Playing in the Manner of Ricardo Viñes
(2022)
author(s): Håkon Magnar Skogstad
connected to: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
published in: Research Catalogue
Playing in the Manner of Ricardo Viñes is an artistic research project undertaken at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) in Artistic Research. The project’s reflection work takes the form of an exposition, which includes texts, videos, annotated scores and the artistic results.
In this artistic research project, Håkon Magnar Skogstad uses an extreme form of imitation to embody and recreate the historical recordings of Catalan-Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes (1875-1943) with the aim of evoking a romantic performance tradition in classical music. Ricardo Viñes was one of the leading pianists in Paris around 1900 and premiered several compositions, including a substantial part of the piano works of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. In his recordings, we hear a tradition of romantic performance practice, which Skogstad claims is not heard in modern-day performances. Furthermore, Ricardo Viñes’s close relationship to the works of Debussy and his recorded performances have the potential to challenge performance practice norms in impressionistic music.
By analyzing, studying and recreating the historical recordings of Ricardo Viñes, Skogstad sets out to research, experience and through this to gain an understanding of of Viñes's playing style on a fundamental level as a performing artist. The method of recreating recordings is carried out by imitating and playing alongside the originals to the point where the recreated performances can be superimposed onto the original historical recordings – achieving a sort of artistic “synchronization”. Skogstad believes that by committing to such extreme imitation, it is possible to extract unique artistic knowledge from these old recordings. In order to examine the performance practice in context, the playing style of Ricardo Viñes is compared to selected and equally thoroughly recreated recordings by contemporaneous pianists Sergei Rachmaninov, Ignacy Friedman and Jesús María Sanromá. Finally, four recordings of pieces by Claude Debussy played by Ricardo Viñes are recreated with the purpose of examining the influence of Viñes’s playing style in the music of Debussy.
In the film Playing in the Manner of Ricardo Viñes, which is one of the artistic results of the research, Skogstad records five of Ricardo Viñes’s original recordings in a “historical recording environment”, approaching that which Viñes encountered in 1930. The aim of this is for Skogstad to expose himself to a similar recording environment to what Viñes experienced – including recording one-off takes without any possibility of editing. The performances are rough, imperfect and on-the-fly - played in a “high-risk” manner just like Viñes's – in contrast to the perfectionism of music production standards today.
Håkon Magnar Skogstad (b.1989) is a prize-awarded diverse pianist and composer holding degrees in classical performance from Trondheim (NTNU, Department of Music), Oslo (Norwegian Academy of Music) and New York (Manhattan School of Music). He has performed in ensembles and as a soloist throughout Norway and played concerts in the U.S., Argentina, Germany, Austria and Sweden. Skogstad released three recordings with critically acclaimed ensembles in Norway, as well as his debut solo album Two Hands to Tango and Visions of Tango, featuring his original Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra with Atle Sponberg and the Trondheim Soloists. Both albums have received numerous outstanding reviews and the latter was nominated in the Norwegian Grammy Awards for best classical album.
Johannes Brahms: Historically-Informed Recording of the Piano Quartets
(2020)
author(s): Anthony JOHN THWAITES
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
This Exposition presents a Double CD of Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quartets, recorded on period instruments in Vienna by The Primrose Piano Quartet for the Meridian label (CDE84650/1-2, 2019). The recording is presented in fully streamable MP3 format alongside a PDF of the CD booklet proof. Accompanying the recording is an essay which documents the research questions, methodology and processes underpinning the work. Preparation, rehearsal, recording and editing are discussed as a process of interpretative investigation. Historically-Informed Performance Practice with respect to Brahms is a thriving academic discipline within which we have endeavoured to offer the most radically innovative post-war commercial recording of the piano quartets.
Venice 1629: Exposition of Research
(2020)
author(s): Jamie Savan
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
This exposition takes the form of a portfolio of materials documenting the research questions, methods and processes underpinning the CD production 'Venice 1629' (performers: The Gonzaga Band, dir. Jamie Savan, released on the Resonus Classics label in July 2018). It includes 10 new performing editions, discussion of performance practice issues including rhythmic proportions, ornamentation and instrumentation, alongside the full recording in streamable MP3 format and a fully referenced version of the booklet essay.
SINGING WITH THE LUTE
(2020)
author(s): Solmund Nystabakk
published in: Norwegian Academy of Music
This project is an attempt at bringing new perspectives and work methods to the performance of lute songs. My point of departure is Historically Informed Performance, also known as HIP. My claim is that the performance of lute songs is lagging behind the general development in HIP. Moreover, I feel that there are aspects of the performance of music that HIP in general has been reluctant to consider.
I want to update the approach to the lute song repertoire, hoping to produce a result that is more varied, nuanced and communicative than what I see as the current state of lute song performance.
Zum Spielen und zum Tantzen
(2016)
author(s): Tormod Dalen
connected to: Norwegian Artistic Research Programme
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
This exposition presents the artistic research project 'Zum Spielen und zum Tantzen: A Kinaesthetic Exploration of the Bach Cello Suites through Studies in Baroque Choreography’, undertaken at the Norwegian Academy of Music between 2009 and 2012. I offer a historical background, discuss the method used, and present the artistic results in the form of video and audio files.
The dance titles of J. S. Bach's cello suites, derived from French court dance, clearly meant more to the composer than just abstract references. In Bach's time, dance practice permeated social life, and an intimate knowledge of fashionable dance forms was indispensable for a musician. The movements and gestures of these dances inevitably had a profound influence on performance style.
I have investigated how the practice of Baroque dance could influence my interpretation of the Bach suites. Learning the essentials of this style and its original choreographies and frequently accompanying dancing, I also explored the dance aspect of the cello suites by way of experiments with historical tempos as well as melodic and rhythmic reductions of the musical material.
Through this project, I hope to make a worthy contribution to the development of performance practice studies, offering a recontextualisation of Bach’s work that emphasises the close links between the expressive gestures of music and dance. The results have both artistic and pedagogic potential as tools to discover essential aspects of dance character in Baroque music.
Sense and Sensibility, performing music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Ingrid Eriksen Hagen
connected to: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
For Norwegian version, see the exposition "Fornuft og kjensle - å framføre musikk av Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach"
Engaging in the complex and expressive music of Bach; on the clavichord, which is as intense and nuanced as it is delicate and soft in volume; aspiring to a musical empathy in which the performer and the listener jointly experience the true content and emotion of the music – spurs a craving for closeness and intimacy.
But how close can we get? How close do we want to get?
Close enough to hear the instrument. Close enough to understand what the music is telling us – to follow all the wonderful diversions – in close up. Deepest sincerity. Tender caresses. The rush of joy. The thought that could not be – could… be… – …
But then the floor creaks. Someone turns round. I can’t hear it. Why is she playing so faintly? I don’t understand it. All those notes. So full on the whole time! So, who was that guy anyway – he lived a long time ago, right?
These are the reflections in Ingrid E. Hagen’s research fellowship project. Based on my personal encounters with the music of Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) and his concepts of musical empathy, I worked on public mediation of his music, mainly on the clavichord. I have explored the tension that exists between intimacy and distance – and have experimented with different means of achieving that intimacy, and registered the resulting resistance to these experiments.
I have reached out to people outside of the conventional concert setting, on a quest for the intimate interaction in the interests of empathic, shared experience of the music. I have performed Bach's music in the open air, at museums, for people who were not expecting to experience live music. I have investigated relationships between music and language; structural, stylistic and contextualising. Both in order to improve my own understanding and artistic empathy with the subject matter, and to investigate the ways in which different means of communicating and their use in musical mediation can influence experiences in various ways.
Through this process, I became aware of the great extent to which different concert formats or other modes of presentation influence what audiences listen to in the music, and what they gain from it.
I have worked intensively on a selection of Bach's keyboard music, and recorded the CD für Kenner und Liebhaber. Together with the final concert in November 2016, the CD represented the artistic results of my research fellowship.
My artistic method has been a reflexive process in which questions are addressed in experiments, articulated in a dialogue with the study material, be it musical, literary or artistic experience, in a constant quest for intimacy; for getting closer. I organised this non-linear approach in the form of 'tracks', which allowed me to address multiple questions in parallel and as they intersected along the way.
My research fellowship was undertaken at the Grieg Academy, Institute of Music, under the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme and was funded by the University of Bergen.
My supervisors were Professor Torleif Torgersen of the Grieg Academy, and Professor Maria Bania of the University College of Theatre and Music, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Fornuft og kjense - å framføre musikk av Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Ingrid Eriksen Hagen
connected to: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
For English version, see the exposition "Sense and Sensibility, performing music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach".
I møtet med Emanuel Bach sin komplekse og uttrykksfulle musikk – med klavikordet, som er like intenst og nyanserikt som det er sart og lydsvakt – med tankane om musikalsk empati, der utøvar og lyttar saman opplever det sanne innhaldet og kjenslene i musikken – oppstår ein trong til nærleik, intimitet.
Men kor nær kan me kome? Kor nær vil me kome?
Nær nok til å høyre instrumentet. Nær nok til å forstå kva musikken seier – til å følgje med i alle dei vedunderlege svingane av – skarpt vidd. Djupaste alvor. Ømmaste kjærteikn. Boblande glede. Tanken som ikkje let seg – let … seg … – …
Men så knirkar golvet. Nokon snur på seg. Klarar ikkje høyre. Kvifor speler ho så svakt? Klarar ikkje forstå. Så mange notar. Fryktelig fort heile tida! Kven var no eigentleg denne fyren – det er veldig lenge sidan han levde?
Dette er refleksjonen i Ingrid E. Hagen sitt kunststipendiatarbeid. Med utgangspunkt i mitt personlege møte med Emanuel Bach (1714–'88) sin musikk og hans idear om musikalsk empati har eg utforska formidlinga til publikum, i all hovudsak på klavikord. Eg har arbeidd i spenningsfeltet mellom intimitet og avstand – prøvd ut ulike måtar å kome nærmare på og kjend på motstanden som oppstår i desse forsøka.
Eg har oppsøkt menneske utanom den konvensjonelle konsertsituasjonen, på jakt etter det nære møtet for empatisk samoppleving av musikken. Eg har framført Bachs musikk utandørs, på museum, for menneske som ikkje forventa å oppleve levande musikk. Og eg har undersøkt relasjonar mellom musikk og språk, både strukturelle, utrykksmessige og kontekstualiserande. Dette har eg gjort for å betre mi eiga forståing og kunstnarlege innleving i stoffet, og for å finne ut korleis ulike vis å kommunisere og utnytte desse i formidlingssituasjonen kan forme opplevinga på ulikt vis.
Gjennom arbeidet har eg vorte merksam på kor mykje ulike konsertformat eller andre presentasjonsformer påverkar kva publikum lyttar til i musikk, og slik kva dei får ut av den.
Eg har arbeidd inngåande med ein del av Bachs klavermusikk, og spelt inn CD’en "für Kenner und Liebhaber" med solo klavikordmusikk. Saman med avslutningskonserten i Stranges Stiftelse i Bergen i november 2016 utgjorde CD’en stipendiatarbeidets kunstnarlege resultat.
Min kunstnarlege metode har vore ein refleksiv prosess, der spørsmål blir undersøkt i forsøk, utforma i dialog med det faglege stoffet – det vere seg musikalsk, skriftleg eller kunstnarleg erfaring, i eit stadig forsøk på å kome nærmare. Denne ikkje-lineære arbeidsforma organiserte eg som «spor», og kunne slik arbeide med parallelt fleire problemstillingar som grip inn i kvarandre undervegs.
Stipendiatarbeidet blei gjennomført på Griegakademiet, inst. for musikk innan Program for Kunstnerisk Utviklingsarbeid, og var finansiert av Universitetet i Bergen.
Rettleiarar var professor Torleif Torgersen ved Griegakademiet og professor Maria Bania ved Högskolan för scen och musik, Göteborgs Universitet.
Decomposing Emanuel Bach
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Ingrid Eriksen Hagen
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
An experiment on form, where the Rondo Wq 56/1 by C. P. E. Bach (1714-88) is cut into fragments.
To be played in the order of the visitors choise.
Music recorded on the clavichord by the author.
This Exposition presents a Double CD of Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quartets, recorded on period instruments in Vienna by The Primrose Piano Quartet for the Meridian label (CDE84650/1-2, 2019). The recording is presented in fully streamable MP3 format alongside a PDF of the CD booklet proof. Accompanying the recording is an essay which documents the research questions, methodology and processes underpinning the work. Preparation, rehearsal, recording and editing are discussed as a process of interpretative investigation. Historically-Informed Performance Practice with respect to Brahms is a thriving academic discipline within which we have endeavoured to offer the most radically innovative post-war commercial recording of the piano quartets.open exposition comments (0)
This exposition takes the form of a portfolio of materials documenting the research questions, methods and processes underpinning the CD production 'Venice 1629' (performers: The Gonzaga Band, dir. Jamie Savan, released on the Resonus Classics label in July 2018). It includes 10 new performing editions, discussion of performance practice issues including rhythmic proportions, ornamentation and instrumentation, alongside the full recording in streamable MP3 format and a fully referenced version of the booklet essay.open exposition comments (0)
This project is an attempt at bringing new perspectives and work methods to the performance of lute songs. My point of departure is Historically Informed Performance, also known as HIP. My claim is that the performance of lute songs is lagging behind the general development in HIP. Moreover, I feel that there are aspects of the performance of music that HIP in general has been reluctant to consider. I want to update the approach to the lute song repertoire, hoping to produce a result that is more varied, nuanced and communicative than what I see as the current state of lute song performance.open exposition comments (2)
An experiment on form, where the Rondo Wq 56/1 by C. P. E. Bach (1714-88) is cut into fragments. To be played in the order of the visitors choise. Music recorded on the clavichord by the author.open exposition comments (0)