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MUSICIANS’ RESPONSE: POST-INSTRUMENTAL PRACTICE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2025

Thomas R. Moore  and
Maya Verlaak
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Abstract

This article is situated within the framework of a definition of curation of new music that includes, in addition to the choice of pieces, venues and players, the active choice of specific tools and roles that will be filled by people, roles that have rich traditions and expectations and are thus ripe for instrumentalisation. In earlier research we have demonstrated that the roles of musicians within new music have been instrumentalised, and in this article we aim to better understand the musicians’ response. One such observable response has been dubbed by artist–researchers Håkon Stene and Louise Devenish as ‘post-instrumental practice’. In this article we will discuss how and where we also observe this trend. We then test its sustainability through in-depth interviews with venue organisers and artistic directors as well as analysing funding and employers’ organisations’ published policies on socially and economically sustainable practices.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Information
Tempo , Volume 79 , Issue 311 , January 2025 , pp. 25 - 38
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 Christie Finn, interview by Thomas R. Moore, 10 October 2023.

2 Between October 2024 and March 2024 in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 professional performers, concert organisers and composers active in Europe and abroad.

3 Moore, Thomas R., ‘This Is My Instrument: An Approach towards Performance Practice for Integrated Concerts’, INSAM Journal of Contemporary Music, Art and Technology, 10 (2023), pp. 90–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar, https://doi.org/10.51191/issn.2637-1898.2023.6.10.90.

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6 Saskia Lankhoorn, interview by Thomas R. Moore, 10 November 2024.

7 In this article we define ‘new music’ and ‘contemporary music’ as music having been written since 1950 and in the Western art-music tradition.

8 Thomas R. Moore, ‘Redefining the Conductor's Role in New Music Ensembles: Artistic and Socioeconomic Motivations for Instrumentalizing the Conductor’, in Aufs Spiel Gesetzt: Interpretation im Fokus, eds Christa Brüstle and Karolin Schmitt-Weidmann (Mainz: Schott Verlag, 2023), pp. 28–53.

9 Thomas R. Moore, ‘Conductor à la Carte: Artistic and Practical Motivations for Utilizing a Conductor in New Music Ensembles Performing Integrated Concerts’, Perspectives of New Music, 60, no. 2 (2022), pp. 191–211, https://doi.org/10.1353/pnm.2022.a914774.

10 Walshe lists James Saunders, Matthew Shlomowitz, Neele Hülcker, François Sarhan, Jessie Marino, Steven Takasugi, Natacha Diels and James Saunders in Jennifer Walshe, ‘The New Discipline’, Milker Corporation, http://milker.org/the-new-discipline (accessed 20 July 2021).

11 Andreas Borregaard, ‘Just Do It! Exploring the Musician's (Use of) Bodily Performance’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Norwegian Academy of Music, 2023), www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1926394/1926412 (accessed 30 March 2024).

12 Louise Devenish, ‘Instrumental Infrastructure, Instrumental Sculpture and Instrumental Scores: A Post-Instrumental Practice’, Music & Practice, 9 (2021), p. 1, https://doi.org/10.32063/0906.

13 Louis Andriessen, conversation with Maya Verlaak, 2010.

14 Stene Håkon, ‘Towards a Post-Percussive Practice’, Music & Practice, no. 2 (2015). https://doi.org/10.32063/0204.

15 Mark Applebaum, ‘Tlön’ (1995); Moore, ‘Redefining the Conductor's Role in New Music Ensembles’.

16 Andy Ingamells, ‘Bowmanship’, Andy Ingamells, 31 August 2020, https://andyingamells.com/bowmanship/ (accessed 30 March 2024).

17 Devenish, ‘Instrumental Infrastructure, Instrumental Sculpture and Instrumental Scores’.

18 Moore, ‘This Is My Instrument’.

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20 ‘Robert Blatt, Memory Studies: Recording Series (Beach Bums), 2016, https://robertblatt.ricercata.org/pieces/RecordingSeriesBeachBums.html (accessed 30 March 2024).

21 Thomas R. Moore and Pascal Gielen, ‘The Politics of Conducting’, Music & Practice, 9 (2021), p. 1, https://doi.org/10.32063/0903.

22 Devenish, ‘Instrumental Infrastructure, Instrumental Sculpture and Instrumental Scores’, p. 15.

23 Devenish, ‘Instrumental Infrastructure, Instrumental Sculpture and Instrumental Scores’, p. 15.

24 Moore, ‘Redefining the Conductor's Role in New Music Ensembles’, p. 30.

25 Walshe, ‘The New Discipline’, p. sp.

26 Moore and Gielen, ‘The Politics of Conducting’, p. 20.

27 Devenish, ‘Instrumental Infrastructure, Instrumental Sculpture and Instrumental Scores’, p. 15.

28 Post-Paradise, https://postparadise.ricercata.org/About.html (accessed 31 March 2024).

29 Weisslich, https://weisslich.com/ (accessed 31 March 2024).

30 DNK Amsterdam, www.dnk-amsterdam.com/ (accessed 31 March 2024).

31 KM28, www.km28.de/ (accessed 31 March 2024).

32 Katrien Reist, interview by Thomas R. Moore, 5 February 2024.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid.

35 iii, ‘Mission’, https://instrumentinventors.org/about/mission/ (accessed 31 March 2024).

36 Perdita Phillips, ‘Artistic Practices and Ecoaesthetics in Post-Sustainable Worlds’, in An Introduction to Sustainability and Aesthetics: The Arts and Design for the Environment, eds C. Crouch, N. Kaye and J. Crouch (Boca Raton, FL: Brown Walker Press, 2015), pp. 55–68.

37 Ibid.

38 Merriam-Webster, ‘Sustainable’, last updated 27 October 2024, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sustainable (accessed 14 November 2024).

39 ‘Modern curation work is narrative in nature: telling a compelling story not just through a static collection and presentation of artefacts to a single, monolithic audience but through dynamic and multiply iterated discourse with a range of audiences, communities and stakeholders.’ Furthermore, ‘curating, in addition to presentation, is also actively choosing specific tools and roles, and the way they are used and instrumentalized… Instrumentalization of not only pieces and locations, but people and roles is inherent to curation today.’ Holly Tessler, ‘Introduction: Why Is Everything Curated These Days? Examining the Work of Popular Music Curation’, Popular Music History, 13, nos 1–2 (2020), pp. 5–17, https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.42196; Thomas R. Moore, Pascal Gielen and Rebecca Diependaele, ‘Fair Games: Curating New Music: A Continuum between Exploitation and Commoning’, Journal of Musicology 41, no. 4 (2024), pp. 476–93. https://doi.org/10.1525/jm.2024.41.4.476.

40 Merriam-Webster, ‘Stable’, last updated 27 October 2024, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stable (accessed 14 November 2024).

41 Maya Verlaak, ‘Hexenhaus – A Scrutinizing Compositional Position’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Birmingham City University, 2019), 19.

42 Pascal Gielen, Paul De Bruyne and Jeroen Boomgaard, eds. Teaching Art in the Neoliberal Realm: Realism versus Cynicism, 2nd edition (Amsterdam: Valiz, 2013); Peter Fleming, Dark Academia: How Universities Die (London: Pluto Press, 2021); Reist, interview.

43 Elena Raevskikh and Maxime Jaffré, ‘The Performing Arts Ecosystem in Abu Dhabi: Sustainability, Resilience, and Local Capacity Building’, in Global Creative Ecosystems, ed. Tarek E. Virani (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2023), pp. 39–57.

44 Reist, interview.

45 At a structural level, the flexibility referred to in this article was never required of the ‘original’ new-music ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern or Klangforum Wien. Composers such as Louis Andriessen often asked fellow composers to participate in the work of Orkest de Volharding and Hoketus, but only in the period before they achieved structural funding. Later the rise in specialist–performers was observable in the Netherlands as well. Reist's argument points to a decrease in public funding over the past two decades. Paul R. Judy, ‘Pierre Boulez: Reflections on Symphony Orchestra Organizations’, Harmony: Forum of the Symphony Orchestra Institute 3 (1996), pp. 30–38; Robert Adlington, Composing Dissent: Avant-Garde Music in 1960s Amsterdam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).

46 Francesca Sabatini, ‘Culture as Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development: Perspectives for Integration, Paradigms of Action’, European Journal of Sustainable Development, 8, no. 3 (2019), p. 31, https://doi.org/10.14207/ejsd.2019.v8n3p31.

47 Juist is Juist, ‘Principles’, n.d., www.juistisjuist.be/en/principles/ (accessed 10 March 2024).

48 Fair Practice Code, ‘De kernwaarden: Fair Practice Code: Gedragscode voor de culturele en creatieve sector’, n.d., https://fairpracticecode.nl/de-code/kernwaarden/#duurzaamheid (accessed 10 March 2024). Original text: ‘Er wordt geproduceerd met het oog op de kwaliteit en de lange termijn. Dat betekent dat er wordt geïnvesteerd in mensen in de vorm van scholing en talentontwikkeling, dat mentale en fysieke overbelasting worden voorkomen en dat er verantwoordelijk wordt omgegaan met het materiële en immateriële kapitaal.Bij een meer duurzame bedrijfsvoering hoeven werknemers en medewerkers geen roofbouw op zichzelf te plegen. Een minder hoge omloopsnelheid betekent ook minder verbruik van grondstoffen en een lagere afvalproductie.’

49 Sound and Music, ‘Fair Access Principles’, https://soundandmusic.org/our-impact/fair-access-principles/ (accessed 14 April 2024).

50 European Commission, Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, Greening the Creative Europe Programme: Final Report (EU: Publications Office, 2023), https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/625636 (accessed 14 April 2024).

51 Martijn Buser, interview by Thomas R. Moore, 26 October 2023.

52 Bert Palinckx, interview by Thomas R. Moore, 23 October 2023. See also November Music, ‘Wack’, n.d., www.novembermusic.net/programma/jennifer-walshe-neil-luck-137666 (accessed 24 April 2024).

53 Devenish, ‘Instrumental Infrastructure, Instrumental Sculpture and Instrumental Scores’.

54 Louis d'Heudières, interview by Thomas R. Moore, 27 October 2023.

55 Ibid.

56 Fraser, Juliet. ‘London to Istanbul.’ Substack newsletter. Notes on Flying (blog), February 12, 2024. https://julietfraser.substack.com/p/london-to-istanbul. (accessed 7 December 2024).

57 Heloisa Amaral, interview by Thomas R. Moore, 21 December 2023.

58 Moore, Gielen and Diependaele, ‘Fair Games’.

59 Finn, interview.

60 Ibid.

61 Tom De Cock, interview by Thomas R. Moore, 22 October 2019.

62 Martin Buber, I and Thou, tr. Ronald Gregor Smith (New York: Scribner, 1958), pp. 4–5.

63 Rui Penha, ‘What Is Artistic Research About?’, keynote speech, EPARM (2024), Ljubljana.

64 Ibid.

65 Borregaard, ‘Just Do It!’.

66 Winnie Huang, ‘The Pragmatic Musical-Gestural Performer’, Experience Music Experiment: Pragmatism and Artistic Research (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2021), pp. 35–60.

67 Moving Strings, www.movingstrings.com, n.d. (accessed 15 April 2024).

68 Ibid.

69 Reist, interview.

70 Nena Beretin, ‘Re-evaluating the Collaborative Process between Luciano Berio and Cathy Berberian for Sequenza III (1965–66) and Its Critical Reception in North America, the United Kingdom and Australia’, Analitica. Rivista Online Di Studi Musicali, 14 (2021), https://lnx.gatm.it/analiticaojs/index.php/analitica/article/view/178 (accessed 3 April 2024).

71 Finn, interview.

72 Barrie Webb, ‘Performing Berio's Sequenza V’, Contemporary Music Review, 26, no. 2 (2007), pp. 207–18, https://doi.org/10.1080/07494460701295358.

73 Svoboda, Michael, Die Spieltechnik der Posaune (The Techniques of Trombone Playing) (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2017)Google Scholar; Heather Roche, ‘Resources for Clarinettists’ (2024), Available at: https://heatherroche.net/resources-for-clarinettists/ (accessed 7 December 2024); Dempster, Stuart, The Modern Trombone: A Definition of Its Idioms (Athens, OH: Accura Music Inc., 1979)Google Scholar.

74 See, among others, Coleman, B. and Sebesta, J. A., Women in American Musical Theatre: Essays on Composers, Lyricists, Librettists, Arrangers, Choreographers, Designers, Directors, Producers and Performance Artists (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2020)Google Scholar.

75 Mathilde Wantenaar, ‘Mathilde Wantenaar: What's New? Festival Dag in de Branding’, Amare, n.d., www.amare.nl/nl/agenda/2698/festival-dag-in-de-branding/mathilde-wantenaar-what-s-new (accessed 3 April 2024).

76 Wantenaar, ‘Mathilde Wantenaar’.

77 Adlington, Composing Dissent.