Invitation

Presentation Concert and Public Defense

Sunday, 8th December at 2pm: Presentation Concert
Tuesday, 10th December at 1pm: PhD Defense (also available in Livestream)

You are cordially invited to the public defense by Guy Livingston of his research project “Performing Musical Silence: Markers, Gestures and Embodiments”. On Tuesday, 10th December at 13h00, Guy Livingston will defend his dissertation in the Academy Building of Leiden University (Netherlands).

Guy Livingston’s dissertation considers performed silences in composed music and suggests that musicians often use markers to communicate the dimensions of silence. These markers may shape, summon, or impose silence. Markers are signals or cues that may be visible, audible, or multimodal. This research consists of an archive of examples from his pianistic practice, as well as three case studies drawn from works of Beethoven, Cage, and Antheil.

Understanding and considering what silence represents is important for the engaged performer. By discerning the role that silence plays and how it functions (how it acts and what it does), new ideas on how to perform silence emerge. Conversely, delving into the actions and modes of execution in performance leads to a nuanced comprehension of the function, role, and position of silence in music.

How can performers engage with the multiple dimensions of silence in composed music? This research question, arising from the act of performing, investigates and unpacks the relationship between notated rests and “audible” silences by focusing on the role of visible, audible, and notational markers. The means of expressing silence are diverse, complex, conflicting, and overlapping. This knowledge is commonly shared amongst musicians but is tacit in the sense of not being studied and documented systematically. Moreover, it is tacit in the sense that the common means of expressing silence are not notated, as traditional notational symbols overlook the multidimensional contingencies and potentialities of performing silence. Performers embody silence through a rich vocabulary of gestures that has no notation and which is not widely documented.

Presentation Concert
8 December from 14h00 – 15h00
Koninklijk Conservatorium/Royal Conservatoire (Amare Building)
New Music Lab
Spuiplein 150, The Hague

Directions to the New Music Lab: when you enter on the ground floor of Amare, proceed to the middle where the elevators are located. Press “6” for the sixth floor before you enter the elevator. Take the elevator up to the sixth floor (Institute of Sonology) and proceed through the glass doors directly into the New Music Lab which is straight ahead.

Performers: Guy Livingston and Ned McGowan; Sound Design: Siamak Anvari.

PhD Defense
10 December at 13h00
Academy Building, Leiden University
Rapenburg 73, Leiden

Livestream Video

There is a Livestream available for those who cannot attend the ceremony.

Explore the Dissertation

The dissertation itself is available to the public online at https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1712958/2780572. This includes many audiovisual examples in which I explain my investigations into silence.