Exposition

A Universal Language? - Challenges of crossover music-making (2019)

Tom Goff
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About this exposition

This research project explores the process of collaboration between musicians of classical training on orchestral instruments, and musicians working in the pop, jazz and folk genres. It focuses on the role of the conductor and investigates how they can best act as a mediator between members of distinct musical traditions, bringing together performers who effectively speak different languages. My musical activities span different genres within the jazz, classical, and pop worlds as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and composer/arranger. As a conductor it was natural for me to investigate the artistic possibilities and practical limitations of projects where these worlds meet. I did this primarily through interviews with six musicians from various backgrounds: Joe Duddell, Frank Veenstra, Clark Rundell, Tim Kliphuis, Bart Schneemann, and Rob Moose. These interviews are supplemented by secondary literature that is primarily focused on the differences in training of classical and jazz artists. Whilst reflecting on the challenges that crossover projects present, I began to question what those challenges say about the differences between these musical cultures. The research also includes reflections on my recent experience conducting parts of Mark-Antony Turnage’s Blood on the Floor with the Noord Nederlands Orkest. Scored for jazz quartet and chamber orchestra, this masterpiece is perhaps the beginning of a canon for orchestral-jazz crossover music, and my approach to preparing the performance was closely linked to the progress of this research and the accompanying interviews.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsCrossover, Conducting, Orchestra
date01/03/2019
published24/09/2019
last modified24/09/2019
statuslimited publication
share statusprivate
copyrightTom Goff
licenseAll rights reserved
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/582291/582292
published inKC Research Portal
portal issue3. Internal publication


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id name copyright license
618833 IMG_20190504_205039 Turnage All rights reserved
618837 IMG_20190504_205039 Turnage All rights reserved
618843 IMG_20190504_205039 turnage All rights reserved

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