Memory and the Musical "Work": Between Inscription and Performance.

The principle of Werktreue, or fidelity to the musical work, has long been performers' most important ethical imperative. Yet, the rigid work concept may not be the best way to think about the fluid arts of performance during the 17th century. Edwards proposes instead to approach this music through the lens of rhetorical memory.

Using historical music theory, he explores the flexibility of the musical work through analysis and improvisation: by breaking down a given piece into its component musical patterns and framework, these patterns can be varied and re-deployed within the same framework, creating a variant of the original work. By performing these variant works for a broad public, and in consultation with cultural and philosophical studies of memory and media, he hopes to discover new, more ambiguous boundaries between the work and its performance, and ultimately, a new ethics for the performance of 17th-century music.

Prof. dr. h.c. Ton Koopman (promotor), prof. Frans de Ruiter (promotor), Rudolf Lutz (promotor)

Trefwoorden:	rhetorical memory, media studies, improvisation, ethics, harpsichord, organ
Looptijd:	2013-2021
Periode:	17de eeuwse muziek
Type musicus:	toetsen
Universiteit:	Universiteit Leiden

Memory and the Musical "Work": Between Inscription and Performance.

Mark Edwards