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 Improvisational Ear-How to build improvisational language through the study of speech
(2019)
author(s): Hue Blanes
published in: KC Research Portal
This artistic research investigates the transcription process in improvisational musical landscapes. Particularly the transcription process of speeches and speech patterns for the main purpose of developing and furthering jazz language to communicate more effectively as a communicator-improviser.
This research asks the question, how can musicians build improvisational musical language through the study of speech?
Effective methods of transcribing practice with the goal of developing the musical ear are developed during this research. These are demonstrated with analysis, harmonisation, survey, additional experiments and a set of improvisations and compositions. A systematic approach to improvisation in a spoken style will be shaped and consequently, the ‘voice on the piano’ will be found. These outcomes will be presented with the aspiration to venture toward melodic and harmonic possibilities of functional harmony not yet established in improvisational vocabulary.
The success of a symphonic transcription
(2017)
author(s): Johan Smeulders
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Johan Smeulders
Main Subject: Wind Orchestra Conducting (HaFaBra)
Research Supervisor: Suzan Overmeer
Title of Research: The success of a symphonic transcription
Research Question:
What makes a symphonic transcription (for Concert band, Fanfare and Brass band) of one of the Great Masters from the 19th century successful?
Summary of Results:
The success of a chosen key in a symphonic transcription depends on several thoughts from arrangers and composers. It is possible to choose any kind of key for a symphonic transcription but the choice always has consequences. For example, the chosen key has consequences for the amount of sharps and flats in the individual parts for the different instruments. Another very important consequence, while a different key is chosen, is the choice for the solo parts in a transcription. Every instrument has its limitations within a chosen key because of the “limited” register for a particular solo instrument. The hard part in my research is the question: “What is success”? And how is it possible to define “success”? When a different key, another key than what is written in the original composition is chosen, some people will say the “colour” of the composition has also changed. Some people say they can feel and hear it but as we all know a lot of thoughts in music are subjective. So how can we define its success when a lot of things are subjective? What is good, better or wrong?
Luckily, I have found some measurable facts to define the success of a symphonic transcription.
My main conclusion, at this moment, is that the success of a symphonic transcription is based on several choices. First you will need to choose a key for the transcription that fits the ensemble in a natural way. When this key is chosen with knowledge about the limitations of the ensemble the transcription has to be instrumented in a high level of craftsmanship.
Biography:
Johan Smeulders finished his first Bachelor degree in 2011 as a euphonium player at the Fontys Conservatoire in Tilburg. He finished his Bachelor degree of Conducting arts studying at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague in 2015. He is the principal conductor of two fanfare bands and two concert bands in the south of the Netherlands. He also works as an arranger and as a professional euphonium player.
Mikael Bäckman REACT chapter
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Mikael Charlie Bäckman
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This is the artistic documentation referred to in my chapter Finding Voice: Developing Student Autonomy from Imitation to Performer Agency in the book Teaching Music Performance in Higher Music Education: Exploring the Potential of Artistic Research. Edited by Helen Julia Minor, Stefan Östersjö, Gilvano Dalagna, and Jorge Salgado Correia.
Adapting symphony orchestra to the organ - an investigation of transcriptional methods
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Hongyu Yao
archived in: KC Research Portal
A symphony orchestra is made up of many different instruments with different color, each of which has a different tone and plays a different role in the orchestra. The characterized of organ is a wide range of sounds and colorful stops. Mozart called the organ is the king of the instrument because it is rich in sound and is called a symphony which only has one person. Can the organ be used to play the orchestra music?