Concert & PhD Defence Ned McGowan
You are cordially invited to the public defense and artistic presentation by Ned McGowan of the research project Speed in Music.
Speed is not merely a musical parameter — it is a fundamental dimension of how we experience the world. The pace at which events unfold and relate to each other shapes our perception of time itself, from the rhythm of a conversation to the unfolding of daily life. In music, speed becomes a lens through which these deeper truths about time and experience come into focus, making it not only an artistic concern but a profoundly human one.
McGowan’s research investigates musical speed — what it is, how it is perceived, and how it can be explored within compositional, improvisational, and performance practice. Drawing on several decades of work as a composer, flutist, and improviser, he argues that speed in music is far richer and more nuanced than tempo alone suggests. He proposes that speed functions as the rate of perceptual events in time, operating across multiple, independent yet concurrent timescales, and co-constructed by the music, performer, environment, and listener.
The dissertation builds this framework through five interlocking perspectives — from thresholds of speed and temporal resolution, to density and motion, smooth and striated time, and speed as a relational phenomenon. These are brought to life through focused investigations into tuplets, polytempo music, and a case study of the solo flute piece Torrent. The research integrates artistic creation, theoretical reflection, scientific literature, and situated performance experience, arguing for speed as a central dimension of musical life.
Concert
Monday 1 June 2026, 19:00
HKU Utrechts Conservatorium Gebouw voor Kunsten & Wetenschappen (K&W)
Mariaplaats 27, 3511 LL Utrecht
Programme
Ricochet for contrabass flute and piano
Cycle Games 1 for vocal percussion
New Torrent for solo flute
Concerto for Indian Percussion with soloist B.C. Manjunath
Guest artists
Keiko Shichijo piano
B.C. Manjunath percussion & konnakol
Oene van Geel viola
Catarina Martins Lopes Baptista violin
José Scott Montoya cello
Jaime Peña clarinet
Sonia Risvanoglu bass clarinet
Gonçalo Martins percussion
Yubal Flores Garcia oboe
Ned McGowan flute, contrabass flute, vocal percussion
PhD Defence
Tuesday 2 June, 16:00
Academy Building, Leiden University
Rapenburg 73, Leiden
Promotores
Prof. dr. Richard Barrett
Prof. dr. Marcel Cobussen
PhD Committee
Prof. dr. H.A. Borgdorff
Prof. dr. R. de Groot - Universiteit van Amsterdam
Dr. Y. Kyriakides - Royal Conservatoire The Hague
Dr. M. Phillips - Royal Northern College of Music
Dr. R. Schaefer - Leiden University
Prof. dr. S. Lindberg - Leiden University
