Master classes, arguably the pinnacle of the master–apprentice tradition, have been common within higher education of Western classical music. Although claimed to be effective, teaching and learning of musical interpretation in this setting are not well-researched. One seven day long piano master class in the form of a self-contained university course was critically analysed from a hermeneutic perspective and philosophically discussed using three components from the ancient dialogue Philopseudes concerning the learning of magic as well as my experiences of apprenticeship. The empirical material consisted of observations of and field notes from 18 master class lessons; six video-stimulated interviews with two students, master class teacher, and the students’ regular teacher; qualitative semi-structured follow-up interviews with two students and the students’ regular teacher; and scanned versions of the students’ scores. The analysis indicated that the students’ learning of musical interpretation is hindered owing to the master’s beliefs and actions; the lessons centre on the master’s privileged access to secret knowledge mediated in writing; and, the metaphors of gods, ghosts, and Weiheküsse, can be used to understand the master’s storytelling and teaching. I suggest re-negotiating the master class and the required competencies of teachers for such classes within higher music education.
The article, serving as an introduction to the special issue on artistic research in music, defines and puts into perspective five main problem areas that figure prominently in the ongoing debate on artistic research and that are also discussed in the remaining articles of the present issue. The areas discussed are: the identity of the artistic researcher; questions of methods and methodology; epistemological issues; problems relating to the presentation of research results; and the relationship of artistic research to other research areas and to the art world.
Recension av Mattias Lundbergs bok Martin Luthers egna toner och ord om musik. Skellefteå: Artos & Norma bokförlag. 144 s., ill., notex. ISBN 978-91-7777-032
The artistic research project ‘Room for interpretation’ addresses questions concerning the influence of room acoustics on the performance of Western art music from the performers’ perspective. The empirical core of the project is a number of experimental performance sessions carried out in Studio Acusticum, Piteå, a concert hall with mechanically variable acoustics. The authors discuss issues relating to the project’s design and methodology; the focus of the article is thus the research process rather than the results. A presentation of the project, its preconditions, goals, design and methodology is followed by an overview of previous research, mostly in acoustic science, on the same or closely related topics. In the third part of the article, characteristics of the present project are compared to those of the previous studies. In the following part, ’Room for interpretation’ is related to the ongoing discussion on the purposes and means of artistic research. The authors argue that the project, while showing certain similarities to previous studies, differs considerably with respect to aims and important aspects of design, and that its characteristic features agree well with those usually regarded as typical of artistic research. The article concludes with a summary of the most important results concerning: differences between performers’ reactions in the live situation and when listening to their own recordings; differences between chamber ensembles, conducted ensembles and soloists as to the influence of the acoustics on the performance; and the prevalence of sound over other musical parameters in performers’ comments on their recorded performances.