Prism: A Dialogue with Marie Jaell
This paper examines the composition process of Prism, a music theatre work for piano(s), electronics and lighting inspired by 19th-century French composer Marie Jaëll and her Prisme (1888). Premiered at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in January 2025, the work explores how contemporary practice-based research can enter into dialogue with a historical composer and her music.
The lecture-recital includes excerpts from Jaëll’s Prisme, discussion of the compositional process with reference to the score, scenes from Prism including Dance Mirror and Song Mirror, and a performance of Dialogue, an improvisation for two pianos inspired by Jaëll’s work.
The presentation also considers the use of AI-generated voices as a playful and subversive device for challenging familiar narratives of victimhood surrounding historical women composers. Questions such as “Did she write much else, or not really?” and comparisons to male composers become provocations addressing historical neglect and assumptions surrounding marginalised artistic voices. The concept of the “second death”—the fading of artistic memory after mortal death—provides a recurring motif, raising questions of legacy and whether Jaëll will “survive the second death”.
Chloe Knibbs
Chloe Knibbs is a composer, songwriter and practice-based researcher at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Her work spans opera, music theatre, songwriting, choral and chamber music, sound art and electroacoustic composition, with a particular interest in reimagining the legacies of historical women composers through new creative work. This focus underpins her PhD, Readdressing the Spectacle: Composing Connections Between Past and Living Women Composers Through Collage, which centres on music theatre.
Her recent work Prism explored the life and music of 19th-century French composer Marie Jaëll through live piano, AI voices, lighting design and field recordings. Her music has been presented at festivals across the UK, with commissions from organisations including Illuminate Women’s Music, The Marian Consort, Lilith Ensemble and British Council Music. She has undertaken artist residencies in Sweden, Taiwan and Norway, and holds degrees in Music and Composition from the University of Manchester and Birmingham Conservatoire.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire