conferences
International conference "Artistic Research: Various fields, approaches, experiences"
Autoethnographic Research as a Road to Musical Freedom - the Diverse Possibilities of Interpretation in Contemporary Music
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My artistic research project aims to analyse the development of the pianist's role in contemporary music. Over the past 70 years, it has become increasingly clear that being able to simply play on the keyboard is no longer enough to satisfy the demands and ambitions of contemporary music and arts. In my research I am uncovering the tools that the pianist needs to learn and possess to be able to perform contemporary music. Additionally, I focus on not only physical and pianistic challenges of the preparation of contemporary music program, but on the mental state of pianist’s mind and deep understanding of the possibilities of the contemporary music performance practices. In my work, the centre of the research are the Klavierstücke by Karlheinz Stockhausen and his musical journey of expanding the possibilities of the pianist, pianism and the piano itself.
As a pianist I was trained to understand my experiences and read my senses, in order to find the ways to improve the piano playing. However, as an artistic researcher, through the academic, phenomenological and autoethnographic approach, I was pushed to also analyse, interpret, and control my experience. In my presentation I would like to talk about how my research methods have led me to shift my own understanding of contemporary music, of my research and even of the classical piano music field. I would like to discuss, how contemporary music can be used to freely let go of the tradition, to encourage to find yourself and your musicianship though the new experiences, and how it is possible to find a true freedom of interpretation, even when the score is notated in a way that seems to leave no room for self-expression.
Siba Research Days 2022 - (Not) Just Leaving It To Chance
In my presentation, I would like to discuss the interpretation of aleatoric music and practical approaches to scores that combine written music and improvisation. How can I as a pianist and a musician practice a piece that has an exact notation yet offers the possibility of choice? What happens when a composer chooses to turn the musician into the creator, allowing them to participate in the formation of the piece? Is it possible to improvise in the moment, when the piece has been practiced for months leading to the performance? How can one convey to the audience the feeling of something new and unexpected?
The case study for my presentation will be pieces related to my own doctorate research project: Klavierstück XI by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sonata No.3 by Pierre Boulez and Intermission 6 by Morton Feldman. All three pieces represent the brief style of fragmentalism, which became a fashionable compositional method in the 1950s. The pieces are graphically broken into fragments; however, they are traditionally notated with notes, dynamic and rhythmical indications. Each composer asks the pianist ideally to create the piece in the moment, by “accidentally” moving from one fragment of the score to another. However, in each case, achieving total spontaneity becomes somewhat impossible.
I will also discuss these composers’ attitudes towards freedom of interpretation in their other works and show how understanding a composer’s overall character and compositional technique can help musicians to approach the aleatoric pieces in their repertoire. I would also like to share how knowing and learning about these pieces and this style has helped me to deepen my abilities to understand music with open scores, text scores and structured improvisation. The interpretation of the music of more modern composers such as Julius Eastman, Pauline Oliveros and Peter Ablinger becomes much more approachable with an understanding of the history of the beginnings of incorporating improvisation aspects into a strictly notated score.
Siba Research Days 2021 - Webern as an Inspiration (Spotlight on Artistic Research)
My artistic research project—and particularly its concert component—sheds light on the pianist’s role in contemporary music. Over the past 70 years, it has become increasingly clear that being able to simply play on the keyboard is no longer enough to satisfy the demands and ambitions of contemporary music and arts. In my concerts, I explore the tools that the pianist needs to learn and possess to be able to perform contemporary music. This exploration is focused on the work of three composers: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez and Morton Feldman. Representing two different schools and taking pianism to different edges of possibility, these three composers took their inspiration, passion and compositional techniques from the same composer: Anton Webern, the representative of the Second Viennese School who dared to challenge the canon and take the new twelve-tone technique to a new level, organizing not only pitch but other musical aspects as well, thus inspiring the creation of serialism. In my presentation, I would like to briefly present the themes of my artistic research project and put Anton Webern in the spotlight, presenting two movements from his Piano Variations for piano op.27 and elaborating on the specific aspects of the piece that inspired Stockhausen, Boulez and Feldman. We will discover what Webern himself thought about the Piano Variations and explore how a short piano piece can inspire a whole new musical movement. Why Webern, not Schoenberg? How can the same composer inspire future serialists and a future pioneer of indeterminate music—two opposing artistic approaches? To what point did these three composers arrive? Who stayed true to their inspiration and who changed the most? These questions will be answered and discussed in the spotlight on my artistic research project.
Autoethnographic Research as a Road to Musical Freedom - the Diverse Possibilities of Interpretation in Contemporary Music
Watch here
My artistic research project aims to analyse the development of the pianist's role in contemporary music. Over the past 70 years, it has become increasingly clear that being able to simply play on the keyboard is no longer enough to satisfy the demands and ambitions of contemporary music and arts. In my research I am uncovering the tools that the pianist needs to learn and possess to be able to perform contemporary music. Additionally, I focus on not only physical and pianistic challenges of the preparation of contemporary music program, but on the mental state of pianist’s mind and deep understanding of the possibilities of the contemporary music performance practices. In my work, the centre of the research are the Klavierstücke by Karlheinz Stockhausen and his musical journey of expanding the possibilities of the pianist, pianism and the piano itself.
As a pianist I was trained to understand my experiences and read my senses, in order to find the ways to improve the piano playing. However, as an artistic researcher, through the academic, phenomenological and autoethnographic approach, I was pushed to also analyse, interpret, and control my experience. In my presentation I would like to talk about how my research methods have led me to shift my own understanding of contemporary music, of my research and even of the classical piano music field. I would like to discuss, how contemporary music can be used to freely let go of the tradition, to encourage to find yourself and your musicianship though the new experiences, and how it is possible to find a true freedom of interpretation, even when the score is notated in a way that seems to leave no room for self-expression.
Siba Research Days 2022 - (Not) Just Leaving It To Chance
In my presentation, I would like to discuss the interpretation of aleatoric music and practical approaches to scores that combine written music and improvisation. How can I as a pianist and a musician practice a piece that has an exact notation yet offers the possibility of choice? What happens when a composer chooses to turn the musician into the creator, allowing them to participate in the formation of the piece? Is it possible to improvise in the moment, when the piece has been practiced for months leading to the performance? How can one convey to the audience the feeling of something new and unexpected?
The case study for my presentation will be pieces related to my own doctorate research project: Klavierstück XI by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sonata No.3 by Pierre Boulez and Intermission 6 by Morton Feldman. All three pieces represent the brief style of fragmentalism, which became a fashionable compositional method in the 1950s. The pieces are graphically broken into fragments; however, they are traditionally notated with notes, dynamic and rhythmical indications. Each composer asks the pianist ideally to create the piece in the moment, by “accidentally” moving from one fragment of the score to another. However, in each case, achieving total spontaneity becomes somewhat impossible.
I will also discuss these composers’ attitudes towards freedom of interpretation in their other works and show how understanding a composer’s overall character and compositional technique can help musicians to approach the aleatoric pieces in their repertoire. I would also like to share how knowing and learning about these pieces and this style has helped me to deepen my abilities to understand music with open scores, text scores and structured improvisation. The interpretation of the music of more modern composers such as Julius Eastman, Pauline Oliveros and Peter Ablinger becomes much more approachable with an understanding of the history of the beginnings of incorporating improvisation aspects into a strictly notated score.
Siba Research Days 2021 - Webern as an Inspiration (Spotlight on Artistic Research)
My artistic research project—and particularly its concert component—sheds light on the pianist’s role in contemporary music. Over the past 70 years, it has become increasingly clear that being able to simply play on the keyboard is no longer enough to satisfy the demands and ambitions of contemporary music and arts. In my concerts, I explore the tools that the pianist needs to learn and possess to be able to perform contemporary music. This exploration is focused on the work of three composers: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez and Morton Feldman. Representing two different schools and taking pianism to different edges of possibility, these three composers took their inspiration, passion and compositional techniques from the same composer: Anton Webern, the representative of the Second Viennese School who dared to challenge the canon and take the new twelve-tone technique to a new level, organizing not only pitch but other musical aspects as well, thus inspiring the creation of serialism. In my presentation, I would like to briefly present the themes of my artistic research project and put Anton Webern in the spotlight, presenting two movements from his Piano Variations for piano op.27 and elaborating on the specific aspects of the piece that inspired Stockhausen, Boulez and Feldman. We will discover what Webern himself thought about the Piano Variations and explore how a short piano piece can inspire a whole new musical movement. Why Webern, not Schoenberg? How can the same composer inspire future serialists and a future pioneer of indeterminate music—two opposing artistic approaches? To what point did these three composers arrive? Who stayed true to their inspiration and who changed the most? These questions will be answered and discussed in the spotlight on my artistic research project.
