Tora Ferner Lange: The Performing Body in an Extended Music Practice

Field of study: Performance Practice

Several composers and practitioners in the field of Western contemporary art music today include physical, visual, and theatrical elements in their performances. Studying these performances, viewing music as performance and not a representation of a fixed work of art, foregrounds questions of the performing body and how we perceive this musical body.

Approaching this interdisciplinary music practice with the question of how the performing body is conceptualized, read and understood in this practice, the study investigates and observes the devising and performance of Personhood by composer Jennifer Walshe, accordionist Andreas Borregaard and the ensemble Oslo Sinfonietta, premiered during the Ultima-festival in 2021. Using methods of participant observation and interviews, the question is sought answered through perspectives from composer, performers and audience.