Documents 

Faculty research at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague focuses on a wide range of topics relevant to the artistic practice of its teaching staff, to the artistic development of its students and to the world of musical practice at large. Areas covered include informed performance practice, creative (artistic) research, instrument building, educational research, and music theory. One strand within the faculty research programme is directed towards the enhancement of the learning, practice and performing strategies of instrumentalists and vocalists.

This publication collects knowledge, insights and practical recommendations addressed at the conference by an outstanding group of scholars and practitioners. Some contributions to this volume were published earlier as articles in their own right, some have been written for the occasion. Combined in this publication they offer a rich and thorough account of the state of the art in this emerging research field.

The study of the relationship between musical practice and the physical and mental condition of its practitioners goes back to ancient Greek, to Plato’s Politeia or Artistotle’s Politika, where music, body and mind were conceived of as constitu- tive of ethos, i.e. of character, behaviour and morality. And throughout history that relationship between music, body and mind was thematised in ever-different ways; from the proto music psychology of the Baroque Affektenlehre to the Musico- Medizin speculations of the early 20th century. Only in recent decades the study of ‘performance science’ has advanced to the level of a serious research programme, rooted in both artistic practice and in cutting-edge scholarly and scientific work, combining insights from sport science, neuro-psychology, brain science, pedagogy and musical practice. [editor summary]