88: John A. Rice

Nikhil Hogan Show

Hey everyone, welcome to the Nikhil Hogan Show. I’m really excited to introduce my guest today, Professor John A. Rice.

Professor Rice studied music history under Daniel Heartz at the University of California, Berkeley (PhD, 1987) he taught at the University of Washington (1987–88), Colby College (1988–90), the University of Houston (1990–97), and the University of Texas at Austin (1999). More recently he has been a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh (2010–11) and the University of Michigan (2012–13). He has received grants from the Alexander-von-Humboldt Stiftung, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Philosophical Society. He has written many articles, reviews of books and musical editions, entries in musical encyclopedias and dictionaries, and six books, one of which, Antonio Salieri and Viennese Opera, received the Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society. Other notable books include “Music in the Eighteenth Century” and “Mozart on Stage” by Cambridge University Press.

He has lectured widely in both the United States and Europe. He has served as president of the Mozart Society of America and of the Southwest Chapter of the AMS and as a director-at-large of the AMS. He is an elected member of the Akademie für Mozart-Forschung in Salzburg.

He runs a great YouTube Channel called Settecentista that provides many great examples of Music Schema and other topics. His research can be found on Academia.edu

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1:18 How did you come to your research? 2:00 Studying under Daniel Heartz 2:36 What was considered cutting-edge in music history research in 1987? 3:11 What’s the difference between Opera Seria and Buffa? 4:09 Do these genres stem from nationality? 4:40 How have views on Opera changed from a music history perspective? 5:47 How did Opera relate to popular entertainment in the 18th century? 7:03 On your Antonio Salieri project in Vienna 8:02 On the popular perception of Salieri vs his real standing 9:32 What was the contemporary reception of Salieri? 10:48 Essays on Opera 1750-1800 11:20 Was Opera the dominant popular entertainment at the time? 12:01 What does Settecentista means? 12:20 How did you get into Musical schema? 13:24 How did you find new schema? 14:10 What was the first new schema that you found? 15:20 Did you tell your professor that you named the schema after him? 15:31 The Lully schema 16:28 The Morte schema 16:53 How many times do you have to notice a schema before it becomes important enough to identify? 17:27 How does partimento relate to schema? 18:09 Are there more schema lurking out there yet to be discovered? 19:32 On the few attempts to apply schema analysis to Opera 20:33 Examples in opera where it’s difficult to apply current schema theory 21:45 On the ubiquity of rising lines in Opera, contrasted with the many falling line schemas 22:56 What was instrumental music used for in the 18th century? 24:11 The Monte-Romanesca 25:44 What is the sublime? 26:23 Does the rising nature of the Monte-Romanesca relate to that feeling of the sublime? 26:37 Analyzing the quartet in Idomeneo with schema theory 27:40 What are the limitations of schema theory? 28:27 What’s been the most surprising thing to you about your research? 29:08 Saint Cecilia 29:58 Who was Saint Cecilia and why is she significant? 32:34 Examples of musicians who were the first who started to use her as an inspiration 33:16 What text was used to accompany the music? 34:41 Where was that phrase found? 34:51 Why do you think she resonated with the musicians? 35:08 When did organs appear? 35:57 How widespread was her image? 37:14 Is she still invoked today in liturgy and music? 37:51 What is interesting to you about renaissance music? 38:57 Were musicians of the 18th century well versed in renaissance music and older? 40:36 Wasn’t Mozart more of a harbinger of the newer, more popular style? 41:29 Can you recommend some music that’s not well known but should be because it’s so great 42:27 What about great Operas that should be more known? 43:09 What do you have planned for 2020? 44:10 When will the new book be published? 44:20 Wrapping Up