The Development of the Performer's Role in Karlheinz Stockhausen's Piano Works
(2018)
author(s): Ellen Corver
published in: KC Research Portal
I have had the enormous privilege to meet the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1982 at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. In the context of a month-long festival around his music I had, at the time being a first-year piano student, the opportunity to play his first four Klavierstücke for him, and this, apart from being a very inspiring experience for me, resulted in a close cooperation that lasted for 20 years. During these years I worked with him on all his piano works, including Mantra, and performed them many times on different occasions, almost always in the presence of Stockhausen himself. In 1997–1998 I recorded all the solo piano pieces on the composer’s label.
During those years I was asked quite a few times, either by someone from the audience or by students that I taught during masterclasses, if I expected these pieces to become part of the “canon of piano music” in fifty years from then.
At that time, being so involved in the piano pieces and probably not having the necessary distance to reflect on this question, I always answered the question in the affirmative.
So, it came as quite a shock to me when I started to notice a change by myself in relation to the piano pieces, at least to some of them. Normally, the more and longer I work on a piece the more I get attached to it, but now I started to realise that I got more and more detached from some of the pieces, up until the point that I didn’t want to play them anymore. However, other piano pieces remained very dear to me, and this up until today.
In short, it seemed that within 20 years I had unconsciously made my own ‘canon’ with regard to Stockhausen’s piano pieces.
What I find intriguing about this experience is to find out what the reason is for this enormous difference in appreciation for the works of one composer. Why am I sure that some piano works of Stockhausen will still be played many years from now while, in my opinion, other works will fade? Can I put a finger on differences between the pieces which can justify this? And if I can find something to justify this for Stockhausen’s Klavierstücke, could this also be valid for works by other composers?
Creating open form scores for improvising musicians
(2018)
author(s): Cynthie van Eijden
published in: KC Research Portal
Abstract
This research aims to explore and develop an updated approach to "open form" in music. "Open form" is traditionally referred to as "aleatoric music": a score is provided but the composer has left some choices open. The term "aleatoric" music implies that chance determines how to fill the open spaces. The renewed approach in this research however aims to provide a score in which a performer as an improviser or co-composer is invited to shape the music according to his own opinion. The score provides a plan and context for improvised content and, in doing so, invites the performer to co-create the piece.
The research developed in three phases. In the first phase, improvisation was used as a learning tool in music theory classes. Different approaches to improvisation were studied and practiced. In the second phase, one group of musicians evolved from an improvisation course and went on a tour of five concerts. For them an open form score was created in order to provide context to the improvisations of the musicians. This composition is called View from a high mountain, a composition in six parts that allows improvisation at several moments. In the third phase, findings from the outcome and performance of View from a high mountain caused a renewal of the approach in the classroom. Through this renewal the boundary between education and musical production became a thinner line that allowed several cross-overs. Instead of a handbook containing a method or exercises or a new open form score The Improvisation Tree was created. The Improvisation Tree is a model that can be used as a help for creating, analyzing, categorizing and comparing open form scores.
Building Bridges Between the Modern Composer and Classically Trained Singer
(2018)
author(s): Georgi Sztojanov
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Georgi Sztojanov
Main Subject: Classical Singing
Research Supervisor: Anna Scott, Yannis Kyriakides
Title of Research: Building a Bridge Between the Contemporary Composer and Classically-Trained Singer
Research Question: How can the aesthetic oxymoron between the wishes of modern composers and the needs of singers be mediated or resolved, and what changes could be made on both sides in order to achieve a more fruitful relationship, resulting in compositions that are both singable and that explore the voice's potential beyond its Classical boundaries?
Summary of Results:
As a case study, I document the process of learning the tenor solo in Louis Andriessen's De Materie, and discuss how my classical training helped me to sing this demanding part even though it is not meant to be sung with a Romantic sound. After discussing two further projects in which I acted as a mediator between composers and singers, I found my initial suspicions to be true: many composers do not receive enough education in composing for the voice, meaning that they do not respect its physical limitations, they often misjudge the combination of ranges, dynamics and colors possible, and they believe that any singer can reproduce any sound (regardless of culture, style, or tradition). Clearly, studying these elements while working closely with singers would be one solution, as would choosing a more performer-centric notational system including expression markings and other indications that invite singers to find the intention or subtext behind the music—all of which can help the singer's instrument work more effectively. For their part, singers need more training in music theory, solfege and score reading skills, and while they need to master their classical technique, they must also be openminded and flexible enough to experiment beyond that training—while staying within the healthy limits of their sound production, and knowing how to communicate in order to preserve these boundaries. This study helped me to successfully mediate between composer-singer collaborators, and I hope to turn my findings into a booklet for those looking to create beautiful and exciting new vocal works together—not in spite of one another.
Biography:
Georgi Sztojanov has two MAs in composition from the Liszt Academy in Budapest and The Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. He obtained his BA in singing in 2016 with Sasja Hunnego. As both singer and composer he has broad experience with vocal premieres, multidisciplinary collaborative works, and leading ensembles and festivals. He received the Tenso Young Composers Award in 2014. As a composer he has a wide spectrum of works, and as a singer his activities are equally diverse, ranging from opera to lied, numerous premieres, staged productions, and ensemble singing (recently as a member of Groot Omroepkoor).
MONTSALVATGE AND HIS ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE FROM THE SPANISH CLICHÉ THROUGH THE ANTILLEANISM IN HIS CINCO CANCIONES NEGRAS
(2018)
author(s): Ana Sanchez Donate
Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
The Spanish cliché is an invention of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. This exotic and romantic image of musical "Spanishness" had, and still has, an enormous influence on Spanish musicians and in the general approach to the interpretation of Spanish Music.
Through history the political powers have tried to make used of the stereotypes at their own convenience. Franco’s regime urged composers to adhere to a formalistic aesthetic, full of Spanish nationalistic clichés, in a clear attempt to unify and control a country rich in different cultures and folklore. Within this context, the question of musical nationalism inevitably arises as well as the way in which it was faced, surrounded, transformed and solved by the composers of the time.
Montsalvatge soon manifested a profound independence of criteria that took him away from falling into the Spanish cliché. He was the cultivator of a peculiar nationalism, at the same time far from Spanishism and Catalanism. Montsalvatge found in Antilleanism a sort of “secular post-nationalism", a personality of his own. The most famous example of this Antilleanism are his “Cinco Canciones Negras”
Monteverdi and the architecture of emotions
(2018)
author(s): Anabela Marcos
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Anabela Marcos
Main Subject: Singing
Research supervisors: Johannes Boer and Erwin Roebroeks
Title of Research: Monteverdi and the architecture of emotions
Research Question: In what way could the formal and the expressive elements in Monteverdi's music be related to painting and architecture of his contemporaries?
Summary of results:
In the preface of his Eighth Book of Madrigals, Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi, Claudio Monteverdi announced one of the fundaments of his musical construction: the power of the contrasting passions. The humanist theme, that inspired not only musicians but also poets, painters and architects of the time, into a common goal; the expression of the human emotions.
The research “Architecture of emotions”, is centred in Monteverdi’s music in the period starting from his Lamento d’ Arianna (1608) to the Lamento della Ninfa included in the Eight Book of Madrigals (1638) - the same time, thirty years, that it takes Francesco Borromini to finish the small church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome, in what will be his first (the interior) and his last commission (the façade).
Inspired in this extraordinary building, which is both a guide and structure to the musical ideas presented, and supported by a selection of Caravaggio’s paintings to be the visual counterpart to Monteverdi’s music, this research aims to be a possible and personal interpretation to the vast question of the relation between music, painting and architecture in the context of the humanist environment in the transition from Renaissance to Baroque in Italy.
Biography:
After working as an architect for several years, the Portuguese Soprano Anabela Marcos, was granted a full scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon to study Singing and Opera at the Royal Conservatoire in the Hague, the Netherlands, with Rita Dams, Diane Forlano and Marius van Altena.
Her opera repertoire includes Pamina (Die Zauberflöte, Mozart), Suzanna (Le Nozze de Figaro, Mozart), Zerlina (Don Giovanni, Mozart), Titania (Midsummer Night’s Dream, Britten), Clori (L’Egisto, Cavalli), Venus and Cupid (King Arthur, Purcell), Daphne (Apollo and Daphne, Händel), Belinda (Dido and Aeneas, Purcell).
As a soloist, Anabela has worked with conductors such as Ton Koopman, Jos van Veldhoven, Sigiswald Kuyken, Michel Corboz and she is a member of the Baroque ensemble La Primavera. Among her future projects is the new program “Architecture of emotions”, included in the 25th jubilee of this ensemble and based on her two year research around Monteverdi’s music.
Alkan's Concerto op. 39
(2018)
author(s): Gerard Bouwhuis
Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
The French composer Charles Valentin Alkan (1813-1888) was a major pianist and composer. Alkan’s life was characterized by long periods of isolation and, when combined with his modest and rather shy nature, is probably the reason why his music, right up to the present day, has never gained much recognition. I chose to conduct my research using the longest and most challenging piece he wrote for piano as regards musicality and technique: the Concerto Op. 39, étude 8 from The Twelve Etudes in Minor Keys. The main question I asked in my research was: how can I best perform this piece?
Alkan narrowly missed being appointed head of the piano department of the Conservatoire in Paris and, although he had many private pupils, very little remained about how his work should be performed. The objective of my research is twofold.
First, I wanted to study the piece, and I also wanted to perform it. I have submitted my registration of a performance of the piece as part of this research.
The second objective was to devise something akin to a ‘manual’, which could help other students learning how to play this piece, and which would give insight into the way I approached playing it. The manual shows the score in its entirety with annotations visible in certain places, which contain relevant information. This information consist of audio recordings, video clips, texts or exemplary notes and is related to everything in the context of the performance.
, Kathryn Cok