Research Catalogue

an international database for artistic research

• The Harp: No Tango Tourist | Creating an Authentic Tango Harp Voice (2018) author(s): Julie Rokseth published in: Codarts
  My Boldest Artistic Decision was to break convention and play the classical harp down the Tango line at Codarts. It was the nurturing at Codarts that let me to focus my Artistic Research on injecting the harp into Tango and discovering whether, and how the harp could sing with an authentic tango voice while also being able to give some of its own uniqueness upon the tradition. To make sure that the harp can become a real and organic tango instrument rather than being a “tango tourist”– a borrowed classical instrument that sometimes sits like a lovely guest but doesn’t actually belong. This Artistic Research project has allowed me to show that the harp can sing with a voice that DOES belong in tango. The Harp: no tango tourist.
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• Fusing Irish folk music and Argentinian tango on bandoneon and harp (2018) author(s): Andreas Rokseth published in: Codarts
  Motivation The deep motivation behind my research is that I want to be an earning, versatile, professional musician. Through my Masters I want to make myself the best musician I can be. Playing the instrument bandoneon, I specialise in a narrow field of music, namely the Argentine tango. In life as a musician however, a lot of opportunities will turn up that are outside my field of expertise. I wanted to find a way to enable myself to take on all of these opportunities. The way to do this, was to find a process to be able to be creative on demand. Such a process would enable me to take on opportunities in unknown musical territory, allowing me to develop further in my versatility as a musician. Goals The most significant goal for me was that I wanted to make for myself a process to be creative on demand - a step by step process to be creative when I need to be creative, regardless of what state of mind I might find myself in. To be creative beyond those special times when “the muses come” or when “inspiration hits.” Having the tools to be creative without feeling inspired also takes away the pressure of being inspired, letting the sought-after state of mind flow more naturally and more productively. So, the personal challenge I set was how could I make such a process for myself? The first step was to find a way to get past creatives’ worst nightmare - the - the big blank page. In order to do this, I set myself some very narrow limits within which I had to work, in order get the initial spark of creativity started. So, I put myself in a small, difficult box. A box of clear limitations, from which I would have to use my skills, talent, and musicianship to get out of by making my own strong artistic decisions. The box I made, was the task of creating an original piece of music for harp and bandoneon, fusing Argentinian tango - which I knew a lot about, and Irish jig - which I knew little about. I chose those specific limitations for several reasons. The first is that I have a duo with my sister Julie Rokseth, which is intended to represent a big part of my livelihood as a musician. I was interested to create a fusion of Celtic music and tango because in the duo we have been composing our own music with undetermined or unspecified influences, but that has had both tango and Celtic musical elements in them. I was interested to turn the vague inspiration of Celtic music into a clear inspiration for my music, and would do it through composing a fusion of tango and jig by making informed artistic decisions. Secondly, I reduced the large concept of Irish/Celtic music down to a very specific and limiting type of tune, the jig. This was once again to ensure that I would have very specific parameters for my box. Thirdly, I wanted to expand how I can use the bandoneon to adapt to challenges of new styles and be able to switch between them effortlessly.
 Artistic Research Question “How can I create and perform a piece for harp and bandoneon fusing the styles of Argentinian tango and Celtic/Irish jigs?”
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• Expanding the role of the jazz guitar (2017) author(s): Adam Taylor published in: Codarts
  The guitar and the piano perform similar roles and occupy overlapping frequency ranges in jazz and popular music. However, the piano can produce two or more simultaneous voices at the extremes of its range using standard technique. The guitar cannot produce two or more simultaneous voices at the extremes of its range using standard plucking or finger-picking techniques. Thus the two-hand touch technique was developed partially to emulate the right and left hand of a pianist. The tuning of the guitar was altered to provide an extended low range in order to facilitate bass voices more effectively. The result is an overall method for playing the guitar which provides the ability to effectively perform counterpoint, melody, chord and/or bass accompaniment with an extended range of the guitar that is fully utilisable.
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• De ontwikkeling van de muzikale taal van Arnold Schönberg tussen 1899 en 1908 (2016) author(s): Patrick van der Linden published in: Codarts
  Met dit onderzoeksverslag sluit ik mijn studie Theorie der Muziek aan het conservatorium af. Deze Masterstudie vormde een uitbreiding en intensivering van mijn bachelorscriptie. Dit schrijven handelde over tonaliteit in de koorwerken Friede auf Erden (opus 13, Arnold Schönberg) en Entflieht auf leichten Kähnen (opus 2, Webern). Mijn uitgangspunt was dat ik me zowel in de theorie rondom Schönberg als de muziek van Schönberg wilde verdiepen. Ik wilde onderzoeken of analyse van zijn werk ons kan helpen zijn muziek beter te begrijpen en te waarderen. De keuze voor het onderwerp is ingegeven door nieuwsgierigheid naar Schönberg en zijn werk enerzijds: aan den lijve wilde ik ondervinden hoe zijn composities vanuit een Brahms/Wagner-traditie in amper tien jaar tijd zijn geëvolueerd naar een strikt persoonlijke stijl, in de literatuur meestal met vrije atonaliteit aangeduid. Anderzijds is de keuze gegroeid vanuit mijn werkveld als dirigent: binnen dit veld heb ik veel te maken met concertprogramma’s van koorwerken na Brahms (1833-1897) en Wagner (1813-1883). De Duits georiënteerde koormuziek van de tweede helft van de negentiende eeuw tot en met de Eerste Wereldoorlog raakt me als musicus en als mens. Het is dan ook uitermate bevredigend om te proberen te achterhalen hoe een componist als Schönberg te werk is gegaan, op welke wijze hij bij de traditie aansluit en hoe hij vanuit deze traditie zijn eigen lijn trekt. Het verwerven van kennis en inzicht en de praktische toepassing daarvan in mijn werk als docent en dirigent gaan gelijk op. De centrale onderzoeksvraag is: hoe ontwikkelt zich de muzikale taal bij Schönberg in het eerste decennium van de twintigste eeuw? Hierbij is de studie gewijd aan een specifiek, wat minder belicht genre uit Schönbergs rijke scheppingsperiode: de klavierliederen uit 1899-1909. De keuze voor juist zijn vocale repertoire zal verder worden toegelicht in hoofdstuk 3. In het verslag wordt vanuit de probleemstelling antwoord gegeven op onderliggende vragen, zoals: - Wat is tonaliteit? Wat is functionele tonaliteit? - Wat is atonaliteit? Voor Schönberg was dit een negatieve term. Is dat terecht? Bestaat atonaliteit? - Ondermijnt Schönberg de tonaliteit? Met andere woorden: verdwijnt deze? ? Of verrijkt Schönberg de tonaliteit?
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• The sound of a character (2016) author(s): Meric Artac published in: Codarts
  Art branches have nourished and affected each other for centuries. They formed common disciplines and evolved into new formats. Interdisciplinary relationships have offered the artist enrichment of artistic expressions. Music Theater is a concept that brings together music and theater disciplines, and during it’s history it evolved into different forms. Composers’ goal to merge their compositions with performing arts formed a basis for forms like Opera, Singspiel, Operetta and Musical. Argentinian composer Mauricio Kagel introduced the term “New Music theatre” for new forms of music theatre that are different than the before mentioned traditional forms. These musical genres, involve stories, various characters, and dramatic situations. For a composer who incorporates visual art, the score is most of the time related to the story and its characters. The composer who is also the stage director builds a bridge between two art forms and creates a world of sound in which she connects music and theater. The particular sound world of a visual aspect has changed through the centuries within art movements, and each composer presented to the audience their own adaptation of a story and the sound of their characters in different forms. This study explores a composer who incorporates visual art’ formed of music, and how this incorporation is staged. Unifying two strong art disciplines like theatre and music, the strength of this combination, and the idea that each theater character carries out a different color and sound increased my desire to improve myself in this field. I was introduced to this world which combines theatrical and musical elements during my Master studies, and It was my ambition to write the story of my pieces, develop the characters as well as the music.
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• THE AFRO-CUBAN DRUM RHYTHMS: Origin, Selection, Analysis and Development of drum patterns applied to Jazz Trombone (2016) author(s): Juanga Lakunza published in: Codarts
  My intention with this Artistic Research was to learn more about the afro-Cuban rhythms that I consider one of the bases on which a lot of modern music is built. As a trombonist, I don´t consider myself only as a jazzman, sincerely I would like to be the most complete musician that I can. Of course, to study jazz gave me many tools for being more comfortable in other styles, but rhythmically, the Latin-American music has still a lot to say. The compilation of the information for the development of this research report, has allowed me to discover an exciting world to which I am truly attracted. Since I was a child I have been fascinated and captivated by the percussion. Music is magic, but if there is something more magical than the music itself , that is the sound of the drum. Since ancient times the drum has been a sacred element in many cultures. The present Western society, with its great technological development, is forgetting the basics of human spirituality. I sincerely believe that the drum will have an important role in the future, as a healing member of society. Every musician should be percussionist before playing his own instrument.
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