Soft to the Touch: Performance, Vulnerability, and Entanglement in the Time of Covid
(2021)
author(s): Jennifer Torrence
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
What is the nature of human touch and human contact in contemporary music performance, both in general and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic? In a time when bodies must be kept at several meters distance, what comes of works which explicitly call for closeness, physical contact, and sharing? How might these works be interpreted differently in light of the COVID-19 pandemic? Percussionist and performer Jennifer Torrence reflects on the impact of the pandemic on her artistic practice and on her research as part of the project entitled Performing Precarity, which seeks to explore the inherent risks in performance when musicians and audiences are entangled in codependent structures. In light of COVID-19, this exposition attempts to unfold and trace modes of vulnerability in contemporary music performance—from human contact via eye contact and physical touch, to the precarious negotiation of shared space—and to reflect on how such encounters might breed new understandings and knowledge.
The Improvisational Ear-How to build improvisational language through the study of speech
(2019)
author(s): Hue Blanes
published in: KC Research Portal
This artistic research investigates the transcription process in improvisational musical landscapes. Particularly the transcription process of speeches and speech patterns for the main purpose of developing and furthering jazz language to communicate more effectively as a communicator-improviser.
This research asks the question, how can musicians build improvisational musical language through the study of speech?
Effective methods of transcribing practice with the goal of developing the musical ear are developed during this research. These are demonstrated with analysis, harmonisation, survey, additional experiments and a set of improvisations and compositions. A systematic approach to improvisation in a spoken style will be shaped and consequently, the ‘voice on the piano’ will be found. These outcomes will be presented with the aspiration to venture toward melodic and harmonic possibilities of functional harmony not yet established in improvisational vocabulary.