There is a gaping hole in the instrumental chamber-music literature at the Habsburg court of Vienna in the early seventeenth century. Of the composers in the employ of Emperor Ferdinand II, Giovanni Battista Buonamente was the only one to publish instrumental chamber works; but Buonamente's origins were Mantuan and the contents of his publications reflect the influence of the sinfonie, sonatas and dances by the leading Mantuan instrumental music composer Salamone Rossi. The similarities raise various questions. How does the Mantuan-born empress Eleonora impress her musical tastes on the Viennese court? To what extent is the Mantuan exemplar operative in Viennese instrumental music, particularly dances? How do the dance works of both Rossi and Buonamente relate to the incipient suite? And what new evidence can be brought to bear on the ordering of its constituents to form a larger construct?

When Stravinsky composed The Flood in 1961–2, he was already an experienced practitioner of serialism. It is undeniably noteworthy, then, that compositional documents for the work include two diatonic sketches, presumably the earliest versions of a passage from the Prelude. Later serial versions of the passage, which differ significantly from the diatonic sketches, nonetheless retain numerous important features introduced at that initial stage. The existence of the diatonic sketches suggests that even late in his career, Stravinsky harboured diatonic and tonal impulses. Taking into account the audible results of these impulses will contribute substantially to an understanding of his last works.

This article explores the theme of self and other in Wolfgang Rihm's music drama Die Eroberung von Mexico. After examining how the vocal distinctions between Montezuma and Cortez serve to dramatize the mutual cultural incomprehension of these two characters, it considers how each of them becomes mentally deranged. Finally, it traces how each figure subsequently searches for a means of communication in the last act. By analysing Rihm's understanding of music as a medium, and by deploying the critical resources offered by Tzvetan Todorov, Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida, this article argues that Die Eroberung makes a significant contribution to understanding the mechanisms by which identities are enacted.

A musical groove is most typically created by a small group of musicians working together, each contributing parts to the whole. Characterizing the knowledge behind such interactive ventures has proved to be challenging. This article attempts to characterize the knowledge basic to grooves first by concentrating on ‘the groove’ as it is practised in soul, rhythm and blues, jazz fusion and various other popular genres, and second by focusing on cognitive knowledge structures called conceptual models. It is argued that musicians rely on such structures to produce grooves, and that listeners make use of similar structures to understand them. Grooves from the music of Eric Clapton, Miles Davis and James Brown are discussed, and conceptual models for each are developed.