Field of study: Artistic Research
Your tonality is not my tonality
A project about meetings between performers, composers, and (micro)tonality.
Summary
The project investigates how performers can develop an active, embodied relationship to different tonalities—from microtonality and just intonation to modal and equal-tempered practice.
Since 2021, singer Unni Løvlid (NMH) and cellist Marianne Baudouin Lie (NTNU) have collaborated with composers who treat tonal plurality in their music. The material comprises newly written works, improvisations, and reworked folk music. The aim is to strengthen understanding of tonal variation in both composed and improvised practice.
Background
The project’s expertise draws on Løvlid’s competence and background in traditional music and Lie’s grounding in classical/contemporary music. These differing perspectives are used as resources to cultivate new listening modes, auditory learning methods, and ensemble practices. Institutional partners are NMH and NTNU, and the project involves colleagues, students, and composers nationally and across the Nordic region.
Aim
The project has three aims: (1) to embody a diversity of (micro)tonalities; (2) to further develop performer knowledge and musical flexibility; and (3) to devise methodology for teaching and development.
Løvlid and Lie examine which processes, insights, and musics arise in the meeting between two performers, different traditions, and close collaboration with composers, colleagues, and students; how microtonal systems can become natural and confident elements of performance; and how combining improvisation with score-based work across backgrounds can generate new music and new performer knowledge.
Material and methods
Methodologically, Løvid and Lie combine ear-based and notation-based learning, listening strategies and improvisation, intonation laboratories, and collaboration with composers. The repertoire includes commissioned works by Sven Lyder Kahrs, Lasse Thoresen, Karin Rehnqvist, Lene Grenager, Ole Henrik Moe, and Jon Øivind Ness, alongside our own improvisations and emergent materials.
Funding
The project is funded by NMH and NTNU, as well as contributions from Kulturdirektoratet, FFUK, FFLB and Komponistfondet.
Documentation and dissemination
Expected outcomes include methods for applying tonal diversity in artistic development and teaching, and a knowledge contribution that challenges standardization and promotes aesthetic diversity in performance and music education.
Dissemination takes place through concerts, talks, and publications. Presentations include:
2022 Levanger — (Keynote) University of the North
2022 Bergen — Ny Musikk Bergen
2023 Hamar — Nordic Poetry Festival, Ny Musikk Innlandet
2024 Stockholm — Samtida Musik
2024 Trondheim — Dokkhuset Scene
2024 Reykjavik — Mengi
2024 Glasgow — Nordic Music Day: presentation, concert, live performance (BBC Radio 4)
2025 Tallinn — EPARM (performance presentation)
The project will be recorded in 2025/26.
Follow the work in progress in Research Calogue.
Published: Sep 8, 2025 — Last updated: Sep 9, 2025