Lorenzo Romano
REWORK: EMBEDDING CREATIVE PROCESSES OF REMIX IN THE CHAMBER OPERA LA LUNA
The dissertation “Rework: Embedding Creative Processes of Remix in the Chamber Opera La Luna” employs methods of artistic research to establish a theoretical framework for examining my compositional practice, including an extensive analysis of my chamber opera La Luna (Premiere: 24.06.2022, Hamburg State Opera). This approach represents a significant contribution to the German academic landscape, where artistic research within the framework of artistic-scientific doctoral programs (Doctor Scientiae Musicae) at the University of Music in Hamburg—offering high academic qualifications for composers—remains underrepresented despite its prevalence in other disciplines and international contexts.
At the heart of the research, I developed the concept of Rework, a paradigm that redefines the creative process as an act of appropriation, transformation, and combination of existing material. It presents a practical framework for applying remix culture principles in contemporary music composition, focusing on how existing music can be reworked as a compositional tool through remix. The central research question—How did I use pre-existing sonic material to compose the opera La Luna?—guides every stage of the creative and analytical process.
The creation of the score for La Luna represents a practice-based inquiry into this central research question, with the compositional process offering an opportunity to explore and refine the theoretical concepts. Following its completion, I analyzed the opera’s score within a new discursive-theoretical framework called Rework, which integrates remix methods with the compositional techniques of Western classical music. Two critical intellectual points of reference underpin this framework. The first is Eduardo Navas’s Remix Theory, which examines media and defines remix as a cultural practice that reconfigures existing materials to create something new. The second is J. Peter Burkholder’s taxonomy of musical borrowing, which provides a methodological foundation for analyzing the appropriation and transformation of pre-existing music in Western classical music. These methodological tools are demonstrated to be essential for understanding the creative processes behind La Luna. The analytic method, aesthetic reflections on reworking, and the artistic component itself (the score of La Luna) are presented as research outcomes. In summary, the core of the dissertation lies in making the author’s creative process explicit and accessible through cognitive and theoretical reflection.
April 8th
462 pp., Pb., € 49.00, 978-3-95593-167-4
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