Invited Interview on Network Performance in the "Transient Gestures" issue

An issue on Networked Performance produceed by Neural for which I was invited to deliver an interview on network performance. Neural is a printed magazine established in 1993 dealing with new media art, electronic music and hacktivism. It was founded by Alessandro Ludovico and Minus Habens Records label owner Ivan Iusco in Bari (Italy).

Musicologist-driven writer identification in early music manuscripts

Recent renewed interest in computational writer identification has resulted in an increased number of publications. In relation to historical musicology its application has so far been limited. One of the obstacles seems to be that the clarity of the images from the scans available for computational analysis is often not sufficient. In this paper, the use of the Hinge feature is proposed to avoid segmentation and staff-line removal for effective feature extraction from low quality scans. The use of an auto encoder in Hinge feature space is suggested as an alternative to staff-line removal by image processing, and their performance is compared. The result of the experiment shows an accuracy of 87 % for the dataset containing 84 writers’ samples, and superiority of our segmentation and staff-line removal free approach. Practical analysis on Bach’s autograph manuscript of the Well-Tempered Clavier II (Additional MS. 35021 in the British Library, London) is also presented and the extensive applicability of our approach is demonstrated.

Deciphering the performance hints hidden in J. S. Bach’s quaver beams

Bach often beamed his quavers beyond the beat-unit indicated by the time-signature, as if to indicate the way he perceived, phrased or articulated a musical line. In my previous study in 2011 I demonstrated the significance for both performers and editors of critical editions of quaver beaming against a broader background of Bach’s notational practice. In this article, I go one step further and demonstrate that Bach’s quaver beams reflect how Bach responded to his pieces in composition and performance, which sheds light on how he engaged with and perceived his music from motivic to structural levels. This enquiry has never before been pursued thoroughly and it promises to uncover the ideas that guided his notational practice as well as his spontaneous responses to the challenges he faced while writing out his music on paper

Composing with Graphics: Revealing the Compositional Process through Performance.

The research presented here is product of a practice-based process that primarily generates knowledge through collaboration and exchange in performance situations. This collaboration and exchange with various musicians over a period of five years that constitutes a body of practice that is here reflected upon. The paper focuses on non-instructional graphic scores and presents some insights based on performances of works by the author. We address how composition processes are revealed in graphic scores by looking at the conditions of decision making at the point of preparing a performance. We argue that three key elements are at play in the interpretation of these types of graphic scores: performance practice, mapping and musical form. By reflecting particularly on the work Cipher Series (Rebelo, 2010) we offer insights into the strategies for approaching the performance of graphic scores that go beyond symbolic codification.

‘At First I Saw It as a Toy’: Life Stories, Social Consciousness and Music Ethnography

This article examines the role of life narratives as discursive spaces for the performance of individual resistance. Through the inspection of three interviews with professional musicians in Athens, the essay will illustrate how the recounting of nodal events in their lives and careers facilitates an assertion of their current social ideology and their disillusionment with the popular music industry in which they operate. Ultimately, what follows will suggest a mode of listening to individual utterances and narratives as discursive forms of resistance that need to be appreciated as social acts as opposed to mere ethnographic data.

Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit: Extra-musical subtext, and its role within interpretive performance

Few works within the realm of the piano repertoire have amassed a reputation as formidable as Gaspard de la Nuit. These three pieces, each unique in character and pianistic requirements, arguably represent a pinnacle of early 20th-century French piano music. This paper seeks to illuminate points for consideration for the pianist who wishes to embark upon studying the work for performance, and for the musicologist.

I shall first consider the three character poems of Aloysius Bertrand that inspired the suite, as an understanding of these Diabolic creations is essential to understanding the piece analytically and programmatically. I shall then explore the subtitle of Bertrand’s Gaspard de la Nuit: ‘Fantaisies À La Manière De Rembrandt Et De Callot’, as an acknowledgement of these artists helps us better to engage with Bertrand’s poetry, and provides us with a direct link to the visual stimuli for Ravel’s compositions.

Finally, using Ondine as a case study, I shall explore how the composer unifies his inspirations to paint a musical portrait of both the character and the content of Bertrand’s poem. I shall focus on three particular aspects of Ravel’s style: the refined textures that create washes of watery colour, subtle rhythmic variations that imply the ‘deep, rolling currents of the sleeping lake’, and the simple melodic lines sung by the water nymph in the manner of a French air. Each element plays its part in the thematic development that illustrates Ondine’s seductive powers.