VERS LE MYSTÈRE - Case Study Description
The repertoire of the project encompasses a set of piano pieces by Alexander Scriabin, from the middle and late periods of his legacy: particularly, I concentrate on his miniatures with programmed titles, such as “Fragilité”, “Danse Languide”, “Énigme”, “Désir”, “Caresse Dansée”, “Guirlandes”, “Flammes Sombres”, “Vers la Flamme”, among others. The pieces are intertwined with contemporary dance improvisation, while being performed by me. My collaborator, the dancer Lea Orož and I discuss possibilities brought by the In-Betweenness, the layers of the communication that are frequently transient, barely definable, and oftentimes imperceptible, unless paid a special attention to. Particularly these are the sense of the flow, movement, and structure of the work; the role of the space, i.e. the physical distance between performers and its relation to the use of the time; the density of the content (i.e. musical material) in a crossdisciplinary context; and the gestural communication between us that evolved from being a spontaneous reaction to each other’s temporal decisions into a means of intersubjective contact that to a large extent defined the interpersonal interpretation of the given works.
Each of these miniatures represents a transient character – a feeling, a state, or an imagined creature – which is not only very unique and poignant, but is a determining factor of the work. With the help of a crossdisciplinary exchange and due to the sharpening of the human senses in such a setting, artistic intake can be manifested in ways that create a profound impact for both, the audience as well as for the performers themselves. Allowing for and welcoming the attitude of Openness creates a mindset and an opportunity for the aesthetic of spontaneous response and instant decision-making; acknowledging this aesthetic and giving it space lets the work thrive and transform itself, due to the freedom the performer has, even in the context of working with a classical solo piece, while in an expanded crossover setting. This approach leads to limitless possibilities of creating a crossdisciplinary dialogue, namely a true synthesis of the arts, which was the biggest, life-long aspiration of Alexander Scriabin.
HYPOTHESIS
Through my work I argue that when combined together, multiple artistic media create a profound context for interpreting a musical work by allowing for the synesthetic multi-sensory perception to affect the interpretation. In other words, the interpretation is enhanced when it is introduced in a crossdisciplinary setting. During my experimental sessions I have discovered a significantly more nuanced sense of time/rubato, balance, timbre, pedaling. Among the most valuable findings were unexpected, spontaneous, and flexible interpretational decisions, which would with a great probability not occur otherwise, but happened as an outcome of a crossdisciplinary collaboration that becomes more vivid through the feedback expressed in particular musical elements elaborated through the dance.
The responsiveness of each artist aids in creating a unique intersubjective system of transcribing particular musical devices into the movement, which in turn allows to pass the material between the collaborators and return it with a gesture to respond to. Thus, the interpretation becomes extensively interpersonal and profoundly enriched by the density of the artistic content.
Henceforth, the musical score serves as a medium to base the concept upon. However, the system that was unfolded and developed in the process can now be regarded as a means of communication in a sense, making it possible to interchangeably articulate the material through the combination of artistic disciplines.
I claim that synesthetic multi-sensory perception invokes poignant effects on the interpretation, especially when presented through multidisciplinary or crossdisciplinary collaborations – as crossmodal artistic renditions, are causes of profound consequences of more thorough interpretational work. This outcome is evident in the dynamic interplay of sensory stimuli, which fosters heightened creativity in an expanded dramatic context, deeper understanding, and a personal need to express these sensory stimuli creatively while performing the piece.
- Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915)
METHODOLOGY
I have employed a method that focuses on subjective insights and artistic exploration: particularly concentrating on the means of experimentation, discussion, and analyzing the multi-sensorial feedback of both of us – the pianist and the dancer. We have used several methodological approaches in our work.
Stimulated Recall - my collaborator and I have viewed the recorded tryout videos between the sessions, analyzed the material, and placed the phenomena into the following categories:
a) what made an impact that we would want to repeat/develop (i.e. useful/positive)
b) what made no impact or made an impact that we would not want to proceed with (i.e. useless/negative)
c) what created the struggle, if anything at all
d) the dichotomy of the artistic, as well as personal tension and release during the piece
e) any other points that caught our attention but have neither useful nor useless impact on the process
f) unanswered questions or loose ends that we decided to not follow up on
g) discussing the sensations each of us experienced during the tryouts
We have established an agreement to allow for the dialogical artistic encounter in various forms of intermedial interaction that could only take place as a result of Openness, Freedom, Readiness, Acceptance of each other’s interpretational decisions, as well as of the Unexpected and Unpredictable.
My collaborator Lea and I discussed main ideas, characters, and messages of the pieces, based on the historical sources (i.e. Scriabin’s own remarks, or those of his contemporaries), as well as our own perception of the musical imagery.
We have observed and dissected our decisions that took place during the performance: what was in my control (initiative) versus Lea's control (initiative) versus made jointly (whether it was conscious or pure serendipity?) and we looked for the changes in the environment, sensation, and interpretation our tryouts have elicited – if any. We have also analyzed what happened deliberately or spontaneously (and whether it has established security in our own judgement and interpretation).
I have prepared a questionnaire for both of us: we have then responded to the questions and filmed our live conversation, in which we elaborated on our answers after the research sessions were concluded. This has helped us to sum up the process, the progress, the results, and our impressions of the case study relating specifically to the intersubjective decision-making.
We explored two categories of notions:
SHARED notions (i.e. bodily expressions and gestures, momentum, and spatial experience that we had in common or perceived similarly)
OPPOSITE notions (such as some perceptions and imagery), with willingness to examine both of the opposite intakes and elaborate whether and how each of them could affect the research process in order to determine which option do we pick for the performance - whether we stay each with one’s own view or adapt the view of another? I should say that we both consciously agreed to respect each other’s viewpoints and decided that an artistic disagreement can also work.
An example of the shared notions is Énigme, Op.52, in which we both perceived the character, mood, concept, and movement in a very similar way, which immediately made it possible for us to tune into each other’s artistic viewpoints in terms of the tempo, gestures, and responsiveness.
We have had, however, several pieces, in which we have both experienced the material and the concept in different ways. Fragilité, Op.51 No.1 and Vers la Flamme, Op.72 are examples of our collaborative work, where we have initially found each other at an artistic disagreement – however with a respectful discussion we have elaborated on possibilities to either convince one another to try another approach, or to keep pursuing one’s initial viewpoint (the corresponding videos are provided in the exposition: The Score • Historical Data • Perceptions • Challenges).
INTRODUCTION
One of the major factors in any performance genre is the use of time. Artists have a particular temporal perception – lived time – when working alone or with collaborators within their own medium. However, the sense of the time as an artistic device may alter unpredictably and significantly, when the art genres are crossdisciplinarily blended and artists from various media work simultaneously on the same material in an experimental setting. In real life there is a dichotomy of how the time can be perceived – one of the best examples is the Ancient Greek concepts of chronos and kairos. To elaborate on the ‘lived time’ more in detail I would like to refer to the concept ‘kairos’ (the qualitative, ‘right' time, the opportunity), as opposed to ‘chronos’ (the quantitative, chronological, linear time). The temporal aspect of a 'lived performance' is thus perceived as kairos rather than chronos by artists and, ideally, by the audience as well.
Furthermore, the intersubjective use of gestures in the context of spatial decisions serves as a means of exchange between the performers — that can, in turn, affect interpersonal decision-making in collaborative multimedial interpretation. Ole Kühl claims that the gesture is a physical expression of feeling and sensation. The intersubjective sharing of facial expressions and communicative gestures means the sharing of inner states of being. These kinds of somatic signs are directly conveying information of a subject’s emotional state and intention. Such information is embedded in the gesture-as-sign, and evoked by the implied gesture of a musical phrase. Continuing this argument in our crossdisciplinary work leads to a claim that a gesture has a power to influence the character of a given piece or a section thereof, via transferring the emotional state and intention.
The focus of this exposition is on the non-verbal artistic communication between two collaborators during performance and on the question of how can the actions of one duo partner from one artistic discipline influence the decisions of the other one in another discipline, respectively and vice versa.
To illustrate my arguments I am presenting excerpts from my case study documentary "Vers le Mystère” (“Towards the Mystery"), which is an interlacing of contemporary dance improvisation with the music of Alexander Scriabin. The entire case study is a feature-length cinematic work consisting of the three aspects: the piano and dance performance, the process of creative experimentation during the research sessions, and the discussion of the development of the intersubjective communication between the artists, as well as the research outputs of the case study.
In his later works, Alexander Scriabin incorporated into his compositions an expanding set of genres that involved sensations beyond the aural, such as light, color, movement, scent, and touch. By means of combining multiple artistic elements, he intended to become what we would now call a multidisciplinary producer, creating productions consisting of various art genres, in addition to being a composer.
Scriabin wrote “Everything must merge, everything must unite for the expression of creative activity […] Music […] was insufficient for this purpose: there must be shades of color, gestures, every kind of rhythmical movement, […] human speech in all its forms, and therefore, indirectly, science, technology, and everything in general which relates to human creative life and thought.” It appears that in the second half of his life he undertook an Omni-artistic project, in which art as a whole, or “creative activity” itself was the subject matter. His aspirations to use multimedia were thus both an act of self-reflection and self-expression qua an artist.
THE RESEARCH QUESTION AND OBJECTIVES
The central research question of this project revolves around identifying points of resonance between the dancer's perception of form and time and my own as a classical musician. I consider the effect that they have on each other and how does this effect influence the gestures, the sense of phrasing, and the structural understanding of the music.
The effect is channeled through our work with characters. By working on these characters together we are tracking and working out our sense of shared time – which, in turn, influences our idea of character, in contrast to working solo with an instrument, when my sense of character/time is limited to a non-dialogical setting.
The research objectives are to dissect the process of interpersonal decision-making in collaborative multimedial interpretation of Alexander Scriabin's character miniatures. It aims to challenge the artist's own practice by putting it into unpredictable conditions. Another objective is to establish means of communication without direct communication with the dancer, by utilizing visual cues, gestures, listening to movement noise, or even without using any sensory triggers at all. The study also aims to develop strategies for achieving a crossdisciplinary artistic dialogue. Additionally, it seeks to explore how this crossdisciplinary collaboration may affect the interpretation of the musician, particularly the pianist.
Another goal is observing how a relationship or counterpoint between the senses can bring mutual enrichment through collaborative work in different modalities. When interacting with a dancer, there is no written dancer’s part in the classical solo piano score of Scriabin’s pieces, as opposed to written chamber music. One has to be open to working across the boundaries of the artistic media and learning from each other. This includes looking at the material, the space, the instrument(s), and even one’s own self from the angle of another artistic discipline. The piano score is, however, written out, with character indications and remarks by the composer – therefore the pieces themselves are not improvized by the pianist. Only the interpretation is – to some extent.
When performing a composition there are perhaps more expectations: one is practicing various elements of a piece in order for it to happen in a particular way corresponding to one’s and the composer’s vision – at least in an ideal case scenario. Even though the interpretation can spontaneously change and one must remain flexible, there is nevertheless a certain relation of the elements to each other: the form, the dynamics, the meter must make sense together as a whole piece – first of all for the artist(s) themselves. In improvisation there is no clearly written score one must follow, i.e. no expectations ‘preprogrammed’ in advance into one’s mind that one must interpret or perform something that already exists as a work of its own and has been bearing a certain performance standard.
Through our crossdisciplinary collaboration, how our perception of the time, space, and form influences gestures, phrasing, and structural understanding within the music. Through my involvement in this crossmodal study, I have found it to be a catalyst for broadening my comprehension of form and the progression of time. Working alongside the dancer has opened doors to new perspectives and interpretations, enriching my artistic journey as both performer and researcher. The physical space we share takes on significant importance, heightening my sensory perception as I observe the dancer's movements. This heightened awareness reshapes the factors that influence my interpretation of the music, unlocking the true essence of artistic communication. Furthermore, recognizing gesture as a powerful means of communication enhances our artistic dialogue, transcending disciplinary boundaries and fostering transformative synergy between us. The reciprocal interaction between the dancer's physical gestures and my musical expressions has sharpened our responsiveness, facilitating the emergence of spontaneous yet authentic artistic decisions. This process prompts us to reassess our prior comprehension of the works, encompassing aspects such as form, time, space, and phrasing, thereby fostering justified temporal and timbral flexibility as novel pathways of interpretation that may not have been envisaged otherwise.