Embodying the cycle: Knowledge-making through an A/r/tographic inquiry into performing Schubert's Gretchen am Spinnrade

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Kaymak A.

JOURNAL FOR THE INTERDISCIPLINARY ART AND EDUCATION, cilt.7, sa.3, ss.203-220, 2026 (Hakemli Dergi)

Özet

Although vocal performance involves continuous interaction among technique, bodily

experience, musical interpretation, and reflection, these dimensions are often considered

separately rather than as interconnected aspects of the performer’s experience. This study

examines how repeated engagement with Franz Schubert’s Gretchen am Spinnrade, Op. 2,

D. 118, reveals changing relations among these dimensions and how the concept of “cycle

as becoming” emerges from this process. Situated within a qualitative arts-based research

paradigm, the study is grounded in a/r/tography, where the roles of artist, researcher, and

teacher remain relational rather than hierarchical. The study draws on six reflective journal

entries produced by a performer-researcher who is a university-level voice educator during

six weeks of engagement with the work. A second author contributed to collaborative

interpretation and manuscript development. The journal was analysed through reflexive

thematic organisation and a relational a/r/tographic reading, supported by collaborative

author review. The analysis focused on bodily sensation, breath, musical continuity,

accompaniment, technical difficulty, language, and pedagogical reflection. The findings

were organised into three relational movements: entering the cycle, the cycle teaching the

body, and internalising the cycle. Across these movements, the reflective data shifted from

fragmentation and a sense of being outside the musical whole towards continuity, breath

organisation, perceived endurance, pedagogical interpretation, and an internally organised

sense of tempo and agency. Throughout this process, cycle extended beyond the recurring

musical structure of the work to encompass the performer’s changing relations with the

body, reflection, and pedagogical thought. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that

repeated performance and reflection transformed the relations among technical, bodily,

musical, and pedagogical experiences over time and conceptualises this transformation as

“cycle as becoming.” Further research should examine this process across additional singers,

repertoires, and multimodal data sources.