(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 MORTEN EIDE PEDERSEN (1958-2014)

Morten Eide Pedersen was a teacher of composition, composer, musicologist, and writer. After a Magister degree in musicology at the University of Oslo, with added studies in philosophy, sociology, mathematics, and informatics, he also followed composition courses at the Norwegian Academy of Music. In 1989 he joined the faculty of the Bergen Music Conservatory – which in 1995 became part of the University of Bergen as the Grieg Academy, Institute of Music. From 1996, he built up and led the second, full-length higher education within composition in Norway. He was also involved in the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme as supervisor.

As a teacher and supervisor, Morten Eide Pedersen had the ability to both support and challenge students in developing their own individual artistic voices. Both as a pedagogue and in his own artistic work, he was concerned with the relationship of tradition towards the present - of how the past can be a methodological resource for today’s creative artists. He was especially concerned with the relationship between text, sound, and language, and composed both score- and computer-based compositions, live electronics, and more open forms.

As a composer, Morten Eide Pedersen wrote music for or received commissions from - among others - Rikskonsertene/Musikk i Nordland, Den Nationale Scene, BIT20 Ensemble, Music Factory, Tromsø Kammerorkester and Avgarde concert series.

Pedersen was also active as a writer on musical topics, mediator, and musicologist. He was the editor of the music journal Ballade for five years and also editor of the volume on new music in the book/research project “Norges musikkhistorie” Volume 5, 1999-2001: “Modernisme og mangfold” (Aschehoug 2001). He was also a central contributor to starting the artistic research project “Wheels within Wheels” (2015-2018), in which the Grieg Academy’s research groups in early music and composition collaborated in developing new forms of expression.