A Garden of Sounds and Flavours: Establishing a synergistic relationship between music and food in live performance settings
(2024)
author(s): Eduardo Gaspar Polo Baader
published in: KC Research Portal
During the past decade, there has been a surge in the literature about crossmodal correspondences, consistent associations our minds establish between stimuli that are perceived through different senses. Correspondences between sound/music and flavour/taste have received particular scholarly attention, which has lead to a variety of practical applications in the form of food and music pairings, mostly examples of so-called ‘sonic seasoning’, a way to use sound to enhance or modify the tasting experience.
This thesis aims to explore the pairing of food and music from an artistic perspective. Its goal is to find tools that would allow to present both music and food as components of coherent live performances in which neither of them is a mere ‘seasoning’ to the other. Through the description and exploration of different ‘mediating elements’ between them (such as crossmodal correspondences, but also structure, ritual, narrative, and others), a wide range of possibilities is presented to whoever wants to match food and music in a truly synergistic manner.
Readers interested in multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary artistic practices of any kind might find the outcomes of this research useful for their own work.
Performing Precarity
(2024)
author(s): Laurence Crane, Anders Førisdal, LEA Ye Gyoung, Io A. Sivertsen, Lisa Streich, Jennifer Torrence and Ellen Ugelvik
published in: Norwegian Academy of Music
To be a contemporary music performer today is to have a deeply fragmented practice. The performer’s role is no longer simply a matter of mastering her instrument and executing a score. Music practices are increasingly incorporating new instruments and technologies, methods of creating works, audience interaction and situations of interdependence between performer subjects. The performer finds herself unable to keep a sense of mastery over the performance. In other words, performing is increasingly precarious.
Hindemith’s Musical Enigmas Through the Eyes of Bach
(2023)
author(s): Kaat Schraepen
published in: KC Research Portal
Taking the audience on a journey is always an important goal of mine while performing. My research was created not only to add to my knowledge but more importantly to my performance and my connection to the audience. Throughout my research I uncover the enigma of Bach as an inspiration for Hindemith. What connects these two composers living 200 years apart? How do we connect the ‘new and modern’ to the ‘old and familiar’? Is Hindemith in fact 'Bach with a modern twist'? By discovering the similarities and differences between Bach’s 6th Cello Suite and Hindemith’s Solo Sonata Op.25 No.1, through background research and putting their structure and harmony in relation to each other, a new world of interpreting both composers opened up to me. The research makes my performance more involved but also allows me to take the listener by the hand, guiding them through this more ‘modern’ music by Hindemith and his contemporaries such as Max Reger, by accompanying his music with Bach, and accompanying the music with short metaphorical stories highlighting the composers' similarities as well as different approaches. Engaging the audience, allowing them to open their ears and view the music in a new light.
Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency - Being and Feeling (Alone, Together)
(2023)
author(s): Lauren O'Neal
published in: University of the Arts Helsinki
What "moves" in an exhibition, if not the bodies of artists, audiences, and objects? How does conversation move us? What can speculative artistic research offer? This exposition, "Being & Feeling (Alone Together),” held at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy in 2020, is part of my doctoral research project, “Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency.” While some aspects of the project (including the title), were developed before the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the project unfolds in relation to myriad cultural, spatiotemporal, and civic situations that the pandemic produced. This situation required experimental and responsive curatorial methods that encouraged the project to move in unexpected ways.
[This exposition corresponds to Section Seven: Letting Things Move in the printed dissertation.]
Classic Expression: the effect of storytelling in a classical concert for children
(2022)
author(s): Vivian de Graaff
published in: KC Research Portal
The traditional way of classical concerts – i.e. a concert of 1,5 hour, no moving or making sounds, no interaction – is not the way to attract children to classical music. There are different inviting ways to interest children in a classical performance, for example with interaction, participation or storytelling. In this research we investigate if storytelling has an effect on children’s enthusiasm for classical music and their likeability of playing an instrument themselves. Furthermore, we assess if there is a relation between musical interest, engagement and/or emotional intensity during the concert. We do this by comparing a story-condition with a technical information-condition, in which the presenter talks about the instruments or the performance location. It is executed in the Classic Express, a concert truck in which laureates of the Prinses Christina Concours, a Dutch competition for young musicians, perform and present classical music for primary school classes. Children answer questions before, directly after and one week after the concert about how much they like the music, if they want to experience it again and if they are interested in playing a musical instrument themselves. The results can support musicians wanting to give engaging performances to children, improve the quality of concerts for this target audience and raise likeability of classical music in young generations.
A case study of instrument design
(2022)
author(s): Rafaele Andrade
published in: KC Research Portal
While searching for a way to unify my creative process into an artistic practice, I was led to design a new instrument. This instrument resembles a cello in certain respects but also integrates important values and discussions from the current century, notably Communication, Integration, Representation and Autonomy. My goal has been to use the process of design development of the instrument as research for discovering new ways of practicing music and composing. For this research project, I am testing my 2021 release of the instrument: producing artworks with a diverse range of collaborators and multidisciplinary interactive concerts. At its core, this is a transdisciplinary case study combining instrument design, composition, and performance.
At Home in Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles Festival Neighborhood
(2021)
author(s): Edda Bild, Daniel Steele, and Catherine Guastavino
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
Urban festivals have traditionally been considered incompatible with residential areas because of their contrasting sonic characters, where the sounds of festivals are treated as a nuisance for residents. However, the neighborhood dedicated to housing festivals in downtown Montreal is also the home of diverse groups of residents and workers. Based on a diary and interview study with residents of the Quartier des spectacles festival neighborhood, and building upon research on touristification, festivals as third places, and soundscape, we explored what it meant to be at home in a festival neighborhood, focusing on the sonic experiences of locals. Findings provided a more nuanced portrayal of everyday life in a dense, lively urban environment transformed through touristification. Residents do not consider the sounds of festivals as a primary source of annoyance; on the contrary, these sounds inspire them to engage with their neighborhood, suggesting a more porous living experience between indoor and outdoor spaces. Drawing on the characterization of other imagined residents by our participants, we conclude by introducing the idea of soundscape personas as a practical method in participatory decision-making for the future of the neighborhood.
Did They Throw Tomatoes? The Performer-Audience Relationship in 18th-century England
(2019)
author(s): Chloe Prendergast
published in: KC Research Portal
Student Number
3111644
Supervisor(s)
Stefan Petrovic and Jed Wentz
Title
Did They Throw Tomatoes? The Performer-Audience Relationship in 18-century England
Research Question
What was the nature of the performer-audience relationship in 18th-century England and how can this influence our relationship with audiences today?
Summary
With the explosion of the public concert in 18th-century England and the ensuing so called “rage for music”, it is clear that concerts were a vital part of the social life of England’s elite and burgeoning middle class. What created this experience? What roles did both audience and performers play? How did it differ from the ways in which we encounter classical music concerts in the 21st century? This research explores how 18th-century English music was publicly experienced in paid, secular concert settings. It was quite different from what we might now expect in the same setting, and therefore it engendered a vastly different performer-audience relationship than what we often have today. The concert spaces, audience makeup, and concert etiquette each were contributing factors in creating a varied and highly social experience for concertgoers. The aim of this research paper is to illuminate this experience and explore how something similar might be relevantly created in the 21st century.
Short Bio
Chloe Prendergast is a violinist originally from Denver, Colorado. She is the artistic director of the Beethoven Festival of the Hague, a member of Holland Baroque and the Butter Quartet, and has performed with groups including the Handel and Haydn Society, Pacific Musicworks, Henry Purcell Society of Boston, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Luthers Bach Ensemble, Collegium Ad Mosam, and Arcadia Players. Chloe currently studies at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague with Kati Debretzeni and Walter Reiter. She holds a degree from Willamette University, where she was a Phil Hanni scholar and studied principally with Anthea Kreston and Daniel Rouslin.
Dancing About Music
(2016)
author(s): Isa Goldschmeding
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Isa Goldschmeding
Main subject: Violin
Research supervisor: Dr. Anna Scott
Title: Dancing About Music
Research Question: How does consciously moving while playing help to interpret and communicate a piece of music?
Summary of Results:
Using movement is the most natural and direct way with which people express themselves. Elaborate research has been done on the connection between movement (gesture) and intention (meaning) in spoken language. The same principles and findings in these studies can be applied to movement and its connection to music. The method described in my case study, in which I studied Lera Auerbach’s Lonely Suite for violin solo while focusing on my body’s impulses, makes use of this instinctual way of showing what we feel, and therefore leads to a sincere and convincing interpretation. In so doing, this process can be very clarifying for a performer.
Based on my research into the available background literature I can conclude that there is much to be gained by using conscious movement while learning and performing a piece of music. Indeed, various authors repeatedly emphasize the importance of this subject for musicians, and their hope that it will be further researched and developed within the context of musical performance. By way of my case study, I have indeed found that using movement provides a new approach to learning a piece of music and to developing a personal, sincere, and honest interpretation. Emerging from the unconscious, I strongly believe that an interpretation that has been reached through movement will translate strongest to a given audience.
The background sources surveyed have also proven the value of a movement-based approach for audiences. In addition to the obvious benefits for the performer as related to musical meaning and expression, benefits that are then shared by the audience, there is also the visual aspect of this approach to performing music with conscious movements: an aspect that is of great value when connecting, sharing, and communicating with audiences.
Biography:
Isa Goldschmeding studied with Axel Strauss at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and with Theodora Geraets and Ilona Sie Dhian Ho at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. She participated in masterclasses with Theo Olof, Philippe Graffin, Stephan Picard, Isabelle van Keulen and the Osiris Trio. Isa enjoys playing chamber music, and has a special interest in contemporary music. In 2014 she was one of the instrumental soloists in Vivier’s opera Kopernikus with the Dutch National Opera. She played with Asko|Schönberg, Ensemble Klang, Rosa Ensemble, Residentie Orkest and Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht and is a member of the young, The Hague based ensemble Kluster5.
Performing Musical Silence
(last edited: 2025)
author(s): Guy Livingston
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This dissertation considers performed silences in composed music and suggests that musicians often use markers to communicate the dimensions of silence. These markers may shape, summon, or impose silence. Markers are signals or cues that may be visible, audible, or multimodal. This research consists of an archive of examples from the author's pianistic practice, as well as three case studies drawn from works of Beethoven, Cage, and Antheil.
Full title: "Performing Musical Silence: Markers, Gestures, and Embodiments"
Expected Research Report
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Femke Luyckx
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This is a research into the influence of expectations during the creative process of an aerial performance.
What does a maker and/or performer think an audience expects from an aerial performance? What does an audience expect from an aerial performance?
What does the performer expect from the maker and the creative process?
What does the maker expect from the performer and the creative process?
And what is the (tacit) influence of all this on the co-creative making of an aerial performance?
Are we, creator and performer, aware of the impact of expectations? How do (tacit) expectations manifest themselves in the studio? Can they be identified, dislodged and scrutinized? Where do they come from, are they negotiable, can we deal with them and are we able to let them go?
This research starts from the assumption that (tacit) expectations are an overlooked factor in a making process. An influence that is not considered (enough). An influence that, from outside in and inside out, can stand in the way of a free creative flow, an open mind and therefor has an impact on the final outcome of an aerial creation.
What is your first thought when you read “aerial performance”?
To be a contemporary music performer today is to have a deeply fragmented practice. The performer’s role is no longer simply a matter of mastering her instrument and executing a score. Music practices are increasingly incorporating new instruments and technologies, methods of creating works, audience interaction and situations of interdependence between performer subjects. The performer finds herself unable to keep a sense of mastery over the performance. In other words, performing is increasingly precarious.open exposition comments (0)
While searching for a way to unify my creative process into an artistic practice, I was led to design a new instrument. This instrument resembles a cello in certain respects but also integrates important values and discussions from the current century, notably Communication, Integration, Representation and Autonomy. My goal has been to use the process of design development of the instrument as research for discovering new ways of practicing music and composing. For this research project, I am testing my 2021 release of the instrument: producing artworks with a diverse range of collaborators and multidisciplinary interactive concerts. At its core, this is a transdisciplinary case study combining instrument design, composition, and performance.open exposition comments (2)
This dissertation considers performed silences in composed music and suggests that musicians often use markers to communicate the dimensions of silence. These markers may shape, summon, or impose silence. Markers are signals or cues that may be visible, audible, or multimodal. This research consists of an archive of examples from the author's pianistic practice, as well as three case studies drawn from works of Beethoven, Cage, and Antheil. Full title: "Performing Musical Silence: Markers, Gestures, and Embodiments"open exposition comments (0)