Output details

"The Performer as Creator: Between Repertoire Performance and Extemporisation"

David Dolan (piano), Paul Watkins (cello)

"The Performer as Creator" records an experiment conducted by the researcher/performer and the cellist Paul Watkins as part of the former’s research into the potential of extemporisation in duo performance. The hypothesis tested asserted that listeners’ and performers’ engagement with music is enhanced if the musicians take a creative responsibility for the music through extemporisation.

The experiment would have been impossible had the two performers not worked through a detailed research process allowing them to inhabit the aesthetic and formal cultures of the music to the extent that they were confident creatively to speak the languages themselves rather than simply recreate the speech of dead composers.

A Cambridge concert was the venue for the experiment. A tripartite structure was presented: first, a varied programme (Bach, Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Webern) was performed with an adherence to the visible signs of the scores unremarkable for today’s practice; next, the performers extemporised pieces based on the themes and structures already heard; finally, back to the composers’ expressions of these ideas, but this time in performances using a degree of extemporisation beyond current conventional “authentic” ornamentation, and which attempted to recreate a deeper conceptual authenticity of approach that comes through the performer reclaiming a creative voice.

A discussion with the audience followed the final performances. The consensus was that its attentive engagement with the music had been significantly enhanced and its enjoyment heightened. Subsequent analysis by the researcher of the “before and after” recordings identified that the second performances exhibited heightened expression, enhanced listening between the two performers, and more risk taking in dynamics and temporal changes. The hypothesis being that the audience’s positive reaction was connected to the use of extemporisation, a view subsequently confirmed through the research leading to the paper "The improvisatory approach to classical music performance: an empirical investigation into its characteristics and impact" also presented as a REF output.