Experimental Affinities in Music: From Late Middle Ages to the Present

Focussing on experimental approaches in music throughout history (from Late Middle Ages to the present) and in diverse cultural areas within the Western music tradition, the International Orpheus Academy for Music & Theory 2013 will look for experimental affinities detectable in diverse composers, performers and listeners. As conceived by Kant and Goethe, the word affinity refers to powerful links between intellect and emotions, and to complex sensory qualities that recall Baumgarten's idea of 'sensuous knowledge'.

• Some of the questions to be discussed during the Academy include the following:
• What is common to different experimental practices in music?
• What are the character, function and potential of experimentation in musical practice?
• How does experimentation shape artistic identity and expertise?
• How does artistic experimentation affect the development of musical practices?
• How do new artistic and investigative paths emerge through experimental performance/compositional practices?
• How does artistic experimentation in music relate to other fields of human activity?

To address these questions, a carefully selected guest faculty has taken on the challenge, which will constitute an important contribution to the development of the artistic theoretical discourse. This year’s faculty includes: Lydia Goehr (Columbia University, New York), Lawrence Kramer (Fordham University, New York), Felix Diergarten (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Basel), and Pedro Memelsdorff (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Basel).  In addition, artist-researchers from the Orpheus Research Centre in Music [ORCiM] will periodically react to and interface with the faculty, both through offering their insights into the evolving discourse of the Academy and by giving complementary musical presentations — including one concert — that articulate ORCiM’s characteristic fusion of musicianship and research work.