Research Catalogue

an international database for artistic research

• 3. Internal publication Research published in this issue are only for internal circulation within the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague.
• 2. Royal Conservatoire Investigations Royal Conservatoire Investigations
• 1. Master Research Projects All research in KC

• The Demands of the Professional Orchestra Life: Strategies for Preparing Unfamiliar Repertoire before the First Rehearsal (2024) author(s): Afonso Esteves Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  Playing in a professional orchestra is the dream of many young musicians, including myself. There’s no other sound equal to the sound of an orchestra. The emotions that this music evokes are something unique. But like everything that’s worthy, it requires a lot of work. One demanding aspect of this career is the amount of repertoire we have to prepare, in a short amount of time. Usually, orchestras change their programme every week, and even if we’re young and the repertoire is still new to us, we have to keep up. This research explains how to do this, how to be efficient in our practice so we are prepared in every first rehearsal. I interviewed professional musicians, collected information on practicing methods, and tested the strategies I’ve gathered to see if they would help in preparing orchestra repertoire. I’ve discovered that equally important to practicing with our instrument, is the part we do without it. By getting to know the piece and planning what we have to practice, the results improve, and we reduce the amount of practice time needed. Of course, how we practice the notes is of major importance, and it’s something I address in this research. I chose to present my work as an exposition because of the creative freedom that this format allows. Apart from having a lot of recordings from the testing process, I believe that is easier for the reader to understand the topic through media.
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  The 21st Century Tenor Trombonist (2024) author(s): Aaron Small Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  Today’s orchestral auditions and positions nearly universally require trombonists to play more than one trombone at a high level. Nearly every principal trombone audition in Europe requires the trombonist to play alto trombone. However, there is not much material out there relating to maintaining or improving skills on a “secondary” instrument while still making good progress on the “primary” instrument. I hope that my study will help provide a new source of information on skill transference from instrument to instrument, as well as give an idea of how one can approach the differences between instruments. For instance, many people find it more difficult to play the lower tenor trombone after the alto trombone- why is this? Many people also feel that it is easier to play in the upper range on the alto trombone than on the tenor when your body physically does very similar things on each instrument. I hope that the exercises and other resources that I provide will help to come to conclusions on how to overcome these problems, as they have helped me.
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  The 18th Century flutes in Barcelona, Flutes and woodturners (2024) author(s): Daïna Mateu i López-Grado Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  We have some samples of flutes made in Barcelona in period, but they have not been widely studied. We can find several original models of catalan makers, but this are not copied by nowadays luthiers or used at all by professional early flute players, I’d like to contribute to the not very extense Barcelona’s musicology research and enlarge the history facts and information.
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  Stanislavski on singing, the tools we can use to help us stay better focused on Stage (2024) author(s): Juncai Zhang Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  Being on stage and under full exposure is a scary thing. Many musicians including myself have experienced in our music life some level of stage fright, loss of focus, stage anxiety, self-judgment thoughts, and all other distractions. Such distractions are unfortunately unavoidable and most of the musicians just learn to better deal with such distractions by themselves with time and experience. In this research, I intend to find out and develop a way to help musicians, especially singers, to stay better focused on music while singing on stage, so that they feel more confident and less distracted by their own judgmental voice or the physical environment/emotional status. I was inspired by Stanislavski and his acting system. Stanislavski’s system was originally developed in the first half of the twentieth century. This system is still widely used in theatre schools or drama classes in conservatories. Its purpose is to train actors to bring out more believable actings on stage, to bring out true convincing emotions of the play's characters. Singers share a big common ground with stage actors. Their work is often based on text/script. They both need to move or sing on stage. They both are often in a given character. So, I thought learning from actors how to prepare for a role would be hugely beneficial for singers, and Stanislavski’s system has proven its effectiveness and efficiency in character-building throughout history. I will introduce and explain Stanislavski’s acting system in my thesis through 5 real case studies to prove its effectiveness in helping singers stay better focused while singing on stage.
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• Speech reaches music (2024) author(s): Antonio Dorado Salguero Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  Exploring the profound and close relation between music and speech, this research aims to develop a new approach to interdisciplinary performances concerning music and poetry. Blurring borders between these two arts is the main goal of this work, as is exploring innovative modes of interaction between them that may escape the "multidisciplinary" conception that has until now occupied many performances where poetry and music are presented alternately, and that may move towards more "interdisciplinary" performances, where music and poetry interact closely, inspiring and feeding each other in real-time, exploring the possibilities of simultaneity within a solo performance. This research might follow two different routes: personal artistic development, concerning all of the questions above practically and experimentally while keeping a record of the whole process; and experimental public sessions, where different settings of performances were tried out following a methodological way of tracking the audience's response. Thereby, the artistic outcomes of this research project include documentation of the above-described private and public experimentation sessions, as well as the development of a project called “Words of Music” where all the aspects explored and developed will crystallize in an interdisciplinary performance that will not only be a practical presentation of the results acquired by this research, but that will also an actual professional integration activity.
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  Singing from the continuo (2024) author(s): Areli Cortes Gutierrez Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  This study explores the role of the continuo in accompanying singers, examining its influence from the preparation stage to the final performance. Using Monteverdi's madrigals as a case study not only allows for an investigation of its traditional function but also enables the exploration of additional tools for enriched continuo accompaniment, leveraging the rich textual content of these works. The importance of the continuo in supporting and interacting with solo voices is emphasized, along with an analysis of how performers can enhance their understanding and execution of these pieces by integrating historically informed techniques with their own artistic judgment. Furthermore, strategies for emphasizing emotional expression and textual meaning through music are discussed, including the use of dissonances, rhythms, dynamics, and phrasing techniques. Through an analysis of historical practices and modern interpretations, this study aims to provide useful insights and suggestions for contemporary musicians interested in conveying the emotional depth and textual richness of vocal works through interpretation and accompaniment.
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