Heritage projects

Heritage in progress

Tomorrows heritage is made today. Following that observation, MATRIX tries to build expertise and raise awareness regarding contemporary musical heritage. Our library comprises numerous scores and recordings of pieces by Flemish composers that are not commercially available, and places them at the disposition of the broad public. However, MATRIX is not an archive. Through all sorts of projects we do try to stimulate a pro-active take on contemporary musical heritage, with both careful conservation and qualitative validation.

Our expertise in practice

Throughout the past ten years, MATRIX has gained quite a lot of experience with the ins and outs of contemporary musical heritage, its peculiarities and challenges. This unique and specific expertise forms an addition to that of our colleagues in the field of heritage, and we are happy to validate this in various projects.
In 2011 MATRIX will therefore collaborate closely with Resonant, that is developing a guide for composers and ensembles regarding their archives (working title: Toekomstmuziek?) More information (in Dutch)

New project: developing a portfolio model for contemporary musical scores

"Developing a portfolio model for a meaningful preservation and distribution of music that is not or insufficiently accessible for research and/or performance on the basis of a traditional encryption in the form of a score and/or a recording."

Ever since the first decades of the 20th century, the traditional concepts of Western classical music are under pressure. Various (r)evolutions took place, not only in terms of the composition technique. Also the relationship between, and the role of composer, performer and audience were subject to severe changes. The traditional path of a composer who writes a score, which is then interpreted by musicians, rehearsed and eventually performed in a concert hall to an audience; is often not followed in contemporary music.

In recent years MATRIX noted that more and more compositions do not exist in the form of a more or less clearly readable score (in traditional notation or another (graphical) format). The reasons are as diverse as fundamental: for example due to interactive interventions during the performance, the use of computer applications, the presence of an improvisational component, a compositional process of intense collaboration with a certain performer(s) making the score incomplete or just readable for the original performer (s), or ...

Even when the written notes (the ‘score’) of such works are preserved in the collection of MATRIX, we have to admit that the musical content remains often unintelligible for future performances and/or research. Just a 'score' - as far as that exists - is no longer enough.

With the experience and expertise that we have gained over the past few years, MATRIX will look for an answer to these current questions regarding the preservation and distribution of contemporary musical heritage, based on the specificity of this contemporary music.

Previous projects

Our projects are supported by the Flemish Community (Ministery of Culture, department Arts & Heritage).
Between 2008 and 2010, we realized the following projects:
- Collecting the entire oeuvre of approx. 25 Flemish composers
- Edition of 3 volumes in our series Contemporary Music in Flanders:
Flemish Music Theatre since 1950
Flemish Tape Music since 1950 (published in September 2010)
Flemish Chamber Music since 1950 (to be published in the summer of 2011)
Click here for more information on the entire series, find downloads of place an order
- Several lectures, articles (e.g. in the book Achter de muziek aan)and exhibitions (2008: exhibition on Karel Goeyvaerts, exhibition on Expo '58 in the context of Erfgoeddag; 2010: exhibition on the use of samples in 20th century music, in the context of Erfgoeddag)
Click here for more information on previous projects.

Partners

For our projects on heritage, MATRIX works together with Resonant, Flanders Music Centre and the Heritage Department of the City of Leuven.