The Joy of Practice. A Case study of Keren by I.Xenakis - The pursuit of happiness in our practice room
(2015)
author(s): Georgios Kachrimanis
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Georgios Kachrimanis
Main Subject: Classical Trombone
Research Coach: Paul Scheepers
Title of Research: The Joy of Practice: A case study of Keren by Iannis Xenakis
Research Question:
How can I bring the joy back into my daily practice?
Summary of Results:
Every musician perceives “hard work” differently in their career or education. For me it was something like weight lifting training with the motto “No Pain, No Gain”. This was my idea about practicing music for more than 15 years. Besides the hard work I was also dealing with anxiety and the outcome was that I was not progressing in my practice and performance. I noticed that I was not enjoying myself anymore as I did as a young boy, but that I was ‘working’ the trombone instead of ‘playing’. When I was accepted for the masters program of the conservatoire I knew I had to change something about my way of practicing. So I came up with my main question for my master research “How can I bring the joy back into my daily practice?” In my research paper I am exploring the flow theory of Csikszentmihalyi and the use of awareness from book of The Inner Game of Music. According to the Csikszentmihalyi flow can help musicians to experience more joy and achieve better work satisfaction. In order to explore this theory and the use of awareness I used a case study, Keren by Iannis Xenakis. Because joy
and anxiety also got a lot to do with how you plan your practice and recovery I also made a practice plan. For this I used the information and planning techniques I got from Erja Joukamo-Ampuja, one of the speakers at the conference ‘From Potential to Performance’ in 2013. Putting all the information I gained during my research together, I came up with six conditions that I needed for my daily practice to be flow-like so I could gain some joy out of it: having a clear mind, a goal/outcome, good skill/challenge match, frequent feedback, physical/mental energy, relaxed concentration. During my presentation I will explain the concepts of flow, anxiety and joy in my daily practice and my case study.
Biography:
The Trombone came into Georgios’ life at the age of 15, although he had started playing music at the age of ten in his local fanfare band. Shortly thereafter he started
playing in the Athens Student orchestra. The first time he played music
professionally was at the age of 17, with the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Greece.
In 2002 he won his current position as principal trombone of the Athens Philharmonia and in 2003 finished his studies with a 10 and first prize. During the next 10 years Georgios won other auditions and played with all the major and minor orchestras in Greece, appearing as a soloist on a number of occasions.
Revisiting the Gendy model from the perspective of noise transformation as a compositional method
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Johan van Kreij, Jeyong Jung
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The authors have been developing a technique called Noise Transformation that makes possible the on-the-fly instantaneous conversion of lists into continuous Probability Density Functions (PDFs) and the real-time redistribution of White Noise signals according to the list-style PDF prescriptions. One of the motivations for developing Noise Transformation was to create enormous possibilities in the choice of PDFs and the description of their in-time development in dynamic systems. The authors now attempt to apply the technique inspired by Xenakis to Xenakis’. The first step is using Noise Transformation in association with the Gendy model so that the synthesis uses the random numbers of arbitrarily drawn distributions.
Nomos Alpha of Iannis XENAKIS for cello solo : guide for performers [NOMOS ALPHA of Iannis XENAKIS for cello solo: guide for performers - 2019-09-17 13:08]
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): Josquin Buvat
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Name: Josquin Buvat
Main subject: Cello
Supervisor: Patrick van Deurzen
Master circle leader: Martin Prchal
Title: Nomos Alpha of Iannis Xenakis: guide for performers
Research question: how build one's interpretation of Nomos Alpha ? And practice it?
Summary of result:
Today, Nomos Alpha (1965-66) is greeted with loud applause each time it is performed. And the piece is considered one of the greatest pieces of the 20th century's cello solo repertoire, still it's also one of most difficult and “avant-gardiste”. Furthermore, the piece remains 'Difficult' for the listener: it is submerged in the torrent of 144 micro-events, an extreme fragmentation accentuated by the presence of many silences. That's why Nomos is only rarely played. Since the piece's creation in 1966, lot of cellists were aware of the existence of Nomos Alpha. Many cellists had the score, but hardly anyone played it.
It seemed important to me to begin my research with an analysis of the piece and an explanation of the historical musical context of that time. Indeed, Nomos alpha is one of Xenakis’s most ‘formalised’ pieces, the structure and all the parameters are calculated down to the last details. For cellists, these knowledges are essential to understanding the piece and making the necessary choices to build its interpretation of Nomos Alpha. In last the last part of this research, I have maked a guide for performers for the cellist who would like to play Nomos Alpha. For this guide I will try to concentrate on some essentials aspects of the piece for the performers. To illustrate this guide I did an critic comparative analysis of the different versions of the piece. And finally to complete this guide I did some videos of tutorials on how to practice the piece.
Biography
After completing his studies at Pôle Supérieur Paris Boulogne-Billancourt in Michel Strauss's cello class, as well as his Bachelor's degree in Musicology at Paris-Sorbonne University, Josquin Buvat continued his studies in a Master's degree in Performance at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag. Josquin gives a special place to modern music and contemporary creation in his repertoire. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Nomos ensemble, with which he has appeared at several festivals, including the Presences festival at Radio France, a concert that will be recorded.
He performs regularly in chamber music as well as in orchestra, with Les Siècles, Ensemble Appasionato, Ensemble A-letheia the OJIF, the JOEHB.
In addition to his musical activities Josquin is also involved in the field of associations, for two years including one as President of the Students Office of the PSPBB.