The sound of a character
(2016)
author(s): Meric Artac
published in: Codarts
Art branches have nourished and affected each other for centuries. They formed common disciplines
and evolved into new formats. Interdisciplinary relationships have offered the artist enrichment of
artistic expressions.
Music Theater is a concept that brings together music and theater disciplines, and during it’s history it
evolved into different forms. Composers’ goal to merge their compositions with performing arts
formed a basis for forms like Opera, Singspiel, Operetta and Musical. Argentinian composer Mauricio
Kagel introduced the term “New Music theatre” for new forms of music theatre that are different than
the before mentioned traditional forms.
These musical genres, involve stories, various characters, and dramatic situations. For a composer who
incorporates visual art, the score is most of the time related to the story and its characters.
The composer who is also the stage director builds a bridge between two art forms and creates a world
of sound in which she connects music and theater. The particular sound world of a visual aspect has
changed through the centuries within art movements, and each composer presented to the audience
their own adaptation of a story and the sound of their characters in different forms.
This study explores a composer who incorporates visual art’ formed of music, and how this
incorporation is staged.
Unifying two strong art disciplines like theatre and music, the strength of this combination, and the
idea that each theater character carries out a different color and sound increased my desire to improve
myself in this field. I was introduced to this world which combines theatrical and musical elements
during my Master studies, and It was my ambition to write the story of my pieces, develop the
characters as well as the music.
THE AFRO-CUBAN DRUM RHYTHMS: Origin, Selection, Analysis and Development of drum patterns applied to Jazz Trombone
(2016)
author(s): Juanga Lakunza
published in: Codarts
My intention with this Artistic Research was to learn more about the afro-Cuban rhythms that I consider one of the bases on which a lot of modern music is built.
As a trombonist, I don´t consider myself only as a jazzman, sincerely I would like to be the most complete musician that I can. Of course, to study jazz gave me many tools for being more comfortable in other styles, but rhythmically, the Latin-American music has still a lot to say.
The compilation of the information for the development of this research report, has allowed me to discover an exciting world to which I am truly attracted.
Since I was a child I have been fascinated and captivated by the percussion.
Music is magic, but if there is something more magical than the music itself , that is the sound of the drum. Since ancient times the drum has been a sacred element in many cultures. The present Western society, with its great technological development, is forgetting the basics of human spirituality.
I sincerely believe that the drum will have an important role in the future, as a healing member of society. Every musician should be percussionist before playing his own instrument.
Peeter Süda - A way to the ‘heart’ of Estonia through Germany
(2016)
author(s): Anna Karpenko
published in: Codarts
Peeter Süda
A way to the ‘heart’ of Estonia through Germany
The history of this research began several years ago, when I visited Tallinn for the first time. There was an International organ festival, and I was a participant of masterclasses. At one concert I heard music by the Estonian composer Peeter Süda. Within a couple of days I bought scores of his organ pieces. Two years later I was invited to play a concert in Tallinn, and I decided to play his pieces “Ave Maria” and Prelude and fugue. After a concert one Estonian organist told me: “Thank you very much, here almost nobody plays the Prelude and fugue! It was nice to hear it”. After some silence he continued: “But, you know, we have our own tradition of performance for these pieces”.
In September of 2013 I became a Master degree student
and decided to dedicate my research work in Codarts to Peeter Süda and his organ music, trying to answer the question: “How can I perform organ pieces by P. Süda, using his ideas and examples of different performance traditions?” I could just play this music without any research, but I liked it so much that I wanted to find out more about this composer and his pieces, I had a lot of questions, I was not sure about what I was doing, but I wanted to perform his music. At the beginning of my research I wished to make a recording of all the completed pieces by P.S., but things which seemed so easy to do became more complicated and interesting, and the research grew and brought me not only new things about this composer and his music, but also about German styles of performing, and other new knowledges and skills.
The French cello bowing style from around 1900
(2016)
author(s): Mikaela Gronberg
published in: Codarts
The Artistic Research has been full of surprises, opportunities and it even created a world full of new ideas for me which I did not think was possible in the beginning of the research.
When I started to do the research, my first thought was to focus on relaxation in performance but since I already been very interested about French cello playing for a few years I decided to change the path because I found my topic less treated and full of potentials. Thereafter I started in the Performance Practice domain where Job ter Haar became my coach and to have a cellist as a coach when you are a cellist yourself has been very inspiring, helpful and motivating for me.
From a few years ago I have always wanted to have a broader insight in the bowing style and a deeper understanding about it, because I knew that it could led to self-improvement in my own playing and also be useful for other cellists. As I have been fascinated of cellists such as Paul Tortelier, André Navarra and Maurice Gendron for their way of playing the French repertoire and their use of the bowing technique, I was curious to find out more about their heritage in French playing and how they applied this in their musical language. The knowledge about this area has never been close to me, which I will explain later in my motivation.
After a few domain meetings my head was full of new ideas for the Artistic Research. The journey took off with the French bowing style from around 1900 on the cello, where I got the opportunity to research in several elements of the bowing style and how I could apply them to the French repertoire and close related repertoire from that period.
Since then, I have felt that my choice of the subject has been right and has kept me interested to progress in this unknown area for me throughout my Artistic Research.
NARRATIVE APPROACH IN GROOVE-RELATED MUSIC
(2016)
author(s): Carmelo Emanuele Patti
published in: Codarts
During the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras, western composers have used various traditional forms to structure their works. For example, each dance of a Baroque suite had its own rhythmic character and tempo. The sonata form affected composers until the twentieth century, adapting the traditional form to a new musical language. In Jazz music, the tendency to write music following forms borrowed from the past is really popular. The structure, that we can find in a lot of Big Band pieces, formed by an intro, exposition, development and recapitulation with the “shout chorus” (in which the whole ensemble plays the theme or a special) has classical reminiscences (e.g. certain aspects ABA-form). Moreover, if we consider the main Jazz repertoire (e.g. Standards from Real Books) we can also say that almost all the compositions are based on pre-defined forms (e.g. blues, 16/32 bar form, rhythm change form, etc.).
Except “free Jazz” in which the player, starting from a concept has the freedom to develop his musical thinking only through improvisation, in Jazz there is still the tendency to write music starting from rules, such as pre-defined chord progressions or fixed forms. As a composer I found it interesting to find a way to open the traditional use of form in Jazz, and I decided to investigate on how it is possible to relate the aspects of musical narration to the aspects of form. The question that led me to find answers and start this journey was:
How can I relate the aspects of form in my groove-related music by analyzing the aspects of musical narration?
This allowed me to open the traditional way of writing groove-related music, rethinking the use of the constructive approach in writing in “groove”. The use of narrative approach was also a pretext to reflect on the representation of meanings into music, and I included in
my research some reflections about the role of musical perception.
The concept behind the musical narration defines the form, and the narrative approach opened me to a variety of possibilities to develop musical material in my composition. The constructive approach used to build up the groove (at a Micro level) can be implemented with the narrative approach (at a Macro level).
Translation of Middle Eastern & Balkan rhythms and meters in my set up, consisting of darbuka, cajon, bendir attached to full drum-set
(2016)
author(s): Ioannis Rizopoulos
published in: Codarts
This paper focuses on the structure of a practical method that facilitates the transition from traditional elements towards the modern expression of performing on percussion. The primal aim behind this idea is to enrich the performer’s experience by, not only exercising on odd meters and rhythms seen in traditional music of the Middle East and the Balkans, but also using a variety of instruments on the same time for getting the required acoustic outcome. On the other hand the main instrument on which the full combination of the percussion-set was based, the drum-set, is giving the perfect match on a try-out to combine different music practices of the East and the West. Conducting a study like that sets the start for experimentation on combinations of music styles and their representative instruments.
The scope and significance of this research is described in the first section, highlighting the importance of the research question under examination in its final phase. In addition possible ways and primal findings that helped on finalizing the build up of a distinct set-up are commented. Technical matters leading to the desired musical outcome are outlined in the second section, along with the important aspects discovered during the implementation of the study. Results, findings and limitations of the study are described below. The next section, which forms the bulk of the paper, turns to the
description of the data under examination, structured into the 3 intervention cycles of research.
Sections 4, 5 and 6 all discuss in more detail the technical, notative procedure used and how it was transformed, during the research period, in order to strengthen the significance and application of the approach under examination; basically how to transfer Middle Eastern and Balkan rhythms and meters on a set up that consists of M. Eastern percussion and the drum set. The paper ends with a brief conclusion and the more detailed description of the resulted methodology.
FRIEDRICH GRÜTZMACHER Editions and transcriptions for cello
(2016)
author(s): Ivan Nogueira Martinez
published in: Codarts
The cello - as the violin or the string instruments in general - has a long and important tradition from hundreds of years. We know about many masters of the cello who could really master the instrument and contribute with something significant for its development in technique and style of playing. I could mention many names: Boccherini, Duport, Kummer, Popper, Tortelier… All these cellist lived in different moments of the history, and they did important contributions to the cello. Those contributions made the cello be like it is today, the way we play it and the way we practice it in classical music. Are we aware of that?
In order to be a good player, we need to spend a lot of time working on the technique. It needs to be so good that we can master our instrument for playing the great repertoire of the instrument. Nowadays, one of the most spread ways of practicing the technique is by playing studies. Every instrument has its studies, which every professional classical musician must have played in order to become a good player.
I always enjoyed playing studies on the cello. During my growing period as a cellist, I played many of the most important works of this kind: starting with S.Lee or Dotzauer, continuing with Duport, Franchomme, Popper, Grützmacher… Every method has been written in a different time, for a different purpose, and to develop different technical skills.
Some years ago, my curiosity about this topic became more intense. It happened in a period where I came back into the practising of the Duport studies after many years of having done so. I realized that the edition I was using was made by the cellist Pierre Fournier (French cellist, 1906-1986). I wondered how the original version of Duport would be like, and where my edition came from. What I found out was something that changed my vision of the work and woke up my curiosity on the field of editions. All the modern versions of this Duport work are based in the edition made by F. Grützmacher. His edition is very different to the original. It reflects the way of playing and the aesthetics of other different period of time and it also reflects the strong personality of this cellist. Those modern versions are closer to the Grützmacher version than to the original, what made me think that this edition may have been so important and popular at its time that it became the standard version of the work. At that moment I started to be interested about Grützmacher. Who was him? How much did he influenced the modern cello style of playing? What can I learn from him?
Adapting the marimba into Astor Piazzolla's music
(2016)
author(s): Yves Popow
published in: Codarts
It is common in the percussion world to play the music by Astor Piazzolla without being proficient in the Tango style. A lot of percussionists, including me, simply play the piano or guitar parts on the marimba without making any adjustments to the arrangement, because it sounds good to us and it is technically possible. By copying directly, we think we know about the style, but we are wrong. This issue can also be found in the marimba arrangements of Bach’s Cello Suites. In my opinion, one should research about styles of the compositions if they were not originally written for percussion. Otherwise one will never be as close as possible to the intended style, which is essential for a good performance.
Since Tango is about arranging, my goal is to find a suitable role for the marimba in the music of Astor Piazzolla that is as closely aligned to the stylistic traits of Tango as possible.
BETWEEN US
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Doris Ingrisch, Florian Tanzer
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
A scientist invites a choreographer and dancer for a project. “Science and Art in Dialogue. Theoretical Reflection and Experimental Arrangements” is the title of this undertaking, which developed out of an engagement with the connecting lines of science, art, and gender.
The first experimental arrangement is a space of encounter, of getting to know each other.
The solo violin in Astor Piazzolla's tango: a comparative study
(last edited: 2016)
author(s): Stephen Meyer
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
When I began this project, my main goal was to become a competent and confident tango violinist, especially one who could switch effortlessly between tango and classical violin. For me, this was a particular challenge, since I had never played other types of music besides classical. Furthermore, it is important to mention that many classical players try to perform tango music without any in-depth knowledge; tango is a musical language unto itself (albeit based on a Western musical tradition) with specific conventions. Before beginning the master's program, I was aware of some of the stylistic differences, and wanted to understand how to adapt my playing to the specific challenges of tango.
In general, the master's degree in tango gave me a fantastic opportunity to discover and study tango – particularly from the perspective of an orquesta tipica player – but in my artistic research I wanted to understand how the great tango violinists played, on a deeper level, and then apply that research to my own playing. Later on, I would narrow the focus from tango violin in general to what inspired me on a more personal level: solo tango violin. My point of departure was a recording of Astor Piazzolla's “Decarissimo,” performed by Polish-Argentinian violinist Szymsia Bajour. The rich timbre of his sound plus the beauty of his phrasing provided me with a model to emulate. Upon further investigation, I
discovered that he was the perfect violinist for me to study, because he was best known as a classical violinist who also played tango, switching effortlessly between the styles.
Once I understood how Bajour played, I wanted to determine how I could apply that knowledge to my own artistic development. For example, I thought about what interested me most in “Decarissimo” and the answer was the violin solo – and not the accompanimental passages. So I decided to focus on the role of solo violin in tango, with a more
specific focus on Szymsia Bajour. At the outset of my research, I was more concentrated on the interpretational aspect of the project (how could I imitate his playing style in order to assimilate it into my own) but as my research progressed, it became clear to me that while the first part of my project would be based on interpretation, the second part would be creative. My initial idea of the creative portion was to write my own version of a Bajour solo and insert it into one of the pieces that he recorded, but ultimately I discovered that I was much more interested in virtuoso tango fantasies for solo violin – the models for which I found over the course of my research.
A scientist invites a choreographer and dancer for a project. “Science and Art in Dialogue. Theoretical Reflection and Experimental Arrangements” is the title of this undertaking, which developed out of an engagement with the connecting lines of science, art, and gender. The first experimental arrangement is a space of encounter, of getting to know each other.open exposition comments (0)