Forum: Virtual Consultants
16 March • 5:30pm
Steven Baxter Recital Studio
Join us in this double bill forum presentation!
LIN XIANG NING, presenter
ABOUT THIS EVENT
If I say “19th Century French artistic aesthetics”, would the name Edgar Allan Poe cross your mind? (Perhaps you are more likely thinking: his name doesn’t sound French)
The influence of American poet Edgar Allan Poe on 19th and early 20th Century French artistic aesthetics was profound. As an example, Maurice Ravel considered Poe’s “Philosophy of Composition” as the “finest treatise on composition”. Poe’s treatise presented the conception of the melancholic poem, “The Raven”, in a highly cerebral and formulaic way. In Poe, Ravel saw a kindred spirit; a fellow logician.
Upon further investigation, the connection between Poe’s treatise, “The Raven”, and Ravel’s “Oiseaux Tristes” (which literally translates as “Sad Birds”) becomes irresistible; it arguably aligns very closely with Poe’s composition guidelines and aesthetic. What then, could an exploration of correspondences between these inner and outer worlds, languages, art forms, interpreters and time reveal?
If this blurb entices, please tune in to this short presentation and stay for the forum discussion after!
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Recently graduated from Yong Siew Toh Conservatory’s Master’s degree, Lin Xiangning is currently working as a Teaching Apprentice in relation to the areas of Music Cognition and Artistic Research. The topic of this presentation has allowed scope for a synthesis of her curiosities- music, poetry, history, and human connection.
FRANCES LEE, presenter
ABOUT THIS EVENT
Unconventional: Hensel’s Final Sonata
As an upper-class woman in the nineteenth century, Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn Bartholdy) defied social norms by composing works in larger-scale genres, such as sonatas and works for chamber ensemble, that were considered to be outside of the domestic sphere. She was unconventional not only in the types of pieces that she wrote, but also within her music itself. In this presentation, pianist Frances Lee explores how Hensel challenges expectations of musical form within her final sonata, the Piano Sonata in G Minor, situating it within the context of her life and other works, and demonstrating how a close look at the structure of the sonata’s first movement can both enrich our hearing of it and yield valuable insights into the composer.
A recording of the entire sonata, performed by Frances Lee, can be found here: https://www.francesleepiano.com/recordings
The doctoral thesis on which this presentation is based can be found here: https://hdl.handle.net/1911/108321
This event will be livestreamed on the Conservatory’s YouTube channel. Follow and subscribe to be notified of upcoming streams.
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TICKETING INFORMATION
• Due to COVID-19 related guidelines, this performance will only be offered virtually.
• All event information is correct at time of print.
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