Again and Again and Again

Abstract

Again and Again and Again is about new musical works that in various ways integrate historical music as important components. It is the result of a three-year artistic research fellowship at the Norwegian Academy of Music, finsihed in 2012. My aim was to investigate the critical potential in the repetition of music history, and to follow my interest in the historical residue in both the apparatus of production and performance of new music. The use of historical material in new works has been applied throughout the history of western music. Through the emergence of advanced technology of storage and reproduction in the 20th century, the function of historical memory has changed, something that has been thoroughly dealt with in fine arts and in critical theory. ‘Repetition’ is a central term in works where new practices relive old ones and simultaneously make these strategies the object of critical scrutiny. In music, this harbours an approach to the artistic material where the institutions, places, formats and situations of music become material as much as pitch, duration and timbre. According to these interests, I have composed three works during the project period: (1) A piece for orchestra and electronics made within the framework of the institutionalized orchestral performance – the symphonic site; (2) A work where the situation of chamber music performance was thematized; (3) A performance where the intimacy of the private musical space has been investigated. These works are reflected in an accompanying body of text where ideas in and around the works are discussed in three different formats: The long essay, the brief note and the fictional form of the novel.