Can one wade twice into the same Seine?
(2015)
author(s): Assi Karttunen
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
In 2013, the Elysian Fields working group received a grant for two concerts based on the concept of a musician’s relationship to a specific city. The idea was to reveal the musician’s living relationship to history in the context of three European towns; Amsterdam, Paris and Helsinki.
I belonged to the group planning the Paris concert, and therefore my article deals with the musicians’ working process and the phases of the practising/rehearsing in preparation for this event, which was staged in January 2015. The Elysian ensemble comprised: Varpu Haavisto, viola da gamba; Essi Iso-Oja, harp; Assi Karttunen, harpsichord, Katja Vaahtera, soprano; and Hannu Vasara, violin.
During the artistic process, the chosen material is shaped, crystallized, constituted and transformed. All of these forms of working are referred to as ‘processing’, where the word is used to describe otherwise invisible stages of working through which the collected material starts to give birth to relevant sets of themes that emerge from the music and its performance practices. During a musician’s decades of processing, the encountered ’alien’ musics and cultures are appropriated and incorporated into his or her own musical identity.
It is typical that in the practising/rehearsal period, the arising themes begin to grow connections to each other as well as outwards to the ’world’. These connections and relationships, their mutual dynamics and causalities, may be explored and analysed. The multidisciplinary and multistage processing and analysis of the material (finding, collecting, producing, practising/rehearsing, delivering and performing) could be called artistic research or practice-based research.
For a musician, Paris is like a university of the mind from which one can never graduate.
Sense and Sensibility, performing music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Ingrid Eriksen Hagen
connected to: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
For Norwegian version, see the exposition "Fornuft og kjensle - å framføre musikk av Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach"
Engaging in the complex and expressive music of Bach; on the clavichord, which is as intense and nuanced as it is delicate and soft in volume; aspiring to a musical empathy in which the performer and the listener jointly experience the true content and emotion of the music – spurs a craving for closeness and intimacy.
But how close can we get? How close do we want to get?
Close enough to hear the instrument. Close enough to understand what the music is telling us – to follow all the wonderful diversions – in close up. Deepest sincerity. Tender caresses. The rush of joy. The thought that could not be – could… be… – …
But then the floor creaks. Someone turns round. I can’t hear it. Why is she playing so faintly? I don’t understand it. All those notes. So full on the whole time! So, who was that guy anyway – he lived a long time ago, right?
These are the reflections in Ingrid E. Hagen’s research fellowship project. Based on my personal encounters with the music of Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) and his concepts of musical empathy, I worked on public mediation of his music, mainly on the clavichord. I have explored the tension that exists between intimacy and distance – and have experimented with different means of achieving that intimacy, and registered the resulting resistance to these experiments.
I have reached out to people outside of the conventional concert setting, on a quest for the intimate interaction in the interests of empathic, shared experience of the music. I have performed Bach's music in the open air, at museums, for people who were not expecting to experience live music. I have investigated relationships between music and language; structural, stylistic and contextualising. Both in order to improve my own understanding and artistic empathy with the subject matter, and to investigate the ways in which different means of communicating and their use in musical mediation can influence experiences in various ways.
Through this process, I became aware of the great extent to which different concert formats or other modes of presentation influence what audiences listen to in the music, and what they gain from it.
I have worked intensively on a selection of Bach's keyboard music, and recorded the CD für Kenner und Liebhaber. Together with the final concert in November 2016, the CD represented the artistic results of my research fellowship.
My artistic method has been a reflexive process in which questions are addressed in experiments, articulated in a dialogue with the study material, be it musical, literary or artistic experience, in a constant quest for intimacy; for getting closer. I organised this non-linear approach in the form of 'tracks', which allowed me to address multiple questions in parallel and as they intersected along the way.
My research fellowship was undertaken at the Grieg Academy, Institute of Music, under the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme and was funded by the University of Bergen.
My supervisors were Professor Torleif Torgersen of the Grieg Academy, and Professor Maria Bania of the University College of Theatre and Music, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Fornuft og kjense - å framføre musikk av Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Ingrid Eriksen Hagen
connected to: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
For English version, see the exposition "Sense and Sensibility, performing music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach".
I møtet med Emanuel Bach sin komplekse og uttrykksfulle musikk – med klavikordet, som er like intenst og nyanserikt som det er sart og lydsvakt – med tankane om musikalsk empati, der utøvar og lyttar saman opplever det sanne innhaldet og kjenslene i musikken – oppstår ein trong til nærleik, intimitet.
Men kor nær kan me kome? Kor nær vil me kome?
Nær nok til å høyre instrumentet. Nær nok til å forstå kva musikken seier – til å følgje med i alle dei vedunderlege svingane av – skarpt vidd. Djupaste alvor. Ømmaste kjærteikn. Boblande glede. Tanken som ikkje let seg – let … seg … – …
Men så knirkar golvet. Nokon snur på seg. Klarar ikkje høyre. Kvifor speler ho så svakt? Klarar ikkje forstå. Så mange notar. Fryktelig fort heile tida! Kven var no eigentleg denne fyren – det er veldig lenge sidan han levde?
Dette er refleksjonen i Ingrid E. Hagen sitt kunststipendiatarbeid. Med utgangspunkt i mitt personlege møte med Emanuel Bach (1714–'88) sin musikk og hans idear om musikalsk empati har eg utforska formidlinga til publikum, i all hovudsak på klavikord. Eg har arbeidd i spenningsfeltet mellom intimitet og avstand – prøvd ut ulike måtar å kome nærmare på og kjend på motstanden som oppstår i desse forsøka.
Eg har oppsøkt menneske utanom den konvensjonelle konsertsituasjonen, på jakt etter det nære møtet for empatisk samoppleving av musikken. Eg har framført Bachs musikk utandørs, på museum, for menneske som ikkje forventa å oppleve levande musikk. Og eg har undersøkt relasjonar mellom musikk og språk, både strukturelle, utrykksmessige og kontekstualiserande. Dette har eg gjort for å betre mi eiga forståing og kunstnarlege innleving i stoffet, og for å finne ut korleis ulike vis å kommunisere og utnytte desse i formidlingssituasjonen kan forme opplevinga på ulikt vis.
Gjennom arbeidet har eg vorte merksam på kor mykje ulike konsertformat eller andre presentasjonsformer påverkar kva publikum lyttar til i musikk, og slik kva dei får ut av den.
Eg har arbeidd inngåande med ein del av Bachs klavermusikk, og spelt inn CD’en "für Kenner und Liebhaber" med solo klavikordmusikk. Saman med avslutningskonserten i Stranges Stiftelse i Bergen i november 2016 utgjorde CD’en stipendiatarbeidets kunstnarlege resultat.
Min kunstnarlege metode har vore ein refleksiv prosess, der spørsmål blir undersøkt i forsøk, utforma i dialog med det faglege stoffet – det vere seg musikalsk, skriftleg eller kunstnarleg erfaring, i eit stadig forsøk på å kome nærmare. Denne ikkje-lineære arbeidsforma organiserte eg som «spor», og kunne slik arbeide med parallelt fleire problemstillingar som grip inn i kvarandre undervegs.
Stipendiatarbeidet blei gjennomført på Griegakademiet, inst. for musikk innan Program for Kunstnerisk Utviklingsarbeid, og var finansiert av Universitetet i Bergen.
Rettleiarar var professor Torleif Torgersen ved Griegakademiet og professor Maria Bania ved Högskolan för scen och musik, Göteborgs Universitet.