JED WENTZ

SECOND docARTES DOCTORATE IN MUSICAL ARTS

Jed Wentz is the second musician to obtain a doctorate in musical arts through the docARTES programme, one of Europe's leading doctoral programmes for performers and composers running at the Orpheus Institute (together with its Flemish and Dutch partners) since 2004. The docARTES programme, organised by the Orpheus Institute, has become providing an enriching educational and research environment.

On Thursday 9th December 2010, at Leiden University, flauto traverso player and conductor Jed Wentz defended his thesis "The Relationship between Gesture, Affect and Rhythmic Freedom in the Performance of French Tragic Opera from Lully to Rameau".

The final presentation consisted of a concert (8/12/2010) and the public defense of the dissertation (9/12/2010).

What was the link, at the Académie royale de musique, between non-musical aspects of period stage craft (such as facial expressions, attitudes and gesture) and rhythmic freedoms in the performance of the music itself?
This thesis explores the relationship between contemporary acting techniques and
musical freedoms in the performance of the tragédie en musique. By examining acting and rhetorical sources the researcher has attempted to recreate a language of gesture suitable for experimentation in operatic scenes from the genre. Medical sources were consulted in order to understand the broader context of affect and the body within which gesture and musical performance were situated. The researcher proposes that the performances at the Paris opera were far from static representations of the notes on the page, but rather an exciting synthesis of word, music and gesture that strongly stirred the hearts of the listeners.

The dissertation is available through the following website.

note: The first docARTES doctorate was obtained by Luk Vaes. read more