Michael Finnissy and the idea of the musical instrument
- 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
- RAM019
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
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- Brief description of type
- Portfolio comprising book chapter, lecture, interview, performance, and recording
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month
- -
- Year
- 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
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This is a complex and multilayered process of creative investigation.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Philip Alperson has claimed that ‘it is hard to overestimate the importance of the idea of the musical instrument in our appreciation of music and our understanding of musical practice’. His argument for an appreciation of an ‘immaterial aspect’ of musical instruments as well as the ‘commonsense’ view is nevertheless presented only with a ‘hope’ that this is congruent with actual practice (Alperson, ‘The Instrumentality of Music’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 66/1 [2008], pp. 37–8). This collection presents practice with a specific focus on the idea of the instrument, accompanied by verbal exploration of some of the ways it can be understood. Finnissy’s music was selected because it engages explicitly and implicitly with the core idea and there is a longstanding collaborative relationship to provide context. The submission comprises (1) ‘The inner life of the cello’: NH lecture (also pdf), performance of Michael Finnissy’s Chi Mei Ricercari for Cello and Piano (2013) with Zubin Kanga on seven cellos from the Royal Academy of Music’s collection, and conversation with NH, MF and ZK (2016): http://www.ram.ac.uk/research/research-output/the-inner-life-of-the-cello.
(2) ‘Listening to the "instrument": A performer’s response to Michael Finnissy’s music for string quartet and the Chi Mei Ricercari for cello and piano’. In Bright Futures, Dark Pasts: Michael Finnissy at 70, ed. Ian Pace and Nigel McBride (Routledge, 2019).
(3) Michael Finnissy: Civilisation (2004/13), Contrapunctus XIX (2013), Clarinetten-Liederkreis (2016), Mad Men in the Sand (2013) Six Sexy Minuets Three Trios (2003) [Kreutzer Quartet and Linda Merrick, clarinet, Metier MSV28581, 2018].
Item 2 references discs of Finnissy’s quartets recorded by the Kreutzer Quartet (with Neil Heyde), prior to the REF period (not included with the submission) and draws on material from an invited keynote for the 2016 International Performance Studies Network conference given by Neil Heyde with the Kreutzer Quartet.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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