(c) Kristof Lemp
Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Thought Unit Construct And Post-War Western Art Music
Artistic presentation and public defence of 'Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Thought Unit Construct And Post-War Western Art Music', conducted by Kobe Van Cauwenberghe between 2020 and 2024 at Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and University of Antwerp (ARIA).
PROGRAMME 26 OKTOBER 2024
| 15:00 | Concert: Anthony Braxton's Ghost Trance Music performed by the Ghost Trance Quintet (Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, Steven Delannoye, Teun Verbruggen, Elisa Medinilla and Nabou Claerhout) |
| 15:30 | PhD presentation |
| 16:00 | Public defence |
| 17:30 | Reception |
JURY
Bart Eeckhout (chair), George E. Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Katherine Young, Pascal Gielen (promoter UAntwerp), Marlies De Munck (promoter UAntwerp), Miriam Overlach (promoter Conservatoire)
ABSTRACT
The perception of the canon of post-war Western art music today is still strongly determined by a constructed dichotomy which keeps Western art music separate from evolutions and radical experiments in jazz and African-American music. The very extensive oeuvre and philosophical body of thought of the American composer Anthony Braxton, what he calls his Tri-Centric Thought Unit Construct (TCTUC), can be seen as a metaphorical elephant in the room. This unique oeuvre has been largely ignored to this day within the repertoire, discourse and performance practice associated with the canon of post-war Western art music. This research project takes Anthony Braxton's TCTUC as a starting point to see how I, as an interpreter of Braxton’s music, can contribute to a broadening of this canon.
My intention with this research is to provide artistic responses to the gaps within the existing discourse on post-war Western art music (see Braxton, Lewis, Piekut, Born, a.o.) by approaching a wide selection of Braxton’s compositions on his own terms. By putting these works as specific case studies on the agenda of relevant actors such as the conservatory, contemporary music festivals and concert series and through recordings and other media, I aimed to make a canon broadening possible through my practice as an interpreter. The results of this research, presented in the form of concerts, lectures, articles, workshops and recordings, are collected in a website published on Research Catalogue.