Multimodal blending in musical creativity

Christian Lindberg's quixotry in Jan Sandström's trombone concerto No. 2 Multimodal blending in musical creativity We will explore the role of multimodality (Kress & Van Leeuwen 2002, Van Leeuwen 1999) and conceptual integration (Fauconnier & Turner 2002) in abstract contemporary music. More specifically, this contribution focuses on the creative work of total musician Christian Lindberg in putting the trombone on the map as a solo instrument. In his trombone concerto No. 2 Don Quixote written for Lindberg, Sandström explores the boundaries of the trombone concerto as the expression of visual/theatrical, musical and textual references to the centuries-old and inexhaustible literary theme of the Don, well known in the symphonic tradition from Purcell, Telemann, Massenet to Richard Strauss, Jacques Ibert, or Norbert Stein and even Jacques Brel: "The trombone slide shall be your lance and with it you will fight windmills." This piece gives a voice to the performer "trying to reach a star in the sky" and brings under the discussion the long tradition of concerto premieres created for the exceptional soloist, from Mendelssohn's or Haydn's work to Lindberg tailor-made trombone divertimenti by Berio, Xenakis, Michael Numan, John Cage and M. A. Turnage. We will focus on the interaction between language, gesture, musical tradition and sound techniques such as multiphonics, fluttertongue or valve outs in the creation of abstract meaning and Sandström's/Lindberg's reinvention of the concerto genre. In contrast with a received idea in musical theory that music is just the underlying structure for the use of (linguistic) meaning, in our vision, and in line with Zbikowski (2002), musical (re)invention is to just another way of how our brain and language construct meaning and become part of the semiotic and cultural world. References: Fauconnier, Gilles (1997). Mappings in Language and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Fauconnier, Gilles & Mark Turner (2002). Twe Way We Think. Conceptual Blending and the Mind's Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books. Kress, Günther and Theo Van Leeuwen (2002). Multimodal Discourse: the modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Edward Arnold Lindberg, Christian (2008). The Total Musician. Kassel: Klassik Center. DVD. Van Leeuwen, Theo (1999). Speech, music, sound. London: Macmillan. Zwikowski, Lawrence (2002). Conceptualizing Music. Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press