Research Catalogue

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

• Vibrato in the Time of Mendelssohn: With a Focus on His Violin Concerto (2020) author(s): Noyuri Hazama Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
  Name: Noyuri Hazama Main Subject: Baroque Violin Research Supervisor: Bart van Oort Title of Research: Vibrato in the Time of Mendelssohn Research Question: How would vibrato have been played in Mendelssohn’s violin music, specifically his concerto? Summary of Results: The usage of vibrato in Mendelssohn's time was much different than what we use today in historical performance practice. Players were using different techniques for it, creating a different effect, and there was a system and common knowledge of when and how vibrato should be used. In this period, there was a rejection of ornaments in general, vibrato being one of them, and it was emphasized that it should not be over-used. I have used Mendelssohn's violin concerto as a piece to apply these rules, and came to conclusions based on historical evidence and my own experimentation. Biography:  Violinist Noyuri Hazama has won recognition throughout Europe and Japan for both modern and historical performance. She received top prizes in the Premio Bonporti International Baroque Violin Composition and the Japan-German Exchange Festival. Noyuri has performed with Bach Collegium Japan, the Orchestra of the 18th Century, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Netherlands Bach Society, and Werner Hink with other principal members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. She is also a founding member of the Goldfinch Ensemble, which has won international recognition in festivals and competitions. She will perform the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto for the conservatoire project with the Orchestra of the 18th Century in May 2017.
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• Losing time (2020) author(s): Daniil Pilchen published in: KC Research Portal
  We usually perceive time as an integral part of our everyday life. We try to wake up at the same time every day, we schedule our affairs and get upset if a train is five minutes late. However, we often face situations that challenge our usual experience of time when we notice an uncrossable gap between this experience and what can be measured by clocks. I believe that music is infinitely capable of providing us with such experiences, and creating that kind of confusing time with music is the main focus of my research. At the heart of this research is the idea of three ways of representing time in music: measured, unmeasured, and immeasurable. Theoretical conceptualization is mainly built upon the works of Henri Bergson and Alexander Vvedensky. However, their works focus mostly on individual experiences of time, but my main question is how one can communicate such an experience to other people through music, and how to make this experience social. I analyze different musical strategies that deal with unmeasured time or challenge the idea of measurement itself. I conclude by presenting my own strategies of creating confusing temporal experiences, mainly through building failing hierarchies of temporal authorities and challenging the possibility of simultaneity. These strategies are presented through the series of pieces called “Songs” on which I have been working while writing this paper.
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  (RE)SOUNDING ALEXANDER J. ELLIS: A SPECULATIVE BIOGRAPHY THROUGH TUNING, SONG WRITING AND COMPOSITION. (exam version) (2020) author(s): Seamus Cater published in: KC Research Portal
  Abstract: An attempt to explore a method of speculative biography through composition, taking Alexander J. Ellis as an object of research, and creating opportunities for exploring elements of his work, with the very tools he used at that time. Combining research, correspondence, composition and instrument tuning, a (re)sounding of some key ideas of Ellis are presented. In a manner I postulate he may have experienced or imagined himself. Aside from tuning two instruments common to Ellis, firstly, a London made concertina, and secondly, a set of 74 tuning forks, I will attempt a musical representation of parts of his archive and nineteenth century scientific research, using his means, objects and measurements as starting points for composition. Tuning a concertina from 1924, in Skhismic tuning, an extended Pythagorean chain of 24 fifths, affords a system of ‘practically just intonation’, described by Ellis in the Appendix of Helmholtz’ ‘On the Sensations of Tone’ (first English translation 1875). Concertinas with 24 reeds within one of the octaves had not been not available in the time of Ellis. Historically, reference pitches had often been tuned onto tuning forks for sharing locally and internationally. Using the data from ‘On the History of Musical Pitch’ (1880), where Ellis gathered 223 historical instances of the note A from European instrument makers and musicians, I produced a just intonation system with the 74 unique Hz frequencies. Extremely minor adjustments were made, allowing the possibility that each Hz frequency could be expressed as a small number or Pythagorean ratio. These were then tuned onto a set of new forks ranging from F# to C#, by current A440 standards.
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• Antonio Casimir Cartellieri: a forgotten master at the Viennese Court (2020) author(s): Elia Celegato published in: KC Research Portal
  The solo clarinet compositions of Antonio Casimir Cartellieri (1772-1807) are comparatively unknown in these days, although during his lifetime his works were widely acclaimed in the Viennese Court. This research has a threefold purpose: Reconstructing the life of Antonio Casimir Cartellieri; locating and procuring as many of Cartellieri’s works as possible; studying the selected compositions; assessing both his historical role in the clarinet repertory and the value of his compositions for the instrument. The results are presented in three chapters. The first one contains a biography of Cartellieri, the second deals with Cartellieri’s repertoire and the last chapter, the most important, contains the analysis of the clarinet solo works. Observation upon Cartellieri’s compositional style and treatment of the clarinet will be drawn from the analysis of the four clarinet concertos and the four clarinet quartets. With regards to the nowadays clarinet performer, Cartellieri’s compositions serve as a model representing the best traits of the late eighteenth-century wind virtuoso school. Furthermore, they provide a repertory bridging the gap between the old style of Stamitz and Mozart, and the new style of Weber, and Spohr. The concertos and the quartet are excellent training pieces for clarinet students, showing formal characteristics of the period. They are pleasant, charming, and unassuming works of the chamber genre, idiomatically suited for the solo instrument, emphasizing directness and balance of conventional structure. Cartellieri’s works were undoubtedly fashionable vehicles for displaying the Viennese Clarinets virtuosos. They possess a high degree of musical craftsmanship with moments of true musical inspiration.
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• An Approach to Romantic cello playing in Brahms's time (2020) author(s): María Cadenas Rodríguez published in: KC Research Portal
  The revolution of sound recording at the beginning of the 20th century influenced classical performance practice, setting definitive interpretations and eradicating more personal approaches to music-making. Many fundamental expressive devices were lost over the years and thus Romantic musical performance was no longer understood in the same way. This is why my research tries to look backwards in time with the aim of exploring the main attributes of Brahms’s Romantic style in music for string instruments. My research aims to: (1) understand lost Romantic expressive devices and how they worked, and (2) explore ways of using them today. I first analysed primary and secondary literature to establish context. Then I examined historical edited cello scores by Brahms, using them to show the different fingerings and slurrings provided by the main cellists of the period, which give us a clear idea about the use of portamenti, for example. Finally I listened to cello and string quartet early recordings to hear sonic evidence of these techniques, before applying them in Brahms's chamber music for cello. The main outcome I found is that diverse and emotional approaches to music-making made the Romantic period unique. I hope these tools can encourage today’s cellists and string players in general to create new, more personal, freer and more creative approaches to playing Romantic repertoires.
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• SOUND IDENTITY (2020) author(s): Sara Maganzini published in: KC Research Portal
  The purpose of my Research is to explore why at the beginning of the XX° century wind orchestras in different Countries in Europe sounded so singular and why nowadays the sound is so similar one to the other. Haven’t found any book which speaks about this specific topic I decided to research about the subject hoping it will maybe be useful or interesting not only for my development as conductor/musician but also to other people, be they conductors, composers, musicians or just wind orchestra music lovers. Above historical issues I will also include some artistic material such as examples, audio samples and scores which support the development of my Research. Special focus will be given to the analysis of a couple of significant original scores from the first decade of the XX° century which will be the guide line throughout my research.
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