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SQRM applauds Schulich School of Music researchers

Published: 8 March 2016

Research at UU直播 is often celebrated for its international collaborations and recognition; but its importance at home, in the province of Quebec, is equally meritorious. This was never more apparent than at the recent award ceremony of the 聽(SQRM) when the outstanding work of six young UU直播 musicologists and theorists were recognized. 聽On Nov. 11, 2015, four UU直播 students were the finalists for the annual paper competition. 聽聽

The "prix du jury" (first prize)聽was awarded to Alexis Risler (PhD candidate, musicology and lutist) for his insightful analysis of the stretto fuga in the lute fantasias of lutenist Albert de Rippe (1500-1551). 聽 Drawing inspiration from the work of Malcolm Bilson, he showed how Albert de Rippe acquired sophisticated new compositional skills through the intabulation of vocal works, which allowed him to create his own original contrapuntal fantasias. 聽The fantasias written after de Rippe came to France in 1528 are considered unique for the period.

The 鈥減ublic prize鈥 was awarded to Paul Bazin (PhD candidate, musicology, and performer) for a paper challenging the definition of style periods in the mature works of Serge Garant (1929-1986). 聽Bazin took issue in particular with the prevalent idea that the works defining the first mature style period are linked by the use of serialism. 聽Drawing on an analysis of the melodies composed by Garant between 1951 and 1956 (16 works), he showed that, while not all 16 works used serialism, they all shared a common creative creative process 鈥 in terms of harmony, rhythm and form 鈥 that made it possible to consider them all as 鈥渕ature鈥 works.

The other two finalists were Laura Risk (PhD musicology, fiddler) and Jacob Sagrans (PhD musicology, chorister). 聽Like Risler and Bazin, both also broke new ground. 聽 used new digital analytical techniques to analyse melodic variation and repertoire circulation in early commercial recordings (1923-1929) of instrumental dance music from Montreal. 聽Her approach allowed documentation of the frequency with which musicians re-recorded repertoire, both whole tunes and tune fragments, under new titles, as well as the degree of melodic variation between settings.

also compared recordings, focusing on Allegri鈥檚 Miserere and the factors that have led the Choir of King鈥檚 College version of it to be viewed as a 鈥渃lassic,鈥 as a standard to be met or surpassed by all others. 聽 Since its first release, the Miserere track has been re-issued on fifteen subsequent albums. 聽Sagrans attributes this success to the way in which its choral sound encourages the listener to hear Allegri鈥檚 work as English and Anglican. 聽English listeners, subsequently, situate it within national religious and musical traditions. 聽International audiences, in turn, are drawn to the purity and ethereal qualities of the Roy Goodman鈥檚 execution of the treble solo.

was named emerging researcher of the year. A聽cognitive theorist, he completed his doctorate at UU直播 in 2008 under the co-supervision of Professors McAdams and Schubert.聽One branch of his work has explored artistic individuality in organ and harpsichord performance, as well as the perception of their performances. He has also done important work on music's power to induce emotions in listeners and in a new field one might call bio-musicology, studying musical abilities in non-human species.

Hurbert L茅veill茅 Gauvin, a theory student in the MA program, was also named a 鈥渓aur茅at du concours.鈥 聽 His article on the vulgarization of research will be published in a future issue of the Musique et p茅dagogie de la FAMEQ.

The Soci茅t茅 qu茅b茅coise de recherche聽en musique was founded in 1980 to promote Quebec鈥檚 rich music heritage through advancement of research on music. 聽It聽has since become a supportive and engaging forum for young researchers to enter the professional world through a range of conferences, student prizes, and caf茅s-musicos 鈥 social gatherings at a local pub where professionals meet and interact with the general public over a drink to discuss and debate topics such as 鈥渢he role and place of musical artistic creation in our society.鈥 聽Winners of the spring edition of this and another one for will be announced on March 30, 2016.

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