In this conversation led by Dr Zubin Kanga, Swedish composer, Jesper Nordin and French conductor, Marc Desmons discuss their collaboration on Nordin’s new work Sculpting the Air, to be premiered by Ensemble TM+ at ManiFeste on 13 June. The work is a concerto for conductor, featuring several technological approaches (both mechanical and electronic) to harnessing Desmons’ conducting gestures in order to create sounds that extend and rival the sounds of the ensemble. The discussion will also focus on Nordin’s gesture-controlling programs “Gestrument” and “ScaleGen”, that make gesture-controlled electronics possible on a phone or tablet as well as Desmons’ wide ranging work as a performer and collaborator with other innovative composers.

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.