Internationale Tagung
»A GATEWAY TO SECRET EXISTENCES«. DREAM, BODY AND SOUND IN KAIJA SAARIAHO’S MUSIC
24. bis 25. Mai 2019 an der Universität des Saarlandes
"I’m someone who remembers many of my dreams. […] But I don’t write dreamy, floaty music. It’s more to do with dreams as a gateway to secret existences, like death and love, the basic things that we know nothing about” (K. Saariaho).
In the course of the past two decades, Kaija Saariaho has become one of the most prominent personalities on the contemporary music scene: Committed to the tradition of the musical avant-garde, especially of Spectralism, Saariaho’s music nevertheless appeals to a very broad audience, extending far beyond the circle of contemporary music specialists and devotees. Quite remarkably, Saariaho shares a longstanding and multifaceted interest in the topic of dream: Well acquainted with Freud’s psychoanalysis and David Foulke’s cognitive psychology, as well as keeping a dream diary herself, Saariaho finds in dreams and their unique logic a valuable source of inspiration and a device for exploring new compositional procedures.
This international conference, hosted by the DFG-funded Research Training Group “European Dream‑Cultures”, addresses the presence of dream and its interconnections with the dimension of the body and of sound in Saariaho’s instrumental, vocal and theatrical works. By approaching the subject from disparate perspectives – ranging from Freudian or Lacanian psychoanalysis to gender studies and the cultural history of dream – the conference aims at investigating the anthropological, cultural, theological and philosophical related implications at the core of Saariaho’s music and its longstanding involvement with dreams.
The conference will be complemented by a recital with Saariaho’s dream-related songs and by a round‑table discussion with Camilla Hoitenga, Saariaho’s longstanding flute interpreter.
Programme
Friday 24 May 2019
13.00-13.30 Introductory remarks (Christiane Solte-Gresser, Chair of the DFG-funded Research Training Group “European Dream Cultures”; Mauro Fosco Bertola)
13.30-14.30 Gregor Herzfeld (Universität Wien) - Utopia – Prophecy – Therapy: Dreams in the musical theatre after 1945 in highlights
14.30-15.30 Tomi Mäkelä (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg) - Dream zones of Finnish music – desiderata or marginal?
16.00-17.00 Minna Mustonen (independent scholar) - A story of guilt and trauma: Kaija Saariaho’s Ballade
17.00-18.00 Stephanie Schroedter (Universität Heidelberg) - On the threshold of composing movement and choreographing sound – Kaija Saariaho’s “Ballet in 7 sections” MAA choreographed by Carolyn Carlson (1991)
18.45-19.30 Recital (Caroline Melzer, Soprano; Mihaela Tomi, Piano)
Saturday 25 May 2019
09.30-10.30 Liisamaija Hautsalo (University of the Arts, Helsinki) - Dreams in Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater
10.30-11.30 Yayoi Uno Everett (University of Illinois at Chicago) - The liminality of Yūgen in Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains (2015)
12.00-13.00 Mauro Fosco Bertola (Universität des Saarlandes) - Post-Kantian dreams? Kaija Saariaho’s operatic dreamscapes
14.00-15.30 Key Note: Joy H. Calico (Vanderbilt University) - Clémence’s waking dream in act II of L’amour de loin
16.00-17.00 Music, body and dreams in Kaija Saariaho’s works: - Round-table with Camilla Hoitenga and the performance of K. Saariaho’s “Laconisme de L’aile” (1982) and "Dolce Tormento” (2004)