The influence of Bel Canto on the 19th-century guitar repertoire.
(2025)
author(s): Nacho Cuadrado
published in: KC Research Portal
This research explores the influence of bel canto, a distinguished Italian vocal style, on 19th-century guitar compositions, with a particular focus on the works of Luigi Legnani. Through detailed analysis, the study identifies key bel canto characteristics, such as expressive phrasing, melodic ornamentation, and dynamic contrasts, as integral elements in Legnani's guitar music. These findings highlight Legnani's skill in adapting the vocal nuances of bel canto to instrumental performance, creating a bridge between vocal and instrumental traditions.
The research enhances the understanding of cross-genre influences in 19th-century music and showcases the artistic versatility of composers like Legnani. To present these findings, the format will include recorded video demonstrations, where specific characteristics of bel canto will be illustrated through selected musical excerpts. These videos will provide a visual and auditory exploration of Legnani’s compositions, allowing audiences to observe the practical application of the research insights.
The combination of spoken analysis and video demonstrations offers an engaging and comprehensive understanding of the influence of bel canto on Legnani's works, enriching the overall appreciation of this unique musical intersection.
Listening to the Body Moving: Auscultation, Sound, and Music in the Early Nineteenth Century
(2017)
author(s): Janina Wellmann
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
This paper explores the sounds of the body in an era before sound could be recorded as sound, the first half of the nineteenth century. Focusing on the French physician René Théophile Laennec’s study of cardiac disease and in particular his use of auscultation, it asks how the early nineteenth century conceived of a sounding living body, specifically how auscultation and body sounds produced new knowledge about the body, health, and disease. I show that Laennec thought of the body and the heart in terms of a musical instrument, and argue that the limits to auscultation’s diagnostic power lay not so much in its inability fully to explain disease as in Laennec’s analogy of body and musical instrument, medical understanding and musical skill. This soon gave way to a new understanding and soundscape of the body, as nineteenth-century physiologists investigated the body with instruments that could penetrate the body ever more deeply.