(Un-) settling Sites and Styles

Einar Røttingen

(Un-)settling sites and styles: In search of new expressive means. Eight performers (voice, piano, violin, cello), one musicologist and one composer aspired to unsettle their habitual ways of working with musical interpretation of 20th century and contemporary Norwegian composers. By collaborating to develop new perspectives and methods, they investigated questions of style and how different sites influenced their rehearsals and performances. How do performers find new expressive means? How can intersubjective exchange within a research group contribute to articulating tacit knowledge? How can mutual unsettling approaches influence conventional or subjective attitudes of fidelity to a score or a performance tradition? How can novel sounds, musical material and musical meaning emerge beyond prejudiced conceptions or through improvisation? The three-year project was facilitated by the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme and the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design (Grieg Academy), University of Bergen, and resulted in texts, sound recordings, videos, and new commented score editions.

(Un-)settling sites and styles

- in Search of New Expressive Means

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Expressive means

Unsettling and unlearning

Unsettling sites and styles

Methological approaches

The individual projects

Results and documentation

References

SITE MAP

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ABOUT SIGNE BAKKE

Signe Bakke is associate professor of piano and accompaniment at the Grieg Academy where she has been employed since 1992. She studied with Jan Henrik Kayser at the Bergen Music Conservatory (now called the Grieg Academy, UIB) and gave her debut concert in Oslo in 1981. Two years later she was soloist with Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra while continuing her studies with Jens Harald Bratlie at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She received her Diploma in 1986.

During her career, she has done a broad range of performances as a soloist, chamber musician, accompanist for singers, pianist in the contemporary music ensemble BIT-20 as well as in the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. She has been closely affiliated with Edvard Grieg Museum, Troldhaugen, where she regularly has given concerts for many years and has recorded several CDs with works by Edvard Grieg. She has been engaged by the Bergen International Festival and has performed at the Oslo contemporary music festival “Ultima” and at many festivals abroad. Her collaborations with composers have resulted in first performances of works by Ketil Hvoslef, Morten Eide Pedersen, Rebecka Ahvenniemi and the Japanese composer Karen Tanaka. The recording “Crystalline”, with piano works by Karen Tanaka (2L, 2011) was chosen as “Selection of the month” by Asahi newspaper.

Signe Bakke has been collaborating with the soprano Liv Elise Nordskog for many years. In 2013 they released a critically acclaimed CD, “Pour Mi” (LAWO), with songs of Olivier Messiaen and of Claire Delbos, Messiaen’s first wife. The latter songs were a world premiere recording.