Clare Lesser

Publications

Monographs & Book Chapters

2025 Monograph Cage, Nono and 1960s Hauntology: Sonic Ghosts. Part of the ‘Elements in Music Since 1945’ Series,
Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom

 

2025 Monograph A Radical Decentering – Deconstructing Radio in Works by John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen 1950-1970. 
Palgrave Macmillan, United Kingdom

 

2025, January Book chapter in The Aesthetics of Absence in the 21st Century: ‘Lacuna and Parergon in Late Vocal Works by Hans Joachim Hespos.’ 
University of Oslo, Norway

 

2024, January Book chapter in From Text to Act:The Virgin Act: Mediating Supplement and Repetition in Performance.’ 
University of Leuven Press (Orpheus Instituut), Belgium

 

2021, August Book chapter in Experience Music Experiment: Pragmatism and Artistic Research: ‘The Rehearsal Process: Finnissy, Hespos, and Pragmatic Approaches to Indeterminacy.’
University of Leuven Press (Orpheus Instituut), Belgium 

Journal Articles

2023, December INSAM Journal (Journal of Contemporary Music, Art and Technology) No 11. Winter 2023:
‘Ghost Gardens: The Intersection Between Electronic Archives and Artistic Research’

 

2023, August Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies (Intellect):
‘Butchered Voices’: Haunted Memories in the Work of The Caretaker’

 

2022, December Jazz research Journal (Equinox), Speculative Histories of Jazz:
Calling Planet Earth!!! Is anybody listening…? Sun Ra and Karlheinz Stockhausen as intergalactic collaborators 

 

2022, July Riffs: Journal of Popular Music Studies, Volume 6 no. 1. Otobiographies:
Cinders and Archives: Derrida, Marclay and The Afterlife of Dead Sounds’

 

2021, December INSAM Journal (Journal of Contemporary Music, Art and Technology) No 7. Winter 2021. Music, Art and Mental Health in the Time of Global Crisis:
‘Ghosts in the Machine: A Virtual Choral Performance as Hauntological Praxis During the COVID-19 Pandemic’

 

2021, December Contemporary Music Review, Vol 40 no. 4. Improvisation and Indeterminacy (Taylor & Francis):
An Overabundance of Signifiers: Derridean Play in Hans-Joachim Hespos’ Weiβschatten

 

2021, May Pratiques Artistiques en Actes, Laboratoire de Recherches (PaaLabRes.com) (3rd Edition):
Inter Muros – Domain Heterogeneity in John Cage’s Four⁶

 

2020, March Electra Street Journal, NYUAD publications, Performance:
‘Performing Ritual in the Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen’ 

Conference Papers & Talks

2024, March 20-22nd 10th Annual Conference of the School of Performing Arts, University of Malta: Subject/Object/Practice/Place: Connecting Creatively Through the Performing Arts.
Disseminating Connectivity: Musik für ein Haus and Fresco as Mobile Event’

2023, November 23-25th IMPACT: Improvisation and Creativity In and Through Performing Arts, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Lithuania. 
‘Framing Interpenetration: Improvisation in John Cage’s Late Number Pieces.’

2023, June 30th-July 2nd  Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, UK. RMA Music and/as Process 10th Annual Conference: Making Music Together.
Radio as Agent of Radical Decentering in Communal Music’

2023, June 28-30th Orpheus Instituut, Ghent, Belgium. Conference: Vintage Materialities in Music.
Tuning in to John Cage’s Radio Music

2023, May 25-26th University of Uppsala/ University of Oslo, Norway. Conference: The Aesthetics of Absence.
Lacuna and Parergon in Late Vocal Works by Hans Joachim Hespos’

2023, March 14-15th AR@K (Artistic Research at Kristiania), Kristiania University College, Oslo, Norway. Conference: AR@K Symposium.
The Experimental Tradition Across Cultural Contexts: A Case Study’

2022, October 10-12th Orpheus Instituut, Ghent, Belgium. Conference: The Performer-Composer in the Second Half of the 20th Century.
‘Voice and Shocking Things’ – John Cage as Composer-Performer’

2022, September 8–10th 58th Royal Musical Association Annual Conference, Durham University.
On Jupiter, the skies are always blue… (Sun Ra) A Derridean Approach to The Intergalactic Journeys of Sun Ra and Karlheinz Stockhausen’

2022, August 22nd-26th International Musicological Society (IMS) Quinquennial Conference, Athens, Greece.
‘Borderlands of Improvisation in Hans Joachim-Hespos’ Weiβschatten’ 

2022, August 18-19th Musical Retrofuturism in the 20th Century, University of Leeds.
‘Plunderphonics and Crate Digging: So Old it’s New, or ‘What does it mean to follow a ghost?’

2022, July 7-8th Royal Musical Association, Music & Philosophy Study Group Biennial Conference, King’s College, University of London, UK. Chair for Themed Session.
‘Music and Deconstruction’

2022, June 30th – July 3rd PSN Annual Conference (Performance Studies Network), University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Improvisation as Parergon and Temporary Autonomous Zone in Hans Joachim Hespos’ Weiβschatten’

2022, June 20–24th IFTR International Federation for Theatre Research Annual Congress, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. Music Theatre Working Group.
The Centre is a Function, not a Place: Derridean ‘Play’ in Stockhausen’s Sternklang and Cage’s HPSCHD

2022, June 7-8th Orpheus Instituut, Ghent, Belgium. Conference: Performing by the Book? Artist-Researchers’ Negotiations Between Text and Act.
The Virgin Act: Mediating Supplement and Repetition in Performance’

2022, March 23-25th University of Malta, School of Performing Arts Conference 2022, Mediating Performance.
‘Mediating Signals in the Work of Karlheinz Stockhausen’

2022, February 1st New York University Abu Dhabi, Heritage, Memory and Mobility Research Group (Clare Lesser, Alia Yunis, Jonathan Shannon).
‘Music for the Kitchen: A Conversation with the Heritage, Memory and Mobility Research Group’ 

2021, September 27th Royal Musical Association Study Day, Oxford University (online): Vicarious Vocalities. Paper and roundtable panelist.
‘Butchered Voices: Haunted Memories in the Work of The Caretaker’ 

2021, June 14th New York University Abu Dhabi (online): Explorations in the Indian Ocean World and Beyond. Conference introduction.

2021, April 17th University of Leeds, UK. International Conference: Vibrant Practices. Panelist for ‘Social Assemblages: human-nonhuman assemblages.’
‘Materiality, Indeterminacy, Contingency: A Materials Centred Approach to Performance in John Cage’s Child of Tree

2021, February 4th British Audio-Visual Research Network (BARN), University of Cambridge, UK. Virtual Colloquia Series:
No Room is Actually Empty… The Interface between Film and Music in John Cage’s HPSCHD and One¹¹ and 103

2020, December 1st Contemporary Music Research Centre, University of York, UK. Seminar:
‘Hans Joachim Hespos: Deconstructive Approaches to the Performer/Composer Interface’

2020, November 13-15th University of Dundee, Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art and Design, UK. International Conference: Indeterminate Futures / The Future of Indeterminacy.
‘Deconstruction, Hauntology and Indeterminacy: Radio as Aleatoric Instrument in the Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen’ 

2020, June 30th Contemporary Music Research Centre, University of York, UK. Seminar:
‘Supplements, Hauntology and Différance: Derridean Concepts at Play in John Cage’s Four⁶ 

2020, March 26th MCICM-FASOS conference, University & Conservatoire of Maastricht, Netherlands.Sharing Challenges and Learning in Classical Music Innovation.’ Workshop:
‘Chance, Contingency and Gamut: Lessening the Impact of Prior Musical Knowledge in an Educational Performance Context’

2020, February 13-14th Orpheus Institute for Practice Research Conference: Experience: Music: Experiment–Pragmatism and Artistic Research, Ghent, Belgium.
The Rehearsal Process: Hespos, Finnissy and Pragmatic Approaches to Indeterminacy’

2019, February 21st Orpheus Institute for Practice Research Conference: From Authorship and Spectatorship to Usership, Ghent, Belgium.
A disparate multiplicity – Cage, Tschumi , Derrida and the programme-less folie’

2019, February 9th Institute for Musical Research Conference: Notation for Improvisors, University of London.
…the play that links them amongst themselves… Derridean Approaches to Musical Notation’

Other Texts

2018, October Liner essay: And, like a dying lady lean and pale, Deconstruction in late 20th century Lieder.’ Métier 28567.

 

2016, April Liner essay: ‘Thoughts on Performing Michael Finnissy’s Vocal Music.’ Métier 28577.

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