FORUM+ - Volume 26, Issue 2, 2019

In the period between the 1880s and the Second World War, Belgium was an important international hub for the arts. Especially the symbolist movement found the fertile soil in this country, which is renowned all over the world for its high-quality symbolist literature and paintings. But in music, too, symbolism reigned supreme. In this article, Pauline Lebbe discusses songs Belgian artists composed to accompany texts by Belgian symbolist authors. She devotes attention to the musicians’ creative work environment. The close collaborations between artists, art critics, art theorists and concert organisers and music groups is a crucial aspect of this kind of music that remains underexplored. The corpus of songs turns out to be surprisingly refined and original.

Singing jazz: how do you go about that? Literally. Until a few years ago, I mainly used imitation and intuition to shape and select my own sound. I used to listen a lot, too. I often felt that my sound relied quite heavily on coincidence. But then I learned to understand, feel and know my voice. A lot of jazz vocalists are eager to know how to use their voice in jazz. A combination of spectroscopy and anatomy provides clarification.

The suitcase stands empty in the studio. The thousand letters once crammed into it have been sorted by date, logged, read, some typed up and others photographed. Muriel Leysen, the owner of the case and its contents, died in Johannesburg in the 1970s. The father of the artist has been guardian of the suitcase for over forty years. Following his death the artist brought the case to Belgium. Now, in January a new letter has arrived. This one is from Muriel. ‘The Suitcase’ is a waystation in Wendy Morris’s ongoing investigation into the role that letters might play in an artistic research practice.

More and more often, Flemish theatre is confronted with the accusation that it is ‘too white’ at all possible levels: from its internal organisation to the choice of actors and the repertoire. In this contribution, Erwin Jans makes a plea for reading non-western theatre texts. He looks into several Arabic adaptations of Oedipus, situating them in a wider cultural and political context, thus enabling them to shine a new light on the western adaptations as well.

In the autumn of 2018, Lucas Vandervost gave two Masterclasses, providing a view of his particular approach to (the declamation of) text in theatre. The first took place at Theater Malpertuis in Tielt, the second at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. Both times, participants got to discover his methods and techniques in a unique way. This article reflects on those Masterclasses and sheds light on Lucas’ principles of text and theatricality.

In the last century, scientists have discovered that some people can in fact see colours and visuals when they hear music, through the neurological condition of synaesthesia. In this article we will compare the ways in which some composers have used their synaesthesia in their music with the concept of cross-modality and our collective tendency to associate certain colour types with certain musical ideas.