(Un-) settling Sites and Styles

Einar Røttingen

(Un-)settling sites and styles: In search of new expressive means. Eight performers (voice, piano, violin, cello), one musicologist and one composer aspired to unsettle their habitual ways of working with musical interpretation of 20th century and contemporary Norwegian composers. By collaborating to develop new perspectives and methods, they investigated questions of style and how different sites influenced their rehearsals and performances. How do performers find new expressive means? How can intersubjective exchange within a research group contribute to articulating tacit knowledge? How can mutual unsettling approaches influence conventional or subjective attitudes of fidelity to a score or a performance tradition? How can novel sounds, musical material and musical meaning emerge beyond prejudiced conceptions or through improvisation? The three-year project was facilitated by the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme and the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design (Grieg Academy), University of Bergen, and resulted in texts, sound recordings, videos, and new commented score editions.

(Un-)settling sites and styles

- in Search of New Expressive Means

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Expressive means

Unsettling and unlearning

Unsettling sites and styles

Methological approaches

The individual projects

Results and documentation

References

SITE MAP

TAKING A FRESH LOOK AT SÆVERUD’S SECOND AND THIRD STRING QUARTETS

Summary: A research project by Ricardo Odriozola

This project was about revisiting Harald Sæverud’s string quartets Nos. 2 and 3, Op. 52 and 55. The intention was to publish commented critical editions. Since there was no previous extant research work on Sæverud’s string quartets made, either from a musicological or from a performative point of view, Odriozola found it necessary to include other compositions by Sæverud in his examination. These were primarily other works for string instruments. Recordings of the violinist Trond Sæverud, the composer’s grandson, and background literature about Sæverud were studied.

In the 1990s, Odriozola had extensively performed Sæverud’s three string quartets and recorded them in 1996 together with “Hansakvartetten”. Several years of private and professional contact with the composer informed these recordings. In addition to correcting misprints in the manuscripts, the project aimed to analyse the expressive marks and their possible meanings, and to readjust the flows of energy and tempo variations according to what Odriozola referred to as ‘Sæverud’s spirit’. Plausible answers to ambiguities in the musical text became an issue. All expressive means in the scores were re-examined in the course of the project.

Approaching authenticity here entailed respecting the spirit of the music (by assimilating ideals and associations received directly from the composer), while attempting to achieve the highest possible degree of accuracy with regards to the musical text. In the question of authenticity, does spirit take precedence over the letter?

Conversations with the artistic research group challenged long-established views regarding Sæverud´s music.