Alexa Woloshyn
A musicologist whose research focuses on how electronic, physiological, and socio-cultural technologies mediate the creation and consumption of contemporary musical practices in both art and popular musics. Research topics include fixed and live electroacoustic music, popular music, female popular musicians and technology (e.g., Björk, Imogen Heap), and contemporary Indigenous musicians (e.g., Tanya Tagaq, A Tribe Called Red). alexawoloshyn.com
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Papers by Alexa Woloshyn
Following a brief history of electronic music in science fiction, and a synthesis of perception and agency in electroacoustic music (d’Escrivan 2006; Emmerson 2007; Smalley 1996 and 1997), this paper outlines pedagogical strategies for removing students’ aural and conceptual barriers to electroacoustic music, providing a vocabulary, and facilitating critical listening through activities and assignments based primarily on Elizabeth Barkley’s Classroom Engagement Techniques (2009) and Judy Lochhead’s principles of phenomenological listening (1995). The paper will demonstrate this pedagogical approach to listening using Hugh Le Caine’s Dripsody (1955) and three remixes released on the Canadian Music Centre’s Centretracks.
The claim that Björk presents the nature–technology dichotomy as a continuum in her work is not new, as Marsh and West (2003) and Dibben (2009) have demonstrated. This paper expands on those claims to demonstrate a more explicit and extensive message in Biophilia, which is to “experience how the three come together: Nature, music, technology. Listen, learn, and create.” The visual aspects in particular have an educational aim, with the Biophilia Eduational Program using the songs and app to explore the science-related themes in each song (e.g., viruses and parasites in “Virus”; tectonic plates in “Mutual Core”).
I assert that the Biophilia project is an elaborate and effective example of Björk’s branding, in which sound and image unite in various media. This branding is carefully constructed as an expression of Björk’s singular artistic vision, a branding seen from her earliest studio albums to the recent MoMA retrospective and her latest album Vulnicura. Users of Biophilia are invited to engage directly—that is, physically—with the apps, thus creating a more human and “authentic” experience.
This paper begins by contextualizing Tagaq within a broader discourse on Aboriginality and modernity (Browner 2009, Hoefnagals and Diamond 2012, Scales 2012) and summarizes her musical output and interpretation of traditional vocal games. The remainder of the paper applies discourse analysis to Tagaq’s social media presence and exposes the resultant tensions of power and identity in Twitter’s collective communicative acts by focusing on three recent events: the “Sealfie” backlash in early spring 2014, promotion of her 2014 album Animism, and her Polaris Prize win in September 2014. This paper reveals that while attitudes of apathy, antagonism, and acceptance certainly co-exist in the Tagaq’a social media presence, they resist reconciliation and leave her personal, musical, and cultural identities in a state of constant renegotiation and interpretation with political implications as power balances remain changeable in Twitter's collective virtual space.
The paper will analyze motivic, textual, gestural, and interactive elements in the group of quasi-theatrical works from the 1990s that were inspired by the success of Trialogue and its musical partner Private Collection (1975): Prime Time (1992, rev. 1996), Journey Out of Night: 14 Visions: A Monodrama (1994), Parodies and Travesties: 8 Dialogues (1995), Le Rendez-Vous (1995), and Walking-Talking (1996). A performative flexibility allows the works to transcend geographic and temporal boundaries, while still demonstrating Weinzweig’s idiosyncratic wit.
My paper contextualizes Canada’s nationalist and multicultural narratives within the broader historiography of the French-English divide in Canada and seeks to negotiate regional and cultural connections and trends while ultimately refusing to reinforce entrenched oppositional narratives of the musique acousmatique/soundscape composition dichotomy. Existing narratives often echo the socio-cultural, ethnic, and linguistic divides long established in Canada since the first battles between the English and French for power in Canada.
Confronting the National in the Musical Past; Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts, Helsinki
Like Weinzweig, Kaplan helped found important institutions (e.g., the Saskatchewan Music Council in 1967), continues to support community and emerging musicians with many beginner- and intermediate-level works, and has had an active career as an educator, conductor, and performer. In addition to these similarities, Kaplan and Weinzweig also share a Jewish heritage, which has resulted in numerous works that are influenced by this heritage. Following a brief comparison of their biographies and compositional style, this paper considers two musical works by each of Weinzweig and Kaplan, contrasting their expression of the Jewish-Canadian heritage.
First is a comparison of two vocal works: Weinzweig’s Dance of Masada (1951) is written for low voice and piano; the text, by Itzchak Landan, is in both Hebrew and English. This musical reflection on an ancient fortification will be contrasted with Kaplan’s Two Songs from Hebrew Scriptures (1980). This work is also for voice and piano, with Hebrew texts from the Shabbat liturgy. Second is a comparison of two instrumental works: Weinzweig’s Sonata “Israel” for Cello and Piano (1949) integrates an ancient Yemenite melody with his emerging serialist interests. Kaplan’s Three Sketches for Israel (1973) is much more tonal and exhibits a strong influence from Klezmer music.
Symposium: John Weinzweig, His Contemporaries and His Influence; University of Toronto