Wednesday 20 November 2024
10h30: Concert
13h00: PhD Defence

You are cordially invited to the public defence and artistic presentation by Giuliano Bracci of the research project “Transcribing: Between Listening, Memory and Invention. On 20 November at 13h00, Giuliano Bracci will defend his dissertation in the Academy Building of Leiden University. The defence ceremony will be in English.

Giuliano Bracci’s research investigates the process and implications of transcribing a musical work from the past and aims to expand knowledge and understanding of this creative practice. Bracci views the practice of transcribing as a form of listening, as a means of reflecting on the theme of otherness and the relationship between self and other. Following Jacques Derrida’s ideas, he argues that truly respecting a musical work means operating in “absolute ingratitude,” accepting the “always threatening risk of betrayal” and of contaminating the original while, at the same time, being contaminated by it. This approach opens up the invention of new possibilities, in contrast to the musealization and sacralization of works from the past. Integrating contemporary artistic expression with one’s cultural legacy holds the potential to transform one’s relationship with history into a dynamic and creative practice.
The thesis narrates a journey in which Bracci progressively sought to create more openings, allowing the selected original musical works to influence, contaminate, and transform his language as a transcriber. Bracci also situates his research within a broader context by engaging with the work and ideas of other composers, performers, musicologists, philosophers, writers, and poets.
Bracci’s research offers both theoretical and artistic contributions that may encourage new ways of thinking about transcribing, enriching the discourse on the presence of the past in contemporary music and revealing how transcriptions can enable musical works to be virtually present in contemporary music, reappearing from the past like ghosts.

Promotor
Prof. dr. Marcel Cobussen

Co-promotores
Dr. Paul Craenen
Prof. Stefano Gervasoni

Doctorate commitee
Prof. dr. Henk Borgdorff
Prof. dr. Dinko Fabris
Dr. Daan Janssens
Dr. Vincent Meelberg
Prof. Isabel Mundry
Dr. Maya Verlaak

Concert
On the morning before the defence, 20 November at 10h30, Giuliano Bracci will present the musical component of his research in the Marekerk, Lange Mare 48, Leiden. The String Quartet of the New European Ensemble will perform three works: Une petite fleur bleue, after Frescobaldi (2005), Hortense, after Gesualdo (2013), and Tutto chiudi negli occhi, after Josquin (2018).

PhD Defence
20 November at 13h00
Academy Building, Leiden University
Rapenburg 73, Leiden