Berne Platform for Applied Research
The research department of Bern University of the Arts (HKB) has a new event format: Research Wednesday offers insights into the research activities of the HKB and its four research focuses every two weeks.
On the Wednesday dates, some ongoing or completed HKB projects are presented, or national and international guests are invited. Students also have the opportunity to present their work and approaches as young researchers. In addition to the projects, questions relating to the significance of research for the departments and research in the arts will also be discussed.
The first such event will focus on the SNF-DORE project "Recording the Soul of Piano Playing (Geisterhand 3)": the perforated paper rolls for self-playing pianos and organs by the Welte company are among the earliest sound documents of artistic interpretation. Nevertheless, they have received little attention from researchers because their creation process - and thus their credibility - was unclear.
Thanks to the examination of the only surviving recording apparatus and the discovery of more than 1,300 recording rolls with the ink traces of the apparatus, the current research project was able to clarify central questions and test new ways of evaluating the piano and organ rolls as interpretative documents that go back well into the 19th century.
Info:
HKB, large concert hall, Papiermühlestrasse 13d. March 6, 5 to 7 pm. Guest and co-speaker: Martin Elste, State Institute for Music Research / Prussian Cultural Heritage Berlin. www.hkb.bfh.ch/forschung.html
