SAR 2021 presentation - Chanda VanderHart
(2022)
author(s): Chanda VanderHart
published in: SAR Conference 2020
In June 2019 The Freestyle Orchestra, a collective of classical musicians, headlined at City Recital Hall in Sydney, performing two modern violin concertos to a full house — a feat in itself. Within the performance the ensemble — besides playing their instruments — tumbled, swung from rigging, danced, improvised, handbalanced and spat fire, collectively blurring the performance aesthetics of contemporary circus and classical music.
This performance was the culmination and dissemination of their ongoing research process which pushes the physical and disciplinary limits of what classical musicians do, explores how to share the movement and aesthetic they perceive in some music with a broader audience, and questions how embodied knowledge transfers/translates across disciplines.
Exposition made by Jonas Sjøvaag
No Joy in the Brilliance of Sunshine
(2022)
author(s): Sean Bell
published in: KC Research Portal
Sean Bell
Student number: 3230643
Master Early Music Voice
Research supervisor: Dr. Inês de Avena Braga
Title: No Joy in the Brilliance of Sunshine
Research question: How can I create a stage performance combining and connecting my two sound worlds/style identities as a performer?
Summary of the results of the research:
In this research I have explored the creative development of a stage performance, combining operatic music by Handel with contemporary performance art. Through this I have explored how I can combine my duality as a performer: the early music singer and the contemporary performer and creator. This project and its connected research are a part of my artistic development as a musician, creator and performer, and the urge to explore this music and questions grew out of previous projects and ideas.
I have created and developed my project through following a consequential progression of artistic choices, and through this space that has unfolded I have come to find an essential identity of myself as a performer and creator. By being honest towards myself through the critical reflection, I have been able to investigate my process, my preferences, inspirations and my distinct personal style. Through this I have been able to strengthen my artistic identity and the artistic tools I use, bringing forth a more complete performer.
Short biography:
Sean Bell is a countertenor and performance artist from Oslo. His studies centre mainly on chamber and sacred music and opera, yet also includes a focus on new ideas and methods of interpreting classical and contemporary repertoire. Through sonic imaginations and arrangements, he explores this repertoire in new ways. This has led him to a series of collaborations and solo performances on the border line between classical music and performance art. Bell also works with contemporary music and has premiered several pieces for countertenor. He is an active improviser, plays baroque guitar and engages in instrument building and music electronics.
Aubiome: A Collaborative Method for the Production of Interactive Electronic Music
(2021)
author(s): Joel Diegert, Adrian Artacho
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
Using a ‘performer-centric’ working method, artistic researchers Joel Diegert and Adrián Artacho investigate the potential of integrating the saxophone with real-time electronics. The musical work, 'aubiome', is used as a case study to demonstrate their collaborative co-creative approach. The six-stage, iterative working process that emerged during the aubiome project is broken down and described in detail.
Movement first : Directing for Movement-Based Performative Arts
(2021)
author(s): Lena Stefenson
published in: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
Making performances that have movement as a base means in many ways to venture out into an unexplored landscape. What is to be played on stage usually has its origin in a movement-based idea and not in an already written text to be analyzed. How can this work go? Where are the challenges and what methods can be used?
Lena Stefenson has written this book on the basis of her own experiences as a choreographing director with examples from various works as well as her own and others' teaching. The text is about how to create the elevated movements in a performance. How to work with theme? With story? What is the relation between text and movement? What does it mean to be a choreographer / director for a movement-based work? How are the last rehearsal weeks going?
The book is aimed at anyone who is, or wants to become, a choreographing director or actor in the movement-based performing arts with forms such as dance, mime and circus. It is also aimed at those who generally want to make their scenic work more physical.
Open Form. An Expanded Performer´s Role.
(2021)
author(s): Else Olsen Storesund
connected to: Norwegian Artistic Research Programme
published in: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
Open form is a designation on a type of composition that is in some degree open. It is also a term in relation to understanding a genre. This means that I do not include for example Bach´s Die Kunst der Fuge (circa 1740), but Stockhausen´s Aus den sieben Tagen (1968) could be included. This project, however, is centered around the composers from The New York Scool, and composers related to The New York School: Christian Wolff, Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Earle Brown, Morton Feldman and Cornelius Cardew.
An Open form composition is graphic, text- or number-based. It may also be a combination of these three notational techniques and/or in combination with conventional staff line-notation.
(Un-) settling Sites and Styles
(2021)
author(s): Einar Røttingen, Bente Elisabeth Finseraas
published in: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
(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.
