Performing Australian electroacoustic works for the Paetzold contrabass recorder
A striking instrumental design innovation in recent years has been the development of the Paetzold 'square bass' bass recorders, sparking interest among performers and composers to develop a new approach to contemporary performance practice and electroacoustic composition. This article examines two works by Australian composers that have been performed by the author. Both pieces are written for the Paetzold contrabass recorder in F, applying its unique sound palette within different compositional approaches and structures. The electroacoustic works surveyed also use a fixed media soundscape drawing on varying levels of gesture and improvisation from the live performer(s). The works present different relationships between the pre-recorded soundscape and the contrabass recorder and provide an opportunity for the performer to experiment with the large range of sounds possible. This article also serves as a summary of tools, sounds and techniques for composers interested in writing for the instrument.
The impact of group identity on the social dynamics and sustainability of chamber music ensembles
Group identity is viewed as a way to distinguish one group from another. In a competitive, ever-changing environment, group identity is considered increasingly important for a musical ensemble in terms of developing a niche, gaining audience attention, and creating a successful performing team. Thirty professional chamber musicians from "unconventional" or "non-traditional" ensembles were individually interviewed about their personal experiences working within this environment. Results show that group identity emerges in two main ways: members sharing similar characteristics, goals, and objectives, often based on repertoire choice and programming; and the sound or musical aesthetic developed through an interpretation of repertoire, instrumental combination, and the collective skills and knowledge of the musicians. This case study highlights the need for a constant vision and aesthetic concept throughout the lifetime of the ensemble in order for it to be sustainable, yet having to evolve and adapt to changing environmental factors and external influences.
Re-Growth?
There has never been a time when the human species has been forced to interrogate its recalcitrant attitudes and behaviours towards the environment on such a global scale. Extreme drought, lack of water, deliberately lit fires, air degradation, famine, floods, tornados, and virulent pandemics, have been unusually precocious and persistent in the New England region since 2019, threatening the human species to the core. It's not over. How do we reset? Are we capable of caring for and sharing country as the first nations have shown us?
Re-Growth? investigates the four vital elements needed for life here on earth, sunlight (fire), water, air, land (earth). In 4 movements we delve below and above the surfaces seeking a "re-tuning" of man/ nature relationships to reset the ecological balance we are destroying through stupidity, greed, and lack of action. From the chords derived from the Narrabri radio telescopes to the aeolian harps played by the wind at Moonbi, we plunge into the almost silent waters of the fracked Artesian basin, ruined for ever at Cohuna Bore. We listen to the dialogues of freshwater species in Dumaresq Dam and hear the playing in country by recorder player Alana Blackburn at Anderson's Creek, Death Valley, one of the slowest places to recover in the region. She calls us to action to care and share in interspecies dialogues with underwater creatures, and threatened koalas, finally taking hope and resilience from the world's oldest songbird, the lyrebird, as we gasp for breath from air pollution and Covid.
Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere: New Media and Virtual Tools Offer Constructivist Learning in Online Music Education
The innovation of new forms of media brings a greater diversity of choices to music educators and students, while at the same time, the integration of new media with existing 'traditional' forms provide an opportunity for the advancement of online music education. Many researchers confirm that younger generations of students have high levels of interaction and experience with new media and virtual tools. With the growth in new and emerging technologies, virtual tools in particular offer educators an effective online pedagogical approach to deliver teaching materials to help support students in their studies as well as preparation for real world employment. Online music education is a relatively new, yet fast growing discipline. This paper will outline the use of new media and virtual tools to facilitate student interaction, practical practice and authentic learning activity within online music education.
Florentine Trecento Musical Iconography and Contemporary Musical Performance Practice
Over the last sixty years there has been disagreement about the meaning of angels holding musical instruments in Trecento painting. Some regard them as simply symbols of heavenly music" others argue that payments are documented to instrumentalists 'when they made like (fecerunt) angels'. To resolve this issue I have used the quasi-complete catalogue of all Trecento paintings compiled by the late Howard Mayer Brown as a basic data set of images, and two inventories derived from Trecento literature, one of the names of musical instruments, the other of musical 'activities' and generic names of musical performance. From these three sources, I hoped to document musical instruments in pictures, payment records, contemporary chronicles, imaginative literature and music theory treatises.
Chapter 1 reviews current literature on the topic" Chapter 2 reviews the production and function of objects on which the images were painted" Chapter 3 analyses the iconography of Brown's Catalogus and two iconic images, the Coronation of the Virgin and the Virgin and Child (sometimes called Maesta, a Tuscan version of the Herogetria). The fourth chapter examines evidence of music activity in Florence: Musici, the performer-composers" itinerant musicians or giullari" the professional musicians salaried by the government" amateur musicians like the ones described by Boccaccio in his Decamerone" clerics, all of whom had some musical training for the performance of the liturgy, some who cultivated the skill of improvised counterpoint and some who composed the music found in secular manuscripts" and finally, Laudesi, the confraternities who gathered regularly before an image of the Virgin Mary to sing her praises (laude). Chapter 5 examines in detail the contribution written music may make to the use of musical instruments in performance. A conclusion follows summarising the findings of this thesis and their significance for further research.
After the examination of 368 paintings and 41,493 texts from a database of 48,985 records (3,266 from chronicles" 25,634 from payment records" 4,151 from literary works and 342 from musical treatises), no unequivocal evidence has been found for the use of musical instruments on the untexted voices in the surviving manuscripts. Yet, there is much circumstantial evidence: professional instrumentalists were paid to accompany the laude" three-voice works are written into vacant folios of manuscripts written at the same time as local and visiting pifferi were being paid by the Signoria. Untexted contratenors in works by Francesco degli organi (also known as Francesco Cieco or Francesco Landini) and Don Paolo Tenorista may have been intended for an instrument, and this may have been the third kind of music referred to by Filippo Villani (vocal music, instrumental music and a mixture of the two). Some of the composers are documented as instrumentalists: might not Jacopo da Bologna, Giovanni Mazzuoli and Francesco degli organi have played their own music? We have no evidence, one way or the other. Nor is there any evidence that untexted voices were vocalised. All circumstantial. On the other hand, there is no positive evidence to exclude instrumental performance of written music. The evidence for angelic musicians is more secure. Goro Dati remarks on processions of 'confraternities of laymen who come together . . .with the clothing of angels' (con abito d'angioli)" lauda singers were sometimes paid 'when they dressed like angels' (quando si fecerunt angioli)" and the confraternity of S. Zenobi at the Cathedral possessed 'six garments of angels . . . and six pairs of angel's wings' (6 chamici da angioli . . . 6 ispalliere da angioli).
After a thorough examination of all of the paintings, all of the surviving published payment records and a generous selection of contemporary literature, no unequivocal evidence for instrumental participation in secular polyphony has been found but the circumstantial evidence supports it. There is strong evidence that the angel musicians performing before the iconic image of the Virgin and Child were images based on the lauda service: real people making real music.
The Role Repertoire Choice Has in Shaping the Identity and Functionality of a Chamber Music Ensemble
As we move through the 21st Century, a variety of chamber music ensembles emerge. More unconventional ensembles are appearing, and the rationale of an ensemble's aim or output is becoming more concentrated. No longer can a group be described simply as an 'early music ensemble' or 'new music ensemble', but to find a niche in the ever growing number of small to medium groups, ensembles are becoming more definitive by nature. Through developing a unique approach to performance practice, group identity, and audience perception, the ways in which an ensemble prepares for a performance is determined by a number of aspects. This paper explores repertoire choice as a contributing factor to the successful operation of a chamber music ensemble. Part of a larger study on the processes of chamber music ensembles, this paper focuses on the life experiences of three professional chamber musicians actively involved in chamber music performance, and specifically focuses on the functions and meaning of a group's repertoire choice in the creative and organizational process of a musical group. The study uses a qualitative framework and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of three semi-structured interviews as case studies to analyze and describe the meaning of the impact repertoire has on group process, aims and performance. The findings identify the key functions of repertoire choice from a performer and audience perspective including the functionality of the ensemble, verbal and non-verbal communication between players and audience, and the artistic goals and outcomes of the group. The study highlights the sociological importance of the relationship between repertoire and group process, and the need for practicing musicians to fully understand the significance this has on the success of an emerging and/or established ensemble.
Moving Online: A Best Practice Approach to Achieving a Quality Learning Experience for Online Education
This paper describes a holistic approach to managing the development, presentation and delivery of online learning materials. This process combines learning design, content preparation and delivery, and technical support in a partnership between educational development and academic staff to ensure quality outcomes for students in distance education studies. A learner analysis informed development of this approach and a templated guide was created to provide a model for courseware development. This ensures that students are provided with the information and resources required to successfully complete their studies, and that their experience is enhanced by reducing the need to search for key information each time they commence a new course. The consistency in learning resources means that key information, assessment and learning outcomes are always present in the same location across all courseware, thus reducing the cognitive stress students report in navigating educational materials.
Musica Viva concert Thursday 2nd November 2023 - Taikoz, Side By Side
The author was invited to provide a concert review of Taikoz's Side By Side performance in November 2023 at Lazenby Hall, the University of New England which was touring with the National Musica Viva concert series. Artistic director, Ian Cleworth describes their new Side By Side program as a response to the pandemic through 'an emotional and intimate exploration of shared human experience: our hopes, anxieties, contentment, and desires'. Based on the Hachijō-style of taiko playing, Side By Side takes on further meanings in this program, including the two-player method of playing a single drum, where one provides the underlying beat and the other builds on this rhythmical foundation with unique and improvised rhythms. This collaborative and improvisatory ingenuity was displayed throughout.
Instrument of torture? In defence of the recorder
As AusMusic month closes, it’s a good opportunity to consider an instrument that has made quite a contribution to the musical life of Australia. The notorious recorder has been feared by parents and called an “instrument of torture”. But what has this instrument given us that we might not realise?