Rehearsal Analysis of Finnissy’s Third String Quartet

Funded by a British Academy small research grant in 2011

Summary
The aim of this interdisciplinary research, between musicology and social anthropology, is to develop new procedures and methodologies for studying rehearsal processes through the analysis of ‘discourse communities’. For contemporary music, in addition to co-performer interaction the rehearsal process often involves examining the additional dynamic of the composer-performer collaboration. Observational analysis of video and audio data of the Kreutzer Quartet rehearsing Michael Finnissy’s Third String Quartet with the composer, recorded in April 2009, will reveal ways in which professional musicians communicate during rehearsal, and how the playing is indicative of the transformation of talk into play.

Outputs:

In progress