Valen-prosjektet deltar med presentasjonen:
New Perspectives on the Conception, Interpretation, and Reception of Fartein Valen’s Le Cimetière marin, Op. 20 (1934)
In their presentations, Astrid Kvalbein and Arnulf Christian Mattes will examine one of Valen’s central orchestral work from different perspectives:
Kvalbein's contribution is a social-cultural approach to the work as ‘artefact’, by way of its performance history since the premiere in Oslo in 1934. The reception Valen at the ISCM festivals in 1947, 1948 and 1951 will serve as a backdrop for analyzing reviews of Le Cimetière marin at the ISCM festival in 1953, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of Valen’s ‘international breakthrough’.
Mattes presents an aesthetic assessment of the work as ‘art’, discussing the significance of the ‘graveyard’ – afloat between real places and imaginary spaces - for the conception of Le Cimetière marin. Furthermore, the aim of the hermeneutic, critical reading is to shed light on how religious and aesthetic concepts of death and nature might emerge in changing interpretive frameworks.
Together, these approaches proposes multiple answers to the question as to why and how this particular work ‘worked’ in the past and still ‘works’ today. It also aims at inciting a debate on how the methodological traditions and modes of criticism highlight different aspects of the work as art, artefact and fact.