Intonations (Journal)
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18 research outputs found
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Reconsidering Metronomic Precision: Lessons from the Thyratron
Get PDFThis paper explores the historical and contemporary implications of the metronome’s role in defining pulse and tempo in Western art music. Far from 18th-century conceptions of pulse anchored in the tempo giusto and described with reference to the musician’s literal heartbeat, the 21st-century performer is much more likely to consider the metronome as the source and arbiter of a “correct” pulse. The evolution of the metronome from its earliest mechanical iterations through to contemporary smartphone apps also maps neatly onto the increasing societal trust placed in the metronome as authority. This relocation of the source of pulse from internal (the performer) to external (the metronome) also brings psychological impacts, particularly with reference to music performance anxiety; the expectation of matching digitally precise timekeeping with a fallible human body is a contributor to anxiety and self-doubt among musicians.
Using detailed pulse analyses of mid-20th-century electromechanical metronomes as case studies, this paper describes how the idiosyncratic pulse shifting and surging of these devices inadvertently gesture toward a reimagined role for the device. The author concludes by proposing the development of digital metronomes with a switchable “fallibility” mode, which might introduce varying degrees of pulse variability to the metronome, thereby granting musical artists the creative agency to follow or resist the device, much as they would a live musical partner. Such a development is also proposed as a step forward toward understanding constructive approaches to other nascent music practice aids such as increasingly precise tuners or apps which propose to objectively define “quality” tone
On Shimmers: Where Performance and Glamour Meet
No full textThis writing explores glamour as a phenomenon of performance, arguing that through performance glamour becomes an epistemological impulse that creates both knowledge and remains of femininities, among other forms of identity and expression. Beginning with thorough definitions that integrate glamour and performance, this writing explores new theoretical and philosophical models that incorporate the realms of experience and eroticism in which an analysis of glamour may be approached, highlighting some of the polemics and dangers along the way. Departing from the traditional material cultural analysis of glamour that relegates it largely to patterns of consumption in the 20th century or to the Hollywoodian sphere of influence, this paper extends the temporality and influence of glamour indefinitely, taking glamour seriously an embodied practice deeply associated with the diverse forms and expressions of the feminine using Amanda Gorman’s Esteé Lauder campaign image as a closing example. Above all, this research takes glamour seriously, “calling foul on the strange anxieties about artifice, illusion, and performance, and the even more suspiciously gendered dismissal of glamour as cultural ‘fluff’ given that it is an embodied practice deeply associated with the feminine.” 
3 Stories from the Chthulucene
No full text“3 Stories from the Chthulucene” attempts to work through some of the theoretical framework outlined in Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (2016). The term “Chthulucene” derives from H. P. Lovecraft’s science-fictional tentacled being, the Cthulhu. Haraway theorizes the Chthulucene as an alternative to dominant notions of our time as the Anthropocene. Rather than seeing humans as separate from the environment and acting on it, Chthulucene theorists see humans as part of an intricate web of relations between human and more-than-human life, where humans act through the environment. The methodology used in this article is research-creation, specifically creation as research. This article begins with three autofictional vignettes that aim to play with research questions such as: How might Haraway’s concept of “tentacular thinking" impact the way narrative is structured? Is there an accessible way to write Haraway’s theories so that they are approachable but still “writerly"? How can writer and reader together (re)imagine utopias, in particular queer utopias, so that they are still situated strongly in the present? A supplementary essay follows these three vignettes and attempts to tease out some of these findings within a more typically academic format
Eusebius and Florestan, Pierrot and Harlequin
Get PDFThis video and article are inspired by Robert Schumann’s use of characterization in his music and writings, and the affinities of these sometimes kaleidoscopic and multiple musical and critical perspectives with theatre, fragmentary scenographies, and costume. Drawing on the traits of Schumann’s own characters Florestan, Euesbius, Master Raro, as well as other personas such as Harlequin and Pierrot, I have aimed, in my audiovisual collage and performance of a hypothetical 4th movement to Schumann’s 1851 Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in A minor (Op. 105), to create a mediation between disparate aspects of the music, envisioned as personality fragments scattered in the landscape of the piece. The video itself is a meditation on, and an outcome of the realities of the pandemic, and the isolation that intruded in such a sustained manner on my personal and professional life. The video is an impromptu assemblage of pre-pandemic footage and photography combined to create a collective virtual chamber music experience representing an internal world haunted by dissonant multiple characters. In some ways, I echo in performance certain suggestive strains of Schumann’s own creative imagination and his personifications, both musically and in his critical writings, of the characters Florestan and Eusebius whom he sought to amalgamate in the figure of Master Raro
Crossing an Impossible Threshold: Creating a Transdisciplinary Process in the Heart of the Pandemic
Get PDFIn this article we, both playwright and performer, look at the play Fish at the Bottom of the Sea and its unique exploratory process. We articulate an exchange between circus, sound, and theatre, and examine the larger understanding evoked by an experiential point of view rather than one attached to the identity of any particular discipline. The article alternates between our two voices and includes videos and excerpts from the play to capture the inter- and transdisciplinary nature of our project. Our co-writing approach mirrors our collaborative and interdisciplinary process. As this iteration of the play was generated during the pandemic, the article explores how the play’s themes of isolation and loss are reflected in our collective experience and our need for connection. Further, we explore how both the form and content of this work was impacted by the pandemic. Our paper is organized around three central themes: exploring liminal space and the desire to cross an impossible threshold; embodying states of matter and moving through stages of grief; seeking virtuosity in performance
Live-streamed performance & intercultural education: Creative solutions to online world music pedagogy in the COVID-19 pandemic
Get PDFThis article provides creative solutions for online world music pedagogy that were developed in response to the widespread need for digital education during the Covid-19 pandemic. Innovations in the synchronous presentation of online music courses and performances influenced the authors to collaborate on ways to create space for interaction between students and musicians who share their music and experiences as cultural experts. This approach led to the development of the World Music Guest Artist Series, which allows for experiential learning and intercultural exchange through live-streamed performances and interviews with musicians in various global genres and locations. In mapping out the process, experiences, and benefits of our partnership for educators, students, and musicians, we ultimately intend to showcase our model to higher music educators that endeavor to foster experiential learning and intercultural dialogue in their classrooms through collaboration with cultural mediators, whether in a virtual or in-person learning environment
Puppetry and Public Spectacle: Creating Community During Covid
Get PDFFlight of the Phoenix, a puppet pageant at Northwestern University, became more than a way to perform despite safety restrictions – the build also became a valuable way to create community during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The shared project of bringing the puppets to life through simple techniques that invited hands-on participation, helped the artistic community to come together again as we emerged from extended isolation. The spark of the project––that began with a simple proposal to fly bird puppets down the lakeshore––brought together a team of designers, makers, directors, puppeteers, and filmmakers, all of whom were excited to excited to contribute their unique ideas and skillsets. As the puppets grew in number, scale, and complexity, the event called for a growing cast of volunteers capable of bringing a bigger version of the final event into being. I interpret the corresponding process of expansion through what artistic director and puppeteer Jim Lasko calls “radical listening” in his essay “The Third Thing” (2014). The finished work of public spectacle reached out to an even wider community as it captured the attention of university students, staff, and faculty and the citizens of Evanston who became surprise witnesses to the birds’ triumphant flight. The performance’s wordless grace made space for everyone involved to find themselves reflecting on the finished performance as they began to release grief, migrate again after a time of stasis, and collectively celebrate re-emergence
Mixity: Fostering Play in the Urban Sphere
Get PDFMixity (Mixité): social diversity (ReversoDictionary)... culturally speaking: of or relating to artistic or social pursuits or events considered to be valuable or enlightened (Collins Dictionary).
As the initial brunt of the ongoing pandemic comes to a close, we are left with a world that will have changed drastically. Public spaces, and the ways in which we collectively interact with them and one another alike, will need to be redefined. Harmoniously balancing form, function and value across stakeholders is a necessity in the public environment, and investigating outcomes in the shifting nature of these spaces has always been the quest of both their maker and their user.
Montréal-based designers Atelier Daily tous les jours have had widespread success in creating experiential spaces of play offering unique interactions for the individual. Continually striving to learn from every project, these designers of public spaces must have one eye on critical past outcomes, and one eye on how the future can and will force them to unlearn— an even more pressing issue in the context of the pandemic. In the following interview excerpts, Daily tous les jours\u27 director, Mouna Andraos, offers a glimpse into the core tenets of the studio, the realities of dealing with cities as clients and how important it is to identify the parts of our practice that are essential to our making
Establishing Land Relationships Through the Saskatoon Berry
Get PDFThis paper interrogates human relationships with the natural environment using the saskatoon berry as a “habitat guide,” a concept borrowed from the Indigenous perspectives of the Blackfoot, Papachase Cree and the Métis. As a settler on Treaty Six and Métis territory no. 4 – the traditional lands of various Indigenous Peoples including the Papaschase Cree, Blackfoot, Nakota Sioux, Ojibwe, Métis and others – my research engages with personal experience and specific Indigenous knowledge systems and worldview(s). This paper is divided into three sections: the first examines engagement with the natural environment and makes a case for stewardship and kinship as eco-conscious ethics. The second section, based on an oral interview with Papaschase Cree educator and scholar Dwayne Donald, builds on traditional ecological knowledge to provoke thoughts on multispecies relationality. In the final section, I offer a close reading of poems by two Métis poets to emphasize kinship and ethical relationality through the saskatoon berry