In the present day young musicians who start their professional musical studies have a mission. Their choice for a labour-intensive education that offers few guarantees at obtaining a steady job... Show moreIn the present day young musicians who start their professional musical studies have a mission. Their choice for a labour-intensive education that offers few guarantees at obtaining a steady job requires a lot of courage and faith. Both faith in their own potential, as well as in that of music for the world of tomorrow. This article discusses the motivations of music students in higher music education and the changing role of conservatories in a rapidly changing musical field. Show less
In the present day young musicians who start their professional musical studies have a mission. Their choice for a labour-intensive education that offers few guarantees at obtaining a steady job... Show moreIn the present day young musicians who start their professional musical studies have a mission. Their choice for a labour-intensive education that offers few guarantees at obtaining a steady job requires a lot of courage and faith. Both faith in their own potential, as well as in that of music for the world of tomorrow.This publication asks how music today can be promising, and also how conservatories can help to fulfil that promise.Students, teachers and researchers affiliated to the Royal Conservatoire The Hague have contributed to this book. Show less
Four artist-researchers associated with the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University discuss their manners of documenting and observing their performing selves. What role can... Show moreFour artist-researchers associated with the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University discuss their manners of documenting and observing their performing selves. What role can intuition play in research? Can self-reflection and performance coinhabit the same corporeal space? Although the participants share points of view, their practices, the materials they engage with and the intended outcomes differ. Show less
In this research project I analyze and reflect on taqsīm recordings by two leading figures of ‘ūd playing who were pillars of modern Arabic music, namely the Egyptians Muḥammad al-Qaṣabjī (1898... Show moreIn this research project I analyze and reflect on taqsīm recordings by two leading figures of ‘ūd playing who were pillars of modern Arabic music, namely the Egyptians Muḥammad al-Qaṣabjī (1898-1964) and Riyāḍ al-Sunbāṭī (1906-1981). I decode and underline their most significant traits in order to:1) enrich and develop my melodic-rhythmic vocabulary;2) deepen my understanding of the structural, melodic and rhythmic processes underlying the genre;3) design a structural framework or a model for pre-composing taqsīm-like pieces of music.To put it another way, the dissertation discusses the creation of pre-composed taqāsīm. The pieces follow a specific model of pre-composition that was designed while taking al-Qaṣabjī and al-Sunbāṭī’s taqsīm practice as a reference and a source of inspiration. This model contributes to both artistic research and practical knowledge, and provides new insights into structural, melodic and rhythmical processes of the genre. The artistic outcome of this project includes five new works for solo ‘ūd. Show less
In the field of Western art music, improvisation has become a much discussed topic. In this interdisciplinary study Mooiman argues that in this context, improvisation is not to be seen as a quasi... Show moreIn the field of Western art music, improvisation has become a much discussed topic. In this interdisciplinary study Mooiman argues that in this context, improvisation is not to be seen as a quasi-autonomous skill or art form, but as an aspect of music-making in general. With this research, Mooiman offers a ‘panorama’ of nineteenth-century styles and situations of music-making that together sketch a picture of improvisatory aspects of nineteenth-century music. Music was generally experienced as a wordless language, and he argues that making music was understood as a rhetorical act: performers strove for musical persuasion. This study focuses on the performer: it explores how performers in the nineteenth century might have thought during the real-time act of music-making, and how performers today might learn to use musical languages from the past actively again. For this last aspect, the area of music theory is relevant; Mooiman concludes his dissertation with a discussion of how traditional music theory is challenged by improvisatory music-making. Show less
This research project adresses the question how local and traditional European forms of parrhesiastic theater—by which I mean events, actions, and performances staged by characters who courageously... Show moreThis research project adresses the question how local and traditional European forms of parrhesiastic theater—by which I mean events, actions, and performances staged by characters who courageously speak their minds through scenes of excess and laughter, that take place in public view and incite the spectator’s agency to speak their own minds—possibly relate to and/or provide new insights into critical artistic practices today. In this context, the project also examines the place and role of caricature today.I approach the issue as an artist-researcher concerned with socially engaged artistic practices. The experience of the playful, humorous, and sharply critical attitude of Gezi Park protesters speaking their minds in Istanbul in 2013 led me to critically reconsider my own courage in positioning myself within contemporary artistic production. Throughout the dissertation I work along a Moebius strip schema, which continually shifts from me as individual artist to dialogic collaborations to writing about the process. The research subject is investigated through a circulation process within which concepts such as communication, dialogue, and listening are continuously performed and put to the test. The dissertation aspires to provide new insights into how tensions between the roles of individual and group, “I” and “we,” may open up a parrhesiastic space for critical artistic practices. Show less
At the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese painter Zhou Peichun started mass-producing beautiful watercolour paintings depicting life in Beijing. Rosalien van der Poel writes about two of his... Show moreAt the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese painter Zhou Peichun started mass-producing beautiful watercolour paintings depicting life in Beijing. Rosalien van der Poel writes about two of his paintings that were recently restored by textile conservator Sjoukje Telleman.The colourful paintings discussed in this blog once decorated the walls of the Sinological Institute in the Leiden University Arsenaal Building. It is quite possible that they were acquired by J.J.L. Duyvendak (1889-1954), a Dutch Sinologist who worked as an interpreter at the Dutch embassy in Beijing from 1912 to 1918, before accepting a position at Leiden University in 1919. When the collections of the Sinological Institute were moved to the UBL Special Collections in 2016, the two paintings were re-evaluated and valued for their quality and authenticity. In 2021, they were restored and preserved by textile conservator Sjoukje Telleman. In this blog, I will seek to answer three questions: How did Zhou Peichun work? How historically accurate are the depicted scenes? And what is the value of this type of heritage for future generations? Show less
In the 19th century Chinese export paintings had a strong appeal to foreigners, who were in China because of maritime trade. Harbour views, like those of Macao, Bocca Tigris, Whampoa and Canton,... Show moreIn the 19th century Chinese export paintings had a strong appeal to foreigners, who were in China because of maritime trade. Harbour views, like those of Macao, Bocca Tigris, Whampoa and Canton, are still signifiers of the historical China trade in our time. This important category of Chinese export paintings must be analysed not just as simple representations, but also as commodities whose value and meaning were accrued through specific and economically forms of exchange. In some cases, we can trace the journeys of these artworks and detect their impact on patterns of consumption. In doing so, we will see that the paintings accrue value through the social processes of accumulation, possession, mechanisms of artistic circulation and cultural exchanges. By mapping a cultural biography of an iconic harbour view, this chapter shows that the value of this transcultural artwork lies in its movement and connected interpretations. Show less
While Dutch actor Johannes Jelgerhuis (1770–1836) is best known for his acting treatise Theoretische Lessen (1827), his lesser-known private writings reveal the passionate actor behind the theory.... Show moreWhile Dutch actor Johannes Jelgerhuis (1770–1836) is best known for his acting treatise Theoretische Lessen (1827), his lesser-known private writings reveal the passionate actor behind the theory. Particularly detailed, his manuscript Toneel Studien of 1811, casts light on Jelgerhuis’s thoughts and preparations behind the creation and performance of six roles. Show less
