Data di Pubblicazione:
2016
Citazione:
The Vindobona Collection of the Universal Edition / F. Finocchiaro. - In: MUSIC AND THE MOVING IMAGE. - ISSN 2167-8464. - 9:3(2016), pp. 38-56. [10.5406/musimoviimag.9.3.0038]
Abstract:
The Vindobona series by Universal Edition is a unique case among
mood music collections for “silent” film accompaniment. It is a collection that,
starting in 1927, published salon orchestra adaptations of music by, to name but a
few, Strauss, Mahler, Schreker, Janácek, Bartók, Křenek, Weill, and Zemlinsky. This
list by itself is enough to make it a document of undoubted historical value—a
document that helps us understand the specificities, as well as the limitations, of
musical Modernism’s reception in the practice of the musical accompaniment for
moving pictures in German-speaking countries.
When it was launched in 1927, the Vindobona was emphatically introduced by
its publisher as the first collection of modern music by modern composers for
film use. Its importance is limited as far as actual musical practice is concerned
on account of evident miscalculations in its editorial design. Nonetheless, the
Vindobona Collection has much to tell us. Its analysis allows us to infer, at least
indirectly, important information about the routine of music for cinema. The Vin-
dobona project reflects, at least in its approach, a series of significant changes in
the aesthetics of cinema presentation and, in general, of the social dimension of
cinema.
This essay considers first of all the structure of the collection and its genesis, on
the basis of unpublished archive materials from the Department of Music of the
Austrian National Library and the Historical Archive of the Universal Edition. It
then moves on to analyze the collection’s editorial goals, before finally evaluating
its particularly problematic relationship with the contemporary practices and ae-
sthetics of cinematic music.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Elenco autori:
F. Finocchiaro
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