Tag: Creativity

2023 New Traditional School national composers survey launches

padruigmorrison

All ‘beyond-tune’ traditional music composers living in Scotland* are invited to contribute to the new 2023 survey at https://edinburgh.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/2023nts.

The survey takes approximately 25-40 minutes and will be live for a month, closing 20th January 2024 at 23:59.

Please complete the survey in one sitting. You will have the opportunity to download your response at the end. This survey builds on the NTS survey conducted in 2021.

Our current working definition of ‘beyond tune’ is a musical composition:

  • Created by a traditional musician living in Scotland* [for the purposes of this research]
  • Composed for music performance or listening (e.g. not scores for radio, tv, film or theatre)
  • Composed for any instrumentation (or voice) but often with a traditional/folk element
  • Approximately 8 minutes or longer OR, if shorter in length, innovates significantly from the conventions of traditional music (this could include free improvisation or technology-enhanced music).
  • NOT a conventional set of tunes or traditional/folk song

E.g. A large portion of Celtic Connections New Voices or Distil Showcase commissions are considered ‘beyond tune’.

Composers are also invited to register their beyond-tune compositions to the New Traditional School database for potential inclusion in the forthcoming New Traditional School collection/archive. Register your compositions here: https://tradmus.com/addcomposition/ (or using the tab above).

*Who lived in Scotland when they composed the composition or who contributed to one of the commissioning strands in Scotland e.g. Celtic Connections New Voices, Distil Showcase or a festival commission performed in Scotland.

New Traditional School in Scotland Phase 1

Lori Watson

Funding secured following 2021-22 pilot study

Jennifer Austin, still from film by Ruth Barrie

Following the successful pilot study in 2021-2022 supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Creative Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, funding for a phase 1 study was secured in the form of an 18-month fellowship with the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

The fellowship runs from July 2023 to December 2024 and will combine artistic and ethnomusicological research exploring creativity, tradition and improvisation. I aim to produce a specialist music collection with project partner Scottish Music Centre (Glasgow), the basis of a new archive at the School of Scottish Studies Archives, University of Edinburgh, several new compositions, and research texts.

I will be advertising for a part-time Research Assistant to join me on this project for 6 months in 2023-24 and an Archivist to join the project in 2024. Information on these posts will be circulated soon. If you are a composer whose work relates to this project, please register your compositions here. If you would like to contact me or join the project mailing list, please use the contact page.