Ars Longa: Old and new music for theorbo
- Submitting institution
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The Royal Academy of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- RAM033
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- Cooper Hall, Frome, UK
- 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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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- I have a long-standing interest in the interaction between composer and performer intention. In this project two variables were added: the mediation of instrumental technology, and the examination of what “new” means in both a late-renaissance and a twenty-first century context. Current historical performance traditions are paradoxical in that we aim to create new sounds and idioms from examining old sources (music, treatises, instrumental construction, accounts of performance and its reception, and so on). This paradox was familiar to renaissance musicians seeking to redefine the possibilities of contemporary music by using the authority of ancient Greek and Roman cultures. The relationship between “history” and invention and mythologizing is creative but uneasy. I sought to explore this with 3 new works: by James MacMillan (commissioned by the Hebrides Ensemble, with theorbo part written for me); and two of my own commissions, from Nico Muhly and Benjamin Oliver. Each heard the instrument in different ways, and we explored its physical possibilities in collaboration. Each highlighted a different question: the resonances of its intellectual history (MacMillan), its sound world and chromatic possibilities (Muhly) and its place alongside other plucked instruments within and outside the classical tradition (Oliver). The CD (Linn CKD 603D) and concerts presented this alongside an examination of the relationships between instrument makers and players in the late 1590s, exploring the notion that technological compromise (the neck was too long to allow for conventional tuning) leads to musical innovation (chromaticism, rule-breaking, cross-cultural influence). In seminar presentations along the way I explored the ideas of players’ physical habits and creativity in relation to instrument size, composer expectation and the difference between guitar-based and non-guitar based composition, and the inherent silliness of such a serious instrument.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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