09:30-10:30
Flow-obstructed phrasing
Øyvind Mæland
Norwegian Academy of Music (1st year presentation)
Moderator: Michael Duch
10:45-11:45
The extended conductor
Nina T. Karlsen
Norwegian Academy of Music (2nd year presentation)
Moderator: Michael Duch
12:00-13:00
Loudspeakers - Prosthetic or Enhancement?
Erik Stifjell
University of Bergen / UiT (1st year presentation)
Moderator: Michael Duch
14:00-15:00
Expanding horizons – a jazz exploration of 20th century classical music
Peter Knudsen
NTNU, Department of music (2nd year presentation)
Moderator: Jostein Gundersen
15:30-16:30
The Art Liturgy -
On the Limits of Art
Liv Kristin Holmberg
Norwegian Academy og Music (3rd year presentation)
Moderator: Tone Åse
16:30
Bus to Tou
18:30
Buffet dinner and late night performances (Machine hall)
- Performance by Kristoffer Alberts and Hagit Yakira, University of Stavanger.
- VIS - Nordic journal for artistic research - presentation and performance: Anna Lindal, Timo Menke and Paola Torres Núñez Prado.
Øyvind Mæland: Flow-obstructed phrasing
Norwegian Academy of Music, Composition
I seek to expand the possibilities of expression as a composer by exploring the potential in what I choose to call flow-obstructed phrasing.I define flow-obstructed phrasing as a way of phrasing giving the composer/musician a physical experience of adding resistance to the breath or body, and I use this mainly in order to create an intensified sense of presence.
While flow is an even continuum, the obruction is a hindrance, whether dramatic or low-key/subtle. Phrasing relates to breath, and flow-obstructed phrasing is what occurs when the breath/body is met with obstacles such as filters/friction, certain types of irregularity, breaks/stops, etc. This may involve how a sound/resonance is damped/stopped (from sound to silence), and how one instrument/voice must work to efficiently get from one sound to a markedly different one – in one breath (legato), f.ex. while keeping the same pitch. It may also include phrases with sudden changes in dynamics/spatialization.
Experience and challenges with similar musical approaches have convinced me that more is to be explored, and furthermore I believe that the compositional ideas of flow-obstructed phrasing may be transferred to other more visually corporeal art fields: The focus on breath/body necessarily makes it natural to include movement and theatricality, in which I will do in at least 2 of the 5 compositions. The order will switch between concert works and works for the stage, to see how working with movement again may inform/affect instrumental writing.
Obstruction might represent a play with expectations, even a way of creating material, and I am fascinated by flow-obstruction balancing between something seemingly mechanical/non-human, and the corporeal-human. More importantly, I experience that the bodily element sharpens the senses, and one hypothesis is that flow-obstructed phrasing can lead to a powerful intimacy, potentially also a togetherness in listening. Through this presentation and its following discussion - concerning limiting/expanding a research space, as well as methodology - I will reflect on the project’s possible contribution to the art music field.
Øyvind Mæland, Norwegian composer (NO), studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music with Olav Anton Thommessen, Ivar Frounberg and Henrik Hellstenius, and has also participated in several masterclasses with composers such as Aperghis, Furrer, Billone, Ferneyhough, K. Lang and Czernowin. He often writes for voice and for ensembles, and he has worked with musicians and ensembles such as Håkon Austbø, Marco Fusi, Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen, Jennifer Torrence, Stine Motland, Sanae Yoshida, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Pinquins, Alpaca Trio, Oslo String Quartet, Kairos Quartett, Uusinta, Aksiom, Bit20, Telemark Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Ernst, Bodø Sinfonietta, Oslo Sinfonietta and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. His music has been performed several times at festivals such as Ultima, Borealis, Only Connect, Oslo International Chamber Music Festival, Time of Music Festival Vitassari and Silence Festival (Finland), Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Sommer im Stuttgart, Musikthetatertage Wien, etc. He has written several music theatre works, including the full-scale opera Ad undas – Solaris Korrigert (based on Øyvind Rimbereids poem Solaris Korrigert", which was staged at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet in 2013. 10 of Mæland's works have been recorded on the labels of Lawo, Fabra and Geiger.
___
Photo: Erik Dæhlin
The aim of my project is to explore the conductor as an independent performer and creative performer, and, in continuation of this, to investigate the possibility of expanding the conductor's room for maneuver as an artist through the various phases of a work's development, from origin to performance.
In my research, the extended conductor, I have come up with some questions: To what extent is the conductor an independent performer, who can be separated from the ensemble? Is it necessary or needed to make such a distinction, and can it contribute to the development of the conductor as an artist? What kind of art expression can be a result of this work?
My upcoming challenges revolve around my project towards a musical-scenic performance in autumn 2023; which methods will be used in the process towards the finished result, and how to successfully collaborate with co-supervisor Kari Anne Bjerkestrand and composer Erik Dæhlin. In this connection, I want to discuss what kind of artistic result I can expect to find, and where/if I need to draw the line.
Nina T. Karlsen (1983) is a graduate conductor, singer and church musician at The Norwegian Academy of Music. Since 2011, she has conducted and been artistic director of the chamber choir Ensemble 96, which has a particular focus on contemporary music and seeks to expand the traditional
choir concert by means of collaborations with other artists, including dancers, actors and visual artists. From 2012-2020 she was a cathedral musician in Tønsberg domkirke, and she is now the artistic director of Det norske damekor and Norges ungdomskor. Currently she is both a PhD research fellow and lecturer in conducting at The Norwegian Academy of Music.
___
Erik Stifjell: Loudspeakers - Prosthetic or Enhancement?
University of Bergen, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design / UiT, Academy of Music
In what way can loudspeaker technology enhance an acoustic instrument? Which new abilities can loudspeaker technology give the instrument? These are central questions I try to answer with my research project. Through mapping, production/modification and sandboxing, I create a basis for composing new music that explores the possibilities that loudspeaker technology can add to acoustic instruments. Throughout the project period, I work closely with the research group ARcTic Sustain - Let Vibrate, which consists of instrumental teachers at UiT, Academy of Music.
Through more than 20 years as an active composer, I have always been fascinated by the possibilities that arise from mixing electronic sound with acoustic instruments. All acoustic instruments have some form of resonance that can be used to amplify an electronic sound signal, in the same way that resonance amplifies the instrument's own generated sound. By integrating the right loudspeaker technology, the electronic sound will also be able to come out of the acoustic instrument and thus become a Hyperinstrument or an Augmented (enhanced) instrument. Besides new compositions for an array of augmented instruments, another outcome of my research project are instrument enhancement (augmented instruments).
My presentation at the Artistic Research Forum will give a brief presentation of the different stages of my research project with a main focus on the mapping and production/modification stages. I will also reflect on how my research project’s outcome can contribute to the development of this field.
Erik Stifjell is a composer living in Tromsø. Through his music, Erik is searching for organic forms in music and new ways of integrating speakers and electronic soundscapes. His work list consist of pieces for small and larger ensembles, electro acoustic pieces, music for film, dance and theatre together with a wide range of more experimental pieces. His music has been played by ensembles all over Europe. The long list of commissions has included pieces for Ola Rokkones(NO), Haugen Productions(NO), Magne Pettersen(NO, filmmaker), Rosa Ensemble(NL) and Arctic Philharmonic(NO). Erik is also a member of the performance group Nordting. Erik holds the following degrees: Master- and Bachelor of Music(Composition) from Royal Conservatory, The Hague (2008, 2010) and Cand.Mag. (Percussion) from UiT The Arctic University of Norway (2000).
___
Peter Knudsen: Expanding horizons – a jazz exploration of 20th century classical music
NTNU, Department of Music
The artistic research project “Expanding horizons" seeks to illuminate how an encounter between the musical traditions of jazz and 20th century classical music can serve as a way for musicians to challenge their practice as well as expand the palette for artistic expression. Through musical encounters in small-sized constellations and conversations with the participating musicians, the project examines different ways for how musicians can use improvisation as a way of approaching repertoire from composers such as Debussy, Tailleferre, Dutilleux, and Takemitsu.
For this presentation, I’ll present some of the approaches that have been used together with examples of musical results, and some of the insights from the project so far. Based on the current state of the project, questions are raised concerning the liberty one can take when recontextualizing the work of another composer, and what might guide such a process when the work is removed from the performance practice pertaining to the original context. Another question relates to the participating musicians, their agency and affordance for creative expression, and to what extent their individual approaches for learning musical material are taken into account when musical experiments and arrangements are designed. Experiences and discussions from the first year suggest that the project and the processes involved can contribute to the development of one’s musical vocabulary, by providing the improvisers with new building blocks, new insights into musical composition, new challenges and resistances to one’s musical practice, as well as offering innovative ways of interpreting and re-contextualizing compositions from the classical music repertoire. Challenges raised by the participating musicians are related to the complexity of the material, difficulties in moving beyond the score, limitations related to instrumentation/instrument technique and the potential risk of aesthetic clashes.
Peter Knudsen is a jazz pianist and composer based in Stockholm, Sweden, and a PhD fellow at NTNU in Trondheim. His albums explore themes as diverse as French Impressionism, Swedish Romanticism, as well as his own compositions inspired by nature, literature and life itself. These can be heard on his octet album ”Sagas of the Present”, the folklore-inspired album “Nature Spirits” performed by Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, as well as an upcoming project with Norrbotten Big Band. Peter is also a member of Derupeto, an international quartet with members from Sweden, Brazil and Mozambique.
___
Liv Kristin Holmberg: The Art Liturgy - On the Limits of Art
Norwegian Academy of Music, Conducting, Voice and Church Music Department
This presenatation will be held in Norwegian.
My artistic background as a church musician and performance artist is the core of a long-standing stage art-, and performative practice, in which I investigate the cantor’s role as a ritual master.
Kunstliturgien can be described as a ritualistic music theatre based on utopian philosophy, in which I develop self-made liturgical elements aiming at life’s existential questions and transitions; creating a fundament for a metaphysical reality-theatre.
The Boundaries of Art. This project is both performative and discursive: as well as an examination of the potential of the church room as an artistic arena, it will also test its capability as a transformative and powerful public space.
The performative potential of church musicians. The project is simultaneously an examination of church musicians and their performative potential. I have an ambition to develop and extend the role of the organ player, and hence lay down the general outlines for a performative aesthetics, based on my own and others experiences regarding varying interpretations of liturgical organ music and artistic experiments of ritualistic musical drama.
The development of liturgical music. As part of the artistic research, a collaboration with two to three composers is initiated, where we mutually (jointly) will develop a concept and the musical material, specially composed for the project with me as a performer.
Art and religion. The church was once the natural venue for music and art. Is this still the case or does the church operate in an aesthetic vacuum? In the light of the Reformation Jubilee 2017, and as an overarching idea, the project will reflect over existing as well as non-existing parallels between church art and contemporary art since the reformation, in a Norwegian context.
Kunstliturgien is an artistic research on the relation between belief and art, religion and aesthetics, with an spiritual and existential ambition to discover possible, transformative dimensions in art.
Liv Kristin Holmberg works with ritual theater often based on utopian philosophy and performing arts in churches and art spaces focusing on the relationship between art and faith.
She has a master of Fine Art from Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo / Kunstakademiet. She is also trained as a classical pianist and organplayer from the Norwegian Academy of Music, Academy of Music in Goethenborg, Music Conservatory in Kristiansand and the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki). Academical studies in philosophy, history of ideas, psychology and musicology from the University of Oslo and the Humboldt-Universität (Berlin).
Selected exhibitions / performances: Berlin Art Week, Høstutstillingen, Only Connect, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Spriten Kunsthall, Borealis Contemporary Music Festival, NoSPHERE Arts (NY), Stamsund International Theaterfestival, Akershus kunstsenter, Greenlight District, Fylkingen, Østlandsutstillingen, Happy Days, Black Box Teater, Kulturkirken Jakob, PAB Open, Den Frie Festival (DK), Mago Eidsvoll Verk, Skulpturbiennalen, Fotogalleriet, Autocenter Gallery (Berlin) m.m.
https://nmh.no/en/contact-us/employees/liv-kristin-holmberg
www.livkristinholmberg.no
___
VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Resarch is the result of a cooperation between Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH) and the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme (Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills).
Anna Lindal, Editor of VIS #6 and #7, will present the journal. Timo Menke (author in VIS #6) will do a lecture performance of his exposition Corona influential and the darker matter in collaboration with the artist Vilda Kvist, and Paola Torres Núñez del Prado (author in VIS #7) will have a performance connected to her exposition The Sonified Textiles within the Text(il)ura Performance.