Publications: Articles by Steph Jones
During the 2014 International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Berlin-based composer Mar... more During the 2014 International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Berlin-based composer Mark Andre (b. 1964, Paris) lectured specifically on how his own compositional practice is concerned with ‘interstices that occur between compositional polarities – the affect, the appearance, the families of time and sound, the families of impulse responses – before they unfold themselves fragile, shadowy, breathlessly and fade away’. Drawing upon Andre's teachings at Darmstadt, as well as certain theories on existence put forward by Michel Foucault, Jean-Luc Nancy, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, and Pierre Boulez, this article will work to prise open and unfold a broad, contextual backdrop for theorising the composer's own compositional practice. In particular, this article will argue that Andre, like the authors named above, uses the position of interstices to contest the working of ‘synthetic’ structure in (Western) civilisation, and so relieve, even if momentarily – by allowing ‘being’ to freely resonate, even speak – any notion of synthetic impingement.
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Publications: Reviews by Steph Jones
In parallel to London's overflowing cityscape, saturated on this occasion by both a bitterly cold... more In parallel to London's overflowing cityscape, saturated on this occasion by both a bitterly cold torrential downpour and the annual frenzied crowding of materialistic festivity, the penultimate event to the city's Contemporary Music Festival was underway just after 7pm on Saturday 15 December 2018 in the cavernous Ambika P3 venue, a 14,000 square foot performing and exhibition space located on basement level to the University of Westminster's Marylebone Campus.
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On the 13 May 2018, under the beautiful, celestial, fresco ceiling of the city's opera house, the... more On the 13 May 2018, under the beautiful, celestial, fresco ceiling of the city's opera house, the highly acclaimed Oper Stuttgart produced a captivating revival of composer Mark Andre's Wunderzaichen (2008–2014; Wunder, ‘miracle’, and Zaichen, old German for ‘sign’). The protagonist, ‘Johannes’, is a ‘speech role’, and André Jung met the challenge with a modest, yet rigorous, intellect. Julia Bauer, as ‘Maria’, displayed a sensitive and virtuosic vocal ability. The orchestra, under the baton of Sylvain Cambreling, mastered the majestically complex signatures of Andre's soundworld with commendable accuracy and a fluid simplicity.
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In response to Paul Valéry's words after the First World War in 'La Crise de l'esprit' – ‘We late... more In response to Paul Valéry's words after the First World War in 'La Crise de l'esprit' – ‘We later civilisations … we too now know that we are mortal’ – the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler remarks, in his own chapter entitled ‘Apocalypse Without God’ in his What Makes Life Worth Living, 'We too, earthlings of the twenty-first century know that we are capable of self-destruction. And if in the past the possibility of such an extinction of our kind was inconceivable other than as the consequence of God's anger – of original sin – today there is no longer any religious reference at the origin of this extreme global pessimism’ (p. 9).
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On the evening of 18 April 2017, the world premiere of Chaya Czernowin's highly anticipated new o... more On the evening of 18 April 2017, the world premiere of Chaya Czernowin's highly anticipated new opera, Infinite Now, was performed at Vlaamse Opera Ghent, Belgium. The ambience of the venue was buzzing, highly charged, electrical – a visceral state that seemed contextually appropriate for the lengthy 2.5-hour experience (without intermission) ahead. Programmed as part of the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen 2016–17 ‘Borderline’ series, the set-up and contour of the pre-concert events became eerily symbolic: a large, grandiose, guarded door separated the rooms holding the press conference and pre-concert lecture, through which the composer would eventually pass toward the latter to conclude: ‘[t]he power to continue, that is what [the opera] is all about. It is not the power to be happy or to be sad. … It is much more morass, elemental and existential. The power to continue’. In an instant, the strong ring of emergency sirens then happened to pierce and penetrate from the world beyond – a rather poignant signal to declare the doors to the first performance officially open.
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Originally written for the online magazine, SoundsLikeNow., May 2017
Branded the 'world's first industrial city' and 'cottonopolis' due to its vital contribution to t... more Branded the 'world's first industrial city' and 'cottonopolis' due to its vital contribution to the Industrial Revolution, Manchester continues to bind itself to a strong historical narrative of technological advancement. This history has been reshaped recently with the redevelopment of Salford Quays into MediaCity UK, now home to TV and radio departments belonging to international broadcasting companies such as the BBC that were based previously in London.
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The first weekend of the 2016 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival saw an eclectic and vibran... more The first weekend of the 2016 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival saw an eclectic and vibrant mix of musical events. Artistic director Graham McKenzie promised a festival that was going to be ‘undoubtedly characterised by the bringing together of often quite disparate forces, to create new sounds, new experiences, and new approaches to music making’, and the opening days also manifested a strong sense of artistic difference and distance as well. The presence of Georg Friedrich Haas, this year's Composer in Residence, and Rebecca Saunders seemed to fire up such underlying dynamic energies. Throughout the weekend both composers took part in public interviews and both had UK and world premieres, yet they only presented in parallel: the programming kept them apart. In turn, the weekend amplified various levels of similarity and divergence between the two composers, exposing some fascinating creative tensions.
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In the preface to the 2016 International Summer Course for New Music programme booklet, the festi... more In the preface to the 2016 International Summer Course for New Music programme booklet, the festival's artistic director, Thomas Schäfer, repeated a question that Irvine Arditti had put to him when they were discussing the Arditti Quartet's concerts: ‘shall we attack the future or dig up the past?’. This question, posed in order to establish some form of discursive framework for the course, became a subliminal trace throughout the festival. The participants' bags, for instance, were imprinted with the slogan, ‘attack the future’ and Schäfer ended his preface by stating, ‘let me call out to everyone involved, and to our audience: let's attack the future!’. The air of the festival itself, however, seemed slightly more reserved throughout its lengthy 17-day span. There were, of course, moments of theatrical flamboyance, such as Fantasises of Downfall (2015) by Johannes Kreidler, metalized void (2015/16) by Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, The Lichtenberg Figures (2014/15) by Eva Reiter, Sideshow (2009/15) by Steven Kazuo Takasugi, EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT (2015/16) by Jennifer Walshe, and Living Instruments (2015) by Serge Vuille. Yet, overall the atmosphere of the festival seemed to be one of quiet vigilance as events unfolded.
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Throughout the 2014 International Summer Course for New Music, the correlations between Darmstadt... more Throughout the 2014 International Summer Course for New Music, the correlations between Darmstadt's scientific and artistic nuclei resonated. In his ‘Greeting’ note in the Summer Course programme booklet, the Mayor of Darmstadt, Jochen Partsch, describes the Summer Course as ‘an artistic laboratory … in which new works are presented and developed, in which musicians from all over the world find a forum for exchange and experimentation’. As in previous years, the Summer Course took place at various locations around Darmstadt city, which ensured the establishment of a vibrant learning environment. In turn, Darmstadt the ‘Wissenschaftsstadt’, or ‘City of Science’, also inspired old and new musical debate.
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Publications: Web Blogs by Steph Jones
With Dr Kenneth Smith adopting the persona of a rather more youthful Lord Alan Sugar, the third S... more With Dr Kenneth Smith adopting the persona of a rather more youthful Lord Alan Sugar, the third SMA Postgraduate Writing Club session was held in the ‘board room’ on Saturday 5th October at the School of Music, University of Liverpool.
The first candidate up for interrogation was Joseph Knowles from the University of York who submitted a draft chapter entitled ‘Chromaticism in Gesualdo’s Madrigal ‘Mercé grido piangendo’, which is due to be published in Reappraising the Seiento: Compositional Procedure in Italy and England. In his chapter, Joseph uses pitch class set theory to enlighten the reader about the possible hidden relations that can be found between the use of chromaticism and the theme of ‘death’. It was agreed that, despite being in draft form, the chapter made for a very interesting read. The discussion offered a plethora of ideas that mainly focused on the various ways in which the chapter could be restructured and expanded to best utilise the word count available.
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Julian Horton opened his keynote jokingly apologising for a sense of disorientation stemming from... more Julian Horton opened his keynote jokingly apologising for a sense of disorientation stemming from the train journey from Waterloo to Egham, ‘in which you seem to cross the Thames from the North to the South about three times… so I’m now not entirely clear which side of the Thames I’m on’. No such confusion was apparent, however, in his arguments for the role of theory and analysis in the age of postmodernist scholarship. Horton’s paper conjoined ‘two parallel threads’ that run throughout his research of the past decade or so. The first, polemical thread describes a series of published position papers that have ‘tried to stake out a territory for theory and analysis’. The second, analytical thread ‘put into practice the terms of the position papers somehow’. Not surprisingly, given Horton’s field, this knitting exercise transmuted into a coherent five-part form, with a modulation from polemics to analysis between parts 3 and 4 respectively, and then another smooth transition out of analysis into the concluding part 5.
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MMus Dissertation by Steph Jones
The relation between metaphorical and literal meaning seems strained by Western literature, leadi... more The relation between metaphorical and literal meaning seems strained by Western literature, leading to terms such as ‘coldness’ being limited to predominately signifying a reduction in temperature with little acknowledgement of the types of coldness that can occur from within a corporeal space. However, recent research conducted by Chen-Bo Zhong and Geoffrey J. Leonardelli has revealed that even though terms such as ‘icy stare’ are metaphorical, a correlation is evident between physiological symptoms relating to an awareness of a reduction in temperature and loneliness. The results of such research highlight how coldness can manifest itself within a corporeal space as well as in the external environment. Beauty and coldness are inextricably linked and despite this relation being acknowledged for millennia the terms are seemingly opposed by Western literature. The reworking of the term ‘beauty’ and the relation it has to coldness is fundamental to Helmut Lachenmann’s compositional ideology and technique yet little research has explored how Lachenmann represents this relation through sound. In order to explore and define the different types of coldness that can impinge on a corporeal space and the physiological symptoms each type of coldness can cause, a literary analysis of The Little Match Seller by Hans Christian Andersen will be conducted with specific reference being made to Madness in Civilization by Michel Foucault. Establishing how Lachenmann represents his notion of beauty and the relation it has to coldness through sound will be explored by drawing on the literary analysis conducted on The Little Match-Seller and applying it to an interpretive analysis of Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern (1988 -1996). This study aims to provide the foundations for enhancing knowledge of the fundamental themes at work in The Little Match-Seller, help liberate the term ‘coldness’ from predominately signifying a reduction in temperature or metaphor, understand how Lachenmann represents his notion of beauty and the relation it has to coldness through sound, and ultimately provide the foundations to help bridge and enhance current Anglo-American literature on the composer.
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Publications: Articles by Steph Jones
Publications: Reviews by Steph Jones
Publications: Web Blogs by Steph Jones
The first candidate up for interrogation was Joseph Knowles from the University of York who submitted a draft chapter entitled ‘Chromaticism in Gesualdo’s Madrigal ‘Mercé grido piangendo’, which is due to be published in Reappraising the Seiento: Compositional Procedure in Italy and England. In his chapter, Joseph uses pitch class set theory to enlighten the reader about the possible hidden relations that can be found between the use of chromaticism and the theme of ‘death’. It was agreed that, despite being in draft form, the chapter made for a very interesting read. The discussion offered a plethora of ideas that mainly focused on the various ways in which the chapter could be restructured and expanded to best utilise the word count available.
MMus Dissertation by Steph Jones
The first candidate up for interrogation was Joseph Knowles from the University of York who submitted a draft chapter entitled ‘Chromaticism in Gesualdo’s Madrigal ‘Mercé grido piangendo’, which is due to be published in Reappraising the Seiento: Compositional Procedure in Italy and England. In his chapter, Joseph uses pitch class set theory to enlighten the reader about the possible hidden relations that can be found between the use of chromaticism and the theme of ‘death’. It was agreed that, despite being in draft form, the chapter made for a very interesting read. The discussion offered a plethora of ideas that mainly focused on the various ways in which the chapter could be restructured and expanded to best utilise the word count available.