Composing Time: A Symposium

Inspirational life-affirming music-making is at the heart of the YST Conservatory. Centred in one of the world’s most dynamic countries, YST is uniquely placed to offer a distinct and powerful contemporary Asian voice.The Conservatory brings together a world-class faculty and facility to nurture students in performance, composition, production and engagement. Through our undergraduate, graduate, continuing education and youth offerings, we connect dynamically with the surrounding musical ecosystem. We host a vibrant performance calendar with around 200 concerts annually, featuring students and faculty alongside international artists. Our community engagement programme has extensive local and global reach. Students are supported to find their own artistic pathways through exchanges, festivals, competitions and projects. More broadly, our international networks further enhance the educational experience and ensure our continued evolution.

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music

This symposium will explore ways in which composers have used musical organization to create unique projections of musical time.

PROGRAMME9 AM, Recital StudioWelcome/IntroductionPETER EDWARDS, presenter-9:30 AM, Recital StudioBernhard Lang: An Aesthetic of RepetitionHANNES KERSCHBAUMER, presenterThe music of Austrian composer Bernhard Lang shows a unique perspective on composing with repetition. Building off of the philosophical ideas of Gilles Deleuze and others, the composer developed a unique aesthetic in the late 1990s that evolved from the central elements of difference and repetition.A look at the compositional application of repetition in Western music history provides important impulses as to how repetition can have a structure- and form-building role. Lang’s music articulates a unique use of repetition as a style-forming element. In this presentation, the work series DW (Differenz/Wiederholung) as a central manifesto of his aesthetics will be analytically outlined to examine the compositional application of sample and loop. Developments in his recent aesthetics, in which the composer applies algorithmic procedures and enters into dialogue with materials from music history, will also be presented.-10:30 AM, Recital StudioOn Swings, Grooves, and Pockets: Concepts of Time in JazzANDREAS MARINELLO, presenterMany of the central concepts in jazz have to do with time: rhythmic placement, swing, microrhythm, time feel. While a consistent theoretical framework has been developed for melody and harmony, the rhythmical elements of jazz remain somewhat more elusive, at least in academics.This lecture looks at the most recent research on these issues, while also giving an overview on the history and idiosyncrasies of swing and time feel in the jazz tradition, from its African roots to contemporary developments.-1:30 PM, Recital StudioBuying Time in Nicolaus A. Huber’s ‘Aus Schmerz und Trauer’CHEN ZHANGYI, presenterANDREAS MARINELLO, saxophoneThis presentation takes a closer look at the manipulation of time in Nicolaus A. Huber’s solo work for alto saxophone Aus Schmerz und Trauer (Of pain and sorrow). In this work, Huber works with the simplest of musical materials such as repeated notes, note durations, articulation, dynamics, timbre, etc. However, it quickly becomes difficult to assign a meter for certain measures when the composer begins to “buy time” by incorporating short glitches that interrupts the flow of a regular pulse. This fluidity of rhythm is further explored through the use of grace notes, subtle motivic transformations (rhythmic modulation), and the polyphony of rhythmic layers. Huber even ventures into a hint of polystylism with the marking of ‘jazz-phrasing’. The presentation will also explore similarities between Aus Schmerz und Trauer and Vor und Zurück (Before and After), also composed in 1982, in which the ‘after’ leaves the listener with an enriched experience of time.-2:30 PM, Recital StudioTakemitsu and Time in Japanese CulturePETER EDWARDS, presenterIn his essay, My perception of time in traditional Japanese music, composer Toru Takemitsu distinguishes between the perception of time in Japanese culture versus in the West. This lecture will outline Takemitsu’s argument and show how this Japanese concept of temporality is manifested in the composer’s own work.-4 PM, Orchestra HallLecture RecitalHANNES KERSCHBAUMER, presenterPROGRAMMELUGI NONO…sofferte onde serene…LUCA LAVURI, pianoFEDERICO CAMPANA, electronicsMORTON FELDMANInstruments IOPUSNOVUSwithCAROLIN RALSER, flutePHILIPP LAMPRECHT, percussionThis lecture-recital features 2 important works from the 1970s. Luigi Nono was the most important composer of post-war Italy. A pioneer in the use of time and timbre in music, he created a deeply personal style, especially in his later works from the 1980s. His …sofferte onde serene… (…serene waves endured…), a forerunner to this later period, is a beautiful, spacious, lyrical work for piano and 2-channel playback. Morton Feldman was a close associate of John Cage and a member of the New York School. Like Nono’s work, Feldman’s Instruments 1 is a precursor to the singular style of the composer’s late pieces.This concert features members of YST’s contemporary music ensemble, Opus Novus, along with members of Ensemble Chromoson, in residence for the Composing Time symposium. Hannes Kerschbaumer, artistic director of Ensemble Chromoson, will contextualize these two works for the audience through his presentation.-7:30 PMConcert, Orchestra HallENSEMBLE CHROMOSONPROGRAMMEDANIEL ALVARADO BONILLALow-fi deliriumANDREAS MARINELLOKairozétemaFEDERICO CAMPANAviralPETER EDWARDSCodeablesPIERRE JODLOWSKIColiseumHANNES KERSCHBAUMERuntitled (a)Founded by the former members of the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt am Main, flutist Carolin Ralser and percussionist Philipp Lamprecht, as well as the composer Hannes Kerschbaumer, ensemble chromoson strives to make contemporary music accessible to a larger audience. By working closely with an international pool of young aspiring artists from different fields, the ensemble has consistently shown its high level of artistic quality since its debut in 2014. Hailed as one of the leading Italian contemporary music ensembles, chromoson is a collective of highly specialized and award winning musicians, sound designers and composers, who strive to create collaborative environments by designing innovative interdisciplinary projects such as chemin, respiro, rayon uv-a, aeria, abyss, hot and mundlicht and perform at prestigious contemporary music festivals such as Transart Festival d Festival of Contemporary music Bolzano (IT), novalis festival Zadar (CRO), Vienna Hongkong Music Festival, Free Space Festival Hongkong, Distat Terra Festival Argentina, WGT Festival Leipzig (GER), and concert series such as Int. Paul Hofhaymer Society and Mozarteum Salzburg and the Gustav Mahler Music Festival, amongst others. Chromoson was ensemble-in-residence at INAUDITO/UNERHÖRT and the Austrian Hongkong Composers Connection. Projects for 2022 include performances and several world premieres at the CROSSROADS Festival Salzburg (Austria). In 2023, the ensemble will perform works by the award-winning composer Manuel Zwerger at the Radiokulturhaus in Vienna.This concert opens with a short discussion with composers on their works.ABOUT THIS EVENTJohn Cage once described music as the organization of sound. Yet, to organize sound one needs time, as music is a temporal art. This symposium will explore ways in which composers have used musical organization to create unique projections of musical time. The symposium offers a set of presentations investigating pertinent topics related to musical time across historical and cultural boundaries, with a focus on contemporary repertoire, where this compositional dimension has been extensively engaged. Additionally, a lecture-recital featuring works by Italian composer Luigi Nono and American composer Morton Feldman as well as an evening’s program of music performed by Ensemble Chromoson, visiting the conservatory for the week from Europe, will allow attendees a chance to experience a fascinating array of approaches toward the projection of time through sound.TICKETING INFORMATIONOut of respect for the participants and other spectators, no children under 6 years of age will be allowed admission.To help keep our community safe, here are the measures that we will be adhering to:• Only individuals who are fully vaccinated or exempted from Vaccination-Differentiated Safe Management Measures (VDS)* may be admitted to performances with more than 500 audience members.• *Exempted from VDS: Individuals who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection and are within 180 days of their first positive test result, individuals who are medically ineligible for COVID-19 vaccination, and children aged 12 and below.• All audience members must warrant that all vaccination and VDS information is correct when requested for disclosure.• All audience members must consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal data in relation to the ticket holders’ vaccination and VDS data.• Do bring along your photo identification and proof of vaccination. We regret that patrons who do not have their photo ID or proof of vaccination may be denied entry. Please visit the MOH website for details.* Please refer to ystmusic.nus.edu.sg for the latest event updates.

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Composing Time: A Symposium

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