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

• USING KANDINSKY PAINTINGS AS GRAPHIC SCORES (2022) author(s): Diederik Smulders Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  Master Research - Diederik Smulders
  open exposition comments (0)
• Why can't I sleep?: A psychoanalysis of the manifestation of unattainable control through the art of composition. (2022) author(s): Franki Dodwell Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  After nearly two decades of sleep problems, one question haunts me. Why can’t I sleep? Like many composers, sleep and its mysteries have become an obsession that for myself personally, has inspired an exploration between the conscious and unconscious in relation to the works of The Surrealists, Sigmund Freud and John Zorn. Using autobiographical experiences of insomnia; close analysis of scholarly texts and musical scores I will explore the various ways in which musical expression is informed by the concept of sleep. Through this exploration I will establish how the lack of control I experience due to my inability to sleep can aid my own compositional process. I will investigate how these specific artists use psychodynamic theories to take control away from their audiences and identify what drives their desire to musically capture, embody and control what is at its core, the uncontrollable.
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• Rediscover the Structure of Goldberg Variations (2022) author(s): Shengqi Chen  Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  Goldberg Variations represents Bach’s most extraordinary single achievement in the art of variation-writing. The uniqueness of this piece can be described in various ways. However, its essential beauty for me comes from two factors which in a way stand at two points of extremes. Its simplicity of its sincere music language and its labyrinthine structure. The piece is like a gigantic and mazy architecture which is built with Bach’s purest spiritual trueness and longing. My primary research questions are led by the second factor which is the structure. What are the structural elements in this music? How can we discover them in different scales and dimensions? How do interpretation and structure interact? As a performer, how can we react and cope with this huge structure in the performance practice of Goldberg variations? In this research, I aim to put structure at the center of my study. By isolating these structural elements and combining with performance practice, my final outcome will be a creative insight of the structure and an informed interpretation of Goldberg Variations which can bring the structure strategies’ superiority into full play.
  open exposition comments (2)
• Musical caves. Le chant d'Isturitz, towards an ecology of music creation (2022) author(s): Jean-Baptiste des Boscs Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  In the caves of Isturitz and Oxocelhaya were founded some pieces of art (paintings, engravings mainly), objects including bone flutes, signs (red dots) on the walls left by our ancestors during the upper Paleolithic. More than an eldorado for archeologists, the Great Hall of the caves of Isturitz has very good properties of resonance (six seconds of reverberation, seven echoes, and high quality of the overtones’ reverberation). Musical improvisations were experienced in this hall with a cello and a barytone voice, and astonishing results were obtained. After the time of the experimentations, came the writing process and a piece for cellist was created and named Le chant d’Isturitz. The overall idea behind this research is the will to create and perform music by taking into account the specificities and subtleties of a resonant and natural place.
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• The possibilities of the bass clarinet, applying new techniques and working together with a composer for the creation of a new piece (2022) author(s): Guillermo Arnedo Frías Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  This auto-ethnographic project is the creation, with collaboration with the composer Maarten Bauer, of a bass clarinet and baritone voice piece, as well as the research about the sound possibilities of these instruments. These possibilities have been exposed and explained. Moreover, a diary of the composition process of the piece such us qualitative information of the research and an analysis/explanation of the resultant piece have been included. The main sources are the piece itself and the participants: clarinettist and composer, who also participates as a performer in the piece as a singer. The symbiosis of two people in the creative and interpretative process of a piece and how the interaction between them modifies the final result. In order to achieve a total interrelation, the format of the piece is through the compositional form "Map and territory" which consists of interpreting by means of established but open bases or rules. Depending on what one of the musicians interprets at any given moment, the other will decide what to play. All this has been explained in detail in this research. As a format for the presentation of the research, we have chosen to present it in the form of an exposition in which the most important aspects will be explained, such as the compositional process, the decision-making during the working time as the answer to the research question, as well as the performance of the resulting piece demonstrating the relevance of the interrelation between performer and composer/performer.
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• Johann Sebastian Bach: Adagio and Fugue from Sonata I for Solo Violin BWV 1001. Comparison of its adaptations for classical guitar in the original key and in A minor (2022) author(s): Carolina Agudín Muñoz Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  Final Master Research version by Carolina Agudín.
  open exposition comments (1)