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.
(no)boundaries: A Study in Free Improvisation
(2020)
author(s): Andrew Bain
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
This practice-led research project investigates the importance of an empathically creative connection between freely improvising musicians in a live context with no pre-conceived ideas and details the development of instantaneous group composition. As such, (no)boundaries had no pre-composed music, there was no rehearsal period for the musicians (myself playing drums), and we had never played together before the first note of performance. In my research to date, the dynamic between pre-learned knowledge (embodied) alongside intelligent transactions during live improvisation (enacted knowledge), has been useful in helping to better understand the process of jazz improvisation. Even if there are pre-conceived elements, how the music is realised each time is unique. Conversely, even if we set out to have no pre-conceived ideas, in reality, we are still intuitively informed by our experiential and musical knowledge in performance. The two seem inextricably linked.
(no)boundaries showed that group attunement in performance is possible with no pre-learnt repertoire or rehearsals, in an appropriate setting with the right co-performers. Even though no pre-conceived ideas were intended, (no)boundaries evidenced improvisations guided by similar principles of standard jazz performance, pointing to the existence of a common performance mode.
Choreographic Process and Skinner Releasing Technique
(2020)
author(s): Polly Hudson
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
An exploration of Skinner Releasing Technique and its application to choreographic practice.
The research offers a paradigm shift in understanding of Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) from that of a dance technique to one of choreographic methodology. The primary research question was: Can SRT be not only a dance technique, but also a methodology for creating dance? Thematically the work examines notions of self portraits and questions the culture of 'selfies'.
The ‘elsewhereness’ of post-genre: utilising playfulness of cross-genre references as a compositional device
(2020)
author(s): Joe Cutler
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
This set of three works individually and collectively examine the ‘elsewhereness’ of post-genre composition. Through this research, I seek to develop a hybrid compositional aesthetic through the absorption, integration and referencing of a highly personal set of ‘influences’, many from outside the sphere of classical music. A fundamental concern is the examination of the role of ‘compositional play’ or ‘playfulness’ in unifying a multi-faceted compositional language. This is often manifested through intertextuality and the juxtaposition of diverse elements that are made to function at a structural or conceptual level.
Through practice-based research, I obfuscate notions of genre, performance practice and content. Using the referencing of other musics as a compositional tool, I identify playfulness as a filter through which models of influence are transformed into something personal in an attempt to define what post-genre means to a 21st century composer. On a meta-structural level, reference becomes a parameter in its own right.
She plays angel music (where people might die)
(2020)
author(s): Michael Wolters, Paul Norman
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
She plays angel music (where people might die)
Post-Internet Music as a comment on the absorption of knowledge
This exposition articulates the research within the artistic work She Plays Angel Music (where people might die), a 60-minute concert-installation for 5-25 female harpists. The research was triggered by highly questionable and incomplete information on the history of harp composition found on Wikipedia. While it is generally accepted that Wikipedia is not a reliable source in academia, it still a powerful source of knowledge amongst the general public. Thus, the incomplete display on the site promotes
a) the historic and continuing discrimination of women from music composition in the classical music world and
b) the continuing rejection of contemporary music in favour of music by dead composers in the classical music world.
This exposition takes the reader through the compositional steps that were performed in order to create a post-internet work that attempts to highlight political situations by gathering publicly available information into a controversial context.
Reconstructing Verses by Henry Loosemore and John Coprario
(2020)
author(s): Helen Roberts
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
This exposition comprises a package of outputs from practice-led research around two unique pieces of instrumental music with winds from early seventeenth-century England. Along with the first critical performance edition and a world premiere recording of these two pieces, I present a detailed discussion of the investigation which informed the editorial process, focussing on three historical artefacts: MS Drexel 5469, the fragmentary source of the music in question; the Christ Church cornetts, two original instruments that may historically have been associated with performance of this type of repertoire; and the St Teilo organ, an instrument reconstructed after Tudor archaeological evidence and representative of the style of instrument in use when MS Drexel 5469 was compiled. I examine each artefact in turn, establishing the wider historical context of each and assessing the connections between all three. This process has not only shed new light on two pieces overlooked by historical performers until now, but raised important questions surrounding the performance of early-seventeenth century liturgical music in general.
Performing the compositional act with bouncy castles, soap and shh
(2020)
author(s): Andy Ingamells
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
The three creative works presented in this exposition are practical examples of ways in which notation can be reframed to become an integral part of the physical theatre of a musical performance. This act of reframing is presented as part of a process of reimagining relationships within musical performances through an interpreatation of a diagram by Fluxus composer George Brecht (1926–2008). In these three works the act of reading is integral to the theatre of musical performance.
Up Down Left Right
(2020)
author(s): Andy Ingamells
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
On Saturday 11th March 2017, forty people responded to an open invitation to conduct the Salvation Army brass band at the Ashley Road citadel in St Paul's, Bristol. No prior musical experience was necessary. Together, over the course of the day, a new piece of music was created.
The aim of this research was to explore alternative ways of being a composer by:
-collaborating with a performing ensemble that is tied to a specific locality;
-engaging with the history and traditions of the organisation associated with the ensemble;
-including the wider community of that locality as participants in the creative process.
The project culminated in the creation of the 3-minute video and 42-page printed publication through an extensive process of selection, re-presentation and re-performance.
Notions of Queerness as compositional building blocks in "There are more of them than us - a Queer Concerto for 9 Saxophones and Orchestra"
(2020)
author(s): Michael Wolters
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
This exposition examines how notions of queerness can be built into the construction of a 15-minute long concerto for 9 saxophones and orchestra.
I am presenting the full orchestral score, a video of the premiere performance and a commentary on the research process.
Catalogue d'Emojis
(2020)
author(s): Paul Norman, Michael Wolters
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
Catalogue d'Emojis is a Live Performance and CD release of a new work for two performers and two pianists by Dr Paul Norman and Dr Michael Wolters (who together work under the name 'Difficult Listening').
Composition as Devised Collaboration
(2020)
author(s): Seán Clancy, Andy Ingamells
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
The aim of this research was to explore devised collaboration between Seán Clancy and Andy Ingamells as a compositional process through the creation of two works that use collaborative creative strategies in different ways:
1. in This is About, by devising all material through the act of doing, considering all material in a given process to be collaborative.
2. in Antonio Guillem, by collaboratively constructing and performing a piece remotely over the internet, intended as a creative response to the pandemic by exploring technology in a novel way.
This exposition provides contextual information to support the two creative outcomes.
Both works borrow aspects from other areas of Clancy's practice research, such as intervention and translation (available here). Both were devised through discussion, creating material by moving back and forth between doing and reflecting. We explored the collaborative process through a kind of visual musique concrète arising from the images of performance situations. In both works the compositional process was scrutinised, reviewed by funding bodies and festival directors, and disseminated internationally by BBC Radio 3, Twitch and YouTube.
Translation as a Compositional Strategy
(2020)
author(s): Seán Clancy
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University
The aim of this body of work is to explore translation, the act of communicating the meaning of one phenomenon (the source) to another phenomenon (the target) through musical composition. This is illustrated by three related works that translate different events/objects into musical experiences:
1. Fourteen Minutes of Music on the Subject of Greeting Cards
2. Forty-Five Minutes of Music on the Subject of Football
3. ireland england
The intention is to create interesting structures through innovative compositional techniques that may be taken up by others. The act of translation imbues the musical work with meaning relating to our lived experiences. As a result, composition as lived experience becomes the overarching narrative, highlighting a departure from more abstract concerns to hyper-personal ones.
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.
Composition as Commentary: Voice and Poetry in Electroacoustic Music
(2020)
author(s): Edmund Hunt
published in: Journal for Artistic Research, Birmingham City University
What is the role of a spoken or sung text in an electroacoustic composition? Does it represent anachronism, assigning the role of communication to the voice and thereby depriving more abstract electroacoustic material of its rhetorical force? Does the disembodied, electroacoustic voice distance the audience from the communicative power of the words that are heard? Although Simon Emmerson argued that the disembodied human voice in acousmatic music can often seem frustrating, this sense of disembodiment might be turned to the composer’s advantage, as the basis of a methodology for creative practice. In the process of developing a methodology to address questions of text, language, voice, and electroacoustic technology, I created two musical compositions. Both works used the untranslated words of an enigmatic Old English poem, ‘Wulf and Eadwacer’. At first glance, the idea of using a text in an obscure or ancient language that carries little or no semantic meaning for the listeners might raise further questions. Is this a deliberate attempt at obfuscation, hiding the paucity of the composer’s ideas behind a veneer of archaism or even naive exoticism? As my investigation progressed, I began to envisage the process of electroacoustic composition as a type of non-linguistic commentary on a text. Rather than hindering the listener’s understanding of a composition inspired by literature, the electroacoustic voice might help to reveal different interpretations of a text, allowing multiple ideas and identities to be heard.
From culture to nature and back. A personal journey through the soundscapes of Colombia
(2020)
author(s): Lamberto Coccioli
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies, Birmingham City University
The purpose of this essay is twofold: to celebrate the astonishing richness and diversity of Colombia’s natural and human soundscapes, and to reconstruct the process through which my direct experience of those soundscapes has influenced my own creative work as a composer. Reflecting on a long personal and intellectual journey of discovery that plays out on many levels – musical, anthropological, aesthetical – helps bring to the fore important questions on music composition as the locus of cultural appropriation and reinterpretation. How far can the belief system of a distant culture travel before it loses its meaning? From a post-colonial perspective, can a European composer justify the use and repurposing of ideas, sounds and songs from marginalised indigenous communities? In trying to give an answer to these questions through the lens of my own experience I keep unravelling layer upon layer of complexity, in a fascinating game of mirrors where my own identity as a "Western" composer starts crumbling away.
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)
An exploration of Skinner Releasing Technique and its application to choreographic practice. The research offers a paradigm shift in understanding of Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT) from that of a dance technique to one of choreographic methodology. The primary research question was: Can SRT be not only a dance technique, but also a methodology for creating dance? Thematically the work examines notions of self portraits and questions the culture of 'selfies'.open exposition comments (0)
The three creative works presented in this exposition are practical examples of ways in which notation can be reframed to become an integral part of the physical theatre of a musical performance. This act of reframing is presented as part of a process of reimagining relationships within musical performances through an interpreatation of a diagram by Fluxus composer George Brecht (1926–2008). In these three works the act of reading is integral to the theatre of musical performance.open exposition comments (0)
On Saturday 11th March 2017, forty people responded to an open invitation to conduct the Salvation Army brass band at the Ashley Road citadel in St Paul's, Bristol. No prior musical experience was necessary. Together, over the course of the day, a new piece of music was created. The aim of this research was to explore alternative ways of being a composer by: -collaborating with a performing ensemble that is tied to a specific locality; -engaging with the history and traditions of the organisation associated with the ensemble; -including the wider community of that locality as participants in the creative process. The project culminated in the creation of the 3-minute video and 42-page printed publication through an extensive process of selection, re-presentation and re-performance.open exposition comments (0)
This exposition examines how notions of queerness can be built into the construction of a 15-minute long concerto for 9 saxophones and orchestra. I am presenting the full orchestral score, a video of the premiere performance and a commentary on the research process.open exposition comments (0)
Catalogue d'Emojis is a Live Performance and CD release of a new work for two performers and two pianists by Dr Paul Norman and Dr Michael Wolters (who together work under the name 'Difficult Listening').open exposition comments (0)
The aim of this body of work is to explore translation, the act of communicating the meaning of one phenomenon (the source) to another phenomenon (the target) through musical composition. This is illustrated by three related works that translate different events/objects into musical experiences: 1. Fourteen Minutes of Music on the Subject of Greeting Cards 2. Forty-Five Minutes of Music on the Subject of Football 3. ireland england The intention is to create interesting structures through innovative compositional techniques that may be taken up by others. The act of translation imbues the musical work with meaning relating to our lived experiences. As a result, composition as lived experience becomes the overarching narrative, highlighting a departure from more abstract concerns to hyper-personal ones.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)