Ernest Berk: An Expressionist 'Outsider'

欧内斯特·伯克是英国最多产的电子音乐作曲家之一，在1957-1984年间完成了200多部重要作品。这些作品通常内容丰富，制作精湛，与伯克为他的舞蹈团编排的作品一起演出。自他去世以来，他的作品一直默默无闻--他在世时只发布了两件作品，他捐赠给科隆国家档案馆的档案仍然没有编目，当它所在的建筑的一部分倒塌时，档案遭到了严重破坏。该项目将利用马丁·科勒在档案馆崩溃之前制作的音频材料数字化，以及对现存材料进行新的数字化，以制作关于伯克作品的第一本英文书。我们将不仅从他作为编舞的角度来审视他的生活、工作、美学和工作方法，还将从他作为纳粹德国流亡者的角度，以及作为一个坚定地在当时和学术界的大型文化机构之外工作的人的角度来审视他。此外，我们将创建欧内斯特·伯克电子音乐的数字档案馆和一个附带的网站，通过采访与他共事的人、档案文件、对作品的分析以及他用来实现作品的录音室设备来介绍他的作品。为了将伯克的工作放在更广泛的背景下，我们将举办两个学习日，考察英国电子音乐的“失声”，以及当时的文化机构在促进和促进电子音乐的特定方法方面所起的作用。通过从地缘政治的角度审视伯克的作品，以及英国更广泛的场景，我们旨在了解伯克在自主电子音乐中与舞蹈一起演奏的作品是如何与当时的主流美学和英国广播公司所倡导的“功能性音乐”背道而驰的。我们考察了伯克的作品是如何与西欧的电子音乐有更强的亲缘关系的--而英国广播公司(BBC)推广的“功能性电子音乐”是东欧广播电台推广的一种美学--以及由此产生的影响。研究成果将包括两本书，一本关于欧内斯特·伯克和他的电子音乐，以及一本经过编辑的散文集，这些论文是在研究期间产生的，在二战后的体制和地缘政治背景下更广泛地关注电子音乐，以及参与其创作的艺术家。除了数字档案馆和网站外，哈德斯菲尔德当代唱片公司还将发行一套伯克精选作品的5张CD。

Ernest Berk was one of the most prolific composers of electronic music in England, completing over 200 significant works between 1957-1984. These works, often substantial and expertly crafted, were composed to be performed alongside Berk's choreography for his dance company. Since his death, his work has fallen into obscurity - only two works were released during his lifetime, and the archive that he donated to the National Archive in Cologne remains uncatalogued and was significantly damaged when part of the building in which it was housed collapsed. This project will work with audio materials digitised by Martin Kohler made before the collapse of the archive, as well as new digitisations of the remaining extant materials, to produce the first English language book on Berk's work. We will examine his life, work, aesthetic and working methods not only from the perspective of his work as a choreographer, but also as an exile from Nazi Germany, and as someone who resolutely worked outside of the large cultural institutions of the time and academia. In addition, we will create a digital archive of Ernest Berk's electronic music and an accompanying website that contextualises his works through interviews with those who worked with him, archival documents, analyses of works as well as the studio equipment he used to realise his works. To situate Berk's work in a wider context, we will host two study days examining the 'lost voices' of electronic music in England, as well as examining the role that the cultural institutions of the time played in facilitating and promoting a particular approach to electronic music. Through examining Berk's work, and the wider scene in England from a geopolitical perspective, we aim to understand how Berk's work in autonomous electronic music to be played alongside dance was very much against the prevailing aesthetic of the time and the 'functional music' promoted by the BBC. We examine how Berk's works have a stronger kinship with the electronic music of Western Europe - whereas the 'functional electronic music' promoted by the BBC was an aesthetic promoted by Eastern European Radio stations - and the implications arising from this. The research outcomes will comprise two books, one about Ernest Berk and his electronic music, and an edited collection of essays arising from the Study Days looking at electronic music more widely within a post-World War 2 institutional and geopolitical setting and the artists involved in its creation. In addition to the digital archive and website, a 5-CD set of selected works by Berk will be released by Huddersfield Contemporary Records.