Stravinsky’s claim that performance calls for the ‘solution of problems similar to those which arise in the realm of choreography’ has been surprisingly little explored by musicologists.
This presentation will explore the notion of responsibility in relation to developing choreographic ‘solutions’, revealing some of the ‘problems’ that arise in Stravinsky’s own Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914) and Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 2 by critiquing the Kreutzer Quartet’s DVD recording (Quartet Choreography, 2012). The idea that these kinds of ‘problems’ are subject to detailed imaginative responses by composers and performers alike will be explored through a reading of a composer’s imagined rehearsal of a solo cello piece by Justin Connolly, conducted in 1995 and documented in the form of an extended letter. The session will end with a performance of David Gorton’s Capriccio (2009), especially written to explore the physical choreography of both player and instrument.

Inventions du geste musical / Inventing Gestures

In recent years, musicological study of gesture has become an important emerging field of inquiry. Video and motion capture technologies, modes of analysis borrowed from other arts (such as the Laban method for movement analysis in dance) as well as new systems and notations for describing the movement of performers, have allowed a wide variety of approaches to study the structure and expressive potential of gesture. In parallel, the study of composer-performer collaboration has become a leading research field, with musicologists, performers and composers all contributing multiple perspectives with the aid of modern ethnographic techniques. What can our study of collaborative processes reveal about the creation of new approaches to gesture? Featuring artists and researchers examining the performance of canonical works as well as examining the creation of new works today, this symposium explores whether the precise mode and location of the genesis of new gestural approaches can be identified. The use of technology to both augment the composition and allow the performer new methods of control, the integration of elements of theatre and dance and the exploration of new extended techniques will all be particular foci for the presentations. By examining collaborative approaches to gestural innovation, a deeper understanding of both fields can be uncovered, opening new avenues of artistic and musicological research.