Sounding Fragilities enacts a polyphony of writing on contemporary composition music and
performing arts in relation to music theatre. Co-edited by a theatre and performance scholar
and by a composer and artistic researcher this anthology considers its field of investigation
through the lens of positionalities. Irene Lehmann and Pia Palme invite readers into intimate
encounters with an artist's practice feminist and queer perspectives and personal
explorations into aspects of musicology theatre studies technology and ecology. By presenting
female* composers who write with through about their own practice Sounding Fragilities is a
remarkable contribution to an interdisciplinary debate around the agency of artistic research.
With this synthesis the editors evaluate how moving beyond the binary of art and science
reveals the rich yet fragile territories of artistic knowledge-production and literacy in music
theatre. Sounding Fragilities. An Anthology brings together essays discussions and
interventions on contemporary music dance and music theatre to offer a polyphony of new
approaches to listening watching composing and performing. Artistic and academic researchers
present reflections and insights into the fragilities of artistic materials collaborations and
the communities that build around live performances. Challenging the idea of isolated composers
choreographers audience members and academic researchers they stress instead the
interconnectedness of these positions as indispensable elements of thriving performance and
research. This feature of all live performance is envisaged by several of the book's
contributors as linked to political democratic thought and ecological or feminist thinking.
Sounding out the relationality brittleness fragility transitoriness and beauty of live
performance this anthology stresses the urgency of coming together and interacting as a
foundation for human and political relations an urgency intensified by the current overlapping
crises in politics health and ecology.
