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Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Hudební Výchova is the property of Charles University Prague, Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 2012, Kenneth N. Waltz has published, in Foreign Affairs magazine, the article “Why Iran Should Get the Bomb,” claiming that nuclear balancing would mean stability and that power begs to be balanced. Ten years later, other proponent of offensive realism, John Mearsheimer, claims that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the West’s fault. The two scholars, with an otherwise excellent reputation and present in all university bibliographies, were harshly criticized for their positions. The abyss between reality and theory was invoked, allusions were made (yet unfounded and unverifiable) to various ideological affinities and the two were said to either invalidate their own theory – maximizing power to eliminate security threats – or that the two they are theoretically and ideologically frozen. This essay is looking both to prove the utility of realism and to shed some light on the two scholars’ approaches, by explaining why they are simultaneously wrong and right. Typically, this sort of stock-taking is an afterthought, taken defensively or as a late inoculation against anticipated criticism. But such an explanation is necessary both to calm blazing spirits and to convince the audience that the theories of international relations are not an asymptotic convergence towards the truth, but a necessary tool for both, researchers and decisional factors.

This article presents a retrospection of India–Pakistan Indus Mediation (1951–1960) that culminated in the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) from the perspective of Waltz's levels of analysis. It argues that apart from the factors at the individual and domestic levels of India and Pakistan, it was the US–USSR Cold War rivalry coupled with the India–Pakistan security dilemma at the international level that goaded the Mediation to succeed. The US sought to resolve the India–Pakistan water dispute as a first step to resolve the Kashmir dispute before the USSR could intervene in the region in the pretext of the Kashmir dispute. The India–Pakistan security dilemma compelled India and Pakistan to accept the offices of the World Bank and sign the IWT in 1960. HIGHLIGHTS The research introduces Waltz's levels of analysis to hydropolitics.; It highlights the role of the international political system in shaping international water policies.; It discusses the role of the Cold War in the success of the Indus Mediation between India and Pakistan.;

In the following article, I will show that Austrian music plays a very particular role in international film and television productions, as well as in Austrian TV productions, that explicitly address the Holocaust and National Socialism, especially when National Socialist violence and perpetrators are represented. On the basis of this observation, I argue that irrespective of the general question of a perceived difference between Austria and Germany, a specific “Austrianness,” which is mediated in many ways via the sound level, has developed into a global pop cultural stylistic device in the characterization of Nazi violence since the late 1970s. This development is analyzed against the background of the role played by Austrian music in the first Austrian films dealing with National Socialism. From this point, I also set off in search of “The Sound of Austria” in Claude Lanzmann’s nine-hour documentary Shoah and the two Hollywood blockbusters Inglourious Basterds and Schindler’s List. What role does the image of Austria as a “country of music” play in these very different films and film genres that deal with the Shoah? How does the approach develop historically and geographically? previous article back to index next article

The Creole waltz is a musical genre practiced in Peru since the end of the 19th century. It has an important function in Valses y otra falsas confesiones (1972) by the Peruvian poet Blanca Varela, a member of the "Generation of '50". Some representative poems of Valses y otras falsas confesiones [Waltzes and other false confessions] are analyzed through the concept of demystification (proposed by Umberto Eco) and the theoretical framework of Stefano Arduini's General Textual Rhetoric. Our central purpose is to state that, for Varela, there are two types of waltz: the criollo and the one that defends marginal groups. Varela demystifies the Creole waltz and, at the same time, formulates another type of waltz that takes the side of peripheral groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Musical Education / Edukacja Muzyczna is the property of Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Behind the scenes of the Congress of Laibach (modern day Ljubljana), a dance form called Deutscher came into existence and for a decade remained, in a specific local version, the most popular dance of bourgeois circles. This paper sheds light on the phenomenon of the Laibacher Deutscher within a broad social and cultural context and political background.

It is widely assumed that Viennese orchestras, especially the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO), possess distinctive qualities in their performance of Viennese waltzes. This article sets out to provide empirical evidence of this hypothesis. Focusing on the parameter of timing, it analyzes the rhythm and tempo in 34 recordings of Johann Strauss II’s The Blue Danube, widely regarded as the best-known Viennese waltz. The results yield the following findings: (1) At the beat level, Viennese orchestras, particularly the VPO, widely employ an uneven 3-beat pattern of “short-long-medium,” whereas non-Viennese orchestras play the three beats with relatively even lengths; (2) at the phrase level, the VPO tends to demonstrate much more rubato, which goes hand in hand with “spiral tempo-dynamic shaping”; (3) at the sectional level, larger-scale and more structural tempo modifications, especially the “long-range accelerando,” are found in the VPO’s recordings. Some of these features seem to be associated less with the conductors than with the orchestra’s own performance practice. In addition, the choreographic factors and the gala circumstances of the Vienna New Year’s Concert may also play a role in the stylistic distinctiveness of Viennese orchestras.

To evaluate competitive ballroom dancing, one of the official events of the World Games, spin movements used by advanced dancers who ranked high in actual competition may be employed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the kinematic characteristics of spin movements in competitive ballroom dancing performed by world champion couples, especially holding posture and lower limb movements. A champion couple and 13 national-level competitive ballroom dancers as the control group participated in this study. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) system (MVN Link; Xsens, Netherlands) consisting of 17 IMUs, attached to feet, shanks, thighs, pelvis, sternum, head, upper arms, forearms, and hands of the dancers, was used to obtain three-dimensional kinematic data at 240 Hz. The overall trend was that the actual and normalized stride lengths of the champion male and female dancers tended to be longer than those of the male and female dancers in the control group. Further, large differences were observed in the pelvic and rib cage segments movements, and the relative angle of the rib cage segment to the pelvic segment. The champion male dancer started to move from the pelvic segment, whereas the champion female dancer and the national-level top male and female dancers started to move from the rib cage segment. During the spin movement, the champion male dancer was in a position where the rib cage segment was rotated to the left with respect to the pelvic segment, whereas the other dancers were in a position where the rib cage segment was rotated to the right. Although limited to technical aspects, these dance kinematic characteristics of the world champion couples and their differences from those of the control group dancers, will be helpful to competitive ballroom dancers and coaches in their daily practice.

Copyright of ARTS: Artuklu Journal of Art & Humanities is the property of Mardin Artuklu University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present essay will discuss the work of Austrian film director Willi Forst. Active in Austria and Germany from the early 1930s to the end of the 1950s, Forst has been commonly regarded as one of the great names in the history of German-speaking cinema. In discussing the influence of Austria’s culture on Forst’s work, this essay will seek for an element of Forst’s affinity for it in the aesthetics and ideology which informed Forst’s oeuvre.

The article is dedicated to the piano creativity of Ogtay Rajabov, a brilliant representative of the 20th-century Azerbaijani school of composition. It should be noted that O. Rajabov is the author of many pieces for piano, and among them, the genres written for young pianists have a special place. The article analyzes some of these pieces. They include some small miniatures such as “Barkarolla”, “Lyric dance”, “Joke”, “Thought”, “Lyric waltz”, “Naughty kids”, “Remembering the Past”, “Remembering my mother”, “Sad mood” and “My memories”. In his works, the composer was able to bring the world of children to life with great skill. The article provides a theoretical analysis of each piece and specifies the stylistic characteristics inherent in the composer’s piano music. In the works, the traits of O. Radjabov’s composing style, a kind of transfer of elements of folk music, the different images within a small play, the rich imagination of the composer and many other things are highlighted. These works play an important role in the development of the technical capabilities, artistic thinking and aesthetic taste of the young performer. Here, the main characteristic feature is the variety achieved through dynamic nuances, the different development of the melody, the use of different registers, and other similar aspects. Such works are also extensive in terms of the subject matter. So, the images of various characters are reflected here. The purpose of the research is to analyze some of the small miniatures that hold a special place in O. Rajabov’s piano creativity work and set forth his stylistic features. The research methodology is based mainly on theoretical-comparative principles. The miniatures have been theoretically analyzed in terms of the means of expression of musical language and been characterized by its results. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research is constituted of works by Russian and Azerbaijani musicologists available in this field. The scientific novelty of the research lies in pioneering a study of the composer Ogtay Rajabov’s piano creation and his directly analyzed miniatures as a research object for the first time. That is to say, in this article, O. Rajabov’s piano works have been subjected to theoretical analysis for the first time. Conclusions. The contents commonality of the last four pieces, including the fourth one among the ten pieces we have analyzed, has united them somewhat in a series. As for such pieces as “Joke”, “Naughty kids”, “Lyric waltz”, “Barcarolle” and “Lyric Dance”, they mostly combine in one theme the different moods and emotional states of children’s world, expressing it in itself. Among the features that summarize and differentiate the pieces, there is a preferred type of texture, the methods of theme development, use of polyphonic style. In particular, the contrast that occurs as a result of dynamic nuances when playing the theme in different registers is observed in most of his pieces. The analyzed pieces serve as a valuable tool for the formation of a young pianist’s aesthetic taste, as well as the development of artistic and technical performance.

Behind the scenes of the Congress of Laibach (modern day Ljubljana), a dance form called Deutscher came into existence and for a decade remained, in a specific local version, the most popular dance of bourgeois circles. This paper sheds light on the phenomenon of the Laibacher Deutscher within a broad social and cultural context and political background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the present paper: on the basis of the analysis of the piano suite Triakontameron by Leopold Godowsky to reveal cyclic dramaturgy, to identify traditional and innovative features in the development of the genre of instrumental suite. The fundamental suite by Godowsky has not yet received any analysis in the musicological literature. The main objectives of the study are seen as follows: to characterize the suite Triakontameron from the standpoint of the semantic sphere, genre features, compositional integrity, to draw conclusions about the architectonics of this cycle. The analysis of the genre and the semantic palette of the suite offers a new perspective on the evolution of the waltz genre that forms the basis of the work. The methodology of the study is based on an integrated approach, including aesthetic, stylistic and comparative methods of analysis. The theoretical basis of the article is composed of works devoted to the music analysis, the problems of the waltz genre, suite and genre formation in general, and musical intonation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of research in the article are test tasks to determine the performance of logical inference engines based on rules. The purpose of the work is to create a method of forming a database of rules and a set of data for analyzing the performance of logical inference mechanisms according to the given characteristics of rule activation and the complexity of finding a way to the target conclusion. The article solves the following tasks: determining the requirements for the knowledge base to be formed; creation of a knowledge base model; creating a way to form rules; identifying ways to increase the number of rules; providing testing of logical inference mechanisms for the proposed test problem. The following methods are used: methods of comparison with the sample, graph theory, logical programming. The following results were obtained: the method provides opportunities: creation of conditions of rules that complicate the data flow network of the Rete-algorithm as much as possible; formation of test bases of rules for derivation both on logic of the first order, and on offer logic; simply increase the number of knowledge base rules while maintaining the output logic. The formation of the knowledge base is based on a graph that represents the meta-rules of mixing paints to obtain a new colour. The vertices of the graph are colour classes. Each metarule is either an edge leading to the OR vertex or a set of edges in the case of the AND vertex. Each meta-rule specifies a scheme for creating several rules, because its structural components are classes of paints. The given structure of the graph significantly complicates the logical inference, because to prove the truth of the conclusion on AND-vertices it is necessary to have the conclusions obtained in the previous steps of different search directions. Examples of rule formation are given. Target vertices are defined, which determine the simplest and most complex cases of logical inference. Conclusions: it was proposed a semantic model of the knowledge base in the form of AND/OR-graph, which allows you to test the effectiveness of the implementation of conflict resolution strategies, as well as heuristic algorithms; a method of creating tests for inference mechanisms, which allows you to generate a database of rules and a set of data of certain sizes, as well as to model the complexity of finding the target output and activating the rules. Ways to increase the number of rules of the knowledge base to complicate the problem of logical inference have been presented; formulation of tests to determine the performance of logic output mechanisms for the proposed test problem has been done.

The paper presents the reflections of representatives of American neorealism on the topic of unipolar distribution of power in the international system. The author discusses the concepts of the balance of power and hegemonic stability, which served as foundations on which the referenced authors formulated own hypotheses regarding potential for durability and peacefulness of a system dominated by one superpower. The article also presents opinions of various neorealists on the international situation post-Cold War and distribution of power in the modern world.

The waltz, mainly associated with Vienna and the operetta, was outdated when film musicals came into being, which utilized more modem dances. Nevertheless, the waltz appeared in this new media, although with other purposes--nostalgia being among them. The paper examines three Walzerlieder: Cole Porter's song "Wunderbar" from Kiss Me, Kate, in which the protagonists remember a previous Broadway show; in Lloyd Bacons film musical Wonder Bar, an extended Valse amoureuse, which illuminates eroticism in a night club; and, in Vincente Minnelli's An American in Paris, Ira and George Gershwin's song "By Strauss"--a hommage to the waltz, owned by the older generation, as contrasted to youth drawn to more modern trots and tunes, as found in "I Got Rhythm". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problematics of a rearming Japan continue to be a jigsaw given its pacifist orientation. Japan had brought about the changes in its security policy citing new security challenges posed by burgeoning China and an unpredictable nuclear North Korea, despite the US nuclear umbrella. This paper investigates as to whether Waltzian structural logic can still explain the changes in Japan's behaviour in the post-11 September 2001 global order. Japan has used the sanction to participate in collective security to modify its military doctrine for a more active role in the use and deployment of Self-Defence Forces and acquisition of offensive weapons. Yet, despite the prevalence of necessary conditions and, as a result, the increased vulnerability to its security, Japan has not breached the nuclear threshold, as Waltzian structural logic had predicted. Japan only managed to augment its military capabilities and ease the constitutional restrictions on use of force to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semiotics constitutes an untapped and interdisciplinary source of enrichment for the discipline of International Relations (IR) theory. We propose two visual metaphors to that effect to interpret the figure depicting the central claim of structural realism (SR) offered by late Kenneth Waltz who is one of the most disputed, read, and inspiring IR theorists. The figure is the tenor of both metaphors. The vehicles are two paintings by Mark Rothko, namely, "Green and Tangerine on Red" and the "Number 14." The metaphors generate innumerable meanings for the tenor and eliminate the criticism that SR is a static and an ahistorical theory. Thus, they benefit the Discipline characterised by academic cleavages on the meaning of theory, science, and production of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of what it means to think of a distinctly international ethics by developing a radical reinterpretation of Waltzian neorealism from a Derridean deconstructive perspective. The core argument of the article is that Derridean deconstruction effectively explains why there is an ethics of neorealism in the first place, and why this ethics cannot be easily overcome. Underpinning this argument is a notion in Derrida's philosophy of survival as an unconditional affirmation of life, which finds an equivalent in Waltz's theory of international life in the anarchic system. On this basis, I claim that Waltz's theory is ethical, not despite its focus on the structural conditions of survival, but precisely because of it. Moreover, the article shows how this notion of ethics renders universal ethical ideals, beyond relations of violence, not only impossible, but undesirable. They are undesirable because to actually fulfil them would be to undermine the conditions that make international life possible in the first place. In this way, various attempts to theorize the meaning and implications of international ethics that hold on to the notion of ethical ideals beyond relations of violence become untenable. Instead of aspiring towards such ideals, the article concludes, international ethics should be thought of as an unconditional affirmation of the incalculable future that structures international life and inevitably exposes it to the worst forms of destruction, but also enables the making of responsible decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ambiguity of Chopin's music and its amenability to reinvention help account for its enduring appeal to pianists, composers, and critics. This article examines the conditions under which such ambiguity has taken shape on the page and at the piano. Just as curves become jagged--or "aliased"--when represented by the grid of discrete pixels that form digital displays, so have the contours of Chopin's music been both veiled and disclosed by the straight lines that define the staff and the keyboard. Despite the term's contemporary ring, the issues raised and reflected by aliasing are rooted in a set of nineteenth-century dichotomies concerning the discrete and the continuous, artifice and nature, instruments and bodies, virtuosity and poetry, machines and voices, and constraints and liberties, all of which Chopin's music was heard both to invoke and to elude. By way of recordings and transcriptions by Leopold Godowsky, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Josef Lhevinne, Vladimir de Pachmann, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, and Arthur Rubinstein, the article presents various instances of aliasing and attempts to mitigate it via a range of compositional, pianistic, and cultural techniques that reveal how aliases can produce ambiguity by calling the very distinction between identity and difference into question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This two-part article examines the contested transition in London's fashionable ballrooms from the established Victorian rotary waltz to the modern English waltz of the early 1920s. Existing scholarship on the dance culture of this period and locale has tended to focus on issues of national identity, gender, race, class and the institutionalisation of popular dance practices. Although these are of profound significance and are here integrated into the analysis, this fresh study focuses on the waltz's choreological aspects and relationship to its ballroom companions; on the dance backgrounds and agency of the waltz's most influential practitioners and advocates, and on the fruitful nexus between theatre, clubs, pedagogy, the press and competitions in transforming style and practice towards modern English ballroom dancing as both a social and artistic form. Part One discusses the kinetic problems that waltzing couples encountered in the face of ragtime dances and tango, the impact of World War One on social dance practices in fashionable London and the response of the press and the dance pedagogic profession to the post-war dance craze. Improvisational strategies are considered as contributory factors in the waltz's muted persistence throughout the war while throwing light on how certain social choreomusical practices might lead to the transmutation of dances into newly recognised forms. The persuasive role of London-based leaders such as Philip Richardson, Madame Vandyck and Belle Harding in these early years of modern ballroom dancing is brought to fresh attention. Part One concludes with the dance teachers’ inconclusive attempts during 1920–21 to define and recommend a waltz form compatible with both a discrete choreomusical identity and the stylistic dictates of modern ballroom dancing [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bohemistyka is the property of Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In his work on structural realism, Kenneth Waltz developed a theory of international order that is admired for its parsimony but criticized for its simplicity. Using his ordering principle as a foundation, I critique and extend his theory by constructing a model of international order with two dimensions: one of political centralization and the other of segmentary/functional differentiation. The resulting map locates different configurations of order and highlights four ideal-types: mechanical anarchy, organic hierarchy, mechanical hierarchy and organic anarchy. I then use the two-dimensional map and related ideal-types to outline two different processes of international change — a classical path and a modern path — that were invisible in the Waltzian model. This article is thus a contribution to the developing literature on conceptualizing different forms of international order and the dynamics of international change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is war beginning to escape human control? Thucydides tells us the war is one of the things that makes us definitively human; but how long will this continue to be the case as our relationship with technology continues to develop? Kenneth Waltz’s book Man, the State and War affords one way of answering that question. So too does Nikolaas Tinbergen’s framework for understanding human behaviour and Bruno Latour’s Actor–Network Theory (ANT). The main focus of this article is the extent to which we will diminish or enhance our own agency as human beings, especially when we come to share the planet with an intelligence higher than our own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]