Hazal Akyaz - Historical Musicology

Historical perspectives on the pedagogical dissemination of Parisotti’s Arie Antiche

This research project investigates the history of Arie Antiche’s pedagogical appreciation, a collection of baroque Italian arias rearranged by Alessandro Parisotti between 1885-98. At present, these anthologies attract the interest of music historians because they represent a romantic revival of an early repertoire. Vocal pedagogy, in turn, is interested in them because it considers them a collection suitable for beginners due to the supposed simplicity of the selected arias. However, none of the existing studies seem to address the reasons for the high pedagogical reputation of Arie Antiche.

The project thus aims to explain both the reception and the canonisation of the anthologies by focusing on the following questions: (1) to what extent did Parisotti's collection help to restore an image of the past, (2) to what extent did the historical authenticity that Parisotti was aiming at play a role in 19th-century vocal pedagogy, (3) what role did the Arie Antiche play in concert repertoires and conservatoire repertoires (until the 1960s), and (4) what features of the Arie Antiche might have supported the creation of a pedagogical canon?

To answer these questions, I will examine the selected arias in their historical-pedagogical context and discern the reasons for their classification as "simple". In doing so, I will draw on 19th-century treatises, as well as early manuscripts/editions and pedagogical songs composed during the Romantic period. In addition, I will identify the most frequently performed songs of the aforementioned repertoires via a descriptive quantitative analysis.

First supervisor: Prof. Dr. Markus Neuwirth, ABPU;

Second supervisor: Dr. Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Hochschule der Künste Bern HKB

Biography

Turkish mezzo-soprano Hazal Akyaz studied singing with Alper Kazancioglu at Dokuz Eylul University (Turkey, 2012–2016) and with Dionisia Di Vico and Antonella Cesari at the Alfredo Casella Conservatory in L'Aquila (Italy, 2016–2019). During this period, she also studied song repertoire with Luisa Prayer and Maria Tomanova, participated in opera studios of Emanuale Di Muro and Enrico Arias, and worked with conductors such as Pavol Tužinský, Aurelio Canonici, and Marcello Bufalini. In the summer of 2022, she completed her studies in Lied and Oratorio at the Franz Schubert Conservatory, Vienna (2020–2022).

In addition, she attended master classes with Wieland Satter, Emma Kirkby, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Susanne Kelling, and Elizabeth Nornberg Schulz as well as workshops in historical improvisation, historical performance practice, basso continuo and rhetoric with Tina Chancey, David Garrik, Andrew Lawrence King, and Rachel Yonck. Further, she took courses in music philology and historiography at the Faculty of Musicology in Cremona and at Unipiams.

She appears on the CD “Omaggio a Giacomo Leopardi nel Bicentenario dell'Infinito. Musica e poesia” (Luna Rossa Classic, 2020) with Paola Ciarlantini’s chamber opera “La storia di Piramo e Tisbe”. Hazal was a scholarship holder of the Canto Vocal Program (Croatia) and worked with Sharon Mohar, Liora Maurer and Lucy Arner. From 2019–2020 she was a teaching assistant at the JAM MUSIC LAB Private University in Vienna. She has been a doctoral student at the Anton Bruckner Private University since 2022.