Yorke Trotter, Thomas Henry

(b London, 6 Nov 1854; d London, 11 March 1934). English teacher and writer. He was educated at Durham School and at New College, Oxford (MA, DMus). In 1905 he became principal of the Incorporated London Academy of Music, where he put into practice a successful system for the musical education of children. This system was based on rhythmic movement and led to extemporization at a very early stage, the practical application of what he considered the two main factors in education – reception and creation. In The Making of Musicians (1914) he formulated a number of principles, six of which adequately summarize his thinking: education must aim to cultivate artistic instincts, feeling should be encouraged before intellect, individual personality must be considered, each thing learnt must lead to the next, all exercises must have musical meaning, and original work should be encouraged. He also conducted first performances in England of Schumann’s Manfred and Mendelssohn’s Athalie.

WRITINGS

with K. Bird: The Rhythmic Gradus (London, 1909, 3/1915)

Constructive Harmony, together with a Book on Form (London, 1911, enlarged 2/1915)

The Making of Musicians (London, 1914, 2/1930)

The Rhythmic Method of Music Teaching (London,1921)

Music and Mind (London, 1924)

with S. Chapple: Yorke Trotter Principles of Musicianship for Teachers and Students (London, 1933)

FRANK DAWES

York plays.

One of the four principal cycles of medieval English religious plays. The York cycle survives in the city's official copy (GB-Lbl Add.35290). The manuscript was copied some time in the period 1463–77, and additions and annotations were made up to the mid-16th century; it apparently represents a mid-15th-century revision of the cycle's 47 plays (a further three were never entered). The plays were enacted on wagons in the city streets up until the final performance some time in the period 1569–75.

Vocal music is required by 30 or more cues spread rather unevenly through the plays. Its main purpose is to represent heaven and, by extension, God's heavenly messengers and earthly agents. A second function of the music is structural, marking entrances, exits and the transition from one scene to another. Where text incipits occur, they can usually be identified as liturgical items, presumably intended to be sung to chant.

In play 45, the Weavers' pageant of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, a heavenly concert defines the beginning and end of the Assumption itself (achieved with lifting machinery) and enhances the sumptuous visual effect. This play, unusually, includes polyphonic settings of three Marian texts, and a second, alternative group of settings of the same texts at the end of the play. One text, ‘Veni electa mea’, is liturgical, but as the settings are not chant-based they seem to have been composed specially for the drama. Both sets are for two boys' voices, but a divisi chord shows that at least four singers were involved; the 12 speaking angels were probably also the singers. The music is apparently the work of one composer and probably dates from the 1440s. Modern-day productions in the streets of York (1992, 1994) have shown the effectiveness of both sets of pieces.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Grove6 (J. Stevens)

J. Stevens: ‘Music in Mediaeval Drama’, PRMA, lxxxiv (1958), 81–95

A.F. Johnston and M. Rogerson: York, Records of Early English Drama, i (Toronto, 1979)

J. Dutka: Music in the English Mystery Plays, Early Drama, Art, and Music, reference ser., ii (Kalamazoo, MI, 1980)

R. Beadle, ed.: The York Plays (London, 1982)

R. Beadle and P. Meredith: The York Play, Medieval Drama Facsimiles, vii (Leeds, 1983)

R. Rastall: ‘Vocal Range and Tessitura in Music from York Play 45’, MAn, iii (1984), 181–99

R. Rastall: Six Songs from the York Mystery Play ‘The Assumption of the Virgin’ (Newton Abbot, 1985)

R. Rastall: The Heaven Singing: Music in Early English Religious Drama, i (Cambridge, 1996)

RICHARD RASTALL

Yoruba music.

The Yoruba people live predominantly in the western state of Nigeria, but there is also a considerable Yoruba population in the central and southern areas of neighbouring Benin, and a lesser population in Togo. The Yoruba of the western state, who acknowledge Ile-Ife as their ancestral and cultural home, are grouped into the subcultures of Oyo, Egba, Egbado, Ijesha, Ife, Ijebu, Ekiti, Ondo and Akoko. At the height of the Oyo empire in the 18th century, most of these groups owed allegiance to the Oyo, a unity that was broken with the collapse of the empire in the 19th century. A more comprehensive and lasting unity developed under British administration and the term ‘Yoruba’, originally used to refer only to the Oyo, became the name for all Yoruba-speaking peoples.

Traditional music.

Yoruba traditional music is marked by an impressive variety of genres, forms, styles and instruments. While this variety is partly a result of the diverse subcultures, much of it is common to Yoruba culture as a whole. The dominant music today is that known as dundun, its title being taken from the name of the set of double-headed hourglass tension drums used for its performance. Other important instruments and ensembles are the bata, a set of double-headed conical drums; the koso, a single-headed hourglass tension drum, similar to the Hausa kotso; the bembe, a double-headed cylindrical drum, similar to the Hausa ganga (gàngáá); the sakara or orunsa, a set of circular frame drums with earthenware bodies; the sekere or aje oba, a set of gourd vessel rattles covered with cowrie nets; the agogo, an externally struck iron bell, which may also be used in sets; the agidigbo, a box-resonated lamellophone; and the goje, a single-string bowed lute, similar to the Hausa goge (gòògè).

Drums are principally used for instrumental performances, but other instruments in addition to those already mentioned are of fair importance. Yoruba is a tonal language, and, as instrumental music has a very strong textual basis, almost every instrumental performance, regardless of the kinds of instruments involved, is based on the tonal patterns of an unverbalized text.

Vocal music distinguishes between orin (song) and oriki (praise-chant). Orin is characterized by its use of discrete pitches, balanced melodic lines, and a preponderance of responsorial forms. Oriki is characterized by its use of a speech-song style of performance, and its division into ijala, iyere, iwi and rara, four types of praise-chant, each identified with a particular voice quality and literary style. Ijala is used by hunters, iyere by Ifa priests concerned with divination, iwi by egungun masqueraders, while rara is a more general type of chant appropriate to a variety of social occasions.

Modern developments.

Since 1900 several new types of music have developed from traditional models, among them apala, sakara and waka, in which traditional instruments, styles and forms are used. Apala and sakara are essentially praise-songs, with instrumental accompaniments that are suitable for dancing. Waka takes its name from ‘wak’a’, the Hausa word for song, and was originally a type of semi-religious Muslim song, but it is now a more general song type used increasingly for entertainment. In another prominent new type of music, Jùjú, the guitar and Western harmonic and melodic patterns are combined with traditional Yoruba instruments and rhythmic idioms. Jùjú is popular in night-clubs, and at marriages and on other social occasions among westernized Yoruba.

Music dramas or ‘folk operas’ first appeared in the 1940s and are an important part of Yoruba musical life. Their style is modelled on that of traditional music, and their dramatic content is often based on historical traditions. The major innovators and exponents of this form have been Hubert Ogunde with Yoruba Ronu, the late Kola Ogunmola with The Palmwine Drunkard and Duro Ladipo with Oba Koso.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

And other resources

E. Phillips: Yoruba Music (Johannesburg, 1953)

K.J.H. Nketia: ‘Yoruba Musicians in Accra’, Odu, no.6 (1958), 35–44

Laoye I. Timi of Ede: ‘Yoruba Drums’, Odu, no.7 (1959), 5–14

A. King: ‘Employments of the “Standard Pattern” in Yoruba Music’, AfM, ii/3 (1960), 51–4

A. King: ‘A Report on the Use of Stone Clappers for the Accompaniment of Sacred Songs’, AfM, ii/4 (1961), 64–71

A. King: Yoruba Sacred Music from Ekiti (Ibadan, 1961)

S.A. Babalola: The Content and Form of Yoruba Ijala (Oxford, 1966)

M.B. Adebonojo: Text-Setting in Yoruba Secular Music (diss., U. of California, Berkeley, 1967)

A. Euba: ‘Multiple Pitch Lines in Yoruba Choral Music’, JIFMC, xix (1967), 66–71

D. Thieme: ‘Three Yoruba Members of the Mbira-Sanza Family’, JIFMC, xix (1967), 42–8

D. Thieme: A Descriptive Catalogue of Yoruba Musical Instruments (diss., Catholic U. of America, Washington, DC, 1969)

D. Thieme: ‘A Summary Report on the Oral Traditions of Yoruba Musicians’, Africa, xl (1970), 359–62

A. Euba: ‘Islamic Musical Culture among the Yoruba: a Preliminary Survey’, Essays on Music and History in Africa, ed. K.P. Wachsmann (Evanston, IL, 1971), 171–81

A. Euba: ‘New Idioms of Music Drama Among the Yoruba: an Introductory Study’, YIFMC, ii (1970), 92–107

F. Willett: ‘A Contribution to the History of Musical Instruments among the Yoruba’, Essays for a Humanist: an Offering to Klaus Wachsmann, ed. C. Seegar and B. Wade (New York, 1977), 350–89

A.M. Abegbite: ‘The Role of Music in Yoruba Traditional Religion’, Odu, xxi (1981), 17–27

M.A. Omibiyi-Obidike: ‘Islam Influence on Yoruba Music’, African Notes, viii/2 (1981), 37–54

A. Euba: ‘The Music of Yoruba Gods’, Essays on Music in Africa (Bayreuth, 1988), 1–30

A. Euba: ‘Jùjú, Fújì and the Intercultural Aspects of Modern Yoruba Popular Music’, Essays on Music in Africa: Intercultural Perspectives, ii (1989), 1–30

A. Euba: ‘Yoruba Music in the Church: the Development of a Neo-African Art among the Yoruba of Nigeria’, African Musicology: Current Trends: a Festschrift presented to J.H. Kwabena Nketia, ed. J.C. DjeDje and W.G. Carter (Atlanta, GA, 1989), 45–63

T. Vidal: ‘The Role and Function of Music at Yoruba Festivals’, ibid., 111–27

C.O. Olaniyan: ‘The Dùndún Master-Drummer: Composer, Arranger and Performer and his Devices’, African Notes, xvii/1–2 (1993), 54–61

B. Olmojola: ‘Contemporary Art Music in Nigeria: an Introductory Note on the Works of Ayo Bankole (1935–76)’, Africa, lxiv (1994), 533–43

C.A. Waterman: ‘Our Tradition is a Very Modern Tradition: Popular Music and the Construction of Pan-Yoruba Identity’, Readings in African Popular Culture, ed. K. Barber (Bloomington, IN, 1997), 48–53

Recordings

Yoruba Women of the Drum, Original Music OMCD 036 (1995)

Yoruba Drums from Benin, West Africa, Smithsonian Folkways CD SF 40440 (1996)

AKIN EUBA

Yoshida, Hidekazu

(b Tokyo, 23 Sep 1913). Japanese music critic. He studied French literature at Tokyo University, graduating in 1936. During World War I he published translations of Schumann's writings (Tokyo, 1942) and of Richard Benz's Ewiger Musikers (Tokyo, 1943). He founded a ‘Music Classroom for Children’ in collaboration with the conductor Hideo Saito and the pianist Motonari Iguchi in 1948, which eventually led to the foundation of Tōhō Gakuen School of Music in 1961. He also co-founded the Institute of 20th-Century Music with Minao Shibata, Yoshirō Irino and others in 1957, which sponsored a series of summer festivals of contemporary music. Meanwhile he began to write actively for journals and newspapers, particularly for the Asahi newspaper. He has published nearly 60 books and translated many others, including Rostand's La musique française contemporaine (Tokyo, 1953), Arthur Honneger's Je suis compositeur (Tokyo, 1953, 2/1970), Bernstein's The Joy of Music (Tokyo, 1966) and Stuckenschmidt's Twentieth Century Music (Tokyo, 1971). He has been awarded a number of prizes for his writing, and the Yoshida Hidekazu Prize was inaugurated in 1991 to commend distinguished journalistic activities in the fields of music, arts and the theatre.

WRITINGS

Yoshida Hidekazu Zenshū [The complete works of Yoshida Hidekazu] (Tokyo, 1975–86)

Sekai no ongaku [Music in the World] (Tokyo, 1950; 2/1953 as Ongakuka no sekai [World of Musicians])

Shudai to hensō [Theme and variations] (Tokyo, 1953)

Nijusseiki no ongaku [Music in the 20th century] (Tokyo, 1957)

Kagaku gijutsu no jidai to ongaku [Period of scientific technology and music] (Tokyo, 1964)

Hihyō Sōshi [A book of criticism] (Tokyo, 1965)

Gendai no ensō [Performances today] (Tokyo, 1967)

Mozart (Tokyo, 1970)

Sekai no shikisha [Conductors of the world] (1973/R)

Ongaku o kataru [Talks on music] (Tokyo, 1974–5)

Gendai ongaku o kataru [Talks on contemporary music] (Tokyo, 1975)

Sekai no pianisuto [Pianists of the world] (Tokyo, 1976)

Ongaku tenbō [Musical views] (Tokyo, 1978–85)

Hihyō no komichi [A path of criticism] (Tokyo, 1979)

Ongaku no hikari to kage [Light and shadow of music] (Tokyo, 1980)

Chōwa no gensō [Fantasy of harmony] (Tokyo, 1981)

Bētōven o motomete [In search of Beethoven] (Tokyo, 1984)

Ongaku: tenbō to hihyō [Music: views and criticism] (Tokyo, 1986)

Opera nōto [Opera notes] (Tokyo, 1991)

Shin ongaku tenbō [New musical views] (Tokyo, 1991)

MASAKATA KANAZAWA

Yoshino, Naoko

(b London, 10 Dec 1967). Japanese harpist. Her family was living in Los Angeles when, at the age of six, she began harp lessons with Susann McDonald, who has been her only teacher. She launched her international career by winning the Israel Harp Contest in 1985, and made her New York début in 1987 and her London début in 1990, when she performed the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto with James Galway. She was awarded the Tokyo Arts Festival prize in 1988, the year in which she began her recording career. On disc, the cool elegance of her interpretation of the classical harp repertory has been balanced by her vividly dramatic performance of contemporary Japanese works by Takemitsu, Toyama and Takahishi.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

W.N. Govea: Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Harpists: a Bio-Critical Sourcebook (Westport, CT, 1995), 303–7

ANN GRIFFITHS

Yosifov, Aleksandar

(b Sofia, 12 Aug 1940). Bulgarian composer. At the Sofia Conservatory he studied composition with V.P. Vladigerov and conducting with K. Iliyev. From 1969 to 1987 he was director of the Balkanton recording company. As an active functionary in communist Bulgaria, he became a representative of the school of socialist realism. His writing, which was generously supported by the state, is typical of the populist mass art of the 1970s and 80s. His endeavours to strike a popular tone are expressed through politicization and a musical language in which song, dance and marching rhythms assume the appearance of extended, through-composed and lavishly orchestrated forms. Yosifov's best-known opera, Han Krum Yuvigi (1981), is based on an historical subject celebrating the centenary of Bulgarian liberation from Turkish rule and the 1300th anniversary of the founding of the nation. Dominated by pathos and a romantic sublimity, the opera is full of striking dramatic effects and has an abundance of scenic contrasts.

WORKS

(selective list)

Stage: Han Krum Yuvigi (op, after B. Banov), perf. 1981

Orch: 3 syms., 1968, 1971, 1973; Conc. for Orch, 1972; Pf Conc., 1972; Conc., 2 pf, perc, str, 1973; Prabulgarskr tanz [Ancient Bulgarian Dance], 1995; Ratchenitsa [Folkdance], 1996

Choral orch: 5 cants., 1964, 1966, 1967, 1971, 1972; Golemiyat byal pat [The Great White Way], orat, 1969; Requiem, 1973; songs and children's songs

Solo songs

MARIYA KOSTAKEVA

Yost, Michel

(b Paris, 1754; d Paris, 5 July 1786). French clarinettist, composer and teacher. He studied the clarinet with Joseph Beer and made his first public appearance in 1777 at the Concert Spirituel. One of the earliest French solo clarinettists, Yost was admired for the beauty of his sound and the precision of his execution. He performed on 38 different occasions at the Concert Spirituel in 1781 and between 1783 and 1786, often playing his own concertos. Although he had no formal training in composition, he had a facility for finding agreeable melodies and brilliant flourishes, which were edited and scored by his friend J.C. Vogel. At least three of his 14 concertos, his Duos op.10 and all his quartets were signed ‘Michel et Vogel’. Although his writing emphasized a fluent technique it was criticized by Gradenwitz as ‘virtuosoship [which] has degenerated into a series of empty roulades’. However, the melody from one concerto was incorporated into one of Cyrille Rose’s 32 Etudes. A clarinet and a flute method by ‘V. Michel’ published in about 1802 were written not by Michel Yost but probably by François-Louis Michel, although the duos in these methods may have been by Yost. His pupils included the influential performer Xavier Lefèvre.

WORKS

Orch: 14 concs, incl. no.9, ed. C. Stevens (Provo, 1963), J. Michaels (Hamburg, 1976); no.10, ed. I. Chai (Baton Rouge, 1984); no.11, ed. P. West (Lincoln, 1991)

Chbr: 48 duos, 2 cl, incl. nos.2 and 4, ed. J. Michaels (Hamburg, 1967), 6 duos, op.5, ed. H. Voxman (London, 1979), 12 kleine Duos, ed. F.G. Holy (Lottstetten, 1992); 12 duos, cl, vn; 12 airs variés, 2 cl; 12 airs variés, cl, va; 3 trios, 2 cl, bn, incl. no.1, ed. H. Voxman (Chicago, 1966); Trio, ed. K. Schultz-Hauser (Mainz, 1968); 27 trios: 3 for 2 cl, vc, 3 for 2 cl, va, 3 for fl, cl, bn, 3 for fl, cl, va, 3 for fl, cl, vc, 3 for cl, hn, bn, 3 for cl, vn, bn, 3 for cl, hn, vc, 3 for cl, vn, vc; 18 qts, cl, vn, va, b; Rondo, 3 cl, bass cl, ed. J. Lancelot (Paris, 1989); op.1, ed. J. Lancelot (Paris, 1994); 12 airs variés, cl, vn, va, b

BIBLIOGRAPHY

FétisB

PierreH

P. Gradenwitz: ‘The Beginnings of Clarinet Literature’, ML, xvii (1936), 145–50

G. Pound: ‘A Study of Clarinet Solo Concerto Literature Composed Before 1850: with Selected Items Edited and Arranged for Contemporary Use’, (diss., Florida State U., 1965)

P. Weston: Clarinet Virtuosi of the Past (London, 1971)

ALBERT R. RICE

Youll, Henry

(b Diss, bap. ? 27 Dec 1573; fl 1608). English composer. Though it is not impossible that he was the son of a musician, Ezekiel Youel of Newark, Canon George Youell has more plausibly suggested that he was the Henry Youll who graduated from Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1593 and who, on his marriage, became a schoolmaster at Eye, near Diss. Before this he may have been tutor in the house of Edward Bacon of Coddenham, near Ipswich, to four of whose sons he dedicated his single publication, Canzonets to Three Voyces (London, 1608, ed. in EM, xxviii, 1923, 2/1968). A Henry Youll ‘Scholar’ was buried at St Benet's, Cambridge, in 1661.

Youll had severe limitations as a composer, having no aptitude for sad or pathetic expression. His models were clearly Morley's three-voice canzonets (1593), although no piece in the volume is structurally a true canzonet, and the last six pieces are balletts. Despite its pallid charm his music lacks the wit and inventiveness of Morley's.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

E.H. Fellowes: English Madrigal Verse, 1588–1632 (Oxford, 1920, enlarged 3/1967 by F.W. Sternfeld and D. Greer)

E.H. Fellowes: The English Madrigal Composers (Oxford, 1921, 2/1948/R)

A. Smith: ‘Parish Church Musicians in England in the Reign of Elizabeth I’, RMARC, no.4 (1964), 42–93

DAVID BROWN

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