APPROACHES TO ORGANISING IMPROVISATION
1.2.2 Advantages
of Conduction
1.2.3 Extensions
to conduction used by Oxford Improvising Orchestra
1.5 Game
pieces and alternative structuring
1.6. Collaborative
structuring between different art forms
1.6.4 Collaboration with visual arts
1.6.5 The SPARC Group - collaboration across
multiple art forms
This
paper is an attempt to document the approaches to organising improvisation that
have been influential on my practice in the Oxford Improvisers, Spontaneous
Arts Collective and educational work (mainly with Kate Comberti and the Oxford
Philomusica). Some of what I document includes suggestions and solutions to
problems of creating work that I and colleagues have come up with both for
encouraging participation amongst non-improvisers and for maximising
participation by a group of skilled improvisers; other aspects include
established repertoire and approaches from jazz and contemporary music
innovators in the field which we have adapted and used in combination or in new
situations. Often an approach that works
well for beginners is equally valid for professional musicians - especially in
the case of tried and trusted exponents like John Stevens[1]
and Pauline Oliveros. [2]
This
does not mean that I believe that improvisation always needs to be organised,
channelled or controlled. What we have found with the Oxford Improvisers is
that over time the group has enhanced its skills in communicating effectively
and authentically without a predefined structure even in large numbers (10 -
12) despite the caveats of many that groups need to be small [3]
A simple processional technique (where three people play together in turn with
the players processing through the ensemble in turn) is often as successful in
creating new work as any elaborate plan.
However,
the imposition of structure can be liberating for some players and is
definitely an advantage for those who lack confidence to improvise without some
degree of encouragement. In addition the effort of breaking out of established
patterns and vocabulary can occasionally be insurmountable even for the best
improvising musicians where a predefined structure or approach can compel a
change of practice.
Ideally
the practice of free improvisation should continue (once established within a
group) in parallel with the imposition of framing and structuring ideas.
I
have attempted to categorise and document as many different approaches as
possible outside of pure notation or totally 'free' improvisation. I have begun
with conducted improvisation because that is an invaluable starting point for
pulling a group together (it proved so for the Oxford Improvisers and I have
found this in schools and community work).
Although
specific groups have used the shorthand of established conducting symbols for
many years (I have no doubt that the Baroque ensembles of Corelli or Vivaldi
would have developed easy signs for much that is left empty in the surviving
notation of their work), the establishment of a standard set of signs to enable
a conductor to develop a complete work in collaboration with an ensemble is a
recent event. More than anything it enables a democratisation of the creative
process because anyone can take the role of conductor/facilitator of a group
piece once they have learnt the vocabulary of signs. It is quite likely that
this echoes the democratisation of sound mixing that has taken place through
the proliferation of sound mixing technology (in PC's etc). In fact the
conductor in this environment is often like the sound mixer in taking over a
flow of musical ideas form performers and highlighting and enhancing some (and
removing others); changing the parameters for performance and setting up
different combinations of sounds.
The
emergence of the idea of a creative partnership between conductor and performer
into the art-music world really seems to date from the American experimental
music tradition with the work of Earle Brown[4]
in the 1950’s. Similar developments had
been and were happening in jazz and perhaps it is no surprise that Brown was
the most directly and openly influenced by jazz of the New York School.
Starting
with Brown and his colleagues in the New York School there have been various
experiments at combining the creative input of players with a minimum of structuring supplied by text scores,
rules, graphics, and even prescribed
signals for a conductor. This took a more overtly political stance with the
work of Cardew [5] in
the sixties and seventies and in recent years the work of Zorn[6]
(with game pieces) and Butch Morris[7]
has further developed the idea of a partnership of player, conductor/composer
as opposed to the more traditional art music hierarchy (perhaps exemplified by
the way Stockhausen felt his text pieces were an expression of his own rather
than a collective will [8]).
The
work of Butch Morris has been particularly significant because he has attempted
to standardise an approach to using signs and symbols to conduct improvisation
(often for large ensemble or orchestra). As he explains in the sleeve notes to
‘Dust to Dust’:
"Conduction"
(conducted improvisation) is a means
by which a conductor may compose, (re)
orchestrate,
arrange, and sculpt both notated and non-notated music. Using a vocabulary of
signs and
gestures,
many within the general glossary of traditional conducting, the conductor may
alter or initiate
rhythm,
melody, and harmony; develop form and structure; and instantaneously change
articulation,
phrasing,
and meter. For example, indefinite repeats of a phrase or measure may now be at
the
discretion
of the new composer on the podium. In this way conducting becomes more than a
method
for
musical interpretation, but an actual part of the process of composition.
Conduction is a viable
musical
tool for the improvising ensemble.
The
standardisation of the approach has paid off in the sense that numerous groups
have been formed which use a set of symbols established by Butch Morris as a
starting point for developing work.[9]
The way the symbols work is that the direction (almost the mix) of a work is
determined by the conductor who can decide who plays and for how long and
various constraints in the style of playing. The choice of notes, rhythms and
communication with other players is
mainly left to the individual performer within the framework the
conductor sets up.
Pat
Thomas, who learned the techniques through performing in Europe with Butch
Morris, taught them to the Oxford Improvisers Orchestra in 2003 and as a result
of the success of their use the Oxford Improvising Orchestra was started by the
Oxford Improvisers and Oxford COMA. The conduction techniques were used as a
starting point but quite soon many extensions were made including their use in
combination with other art forms - such as dance. The use of 'conduction' as a
baseline vocabulary from which a group can develop new work has been a feature
of many of the performances of this group since 2003.
The
development of new work through the use of conduction does enable any member of
the ensemble to control the parameters of sound of the group as well as
performing within it. This had a cohesive effect on the Oxford Improvisers as
it enabled everyone to develop their skills in this area. Mutual learning and
passing on of skills and ideas was established and for many, the ability to
establish quickly parameters for a performance led to the trial and development
of new work which could be refined in rehearsal and performance.
Some
felt that the conduction approach lost the advantages of listening,
communication and mutual support that an experienced group of improvisers can
achieve through focussed and attentive playing together with no directional
control. Most, however, agreed that the ability to shift the direction of a
piece by changing groups of players, dynamics, registers and rhythms gave huge
scope that consensus based playing tends to miss. For example, it is very
difficult to get a specific sub group to enter a piece as a unit and give a
strong timbral shift to previous playing unless this has been
pre-arranged. Or allow different players
prominence at times when they would naturally shy from dominating the group
sound.
These
things can happen but with a fluctuating and open membership (as is the case
with the Oxford Improvisers), they are unlikely.
Some
particularly good examples of conducted improvisation as developed by the
Oxford Improvising Orchestra are:
Pat Thomas conduction of the
Armoury Section of the Accession Piece
Pat Thomas conduction of the
Theremin Concerto
From
the start of the Oxford Improvising Orchestra the opportunity was established
for anyone in the group to develop new work using the symbols but extending
them to incorporate other parameters (such as particular texts, graphics,
melodic fragments, collaborations with other art forms etc). To highlight the range of possibilities I
will discuss a number of particularly useful approaches, pieces and signs that
have been used in Oxford to enhance the standard conduction practice. (These
are all based on an understanding of the core principles and signs documented
in the Appendix A )
Multiple conductors and
tagged conduction: The liberating effect of moving from performing to giving directional
control can be enhanced by encouraging multiple simultaneous conductors. These
conductors can be allocated part of the ensemble or compete with one another
for the whole group. The parallel development of different rhythms contrasting timbres can
give an interest and complexity to a piece that a single conductor cannot
achieve. This can be further enhanced
by passing on the role of conductor
amongst a group and seeing how the changes of personality affect a performance.
These
techniques are demonstrated in the recording of Accession II (part 15 or Track
6 on the CD release. In the context of the piece this section worked as a
summation of what had happened as everyone who had conducted so far in the work
was eligible to participate (two conductors were agreed to start and each could
pass on to one of the other nominated people at will). Hence, their techniques
and styles could be revisited in this one place.
Use of texts: I have attempted to create a specific
atmosphere in a piece by the use of text. Using a singer (D'orowing) who would
be conducted in as any other performer I gave her William Burrough's Book of
Dreams and asked her when brought in to choose any passages at random and
interpret at will.
The
resonant and other wordly images of this text did create a very particular
atmosphere to the piece and fashioned how I brought in musical responses from
the performers. A similar attempt with Haiku was reasonably successful but the
less predictable Burrough's text worked better because of its rapid transitions
between the mundane and the fanciful.
The
SPARC group is developing these ideas further with the use of text based
pieces. Alan Buckley is currently developing a piece where a recording of a
poem he has written is played on a tape to an artist who draws a response.
Dancers interpret the response and they in turn are interpreted by improvising
musicians. The whole
process is observed by artists (in the audience) who create visual
representations of it (which could be used for a further work).
Use of Melody: Although to many improvisers the use of melody was
seen as a step back to a previous musical language the wide range of interests
of the improvising group in Oxford has led to a philosophy where traditional methods
of structuring music through notation are accepted as part of the available
resources, provided the notation is an aid to structuring the free expression
of the players and not the entirity of a work. This seems to parallel the
increased use of melody in other improvising groups such as the London
Improvising Orchestra, where composer/performers such as Simon Fell[10]
use some notational ideas in their compositions.
In
order to explore the contrast between modal improvisation and the total
harmonic freedom of the improvising orchestra I set up a piece where a specific
signal would mean use a prescribed
melody of any part of that melody (played backwards or forwards at whatever
speed desired). In contrast players
would have total harmonic freedom when not requested to use the melody.
The melody I chose was the plainsong Pange Lingua which is in phrygian mode.
The way I tended to structure performance was around a continual dialectic of
performers exploring the melody and its ramifications within the mode as
against those free of the harmonic constraint who would tend to destabilise and
destroy the melody. The weight of the performance would shift between the two
sides as performers were brought in one style or another. I extended the techniques of using melody in
contrast to free playing in the Accession Piece as follows:
A
series of fragments of melodies was used by all performers. These fragments
related to full melodies used throughout the piece (all accession state anthems
or folk tunes). A performer could be asked to play a fragment at any time by a
symbol (F) followed by the fragment number indicating the specific one to play
at the next down beat.
Accession
I (13): Four players were allocated folk tunes. Each of these players was
linked to one of four dancers. They played only when the dancer moved. The
dancers came in turn and left gaps between moves. Ultimately two dancers
remained in motion and the entire improvising group (18) was split between the
two conflicting melodies. Ultimately one dancer alone continued at which point
all played the same tune (or improvised on it).
Accession
II (17 – track 4 on the released CD): Eight players were allocated anthems.
They begun their anthems as conducted in
The remaining ensemble created a wall of noise that began softly and gradually took over all
players - including the anthem players.
Accession
II (16 – track 3 on the CD) A melody written around the lyric of the poem
Springtime Behind the Slaughterhouse was played solo on alto clarinet. When
played through two string players joined the clarinet player in an
improvisation following from this melody.
Accession
II (20 – track 7 on the CD) a melody based on the lyric of the poem On Parting
was played on flute. A group of three players joined the flute player.
Simultaneous to this each remaining
member of the ensemble played a very soft very high note (starting in
turn as brought in by the conductor). Ultimately the improvising musicians joined the ensemble to
indicate the end of the piece (which also marked the end of the whole work).
Sonic space, subtlety and timbral exploration
In
large group improvisation there is always a danger of overplaying. Although
this often lessens as a group coheres it can be lessened by specific
structuring techniques. The same also applies to volume and the ability to hear
subtle sounds and extensions of instrumental technique.
These
problems generally do not apply in small groups - especially in duos and trios
- where the players will more easily adjust to hear the quietest sounds. Also
the concern with subtle effects and simplicity is a particular phenomenon of
our times and reflects the increasing importance of the legacy of Feldman [11],
the French Spectral Composers [12].
The New London Silence Movement reflects a radical improvisational position
with regard to these issues. An interesting web discussion of their label is at
http://www.splitrec.com/index.php?go=subreductionismandth
The
processional is one approach to allowing space for performers. Other approaches
listed elsewhere (dance led improvisation which controls who plays or
conduction which can isolate individual performers or small groups of
performers) can also help indirectly.
Dominic Lash, possibly influenced by his
connection with London performers, has been keen to explore space and quiet.
His piece Van Hagen's Voicebox explores setting up a range of timbral effects
for instruments (originally voices) which enforce the use of extended
technique. Further pieces have explored the interplay of quiet unvoiced sounds.
I
set up the section Lake of Tears in the Accession Piece to explore quiet sounds
whilst using all the parameters of conducted improvisation outside of volume.
The section was controlled by the parameter that no-one could play above the
volume of a singing bowl - which had to
be audible for the duration of this conducted improvisation. I asked Bruno Guastalla to conduct this piece
because of his expressed interest in extending parameters to playing by
conceptual ideas. His original approach to this conduction was to add in
symbols to indicate playing 'cold' or 'hot'. The abstruseness of this concept
did produce some interesting results but in fact the concept of the Lake of
Tears proved sufficient to influence the players - along with the rigid control
of volume throughout.
Miles Doubleday explored the idea of
enforcing space by structuring a piece so that all the players thought of a
number and a pulse. They would then
count to that number repeatedly using the pulse they had thought of. Every
second time they counted to the number they would play their instrument.
Miscellaneous pieces:
Rapid Fire Duos: Miles Doubleday developed
this piece on the principle of exploring the effect that a series of duos (brought in and terminated by the
conductor) can provide sufficient variety and interest to constitute a piece in
its own right. So, given this pre-condition the conductor simply points at two
people and with the down beat they start playing together and play until they
are signalled to stop. Other duos can play (as separate units) in parallel with
them at the discretion of the conductor.
The
use of a series to create a particular style of work has been attempted in a
number of pieces. Although qualitatively this may be seen as similar to using a
specific mode or scale it seems to create a different effect by the fact that
it does not so easily fall into the production of melody or riff. It tends to
encourage the use of sound colours - reminiscent of the total serialist
approach. The easiest way of using a
series is to use a conventional chart and an improvising group (ideally not too
large) can use the chart in any direction (Appendix C contains some example
charts I have used).
Much
depends on the style of the tone row developed. An interesting experiment is to
take a series by Webern or Berg and see whether the improvisation bears any
stylistic resemblance to the work of the original composer. All the considerations that apply to deriving
a series for a formal composition apply to deriving a series to use for
improvisation: the choice of intervals; repeating (or retrograde) structures in
the series etc.
The
'pointillist' nature of the outcome of a series based improvisation is often
enhanced by the lack of direction and resolution that the encouragement to use
a non-diatonic approach, with no other guiding principle, can have. This can be a useful non-directional aim in
itself but it can be obviated by further structuring techniques. Bruno Guastalla in the use of a series
for dance collaboration prescribed that the three performers used a chart at
will, but when they reached a central block of four squares in the series chart
that they stayed on that repeating et of notes. This narrowing of the
parameters gave a clear direction to the piece.
Chris Brown in his piece the Remnants
of Resonance (for three performers) used a series to structure sections of an
extended work which explored contrasts between free improvisation, the timbral
contrasts range of each combination of the trio (solo, duo or trio) and the
expression of the series in different styles.
I
attempted a similar structuring in the piece Rented Space (Appendix B) which I
developed with Barry Reeves in 2003. This used five performers each in a stall
in a disused dairy. The performers all had the option of using a series (or
not) in their improvisation. The piece was in five sections each one preceded
by one performer reciting part of a dream he had had and playing a version of
the series on the English Concertina. Each improvised section had a different
parameter or structuring mechanism (fast or slow; different numbers of performers; antiphonal responses; different
order of entry or exit of the performance).
The
use of a motif and its repetition and
transposition within a group is often a key element in the communication
strategies of a group of improvisers ( as exemplified by the Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Karyobin as
a key example [13]). In a sense this was always an element of
art-music, especially in fugue and the inventions of Bach. Here however, the
interest is often enhanced by the conflict between tonality and the exploration
of motif. In the Second Viennese School pre-serialist works of the early
twentieth century an increasing interest in motific and canonic structuring
becomes more important as tonality is discarded. It was not until the 1960's
that the idea of using atonal exploration in improvisation became a formal
aspect of performance within the new genre of free improvisation.
Formalisation
of a pitch class set as the inherent structuring device of a piece is perhaps a
limiting device that enforces this kind of interaction. However, it defines and
limits the parameters for extension in that expansion and contraction of a set
of notes is ruled out if players are to strictly adhere to this approach. As with the series, the construction of a
set determines a great deal of the initial style of a piece. A pitch class set
that incorporates octatonic relationships will often create a resonance of
atonal expressionist works (as a series
in this style will also).
The
development of text and graphic scores seems to be prevalent from the 1950's -
again with the work of the Cage circle (Cage, Feldman, Wolff and Brown). Text
scores can create a broad overview of the way a piece should develop totally
removed from the actions that will be used to achieve the score, or impose
strict limitations on what performers can do.
Graphic
scores can be equally generic or specific.
I
will try and categorise approaches within each genre.
Listening and communicative
exercises.
The
work of John Stevens (co-founder of
SME) in the UK and Pauline Oliveiros
in America seems to exemplify an approach around the development of listening
and communication as the key skills in improvisation. The pieces that they have
developed can be treated as exercises to
develop skills or concert pieces in their own right (provided they are played
with conviction). They tend to keep instructions simple and clear and demand a
level of concentration on performing a simple task to the best of your ability
(whatever your previous musical training). Quite often they involve the
development of musical skills of listening (Oliveiros refers to her whole
approach as Deep Listening) and
development of alternative techniques through a communicative
atmosphere. The scribbling piece by John Stevens demands that players
'scribble' on their instruments ( i.e. play without conscious planning ) while
they listen to two other players. They gradually start listening to their own sounds
after they are comfortable with the sound world created by their companions.
We
were fortunate in booking Maggie Nichols (who worked extensively with John
Stevens) for a workshop where the
efficacy and relevance of his work was demonstrated. As a result the idea of
using simple structures to organise sound has been further validated.
Complex instruction
The
philosophy of Christian Wolff whose text pieces were explored by the Oxford
Improvisers at a workshop run by Howard Skempton in 2004 was often to use the
ambiguity of language to create variety and complexity in a piece. So, in Play
(quoted in full in Nyman p 114), the language is confusing and convoluted and
the specific requirements are not tied down. The effect this has on performance
is twofold. An ensemble may adopt a group approach that is very different,
either within the group or compared to others. The performers may feel
uncertain and stressed in trying to find the correct interpretation (because
there is not one to be had). This can create a different level of
concentration, more akin to attempting to realise the impossible complexity of
a Ferneyhough score or the physicality of a Lachenman work.
The
fact that the complexity and ambiguity is usually in the process of sound
creation rather than the desired end result marks these as experimental works
different in scope to the more prescriptive approach of Oliveros or Stevens
where there is often a clear sonic aim.
Esoteric Instruction
The
text work of Stockhausen in Aus Den Sieben Tagen further refines the ambiguity
of instruction and the physical displacement of performers by demanding that
they relinquish food and sleep or that they play in the manner of the Spirit of
the Universe. But here the aim is confused because Stockhausen feels that he
owns the work (in the traditional hierarchical mode of Western composition)
whereas there is a democratising element in much of the work Wolff, Stevens and
Oliveiros. This is born out by Stockhausen's possibly tongue in cheek comments
about how the performers will know they are playing a vibration in the rhythm
of the universe [14].
How these approaches have
affected the Oxford Improvisers
Although
Stockhausen's work has not been directly influential, the idea that an abstract
state of mind or physical state can be used to colour a interpretation is one
that has been championed within the group by Bruno Guastalla and Helen
Edwards whose background in Butoh (a contemporary Japanese improvised dance
movement) has probably encouraged this approach. Hence the unpopular suggestion
by Helen that players swap instruments (only playing those that they are not
familiar with) and much of the work that has been developed in the SPARC group
(see multimedia work development below).
Bruno
has often combined the use of physicality in playing with an interest in
generating different colours and timbres of sound (this may reflect a
particular cultural disposition as he is French).
His
instructions can be deliberately abstruse as in the idea of rapid shifts between
moods (developed first for the Butoh
Dance Group) or the imposition of the ideas of playing 'hot' or 'cold' within a
conduction (an idea he trialled in Accession for the Lake of Tears which he
conducted). The difficulty of interpreting this last command produces
unpredictability (and an obvious player insecurity) much as the commands of
Stockhausen can or even the convoluted nature of Wolff's texts.
Pure abstraction
Because
of their proximity to improvised music the Improvisers have concentrated on the
more abstracted graphic scores in
performance:
Brown's
December 1952 was performed at the Barbican in January 2001 by the Improvising
Orchestra (I conducted) and in Oxford. It was performed by Hadaly (improvising
trio in which I perform) accompanied by Ana
Barbour (dancer) who interpreted the score on an equal basis with the
musicians. What was interesting in these performances is that both adapted the
performance of the piece to represent current ideas of the performing
groups. The Oxford Improvising Orchestra
performance was conducted ( I wore the score printed on a T Shirt so all the
players could easily see it and my instructions) and the conduction structured
the performance in a way that reflected the normal operation of the group.
Hadaly worked with a dancer who interpreted the score on the same terms and as
an equal participant with the musicians.
I
organised a performance of Cardew's
Treatise in its entirety in December 2004. This involved some dance as
well as combinations of different ensembles (some conducted ) performing
different selections of pages. Prior to this performance I organised a workshop
by John Tilbury on how to interpret the piece (John, as a member of AMM has
performed this piece for thirty years).
My
personal experience of both these pieces was of how intense the process of
interpretation has to be.
To
some extent we pre-planned how we would interpret the pages of Treatise we were
allocated ( I allocated them mainly by chance) and were then forced to focus on
these interpretations whilst trying to react meaningfully with other musicians in their
interpretations. The constant dialectic
between these two aspects set up a tension in the playing that was greater than
in normal ensemble playing, whether improvised or through traditional notation.
Cardew's aim in producing Treatise is expressed in his 'Towards and ethic of
Improvisation' (an accompanying document to the Treatise score) where he
explains that he is looking for people who have a musicality, but not one
corrupted by the expectations of conventional musical training. For these
people the open ended nature of the score will be a stimulus to invent rather
than simply relating the 'musical memories they have already acquired to the
notation in front of them' ( p xix).
This
pressure in performance is similar to what I experienced in playing Wolff's for
One Two or Three Players. The notation here is process oriented and Nyman (p
69) omments on how this can give a sense of urgency in the performers belied by
the calm and restrained nature of the music produced. I suspect that this
pressure of interpretation in ways that are so different from our normal
cultural conditioning (either notation of desired end result or framework for
communication) is what causes this end result in both graphic scores and in the
process orientation of Wolff's.
Derivation from musicality
Although
Treatise contains staff lines on all its 193 pages, the other symbols used are
often deliberately non-musical and force an alternative method of
interpretation. This fits with Cardew’s aim quoted above of moving away from
traditional music making and finding musicians who were open to new methods of
expression and able to interpret visuals as a means to this.
In
contrast, much of the work of Busotti tends to start from a known musicality
which is deconstructed accordingly. The same could also be said of Cage –
especially in the Piano Concert.
Busotti
[15]
Cage
(Piano Concert)
Mythological reference
Logothetis
tends to combine mythological themes (from his native Greece) with
comprehensible graphics relating to the named myths.
The
piece Styx is a picture of the meandering Underworld River along which the
players are expected to slowly progress in interpretation. The similarity to
the progress of a stave makes this a very accessible piece for beginners in
improvisation who can choose how far to attempt to address the oppressive
mythological reference or else simply
interpret the linear unfolding of symbols to determine their performance.
I
have found the work Styx by Logothetis particularly useful in workshops for
beginners in improvisation.
Minimalism
Tenney's On Never Having Written a Note for
Percussion can be treated as an exercise
in developing listening and co-ordination much as the pieces of Oliveiros or
Stevens. In a sense it is similar to the kind of improvising exercise that says
get as much variety as you can out of a climactic crescendo and decrescendo on
one note.
Although
we have not directly explored the
specific pieces of Zorn structured around games and game rules, the imposition
of external and non-musical rules and ideas has been very influential in the
development of work for the Improvisers because of the influence of the Butoh
Dance Theatre, multi media pieces and of the interests of particular members of
the group.
Antiphonal experiments.
The
idea of groups (or individuals) playing against each other can open up a sound
world that effectively uses performance space as well as unpredictable results
( if groups have rules for interrupting one another). A simple technique which
we tried was to set up two groups opposite one another. One group starts
playing and continues until any individual from the other group interrupts, at
which point that group takes over until they are interrupted. This approach can
be entertaining in the short term but the limitations of the game prevent it
going anywhere. A refinement that I tried was to start with one person opposite
a group. The group plays until interrupted by the single player (who then
solos). The last person from the group to stop playing when interrupted has to
join the solo player. The group remaining interrupt at will. But again when
they are interrupted by either of the two players opposite the last player in the group to stop
playing joins the duo. This process continues until everyone has moved across
the room .
Obviously
there is a strong 'play' element in a piece like this but the simple
structuring can be useful in creating sonic variety and in cohering the group.
It is still simple enough to allow the performers to concentrate on their
methods of expression although the result will be very different to a free
improvisation.
Satie Instructions
The
book a Mammal's Notebook by Satie contains a series of eccentric and esoteric
performance instructions. These can be used in a conducted improvisation to
create either a more tense or ludicrous improvisation (depending on the
attitude of the group). I have used the instructions in a number of contexts:
In
a conducted improvisation where the
conductor has the option of giving a performance instruction to a player (or a group of players).
In
a free improvisation where any player was free to get up and find an instruction
and read it out. The group would then have to follow it.
In
a dance led piece where some of the instructions would be randomly distributed
to individual performers during the performance.
Processional and variants
The
standard processional of a set number of people taking it in turn to play at
any one time from a larger group is a well used improvising technique for a
large group. Where a procession is of
three consecutive players, the procession moves through the group by one player
stopping and the player three along from the player immediately starting to
perform. This continues with each player dropping out and being replaced in
turn until the performance has processed around the entire group (which has to
be sat in a circle). Some alternatives that we have found useful are:
A
crescent shaped procession is begun by four players, the two on each end of the
crescent. The procession then move inward from both sides simultaneously. When
the two innermost players are engaged (i.e. when the two strands have started
to cross ) players can join in at will (moving out consecutively from the
centre) until everyone in the ensemble is playing. The idea of this structure
is to give an antiphonal sound at the beginning but also to vary the thickness
of the sound (it will go down to two players in the middle, then expand to
incorporate everyone).
Two
processions are instigated but each procession is of one player at a time.
However, one procession is very short (i.e. usually one note or sound before moving on) and the other is
longer The idea of this is to allow solo
expression to be supported by a pointillistic response by the remainder of the
ensemble.
Rather
than processing one or more musicians start a piece and can choose 0 or more
players to take over playing when they have finished. This can create rapid
shifts between 1 or 2 performers and most of
the group. The piece finishes when the last player ceases without
passing on to anyone to continue.
Sonic space, subtlety and timbral exploration
See page 6 above.
Spatial pieces
Punishing Schedule by Jill Elliott is a simple but very effective piece which enables
structuring through the movement of one person. The score for this piece is
included in Appendix B. The piece is structured around a predictable but
variable element. The progression of a person around a room who is the stimulus
for different people to play when he/she comes into vision. He/she progresses
16 x and each the performers who see him have an increasing number of musical
events to perform (reaching an impossible number to achieve by the end).
The
use of alternative art forms to structure and influence work has always been
key to the experimental music tradition. The Cage circle were particularly
influenced by visual artists [16]
and Cage developed many of his ideas if collaboration with Cunningham (dance)
and Rauschenberg (visual art). The Scratch Orchestra also had a strong
influence from other art forms - perhaps because so many were former art
students[17]
and because Cardew was wary of the effect of musical training. I would suggest that the influence of extra
musical ideas has generally been the stimulus for all developments in music in
the modern era[18]
At
the formation of the Oxford Improvising Orchestra links were built with the
dance group Café Reason Dance Theatre through the presence of Bruno Guastalla and Ana Barbour. These links were built on
by a series of collaborative ventures which included performances at the
Abingdon Festival and at Harcourt Hill Theatre as well as a number of events
organised by Helen Edwards (also a
member of Café Reason). The approach of Butoh Theatre includes exploration of
the potential of extended work around use of parts of the body, as well as the
full potential range of expression of the body (rather than any prescibed and
stylised set of movements). This has strong parallels with the ideas of
extending the vocabulary of an instrument that is prevalent in freely
improvised music.
Butoh
tends to avoid rigid narrative structuring ( again an interest in contemporary
music and improvisation) and often looks to bring in resonance from the
unconscious by establishing loose structures for extended exploration (once again
this is similar in scope to much of the work of the Oxford Improvisers ).
From
the outset of collaboration we found that many techniques developed for
improvising musicians could be used with dancers, even to the extent of using
dancers and musicians interchangeably within a performing group under the
control of conduction or of a prescribed system of control (such as a
processional).
In
addition a dancer could be used as a controller for an improvising group where
the moves of the dancer could be interpreted as physiographic conduction ( as
opposed to symbolic).
Further
to this point an interpretation of December 1952 by Hadaly (three musicians and
one dancer) showed how interchangeable dancer and musician can be in the
interpretation of an abstract graphic score.
The
use of dance led (physiographic) conduction does pose some problems for a
group. In traditional conduction the parameters of who plays when are
controlled by the conductor and variety of texture is a key element in
fashioning a piece. Where the performers are left to interpret a central dancer
there can be too much continuous playing. In addition the musicians have to
work at two levels simultaneously, in interpreting the dancer and at the same
time listening to the sounds of their colleagues and communicating their ideas
with them. The tension of these
conflicting demands can create some interesting work (it is after all a
parallel to the conventional need to interpret a score and simultaneously communicate
with an ensemble). However, the integration of
movement with sound can be organised around different groupings and
allocations, the simplest of which is the use of the 'play like' by a conductor
to tell a dancer to follow a musician or vice versa. Other techniques we have
tried successfully are:
Dance
led performance where the use of a particular object by the dancer indicates
that particular musician(s) should play.
This was developed by Helen Edwards and I in a performance of a piece Meetings
with Water where each of four performers would play only when an object
assigned them was picked up by Helen (who was dancing). Helen could interact with all four objects
simultaneously if she chose - or none. So the parameters were open and the
variety of expression would flow from a chance mechanism - Helen did not plan
when she would interact with each object or how.
This
technique was further used in the Accession Piece (Before the Entrance to the
Garden) when a series of artefacts representing aspects of European Imperialism
were used to control the 18 piece ensemble.
Each section of the ensemble (woodwind, keyboards, percussion, guitars,
strings) was associated with an object but in each case a single member of the
group was expected to interpret Helen's interaction with the defined object.
The rest of the group would support that player's interpretation (this was to
get round the problem of multiple interpretations by the same section of the
same dance movements).
Performer
pays a specific melody when an allocated dancer moves ( see description under
use of melody above)
Use
of processional technique. The standard
processional of a set number of people playing at any one time from a larger
group is totally adaptable to a mixed group of dancers and musicians (as is
most conduction provided the instructions to play, copy etc are applied to
movement and not sound). In this instance the ordering of dancers and musicians
can be significant as the norm would be to intersperse dancers and musicians to
prevent pure music or dance at any one time.
Use
of texts to develop performance. Two projects that have employed the use of
texts to colour the method of interpretation of dance are a revisualisataion of
Pierrot Lunaire in improvised dance and music and a collaboration around the
emotive aspect of how we use and see our limbs.
For
the Limbs Project – a collaboration between a film maker, Barry Reeves and
Helen Edwards and myself – we also used a range of techniques in addition to
textual exploration. These included the intuitive development of a visual
response through film and the design by Helen of key positions to frame and
develop the work – a kind of choreography of stasis. The textual exploration
initially involved finding a range of poem texts that related to the subject.
These were then used as a basis for improvisation and the creation of a collage
of different resonances of the subject through vocal delivery. This combined
effectively with the formalistically developed poses that Helen had engineered.
A further development was to use message texts that the three of us sent
round over a period of a week and
accumulated into a set of texts for improvisation. Details of this project are
on a myspace page.
For
the Pierrot exploration – a collaboration between Ana Barbour and myself (as
well as a film maker Peter Green or some of the project) – we were consciously
referencing the work of Schoenberg in Pierrot Lunaire as well as the full set
of Pierrot poems that he based his work on. We found that key moments in the
Pierrot poems could be isolated by using a few lines from each poem as a basis
for exploration. These lines could be used to create melodies and incantations
as well as the inspiration for particular movement and sonic exploration. The
dance and music was combined around the interpretation of these fragments in a
series of seven filmed explorations framed by pieces consciously composed to
recontextualise Schoenberg’s music. This set of films is currently held on the Dispatx web site.
Issues of synchronisation
Much
improvisation involving dance and music inevitably tends to generate an
atmosphere of mutual support between the two practices once the artists are
attuned to one another. The possibilities for developing new approaches as each
art form influences the other directly are enormous, but , the possibility of
juxtaposition and the interest that inappropriate pairing of sound and movement
can give can be lost as well as the notion of the 'happy accident' that was so
important to the Cage and Cunningham collaborations (nnn).
This
issue came up in a recent collaboration between Bruno Guastalla, Pete McPhail
and myself and the Café Reason Butoh Dance Theatre. In this work we attempted
to avoid the straight support role by the following techniques:
·
one musician would face a dancer and work with them. The other two
musicians would face away and work
together in contrast to the musician supporting the dancer, deliberately
interrupting and subverting.
·
Although we were
predominantly an improvising trio we attempted to link in a series scores to
our performance so that there were prescribed sections of music. In parallel ,
some dance movements were choreographed to limit variety and the influence of
the musicians on the movement of the dancers.
Although
structuring improvisation by film is part of the legacy of the silent cinema
the use of narrative to structure improvisation (in the straightforward method
of silent film) is not an area that we have attempted to explore due to its
easy appropriation by melodrama (the
exception to this was a recent overtly melodramatic performance of a Victorian
melodrama - half film half live action - using a Victorian toy theatre. This
was initiated and organised by Miles Doubleday as part of a SPARC group
concert). Our interest has been non-narrative film which enables the
development of expression in parallel with the resonance of image, rather than
directly supporting image. This has also enabled the involvement of dance in
conjunction with the music, also developing a parallel path of expression.
Sumida Gawa
Barry
Reeves developed a film, Sumida Gawa, which he based on ideas from the
eponymous Noh Theatre piece which influenced Britten's Curlew River. The film
highlighted key issues of the play, using images of the river around Abingdon
extensively in this. Like much of Barry's film work the images were explored
slowly and deliberately with no attempt to cut or move through a narrative
sequence.
At
the point I took on organising the music to this film for a performance in 2004
at the Ark T Centre, we had, in the
Improvisers group, attempted a number of film accompaniments and had realised
that with the subtlety of images present in films such as Barry's, that a
simple small group improvisation using an extensive timbral range (to reflect
the textural depth of the images chosen) was an effective accompaniment. To this end I set up an ensemble of three (myself
- violin and piano; Clair Aldington - recorders; Dominic Lash - bass) for the
music (supplemented by Chris Brown - guitar at a later performance where there
was no piano). Barry and I also felt that the slow pace of the film would allow
a dancer to interpret the images projected - dancing in front of the screen and
even creating shadows on the projected image where appropriate. Helen Edwards
took on this role.
I
structured the music around the elements of the most timbral change that could
be achieved with the musicians available. For this I worked out those passages
where a solo performance by each instrumentalists could support the images most
effectively ( recorder solo to start; bass solo in the middle and violin solo
to end). Between these solos combinations of duos and trios could enhance the
images with more complex layering of sound.
Identity
As
a reaction to a seminar day for all doctorate students on the issue of identity
I started developing a collaborative piece with dance and film. I was
interested in exploring the notion of identity as it appears in the recording
of a performance and how that recorded identity can re-influence performers as
they continue to express themselves in conjunction with the recording.
Helen
Edwards and Barry Reeves each explored their own interests in the subject (as
equal partners in the collaboration) and
we agreed to perform the piece over four hours at the OVADA Gallery in December
2005 using one other musician (Bruno Guastalla on cello and bandoneon), myself (violin and keyboards), Helen (dance) and
Barry (pre-recorded and live film).
The
performance was structured around the continual revisiting of material
developed in improvisation for the performance or during the performance. Barry
had prepared films of Helen and I improvising which he edited and projected
without sound at key points during the four hours. I attempted to remember what
I had played when filmed and use that as a basis for much of the rest of my
performance. At four times during the performance Barry filmed the performance
against a backdrop of the previous film he had made of the performance. The
filmed performance was projected and became part of a composite image on a
large white wall that ultimately encompassed four visual layers.
Bruno
recorded sections of the performance on mini disk and played this back for us
to accompany at several points. Variety was further achieved by giving each
performer working in solo. Duo, trio and quartet as well as interacting with
previously created images and sounds.
Project at Oxfordshire
Health Authority School
Much
of this area is covered in the discussion of the SPARC group but I did trial a
number of ideas at the Oxfordshire Area Health Authority Schools earlier this
year, as the composer in a team set up by Kate Comberti of the Oxford
Philomusica Orchestra.
The
basis of the project was to explore links between the visual arts and music and
as a starting point we looked at work by Rothko, Mondrian and Pollock and
encouraged young people to use works as a basis for improvisational expression.
From this point on we encouraged young people to create collective works (using
conducted improvisation) to reflect reactions to visual arts works.
We
then reversed the process by using recordings of the music produced as a
stimulus to encouraging young people to spontaneously create a visual response
(under the guidance of Mark Rowan-Hull an artist who specialises in this kind
of work). The work was created on a floor space using a huge canvas (created by
combining a number of sheets together).
Finally
we took the large scale painting created by the group of participants and encouraged them to find interesting shapes
and ideas in it that could be expressed musically (via a graphic score). We
created this graphic score by placing a huge plastic sheet over the painting
and tracing the chosen shapes.
The
graphic score was then used to create a final musical response by all the
participating young people, taking it in turns to conduct and choosing when to
use the score and by whom it would be
used.
I
have detailed this example because it demonstrates how an ordinary group of
teenagers can be drawn into the process
of creating work across different media and fully engaged in what is quite a
challenging conceptual idea. The same techniques of feeding the process of one
art form into the other have been developed extensively by the SPARC group.
In
order to further develop the approaches of parallel development of work across
different artistic media I was happy to help Helen Edwards in the formation of an open access group that would
seek to develop work by improvisation across all available art forms. Practitioners
were invited to join sessions that
incorporated poets, visual artists, musicians and dancers.
The
SpontaneousARtsCollective has been meeting since January 2006 and has just
succesfully completed a week of
developing and displaying work in the Old Dairy, Headington Hill Park at the
end of July. This week culminated in five two hour performances by different
combinations of the ?? artists (from different media) who are members of the
SPARC group.
Development of work
As
with the Improvisers Collective, all members of this open access group are
encouraged to bring ideas for new pieces to the meetings. These are then
trialled along with any ideas that come up spontaneously in the session (
provided there is time to do this). Helen runs each session and tries to
facilitate as broad a range of material as is practical. What is interesting
about much of the work that comes from these sessions is the efficacy of simple
structuring techniques (much as with the Oxford Improvising Orchestra work) and
the similarity in what is produced to the pieces developed by the Scratch
Orchestra.[19]
Works Produced
I
will try and categorise some of the styles of work produced and give examples
of methods that seem to have worked well.
The group is still evolving techniques so it is likely that a far wider
range of pieces will be produced in the near future.
Oxford Improvisers Legacy
Because
so many on the group have been in the Oxford Improvisers a large number of
techniques for organising the larger scale pieces have tended to come from the
members of the group experienced in developing work for that group and from
extending the conduction techniques that work so well for large musical
improvisational groups.
Particularly
interesting in this respect is a work devised by Miles Doubleday which allows for a rapid change of performers (see
appendix nnn). Each performer (from any art form) holds a coin. The piece
starts when the conductor bangs a gong and at this point everyone flicks their
coin. Those that return 'Heads' perform at a second signal from the conductor.
At the next gong sound the people not performing flick their coins to see who
will perform next. At the next signal from the conductor those performing cease
and those who were waiting to perform commence. The process continues in this
way until the conductor indicates the end of the piece. The unpredictability of
this approach (0 - n people can end up playing in any one section for as long
as the conductor allows) provides interesting results and a total concentration
from the performers. Miles had trialled this work with musicians alone at a
previous Oxford Improvisers rehearsal.
Chains of instruction across
different media
As
part of the aim of the SPARC group was to explore the interplay of different art
forms, it is not surprising that much of the work of the group has been around
the establishment of structures whereby the effects of one art form can
directly influence another.
Alan Buckley's piece exploring the effect
of a poem (see above section nnn) demonstrates how one media can inform
another. This idea has been explored in
a number of other works:
Use of specific performance
space
Chris Stubbs piece Radion is structured around the use of the
bandstand in Headington Hill Park. A set of performers stand at the bandstand
and slowly progress from it in straight lines that radiate out from it. At the
same time musicians , who are distributed in an arc away from the bandstand,
move towards it in straight lines, playing their instruments and converging on
the bandstand. The two groups of performers should move at such a pace that
they cross paths at the same time within an arc shape.
Janet Stansfeld developed an improvisatory
piece that employs the use of musicians distributed in the stalls of the
Dairy in exactly the same way that Barry
and I developed Rented Space four years ago. Janet was unaware of the previous
piece and perhaps this demonstrates how an attitude to developing work that
exploits the potential of a specific space tends to lead to similar pieces.
Jill Elliot developed a piece that
explores the contrast between inside and outside of the Dairy in which
performers gather ideas from outside the Dairy and bring them in the Dairy to use in conjunction with other
performers - on the model of gatherers bringing food into a shared domain.
Esoteric ideas
As
part of the generation of ideas and creating of a collaborative atmosphere Helen Edwards has devised pieces which
tend to enforce collaboration through the creation of undefined space or
unusual activity that enforces the imposition of structuring by participants.
I
have attempted to document a range of approaches to organising and structuring
improvisation which have been of benefit to practising musicians (in the Oxford
Improvisers and the SPARC group); within education; and to my personal practice
as composer/performer.
To
some extent I feel that this work supports the view of Bruno Nettl [20],
that the terms 'improvisation' and 'composition' can be misleading and it is
better to look at music in terms of the number of fixed elements and the number
of free ones. Thus, whether a performer is constrained by specific notation, a
set of text instructions, the conventions of a genre (such as blues or raga) or
their own developed vocabulary is just part of a continuum that stretches from
the work or a performer such as Ian Pace
interpreting the complex notation of Michael Finnissy to Evan Parker rejecting
the notion of the score as a valid means of structuring a piece [21]
and using the environment he is in to fashion the vocabulary he uses.
If
we adopt Nettl's view then the choice for any composer or performer (as far as
they are able to escape the conditioning of their society) is in how far to
attempt to develop their own vocabulary in order to develop material
spontaneously in performance, and how far to rely on pre-structuring (via score
or any other means) in order to repeat aspects of a work that are interesting
or original (at least at some point in time).
I
would not subscribe to the view that notated composition is more 'original' or
'innovative' than music developed (or perhaps composed) in performance. This
does depend on the skill and experience of performers and composers and it does
depend on whether the implicit rules behind the generation of music in
performance are more restrictive than those that apply to composers developing
work prior to performance. The elevated
status of composers within Western art house music has enabled many to develop
ideas and methods of expression that are far less predictable than those that
tend to arise from a genre where the building blocks of a piece of music are
predefined and unchangeable while the performers create the detail. However where improvisation is undertaken by
performers who are free to develop a work as they see fit [22],
as with contemporary free improvisation, works may surprise and explore new
territory just as effectively when composed in performance as when
pre-composed.
That
said, musicians do tend to rapidly coalesce to similar modes of expression as
so much that we express is a vocabulary that we develop through hearing others
and applying that to our own development. Most musical movements tend to
stultify until replaced (often quite forcefully) by an alternative method of expression. The
high art motivation of total serialism is perhaps the most extreme example of a
movement in which the main practitioners discovered, developed and then
attempted to prescribe a more rigid set of rules for aspiring composers than
has been imposed on many artists by
commercial, political or even religious factions in the past [23].
This
can happen within an improvising group where a collective approach prescribes
rules that may be valid for the time and current practitioners but can only
become restrictive if applied unquestioningly for the future. [24]
The
advantage of using a range of organising techniques, especially those
influenced by other artistic media, is that it can broaden the vocabulary and
approaches of a group of musicians in a way that the use of a single approach
(just improvisation as dialogue within a group, or just notation ) cannot. In
fact the frequently cited inability of
the classically trained to create any new work in performance is testament to this. The play element in many methods of
structuring work via text instructions, graphics or collaboration with other
art forms also opens up these traditional 'experimental' techniques to use in
education where they can compensate to some extent for the damaging
psychological effect that classical musical training can have on young people [25].
As
someone who writes music I feel that I should be aware of as many
different possibilities for the
structuring of performance as I can. The
integration of a range of performer options within one piece (from complete
performer freedom to complete prescription) opens up the possibility of a far
wider range of expression than any one approach. They can all be subsumed into
the creation of a work provided the design of the work does not necessitate a
completely closed and repeatable piece. If it does, this surely (by definition)
places it in a very restricted and
specific genre category. This may
be a category that uses improvisation and this perhaps highlights how the ideas
I have documented here are a resource for 'experimental musicians' following
Cage's definition that experimental music is that in which we do not know the
outcome. They are part of (or should be part of) the vocabulary of any composer
who is not working within a specific and predetermined genre i.e. any art music
composer. Which techniques are used must depend on the requirements of the
piece - which can include educational, communitarian or commercial ideals as
much as aesthetic ones. There must always be situations when the most
appropriate choice is to give a group of musicians total freedom to develop
work in performance and others where a totally prescribed score is more
appropriate.
Bailey,D, Improvisation, United States, Da Capo press 1993.
Brindle R.S. The New Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Cage, J. Silence. London: Calder and Boyars, 1971.
Cardew, C (edited). Scratch Music. London: Latimer New Dimensions Ltd, 1972.
Cardew, C Towards and
Ethic of Improvisation from Treatise Hamdbook
Cope, D. Techniques of the Contemporary Composer. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997.
Feldman, M. Various Essays available on the internet:
A Compositional Problem
After Modernism
Conversations without Stravinsky
Crippled Symmetry.
The Anxiety of Art.
Griffiths, P. Modern Music and After, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995
Mertens, W, trans. J. Hautekiet, American Minimal Music:La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass. London:Kahn and Averill/New York:Alexander Broude, 1983.
Nyman, M. Experimental Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1999.
Potter, K. Four Musical Minimalists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Detailed account of the work of La Monte Young, Riley, Reich and Young including extensive musicological analysis and many full scores for shorter works.
Stockhausen,K. Stockhausen on Music (Lectures and Interviews compiled by Robin Maconie), London, Marion Boyers, 1989.
Whittal, A. Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century. Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1999.
Useful web resources
Simone Fell articles on large scale improvisation: http://www.btinternet.com/~rubberneck/fell.html
See the web links from the Improviser site/
Conducted Improvisation Signs.
These will be added soon in a separate docment.
Locations of Example Pieces (this section will be updated with references as these pieces are added to the site)
Malcolm Atkins:
Rented Space
Accession (video
excerpt)
Do Geese see God (recording)
Limbs collaboration (myspace)
Pierrot project (film on Dispatx web site)
Chris Brown:
Miles Doubleday:
Duos
Coin Piece
Helen Edwards:
Limbs collaboration (myspace)
Jill Elliott:
Punishing Schedule (score)
Bruno Guastalla:
Dominic Lash
Chris Stubbs:
Radion II
Pat Thomas:
Theremin Concerto (recording)
Resources for
structuring improvisation will be added soon.
[1] Stevens work is summarised in Search and Reflect a training manual that is due for re-publication at the moment. Bailey in Improvisation gives a concise introduction to his work.
[2] Oliveros’ work is well detailed on the site Pauline Oliveros web sitewhich also includes some free study scores.
[3] Stockhausen (Stockhausen on Music p 123) felt that five was the upper limit .
[4] Brown’s work in the fifties is summarised in Nyman (Experimental Music). A useful web resource is the Earle Browne web site.
[5] The Treatise Handbook contains many of Cardew’s observations about improvisation and the need to develop a new approach to the creation of music. Most notable is the section Towards an Ethic of Improvisation.
[6] John Zorn in an interview with Howard Mandel in 1999 in
Future Jazz (quoted in http://www.omnology.com/zorn05.html):
My first thought was
"Here is a series of individuals, each has his own personal music. All
worked on their instruments, on their own, to develop a highly personal
language." So my first decision, which I think was the most important, was
never to talk about language or sound at all. I left that completely up to the
performers. What I was left with was structure.
What I came up with is a
series of rules, like a trading system — one person plays, then the next person
plays, then the next person plays — and event systems, where people
independently perform events. Everybody can perform one event each, for
example, but nobody can time it at the same time with anybody else. There might
be a series of downbeats where at a downbeat a change will happen — if you're
playing, maybe you must stop. If you're not playing, you may come in. That's
just one example.
[7] A good
introduction to Morris’s work is at http://www.newworldrecords.org/linernotes/80482.pdf.
[8] Aus den
Seben Tagen contains very loose scoring - in the sense that musicians tend to
decide all pitch and duration of notes played. Despite this the work is
categorised as Stockhausen's. This is similar to the issues over the ownership
of 4.33' highlighted by a court case Peter’s Edition instigated against Mikle
Batt after he placed a silent track on his
album, Classical Graffiti which was credited to himself and Cage (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2276621.stm).
[9] Details on conduction symbols and where to find out more on them are in Appendix A to this document. At the time of writing there are a number of Improvising Orchestras in the UK - London, Oxford, Glasgow, Birmingham and Sheffield.
[10] A particularly good article on Simon Fell’s own experience of organising large scale group improvisation is available at http://www.btinternet.com/%7Erubberneck/fell.html
[11] Morton Feldman's compositional principles revolved around the creation of the purest form of 'absolute' music, and the need to define the relationship between sound and silence with the utmost precision. Webern was his starting-point, from which he elevated the pause to the same importance as all other gestures. Different kinds of notation were employed to create an exact equipoise between sound and silence, and to explore the interstices between painting and music; between time and space; between form and content.
[12] Spectral music began a quarter century ago in France considers tone colour (or timbre) as the main element of music - supplanting such traditional aspects as melody, counterpoint, and rhythm. Tone colour and harmony are understood to be essentially the same thing. Sonorities are based on the natural overtones and generalizations from such structures. Leading practitioners: Tristan Murail, Gerard Grisey, Jonathan Harvey
[13] Karyobin was released by SME (Spontaneous Music Ensemble) in 1968. It featured Kenny Wheeler, trumpet, flugelhorn; Evan Parker, soprano saxophone; Derek Bailey, electric guitar; Dave Holland, bass; John Stevens, drums. SME were one of the first groups to explore communication between different instruments with no preset rhythmic or tonal boundaries.
[14] Bailey, Improvisation p 72 : Musician: Herr Stockhausen, this indication in the score tells me that I should play "in the rhythm of the universe". How will I know if I am playing in the rhythm of the universe? Stockhausen: I will tell you.
[15] Griffiths p 137 ff discusses the theatricity of this work
[16] Brown was influenced by Calder's mobiles for many of his structuring ideas (Nyman p 51; Cage collaborated extensively at Black Mountain College (Nyman p 72) Feldman professed to be more interested in attending art galleries than new music concerts nnn
[17] The article at http://www.splitrec.com/index.php?go=subreductionismandth contains personal recollections of Scratch Orchestra membership from a participant.
[18] I believe it is quite likely that music as an art form can become too introspective and technically obsessed when academised and that most innovation in music comes through the cross fertilisation of ideas from other disciplines or a rejection of developed practice, often for a simpler means of expression. This could be applied to the initiation of the Baroque (through an attempt to re-capture classical culture and a desire to capture the inflexions of human speech in the recicative); the acceptance of folk melody in Viennese Classical music in rejection of the complexity of the high Baroque; the influence of literature on the Romantic composers; and the rejection of the legacy of total serialism by the minimalists (themselves perhaps reacting to the influence of a modern art movement).
[19] The Scratch Orchestra documented a range of ideas for pieces in 1971 in Scratch Music. Many of these pieces are similar to the ideas coming out of the SPARC group. This is perhaps not surprising because the Scratch Orchestra contained a wide range of artists as well as musicians. In addition, the anti-hierarchical ideology of both the Oxford Improvisers and the SPARC group is part of the legacy of the Scratch Orchestra as well as a British communitarian spirit (expressed also by John Stevens and the legacy of his ideas as continued by Maggie Nichols).
[20] Nettl 1974 pp 12-13
[21] Bailey 1992 80-81.
[22] I would see this as a relatively recent phenomenon within Western music and cannot think of any other cultures where this has happened. Then again the freedom to compose music outside any but self-imposed boundaries is really only a phenomenon of the twentieth century occident.
[23] Boulez: ‘[A]ny musician who has not experienced - I do not say understood, but truly experienced - the necessity of dodecaphonic music is USELESS.’ From Eventuellement... (1952), translated as Possibly... in Stocktakings from an Apprenticeship, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991
[24] ( no use of melody (AMM) ; intense communication between all musicians (Spontaneous Music Ensemble); layering of sound (AMM))
[25] I have successfully used conducted improvisation in Wood Farm Primary School (2004,2005); Cambridge String Quartet Association - all ages - 7-65 (2006) amongst other places.