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PERFORMERS(') PRESENT

Performers(') Present 2023: Flowing Resonances

Day 4 Symposium Archive

Keynote Address

‘Being’ in the Flow: Performing in Ever-Evolving Musicscapes

Anothai Nitibhon

How can we move forward while keeping resonance with our past and future aspirations? How can we effectively celebrate our diversity while simultaneously upholding unity and peace? In light of ongoing global challenges, it is essential to explore ways of sustaining our current practices while simultaneously fostering the growth of future generations in their endeavours. Drawing on a range of examples from practitioners in the region, Nitibhon shared her findings on pathways for progress, transitioning from absence to presence, and becoming a changemaker in the ever-evolving musicscapes of the present.

‘Being’ in the Flow: Performing in Ever-Evolving Musicscapes

Anothai Nitibhon

Rivers play vital roles in various regions of the world, with their significance involving not only the conservation of biological diversity but also the preservation of cultural diversity.  

Southeast Asia has an intricate network of river systems within its mainland, as well as a maritime subregion characterised by a number of seascapes. Each basin and coastal region within this geographical area offers unique cultural, historical, and socioeconomic components, contributing to a rich tapestry of treasures and narratives. However, within the realm of global dynamics, we are currently confronted with similar challenges, such as the technological and economic shift of a globalised economy, the power shift in global institutions, and the cultural and spiritual shift in the way we see and interact with the world. 

How can we move forward while keeping resonance with our past and future aspirations? How can we effectively celebrate our diversity while simultaneously upholding unity and peace? In light of ongoing global challenges, it is essential to explore ways of sustaining our current practices while simultaneously fostering the growth of future generations in their endeavours.

Drawing on a range of examples from practitioners in the region. I’ll be sharing my findings on pathways for progress, transitioning from absence to presence, and becoming a changemaker in the ever-evolving musicscapes of the present.

About Anothai Nitibhon

Anothai Nitibhon finished her PhD in composition from the University of Edinburgh and is now an acting president at the Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music (PGVIM). As a composer and artist, she creates and curates many concerts and exhibitions and is involved in many activities that promote collaborations between musicians/artists from different disciplines and musical cultures.

Since the Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music’s establishment in 2013, Anothai has initiated and led various international projects, such as the 'PGVIM' International Symposium and ASEAN Youth Ensemble. Both projects, which became a mutual platform for creative discussions and reflective inquiries, contributed to the musical development in Southeast Asia and advocated community engagement projects such as the PGVIM Children's Music Theatre and the Music Makes Changes Programme at PGVIM.

Anothai now serves as president of SEADOM and is also a Co-Opt member of the AEC Council (European Association of Conservatoires).

Full Abstract

Plenary Presentations

Closing Dialogue: Reflections on Resonances Flowing

Brett Stemple

In this closing dialogue-forum, moderated by symposium convener, Brett Stemple, symposium attendees collectively shared and reflected upon the symposium proceedings, while anticipating future resonances.

Discussion-Performance: On Kevin Volans’ L’Africaine

Melvyn Tan

Programme Notes by Kevin Volans

“After the success of my string quartet White Man Sleeps, in the 1980’s I found myself being labelled as a composer of crossover African/Western music. I disliked the label, so for many years I studiously avoided any reference to African music in my work. 

However, after some time had passed, I decided to write a piece which once again addressed the very seductive African technique of interlocking parts. This piece L’Africaine (2017) started out as a little piano piece written for my friend Renee Reznek and was then expanded into a harpsichord piece, written for Mahan Esfahani – hence the Couperin-esque title. Later I reworked it again as a piano piece for Melvyn Tan. 

Underlying this piece from the very beginning was the thought: What would happen if I tried to write a piece from the point of view of a musician who had no interest in Western contemporary music – concepts or styles – or Western philosophy or historicism, but which evolved solely from interlocking techniques? I was being very disingenuous of course. And I slipped in a reference to Debussy’s L’isle Joyeuse. The piece is about 22 minutes long in 3 movements.”

Discussion-Performance: On Kevin Volans’ L’Africaine

Melvyn Tan

Programme Notes by Kevin Volans

"After the success of my string quartet White Man Sleeps, in the 1980's I found myself being labelled as a composer of crossover African/Western music. I disliked the label, so for many years I studiously avoided any reference to African music in my work. 

However, after some time had passed, I decided to write a piece which once again addressed the very seductive African technique of interlocking parts. This piece L'Africaine (2017) started out as a little piano piece written for my friend Renee Reznek and was then expanded into a harpsichord piece, written for Mahan Esfahani – hence the Couperin-esque title. Later I reworked it again as a piano piece for Melvyn Tan. 

Underlying this piece from the very beginning was the thought: What would happen if I tried to write a piece from the point of view of a musician who had no interest in Western contemporary music – concepts or styles – or Western philosophy or historicism, but which evolved solely from interlocking techniques? I was being very disingenuous of course. And I slipped in a reference to Debussy's L'isle Joyeuse. The piece is about 22 minutes long in 3 movements."

Full Abstract

Paper Presentations

1) New Media: Sonic Explorations

An Experimental Performance of Eliane Radigue’s Early Feedback Works

Juan Parra Cancino

How can we trace back the performative actions inherent to sound production in early electronic music studios through the analysis and reproduction of the fixed media results? What kind of music does the re-enactment of those actions produce today? What was inherent to the tools used? What were the affordances and limitations, and how can we both emulate and transcend them?

In this presentation, Cancino presented a live rendition of Usral (1969), using a modular synthesizer setup.

An Experimental Performance of Eliane Radigue’s Early Feedback Works

Juan Parra Cancino

This proposal frames itself in a larger research project that seeks to rediscover the friction between creative intention and technological affordance inherent to early ‘fixed’ pieces of electronic music and present it, and expose it, in a performative way. To draw comparisons between the frictions of the past and the present, into the future. This experimental process opens questions: Ethical, technical, and compositional.

How can we trace back the performative actions inherent to sound production in early electronic music studios through the analysis and reproduction of the fixed media results? What kind of music does the re-enactment of those actions produce today? What was inherent to the tools used? What were the affordances and limitations, and how can we both emulate and transcend them?

For this symposium, I will present a live rendition of Usral (1969), using a modular synthesizer setup.

Acknowledgments: Orpheus Institute, for the continuous support to my research and its dissemination

Full Abstract

Artistic Research & Activism: Beyond Music, Multimedia & Visual Art

Alfonso Benetti

Undine’s Torment is an artwork – the result of an interdisciplinary artistic research project involving music, multimedia and visual art. Related to the myth of Undine, the objective of the work was to develop an artistic output that, as a result of the interaction between the visual and the sound, would represent the Waters of the Ria de Aveiro (Portugal) by the “feminine” that inhabits it. The final artistic result interpolates music, multimedia and visual art mainly through the exploration of audiovisual resources and the arrangement of archaeological artefacts. This presentation includes an exhibition of the final artistic output, a reflection on the procedural aspects and aims related to the artistic research project, and a discussion on activism as a consequence of the ideological impact linked to artistic research.

Artistic Research & Activism: Beyond Music, Multimedia & Visual Art

Alfonso Benetti

Choreography of shadows: Undine’s Torment is an artwork – the result of an interdisciplinary artistic research project involving music, multimedia and visual art. Related to the myth of Undine, the objective of the work was to develop an artistic output that, as a result of the interaction between the visual and the sound, would represent the Waters of the Ria de Aveiro (Portugal) by the “feminine” that inhabits it. This objective refers to 1) valuing a territory in preservation – political and ecological activism; and a 2) gender activism: the valorization of the feminine (in Portuguese, “Ria” is the feminine word for the masculine “Rio” - River). The research was based on methodological procedures such as archeology (Foucault), performance-ethnography (Bayley; Canonne), musical collage, musical borrowing, improvisation, extended techniques and experimental methods (Assis 2008). The work was developed within the scope of a creative laboratory, preserving an immersive dialogue between an artist-researcher and a visual artist. The final artistic result interpolates music, multimedia and visual art mainly through the exploration of audiovisual resources and the arrangement of archaeological artefacts. This presentation includes an exhibition of the final artistic output, a reflection on the procedural aspects and aims related to the artistic research project, and a discussion on activism as a consequence of the ideological impact linked to artistic research.

Full Abstract

2) New Media: Tradition & Innovation

Breaking Free: Transcontinental Collaboration in the New Digital Landscape

Andrew Filmer, Sulwyn Lok

Breaking Free is a project with several angles of research-creation, including the application of scordatura retuning techniques for the viola, and the incorporation of sound worlds of Southeast Asian instruments into the composition. In this presentation, we explore the journey of its genesis and evolution in an auto-ethnographic look at the collaborative process of composition and performance, with the composer Sulwyn Lok in New York, and violist Andrew Filmer in Kuala Lumpur and the University of Cambridge.

Breaking Free: Transcontinental Collaboration in the New Digital Landscape

Andrew Filmer, Sulwyn Lok

Breaking Free is a project with several angles of research-creation, including the application of scordatura retuning techniques for the viola, and the incorporation of sound worlds of Southeast Asian instruments into the composition. In this presentation, we explore the journey of its genesis and evolution in an auto-ethnographic look at the collaborative process of composition and performance, with the composer Sulwyn Lok in New York, and violist Andrew Filmer in Kuala Lumpur and the University of Cambridge.

Specifically, we examine the challenges and opportunities of collaborating entirely online leading up to the first performance of Breaking Free for viola and guitar at the 2023 International Viola Congress at Mahidol University. Following this, the three collaborators – the composer and two initial performers – met in person for the first time, and then proceeded with further collaboration in the new digital landscape as the work evolves beyond its premiere to a new version for viola and zhongruan, with some virtual inclusion of the other performer, guitarist Matthew Marshall through this digital landscape.

We reflect on which aspects of online collaboration one would retain even if in-person meetings were entirely available – including both the limitations and gains of the self-monitoring aspect of online meetings, recordings, and file sharing. Thus, from the angle of research into the compositional process, our conclusions revolve around building a hybrid model of collaboration: just as a zhongruan ‘breaks free’ from any expectations of the earlier version for guitar, so do research-creation collaborators break free from presumptions of compositional and collaborative processes. 

From the angle of music and performance, the presentation will include a premiere of Breaking Free, version for viola and zhongruan. Just as Performers(’) Present 2023 takes care in the placement of its apostrophe, so does this work take care to define the word “or” with the instrumentation of zhongruan or guitar, finding more than instrumental idiomaticity in arranging both versions to be aesthetically authentic – ensuring that each instrument indeed breaks free, alongside contrasting relationships to the partnering viola.  

Acknowledgement: Prof. Matthew Marshall, guitarist and Dean, School of Arts, Sunway University.

Full Abstract

Malay Sound Arts: Reimagining Biophony and Geophony Materials for Seed of Life

Ainolnaim Azizol

Seed of Life (SoL) is a set of six electroacoustic soundscape compositions comprising fixed media, interactive media, and instruments with live electronics. This presentation aims to discuss the creative-technical approach in this programmatic works and to explore further on a pilot project of the SoL 5: Nada Bumi, an interactive web based soundscape installation. SoL 5 provides a set of live streaming binaural audio for web visitors to experience the exotic and remote nautral soundscape in Malaysia, as well as allow them to monitor the soundscape activities via real-time spectrogram analysis and manipulate the live streaming audio to create their own soundscape composition in real-time.

Malay Sound Arts: Reimagining Biophony and Geophony Materials for Seed of Life​

Ainolnaim Azizol

Seed of Life (SoL) is a set of six electroacoustic soundscape compositions comprising fixed media, interactive media, and instruments with live electronics that I have been composed between year 2020 to 2023. The idea for these works originated during my field recording trip to a natural mangrove forest in Kukup Island, Johor, Malaysia in July, 2020. During the trip, I ear-witnessed a mass of peculiar percussive sounds and was surrounded by a chaotic mixture of subtle popping and loud snapping sounds that emerged underneath around the mangrove trees roots. The mangrove forest plays a vital role in sustaining a healthy natural ecosystem by providing habitat and refuge to a wide array of flora and fauna, while contributing to nature-based economies. These contexts inspired me to come up with a thematic title for the set of six works: Seed of Life (SoL).

The works in SoL are inspired from local Malay and proto-Malay folklores, tales, legends, myths and current issues which I had grown up with from my childhood. I had planned to composed a set of six works contrasted in instrumentation, performance settings, and their selection of several unheard or hidden natural soundscapes that had the potential to stimulate my reimagination and creativity for composing the works, based on a specific narrative subject suggested in each piece’s title.

This presentation aims to discuss the creative-technical approach in this programmatic works and to explore further on a pilot project of the SoL 5: Nada Bumi, an interactive web based soundscape installation. SoL 5 provides a set of live streaming binaural audio for the web visitors to experience with exotic and remote nautral soundscape in Malaysia such as Kukup Island mangrove forest, Gunung Ledang summit, Gua Tempurung Cave and more. They will be able to monitor the soundscape activities via real-time spectrogram analysis and manipulate the live streaming audio to create their own soundscape composition in real-time.

Full Abstract

3) Performances & Practices: Analysing Performance

Flowing Between Tactile & Sonic: Corporeality, Empathy & Bonding in Piano Four Hands Music

Cecilia Oinas, Danijel Detoni

The corporeal and tactile aspects of musical works often can be an almost inescapable part of a work’s essence. However, it is one that had tended to be overlooked in music theory and analysis. The issues that accompany such features are found in many four-hand piano compositions, where the pianists’ physical space is much more limited than in solo piano works. At the same time, the timing and synchronization between the pianists forces them to create a choreographed pas de deux at the keyboard, which, together with the gestural movements, are sometimes overtly performative and other times kept within the duo’s own private space. In this lecture-recital Oinas and Detoni discussed these aspects and performed a selection of four-handed works in which the corporeal bonding is particularly prominent. 

Flowing Between Tactile & Sonic: Corporeality, Empathy & Bonding in Piano Four Hands Music

Cecilia Oinas, Danijel Detoni

The corporeal and tactile aspects of musical works often can be an almost inescapable part of a work’s essence. However, it is one that had tended to be overlooked in music theory and analysis. The issues that accompany such features are found in many four-hand piano compositions, where the pianists’ physical space is much more limited than in solo piano works. At the same time, the timing and synchronization between the pianists forces them to create a choreographed pas de deux at the keyboard, which, together with the gestural movements, are sometimes overtly performative and other times kept within the duo’s own private space.

In this lecture-recital we will discuss these aspects and then perform a selection of four-handed works in which the corporeal bonding is particularly prominent. For instance, György Kurtág’s (b. 1926) four-hand works often require an extreme four-hand synchronization among the duettists. Other examples are found from French piano four hands repertoire, including Maurice Ravel’s “Habanera”, and movements from Claude Debussy’s Six épigraphes antiques. Morton Feldman’s music for piano duets requires, as Philip Thomas writes, “elasticity of time and duration”. Finally, joint empathy and bonding is created in our piano four hands version of John Cage’s 4’33, in which the recital hall’s own resonance creates a shared space between performers and the audience.

Repertoire:

György Kurtág: Kyrie (Games IV)

Flowers we are … [embracing sounds] (Games VIII)

Claude Debussy: Pour que la nuit soit propice (Six Épigraphes antiques)

Maurice Ravel: Habanera (Rapsodie espagnole)

Kurtág: Prelude and Waltz in F (or F sharp) (Games IV)

Morton Feldman: Projection III (arrangement for piano four hands)

John Cage: 4’33

Kurtág: One more voice from far away (Games VIII)

Debussy: Pour remercier la pluie au matin (Six Épigraphes antiques)

Full Abstract

Reflections on a Recording: A Case Study in the Interaction Between Analysis & Praxis

Nicholas Sutherland Kennedy 

The interaction between music analysis and music performance has inspired impassioned commentary from scholars including Carolyn Abbate, Julian Horton, Richard Taruskin, and Fred Maus; yet it remains elusive and prone to oversimplification. In this lecture-recital, Kennedy presented a fresh, nuanced formulation of this relationship, reflecting on his 2021 Orpheus Classical album of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas and the narrative resonances of these works. With live demonstrations at the piano, he showed how performance choices may reinforce or challenge our sense of the music’s poetic resonances as gleaned from score analysis alone, and how pianists’ departures from the score—frequently sanctioned by performance tradition—are just as poetically significant as their adherence to the text.

Reflections on a Recording: A Case Study in the Interaction Between Analysis & Praxis

Nicholas Sutherland Kennedy 

The interaction between music analysis and music performance has inspired impassioned commentary from scholars including Carolyn Abbate, Julian Horton, Richard Taruskin, and Fred Maus; yet it remains elusive and prone to oversimplification. In this lecture-recital, I will present a fresh, nuanced formulation of this relationship, reflecting on my 2021 Orpheus Classical album of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas and the narrative resonances of these works as explored in my doctoral research. With live demonstrations at the piano, I will show how performance choices may reinforce or challenge our sense of the music’s poetic resonances as gleaned from score analysis alone, and how pianists’ departures from the score—frequently sanctioned by performance tradition—are just as poetically significant as their adherence to the text. As such, performance practice plays a crucial role in making the music’s narrative content perceptible both to listeners and to performer-scholars themselves.

Full Abstract

4) Performances & Practices: Tradition & Innovation

Reimagining Schubert’s Song Cycle “Schwanengesang” Through Novel Artistic & Practice-Led Methods

Neal Peres Da Costa, Anna Fraser

This lecture-recital reimagined how select songs from Franz Schubert’s (1797–1828) song cycle Schwanengesang might to have sounded in the hands of Schubert and arguably his favourite singer Johann Michael Vogel (1768–1840). Using practice-led methodologies including early recording emulation/embodiment and cyclical methods in sonifying performance practice data from sources contemporary with Schubert’s era to extrapolate pre-recording singing (and piano playing) styles, Da Costa and Fraser re-sound Schubert’s beloved songs with a fresh 21st Century perspective that pushes the boundaries of musical artistic practice. 

Reimagining Schubert’s Song Cycle “Schwanengesang” Through Novel Artistic & Practice-Led Methods

Neal Peres Da Costa, Anna Fraser

In this lecture-recital we reimagine how select songs from Franz Schubert’s (1797–1828) song cycle Schwanengesang might to have sounded in the hands of Schubert and arguably his favourite singer Johann Michael Vogel (1768–1840). Using practice-led methodologies including early recording emulation/embodiment and cyclical methods in sonifying performance practice data from sources contemporary with Schubert’s era to extrapolate pre-recording singing (and piano playing) styles, we will re-sound Schubert’s beloved songs with a fresh 21-century perspective that pushes the boundaries of musical artistic practice. In so doing we hope to promote new ways of developing individual (personalised) musical artistry.

 

Acknowledgement:

Dr Koen van Stade Postdoctoral Research Associate Australian Research Council funded Discovery Project: The shock of the old; Rediscovering the sounds of bel canto 1700-1900 (Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney) for his contribution to this presentation.

Full Abstract

“Made Expressly for the Climate!”

Lin Xiangning

“Made expressly for the climate!” is a one-woman play, merging different bodies of text (historical accounts, poetry, prose), music (improvised, composed), and modes of storytelling. Presenting freshly excavated findings on the cultural history of Western music practices in Singapore, vis-à-vis the piano, this project traces the flow of resonance from its European ‘source’ to newfound homes within the region during colonial Singapore.

“Made Expressly for the Climate!”

Lin Xiangning

“Made expressly for the climate!” is a one-woman play, merging different bodies of text (historical accounts, poetry, prose), music (improvised, composed), and modes of storytelling. Presenting freshly excavated findings on the cultural history of Western music practices in Singapore, vis-à-vis the piano, this project traces the flow of resonance from its European ‘source’ to newfound homes within the region during colonial Singapore.

Full Abstract

Performances

Southeast Asian Golden Age Symphony Premiere: Flowing Resonances

Seven young Southeast Asian composers. One Southeast Asian Golden Age Symphony. How will it all unfold?

The Southeast Asian Golden Age Symphony is a brand-new commission bringing together seven rising composers: Gema Swaratyagita (Indonesia), Hoang Pho (Vietnam), Lee Chie Tsang (Malaysia), Thatchatham Silsupan (Thailand), Danny Imson (Philippines), Jonathan Shin and Syafiqah ‘Adha Sallehin (Singapore). A rich melding of the composers’ respective cultures and compositional voices, the symphony reflects the vibrant energy and diversity of a region poised for even more exciting growth ahead. Each composer has composed one movement, with the overall symphony brought together through close collaboration and synergy, facilitated by mentor Adeline Wong and working with curator Topi Lehtipuu.

The YST Orchestral Institute is proud to be premiering the symphony as part of the Performers(‘) Present international artistic research symposium.

We are grateful for the support of Ms Phalgun Raju and Mr Nicholas Nash in making this commission possible.

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