Poiesis and the performance practice of physically polyphonic notations

Fairbairn, K.T. (2020)

Doctoral Thesis

This dissertation commences from the concept of poiesis, informed chiefly by Hannah Arendt’s use of the term in The Human Condition (1958) to indicate a form of creativity married to craftsmanship. This poietic framework will then be used throughout the dissertation to inform a practice-based analysis of the learning process involved with physically polyphonic notations (herein defined as notations of dissynchronous physical actions within a single performative body). Despite polyphonic asynchrony, the unifying performative demands of these pieces are the learning strategies necessary to accomplish this eventual reassembly of instrumental practice within a single, performing body. The following essays will explore the physically polyphonic repertoire of the trombone specifically as a laboratory for problematizing this poietic approach to the learning process.

• Artistic research
• Music notation
• Poiesis
• Embodiment
• Embodied cognition
• Agential realism

• All authors: Fairbairn, K.T.
• Supervisor: Cobussen, M.
• Co-supervisor: Barrett, R.
• Committee: Svoboda, M.; Borgdorff, H.; Dolphijn, R.; Wolodzko, A.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2020-06-11