Wind Driven Bell is a blog post and media archive addendum to a Doctor of Musical Arts thesis: “Elucidating the Sound of It, A Performance Philosophy of Contrabass Tuba in Symphonic Wind Ensembles”. An Artistic Music Research, Tuba Performance project at Griffith University Queensland Conservatorium, in Brisbane Australia, currently being researched, written and created by tubist James Harvey MM MMR.
The project involves the production of four curated concerts of classic wind literature demonstrating themes and topics engaged in the thesis as an autoethnographic exploration of the on-going performance practice of a senior musician. The current doctoral project is an outgrowth of Master of Music Research thesis - Elder Music, Instrumental Music Performance and Affirmative Aging (2017) - in which the author documented his return to active tuba performance following a twenty-four-year hiatus from symphonic music with an unexpected return to active orchestral playing in 2014.
As such, the current thesis reflects upon questions that arose in the 2014 thesis concerning the Why, How and What of accomplished wind bass performance by an elder musician. It presents a philosophical inquiry and an experiential harvest of an informed and embodied instrumental performance practice. Recognizing the grand scope, to such a qualitative academic research performance project, an important amount of contextual information, supplementing the thesis, will be shared in this website addendum as blog posts, discussing various topics and providing background material. It is intended that the website-blog will advance public awareness and recognition of the project, provide an archive of audio and video links to the music being produced and also publicity for the four curated concerts being presented. Music by Wagner, Holst, Messiaen, Varese programmed with several other significant compositions of classic wind music literature.
The name: Wind Driven Bell is of course a metaphor. An indicator of the cross disciplinary approach being undertaken in an imaginative, philosophical and psychological musical inquiry. A tuba performance research project situated within the pedagogy and example of that most significant of tuba teachers Arnold Jacobs, who is famous for another musical, wind brass metaphor and aphorism: “Wind and Song”
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