Prism: A Dialogue with Marie Jaell
This paper examines the composition process of Prism, a music theatre work for piano(s), electronics and lighting design, inspired by the 19th-century French composer Marie Jaëll and her work Prisme (1888). Premiered at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in January 2025, this piece of practice-based research considers how a contemporary creative practice—that of the composer-researcher—can be placed in dialogue with Marie Jaëll.
The lecture recital will involve hearing excerpts of Jaëll’s Prisme, an exploration of the composition process and intentions of the work (with reference to the score), extracts of two key scenes from Prism—Dance Mirror and Song Mirror—and will conclude with a performance of Dialogue, an improvisation between two pianos (composer and pianist) that is inspired by Jaëll’s work.
Moreover, the paper will reflect on the decision to use AI-generated voices (Brian and Vivienne), challenging the familiar tropes of victimhood to historical women composers through a playful and subversive approach to the composition. Questions and remarks such as “Did she write much else, or not really?” or “It sounded a bit like [insert man’s name] and a bit like [insert man’s name]” form playful provocations, addressing historical neglect and the commonplace responses to work from marginalised demographics.
Additionally, this paper reflects on the concept of the “second death”—the fading of artistic memory after a mortal death—that acts as a recurring motif offering a reflection on legacy, mortality, asking “Will she [Jaëll] survive the second death?”
Versions of this presentation have been shared at the Third International Conference of Women’s Work in Music at Trinity Laban, London, and at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Research Seminar Series.
Chloe Knibbs
Chloe Knibbs is a composer, songwriter, and practice-based researcher at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Described as having “an anguished tender quality” (The Telegraph), her work spans opera, music theatre, songwriting, choral and chamber music, sound art, and electroacoustic composition. A central theme in her practice is reimagining the legacies of historical women composers through new creative work. This underpins her PhD, Readdressing the Spectacle: Composing Connections Between Past and Living Women Composers Through Collage, which has a focus on music theatre. Her most recent work, Prism, explored the life and music of 19th-century French composer Marie Jaëll in a theatrical piece weaving live piano, AI voices, lighting design, and field recordings.
Her music has been performed at festivals across the UK, including Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham Weekender, and Cheltenham Music Festival, with commissions from Illuminate Women’s Music, The Marian Consort, Lilith Ensemble, and British Council Music. She values cross-cultural collaboration and has been an artist-in-residence at Visby Composers’ Centre (Sweden), Ting Shuo Studio (Taiwan), and USF Verftet Centre (Norway). Chloe holds a MusB (Hons) in Music from the University of Manchester and a Masters in Composition from Birmingham Conservatoire, where she studied with Joe Cutler.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire