Assi Karttunen

Research, articles

A peer-reviewed research article The rhetorical moaning in Trio research publication 2013

In this article I discuss the musical gestures of moaning in the fourth recitative, Déjà Sirinx, (picture 2.) of Michel Pignolet de Montéclair’s cantata for one voice with accompaniment of basso continuo, violin and oboe or ute, Pan et Sirinx.2 In what ways do the cries of Pan manifest themselves in the vocal part and in my body as a harpsichordist and as a basso continuo player? What kind of movements do I embody while playing the basso continuo for the vocal part? How does the vocalist sing les sons glissés according to Montéclair’s notation and his Principes de musique (1736)? How could I imitate that in my harpsichord playing? To what kinds of larger rhetorical structures is the musical gesture of le son glissé connected? I conclude my article by claiming that tactile-kinesthetic ways of rehearsing and performing French baroque music is one way to stimulate and reinforce the multisensory perceptions the music provides.

This paper is a part of an artistic research project focusing on the rhetorical actio (gesture, voice, mien, movement) of French baroque vocal music from a singular, musician ́s point of being.  e project started in August 2011 as a collaboration of two musician-researchers; DMus Päivi Järviö, mezzo soprano and DMus Assi Karttunen, harpsichordist.  
The project includes concerts, workshops, rehearsals, video re- cordings, experiments and demonstrations as well as articles describing the working processes.  us the approach could be called embodied study of historical perform- ing practices. Since the study of movement related to music is one of the key areas of modern music research, the project participates in the on-going discussions on historically informed musician ́s embodied relationship to the music performed. In John Butt’s words; is the performance of music seen as a lapdog of the composer or of objective, factual evidence from the past rather than as a mode of cultural production in its own right? (Butt 2002, 22.)

TRIO 2/2013 (PDF)

le brun etonnement admiration
  1. Presented a paper and an experimental demo at AWB conference 2016
  2. Presented a paper in Song, Stage and Screen VIII London 2013
  3. Presented a paper in LONDON SONGART FESTIVAL 2012
  4. Presented a paper 16th Nordic Musicological Congress Stockholm, Sweden
  5. Gave a paper and a demo at CARPA conference 2011, HKI
  6. A lecture concert in Nagoya, Aitchi University 2015
  7. A workshop at the Performance Philosophy Conference, Surrey 2013
  8. Gave a lecture concert at From Known to Unknown festival, Gent
  9. Presented a poster at The Performing Knowledge Conference, Cambridge
  10. Presented a recital lecture at the DiP conference in Dublin 2016
  11. Arts without Borders-conference 2016 Music Centre, abstract
  12. Elysion Fields-working group 2006–2016
  13. Auli Särkiö's article 2015 in Rondo Music Magazine
  14. Article in British Harpsichord Society's Publication 2015
  15. A peer-reviewed research article Rhetorical Obscurité – musician’s historically informed working process
  16. A peer-reviewed research Article in Trio 2016 The music-related gestures of la danse grotesque in Rameau’s Les Sauvages
  17. Can one wade twice into the same Seine? A peer-reviewed research publication 2015
  18. Assi Karttunen: Humanismin perintö ranskalaisessa kantaatissa vuosina 1700-1730

All Essays