Composition strategies for the creation of science-based interdisciplinary and collaborative music-theatre
(2024)
author(s): Daniel Blanco Albert
published in: Birmingham City University
The practice-based PhD research project comprises the development and application of composition strategies and techniques generated through interdisciplinary collaboration to integrate elements and ideas from non-sonic disciplines into the musical discourse of new music-theatre works, specifically opera. I explore mechanisms of mapping and association that engage with both the specific subject matter of each piece and the creative collaborative environment in which they are created, thus generating different compositional resources that I use to inform the creative process. By using mapping techniques, I can deeply engage and communicate a subject matter on different levels in the musical composition.
The framework for this research is the intertwining of art and science on a variety of levels from a music compositional perspective. Within this framework, I explored the integration of knowledge and data from the natural and social sciences to inform the composition of four science-based music-theatre works: In response to Naum Gabo: Linear Construction in Space No. 1 (2020), Autohoodening: The Rise of Captain Swing (2021), The Flowering Desert (2022), and TRAPPIST-1 (2023).
With this approach, I aim to closely link these works with their particular subject matter instead of being composed based just on my personal musical taste. By consistently and cohesively applying the strategies and techniques explored in this research, the outcome is not creating music about science or music inspired by science, but, instead, music embedded with science in which the scientific data and knowledge inform the composition decisions. The subject matter is therefore intertwined within the musical discourse, its performativity and theatricality, and its relationship with the other disciplines and collaborators involved in the creation of these music-theatre works.
Ableton Live som kreativt verktøy for trommeslagere
(2024)
author(s): Solveig Nyhus
published in: University of Agder, Faculty of Fine Arts
I dette kunstneriske utviklingsarbeidet har jeg eksperimentert med ulike måter å bruke Ableton Live som et kreativt verktøy. Dette med utgangspunkt i mitt hovedinstrument - trommer. Jeg har som en del av masteroppgaven komponert og produsert tre låter. Beskrivelsen av og refleksjonen rundt komposisjonsprosessen presenteres i kontekst av vitenskapelig teori og metode. I løpet av refleksjonen setter jeg ord på en ny bevisstgjøring rundt min kombinerte rolle som utøver, komponist og produsent gjennom solo-komprovisasjon og hvordan dette har gitt meg ny innsikt i egne estetiske preferanser. Jeg reflekterer også over hvordan teknologien jeg benyttet meg av påvirket komposisjonene, hovedsakelig hvordan trommespillet, sound, lydvalg og formen på låtene ble direkte påvirket av hvordan jeg samhandlet med teknologien.
I HAVE THE MOON: aesthetics of contemporary classical music from a composer-performer band retreat.
(2024)
author(s): Samuel Penderbayne
published in: Research Catalogue
The artistic research project I HAVE THE MOON was an experimental group activity or 'band retreat' for five composer-performers resulting in a public performance in the aDevantgarde Festival, 2019, in Munich. Research was conducted around a central research question stated verbally at the outset of the project: how can aesthetic innovations of contemporary classical music be made accessible to audiences without specialist education or background via communicative techniques of other music genres? After a substantial verbal discussion and sessions of musical jamming, each member created an artistic response to the research question, in the form of a composition or comprovisation, which the group then premiered in the aDevantgarde Festival. The results of the discussion, artistic works and final performance (by means of a video documentation) were then analysed by the project leader and presented in this article. The artistic research position is defined a priori through the research question, during the artistic process in the form of note-taking and multimedial documentation, and a posteriori through a (novel) 'Workflow-Tool-Application Analysis' (WTAA). Together, a method of 'lingocentric intellectual scaffolding' on the emobided knowledge inside the creative process is proposed. Insofar as this embodied knowledge can be seen as a 'field' to be researched, the methodology is built on collaborative autoethnography, 'auto-', since the project leader took part in the artistic process, guiding it from within.
Overlapping Competencies
(2022)
author(s): Joel Diegert, Jonas Howden Sjøvaag, Adrian Artacho
published in: SAR Conference 2020
Saxophonist Joel Diegert and composer Adrián Artacho began a collaboration in 2014 with a question about real-time electronics in contemporary music: what kind of works could be produced if the electronics were treated as a ‘part of’ the saxophone? In this presentation they look at the composer-performer relationship with a particular interest in projects that employ real-time electronics. They will describe some of the challenges that can arise in co-creative work and offer strategies for collaboration that center on the idea of ‘overlapping competencies’. The work aubiome for soprano saxophone and live electronics, which was developed during Joel’s doctoral research, will be referenced as a case study.
Composition as Commentary: Voice and Poetry in Electroacoustic Music
(2020)
author(s): Edmund Hunt
published in: Journal for Artistic Research, Birmingham City University
What is the role of a spoken or sung text in an electroacoustic composition? Does it represent anachronism, assigning the role of communication to the voice and thereby depriving more abstract electroacoustic material of its rhetorical force? Does the disembodied, electroacoustic voice distance the audience from the communicative power of the words that are heard? Although Simon Emmerson argued that the disembodied human voice in acousmatic music can often seem frustrating, this sense of disembodiment might be turned to the composer’s advantage, as the basis of a methodology for creative practice. In the process of developing a methodology to address questions of text, language, voice, and electroacoustic technology, I created two musical compositions. Both works used the untranslated words of an enigmatic Old English poem, ‘Wulf and Eadwacer’. At first glance, the idea of using a text in an obscure or ancient language that carries little or no semantic meaning for the listeners might raise further questions. Is this a deliberate attempt at obfuscation, hiding the paucity of the composer’s ideas behind a veneer of archaism or even naive exoticism? As my investigation progressed, I began to envisage the process of electroacoustic composition as a type of non-linguistic commentary on a text. Rather than hindering the listener’s understanding of a composition inspired by literature, the electroacoustic voice might help to reveal different interpretations of a text, allowing multiple ideas and identities to be heard.
Eon: Blurring lines on a small (time-) travel guitar
(2019)
author(s): Andreas Aase
published in: Research Catalogue
A simple reconfiguring of a mass-produced guitar results in an affordable and comfortable instrument that straddles the gap between the fiddle and the classical guitar. The instrument’s playability gives birth to a new set of eight guitar compositions with two main components throughout: Partly reworked versions of eclectic ideas from my youth decades ago, partly new melodies and improvisations inspired by Scandinavian traditions. A long-held desire for softer dividing lines and cross-bleed between disparate bodies of musical material is expressed in a process of composition, performance and recording that simultaneously redefines memory, dreams and connotations.
The artistic results constitute the primary text and will be represented as videos and sound clips throughout. The written text leads up to, and/or comments on, the artistic issues tackled in the videos.
Hearing a culture: integrating sound and environmental elements of Braga’s festivities into new compositions
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Carlos Brito Dias
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In my reflection on my personal, academic, and artistic path, I examine the impact of culture, tradition, and identity on my development as a composer. I explore this through both a broad lens and in the context of Portuguese national identity. My hometown traditions play a crucial role in my musical identity, serving as the roots from which I draw inspiration.
This research allowed me to delve deeper into my own identity as a composer, exploring the ways in which my roots inform the routes I have taken in my musical journey. Through this process, I have been able to redefine my own stylistic language, creating a unique voice that reflects my experiences and heritage.
The outcome of this project is a body of new musical compositions and reflections that enrich our understanding of this genre of practice and composition techniques. The artistic creations and insights gained through this process provide valuable contributions to the world of music and composition.
Timbral Microperspectives
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Martyna Kosecka
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Project "Timbral Microperspectives" rediscovers the processes leading the composer in his/her artistic preferences through the immerse analysis of the factors of artistic discovery, lifelong learning, and contribution. The starting point for executing "Timbral Microperspectives" research lies in investigating innovative solutions in various tuning systems' interrelations within a musical composition. Driven by the initial idea for distinct timbral concepts, creative, quite often non-musical impulses or attraction by certain sound phenomena, Martyna Kosecka tries to rediscover and establish microtone's functioning in the harmonic landscape of music, as well as its overall significance in the creation of her new musical work. What is the process of transformation of the artist within the artistic process? What can be the possible triggers that shape our decision making in art? How if to document our choice-making and analyze it along with the growth of artistic creation itself?
This project contributes to the dialogue within musical aesthetic and artistic research theories. It provides a new look at the compositional processes and corresponding methodology practices in an artist's self-development.
I dette kunstneriske utviklingsarbeidet har jeg eksperimentert med ulike måter å bruke Ableton Live som et kreativt verktøy. Dette med utgangspunkt i mitt hovedinstrument - trommer. Jeg har som en del av masteroppgaven komponert og produsert tre låter. Beskrivelsen av og refleksjonen rundt komposisjonsprosessen presenteres i kontekst av vitenskapelig teori og metode. I løpet av refleksjonen setter jeg ord på en ny bevisstgjøring rundt min kombinerte rolle som utøver, komponist og produsent gjennom solo-komprovisasjon og hvordan dette har gitt meg ny innsikt i egne estetiske preferanser. Jeg reflekterer også over hvordan teknologien jeg benyttet meg av påvirket komposisjonene, hovedsakelig hvordan trommespillet, sound, lydvalg og formen på låtene ble direkte påvirket av hvordan jeg samhandlet med teknologien.open exposition comments (1)
Saxophonist Joel Diegert and composer Adrián Artacho began a collaboration in 2014 with a question about real-time electronics in contemporary music: what kind of works could be produced if the electronics were treated as a ‘part of’ the saxophone? In this presentation they look at the composer-performer relationship with a particular interest in projects that employ real-time electronics. They will describe some of the challenges that can arise in co-creative work and offer strategies for collaboration that center on the idea of ‘overlapping competencies’. The work aubiome for soprano saxophone and live electronics, which was developed during Joel’s doctoral research, will be referenced as a case study.open exposition comments (0)
A simple reconfiguring of a mass-produced guitar results in an affordable and comfortable instrument that straddles the gap between the fiddle and the classical guitar. The instrument’s playability gives birth to a new set of eight guitar compositions with two main components throughout: Partly reworked versions of eclectic ideas from my youth decades ago, partly new melodies and improvisations inspired by Scandinavian traditions. A long-held desire for softer dividing lines and cross-bleed between disparate bodies of musical material is expressed in a process of composition, performance and recording that simultaneously redefines memory, dreams and connotations. The artistic results constitute the primary text and will be represented as videos and sound clips throughout. The written text leads up to, and/or comments on, the artistic issues tackled in the videos.open exposition comments (0)