Research Catalogue

This project aims to develop transcultural approaches of inspiration (which we regard as mutually appreciated intentional and reciprocal artistic influence based on solidarity) by combining approaches from contemporary music composition and improvisation with ethnomusicological and sociological research. We encourage creative (mis)understandings emerging from the interaction between research and artistic practice, and between European art music, folk and non-western styles, in particular from indigenous minorities in Taiwan. Both comprehension and incomprehension yield serendipity and inspiration for new research questions, innovative artistic creation, and applied follow-ups among non-western communities. The project departs from two premises: first, that contemporary western art music as a practice often tends to resort to certain degrees of elitism; and second, that non-western musical knowledge is often either ignored or merely exploited when it comes to compositional inspiration. We do not regard inspiration as unidirectional, an “input” like recording or downloading material for artistic use. Instead, we foster artistic interaction by promoting dialogical and distributed knowledge production in musical encounters. Developing inter­disciplinary and transcultural methodologies of musical creation will contribute on the one hand towards opening up the—rightly or wrongly supposed—“ivory tower of contemporary composition”, and on the other hand will contribute towards the recognition of the artistic value of non-western musical practices. By highlighting the reciprocal nature of inspiration, creative (mis)understandings will result in socially relevant and innovative methodologies for creating and disseminating music with meaning. The methods applied in the proposed project will start out from ethnographic evidence that people living in non-western or traditional societies often use methods of knowledge production within the sonic domain which are commonly unaddressed or even unknown among western contemporary music composers (aside from exotist or orientalistic appropriations of “the other”). The project is designed in four stages: field research and interaction with indigenous communities in Taiwan with a focus on the Tao people on Lanyu Island, collaborative workshops in Vienna, an artistic research and training phase with invited indigenous Taiwanese coaches in Vienna, and feeding back to the field in Taiwan. During all these stages, exchange and coordination between composers, music makers, scholars and source community experts will be essential in order to reflect not only on the creative process, but also to analyse and support strong interaction between creation and society. Re-interaction with source communities as well as audience participation in the widest sense will help to increase the social relevance of the artistic results. The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW) will host the project. The contributors are Johannes Kretz (project leader) and Wei-Ya Lin (project co-leader, senior investigator) with their team of seven composers, ten artistic research partners from Taiwan and six artistic and academic consultants with extensive experience in the relevant fields.

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Timelessness and temporality (Kruse, 2011) are widely studied topics in the classical music of the second half of the 20th century and the 21st century, mainly concerning the perspective of musical composition and auditory perception of music. But what is the perspective of temporal layeredness in the performer’s experience? This quote offers a starting point (Noble, 2018): “music whose temporal organisation optimises human information processing and embodiment expresses human time, and music whose temporal organisation subverts or exceeds human information processing and embodiment points outside of human time, to timelessness .” Specialized in the repertoire of Karlheinz Stockhausen, I want to investigate the role of temporality in music from the perspective of a performer. I will delve into the richness of different layers of temporal awareness in an artistic experience through experiential, embodied, and sensorial knowledge, using different temporal compositions by Stockhausen as case studies: HARMONIEN (2006) for flute solo,, Xi (1986) for flute solo and STOP (1969) for ensemble.

SONIC EQUITY This exposition investigates questions of inclusion, equity, and decolonisation through the central voice of the Brazilian berimbau. Drawing on the approaches of artistic research, musical case studies are employed to investigate the core concepts, including the solo berimbau work of Adriano Adewale, as well as duo dialogues between Adriano Adewale on berimbau and Nathan Riki Thomson on double bass, seen through the conceptual lens of third space. Findings emerge in terms of uncovering and reimagining the unique, experimental sonic possibilities of the berimbau and the ways they can be utilized for artistic expression in both solo and duo playing. Through shining a light on the unique possibilities of the berimbau, questions arise in terms of why this instrument and its interconnected traditions have not been given equal space and value within higher music education, highlighting the need for institutions to continually reassess their policies through the lens of decolonisation. The artistic investigations further reveal issues related to the need for equity in music and music education, pointing towards a decolonised future where marginalized instruments such as the berimbau are given space and valued equally alongside all forms of musical expression. This connects back to the fundamental human need to be seen, acknowledged, and valued in our world, which is a commonality we can perhaps all relate to. Key words: berimbau, equity, decolonisation, interculturalism, higher music education, third space.

The difference in embodiment experience when transitioning from one piano to another is highly complex, not to mention the transition from a modern piano to a 19th-century historical piano, as playing techniques were also different. As the modern piano is very different from 19th-century keyboard instruments such as the fortepiano, it can be difficult for a modern pianist to understand the techniques used in the 19th century, and why. While it may be impossible to perfectly reconstruct the playing of 19th-century pianists, this study focused on the process of reimagining the 19th-century playing techniques on historical instruments from the perspective of a 21st-century pianist which will help develop understanding towards the potential roles and impact of these techniques, recognize the connections between instruments and techniques, as well as their influence on my playing as a pianist-researcher. Through this artistic practice, the feedback and observations from these experiences in the form of reflection logs were used to uncover the roles and effects of these techniques. This exposition will discuss a performer-researcher’s experience with references to the current literature, demonstrate how these techniques help narrow the gap between the modern and period instruments, especially in terms of touch and control, and investigate the effects of the artistic practice on dynamics and phrasing. Video clips of performances on both modern grand piano and historical instruments such as the fortepiano will also be included to better demonstrate the different approaches.

This exposition refers to arts-based research on simultaneous performative walking and singing practice in a changing environment. The act of walking is put in the context of landscape and singing representing two aspects of relation to the environment – inner and outer landscape. The object of research is traditional and authorial songs and their bodily and sensual interconnection with the process of experiencing landscape. This experience is gained with a group of artists and environmentalists who have over the course of more than a year repetitively walked through the landscape of the natural park Prokop Valley in Prague and its adjacent urban areas. Qualitative research is taken within the project “Walking as a liquid constant in urban space and landscape”. The method of data collection uses mental maps, inspired by the concept of Kevin Lynch, as a means of documentation. The exposition has three parts 1) the opening video essay, 2) Opus caementicium, autoethnographic reflection of the site, where the project takes place, and 3) Fugue of the vanishing world – an essay on the musical aspect of the project. Chapter titles are inspired by musical terminology that has content connotations in the text or mirrors the structuring of text and musical compositions.