The new stage of bass trombone: study on the music of Daniel Schnyder
(2024)
author(s): Hongyi Gu
published in: Codarts
Many of the top musicians in the world have performed and recorded Daniel Schnyder's music, a Swiss-American composer and saxophonist.His compositions often combine elements of jazz, classical music, and world music. In this research, the focus is on his piece Subzero, which was composed for bass trombone and orchestra. The aim of this research is to gain a deeper understanding of Schnyder's musical approach, with a particular focus on the extended techniques used in the piece.
One of the key areas of investigation is the use of extended techniques such as multiple tongues, varied vibratos, and glissandos with growling. These techniques are not typically associated with the bass trombone, and their use in Subzero is part of what makes the piece so unique. Through a thorough analysis of these techniques and their use in composition, this research aims to shed new light on Schnyder's creative process.
Another important aspect of the research is an in-depth analysis of the musicality of each movement, with a particular focus on the second movement, Samai Thaquil. This movement is based on a rhythmic groove from Turkey that has been adapted by Arabs and is often used for belly dancing and celebration. The research explores the ways in which Schnyder incorporates this groove into the piece and the various possibilities it offers for exploring the timbre of the bass trombone with different mutes.
To achieve these aims, the research employs a range of methods, including the collection of literature and media, interviews with several experts, the study of recordings from different artists, various experiments, and structural analysis of the movements. By using these methods, the research aims to provide new insights into Schnyder's work and its impact on the bass trombone repertoire.
In conclusion, this research aims to contribute to the understanding of Daniel Schnyder's musical approach and the ways in which he incorporates extended techniques and world music influences into his compositions for the bass trombone. Through a range of methods and a detailed analysis of the composition, the research aims to provide new insights into Schnyder's creative process and shed new light on the possibilities for the bass trombone as a solo instrument in contemporary music.
Create the Present, Recreate the Past
(2024)
author(s): DAVID VAAMONDE LÓPEZ
published in: Codarts
The following report documents a research project that aims to incorporate improvisation in classical piano recitals in an effective way, as a manner of refreshing such an old-fashioned format. In order to make it possible, the process started by mapping the field, developing basic skills in improvising interludes between written pieces and reading literature on improvisation as a concept. Regarding the need for a larger amount of technical and artistic resources, a more intensive study on piano extended techniques applied to improvisation and free improvisation was carried out, finishing the project with a focus on analysing the own aesthetics and working on proportion (time management).
The artistic results are satisfactory, fulfilling the initial goals. Thus, the improvised interludes work sufficiently on their own and in relation to the written pieces surrounding them, thanks to the development of an efficient system that allows the improviser to adapt them to various contexts, according to their artistic needs. As a result, they are capable of adding artistic value to the content of a regular programme, potentially changing the perception of the listener and enhancing their engagement to the musical act.
Such outcomes can serve as an inspiration to other musicians in order to start their own process, getting as close and incorporating as many elements of this one as they wish, with the intention of achieving a similar artistic development as the one derived from this research project.
Bandoneon Explorations
(2023)
author(s): Mercedes Krapovickas
published in: Research Catalogue
This master's thesis explores the augmentation of the bandoneon, an iconic Argentine instrument traditionally associated with tango music, through the integration of live electronics and extended performance techniques. The research delves into the development of a unique system that enables real-time interaction between the performer and the electronics, transforming the bandoneon into a dynamic and expressive instrument. The study investigates the implications of this augmented approach on musical expression, embodiment, and the relationship between the performer and the instrument. Through a series of performances, including collaborations with other musicians and participation in festivals, the thesis examines the practical application and reception of the augmented bandoneon in diverse contexts. The findings contribute to the discourse on the intersection of traditional instruments, technology, and contemporary musical practices, offering insights into the possibilities and challenges of augmenting a culturally significant instrument like the bandoneon.
Heterotopia of the Practice Room: Casting and Breaking the Illusion of Tristan Murail’s Tellur for Solo Guitar
(2023)
author(s): Maarten Stragier
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
A combination of highly unusual extended playing techniques with open intabulated notation makes the solo guitar work Tellur altogether unique in Tristan Murail’s catalogue. When placed in the broader discursive context of Murail’s compositional philosophy, this unique configuration of elements causes a quandary. The composer aims to integrate “the totality of sonic phenomena” into his compositional language, and within this context he maintains a traditional view of musical authorship. However, how does a performer reconcile this perspective with a score of which the combination of unconventional techniques and open notation leaves so much of the sonic material to their individual discretion and know-how?
This exposition offers the first performance-led study of this conundrum in Murail’s music and writings. Using Lydia Goehr’s historical study of the work-concept as a point of orientation, I explore the functioning of Werktreue in Tellur. I show that the processual structures that should make up its “ideal” score are correlative with the composer’s abstraction of the guitar, which is in its turn correlative with the guitarist’s unconventioned heuristics. I argue that confronting traditional musical authorship with this system of correlation creates a discursive aporia, but not a practical impossibility. Rather the discursive aporia brings to light what I call the “heterotopia of the practice room.” In this heterotopia, I as a performer navigate a musical reality that simultaneously reflects and contests a tradition of classical music performance built around the regulative work-concept.
Multilayeredness in Solo Performance
(2021)
author(s): Søren Kjærgaard
published in: Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen
This project investigates the multilayered potentials of solo performance with the intention of opening up the single player limitations often experienced during the creative process of play and practice.
In performance contexts ranging from acoustic solo piano to a digital code-based video keyboard, concepts of multilayeredness are explored through compositional and improvisational strategies, that include instrument topography, extended piano techniques, audio-visual sampling and digital keyboard mapping.
The purpose is also to create results that will contribute to how solo artists across formats can express themselves more dynamically and with greater flexibility in the interaction between their various materials and artistic ideas. A contribution also in terms of expanding methodological approaches to how solo performers and research practitioners can work iteratively and interactively in their reflective processes, inviting both a more verbalised and dialogic form, and to explore ways of documenting and communicating these processes in hybrids between text, sound and image.
Natureous Music
(2020)
author(s): Jung-Jae Kim
published in: Research Catalogue
This exposition presents an approach to how to investigate and apply musical parameters, which articulate the unsystematic and unmathematical characteristics of natural features. The research project took place at the University of Bergen, Faculty of Art, Music and Design, Grieg Academy from 2018 to 2020. The main artistic result was presented as a musical album called I Had a Dream by PAN.
Chapter of my thesis: musical analysis of the piece
(last edited: 2025)
author(s): Juan David Vélez
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The text discusses how traditional Colombian music has mainly been interpreted by typical instruments, such as drums and guitars, but also incorporates non-traditional instruments, like the saxophone, opening new possibilities for the diffusion of these rhythms. The saxophone, a relatively new instrument in academic music and outside traditional Colombian music, has been adapted to perform native rhythms like fandango, cumbia, and chandé. Suite for Solo Saxophone by Colombian composer Herman Fernando Carvajal is an example of this adaptation, blending traditional melodies with extended saxophone techniques. This study aims to present this work and generate interest among non-Colombian musicians on how to interpret these rhythms through the saxophone, highlighting its role in Colombian traditional music and its ability to expand the expressive possibilities of the instrument.
Extended Piano Techniques in Theory, History & Performance Practice
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Luk Vaes
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
So-called "extended techniques" have suffered a consistent lack of understanding from a theoretical, historical and practical point of view. Although most of them __ e.g. playing directly on the strings, cluster- and glissando-techniques __ exist in a substantial part of the repertoire for the piano and have done so for more than a couple of centuries now, the use of the techniques on stage still sparks off negative reactions by audiences, composers, performers and tuners as well as owners of pianos. Any one-sided approach towards appreciation has proven to be inadequate: academic analyses do not succeed in handling the matter satisfactorily, endeavors by musicians to teach and advise on the "proper" use of the techniques have come short of applying an in-depth and a historically informed perspective. A comprehensive and exhaustive survey of the extended techniques as a whole can serve to alleviate the risk that the relevant repertoire sinks into oblivion, contributing to a reassessment of the subject, in turn benefitting contemporary professional performance practice, concert programming, composers__ interest and musical as well as music-historical education. The subject and its related terminology are scrutinized and (re)defined where necessary. The acoustical properties of the techniques are explained from the perspective of the performer to ensure proper insight in the way they produce sound. Over 16.000 compositions have been considered to write the history of improper piano playing, comparing manuscripts with first and subsequent editions of solo as well as chamber and concerto music, original compositions as well as transcriptions, from the "classical" as well as the "entertainment" sector. Original preparations collected by John Cage were tracked down and described in minute detail so that alternatives can be considered on the basis of professional information. Historical recordings as well as personal experiences and interviews with composers are used to pinpoint historical performance practices. To help the pianist prepare for concerts with the relevant repertoire, measurements of the internal layout of the most common grand pianos are listed in order to anticipate possible problems in advance.
Author: Luk Vaes
THINKING IN LAYERS, WORLDING IN LAYERS: POSTHUMAN LANDSCAPES IN EXTENDED DRAWINGS AND PRINTS
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Britta Benno
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
I am using the printmaking and drawing artist way of thinking as a method of creating artistic research. Thinking in layers becomes a way of creating both: the artefacts and writing. The emphasis of the artistic research is divided in two extending and overlapping categories: first, conceptually worlding the post-capitalist landscapes – this becomes the study-case of the second and most imporant focus: the innovation of formal indermedial method when creating hybrid art.
I am using the printmaking and drawing artist way of thinking as a method of creating artistic research. Thinking in layers becomes a way of creating both: the artefacts and writing. The emphasis of the artistic research is divided in two extending and overlapping categories: first, conceptually worlding the post-capitalist landscapes – this becomes the study-case of the second and most imporant focus: the innovation of formal indermedial method when creating hybrid art.open exposition comments (0)