Sounding the Sacred: Music, Composition and the Quotidian
Submitting Institution
University of SunderlandUnit of Assessment
Music, Drama, Dance and Performing ArtsSummary Impact Type
SocietalResearch Subject Area(s)
Studies In Creative Arts and Writing: Film, Television and Digital Media, Performing Arts and Creative Writing
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies
Summary of the impact
The impact described below relates to practice-based research conducted
in proximity to and in association with a diverse range of public
institutions and communities. The case for impact resides in part on the
methodological proximity of the work to key sites of social utility and
benefit. The deployment of 'participation' as a research methodology and
the benefit accruing thereby to participating individuals and agencies in
the scientific, penal, religious, arts, healthcare and educational sectors
offers a ready conduit for the dissemination of knowledge and the
generation of impact. The claimed impact informs the content and direction
of (i) music education practice & curricula (ii) arts organisation
policy (iii) discursivity within and between cognate disciplines (iv)
musicological exegesis and (v) audience engagement.
Underpinning research
With a critique of contemporary 'high secularism' at its centre, the
research seeks to explore the potential for music to act as a medium
through which alternative forms of communality and mutuality might be
generated, experienced and understood. It does so by (i) exploring the
relationship between music, sound and language, and (ii) problematising
the sacred-secular divide in pursuing musical/performative strategies that
would re-configure the cultural signature and experiential tenor of
everyday 'social' spaces and environments. Out of novel configurations of
music, language, narrative, dramaturgy and 'place' (libraries, sports
centres, cinemas, bridges, churches, prisons, power stations, museums)
come insights that relate to the development of new/alternative approaches
to musical interpretation, presentation and reception. These are arrived
at by making connections between composed music and everyday places,
communities and circumstances. The results of this work have entered the
public domain in the form of (a) site-specific operas (b) site-specific
music/sound installations (c) composer residencies and (c) associated
writings.
The first research trajectory ((i) above) is exemplified in writings that
co-opt literary-poetic forms for musicological puposes. The short story
"WKD2" (Friction, 2010) and the book length fiction "Thimio's House"
(Perfect Edge, 2013), for instance, explore, on the one hand, music's
presence and audibility in language, and on the other, language's
musicality. The conflation of sacred-versus-secular themes within these
stories feeds into the development of outputs that relate to the second
research trajectory (ii) above), which is perhaps best exemplified by
"Beyond Belief", a 2001-2003 project commissioned by a consortium of local
authority agencies in West Cumbria. This operatic cycle was devised in
response to the Cumbrian foot-and-mouth crisis and was conceived for four
everyday cultural spaces. he first performance of this four-hour work
brought together a large number of beneficiaries (stakeholders,
participating individuals/agencies/organisations and audiences) in a novel
cohesion that crossed aesthetic boundaries. The individual works
themselves (Icon of the Nativity, Passion, Testament and Creation)
comprised a mix of live, recorded and digital sound, spoken text,
instrumental and vocal music, projected video and live action. These were
disseminated to/via local communities in the form of live performances.
Beyond Belief also gained regional and national press coverage (Times
Educational Supplement, BBC Radio and TV), with impact accruing in terms
of public debate (and some controversy) in terms of the way bereavement
and death should be represented.
More recent projects along these lines include publicly funded works
conducted in association with Durham Cathedral (A Sign in Space, 2012 and
Book of Bells, 2013), the Dove Marine Science Laboratory (Eight Bells
2011), HM Prison Frankland (Brass Trax 2012) and the medical charity
Diabetes UK (Glucose 2012). The diverse range of agencies (ie.
participant-beneficiaries) aligning themselves with the research signals a
high degree of veracity, demand and impact accruing over time.
References to the research
Title: BEYOND BELIEF
Author: John Kefala-Kerr
Researcher/Position Held: John Kefala-Kerr Senior Lecturer in
Music/Music Technology
Dates of Publication: 2001-2003 Type of Output: Cycle of
four site-specific multimedia operas
Funding: Northern Rock Foundation/Wansbeck County Council/Copeland
Borough Council/ Allerdale
Borough Council/Carlisle City Council Grant Title: Beyond Belief Awarded
to: Cumbria Arts in Education Value: £95,000 Period:
2001-2003
URL: www.johnkefalakerr.com/passion
Composition and performance of four multimedia operas created in response
to the 2001 foot and mouth crisis. Commissioned by Copeland, Allerdale and
Wansbeck Borough Councils & Cumbria Arts in Education.
Title: FISH AND THE YESTERDAY SONG
Authors: John Kefala-Kerr, Tim Bennett & Claire Webster
Saraamets
Researcher/Position Held: John Kefala-Kerr Senior Lecturer in
Music/Music Technology
Date of Publication: 2011 Type of Output: Multimedia
Performance for Day Care Centres
Funding: Arts Council England/Helix Arts Grant Title: Fish
and the Yesterday Song
Awarded to: Skimstone Arts Value: £12,000 Period:
Sept 2010-Mar 2011
URL1: http://skimstone.org.uk/portfolio-item/fish-the-yesterday-song/
URL2: http://www.southtyneside.info/article/10217/fish-and-the-yesterday-song-exhibition
Tour of multimedia performance based on testimonies of dementia sufferers.
Commissioned by Helix Arts.
Performances: 15/10/10 Customs House Theatre, South Shields, 12/10/10
Washington Arts Centre, 09/11/10 Queen's Hall Arts Centre, Hexham,
20/11/10 Newcastle Arts Centre, 23/11/10 Father James Walsh Centre, South
Tyneside, 02/12/10 Sunderland Minster, 17/02/11 Culture Lab, Newcastle
University
Title: BRASS TRAX
Author: John Kefala-Kerr
Researcher/Position Held: John Kefala-Kerr Senior Lecturer in
Music/Music Technology
Date of Publication: 2012 Type of Output: Artist Residency
& Composition for Brass Instruments
Funding: Durham City Arts Grant Title: HMP Frankland
Residency Awarded to: The Sage Gateshead
Value: £12,000 Period: Apr 2011-Jul 2012 URL: http://johnkefalakerr.com/frankland-prison-brass
HMP Frankland residency and new music composition: June-July 2011.
Composition phase Aug 2011-
Feb 2012.
Title: EIGHT BELLS
Author: John Kefala-Kerr
Researcher/Position Held: John Kefala-Kerr Senior Lecturer in
Music/Music Technology
Date of Publication: 2011 Type of Output: Artist residency
& site-specific composition for solo violin & soundtrack
Funding: North Tyneside Council Title: Eight Bells Awarded
to: John Kefala-Kerr
Value: £1400 Period: Jan-Jun 2011 URL: http://johnkefalakerr.com/8bells
http://www.culturescape.co.uk/mobile/mobile%20pages/clients/ntc/arts%20service/shimmer%20pages/8%20bells.html
Residency, new music composition and performance: Dove Marine laboratory
Jan-June 2011. Public performances: St. George's Church Cullercoats, 2nd
June 2011 and at Shimmer Festival, North Tyneside, Nov 5th & 6th 2011
TITLE: BOOK OF BELLS
Author: John Kefala-Kerr
Researcher/Position Held: John Kefala-Kerr Senior Lecturer in
Music/Music Technology
Date of Publication: 2013 Type of Output: Sound
Installation
Funding: Durham International Brass Festival/Durham Cathedral Grant
Title: Book of Bells Awarded to: John Kefala-Kerr
Value: £3500 Period: Apr-Jun 2011
URL:http://www.brassfestival.co.uk/events/book-of-bells-by-john-kefala-kerr/
Installation 5th-22nd July 2013, Monk's Dormitory Library, Durham
Cathedral.
Details of the impact
The composition "Eight Bells" (2011) was the result of a collaboration
with marine scientists based at Newcastle University's Dove Marine
Laboratory. Feedback from stakeholders and audiences alike provide a means
of evaluating and gauging the impact of this work, which was featured as
part of North Tyneside's Shimmer Festival in Nov 2011—a weekend event that
attracted over 5,000 visitors.
Evaluative comments from Jane Delaney, Director of the Dove Marine
Laboratory (see ref 1. below), offer an indication as to the work's impact
in `helping professionals and organisations respond differently' (to
findings of scientific research and their subsequent representation).
Delaney's assessment was further validated when Manchester University's
Faculty of Life Sciences incorporated Eight Bells into its Life Sciences
Podcast series (see ref 2. below). Having been commissioned by North
Tyneside Borough Council in association with Rednile Projects and then
performed in St. George's Church, Cullercoats, the impact of the work
extended simultaneously into several spheres of civic society (scientific,
religious, artistic), activating 'sacred' coinages and inflections that
provoke interdisciplinary dialogue about contemporary knowledge and
epistemology.
Other research activities, such as Brass Trax (2011), highlight the
impact the work achieved in its compositional (end point) and
residency-based (processual) forms. Commissioned by HM Prison Frankland,
The Sage Gateshead and Durham City Arts, this project evolved out of a
period of time the researcher spent working as composer-in-residence in
Frankland prison. Prisoners serving long custodial sentences in this
Category A institution attended brass instrument improvisation and
recording workshops in order to compose a new piece of music. The outcome
of the process was recognised with 2012 Koestler Trust Platinum Award for
its "contribution to changing offenders' lives" (see ref 3. below)
Sounding the Sacred/A Sign in Space (2012) is the project title of a
large-scale residency and opera commission funded with £60,000 from Youth
Music, Durham Cathedral and Durham County Council. The project took as its
starting point a prima facie engagement with 'sacred space' and followed
the researcher's 'public proximity' model of musical creation, bringing
together a range of beneficiaries (individuals, institutions and agencies)
within the ambit of a musical artifact that took extracts from Isaac
Newton's Principia and re-presented them as sacred text. The nature and
number of partners and beneficiaries involved in the project (see refs 4-6
below) offers an indication of the project's veracity in generating social
and cultural impact. The curatorship of the Durham International Brass
Festival, for instance, ensured a high degree of exposure for the work and
a high footfall (an audience of 800). A Sign in Space was subsequently
shortlisted for the 2012 Arts Council Award and won Best Event in the 2012
Journal Culture Awards. The work also influenced the artistic direction of
the arts-in-education agency, The Forge, in suggesting ways of conceiving
and delivering contemporary arts projects and performances in and for
ecclesiastical contexts (the agency has subsequently continued working
with Durham Cathedral). A Sign in Space's impact also prompted the Durham
Cathedral authorities to host another of the researcher's works (Book of
Bells), and the compositional methodology employed therein was
subsequently showcased in the BBC2 TV film "Compose Yourself", a programme
directed at primary school teachers in which young people were led by the
researcher through a creative process that involved responding to, and
'reading', the inflections of a geographical location (see ref 7. below).
The installation, Book of Bells (2013), also achieved high attendance
numbers (4,500) when it was installed in the Monk's Dormitory Library of
Durham Cathedral as part of the Lindisfarne Gospels Exhibition in July
2013. With an almost unanimously glowing batch of responses from the
general public (see ref 8. below), this sound installation was created
with funds from Durham County Council (£4800) and was covered in the
national magazine The Wire. The work's bell-inspired premise (and the
wider inquiry it embodies) formed the basis of a CPD workshop developed
for Durham & Darlington Creative Hub (see ref 9. below) and currently
underpins not only the direction of that initiative's music-related
content, but also its interdisciplinary and speculative emphasis.
The research's discourse about the nature of the sacred-secular divide
has also made an impact on musicological debate. "Thimio's House" (Perfect
Edge, 2013), for instance, is a recently published book ose content forms
the subject of a forthcoming paper presentation at the 2014 International
Word and Music Conference in Slovenia (see ref 10. below). The text
represents a 'hybrid' linguistic approach to musicological exegesis, and
this was detailed in a seminar given at the International Centre for
Musical Studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 2011 and a
paper presentation given at the International Baltic Musicology Conference
in Riga the year before. Thimio's House will be the subject of lecture to
be given by the researcher on 2nd April 2014 as part of the B&D
Studios public lecture series. At the time of writing the book has
achieved advance (pre-publication) sales of 122 copies.
Sources to corroborate the impact
- Dr Jane Delaney, Director, Dove Marine Laboratory, Newcastle
University (Project Partner)
- http://lifesciencespodcast.com/2012/12/14/episode-5-the-moon-and-the-ragworm/
- http://www.koestlertrust.org.uk/pages/awardsresults.html
- Ruth Robson: Head of Marketing & Events, Durham Cathedral
(representative of project partners & beneficiaries).
- http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/journal-culture-awards-honours-heroes-4394377
-
http://www.intheforge.com/site/2012/06/world-premier-of-a-sign-in-space/.
-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ytf1h.
- Colin Robson: Arts Development Officer (Public Art), Durham County
Council (commissioner of Book of Bells and holder of audience feedback
statements).
- http://www.carmelteachingschool.org.uk/media/cpd/TheCreativeHubFlyer.pdf
- http://events.ff.uni-mb.si/wordsandmusic/abstracts.html