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rmapracticeresearchgroup · 4 years ago

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RMA Conference catch-up

This year’s RMA conference had some great practice research papers/workshops that you can still watch online until sep 18th here -

https://www.goldsmithsrma2020.org/programme

Hopefully I’ve mentioned all of them, title/author/abstracts below, I haven’t seen all of these myself yet.

Mira Benjamin and Pete Furniss (Goldsmiths, University of London): Embodied Research Methodology as a Creative Framework for Performance Pedagogy in Higher Education

Recent discourses in Practice Research have addressed the epistemic capacities of embodied knowledge. In illustrating how knowledge can arise both as thinking and as doing (Varela et al. 1991, Knorr-Cetina 2001; Borgdorff, 2012; Schwab 2015), such conversations have seeded a community of embodied researchers, including a growing number of practice-based research projects in Music Performance. Following Ben Spatz’s argument that “knowledge inheres in practice” (Spatz, 2015: 25), we may understand the development of a musician’s technique as representing knowledge, which may be applied in many potential ‘instances of practice’. We propose that embodied research methodologies afford both constructive and creative frameworks in individual learning and teaching when applied in performance pedagogy in Higher Education. This approach offers an alternative to outcome-oriented pedagogies that may prioritise certain achievements at the expense of motivation and investment, and to the potential impairment of the health and well-being of students. Instead, an emphasis on learning as a discovery-led process of research (Bell & Stoneham 2016) – one in which the development of technique is seen as a growing of embodied knowledge – can carry a profound impact on student experience and engagement. Our argument is illustrated and discussed using recent case studies involving undergraduate and postgraduate Music Performance students, which evidence the creative potentials of critical self-reflection, questioning, and a focused attention to process.

Roundtable: The Location of Musical Knowledge Chair: Alex de Lacey (Goldsmiths, University of London) Panellists: Les Back, Alya Al-Sultani, Lemzi and Corey Mwamba.

Goldsmiths is located in New Cross, part of the London Borough of Lewisham. This area is vibrant and diverse, with bustling musical communities of many different kinds that underpin the everyday functionality of its home borough. This roundtable will bring together practitioners and scholars from across the institutional divide to ask what we can learn from community-led practice (in schools, in worship, in informal non-institutional settings [bars, clubs, halls]), and question how different forms of musical and artistic expression (jazz, spoken word, grime, South Asian diasporic practice, sound system traditions, hip-hop) function inside and outside the academy. It will seek to determine how musicians do what they do, how creativity is spoken about, and appraise the variegated ways of knowing that aren't typically located in an academic setting, yet are vital for a fuller, more nuanced, understanding of musical practice.

[unfortunately only the concert is video-archived, not the workshop process] Composition Workshop Chaired by Roger Redgate (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Composers: Paul Archbold, Yuko Ohara, David Gorton, Alastair Zaldua, Angela Slater, Panos Ghikas. Compositional research at Goldsmiths comes under the auspices of the Contemporary Music Research Unit (CMRU), which was founded by Professor Roger Redgate in 2011. This composition workshop is lead by violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved and oboist Christopher Redgate, two leading exponents of new music and practice based research, both of whom have a long standing association with Goldsmiths as musicians in residence. Peter Sheppard Skærved is currently an associated research fellow with the CMRU. A further feature of the workshop is the Howarth-Redgate oboe, an extended instrument designed by Christopher Redgate with a view to facilitating a wide range of contemporary techniques. The workshop will take place at Goldsmiths from 11.00–17.00 on Wednesday 9 September. Performers Christopher Redgate and Peter Sheppard-Skæverd will workshop a selection of pieces submitted to our CfP.

‘What Listening Knows’ David Chesworth (RMIT University, Melbourne)

This paper discusses the large-scale video and sound installation What Listening Knows and how it interrogates the act of listening, particularly the concept of ‘the microphone’s gaze’, which shifts the idea of the ocular gaze into an acoustic dimension. During a recent research residency in Wiltshire, the artist duo Sonia Leber and David Chesworth filmed performers acting as field recordists in the landscape, trailing through cornfields, unfathomable 72 henges, earthworks, anthills and ancient forests. The highly-detailed soundscape is composed from environmental sounds, spoken texts, performances, military aircraft above the forest canopy, surveillance technologies, and special compositions performed by Salisbury Cathedral choristers. The video reveals the temporal manipulations of two electronic musicians as they cut-up and splice the original recordings, subjecting them to changes of tape speed and direction. This references the methodology of musique concrète, originated by Pierre Schaeffer and others, where acousmatic music was created by manipulating recorded sounds to reveal new and affecting aspects of those sounds, obscuring the sound’s original identity and meaning. What Listening Knows explores compositional themes of musique concrète composers (male and female): ear perspective versus microphone perspective; intuition; non-human listening (by plants, animals, and electronic technologies); animism and sound; and transitional and marginal listening to different presences, absences and spaces of the mind. Key in this, is how different kinds of listening can lead us to experience new worlds beyond visual perception. What Listening Knows has been created for exhibition over three large-scale video projections and 16 audio channels across the cavernous main space at Messums Wiltshire from 11 September to 25 October, 2020.

Calibrating Spatial Typologies with Musical Ideas in Composition and Performance Emma Kate Matthews (Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London)

This practice-based research presents a range of real and virtual scenarios in which acoustic characteristics of physical and virtual space, and conceptual spatial ideas are embodied in sonic works, with a particular focus on architecturally-aware and spatially-organised musical compositions. This paper acknowledges the spatially-precise works of composer Henry Brant in parallel to an exploration of the limitations and opportunities of ambisonic simulation technology and spatial audio as a tool for prediction and performance by architects, composers and musicians, and as employed in recent spatial music projects by the author. Throughout this paper, I use the self-coined term “spatiosonic” to refer to work which deliberately discovers productive reciprocities between music as constructed sound and architecture as constructed space. Constant developments in spatial audio technology is changing the way that we understand and experience relationships between architecture and music. An increasing freedom from a physical site-specificity is accompanied by a desire to access and replicate the acoustic character of ‘other’ spaces; both virtual and real. In order to maintain a critical and productive dialogue between the practices of constructing sound and constructing space, we must establish rigorous and precise methods for the calibration of these two worlds. This paper presents an initial identification and categorisation of spatial typologies in relation to sonic media as a means of establishing methodologies by which characteristics of both physical and virtual space can be more precisely calibrated with musical ideas in spatiosonic practice, using examples from recent spatial composition projects by the author.

Composition workshop: Scott McLaughlin: Composing for the Indeterminacy of the Clarinet, with Heather Roche.

The possibilities of woodwind multiphonics has been well-mapped in recent decades, to the point of the technique being ubiquitous in contemporary music. Resources by Bartolozzi (1967), Rehfeldt (1976), Farmer (1982), Weiss & Netti (2010), Watts (2015) and others have tended towards the goal of documenting only the most reliable and predictable fingerings. This strategy is entirely sensible for certain modes of composition/performance, but occurs at the expense of exploring the specific ways in which multiphonics can be indeterminate, and the rich compositional possibilities these indeterminacies offer that go beyond the production of arbitrary sounds and ‘effects’. This online workshop with Scott McLaughlin and clarinettists Heather Roche works through the key insights of the AHRC-funded project ‘The Garden of Forking Paths’ (2019–21) which develops compositional strategies for working with the indeterminacies of clarinets. The project flips the standard model of multiphonics by taking indeterminacies as opportunities to be followed; assigning a material-agency (Pickering 1995) to the clarinet wherein the instrument reveals new sounds through recursively exploring limited configurations of fingering/throat-embouchure-techniques. We develop compositional strategies for performatively generating and following the paths laid down by the instrument: see Tim Ingold’s concept of ‘wayfaring’ (2013). The workshop will explore different dimensions of this, demonstrating compositional strategies appropriate for several classes of indeterminacies.

‘The Pianist as Film Critic: Interpreting the Intermedial Dialogues of Nicole Lizée’s Criterion Collection’ Zubin Kanga (Royal Holloway, University of London)

This paper explores the new approaches to interactions between a live performer and film, and the corresponding interpretative challenges, of the Criterion Collection works of Canadian composer, Nicole Lizée. These works take clips from iconic films by a major filmmaker, looping and manipulating them and using the resulting distorted film score, dialogue and foley as musical materials, with each scene transformed into a short study. Each set of studies thus becomes a musical portrait of a particular film auteur. In their integration of media, theatre and performance, these works exemplify the recently emerged compositional school identified as ‘The New Discipline’ (Walshe) or ‘Music in the Expanded Field’ (Ciciliani, Shlomowitz), while also being a unique outlier of this new intermedial genre. Focusing on her Scorsese Etudes (2018) (commissioned by the author) as well as the Hitchcock Etudes (2010) and David Lynch Etudes (2015), the paper will analyse the categories of relationships between live performer and film, the myriad musical materials resulting from different film manipulations, the different musical results from focusing on different filmmakers, and the interpretative challenges of negotiating all these possible combinations of source, style and transformation. Using correspondence with the composer, the author’s performance scores, and videos of the author’s performances, a new type of performer role will be demonstrated, one that is both a virtuoso and a film critic, interrogating auteur theory from the keyboard.

How to Become Ethereal: A Compositional Approach to Mass as a Timbral Dimension Ivonne Michele Abondano Florez (University of Leeds)

As Asteris Zacharakis, Konstantinos Pastiadis and Joshua D. Reiss argue, the perceptual experience of timbre is strongly influenced, if not determined, by the use of words that describe its characteristics and behaviour, often in terms of luminance, mass, and texture. Spectral analysis of timbre allows for the formulation of more specific descriptors of timbral possibilities, contributing to a richer understanding of timbre in a multidimensional and dynamic perspective. Here, I focus on outlining the compositional approach for ‘A Weightlessness Process (... or how to become ethereal)’, a solo cello piece based on the timbral perception of mass, specifically from the experience of weight. In the field of physics, mass refers to the resistance that a body of matter offers to a change upon the application of a force. Timbre, as a process of interaction between the parameters of sound, implies continuous transformation. Thus, the perception of mass in timbre can be associated with its resistance to change, and ‘matter’ to the internal behaviour of timbre itself. From this perspective, weight is approached as the force exerted to determine the resistance given in timbre, as the perception of its internal interaction as well as the experience of the physical approach to the source of sound. Consequently, the spectral analysis of the cello techniques developed for this composition brings about a recognition that the perception of weight in timbre is influenced by parameters like loudness and spectral content. This information makes possible a classification of these techniques according to descriptors for the ‘measurement’ of weight that function as structural points in the weightlessness process, from a technical and conceptual perspective.

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howarthoflondon-blog · 13 years ago

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Christopher Redgate at Howarth of London - Redgate-Howarth Oboe 03-05-12

Leading 21st Century Oboist - Christopher Redgate discusses his first impressions of the second instrument made to the Redgate-Howarth Oboe design! The Redgate-Howarth Oboe has been custom made by Howarth of London, built with the 21st Century musician in mind, featuring multiphonic switch and the flexibility needed this contemporary repertoire. Howarth of London are internationally known as makers of the finest oboes, oboes d'amore, English horns and clarinets.

Chris Redgate describes the nuances of the Howarth-Redgate Oboe

Some Notes on Some New Notes

The re-design of the key-work on the oboe has been stimulated by changes in the use of some of the keys and in the demands being made upon the performer. As part of my performance practice during the last 35 years I have rethought the function of some of the key-work; altering the primary function of specific keys from their traditional use to a new uses (the traditional uses then becoming secondary). On some occasions reverting to practices more common in baroque and classical period performance. The octave keys, the holes in the touch plates, the function of a number of the side keys and the trill keys all, to a greater or lesser extent, have taken on multiple functions; in some case the original function of the keys has been superseded by the new function. Some of the keys on the traditional oboe however are poorly placed for their new activities, creating a range of physical and technical problems.

The ‘hamburger key’ (situated where the trill keys are normally found) has enabled me to answer some of these challenges while, at the same time, expanding the potential of the instrument. It has enabled us to effectively add an extra hole in an area of the instrument which is particularly responsive to the production of the extreme high range, (it is very close to both the second and the third octave keys): an area which also enables many microtones and multiphonics. Because we have placed the touch pieces at the side of the 2nd octave key (and in the process redesigned this key to accommodate ease of execution of these keys) we have increased the facility with which the high range can be played. The three new touch pieces are used extensively for the high range (B, C, C#, and D), a considerable number of microtones and, in addition, have added a substantial number of new multiphonics to the instrument. They have also enabled a number of short glissandi.

The top plate (left-hand first finger) has undergone two significant changes. A very small hole has been placed at the side of the main hole as an extra vent and a new switch has been added which enables a very high-speed change to the distance this key moves from the tone hole. As a result there are now four potential height positions for this key: closed, rolled, lifted finger and open (depending upon how you like this key set up the switch can be used in either direction). This enables a much wider range of multiphonics than is possible on the standard oboe without recourse to unscrewing the regulating screw in performance! In addition, because of the way the switch is activated it is possible to create a number of multiphonic slides by moving it slowly. This is the second design we have developed for a switch in this area. The first prototype oboe we produced included a screw system which, while enabling the changes, proved too slow in performance; the new switch is very fast.

There are two additional side keys for the right hand. We have removed the G# - A trill key and instead added a side Bb key (a key which existed on many older thumb-plate instruments). This key, as well as offering an A-Bb and high F-F# trill also enables a wide range of extra multiphonics and microtones.

Above this key is a B ¼# key (this is not available on the conservatoire model but B ¼# can be produced in several different ways on the instrument).

The microtonal work has been improved by drilling the holes on the A, G and E touch pieces precisely to ¼ sharp. In addition we have modified the F# key (top finger right hand) by adding a split plate. The reason for this rather more complex addition is that this key is used extensively for a range of double trills that I did not want to lose. Therefore we created a split plate whereby if the lower part is fingered the standard F# is produced but if the finger is placed only on the upper plate then F ¾# is played. This also enables a range of other microtonal fingerings in the upper register and a variety of multiphonics.

An extra bean has been added to the little key below the F# touch piece – this enables some micro tunings to a number of pitches.

We have also de-linked the Bb and B at the bottom of the instrument (left hand little finger). This removal of the enforced linkage has freed up the two keys so that they can be used independently of each other. As a result a wide range of multiphonics are available that were not possible on the standard oboe and it has generated a number of microtonal options. On some oboes there is also a B-C link but this has not been included on the new instrument as it also limits some possibilities.

Though available on some oboes we have added a long C# as standard and removed the banana C# trill key (played with 3rd finger right hand). The long C# is very useful not only as a trill key but also for a number of multiphonics and microtones.

On the thumb-plate version of the instrument we have re-sited the third octave key, placing it on the right-hand side of the first octave key. This enables the performer to roll the thumb on to the key rather than having to pinch backwards: a much more ergonomic position for the key. The octave keys are often used in fine microtonal tunings and so ease of execution for this key was very important.

The instruments are made of cocobolo wood that is less dense than the traditional Grenadilla wood (meaning that this oboe with its extra keys comes in at about the same weight as the standard Howarth XL) but also is particularly responsive to the demands of contemporary music.

A few statistics: There are now good quartertone and eighthtone scales from bottom D to the very top C ¼ #; I am also now developing a third/sixthtone scale.

On my standard instrument I have a catalogue of 833 multiphonics; on the new instrument I have currently 2548 multiphonics.

There are now fingerings up to top C that can be used without recourse to the teeth. There is also a C# and D fingering which require teeth.

The read more about Christopher Redgate, visit his website www.christopherredgate.co.uk

Visit the Howarth of London Website

www.howarth.uk.com

Howarth of London Workshop

19 Buckingham Road

Worthing, UK

BN11 1TH

01903 239219

#howarth #howarth of london #howorth #oboe #redgate oboe #redgate howarth oboe #multiphonics #contempory music

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