RESEARCH DESCRIPTION by Tuomas Antero Turunen

The starting point, objectives and methods

Within this research project I explore, notably through my own playing and improvisations, the phenomenon which I call playing that is touching. In certain contexts, a certain kind of playing can be described as something that touches “the soul”, “the heart” or “the emotions”. I have occasionally experienced the phenomenon myself, and on the other hand, that description has been repeatedly applied to my own playing by my audiences and the music critics. I aim (1) to acquire a deeper awareness, understanding and experience of this phenomenon; (2) to introduce playing that is touching through music performances, recordings and music notation as well as by various methods of verbalization, and finally, (3) to develop the ground for the eventual theorizing of my research process, followed by questioning the relevance of the implementation of the theoretical framework in one's art-making.

The aims are related to the musical style defined in 2.4. Alongside the artistic means, the research is concretised through a written doctoral dissertation. Throughout the research, my goal is to activate an inspiring, questioning and even provoking dialog between my art-making (that interacts with the exploratory research), the surrounding academic networks, the professional artists and musicians and the individuals who takes part in my performances as an audience.

The term “playing that is touching” will be critically approached. Both verbal and musical definitions will be included in the process, but at the present moment, I can point out following keywords which in this research I associate with “playing that is touching”; silence, focus, serenity, nostalgia, sadness ... joy, hopefulness, inspiration, passion and beauty. As a surrounding sphere, I am interested in the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual aspects of these keywords.

My research approach is inductive, having a subjective experience of my music performances as a starting point. I observe my personal feeling of having or not having reached and touched the audience by my playing. I observe the audience's reactions and my reaction to their reactions. I research the possible connection between their and my perceptions. When and why does the connection occur? How and what have I played in each case? Where or in what kind of room the performance took place? Alongside collecting practice-based knowledge, I interpret, by the same hermeneutic method, some other art works or performances as well as representations from popular media, for instance so called reality TV entertainment. One part of the knowledge I acquire by observing, gathering, organizing and analysing information from relevant literature in the field of arts as well as other disciplines such as psychology and philosophy.

As described above, my performances are of an exploring nature especially in the beginning of the process. Later, the aim of the performances is to introduce the effect of the research in my playing. In both approaches the artistic work includes preparing and carrying out live performances but also recording and notating musical ideas. In this recursive work each step defines the next one. The big part of the work is based on my artistic intuition, a topic that I already discuss in my master thesis “A linear approach to jazz piano”.

Research questions and research problems

My key research questions are; Why playing can be considered as something touching? What are the qualities of that kind of playing? How the awareness of these qualities affects my playing? Are those qualities in accordance with the listener's perception of beauty? How big is the listener's “responsibility” as for becoming touched by playing? Can the phenomenon be theorized or applied to creating a toolbox of, e.g. new improvisation techniques?

Some research problems rise from my assumption that being touched by music should be an authentic experience. Can I generate that authenticity in a research context? Is the “mysticism” of being touched by art the part that actually justifies the experience? In that case, can and should that mysticism be researched by artistic means?

Schedule

How this recursive research project will be taken to the goal within the time frame of four years? Here follows a list of principals, that my time management plan will be based on:

• setting measurable goals (which is challenging for the creative work, but otherwise e.g. number of pages written, number of concerts performed and analysed etc.)
• setting deadlines with short intervals (and taking them seriously)
• an active and honest a) self-monitoring and b) communication with the supervisor(s)
• keeping a healthy balance between the research work, home and personal activities
• Avoiding the trap of getting involved in additional, non-relevant music projects.

I aim to include around 100 concerts (including documentation) in the research; ideally 70 concerts during the two first academic years as an exploratory, analysing part, 25 concerts during the third academic year as an experimenting, introducing part and five concerts during the fourth academic year as a concluding part. Alongside, during the first year I deepen my research skills related to the topic, map relevant source material and sharpen the research plan. During the second and third year I focus on analysing the source material and my performances, making reflections, drawing conclusions and developing most of the written part of the dissertation. The dissertation proposal, re-shaping, final version and the defence will be part of the fourth year of the project.

About the music part ­– trio, solo and wine

I carry out the research within the musical style that has been part of my professional activity during the last 10 years: contemporary acoustic-driven art music, free improvisation and Nordic jazz. I link the research to my three existing music projects, firstly, because of their concert activity which will provide the central laboratory of this work – the concert venues. Secondly, the projects provide various relevant cases for the research; in my (1) solo piano project I have the flexibility to frame my expression from original compositions through structured improvisations to free improvisation, providing the main ground. (www.tuomasturunen.com). With (2) Emil Brandqvist Trio (piano, bass, drums) I can focus on the ensemble playing and collect information about my colleagues' impressions and experiences connected to my research aims. Also, I can add the interpretation of non-original compositions to the list of the different cases (www.emilbrandqvisttrio.com). The Wine Composer (3) is a project where I, with a French photographer, explore how different wines could be described by music and visual arts instead of words. Although being a large research topic alone, this project is related to one important aspect of my research; using musical elements as metaphors that refer to, for example, ideas, emotions or spiritual states. (www.thewinecomposer.com)

Significance?

The relevance of this work could be seen in the continuity of point of views, related to three earlier doctoral works in music at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. Svein Tandberg, in his doctoral thesis “Imagination, Form, Movement and Sound: Studies in Musical Improvisation” looks at the production of improvised music from a solo performer's point of view. Harald Stenström in “Free Ensemble Improvisation” takes a step towards the collective aspect, studying and theorizing the creational improvisation process in duo and trio formations. Sten Sandell's “På insidan av tystnaden – en undersökning”, expands the perspective as a (very) creative work around the suppleness and uniqueness of improvisation related to the surrounding space and reality. I believe that my research provides a relevant and complementing point of view, as it presents yet a new aspect, the improviser's and interpreter's relation to the audience and its effect on her/his art-making. Unfortunately this continuity consists of male authors only. But it is even more questionable that the source lists of the afore mentioned researches are characterized by male authors. This is where my research work will make a significant difference, having an accent on female perspectives when choosing my source material.

I expect to generate information that potentially can serve other domains than music and arts. For example music's relation to emotions is an active field of research in psychology, and by my practise-based and self-reflective approach I should be able to, if not propose new solutions, at least new perspectives and questions to the ongoing research work. This research project also supports me to define myself and my role as an artist related to my own life path as well as the surrounding society. As I explained in the introduction part, my different periods have been directed by different questions. At the present moment, the question being “why to play”, I find it profoundly meaningful to explore this research path that puts me in a close contact with one possible, though probably only partial, answer.

What “the customers” and “pleasure” represent in the entertainment industry, is equal – I think – to what “the audience” and “experience” represent in the arts. Since in my research I take a clear distance from the ideology of “l'art pour l'art”, I expect to be touching the grey area between the two approaches, “artistic” and “entertaining”, which certainly will be one of the juicy topics for debates around my research work.