Heyman Matthias. Historically Speaking: Creative agency in historical recreation in jazz.
This project aims to enrich our knowledge of how historical recreation in jazz impacts a performer’s creative agency through investigating how historical repertoire is used to reflect specific societal, cultural, and musical changes from the perspective of the performer, with a particular focus on cultural values such as (self-)identity, authenticity, and tradition. This will be done through a multimodal analysis of historically informed performances of repertoire by one of the most influential and historicized artists in jazz, composer and big band leader Duke Ellington (1899–1974).
The research’s interdisciplinary approach is designed to engage multiple perspectives (historical, artistic), levels (aural, visual, written), and stakeholders (professionals, students, amateurs). As research on historical recreation within jazz is virtually non-existent, this project will extend and expand our understanding of the meaning and significance of music practices by gathering and interpreting empirical, conceptual, and artistic data about the performer’s creative agency and offering innovative interpretations of the cultural values on which their historical recreations are based.