Exploring plurality of interpretation through annotations in the long 19th century: musician's perspectives and the FAAM project.
(2024)
author(s): Nicholas Cornia
published in: Research Catalogue
The quest of reconciling scholarship and interpretative freedom has always been present in the early music movement discourse, since its 19th century foundations. Confronted with a plurality of performance practices, the performer of Early Music is forced to make interpretative choices, based on musicological research of the sources and their personal taste.
The critical analysis of the sources related to a musical work is often a time-consuming and cumbersome task, usually provided by critical editions made by musicologists. Such editions primarily focus on the composer's agency, neglecting the contribution of a complex network of professions, ranging from editors, conductors, amateur and professional performers and collectors.
The FAAM, Flemish Archive for Annotated Music, is an interdisciplinary project at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp that wishes to explore the possibilities of annotation analysis on music scores for historically informed musicians.
Annotations are a valuable source of information to recollect the decision-making process of musicians of the past. Especially when original musical recordings are not available, the marks provided by these performers of the past are the most intimate and informative connections between modern and ancient musicians.
Contrary to a purely scholarly historically informed practice approach, based on the controversial concept of authenticity, we wish to allow the modern performers to reconcile their practice with the one of their predecessors in a process of dialectic emulation, where artistic process is improved through the past but does not stagnate in it.
Karol Szymanowski and Polish Folklore. Using Podhale folk music to inform performances of Szymanowski's Harnasie
(2022)
author(s): Ania Szafraniec
published in: KC Research Portal
Karol Szymanowski and Polish Folklore. Compositional copy or inspiration? What musical choices might be made for performing Harnasie and other violin pieces by using knowledge of Podhale folk music to inform violin performance practice.
In this exposition I present my research which consists of a few elements.
Firstly, to get acquainted with the composer - Karol Szymanowski and focus on his Nationalistic period. While exploring Podhale folklore and understanding its main characteristics, I did analyze the way Szymanowski uses this particular folklore in his pieces.
Then, the focus goes to Szymanowski’s most important work of the period - ballet Harnasie and its comperisement with the violin transcription. To discover whether the folk citations used in his pieces are just a copy of original melodies or inspiration and how do they connect with each other?
A significant and most important part of my research is finding out how the knowledge gained through this process can improve and enrich the performance of Szymanowski’s violin music. In short my conclusions are as follows. Folkloristic parts should be treated as original Highlanders would play it. Therefore, violinists need to get some sound simplicity such as no vibrato or playing in the first position. On the other hand, the lyrical parts are very contrasting. Szymanowski was inspired by singers and the way his dear violinist friend Paweł Kochański played. Therefore, the lyrical parts can be compared to the human voice, with a sweet romantic sound, natural voice like breathing in the phrases, continuous fast vibrato.
OBOETRY – French poetry played in melody: a poetical & vocal approach to French 'mélodie' on oboe
(2022)
author(s): Anna Marieke Zijlstra
published in: KC Research Portal
This interdisciplinary research presents a contextualisation and musico-literary analysis on the French poem and art song “Colloque sentimental” from Paul Verlaine and Claude Debussy, followed by a full-fledged transcription of this ‘mélodie’ for English horn, expanding the existing oboe repertoire. In the annotation and interpretation of “Colloque sentimental”, a poetical and vocal approach has been applied, aiming to communicate a deeper understanding of the ‘poésie’ and ‘mélodie’ for performance practices. The studying and singing of the song resulted in an experimentation and reflection of playing the ‘mélodie’ on English horn, a process of musically translating the poetry into an instrumental transcription that takes into account the particularities and possibilities of the language and voice as well as these of the instrument in question, with the aim of providing useful material for fellow oboists and those who are interested. For example, it was demonstrated during the research process how the understanding of literary and vocal phrases enhances horizontal and legato phrasing on English horn. Consequently, an important challenge in this case consisted of writing the transcription in a feasible notation that would be playable for any oboist, even without prior knowledge of the French language and poetry, hopefully leading to a poetical and purposeful performance of the piece.
The discovery of Ludovicus Mirandolle’s manuscripts
(2022)
author(s): Stefan Woudenberg
published in: KC Research Portal
The discovery of Ludovicus Mirandolle’s manuscripts
SOUND IDENTITY
(2020)
author(s): Sara Maganzini
published in: KC Research Portal
The purpose of my Research is to explore why at the beginning of the XX° century wind orchestras in different Countries in Europe sounded so singular and why nowadays the sound is so similar one to the other.
Haven’t found any book which speaks about this specific topic I decided to research about the subject hoping it will maybe be useful or interesting not only for my development as conductor/musician but also to other people, be they conductors, composers, musicians or just wind orchestra music lovers.
Above historical issues I will also include some artistic material such as examples, audio samples and scores which support the development of my Research.
Special focus will be given to the analysis of a couple of significant original scores from the first decade of the XX° century which will be the guide line throughout my research.
Forbidden Beauty: Performance Practice of un-notated arpeggio in fortepiano music in late 19th Century
(2016)
author(s): Mariko Goto
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Mariko Goto
Main Subject: Fortepiano
Research Supervisor: Bert Mooiman
Title of Research:
Forbidden Beauty: Performance Practice of un-notated arpeggio in fortepiano music in late 19th Century
Research Question:
Is it appropriate to arpeggiate a chord when it is not notated, especially in romantic repertory in second half of 19th century?
If we can do it, where and how can we add arpeggio?
Summary of Results:
Modern pianism is quite skeptical to the addition of an arpeggio that is not written in the score. Pianists in the same generation as I am also may have had such the experience of hearing that their teacher say, “Don’t play arpeggio when the composer doesn’t indicate it” or “Don’t break your right and left hand”.
Such a strict attitude to the un-notated arpeggio originates from the tendency that the musicology (and musicians) in the late 20th century considered the intentions of composers as the most important thing, and they attributed it to the authentic score like manuscripts, or a first edition. In such a mood, it was not “authentic” to add un-notated arpeggios. Playing un-notated arpeggios was a symbol of over romanticism, and sloppy playing. But there is much evidence that composers themselves added arpeggios, even if they show a strict attitude to the un-notated arpeggio in their remarks.
If we look at the treaties, we can see that the un-notated arpeggio has a long tradition from the Baroque and Classical period. It is not a symbol of over-romanticism in the late 19th century, but a tactical tool to express character and affect of pieces.
From the remarks of treaties, and early recordings of first half of 20th century, we can see that the character and affect of a piece is a very important element to decide, whether we can use arpeggio or not. Especially in the slow, expressive pieces or sections of a pieces we have many opportunities to add arpeggio.
If we consider the tradition and usefulness of un-notated arpeggio, we should feel free to use it, especially on historical keyboard instruments.
Biography:
Born in Tokyo, Mariko Goto started her modern piano studies in her earliest childhood. She encountered early music, namely fortepiano and cembalo, at Tokyo University of the Arts. After completing her Master degree of Musicology at said university for her musical rhetoric studies about improvisation in Haydn’s works, she devoted herself to the performance of these instruments. Since 2014, she has been pursuing a master’s degree in fortepiano at the Royal Conservatoire of the The Hague under Bart van Oort.
Alverata, hedendaagse Europese letters met wortels in de middeleeuwen
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Gerard Unger
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This research of Gerard Unger is only available in Dutch.
De kern hiervan is een letterontwerp, gebaseerd op de combinatie van een middeleeuws en een hedendaags concept. Het middeleeuwse deel betreft de elfde en de twaalfde eeuw, de romaanse periode, en in het bijzonder de epigrafie van die tijd: romaanse kapitalen in inscripties. Deze kapitalen werden gedurende tweehonderd jaar in een groot deel van Europa toegepast. Hiernaast zijn velerlei typografische en culturele ontwikkelingen in de twintigste en de eenentwintigste eeuw de bron voor het nieuwe letterontwerp. De Alverata toont enkele middeleeuwse kenmerken die wonderwel met de modernste typografische software en voor hedendaags gebruik is toe te passen. Bovendien kan de Alverata het uitgangspunt zijn voor vernieuwend leesbaarheidsonderzoek.
Propaganda Art from the 20th to the 21st Century
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Jonas Staal
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This study by artist Jonas Staal explores the development of propaganda art from the 20th to the 21st century.
Staal defines propaganda as the performance of power by means of the equation propaganda = power + performance. Through his work as a propaganda researcher and practice as a propaganda artist, he argues that different structures of power generate different forms of propaganda and therefore different forms of propaganda art.
Whereas in the context of the 20th century Staal discusses the differences between avant-garde, totalitarian, and modernist propaganda art, in the 21st century he proposes the categories of War on Terror Propaganda Art, Popular Propaganda Art, and Stateless Propaganda Art. By means of concrete examples of artists and artworks within each of these categories, he attempts to show how the performance of power in the 21st century translates into different visual forms, and how they shape and direct our reality.
Staal’s study shows that power and art exist in continuous interaction. Propaganda and propaganda art are not terms that only refer to the past, but concepts and practices through which we can understand the construction of reality in the present.
Diary of a Suffragette
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Marijn Brinksma
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This fictional diary is written by a fictional person and consists of factual information. The writings are set up in a chronological timeline. Our goal is to provide insight and information about the steps suffragettes had to take to fight for the right to vote.
The discovery of Ludovicus Mirandolle’s manuscriptsopen exposition comments (0)