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SQRM applauds Schulich School of Music researchers

Published: 8 March 2016

Research at McGill is often celebrated for its international collaborations and recognition; but its importance at home, in the province of Quebec, is equally meritorious. This was never more apparent than at the recent award ceremony of the Société québécoise de recherche en musique (SQRM) when the outstanding work of six young McGill musicologists and theorists were recognized.  On Nov. 11, 2015, four McGill students were the finalists for the annual paper competition.   

The "prix du jury" (first prize) was awarded to Alexis Risler (PhD candidate, musicology and lutist) for his insightful analysis of the stretto fuga in the lute fantasias of lutenist Albert de Rippe (1500-1551).   Drawing inspiration from the work of Malcolm Bilson, he showed how Albert de Rippe acquired sophisticated new compositional skills through the intabulation of vocal works, which allowed him to create his own original contrapuntal fantasias.  The fantasias written after de Rippe came to France in 1528 are considered unique for the period.

The “public prize” was awarded to Paul Bazin (PhD candidate, musicology, and performer) for a paper challenging the definition of style periods in the mature works of Serge Garant (1929-1986).  Bazin took issue in particular with the prevalent idea that the works defining the first mature style period are linked by the use of serialism.  Drawing on an analysis of the melodies composed by Garant between 1951 and 1956 (16 works), he showed that, while not all 16 works used serialism, they all shared a common creative creative process – in terms of harmony, rhythm and form – that made it possible to consider them all as “mature” works.

The other two finalists were Laura Risk (PhD musicology, fiddler) and Jacob Sagrans (PhD musicology, chorister).  Like Risler and Bazin, both also broke new ground.   Laura Risk used new digital analytical techniques to analyse melodic variation and repertoire circulation in early commercial recordings (1923-1929) of instrumental dance music from Montreal.  Her approach allowed documentation of the frequency with which musicians re-recorded repertoire, both whole tunes and tune fragments, under new titles, as well as the degree of melodic variation between settings.

Jacob Sagrans also compared recordings, focusing on Allegri’s Miserere and the factors that have led the Choir of King’s College version of it to be viewed as a “classic,” as a standard to be met or surpassed by all others.   Since its first release, the Miserere track has been re-issued on fifteen subsequent albums.  Sagrans attributes this success to the way in which its choral sound encourages the listener to hear Allegri’s work as English and Anglican.  English listeners, subsequently, situate it within national religious and musical traditions.  International audiences, in turn, are drawn to the purity and ethereal qualities of the Roy Goodman’s execution of the treble solo.

Dr. Bruno Gingras was named emerging researcher of the year. A cognitive theorist, he completed his doctorate at McGill in 2008 under the co-supervision of Professors McAdams and Schubert. One branch of his work has explored artistic individuality in organ and harpsichord performance, as well as the perception of their performances. He has also done important work on music's power to induce emotions in listeners and in a new field one might call bio-musicology, studying musical abilities in non-human species.

Hurbert Léveillé Gauvin, a theory student in the MA program, was also named a “lauréat du concours.”   His article on the vulgarization of research will be published in a future issue of the Musique et pédagogie de la FAMEQ.

The Société québécoise de recherche en musique was founded in 1980 to promote Quebec’s rich music heritage through advancement of research on music.  It has since become a supportive and engaging forum for young researchers to enter the professional world through a range of conferences, student prizes, and cafés-musicos – social gatherings at a local pub where professionals meet and interact with the general public over a drink to discuss and debate topics such as “the role and place of musical artistic creation in our society.”  Winners of the spring edition of this competition and another one for writing programme notes will be announced on March 30, 2016.

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