Projects

Sonic Silhouettes, Musical Movement

Winnie Huang

On the international stage, we are seeing an increasing presence and growing phenomenon of musical-gestural pieces. Musical-gestural pieces feature prominently physical elements for visual aesthetics, explicitly notated by the composer. Notated as musical scores, performed by highly trained musicians, the role of the musical-gestural performer is one that spans multiple disciplines, between music and movement, and requires a multifaceted and highly skilled interpreter with specific capabilities. The rise of this genre, demands investigation from the point of view of the performer providing insight for future artists and academics in this field.

My doctoral trajectory will investigate the collaborative process in musical-gestural pieces. I will develop a performance practice allowing understanding of the skills required, with a focus on notational and practice problematics, and the physical embodiment of the pieces during the process. Research in the genre of musical-gestural pieces will be completed through artistic collaborations with composers in this field, through analysis and examination of the process, and through public performances. Necessary understanding of this phenomenon will create informed composers and performers, and allow the artistic community the unique opportunity to better comprehend this genre, generating broader interest in new musical-gestural works.

Early Music Beyond Authenticity: Interpretation and Composition outside the Work Concept

Carlo Diaz

As a fluid development form my concept of compositional practice as the either conscious or subconscious reuse and re-processing of pre-existing materials, and so from the idea that all new music is necessarily embedded with the historical, I propose a new historical mode for Early Music wherein curation, editing, and performance are identified as fundamentally creative activities. I propose the application of poststructural philosophy and contemporary historical theory by Michel Foucault, Hayden White, Roland Barthes, Keith Jenkins, and other to the practice of Early Music. My objective is both to shed the Romanticist and Modernist aesthetics and theory inherent in recent research and performance of music written before 1800 and to suggest a new aesthetic and theory where history operates outside of empiricism and narrativity.

How to blur the boundaries between contemporary Western art music and artistic pop music by the co-creation of intriguing interdisciplinary artistic work?

Jasmijn Lootens

How to blur the boundaries between contemporary Western art music and artistic pop music by the co-creation of intriguing interdisciplinary artistic work? Initially the intention of this project was to fulfil the shortage in the repertoire for cello and live electronics, which represent a highly physical and sensual entity as well as an intellectual experience. However, the artistic research is better of when it is embedded in an interdisciplinary context. Therefore, co-creation will be a key process in the creation of artistic work. This research also questions aspects like spatialisation, virtual reality, visual content in live performance, live electronics and recording techniques. The outcomes of this artistic research project will be audio-visual performances, artistic artefacts (artwork, music film, installations) and a dissertation.

Jules Delsart – Discovering the Cello in Late-Nineteenth-Century France

Yotam Haran

Research on nineteenth-century performance practice has become increasingly popular in recent years, and yet many areas in this field have remained unexplored. One such area is cello performance practice in late-nineteenth-century France, and this work will aim at shedding some light on it by placing the spotlight on one of the most prominent cellists of the period–Jules Delsart (1844-1900). Delsart was not only a central figure in the Parisian musical scene at the time, but also an influential teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris. Like many of his contemporaries, he published some music of his own, as well as a large number of arrangements for popular tunes, and these can provide invaluable information on his performance practice. Through an examination of his oeuvre, Delsart's performance style will be outlined thoroughly, and will eventually be used to facilitate a historically informed performance of music by his contemporaries.