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September 05, 2006

Open form for "Repetition repeats..."

As was mentioned in this post the form for "Repetition repeats all other repetitions" is open in the sense that a the piece can be played in a number of different ways. The inspiration for this form is a dialog between two people involved in a creative work. Although certain passages are linked together and despite the fact that there is a certain sense of continuity in the material of which the piece is built there is no right way to play the piece.

One of the great difficulties with a piece like this concerns the notation. How can I give the performer a sense of freedom of choice in the way the material is laid out on paper? As can be seen in this excerpt of the score the notation is fairly detailed and by its very nature fills up lots of space on the paper. One way to resolve this would be to have multiple levels of notation:

  • overview
    • first section of choices
      • [...]
        • entire score

form.jpg Regardless of what will be the ultimate representation of this piece the representation of the form I'm currently working on is the following (see the graph):

  • The beginning of the piece is set. It starts with a presentation of the first motive.
  • After about 45'' the first motive enters a state of transition (the box enclosing the 'motive 1' line)
  • This transition is ended by a cue that can be taken by either the guitarrist or the computer part.
  • Following the cue is a state of ambiguity. Either the guitarrist or the computer part may take the initiative to enter the next stage. Whoever takes the initative, the other part will make a decision on whether to go along or against the path chosen.
  • This schemde is repeated until all the material in the score has been presented.

Posted by henrikfr at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2006

Tape part for guitar piece

I'm currently working on a piece for guitar and computer entitled "Repetition repeats all other repetitions". The piece is for my friend and collegue Stefan Östersjö and it is a part of both our artistic research projects. I will try to post some stuff here in the next few weeks relating to this piece which is a collaborative project between myself and Stefan.

One of the ideas behind this piece is to attempt to bring the concept of interaction between the performer and the musical material into the very core of the composition. Although this could simply be called an aleatoric work or, to use Umberto Eco's terminology, an open work the reasons for choosing this path is based on our study and analysis of a couple of real life composer/performer sessions. The conclusion we draw from these studies is that the somewhat romantic concept of the "creative misunderstanding" is a key player in human interaction (though we do not attempt to generalize this idea).

repetition_excerpt1.jpg Specifically, for the current composition, I'm trying to bring in this element of uncertainty or 'misunderstanding' and allow for it to happen between the guitar part and the computer part. I will not go into detail on how I will approach this complex area, but below is a link to a sound file which is a rough sketch of what the computer part may be playing. The material used in this excerpt is taken from one of the motives of the guitar part. Listen to the file here (it's not a proper mix, just a sketch...):

Listen [2.99 MB]

Posted by henrikfr at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

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