‘Speak To Me: New Music, New Politics’ (2019), released on CD by Coviello
- Submitting institution
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Royal Northern College of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 38A
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- Carole Nash Recital Room, Royal Northern College of Music
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of first performance
- -
- Year of first performance
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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5 - Performance
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The commercially released solo recording represents a culmination of ongoing research into 20th and 21st century performance practice, programme curation, and performer-composer collaboration. This also extends my research into music that is engaged with politics, exploring music at the nexus of experimentation and accessibility.
Kevin Malone’s ‘The People Protesting Drum Out Bigly Covfefe’ is a collaborative work building on a 20-year composer-performer relationship. It draws together the themes of this research by incorporating anti-Trump chants within experimental piano performance techniques, theatre and audience participation. The piece also represents the bifurcated aesthetic, drawing on popular and experimental music tropes.
Amy Beth Kirsten’s ‘(speak to me)’ for vocalising pianist draws upon the Echo and Narcissus myth as a metaphor for censorship. Firmly rooted in an experimental performance tradition, and directly connected to my curatorial work as Programme Director for the Riot Ensemble, this work spotlights the role as well as the gender of the performer, and is therefore a more self-reflective work within this collection.
The performances of Rzewski’s politically charged ‘North American Ballads’, alongside Gershwin’s ‘Preludes’ and Gould’s ‘Boogie Woogie Etude’, draw upon jazz practices such as non-notated swung rhythms. Combined with the programming and CD artwork, the overriding motivation is to challenge notions of high-brow art. These tensions between social class, accessibility and inclusiveness also emerge in my curatorial and performance work with amateur ensemble CoMA (Contemporary Music for All) alongside the professional Riot Ensemble, and are emblematic of tensions between socialist and popularist politics.
‘(speak to me): new music new politics’ is released on the Coviello label and has been performed live extensively in the UK and USA. Amy Beth Kirsten’s work was given its EU première at a Riot Ensemble concert in Spain, and music from the recording has been broadcast by the BBC and France Musique.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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