Making a living moment more resonant: an exploration of the role of the artist in co-creative work with people living with dementia
In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the role that the arts have to play in supporting the wellbeing of people living with dementia. In particular, there has been interest in working with the arts co-creatively, i.e. artists working alongside participants in the group, with everyone using improvisation so that each person can be equally involved. Whilst there has been research which demonstrates the beneficial effects of this approach, there is a gap in understanding the ways that musicians and dancers apply their skills and knowledge in this context.
To understand this better, we analysed journals kept by a group of artists as they took part in 'With All', a co-creative music and dance project with people with dementia, their families and friends. Through analysis, we identified three key areas which are of particular importance in understanding the skills and knowledge that artists contributed to the sessions, and which suggest that although the arts are these days generally accepted as being helpful for supporting those living with dementia, we need to also consider the contribution made by the artists themselves.
West J, Zeilig H, Cape T et al. Making a living moment more resonant: an exploration of the role of the artist in co-creative work with people living with dementia Wellcome Open Res 2024, 8:580
Main image: a still from the animation commissioned to accompany the project Co-creativity and Dementia: the Artists
Technology and Contemporary Classical Music: Methodologies in Practice-Based Research
This position paper provides a distillation of the NCRM Innovation Forum, ‘Technology and Contemporary Classical Music: Methodologies in Creative Practice Research’, hosted by Cyborg Soloists in June 2023. It features contributions from a variety of creative practitioner-researchers to debate the current state and future of technologically focused, practice-based research in contemporary classical music. The position paper is purposefully polyphonic and pluralistic. By collating a range of perspectives, experiences and expertise, the paper seeks to provoke and delineate a space for further questioning, inquiry, and response. The paper will be of interest to those working within creative practice research, particularly in relation to music, music technologists and those interested in research methodologies more broadly.
Technology and Contemporary Classical Music: Methodologies in Practice-Based Research, National Centre for Research Methods.
Authors: Zubin Kanga, Mark Dyer, Caitlin Rowley, Jonathan Packham, Mira Benjamin, Ricardo Climent, Artemi-Maria Gioti, David Gorton, Sam Hayden, Emily Howard, Edmund Hunt, Robert Laidlow, Scott McLaughlin, Luke Nickel, Lauren Redhead
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924): Centenary Songbook
Roy Howat and Emily Kilpatrick
Gabriel Fauré’s output of over one hundred songs spans six decades of seismic musical development. This collection, issued to mark the centenary of Fauré’s death, forms a tailpiece to the five-volume series Gabriel Fauré: Complete Songs and Vocalises (2013–2022), edited by Roy Howat and Emily Kilpatrick. The research for this first complete critical edition of Fauré’s songs was initially funded by an AHRC Project Grant at the Royal Academy of Music (2010-2013).
This new volume comprises songs from across Fauré’s career, beginning with the Hugo setting Mai, composed when he was still a teenager, and closing with ‘Diane, Sélené’ from his tautly vigorous final cycle L’Horizon chimérique. It includes some of Fauré’s best-loved songs (Après un rêve, Clair de lune) together with some lesser-known gems; and extracts from his song cycles sit alongside individual settings. All the poets who marked him most deeply are represented, from Victor Hugo and Leconte de Lisle, who sparked his earliest ventures in the mélodie, to Paul Verlaine, who inspired the finest songs of his middle years; and Charles Van Lerberghe, whose poetry prompted two of his most substantial cycles. The volume includes a new preface and short introductory texts to each song.
Roy Howat and Emily Kilpatrick (eds.), Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924): Centenary Songbook, London: Edition Peters (Faber Music), 2024.
Edward Cowie: Where the Wood Thrush Forever Sings
Roderick Chadwick with Anna Hashimoto
Where the Wood Thrush Forever Sings is the third of Edward Cowie’s 24-movement cycles portraying birds from different regions of the world, in this instance North America. Following on from Bird Portraits (with Peter Sheppard Skaerved) and Where Song was Born (with flautist Sara Minelli), Roderick Chadwick partners Academy alumnus Anna Hashimoto in a 2-CD recording that marks a further stage in his engagement with Cowie’s recent music.
Also forthcoming on Métier/Divine Art is Rock Music, three Piano Sonatas on geological themes. Cowie’s graduation from miniatures to extended forms inspired by nature have formed the basis of discussions with Chadwick that will be expanded into a series of writings, including for the journal Tempo in spring 2025; the complementary, sometimes contrasting viewpoints of composer and performer regarding the interaction of traditional forms and natural processes is their chief subject.
Edward Cowie: Where the Wood Thrush Forever Sings Anna Hashimoto – clarinet, Roderick Chadwick – piano (Métier, Sept 2023)
Les ombres du Fantôme
A captivating exploration of Gaston Leroux’s timeless novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra (1910) through fourteen evocative improvisations. Recorded in May and July 2021 using the majestic organs of Coventry and Arundel Cathedrals, accompanied by soprano voice and saxophone/bass clarinet, these improvisations delve deep into the narrative, themes, characters, and events of Leroux’s masterpiece. Employing an inventive musical language and leveraging the unique acoustics of these historic buildings, Les ombres du Fantôme transcends the physical realm, delivering a dynamic spectralism that immerses listeners in a sonic journey enhanced and extended through retrospective electronic augmentations.
The meticulous production process behind Les ombres du Fantôme combines traditional recording techniques with innovative digital manipulation, resulting in a blend of sonic textures and timbral variations. From the haunting echoes of cathedral spaces to the ethereal harmonies of spectral editing, each track resonates with a sense of mystery and intrigue. A sonic exploration that transcends time and space, offering a captivating reinterpretation of a literary classic.
Robert Sholl: Les ombres du Fantôme (Métier, 2024)
Image: Robert Sholl accompanying the film The Phantom of the Opera at Tempo Rubato in Melbourne, photograph by Douglas Rutter.
A Selection of Book Chapters
Foreword: Three Choirs Festival in Ten Concerts
This foreword frames Simon Carpenter’s new history of the world’s oldest classical music festival by considering how we ‘hear’ history.
Clinch, Jonathan. ‘Foreword’ in Three Choirs Festival in Ten Concerts by Simon Carpenter. Logaston Press, 2024.
Performance: Vaughan Williams in Context
‘You can’t place too much store on what’s written down’ (conductor Martyn Brabbins, interviewed in September 2020). This chapter explores performance issues and philosophies that have arisen from conducting the music of Vaughan Williams.
Clinch, Jonathan. ‘Performance’ in Vaughan Williams in Context, edited by Julian Onderdonk and Ceri Owen. Composers in Context. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
The Sensory Aesthetics of Death
The representation of death within the arts underwent extraordinary transformation in the twentieth century. This book chapter examines trends in both music and the visual arts, with a focus on British artists from Edward Elgar to David Bowie.
Clinch, Jonathan. ‘The Sensory Aesthetics of Death’ in A Cultural History of Death In the Modern Age, edited by Douglas J. Davies. Bloomsbury, 2024.
Artistic practice as Embodied Learning: Reconnecting Pedagogy, Improvisation, and Composition
This study seeks to make a pedagogical synthesis between theory improvisation and composition, allowing the teacher and student to move freely between these areas, and the student to develop their own sense of autonomy. It begins by presenting a creative rethinking of species counterpoint and develops a resource for pedagogy and practice through teaching musical techniques of composition. Using Bach's 'Goldberg' variations as a model, exercises for teaching counterpoint, improvisation and composition are presented.
Artistic practice as Embodied Learning: Reconnecting Pedagogy, Improvisation, and Composition, Rethinking the Teaching of Music Performance in Higher Level Institutions, ed. Jorge Salgado Correia, Gilvano Dalagna, Helen Julia Minors, and Stefan Östersjö (ERASMUS funded project: https://react.web.ua.pt, Cambridge: Open book, pp. 135-64).
Future Classical on Resonance FM
In this podcast David Gorton speaks to Benjamin Tassie about his compositional practice and his long-term project in which historical musical materials from the seventeenth century are borrowed, recycled, and repurposed in the creation of new pieces. They discuss the compositional reasons for doing this: first, to develop a critical and discursive commentary on this repertoire in a manner that is neither historical nor analytical but is instead a personal exploration of some of the music from that time; second, to develop a compositional aesthetic of the uncanny, where the familiar is presented in a manner that is unfamiliar. The programme includes extracts from recordings of Gorton’s Lachrymae Variations, Forlorn Hope, Concerto su temi Torelli, and Consort Set in Five Parts (after William Lawes).
Future Classical on Resonance FM – hosted by Benjamin Tassie – Episode 95, David Gorton (21 June 2024)
Playing Howells: The Paean Problem
A blog article and recording examining the performance of Herbert Howells’ Paean for Organ.
I’ve always wondered why all the performances of Herbert Howells’ 1940 ‘Paean’ for organ I’ve ever heard have been below the marked tempo. The initial marking of crochet = 144 is particularly notable, so much so that Stephen Cleobury challenged the composer on it and was surprised when Howells asked him to stick to the notated speeds. So I recently tried an experiment. I downloaded a metronome app that allowed me to use presets and programmed it for the various tempos in ‘Paean’ for organ, practised a lot and recorded a performance. This blog is a reflection on that process.
Playing Howells: The Paean Problem, April 2024