20 oktober 2011
Colloquium Musicology
Polyphony as a music practice and as a metaphor
Prof.dr Rokus de Groot
Donderdag 20 oktober 2011
Universiteitstheater, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16,
Amsterdam, aanvang 15:30 uur, zaal 301
Polyphony has been developed for centuries as a theoretical, historical and educational concept in music theory and musicology, as well as a metaphor. Examples of the latter can be found in the work of philosophers, critics of culture, literature studies scholars, writers and anthropologists, e.g. Bakhtin, Lévi-Strauss, Mann, Blacking, Said. In 2011 and 2012 Musicology offers a monthly Research Colloquium in which these concepts will be explored. Special attention will be paid to the relationships between musical practices, music theories and metaphorical uses in relation to polyphony, engaging in clarification of terminology, refinement of theory building, expansion of application, and transposition to social theory and practice. As a starting point polyphony will be defined as a simultaneity of different voices in a relationship of constant mutual attuning (which usually involves conflict).
This is the first colloquium in the series. Apart from a critical assessment of the use of polyphony and counterpoint in Edward Said's work, Rokus de Groot will also discuss some cases of his own practice as a composer.
Rokus de Groot, musicologist and composer, conducts research on music of the 20th and 21st centuries, especially about aesthetics and systems of composition, about the interaction between different cultural and religious traditions, and about musical concepts as a metaphor (polyphony, counterpoint). He holds the chair of musicology at the University of Amsterdam.
Among his recent publications are 'Rumi and the Abyss of Longing’, in The Mawlana Rumi Review Vol. 2, ed. L. Lewisohn, Cyprus: Rumi Institute, Near East University, and Exeter: the Rumi Studies Group of the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, 2011, p. 60-93; 'Stravinsky's "Musick to heare": A Study in Union and Singleness', in Dutch Journal of Music Theory Vol. 16/1, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011, p. 27-38; 'Edward Said and Polyphony', in A. Iskandar and H. Rustom (eds.), Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010, p. 204-228; 'Music, Religion and Power: Qawwali as Empowering Disempowerment', in M.B. ter Borg and J.W. van Henten, Powers, Religion as a Social and Spiritual Force, New York: Fordham University Press, 2010, p. 243-264; and ‘Rabindranath Tagore and Frederik van Eeden: Reception of a “Poet-King” in the Netherlands’, in J. Bor e.a. ed., Hindustani Music: Thirteenth to Twentieth Centuries, Delhi: Manohar, 2010, p. 521-576.
He composes music theatre for singers, musicians and dancers from different traditions, such as Song of songs: The Love of Mirabai (New Delhi 2005), Layla and Majnun: A Composition about the Night (Amsterdam 2006), and ShivaShakti (Chennai, 2009). These are examples of mutual learning and intercultural polyphony.
See also; home.medewerker.uva.nl/r.degroot/