End 2009 Frederik Croene premiered my Das Wohlpreparierte Klavier I at Transit Festival. It was quite a success, but also marked the end of a period of radical experiment and intensive composing, before getting a phd and moving into other fields. Next performance of Elisa Medinilla and Frederik Croene in DeBijloke may sound like a wake-up call. Indeed, after a compositional break of almost 10 years, book II and III are in the making, hopefully to be premiered towards the end of 2019!
Looking forward to the start-up of three new research groups within my lectorate at the Royal Conservatoire: Fundamentals of Musical Training, Making in Music, Curation and Social Engagement. Festive presentation on January, Friday 25th.
These two young men put their stamp on the twentieth-century history of music and dance with a bang sacré. What is the state of dance-music collaborations today? November Music organised an expert meeting on this subject, I was asked to moderate and make some introductory notes.
Toespraak ter gelegenheid van Musica’s 40-jarige bestaan, aan de vooravond van AlbaNova – The Musical Gift, het festival dat ik vijf jaar geleden boven de doopvont mocht houden. Het waren tegelijk ook mijn laatste woorden voor Musica, want mijn afscheid van de organisatie. Dankbaar voor zeven boeiende jaren.
After having worked for more than six years for Musica, my lectorate at The Hague Conservatoire brings me back to artistic research. I’ve always had an ambiguous relationship with the discourse around artistic research, even more so with the persistently recurring discussions between sceptics and defenders. The arguments on both sides are mostly predictable, and they usually fail to put the phenomenon in a wider context of societal, institutional and cultural evolutions. My view on artistic research has always been pragmatic, although I will try now to approach the topic from a more future-oriented perspective. What better way than starting with conditions and motivations? I made a short introductory text for the programme book of the master research symposium at the conservatoire end March. More to follow.
Thrilled to announce my appointment as lector ‘Music, Education and Society’ at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, starting from February 1. More information on:
https://www.koncon.nl/nieuws/paul-craenen-nieuwe-lector-koninklijk-conservatorium
Sinds een aantal jaren volg ik vanop de zijlijn de ontwikkelingen rond Cultuur in de Spiegel, de cultuurtheorie van Barend Van Heusden die een referentiekader wil bieden voor cultuureducatie in onderwijs. Hoewel de theorie door het Vlaamse onderwijs -en cultuurbeleid werd omarmd, er sprake was van implementatieonderzoek, van klankbordgroepen en talloze presentaties en studiedagen, blijkt Cultuur in de Spiegel in muziekonderwijs of non-formele muziekeducatie weinig gemoederen te beroeren. In onderstaande tekst ga ik op zoek naar verklaringen door met een muzikaalkritisch oor naar de theorie te luisteren. Ik doe enkele suggesties tot aanvulling en herdenking van het model. Waar Cultuur in de Spiegel zich presenteert als een theorie van het culturele verschil, formuleer ik de noodzaak voor een theorie van culturele resonantie.
Around 2004, I started exploring the possibilities of feedback manipulation in live performance. One of the results was Tubes, a piece for two performers, pvc-pipes and digital signal processing. Apart from some concert fragments, I never published any video material from the many working sessions with Cathy van Eck. Here are some fragments from an early version of the piece, below is a compilation from later recording sessions. A full version can be found here. Please listen in stereo or with headphones!
