Gravity and Breathing as an Integrated Musical Frame
(2025)
author(s): Halym Kim
published in: Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen
This artistic research explores a performance practice that integrates the phenomena of gravity and breathing as extensions of musical expression in improvisation. The aim is to develop a musical language that translates the qualities and characteristics of gravity and breath into sonic gestures, examining how they generate tension and release through both musical actions and silences.
The project draws inspiration from traditional Korean music and dance, in which an embodied awareness of gravity and breathing constitutes a foundational approach to performance and interpretation. These cultural references serve as a framework for rethinking musical practice and transcultural awareness. As part of the research process, I undertook studies in traditional Korean dance, the vocal tradition of Pansori, and the percussion instrument Soribuk to understand how gravity and breathing are communicated artistically, verbally, and methodologically across these three disciplines. Insights from this embodied practice were then translated into the context of Western contemporary improvisation.
The resulting concept is designed to enhance the performer’s awareness and is specifically conceived for a solo drum set context.
Decolonial Listening and the Politics of Sound: Water, Breathing and Urban Unconscious
(2023)
author(s): Rodrigo Toro and Donovan Hernández Castellanos
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
This essay is based in the urgency of questioning the coloniality of being and power (Quijano, 2014), present in the hegemonic aural regime. It is based on two pieces: Wet Season / Dry Season (2021), a sound installation by the collective of Cuban visual artists Celia-Yunior that was presented at the Jakarta Biennial, Indonesia; and Breathe (2020), an interdisciplinary piece combining dance, literature, sound and video.
Breathtaking: An alternative approach to breathing for trumpeters
(2017)
author(s): Danny Teong
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Danny Teong
Main Subject: Trumpet, Early Music Performance
Research supervisors: Wouter Verschuren, Susan Williams
Title of Research:
Breathtaking: An alternative approach to breathing for trumpeters
Research Question:
Breathing simultaneously through the nose and mouth: What are the benefits for trumpet playing? How can this technique be learned?
Summary of Results:
Breathing in trumpet pedagogy is a controversial area. Trumpet method books contain seemingly conflicting instructions, and breathing through the mouth and focusing on low abdomen breathing dominates conventional brass pedagogy. This research attempts to explore the teachings of Willem van der Vliet, a retired trumpet teacher, who presents an alternative approach of including the nose in the inhalation process. I have used interviews, surveys, and investigated scientific and esoteric sources to attempt to explain the breathing mechanism and to understand how and why Willem’s approach to breathing works, and how it can be learnt.
Biography:
Danny started playing the natural trumpet since 2011, and has freelanced with early music groups in the Netherlands and Germany. He is intrigued by the limitless rhetorical possibilities of early music and enjoys the portrayal of a singing trumpet via variations in articulation and sound colour. Danny is currently doing his master’s degree with Susan Williams in Koninklijk Conservatorium, with support from Adriana Jacoba Fonds.