Music of Razak Abdul Aziz: Preparing Chosen Solo and Collaborative Piano Works for Two Academic Recitals

For the first time in history, full-scale performances on musical compositions by a Malaysian composer, Razak Abdul Aziz, were presented through two academic recitals—27 July 2019 and 6 February 2020—at Orchestra Hall, Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan (ASWARA). These recitals consisted of solo and collaborative piano works, performed by me and a team of music collaborators that were specifically selected for this purpose. Razak Abdul Aziz, who is still actively composing, spent most of his career life as an academic, first serving for Institut Teknologi MARA (ITM), then Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) until his retirement in November 2019. Besides fulfilling the academic requirements set by Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) for my doctoral degree, I had chosen to perform works by this composer as he is generally known to the local music community as one of the earliest contemporary composers in the country (started composing in the 1980s). Yet, a full-scale performance of his works was long overdue, though he had the opportunities to have some of his works premiered and performed on local and international platforms as part of concert programmes. This artist project talks about the preparation I made for both recitals, briefly explaining the creative process I journeyed through and the challenges I faced during this time span, discussing each work I had selected for these academic recitals. These recitals could, perhaps, be the pioneers in studying and performing works by Razak Abdul Aziz, hoping to expand this effort to national and international levels.

Voices in the Reo: Music, Community and Membership in a Rātana Brass Band

<p>This study explores the brass bands of the Rātana community. Te Hāhi Rātana (the Rātana Church) is a Māori Christian church based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Between 1932 and 1984 Te Hāhi Rātana established seven brass bands, which today constitute an amateur brass movement with over eighty years of history and several hundred active band members around the country. Rātana brass bands are widely recognised as emblematic of the Rātana Church and associated political movement, yet the bands gain only passing mention in New Zealand music histories and reference works. This thesis presents the first in-depth research about Rātana brass bands. Based on fieldwork conducted over a one-year period, this thesis investigates Rātana brass banding in its community context. Taking a contemporary ethnographic approach, I explore aspects of symbolism, performance and membership, discussing some of the localised meanings and functions of the brass band in the Rātana context. The research presented in the thesis centred around interviews and interactions with members of one of seven Rātana brass bands, whose voices I incorporate into the text. Observations of the band members playing in church and marae contexts form the basis for narrative ethnographic descriptions and interpretive discussion. Drawing on ‘insider notions’ of community and banding, such as the idea of whānau (family), I explore the Rātana community and faith through the brass bands. This study considers some of the ways in which brass band music serves to bind and sustain the musical collectivities of the bands themselves, and the large, geographically spread, spiritual community of which they are a part.</p>

Voices in the Reo: Music, Community and Membership in a Rātana Brass Band

<p>This study explores the brass bands of the Rātana community. Te Hāhi Rātana (the Rātana Church) is a Māori Christian church based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Between 1932 and 1984 Te Hāhi Rātana established seven brass bands, which today constitute an amateur brass movement with over eighty years of history and several hundred active band members around the country. Rātana brass bands are widely recognised as emblematic of the Rātana Church and associated political movement, yet the bands gain only passing mention in New Zealand music histories and reference works. This thesis presents the first in-depth research about Rātana brass bands. Based on fieldwork conducted over a one-year period, this thesis investigates Rātana brass banding in its community context. Taking a contemporary ethnographic approach, I explore aspects of symbolism, performance and membership, discussing some of the localised meanings and functions of the brass band in the Rātana context. The research presented in the thesis centred around interviews and interactions with members of one of seven Rātana brass bands, whose voices I incorporate into the text. Observations of the band members playing in church and marae contexts form the basis for narrative ethnographic descriptions and interpretive discussion. Drawing on ‘insider notions’ of community and banding, such as the idea of whānau (family), I explore the Rātana community and faith through the brass bands. This study considers some of the ways in which brass band music serves to bind and sustain the musical collectivities of the bands themselves, and the large, geographically spread, spiritual community of which they are a part.</p>

Irish Music in Wellington: a Study of a Local Music Community

<p>The Irish session is a musical, social and cultural experience that has emerged from international popularisation and globalisation. In New Zealand today, communities of Irish music enthusiasts maintain links to an international arena, and the session is valued as a context for musical enjoyment and the affirmation of Irish identity. Throughout my research I immersed myself in Wellington's vibrant Irish music scene with fieldwork techniques that included participant observation, sound recordings, and performance. The major part of this study took place in two local Wellington pubs - Molly Malone's and Kitty O'Shea's - but I also observed sessions in other New Zealand cities and in Ireland. The similarities and differences between the two Wellington sessions were examined in detail and my research included extensive interviews with the participants. In addition to exploring Irish essions in the context of two Wellington pubs, this thesis explores session instrumentation and repertoire, and aspects of cultural identity that include the participant's experiences with Irish music. This thesis also examines how individual session members actively contribute and link their musical training and background to a transnational Irish music community. By studying the individual and musical identities of those actively involved in the community, this thesis reveals that Irish music in Wellington is an active and dynamic scene made up of enthusiasts with a variety of musical and cultural backgrounds. With music as its heart, the Wellington session community, is simultaneously localised in New Zealand but extends outward and connects with Irish communities globally.</p>

Irish Music in Wellington: a Study of a Local Music Community

<p>The Irish session is a musical, social and cultural experience that has emerged from international popularisation and globalisation. In New Zealand today, communities of Irish music enthusiasts maintain links to an international arena, and the session is valued as a context for musical enjoyment and the affirmation of Irish identity. Throughout my research I immersed myself in Wellington's vibrant Irish music scene with fieldwork techniques that included participant observation, sound recordings, and performance. The major part of this study took place in two local Wellington pubs - Molly Malone's and Kitty O'Shea's - but I also observed sessions in other New Zealand cities and in Ireland. The similarities and differences between the two Wellington sessions were examined in detail and my research included extensive interviews with the participants. In addition to exploring Irish essions in the context of two Wellington pubs, this thesis explores session instrumentation and repertoire, and aspects of cultural identity that include the participant's experiences with Irish music. This thesis also examines how individual session members actively contribute and link their musical training and background to a transnational Irish music community. By studying the individual and musical identities of those actively involved in the community, this thesis reveals that Irish music in Wellington is an active and dynamic scene made up of enthusiasts with a variety of musical and cultural backgrounds. With music as its heart, the Wellington session community, is simultaneously localised in New Zealand but extends outward and connects with Irish communities globally.</p>

Vectors of Liu Shikun’s Creative Activity in the Context of China Piano Art of the Second Half of the XX — Beginning of the XXI Century

Problem statement and its relevance. One of the pioneers of Chinese contemporary piano art, whose creative activity certainly contributed to its formation, further rapid rise and recognition of creative achievements on the world art horizon, is a prominent pianist — Liu Shikun, who today has received complete recognition as a brilliant performer, composer and teacher thus marked the beginning of the so­called piano boom in China, and with it — the gradual formation and confident rise of the Chinese piano school. If various aspects of contemporary Chinese performing arts have repeatedly been subjected to musicological discourse in the scientific community, the direct and comprehensive coverage of Liu Shikun’s leading role in the process of forming the foundations of Chinese piano performing arts, as well as careful analysis and representation of his creative achievements and pedagogical fields are still relevant for basic musicological research. The purpose of this article is to highlight and analyze the main vectors of creative activity of the famous Chinese musician Liu Shikun in the context of the development of piano art in China in the second half of the XX — early XXI centuries. The methodology of the work focuses on the principles of historicism and source studies, which provides coverage of Liu Shikun’s musical work in a single context with cultural, historical and artistic phenomena and their interaction. In addition, methods of retrospective, structural­system analysis, interpretation of facts, argumentation and generalization are involved. The results obtained during the achievement of the goal of this work focus on the representation and characterization of Liu Shikun’s creative achievements in the field of concert performance, teaching and composition and the artist’s contribution to the development of Chinese piano culture. The topicality of the article lies in the first attempt in Ukrainian musicology to comprehensively cover the main directions of creative activity of the famous Chinese pianist Liu Shikun in the projection of his influence on the formation of the current state of Chinese piano art. The practical significance of the facts and analysis of the main vectors of Liu Shikun’s creative activity carried out in this work is the possibility of using this material in courses on the history and theory of modern piano art, in particular in sections on the Chinese piano school, as well as for further more thorough research of Liu Shikun’s musical creativity, systematization of scientific information on his contribution to the development of musical art of this country. Conclusions. Summarizing the above given material, it should be noted that the fruitful and multifaceted work of this artist directly influenced the development and professionalization of piano performance in China at that time. This influence was due to the comprehensive recognition of the artist’s creative achievements by the world music community, in particular through numerous concert performances in leading countries (especially in partnership with leading orchestras and outstanding musicians); creation of original samples of concert repertoire on the basis and with specificity of the Chinese traditional melody; organization of a dense network of author’s music schools (art centers) and formation of the foundations of the Chinese national piano pedagogy.

Music Community, Improvisation, and Social Technologies in COVID-Era Música Huasteca

This article examines two interrelated aspects of Mexican regional music response to the coronavirus crisis in the música huasteca community: the growth of interactive huapango livestreams as a preexisting but newly significant space for informal community gathering and cultural participation at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and the composition of original verses by son huasteco performers addressing the pandemic. Both the livestreams and the newly created coronavirus disease (COVID) verses reflect critical improvisatory approaches to the pandemic in música huasteca. The interactive livestreams signaled an ad hoc community infrastructure facilitated by social media and an emerging community space fostered by Do-It-Yourself (DIY) activists. Improvised COVID-related verses presented resonant local and regional themes as a community response to a global crisis. Digital ethnography conducted since March 2020 revealed a regional burst of musical creativity coupled with DIY intentionality, a leveling of access to virtual community spaces, and enhanced digital intimacies established across a wide cultural diaspora in Mexico and the USA. These responses were musically, poetically, and organizationally improvisational, as was the overall outpouring of the son huasteco music inspired by the coronavirus outbreak. Son huasteco is a folk music tradition from the Huasteca, a geo-cultural region spanning the intersection of six states in central Mexico. This study examines a selection of musical responses by discussing improvisational examples in both Spanish and the indigenous language Nahuatl, and in the virtual musical communities of the Huasteca migrant diaspora in digital events such as “Encuentro Virtual de Tríos Huastecos,” the “Huapangos Sin Fronteras” festival and competition, and in the nightly gatherings on social media platforms developed during the pandemic to sustain the Huastecan cultural expression. These phenomena have served as vibrant points of transnational connection and identity in a time where physical gatherings were untenable.

Making Sweet Music Together: The Affordances of Networked Media for Building Performance Capital by YouTube Musicians

Following Miller, who looked at offline performance capital for musicians and discovered important gender and genre impacts, we examined the role of gender and genre in the development of performance capital for YouTube top cover song artists. This case study suggests that online performance capital on YouTube is slightly different than offline performance capital, and benefits from the affordances of networked media, and specifically YouTube. While there is some gender-based homophily in channel linking behaviors, there are also connections between weakly tied individuals with respect to video category, meaning that musicians are linking to others outside of the music community and vice versa. While music video channels tend to link to other music video channels, and non-music channels tend to link to other non-music channels, the most popular videos tend to post from multiple categories including both music and non-music. Findings suggest that being a long-time poster and having a rich and diverse network are likely elements of building performance capital for YouTube musicians.

“Play with me”: Student perspectives on collaborative chamber music instruction

This article reports on a pilot project conducted in Australia and Norway evaluating new approaches to collaborative chamber music instruction in higher education settings. Following suggestions from the literature on collaborative and group learning in music, chamber music tuition was chosen as a suitable context to examine the possibility of teaching-through-playing and the impact of such an approach on students’ collaborative learning and their induction into the professional music community. Two groups of staff and students in each institution volunteered to participate in the project and implemented their own rehearsal schedule. Student focus group interviews were conducted after the final performance of rehearsed repertoire, and transcripts were analyzed by two researchers independently for the emerging themes and refined through iterative discussions. Key findings include students being inspired by working with experienced staff in a professional setting, learning the skills of ensemble playing such as effective rehearsal techniques, understanding of stylistic conventions, specific technical, musical and co-ordination skills, greater experimentation, positive impact of group discussions, and a more collaborative atmosphere. Students found it challenging to alter power roles, as the ingrained attitudes of teacher-led approaches prevailed. This project has shown that teaching-through-playing chamber music is a viable approach for developing students’ musical and social skills by providing them with authentic professional experiences. We propose an alternative model of higher education performance teaching that is more collaborative and participatory.