Music Performance Encounters

Why do most musical performers and musical researchers continue to inhabit divergent epistemic spaces? To what extent is the act of musical performance coextensive with the act of doing musical research, and vice versa? At what point in the research process can a performative act transform into a scholarly one, and a scholarly act into a performative one? These, and other related questions, form the central focus of this book, with each chapter offering a fresh perspective on a particular topic in music performance studies: improvisational traditions, historical performance practices, analysis and performance, sports psychology, cross-cultural musical interactions, and institutional challenges. This book is aimed at music researchers, teachers, students, and practising musicians interested in the intersection of academic and performance research; as such, it seeks to bridge the divide between the research of university-trained musicologists, scholars from other fields who focus on music, and the growing community of musical artist-researchers. Material in this book is supported by performance outcomes offered by the contributors on a separate YouTube channel and on the Routledge online portal.

John Koslovsky is a professor of music history, theory, and analysis at KU Leuven (since fall 2023). From 2010 to 2023, he was on the music theory and research faculties at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and was an affiliate researcher in the humanities at Utrecht University. His research deals with the history of music theory, Schenkerian analysis, music aesthetics, intertextuality, and performance studies. Michiel Schuijer is a musicologist and music theorist, and currently head of the research division at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In his research, he explores historical, sociological, and cultural perspectives on music theory. His book Analyzing Atonal Music: Pitch-Class Set Theory and Its Contexts (2008) was awarded the American Society for Music Theory Emerging Scholar Award in 2010. Recent research interests include evolving notions of professionalism in music and the role of heritage in musical culture. From 2020 through 2023, Schuijer was project leader of the Academy for Musicology and Musicianship (Amsterdam, Utrecht), a study programme combining the strengths of conservatory and university education.

Introduction "Who Are You?": On Performers, Scholars, Masters, and Pupils Critical Interlude 1 Part I: Tools of (Historical) Performance Practice 1) "Che hanno contrapunto": Counterpoint Training and the Performance of Diminution in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 2) The Italian Imitative and Interdisciplinary Musical Ethos of the Sixteenth Century: Ganassi's La Fontegara 3) Echos of Cor Alto and Cor Basse: In Search of an Ideal Horn Sound Critical Interlude 2 Part II: Scholars and Performers in Dialogue 4) Analysing and Playing Chopin's Nocturne Op. 27, no. 1: An Empirical Study of the Interaction between an Analyst and a Performer 5) Resonant Openings: Collaborating on Crumb's Nocturnes Critical Interlude 3 Part III: Institutional Endeavours 6) The Absent Teacher Approach 7) Preparing Music Students for a Public Recital: Applying Principles of Practice from Sport Sciences and Other Disciplines Critical Interlude 4 Part IV: Cultural Barriers and Embodied Knowledge 8) Knowing the World through Music 9) Performing Jennifer Walshe's SELF-CARE