(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

RESULTS AND DOCUMENTATION

RESULTS AND DOCUMENTATION

An important goal of the overall project was to contribute to greater understanding and knowledge of the chosen composers and their repertoire. This was accomplished through the different project activities and final documentations.

Workshops, seminars and conferences at the Grieg Academy, University of Bergen, played an important role in anchoring the project and its repertoire to the home institution. There were a number of presentations, performances and discussions with external guests, students, colleagues, and members of the community. These activities culminated in the project’s extensive involvement in the international conference “Grieg Now!” in 2019, which included approximately a hundred participants from fifteen different countries. The conference form and contents were unique, featuring artistic and musicological research, practical workshops, master classes, concerts, presentations, lectures, and discussions.

Teaching in chosen works and knowledge about these composers to students was an important educational aim of the project. Internal and international workshops were organised at the Grieg Academy and abroad. At music institutions in Slovakia, Ukraine, Georgia and USA, selected works were studied and performed under the guidance of research group members.

This project formed a collaboration together with two different exchange projects: the three-year Eurasia-project at the Grieg Academy - with major institutions in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan - and the EEA-funded project with The Academy of Performing Arts, Bratislava, Slovakia. Artistic research was the focus of both these collaborations and included exchanges of staff, students, and presentations and workshops with the project repertoire. Both collaborations will be followed up with new future projects. This contributed to spreading deeper knowledge of the repertoire through work with the music over an extended time period.

Collaborations with national and international institutions and organizations enabled this project to be presented on different arenas and platforms. This includes concert series, music festivals, conferences, open debate series, music journal articles, radio broadcasting, academic and educational environments. This variety of presentation channels spread interest for our project outside of university environments to a broader range of recipients.

Concerts in the personal homes of composers and their environments sought to challenge local understandings and traditions by presenting the repertoire in new ways. Project repertoire was combined and juxtaposed in ways that could startle and unsettle audiences. The final concert in the University Aula in Bergen intertwined repertoire into a “collage” concert with a unique dramaturgy of relationships between the pieces.

Final documentations include new recordings, editions, and publications.

The project documentation on Research Catalogue enables our process and results to be available to the international community of researchers, artists and public. This can contribute to a wider interest for hitherto unknown and new musical works, as well as for the processes behind them, including interpretations, and research. The RC presentation will also have links to other online platforms for more extensive documentation of the individual projects and their artistic results.

The piano works by Pedersen, chamber works by Vaage and most of the Tveitt songs will be recorded and made available to the public for the first time. These recordings will be distributed by internationally-recognized CD labels or made available online. They will be important in generating greater interest and knowledge about the given repertoire. Hopefully they may also contribute to establishing and renewing performance practice traditions around them.

The new editions of Sæverud’s Quartets Nos. 2 and 3 are now published in new critical editions. The Oslo String Quartet, as the first internationally-renowned quartet, used this new material as the basis for their performance of “Quartet No. 3” in Bergen in October 2019. It is hoped that these new editions will contribute to the quartets being played and find their place in the quartet repertoire. The work with Pedersen’s piano pieces and seventy of Tveitt’s songs will lead to new commented editions giving performers printed scores for study and performance purposes. All the editions will include valuable performance notes for performers and researchers. The scores of the pieces developed by Vaage/Ehde are available at the National Library in Oslo.

PRESENTATIONS, LECTURES, SEMINARS, CONCERTS, TV AND RADIO

September 15. 2017 – Grieg Academy: internal workshop (guests: Jostein Gundersen and Hans Knut Sveen)
November 25. 2017 – Grieg Academy: internal workshop
November 30. 2017 – Grieg Academy: presentation “Grieg Research School” Conference
December 4-7. 2017 – Bratislava, Slovakia: presentations, concerts, Master Classes. Collaboration with the Academy of Performing Arts, Bratislava funded by EEA Grant and Norway Grants.
December 11-12. 2017 – Grieg Academy: open seminar (guests: Stanisław Bromboszcz, Karol Symanowski Academy, Katowice and Diana Mahmood (Kazakh National Conservatory).
January 18-19. 2018 – Grieg Academy: Master Classes, concerts. Collaboration with the Academy of Performing Arts, Bratislava, Slovakia, funded by EEA Grant and Norway Grants
March 11. 2018 – Bergen: concert at Borealis Festival of Experimental Music. Recording and interview by the Norwegian Broadcasting Company (NRK) and BBC3.
March 23. 2018 – Grieg Academy: Internal workshop
April 27-28. 2018 – Zhytomyr, Ukraine: presentations, concerts, Master Classes. Conference. Edvard Grieg Society of Ukraine
May 23. 2018 – Bergen: presentation in collaboration with Ny Musikk Bergen
May 25. 2018 – Grieg Academy: internal workshop and open seminar
May 31-June 6. 2018 – Grieg Academy: teaching sessions, concert. Students from the Academy of Performing Arts Bratislava, Slovakia. Collaboration with the Bergen International Festival and the Grieg Academy
June 04. 2018 – Performance of Sæverud’s third string quartet Op. 55 in Grieghallen Foyer, during the Bergen International Festival
June 8. 2018 – Norheimsund: concert-presentations at “Hardingtonar Festival”
June 19-22. 2018 – Dronninglund and Århus, Denmark: concerts, recording, interview with Denmark’s Radio P2
July 2018 – Munich, Germany: publication of Harald Sæverud’s String Quartet No. 3. Amethyst Edition
September 21-22. 2018 – Grieg Academy: internal workshop
September 25. 2018 – Grieg Academy: presentation at Artistic Research Forum, Norwegian Artistic Research Programme
October 1-3. 2018 – Bratislava, Slovakia: presentation at the Academy of Performing Arts
October 22-25. 2018 – Tbilisi, Georgia: presentations, concerts, Master Classes at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire. See VIDEO (right sidebar)

October 29. 2018 – Concert at Koncertkirken, Copenhagen, Denmark
November 23. 2018 – Grieg Academy: internal workshop (guest: Vibeke Tellmann, University of Bergen)
December 10-11. 2018 – Grieg Academy: open seminar (guest: Darla Crispin, Arne Nordheim Centre, Norwegian Academy of Music)
December 11. 2018 – Grieg Academy: concert
February 11-12. 2019 – Grieg Academy: pedagogical project with Grieg Academy piano students
March 11. 2019 – Bergen: concert in University of Bergen Aula. Collaboration with Ny Musikk, Bergen and Avgarde Concert Series
March 30-April 5. 2019 – USA: presentations, concerts. University of Indianapolis and Goshen College, Indiana.
April 13. 2019 – Bergen: concert in collaboration with Avgarde Concert Series
April 24-25. 2019 – Grieg Academy: pedagogical project with Grieg Academy piano students
May 3. 2019 – Grieg Academy: internal workshop (guest: Catherine Laws, University of York)
May 5. 2019 – Bergen: Concert at Siljustøl in collaboration with KODE (Art Museums and Composer Homes)
May 5. 2019 – Faxe, Denmark: “Night Song” premiered at the Earth Festival
May 7-8. 2019 – Oslo: pedagogical project with Grieg Academy piano students at The Norwegian Academy of Music, Foss Senior High School
May 30. 2019 – performance of H. Sæverud’s Second string quartet Op. 52 in Grieghallen Foyer, Bergen International Festival
July 2019 – Munich, Germany: publication of Harald Sæverud’s String Quartet no. 2, Amethyst Edition
August 13-15. 2019 – Bergen: recording session with LAWO Classics, University of Bergen Aula
August 25. 2019 – Valevåg: concerts in Valenheimen and Valestrand Church in collaboration with Sveio Municipality
August 26. 2019 – Grieg Academy: internal workshop
October 24-27. 2019 – Grieg Academy: concert, presentations, Master Classes at “Grieg Now! conference and workshops” in collaboration with the International Edvard Grieg Society, KODE, University of Bergen and Bergen Municipality
November 1-6. 2019 – USA: concerts, presentations, Master Classes. Collaboration with the University of Washington, Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle Modern Orchestra, Nordic Museum, Edvard Grieg Society of the Northwest, and Bergen Municipality
January 31-February 1. 2020 – Grieg Academy: internal workshop
January 31. 2020 – Grieg Academy: open seminar with presentations
February 16. 2020 – Bergen: concert at Siljustøl
February 22. 2020 – Grieg Academy: internal workshop
February 23. 2020 – Bergen: concert, University of Bergen Aula
March 6. 2020 – Bergen: concert-presentation at Fana Cultural House
March 7. 2020 – Bergen: concert at Borealis Festival of Experimental Music. Recording and interview by NRK P2 “Spillerom” (May 10, 2020).
May 8. 2020 – CD release, LAWO Classics
May 13. 2020 – musikkritikk.no: Magnus Andersson: Artikulasjon som fortelling, Critic LAWO CD “Svev”
June 7. 2020 «Hybrid Spectacle», Norwegian Broadcasting Company (NRK)
Litteraturhuset - conversation about the project with Annabel Guaita (in Norwegian):
Article on Ballade (in Norwegian)
Video documentation of EEA-funded exchange project and collaboration between the Grieg Academy and the Academy of Performing Arts, Bratislava December 2017 – January 2018.

SCORES

From “Sonotical interpretations of 70 songs by Geirr Tveitt” (see right sidebar)

SCORE 1: Geirr Tveitt: Øverland Songs
SCORE 2: Geirr Tveitt: Vaa Songs
SCORE 3: Geirr Tveitt: Lygre Songs
SCORE 4: Geirr Tveitt: Wildenvey Songs
SCORE 5: Geirr Tveitt: Bruheim Songs
SCORE 6: Geirr Tveitt: Nott ock Dagr
SCORE 7: Geirr Tveitt: Des Iles

Purchase scores at QUATTRO

From “Taking a Fresh Look at Harald Sæverud’s 2^nd and 3^rd String Quartets”

SCORE Harald Sæverud: String Quartet No. 2
SCORE Harald Sæverud: String Quartet No. 3

From “The Surface is Slow, performing piano music by Morten Eide Pedersen” (see right sidebar)

SCORE 8: I know the voices dying
SCORE 9: Ash Wednesday andguidelines to Ash Wednesday
SCORE10: MEP attachement
SCORE 11: Time and Bell
SCORE 12: Soccorsi partitur
SCORE 13: Slowness studies
SCORE 14: Other echoes
SCORE 15: The light that fractures

From “Composer-Performer Collaborations"

(This list contains the scores of the pieces made during the project. Click in right sidebar for PDF-versions of the scores. The scores can be ordered at the National Library in Oslo National Library.

SCORE 16: Etudes and Duo Etudes for cello solo and for cello and piano, Autumn 2017, 23’
SCORE 17: Svev for piano trio, March 2018, 30’
SCORE 18: Rabalder for solo piano, June 2018, 21’
SCORE 19: Hybrid Experience for impro trio, October 2018, 35’
SCORE 20: Hybrid 1 for cello, electronics and visuals, February 2019, 25’
SCORE 21: Nattsang for cello (w. loop ped. and transducer), May 2019, 25’
SCORE 22: Nattsang 2 for cello (w. loop ped. and transducer), June 2019, 10’
SCORE 23: Hybridization for ensemble with electronics and visuals, Nov. 2019, 17’
SCORE 24: Hybrid Spectacle for cello solo, ensemble and multimedia (premiered with the BIT20 Ensemble, at Borealis March 2020), February 2020, 65’

RECORDINGS

NATT OG DAG - Norwegian Songs Vol. 2, QCD 9410 Quattro Records
SOCCORSI - Works by Morten Eide Pedersen - LAWO Classics, LWC1213
SVEV - Chamber Works by Knut Vaage - LAWO Classics, LWC1199

“Etudes and Duo Etudes” for cello solo and for cello and piano, Autumn 2017, 23’ YouTube (select etude from playing list)
“Svev” for piano trio, March 2018, 30’ YouTube
"Svev" recorded at LAWO Classics, LWC1199 - Spotify
“Rabalder” for solo piano, June 2018, 21’ YouTube
“Rabalder”recorded at LAWO Classics, LWC1199 - Spotify
“Hybrid Experience”for impro trio, October 2018, 35’ YouTube
Hybrid 1 for cello, electronics and visuals, February 2019, 25’, Hybrid1 (see sidebar)
“Nattsang 2” for cello (w. loop ped. and transducer), June 2019, 10’ YouTube
“Hybrid Spectacle” for cello solo, ensemble and multimedia (premiered with the BIT20 Ensemble, at Borealis March 2020), February 2020, 65’ (Norwegian IP only) NRK hovedscenen
Hybrid Spectacle for cello solo, ensemble and multimedia (premiered with the BIT20 Ensemble, at Borealis March 2020), February 2020, 65’
Vimeo.com