Performance, Subjectivity, and Experimentation

Performance in the fields of contemporary music, subjectivity and identity

Music reflects subjectivity and identity: that idea is now deeply ingrained in both musicology and popular media commentary. The study of music across cultures and practices often addresses the enactment of subjectivity “in” music – how music expresses or represents “an” individual or “a” group. However, a sense of selfhood is also formed and continually reformed through musical practices, not least performance. How does this take place? How might the work of practitioners reveal aspects of this process? In what sense is subjectivity performed in and through musical practices? This book explores these questions in relation to a range of artistic research involving contemporary music, drawing on perspectives from performance studies, phenomenology, embodied cognition, and theories of gendered and cultural identity.

Contributors: Steve Benford (University of Nottingham), Richard Craig (freelance performer and researcher), David Gorton (Royal Academy of Music, London), Christopher Greenhalgh (University of Nottingham), Adrian Hazzard (University of Nottingham), Juliana Hodkinson (Grieg Academy, University of Bergen), Maria Kallionpää (Aalborg University), Zubin Kanga (Royal Holloway, University of London), Catherine Laws (University of York/Orpheus Institute), Jin Hyung Lim (Keimyung University), Thanh Thủy Nguyễn (Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University/Vietnam National Academy of Music), Stefan Östersjö (Piteå School of Music, Luleå University of Technology/Orpheus Institute), Deniz Peters (University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz), Eleanor Roberts (University of Roehampton), Anne Veinberg (Orpheus Institute)

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

"Performance, Subjectivity, and Experimentation" was edited by Catherine Laws.

Catherine Laws is a pianist, reader in Music at the University of York, and senior artistic research fellow at the Orpheus Institute.

Yes, "Performance, Subjectivity, and Experimentation" is part of the "Orpheus Institute Series" series.

Throughout the Orpheus Institute’s various activities there is a clear focus on the development of a new research discipline in the arts, one that addresses questions and topics that are at the heart of musical practice, building on the unique expertise and perspectives of musicians and in constant dialogue with more established research disciplines.

Within this context, the Orpheus Institute launched an international Research Centre in 2007 that acts as a stable constituent within an ever-growing field of enquiry. The Orpheus Research Centre is a place where musical artists can fruitfully conduct individual and collaborative research on issues that are of concern to all involved in artistic practice. It is important that at the centre of the international Orpheus Institute network is a place, a building, a community. As the concepts and methodologies of artistic research in music have evolved, work at Orpheus Institute has found new structures. Since 2012, research has been consolidated into a number of groups focused on specific areas, each led by a principal investigator of substantial international reputation as a practicing musician. The work of Orpheus Institute is disseminated through events, publications and musical performances, and through its active animation of discussion within the sector.

This series of peer-reviewed publications —launched in 2013— encompasses monographs by Research Fellows and associates of the Orpheus Institute, compilations of lectures, texts, and performances from seminars and study days, and edited volumes on topics arising from work at the institute. Research can be presented in digital media as well as printed texts. As a whole, the series is meant to enhance and advance discourse in the field of artistic research in music and to generate future work in this emerging and vital area of study.

Editorial board

William Brooks (Chair, Series Editor), Peter Dejans, Jonathan Impett, Kathleen Coessens, Paulo de Assis, Heike Vermeire, Ed Crooks, Laura Cull, Aurelie Daems

Proposals

Proposals and enquiries can be sent to the series editor William Brooks.
Please make use of the submission form to present your manuscript or proposal to our board.
Authors interested in Open Access can consult the available funding options.

Links & Resources

Yes, "Performance, Subjectivity, and Experimentation" is published Open Access. It is available under a BY-NC-ND license.

Introduction Catherine Laws
Between I and You in Music: Shared Emotions, Relational Improvisation, and Artistic Research Deniz Peters
Moving and Being Moved: Affective Resonance at Play in Sonic Performances Juliana Hodkinson
Negotiating the Discursive Voice in Chamber Music David Gorton and Stefan Östersjö
Deus ex Disklavier: Subjectivity and Technological Resistance in the Performance of Maria Kallionpää’s Climb! for Disklavier and Electronics Zubin Kanga, Anne Veinberg, Maria Kallionpää, Adrian Hazzard, Chris Greenhalgh and Steve Benford
“by way of the BREATH, to the LINE” Richard Craig
Performing Being a Pianist: Gender and Embodied Subjectivity in Performing Annea Lockwood’s Ceci n’est pas un pianoCatherine Laws
Charlotte Moorman and “Avant-Garde Music”: A Feminist History of Performance Experimentation Eleanor Roberts
Inside the Choreography of Gender Nguyễn Thanh Thủy and Stefan Östersjö
Identity Performance and Performing Identity: Performing Isang Yun’s Fünf Stücke für Klavier (1958) Jin Hyung Lim
Notes on Contributors Index

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for "Performance, Subjectivity, and Experimentation" is 10.11116/9789461666154.