Renaissance Synthesisers: New Frameworks for Composition and Performance with Historical Instruments and Electronics

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Introduction: This project will use creative practice to investigate new compositional and performance frameworks for Early Music instruments and analogue synthesisers. Both instruments are Other to the mainstream of classical music (a commonality neglected in existing practice) which affords the potential for creative interrogation of prevailing methodology. This research will therefore ask: what transgressive potential is afforded by these instruments in combination, both sonically, and in challenging cultural hierarchies in classical music, the museum sector, and beyond?A portfolio of experimental compositions and a body of documented live-performance work will answer my research questions. An accompanying thesis will survey the existing scene, with reflexive analysis situating my practice within it.Research Questions:Research will intersect compositional, socio-political, and technological practice and theory. Compositional: How do historical-acoustic and electronic sonorities intersect? How, for example, are the frequencies of an FM synthesiser like that of the bass viol or harpsichord; how does the resonating body of the lute relate to those in physical modelling synthesis or digital processing techniques (EQ or resonators)? What harmonic, gestural and melodic material is suggested through these instruments' idiosyncrasies (tonality, timbral)? Socio-political: Engaging with current trends in new-music and cultural scenes more widely, how are Early Music and electronic instruments uniquely placed to challenge conventions of cultural hegemony? What are the systems that afford cultural import and how can they be challenged? How might genre signifiers, the historical vernacular, or quotation - deconstructed and reframed - facilitate dialogue between the past and our contemporary experience of the world? What creative potential do shifting and democratised means of dissemination offer (including digitally and in non-traditional spaces)? How might collaborative practice challenge prevailing, hierarchical notions of authorship? How might creative engagement with museums interrogate notions of taste, the elite, or Western imperialism?Technological: How will proliferating technologies facilitate these compositional and socio-political interventions? How, for example, might electroacoustic processing transform these instruments' sounds; how might digital media (interactive, online) alter the experience?Researcher:During my Masters I composed using the Royal College of Music's historical instrument collection, investigating a role for museum pieces in electronic composition. Collaborating with leading violist Liam Byrne, I explored multi-disciplinary performance for historical instruments in non-traditional spaces, for example with Rambert Dance at Wilderness Festival. Working across genres, I arranged music by Björk, Radiohead and others for the baroque orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.