https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/issue/feed 2026-02-02T12:41:00+00:00 Madalina RUCSANDA, PhD, Assoc. Prof. editor.but@unitbv.ro Open Journal Systems <h2>Journal description</h2> <p>The journal is placed under the academic cover of the Faculty of Music from <em>Transilvania</em> University of Brașov, Romania, and it is an international academic publication, in which articles are published in languages of international circulation: English, and French.</p> <p>The high academic level of the journal is ensured by double-blind peer-review evaluation by two renowned specialists in the field, from the country and/or abroad.</p> <p>The Journal is indexed in EBSCO Publishing DataBase (<a href="http://webbut.unitbv.ro/public/site/documents/admin/a9h-subject.xls">http://www.ebscohost.com/titleLists/a9h-subject.xls</a>), from 2009, CEEOL (<a href="http://www.ceeol.com/search/journal-detail?id=898">http://www.ceeol.com/search/journal-detail?id=898</a>), from 2011, Crossref (<a href="https://search.crossref.org/">https://search.crossref.org</a>), from January 2019, and ERIHPLUS from 2024 (<a href="https://kanalregister.hkdir.no/publiseringskanaler/erihplus/periodical/info.action?id=502086" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://kanalregister.hkdir.no/publiseringskanaler/erihplus/periodical/info.action?id=502086</a>).</p> <p>Publication in the journal is free for all authors. Open-access (OA) articles are published under Creative Commons licenses (CC BY). These provide an industry-standard framework to support easy re-use of open-access material.</p> <h2>Aim and Scope</h2> <p style="text-align: justify;">The main purpose of this journal is to present the most recent findings in music studies, directed at increasing the understanding of how music is perceived, generated, and represented.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The journal invites established researchers, specialists in the music field, as well as young researchers, to take part in the construction of a space for debate in the humanities, to engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue within the music-related domains of empirical musicology, psychology, sociology, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. The journal presents academic perspectives that investigate a variety of challenges in the following fields:</p> <ul> <li>Musicology</li> <li>Music Education</li> <li>Performing Arts</li> <li>Ethnomusicology</li> <li>Anthropology</li> <li>Music Therapy</li> </ul> <p style="margin: 0cm; margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: right;" align="right"><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI','sans-serif';">Senior-editor,</span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: right;" align="right"><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI','sans-serif';">Madalina RUCSANDA</span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm; margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: right;" align="right"><span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI','sans-serif';"><a href="http://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read more</a></span></p> https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11303 2026-01-30T09:11:12+00:00 Florin Balan florin.balan@unitbv.ro

The evolution of jazz over time is an inevitable phenomenon! From an analytical point of view, the resulting forms and compilations have a special weight. The perception and vision of jazz instrumentalists is different, related to age, experience, or personal approach to the elementary notions of expression of specialized language. All these particularities lead to creative progress necessary for artistic development, and the legacy left by the previous creators of the styles is used as an inexhaustible pool of inspiration and creativity. His own vision regarding the interpretive stylistic approach, the ways of reevaluation, reharmonization, reconstruction of the standard reference pieces of tonal, modal, atonal, free jazz, etc., leads to the appearance of the metatonal, which represents nothing more than the modern stylistic compilation of the legacy left, reported, and in accordance with current artistic claims/requirements. The resulting surprises inspire new creative solutions beneficial to artistic evolution. Each success has its charm and particularities, following the possibility of re-expression in a certain (new) context, meaning a (new) step towards a (new) evolutionary step.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11304 2026-01-30T09:21:33+00:00 Amalia Szucs Blanaru amaliablanaru@yahoo.fr

One of the characteristics of twentieth-century music is the renewal of the tradition of connecting mathematics, both in the creative and analytical processes. In Romania, a notable example is the path from musical thinking (Anatol Vieru's The Book of Modes) to mathematical thinking (Dan Tudor Vuza) and back to musical creation in the form of compositional technique. Vuza starts with the idea that operations from set theory can be applied to periodic rhythms and define classes of rhythms, leading to a mathematical description of polyrhythmia. From here to the musical composition of periodic or infinite canons, there is only one step. We will be analysing two works by Violeta Dinescu—Cronicari (2023) and Vuza Canons (2020)—and one by Mihaela Vosganian—Balinese Interferences on Vuza Canons (2024). Rhythmic canons, defined by the mathematician Dan Tudor Vuza, have great creative potential and can be integrated into a wide variety of musical works.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11305 2026-01-30T09:34:12+00:00 Ionut-Sabin Bogdan sabin.bogdan@hotmail.com Madalina Dana Rucsanda m_rucsanda@unitbv.ro

The concept of originality, which constitutes today the legal foundation of authors’ rights in music, has undergone a complex evolution throughout European history. Emerging from the collaborative and non-proprietary practices of the Baroque period to the challenges posed by artificial intelligence in the twenty-first century, our understanding of the “original musical work” has transformed greatly over time. This paper analyses the conceptual metamorphosis of musical originality through the lens of historical development, exploring how philosophical, economic, and technological changes have shaped the contemporary legal foundations of intellectual property in music.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11306 2026-01-30T09:59:52+00:00 Andreea Bratu andreea.bratu@365.univ-ovidius.ro

Sight-reading represents one of the most complex yet under-taught skills in piano education. While its importance is universally acknowledged, most instructional contexts continue to prioritize performance memorization and technical mastery over real-time reading fluency. This paper reviews recent research on the cognitive, motor, and pedagogical mechanisms underlying sight-reading, identifies gaps in current curricula, and proposes a set of applied strategies grounded in the author’s pedagogical experience. These include cultivating inner hearing, multi-stave ensemble reading, kinesthetic keyboard mapping, and contrapuntal reading beyond linear limits. The discussion integrates cognitive models, empirical findings, and practical exercises to strengthen musical literacy through instantaneous musical representation and embodied reading.

2025-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11307 2026-01-30T10:20:41+00:00 Maria Chifu mariachifu81@gmail.com

This study explores artistic improvisation as a vital mode of creation across music, theatre, and dance, where spontaneity and structure coexist to generate meaning in real time. Far from representing an absence of rules, improvisation relies on a flexible internal grammar rooted in listening, intuition, and presence. In music, improvisation evolves from the Baroque tradition, exemplified by Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, and continuo practice, through Classical and Romantic innovations by Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, and Chopin, to the 20th-century emergence of jazz and the avant-garde, where indeterminacy becomes a compositional tool. The Romanian context mirrors this evolution, from Enescu’s interpretative freedom to contemporary experimental scenes integrating jazz, electronic, and free improvisation. In theatre, improvisation functions as both pedagogy and performance, from Commedia dell’Arte to the work of Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Grotowski, Brook, Spolin, and Johnstone. In Romania, improvisational practices expanded after 1970 and flourished in post-1990 independent theatre. In dance, improvisation manifests as instantaneous composition informed by spatial and bodily awareness, shaped by figures such as Duncan, Laban, Paxton, Forsythe, and Halprin; in Romania, it gained prominence after 1990 through contemporary choreographers. Across all disciplines, improvisation balances freedom and order, fosters interaction, and privileges presence, ultimately revealing artistic creation as a living, unrepeatable process.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11308 2026-01-30T10:32:11+00:00 Catalin Cretu catalin.cretu@unmb.ro

The paper explores, in a contemporary manner, dynamic and interactive ways of triggering, generating, and transforming sound using an electroencephalograph. It describes the methods, musical strategies, and specially designed algorithms, illustrating the possibilities for creative approaches in artistic endeavors – stage music and performance – from the author's work.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11309 2026-01-30T10:37:44+00:00 Leonard Dumitriu leonard.dumitriu@unage.ro

The year 2025 marks the centenary of a momentous event in the academic and musical life of the Czech Republic: the awarding of the degree of Doctor honoris causa by Masaryk University in Brno to eminent composer and thinker Leoš Janáček. Following a list of other musicians who have received this esteemed academic honor, the article discusses Janáček's background and achievements, recounts the conferment ceremony, and provides a succinct analysis of the speeches made during the occasion. The events for the centenary celebration, which were held in Brno in the fall of 2024 and the winter of 2025, are mentioned in the article's conclusion.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11310 2026-01-30T10:42:58+00:00 Sebastian Felea sebastian.felea@e-uvt.ro

One of the essential dimensions of human spirituality is the relationship with the sacred sphere and it has always been expressed in music. The sound organization of music composed and performed under the sign of sacredness is as diverse as the multitude of conceptions related to divinity. This study analyses the relationship between the different syntactic patterns of sacred music materials that serve as a sign (representamen) and spiritual realities for which they stand for (object) with reference to practical implications and conceptual space in which they are described (interpretant). The analysis of Islamic, African, and European cultures will reveal the association and interdependence between different worldviews and specific syntactic patterns.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11311 2026-01-30T10:52:08+00:00 Emilia Giol (Calefariu) emiliacalefariu@yahoo.com

Classical music has, from the beginning, been an evolutionary art form through an interplay of various cultural influences and technical development. Considering these aspects, managing cross-cultural artistic projects and collaborations in Romania’s classical music events represents an intricate tapestry of opportunities and challenges, requiring a very fine and detailed understanding of cultural dynamics, artistic vision, and strategic management. The current research explores the multifaceted aspects of such cultural collaborations, offering different considerations regarding the processes, benefits, challenges, and potential pitfalls of engaging in cross-cultural artistic endeavours within the Romanian classical music landscape. The rich historical and cultural intersections on the Romanian territory offer numerous examples for the research.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11312 2026-01-30T11:01:15+00:00 Eduardo Alejandro Gonzalez flautisimo@gmail.com

This paper explores the pedagogical applications of extended techniques in contemporary flute performance and their contribution to a modern flute school. Originating in the avant-garde of the 20th and 21st centuries, these techniques redefine sound production by emphasizing timbre, texture, and unconventional articulation. Their study requires a balanced approach that combines traditional training with experimentation and acoustic awareness. The paper underscores the value of collaborative learning through composer instructions, specialized texts, and practice-based research. It concludes that mastering extended techniques expands the performer’s expressive range and supports a renewed aesthetic and pedagogical perspective in flute performance.

2025-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11313 2026-01-30T11:13:33+00:00 Elena Hebeisen-Mosuc elena.mosuc@bluewin.ch

This article explores the voice in opera as a living musical instrument with a specific sonority, but also as an autonomous character, through the prism of my personal experience as a performer. Starting from my own repertoire in bel canto, Verdi, and Puccini, the analysis highlights how timbre, register, agility, and vocal expressiveness build the identity and psychology of the characters. In bel canto, agility and ornamentation serve to define the lyrical character and outline the scenic contrasts. In Verdi's operas, the voice is used to express drama and inner tensions, while in Puccini's work, emotional intensity and vocal crescendo function as narrative and dramaturgical elements. The voice is configured as a "parallel text" capable of revealing hidden emotions and tensions, capitalising on the interdependence between music and theatre through vocal performances. It becomes an actor, situated between instrument, identity, and dramaturgy.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11314 2026-01-30T11:20:41+00:00 Traian Ichim traianichim@unitbv.ro

This article aims to highlight the essential role of nonverbal communication in the context of the student symphony orchestra, as a determining factor in strengthening artistic cohesion and developing musical skills. Based on a theoretical and reflective approach, the paper analyzes multiple forms of nonverbal expression – gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, posture, synchronized breathing – and their impact on the collective artistic act. Mechanisms of synchronization and expressive adjustment are discussed, as well as the specific challenges of student ensembles, such as heterogeneous experience levels or stage anxiety. The profound pedagogical implications of raising awareness about nonverbal communication are emphasized, with concrete methodological proposals for fostering collaborative musical thinking.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11315 2026-01-30T11:37:06+00:00 I.L. Iosif ucuiosif@yahoo.com I. Oarcea ioan_oarcea@yahoo.fr

This article offers an introductory exploration of the Romanian traditional occasional vocal repertoire through a dual analytical perspective that integrates musicological inquiry with symbolic–archetypal interpretation. Rather than providing an exhaustive analysis, the study proposes a preliminary framework for understanding these vocal creations not only as sonic expressions of community life, but also as manifestations of an archetypal imaginary that structures collective experience. Attention is given to fundamental symbolic images present in lyrics and performance contexts, to outline the coherence between musical structures and mythic–symbolic meanings. The article thus aims to open a methodological pathway for further, more detailed interdisciplinary research on Romanian occasional vocal traditions.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11316 2026-01-30T11:42:33+00:00 Iuliana Isac iuliana.isac@unitbv.ro

The present study starts from the premise that an activity which should be so naturally integrated into children’s lives – accompanying them and supporting their beautiful growth – comes to be perceived as unnatural and uncomfortable for young adults. It should be emphasized that the formation of vocal culture is a continuous, long-term process, beginning with the understanding of the vocal mechanism and leading to its conscious assimilation through the gradual development of vocal technique skills. Choral activity represents an attractive means through which young people are offered the opportunity to develop and express their artistic potential.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11317 2026-01-30T11:47:58+00:00 Titiana Mitrita titianamirita@gmail.com

This study examines the film „Mitrea Cocor” as a representative product of the cultural propaganda in Romania at the beginning of the socialist era, analysing the ways in which literature, cinema, and music were ideologically instrumentalized. At the centre of this research stands the contribution of composer Sabin Drăgoi, one of the pioneers of Romanian film music, whose score combines folkloric language, miniature technique, and the descriptive function specific to the period. The analysis of the manuscript and of the relationship between image and sound reveals the use of music as a narrative, symbolic, and propagandistic vehicle, marked by the predominance of illustrative moments and fragmentary thematic structures. The study also highlights the tension between Drăgoi’s compositional rigor and the ideological constraints of the early 1950s, offering insight into the early development of Romanian film music and the ways in which art was shaped by the political context of the time.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11318 2026-01-30T11:54:10+00:00 Adrian Leonard Mociulschi mociulschi1@yahoo.com

This study explores the continuity between musical structures and neural networks, framing creativity as an oscillation between rules and emergence. It examines how generative systems—mechanical or digital—encode style through combinatorial or probabilistic grammars, from eighteenth-century dice games and Kircher’s Arca musarithmica to convolutional and deep learning models. Using sources such as Musurgia Universalis, Traité de l’harmonie, and Opticks, alongside computational reconstructions, the analysis highlights structural analogies across epochs: stratification, proportio,n and algorithmic logic as shared principles of art and computation. The conclusion argues that algorithmic ecologies redistribute authorship, turning composition into a dialogue between human intention and machine inference. In this technocultural context, music and AI converge as architectures of meaning.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11319 2026-01-30T12:02:45+00:00 James Masila Mutuku jamiza2005@gmail.com

This paper explores how culture is interrelated to music using the Mijikenda kaya songs in Kenya case. The spiritual beliefs, moral values, and social organization of the Mijikenda are represented by the Kaya songs used in the religious ceremonies conducted in the sacred forests and when they hold communal meetings. This paper is an examination of the preservation of cultural identity by the songs, the transfer of indigenous knowledge and social solidarity, and the impact of cultural transformation of urbanization, modernization, and globalization on the performative and interpretative aspects of the songs. Based on ethnomusicological and sociocultural approaches and using oral histories, descriptions of ritual practices, and contemporary reinterpretations, the paper shows how the kaya songs influence and are influenced by the Mijikenda culture. The findings emphasize the value of preserving indigenous musical tradition as an identity and continuity factor as well as a source of social peace in modern Kenyan society.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11320 2026-01-30T12:08:39+00:00 Ion Negrila ion.negrilă@unitbv.ro

Music therapy has become, in the last decade, one of the most robust non-pharmacological interventions dedicated to people with dementia, especially in Alzheimer's disease, due to its ability to restore forms of communication in a context marked by severe language impairment. This paper examines the scientific literature published between 2020 and 2025, integrating data from meta-analyses, randomized clinical trials, qualitative studies, and mechanistic reviews, to clarify how music can function as a therapeutic communication tool. The results converge on the idea that the effectiveness of music therapy derives from the interaction between relatively conserved neurocognitive mechanisms in dementia, robust emotional reactions to musical stimuli, bodily synchronization, and a secure relational framework. Music interventions reduce anxiety, agitation, and depression, improve social connectivity, and allow the emergence of coherent nonverbal communication, even in the advanced stages of the disease. However, the literature highlights methodological limitations such as small samples, variability of protocols, and the lack of standardised tools for assessing communication. Future studies need to develop more rigorous methodologies capable of investigating music as a complex therapeutic language, not just as a global stimulus, and integrating the analysis of micro-sequential interactions and the quality of the therapeutic relationship. Overall, music therapy is emerging as an essential relational infrastructure, capable of rehumanizing the care of people with dementia, restoring the continuity of the self and the possibility of connection despite profound cognitive decline.tag.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11321 2026-01-30T12:28:45+00:00 A. Perez Gomez ailer.perez@unitbv.ro Stela Dragulin dragulin@unitbv.ro

Historical accounts of Cuban music after the 1960s converge on recognizing a group of musicians as key actors in the emergence and development of an avant-garde approach to contemporary art music. While they were predominantly composers, all narratives emphasise the role of the orchestra conductor Manuel Duchesne Cuzán as a crucial figure in disseminating avant-garde discourses to national audiences. As conductor of the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra and founder of the ensemble “Conjunto Instrumental Nuestro Tiempo”, his career included several premieres of new music during the sixties, the seventies, and the eighties. This paper examines this musical trajectory through historical and historiographical approaches, as well as the analysis of a documentary corpus to illustrate the contribution of performers to the process of meaning-making in repertoire and aesthetic movements.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11322 2026-01-30T12:46:48+00:00 Valentina Pomazan vpomazan@univ-ovidius.ro

Tissue relaxation plays a vital role in physical rehabilitation, stress management, and chronic pain relief. This study explores the application of music therapy as a complementary intervention aimed at promoting tissue relaxation through targeted auditory and vibroacoustic stimuli. The intervention integrates singing bowls, sound waves, harmonic layering, and guided breathing exercises to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and reduce muscular tension. A cohort of participants undergoing visceral therapy and stress-related treatments was exposed to customized music therapy sessions over a four-week period. Physiological markers, including blood pressure and skin conductance, were monitored to assess relaxation responses. Subjective feedback was also collected using standardized relaxation and pain perception scales. Results demonstrated statistically significant reductions in muscle tension and autonomic arousal, with participants reporting enhanced physical comfort and emotional calmness. The paper discusses the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying music-induced relaxation, emphasizing the role of entrainment, auditory-motor coupling, and emotional modulation. These findings support the use of music therapy as a non-invasive, cost-effective tool for enhancing tissue relaxation and overall well-being.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11332 2026-02-02T10:21:51+00:00 Marcos Santos mafs@uevora.pt

The tenor voice represents a complex control of muscles, including larynx, tongue, breathing process and vocal cords closure among many others. The schools of teaching the high register have a diverse approach: one more centered in carrying the chest voice and other with less chest voice. The light mechanism in the tenor voice refers to a phonatory strategy characterized by reduced mass and lowered tension in the vibrating portion of the vocal folds, coupled with modifications in vocal tract configuration and glottal adduction, to produce a brighter, more agile timbre, especially in upper tessitura. This mechanism is often opposed to the “heavy” or chest-dominant mechanism, which emphasizes thicker folds, higher glottal closure, and a denser sound. In tenors, transitions such as the passaggio (the region of register shift) demand precise control over this mechanism: research shows that adjustments in epilaryngeal constriction, laryngeal height, jaw and lip opening, and vowel shaping contribute significantly to maintaining continuity of tone and avoiding abrupt breaks. New studies have revealed that the more chest voice you used the heavier and with effort is your emission. But is it through developing head voice with chest mix that helps? This article tries to find an answer by collecting new information and appliance in vocal students and interviews to make a conclusion.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11333 2026-02-02T10:28:45+00:00 Anda Tabacaru andatabacaru62@gmail.com

In opera, music suggests atmosphere, characters, situations, and conflicts in a language of its own and is stylistically determined. In the art of opera performance of the 21st century, there is a noticeable distance, sometimes total, from the intentions of composers and librettists who, in their time, worked particularly closely to create an opera score. Therefore, I considered it necessary to analyze the directorial trends in the art of opera performance of the 21st century, reaching the conclusion that they are contradictory. The study captures these different directions of opera directing today, without the intention of making value judgments or classifications, but mentioning the fact that exaggerated deviations from the initial musical score can generate errors that have nothing in common with an authentic artistic act and an act of culture.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11334 2026-02-02T10:41:05+00:00 Ana Chifu Tarpagkos anachifu@uom.edu.gr

Incorporating modern classical music performance into higher education schools in specific Universities represents another approach to enhancing the artistic perspective of the students and, at the same time, preparing them to meet the expectations of the present musical environment. University music programs usually have students with mixed abilities of instrumental skill and other abilities, as well as familiarity with repertoire of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. There are those with strong classical skills but not having been exposed to extended techniques, and there are those with the more relaxed ambiance of experimentation but lack the technical base to meet established contemporary performances. There are other students who have technical competence but do not know long methods or aleatoric forms. In addition to this, some students may be at ease with new sound realms but have no technical background to keep them occupied in more challenging compositional activities. This paper is aimed at discussing the pedagogical programmes that must and can narrow the gaps in expert knowledge and experience. Through a variety of repertoires, modular classes, guided listening sessions, workshop facilitated by peers, and composer-collaboration, the educationists can develop a difficult and comprehensive environment of learning. The suggested methodologies encourage technical proficiency and, at the same time, creative agency and an artistic inquisitiveness and critical thinking, all of which are the keys to modern performance practice. An adaptable student-oriented model that fits every individual musician to his/her level will help change contemporary music from an intimidating field to music into a friendly and much-needed instrument for each performer.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11335 2026-02-02T10:51:04+00:00 M. Tint marc.tint@unitbv.ro S. Dragulin steladragulin@yahoo.com

This study presents a technical analysis of 120 songs selected from the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles of 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020. Each song was analyzed using iZotope Tonal Balance Control 2 for frequency spectrum distribution across four ranges (low, low-mid, high-mid, high), and Youlean Loudness Meter 2 for integrated loudness, average dynamics (PLR), momentary and short-term loudness maxima, and true peak maxima. Song duration, tempo, and bars & beats were measured using Logic Pro X and its BPM Counter plugin. Nine tables were created to summarize both individual song data and aggregated statistics. Tables 1–4 present the metrics for each of the 120 songs analyzed, while Tables 5–9 provide descriptive statistics—including mean, maximum, minimum, mode range, and anti-mode range—which form the basis for the trends and insights discussed in this study. All songs were legally purchased from Apple Music in m4a format to ensure consistency and accuracy. The purpose of this study is to provide music producers, mixing engineers, and mastering engineers with concrete technical benchmarks, enabling them to achieve songs with professional, chart-ready sound. Tonal balance graphs and numeric targets offer guidance for technical decision-making in production, mixing, and mastering. This analysis focuses solely on technical parameters, without evaluating composition or songwriting.

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts https://webbut.unitbv.ro/index.php/Series_VIII/article/view/11336 2026-02-02T11:02:30+00:00 Petruta-Maria Coroiu petruta.maniutcoroiu@unitbv.ro

No abstract

2026-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 Copyright (c) 2025 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts