From sculpture to sound: two pieces 'after' Edmund de Waal
- Submitting institution
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University of York
: A - A - Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies : A - A - Music
- Output identifier
- 66619196
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
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- Year
- 2017
- 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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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- _Psalm (after Celan)_, 2015, and _The White Road (after Edmund de Waal)_, 2017, (_TWR_), share a common starting point in the ceramic art of Edmund de Waal; details of performance and instrumentation are contained within the submitted scores. _Psalm_ was commissioned as part of de Waal’s Royal Academy exhibition, ‘White’, and was therefore an opportunity to investigate points of contact between his ceramic art and music; _TWR_, supported by a Philip Leverhulme Prize for research, was a subsequent reflection on the same ideas. De Waal’s titles (e.g. _the ten thousand things, for John Cage_; _music in thirteen parts_; _five winter songs_) regularly make reference to music – indeed often claim their artwork is music. Thus provoked, the compositions explore these cross-domain mappings, from the reverse perspective.
A striking characteristic of de Waal’s practice is the arrangement of numerous similar (but non-identical) ceramic vessels within a vitrine, distributed into groups of varying densities (see http://www.edmunddewaal.com/making). The composer chose to consider how this might offer a model for structuring music: varied iterations of discrete, ‘complete’ musical units distributed in such a way as to create a compelling overall whole. Many of the challenges faced were in translating a non-temporal artform into a temporal one: maintaining a coherent flow across numerous complete units; how ‘densities’ of collections of units might be understood when relationships can only be perceived in retrospect rather than instantaneously.
The use of deliberately clearly-defined units of material, their reuse and transformation across a piece offers a new perspective on thematicism, while the emphasis on repetition suggests possibilities for post-minimalism outside the heavily-pulsed or drone-based mainstream. In addition, both works further possibilities for the expressive use of microtonal complexes: _TWR_ takes an innovative approach to the concerto genre, and _Psalm_ enhances understanding of the scope of non-conducted spatially separated ensembles.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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