Gjertrud Pedersen

Research fellow, Norwegian Academy of Music.

Interpretation as relation. Musical understanding from a performer’s point of view.

In my PhD project I investigate, by studying selected works for clarinet and soprano from the 20th and 21st century, the process of interpretation from both a theoretical perspective and from my point of view as a performing clarinettist. The project’s main work is Harrison Birtwistle’s Deowa (1983); a 10 minutes long meditation over repeated syllables and melodic motives. I will present some perspectives on musical interpretation as a complex and creative relation between the interpreter and the work of art, and as a dialogue which occurs when two persons interpret the same composition together.