Field of Research Interfaces of contemporary music

This research field deals with aesthetic phenomena that have increasingly come into focus since the 1990s: Composed Theatre, sound research, new music systems, improvisational practices, connections to painting and literature, new authorial attitudes in performance practice and the disappearance of the performer.

This research field is not primarily interested in static work structures, but in creative development processes and the social interaction patterns on which these are based. Furthermore, the frequently-discussed questions of “worldliness”, of musical autonomy and relationality, of social, economic and political contexts, especially of experimental music theatre and related stage forms, are also discussed.

To record and document contemporary music practices, the research field utilises proven methods of qualitative field research and ethnography, among others. In addition to explanatory models from genetic studies of performances, theories of action from ritual research in particular are used to interpret processes.

Core competences

Empirical observation and analysis of creative processes in the contemporary performing arts
Experimental research into the artistic means of contemporary music
Expertise in promoting excellence and developing the quality of the interfaces between music, theatre, visual arts, literature etc.
Design, monitoring and evaluation of projects that use the dialogue-promoting and identity-creating potential of experimental music (interculturality, migration, globalisation)

Person responsible

Ongoing projects

Postdigital Musicking

Der multimodal shift in der zeitgenössischen Musikpraxis

Das Projekt untersucht, welchen Einfluss die digitale Revolution seit 2000 auf die zeitgenössische Musikpraxis in Westeuropa ausübt. Hierfür werden Schlüsselproduktionen aus postdigitaler Perspektive analysiert. Diese basiert auf gesicherten gesellschaftsanalytischen Befunden zur (sozial, moralisch und politisch) richtungsweisenden Rolle digitaler Systeme. Ziel des Projekts ist es, Auswirkungen digitaler Technologie auf die Praxis zeitgenössischer Musik ins Bewusstsein zu rücken.

Zum Projekt

Helvetia through a Twelve-Note Lens

Switzerland was one of the very first countries whose composers engaged with Schoenberg’s method, adapting it to meet their own needs. This project will chart the history of Arnold Schoenberg’s 12-note method in Switzerland, from its initial reception in ca 1923 via its heyday in the late 1940s and 1950s to its decline towards the end of the century, as post-Modernism and neo-tonality asserted themselves. Its intersection with politics and political aesthetics will be investigated, along with transnational aspects of the method.

Link to the project

Schreiben mit Stimmen

Contemporary compositional practices for the voice

“Schreiben mit Stimmen” examines compositional strategies and aesthetics of contemporary music as they present themselves in these social and technological contexts. The focus is on compositional strategies that compete with traditional notation, as they are orientated towards both the recorded voice and its extra-musical reference systems.

Link to the project

Im Brennpunkt der Entwicklungen

Founded in 1900 and dissolved in 2017, the Schweizerischer Tonkünstlerverein (STV) was central to the development of contemporary music in Switzerland. Its activities are reflected in an extensive archive. It reflects the cultural and socio-political upheavals and development processes that have been analysed in detail for the period since 1975, focusing on completing aesthetic positions and institutional, socio-political, cultural and media-political conditions.

Link to the project

Completed projects

Contact us

Feel free to get in touch with us! We will be happy to inform you about other projects in this research field and answer any questions you might have.

Bern Academy of the Arts HKB
Research
Institute Interpretation
Operational assistance: Reto Witschi
Fellerstrasse 11
CH-3027 Bern