The Place of Shade
(2024)
author(s): Anthony Morton, Ray Franz
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
At first, the plan was simple — to be home by Christmas. To begin to view the very concept of home as built upon nostalgia. Imagining home is a pastime of any immigrant. If, as Breton suggests, ‘The imaginary is that which tends to become real,’ what were our imaginings bringing to life?
The Place of Shade is an artistic research inquiry into the contemporary wake of the Norwegian presence in South Africa. Norwegians began operating within the British colonial framework around 1840 — the same period as the migration to America. Lutheran missions, whaling, farming, business and family characterise this almost 200-year Afri-Norge diasporic heritage. It has been almost entirely overlooked in visual culture, until now. Their legacy remains an integral component of the city and the province's socio-cultural fabric to this day.
This exposition is just one expression within the broader scope of this ongoing project. Here, we on the one hand reflect on our preliminary research, methodology and fieldwork from a fictional standpoint — a kind of meta-methodological reflection — and, on the other hand, we address our Afri-Norge subject matter head-on. To achieve this, we narrate Ray Franz and Anthony Morton’s part in the initial fieldwork through the fictionalised perspectives of two PhD students at The University of Bergen — Vincent Dibble (RSA) and Bjarne Karlsen (NOR) — who leave their shared office to undertake an expedition which parallels ours, travelling to KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. This journey is set in the penumbra of the seismic socio-political events of 1999: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, The South African Arms Deal, Case no. 4138/98, and the looming global spectre of Y2K. Dibble, an occidental eschatologist and accidental apocalypse-hunter. Bjarne, a philosophical cosmologist and photography enthusiast.
This exposition is imagined as the pair's pin board, suspended upon the expanse of their office wall upon returning to Norway. Behind them it hangs, a silent curation of fever dreams, as they weave theses into existence, their gaze drawn through the window onto the sprawling canvas of Bergen's cityscape.
UNVEILING THE FOLK DANCE IDENTITY OF CARL NIELSEN'S CLARINET CONCERTO OPUS 57: A FYNSKE MODERNIST STORYTELLING
(2022)
author(s): Ettore Cauvin
published in: Codarts
Carl Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto Opus 57 is a work of a problematic nature for both performers and audiences, who always find it difficult to understand its rich yet intricate content. Despite copious written material, many interpretations are unfortunately significantly misleading because of the extreme technical difficulty of the music and the lack of information about the composer’s identity, especially concerning his production for clarinet and the distinct role of the instrument in Nielsen's life.
My research shows that the composer's roots, the development of his production and the uniqueness of Danish folklore and related dances uncover narrative levels which are fundamental to a correct reading, not only of this work but of Nielsen's music in general.
This study aims to create a multidisciplinary performance that combines the original score with dance and storytelling to enhance its peculiar characteristics, such as the bipolarity of characters and the intrinsic reminiscence of elements of Danish folklore within specific sections. Based on an extensive critical literature review and a fruitful expert consultation, I made analyses, charts and transcriptions, attaching explanatory video recordings as the basis of my work.
Thanks to my field research trip to Denmark, I started designing a new performance combining the folk-related investigation and the extra-musical elements linked to Nielsen’s identity, to both the musical interpretation and imaginative dance performance to show the bipolarity of characters as well as portray the inner storytelling.
The goal of my research here is not to demonstrate Carl Nielsen’s compositional willingness but to establish relations which can help the performer and the audience to connect the music to its vital folk heritage, extraordinary customised spirit and distinctiveness in both dance and storytelling.
The artistic result is, in fact, a new hybrid performance of the work which portrays the complex music more consciously and innovatively, combining an informed musical approach with an imaginative choreography and active interplay between the contrasting manic episodes and the homeward feeling of the heartening sections, letting the audience partake in the musical narration.
Despite the complex construction and demanding realisation of this kind of creative approach, I firmly believe that the result of this research makes an essential contribution to the understanding and interpretation not only of this work but of the music and identity of Carl Nielsen and the Danish musical tradition for the world of classical music and beyond.
Further research is needed to shed light on the relations between classical and folk music, within performing arts in general, to strengthen their essential role in today's society to make what is usually considered a niche more accessible to the public by exploiting its unique characteristics for a more sustainable artistic and social usefulness.