Instrument and Music: The Play between Material and Message

For as long as we have had the desire to communicate that which words cannot express, we have imagined and fashioned instruments. Indeed, in the sphere of musicianship, the instrument, tool, or material is integral to almost every aspect of musical practice – and vice versa. Performing musicians often take this symbiotic relationship for granted. However when performance practices are thoughtfully examined in the context of artistic research, a startling array of multifaceted interrelationships, co‐dependencies and contradictions can often arise.

Most performers would agree that the tools they use are at the service of some message, but how accurate is this assumption? Regardless of how an individual artist may define parameters such as ‘instrument’ or ‘music’, what is the nature of this complex relationship, and how are such connections challenged, illuminated, obscured or reinforced in performance, or through practice‐based research?

Guest speaker is Walter van Hauwe, musician (recorder, flauto traverso).

Contributions by docARTES students Bart Vanhecke, Dick de Graaf, Nicolas Deletaille and Peter van Bergen.