Composing Composing Instruments
(2024)
author(s): Tijs Ham
published in: Research Catalogue
This exposition aims to provide insights into my artistic practice and research 'Tipping Points', working within the field of live electronics and focusing on the exploration of tipping points in chaotic processes. The activities associated with my practice are profoundly interdisciplinary and include designing and buildinginstruments, composing artistic works for these instruments, and performing with them. Each of these aspects are interlaced and equally important in the development of new artistic works. The preface details my process in the production of new artistic works. Then the text details my thoughts on the term comprovisation and how it informs my approaches to the development of my work. Then the focus shifts to describe how my use of chaotic processes turns instruments into actant technologies which has important consequences on both my performance practice and instrument design. These insights are then illustrated through reflections on my work Multiple Minds, concluding that the instrument itself is actively composing, while at the same time, the act of designing and building an instrument can be viewed as composing.
TRAVERSING SONIC TERRITORIES (TST)
(2023)
author(s): Søren Kjærgaard, Torben Snekkestad
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research, Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen
What happens when musicians improvising on acoustic instruments sample and exchange their sound libraries? How can such a transgression of sonic territories contribute to an expanded understanding of one’s own sonic identity? And could this b/lending of identities point to a more ambiguous yet vibrant field of intra-play? Departing from these questions, this project intends to challenge our idea of sonic identity as a personal subject-oriented entity, and consequently investigate how a collaborative sharing of sampled sounds, can contribute to an expanded understanding of the sounds we play and are played by. Individual idiomatic approaches to one’s own instrument are thus interfered as we transgress habitual boundaries for action possibilities and musical imagination. The practice circulates from the duo of Torben Snekkestad and Søren Kjærgaard toward external collaborators, where the sharing process involves different approaches to audio sampling and mapping, embedding and embodying, listening and playing with each other’s sonic material to a point where authorship, origin, instrument and sonic identity is diffracted.
Tipping Points (Reflection Component)
(2023)
author(s): Tijs Ham
published in: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
The Ph.D. project in Artistic Research, Tipping Points, conducted by Tijs Ham ('81), is situated in the field of live electronics and focuses on the exploration of chaotic processes within instrument design, compositional strategies, and performance. The unpredictable nature of chaos impacts many aspects of musicking. Artistic works emerge from the interferences between processes that are set in motion. Instruments are influenced and in turn influence the performer in return. The reflections turn to the notion of wondering as the performer and audiences alike encounter unforeseen sonic behaviors that are strangely musical despite their volatile and fragile chaotic origins.
The extra dimension: exploring 3D use of the accordion bellows
(2023)
author(s): Kaat Vanhaverbeke
published in: KC Research Portal
In my search for extradimensionality in accordion playing, I have explored the three-dimensional use of the accordion bellows. This concerns moving the bellows forward or backwards at different angles, instead of typically maintaining a straight line. This research dives deeper into how the 3D bellows technique influences accordion music interpretations. A survey spread to accordion teachers worldwide made clear that this technique is quite unknown and undiscovered.
In 4 case studies, video recordings of musical interpretations were compared using a linear bellows concept versus using 3D bellows. After intensive reflection, benefits of the 3D bellows technique became clear. Firstly, it allows a better balance between the right and left-hand manual. Different frequencies and harmonics could be discovered through the 3D use of the bellows, which could lead to more resonance and timbre nuances. Furthermore, the technique enhances direction and phrasing in accordion music, reinforced by the visual perception of 3D bellows. However, the technique should be reviewed in different musical styles: in baroque compositions, for instance, the 3D movements are preferably less explicit. Considering some prerequisite skills, an important concern in the practice process has been when to apply 3D bellows.
The research suggests that 3D bellows can be included more explicitly in accordion practice and pedagogy today. It was found to be a useful tool to deepen musical interpretations and musical hearing in accordion students and professionals.
Piano Apocalypse
(2022)
author(s): Eka Chabashvili, Nino Jvania, Tamar Zhvania
published in: Research Catalogue
"Piano music has come to an end and something quite different is coming. I sense it clearly: with the claviers made up to this time, there is nothing new to discover any more," declared Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1992. Truly, the piano, a brainchild of its era, has gradually been alienated by our epoch. Contemporary composers engage themselves less and less with the piano – particularly as a solo instrument. Though, we have to consider that a musical instrument is a musical chronicler with the structure, tuning system and performance techniques reflecting to certain extent the epochs it was created and employed in. Consequently, the main principles of music representative of every epoch lead to transformation of the instrument, its renewal, refinement, enrichment of performance techniques. Each epoch adapts the instrument to the principles of the corresponding musical thinking in order to make it capable of producing contemporary sound. Using our artistic imagination, we compare this situation to the Apocalypse, trying to find some ways of dealing with it. In this exposition we present some results of our experiments with the piano and its sound conducted within the artistic project "Has Piano Music Come to an End?". Methodology we employ is comparative and experimental. Analysis of piano music repertoire, its compositional and performance techniques and instrument's structure in various epochs led us to the reconsideration of the piano and inspired us to offer to you some new experimental options of its employment and modification, the latter resulting in a new instrument “ModEkAl”. Of course, no artistic research about music and a musical instrument could be conducted without making the research and its results public. Publicity is an inherent part of music which has to be performed and perceived in order to fully fulfill its purpose.
Oboe Reed Making and Sorting Tips Before Gouging From Ancient Greece of Theophrastus till the use of the Hellenic Cane of Today.
(2022)
author(s): Christos Tsogias-Razakov
published in: Research Catalogue
The following material is an excerpt from the master’s research exposition: THE IMPORTANCE OF ARUNDO DONAX CANE SELECTION, FOR MANUFACTURERS OF OBOE REEDS (2020) by Christos Tsogias-Razakov.
Limited Publication.
The master’s research exposition was published to members of the KC Research Portal, 3. Internal publication (20/8/2020).
The article is an excerpt from the conclusive chapter of the research exposition (2020) by Christos Tsogias-Razakov.
The Art of Adjusting the Oboe Reed
(2022)
author(s): Christos Tsogias-Razakov
published in: Research Catalogue
The following material is an excerpt from the master’s research exposition: THE IMPORTANCE OF ARUNDO DONAX CANE SELECTION, FOR MANUFACTURERS OF OBOE REEDS (2020) by Christos Tsogias-Razakov.
Limited Publication.
The master’s research exposition was published to members of the KC Research Portal, 3. Internal publication (20/8/2020).
All rights reserved.
The current fragment is from the section: b) from the introductive Chapter I about The Art of Adjusting the Oboe Reed.
Lyon & Healy: the American Harp
(2022)
author(s): Ian Mcvoy
published in: KC Research Portal
The design of the pedal harp underwent a series of dramatic changes at the turn of the century, most of them attributable to the inventive minds at a Chicago-based musical instrument manufacturer and music publisher, Lyon & Healy.
Of the many innovations of the Lyon & Healy company, three of the utmost importance to the development of the instrument: the “adjustable fourchette,” allowing simple regulation of the harp’s tuning in the natural and sharp positions, the “single-link mechanism,” an internal change to the mechanism greatly simplifying both function and manufacture, and lastly the “extended soundboard,” an extension of the soundbox of the instrument allowing for greater volume. Each of these improvements has since been adopted by every modern-day harp maker.
This paper endeavors to combine original patents, miscellaneous historical documents, and evidence gathered from extant historical instruments by Lyon & Healy to identify each of the above and other specific changes, their inventors, the time of their introduction, as well as the overall motivation behind each of these important changes.
A case study of instrument design
(2022)
author(s): Rafaele Andrade
published in: KC Research Portal
While searching for a way to unify my creative process into an artistic practice, I was led to design a new instrument. This instrument resembles a cello in certain respects but also integrates important values and discussions from the current century, notably Communication, Integration, Representation and Autonomy. My goal has been to use the process of design development of the instrument as research for discovering new ways of practicing music and composing. For this research project, I am testing my 2021 release of the instrument: producing artworks with a diverse range of collaborators and multidisciplinary interactive concerts. At its core, this is a transdisciplinary case study combining instrument design, composition, and performance.
The bassoon in Barcelona in the second half of the XVIIIth century
(2020)
author(s): Bernat Gili Díaz
published in: KC Research Portal
The recent discovery of original bassoons made in Barcelona in the 18th century and the researches made on the musical life of the city during this period give us the opportunity to understand how the instrument was conceived and which role it had in its musical context. When were this bassoons made? By whom? For what purpose? Which repertoire could have been played with them? Do they share any common characteristics? How are these linked to their function in the music of that time? All these and other questions are answered in this research by putting together an organological analysis of the instruments, the repertory that has been preserved and different written sources concerning the historical and musical context and the instrument making. This research will be presented in form of research exposition.
Responsive Aesthetics: Remediating Digital-to-Analog Television Converters as Artist Tools
(2018)
author(s): Eric Souther, Laura McGough, Jason Bernagozzi
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
“Responsive Aesthetics: Remediating Digital-to-Analog Television Converters as Artist Tools” documents the research process undertaken to explore the reanimation of a digital-to-analog television converter box as an artistic tool for intervention with the digital broadcast image through real-time datamoshing. We define datamoshing as an exploitation and interruption of the algorithms that comprise high quality digital streaming video, resulting in the visual distortion and alteration of the image. Our goal was to create a responsive datamoshing system that would not only modulate and distort the incoming broadcast image, but also provide artists with a level of control over these variations. We approached this process as artists, rather than technologists. Inspired by a specific visual or aesthetic result, we would reflect on how this result was achieved technically and then experiment with other methods that might offer further enhancement. The final result was the creation of a responsive datamoshing tool for use in exhibition or performance, both on its own or in combination with other systems (i.e., software, apps, image processing machines).
Emancipation of the Clarinet (1720-1760)
(2018)
author(s): Adrianna van Leeuwen-Steghaus
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Adrianna van Leeuwen-Steghaus
Main Subject: Historical Clarinet
Research Supervisor: Inês de Avena Braga
Title of Research:
Emancipation of the Clarinet 1720-1760
The transforming role of the two and three keyed clarinet in Sacred Music of the Late Baroque Period
Research Question:
Can we trace the Baroque Clarinet's role in Sacred Music and is there an obvious progression in the way composers wrote for the instrument beginning in the early 18th century to the instruments demise in the mid 18th century?
What was the Baroque Clarinet's role in Sacred Music? Did composers intentioanlly use this instrument and if so for what purpose?
Summary of Results:
When speaking about the clarinet, the first period of music we naturally associate with it is the Classical. However, few realise that the history of the clarinet begins much earlier in the Baroque, with an instrument that we would today describe as ‘primitive’. The Baroque clarinet was developed around 1700 in Germany. It's repertoire and legacy is confined to about 50 years of music history. Colloquially called the 'Mock Trumpet', the Baroque Clarinet is characterized by a bright and brilliant sound.
Some research has been done on the instrument already, particularily on its general history and repertoire. However what remains missing is uncovering the Baroque Clarinet's role in sacred music. Sacred music, particularily cantatas dominated musical life in the 18th century. Cantatas were performed every Sunday as well as on special feasts throughout the ecclesiastical calendar. Over the past two years, I have discovered a trove of cantatas containing parts specifically written for the Baroque Clarinet, some by well-known composers such as Telemann and Graupner and others unknown until now, such as Seibert and Kurz. Coincidentally, most of the composers are of German origin, employed by various cities and/or courts across the German-speaking lands.
This research examines the repertoire and attempts to find a progression in the clarinet's use and role. The instruments characteristic timbre meant it shared a symbiotic relationship with the trumpet, but did it ever shed its trumpet association and find its own voice? Through analysis of the various cantata parts, I uncover that the clarinet was in some ways the 'perfect compromise'; able to sound brassy and brilliant when required, while also able to produce a sweet and singing tone. The clarinet was also techinically more capable then its trumpet counterpart, because it was less confined to the harmonic series and able to play quicker notes melodically with more stepwise intervals.
In November 2017, the Royal Consrvatorie's Early Music Department premiered two of Telemann's cantatas with clarient parts; Lobet den Herrn TWV 1:1061 and Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg TWV 1:320.
Biography:
Adrianna van Leeuwen-Steghaus, is a Canadian clarinettist specialising in historical instrument performance. She is a member of two successful chamber ensembles, the Swedish based trio Boxwood & Bows and the Dutch based duo The Küffner Gals. Adrianna graduated with distinction from the University Of Calgary (CAN), obtaining her Bachelor’s degree in modern clarinet performance. She moved to the Netherlands in 2012, to complete a second Bachelor’s degree in Historical Clarinet and Chalumeaux at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag. Currently, she is busy completing her Master’s degree and thesis under the tutelage of Professor Eric Hoeprich in the Netherlands.
Orchestrating Space by Icosahedral Loudspeaker (OSIL)
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Gerriet K. Sharma
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The project "Orchestrating Space by Icosahedral Loudspeaker" (OSIL) aimed at increasing the practical and theoretical understanding of electroacoustic sound phenomena that are defined by their sculptural-choreographic nature, i.e., exhibiting localization, motion, and extent. Such auditory objects are new means of expression and as such they have already been subject of artistic research in the project "The Choreography of Sounds" (CoS), PEEK AR 41.
In particular, the project focused on the icosahedral loudspeaker (IKO) constructed at IEM in order to project auditory objects into rooms, a feature that has already been successfully employed in various sonic art works that have been performed in concerts and installations in different halls and listening situations.
Within OSIL artists and scientists were working closely together trying to understand the field of 3D audio better with an multi-perspective approach to foster and extend aesthetical practices in this field.
Diamond Marimba as a Creative Tool
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Arend Jan Hendrik Strootman
connected to: KC Research Portal
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Since a couple of years I teach music theory lessons for the sonologists at the Conservatoire in The Hague. Amongst others I'm explaining overtones and their use in Just Intonation in these lessons. A topic that is, albeit from a different perspective, also part of the second year curriculum for the composition department.
When the ratios, lattices, otonalities/ utonalities, harmonics/subharmonics, calculations in cents and hertz go into depth and become more complex, the connection with the sounding result can get lost easily.
As part of the lectorate in 2022/2023 I wanted to investigate in how far the diamond marimba can be a valuable asset in addressing the potential of Just Intonation via a physical manifestation. Due to its construction the instrument reflects limits and lattices and much that needs to be known for an understanding of ratios - can this instrument be(come) a tool to be able to train the sonic imagination in Just Intonation and microtonality?
In this exposition the preparations, building, try-outs, implementation in the classes and reflection can be found.
The Meaning of the Instrument
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): Per Anders Nilsson, Palle Dahlstedt
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In this paper we discuss the meaning of musical instruments, particularly an electronic instrument intended for ensemble improvisation that is called the exPressure Pad. A basic premise is that the actual instrument in play mediates and actualizes particular aesthetical ideas, comparable to a composition. In play a multitude of interactions and cross relations occur: between the players, between the instrument and the player, and between the player and the musical outcome. However, the inherent properties of the instrument delimit what we can, and cannot do, therefore, it is feasible to claim that the instrument directs and informs our playing as much as we are shaping the musical output.