Multidisciplinary analysis of experimentalism in music and the wider arts today.

Experimental Encounters in Music and Beyond opens a necessary dialogue on experimental practices in the arts and negotiates their place in contemporary society. Going beyond the music-historical usage of the term "experimental", this book reimagines experimentation as an open working definition encompassing multiple forms of artistic attitudes and processes. The texts, images, and sounds offer multiple traces, fa...

Futures of the Contemporary explores different notions and manifestations of “the contemporary” in music, visual arts, art theory, and philosophy. In particular, the authors in this collection of essays scrutinise the role of artistic research in critical and creative expressions of contemporaneity. When distinguished from “the contemporaneous” of a given historical time, “the contemporary” becomes a crucial concept, promoting or excluding objects and practices according to their ...

A profound approach to opera uncovers a gold mine of possibilities; opera is fuelled with the energy of the future. And while the search for gold will always go on, the other 'mines' - concealed in the operatic production process - must be tracked down and defused. Risk-taking is integral to the operatic process; without risks, an exciting policy is unthinkable.'

It was with these thrilling and significant metaphors that, in 1988, Pierre Audi laid out his initial plans as artistic director of...

The process of practising is intrinsic to musical creativity. Practising may primarily be thought of as technical, but it is often also musically meaningful, including elements of interpretation, improvisation, and/or composition. The practice room can be a space in which to explore a field of creative possibilities; a place to experiment and to refine ideas.

To date, the literature on practice has been primarily pedagogical and psychological. Little attention is paid to the significance of ...

To perform a musical score implies the transformation of a symbolically coded text into vibrant sound. In Performing by the Book? a carefully selected cadre of artist-researchers dissects this delicate act in critical ways. Offering first-hand insights into the notational, structural and interpretative challenges faced by musicians in dealing with texts of all kinds, the chapters traverse the spectrum between the Middle Ages and the age of Stockhausen. In a harmonious blend of scholarly allur...

Liszt-kenner Albert Brussee beschrijft in dit rijk geïllustreerde boek de reis die Franz Liszt en Marie d’Agoult in de zomer van 1835 door Zwitserland ondernamen. Marie, in verwachting van haar minnaar, had met haar officiële echtgenoot, de al oudere oorlogsveteraan graaf d’Agoult, gebroken en was naar Bazel gevlucht; Liszt volgde haar enkele dagen later. Vanuit de stad aan de Rijn trokken de geliefden ruim een maand lang door Zwitserland om zich uiteindelijk in Genève te vestigen. Omd...

The Sixties: het grote verlangen.

Wat maakt dat men zich nog steeds bezig houdt met de 60er jaren?

Die jaren vormden een kantelpunt in de vorming van onze moderne maatschappij. Voor het eerst eiste de jeugd haar plaats op. Barbaren deden de gevestigde orde schudden. Nieuwe mogelijkheden openden zich, nieuwe standpunten, verworvenheden en muziek ontstonden. De verbeelding was aan de macht ...

... of toch niet?!

Is er daadwerkelijk zoveel veranderd? Of was er meer sprake van het grote verlang...

Franz Liszt bezocht Nederland vijf keer voor langere tijd. In november/december 1842 maakte hij samen met de beroemde tenor Giovanni Rubini een uitgebreide tournee door de ‘Lage Landen aan de Zee’. In 1854 was hij een week in Rotterdam ter gelegenheid van het zilveren jubileum van de Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Toonkunst en maakte toen ook een uitstapje naar Scheveningen en Den Haag. Twaalf jaar later bezocht hij Amsterdam om concerten bij te wonen in de Parkzaal en de Mozes en Aäro...

The Western history of aesthetics is characterised by tension between theory and practice. Musicians listen, play, and then listen more profoundly in order to play differently, adapt the body, and sense the environment. They become deeply involved in the sensorial qualities of music practice. Artistic practice refers to the original meaning of aesthetics—the senses. Whereas Baumgarten and Goethe explored the relationship between sensibility and reason, sensation and thinking, later philosop...

Our contemporary, globalised society demands new forms of listening. But what are these new forms? In Listening to the Other, Stefan Östersjö challenges conventional understandings of the ways musicians listen. He develops a transmodal understanding of listening that is situated in the body—a body that is extended by its mediation through musical instruments and other technologies. Listening habits can turn these tools—and even the body itself—into resistant objects or musical Others....