About Resonance
Resonance is a piece of music written by Jill Jarman for Laura Ritchie to play on the cello. It was composed to be an augmented (multisensory) musical experience which is seen and heard, and it can be felt too.
Resonance is seen with Cymatics, which is a science about visualising the forms resulting from musical vibrations. This project provides the opportunity to blend the senses with multiple representations of the piece and capitalise on each sense’s strength to create a richer holistic experience.
People (you!) are invited to experience the music and share your opinions as part of this research project. Participation is voluntary and everything is anonymous. To participate and experience the piece CLICK HERE
If you would like to invite Laura to give a live performance of Resonance, please get in touch.
About Cymatics
In 1787, when bowing the edge of a plate covered with sand, Chlandi first noticed the formation of patterns in sand on a plate when he hit harmonics. Hans Jenny documented similar experiments in 1967 using electronic sound from an oscillator to resonate with harmonics on a plate to excite sand into further, more complex geometric patterns. Cymatic images allow for an augmented musical experience, showing more of the sound, however producing cymatic images for music presents practical challenges. The harmonic series of any plate is distinct from the natural overtone series and ‘matching’ the notes of a full multi-octave instrumental range to the harmonic series of a given plate is an extreme challenge.
The cymatic shapes in the Resonance Project were created by a computer, as very high harmonics were required to make the cymatic shapes for all four octaves of musical pitches.
The video below (not from the Resonance Project) shows how the first few harmonics on a smaller plate create patterns with sand:
About the People
Laura Ritchie
Professor Laura Ritchie is Professor of Learning and Teaching at the University of Chichester. She is vibrant in her teaching, research, music-making, and in life. In her academic work, Laura has devised curricula and several new undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes. Her undergraduate Instrumental and Vocal Teaching Degree at the University of Chichester (2004) was the first degree to focus on private (studio) music teaching in the UK. She also authored the MA in Performance and the MA in Teaching at Chichester. Laura jointly devised the ESTA PG Cert Teaching with Richard Crozier, and Laura authored ESTA’s new MA Practical Pedagogy, which launched in 2022.
Laura’s teaching is heavily influenced by her research into the student’s self-beliefs about learning and performing. Her PhD (Royal College of Music, supervised by Aaron Williamon and Graham Welch) investigated musical self-efficacy beliefs (embodying self-belief in one’s capabilities to do a particular task) and developed new questionnaires to study self-efficacy for learning music and self-efficacy for performing music. She has continued to research, write, and present about self-efficacy across many academic publications. (see https://www.lauraritchie.com/books-2/publications-presentations/ )
Laura trained as a classical cellist in America in High School and at Northwestern University with Hans Jensen and then came to the UK to pursue her MMus at the RCM with Steve Doane. As a musician Laura spans genres, performing both as a classical cello soloist and recitalist and she enjoyed appearing on Later with Jools Holland and at Glastonbury with as a member of The Mummers.
Laura has given two TEDx talks in Los Angeles which feature her research and performance. Laura is also a chartered psychologist and her recent book Yes I Can: Learn to use the Power of Self-efficacy (2021) is practical, about self-beliefs and noticing possibilities in our everyday lives to create a real sense of ‘yes’. She is also founder and president of the SeeYesCorp in California. Laura’s enthusiasm is contagious and inspires people to realize their goals through positive achievement and reach beyond their dreams.
As an entrepreneur Laura is president of the SeeYesCorp, and has recently launched SeeDegree, a web enabled piece of software to allow higher education academics to see idiographic, contextualised portraits of their students – to see them as they see themselves – in order to enable holistic advising and facilitate meaningful educational experiences.
Jill Jarman
Jill Jarman is a composer and jazz pianist, whose music reflects diverse genres, effortlessly crossing the boundaries between classical and jazz. “Art music with jazz waywardness” (Swedish Dagbladet). Science and the natural world often inform her creative process, inspiring her to develop new compositional devices that engage the listener in an evolving and multi-layered sound-world.
Jarman’s works have been performed at many renowned concert halls and festivals, including Queen’s Hall (Edinburgh), the Hay Literary Festival, Cheltenham Science Festival, Musikaliska (Stockholm), Nostos Festival (Athens), London Contemporary Church Music Festival (LFCCM) and Kings Place. Her works have been performed by some of the UK’s leading musicians, such as Evelyn Glennie, Hugo Ticciati, and the O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra. In 2021, a new disc by Chelys and the Fieri Consort released on BIS Records features Jarman’s work Now are my thoughts.
Jarman is currently writing a double concerto in her Across the divide series, which brings ‘background’ instruments forward as soloists – the first work in the series held its London premier at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (Southbank Centre) with Evelyn Glennie, double bassist Chi-Chi Nwanoku, and the Chineke! Orchestra.
She is an accomplished pianist, and a strong advocate of music education, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Two of her works are included in the percussion syllabus for the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music.
“She is a composer of the highest caliber with a style that is a very special combination of complexity and accessibility.”
Hugo Ticciati (Violinist and Artistic Director of O/Modernt)
“…a joyous meeting of musical worlds.” Neil Fisher, The Times
More information can be found at www.jilljarman.com
