'Putting the music back in musicology'
'We need to put the music back in musicology!' Nicholas Cook's well-known call, coined in his famous essay 'What is musicology' in 1999, is one of the basic beliefs behind the musicological activities of the Orgelpark. Hence, these activitities focus on organ music. Of course, organ building related themes are taken into account as well, but always in relation to music.
Structure
The musicological activities of the Orgelpark are organized in subsequential projects in the 'Orgelpark Research Program'. In 2010, the Chair Organ Musicology at Free University Amsterdam was connected to the Program; the Chair was re-established by the Orgelpark Foundation. The leader of Orgelpark Research, Hans Fidom, was appointed Professor.
The Orgelpark Research Program started with an extensive three year Improvisation Project in 2008. Based on the Improvisation Project, the next project is in preparation: Talking Music. Talking Music focuses in reconsidering music, music-making, musicology and music reviewing. The basic idea is that any music is in fact a work of installation art: it exists only during a given time in a specific situation. Research themes include:
- Real Time Analysis
- Improvisation
- What is music-making?
- What is listening?
- Reviewing Music
Symposia
The Orgelpark and the Free University organize each year an international symposium.
Publications
Selected papers are published after each project in a series of e-book publications, called Orgelpark Research Reports. Paper versions may be available on request via a print-on-demand system. The paper versions will lack movie and music examples, which we believe are indispensable in texts on music. Also they will lack indexes, since e-books have their own full text search options. E-books may be read on iPads etc, but also on computers; Adobe provides Digital Editions on its website (freeware).
Students
Students at universities and conservatories throughout the world are encouraged to engage in Organ Musicology. Please inform yourself about the possibilities. Interesting might, for example, be to do a tutorial on one of your own favorite subjects.
PhD's
If you've already completed your master studies and like to proceed, feel free to discuss the possibilities to do a PhD. Artistic Research is encouraged as an essential part of investigating music works.
International
Organ musicology is active in Amsterdam since 2008. We proud to receive warm reactions time and again. Just a few examples:
Thierry Escaich (Conservatoire Paris)
Juste un petit mot pour vous remmercier de l'invitation à ces deux jours forts sympathiques et bien organisés à Amsterdam.
Peter Planyavsky (Musikhochschule Vienna)
Ich habe mich sehr gefreut, daß ich dabei gewesen bin. Sie haben ja gespürt, daß ich ungefähr 27% meines Herzens in Holland bzw. Haarlem habe...
Vincent Thévenaz (Conservatorium Geneva)
I left on Saturday after Thierry Escaich's workshop, but I still wanted to thank you for these very interesting days in a friendly atmosphere. It was, I think, a real success. I hope this project will continue and I'll be able to attend or even take part to further meetings.
Rudolf Lutz (Schola Cantorum Basel)
Welch tolles Symposium, welche Superkonzerte! Herzliche Gratulation. Es war mir eine Freude, in Amsterdam sein zu dürfen. Ich habe viel profitiert und Anregungen bekommen.
More information
The Research Program and Organ Musicology at the Free University Amsterdam are both directed by Prof Dr Hans Fidom. Contact Hans Fidom for more information.
