Vocal Nest – non-verbal atmospheres that matter
(2018)
author(s): Heidi Marika Fast
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
In my artistic doctoral research project “Vocal Nest”, I worked with the potentialities of non-verbal vocal art in the conditions of psychical suffering. The situation-sensitive human sound installation was actualized at the central corridor of Helsinki University Central Hospital´s Psychiatrycenter in Finland. I used the compositional practice of vocal affective attunement as a research medium, to catalyze groups of people, who were as inpatients in the hospital, to create a collective resonance sphere by vocalizing and listening. How did embodied encountering with the human atmospheres create differentiated patterns of meaning making in this material-discursive environment?
This exposition, made up of vocal, visual, and textual aspects, proposes that the artistic transmission from the registers of silence toward vocal utterances, as well as from the linguistic reality toward non-verbal vocal expression attuned an archaic mode of connection to the strictly regulated hospital space. It offers alternative and more holistic understanding of the assumedly clear boundaries between subject and object, and healthy and sick, by expanding the expressive scale of what is typically considered as communicative and reasonable. This exposition may be of interest to those interested in the sensate forms of knowledge production and affective potentialities of the human voice, not from the perspective of health benefits, but from the viewpoint of rendering heard the vulnerable, and peripheral attributes of being a human.
The blurred atmospheres invite the reader to slightly let go of oneself and attune to a dwelling mode of (reading as) listening.
“Vocal Nest” was first of a three-part series entitled ”Hospital Symphonies”, an artistic modulation of the mutually transformative relations between art and psychiatry.
The use of the mental status examination (MSE) in fictional characters when interpreting and performing the music of Schumann and Bartók
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Rinde Louise WIllemijn Yildiz
archived in: KC Research Portal
Name: Rinde Yildiz
Main Subject: Viola
Research Coach: Anna Scott
Title of Research:
The use of the mental status examination (MSE) in creating fictional characters when interpreting and performing the music of Schumann and Bartók
Research Question:
How would the MSE of the fictional characters that I create in musical compositions, in combination with relevant biographical information of the composer and scores, influence how I understand, practice and perform Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto (Op. posthoumus, Tibor Serly Edition) and Robert Schumann’s Märchenbilder (Op. 113)
Summary of Results:
In order to examine how the MSE of fictional musical characters, in combination with relevant biographical information and scores, influences how I understand, practice and perform Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto (Op. posthumous) and Robert Schumann’s Märchenbilder (Op. 113) I kept up a logbook to write down all the steps I took during this investigation.
The results of this research paper are divided over four layers. Layer one: the biographical information of Schumann and Bartók gained from books, articles and letters; Layer two: a rough interpretation of Schumann’s Märchenbilder and Bartók’s Viola Concerto based on reading scores, examining the manuscripts, playing and listening to various recordings, in combination with biographical information. Layer three: a thorough MSE of the fictional characters that are created in specific sections of Schumann's Märchenbilder and Bartók’s Viola Concerto. Layer four: using the MSE of fictional characters during interpreting, practice and performance and make recordings to find out if there are differences between interpretations before and after the incorporations of fictional characters. During this research I found that the creation and incorporation of fictional characters influenced my playing in such a way that I concretized my interpretations. As a result, I was able to pay more attention to all the details of the piece and to have a clearer image of phrasing. Furthermore, using and experimenting with the MSE meant that I broadened my imaginary palette.
Biography:
Rinde Yildiz (1991) is a second-year master student at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague where she studies classical viola with Mikhail Zemtsov. During her studies she has been playing in various music groups and formed different ensembles. Besides her studies in music, she studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam where she received her bachelor and master degrees in June 2014 and April 2019 respectively. Concerning her medical studies, Rinde has special interest in the psychiatric branch. Having a background in both medicine and music, she is fascinated in subjects where both fields can be connected.