Madness in music
(2018)
author(s): May Kristin Hegvold
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: May Kristin Svanholm Hegvold
Main Subject: Early Music Singing
Research Supervisor: Inês de Avena Braga
Title of Research: Madness in music
Research Question: How can one, convincingly, portray madness in a musical performance without being considered in a state of madness?
Summary of Results:
In the 17th century, madness was a relatively common theme in entertainment such as poetry, theatre, and music. There was something that fascinated the people of that time with the uncontrollable nature of madness. Henry Purcell and Thomas d’Urfey was among the many writers and composers who dealt with this subject, and a selection of their mad songs and texts are the main focus of my research.
Feelings such as love, hate, envy, sadness and happiness are feelings most of us have felt in our life, but madness is perhaps a state that is exclusive to some people. Is it then possible to portray this state of mind convincingly in a performance of the music? To answer this question, I have examined how madness was portrayed by Purcell and d’Urfey, and generally how people that were considered mad was treated and viewed by the society. After researching the madness of the 17th century and what we today view as madness through music, text, historical documents and other forms of entertainment, I have come to the conclusion that it is possible to portray madness convincingly, but that madness is something completely different than the feelings previously mentioned. One person can view something as madness while someone else sees it as completely normal.
Biography:
May Kristin Svanholm Hegvold is a soprano from Norway. She did her bachelor's degree at the Conservatoire in Trondheim with professor Elisabeth Meyer-Topsøe, and is now studying for a master's degree in the early music department at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, with Rita Dams. May Kristin has participated as a soloist in many productions, including the premieres of two new operas by Norwegian composers, “Pappapermisjon” by Bertil Palmar Johansen and “Kommentarfeltet” by Trygve Brøske. She has also, among other things, been the soloist in Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” and sung the roles of Dido, 2nd Woman and 1st Witch from the opera “Dido and Aeneas”. Her latest roles involve Pamina from the opera “Die Zauberflöte” and Piacere from Händels “Il Trionfo del Tempo”.
"No Self Can Tell"
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Laasonen Belgrano, E. and Price, M.D.
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The research explores 'ornamenting' as a transferable method in inter-disciplinary studies, inter-faith dialogues and artistic/therapeutic practices. Adapting techniques of Renaissance musicology, the processes we have developed de-create and re-create vital connections. It is a communica-tions strategy for times of crisis. Starting with simple sonic relations we extend the method far be-yond its traditional musical setting. The practice utilises 'Nothingness' as a component of creativity, providing a novel response to figurations of nothingness as mere negation. Preliminary results sug-gest its potential as a counter force to nihilism and social dislocation.
The work divides into four areas. 1. Primary research on relationships between sound, meaning, and the sense(s) of self, exploring how sense is made of Otherness via processes akin to musical praxis: consonance, dissonance, 'pure voice' and ornamentation. 2. To apply this new perspective to a range of exile experiences – mourning, social disconnection, ex-communication and aggres-sive 'Othering'. 3. To investigate the cancelling of normal time-conditions in crisis situations such as trauma, dementia, and mystical experience, relating non-linear temporality to creative practice and healing. 4. To widely disseminate our results and methods as contributions to the methodology of artistic research via journal articles, live workshops and performances, and a book of original, praxical, testable, and teach-able interventions.
“Lasciatemi morire” o farò “La Finta Pazza”: Embodying Vocal Nothingness on Stage in Italian and French 17th century Operatic Laments and Mad Scenes.
(last edited: 2021)
author(s): Elisabeth Laasonen Belgrano
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This music research drama thesis explores and presents a singer’s artistic research process from the first meeting with a musical score until the first steps of the performance on stage. The aim has been to define and formulate an understanding in sound as well as in words around the concept of pure voice in relation to the performance of 17th century vocal music from a 21st century singer’s practice-based perspective with reference to theories on nothingness, the role of the 17th century female singer, ornamentation (over-vocalization) and the singing of the nightingale. The music selected for this project is a series of lamentations and mad scenes from Italian and French 17th century music dramas and operas allowing for deeper investigation of differences and similarities in vocal expression between these two cultural styles.
The thesis is presented in three parts: a Libretto, a performance of the libretto (DVD) and a Cannocchiale (that is, a text following the contents of the Libretto). In the libretto the Singer’s immediate inner images, based on close reading of the musical score have been formulated and performed in words, but also recorded and documented in sound and visual format, as presented in the performance on the DVD. In the Cannocchiale, the inner images of the Singer’s encounter with the score have been observed, explored, questioned, highlighted and viewed in and from different perspectives.
The process of the Singer is embodied throughout the thesis by Mind, Voice and Body, merged in a dialogue with the Chorus of Other, a vast catalogue of practical and theoretical references including an imagined dialogue with two 17th century singers.
As a result of this study, textual reflections parallel to vocal experimentation have led to a deeper understanding of the importance of considering the concept of nothingness in relation to Italian 17th century vocal music practice, as suggested in musicology. The concept of je-ne-sais-quoi in relation to the interpretation of French 17th century vocal music, approached from the same performance methodology and perspective as has been done with the Italian vocal music, may provide a novel approach for exploring the complexity involved in the creative process of a performing artist.
Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Performance in Theatre and Music Drama
at the Academy of Music and Drama,
Faculty of Fine, Applied, and Performing Arts,
University of Gothenburg
ArtMonitor dissertation No 25
ArtMonitor is a publication series from
the Board for Artistic Research (NKU),
Faculty of Fine, Applied, and Performing Arts,
University of Gothenburg
A list of publications is added at the end of the book.
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ISBN: 978-91-978477-4-2
Song of the Cuckoo
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): Joost Vrouenraets
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
How are madness, the spine and Hamlet related to each other in a choreographic process? This exposition displays the collection of documentation of the research. The exposition functions as the contextual backbone for the project 'Song of the Cuckoo', an experimental Practice as Research project in the form of a soliloquy performed by two dancers: Joany Uranka; dancer, assistent researcher, co-creator and myself. The nexus of the project is formed by the three strands originating from (1) an understanding of madness as a performative concept and philosophical perception, a phenomenon of indwelling and study of the transformative nature of creativity, supported by Michel Foucault's thesis History of Madness,(2) the human spine as a choreographic, kinesthetic, (imaginative) anatomical concept as well as an existential metaphor for the idea of becoming, inspired by the embryological phases of birth. And (3), Shakespeare's play Hamlet which is researched as a poetic, literary source functioning as the main inspiration and theatrical search of the totality of the project. The appearance of the character Ophelia in this play is re-purposed and re-imagined for the construction of the narrative and dramaturgical line of the project. The symbolical interpretations of the flowers which Ophelia gives to other characters in the play are translated into specific emotional and physical states of the performance.
The nexus of the project is experimentally embodied by the author of the project and research, myself. The project itself is a practice as research on the above described research question, as well as an emerging meta-reflection on the relation between the author and his work.