Behind the Music

Speaker: Peter Roennfeldt

Diabelli's massive commissioning project of variations on his waltz from 50 composers came to fruition in 1823. The fascinating kaleidoscope of inventive techniques and textures offers intriguing insights into many composers who warrant further investigation. The innocuous theme also inspired Beethoven’s final monumental piano work. This presentation examines some questions that arise: the notion of collaborative composition, the question of performance practice in a work that rests virtually unacknowledged in the shadow of the ‘canon’, and the ways that artistic coherence can be imbued into such a diverse

creative concept. An original piano of the period is featured.

Speaker: Peter Roennfeldt

Diabelli's massive commissioning project of variations on his waltz from 50 composers came to fruition in 1823. The fascinating kaleidoscope of inventive techniques and textures offers intriguing insights into many composers who warrant further investigation. The innocuous theme also inspired Beethoven’s final monumental piano work. This presentation examines some questions that arise: the notion of collaborative composition, the question of performance practice in a work that rests virtually unacknowledged in the shadow of the ‘canon’, and the ways that artistic coherence can be imbued into such a diverse creative concept. An original piano of the period is featured.

Speaker: Scott Harrison (chair), with Peter DeJans & Joost VanMaele (Orpheus Institute, Belgium), Jonty Stockdale (Royal Northern College of Music, London), Huib Schippers & Paul Draper (QCRC).
RHD Colloquium, 21 Oct 2009, QCGU Boardroom.

Speaker: Scott Harrison (chair), with Peter DeJans & Joost VanMaele (Orpheus Institute, Belgium), Jonty Stockdale (Royal Northern College of Music, London), Huib Schippers & Paul Draper (QCRC).
RHD Colloquium, 21 Oct 2009, QCGU Boardroom.

Speaker: Bill Duckworth & Nora Farrell live from New York

Speaker: Bill Duckworth & Nora Farrell live from New York
Sonic Babylon is a global art project planting interactive gardens of sound. The intent of Sonic Babylon is to surround the world with music, sounds, and stories, local and universal, ancient and of tomorrow, easily accessible on everyday mobile devices.

Speaker: Stephen Emmerson (pianist) and Paul Draper (sound producer)
A collaboration between Stephen Emmerson (pianist) and Paul Draper (sound producer), this excerpt from Schoenberg’s 3 Piano Pieces Op. 11 draws upon on various interpretive strategies including analysis, reflection, and the use of Schoenberg’s paintings to highlight certain aspects of the performance and recording. The project is based on the premise that a recording is not

‘music’ itself, rather, is a virtual artefact through which an interpretation can be manipulated and enhanced through deliberate interference in the recording and post-production processes.

The piano itself was tracked using some sixteen microphones spaced at different positions throughout the hall which enabled ‘multiple perspectives’ to be attained, then in post-production was 'vertically arranged' and through the use of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) in ways similar to that of orchestration. In contrast to the usual practice where classical piano recordings maintain a single sound and perspective, this project explores the ways in the researcher's interpretation of the music can be expanded and communicated through these manipulations of the sound recordings.

Speaker: Stephen Emmerson (pianist) and Paul Draper (sound producer)
A collaboration between Stephen Emmerson (pianist) and Paul Draper (sound producer), this excerpt from Schoenberg’s 3 Piano Pieces Op. 11 draws upon on various interpretive strategies including analysis, reflection, and the use of Schoenberg’s paintings to highlight certain aspects of the performance and recording. The project is based on the premise that a recording is not ‘music’ itself, rather, is a virtual artefact through which an interpretation can be manipulated and enhanced through deliberate interference in the recording and post-production processes.

The piano itself was tracked using some sixteen microphones spaced at different positions throughout the hall which enabled ‘multiple perspectives’ to be attained, then in post-production was 'vertically arranged' and through the use of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) in ways similar to that of orchestration. In contrast to the usual practice where classical piano recordings maintain a single sound and perspective, this project explores the ways in the researcher's interpretation of the music can be expanded and communicated through these manipulations of the sound recordings.

Speaker: Vanessa Tomlinson and Erik Griswold
This is an excerpt from the new album 'Foreign Objects' by Vanessa Tomlinson and Erik Griswold aka 'Clocked Out', presenting new compositions that pay homage to two giants of contemporary music: Terry Riley, the master of expanded space, and Morton Feldman, the master of intricate patterns.

Produced by Paul Draper, after spending a week of recording in the IMERSD studios the project then moved directly into a live concert event in the Ian Hangar Recital Hall to premier the works, and where these performances were also recorded remotely in IMERSD. The final results are arrangements, edits and integrated sound productions that combine both environments, where the musicians extend the sound landscape of the keyboard through prepared piano to the world of ‘found object’ percussion. Mixing bowls meld into cardboard preparations, roofing tiles into buzzing screws, toy piano into miniature bells.

Speaker: Vanessa Tomlinson and Erik Griswold
This is an excerpt from the new album 'Foreign Objects' by Vanessa Tomlinson and Erik Griswold aka 'Clocked Out', presenting new compositions that pay homage to two giants of contemporary music: Terry Riley, the master of expanded space, and Morton Feldman, the master of intricate patterns.

Produced by Paul Draper, after spending a week of recording in the IMERSD studios the project then moved directly into a live concert event in the Ian Hangar Recital Hall to premier the works, and where these performances were also recorded remotely in IMERSD. The final results are arrangements, edits and integrated sound productions that combine both environments, where the musicians extend the sound landscape of the keyboard through prepared piano to the world of ‘found object’ percussion. Mixing bowls meld into cardboard preparations, roofing tiles into buzzing screws, toy piano into miniature bells.