Translation as Compositional Strategy
- Submitting institution
-
Birmingham City University
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 33Z_OP_J2087
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2020
- URL
-
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/947247/947248
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Seán Clancy’s _Translation as a Compositional Strategy_ is a Research Catalogue exposition presenting the research underpinning an extended compositional project (2013–18) investigating translating different events and/or objects into musical experiences. The exposition presents three pieces, _Fourteen Minutes of Music on the Subject of Greeting Cards_ (2013), _Forty-Five Minutes of Music on the Subject of Football_ (2014), and _Ireland England_ (2018). The latter two compositions are offered as substantial exemplars of the research (45 minutes and 35 minutes respectively) created during the current REF period, while the former (composed 2013) is included as preliminary work integral to the research project as a whole.
These works explore translation, the act of communicating the meaning of one phenomenon to another phenomenon through musical composition, creating new structures and allowing the original phenomenon to dictate new musical material, rather than relying on musical quotation or pastiche. This act leads to imbuing the musical work with meaning relating to lived experiences, which is a departure from more abstract, distanced, or ironic compositional concerns to hyper-personal ones.
These works have been performed multiple times across the UK, Continental Europe, and the USA. They have been broadcast on European and American radio stations. One of the works has been released on CD. The scores are published by the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland. The pieces are available to stream on sites such as YouTube, Spotify, Bandcamp, in addition to the Research Catalogue exposition. The techniques employed have been shared at conferences and guest lectures internationally and have also been written about in publications such as _The New York Times_, _The New Yorker_, _Tempo_, and _Gramophone_, as well as an extended chapter in Michael Dervan (ed.), _The Invisible Art: A Century of Music in Ireland, 1916-2016_ (Dublin, 2016). These works received public and private funding from Britten Pears Foundation (now Britten Pears Arts), the RVW Trust, Statens musikverk, and Culture Ireland.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -