The art of the violin in Verdiales
(2023)
author(s): María Estela Lastre Castillo
published in: KC Research Portal
Verdiales is the traditional music from Málaga, Spain, which is little known even within Spain. This research places verdiales in its historical and musical context looking at: the differences between styles, rhythm and harmony, and, most importantly, the role of the violin in this music.
As the main instrument in verdiales, the violin is played in a very different way than in classical music, since it is spontaneous music with a great deal of freedom for improvisation, disseminated purely by oral transmission, and with a particular technique which is suited to playing only this music.
Through the deep learning of verdiales, I have looked for different resources to face my daily practice issues in order to gain more flexibility and freedom in my way of playing. After trying several exercises and approaches in different parts of my practice, I have been self- documenting and verifying the improvement and effectiveness of certain methods, taking into account different aspects such as bow hold, ornamentation, and improvisation. As a result, I came to the conclusion that in order to achieve different results, it is necessary for more exploration and extremely different methods than the ones I have been using when practicing the violin
The Accompaniment for the Villancico in New Spain
(2018)
author(s): Miguel Espinoza Chavez
published in: KC Research Portal
The abstract for this exposition is unfortunately missing.
Reseach: Caprice Basque, P. Sarasate
(2016)
author(s): Mikel Ibanez
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Mikel Ibañez Santervas
Main subject: Violin
Main Subject teacher: Peter Brunt
Research supervisor: Herman Jeurissen.
Title of the research: Caprice Basque op.24 by Pablo Sarasate. Way of being interpreted.
Research question: Why did Pablo Sarasate compose the first dance of the Caprice Basque in 3/4 bar?
Summary of results:
The first dance of the "Caprice Basque" op. 24 by Pablo Sarasate is composed in 3/4 although it is a traditional dance from Basque Country which is usually played in 5/8. The piece was composed in 1880 when the quintuple bars were not still common at the classical occidental musical language but they were beginning to be spread little by little. After having analyzed all the documentation about it, my conclusion is that in the folkloric music often the musicians do not play what is written in the score really precisely. Sometimes what is written in the score is just an approximation of what it sounds. Is at the second half of the XIX, when, the folkloric music gets analyzed by expert musicians, that we start to see the relation between what we listen and what we read in the scores. This is exactly the case of Pablo Sarasate. He knew about the 5/8 bar when he composed the Caprice Basque ( because of the geographical closeness of Pamplona (his hometown) and the Basque Country, and because there were in the Basque tradition some written 5/8 “Zortziko” examples as the one we have seen of 1813 by Antonia de Mazarredo or her sister Juana de Mazarredo) but despite he wrote it in 3/4, it is completely sure that he would interpret it in the traditional way. Attached we can see a transcription of the piece in 5/8 which shows how the "Caprice Basque" op. 24 should sound.
Biography:
Mikel Ibañez, violinist. Born in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) in 1989. He began his violin studies at de age of 6 at his hometown’s conservatory with the teacher Agustí Coma Alabert. Throughout his ten first years of studies, he complemented the violin lessons with his main teacher having some master classes with other teachers like: Víctor Parra, Christiam Ifrim, Joaquín Palomares and Keiko Wataya. Once he was graduated in 2006, Mikel was accepted in MUSIKENE to study bachelor with the prestigious Japanese teacher Keiko Wataya. He obtained the bachelor degree with distinction in 2012. Then, searching for a technical and musical development, Mikel moved to The Hague after being accepted at the Royal Conservatorium of the same city to study with Peter Brunt, and got the bachelor degree in 2014. Currently, he studies second year Master at the Royal Conservatorium of The Hague with Peter Brunt.
Collecting Repertoire for Kodály-inspired Music Lessons in Dutch Elementary Schools
(2015)
author(s): Daniel Salbert
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Daniel Salbert
Main subject: Theory of Music
Research coach: László Norbert Nemes
Title of research: Collecting Repertoire for a Kodály-inspired Music Curriculum
Research question: Is it possible to gather Relevant Repertoire for Dutch Elementary Schools to build a Kodály-inspired Music Curriculum?
Abstract
Six years ago, I visited a Kodály-course in Manchester, UK. This was the initial experience that changed my whole teaching and also my view on Music Education in general. After several study tours to Hungary I was convinced that it would be possible to develop a Kodály-inspired Music curriculum for Dutch elementary schools. Musical skills should and can be taught to anyone, beginning already in elementary school and not only at conservatoire level. As Kodály puts it: “Let music belong to everyone”.
Singing musical repertoire is the fundament of all Kodály-inspired music teaching. So I began collecting relevant repertoire for Kodály-inspired music lessons in Dutch elementary schools: songs, rhymes, singing games, (folk) dances, canons, quodlibets, etc.
To answer the research question I have collected many Dutch and International song books for elementary school from past to present and went through them for closer musical analysis. Besides, I researched song material at the Meertens Institute Amsterdam, organized a (folk) dancing workshop for elementary school teachers and went on study tours to Budapest and Glasgow. And of course I took notice of the repertoire that my fellow Kodály-colleagues at the Royal Conservatoire (KC) used. Searching and collecting repertoire became an attitude.
But searching repertoire is not a theoretical business. Therefore, in the last two years I was testing repertoire in some of my classes: 1) Jong-KC-junior-students of the Royal Conservatoire at the age of 7-9 years; these children were following a special talent education. 2) ‘Normal’ children of the age of 6-8 years at a local Dutch elementary school.
To gather the repertoire I built a database in File Maker Pro. I analysed the repertoire concerning musical parameters that are relevant to build a curriculum for Music education. The advantage of such a database is the fact that it is searchable. So when building a curriculum, repertoire can be grouped and sequenced according to the musical learning goals that are aimed at. Also staff notation, a game description and a demonstration video are provided. In the future I would like to transform this into an online database that could serve as a repertoire source for any Music teacher.
After two years of research I can positively answer the research question. The next step would be to sequence the repertoire for the benefit of a step-by-step curriculum for the full eight years of Dutch elementary school education. Then Music at Dutch elementary schools might again become a subject that matters.
Biography
Daniel Salbert (Nuremberg, Germany 1971), studied Music Teaching (BA 1999), Choral Conducting (BA 2001) and Music Theory (BA 2009) at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague (KC). He conducted different choirs such as children, chamber and oratorio choirs. At the moment he conducts the Young Talent Choirs and the First Year’s Choir of the KC and Concertkoor Rijswijk. He teaches Musicianship and Solfege for the Singing Department of the KC. He also teaches Solfege and Kodály-methodology for the Saturday-course “Music as a Subject” and the Master “Music Education according to the Kodály-concept”. He also teaches Musicianship and Music Theory at the School for Young Talent of the KC.
The influence of some characteristics of Romanian folk music on the Romanian Rhapsody no. 1 opus 11 by George Enescu – An arrangement for 2 pianos
(2014)
author(s): Andrea Vasi
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Andrea Vasi
Main Subject: Piano
Research Coach: Theo Verbey
Title of Research: The influence of some characteristics of Romanian folk music on the Romanian Rhapsody no. 1 opus 11 by George Enescu – An arrangement for 2 pianos
Research Question:
What is the nicest way to make an arrangement for 2 pianos of the first Romanian Rhapsody opus 11 no. 1 by George Enescu, and how has this piece been influenced by Romanian folk music?
Research Process:
My (Romanian) father, who is also a professional musician, helped me in the sense that he told me his views on what Romanian folk music was, which I took as a starting point. Throughout my childhood, I listened to Romanian folk music a lot (every week, we went to a café in The Hague where Romanians would play their music), so I have quite much personal experience with it as well (I sometimes played along, and had my own ‘gypsy’ ensemble). Only one valuable book on Enescu has been published in the west, in 1990, namely ‘George Enescu: His Life and Music’ by N. Malcolm. A lot of biographical and musicological information on Enescu I could find in here, but I really needed my father to translate the Romanian sources I had collected. I had the chance to quote Enescu himself, because he did some extensive interviews with B. Gavoty. As for the arrangement, I am a pianist myself, and played and studied a lot two piano-pieces in the past. With the help of my coach, composer Theo Verbey, I made my own arrangement for two pianos of Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody no. 1 opus 11.
Summary of Results:
First of all, one can find the arrangement I made of the Romanian Rhapsody no. 1 opus 11 by George Enescu in the Appendix. I make clear how I made this arrangement for two pianos, and why I made it like this. The main goals were to keep the material as much intact as possible, but while doing this, I wanted to make sure both piano parts were very ‘playable’, very ‘pianistic’. Secondly, I wanted to know how this piece has been influenced by Romanian folk music. In order to be able to do this, I had to determine what ‘Romanian folk music’ actually is. So I tried to narrow it down to the most distinct and prominent characteristics. I did this in chapter three, in which I started by quoting Enescu himself on the subject. According to him, the music of his country is full of ‘dor’ (‘Sehnsucht’), and there is ‘sadness even in the midst of happiness’. Shifting between major and minor also occurs frequently, I noticed. When I started analyzing songs I knew from my childhood, and started looking for characteristics on the internet, in chapter four, I deminstrated that there are some elements which appear in most of Romania’s folk music, concerning instruments, scales and modes, meter and rhythm, ornamentation, ‘doina’ and gypsies.