for Guitar [justly tuned], 1978

For Guitar Prelude and Postlude, 1 or more gui, 1980; The Subsequent Dreams of China, 1980; Str Trio ‘Postlude from The Subsequent Dreams of China’, str, c1984; The Melodic Versions of The Four Dreams of China, tunable sustaining insts of like timbre in multiples of 4, 1984; The Melodic Versions of The Subsequent Dreams of The Four Dreams of China, tunable sustaining insts of like timbre in multiples of 10, 1984; Orchestral Dreams, orch, 1985; Chronos Kristalla, str qt, 1990; Annod 92 X 19 Version for Zeitgeist, a sax, vib, pf, cb, drums, 1992; The Subsequent Dreams of China in Simultaneity, 10 wind insts of like timbre/5 sustaining str, 1993; The Two Subsequent Dreams of The Four Dreams of China in Perfect Simultaneity, 10 wind insts of like timbre/5 sustaining str, 1993

action and text works

Compositions 1960, nos.2–6, 9, 10, 13, 15, 1960; Invisible Poem Sent to Terry Jennings for him to Perform, 1960; Pf Pieces for David Tudor, nos.1–3, 1960; Pf Pieces for Terry Riley, nos. 1–2, 1960; Compositions 1961, nos.1–29, 1961; Response to Henry Flynt Work Such That No One Knows What's Going On, c1962; Bowed Mortar Relays, 1964 [realization of Composition 1960 no.9]; Composition 1965 $50, 1965; The Gilbert B. Silverman Commission to Write, in 10 Words or Less, a Complete History of Fluxus Including Philosophy, Attitudes, Influences, Purposes, 1981

film scores

Eat (A. Warhol), tape, 1964; Sleep (Warhol), tape, 1964; Kiss (Warhol), tape, 1964; Haircut (Warhol), tape, 1964

Young, La Monte

BIBLIOGRAPHY

L.M. Young, ed.: An Anthology (New York, 1963)

J. Johnston: ‘Music: La Monte Young’, Village Voice (19 Nov 1964)

H.W. Hitchcock: ‘Current Chronicle’, MQ, li (1965), 530–40, esp. 538–9

B. Rose: ‘ABC Art’, Art in America, iii/Oct–Nov (1965), 57–69

C. Cardew: ‘One Sound: La Monte Young’, MT, cvii (1966), 959–60

R. Kostelanetz: The Theatre of Mixed Means (New York, 1968)

L.M. Young and M. Zazeela: Selected Writings (Munich, 1969)

R. Rosenbaum: ‘Eternal Music in a Dreamhouse Barn’, Village Voice (12 Feb 1970)

S. Kubota: ‘Art as a New Style Life: Interview with La Monte Young’, Bijutsu Techō, no.2 (1971)

D. Caux: ‘La Monte Young: créer des états psychologiques précis’, Chroniques de l'art vivant, no.30 (1972)

J. Rockwell: ‘Boulez and Young: Enormous Gulf or Unwitting Allies?’, Los Angeles Times (13 Feb 1972)

N. Gligo: ‘Ich sprach mit La Monte Young und Marian Zazeela’, Melos, xl (1973), 338–44

M. Nyman: Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (London, 1974, 2/1999)

J. Rockwell: ‘La Monte Young Plays at Kitchen’, New York Times (2 May 1974)

S.S. Singh: ‘Interview with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’, East-West Music (Rome, 1974) [festival catalogue]

R. Palmer: ‘La Monte Young: Lost in the Drone Zone’, Rolling Stone (13 Feb 1975)

D. Smith: ‘Following a Straight Line: La Monte Young’, Contact, no.18 (1977–8), 4

M. Nyman: ‘Against Intellectual Complexity in Music’, October, no.13 (1980), 82

R. Pelinski: ‘Upon Hearing a Performance of The Well-Tuned Piano’, Parachute, no.19 (1980), 4–12; repr. in Interval, iv/3 (1984), 13–20; iv/4 (1985), 16–29

K. Terry: ‘La Monte Young: Avant-Garde Visionary, Composer and Pianist’, Contemporary Keyboard, vi/8 (1980), 12–18

P. Gena: ‘Freedom in Experimental Music: the New York Revolution’, Tri-Quarterly, lii (1981), 223–43

P. Griffiths: Modern Music: the Avant-Garde since 1945 (New York, 1981)

R. Palmer: ‘A Father Figure for the Avant-Garde’, The Atlantic, ccxlvii/5 (1981), 48–56

J. Reinhard: ‘A Conversation with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’, Ear Magazine East, vii/5 (1981–3), 4

D.J. Wolf: ‘Living and Listening in Real Time’, Interval, iv (1982–3), no.1, pp.14–15; no.2, pp.27–32

W. Mertens: American Minimal Music (London, 1983)

R. Palmer: ‘Get Ready for the Music of Harmonics’, New York Times (17 July 1983)

J.M. Reusser: ‘La Monte Young: un musicien bien accordé’, L'autre monde, no.68 (1983), 60

C. McCardell: ‘Sound Instincts: La Monte Young & his Breakthrough Music’, Washington Post (15 Oct 1985)

M. Swed: ‘La Monte Young Tunes a Piano his Way’, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (1 Nov 1985)

M. Feldman and L.M. Young: ‘A Conversation on Composition and Improvisation’, Res, no.13 (1987), 153

K. Gann: ‘Maximal Spirit’, Village Voice (9 June 1987)

A. Rich: ‘La Monte Young's Minimalist Marathon’, Newsweek (27 July 1987)

J. Schaefer: New Sounds (New York, 1987)

L. Vidic: ‘Meet the Composer’, Ear, xii/3 (1987–8), 24

J. Kim: ‘Interview: La Monte Young’, Umak Tonga (1988) no.2, p.87

T. Johnson: The Voice of New Music (New York, 1989)

D.B. Doty: ‘The La Monte Young Interview’, 1/1 Just Intonation: the Journal of the Just Intonation Network (1989–90), v/4, 1, 9–15; vi/1, 8–12

D. Caux: ‘John Cage, La Monte Young et la dissidence musicale d’aujourd’hui’, Art Press, no.150 (1990), 48–52

J. Donguy: ‘Musique pour le rêve’, Art Press, no.150 (1990), 55–8

A. Licht: ‘The History of La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music’, Forced Exposure, no.16 (1990), 60

E. Strickland: American Composers (Bloomington, IN, 1991)

D. Suzuki: Minimal Music (diss., U. of Southern California, 1991)

C. Gagne: Soundpieces 2 (Metuchen, NJ, 1993)

K. Gann: ‘La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano’, PNM, xxxi/1 (1993) 134–63

M. Johnson: ‘Randy Weston and La Monte Young, Kinds of Blues’, Pulse! (1993), Nov

E. Rothstein: ‘La Monte Young Band Explores Sonic Space’, New York Times (12 Jan 1993)

E. Strickland: Minimalism: Origins (Bloomington, IN, 1993)

K.L. Williams: ‘La Monte Young’, Down Beat, lx/8 (1993), 13 only

P. Carfi: ‘La Monte Young: il ritorno del maestro’, World Music, iv/16 (1994), 22

G. and N.W. Smith: American Originals: Interview with 25 Contemporary Composers (London, 1994/R 1995 as New Voices: American Composers Talk about their Music)

W. Duckworth: Talking Music (New York, 1995)

T. Miesgang: ‘La Monte Young: ein Interview’, Falter, ix (1995), 26

W. Duckworth and R. Fleming, eds.: Sounds and Light: La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, Bucknell Review, xl/1 (1996)

K.R. Schwarz: Minimalists (London, 1996)

K. Gann: American Music in the Twentieth Century (New York, 1997)

K. Potter: Four Musical Minimalists (Cambridge, 2000)

Young, Lester (Willis) [Pres, Prez]

(b Woodville, MS, 27 Aug 1909; d New York, 15 March 1959). American jazz tenor saxophonist.

1. Life.

Young grew up in the vicinity of New Orleans and later Minneapolis. His father, Willis Handy Young, taught all his children instruments and eventually formed a family band that toured with carnivals and other shows. Young learnt the violin, trumpet and drums, and settled on the alto saxophone by about the age of 13. After one of many disputes with his father, he left the family band at the end of 1927 and spent the following years performing with various groups, including Art Bronson’s Bostonians, with whom he took up the tenor saxophone, and Walter Page’s Blue Devils. Early in 1932 Young joined the Thirteen Original Blue Devils, and while on tour in Oklahoma City met Charlie Christian. He then made Kansas City his base, and played with the Bennie Moten–George E. Lee Band, Clarence Love, King Oliver and, on one night in December 1933, Fletcher Henderson, then on tour with his star saxophonist, Coleman Hawkins.

In 1934 Young joined Count Basie, beginning an association that eventually led to national recognition. He left Basie at the end of March as a provisional replacement for Hawkins in Henderson’s band. Henderson’s musicians rejected Young’s very different approach to the saxophone, however, and he left after a few months. For the next year he performed mostly around Kansas City and Minnesota on a freelance basis. By 1936 Young had resumed his association with Basie. In November of that year, with a unit from Basie’s band, he made his first recordings. His solos on Lady be Good and Shoe Shine Boy (Voc.) were immediately regarded by musicians, many of whom learnt them note for note. During the next few years, as Basie’s band became more famous, Young was prominently featured on its recordings (for example, Jumpin’ at the Woodside, 1938, Decca, and Clap hands, here comes Charlie, 1939, Voc.) and broadcasts. Although he received mixed reviews from the critical establishment, the younger generation of musicians, including Dexter Gordon, Illinois Jacquet and others, were enthusiastic about his music. His small-group performances, particularly Lester leaps in (1939, Voc.) and his many recordings with Billie Holiday (notably All of me, 1941, OK), were especially influential.

Young left Basie in December 1940 to form his own small band, which performed in New York. In May 1942 he led a band with his brother Lee (drums), which performed in Los Angeles and New York. When he rejoined Basie in December 1943 Young came to the notice of the general public and also a new generation of jazz musicians, among them John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz. In 1944 he won first place in the Down Beat poll for tenor saxophonists, the first of many such honours.

On 30 September 1944 Young was drafted into the army but was court-martialled the following February for drug abuse. After serving several months in detention barracks in Georgia, he was released at the end of 1945 and resumed recording and performing in Los Angeles. At his first recording session he produced a masterpiece, These Foolish Things (Phil/Ala.).

Beginning in 1946 Young spent part of almost every year playing with Jazz at the Philharmonic, touring the rest of the time with his own small groups. From 1947 he developed and modified his approach successfully – his use of double time and the choice of repertory showing the influence of bop. However his health was becoming increasingly affected by an addiction to alcohol, and from about 1953 until his death his recordings were noticeably less consistent. Still, he was able to produce some of his best work on concert recordings such as Prez in Europe (1956, Onyx). He made guest appearances with Basie’s band in 1952–4 and again at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1957 and in early 1959 he began an engagement at the Blue Note club in Paris. He made his last recordings there in March, shortly before his death.

2. Music.

Young was one of the most influential musicians in jazz. His style was viewed as revolutionary when he was first recorded during the late 1930s, and it was a primary force in the development of modern jazz in general and the music of Charlie Parker in particular. The only influences to which Young ever admitted were two white saxophonists of the 1920s, Jimmy Dorsey and Frankie Trumbauer, especially the latter. Both possessed exceptional technique and a light, dry sound. Dorsey was fond of timbral effects achieved through low honks and alternative fingerings, and Young carried these further. From Trumbauer, Young adopted a strong sense of musical form, which was apparent even in his earliest recordings, such as Lady be Good (ex.1) with its short motivic and rhythmic constructions, each building upon its predecessor. Young’s beautiful and delicate sound must be heard in order to appreciate fully the impact of this solo.

Young’s work of the 1940s and 50s was different in style from that of his early years, but not necessarily inferior, as many critics have claimed. His tone was much heavier and his vibrato wider. He was more overtly emotional and filled his solos with wails, honks and blue notes. He drew more heavily on a small repertory of formulas, especially simple ones such as the arpeggiation of the tonic triad in first inversion at phrase endings. His solos also contained astonishing leaps and bold contrasts (ex.2), relying more on the alternation of repetition and surprise than on motivic development. Significantly, musicians have praised his recordings of the 1940s alongside his early ones, indicating a clear appreciation of their musical value.

Young’s impact on the course of jazz was profound. His superb melodic gift and logical phrasing were the envy of musicians on all instruments, and his long, flowing lines set the standard for all modern jazz. His personal formulas are now the common property of all jazz musicians, and recur in countless jazz compositions and improvisations. Sadly, the public, while familiar with Young’s name, has little awareness of his music and its role in jazz history. The feature film Round Midnight (1986), which was dedicated to Young and Bud Powell, was largely based on Young’s life story.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

P. Harris: ‘Pres Talks about Himself, Copycats’, Down Beat, xvi/8 (1949), 15

L. Feather: ‘Here’s Pres!’, Melody Maker (15 July 1950)

L. Feather: ‘Pres Digs Every Kind of Music’, Down Beat, xviii/22 (1951), 12 only

N. Hentoff: ‘Pres’, Down Beat, xxiii/5 (1956), 9–11

Jazz Monthly, ii/10 (1956) [special issue]

N. Hentoff: ‘Lester Young’, in N. Shapiro and N. Hentoff, eds.: The Jazz Makers (New York, 1957/R), 243–75

D. Morgenstern: ‘Lester Leaps In’, JJ, xi/8 (1958), 1–3

W. Burckhardt and J. Gerth: Lester Young: ein Porträt (Wetzlar, 1959)

L. Gottlieb: ‘Why so Sad, Pres?’, Jazz: a Quarterly of American Music, no.3 (1959), 185–96

F. Postif: ‘Lester: Paris, 1959’, JR, ii/8 (1959), 6–10; repr. in Jazz Panorama, ed. M. Williams (New York, 1962/R), 139–44; new transcr., Jazz hot, no.362 (1979), 18–22; no.363 (1979), 34–7

V. Franchini: Lester Young (Milan, 1961)

D. Heckman: ‘Pres and Hawk: Saxophone Fountainheads’, Down Beat, xxx/1 (1963), 20–22

J. Hammond and H. Woodfin: ‘Two Views of Lester Young: Recollections and Analysis’, Jazz & Blues, iii/5 (1973), 10 only

G. Colombé: ‘Time and the Tenor: Lester Young in the Fifties’, Into Jazz, i/3 (1974), 32

L. Gushee: ‘Lester Young’s “Shoeshine Boy”’, IMSCR XII: Berkeley 1977, pp.151–69

S. Dance: The World of Count Basie (New York, 1980), 28–36

R.A. Luckey: A Study of Lester Young and his Influence on his Contemporaries (diss., U. of Pittsburgh, 1981)

L. Porter: ‘Lester Leaps In: the Early Style of Lester Young’, BPM, ix (1981), 3–24

B. Cash: An Analysis of the Improvisation Technique of Lester Willis Young, 1936–1942 (thesis, U. of Hull, 1982)

W. Balliett: ‘Pres’, Jelly Roll, Jabbo and Fats (New York, 1983), 119–28

D.H. Daniels: ‘History, Racism, and Jazz: the Case of Lester Young’, Jazzforschung/Jazz Research, xvi (1984), 87–103

D. Gelly: Lester Young (Tunbridge Wells, 1984)

D.H. Daniels: ‘Lester Young: Master of Jive’, American Music, iii (1985), 313–28

L. Porter: Lester Young (Boston, 1985)

D.H. Daniels: ‘Big Top Blues: Jazz-Minstrel Bands and the Young Family Tradition’, Jazzforschung/Jazz Research, xviii (1986), 133–53

G. Schuller: ‘Lester Young’, The Swing Era: the Development of Jazz, 1930–1945 (New York, 1989), 547–62

F. Büchmann-Møller: Just Fight for your Life: the Story of Lester Young (New York, 1990)

F. Büchmann-Møller: You Got to be Original Man! The Music of Lester Young (New York, 1990)

L. Porter, ed.: A Lester Young Reader (Washington DC, 1991)

L. Delannoy: Pres: the Story of Lester Young (Fayetteville, AR, 1993)

Oral history material in US-NEij

LEWIS PORTER

Young, Neil

(b Toronto, 12 Nov 1945). Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. He emerged in the late 1960s as a member of the critically acclaimed, Los Angeles-based rock band Buffalo Springfield. He subsequently gained mass exposure in the ‘supergroup’ Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. This widespread fame co-existed in the late 1960s and early 70s with his growing reputation as a singer-songwriter and collaborator with bands such as Crazy Horse and the Stray Gators. His early solo work with Crazy Horse – including the albums Everybody knows this is Nowhere (1969) and After the Gold Rush (1970) – has proved particularly enduring. On these albums his fragile, expressive tenor, and jagged, lyrical lead guitar grace an eclectic mixture of styles, including acoustic ballads, driving rock and lighter country-rock. He coupled these gifts with a melodic songwriting style and with pessimistic and occasionally enigmatic lyrics in such early songs as Broken Arrow and Expecting to Fly (both with Buffalo Springfield), and Cowgirl in the Sand (1969) and Only love can break your Heart (1970) from the early solo albums. Songs such as Cowgirl in the Sand and Southern Man (1970) provided ample solo space for his guitar playing, but the ecstatic one-note solo in Cinnamon Girl (1969) best exemplifies his minimalist tendencies. The epic narrative Cortez the Killer (from Zuma, 1975) broke new ground for Young in terms of subject matter and displayed an intense lyricism in the extended guitar solo. Harvest (1972), featuring predominantly folk and country-styled material, was his most successful album in commercial terms, but drew mixed critical notices.

Young remained highly productive and commercially successful throughout the 1970s and continued his occasional collaborations with Stephen Stills (Long May You Run, 1976) and Crazy Horse (Rust Never Sleeps, 1979). During the 1980s his eclecticism became even more extreme, ranging through acoustic rock, hard rock, techno-pop, rockabilly, country and rhythm and blues. The title song from the rhythm and blues album This Note's for You (1987) criticized pop artists who made TV commercials; the video of the title song was initially banned by MTV before eventually winning an award for Best Video of the Year. By the end of the decade Young showed signs of abandoning the almost wilful eclecticism of the preceding years. Freedom (1989), followed by Ragged Glory (1990) with Crazy Horse, were both critical successes and his most commercially successful work for a decade. He was recognized as a predecessor to the grunge bands of the 1990s by many of the younger musicians, principally for his guitar style (which since the late 1960s has been characterized by heavy distortion and ringing, open chords) and for his highly individualistic, anti-commercial stance. This recognition resulted in Mirror Ball (1995), a collaboration with Pearl Jam.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J. Rockwell: ‘Rock, Populism & Transcendental Primitivism: Neil Young’, All-American Music: Composition in the Late Twentieth Century (New York, 1983), 221–33

D. Downing: A Dreamer of Pictures: Neil Young, the Man and his Music (London, 1994)

Neil Young: the Rolling Stone Files (New York, 1994)

DAVID BRACKETT

Young [Younge], Nicholas.

See Yonge, Nicholas.

Young, Percy M(arshall)

(b Northwich, Cheshire, 17 May 1912). English writer on music and music educationist. He was educated at Christ’s Hospital (1924–30) and read English, music and history as an organ scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge (1930–34; MusB 1933). He was director of music at Stranmillis Teachers Training College, Belfast, from 1934 until 1937, when he took the MusD at Trinity College, Dublin. From 1937 to 1944 he was music adviser to the city of Stoke on Trent. In 1944 he became director of music at Wolverhampton College of Technology; there he also formed a choir which gave many performances, particularly of lesser-known works by Handel. Since 1970 he has been a visiting scholar and lecturer at numerous colleges in the USA.

Young is an exceptionally fluent and prolific writer. His books include short popular biographies and several volumes for younger readers. Many of his more substantial writings are based on a lively, fresh and industrious, if not always highly discriminating, examination of source material; these include original research on Elgar and useful surveys of the British choral tradition and British music generally. As a composer Young has been equally prolific: his works include a Fugal Concerto for two pianos and strings (1954), a Festival Te Deum for massed voices, semichorus and organ (1961) and much unpublished music for brass ensembles. He has edited Handel’s Saul for the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe (Leipzig, 1972), Arne’s cantata The Lover’s Recantation (Leipzig, 1988), and Elgar’s The Spanish Lady, for the Elgar complete edition (London, 1991).

WRITINGS

‘The Royal Music’, ML, xviii (1937), 119–27

Samuel Pepys’ Music Book (London, 1942)

Handel (London, 1947, 3/1979)

The Oratorios of Handel (London, 1949)

Messiah: a Study in Interpretation (London, 1951)

Vaughan Williams (London, 1953)

Elgar O.M. (London, 1955, 2/1973)

ed.: Letters of Edward Elgar and Other Writings (London, 1956/R)

Tragic Muse: the Life and Works of Robert Schumann (London, 1957, 2/1961)

The Choral Tradition (London, 1962, 2/1981)

Zoltán Kodály (London, 1964)

ed.: Letters to Nimrod: Edward Elgar to August Jaeger, 1897–1908 (London, 1965)

A History of British Music (London, 1967)

ed.: Elgar: a Future for English Music and Other Lectures (London, 1968)

The Bachs 1500–1850 (London, 1970; Ger. trans., 1978; Jap. trans., 1985)

Sir Arthur Sullivan (London, 1971)

‘Vocal Music in England in an Age of Change’, Festschrift für Ernst Hermann Meyer, ed. G. Knepler (Leipzig, 1973), 197–203

A Concise History of Music from Primitive Times to the Present Day (New York and London, 1974)

Beethoven: a Victorian Tribute based on the Papers of Sir George Smart (London, 1976)

Alice Elgar: Enigma of a Victorian Lady (London, 1978)

George Grove 1820–1900 (London, 1980)

‘Classics of Music Library Literature’, Modern Music Librarianship: Essays in Honor of Ruth Watanabe, ed. A. Mann (Stuyvesant, NY, 1989), 159–72

‘Leipzig and Dresden: the Protestant Legacy’, American Choral Review, xxxii/3–4 (1990), 7–76

Lichfield Cathedral Library: a Catalogue of Music (Birmingham, 1993)

Elgar, Newman and the Dream of Gerontius: in the Tradition of English Catholicism (Aldershot, 1995)

DAVID SCOTT/R

Young, Simone

(b Sydney, 21 March 1961). Australian conductor. She studied composition and piano at the NSW Conservatorium and made her conducting début at the Sydney Opera House in 1985. In 1987 she was engaged as an assistant conductor at the Cologne Opera, and in 1993 was appointed Kapellmeister at the Berlin Staatsoper. Young has been the first woman to conduct at the Vienna Volksoper (1992) and Staatsoper (1993), the Opéra-Bastille (1993) and the Staatsoper in Munich (1995). Other important débuts have included Covent Garden (1993), the Metropolitan Opera (1995), both in La bohème, and the Munich PO (1996). Her repertory extends from Mozart to contemporary music, with special emphasis on Wagner and Strauss, and her performances have been acclaimed for their exciting theatricality. In 1997 Young embarked on a Ring cycle at the Vienna Staatsoper.

CAROL NEULS-BATES

Young, Victor

(b Chicago, 8 Aug 1900; d Palm Springs, CA, 10 Nov 1956). American composer, conductor and violinist. He began to play the violin at the age of six, and four years later went to live with his grandfather in Warsaw, where he studied at the conservatory. He made his début as a soloist with the Warsaw PO in 1917. In 1920 he returned to the USA, and the following year made his American début at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. Between 1922 and 1929 he was a leader in movie theatres, a musical supervisor of vaudeville productions, a violinist and arranger for Ted Fiorito’s orchestra, and the assistant musical director of the Balaban and Katz theatre chain.

He first worked for radio in 1929, and in 1931 became musical director for Brunswick Records, where in 1932 he arranged and conducted several selections from Show Boat with soloists, chorus and orchestra; released on four discs, it was the first American album ever made from the score of a Broadway musical. In 1935 he moved to Hollywood, where he formed his own orchestra and joined the staff of Paramount Pictures.

During the next 20 years Young composed and conducted music for many television and radio shows and record albums, and wrote scores (some with collaborators) for over 225 films. He also composed instrumental pieces (some of which originated in film scores), two Broadway shows and a number of popular songs. He had a gift for writing pleasing melodies but his music for the most part is conventional. His film scores are often overwrought and incorporate excessively sentimental string writing, but they are dramatically adequate and occasionally even eloquent. He won an Academy Award (posthumously) for his score to Around the World in 80 Days.

WORKS

(selective list)

film scores

Ebb Tide, 1937; Maid of Salem, 1937; Golden Boy, 1939; Gulliver’s Travels, 1939; North West Mounted Police, 1940; The Light That Failed, 1940; Hold Back the Dawn, 1941; I Wanted Wings, 1941; Reap the Wild Wind, 1942; The Palm Beach Story, 1942; For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1943; Frenchman’s Creek, 1944; Kitty, 1945; The Blue Dahlia, 1946; To Each his Own, 1946; Unconquered, 1947; The Big Clock, 1948; The Night has a Thousand Eyes, 1948; Sands of Iwo Jima, 1949; Samson and Delilah, 1949; Rio Grande, 1950; Payment on Demand, 1951; Scaramouche, 1952; The Quiet Man, 1952; Shane, 1953; The Country Girl, 1954; Three Coins in the Fountain, 1954; The Left Hand of God, 1955; Around the World in 80 Days, 1956

stage

Pardon our French (revue, E. Heyman), New York, 5 Oct 1950

Seventh Heaven (musical, V. Wolfson, S. Unger; lyrics, Unger), New York, 26 May 1955

songs

Sweet Sue (W.J. Harris), 1928; 9 songs, incl. A Hundred Years from Today, in Blackbirds of 1933 (revue); Sweet Madness, in Murder at the Vanities (musical play), 1933; Stella by Starlight (N. Washington; from the film: The Uninvited, 1944); Love Letters (E. Heyman; from the film, 1945); The Searching Wind (Heyman; from the film, 1946); Golden Earrings (J. Livingston and R. Evans; from the film, 1947); My Foolish Heart (Washington; from the film, 1949); Our Very Own (J. Elliot; from the film, 1949); Alone at Last (B. Hilliard; from the film: Something to Live For, 1952); When I Fall in Love (Heyman; from the film: One Minute to Zero, 1952); Wintertime of Love (Heyman; from the film: Thunderbirds, 1952)

Bon Soir (Heyman; from the film: A Perilous Journey, 1953); Call of the Faraway Hills (M. David; from the film: Shane, 1953); Change of Heart (Heyman; from the film: Forever Female, 1953); The world is mine (S. Adams; from the film: Strategic Air Command, 1955); Around the World in 80 Days (H. Adamson; from the film, 1956); I only live to love you (M. Gordon; from the film: The Proud and Profane, 1956); Written on the Wind (S. Cahn; from the film, 1956)

instrumental

for orchestra unless otherwise indicated – most composed 1935–52

Arizona Sketches; Columbia Square; Elegy to F. D. R.; For Whom the Bell Tolls; Hollywood Panorama; In a November Garden; Leaves of Grass (after W. Whitman); Overnight; Travelin’ Light; Manhattan Concerto, pf, orch [based on the film scores]; Pearls on Velvet, pf, orch; Stella by Starlight, pf, orch [based on the film score The Uninvited]; Stephen Foster, str qt

Principal publishers: Famous, Joy, Northern, Paramount

BIBLIOGRAPHY

V. Young: ‘Confessions of a Film Composer’, Music Journal, xiv/7 (1956), 16, 38

C. McCarty: ‘Victor Young’, Film and TV Music, xvi/5 (1957), 21

T. Thomas: Music for the Movies (South Brunswick, NJ, and New York, 1973), 43–8

CLIFFORD McCARTY

Young [Joungh], William

(d Innsbruck, 23 April 1662). English composer and viol player. He was among the 17th-century English musicians who served at continental courts and carried to them a knowledge of the then much admired English manner of performance on the viol. Jean Rousseau, in his Traité de la viole (Paris, 1687/R), referred to the European reputations of some of these players and mentioned three in particular, among them ‘Joung auprès du Comte d’Insbruck’. Nothing is known of Young’s early life, though the presence of five-part dances in a manuscript associated with Worcester in the 1640s (GB-Ob Mus.Sch.E.415–18) suggests that he was already an established composer before he left England, and possibly that he came from the West Country.

The spelling ‘Joungh’ found in some sources of his music suggests that he may already have been with Ferdinand Karl when the latter was Governor of the Netherlands before becoming archduke of Innsbruck in 1646. He had certainly entered the archduke’s service by 1652. Between February and May of that year Ferdinand Karl and his wife Anna de’ Medici undertook an Italian journey on which Young accompanied them as one of their valets to Mantua, Parma, Modena, Florence and Ferrara. Subsequently he was one of those who accompanied the court from Innsbruck to Milan and in 1654 was probably the English musician referred to in the court records as having received 100 ducats from the Emperor Ferdinand III when Ferdinand Karl’s musicians, among whom was Antonio Cesti, visited Regensburg.

In 1655, after her abdication from the Swedish throne, Queen Christina was received into the Catholic Church at Innsbruck. She was entertained there for ten days and recorded the great pleasure Young’s viol playing gave her. At this time he was regarded as one of the finest viol players in Europe, a judgment echoed by other guests on that occasion. A year later the English merchant Robert Bargrave visited Innsbruck and heard Young, whom he described as ‘groom of the bedchamber and chief violist to the archduke’. On 26 August 1660 Young travelled to England but soon returned to Innsbruck, where his death was recorded in the register of St Jakob. The William Young who served in London from 1660 to 1670 as a violinist in the royal music of Charles II has often been confused with the composer, but does not seem to have been related to him; he came from Ripon.

Young’s compositions for the viol played lyra-way are important; a few were published, but many others remain in manuscript. He continued to employ the technique in Innsbruck, for Bargrave stated that he had developed there an eight-string viol to be played lyra-way. The fantasias for viols represent Young working in the mid-century style of consort music akin to that of Locke. The sonatas, on the other hand, show strong Italian and German influences. The journey through Italy in 1652 must have brought Young into direct contact with the developing sonata style there, a contact reinforced by the presence of Italian musicians working in Innsbruck. The pattern of his 1653 collection is similar to that of many Italian publications of the time, and such features as the use of the title ‘canzona’ for imitative movements and, on occasion, of the rhythmic metamorphosis of themes reflect the same influence. The disposition of instruments, however, such as the preference for three or four violins in the published sonatas and the combination of violin, bass viol and continuo that occurs in several unpublished sonatas, is more in line with Germanic usage. Young’s 1653 collection is the earliest set of works entitled ‘sonata’ by an English composer, and his use of the term canzona was a precedent followed by Purcell. A copy of the collection was in Thomas Britton’s library, and items from it are in a Restoration manuscript in Oxford.

WORKS

[11] Sonate à 3, 4, 5 con alcune [19] allemand, correnti e balletti à 3 (Innsbruck, 1653/R); 3 sonatas, 19 dances, 2 vn, b, bc, 7 sonatas, 3 vn, b, bc, 1 sonata, 4 vn, b, bc; ed. in DTÖ, cxxxv (1983)

3 sonatas (d, C, D), vn, b viol, bc, GB-DRc; 2 (d, C) ed. D. Beecher and B. Gillingham (Ottawa, 1983); 1 (D) ed. P. Evans (London, 1956)

9 fantasias, tr, t, b, bc, Lbl, Lgc; ed. R. Morey (London, 1984–6) [possibly the ‘Fantasias for viols of three parts’ announced in 1669⁵]

39 pieces, lyra viol, 1651⁶, A-ETgoëss, D-Kl, F-Pc, GB-Cu, Cheshire County Record Office, Chester, LBl, Mp, Ob, US-LAuc

23 pieces, 2 b viols, A-ETgoëss, GB-DRc, Ob

3 pieces, b viol, bc, A-ETgoëss, GB-DRc, Lcm

30 pieces, b viol; A-ETgoëss, HAdolmetsch, Ob, PL-Wtm; 29 ed. U. Rappen (Hannacroix, nr Ravena, NY, 1989)

5 dances, a 5, GB-Ob (inc.)

6 dances, 2 tr, b, Ob; ed. W.G. Whittaker (London, 1930)

2 dances, tr, t, b, US-NH

Mr Young’s [8] Sharp Airs, tr, b, bc, GB-Ob

Mr Younges [11 dances] for two Lyra Viols, tr, b, bc [? 2 lyra viol pts missing], Ob

2 dances, tr, b, US-NH

Almain, vn, GB-Ob

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AshbeeR

BDA

DoddI

GoovaertsH

HawkinsH

NewmanSBE

SennMT

W.G. Whittaker: ‘William Young’, Collected Essays (London, 1940/R), 90–98

P. Evans: ‘Seventeenth-Century Chamber Music Manuscripts at Durham’, ML, xxxvi (1955), 205–23

M. Tilmouth: ‘Music on the Travels of an English Merchant: Robert Bargrave (1628–61)’, ML, liii (1972), 143–59

M. Caudle: ‘The English Repertory for Violin, Bass Viol and Continuo’, Chelys, vi (1975–6), 69–75

G. Dodd: ‘William Young: Airs for Solo Viol’, Chelys, ix (1980), 33–5

J. Irving: ‘Consort Playing in mid-17th-Century Worcester’, EMc, xii (1984), 337–44

MICHAEL TILMOUTH/PETER HOLMAN

Young Chang.

South Korean firm of instrument makers. Founded in 1956 to assemble upright pianos from imported components, the company began its own manufacture in 1968 and profited from the country’s booming economy. Though pianos imported to the USA in early years were reported as having insufficiently seasoned lumber, improved methods have overcome these difficulties. Manufacturing and shipping systems are sophisticated and automated, and in 1996 the company opened a huge factory in Tianjin, China. The quality of recent instruments is high. The concert grand has attracted favourable notice, and the uprights are sturdy and sonorous. The company has subsidiaries in Canada, the USA and Europe. In 1985 Young Chang purchased the Weber name at the dissolution of the Aeolian Corporation and in 1990 bought Kurzweil Musical Systems, which produces very sophisticated electronic pianos and MIDI controllers. Production in the mid-1990s was about 120,000 annually, with the opening of the Tianjin factory expected to raise the figure substantially.

EDWIN M. GOOD

Young Poland.

A group of 20th-century Polish composers, including Fitelberg, Różycki, Szymanowski and Szeluto. The term ‘Young Poland’ was proposed in 1898 by Artur Górski with reference to literature; his aim was to postulate the idea of rebirth in that medium. In music a similar plea was made by Feliks Jasieński in 1901. The revolutionary events that occurred in Russia in 1905 brought a heightened degree of expectation of political and artistic change in the Polish territories. It was expected that the musical spirit of Young Poland would assume an important role in concerts of contemporary music at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, and there, on 6 February 1906, a concert was given presenting works by all of the above named composers. The following concert reviews labelled them as ‘Młoda Polska w muzyce’ (‘Young Poland in music’). Although this term was later used in a much wider context, referring also to other contemporary Polish composers, generally the label became synonymous with these four composers. There were also, however, other reasons for regarding these composers as constituting a recognizable group. In the autumn of 1905 Fitelberg, Różycki, Szymanowski and Szeluto founded the Spółka Nakładowa Młodych Kompozytorów Polskich (Young Polish Composers’ Publishing Company) under the financial patronage of Prince Władysław Lubomirski. The publishing house appointed to represent their company was Albert Stahl in Berlin. The group did not formulate mottos or aim to present a collective view regarding creative or artistic ideas. They did, however, share the same broad views on art and the role of the creative artist; they claimed the right to artistic freedom and respect towards their chosen path. The group aimed to achieve support for new Polish music through the publication of works by its members, but it was also open to other composers; concerts were organized abroad as well as in Poland. (There is a clear analogy here with Belyayev’s publishing company in Russia and Koussevitsky and Rakhmaninov’s joint project in Berlin.) Contrary to the views held by some, Karłowicz did not formally belong to this group; he was nevertheless a supportive observer, and gave them his permission to publish his song Pod jaworem (‘Under the Sycamore Tree’). The publishing company lasted until about 1912 when Różycki joined Hansen, a Danish firm, and Szymanowski, the true exponent of Young Poland, signed with Universal Edition, Vienna. From this point the artistic paths of the founding members of the company diverged.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Chybiński: ‘Jungpolen in der Musik’, Polnische Post (Vienna, 1908), no.36

A. Chybiński: ‘Młoda Polska w muzyce’, Museion, iii (1911), 17–39

M. Gliński: ‘Młoda Polska w muzyce’, Muzyka, iv/6 [Warsaw] (1931), 189–201

S. Łobaczewska: ‘Twórczość kompozytorów Młodej Polski’ [The works of the composers of Young Poland], Z dziejów polskiej kultury muzycznej, ii (Kraków, 1966), 553–642

T. Chylińska: ‘Młoda Polska: mit czy rzeczywistość?’ [Young Poland: myth or reality?], Muzyka polska a modernizm: Kraków, 1981, 41–54

S. Jarociński: ‘Młoda Polska w muzyce na tle twórczości artystycznej rodzimej i obcej’ [Young Poland in music against the background of artistic creativity at home and abroad], ibid., 93–100

TERESA CHYLIŃSKA

Youngs, Alexander Basil.

See Young, Alexander.

Youth and Music.

An organization founded in London in 1954 by Robert Mayer, after the model of the continental Jeunesses Musicales (to which it is affiliated), to bridge the gap between his concerts for children and ordinary concert and opera performances particularly by organizing block attendance at performances. It is supported by a number of trusts, the Arts Council and by commercial sponsorship.

HENRY RAYNOR/R

Yradier (y Salaverri), Sebastián de.

See Iradier sebastián de.

Yriarte, Tomás de.

See Iriarte, Tomás de.

Ysaac [Ysac], Henricus [Heinrich].

See Isaac, Henricus.

Ysaÿe, Eugène(-Auguste)

(b Liège, 16 July 1858; d Brussels, 12 May 1931). Belgian violinist, conductor and composer. His first music teacher was his father, a violinist (a pupil of François Prume) and conductor of amateur music societies. Ysaÿe began studying with Désiré Heynberg at the Liège Conservatory in 1865, but he was an unsettled child and his attendance irregular, so that the lessons with Heynberg were discontinued in 1869. However, he returned to the Conservatory in 1872 and joined Rodolphe Massart's class. He was unanimously adjudged co-winner with Guillaume Remy of the Conservatory's silver medal in 1874, and also won a bursary which enabled him to take lessons with Henryk Wieniawski in Brussels and then study with Henry Vieuxtemps in Paris. Four years spent attending lectures and concerts in the French capital helped him to make useful artistic contacts. In 1879 he became leader of the Bilse orchestra in Berlin and he stayed there until 1882.

At this time the patronage of Anton Rubinstein brought him his first important contracts as a soloist (in Scandinavia, Russia and Hungary). He returned to Paris in autumn 1883, and soon had many European engagements. He maintained close links both with the great French masters of the day – Saint-Saëns, Franck and Fauré – and with rising composers such as d'Indy and Chausson. His first appearances at the Concerts Colonne were triumphantly successful, and Belgium reclaimed him; on the departure of Jenő Hubay, Vieuxtemps' successor at the Brussels Conservatory, Gevaert appointed Ysaÿe to teach the prestigious violin class there. His career was flourishing: besides performing as a soloist he composed a quartet which immediately created a stir, making it a point of honour for him to participate in concerts of avant-garde chamber music in Paris and Brussels. He played in the first performances of many outstanding works which are dedicated to him: Franck's Violin Sonata (1886), Chausson's Concert (1889–91) and Poème (1896), d'Indy's First String Quartet (1890), Debussy's String Quartet (1893) and Lekeu's Violin Sonata (1892).

Ysaÿe's career was at its height from his first American tour in 1894 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. He played in the most famous concert halls and his talent was universally acknowledged. He used his fame as a virtuoso to launch new ventures: in 1895 he and Maurice Kufferath founded the Société Symphonique des Concerts Ysaÿe, managing and conducting a large orchestra which gave concerts mainly of modern music, and which became a feature of Belgian musical life. A few months later he and Raoul Pugno formed a duo which continued until Pugno's death in 1914. Although Ysaÿe collaborated with other notable pianists such as Anton Rubinstein, Busoni, Ziloti, Nat and his own brother Théophile Ysaÿe, his partnership with Pugno was of exceptional renown. Their programmes set a new standard in that they most often consisted exclusively of sonatas, which was unusual at the time.

Having turned to orchestral conducting of his own volition, Ysaÿe was increasingly obliged to take refuge in it: his playing was being impaired by problems arising from neuritis and diabetes, and by his loss of bow control. (The last was exacerbated by his unorthodox grip, which had not, however, prevented him from developing one of the most immaculate techniques of the time.) His health had been failing since the beginning of the century, and his playing deteriorated rapidly during the war. He accepted the post of conductor of the Cincinnati SO in 1918 and remained there until 1922, giving precedence to modern French music. On returning to Belgium he resumed several of his former activities – including the Concerts Ysaÿe and the giving of private lessons – and up to 1928 he continued to perform in notable concerts in Europe. (They included all Beethovan's sonatas with Clara Haskil and the Violin Concerto conducted by Pablo Casals, for the Beethoven centenary in 1927.) His right foot was amputated in 1929. He gave his last concert in November 1930 and finished writing an opera (on a popular Belgian subject), which was given its première at the Théâtre Royal in Liège a few weeks before his death.

Ysaÿe's playing influenced three generations of violinists. He abandoned the old style of Joachim, Wieniawski, Sarasate and Auer for one that combined rigorous technique and forceful sound with creative freedom on the part of the interpreter. To younger players such as Enescu, Flesch, Huberman, Kreisler, Szigeti and Thibaud he was an example of absolute devotion to his art, and the virtuosos of his own generation – César Thomson, Hubay and Remy – always had to suffer comparison with him. At the turn of the century, he was regarded as supreme among violinists and when he gave the first performance in Berlin of Elgar's Violin Concerto (5 January 1912) the greatest contemporary violinists (including Kreisler, Flesch, Elman and Marteau) were in the audience. As many eyewitness accounts show, they were not disappointed: the wonderful sound, his technique (including the variety of his vibrato) and his interpretation were captivating; he was also well liked for his personality, which was marked by generosity, a sense of solidarity with other musicians and an unquenchable appetite for life.

Ysaÿe was long regarded as important in the development of the modern style of violin playing. He also represented a synthesis of the qualities of Franco-Belgian violin playing before virtuosity became an end in itself. To Ysaÿe, virtuosity was indispensable (he admired Paganini and Vieuxtemps), but as a means to re-create the music, rather than mere exhibitionism (in this he agreed with Busoni, with whom he shared a liking for transcriptions). This ideal, reinforced by his choice of high quality works for his concerts (eloquently illustrated in the programmes of the Ysaÿe Quartet and the Ysaÿe-Pugno duo), was not wholly realized by the next generation: Thibaud, Kreisler, Enescu and others were influenced to some extent, but between the wars their recitals only rarely equalled those of Ysaÿe in choice of programmes and in their interpretation. Ysaÿe's recordings, most of them made in 1912 in difficult circumstances, reveal an exceptionally refined interpretative art.

From adolescence, and seemingly spontaneously, Ysaÿe joined the ranks of virtuosos who were also composers, following the tradition of his compatriots C.-A. de Bériot, Hubert Léonard and Henry Vieuxtemps. Some early salon pieces and concertos made little mark at the time, but after he became acquainted with French composers (Saint-Saëns, Fauré and the school of Franck) he abandoned decorative virtuosity for an improvisatory, passionate character; his scoring sometimes lacks subtlety, but the works are full of harmonic originality. His Poème élégiaque preceded and inspired Chausson's Poème, and expressionist anxieties can be heard in pieces such as Exil for string orchestra. Ysaÿe was modest about his own compositions and rarely played or conducted them. However, his witty Caprice d'après l'Étude en forme de valse de Saint-Saëns, a piece of sustained virtuosity, became famous. His Six Sonatas op.27 for violin solo and solo cello sonata (op.28), written after his return from the USA, bear fascinating witness to Ysaÿe's art; in their harmonic originality and their virtuosity, he was composing for posterity and the younger generation of violinists. Increasing attention is paid to these pieces today, and they have entered the solo violin repertory.

Of Ysaÿe's various ideas for the organization of musical life (he had hoped to be appointed director of the Brussels Conservatory in 1912), two came into being after his death, thanks to his friendship with Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, to whom he gave violin lessons over a long period. One was the Concours Eugène Ysaÿe, a competition intended to reward virtuoso players and initiated in 1937 (after World War II it became the Concours Musical Reine Elisabeth. The other was the Queen Elisabeth Chapelle Musicale (1939), set up to give further training to graduates of the Belgian conservatories.

WORKS

(selective list)

for a complete list, see Ysaÿe and Ratcliffe (1947); unless otherwise stated, works published in Brussels

Piére li houïeu [Peter the Miner] (drame lyrique, 1, Ysaÿe), Liège, 4 March 1931, unpubd

Vn, orch: Poème élégiaque, op.12 (Leipzig, c1895); Scène au rouet, op.14; Caprice d'après l'Étude en forme de valse de Saint-Saëns (Paris, c1900); Chant d'hiver, op.15 (London, 1902); Extase, op.18; Berceuse, op.20; Les neiges d'antan, op.23; Divertimento, op.24; Fantasia, op.32; Concerto d'après deux poèmes, op. posth., ed. J. Ysaÿe; 8 concs., Suite, inc.: unpubd

Other orch: Méditation, vc, orch, op.16 (Paris, c1910); Sérénade, vc, orch, op.22; Exil, str, op.25; Amitié, 2 vn, orch, op.26; Poème nocturne, vn, vc, orch, op.29; Harmonies du soir, str qt, str orch, op.31

Vn, pf: 2 Mazurkas, op.10 (c1893); Etude-poème, op. posth.; Saltarelle carnavalesque, 2 polonaises, Mazurka, Waltz, Berceuse, other works: unpubd

Other chbr: Trio de concert, 2 vn, va, op.19; 6 Sonatas, vn solo, op.27 (1924); Sonata, vc solo, op.28; Qnt, 2 vn, 2 va, vc, op. posth.; Variations, on Paganini's Caprice no.24, vn solo, ed. (London, 1960); 10 Preludes, vn solo, op. posth.; Exercises et gammes, vn solo, op. posth.; Sonata, a, 2 vn, 1915, US-R

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J. Quitin: Eugène Ysaÿe: étude biographique et critique (Brussels, 1938, 2/1958)

F. Rasse: ‘Eugène Ysaije’, Académie royale de Belgique: bulletin de la classe des beaux-arts, xxvi (1944), 85–115

E. Christen: Ysaÿe (Geneva, 1947)

A. Ysaÿe: Eugène Ysaÿe: sa vie, son oeuvre, son influence (Brussels, 1947; Eng. trans., 1947/R, as Ysaÿe, rev. B. Ratcliffe)

J. Quitin, ed.: Centenaire de la naissance de Eugène Ysaÿe (Liège, 1958)

L. Ginzburg: Ezhen Izai [Eugène Ysaÿe] (Moscow, 1959; Eng. trans., 1980, ed. H.R. Axelrod)

M. Brunfaut: Jules Laforgue, les Ysaÿe et leur temps (Brussels, 1961)

A. vander Linden: ‘Eugène Ysaÿe et Octave Maus’, Académie royale de Belgique: bulletin de la classe des beaux-arts, lii (1970), 214–32

J. Maillard, ed.: ‘Lettres inédites d'Eugène Ysaÿe à Guy Ropartz’,RBM, xxv (1971), 98–102

A. Ysaÿe: Eugène Ysaÿe, 1858–1931 (Brussels, 1972)

J. Quitin: ‘Eugène Ysaÿe et sa conception de la virtuosité instrumentale’,Bulletin de la Société liégeoise de musicologie, no.39 (1982), 19

M. Stockhem: ‘Lettres d'Ernest Chausson à Eugène Ysaÿe’, RBM, xlii (1988), 241–72

M. Stockhem: Eugène Ysaÿe et la musique de chambre (Liège, 1990)

MICHEL STOCKHEM

Ysaÿe, Théophile (Antoine)

(b Verviers, 2 March 1865; d Nice, 24 March 1918). Belgian composer, pianist and conductor, younger brother of Eugène Ysaÿe. He studied at the Liège Conservatoire from 1876 to 1880, and in 1881 joined his brother in Berlin, where he studied wilh Kullak at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst, and where he became acquainted with Laforgue. In 1885 the Ysaÿe brothers settled in Paris, and there Théophile studied composition with Franck. His brother’s accompanist, he began a career as a virtuoso in 1886 and was professor of the piano at the Geneva Académie de Musique (1889–1900). Back in Belgium he took an active part in his brother’s Concerts Ysaÿe, principally as the rehearsal conductor. His own music is close to Debussy in detail and to Franck in conception. His symphonic poem Les abeilles was inspired by Maeterlinck’s La vie des abeilles. Its style is Impressionist in the flowing melodic lines, the play of sonorities and the poetic atmosphere that predominates in all three movements.

WORKS

(selective list; all dates of first performance)

Orch: Vie d’un héros, 1889, unpubd; Fantaisie sur un thème populaire wallon, op.13 (1903); Pf Conc., E, op.9, 1904; Sym. no.1, F, op.14 (1904); Les abeilles, op.17, 1910; Le cygne, op.15, 1911; La forêt et l’oiseau, op.18, 1911; Ouverture sur un thème d’Atala, unpubd; Sym. no.2, 1914–15, unfinished

Inst: Variations, op.10, 2 pf, c1910; Pf Qnt, b, op.5, 1913; Str Qt, b, other pf pieces

Vocal: Requiem, solo vv, chorus, orch, c1906, unpubd; choral works, songs with pf and with orch

MSS in B-Bsp

Principal publishers: Breitkopf & Härtel, Durand, Schirmer, Schott, Senart

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BNB (M. Kunel)

M. Schoemaker: ‘Souvenirs sur Théo Ysaÿe’, Syrinx II (1938), no.308, pp.8–11

A. Ysaÿe: César Franck et son époque (Brussels, 1942), 50ff

M. Brunfaut: Jules Laforgue, les Ysaÿe et leur temps (Brussels, 1961)

M. Kunel: ‘Théo Ysaÿe (1865–1918)’, Vie wallonne, xxxviii (1964), 239–53

M. Stockhem: Eugène Ysaÿe et la musique de chambre (Liège, 1990)

HENRI VANHULST

Ysaÿe Quartet (i).

Belgian string ensemble, founded in Brussels in 1886 by the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe with Mathieu Crickboom, Léon van Hout and Joseph Jacob. It gave the premières of works by Franck, Fauré, d’Indy and Debussy and all its members, in addition to their careers as soloists, made important contributions to the teaching of string playing at the Brussels Conservatory.

TULLY POTTER

Ysaÿe Quartet (ii).

French string quartet, founded at the Paris Conservatoire in 1984 by Christophe Giovaninetti, Romano Tommasini, Miguel Da Silva and Carlos Dourthe. In 1985 Luc-Marie Aguera became the second violinist and in 1986 Michel Poulet became the cellist. From 1986 to 1989 the ensemble studied in Cologne with members of the Amadeus Quartet; it also worked with Walter Levin and with Hatto Beyerle – who recorded the Mozart G minor Quintet with it. In 1987 it won the second prize at the Trapani competition in Italy and in 1988 the second prize at Portsmouth and the first prize at Evian. While its beauty of tone and perfection of ensemble were much admired, both its interpretations and its platform deportment were mildly eccentric. A reorganization in 1995 saw Aguera and Da Silva joined by Guillaume Sutre as leader and Marc Coppey as cellist. This formation proved no less inspired but more orthodox in its interpretative outlook. The group has given the premières of works dedicated to it by André Boucou and Franck Krawczyk. Among its recordings are outstanding accounts of the string quartets by Debussy and Ravel and the piano quartets and quintets by Fauré, with Pascal Rogé.

TULLY POTTER

Yso, Pierre.

See Iso, Pierre.

Ysoré [Isoré], Guillaume

(b early 16th century; d Paris, 11 March 1563). French composer. The records of the Ste Chapelle du Palais in Paris reveal his appointment as a singer there on 13 September 1522. Having served as church warden for several years, he took clerical vows on 19 September 1526. On 1 July 1543 he assumed the post of distributeur and by 29 August 1556 had become permanent chaplain of St Louis, succeeding Noel Cybot.

Eight chansons survive ascribed to Ysoré – all but two of them for four voices and all but one appearing in the 1530s. As a group, the four-voice pieces do not conform to Parisian chanson style; rather, they show a variety of stylistic techniques, including the pervasive yet flexible counterpoint of Endurer fault, le temps, the ubiquitous employment of a unifying motif in En revenant de jouer, and the indecisive harmony and phrase structure of Ce qui me tient. The three-voice chansons differ from these in that they are based on borrowed material. Si j’ay eu du mal ou du bien borrows the superius of Sermisy’s setting, using it as its tenor, and Trop dur m’est relies on Jacotin’s setting.

WORKS

Ce qui me tient en merveilleux esmoy, 4vv, 1534¹¹; Endurer fault, le temps le veult ainsy, 4vv, 1534¹¹; En revenant de jouer trouvay m’amye, 4vv, 1534¹¹; Je languiray si de vous n’ay secours, 4vv, 1534¹³; Joye et douleur, 4vv, 1531¹, ed. A. Seay, Thirty Chansons for Three and Four Voices from Attaingnant’s Collections (New Haven, 1960), 70; Sans vous changer, 4vv, 1530⁵; Si j’ay eu du mal, 3vv, attrib. Gosse in P. Attaingnant: Trente et une chansons musicales a troys (Paris, 1535), attrib. Janequin in 1541¹³, attrib. Ysoré in 1542¹⁸; Trop dure m’est la longue demourée, 3vv, Trente et une chansons musicales (Paris, 1535)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BrenetM

LabordeMP

MGG1 (F. Lesure)

D. Heartz: ‘Au pres de vous: Claudin’s Chansons and the Commerce of Publishers’ Arrangements’, JAMS, xxiv (1971), 193–225

LAWRENCE F. BERNSTEIN

Yssandon [Issandon], Jean

(b Lezat-sur-Lèze; fl Avignon, c1555–1582). French musician and author. He wrote a short didactic work on practical music, Traité de la musique pratique … le tout extraict de plusieurs auteurs latins et mis en langue françoise (Paris, 1582/R). He dedicated the treatise to the humanist Georges d’Armagnac, Archbishop of Avignon, his patron for 25 years or more. The layout follows that of similar treatises by Bourgeois, Martin, Guilliaud and Menehou published in the 1550s, although Yssandon admitted only to Latin models and quoted Boethius, Tinctoris, Faber Stapulensis and Listenius. Like his more immediate predecessor, Cornelius Blockland (Instruction, Lyons, 1573, 2/1587/R), he included many musical examples.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

F. Lesure and G. Thibault: Bibliographie des éditions d’Adrian le Roy et Robert Ballard (1551–1598) (Paris, 1955), 43 [transcr. of ded.], 208

A. Seay: ‘French Renaissance Theory and Jean Yssandon’, JMT, xv (1971), 254–72

FRANK DOBBINS

Yu, Julian (Jing-Jun)

(b Beijing, 2 Sept 1957). Chinese composer, active in Australia. After studying Chinese and Western composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Yu joined the staff there (1977–80), then studied with Jōji Yuasa at the Tokyo College of Music (1980–82). In 1985 he moved to Australia, studying and then teaching at the Queensland Conservatorium before studying with Henze and Knussen at Tanglewood through an Australia Council Fellowship, where he received the Koussevitzky Tanglewood Prize. His awards include the Irino Prize (1989), two Paul Lowin Orchestral Prizes (1991, 1994) and the Vienna Modern Masters Recording Award for Wu-Yu (1992); his works have been widely performed. Yu’s music is fastidiously crafted, displaying a rigorous control of complex texture and orchestration. Central to his technique is a principle derived from traditional Chinese improvisation involving building up layers of elaboration. He applies this both to traditional Chinese models and to Western works. In Reclaimed Prefu (1989), for example, the arpeggiated chords of the first prelude of Bach’s Das wohltemperirte Clavier are expanded across a brilliant and massively sonorous keyboard range, while Brahms’s music is reworked in the Piano Quartet (1992).

WORKS

(selective list)

Stage: The White Snake (puppet op), op.19, 1989; Fresh Ghosts (op, 7 scenes, G. Perry, after Lu Xun), 1997

Orch: Wu-Yu, op.14, 1987; Great Ornamented Fuga Canonica, op.17, 1988; First Australian Suite, op.22, chbr orch, 1990; Hsiang-Wen [Filigree Clouds], op.23, 1991; Ballad, op.24, zheng, str, 1991; 3 Sym. Poems, op.31, 1994; Philpentatonia, op.32, chbr orch, 1994; Oasis, 1995; Sinfonia passacaglissima, op.35, 1995; Conc., mar, small orch, 1996; Lyrical Conc., op.39, fl, orch, 1997

Chbr: 4 Pieces, op.7, wind qnt, 1981; Scintillation II, op.12, pf, 2 vib, glock, 1987; Scintillation III, op.13, fl, pf, 1987; Medium Ornamented Fuga Canonica, op.16, wind qnt, 1988; Reclaimed Prefu, 2 pf, 1989; Let me Sing Sonya’s Lullaby, op.25, fl, gui, va, db, 1991; Pf Qt, op.26, 1992; Qt, op.28, 2 mar, xyl, timp, 1992; Passacaglissima, fl, cl, str qt, 1994; Pentatonicophilia, op.32, fl, db, ens, 1995; Atonos, op.36, fl, cl, str trio, 1995; Variations on a Theme by Paganini, op.37, fl, cl, str qt, 1995

Solo inst: 4 Pieces based on Tajik Folk Songs, op.4, pf, 1979; 3 Pieces based on Tartar Folk Songs, op.5, pf, 1980; Impromptu, op.9, pf, 1982, rev. 1986; Crossing, op.10, fl, 1985; Scintillation I, op.11, pf, 1987; Dovetailing, op.29, vc, 1993; The Magic Bamboo Flute, op.30, pf, 1993

Choral: In the Sunshine of Bach, SATB, 1989; 4 Haiku (Matsuo Basho), S, pf, 1992; Ode to the Plum-Blossom (Mao Tse-Tung), SATB, fl, cl perc, hp, vn, vc, db, 1995

Principal publisher: Universal

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CC1 (L. Whiffin)

J. Yu: ‘Tradition, Ethnic Integration and Contemporary Composition’, Sounds Australian, no.30 (1991), 25

B. Broadstock, ed: Sound Ideas: Australian Composers Born Since 1950 (Sydney, 1995), 239–40

PETER McCALLUM

Yuasa, Jōji

(b Kōriyama, 12 Aug 1929). Japanese composer. He studied medicine at Keio University, Tokyo (1949–51), abandoning this course for composition. From 1951 to 1957 he was active as a member of the Jikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop), together with Takemitsu and others. In composition he is self-taught, yet his music shows an exceptional sensitivity to sonority and an intellectual approach to the handling of materials. His compositional attitude is, however, quite unconventional, which may be due in part to his medical interest in auditory physiology as well as his experience with nō music; he is particularly skilled in distributing sounds of various tone-colours in a ‘space’ without attempting any logical formal arrangement.

The early works Yuasa wrote for the Jikken Kōbō were mainly for small forces, such as Three Score Set (1953) for piano and the 12-note Projection for Seven Performers (1955). He was one of the first Japanese composers to take an interest in musique concrète, which he attempted to combine with visual performance in several examples of ‘musique concrète with auto-slides’, among them Mishiranu sekai no hanashi (‘The Story of an Unknown World’, 1953). In 1964 he began to work frequently at NHK’s Electronic Music Studio, producing such pieces as Comet Ikeya and Ai to shura (‘Love and Asura’), both of which won Italia prizes, and Mandala, which won the Grand Prize at the Japanese government Arts Festival. His Voices Coming (1969), utilizing recorded telephone conversations and speech as its materials, provoked a dispute as to whether it is music or not; Projection (1970), for string quartet, makes effective use of noises as its principal texture. In Utterance (1971), for mixed chorus, Yuasa uses onomatopoeic sounds, with no text. Chronoplastic (1972), for orchestra, with its varied use of clusters, won both the Otaka and the Art Festival prizes. Constantly seeking new means of sonic expression, his experiments include a theatre piece (Yobikawashi, 1973), a dance piece (Ceremony for Delphi, 1979), recitations with action (Observations on Weather Forecasts, 1983) and what he calls a ‘computer-controlled live theatrical performance’ (Futurity, 1989). Further possibilities for the creation of new sonorities appeared with his first work for computer, A Study in White I (1987). In 1968 he received a Japan Society Fellowship, which enabled him to make a lecture tour of the USA and Europe. Since 1970 he has often been invited as a guest composer and lecturer to international festivals. In 1981 he was invited to be professor of composition at the University of California in San Diego, and in the following years became a professor at Nihon University and also a guest professor at the Tokyo College of Music.

WORKS

(selective list)

Orch: Projection for Koto and Orch ‘Hana, tori, kaze, tsuki’ [Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon], 1967; Music for Space Projection, orch, tapes, 1970; Chronoplastic, 1972; Ōkesutora no toki no toki [Time of the Time for Orch], 1976; Bashō ni yoru jōkei [Scenes from Bashō], 1980; Requiem, 1980; Toshizuhō [Perspective], 1983; Hirakareta toki [Revealed Time], va, orch, 1986; Nine Levels by Ze-ami, orch, quadraphonic tape, 1988; Bashō no jōkei II [Scenes from Bashō II], 1989; Hommage à Sibelius, 1991; Shigen eno gansa II [Eye on Genesis II], 1992; Concertino, pf, orch, 1994; Oku no hosomichi [The Narrow Road into the Deep North], suite, 1995; Vn Conc., 1996; Cosmic Solitude, 1997

Chbr: Projection for 7 Performers, fl, ob, cl, hn, tpt, pf, vc, 1955; Sō soku sō nyū [Interpenetration], 2 fl, 1963; Projection for Vc and Pf, 1967; Projection for Str Qt, 1970; Inter-posi-play-tion I, fl, pf, 2 perc, 1971; Inter-posi-play-tion II, fl, hp, perc, 1973; Ryō-iki, mar, fl, cl, perc, db, 1974; My Blue Sky no.3, str, 1977; Fuyu no hi: Bashō san [A Winter Day: Homage to Bashō], fl, cl, hp, pf, perc, 1981; Fushi Yukigumo, Jap. insts, 1988; Nai-shokkakuteki uchū III: Kokū [Cosmos Haptic III: Empty Space], nijūgen, shakuhachi, 1989; Jo, fl, vn, vc, pf, perc, 1994; Jo ha kyū, fl, vn, vc, pf, perc, 1996; Projection for Str Qt II, 1996; Solitude in Memorial T.T., vn, vc, pf, 1997

Solo inst: 2 Pastorales, pf, 1952; 3 Score Set, pf, 1953; Nai-shokkakuteki uchū [Cosmos Haptic], pf, 1957; Projection Topologic, pf, 1959; Projection Esemplastic, pf, 1961; Projection, elec gui, 1968; Triplicity, db, 1970; On the Keyboard, pf, 1972; Not I, but the Wind, a sax, 1976; Clarinet Solitude, cl, 1980; Nai-shokkakuteki uchū II: Hen'yō [Cosmos Haptic II: Transfiguration], pf, 1986; Maibataraki, nōkan/a fl, 1987; To the Genesis, sho, 1988; Terms of Temporal Detailing, b fl, 1989; Kokū: shigen e [Empty Space: Towards the Genesis], accdn, 1993; Viola locus, va, 1995

Tape and cptr: Mishiranu sekai no hanashi [The Story of an Unknown World], 1953; Projection Esemplastic with White Noise, 1964; Comet Ikeya, 1966; Ai to shura [Love and Asura], 1967; Icon on the Source of White Noise, 1967; Mandala, 1967; Voices Coming, 1969; Music for Space Projection, 1970; The Midnight Sun, pf, tape, 1984; Studies in White, I–II, tape, cptr, 1987; A Study in White, cptr, 1989; Shigen eno gansa I [Eye on Genesis I], cptr, 1991

Vocal: Toi [Questions], chorus, 1971; Utterance, chorus, 1971; Projection on Bashō’s Poems, chorus, vib, 1974; Bashō goku [Poems by Bashō], 1v, jūshichigen, koto, 1978; Giseion ni yoru Projection [Projection for Onomatopoeic Sounds], chorus, 1979; Furusato eishō [Songs for Homeland], female chorus, pf, 1982; Tenkiyohō shoken [Observations on Weather Forecasts], Bar, tpt, 1983; Natsukashii Amerika no uta [Dear Old America Songs], chorus, 1984; Shin kiyari: Kanda sanka [New Kiyari: a Praise of Kanda], male chorus, 1984; Compositions of Nine Vectors, male chorus, 1984; Giseion ni yoru uta-asobi [Play Songs on Onomatopoeia], chorus, 1985; Mutterings (R.D. Laing), S, fl + a fl, cl + b cl, vn + va, vc, amp gui, perc, pf, 1988; Phonomatopoeia, chorus, 1991; Kyōka sanka, chorus, brass ens, 1993; Responsorium, S, A, T, B, chorus, orch, 1995 [movt 13 of Requiem der Versöhnung, collab. Berio, Cerha, Dittrich and others]

Stage: Circus Variation (ballet), 1954; Aya no tsuzumi (music for nō), str qt, 1955; Carmen (ballet), band, 1956; Aoi no ue (music for nō), tape, 1961; Kiguchi Kohei wa inujini [Kohei Kiguchi Died in Vain] (music for drama), 1963; Yobikawashi [Calling Each Other] (theatre piece), vv, 1973; Derufi no tameno gishiki [Ceremony for Delphi], tape, chorus, shakuhachi, perc, dancers, 1979; Futurity (cptr-controlled theatre), 1989

Film scores: Shiroi nagai sen no kiroku [The Record of a White Long Line], 1960; Haha-tachi [Mothers], 1967; Autonomy, 1972; Shijin no shōgai [A Poet’s Life] (music for animation), 1974; Akuryō-tō [Island of Evil Spirits], 1982; O-sōshiki [A Funeral], 1985

Principal publisher: Schott (Japan), Zen-on Music Co. Ltd, Ongaku-no-Tomo Sha

WRITINGS

Gendai ongaku: toki no toki [Modern music: time of the time] (Tokyo, 1978)

Taidanshū: ongaku no kosumorojīe [Towards a musical cosmology: a collection of talks] (Tokyo, 1982)

‘Gendai ongaku to nō’ [Modern music and nō], Kokubungaku, xxxi/10 (1986), 51–5

BIBLIOGRAPHY

KdG (L. Galliano)

K. Akiyama: ‘Yuasa Jōji’, Record geijutsu (1972), June, 112ff

T. Kakinuma: ‘Yuasa Jōji to gengo toiu sōchi’ [Yuasa and words as devices], Ongaku geijutsu, xlii (1984), no.10, pp.100–03; no.11, pp.105–9; no.12, pp.96–101

K. Hori, ed.: Nihon no sakkyoku nijusseiki [Japanese compositions in the 20th century] (Tokyo, 1999), 267–9

MASAKATA KANAZAWA

Yudina, Mariya (Veniaminovna)

(b Nevel', 29 Aug/10 Sept 1899; d Moscow, 19/20 Nov 1970). Russian pianist. Her first teacher was Frida Teitelbaum-Levinson, with whom she had lessons for six years. In 1912 she entered the Petrograd Conservatory, where, aside from studying the piano with Yesipova, Drozdov, Blumenfeld and later Nikolayev, she also undertook a wide range of other courses. She joined the faculty of the conservatory in 1921 (and remained there until 1930), whilst the same year making her formal début with the Petrograd PO under Emil Kuper. Her first solo recital in Moscow took place in 1929. Following two years from 1932 spent teaching at the Tbilisi Conservatory, she moved permanently to the Russian capital, serving as a professor at the conservatory from 1936 to 1951, where she also gave classes in singing, and teaching concurrently at the Gnesin Institute from 1944 to 1960. She produced Taneyev's Orestes at the conservatory in 1939, repeating it in 1946, and gave her final recital in May 1969.

A renowned Bach player, whose ability to master and to project details of counterpoint won unanimous admiration, Yudina had a serious interest also in promoting 20th-century music, and gave several performances of works by Stravinsky, Hindemith and Shostakovich. Also noted as an effective Beethoven interpreter, among her many recordings are versions of the Fourth Concerto, the Choral Fantasy, the Hammerklavier Sonata and Diabelli Variations. All are played with a fine mastery of pianism. The eccentricities of Yudina's personality were to some extent reflected in her interpretations, most particularly in the freedom she took with regard to tempo markings.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

M. Yudina: ‘Mïsli o muzïkal'nom ispolnitel'stve’ [Thoughts on musical performance], Muzïka i muzïkantï Leningrada (Leningrad and Moscow, 1972), 202 [transcript of conversation of 30 Oct 1970]

JAMES METHUEN-CAMPBELL

Yueqin.

Short-necked lute of the Han Chinese. Literally ‘moon qin’, the name is often popularly translated as ‘moon lute’. The yueqin is constructed of a short fingerboard inserted into a large circular resonating chamber (about 60 cm in total length). Distinguishing features include four long tuning pegs inserted laterally into the pegbox, soundboards of softwood (commonly wutong) covering the top and bottom of the resonating chamber, and between eight and 12 bamboo frets glued to the neck and upper part of the soundboard. On traditional lutes, four silk strings are grouped in two double courses and tuned a 5th apart.

The yueqin is historically related to several Han Chinese lutes, especially the qinqin, shuangqing and ruan. The qinqin (‘Qin [kingdom] qin’) has a long fretted neck, often only two or three strings (pitched about one octave lower than the yueqin) and a scalloped or ‘plum blossom’ shaped resonating chamber (about 90 cm in total length). The shuangqing (literally ‘double clear’) or shuangqin, a lute known since the 18th century, resembles the qinqin in size, though it has four strings and an octagonal resonating chamber. These instruments can all be traced back to the ancient ruan, a lute which was described by different names in the literature of the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce). During the Tang dynasty (618–907), the instrument was most commonly known as ruanxian after the name of a famous 3rd century ce performer. The Shōsōin repository in Japan is in possession of two beautifully decorated ruanxian (Jap. genkan) from the Tang period, each about 100 cm in length, with four evenly distributed strings (not in double courses). In the music treatise Yueshu (c1100), the same lute is described as having a round soundbox, long neck, four strings and 13 frets, but it is called yueqin rather than ruanxian. While the artwork of this period shows the ruanxian to have been present in instrumental ensembles, its popularity faded over time and it survived but marginally into the 20th century.

The yueqin (essentially a ruanxian with short neck) and qinqin (a ruanxian with small scalloped soundbox) are both still in use. The qinqin is especially common in Chaozhou and Cantonese traditions of south China, and the yueqin is most frequently employed in Beijing opera ensembles. Yueqin variants are also used in accompaniment of dance-songs and other genres of the Yi and other minority peoples of south-west China.

When the modern concert-hall ensembles were formed during the mid-20th century, the ruanxian (popularly known as ruan) was revived, and it and the yueqin were ‘improved’ at the state-owned instrument factories, both given many more frets (up to 24) for increased range and chromatic capability, and repositioned to accommodate the Western ideal of equal temperament. The new ruan is now constructed in various sizes, tenor (zhongruan) and bass (daruan) being especially effective support instruments within large ensembles. The new yueqin retains its former size, but its string numbers are usually reduced from four to three, and tuned to separate pitches for an extended range. In spite of this change, the new yueqin has not won wide acceptance into the modern Chinese orchestra.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

K. Hayashi and others: Shōsōin no gakki [Musical instruments in the Shōsōin] (Tokyo, 1967) [with Eng. summary]

Yuan Bingchang and Mao Jizeng, eds.: Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yueqi zhi [Dictionary of musical instruments of the Chinese minorities] (Beijing, 1986), 229–40

Liu Dongsheng and others, eds.: Zhongguo yueqi tuzhi [Pictorial record of Chinese musical instruments] (Beijing, 1987)

A. Thrasher: La-Li-Luo Dance-Songs of the Chuxiong Yi, Yunnan Province, China (Danbury, CT, 1990), 43–51

Liu Dongsheng, ed.: Zhongguo yueqi tujian [Pictorial guide to Chinese musical instruments] (Ji'nan, 1992), 210–15

Zheng Ruzhong: ‘Musical Instruments in the Wall Paintings of Dunhuang’, CHIME, no.7 (1993), 4–56

ALAN R. THRASHER

Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of

(Serb. Savezna Republika Jugoslavija).

Country in eastern Europe. Yugoslavia consists of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro and the autonomous provinces within Serbia of Kosovo, Metohija and Vojvodina. It has a population of about 10·5 million people (2000 estimate) and was formed in April 1992 following the break up of the socialist republic, which had also included Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia. The official language is Serbian, written in Cyrillic. The majority of the population is Orthodox Christian, but there are large Muslim minorities, especially in Kosovo and Metohija. Ethnically Kosovo and Metohija are 80% Albanian, and there is a large Hungarian minority in Vojvodina. Gypsies are present in almost every region of Yugoslavia.

I. Historical background

II. Art music

III. Traditional music

DRAGOSLAV DEVIĆ (I; III, 1–2), ROKSANDA PEJOVIĆ (II), JANE SUGARMAN (III, 3)

Yugoslavia

I. Historical background

In the 5th–7th centuries ce parts of south-eastern Europe were settled by Slavonic tribes arriving from the north. Orthodox Christianity was adopted by the south Slavs in the 9th century, and the medieval Serbian state established close relations with Byzantium and its culture (manifest in liturgical music). The medieval state was destroyed by the Turks at the battle of Kosovo in 1389; there then followed five centuries of Ottoman rule. This period of Turkish domination particularly influenced urban musics, in instrumentation and melodics, and also the rural musics of Muslim populations. Following Venetian conquests in the Mediterranean, western European musical influences, especially from Italy, increased along the Montenegrin coast and in the Bay of Kotor.

At the end of the 17th century, contact was re-established with central European culture. Gradually, during the 18th century, cultural influence from the Austro-Hungarian monarchy spread among the Serbian population of Vojvodina. This influence spread southwards into the central regions of Serbia and contributed to the uprisings against the Turks and the liberation of Serbia in 1867. From then onwards urban populations became increasingly open to influence from western Europe, unlike people in the mountainous regions of Serbia and Montenegro who continued to maintain their traditional instruments and music.

Yugoslavia

II. Art music

1. Before 1800.

The history of art music in the region began after the arrival and Christianization of Serbs and other Slav tribes in the 9th century. Under Byzantine influence, they developed church music in their own language, and from the 12th century onwards they had an independent state, which under Emperor Stefan Dušan (1331–55) held territory from the Sava and the Danube down to the Gulf of Corinth.

Serbian chant followed the Byzantine system of eight modes and included both syllabic and melismatic settings of hirmos, troparions, kontakions and other hymns. Some were composed as text and music together (idiomela); some melodies were taken as models (automela) for settings of other texts (prosomoia). After the defeat of the Serbs by the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, manuscripts were made to preserve Serbian chant — including compositions by Stephen the Serb, Nicholas the Serb and Isaiah the Serb — in middle Byzantine neumatic notation.

During the Turkish occupation, which lasted until the 19th century, Serbian church music had to continue largely in secret. Many manuscripts were kept at the monastery of Chilandar on Mount Athos, which had been established by Emperor Stefan Nemanjić (1166–1196), founder of the ruling dynasty. These manuscripts have late Byzantine neumes and texts in Greek, Greek Slavonic, Russian and Church Slavonic, including texts from the liturgies of Serbian saints (St Simeon, St Sava etc.). The manuscripts are from the 18th century (sticherons from the oktōēchos) and are akin to Greek, Bulgarian and Russian sources of the period.

Secular music was cultivated at the courts of the emperors and noblemen. Stefan Prvovenčani, the son of Nemanjić, had musicians playing the gusle and kettledrum in his service and Stefan Dušan's musicians were the trumpeter Dragan of Prizren, Preda and the blind Hrusa. Musicians from the courts of Serbia, Bosnia (where King Tvrtko II, d 1443, had a band of dancers, instrumentalists and actors), Hercegovina and Montenegro all played in Dubrovnik. Some indication of their activities may perhaps be gleaned from frescoes in Serbian churches and monasteries (Bogorodica Ljeviška, Nagoričane, Dečani), miniatures, icons in Byzantine style and reliefs (at Dečani and Kalenić).

The Great Migration of Serbs under Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević in 1690, and later migrations into southern Hungary, led to changes in church music. Greek and Russian chant schools were founded — Greek from 1721 in Belgrade and other towns, Russian from 1726 in Sremski Karlovci and elsewhere — and the Serbs accepted Church Slavonic in their liturgy. Also, Ukrainian teachers introduced the Baroque style of western Europe in songs and incidental music. Four songs in Russian square notation were copied into a luxury manuscript, Pozdrav Mojseju Putniku (‘Respect to Mojsej the traveller’), whose author, the engraver Zaharije Orfelin (1726–85), may well have been their composer. During the same period, Serbian dramas and oratorio-like works were performed with music in Boka Kotorska.

2. 1800–1914.

The Classical and Romantic styles had their Serbian representatives. Kornelije Stanković (1831–65) was the first to use traditional music and the first to transcribe Serbian chant into staff notation in his Pravoslavno crkveno pojanje u srpskoga naroda (‘The Orthodox Church chant of the Serbian people’, 1862–4).

From the 1880s onwards, Serbian composers, especially those living on the borders of Austria-Hungary, wrote music for Serbian plays and choral societies, employing traditional music and expressing a nationalist ideology. The most original of them was Stevan Mokranjac (1856–1914), who studied in Munich, Rome and Leipzig. His works include choral pieces (Rukoveti, ‘Handfuls’, 1883–1909), church music and editions of traditional music and chant. With the Beogradsko Pevačko Društvo (Belgrade Choral Society) he gave concerts all over Europe between 1894 and 1899. His contemporary Josif Marinković (1851–1931) studied at the Prague Conservatory, conducted the Obilić choir, and wrote songs, choral pieces and church music. Among many Czech musicians who espoused the Serbian cause, Robert Tolinger (1859–1911) was editor-in-chief of the first Serbian musical magazine, Gudalo (‘The bow’, 1886–7). The Slovenian Davorin Jenko (1835–1914) also contributed to the development of Serbian music with his choruses and incidental music.

The leaders of the next generation were Stanislav Binički (1872–1942) and Isidor Bajić (1878–1915). Binički conducted the first Belgrade performances of major choral works (Haydn’s Creation in 1908, Beethoven's Ninth in 1910) and directed the choir of the Muzičko Društvo Stanković (Stanković Music Society) and the Muzika Kraljeve Garde (Music of the Royal Guard). His opera Na uranku (‘At Dawn’) shows the influence of verismo, Serbian and Asian traditional song; he also wrote songs and choral pieces. Bajić was editor of the Srpski muzički list (‘Serbian music magazine’, founded 1903), published the music of Serbian composers in his Srpska Muzička Biblioteka (Serbian Music Library, 1903–4) and founded a music school in Novi Sad in 1909. His works, showing similar influences to Binički's, include the opera Knez Ivo od Semberije (‘Prince Ivo of Semberia’, 1910), songs and piano miniatures.

3. Since 1914.

Between the two world wars Belgrade's musical culture, as represented by its opera house, concert season and music magazine (Zvuk), was thriving and there were composers to match. Those continuing a late Romantic style included Petar Stojanović (1877–1957) and Milenko Paunović (1889–1924); among those who used traditional elements within the same tradition were Petar Kristić (1877–1957) and Kosta Manojlović (1890–1949).

Other composers of this period developed the national style in more modern directions. Petar Konjović (1883–1970) studied in Prague, and followed Janáček in the brilliant orchestration and speech-like melody of his operas. Miloje Milojević (1884–1946) studied in Munich and France as well as Prague, so that Impressionist and Expressionist tendencies emerged in his music, the former in his much loved song collection Pred veličanstvom prirode (‘Before the Magnificence of Nature’, 1982), piano and orchestral pieces. Stevan Hristić (1885–1958) was also a Romantic Impressionist in his opera Suton (‘The Dawn’, 1925) and his ballet Ohridska legenda (‘The Legend of Ohrid’, 1947) is a classic of the national school. Josip Slavenski (1896–1955), a Croat who lived in Belgrade from 1924 onwards, used Balkan (Balkanofonija, ‘Balkanophy’ 1927) and Asian traditional music in his best works. Younger composers who remained within the national tradition included Marko Tajčević (1900–84), Mihailo Vukdragović (1900–86), Milenko Živković (1901–64), Predrag Milošević (1904–88) and Vojislav Vučković (1910–42).

Musical life took another step forward after World War II. Certain singers, instrumentalists, ensembles and choirs began to gain a reputation outside Yugoslavia, and a new creative spirit emerged in the works of Stanojlo Rajičić (b 1910), Milan Ristić (1908–82), Dragutin Čolić (1907–87), Ljubica Marić (b 1909) and Nikola Hercigonja (b 1911). Ristić's much awaited nine symphonies (1941–76) broke with the national style and took on neo-classicism; Čolić more radical than his colleagues, composed quarter-tone music and used 12-note methods in combination with tonality; Marić found inspiration for her primeval expressions in the Serbian past (cantata Pesme prostora, ‘Songs of Space’; the cycle for various settings Muzika oktoiha, ‘The Music of Octoëhos). But national Romanticism continued to thrive, alongside more contemporary styles (neo-classicism, serialism and later the colour-field music of the Polish school). Composers of a more conservative persuasion included Vojislav Ilić (b 1912–99), Dragutin Gostuški (b 1923–98), Kosta Babić (b 1927), Dušan Kostić (b 1925), Vasilije Mokranjac (1923–84) and Vlastimir Peričić (b 1927). Enriko Josif (b 1924), Dušan Radić (b 1929) and Dejan Despić (b 1930) embraced neo-classicism in various ways, while Vitomir Trifunović (b 1916) and Aleksandar Obradović (b 1927) moved from national Romanticism to 12-note and electronic music.

Younger composers who have similarly interested themselves in new techniques include Petar Ozgijan (1932–79), Slobodan Atanacković (b 1937), Zoran Hristić (b 1938) and Vuk Kulenović (b 1946). Rajko Maksimović (b 1935) evokes ancient Serbia by means of archaic modality; Milan Mihajlović (b 1945) works with Skryabinesque and other modes; and Vlastimir Trajković (b 1947) has used modes from other traditions and from Messiaen. Vladan Raovanović (b 1932), Srđan Hofman (b 1947) and Zoran Erić (b 1950) made electronic music.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MGG2(Z. Blažeković)

P. Konjović: Ličnosti [Personalities] (Zagreb, 1920)

M. Milojević: Muzičke studije i članci [Musical studies and articles] (Belgrade, 1926–53)

P. Konjović: Knjiga o muzici srpskoj i slovenskoj [A book of Serbian and Slavonic music] (Novi Sad, 1947)

P. Konjović: Ogledi o muzici [Essays on music] (Belgrade, 1965)

D. Stefanović: ‘The Serbian Chant from the 15th to 18th Centuries’, Musica antiqua Europae orientalis: Bydgoszcz and Toruń 1966, 140–63

V. Peričić,D. Kostić and D. Skovran: Muzički stvaraoci u Srbiji [Musical creators in Serbia] (Belgrade, 1969) [with Eng. summary]

S. Đurić-Klajn: A Survey of Serbian Music through the Ages (Belgrade, 1972)

D. Stefanović: Stara srpska muzika: primeri crkvenih pesama iz XV veka [Old Serbian music: examples of church songs from the 15th century] (Belgrade, 1974–5) [in Eng., Serbo-Croat]

Z. Kučukalić: Romantična solo-pjesma u Srbiji [Romantic song in Serbia] (Sarajevo, 1975) [with Eng. summary]

D. Stefanović: ‘Serbian Church Music through the Centuries’, Beiträge zur Musikkultur des Balkans, ed. R. Flotzinger (Graz, 1975), 128–38

M. Bergamo: Elementi ekspresionističke orijentacije u srpskoj muzici do 1945 [Elements of expressionistic orientation in Serbian music before 1945] (Belgrade, 1980) [with Ger. summary]

Kornelije Stanković i njegovo doba: Belgrade 1981 [summaries in Eng., Ger.]

D. Petrović: Osmoglasnik u muzičkoj tradiciji Južnih Slovena [Oktōēchos in the musical tradition of southern Slavs] (Belgrade, 1982) [with Eng. summary]

D. Petrović: ‘Crkveni elementi u srpskom narodnom obrednom pevanju’ [Church elements in Serbian ritual folksongs], Balcanica, xiii–xiv (1982–3), 463–78

R. Pejović: Predstave muzičkih instrumenata u srednjovekovnoj Srbiji [Musical instruments in medieval Serbia] (Belgrade, 1984) [with Eng. summary]

Folklor i njegova umetničke transpozicija [I]: Belgrade 1987 [summaries in Eng., Fr., Ger., Russ.]

Folklor i njegova umetnička transpozicija II: Belgrade 1989

Folklor i njegova umetnička transpozicija III: Belgrade 1991

Srpska muzička scena: Belgrade 1993 [summaries in Eng., Fr., Ger.]

M. Veselinović: Stvaralačka prisutnost evropske avangarde u nas [The European avant garde in our country] (Belgrade, 1993)

Folklor i njegova umetnička transpozicija IV: Belgrade 1997

R. Pejović and others: Srpska muzika od naseljavanja slovenskih plemana na Balkansko poluostrvo do kraja XVIII veka [Serbian Music from the settling of Slavonic tribes at the Balkan Peninsula to the end of the XVIII century] (Belgrade, 1998) [with Eng. summary]

Yugoslavia

III. Traditional music

1. Serbia.

2. Montenegro.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(ii) Musical instruments.

1. Serbia.

(i) Vocal music.

(iii) Instrumental ensembles.

(iv) Dance.

(i) Vocal music.

Traditionally songs are sung by girls and women without instrumental accompaniment. The playing and making of musical instruments is largely the work of men. Songs are performed in two ways: monophonically and polyphonically, the latter mostly diaphonic. Songs may be divided into three categories: traditional (or rural), ‘new’ and urban. The most frequently performed songs today are love songs. Religious and traditional songs are gradually dying out because of rapidly changing social and economic conditions in rural areas.

(a) Traditional song.

Songs of a religious nature were usually sung to ensure the well-being of the community. They included Christmas carols (koledarske), songs sung on the eve of Lazar's Saturday (lazaričke), Pentecostal (kraljičke) and rain songs (dodolske), and they were sung to accompany simple, ritual dances. According to popular belief, these songs would ensure fertility and the renewal of the flora and fauna. They were sung in a specific order, during the first half of the year, from the winter to the summer solstice. Until recent times, these songs and dances continued to be performed in many villages, especially in the eastern and southern parts of Serbia.

During the winter, around Christmas, singers and masked dancers called koledari would for several days go from house to house in a village, singing Christmas (koledarske) songs to ensure the health and prosperity of the household. The masked dancers, with their characteristic dances and zoomorphic masks, symbolized the struggle between good and evil and the triumph of light over darkness that heralded the beginning of the new calendar year. Meanwhile groups of male singers, a shepherd and then a ploughman, would sing antiphonal lyrics. The dancers would usually perform in the house around the fireplace.

The week before Easter, on Lazar's Saturday (Willow Day), a group of village girls (singers and dancers) would visit each house, singing Easter songs (lazaričke) to invoke a bountiful harvest and good health for the head of the household and all its members. A similar custom of song and dance called kraljičke would be performed by girls of marriageable age. They would visit each village in their area during Pentecost and sing ritual songs.

If the summer has been very dry, girls gather together to summon up rain. They walk slowly through the village, stopping at each house to sing a set song. The smallest and youngest girl (called a dodola, ‘rainmaker’), adorned in greenery, constantly dances on the spot. The villagers will pour water over her in the belief that it will rain soon afterwards. In return for the ritual, the woman in charge of the household usually presents the participants with food and a variety of the fruits that are in need of rain.

The many other kinds of songs, which were not strictly associated with any particular time of the year, were performed mainly by girls. Of these, the most well known are wedding songs, followed by those that are sung during funerals. Wedding songs (svadbene pesme) were usually sung in the bridegroom's and bride's houses, for a few days before, during and after the wedding. The songs would vary according to their subjects and purpose and also according to the singers, who were called pevice, svadbarice or endje depending on whether they were related to the bridegroom or were friends of the bride. During the wedding ceremony, songs called svatovske were popular. They would be sung on the way to bride's house or as the bride was being taken back by the bridegroom's parents to their house. Similar wedding songs were intended primarily for the newlyweds, but also for other prominent people present at the wedding (the godfather, brother-in-law, wedding witness or the parents). The melodies were either monophonic or polyphonic and varied by region (ex.1, ex.2 and ex.3) .

When somebody dies, it is still traditional in many parts of Serbia to ‘wail’ (kukati), ‘cry’ (plakati), ‘lament’ (naricati) or sing laments (tužiti) for the deceased. The mourning of the deceased is the responsibility of the women members of the family or of the closest relatives. During the funeral songs, called tužbalice (‘laments’), a simple melody and suitable content are improvised according to an established model. In Serbia they are not called songs, they are known as ‘keening’ (kukanje) and ‘crying’ (plakanje) for the deceased.

The strižba, also known as šišano kumstvo, is a family celebration and ritual for a newborn child's first haircut. This is an ancient rite carried out by the child's godfather, the šišani kum. The striženje (‘shearing’) consists of the godfather smearing the child's locks with wax, cutting them off and presenting them to the parents for safekeeping. When he is finished, the godfather immediately places a new cap on the child's head. It is believed that in this way the child will be protected throughout its future life from evil spells and the Devil. Throughout the ritual, girls sing a shearing song (strižbarska pesma). Another common type of family song are lullabies (uspavanke), with simple melodies and improvised subject matter and form.

Girls would also sing while looking after the livestock, especially during the summer. In those parts where the population worked the soil, songs were sung during the harvest. The melody was usually sung with long drawn-out tones, and the song would unfold slowly with pauses. When two or three girls completed a verse with a cry, they would be echoed by the cries of the other girls. The songs were ballads that lasted a long time, during which the young men gathering the harvest would be allowed to rest (ex.4 and ex.5).

Song texts about many different subjects may be sung to a common melody or ‘voice’. ‘Voices’ are groups of notes that combine to form a melody in a particular verse form. Voices may be manipulated to derive related melodies from the original. Different texts, performed u glas or na glas (a loud, full-voiced melody sung in the open air), of the same genre and with the same metric structure may be fitted to these melodies. Wedding songs may also be sung like this (ex.1, ex.2 and ex.3). A voice can be identified by its geographical origins (zlatiborski, moravski, dragačevski), and its basic type can be determined according to whether it is ‘long’ (dugačak) or ‘short’ (kratak). When long tones predominate in the individual syllables of the text (usually in diaphonic singing), the song is performed na dugački glas (ex.1, ex.4 and ex.5), and when the syllables of the text are sung with short note-values, then the song is sung na kratak glas.

In order to start singing u glas, the singers assemble in pairs of the same gender and usually of the same age and height. In the western regions, two women or two men sing together, or in groups of three. In the eastern regions only two or three women ever sing together in order to achieve a uniform timbre of voice which is especially valued, known as ‘beautiful singing’ (lepo pevanje).

Songs sung alone are called samačke pesme (‘songs for a single person’). In Southern Pomoravlje, as well as in Kosovo and Metohija, all songs are sung monophonically, sometimes in a group (ex.2, ex.8 and ex.9). In western and eastern regions, where diaphonic singing is more widespread (ex.2, ex.4 and ex.5), the role of the singer is restricted and defined. The leading voice is defined by a special terminology. It can either ‘recite’ (izgovoriti), ‘pronounce’ (izreći), ‘cut in’ (usjeći) or ‘carry’ (zanositi). It is said that the accompaniment ‘chases’ (goni), ‘interrupts’ (presjeca) or ‘deepens’ (dube). These terms distinguish between the leading and accompanying parts in a polyphonic structure. In order to sing these songs polyphonically and in unison, the singers practise them from childhood. The posture of the singers differs with gender. For example, while singing, women join hands, held at chin height, and nod their heads towards each other. Men prefer to put their arms across each other's shoulders or to hook their thumbs into their waistcoats.

A stylistic feature of two-part singing is the dominance of the 2nd. The 2nd most frequently occurs at the intersection of voices, and is especially emphasized towards the end of the song, before the cry (ex.4 and ex.5) and in the cadence (ex.1). In practice a particular singing technique, exclusive to women, is used. They squeeze their throat or clench their front teeth, leaving their mouths half open, boosting the timbre, dynamism and volume of the sound. Other common characteristics of traditional singing are: heterophony, often with a drone (ex.1 and ex.5); an indeterminate beginning; and, in the case of wedding and harvest songs, ‘shouting’.

(b) ‘New’ songs.

The main difference between traditional songs (which played an important and significant role in the rural community) and the ‘new’, predominantly love songs, is in the emphasis given to the individual. In keeping with this is the genre of two-part ‘bass’ singing. It is thought that this form of singing originated in the Serbian areas of Vojvodina towards the end of the 19th century, and by the beginning of the 20th century it was being heard in other Serbian regions. Although today songs are sung in the new two-part form in many villages, the form does not exist at all in Kosovo and Metohija.

Instead of the above-mentioned predominant 2nd or drone, the ‘new’ singing style emphasizes the bass part, introducing elements of western European harmony, and adopts the term pevanje na bas or ‘singing in bass’ (ex.3 and ex.6). The new stylistic feature of this form lies in the fact that the melodic and bass parts start in parallel 3rds and finish on a 5th. Because the accompanying voice is less mobile, this gives rise to transient harmonies in 2nds and 4ths. Further harmonies are formed when a middle voice is separated from the accompaniment (ex.6). The concept of ‘voice’ has been retained, defining a fixed melody (designated by the term ‘aria’), with the rule that it can only be used with verses that possess the same metric structure. Singing ‘in bass’ allows the song to be started by a single singer, with the others or the accompaniment joining in after two or three bars, or one verse. The bass part, which is sung by five, six or more people, frequently overpowers the melody of the soloist, to the extent that only the bass part is heard (ex.7). Women and men separately sing ‘in bass’ in the same way. Antiphony between groups of men and women is also common, usually at gatherings called sedeljke.

(c) Urban song (gradska pesma).

A characteristic of urban songs (gradske pesme) is that they may be sung to instrumental accompaniment. Certain songs are the work of well-known singers and composers. They are characterized by their wide melodic scope (of an octave or more) and a melody consisting of similar rhythmic-melodic models and disassembled trozvuka with clearly noticeable harmonic functions (tonic–subdominant–dominant–tonic). The form of the songs is more complex and is based on a melodic stanza of four verses. Some songs sung in cities of the southern regions possess elements (e.g. augmented 2nds and aksak ifranji rhythm) akin to the Turkish makam (ex.8 and ex.9).

(d) Accompanied song.

Epic poems accompanied by the gusle are found in Serbia and Montenegro. The singing of epic poems is traditional throughout many parts of Serbia, especially in western regions inhabited by people of Dinaric origin. The singer, also the player, called a guslar, plays in unison with the song. Following a short instrumental introduction the guslar begins to sing, reciting the melodic verses, interspacing them from time to time with short instrumental interludes (ex.10). The songs are tetrachordal and have a single melodic formula which is continuously varied. The main verse is the ‘epic’ or ‘heroic’ asymmetric decasyllable (4 – 6) with parlando rubato rhythm. At one time songs were sung by joining non-rhyming decasyllables. However, modern singers tend to use a rhyming decasyllabic or octosyllabic distich. Equally, the old vocal technique and intonation used to have an irregularly tempered chromaticism, whereas more modern epic poetry has a more diatonic recitation. Medieval subjects and subject matter are greatly cherished by older guslars. The most common themes are those about the struggle for liberation from the Turks and those regarding events from the recent national past. Alongside epic poems, in certain parts of Serbia (around Kosovska Mitrovica and Ivanjica), women perform wedding songs while turning a copper pan.

(e) Structure.

Rural and urban songs are based primarily on different types of verseline and rarely on text. The basic verse of Serbian traditional song has ten syllables. Its metric structure (4–6) is most often asymmetric (ex.1, ex.2, ex.4, ex.5, ex.6 and ex.7). However, songs of eight syllables also occur, usually as a symmetric octosyllable (4 – 4). Verses and stanzas are formed through the repetition of verses or their parts. Units are frequently formed by combining identical or contrasting musical sections, i.e. either AA or AB. ABA form is not at all common and any greater complexity depends on the way the text is repeated (ex.1, ex.4 and ex.7). Most religious and traditional songs are structured from a single verse with no rhyme (ex.2 and ex.3). A refrain is also common. The rhyming distich is a recent occurrence, adopted under the influence of artistic poetry. Songs of urban origin usually have a complex form (AABBBB), based on a rhyming quatrain.

Rhythmically, Serbian traditional song falls into two broad categories, either parlando rubato or giusto syllabic rhythm. The first is characteristic of songs in which words are freely linked to the melody (ex.1, ex.2, ex.3, ex.4 and ex.5), while the other is characteristic of songs accompanied by dance. A particular asymmetric rhythm (aksak ifranji) is sometimes initiated by the tempo or is a remainder of Turkish influence (ex.8).

In vocal music the melodic structure of Serbian song is formed by a group of several tones, of which the tonic is usually the second degree. It is theoretically possible to define two basic tetrachords: f–g–a–a (ex.1, ex.4 and ex.5); and f–g–a–b (ex.2, ex.3 and ex.7). The first is characteristic of the older type of songs with intervals that have irregular temperament. Otherwise, the majority of Serbian songs usually has a small ambitus, and they are sung in accordance with the diatonic scale.

Traditional melodies in Serbia also possess other tonal formations, ‘scales’, which can be found in urban songs and are considered to be of foreign origin: e.g. g–a–b–c–d–e (ex.8), g–a–b–c–d–e–f, g–a–b–c–d–e–f (ex.9). The majority of melodies have gradually descending intervals (na korak or ‘in steps’), but urban songs have greater intervallic jumps, which favours their western European harmonization (ex.9). In urban areas with Muslim populations (Sandžak, Kosovo and Metohija), an augmented second is used in the melody as the nucleus of the ‘oriental tetrachord’ (ex.9).

(ii) Musical instruments.

(a) Aerophones.

Today the most numerous group of instruments in Serbia is that of aerophones. The frula is a short, cylindrical shepherd's flute (25–30 cm), with six holes and, as the most popular instrument in Serbia, it can be found in (almost) every region and even in cities. Another flute, the duduk, has a longer pipe (40–50 cm), six holes and is more usually found in mountainous areas. The cevara is similar to the duduk (c80 cm) and is well known as a shepherd's instrument. It has seven holes on the front and an eighth hole on the back. The cevara also has four additional holes (glasnici) in the lower end to amplify sound. All these single-pipe flutes are made by village craftsmen from different woods (e.g. plum, ash, dogwood). The dvojnica is a double flute made from a single piece of wood and can be short or long (30–45 cm). The holes are arranged with three on the left and four on the right pipe. They are played in a style similar to traditional two-part singing. The kolo, a traditional dance, is usually performed to the music of a frula or similar instrument (ex.11), while songs and improvisations are played on the dvojnica (ex.12). The dvojnice, which used to be found in eastern regions of Serbia and further afield in the mountainous areas of the Balkans and Carpathians, had six holes in one pipe, while the other pipe served as a drone.

Single reed aerophones are less common. Those instruments that are handcrafted (e.g. the karabica, a kind of frula made from cane or elder wood) are used mostly by children in Serbian villages, who often make them themselves. They also make somewhat different kinds (paljka, surla, karabe), fashioned from elder wood or long pumpkins, with several holes on the front. These instruments are used to entertain the villagers during autumn celebrations (sedeljke), where the young people sing and dance.

The gajde is a bagpipe used to play polyphonic songs and dances (see illustration.). Two-part gajde have a single chanter, eight holes and a longer drone. Different types are found in different regions: the small gajde in eastern areas; the middle-sized gajde in southern areas (ex.13); and the smallest gajde found in the south-west. A distinguishing feature of the two-part gajda is that the chanter has five holes and is the same length as the drone. On three-part gajde the chanter consists of two pipes. There are five holes on the first pipe and a single hole on the second, which permits two-part playing; another large, long pipe produces a deep drone (ex.14). There are two types of three-part gajde: a middle-range gajda from eastern and western Serbia and a large gajda from Vojvodina. Large gajde use manual bellows to fill the wind-bag, instead of a mouth-pipe. The gajda player is called gajdaš or gajdar; in the Banat area they are called svirac (‘player’). The player may also sing to the accompaniment of the gajde, which is often done at weddings. Today gajde serve as accompaniment to dances, though they were once used during wedding ceremonies in those areas where they are commonly found.

Shawms (oboes) have a double reed and conical bore. Some are made from bark spirally wound in the shape of an elongated cone and are used in Serbian villages as seasonal instruments. During spring nights shepherds play these instruments by the sheepfold, in the belief that their music will protect their flock from disease. More complex shawms, called zurle (similar to the Turkish zurna), are used by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija.

The bark trumpet is also seasonal and is made by shepherds from the bark of the lime tree, forming two hollowed-out hemispheres 2·5–3·5 m long. A copper and wooden mouth-piece (mundstuck) is then plugged into the narrow end. Every year, on St George's Day (Djurdjevdan), the shepherds fashion their wooden trumpets, which they call rikalo or bušen. They then play signals and melodies in the belief that this will influence the fertility of their sheep and cattle and protect their herd from disease (ex.15).

(b) Chordophones.

The gusle is a single-stringed chordophone that is used to accompany epic or heroic poetry. It is thought they were used by singers of epics at the feudal courts of medieval Serbian kings. Nowadays each player, called a guslar, crafts his own instrument, usually from maple wood. By comparing the resonating chambers, called varjače (lit. ‘ladles’), of different gusle, a number of types can be identified: the Serbian gusle, with a chamber shaped like an elongated rhombus; the Montenegrin gusle; and the Hercegovinian gusle with a similar pear-shaped resonant chamber. The gusle has a skin with a number of apertures stretched across the resonant chamber. A single string runs across a wooden bridge and along the entire length of the body, which merges into the back. The string of the gusle is made from approximately 40 thin strands of horsehair. The headstock of the gusle is characteristically fashioned in the likeness of a horned animal and has a wooden peg located in the lower part. The bow is short and arched. Before beginning to play, the guslar tunes his instrument to his voice; he sings sitting on a chair with his legs crossed, holding the gusle at an angle across his knee. In the 19th century every household in Serbia possessed its own gusle and singer.

The ćemane is another chordophone similar to related instruments (e.g. the lira) in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece. The ćemane can be found in south-eastern parts of Serbia. The earliest representation of this instrument is portrayed on a fresco from the 14th century in the monastery of Dečani. Modern players fashion ćemane from a single piece of wood. They have a pear-shaped body and a short neck with a number of pegs. The resonating chamber is covered with a thin board made from the wood of a fir tree and has two semicircular holes in the middle. The bridge can accommodate three or four metal strings and is supported from below by a small column. The bow is similar to that of a doublebass. The first string is stopped with the finger-nail. Ćemane are used to accompany lyric songs, though more often as accompaniment to folk dances.

The violin and tambura are also used in Serbian traditional music. The earliest historical records show that Gypsies used the violin in the 18th century in certain places in north-western Serbia, while the tambura as it is today was used in Vojvodina no earlier than the 19th century. These instruments are now used mainly by urban ensembles and orchestras.

(c) Membranophones and idiophones.

A number of membranophones (the snare drum, daff, tambourine and darabukkah) are commonly found in Kosovo and Metohija. Included among the membranophones is the ćupa. This is a type of friction drum made from a clay cup covered on one side with a membrane. In the centre of the membrane there is a narrow opening through which passes a narrow reed or leather strap that the player rubs to generate sound. The role of this instrument was to make noise during carnivals. Idiophones of a variety of shapes and names are made and used by village children (e.g. the ergtalka, a button on a string).

(iii) Instrumental ensembles.

Many musical instruments, especially the various types of flutes, are not absolutely tuned and their tone ranges often have an irregular temperament. However, because of a tendency to use such instruments, especially the smaller flutes (frule), in folk orchestras, they are now tuned alike during the manufacturing process. Many instruments such as the trumpet, clarinet, flute, saxophone, guitar and violin are used in a variety of combinations in so-called ‘folk orchestras’.

Instrumental ensembles appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. Their evolution and composition depended on the number of players, the availability of different instruments and on inherited traditions. Up until the 1960s and 70s, many small village orchestras (Šumadija, Pomoravlje) existed, which were composed exclusively of stringed instruments (two or three violins, viola and doublebass). In some parts of Vojvodina, there are four-part tambura orchestras (of prim, bas-prim, terc-prim and veliki bas), with up to ten members. Popular village brass bands existed in a number of Serbian regions, formed from a variety of trumpets (often Flügelhorns) and the later addition of a drum with bells and a small drum called doboš. Such village orchestras in eastern, western and southern Serbia have been encouraged by the competitive Dragačev Trumpeters’ Fair in Guča (Dragačevski sabor trubača u Guči). From the 1950s to the present day, numerous orchestras of a heterogeneous composition have sprung up in many urban centres, including not only amateurs but also professional musicians.

(iv) Dance.

Ethnochoreographers have recorded a large number of folk dances in Serbia. These include regionally differing kolos with different choreography, with odd or even beats. Their names usually relate to the manner of dance, origin or region where they are to be found (e.g. banatsko kolo, moravac, banjski čačak, sverkvino kolo, pop-Marinkovo kolo, leskovačka četvorka).

Ritual dances used always to be accompanied by song. Gradually, however, songs are being replaced by instrumental accompaniment. The main function of instruments in Serbia today is to accompany traditional dances. As is the case with songs, instrumental accompaniment can be provided by a single player or by a group. Until recently, the musical accompaniment of dances was provided by flutes (frula, duduk, cevara and dvojnica) or by the gajda, when they were available.

2. Montenegro.

(i) Vocal music.

The Montenegrin vocal tradition is based principally on single-part and polyphonic singing. Single-part forms are widespread and include laments for the deceased, called tužilice or tužbarice. These are usually the responsibility of women, although men also take part on certain occasions. The verse melody is called a tužbalica, through which the living address the deceased. There are many forms of laments, from the melodically simple octosyllabic verse (4 – 4), to the ornamented 12 syllable verse (4 – 4 – 4). Basing her performance on a traditional melodic model, the tužilica creates a ‘story’ about the deceased. The deceased is mourned from the time of death until burial; also after 40 days, six months, a year and during subsequent years on the day of the person's death. Women can sing laments individually, one after the other, or as a pair taking turns. A solely male form of expressing grief is known among Montenegrins as lelek, a kind of condensed story recited in prose about the deceased person and their life. The remaining genres of single-part songs are lullabies, songs for kolos, wedding songs and love songs.

Two forms of polyphonic, mainly diaphonic, singing exist in Montenegro, which might be termed old and new. While the old form predominates across a greater area, the newer form is encountered usually in the Bay of Kotor and along the Montenegrin coast. The old style (‘out of the voice’ or iza glasa, ‘vocal’ or glasački and ‘shouting’ or izvika) is characterized by melodic elements of small ambitus with irregular temperament, and sometimes with ornamentation, which is more suited to the female voice and therefore occurs more frequently in songs performed by women (ex.16). A particular tremolo ornamentation occurs in male singing (ex.17). Most older songs use heterophony. In these the soloist and the accompaniment seem to begin both the melody and its ornamented version simultaneously, resulting in characteristic 2nds (ex.18). A large number of Montenegrin songs are similar in terms of melody and singing style to those in western Serbia. This is not surprising, since Montenegro and upper Hercegovina have supplied Serbia with new populations for centuries. Apart from melodic similarities and a method of heterophonic singing, these songs also share similar lyrics.

New forms of singing are found in urban areas, especially in the larger towns. These single-part songs usually have a wide ambitus (particularly love songs, Podgorica and Kotor, which differ from rural songs in their rhythm) as well as having western European harmonic characteristics. The new two-part singing style with its homophonous structure is related to songs that are sung ‘in bass’ in Serbia. Where the soloist and accompaniment are clearly separated, the singing is in parallel 3rds with a cadential 5th (ex.19). Three-part singing is very similar to the polyphonic singing found in coastal and island towns in Dalmatia.

Song forms in Montenegro mainly have a two-part structure (ex.18). The complex songs characteristic of urban environments have greater repetition of verse lines. The structure of Montenegrin traditional song is very similar to Serbian song.

The rhythm of a song depends on the metric complexity of the verses, which generally use (as do Serbian songs) the symmetric octosyllable (4 – 4; ex.16) or the asymmetric decasyllable (4 – 6; ex.17 and ex.18). If the melopoetic structure is restricted by a dance (oro, songs for kolo) then the giusto syllabic rhythm predominates. In songs of different genres, for example in laments, the performance is mainly parlando rubato. Traditional Montenegrin singing, especially two-part singing, has irregular temperament and is based on small tonal groupings. Intonation in a song can be stable, but more commonly individual tones are varied by up to 1/4 of a degree. Sometimes the entire ambitus of a two-part song with four tones falls into a major 3rd. The division of singers according to gender continues to be respected. If young men and women take part together, which is most frequently the case in songs for the kolo, then singing is antiphonal. Such songs are sung as accompaniment to dancing during communal outdoor celebrations (sjednik) at which village youths gather during the winter months.

(ii) Instrumental traditions.

In the mountainous parts of Montenegro, where the people's main livelihood is cattle-raising, the most common instruments are flutes that closely resemble the Serbian frula or dvojnice. The six-hole frula is widespread, ranging from 15–20 cm to 60 cm in length. In the northern mountainous regions of Montenegro, towards the border with Serbia, double flutes, dvojnice, are also in use, and although they are very similar to Serbian dvojnice they are considerably larger. When an improvised shepherd's tune is played on them, it is reminiscent of the old form of Montenegrin and Serbian singing, with a two-part heterophony and drone structure (ex.20).

In the mountainous region of old Montenegro, the diple, a kind of double flute, is most commonly used. The diple is a shepherd's instrument with a single reed and consists of a wind-bag attached to a double chanter and a set of bellows. A chanter similar to the double flute is made from a single piece of wood and has six holes in each pipe, set parallel to each other. There also exists a type of diple without the wind-bag, called zumara, made from canes fastened together with a short piece of horn at the lower end. The players, called diplari, play in the mountains while looking after their flocks, sometimes for two or three hours without interruption. The diple also served as a means of communication between shepherds in the mountains, who would send each other messages (dojave).

Traditionally, the use of aerophones in Montenegro has been limited to the shepherds, as in Albania. The Albanians have adopted another shepherd's instrument, the kaval. This is a long flute without a mouthpiece, identical to the instrument of the same name used by Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija. Montenegrin children make simple single-reed instruments from pieces of straw or cane (in the vicinity of Lake Skadar). In the spring, the children make a kind of shepherd's pipe, called svičak, from thin twigs of willow or ash.

The only chordophone in Montenegro is the gusle (see §1(ii)(6) above). Nowadays they are found in every household, both in the countryside and in towns. Even today the singing of epic poems is an everyday occurrence; guslars are greatly respected and frequently invited to celebrations, where they are treated as honorary guests. A gusle is ‘struck’ or ‘bowed’; it is also said that one sings to a gusle, but plays a flute, duduk or diple.

(iii) Dance.

Montenegrins have always danced the oro without musical accompaniment. The basic types of Old Montenegrin kolos are known as: crnogorsko (the Montenegrin), zetsko (from the old name for Montenegro, Zeta) and crmničko kolo. They are most frequently performed with alternate parts sung in dialogue. There are also different kinds of dances, called skoke (without musical accompaniment), mlado momče (with singing) or dances from Piva, as well as ‘songs for kolos'. The kolo Bokeljske mornarice, (lit. ‘the Fleet of the Bay of Kotor’) is performed every year in Kotor on the day of St Tripun, on 14 February, and is accompanied by the city orchestra.

3. Kosovo and related Albanian musical traditions.

Albanians comprise approximately 6% of the population of Montenegro and roughly 90% of that of Kosovo (Albanian: Kosova), an autonomous province within Serbia. Over 90% of Yugoslav Albanians are Muslim, while the rest are Roman Catholic; virtually all are north Albanians.

In Montenegro and western Kosovo, rural communities have maintained musical practices much like those in the northernmost regions of Albania. Young girls have been among the most active vocalists in these mountain districts, singing specific songs for each stage of the wedding ceremony, as well as for seasonal holidays such as Shingjergj (St George’s Day). Frequently they accompany their singing on frame drum (def or daire). One musical genre unique to this region is the kângë çobaneshave (‘song of the sheperdesses’), sung by girls in the Podgur and Rugovë districts of Kosovo. These songs are executed in a style known as me gisht në fyt (‘with finger on throat’), where each girl uses her thumb to vibrate her larynx while singing. A second local style is the narrow-range, two-part polyphony of girls’ songs from the Opojë district of Kosovo.

Throughout Kosovo links to Ottoman musical practices are evident in newer styles of rural music, and a few songs are sung to well-known Turkish tunes. The most popular men’s instruments in lowland areas have been long-necked lutes such as the two-string çifteli and the larger sharki, which generally has five to seven strings tuned in three courses. Families hosting weddings have often hired semi-professional ensembles of men who sing and play these two instruments, perhaps supplemented by violin, fyell (short end-blown flute) and accordion. These ensembles have customarily alternated long, formulaic historical songs with dance tunes and shorter love songs

For weddings and major religious holidays, families of Roma (Gypsy) musicians have also been contracted to perform. Roma women have sometimes been asked to sing, and perhaps also dance, for women’s wedding gatherings. More frequently, Roma men have been hired to play zurle (double-reed pipe) and lodër (or tupan, two-headed bass drum). In addition to dance melodies, zurle-lodër ensembles have performed medleys of listening music called nibet (from Arabic nawbah) for male wedding guests, as well as lively melodies for Turkish wrestling and other men’s athletic contests.

As in Albania, urban musicians in past decades incorporated features of Ottoman and western European music into their repertories. Songs from Kosovo as well as northern and central Albania have been performed frequently, accompanied by a small acoustic ensemble (çallgi) or its amplified counterpart. In the early 20th century, musicians in Gjakovë (Serbian: Đakovica) developed a distinctive repertory of songs, accompanied by an ensemble of violin, accordion, bugari (four-string lute), mandoll (mandola), 12-string sharki and def. In recent decades the most celebrated singers in this style have been Qamili i Vogël and Mazallom Mejzini.

In the decades following World War II, Albanians in newly socialist Yugoslavia gained considerable cultural autonomy. Priština, (Albanian: Prishtinë), the capital of Kosovo, became home to both an institute of Albanian studies (Instituti Albanoligjik) and the professional ensemble Shota, which showcased folk music and dance of all ethnic groups in the province. Amateur folklore ensembles participated in festivals throughout Yugoslavia, including the Gllogovc festival of village folklore held each year outside Priština. Many hours of folk music (muzika popullore) were broadcast by radio and television stations, while cassettes recorded in Priština were widely distributed in Albanian areas. Recordings of songs in rural style, accompanied by a large ensemble of more than one çifteli, sharki and def, plus other instruments, came to define a distinctive Kosovo sound that was also popular in Macedonia and Albania. As a strong sense of national identity increased among Yugoslav Albanians, singers popularized a number of highly evocative patriotic songs that served as rallying points for the expression of communal sentiments. By the mid-1980s, young Kosovo musicians were also recording albums of Western-influenced rock music.

Beginning in 1989, Kosovo’s autonomous status was rescinded, leading to the closing or dissolution of schools, institutes and other cultural organizations. Recordings of folk and popular music in Albanian were no longer produced or broadcast by the state media, leading to the development of a private recording industry funded largely by the Kosovar Albanian diaspora. As a result of these events, a number of Kosovo musicians have emigrated to western Europe or North America, where they now perform for large expatriate communities. Any re-emergence of a fully public Albanian musical life in Kosovo awaits a resolution of the political situation there.