Ongoing PhDs

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Mixed Music: new forms of interaction between instruments and electronics

Igor C. Silva
KCB

The contemporary compositional practice of mixed music, understood here as written music combining acoustic instruments with electronics, has a number of inherent problems. For example, the synchronization between the performer and the electronics, the complexity of digital interfaces and the need for an acoustic fusion between the two are some of the main issues discussed in academic research. This PhD project by Igor C. Silva aims to develop new systems that will provide simple, practical,...

Crossing Universes - Bow improvisation from the fusion of classical and jazz music

Filippe Caporali
KCB

Within jazz, the use of the bow for improvisation is considered an enriching technique for developing an instrumental idiom on the double bass. Throughout history, many bass players have developed their own approach to bow playing, but the lack of specific material dedicated to arco improvisation within improvised jazz and other non-classical genres means that this practice remains largely underutilized. This doctoral research by Filippe Caporali aims to develop, based on artistic practice, a...

Alexander Scriabin’s Ten Piano Sonatas: an Interpretative Journey through his Musical Cosmos

Nuno Cernadas
KCB

Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915) was an innovative composer who, through a significant evolution in his musical language, found a way to free himself from the constraints of tonal music and transitioned to an uninhibited form of musical creation. Two connected elements that accelerated this transformation were his developing mysticism and his perception of color as the visual counterpart of sound, brought about by either synesthesia or conscious artistic intent.

New perspectives on the performance practice of cornetti in the 16th and 17th centuries

Lambert Colson
KCB

The cornetto is an instrument well established in the world of early music. For example, it is regularly heard at prestigious festivals and concert halls. The challenge, therefore, does not lie in rediscovering a forgotten instrument. However, historical playing practices and traditions have only exceptionally influenced current cornetto performance practices. This PhD research by Lambert Colson focuses on a particular member of the cornetto family: the mute cornetto. By studying the strong...

In search of a lost sound

Jan De Winne
KCB

The doctoral research, conducted by Jan De Winne, will address both the creative aspects of copying eighteenth-century flutes and the choices a musician makes when performing a concert in the spirit of Historical Informed Performance Practice (HIPP). Two case studies of flutes built by Johann Joachim Quantz and Carlo Palanca are central to this research. Starting from the artisanal details of the instrument maker, a more complex question of authenticity in the production and recreation of...

Cultural roots and interactions of contemporary rhythm in jazz

Stéphane Galland
KCB

Geïnformeerd door ruim dertig jaar onderzoek naar en speelervaring met het concept “ritme” in diverse culturele, sociale, geografische, filosofische contexten, alsook met het zoeken naar manieren om een betere kennis van ritme te ontwikkelen en een universele toegang tot de verschillende zijtakken ervan te bieden, streeft Stéphane Galland ernaar om de talrijke elementen die in de loop der jaren ontdekt werden in diens muziekpraktijk verder te verdiepen. Galland kan bogen op samenwerkingen met...

The basso continuo practice in Venice (1590–1630), based on the foundations of counterpoint

Maria Gonzalez
KCB

Concurrent with the birth of basso continuo, a few genres of music grew up together. Each genre required a different approach to playing basso continuo. Indeed, although the various genres are based on counterpoint rules, they differ in their compositional concept. Early seventeenth-century Italian sources have left us a great deal of information. However, it is seldom pedagogically presented as we would expect today, their contents being rarely explicit. Much implicit knowledge is contained...

The hybrid guitarist. An embodied approach to the interpretation of the folkloric elements in classical guitar repertoire

Luca Isolani
KCB

De moderne gitarist is een hybride gitarist: een uitvoerder die zich een veelheid van technische en muzikale eigenschappen eigen moet maken die niet alleen behoren tot de klassieke gereedschapskist, maar ook tot de specifieke culturele achtergrond van de werken. Dit wordt onmiddellijk duidelijk in repertoire dat sterk geïnspireerd is door folkloristische idiomen. Het heterogene karakter van de volksmuziekelementen roept de vertolker niet alleen op om melodische en ritmische inzichten aan te...

Possibilities and directions, a new approach in Double Bass Improvisation

Stefan Lievestro
KCB

In free improvisation on double bass, the area in between functional contexts on the one hand and the creation of unconventional sounds by means of extended techniques on the other, remains largely unexplored. By means of investigating the structures and mechanisms in the free and modal improvisations of Herbie Hancock, and modifying these materials in accordance with the limitations and possibilities of the contrabass, Stefan aims at developing strategies and methods that should enable...

New compositional paths between Elliott Carter’s harmony and deconstructivism

Raffaele Longo
KCB

This research by Raffaele Longo links composition to music theory from an innovative methodological standpoint. The original character of this project relies on the definition of a new paradigm in music composition. The researcher will investigate if and how the harmony of Elliott Carter ( (1908–2012) —as it was systematized in his handbook— can be the driver to explore novel composition paths by testing the values of a “new humanistic” prospect through the deconstructionist approach....

Historically Informed Performance Practice on natural trumpet

Jean-François Madeuf
KCB

This PhD project by Jean-François Madeuf focuses on the in-depth artistic and theoretical research of the historical trumpet: its playing techniques and style, its historical context, its literature, and its repertoire. The research will not only be based on historical research but will also assess from the researcher’s own performance practice whether the information available in historical treatises and other sources is also valuable for the technique of the instrument and for the...

The Interpretation of Robert Schumann: between Inspiration and Rationality

Marco Mantovani
KCB

This doctoral research by Marco Mantovani focuses on six piano pieces by Robert Schumann composed between 1836 and 1838 (i.e., Fantasie op. 17, Fantasiestucke op. 12, Davidsbundlertanze op. 6, Novelletten op. 21, Kinderszenen op. 15, Kreisleriana op. 16), a period that was arguably one of the turning points in his personal and artistic life. Many of Schumann’s most important piano works and some of the most illuminating examples of his extraordinary compositional process and his formal and...

Metal-Jazz: The use of contemporary progressive rock/metal practices to expand the contemporary jazz soloing idiolect

Luis Mora
KCB

With the assimilation of pedal techniques developed by progressive metal drummers, this PhD research by Luis Mora aims to expand the expressive capabilities of drummers in the rhythmically complex context of contemporary jazz. To this end, the researcher works on three interacting fronts: the development of a new vocabulary for footwork in line with the jazz tradition; the incorporation of recent playing technique developments from progressive metal practice; and the expansion of the jazz...

Claviorganum, a curiosity? A quest into the history and the influence of the claviorganum on musical praxis

Bart Naessens
KCB

We can conclude from historical source material that sixteenth- and seventeenth-century instrument building experienced a tremendous explosion of varied instrumentation, partly due to the continuous search of the theorist, musician, and instrument builder for new instrument-technical and resulting extra-musical possibilities. Yet today within historical performance practice we often see the use of a standardized set of instruments. The applicable keyboard instruments are thereby reduced to...

The co-composition pendulum: Reevaluating the composer-performer relationship

Luca Piovesan
KCB

The accordion is a relatively new instrument in contemporary music. Consequently, composers can rely on little literature to understand the mechanic and sonic possibilities of the accordion. Moreover, the existing repertoire for accordion is very small. Therefore, as the researcher has experienced, collaborations with composers are strongly characterized by a close relationship between composer and performer whereby the performer often takes an active role in the creation of musical...

Spectral techniques in jazz performance

Piergiorgio Pirro
KCB

Spectralism is an attitude toward musical composition that emerged in 1970s Europe, particularly through the work of a group of French composers such as Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail. Spectral music shifts attention from discrete musical categories towards notions of process, continuity, and the exploration of perceptual and cultural thresholds.The aim of this doctoral research is to study the application of spectral techniques and attitudes into the compositional and performance practice...

Pierre Gaviniès (1728-1800): the revolution of the violin

Christophe Robert
KCB

Pierre Gaviniès (1728–1800) is one of the most important figures in the history of the violin: as a player, as artistic director of the ensemble Le Concert Spirituel, as a teacher, and as a composer. While he was widely admired during his lifetime, he is little known today, although his violin studies, known as the 24 Matinées, are still performed.

Bow techniques for guitar playing: arrangements of contemporary works for cello, violin and viola played on the classical guitar

Kostas Tosidis
KCB

This doctoral research by Kostas Tosidis explores the importance of the bow in the guitar playing. In complete interaction with the repertoire of instruments such as the cello, violin and viola, it attempts to define techniques that until now have not been employed or extensively analyzed, with the central aim of optimizing the guitar playing. Much of the research focuses on documenting all these techniques and their application to modern guitar playing in a method that will include text and...

The Place of the Recorder in the Performance of Seventeenth-Century Italian Music

Peter Van Heyghen
KCB

Italian “Early Baroque” music has long captivated modern recorder players. Today, Italian canzonas and sonatas published between the 1610s and the 1670s are standard recorder repertoire, and recorders seem also indispensable in the revival of seventeenth-century Italian operas. This has led to a widespread perception that, during the seventeenth century, the recorder must have been a prominent instrument in Italian music, on par with other soprano instruments such as the cornett and violin....

Instrument portrait: the Recorder

Tomma Wessel
KCB

In this PhD research, Tomma Wessel focuses on the performance techniques and different types of the extended instrument family of the recorder. The acoustic properties, their repercussions on sound production and new sound possibilities are the focus. The processing of the results leads to a clear conceptual framework. Extensive sound and video examples serve to illustrate the in-depth research. The result will be a website accessible to composers and players.

Contemporary vocal jazz: an artistic cartography of European encounters

Barbara Wiernik
KCB

The question whether there is an artistic movement, a “school” of vocal jazz that is not solely based on the American tradition, has never been fully explored by jazz musicians. Therefore, with this doctoral research Barbara Wiernik wants to find out to what extent our milieu defines us artistically, whether there are more European currents, and what its main branches are. The methodology originates in artistic practice and is based on filmed meetings with a number of European key figures...