Creating a rubato layer cake: performing and producing overdubs with expressive timing on a classical recording for 'solo' piano

This paper reports on some of the outcomes from a larger UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project on Classical Music ‘Hyper-Production’ And Practice As Research – a project that sought to create radical reinterpretations of the classical repertoire through record production. In this example, the two authors of this paper, Emilie Capulet and Simon Zagorski-Thomas, were acting as pianist and producer respectively with a third researcher, Andrew Bourbon, working as engineer. The world of classical music has, in the vast majority of cases, sought to emulate the sound of the concert hall on recordings. In this case study from our project, a pianist and a record producer (both also academics) sought to explore the creative possibilities of transferring techniques from popular music to the production of classical recordings. Through the use of Actor Network Theory (Latour 2005; Law 2007; Callon 1986) as a method of analysis and Practice As Research (see for example Borgdorff 2006) as a mode of experimentation, we examined how both performer and producer explored the conceptualisation and practice of creating recorded music. The pre-production and recording sessions were either filmed or recorded and excerpts from these were used to examine the development of various performance techniques through this process of experimentation and discussion. For example, on pieces involving rubato, we explored a variety of techniques for synchronising multiple overdubbed performances where individual lines or parts from a piece for solo piano were staged or processed differently to others. This involved experiments working ‘by ear’, working with a guide track and with click tracks constructed in a variety of ways, and ‘by sight’, working with a video of the guide performer’s hands. The article begins with a description of the theoretical background to the study, examining the creative possibilities of this approach, discusses the ramifications that this has for performers, discusses the practical problems and then draws some conclusions and suggests some possible future work

Watch for the laughs! The music of graphic scores

In this case study, Emilie Capulet discusses the concepts of play and playfulness in music performance by investigating the playful nature of graphic scores and showing how graphic scores can play a central role in a game of musical creativity which may help to restore the confidence of young musicians

The music of Henri Tomasi (1901-1971) and the cinematic paradigm

The relations between music and narrative were sharply brought into focus in the 1920s and 30s when the new media of radio and cinema revolutionised compositional techniques and informed new aesthetic principles. As Finocchiaro has argued “we can speak of a cinematic paradigm within musical Modernism” (2017: 6). Henri Tomasi (1901-1971) was to become one of the pioneering composers of music for radio plays and films in France in the 1930s and 40s, working with Maurice Gleize, Jacques de Baroncelli, Maurice Cam and Marcel Pagnol (Jacono and Pons, 2015). Drawing on his experience as a professional piano improviser for silent films in the cinemas of Marseille and Paris in the 1920s, he forged a highly personal musical language, shaping modern forms of musical expression. His compositions reflect a fundamentally lyrical approach to music, leading him to become somewhat of a musical maverick in a context where melody and tonality were no longer common currency. In this paper, I will be arguing that Tomasi derived many of his compositional processes from cinematic techniques such as collage, montage, panning, dissolving and framing, and that this innovative approach to musical composition was trialled in his piano scores. His Paysages in particular are composed on three staves, the foregrounded melodic lines being interwoven within the varied dynamic planes and textures of the background elements, creating a rare sense of depth and perspective. The shifts of mood and colouring and a flexible approach to time and rhythm, suggest the fluidity and dramatic motions of a cinematic landscape in movement. Beyond this preoccupation with cinematic effects, I will be led to question his approach to narrative and semiotics in the light of what Irina Rajewsky has described as an intermedial process of transposition (2002) and what Jens Schröter has referred to as transmedial intermediality (2011)

Connecting policy to practice: from work-based learning to negotiated curriculum – a case-study

Building on the success of the WBL (work-based learning) MMus (Performance), LCM has been piloting, since September 2016, a blended pathway of undergraduate study for army musicians on the BMus (Hons) Performance course. Although possessing advanced certified skills in musical performance, c. 70% of army musicians are not qualified to degree level. This new blended pathway is intended to give an opportunity for army musicians to engage in personal development as part of the army’s Whole Life Development programme. This paper aims to explore how the army musicians have engaged in a negotiated curriculum, in order to assess the teaching and learning strategies implemented in the design and delivery of the BMus (Hons) Performance, and show how such a negotiated curriculum can help us address some of the issues raised by the TEF and navigate the tensions between the employer-driven, political, social and economic agendas (Usher & Solomon, 1999; Zemblyas, 2006) and a form of higher education which encourages reflection, creativity and innovation (Barnett, 2015; Middlehust, 2015) within the wider context of the emergence of the student-as-consumer and the marketisation of education (Brown, 2013; John & Fanghanel, 2016)

Music and dementia workshops: bridging the gap in music education

In early 2015, LCM worked hand-in-hand with the English Chamber Orchestra Ensemble (ECO) to create a series of chamber music and improvisation workshops for musicians in the early stages of dementia, in an initiative funded by the Arts Council and led by Arts 4 Dementia. LCM hosted the workshops and provided a flexible learning framework which served to engage undergraduate and postgraduate students in a professional practice environment. LCM students benefited from an early-stage dementia awareness training day led by Dementia Pathfinders and Julian West, Head of the Royal Academy of Music’s Open Academy. External participants in each of the 8 workshops were invited to join in and play alongside the ECO and LCM musicians. Playing a range of instruments, the participants were dynamically engaged in a musical dialogue, shaping the different interpretations and approaches to the music being performed in a creative and innovative way. An LCM composition student noted down improvisations in order to create a new work for the ensemble which was subsequently performed at the Wigmore Hall, in April, for the Arts 4 Dementia Best Practice Music Symposium 2015. Drawing on recent research into experiential and service learning (Carney, 2011; Deeley, 2015; Kolb, 2015; Waterman, 2014), I will evaluate student and participant feedback in order to discuss how these workshops, involving a variety of external partners, helped to bridge the gap between theory and practice in music education, as well as academic scholarship and real-world work experience. These workshops allowed the students to draw upon the technical skills they acquired throughout their studies whilst giving them the opportunity to gain insights into some of the problems facing today’s society and learn how to use their skills to make a difference, thus better equipping them to face the evolving music industry landscape on graduation. Alice Y. Kolb and David A. Kolb; Jun. 2005; ‘Learning Styles and Learning Spaces: Enhancing Experiential Learning in Higher Education’; Academy of Management Learning & Education; 4.2: 193-212 Kolb, David A. 2015; Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development; Pearson Education: Upper Saddle River. Carney, Terri M.; 2011; ‘Reaching beyond Borders through Service Learning.’ Journal of Latinos and Education; 3.4: 267-71 Colburn, Jr., Kenneth; Newmark, Rona (eds); 2007; Service-Learning Paradigms: Intercommunity, Interdisciplinary and International; University of Indianapolis Press: Indianapolis Deeley, Susan J.; 2015; Critical Perspectives on Service-Learning in Higher Education; Palgrave-Macmillan: Basingstoke. Hale, Aileen; 1999; ‘Service Learning and Spanish: A Missing Link’ Construyendo Puentes (Building Bridges): Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Spanish. Ed. Josef Hellebrandt and Lucia T. Varona, Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education; AAHE Series on SErvice-Learning in the Disciplines; 9-31 Hellebrandt, Josef; 2008; ‘The Role of Service-Learning in the New Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement.’ Hispania. 91.1: 222-24 Schmidt Peters, Jacqueline; 2000; Music Therapy: An Introduction (2nd Ed.); Charles C. Thomas Publisher: Springfield. Waterman, Alan S. (ed.); 2014; Service-learning: Applications From the Research; Psychology Press: New York

The art of teaching the piano

In this piano workshop, Emilie Capulet discusses the current research underpinning effective instrumental tuition and demonstrates creative approaches to teaching the piano

'Perspectives on authenticity in the representation of classical music in contemporary fiction'

“Authenticity will be the buzzword of the twenty-first century.” (Michael Crichton, Timeline, 1999) Never more than today has the search for authenticity been headline news. It affects our political choices (Shane, 2018), the music we listen to (Peterson, 1997; Speers, 2017; Barker and Taylor, 2007; Dolan, 2010), the artwork we appreciate (Benjamin, 1969; Jenson, 1994), the food we eat (Zukin, 2008), the holidays we go on (Reisinger and Steiner, 2006) and the way we portray our lives on social media (Salisbury and Pooley, 2017). In fiction, authenticity is, for obvious reasons, a more problematic concept, and we find that authenticity is not just linked to notions of plausibility (Stoltzfus, 1988), realism (Funk et al, 2012) and historical accuracy (Brantly, 2017), but it raises the issue of a particular understanding of the text in relation to the figure of the author (Gunning, 2012), or what Ana María Sánchez-Arce has argued is "the discourse or grand narrative that legitimizes knowledge on the grounds of it originating from essential identity characteristics or subjectivities" (2007: 143). Authenticity is felt when in the author’s personal voice, we recognize our own unique individuality, often within a community of individuals who share that same narrative. For this reason, authenticity is strongly linked to the notions of identity and common shared values. Speaking about authenticity in the performance of popular music songs, Allan Moore has argued that “authenticity of expression [...] arises when the originator (composer, performer) succeeds in conveying the impression that her utterance is one of integrity, that it represents an attempt to communicate unmediated form with an audience” (2002: 214). In other words, if we trust the legitimizing framework of a shared perception of an artist’s artistic sincerity and their integrity as a story-teller, we consider their voice as being authentic, even if the work itself is an artificial construct. Authenticity is a concept which plays a significant theoretical role in two particular artistic areas: transnational and transcultural writing (cf. Dagnino, 2012; Brantly, 2017) and musical performance. As musicologist Richard Taruskin has argued, authenticity “is knowing what you mean and whence comes that knowledge. And more than that, even, authenticity is knowing what you are, and acting in accordance with that knowledge” (1984: 3). Moving away from the objective reality/authenticity correlation of the positivist approach which searches for (an elusive) truth within the work itself, from a constructivist point of view, authenticity will be found at the crossroads of subjectivity and social networks. Within this context, in the words of Allan Moore, “in acknowledging that authenticity is ascribed to, rather than inscribed in, a performance, it is beneficial to ask who, rather than what, is being authenticated by that performance” (2002: 220). Contemporary novelist, Booker Prize and Nobel Prize winner, Kazuo Ishiguro is considered to be a transnational/transcultural author (Walkowitz, 2007), and one who is profoundly musical. He once said that: “I used to see myself as some sort of musician type but there came a point when I thought: actually, this isn’t me at all. I’m much less glamorous. I’m one of these people with corduroy jackets with elbow patches. It was a real comedown.” (2015) Here, Ishiguro is arguing that the authentic Ishiguro is fundamentally musical - having only rejected the craft (or “glamour”) of the musician (music’s inauthenticity) to keep the essence of music within his writing. So doing, his musical inspiration serves to validate the authenticity of his writer’s voice, and also serves to affirm the notion that music is intrinsically authentic as a true representation of our subjectivity and emotions. In this presentation, I will be focussing on Ishiguro’s five short stories, Nocturnes, subtitled ‘Fives Stories of Music and Nightfall’, published in 2009, and the way in which he creates a correlation between the musical experiences featured in the stories and his character’s ambivalent relation with concepts of authenticity and identity. I will be arguing that Ishiguro is challenging the traditional representation of classical music by placing it within a popular music framework and using authenticity to blur the traditional distinctions between art cultures. Whilst Ishiguro offers us a mise-en-scène of musical practices/authenticities within the fictional worlds he is creating, he is also encoding the authenticity of his own voice within a metanarrative on artistic creation understood as musical performance. References: Barker, H. and Taylor, Y. (2007) Faking it: the quest for authenticity in popular music. New York: Norton. Brantly, S. (2017) The Historical Novel, Transnationalism, and the Postmodern Era: Presenting the Past. Abingdon: Routledge. Benjamin, W. (1969) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, In: Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, transl. Harry Zohn, from the 1935 essay. New York: Schocken Books. Dagnino, A. (2012) ‘Transcultural Writers and Transcultural Literature in the Age of Global Modernity.’ Transnational Literature Vol. 4 no. 2 Dolan, E. I. (2010). ‘“…This little ukulele tells the truth”: Indie pop and kitsch authenticity.’ Popular Music, 29(3), 457–469

Henri Tomasi - complete solo piano works

Double CD, containing 37 tracks accompanied by 4000-word booklet. Duration: 1 h 27 min. Track list (CD 1): Paysages 11:28 - 1. Marine (Mouettes) 3:56 - 2. Clairière (Matin d'été) 3:00 - 3. Forêt (Chants d'oiseaux) 4:32 - 4. Fantoches 2:11 - 5. Menuet 2:39 - 6. Tarentelle 3:52 Pièces Brèves - Suite 1 5:49 - 7. Et s'il revenait un jour... 2:00 - 8. Menuet 2:08 - 9. Le lied que chante mon cœur 1:41 Pièces Brèves - Suite 2 5:56 - 10. Parade 1:59 - 11. Air à Danser 2:16 - 12. Espiègleries 1:41 - 13. Danseuses de Degas 2:26 Le Coin de Claudinet 6:46 - 14. Réveil du Petit Soldat 0:35 - 15. Poupée Triste 0:36 - 16. Berceuse pour la Petite Cousine Arabe 0:33 - 17. Le Petit Cheval 0:30 - 18. Le Clown et l'Ecuyère 0:36 - 19. Le Petit Jésus et sa Maman 0:33 - 20. Berger, bergère (Santons) 0:29 - 21. La Boîte à Musique 0:40 - 22. Concert des Petits Anges Musiciens 0:32 - 23. La Berceuse à Claudinet 0:40 - 24. Les Rois Mages (Santons) 0:30 - 25. Les Tambourinaires (Santons) 0:32 - 26. Berceuse de la Belle et la Bête (Le Silence de la Mer) 4:42 - 27. Le Poème de Cyrnos 10:22 Track list (CD 2): Féerie Laotienne 30:52 - 1. Entrée 0:25 - 2. Cortège et Danse 5:15 - 3. Scherzo pour une fête de nuit 4:30 - 4. Invocation à la lune 3:41 - 5. Pantomime 1:37 - 6. Danse des sorciers 2:30 - 7. Cette lune nous gêne 0:18 - 8. Offrande aux Dieux 2:20 - 9. Les Cercles Magiques 1:08 - 10. Final 9:0