IMR RESEARCH TRAINING ROADSHOW
in association with the Royal Academy of Music, UCE Birmingham Conservatoire, and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Performance as Research
Thursday 21 June 2007, Piano Gallery, York Gate, RAM
Monday 25 June 2007 UCE Birmingham Conservatoire, Board Room
Wednesday 27 June 2007, RWCMD, Weston Gallery, Anthony Hopkins Centre
10:00 – 10:30 Registration and coffee
10:30 – 11:15 Peter Johnson: What do we mean by performance as research?
11:15 – 12:00 Amanda Glauert: The kinds of research questions
performers ask
12:00 – 13:00 Neil Heyde: Case Study 1
How to get at the research questions embedded in performance preparation
- The collaborative process as research (Fitch, Gorton)
- Exploring the potential of performance instructions (Debussy, Dallapiccola, Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, Ligeti)
- The process of preparation and the act of performance (Ferneyhough,
Finnissy)
On the one hand the aim is to explore what ‘performance as research' can mean in the broadest sense; however, the act of identifying the sorts of questions posed as part of the working process allows us to develop and refine approaches that extend beyond what is strictly necessary to prepare a performance.
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch break
14:00 – 15:00 Round-table discussion led by Neil Heyde
15:00 – 15:45 Lucy Robinson: Case Study II
Decoding music and text: Marin Marais’s Le tableau de l’opération de la taille (1725)
- Baroque performance practice issues such as rhetoric, period instruments, playing directions referring to bowing and fingering (and phenomena such as the enfler sign denoting daring off-beat rhythms to give ‘soul’ to the music).
- The mystery of the words written above the music throughout the piece. What should we do with them? Is the piece intended to be shared with an audience? Is l’Opération viable as an emotional journey without them?
16:00 Close
