- Trial lecture starts at 10am
- Public defence starts at 12 noon
Title of trial lecture:
Discuss the compositional intention as phenomenological doubleness from the perspective of the individual, the collective and the song itself.
Read the thesis in NVA here: https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5531095
Disputation chair: Dean Marit Wergeland
Assessment committee:
- Chair of the Committee Associate Professor Eirik Sørbø, University of Agder
- Opponent Professor Jan-Olof Gullö, KMH Sweden
- Opponent Associate Professor Mads Walther-Hansen, Aalborg University, Denmark
Supervisors in the doctoral work:
- Professor Eirik Askerøi
- Professor Emeritus Stan Hawkins
- Professor Nina Sun Eidsheim
Summary of thesis
When a song becomes a recording, something guides the countless aesthetic, compositional and performative choices along the way – an artistic idea of what the song “is”, guiding decisions towards a recording that feels “right”. This idea can be simultaneously crystal clear and entirely nebulous, felt in the body and sensed aesthetically, experienced as belonging both to the artist and to the song itself, yet it often resists articulation.
In her doctoral dissertation, Ingvild Koksvik explores how such ideas can be understood and conceptualised. She introduces the concept of the compositional intention to investigate these elusive dimensions of artistic ideas – and examines how they inform and shape the concrete artistic choices made in the process of realising a song as recorded sound.
The dissertation is an artistic-scholarly work, combining practice-based research with theoretical reflection. It includes an artistic component in the form of the album Mørketidssanger – eight songs written, performed and produced by Koksvik herself – alongside a framing chapter and three peer-reviewed articles.
The first article examines how spatial thinking influences the aesthetic and compositional choices made in record production, and how the immersive format Dolby Atmos opens new ways of realising a song’s musical identity. The second investigates how conceptual metaphors and mental imagery guide artistic direction in record production. The third develops the compositional intention as a practice-based framework for understanding and discussing aesthetic decision-making, with relevance for both professional practice and music education.
By bringing together practice-based research and popular musicology, the dissertation bridges artistic and academic perspectives on record production. It contributes new tools for thinking and talking about something that sits at the core of music-making: the elusive, felt sense of what a song is – and what it could become as a recording.
What to do as an online audience member
The disputation is open to the public. To follow the trial lecture and the public defence online, use the following link:
https://uiano.zoom.us/j/67088350412?pwd=jeYEbNPA9LATiwgzEpIqcBlddua1f3.1
We ask online audience members to join no earlier than 10 minutes in advance. After these times, you can leave and rejoin the meeting at any time.
Opponent ex auditorio:
Deadline for the public to pose questions is during the break between the two opponents.
Questions ex auditorio can be submitted to disputation chair Dean Marit Wergeland marit.wergeland@uia.no .