Rethinking ornamentation : a rhetorical approach to da capo arias of Georg Friedrich Händel
(2020)
author(s): Francisca Prestes Branco Gouveia
published in: KC Research Portal
Ornamenting baroque da capo arias is crucial for the historically informed singer. However, the choice of ornaments should do more than fit the affects portrayed in a given piece: it should emphasize their expression and move the affections of the audience. In Mattheson’s Der vollkommene Capellmeister it is suggested that rhetorical figures can be of good use as ornaments. Out of the abundant number of figures listed by theorists associated with the movement of the German Musica Poetica, only a few have simultaneously an affective meaning and can be applied to a pre-existing melody. This research explores some of the existing ornamented melodies by G. F. Händel and singers from the time of the composer to understand how these ornaments can be linked with figures from rhetoric, and how they assist in the expression of the text. This research associates rhetorical figures and manieren with general affects and demonstrates its practical use in selected operatic repertoire by G. F. Händel. This study aims to enhance the author’s aesthetic choices while performing, and furthermore encourage other singers to use ornamentation effectively in similar repertoire.
La pratica degli affetti - The practice of affections
(2020)
author(s): Elisa De Toffol
published in: KC Research Portal
Research question: How the relationship between seconda prattica (Claudio Monteverdi) and poetica del gesto (Luciano Berio) can be absorbed in a singing study process and which are the practical results/vocal consequences?
Abstract:
This research wants to investigate through a personal vocal approach the nature of the connection between music and text in Claudio Monteverdi’s and Luciano Berio’s compositions. It started with my personal wish as a singer to be able to express feelings behind words in such a way that the relation between both becomes more clear. I found in the connection between these two composers the perfect ground to build this vocal study path which I documented with recordings. This vocal path has proven to be full of inspiration and stimuli: on one side the open, honest and modern full of love language of Monteverdi, which shapes the harmony according to the meaning of the text (pone l’armonia serva all’orazione). On the other side the inspiring, rich, creative and fascinating writing of Luciano Berio that with his poetics of the gesture seems to reveal in a direct and elegant way a world of infinite possibilities of colorful combinations between musical sounds and words. This research exposition, is divided in four main chapters. The first one is an introduction to Monteverdi and his seconda prattica in which the doctrine of affections is exposed with a special focus at the Lamento d'Arianna along with my research about vocal interpretation. The second chapter describes the musical context in Italy at the beginning of the 20th-century observing how the new composers looked back at the past and in particular at Monteverdi and his contemporaries; in the third chapter Luciano Berio's poetics of gesture will be exposed and it will be observed how some of his composition refer to Monteverdi's seconda prattica. A final chapter will show, with a video recording, my vocal research during the approach to their music.
Entwine – finding music within a poem.
(2018)
author(s): Natasza Kurek
published in: KC Research Portal
Entwine – finding music within a poem.
Exploring musical interpretations of Japanese Tanka by Yosano Akiko
What can be the contemporary musical expressions of tanka poetry from a standpoint of an improvising jazz vocalist?
What are the elements that constitute tanka’s character and can they trigger a vocal inspiration?
What could be the place of Japanese poetry within other artistic disciplines?
In my research I have explored Japanese aesthetic sensibilities and have tried to find their translations into my own musical experimentation.
After initial study of the relevant literature and listening to the existing works of both classical Japanese music and Western contemporary compositions influenced by the Japanese arts, I have proceeded with my own vocal- instrumental Sketches in which I have experimented with improvised and written music. My source material was tanka of an early 20th century poet Yosano Akiko.
The improvisations and compositional sketches are based on some specifically chosen elements: the imagery and meaning of the tanka poem, layered Ukiyo-e printing technique, sound associations derived from the paintings, Japanese language sonority, Japanese scales and harmony used in the traditional gagaku ensemble and other inspirations.
The final research document contains audio examples of the recordings that led to the final audio-visual presentation and an extensive paper documenting the process of discovery.
"Convertere ad Deum Tuum": A Road Map Through the Landscape of Performative Theology
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Elisabeth Laasonen Belgrano
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This exposition is a bilingual presentation - in Swedish and in English - of two parallell tracks through the Landscape of Performative Theology. One of them is the result of a course taken during the Autumn of 2022, as part of my theological training towards priesthood in the Church of Sweden. The other track is a collection of entangled fragments part of a MA thesis in Systematic Theology were a diffractive reading is carried out through theologist Prof. Graham Ward's "How the light gets in. Ethical life I" (2016) and Prof. Erika Fischer Lichte's "The Transformative Power of Performance. A New Aesthetics" (2008). This reading will also embrace results from the fields of Artistic Research and Performance Philosophy.
Lessons in the Shadow of Death
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Elisabeth Laasonen Belgrano
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Meaning-making as vocal ornamentation.
Meaning-making as vocal ornamentation.open exposition comments (0)