Bromantic Singing: Madrigals and Authenticity

By: (Andrew Dell’Antonio, University of Texas at Austin) // It’s been a common schtick among music history teachers to tell our students that sixteenth-century Italian and English madrigals are not the wholesome, jolly songs about shepherds, nymphs, and fa la la they learned to sing in high school. Ultimately, they’re about sex. Amused at having …

How It’s Meant to be Heard: Authenticity and Game Music

By: William Gibbons (Texas Christian University) // I never thought I would be listed as the “Dungeonmaster” in a concert program, much less for one of the world’s leading wind symphonies. Nevertheless, that was my title last March, when The Dallas Winds generously invited me to provide some on-stage commentary during a live concert of video …

Adapting Flutes: Authenticity, Ingenuity, and Accessibility

By: Andrew Dell’Antonio (University of Texas at Austin) // In a genius-composer-centric tradition, a lot of ink is spilt over finding performance approaches that are "faithful" to the composer's intentions. One of the crucial components of this concern, beyond identifying the most accurate score (the "urtext") is the choice of instrumentation: timbre is such a …

Intentional Inauthenticity: Performing Disabled Bodies, Disabled Bodies Performing

By: Andrew Dell’Antonio (University of Texas at Austin) // Operatic bodies, like the sounds they dramatize, are generally meant to be beautiful. But like other cultural forms, opera is also used to explore society's concern with the abnormal, its fear of and fascination with bodies that deviate from a culturally framed “ordinary.” Music-and-disability scholar Blake …

Sweet Torment over Four Centuries

By: Andrew Dell’Antonio (The University of Texas at Austin) // In 1623 Carlo Milanuzzi, a Venetian musician, released a “greatest hits” songbook—or at least a book of songs he hoped would be recognized as popular, since this was long before broadcasters established Top 10 lists. A highlight of the collection was a tune attributed to …