Listening to the Body Moving: Auscultation, Sound, and Music in the Early Nineteenth Century
(2017)
author(s): Janina Wellmann
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
This paper explores the sounds of the body in an era before sound could be recorded as sound, the first half of the nineteenth century. Focusing on the French physician René Théophile Laennec’s study of cardiac disease and in particular his use of auscultation, it asks how the early nineteenth century conceived of a sounding living body, specifically how auscultation and body sounds produced new knowledge about the body, health, and disease. I show that Laennec thought of the body and the heart in terms of a musical instrument, and argue that the limits to auscultation’s diagnostic power lay not so much in its inability fully to explain disease as in Laennec’s analogy of body and musical instrument, medical understanding and musical skill. This soon gave way to a new understanding and soundscape of the body, as nineteenth-century physiologists investigated the body with instruments that could penetrate the body ever more deeply.
Hard Times. Lecture Performance as Gestural Approach to Develop Artistic Work-in-Progress
(2016)
author(s): Falk Hubner
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
Artistic work is often an essential mode of articulation within artistic research, specifically when practice is understood as both source and target domain of the research. Therefore, within the performing arts, both process and product are essential gestures of artistic research and are indeed “justified and critical articulations of an interest in knowledge production."
In this exposition, the format of a lecture performance is investigated and discussed as an explicit articulation through which the process of both artistic work and research is shared, rather than functioning merely as a format for disseminating findings. The format of lecture performance that is investigated here frames the artistic work and theoretical-conceptual framework as two distinct, yet interrelated, processes shared with a conference audience. This includes the deliberate choice for a live performance of artistic work-in-progress, adding a gestural and at times very kinaesthetic aspect to otherwise textually-dominated forms of presentation.
The exposition as such has two focuses that are strongly related to each other, approaching the form of a feedback loop: on the one hand, the creation process of a new experimental performance work by Falk Hübner is investigated. "Hard Times" refers to the title of this artistic work: I will carry you over hard times. The performance itself is part of an artistic research into reduction in music, a continuation of the completed PhD research of the author (Hübner 2014). On the other hand, the lecture performance that employs this artistic work-in-progress as "material" as well as the related discussions with conference audiences is also explored.
The exposition will demonstrate how these conference discussions strongly inform the work process of the specific artistic work in question and attempt to shed an alternative light on the well-known concept of "audience talks", which typically serve to generate feedback and insights into audience perspectives for artists after tryouts or performances of unfinished work. The audiences of conferences are, in most cases, considerably different in nature than "standard" audiences, offering the possibility of insightful input on quite different facets of both artistic work and research process––provoked by the very form of a lecture performance as described above. The exposition suggests that this type of lecture performance, explicitly including the audience at a conference as important source of information, feedback and peer-review, forms a gestural method of artistic research in itself, whose full potential within artistic research is yet to be explored.
Divergent voices – Different dialogues in the artistic research project Wikiphonium
(2015)
author(s): Hilde Blix, Geir Davidsen
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
In this exposition we present the outlines of the artistic research project Wikiphonium, and discuss how the Bakhtinian concept of dialogue can function as a theoretical, practical and methodological approach in artistic research projects.
The Wikiphonium project was an investigation into new ways of playing the euphonium and creating new music for the instrument, in close dialogue with various composers and musicians. The work contributed to the expansion of the sonic possibilities, expressions, and repertoire for brass instruments in general. Three interrelated parts together constituted the practice as artistic research: thirteen concerts and performances consisting of new works for euphonium based on experimental collaborations with composers and musicians, experimentation with the instrument's possibilities, and development of different tools enabling these developments, including a wiki with a library of sounds and notations.
The exposition contributes to the general methodological discussion in the field of artistic research, illustrated through examples and experiences from the dialogic approach in the Wikiphonium project. A genuine dialogic attitude in artistic research processes enriches critical reflections embedded in the practice. Documentations of process and results together with the multimedia tool wikiphonium.org constitute a transparent and open communication of artistic practice as research.
What is Music Theater?
(2015)
author(s): Claudia Hansen
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Claudia Hansen
Main Subject: T.I.M.E.
Research Coaches: Ines van der Scheer and Arnold Marinissen
Title of Research: What is Music Theater? (A definition by a staging musician.)
Research Question:
What is the difference between Music Theater – the modern performance art form and sub-genre of Music Theater – and other hybrid art forms that include musical and theatrical elements grouped under the hypernym ‘Music Theater’? And, is it possible to construct a definition for Music Theater?
Research Process: I used the word ‘music theater’ to describe the hypernym and the word ‘Music Theater’ to describe the subgenre. First, I researched the history and the evolution of the tendencies in Music Theater as hypernym genre and made a historical overview from the beginning of Music Theater up until the emergence of the subgenre ‘Music Theater’. I focused on the development of Music Theater as a subgenre.
In order to find out what the essence of Music Theater is, I analyzed the three major components of Music Theater. I made an overview of challenges that a creator faces in Music Theater and proposed several solutions, which are based on reasoning and existing performances. I tried to see as many performances as possible, which in the widest sense could be considered to be Music Theater, in order to get a wide overview of present day streams and chose six performances that in my opinion are perfect examples to illustrate my concept of Music Theater, and analyzed the various components of these works (such as music, visuals and text) in detail. Finally, I worked towards a new definition of Music Theater.
Summary of Results: Music Theater is a heterogeneous but symbiotic performance genre, which is constructed with a multitude of art forms. The name might suggest that the main focus lies on music and theater. However, any existing art form can be included. The art forms can be divided into three major categories called components: music, theater and visuals. Each art form is equally important as Music Theater is based on the structural equality of voices. Music Theater is constructed by first distilling four innate languages out of the art forms and then applying them to either the same art form or inducing them into another art form: musical language, verbal language, body language and visual language. Each language element has a valuable existence of its own and
is an autonomous element of the performance that adds a particular atmosphere to the whole picture. The languages are either layered in the performance or the aspects of the performance, such as the protagonists (human or material) or the art forms themselves. Music Theater is a performance genre that rather focuses on the impact that it has on the audience than on the compositional art forms. It is outcome-based and not medium-based. This creates space for each audience member to have a completely personal experience and interpretation of the Music Theater performance.
Fostering Creativity in Higher Music Education through the Category Game
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Felix Schlarmann
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This report on research was supported by the Lectorate of Music, Education, and Society at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague.
The following work explores the endeavor to integrate creative concepts and artistic exploration into the Bachelor's curriculum at conservatoires, with the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague serving as a case study. It presents the researcher's ideas for innovative content and structures related to creative practices and interdisciplinary collaboration, compiled in a playful structure known as the ‘Category Game’. This article provides a comprehensive list of tools designed to facilitate these creative collaborative processes, which were either developed during my work with students or gathered from relevant literature, colleagues' contributions, or other academic programs.
During the course of this research project, I engaged in discussions about interdepartmental and creative activities in higher music education with both teachers and students, conducted projects and case studies with various student groups, and ultimately designed a toolbox in the form of a game.
Background:
In recent years, my educational interests have centered on fostering creative interdepartmental collaboration among music students.
The initial phase, exemplified by the research project ‘Learning Pods,’ involved practical case studies where specific forms of creative interdepartmental work were experimented with and analyzed. These 'learning pods' paired students from different departments for semi-structured creative sessions, demonstrating significant positive impacts on learning, autonomy, motivation, confidence, self-efficacy, and performance experience.
Subsequently, during the 'Crossing Borders' initiative, a series of case studies with diverse formats was conducted, involving musicians from various institutions and collaborations with fellow educators.
The complexity of creative cross-genre projects became apparent, influenced by students' personalities, musical backgrounds, genres, and departmental affiliations. While students displayed varying levels of confidence in exploring new artistic territories and collaborating across departments, a collective desire for increased interdepartmental exchange emerged.
As my focus expanded to encompass 'the creative act in higher music education' more broadly, a central question arose: What tools and structures could be easily applied to facilitate a creative process for an interdepartmental group of music students in an easy and playful manner, regardless of their prior experience in creating or improvising?
This inquiry necessitated an examination of the existing study offerings and their structure within the institution. Do these activities significantly contribute to interdepartmental collaborations? What modifications or additions might be beneficial? Further inquiries addressed the role of improvisation, the management of definitions, and the potential contribution of jazz—a genre and attitude toward improvisation and creation that appears underexplored in the institution's discussions.
RELAY
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): RELAY ARTicle
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
RELAY is a three-year EU-funded research project supported by the ERASMUS+ programme „Cooperation Partnerships" that focuses on developing the artistic and educational fields of choreography, dance and music.
The concept that gave our project its name – RELAY – is based on deep trust in the transiting and transmissive foundation of both artistic production and knowledge development. RELAY underscores a fluid and processual element in the intersection of art and education. Not only does the actual production and development of knowledge and artworks depend on collective – and therefore transmissive – efforts, but the future life of those productions depends on how they are shared. For example, a dance technique only lives through those who practice it. A piece of music is passed on (through ear, instrument technology, or score) between practitioners, producers, and listeners. Every hand-over gives the possibility for development, re-iterations, and productive misunderstandings.
The exposition here gathers the findings, reflections and insights into the principles and methods of RELAY as well as obstacles, hiccups and (creative) failures as a work-in-progress.
The exhibition is currently being developed and has not been officially published yet.
The Iwan Müller system on the clarinet
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Justin Coste
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In the development of the clarinet a multitude of different system has been develop. All of them trying to extract the best of the instrument from different side, the ease, the balance the projection and more, all of these criteria to give more horizon to the clarinet.
Here we gonna talk about the development of the clarinet by Iwan Müller between around 1800 and 1850.
from what it come from, to it next evolution.
Morten Qvenild – The HyPer(sonal) Piano Project
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Morten Qvenild
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Towards a (per)sonal topography of
grand piano and electronics
How can I develop a grand piano with live electronics through iterated development loops in the cognitive technological environment of instrument, music, performance and my poetics?
The instrument I am developing, a grand piano with electronic augmentations, is adapted to cater my poetics. This adaptation of the instrument will change the way I compose. The change of composition will change the music. The change of music will change my performances. The change in performative needs will change the instrument, because it needs to do different things. This change in the instrument will show me other poetics and change my ideas. The change of ideas demands another music and another instrument, because the instrument should cater to my poetics. And so it goes… These are the development loops I am talking about.
I have made an augmented grand piano using various music technologies. I call the instrument the HyPer(sonal) Piano, a name derived from the suspected interagency between the extended instrument (HyPer), the personal (my poetics) and the sonal result (music and sound). I use old analogue guitar pedals and my own computer programming side by side, processing the original piano sound. I also take out control signals from the piano keys to drive different sound processes. The sound output of the instrument is deciding colors, patterns and density on a 1x3 meter LED light carpet attached to the grand piano. I sing, yet the sound of my voice is heavily processed, a processing decided by what I am playing on the keys. All sound sources and control signal sources are interconnected, allowing for complex and sometimes incomprehensible situations in the instrument´s mechanisms.
Credits:
First supervisor: Henrik Hellstenius
Second Supervisors: Øyvind Brandtsegg and Eivind Buene
Cover photo by Jørn Stenersen, www.anamorphiclofi.com
All other photo, audio and video recording/editing by Morten Qvenild, unless stated.
The Music Producer as Artistic Co-creator
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Morten Büchert
This exposition is in revision and its share status is: visible to all.
In my artistic research project, I embarked on an exploration of the continuum between the roles of a music producer as both facilitator and initiator. Through in-depth engagement with real-world scenarios in professional music production, I examined the dynamics and nuances of how these roles negotiate, intersect, and shape the final artistic outcomes. This investigation not only unveils the intricate processes that underpin music creation but also highlights the implications these negotiations have on the resulting works of art. The findings shed light on the subtle artistry embedded in production decisions and offer a fresh perspective on the evolving landscape of music production.
KC Research Portal
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Casper Schipper
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This is the landing page for the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.
Songs We Sing
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Hans Knut Sveen, Alwynne Pritchard
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This project began in 2018, with the simple desire to play songs that we love. These could be pieces with strong associations, ones we had enjoyed singing and playing before, or songs we had never sung and that were, perhaps, even new to us. When the songs were written or what genre they might come from was not important. Original instrumentation (piano, harpsichord etc) and received ideas about vocal style were also not a priority. Finding a way of creating renditions with the tools at hand (Alwynne's voice and Hans Knut's harmonium) is what originally defined the project.
The Sound Horizon: envisioning relativistic musical perception
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Blare
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
According to relativistic and quantum theories, time is a frozen block where all events are happening all at once; there is no past and no future. The illusion of the flowing of time may only lie within our minds. Can music, being an art of time, help us to deepen our understanding of the nature of time according to relativistic and quantum physics?
Human Speed in Music
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Ned McGowan
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Despite the ubiquitous role of time in most everything we do there is still much to understand about its essence as a function of human perception. One way to learn about the cognisance of time is simply by listening to music. The rhythms, sounds, and silences of music are jacketed by the human condition. The expansive identity of time with its major implications in the realms of science, philosophy, and religion, tells little about our immediate experiences in music. The concept of speed, though, is full of enlightening character.
In this essay, I explore the experience of speed in music with an artistic research methodology. Based on my artistic and pedagogic experience, the arguments consider areas of performance, composition, and perception, and references are made to neurobiological research. A multitude of perspectives are presented here, such as an explication of speed, a study on tempo 10 bpm, the relationship between emotions and our perception of the speed of time, plus many musical examples, including compositions, tests of duration and maximum speed perception and a full range of musical speed.
The goal is to reveal properties about musical speed to provide a clearer concept for the reader to experience, interpret and conceptualize for herself.
Reflex voice: a tool to enhance my vocal expression in singing through embodied emotion and automatic vocalisation
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Irene Sorozábal Moreno
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
I am in the process of designing a tool I named “reflex voice”. It combines previous research on automatic, emotionally triggered vocalisation –see the notion of primal sound in the work of J. Chapman and O. Brown– with theatre techniques which predicate embodied emotion –see the Sanskrit performance treatise Natyasastra. The goal of reflex voice is to enhance my vocal expression in singing. During my artistic research as a master student in the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, I started developing the tool and applying it to my own practice as a singer. In this article, I discuss my first experiment concerning the application of reflex voice to a 17th century piece by Nicholas Lanier. I introduce briefly the central concepts concerning the new tool, I describe the experiment and provide a first analyses of how this tool influenced my performance.
Muestra de obra tesis doctoral
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Federico Eisner Sagüés
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
La muestra despliega los resultados de la colaboración sonora con los poetas sonoros Luis Bravo y Pía Sommer durante el transcurso de mi investigación doctoral.
La muestra se estructura según los modos de colaboración, y los audios y videos se consideran los registros de una constelación de colaboraciones en torno a la las prácticas vocales, que excede a nuestras agencias humanas, incorporando también la agencia material de la tecnología y de nuestros círculos artísticos. En las intervenciones electroacústicas se trabajó a distancia sobre poemas sonoros previamente fijados por los poetas. Para las colaboraciones performáticas se incorporó el uso de instrumentos y efectos en vivo, y el trabajo a dos voces. Se trató de dos encuentros con cada poeta entre diciembre de 2019 y agosto de 2021 en Chile, Uruguay y España. La muestra incluye también las entrevistas realizadas a ambos poetas y las bitácoras de trabajo durante los encuentros. Por último, también se incluye una sección de archivo de la circulación artística y académica que ha tenido este trabajo.
Master proposal -Music curating, performances and connectedness within community
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Laura Sophie von der Goltz
archived in: KC Research Portal
This Proposal is a draft of an investigation on the relationship between music curating and connectedness within community and between audiences and performers.
Besides a literature based analysis of the field and the issue, there will be there cases studies ofwhich role music can play within a group or community. Further more there will be examples of curated multimedia music performances given how for each of these groups. These examples will be in take the form of a documentation of the process from research, conceptualisation, realisation and conclude in a evaluation of the results.
In flux
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Tobias Andersson
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In this research project, guitarist and improviser Tobias Andersson investigates compositional tools and techniques to create flexible harmonic frameworks for improvisation. In a strive for music that stays in an improvisational state the reseach project also adresses questions on the quality of coherence in the music. The research project investigates how the application of theoretical concepts associated to the 20th century western classical music and post-tonal theory can be useful when composing for improvisation. By taking a close look on the musical material itself, the author starts to compose music where all harmonic and melodic material is derived from a small original set.
The results of the investigation is a series of compositions for different ensembles, spanning from solo work, via smaller settings a large ensemble of wind instruments. The compositions are analysed in regard to the initial questions of coherence and harmonic flexibility, sharing insights to how the compositional approach influenced the musical results.
The Palestinian music-making experience in the West Bank, 1920s to 1959: Nationalism, colonialism, and identity
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Issa Boulos
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Research by Issa Boulos.
Before 1936, musical practices in Palestine relied heavily on colloquial poetry, especially in rural communities, which constituted most of the population. During the first half of the twentieth century, Palestinian music evolved as a reflection of the social, cultural, and political evolution of Palestinians. Palestinian music-making evolved exponentially resulting in the expansion of various folk tunes into shaʿbī songs, the creation of the Palestinian qaṣīda song genre, new compositions of instrumental music for traditional and Western music formations, the establishment of choirs and children music programing, and active engagement in composing in the styles of the dominant Egyptian genres of the time as well as muwashshaḥāt.
In 1948, the vast majority of Palestinians were displaced, and musicians found themselves at the frontier of implementing new political and cultural visions in the countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Therefore, the continuation of the musical narrative in the West Bank did not seem attainable. By the early 1950s, Palestinian musicians and intellectuals developed a vocabulary that reflected the topography, scenery, culture, dialects, and history of al-Mashriq, one that is independent of Egypt’s. Their input, intuition, experience, and convictions of various Palestinian musicians helped to make the music scene in Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan what they are today.
Laborinth II : denken als experiment : 472 'meditaties' over de noodzaak van het creatief denken en experimenteren in het uitvoeren van complexe muziek van 1962 tot heden
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Arne Deforce
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This research of Arne Deforce is only available in Dutch.
Boek I : Het hier voorliggende proefschrift Laborinth Π Boek II : De ‘Laborinth-art-box’, een speciaal op 15 exemplaren gemaakt collectors item, met daarin de boeken 1 en 3, de originele partituren van Brian Ferneyhoughs Time and Motion Study II, John Cages Etudes Boreales met begeleidende vingervellen met de publicatie van de vingerzettingen, werkverslagen, het citaten boek ‘De partituur van het denken’, drie cd’s met de integrale opname van de cellowerken van Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman en Iannis Xenakis verschenen bij het label Aeon, een Laborinth Π-affiche, het programmaboekje van de Laborinth Π-cellomarathon. De ‘laborinth-art-box’ werd gemaakt naar een ontwerp van Arne Deforce in gepolierd plexiglas, 34 x 47, 6,5 cm. Boek III : De partituur met alle vingerzettingen en annotaties van het nieuwe werk Life-form voor cello en elektronica van Richard Barrett dat speciaal werd gecomponeerd voor de artistieke presentatie van het proefschrift. De artistieke presentatie bestaat uit: (1) de creatie van het nieuwe cellowerk Life-from van Richard Barrett in opdracht van het Concertgebouw Brugge, Centre Pousseur Liège, November Music s’Hertogenbosch, Akademie de Kunsten Universiteit Leiden. Première 10 november 2012, Festival November Music, Hervomde Kerk te s’Hertogenbosh, en 11 november Festival Surround, Concertgebouw Brugge. (2) een cello marathon van drie concerten op één dag met werken van James Dillon, John Cage, Jonathan Harvey, Raphael Cendo, Iannis Xenakis, Helmut Lachenmann, Iannis Xenakis, Richard Barrett. 12 november Kees Vanbaarenzaal, Conservatorium Den Haag.
Extended Piano Techniques in Theory, History & Performance Practice
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Luk Vaes
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
So-called "extended techniques" have suffered a consistent lack of understanding from a theoretical, historical and practical point of view. Although most of them __ e.g. playing directly on the strings, cluster- and glissando-techniques __ exist in a substantial part of the repertoire for the piano and have done so for more than a couple of centuries now, the use of the techniques on stage still sparks off negative reactions by audiences, composers, performers and tuners as well as owners of pianos. Any one-sided approach towards appreciation has proven to be inadequate: academic analyses do not succeed in handling the matter satisfactorily, endeavors by musicians to teach and advise on the "proper" use of the techniques have come short of applying an in-depth and a historically informed perspective. A comprehensive and exhaustive survey of the extended techniques as a whole can serve to alleviate the risk that the relevant repertoire sinks into oblivion, contributing to a reassessment of the subject, in turn benefitting contemporary professional performance practice, concert programming, composers__ interest and musical as well as music-historical education. The subject and its related terminology are scrutinized and (re)defined where necessary. The acoustical properties of the techniques are explained from the perspective of the performer to ensure proper insight in the way they produce sound. Over 16.000 compositions have been considered to write the history of improper piano playing, comparing manuscripts with first and subsequent editions of solo as well as chamber and concerto music, original compositions as well as transcriptions, from the "classical" as well as the "entertainment" sector. Original preparations collected by John Cage were tracked down and described in minute detail so that alternatives can be considered on the basis of professional information. Historical recordings as well as personal experiences and interviews with composers are used to pinpoint historical performance practices. To help the pianist prepare for concerts with the relevant repertoire, measurements of the internal layout of the most common grand pianos are listed in order to anticipate possible problems in advance.
Author: Luk Vaes
Johan van Meurs : een studie over een pionierend orgeladviseur
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Jaap Brouwer
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This research of Jaap Brouwer is only available in Dutch
In deze studie staan twee onderzoeksvragen centraal. De eerste betreft de vraag naar de kwaliteit van de orgeladviezen uit de jaren dertig van de vorige eeuw en de invloed daarvan op de orgelbouw uit die tijd; de tweede betreft de vraag naar het belang van de dispositieverzameling van Johan van Meurs.
Calypso music : identity and social influence : the Trinidadian experience (November 2016)
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Clarence Charles
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Calypso, Identity and Social Influence, The Trinidadian Experience seeks to establish links between calypso music and the construction and maintenance of identities, and to locate the genre as a mechanism or as part of a mechanism that has exerted on-going social influence within Trinidadian society. It chronicles the evolution of calypso music from its emergence in Trinidad, and highlights contingent institutions, peculiar traditions, and salient events that have shaped the socio-political and cultural landscape there during the Colonial and Post-Colonial periods. The study, undertaken by Clarence Charles, is descriptive and explorative, and follows an interdisciplinary route that integrates historical fact, socio-anthropological philosophy, psychological, musicological, and ethnomusicological thought, and notes from my own ethnographic research. It analyses a large corpus of written material, and audio/visual recordings of music performance and participation in calypso and carnival-related events by practitioners and audiences alike.
Tactile paths : on and through notation for improvisers
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Christopher Williams
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Tactile Paths: on and through Notation for Improvisers is an artistic research project that articulates and expands the nexus of notation and improvisation in contemporary and experimental music. The project interweaves direct artistic experience with insights from improvisation studies, the social sciences, philosophy, and various scholarship in the arts to reveal methodological connections among diverse artists such as Richard Barrett, Cornelius Cardew, Malcolm Goldstein, Lawrence Halprin, Bob Ostertag, Ben Patterson, and the author. By focusing on how notation is used, rather than on what it represents in an abstract sense, the author shows how written scores emerge from and feed back on ongoing improvisational processes. Thus, it is argued, they are not fixed texts whose primary purpose is to prescribe and preserve, but rather tactile paths in the improviser’s ever-crescent musical and social environment. This practice-based approach aims to lay the conceptual groundwork for theorizing and broadening the creative relevance of work whose importance to practitioners belies its marginal presence in academia and institutions.
Collaborative Music Creation
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Karst de Jong
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
COLLABORATIVE MUSIC CREATION: leading conservatory students in musical creation processes
This research is about the development of active autonomous creativity among conservatory students in classical departments. In this exposition I will discuss the nature of collaborative creation processes, and critically investigate my own role as a coach and facilitator of these processes in order to better understand how ideas are being generated, developed and ultimately shaped into a performed piece. The investigation will be illustrated with a selected number of projects I have been involved in during the years 2017-2020.
Anatomy of a (Musical) Ethics Lab SAR 2023 submission
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Christopher Williams
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Supplement to the presentation proposal 'Anatomy of a (Musical) Ethics Lab'
Score: Mechanical Asynchronicity
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Danica Maier, Martin Scheuregger
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
A collaboration between visual artist, Danica Maier and composer, Martin Scheuregger - Score: Mechanical Asynchronicity takes a single historical lace draft from the Nottingham Lace Archive as the starting point for new live and installation-based visual-musical works.
The working process and presentation of Score: Mechanical Asynchronicity sees the fine artist become ‘composer’ and composer become ‘artist’. Their roles move from user – of each other’s discipline knowledge, aesthetic understanding and technique – to author of works that are contingent on their collaboration but can still be identified as belonging to their individual practices.
You can navigate this exposition through a series of prompts each focusing on a different aspect or way to engage with the work: Look, Listen, Read, Play, and Watch.
Read: offers an opportunity to understand further details about the project including pilot works, experimental development, key events and practical details.
Look: will share images of the scores created by Maier and Scheuregger, and the original historical lace draft.
Listen: gives you a chance to hear original music box sound pieces as well as Side A and B of the recorded pieces.
Play: allows you to ‘play with' the individual tracks allowing you to create a combined piece in various iterations including 1-4 musicians.
Watch: includes film documentation from four different concert versions to view.
Music NFTs: Blockchain for Artistic Research?
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Paulo de Assis, Paolo Giudici, Adam Łukawski
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In the last few years museums and art galleries, as well as a growing number of artists embraced Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as a new digital mode of exposing, producing, and distributing art. Based upon digitised assets, NFTs are embedded in blockchains: decentralised networks of information exchange on which different kinds of data can be stored without a centralised controlling entity. While commonly associated with cryptocurrencies and financial ledgers of transactions, blockchain technology can support many other types of data (including visual, audio, and video files). For the arts, blockchain might bring radical changes to the ways in which art is generated, communicated, disseminated, and transacted. Despite its vertiginous expansion, the blockchain revolution is happening under the radar of many people and institutions.
With this seminar, the research group MetamusicX (at Orpheus Institute) launched research on NFTs in relation to artistic research. The seminar aimed at mapping the field, exploring the potential of blockchain for music creation, and launching the basis for a blockchain network at the service of artistic research.
HOW DO YOU WORK? Conversations, drawings and responses (Vienna)
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Adelheid Mers
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Preliminarily in 2012, and formally in 2013/14 , I asked experimental musicians and composers in Vienna "How do you work?". Based on those conversations, I created two drawings of what I call each artist's "epistemic engine", or the way I understood them to work. One drawing was a free form exploration, and the other mapped my notes onto the "Fractal 3-line Matrix", a diagrammatic instrument that emerged in my work in 2011, after the informal round of conversations. On sharing the drawings with them, artists were invited to produce a response in a medium of their choice. This project was supported by the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.
The interdisciplinary conceptual composition process
(last edited: 2021)
author(s): Linde Tillmanns
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
How does one translate concepts like Doughnut Economics into music and video? How can a performance create a safe and non/judgmental space for an open and constructive dialogue about big and difficult topics?
This is my journey on attempting to create such a performance; with a physical band, electronics and video. I am composing on different levels, collaborating with a video artist and producer, as well as curating the process.
Gian Majidi Singing Journey
(last edited: 2021)
author(s): Gigi Gian
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Who am I? Kuka minä olen? Do I have any answer for this? I do not know yet and maybe whole of this long trip will remain the same. Uncertainty will be the cause and the result.
Should I try to be someone else or something else? Can I do that? How? What's happened to me? Why I am here and now?
This is question which i am looking to give some answer. If I do not know who I am, how you want to know about me?
I give you some pictures and feelings to make you happy about me, to make you at ease about me. let's walk and recall some memories together.
I have been writing poems and novels, screenplays and theaters, I was writing about music and movies. I have been playing and acting. I have loved performances and always communicating with people.
The Dim Lit Subterranea of the Ancient Mind: the influence of place in ‘inspired’ composition, and the search for 'Ur' sound.
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Jonathan Day
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This interdisciplinary research progresses aspects of musical composition, musicology and organology though the application of specific recent developments within philosophy and physics.
There are two contingent ‘expeditions’–articulated constellations constructed of a suite of compositions (released as a musical album), exegetical writing and performances.
Atlantic Drifter investigates and evidences interactions developing from the implications of Object Orientated Ontology, (Harman, Bogost et al) for composition. OOO identifies the independent cosmopoesis of non human objects–the manner in which objects-with-agency declare the nature of their ‘world’ through artefacts. It calls the interaction of object worlds ‘encounters’. This research interrogates and transcribes a series of these encounters, experienced in locations internationally. It explores and reveals the agency of place, Genius Loci–air, water, stone, architecture interacting with the composer/philosopher. The research resulted in new music released through Proper Records. A chapter in Music, Myths and Realities (2017) offers a detailed exegesis of the theoretical advances facilitated by the creative work. The works and ideas were shared by invitation as concerts and keynote lectures at prestigious venues internationally.
The second expedition, A Spirit Library, develops from this and examines the ‘encounter’ with the physical presence and agency of sound itself. Schopenhauer’s exposition of music as Will was revisited though the lens of String Theory and aspects of Steven Hawking’s ideas about universal futures. The work explored the sound/human/instrument ‘encounter’, resulting in novel engagements with the cosmopoesis of sound. It allowed an extension into organology, where the generative influence of ‘Ur’ sound was applied to the construction of instruments, offering a novel understanding, shared in a streamed Keynote lecture, available online.
The work was performed by invitation at high status venues and on radio internationally. The music was positively reviewed, including selection as Album of the Year 2019 by Folk Radio UK.
Art and the Philosophies of East & West
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Christopher Healey
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Art arises either in parallel with or in response to the implicit or explicit philosophies of a culture. Aesthetics and artistic processes have traditionally varied across cultures as a result. For example, the so-called "Western" Classical music tradition which has been influential and widespread throughout much of Europe is distinctly different from the artistic traditions that existed in Japan. Indeed, Japan presents an interesting example for comparison not only because its religo-philosophy is distinct from the Christianity, but because its location resulted in long periods of isolation from other cultures. It is only comparatively recently that the culture of Japan and that of Europe (as disparate as it may be) made meaningful contact.
This essay explores how Japanese art and European art were historically distinct, as well as examining the more recent examples of how this cross-cultural contact has influenced some notable composers.
GLORIES TO NOTHINGNESS: A Music Research Seminar honouring Accademia degli Incogniti and Claudio Monteverdi
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Elisabeth Laasonen Belgrano, Päivi Järviö, Johannes Boer, Dinko Fabris, Mauro Calcagno, Björn Ross, Charulatha Mani, Elisabeth Holmertz
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
A Music Research Seminar
honouring Accademia degli Incogniti
and Claudio Monteverdi
Palazzo Grimani, Venice
15 June 2017
Nordic Network for Early Opera and Nordic Network for Vocal Performance Research, in collaboration with Scuola di Music Antica Venezia, are delighted to invite you for a performance seminar in Venice 15 June around the theme of vocality, music drama and the vibrant intellectual / artistic scene in Venice around Monteverdi and Accademia degli Incogniti. The idea comes from a desire to offer a fringe-event / sub-encounter / prologue for (among others) participants of the two symposia co-happening in Venice 16-17 June: The Foundazione Cini conference on Monteverdi (16-17 June) and the symposia "Encounters, Discussions, Experimentations: Art, Research and Artistic Research in Music”, the Research Pavilion of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Venice Biennale 2017 (16-17 June)
We are also hoping to meet anyone interested to explore the fairly new academic field of Artistic Research.
Time:
15 June 2017
15:00-18:30
Venue:
Palazzo Grimani, Ruga Giuffa off Campo Santa Maria Formosa, Venezia,
Lost in the Desert: Reflections on Identity and Authenticity
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Repkat Parhat
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Lost in the Desert: Reflections on Identity and Authenticity
This exposition is about the process of my bachelor project and giving basic information about my cultural background.
Analyzing the impact of cultural background and alternating environment on the way of thinking and creating music
The concert, entitled "Lost In The Desert"
portraying the story of a boy who grew up in the Taklamakan.
A Study
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): James Wood
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
*
This is a product of a series of performances, educational projects and ruminations in 2015-6. It was improvised and is ever incomplete.
To begin with a general overview, refer to the "Parallels" page. Otherwise, happy travels.
It is a ludic and ergodic text and is not to be considered definitive. Each reading should deepen each previous, and be reliant upon postexpectant and preexisting readings. Consequently, in a formal sense, it owes much to Nietzsche's Zarathustra and Braxton's Tri-Axium Writings. Sections over- and under-lap, alluding freely within and without themselves. There is no correct method of engaging with it, nor a linear approach. "As we will have seen", many sections explain themselves only through others. It is a philosophical matrix, a web contingent upon all strands and - most crucially of all - an investment of the Reader's sense of Self into the work. Like a metaphor, the Reader must place themselves within the work as the absent tenor or vehicle relevant to each piece (leaning on Graham Harman and Jose Ortega y Gasset). In other words, it is an attempt - a nobly failing attempt - to ensure the Reader - the audience - is as much a creator as the writer.
*
Not so very long ago a community of people came together and, after a lengthy and luxurious dinner, after which the group found their prepared topics of conversation too incendiary, fetid or dull to suit the evening, decided to invent Art. During the protracted debates that followed, according to the comprehensive minutes of the gathering, Art’s proportions and dispensations were agreed upon: Art was to have no place within quotidian daily life or public policy; it was to be devoid of both educational merit or impetus; it was to arouse emotion but never too strikingly; and was to be deemed the final topic of conversation at dinner, after its natural locutory progenitors science and politics. Feeling pleased, the group dispersed.
(It is worth perhaps parenthetically noting that the following morning the host of the party – nursing a fiercely raging headache – found and read over the proposal prior to its distribution. After a while he discovered he disagreed with the entire document and, throwing into the fire, rewrote it entirely. Since this was all done in secret and because his friends are that particular type of people, he stills receives no credit whatsoever in the publication of the document.)
Musical Source as Part of a Performative Ritual: Crossing borders through Explorative Strategies
(last edited: 2018)
author(s): Elisabeth Laasonen Belgrano, Johannes Boer, Assi Karttunen, Catalina Vicens, Dinko Fabris, Björn Ross
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Proposal peer-reviewed and accepted as ”Themed Session”,
18th Biennial conference on Baroque Music,
Cremona 10-15 July 2018
In the light of the conference main theme ’Crossing borders’ the aim of this round table / themed session is to develop an experimental discourse departing from a musical source from the period 1550-1750, as part of a performative ritual for crossing borders and strict dichotomies. The objective is to search from new chiasmatic crossings between a musician’s gaze, a musical source from the Baroque era and musicological findings. Following the discourse of letting go of the perceived strict dichotomy between musical text and music performance (Schulze 2015:3) this session proposes a radical move towards a borderless entangled reading of musical sources based on performative methodologies. This approach may allow for new relations to develop between traditional distinctions pronounced through musicological findings and artistic performance methods; it might also allow for closer collaborations between musicologists and artistic researchers in music. Artistic research in music is a fast growing experimental academic field, with a strong link to musicology. Highly significant to this new field is the desire to find ways of merging sensuous (subjective) knowledge with a variety of other research methodologies. The artistic research purpose is often to follow the performing process of understanding a musical score and the active performance practice calling for praxical strategies such as ritual thinking, musicking through texts and theories (ex. hermeneutics, feminist new materalism), reflective/diffractive methodologies, meaning-making through translation studies, essayistic writing, and speculative performance philosophy. For this session four short (5 min.) presentation will be performed with one common point of departure: ‘musical source a part of a performative ritual for crossing borders and strict dichotomies’. With reference to these four presentations the stage will open up for an intra-active and explorative dialogue between all participant in the session.
A Carnal Formula: Music, painting and the creative process
(last edited: 2018)
author(s): Matthew Noone
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
How do a painter and a musician make work together? What elements of creative process are shared between music and the visual arts? And perhaps more interestingly, what are the divergences?
This exposition focuses on an artistic residency in the Burren College of Art as a case study exploring theoretical frameworks for making and perceiving music and sound. It uses my own creative process moving between composing and print making as a dialogue between different forms of perception. Drawing upon phenomenology and deconstructionism, this exposition argues that aesthetic responses are paradoxical, in that both painting and music can touch a pre-cognitive body based knowing yet at the same time there is no absolute meaning. This conundrum is equated with Merleau-Ponty’s idea of a ‘carnal formula’ and I attempt to extrapolate this idea through outlining my creative processes.
NOISE
(last edited: 2018)
author(s): ARNAU MILLÀ BENSENY
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
NOISE
A SONIC CHOREOGRAPHY WITH LIVE COMPOSING
Series of performance pieces. Each one is the result of a site-specific creation and research laboratory. The creation laboratories are focused on a specific city or location and on its inhabitants.
The first version of NOISE was created and executed in the city of Kitakyushu, Fukuoka prefecture, Japan.
VOL.1 NOISE - KITAKYUSHU
NOISE is an approach and a perception of a city, neighbourhood, town or area through the sounds that the space itself and its inhabitants generate.
From this sound material, movement and body perceptions are generated. They will later be developed to create the choreographic piece.
The composition in real time is organised through the language of Soundpainting. The entire soundpainting encoding is used to extract, analyse, dissect and sort all the sound and visual material that can be found in the apparent chaos of metropolitan and natural spaces.
Nietzsche N
(last edited: 2018)
author(s): Lucia D'Errico, Paulo de Assis
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Nietzsche N is a broader artistic research project on the music of Nietzsche and a satellite project of MusicExperiment21 [ME21] (PI: Paulo de Assis, Orpheus Institute Ghent, BE). Nietzsche N is being realised by Paulo de Assis, Michael Schwab, Valentin Gloor, Lucia D’Errico, and Juan Parra C.
KnowingUnknowing
(last edited: 2018)
author(s): Helen Kindred
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
KnowingUnknowing is an improvised duet in triptych form by dancer Helen Kindred and guitarist Benjamin Dwyer. Improvising filmmaker Pete Gomes joined them in a performance in which the director-as-camera operator became an integral element of the improvisation transforming the work from a duet into a trio. The film KnowingUnknowing is a demonstration of the combined improvisations of dancer, guitarist and filmmaker.
Our writings on this process appear here in two parts. The first is an essay by Gomes that explores his developing practice of ‘improvising mise en scene’—the ways in which the live, improvised interaction of the director-as-camera operator advances upon traditional understandings of mise en scene in film. The second essay, written jointly by Dwyer and Kindred, explores themes surrounding originality in improvisation, the processes at work in the moment of the expression of embodied knowledges and experience, the role of poetics and philosophy in understanding these processes, and how they have specifically impacted the KnowingUnknowing project.
Sense and Sensibility, performing music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Ingrid Eriksen Hagen
connected to: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
For Norwegian version, see the exposition "Fornuft og kjensle - å framføre musikk av Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach"
Engaging in the complex and expressive music of Bach; on the clavichord, which is as intense and nuanced as it is delicate and soft in volume; aspiring to a musical empathy in which the performer and the listener jointly experience the true content and emotion of the music – spurs a craving for closeness and intimacy.
But how close can we get? How close do we want to get?
Close enough to hear the instrument. Close enough to understand what the music is telling us – to follow all the wonderful diversions – in close up. Deepest sincerity. Tender caresses. The rush of joy. The thought that could not be – could… be… – …
But then the floor creaks. Someone turns round. I can’t hear it. Why is she playing so faintly? I don’t understand it. All those notes. So full on the whole time! So, who was that guy anyway – he lived a long time ago, right?
These are the reflections in Ingrid E. Hagen’s research fellowship project. Based on my personal encounters with the music of Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) and his concepts of musical empathy, I worked on public mediation of his music, mainly on the clavichord. I have explored the tension that exists between intimacy and distance – and have experimented with different means of achieving that intimacy, and registered the resulting resistance to these experiments.
I have reached out to people outside of the conventional concert setting, on a quest for the intimate interaction in the interests of empathic, shared experience of the music. I have performed Bach's music in the open air, at museums, for people who were not expecting to experience live music. I have investigated relationships between music and language; structural, stylistic and contextualising. Both in order to improve my own understanding and artistic empathy with the subject matter, and to investigate the ways in which different means of communicating and their use in musical mediation can influence experiences in various ways.
Through this process, I became aware of the great extent to which different concert formats or other modes of presentation influence what audiences listen to in the music, and what they gain from it.
I have worked intensively on a selection of Bach's keyboard music, and recorded the CD für Kenner und Liebhaber. Together with the final concert in November 2016, the CD represented the artistic results of my research fellowship.
My artistic method has been a reflexive process in which questions are addressed in experiments, articulated in a dialogue with the study material, be it musical, literary or artistic experience, in a constant quest for intimacy; for getting closer. I organised this non-linear approach in the form of 'tracks', which allowed me to address multiple questions in parallel and as they intersected along the way.
My research fellowship was undertaken at the Grieg Academy, Institute of Music, under the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme and was funded by the University of Bergen.
My supervisors were Professor Torleif Torgersen of the Grieg Academy, and Professor Maria Bania of the University College of Theatre and Music, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Fornuft og kjense - å framføre musikk av Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Ingrid Eriksen Hagen
connected to: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
For English version, see the exposition "Sense and Sensibility, performing music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach".
I møtet med Emanuel Bach sin komplekse og uttrykksfulle musikk – med klavikordet, som er like intenst og nyanserikt som det er sart og lydsvakt – med tankane om musikalsk empati, der utøvar og lyttar saman opplever det sanne innhaldet og kjenslene i musikken – oppstår ein trong til nærleik, intimitet.
Men kor nær kan me kome? Kor nær vil me kome?
Nær nok til å høyre instrumentet. Nær nok til å forstå kva musikken seier – til å følgje med i alle dei vedunderlege svingane av – skarpt vidd. Djupaste alvor. Ømmaste kjærteikn. Boblande glede. Tanken som ikkje let seg – let … seg … – …
Men så knirkar golvet. Nokon snur på seg. Klarar ikkje høyre. Kvifor speler ho så svakt? Klarar ikkje forstå. Så mange notar. Fryktelig fort heile tida! Kven var no eigentleg denne fyren – det er veldig lenge sidan han levde?
Dette er refleksjonen i Ingrid E. Hagen sitt kunststipendiatarbeid. Med utgangspunkt i mitt personlege møte med Emanuel Bach (1714–'88) sin musikk og hans idear om musikalsk empati har eg utforska formidlinga til publikum, i all hovudsak på klavikord. Eg har arbeidd i spenningsfeltet mellom intimitet og avstand – prøvd ut ulike måtar å kome nærmare på og kjend på motstanden som oppstår i desse forsøka.
Eg har oppsøkt menneske utanom den konvensjonelle konsertsituasjonen, på jakt etter det nære møtet for empatisk samoppleving av musikken. Eg har framført Bachs musikk utandørs, på museum, for menneske som ikkje forventa å oppleve levande musikk. Og eg har undersøkt relasjonar mellom musikk og språk, både strukturelle, utrykksmessige og kontekstualiserande. Dette har eg gjort for å betre mi eiga forståing og kunstnarlege innleving i stoffet, og for å finne ut korleis ulike vis å kommunisere og utnytte desse i formidlingssituasjonen kan forme opplevinga på ulikt vis.
Gjennom arbeidet har eg vorte merksam på kor mykje ulike konsertformat eller andre presentasjonsformer påverkar kva publikum lyttar til i musikk, og slik kva dei får ut av den.
Eg har arbeidd inngåande med ein del av Bachs klavermusikk, og spelt inn CD’en "für Kenner und Liebhaber" med solo klavikordmusikk. Saman med avslutningskonserten i Stranges Stiftelse i Bergen i november 2016 utgjorde CD’en stipendiatarbeidets kunstnarlege resultat.
Min kunstnarlege metode har vore ein refleksiv prosess, der spørsmål blir undersøkt i forsøk, utforma i dialog med det faglege stoffet – det vere seg musikalsk, skriftleg eller kunstnarleg erfaring, i eit stadig forsøk på å kome nærmare. Denne ikkje-lineære arbeidsforma organiserte eg som «spor», og kunne slik arbeide med parallelt fleire problemstillingar som grip inn i kvarandre undervegs.
Stipendiatarbeidet blei gjennomført på Griegakademiet, inst. for musikk innan Program for Kunstnerisk Utviklingsarbeid, og var finansiert av Universitetet i Bergen.
Rettleiarar var professor Torleif Torgersen ved Griegakademiet og professor Maria Bania ved Högskolan för scen och musik, Göteborgs Universitet.
PhD - architectures of speed
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Ned McGowan
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In 2016 I began work on a PhD at Leiden University / Orpheus Institute via DocARTES program. Supervisors: Henk Borgdorff, Marcel Cobussen and Richard Barrett.
Architectures of speed: reinventing the tools, functions and potentials of speed within rhythmical frames in music.
The speed of rhythms in live acoustic music, literally the velocity at which notes are sounding, can be defined in absolute terms based on clock time. But there is also the perceived speed that, in the simplest terms, states that musical material can seem fast, slow or some other relational quality.
Speed is articulated by sounding rhythm. Rhythms, however, manifest themselves through a myriad of various implicit and explicit frames, depending on the musical context, including tuplets, meters (traditional and "irrational"), tempo, polytempos, pulses, polypulses, polyrhythms (superimposed frames), additive frames, divisive frames, metric modulation, time brackets and other structures. Through analysis and composition this PhD will research the current practice, precise identities and possibilities of the various time frames in music and the bearing they have individually and in combinations on the speed of the music.
Decomposing Emanuel Bach
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Ingrid Eriksen Hagen
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
An experiment on form, where the Rondo Wq 56/1 by C. P. E. Bach (1714-88) is cut into fragments.
To be played in the order of the visitors choise.
Music recorded on the clavichord by the author.
Kees Tazelaar - A Handbook for Teaching Analog Studio Techniques in Function of Composing Contemporary Electronic Music
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Kees Tazelaar
connected to: KC Research Portal
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
One important reason to address the (limitations of) analogue studio techniques in education today, is that they offer a unique possibility to gain insight in the relationship between compositional utopias and studio practice – between ideals concerning sound composition and musical reality.
The Royal Conservatoire houses two unique and predominantly analogue studios: the Karlheinz Stockhausen Studio of the Composition Department, which gives an overview of techniques and equipment from several decades, and the Voltage Control Studio (BEA5) of the Institute of Sonology, which contains one of the largest modular sound synthesis systems currently in operation. Although the handbook in preparation will primarily address Sonology’s analogue studio, users of the Stockhausen Studio will benefit from reading it.
The logic behind Sonology’s analogue studio is inseparable from a serial approach to music composition. Whereas in serially composed instrumental music, the musical dimensions such as pitch, duration and dynamics are treated as separate parameters, in a modular approach to electronic music, the sounds themselves fall apart in parameters. Each module of the analogue system represents a specific function of sound, and together these functions form a network that is physically represented by cables on a patch field. Planning and analysing these networks will be an important aspect of the handbook.
The handbook will discuss analogue studio techniques in education and composition practice not only from a technical perspective but also from a musical one. The author’s previous research in the field of historical production practice by composers such as Jan Boerman, Gottfried Michael Koenig and Dick Raaijmakers will be translated into practical examples.
The research method will consist of experiments in the analogue studio, protocolling the technical configurations and recording the audible results. Working methods of Boerman, Koenig and Raaijmakers will be analysed based on their own documentation, and subsequently translated into the possibilities of the Royal Conservatoire’s studios.
The research will result in a handbook with a theoretical introduction, explanations of pieces of equipment (both in text and in graphical representations), with configurations of equipment divided into the categories of sound production, sound transformation and sound spatialisation, and accompanied by sound examples.
Is Music Universal?
(last edited: 2016)
author(s): Ned McGowan
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
An oft-heard statement is that music is the one true universal language. While this may be a nice phrase to promote harmony between cultures, the question arises: is it actually true? Can the same piece of music communicate the same thing to people from different cultures?