In parallel with PEEK project On the Fragility of Sounds, the co-researchers Irene Lehmann and Christina Fischer-Lessiak continued to work in their respective areas of research and pursued their own projects. As research practices were shared and discussed, multi-layered interactions took place. The collaborative explorations circled around the interrelations of music theatre and composition with various modes of perception, and the influence of social categories like gender, feminism, and queerness on the main topics.
Irene Lehmann continued to expand her ongoing research project Resonating Knowledges, which she developed from investigations into how gender and queerness influence practices of composing-performing in the areas of music theatre and dance. Find out more about Irene Lehmann’s personal projects at her website:
https://irenelehmann.com/startseite/resonating-knowledges/
Highlights of the cooperation between Pia Palme, Irene Lehmann, and Christina Fischer-Lessiak
A research interview by Irene Lehmann with Pia Palme on composing-performing in May 2019 in Vienna
In the framework of her research project on women* composer-performers at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Irene Lehmann interviewed Palme on her artist biography, on the challenges of being a woman and composer, and on how this situation interrelates with the field of artistic research. Christina Fischer-Lessiak also participated in the conversation.
Research into rehearsal situations in November 2019 in Vienna
In November 2019, the PEEK project premiered Palme’s music theatre piece Mattetoline at the Off-theatre in Vienna, followed by a presentation at the Theater im Palais, Graz. As part of her own investigation, Lehmann explored on how to research a rehearsal situation. Her aim was to approximate a production process of a composed-performed music theatre. Lehmann and Palme discussed questions of staging.
More about Mattetoline can be found here http://www.fragilityofsounds.org/mattetoline-2019/
Lehmann included this research in her article “Listening with My Eyes Wide Open: Researching Music Theater in Artistic Research Environments.” https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7274048
A Joint Panel at the conference Performing, Engaging, Knowing at Lucerne University of Applied Arts and Sciences
First plans for a joint conference panel by Lehmann, Palme and Fischer Lessiak were discussed in November 2019, circling around the key terms resonances and interferences. The panel Interferences of Writing, Researching and Composing was presented online in August 2020, followed by peer-reviewed publications of all three contributions.
Lehmann, Irene. “Listening with My Eyes Wide Open: Researching Music Theater in Artistic Research Environments.” https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7274048
Fischer-Lessiak, Christina. “Learning Through Listening: An Autoethnographic Approach.” https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7274007
Palme, Pia. “Composing with a Polluted Planet.” https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7274072
A series of interviews with composers from the Composing Women Programme of the University of Sydney
Joining together from their different backgrounds, the musicologist Christina Fischer-Lessiak, the composer Pia Palme, and the theatre scholar Lehmann conducted long interviews with the participants of the Composing Women Programme of the University of Sydney, and with the programme director and composer Liza Lim, in June and July 2020. The composers Peggy Polias, Bree van Reyk, Giorgia Scott, and Josephine Macken had just finished and staged an evening of short operas at the Sydney Chamber Opera, when the pandemic lockdown set in. In these talks, the participants discussed biographical challenges and the possibilities of being a woman composer, as well as aspects of music theatre and the pandemic situations across the world.
Websites
https://www.sydney.edu.au/music/industry-and-community/community-engagement/composing-women.html
http://sydneychamberopera.com
WECHSELWIRKUNG – a music theatre piece
Within the production process of the music theatre piece WECHSELWIRKUNG in November 2020, Fischer-Lessiak and Lehmann were active as collaborative researchers, bringing in different backgrounds and capacities. Invited by the Principal Researcher Pia Palme, they were part of a larger collaborative team of five artists/researchers that included the choreographer and dancer Paola Bianchi and the singer and soloist Juliet Fraser. Lehmann published the extensive program booklet for the piece.
More about the process of WECHSELWIRKUNG and the program booklet https://www.fragilityofsounds.org/wechselwirkung/
Fragility of Sounds – a lecture series and a book project
Lehmann joined into the process of the lecture series in 2022, also contributing a presentation. At this point, Lehmann brought in her expertise for the production of the book Sounding Fragilities. An Anthology, which she co-published with Palme in 2022.
More about the lecture series under https://www.fragilityofsounds.org/fragility-of-sounds-lecture-series/