Estelle Joubert
Estelle Joubert received her DPhil from Oxford as a Clarendon scholar in 2007, was a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto from 2007-2009 and joined Dalhousie in 2009. Her research focuses on music, affect and politics in early modern Europe. In particular, she is interested in music's engagements with neurophysiology to effect political change, opera’s canonic entanglements and music in the global early modern period. Her forthcoming monograph, German Opera and the Politics of Sensation, 1750-1815, makes that case that eighteenth-century operatic genres were designed to play a crucial role in the formation of modern liberal-democratic ideals. She is also principal investigator for a large-scale study entitled Opera and the Musical Canon, 1750-1815 funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant (2015-2019). As principal investigator for this project, she is developing a data visualization tool entitled Visualizing Operatic Fame, a graph database powered by neo4j. With David R.M. Irving, she is co-editing A Cultural History of Music in the Age of Reason and Enlightenment (1600-1790), Vol. 4 (of 6) in A Cultural History of Music (New York and London: Bloomsbury Press).
Joubert has served as assessor for various research granting agencies, including SSHRC, FRQ (Fonds de recherche du Québec), DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), and FWF (Austrian Science Fund). She held a Balzan International Research Visitorship at the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford (Trinity term 2014) and was a Visiting Research Scholar at the Department of Music, UC Berkeley for 2015-2016.
Joubert has served as assessor for various research granting agencies, including SSHRC, FRQ (Fonds de recherche du Québec), DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), and FWF (Austrian Science Fund). She held a Balzan International Research Visitorship at the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford (Trinity term 2014) and was a Visiting Research Scholar at the Department of Music, UC Berkeley for 2015-2016.
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Books by Estelle Joubert
ISBN: 9781350075573 (print); 9781350075580 (online)
A Cultural History of Western Music in the Age of Enlightenment covers the period from 1650 to 1790, a time of radical social and cultural transformation. Alongside the splendor of performances in courts and opera houses, novel forms of musical culture—such as public concerts and music journalism—emerged in many urban centers. Advances in science encouraged the development and use of new musical sounds and technologies. Increased exploration and trade enhanced knowledge of other cultures, but the expansion of colonialism and slavery had far-reaching repercussions for Western music. At the same time, the Enlightenment’s philosophical focus on what it means to be human recast the purpose of music: sound became the expression of the self. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Western Music presents the first comprehensive history from classical antiquity to today, covering all forms and aspects of music and its ever-changing social context. The themes covered in each volume are society; philosophies; politics; exchange; education; popular culture; performance; and technologies.
Introduction: Musicking in the Age of Enlightenment 1–38
David R. M. Irving and Estelle Joubert
1. Society: Music and Community 39–62
Estelle Joubert
2. Philosophies: Making Sense of Vibration 63–80
Roger Mathew Grant
3. Politics: Music and the Law 81–100
Rebekah Ahrendt
4. Exchange: Musical Transactions Around the World 101–126
David R. M. Irving
5. Education: Forming Musical Identities 127–148
Stephen Rose
6. Popular Culture: Let’s Use Scare Quotes 149–172
Elisabeth Le Guin
7. Performance: On and Off the Page 173–198
Geoffrey Burgess
8. Technologies: Musical Media of Enlightenment 199–223
Rebecca Cypess
Collaborative Research Projects by Estelle Joubert
Refereed Articles and Book Chapters by Estelle Joubert
In this chapter, I posit that Lepage’s idea of augmenting the singer’s space with interactive technology has catapulted opera into a new realm, one that brings opera into dialogue with digital technology. Despite its shortcomings, the production holds enormous potential to open up areas for innovation that truly fuse computer science with opera. To explore some of these possibilities, I offer a brief description of the technology itself. Subsequently, I offer ideas on a conceptual framework for augmented space in opera. Drawing on new media theorist Mark Hansen’s Bodies in Code, I explore the idea of the ‘framing function’ of the human body to direct the audio-visual narrative as it unfolds on the operatic stage. I also point to the potential of new media art installations for staging subjectivity in opera. Finally, I suggest that immersive technologies allows for a new experience of the geography of operatic realms. Ultimately, the possibilities of augmented space for opera, set in motion by Lepage’s Ring Cycle, are likely to unfold rapidly in a realm beyond Regietheater.
o provide some insight into flows of material culture between European courts, and between court and music criticism, ultimately assessing the impact of an increasingly international knowledge exchange on aesthetic debates regarding music around 1800.
Keywords: German opera, singspiel, romanze, central finale, gesture, J.A. Hiller, A. Schweitzer, K. von Dittersdorf.
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Composed in what was called the German Volkston (in the manner of the Volk), Hiller’s melodies are recorded as being sung and played throughout the streets and parks of major German cities and became so popular that they became known as folksongs. This idea of the Volk as a collective entity and of the Volkston, however, was rooted in a deeper sense of the public as nation. Inspired by Le devin du village and J. J. Rousseau’s writings on politics, language and the fine arts, Weisse and Hiller’s operas employ the pastoral mode, in which idealized peasants sing in the manner of a folksong. The idyllic simplicity of these early German-language comic operas appealed to a diversified German audience by affirming their roots, the public use of their language and their morally upright character as a nation. Thus comic opera as a genre was circulated within the public sphere with the intention of transcending the boundaries of social class to unite the German nation in song."
Reviews by Estelle Joubert
ISBN: 9781350075573 (print); 9781350075580 (online)
A Cultural History of Western Music in the Age of Enlightenment covers the period from 1650 to 1790, a time of radical social and cultural transformation. Alongside the splendor of performances in courts and opera houses, novel forms of musical culture—such as public concerts and music journalism—emerged in many urban centers. Advances in science encouraged the development and use of new musical sounds and technologies. Increased exploration and trade enhanced knowledge of other cultures, but the expansion of colonialism and slavery had far-reaching repercussions for Western music. At the same time, the Enlightenment’s philosophical focus on what it means to be human recast the purpose of music: sound became the expression of the self. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Western Music presents the first comprehensive history from classical antiquity to today, covering all forms and aspects of music and its ever-changing social context. The themes covered in each volume are society; philosophies; politics; exchange; education; popular culture; performance; and technologies.
Introduction: Musicking in the Age of Enlightenment 1–38
David R. M. Irving and Estelle Joubert
1. Society: Music and Community 39–62
Estelle Joubert
2. Philosophies: Making Sense of Vibration 63–80
Roger Mathew Grant
3. Politics: Music and the Law 81–100
Rebekah Ahrendt
4. Exchange: Musical Transactions Around the World 101–126
David R. M. Irving
5. Education: Forming Musical Identities 127–148
Stephen Rose
6. Popular Culture: Let’s Use Scare Quotes 149–172
Elisabeth Le Guin
7. Performance: On and Off the Page 173–198
Geoffrey Burgess
8. Technologies: Musical Media of Enlightenment 199–223
Rebecca Cypess
In this chapter, I posit that Lepage’s idea of augmenting the singer’s space with interactive technology has catapulted opera into a new realm, one that brings opera into dialogue with digital technology. Despite its shortcomings, the production holds enormous potential to open up areas for innovation that truly fuse computer science with opera. To explore some of these possibilities, I offer a brief description of the technology itself. Subsequently, I offer ideas on a conceptual framework for augmented space in opera. Drawing on new media theorist Mark Hansen’s Bodies in Code, I explore the idea of the ‘framing function’ of the human body to direct the audio-visual narrative as it unfolds on the operatic stage. I also point to the potential of new media art installations for staging subjectivity in opera. Finally, I suggest that immersive technologies allows for a new experience of the geography of operatic realms. Ultimately, the possibilities of augmented space for opera, set in motion by Lepage’s Ring Cycle, are likely to unfold rapidly in a realm beyond Regietheater.
o provide some insight into flows of material culture between European courts, and between court and music criticism, ultimately assessing the impact of an increasingly international knowledge exchange on aesthetic debates regarding music around 1800.
Keywords: German opera, singspiel, romanze, central finale, gesture, J.A. Hiller, A. Schweitzer, K. von Dittersdorf.
"
Composed in what was called the German Volkston (in the manner of the Volk), Hiller’s melodies are recorded as being sung and played throughout the streets and parks of major German cities and became so popular that they became known as folksongs. This idea of the Volk as a collective entity and of the Volkston, however, was rooted in a deeper sense of the public as nation. Inspired by Le devin du village and J. J. Rousseau’s writings on politics, language and the fine arts, Weisse and Hiller’s operas employ the pastoral mode, in which idealized peasants sing in the manner of a folksong. The idyllic simplicity of these early German-language comic operas appealed to a diversified German audience by affirming their roots, the public use of their language and their morally upright character as a nation. Thus comic opera as a genre was circulated within the public sphere with the intention of transcending the boundaries of social class to unite the German nation in song."