“in Tränen unendlicher Lust”. Artistic research about an innovative audiovisual “Lied” project

Lieve Jansen, Wim Lambrecht, Wivine Decoster

This project is primarilyfocused on interpretation: on the one hand, the interpretation of the song and poetry by the singer, on the other hand the interpretation of the song performance by the plastic artist as a visual inspiration of creation.
“Das Lied” (the song) is a musical-theatric style reaching its climax in the 19th century. Nowadays only for insiders it still shimmers as it did before. To a larger public, in contrast, it no longer appeals. The intelligibility of the — mostly German- text is problematic: those who do not master de text (language) are lost in their search for sense.
The aim of this research project is to dismantle “das Lied” from the classical interpretation and academism and to translate it into a more contemporary form.
In this project new processes are elaborated for the interpretation and presentation of Lieder.
We drop a meticulous reconstruction of the original performances and search for new interpretations and presentation forms. This process of actualization evolves by exploring the opportunities inherent to the composition and the poem in close relationship to singers (performing art) and plastic artists (creating art).
Lieder mostly tell about the male-female relationship in all it’s aspects and emotions. Hence, it is obvious to investigate gender as a prominent theme in the practice of Lieder.
The acoustical analyses of voices help the singers to get more insight in differences caused by gender, by personality and by interpretation.
We intend to report on the experiences after 1.5 year, half-way the total project duration.

Lieve Jansen
artistic researcher, Singing teacher Lemmensinstitute Leuven, Belgium
Hogeschool voor Wetenschap & Kunst
Departement Lemmensinstituut, Muziek
Herestraat 53, B- 3000 Leuven
Private adress:Veldstraat 5, B-2520 Ranst
+32-(0)3/295 43 50 —+32-(0)495/153530
lieve.jansen@myonline.be

Wim Lambrecht
artistic researcher, Teacher Plastic Arts, Sint-Lucas Gent, Belgium
Hogeschool voor Wetenschap & Kunst
Departement Sint-Lucas Beeldende Kunst Gent
Zwartezustersstraat 34, B- Gent
Private adress: Nieuwevaart 118, bus 10,B- 9000 Gent
+32-(0)9/2342287 — +32-(0)496/803967
wim.lambrecht@kunst.sintlucas.wenk.be

Wivine Decoster
doctor in speech language pathology, professor KU Leuven, Belgium
Logopedische en Audiologische Wetenschappen
Labo ExpORL - dept. Neurosciences
Herestraat 49, O&N2 bus 721
B - 3000 Leuven
Tel: +32 (0)16 33 04 84 fax: +32 (0)16 33 04 86
Private adress:Halensebaan 17, B- 3461 Molenbeek-Wersbeek
00-32-(0)16/630247,
Wivine.Decoster@med.kuleuven.be