CeReNeM Journal

Performing Stuff
Human-Entity Interactions in
Contemporary Artistic Practice
Journal of the Centre for Research in New Music,
University of Huddersfield

No. 7
2020
 CONTENTS
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Practice Entangled
Colin Frank

Considering the Fixed Naming of Entities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Towards a Transdisciplinary Approach to Free Improvisation
D Henry McPherson

Collaboration as Contingent on Material Encounters in Making Imitate Elegance Expertly. . . 42

(Re)Thinking Violin Virtuosity
Dejana Sekulic, Irine Røsnes, Linda Jankowska, Colin Frank

The Tuning Fork in My Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Hakan Ulus

Devising Interaction and Improvisation in Motion Studies project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Cristina Fuentes Antoniazzi, Ilona Krawczyk, Solomiya Moroz, Colin Frank

Giving new life to ordinary and non-ordinary sound devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

The Museo del paesaggio sonoro in Riva presso Chieri and the Sinfonia del mondo by Domenico Torta
Cristina Ghirardini

The Tender Listener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Collaboration and Friendship as Compositional Methodology in boundarymind
Linda Jankowska & Katherine Young

Subverting by Not Subverting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Free Improvisation Dreams of Counter-Logic Activisms
Maria Sappho Donohue

Composition, Technology, and the Posthuman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Andrew A. Watts in discussions with Stefano Corazza, Constantin Basica, Julie Herndon,
Andrew Blanton, and Caroline Louise Miller

A Post-Percussive Approach to Performer-Controlled Electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Noam Bierstone

Virtual Reality as Musical Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Przemysław Danowski

Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
CeReNeM Journal issue 7 · Performing Stuff

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 Editorial

Editorial a shoe brush, a cymbal, and more. Even the idea of an object is broken with and unbounded
Practice Entangled to reconsider disciplinary divisions, to incorporate under-represented histories, to hear
marginalized voices, to consider the importance of the body, and, as Maria Sappho Donohue
Colin Frank succinctly suggests in her article, to ‘give a fuck.’

Admittedly, my request for articles was a dash greedy on my behalf, as my current

When I created the call for proposals for this edition of the journal, I had no idea the research is attempting to understand my own multidisciplinary and percussive practice
extent to which a non-human force would tear through the world. Before the coronavirus as arising partially from the physical objects and agentic others I encounter. However,
SARS-CoV-2 came to have consequences for humans globally, I had asked artistic-researchers considering that there has been little discourse about the agency of objects from contemporary
to observe their interdependence with and reliance on things, that is to say, I wanted them music practitioners, I was keen to hear their opinions on the subject. There has been much
to consider how the materials of their practice shape their artistry and how non-human stuff discourse on non-human agency from within sociological disciplines—perhaps closest to
can feedback in the making process. I wanted to collect perspectives on material agency home being the Contemporary Music Review’s issue on Music, Mediation Theories and Actor-
within contemporary artistic practice, and to concretise and reflect on these experiences by Network Theory,4 which provides variegated analyses of music practices as entangled with
presenting examples and theories. From ecologic, posthuman, and assemblage theories the other acting agents­—as well as within performance scholarship broadly, including the
interconnectedness between humans, non-humans, and other forces has become increasingly Performance Research journal’s issue On Objects5 and, surveying from within the theatrical
apparent. Applying this sensibility to artistic practice, I wanted to ask: how are we entangled arts, the book Performing Objects and Theatrical Things.6 These volumes undoubtedly have
within assemblages of actants? What are practitioners’ responses to the agencies of others, referenced influential humanities scholarship outside artistic and performance disciplines,
and how does one transform their practice when they are observant and accepting of these resultantly allowing for a rethinking of the material world that artists are forever immersed
forces? This idea of ‘actants’ is borrowed from actor network theory to designate entities in. Ideas such as actor-network theory, assemblage theory, posthumanism, object-oriented
that are sources of action, be they human, non-human, or non-individual.1 There may not philosophy, and new materialism, to name but a few, provide rich ways of thinking about
be any particular motivation on an actant’s behalf, and it “is neither an object nor a subject humans as entangled with non-humans. Within music performance scholarship these
but an ‘intervener.’”2 Once come together with other entities, often in indeterminate ways, ways of thinking are beginning to appear. For instance, Joe Cantrell, in his article Sounding
an actant can shape and alter events. The coronavirus provides an impressive example of New Materialism, considers how an effect pedal’s manufacturing, a process entwined with
a non-human actant influencing—it being not quite alive nor dead captures the vibrancy environmentally destructive methods and human exploitation, imprints itself onto further
of matter.3 In its coming together with immune systems, air particles, long distance levels of making-with the machine;7 Andrea Neumann co-constructs with her self-developed
transportation networks, governments, communities, healthcare systems, and many more, it ‘Inside-Out’ piano, generating a performance practice contingent on the unpredictable
has appeared as a massively impactful force. Out of the things that have transformed artistic properties of the found materials she uses;8 and Beavan Flanagan, by looking to object
practice in recent memory, the coronavirus could be counted as a significant one, although oriented ontology and transcendental materialism, speculates on music performances that do
it is but one factor amidst many that influence artistic practitioners. Within this edition, the not rely on humans necessarily present at all, thus considering a music for objects that operate
coronavirus’ impact is not discussed extensively. Many of the practitioners presented herein on their own accord.9 This journal hopes to contribute to these discussions.
talk of works performed pre-pandemic, when it was acceptable to have multiple persons in Practitioners are, wittingly or not, caught up in a give-and-take between their own
the same room, in some cases even touching. Resultantly, the things discussed are highly wants and the wishes of the materials they work with. In this sense, rather than believe
varied, as people could easily meet one another, rehearse legally in enclosed spaces, or travel that a performer can completely control their instrument­—an illusion which the concept
internationally without quarantining. Perhaps because there were many possibilities to do of virtuosity manifests—there is instead a dialogue between human and instrument. The
things, throughout this journal each author has a completely different concept of what is
an influencing agent on the practice they are discussing. The diversity of things presented 4 Georgina Born and Andrew Barry, ‘Music, Mediation Theories and Actor-Network Theory’, Contemporary Music Review
37, no. 5–6 (2 November 2018): 443–87, https://doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2018.1578107.
encompasses tuning forks, violins, items from childhood homes, new electronic instruments, 5 Laurie Beth Clarke, Richard Gough, and Daniel Watt, eds., On Objects, 4th ed., vol. 12, Performance Research (Routledge,
3D virtual reality objects, traditional instruments from a rural Italian village, recording 2007).
6 Marlis Schweitzer and Joanne Zerdy, Performing Objects and Theatrical Things (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
devices, flower pots, digital effects pedals, the space between performers, a flute, a drum with 7 Joe Cantrell, ‘Sounding New Materialism: Enchantment and Audio Technology’, Seismograf Fokus: Silent Agencies (26
June 2020), https://seismograf.org/node/19360.
8 Matthias Haenisch, ‘Materiality and Agency in Improvisation: Andrea Neumann’s “Inside Piano”’, in Noise in and as
1 Bruno Latour, ‘On Actor-Network Theory: A Few Clarifications’, Soziale Welt 47, no. 4 (1996): 369–81. Music, ed. Aaron Cassidy and Aaron Einbond, trans. Carter Williams (Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield Press,
2 Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), 9. 2013), 147–70.
3 Vibrant, lively energy as existing within inert matter is wonderfully discussed by Jane Bennett. Not only does she discuss 9 Beavan Flanagan, ‘Intersections Between Subjects and Objects in My Compositions from 2013 to 2016’ (Doctoral thesis,
materials as agentic but also their effects on the socio-political. See Bennett, Vibrant Matter. Huddersfield, University of Huddersfield, 2017), http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/34417/.

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CeReNeM Journal issue 7 · Performing Stuff Editorial

idea that an instrument extends a performer’s intentions seems out of place when objects and there is no straightforward or certain pathway. However, by gradually building
are viewed as agential. Rather, a system of exchange occurs, whereby the performer and awareness through discussion and by critically observing one’s own activities, it may be
materials configure one another in a “mutually constitutive process through which users, possible to formulate positive, morally sound action.
technologies, and environments are dynamically engaged in refashioning one another in a
The articles within this journal all contribute in unique ways to this discussion of
feedback loop.”10 Seen from such a co-productive and enmeshed angle, it is easy to conceive
how contemporary practices are enmeshed with non-human entities. They spiral off from
of arts practice ecosystemically, as a collection of varied actants all pushing and stretching
this central theme too, demonstrating just how complex and multifaceted artistic practice is.
with their own intentions. Actants can break off and assemble with others, resulting in the
As this journal is an experimental publication stemming from the postgraduate community
formation of decentred conglomerates, as is nicely described in the rhizomatic model Deleuze
at the University of Huddersfield, the articles herein contain highly diverse presentation
and Guattari propose.11 Practice is caught up in a messy assemblage of factors, all with agentic
methods, including interactive elements, co-authored conversations, interview transcripts,
forces that can lead in often unpredictable, intangible directions. Such precariousness can be
and other more nuanced and atypical approaches to argument structuring. The first article,
approached by either attempting to completely eradicate it, in other words trying to squash it
by D Henry McPherson, criticises when improvising performers are named or associated
under the guise of control, or by openly allowing for its shifts, changes, and uncertainties. The
with a certain discipline, an act that affixes them to a training, school, or category. He argues
latter case is an acceptance of not-knowing on the practitioner’s behalf, and in my opinion is a
for an opening-up of disciplines, proposing to go beyond and across boundaries; something
more valuable and beneficial way to acknowledge intra-action with one’s materials.12
to be found in the concept of transdisciplinarity. His argument weaves between movement,
Being responsive and attentive to the acts of agents allows for ethically astute co- sound, gesture, objects, space, and theatre—constituting the materials of practice themselves
productivity, along with, as Rosi Braidotti suggests, “new conditions for knowledge as nonfixed and unbounded—all interspersed with videos of improvisations. Following
production and consequently new relational encounters”.13 Such a becoming-with this paper is the Mixed Currents research project’s article about making the violin trio piece
acknowledges that humans are interrelated beings, and that, as we go to make stuff happen, Imitate Elegance Expertly (2019). The collaborative project, of which I was a part, looks at
we are not just affecting other people but also the wider environment. Ignoring the agency of how violins and digital recording technologies influenced the creative process. With the
others, hacking away blindly, or attempting to master or reign supreme over the non-human violin steeped in a long history of virtuosic performance, and its holding posture rigidly
materials that one works with could potentially lead to environmentally destructive habits. established, this project experimented by breaking those ingrained habits to contemplate
As Jane Bennett suggests, human bodies are not exclusively human, they are comprised of what contemporary virtuosity could be. The article further reflects on the accumulation
myriads of organisms, minerals, and foodstuff ingested every day. She asks, “if we were of audio and video recordings across the project, and how they were reincorporated into
more attentive to the indispensable foreignness that we are, would we continue to produce the creative process. This is followed by Hakan Ulus’ discussion of the tuning fork in his
and consume in the same violently reckless ways?”14 With this in mind, why would we be compositional practice. By considering that a produced object opens an artistic void, one that
careless, controlling or ignorant of the material stuff we use when our artistic practice is so can be filled by compositional aestheticization of the object, he investigates the tuning fork’s
reliant on, entangled with, and constructed by them? I would encourage such an ethics to ‘Gehalt’. He speaks of objects’ ability to form striking, aesthetically charged personal events,
not just be considered in the minute details of practice, but further expanded to the whole wherein an object (including artwork) can impact one’s life. In this regard, he considers
network and economy of arts production. It could be wise to extend Juliet Fraser’s idea of certain objects to contain more latent aesthetic potential than others­—potential that can be
shared capital beyond just the people collaborating in a project, such that the non-human released through compositional endeavours—and presents his own aestheticization of the
world supporting it also benefits.15 Such an aim is not easily nor instantaneously achievable, tuning fork through unique performance techniques. Returning to an expanded idea of what
an influencing agent can be, Solomiya Moroz, Cristina Fuentes Antoniazzi, Ilona Krawczyk,
10 David Borgo and Jeff Kaiser, ‘Configurin(g) KaiBorg: Interactivity, Ideology, and Agency in Electro-Acoustic Improvised and I discuss disciplinary training, the space between performers (using the concept of ‘ma’),
Music’, in Beyond the Centres: Musical Avant-Gardes Since 1950, 2010, http://btc.web.auth.gr/_assets/_papers/BORGO-
subjective embodied scores, and percussion objects as influencing the collaborative process.
KAISER.pdf.
11 See for instance Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Minneapolis: The article contains individually authored sections that are interspersed with the other group
University of Minnesota Press, 1987). The relationship between arts practice and ecosystems is poetically made by members’ comments, resultantly exposing the multiple perspectives that coexisted during the
Hanna Kölbel, ‘Ecosystems of Co_Creation’ (Masters of Contemporary Music, Ghent, School of Arts, 2017), http://files.
cargocollective.com/614366/thesis.pdf. collaborative process.
12 Karen Barad’s term ‘intra-action’ proposes that all things are continual influencing one another. It suggests that things
cannot be separated into discreet entities because they are constantly acting in relations. Karen Barad, ‘Posthumanist Local history and knowledge are explored in Cristina Ghirardini’s investigation of
Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society composer Domenico Torta’s Sinfonia del mondo (2013/20). She examines unique, hand crafted
28, no. 3 (March 2003): 801–31, https://doi.org/10.1086/345321.
13 Rosi Braidotti, Posthuman Knowledge (Medford, MA: Polity, 2019), 68. instruments from Torta’s home village of Rivera presso Chieri, and how Torta composes with
14 Bennett, Vibrant Matter, 113. these items to combine the traditional performance practices of the village with contemporary
15 See Juliet Fraser, ‘Sharing the Spoils of a Shared Practice’, Tempo 73, no. 290 (October 2019): 51–55, https://doi.
org/10.1017/S0040298219000573. theatre and symphonic practices. She discusses techniques and sounds in detail, and how

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CeReNeM Journal issue 7 · Performing Stuff Editorial

these relate to the village’s specific rural activities and natural sounds from the surrounding or conceals the object, resultantly imbuing the series with mysteriousness. I feel that the
landscape. This is followed by Linda Jankowska and Katherine Young’s correspondence photos subtly speak to the multifaceted nature of the situation across the past few months as
about their collaboratively made performance/installation boundarymind. In the creation well as Brice and I’s independent, multinational experiences of it.
of their work they look back to objects from their childhoods in Poland and Mississippi,
I hope that this diverse collection of articles will contribute to the growing discussion
connecting these places together by reflecting on the personal significance of certain evocative
surrounding humans’ being influenced by and work with non-human actants in the context
objects. They draw inspiration from Olga Tokarczuk’s idea of tenderness and Pauline
of artistic practice. By observing practice as bound up and entwined in the messiness of the
Oliveros’ quantum listening to formulate a feminist artistic methodology. From here, Maria
material world, then ways of co-constructing with and means of acknowledging the forceful,
Sappho Donohue’s interactive article presents underrepresented practitioners within the field
life-energy of stuff is more necessary than ever as the world progresses into an increasingly
of free improvisation, and expands what an object or actant can be to encompass political
precarious, unstable, and interconnected future. Paying attention to and accepting the voice
movements, social oppression, community action, costume wearing, and much more. By
of non-human agents will be increasingly important as additional major actors, possibly
presenting a topic-web and providing question-buttons to click on, an interconnected and
similar in scale to Covid-19, make their selves known. Attentiveness by artists will be but one
complex map of voices, histories, and activisms emerges. She demonstrates the destructive
force contributing to a more collaboratively constructive future.
workings of a pervasive Eurologic mindset—that it can erase, dominate, subjugate, make
abject and call others hysterical—and presents alternative practices to this hegemonic
discourse.

The last three articles look to electronic, technological or entirely virtual non-human
agents. They question how humans may co-construction with human-made technologies,
and demonstrate that artistic practice has become so entangled with machinic design and
development that, perhaps, there is not necessarily a boundary between humans and non-
humans. Andrew Watts converses with artists working in and around Silicon Valley’s high-
tech sector, investigating three primary questions concerning posthumanism. In considering
the relation between people and technology, and how technological advancements
impact bodies, thinking, and the human voice, he surveys a wide range of concerns and
approaches for dealing with contemporary society. The interviews raise more questions
than answer, demonstrating that there is no fixed way for humans to encounter machines.
Post-percussionist Noam Bierstone investigates hands-on electronic devices by discussing
approaches to playing performer-controlled electronics. By embracing the unpredictability
of electronics, he argues for an adaptable practice that listens intently and reacts quickly to
their changing attributes. He demonstrates this approach by giving details about two pieces
he performs, The Threshing Floor (2014) by Mauricio Pauly and Message from the Lighthouse
(2009/16) by Hanna Hartman. Finally, Przemysław Danowski dives into the virtual domain
by discussing design of, composition with, and performance with virtual instruments. He
discusses the ‘monad’, a virtual instrument that he and two colleagues created, and its
performance practice in their piece Connexion (2019). Without the same limitations that
real-world objects have, he foresees virtual reality as an exciting site for future education,
experimentation, and creation.

Interspersed throughout this issue are photographs that Brice Catherin and I took
during this past summer and autumn. We decided to pin each photo onto Google Maps at
a location closest to where it was taken. By connecting each spot in Google’s route planner,
based on the photos’ consecutive order from the start to end of this journal, we created a
journey that traverses across England and Scotland, to Geneva, and with an additional stop in
Amsterdam Schiphol airport. Each unique site that the object is placed at enhances, estranges,

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 Considering the Fixed Naming of Entities

Considering the Fixed Naming of Entities or forms? I also wondered why the individual had asked me this question; what bearing did
ascribing to me the identity of ‘musician’ have on the experience we had just shared?
Towards a Transdisciplinary Approach to Free Improvisation
The situation spoke to something which has struck me numerous times in recent years as
D Henry McPherson a point of interrogation, namely the propensity of some peer-improvisers, audience-members,
and researchers to emphasise the marking or naming of individuals, in performance and in
THIS DOCUMENT is porous studio (and even in bedrooms), with a given discipline-aligned identity (musician, dancer, pianist,
THESE IDEAS are porous composer, choreographer, etc.), pertaining to the historically privileged White-Eurocentric, often
THIS BODY (of mine) termed ‘Western’,2 conceptions of delineated and distinct disciplines of the Performing Arts.3
(of text) In this article I want to throw some thoughts into constellation on the topic of naming
is and what I feel is a problem with the notion of fixed identities in free improvising contexts. These
porous
thoughts are permeable and maybe even unfinished, and form part of an ongoing investigation
into disciplinarity and embodiment in my own practice, and that of my co-improvisers and
research participants. I propose that in free improvising, the imputation of fixed disciplinary
identities onto an individual’s improvisational activity risks delimiting the creative agency of
the improviser and other entities with which they might come into contact. I will suggest in this
article that a home might be found away from this issue in the language of transdisciplinarity,
in particular in the concepts of transcorporeality,4 porousness, and transformation. I emphasise
the ephemerality of identities in improvising contexts, and advocate for an understanding of
improvisers as expressive interdependent singularities—as entities able to “choos[e] multiple and
sometimes contradictory idenfications”,5 whose agency lies not in the ‘successful’ execution of
forms within disciplinarily sanctioned aesthetic frameworks, but in their capacity to generate and
innovate spontaneously,6 and whose improvisations might be radically considered as contexts
unto themselves. I also propose that as we write and talk about improvisation in an effort, as
Kent de Spain puts it, to “translate [improvisational experiences] into language that can be
understood and analyzed by others”,7 we must also undertake a necessary reappraisal of the use
of disciplinary language to describe the diverse, often obscure forms of embodied expressivity
Sky Su & Henry McPherson
which arise in improvising contexts, particularly in those which are named as inter-, trans-, poly-,
“So what’s your discipline?” multi-, or otherwise supra-disciplinary. Interspersed throughout this article are video-excerpts
from my PhD project Bodies of Meaning, featuring studio work with co-improvisers Maria Sappho,
At a recent free improvisation conference (hosted online due to the global pandemic) I
Colin Frank, Sky Su, and various objects.
spent the best part of two hours improvising in my bedroom in front of a webcam. At the end of
the improvisation, in which I had poured water on myself, sung, twisted my body against the
floor, blown into a recorder, shouted at the recorder, bitten into a banana, stood for six minutes as 2 In making this assertion I draw in particular on Philip A. Ewell, ‘Music Theory and the White Racial Frame’, Music Theory
Online 26, no. 2 (June 2020), in which he makes the case that the terms “European, western, traditional and canonic” are used
a statue, made myself a cup of coffee, and wrapped myself in a carpet, I was asked the question: euphemistically in lieu of “whiteness” and its cognates (27).
“So what’s your discipline? You’re a musician, right?”.1 This question, given the aforementioned 3 I recently observed conversation and discussion in this vein between improvisers at the Weekend of Improvisation in Glasgow
(WIIIG), and in pedagogical discourse at the METRIC conference in Estonia in (both in January 2020). I observed the
content of the improvisation, caught me off-guard. The individual asking knew nothing about phenomenon several times arising as a point of contention during the Creative Gesture, an interdisciplinary improvised music
my history of practice, and I wondered from what element of the improvisation they had inferred and dance residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2018. It has been discussed in my own studio research
group among participants in my PhD project Bodies of Meaning, and has also been touched upon, albeit not within a strictly
‘musician’, as opposed to anything else; was it perhaps my use of recognisable ‘instruments’, or improvisational context, in discussions of identity and expanded contemporary musical practice with peer researchers and
my use of sound as an expressive parameter, albeit interpolated with other forms of expressivity? visiting speakers at CeReNeM.
4 Stacy Alaimo, ‘Trans-Corporeality’, in Posthuman Glossary, ed. Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova, Theory (London:
Was it a particular quality of embodiment, or an inferred allusion to specific aesthetic genres Bloomsbury Academic, 2018), 435-438.
5 Ramsay Burt, ‘The Specter of Interdisciplinarity’, Dance Research Journal 41, no. 1 (2009), 6.
1 Throughout this article, the terms ‘improvisation’, ‘free improvisation’, and ‘improvised practice’ are used essentially 6 Raymond A. R. MacDonald and Graeme B. Wilson, The Art of Becoming: How Group Improvisation Works (New York: Oxford
interchangeably. To address the breadth of possible definitions for improvisation is beyond the scope of this article. To University Press, 2020), 67.
contextualise this writing, however, I offer a personal definition of improvisation as ‘a performance practice in which 7 Kent De Spain, ‘The Cutting Edge of Awareness: Reports from the Inside of Improvisation’, in Taken by Surprise: A Dance
individual’s creative-expressive activity is spontaneous, self-generative, self-referential, and self-determining’. Improvisation Reader, ed. Ann Cooper Albright and David Gere (Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press, 2003), 28.

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CeReNeM Journal issue 7 · Performing Stuff Considering the Fixed Naming of Entities

Fig. 1: Factors contributing to naming

bounded in discipline—ex. ‘dancing’, ‘playing’, ‘singing’. I contend that while the concept
of modality is related to discipline, and indeed while hierarchies of modality comprise a key
component of understanding the boundaries of performing disciplines (as will be discussed
Maria Sappho, Colin Frank, Sky Su & Henry McPherson
later), modality itself is not inherently of any discipline in particular. 9 That said, modalities
of sounding quite clearly have a particular entanglement with things named as instruments,
Thoughts on the process of naming or objects played as instruments, or object-instruments; these entities being often, though not
always, co-active with improvisers in the activity of sounding, involved in sonic activation in
In my experience as a practitioner—in the studio, in workshop, at conferences, and some capacity.
in performances—the naming of improvisers as disciplinary entities seems to arise from a
constellation of several interdependent factors (see Fig. 1). Firstly, and perhaps obviously, In addition to the concept of modality, a second factor to the naming of improvisers
it derives in part from the kind of activity with which individuals are involved when with disciplinary identities encompasses judgements based on the relationship between an
improvising, as perceived by both improviser and any observer; with both the specificity improviser’s perceived modality and existing disciplinarily sanctioned axiological frameworks.
of the improviser’s embodied expressivity, and practically with the way the improviser is That is to say, the constituent aesthetics, ethics, formalisms and vocabularies of embodiment
observed to be expressing (or perhaps just to be ‘doing’). of disciplines with which given modalities are associated, disciplines in which modalities are
privileged either as the primary, or as a permissible, mode of expressive activity. In choosing
The specific ‘way in which an improviser is expressing’ at any one time is something I to sound, for example, one can bring oneself into relationship with axiologies of disciplines
have come to refer to in my practice as an improviser’s given modality. To describe a modality where modalities of sounding are privileged. In choosing to use words, to verbalise, one can
is to indicate that certain aspects of an improviser’s activity are designated as the focus of be brought into relation with disciplines where text, oration, declamation, even notions of
their intention, the focus of their embodied expressivity, and by extension what might be narrative, are held to be of expressive importance. How a modality is embodied in relation to
felt as the invited focus of the observer’s attention.8 Succinctly, this can be understood as an notions of disciplinary axiology is an important contributing factor in naming.
individual’s improvising, at any given moment, through/by sounding, through/by moving,
through/by vocalising, through/by verbalising etc., or frequently through complex and often A third factor, affecting both previous points, is any overarching disciplinarity in the
obscure combinations of these, in a merging of intention and embodied expressivity. This context or framing of the improvisational event. This might include very physical architectural
concept can be applied across a continuous sequence of activity, becoming a descriptor of affordances such as a stage, sprung floor or marley, proscenium arch, audience seating,
the way an improviser embodies across a given duration, or at the level of individual gesture and the presence of instruments or instrument-objects, as well as sociocultural ritual and
and action as isolated incidents. I find the term useful to investigate different varieties of behavioural markers such as applause, a physical programme, literature and media, specific
embodiment which are assumed in free improvised performance, because it allows for both clothing and hairstyle of performers, or the permissibility of food and alcohol consumption.
self-reported and (external) analytical description of improvisation without using language
9 Use of this term must, of course, be contextualised in relation to other factors affecting improvisation such as the person,
place, time, and other elements of sociocultural context to avoid reductivism. However, I maintain that the concept can be a
8 Although it is important to stress however that this can only ever be an invitation. useful tool when analysing and discussing improvisation in supradisciplinary settings.

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CeReNeM Journal issue 7 · Performing Stuff Considering the Fixed Naming of Entities

Björn Heile, referring to musical contexts, stresses the importance of this ‘framing’, stating as improvisers negotiate and renegotiate their relationship with other bodies, objects, self,
that: and room, in activity which is spontaneously self-generative and self-referential. Fixing the
identity of the improviser by extension risks fixing the definitions of other entities with
Concerts of classical (and, to a lesser extent, jazz and popular) music are governed by which the improviser acts in co-relation.
strict boundaries between what constitutes the aesthetic event and what does not. The I propose that to address the above issues requires: the practical (improvisational)
performance space, the filing in of the musicians, their dress, and their gestures do not
subversion of hierarchies of modality manifest in explicitly disciplinary contexts, but that
form part of what is usually regarded as ‘the performance’—although they are critical in
this itself requires also a recognition of enduring relationships between certain disciplines
‘framing it’.10
and certain modalities as constructed in the White-Eurocentric/Western frame; the
I would propose that this framing also includes any naming of event-contexts as something encouragement of the criticism of existing disciplinary axiologies, with regards to processes
like trans-, inter-, multi-, poly-, pluri-, or cross-disciplinary. of othering and structures of hegemonic power; a pedagogical and discursive-analytical shift
towards viewing improvisers and improvisations as singularity contexts, foregrounding
The coming together of these factors in constellation can give rise to the naming of
improvisation’s temporal-situational specificity as a practice of presence and presentness over
an improviser with an inferred disciplinary identity. While the case could be argued that
the replication and reproduction of disciplinary forms; and a reconsidering of the usefulness
naming is not a problem in and of itself, my issue is that any fixing of identity can have a
of utilising disciplinary language and fixing notions of identity when describing and
potentially determinising effect on the way that an improviser’s activity is received, ‘read’,
conceptualising free improvisation. Below, I first want to touch on the relationship between
assessed, judged, interpreted, and ultimately valued in a given improvisation. It poses a
disciplinary axiologies and privilege. Secondly, I want to detail the relationship between
problem to me as an improviser working within expanded or experimental practice, within
discipline and modality in contemporary performing practice. Thirdly, I will outline the
free improvisation, as one who invariably finds themself performing in ostensibly privileged
transdisciplinary concepts which I feel might provide space for re-evaluation of the notion of
disciplinary contexts (in concerts, concert-halls, contemporary music festivals, dance-studios,
identity as applied to improvisation.
theatres, galleries, etc.) as well as non-traditional venues, bars, bedrooms, and other non-
disciplinarily-formalised spaces (in particular during the time of the Coronavirus pandemic),
as one whose practice is invariably aligned with modal pluralism, and is also rooted in a lived
experience of queerness. My problem-thought runs like this:

If an improviser’s practice involves the assuming of diverse and often concurrent modalities,
but they are somehow marked, named, as emerging from, or belonging to, a given discipline
and disciplinary background, then because of the entrenched relationship between certain
modalities and certain disciplines in the Western/White-Eurocentric frame (as will be
explored below), they are invariably brought into relation with disciplinary axiologies; with
the particular aesthetics, particular vocabularies of embodiment, and associated notions
of formalism, skilfulness, even perhaps mastery, etc., to which discipline-aligned identities
are inexorably bounded. To be in relation with these axiologies first and foremost is to
be oriented relative to the value-systems and discourses of privilege, where certain forms
and genres, certain bodies, certain entities and interactions, are held to be of greater or
lesser worth within given contexts (and sometimes within contexts falsely purported to
be universal). In diverging from these systems, they risk being rendered other, and their Sky Su & Henry McPherson
improvisational activity being devalued.
Disciplinary Axiologies, Power, and Privilege
Second to this issue is what I view as the compounding of the potential for the
transformation of self as a form of creative agency, both for the improviser, and for other From a disinterested position, the existence of a disciplinary axiology might not
entities with which they might interact. In improvising, the boundaries, definitions and roles to be considered so much an issue in and of itself. Scott Currie draws on Becker’s theory
of distinct entities within the psychophysical space of performance can shift substantially of Art Worlds,11 suggesting that axiology of Jazz improvisation ‘worlds’ or ‘scenes’ arises

10 Björn Heile, Toward a Theory of Experimental Music Theatre, ed. Yael Kaduri, vol. 1 (Oxford University Press, 2013), 4. 11 Howard Saul Becker, Art Worlds, 25th anniversary ed., updated and expanded, (Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press,
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199841547.013.001. 2011).

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in processes of dissemination, in the emulation of paradigmatic performances, and in principles, dogmatic knowledge, like the symbolic order, has the force of a law. It is
performers’ creation of on-stage personae and of generalised others. beyond debate.14

She invokes Foucault’s assertion that the “disciplines characterize, classify, specialize; they
[…] the common stylistic commitments that make group improvisation possible and
distribute along a scale, around a norm, hierarchize individuals in relation to one another
productive may begin with widely acclaimed paradigmatic performances, whose import is
and, if necessary, disqualify and invalidate’”,15 highlighting that the methodological
then encapsulated in the shared technical conceptions of artistic peer circles, broadened
differences which she takes as constituting the delineations between the disciplines are “far
through articulation with the consensus aesthetic principles of cultures industries, and
deepened by investment with the normative beliefs associated with audience identification from neutral”.16 Stephen Amico asserts the same case strongly in relation to what he proposes
and consumption. as the “[sub]-discipline” of Ethnomusicology, as a field reliant upon “colonialist ideology,
continually reproduced in relation to both ethnicity […] and ethnography”, and one in which
Ultimately, through improvisational interaction predicated on such shared paradigms, an “ideological-methodological matrix has led to the production of a theoretical narrowness
conceptions, principles, and beliefs, jazz musicians construct and project mutually predicated upon and engendering the construction of ‘others’”.17
compatible creative selves, whose onstage encounters with one another suggest
Ramsay Burt also touches on issues of power, regarding “Theater Dance”, its processes
dramaturgical processes of meaning production, which endow the interplay of their
spontaneous aesthetic gestures with narrative significance.12 of canonising, and subsequent questions of who constitutes a “valid public”,18 as do
numerous contributors to Brown and Longley’s Undisciplining Dance:19 Evfa Lilja writes that
The system that Currie describes could be treated as a mythological one—which is not in choreography one can speak “about the hierarchies that guide language, art, and everyday
to suggest that it is not real—but rather that it is replete with fictions and constructions, life, about infrastructure, power and about who owns the right of interpretation”20 (aligning
including culture-heroes, world-shaping events, narratives of creation, and the interpretation with Burt’s discussion of “publics”), while Elizabeth Dempster recognises the potential of
of constellations of entities (of observed relationships between things), from which are drawn discipline to embody hegemony, not just in terms of geopolitics, but also in terms of the
meanings and understandings for the entity-inhabitants of the world, and by extension, prioritising of the textual and the verbal over other forms of embodied knowledges. Dempster
implications for the future of the world. Parameters of this world-system are defined through claims “we also know that the subjection of dance and performance to textual paradigms
a continuous process of reshaping, enacted essentially in storytelling—what Currie hints at has not yet been overturned”,21 and that there are “risks and dangers in becoming inter-
as dramaturgy—this being unique to or shared between given communities, individuals and disciplined, insofar as that may entail learning to embody and enact a powerful discipline’s
epochs.13 discourse and genres”.22
However, mythological or not, it would be remiss to suggest that axiological Recent critiques on the subject of power, privilege and whiteness in the field of
systems—the production of “consensus aesthetic principles”, forms, genres, or discipline- music and sound can be found in Philip A. Ewell’s article Music Theory and the White Racial
specific languages of embodiment—can be taken either as total abstractions or as politically Frame,23 in Anne C. Schreffler’s short post The Myth of the Canon’s Invisible Hand,24 and in
neutral; these systems are invariably bounded in geopolitical power-structures and the Marie Thompson’s Whiteness and the Ontological Turn in Sound Studies;25 the academic and
architecture of privilege, typified in the establishing of disciplinary canons and theoretical otherwise online controversy generated in response to the former of these texts, related
frameworks dominated by machinations of patriarchy and supremacy, and processes
14 Natasha Lushetich, Interdisciplinary Performance. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 7, http://www.myilibrary.com?id=976758.
of underrepresentation, exclusion and erasure. In the introduction to Interdisciplinary
15 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 1st American ed. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1977), 223.
Performance, Natasha Lushetich proclaims that: 16 Lushetich, Interdisciplinary Performance, 7.
17 Stephen Amico, ‘“We Are All Musicologists Now”; or, the End of Ethnomusicology’, The Journal of Musicology 37, no. 1 (1
January 2020), 1, https://doi.org/10.1525/jm.2020.37.1.1.
All discipline-specific systems, techniques and methodologies are related to the production 18 Burt, ‘The Specter of Interdisciplinarity’, 7.
of (dogmatic) knowledge. Relying on scientifically ratified—thus unquestionable— 19 Carol Brown and Alys Longley, eds., Undisciplining Dance in Nine Movements and Eight Stumbles (Cambridge Scholars
Publishing, 2018).
20 Efva Lilja, ‘Artists as the Facilitators of Change’, in Undisciplining Dance in Nine Movements and Eight Stumbles, ed. Carol
Brown and Alys Longley (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018), 17.
21 Elizabeth Dempster, ‘Undisciplined Subjects, Unregulated Practices: Dancing in the Academy’, in Undisciplining Dance in
Nine Movements and Eight Stumbles, ed. Carol Brown and Alys Longley (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018), 39–30.
12 Scott Currie, ‘Scenes, Personae and Meaning: Symbolic Interactionist Semiotics of Jazz Improvisation’, in Studies 22 Dempster, ‘Undisciplined Subjects’, 43
in Symbolic Interaction, ed. Norman K. Denzin, vol. 42 (Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2014), 38, https://doi. 23 Ewell, ‘Music Theory and the White Racial Frame’.
org/10.1108/S0163-239620140000042003. 24 Anne C. Shreffler, ‘Not Another Music History Cliché!: The Myth of the Canon’s Invisible Hand’, Not Another Music
13 The framework of discipline, as adjunct to its usual definitions as a field, sphere, or horizon of knowledge, could be History Cliché! (blog), 27 December 2017 https://notanothermusichistorycliche.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-myth-of-
conceived as a world-system whose boundaries are constructed in mythology; one in which entities and forces created by canons-invisible-hand-guest.html.
storytelling become established phenomena which are then considered fundamental—the stuff of world’s functioning. 25 Marie Thompson, ‘Whiteness and the Ontological Turn in Sound Studies’, Parallax 23, no. 3 (3 July 2017): 266–82, https://
But mythology can, of course, be reinterpreted, and relationships might thereby be reconstituted. doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2017.1339967.

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to the 12th volume of the Journal of Shenkerian Studies in particular, highlights to my mind disciplinary context of the event—with its own problems of privilege, its own systems of
quite poignantly the imperative of discussion and critique in this sphere. Outside academia, naming and othering. More crucially however, the rendering of otherness implies a nominal
various contemporary initiatives such as the Institute for Composer Diversity, Castle of our Skins, fixedness of the identity of both performer and of discipline, predicated on an understanding
or Decolonizing the Music Room,26 as well as prominent and long-established entities such as of specific forms of expressivity being immutably delineated as discipline-aligned. Efva Lilja
the Feminist Improvising Group or AACM,27 have aimed in their performance programming, highlights the perils of this, discussing the silencing of the Dancer:
education and outreach work, to counteract the dominance of particularly privileged
narratives in spheres of sound-related performance and pedagogy. Dance and choreography are often referred to as silent art forms, since we are expected to
work outside of verbal or literary formats. The presumption is that those who do not speak
I would propose it is not at all unreasonable to suggest that structures of power, by are silent. This is underpinned by how the dancer’s identity is formed, generally dominated
dint of their global sphere of influence and their pervasive entanglement with institutions by physical skills training based on imitation and repetition. Studios are still equipped with
(and thereby processes of training and culture dissemination) might condition received mirrors to certify the physical progress. Dancers are to this day mostly supposed to work
notions of ‘quality’ or ‘value’ as applied also to free improvisation, invariably and critically from the idea that the body is their only tool. This attitude is devastating, undermining
impacting the reception and interpretation of embodiment, conceptions of form, structure and both the dancer’s confidence and understanding of self. The dancer turns silent, since she
reference, the creation and maintenance of publics and communities, and being complicit in is not expected to have a voice.29
the generation and perpetuation of normative understandings of ‘skilfulness’. Compounded
The idea of a fixed disciplinary identity of the dancer bounded in the body and the implicit
in this inherent issue of a disciplinary axiology’s relationship to privilege-structures, what
modality of moving reads, in Lilja’s writing, as a restriction of creative agency; as a literal
is problematising in my view is that in being named with a particular disciplinary identity,
silencing, the wider implications of which I feel are amplified in Lilja’s use of she/her
any or all of an improviser’s activity can be held up against that identity and qualified by the
pronouns. Steve Paxton hints at the same phenomenon, in another way, when he comments
value-systems to which that identity pertains. In diverging from this identity, by means of a
on a historic review of the Judson Dance Theater:
assuming an alternative modality which the discipline renders excluded or at the least non-
privileged, or by embodying unconventional or unorthodox expression within an accepted It might be assumed that because dance is a medium employing the human body,
modality—expression which does not successfully, as Terry Threadgold writes, “perform [the foregrounding the body would be essential and inevitable, but in reviews of Judson Dance
discipline’s] genres […] speak and write and embody its favourite discourses, myths, and Theater it has been seen that the bodies and movements of the non-dancers (who were
narratives”28—the improviser can be rendered other. actually painters, composers and musicians) are mentioned more than those of the dancers.
It is as though the term dancer suggested a generic body type, already known all too well.
This othering also constitutes a kind of naming, one rooted in the theoretical
A dancer’s job was to dance in work by a choreographer. What was seen was not their
narrowness which Amico highlights as predicated on the construction of others; one body, but the movements their body made, their technique, perhaps their interpretation.30
which Currie fails to interrogate, it seems, for its political implications, which ultimately
reinforces existing parameters of discipline-sanctioned ‘success’. On one level, in the case The performers in Paxton’s anecdote here find themselves dragged deterministically into
of being rendered other from one discipline by dint of divergent modality, an improviser relation with discipline. It is telling that they are named either as of or other to the discipline,
could potentially become correlated against the axiology of another discipline—one with even by Paxton, whose comments indicate that the relationship between a discipline-
which expression in that alternative modality is associated, also affected by the overarching aligned identity—painter, composer, musician—and their modality—their moving—ultimately
affects the way in which their performative activity is discussed in the review. To me, it
26 Institute for Composer Diversity, https://www.composerdiversity.com/ [Accessed 10.09.2020]; Castle of Our Skins, indicates that the movement-expressions of the individuals across the company were not
http://www.castleskins.org/ [Accessed 10.09.2020]; Decolonizing the Music Room, https://decolonizingthemusicroom. afforded parity of value in this performance; they were inexorably bounded in an inferred
com/ [Accessed 10.09.2020].
27 Detailed discussion of the work of both of these groups can be found in: Georgina Born, Eric Lewis, and Will Straw, eds., disciplinarity. It is interesting also that Paxton clearly views the disciplinarity ascribed to
Improvisation and Social Aesthetics, Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017). those named ‘dancers’ as tantamount to an erasure of their individuality. Where Lilja’s dancer
Further reading on improvisation and/as the social can be found in Daniel Fischlin, Ajay Heble, and George Lipsitz, The
Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation, Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice falls silent, Paxton’s dancer becomes disembodied.
(Durham: Duke University Press, 2013); Scott Currie, ‘The Other Side of Here and Now’, Critical Studies in Improvisation
/ Études Critiques En Improvisation 11, no. 1–2 (14 July 2017); Thomas F. DeFrantz, ‘Improvising Social Exchange: African It is important to recognise that, as above, this naming can occur even in contexts
American Social Dance’, in The Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies, ed. George E. Lewis and Benjamin Piekut, which purport pluralism. James Andean, writing about the University of the Arts Helsinki’s
vol. 1 (Oxford University Press, 2014); Sandra Paola López-Rámirez and Christopher Eric Reyman, ‘Improvising New
Realities: Movement, Sound and Social Therapeutics’, Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études Critiques En Improvisation 12,
no. 1 (30 March 2018); and in MacDonald and Wilson, The Art of Becoming. 29 Lilja, ‘Artists as Facilitators of Change’, 18.
28 Terry Threadgold, ‘Everyday Life in the Academy: Postmodernist Feminisms, Generic Seductions, Rewriting and Being 30 Steve Paxton, “Brown in the New Body” in Trisha Brown: dance and art in dialogue – 1961-2001 ed. Hendel Teicher
Heard’, in Feminisms and Pedagogies of Everyday Life, ed. Carmen Luke (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), (Andover and Cambridge, Mass: Addison Gallery of American Art, 2002), quoted in Dempster, ‘Undisciplined Subjects,
194. Unregulated Practices: Dancing in the Academy’, 44

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Interdisciplinary Improvisation Research Group, comments that although in the group’s propagated by discipline, and is therefore entangled with the normative privilege-structures
sessions the practitioners gravitated towards a centralised performance practice beyond of axiological systems which seldom afford for value-parity of othered expressivities outside
the boundaries of what might be considered their respective disciplinary affiliations, these their own frames. In discussions of supradisciplinary practices, therefore, this ‘glimpsing’
affiliations were still tangibly present: itself I feel must be a point of practical and theoretical critique: What does is serve the
improvisation, the group, the situation, the ethos or rationale of the event, to understand
Instead of remaining within the confines of our own disciplines, and attempting to an individual’s activity through the lens of a disciplinarity as ‘glimpsed’? How might this
communicate across the borders, we quickly discovered that instead, the group was ‘glimpsing’ reinforce normative understandings of embodied expressivity as governed by
gravitating towards a central point, where our various practices met, mingled, and disciplinary frameworks, or contribute to processes of othering? How does the ‘glimpser’,
combined, creating a single performance practice, that clearly draws on aspects of theatre, having ‘glimpsed’, thereafter participate in processes of valuing? What creative avenues
sound, visual art, and so on, but is somehow either none of these, or all at once. Group
might be discovered if these processes of ‘glimpsing’ could be suspended?
members found themselves performing a combined practice, with a given individual
shifting emphasis somewhat, from moment to moment, in the direction of a particular
art form or another, without ever—or only rarely—taking a clear position within a single
discipline. […]

That being said, however, we have none of us entirely escaped our history. In the same
action undertaken by different performers, one catches a glimpse, at least some of the
time, of an increased focus on that performance action as theatre, or as sonic art, or
as performance art, or dance, and so on, possibly revealing, to the attentive spectator,
something of that performer’s background.31

Lauren Hayes comments that in the opening concert of the 2018 iteration of LLEAP at
Arizona State University, “it was evident that there was a clear divide between performers
with experience in movement-based performance practices, and those for whom it was fairly
new”.32 What is revealing in Andean and Hayes’ comments, and substantiates my own recent
Sky Su & Henry McPherson
experience in attending various interdisciplinary events, is that even in an environment
which advocates pluralism, an individual’s activity may still often be brought into relation The above examples illustrate something akin to what Ramsay Burt describes when
with a perceived home-disciplinarity or disciplinary familiarity; in an identity which is writing that “marking individuals according to a recognizable identity can reduce their interests to
inferred or ‘glimpsed’, as Andean puts it, based on something in a performer’s activity that a particular identity politics”.35 The statement highlights what is in my view the core risk of
indicates disciplinary alignment. Interestingly, Hayes comments that physical positioning of any fixed naming, and indeed of processes of othering—reductiveness—which I contend in
performers had a bearing on her understanding of this, writing: relation to contemporary practice in improvisation amounts to a restriction of the creative
agency of the individual that can lead to devaluing. To be named in a fixed capacity is to have
Firstly, in terms of positioning within the space, as we started to set up our equipment, all activity brought into relation with this identity-marker; it is ultimately to have one aspect
people tended to frame the perimeter, some being further separated by the barrier of a of an individual improviser, their perceived disciplinarity, foregrounded above all else.
table […] Without any prior discussion of strategy, I did not find any meaningful way to
Burt indicates an antidote to this issue when he describes the very viable occurrence
move from behind my station to explore the floor space in front.33
that is an individual’s “choosing multiple and sometimes contradictory idenfications”;36 he
I would argue also that this ‘glimpsing’ of ‘something’ is itself a process palpably connected suggests that “the potential for agency” lies in a “singularity” of identification which affords
to received notions of skilfulness as delineated in the “discourses, myths and narratives”34 for contradiction and plurality. This idea of singularity—perhaps hinted at by Andean as a
“single performance practice”—is one thing I would propose is more useful to the study and
31 James Andean, ‘Research Group in Interdisciplinary Improvisation: Goals, Perspectives, and Practice’, ed. Annette practice of free improvisation than the imputation of fixed disciplinary identities. It is pointed
Arlander, This and That: Essays on Live Art and Performance Studies, (2014), 178, (highlight mine)
32 Hayes, ‘Beyond Skill Acquisition: Improvisation, Interdisciplinarity, and Enactive Music Cognition’, Contemporary Music to also by Lauren Hayes, who proposes—pursuing an enactivist approach to cognition in
Review 38, no. 5 (3 September 2019), 457.
33 Hayes, ‘Beyond Skill Acquisition’, 457. 35 Burt, ‘The Specter of Interdisciplinarity’, 6
34 Threadgold, ‘Everyday life in the Academy’. 36 Burt, ‘The Specter of Interdisciplinarity’, 7.

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interdisciplinary improvisation—that “improvisation can be an activity that does not need to This statement highlights not only newness (“exciting new sounds”), but the presentness
be framed within the novice/expert model at all”.37 Citing musical improvisation, she states of that newness (“in ways they have not done before”) as being key to understanding
that “the knowing experiencing of improvisation does not depend on markers of skilful musical improvisational value. Kent de Spain also indicates that temporal specificity is a key element
instrumental expertise at all, but rather on the instantiation of multiple sensitivities of the to understanding ‘value’ in improvisation, based on responses from experienced movement
person as a whole”.38 improvisers in his research pool. He describes the “relativity of ‘What is Good?’” emphasising
the importance of the adjunct questions “when and for whom?”43 One might well consider
The way I interpret this singularity in the context of my improvised practice is first
‘where’ to be implicit in this statement.
and foremost as a description affording for the totality of the individual improviser. Beyond
disciplinarity, it is the question: who is this person (or what is this entity)? What is their To view not only improvisers but also their constellations with other entities
body/bodymind? What is their ideo-embodiment, their voice, their expressivity? This might and improvisational events themselves as singularities is, I feel, to begin to approach
invariably incorporate notions of discipline, or ‘background’ but these must necessarily improvisation through its own means; that is, through a language of present relations. It is
be brought onto the horizontal with other aspects of their personhood.39 It also extends a concept that is neither solipsistic nor a-historical for in foregrounding the multiple and
beyond the individual, into constellations of co-relation with other entities, be they human contradictory intersections of personal identities (disciplinary and non-disciplinary), it must
or nonhuman: who is this person in this relationship? What is this group of entities? This necessarily extend into an understanding of entities in interrelation with each other, within
singularity of identification is something I would postulate is likely far more complex than the contexts in which they occur, and most importantly, within the contexts they co-create
can be indicated by what amounts to a taxonomical marker of discipline. By shifting focus through practice. Before returning to this concept, and outlining how I feel it aligns with a
in this way towards a holistic understanding of individual improvisers as singularities (and transdisciplinarity approach to improvisation, I want to address the relationship between
perhaps more simply, just as ‘individuals’), the concept allows, to borrow from Hayes, for “a contemporary performance practices, discipline, and modality.
much broader variety of moments of skilful improvisation [to] be examined”,40 drawing on
the “richly embodied histories that are brought together within collaborative improvisation,
irrespective of any virtuosic/amateur positioning”.41

What is also pertinent I believe in the case of improvisation, is that the concept of the
singularity can be also applied to an understanding of time and context—not only ‘who is
this person?’ ‘what is this entity?’ ‘what is this constellation?’ but ‘who is this person/what is
this entity right here and right now?’ This feels more congruous with the temporal specificity
of improvisation as a practice; that is, a practice which happens here, and in the present. From
this perspective, any identities inferred must be considered temporally and relationally
dependent; to be ephemeral, and thereby necessarily to be considered as unfixed.

This concept speaks to what reads very much, in MacDonald and Wilson, as pointing
towards the axiology of improvisation itself; that value-systems of improvisation are
actually often established on the linked ideas of newness and presentness, rather than on
the successful execution of particular forms, embodiments, or nominal ‘virtuosity’ within
Maria Sappho, Colin Frank, Sky Su & Henry McPherson
a particular aesthetic framework. Concerning music, they state that “most [improvisation]
is valued on the assumption that exciting new sounds are being deliberately shaped in
performance by individuals choosing to do so in ways they have not done before”.42 Contemporary Practices, Modality, Discipline and its Prefixes

37 Hayes, ‘Beyond Skill Acquisition’, 451. It would be inattentive, in 2020, to suggest that contemporary practice in any
38 Hayes, ‘Beyond Skill Acquisition’, 451 (italics mine). formalised performing discipline in the West has not allowed for some time, and often
39 It’s important to stress here that in describing this understanding, I would emphasise the need for listening and for self-
reported identification, particularly regarding the potential impact of intersections with non-disciplinary (i.e. broader in great measure, for bleed in its parameters regarding the concept of modality. Looking
social) identities.
40 Hayes, ‘Beyond Skill Acquisition’, 451. ‘Skilful’, in this usage, being something more expansive than the previously
mentioned normative understandings. 43 Kent De Spain, Landscape of the Now: A Topography of Movement Improvisation (Oxford University Press, 2014), 93. It is
41 Hayes, ‘Beyond Skill Acquisition’, 452. worth pointing out that Spain qualifies his participants’ interview responses by stating that the research pool is “small and
42 MacDonald and Wilson, The Art of Becoming, 67. relatively homogenous” (93).

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macroscopically, fields such as performance-art, and genres such as opera, musical-theatre, that “regardless of how it happens, the emergence of the body demands a different type of
music-theatre, and diverse theatrical disciplines have long included multiple modalities as performance awareness from the musician”.49
integral to their execution. In the narrow lineages of so-called postmodern theatre-dance and
It is telling that much naming of multimodal practices involves compound
experimental and contemporary music, where my own improvising practice finds its murky
nouns including the constitutive word “Theatre/Theater”. Burt again, in The Specter of
roots, well-established individual pedagogies and practices such as Simone Forti’s Logomotion,
Interdisciplinarity, cites Fried in a piece of writing from nearly forty years ago, wherein despite
Ruth Zaporah’s Action-Theatre, Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater, Nancy Stark-Smith’s Underscore,
a strange distinction between what he terms “good art and theatrical art”, he identifies the
Jennifer Torrence’s Percussion-Theatre,44 and historically even the work of Meredith Monk
spaces “between the arts” as being analogous with “theatricality”.50 Björn Heile draws, as
and John Cage, and the legacies of Dada and Fluxus, clearly demonstrate pluralism regarding
indeed does Jennifer Torrence, on Michael Kirby’s theoretical continuum of ‘not-acting’
the forms of embodied expressivity which a performer can undertake. The same could be
to ‘acting’,51 as a means of defining the boundaries of what he terms “Experimental Music
said of works by Mauricio Kagel, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Hannah Hartman, Jennifer Walshe
Theatre”. He describes a practice which “eschews or subverts scenic illusion, dramatic
and Julius Eastman, not to mention, outside this sphere, the extremely modally diverse
representation, role-play, and fictional time” in which “the physical and gestural elements
performance practices across genres and forms such as pop, hip-hop, R&B, K-pop, J-pop,
inherent in music making are the action”.52 Cage also professed poetically: “Theatre takes
reggaeton, afrobeat, vogue, noh, kecak, xiangsheng, hula, haka and various indigenous
place/ all the time wherever one is and art simply / facilitates persuading one this is the
storytelling practices, to name but a few.45
case”.53 The idea it seems, is not new.
In the popular French newspaper Le Monde, Rosita Boisseau wrote back in 2009 that
This having been said, it feels reductive to claim, even in 2020, that specific modalities
in many contemporary dance performances, ‘dancers’ do nearly anything but ‘dance’.46 She
have no relationship to discipline whatsoever. To suggest so would be to neglect the existence
quotes various dance-artists and choreographers in advocating for the expansion of the idea
of specific embodied knowledges—somatic-haptic, kinetic, temporal, sonic, proprioceptive
of ‘dance’ beyond ‘dancing’ (implied as an archaism), including Boris Charmatz, who says:
awareness and techniques—cultivated through specific pedagogies, and often through years
of training. Although Torrence details an extremely compelling journey of metamorphosis in
For me, the space of dance encompasses as much writing as photography [….] When
relation to disciplinary identity, questioning at the end of Percussion Theatre: “[w]hat does
people talk to me about the rehearsal studio as the location of my activity, I don’t recognise
myself there, it doesn’t exist anymore.47 the musician become when the hierarchy of music is flattened, where sound and instrumental
thinking are no longer privileged at the top of the hierarchy?” she also acknowledges
From the perspective of the practitioner, to define today’s boundaries of discipline on throughout her writing that her practice is one rooted in rigorous training, and in the lived
the basis of modality alone would be decidedly incongruous with the current state of experience of embodied sounding expressions in relation to instrument-objects:
experimentalism and with contemporary approaches to performing across the disciplines.
There is both a recognisably historical and very pertinent contemporary push towards holistic The repetition of my training ‘orients the body in some ways rather than others’, and
practices which are modally pluralistic, an idea perhaps typified in Jennifer Walshe’s 2016 through this orientation the body itself takes shape through its contact with particular
manifesto on the New Discipline, the very title of which invites a redrawing of previously objects (Ahmed, 2006, p. 54 - 57). My body ‘bends and directs itself to the form and
conceived disciplinary boundaries. Walshe provokes a dual perspective on contemporary mechanics of an instrument’ (Craenen, 2014, p. 105). This ‘sedimented history’ orients my
music—first that “music-theatre” is a false-moniker, and that pieces named music-theatre “ performance practice in particular ways. My practice orients towards sound and listening
*are* music”; secondly, an inversion, that “all music is music theatre”.48 An understanding in a way that is unique in comparison to a performer whose ‘starting point’ is not music.
My practice is oriented towards objects through sonic exploration.54
of theatricality in contemporary musical practice is integral also to the work of Jennifer
Torrence, who states, on bringing the musician’s body into liveness or “foregrounding”, The contemporary discourse on the relationships between performing disciplines would
also suggest that modality is not an entirely neutral or unaffiliated factor in the conversation.

44 Jennifer Torrence, ‘Percussion Theatre: A Body in Between’, Norwegian Academy of Music, no. 2 (10 May 2019).
45 See, for discussion of the use of the senses in some first-nations storytelling, ‘Storytelling’, First Nations Pedagogy,
accessed September 10, 2020, https://firstnationspedagogy.ca/storytelling.html. 49 Torrence, Percussion Theatre.
46 Rosita Boisseau, ‘Dans beaucoup de spectacles de danse, on ne danse plus’, Le Monde.fr, (25 April 2009), https://www. 50 Burt, ‘The Specter of Interdisciplinarity’, 11-12
lemonde.fr/culture/article/2009/04/25/dans-beaucoup-de-spectacles-de-danse-on-ne-danse-plus_1185423_3246.html. 51 Michael Kirby, ‘On Acting and Not-Acting’, The Drama Review: TDR 16, no. 1 (March 1972): 3, https://doi.
47 Original French: « Pour moi, l’espace de la danse englobe aussi bien l’écriture que la photo […] Lorsqu’on me parle du org/10.2307/1144724.
studio de répétition comme du lieu de mon activité, je ne me reconnais pas là-dedans, ça n’existe plus ». (Translation 52 Heile, ‘Towards a Theory of Experimental Music Theatre’, 2.
mine). 53 John Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings, Repr (London: Marion Boyars, 1999), 174.
48 Jennifer Walshe, ‘The New Discipline’, Borealis Festival (blog), 2016, https://www.borealisfestival.no/2016/the-new- 54 Torrence, Percussion Theatre, citing: Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. (Duke University
discipline-4/. Press, 2006); and Paul Craenen, ‘Beginning with music, continuing otherwise – editorial’. RTRSRCH Vol. 2 No. 1, 2009.

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Disciplinarity, as Osborne notes, “has become problematic in multiple and contested ways”.55 to an indication of at least some weight which modality still bears in conceiving of what a
The sheer prevalence of writing in performing arts academia surrounding disciplinarity and performance discipline is.
its various prefixes,56 is testament to its contemporary re-evaluation, to a perceived value
A recent course offered by the Dance Research Studio in Shoreditch, London, was titled
located beyond the confines of monodisciplinarity, and a push towards pluralism. The trend
“The Speaking Dancer: Interdisciplinary Performance Training”. In addition to various other
is observable outside academia, in the literature of funding bodies,57 in artist biographies,
elements of pedagogy, one of which explored “the influence of visual and performance
in performance programming and curation,58 and noticeably on the front-facing of media of
art disciplines and strategies in dance and choreographic practice”, which itself represents
higher-education institutions.59
an interesting disciplinary distinction, the first module component of the programme was
I would contend though that in the context of contemporary practices, the naming titled “The Interdisciplinary Performer (Voice and Movement Integration)”.60 This title
of a practice, a work, or an individual as interdisciplinary—as situated in a space between implies that it is the coming together of voice and movement which marks this practice as
more than one discipline—or for that matter with any associated prefix-disciplinarity, speaks interdisciplinary, speaking to an understanding that these modalities—that of vocalising/
verbalising and that of moving—are in some way disciplinarily aligned. In conjunction with
the course-title, “The Speaking Dancer”, it echoes Lilja’s statement on silencing, suggesting
that vocal modalities are in some form considered as other to dance from the outset. The
opening of Integrative Performance: Practice and Theory for the Interdisciplinary Performer, offers
up the question: “Why, when we learn to become performers, do we disintegrate ourselves
and suppress our intuitive impulses by separating aspects of expression into categories of
singing, dancing, and acting?”61 The titular use of “interdisciplinary”, and the suggestion
of separated “aspects of expression”, again indicates some level of disciplinary distinction
ascribed to vocal and movement modalities in particular, and furthermore that “acting” is
held to be something else altogether. The Institute for Contemporary Arts’ initiative, The
Tender Interval: Studies in Sound and Motion, describes itself as “a convening exploring the
transformational qualities of sound and dance practices”.62 This ‘convening’ is later made
analogous to ‘queering’, and is clearly an effort towards an integrative and pluralistic,
decentralised notion of contemporary practice; however, the distinction between “sound”
and “dance” practices in the initiative’s front-facing media highlights again some pervasive
Sky Su & Henry McPherson understanding of a modal differentiation where “dance” is made separate to “sound”.

55 Peter Osborne, ‘Problematizing Disciplinarity, Transdisciplinary Problematics’, Theory, Culture & Society 32, no. 5–6 (1 These examples speak to what might be felt by contemporary experimental performers
September 2015), 4. as a troublingly extant presence of hierarchies of modality ingrained in the Western/White-
56 See for example: Lushetich, Interdisciplinary Performance; Brown and Longley, Undisciplining Dance; Sara Ramshaw and
Paul Stapleton, ‘Just Improvisation’, Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études Critiques En Improvisation 12, no. 1 (2017). Eurocentric conceptualisation of separated and distinct performing disciplines; hierarchies
57 In 2018, Creative Scotland advertised for the post of a permanent Interdisciplinary Performance Officer (https://www. that constitute, still, some form of understanding of the boundaries of disciplines with
creativescotland.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/52066/Interdisciplinary-Officer-job.pdf); Arts Council England offers
an Interdisciplinary Arts Job search function on its website (http://www.artsjobs.org.uk/interdisciplinary-arts/), and regards to performers’ expressivity, against which other forms of discipline are held to be
also emphasised “interdisciplinary collaborations” as a contributor to technological innovation in its report Experimental delineated, and transgression beyond which is held to constitute a form of inter- or otherwise
Culture: A horizon scan, published in 2018. (https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/
Experimental_Culture_summary_150318.pdf) The council also provided four-year funding to Artsadmin, an organization
supra-disciplinarity. To name a performing practice as something like interdisciplinary seems
which “enables artists to create without boundaries, producing bold interdisciplinary work to connect with local, national to necessitate a recognition of disciplinary distinctions and of the manner in which those
and international audiences” (https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/%C2%A318million-support-excellence-and-ambitions-
disability-arts).
distinctions are constructed with regards to modal hierarchies. It feels to me that in pushing
58 See an interesting article on the Walker gallery’s recently funded initiative to ‘advance the study of “interdisciplinary” further into radical new practices, it is vital not to ignore this entanglement between discipline
art’ https://walkerart.org/magazine/on-the-interdisciplinary.
and hierarchies of modality, even if it might feel restrictive and problematising. To generalise
59 See for example : Birmingham City University, MA in Interdisciplinary Practices (https://www.bcu.ac.uk/courses/
art-and-design-ma-2020-21); Seattle University Bachelors degrees list (https://www.seattleu.edu/artsci/undergraduate-
degrees/interdisciplinary-arts/ ); Zuyd University Maastricht, Bachelor in Interdisciplinary Arts (https://www. 60 ‘The Speaking Dancer: Interdisciplinary Performance Training’, Dance Research Studio, accessed September 10, 2020,
bachelorstudies.com/Bachelor-in-Interdisciplinary-Arts/Netherlands/Zuyd-Uni/); University of New Mexico, Bachelor http://danceresearchstudio.com/professional-development/sdipt/.
of Interdisciplinary Arts (https://finearts.unm.edu/academics/degrees/undergraduate-degrees/baia-interdisciplinary- 61 Experience Bryon, Integrative Performance: Practice and Theory for the Interdisciplinary Performer, (2014), 1, http://site.ebrary.
arts/); Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Major in Interdisciplinary Arts (https://nscad.ca/study-at-nscad/ com/id/10864811.
divisions-and-areas/media-arts/interdisciplinary-arts/); University of Edinburgh, MScR Interdisciplinary Creative 62 ‘The Tender Interval: Studies in Sound and Motion’, Institute for Contemporary Arts, accessed September 10, 2020,
Practices (https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees/index.php?r=site/view&edition=2020&id=656). https://www.ica.art/live/the-tender-interval-studies-in-sound-and-motion.

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and suggest that the assuming of a modality might not point towards disciplinarity through and in relation to other entities within the performance world (be they human or non-
extant associations, or to suggest that the boundaries of discipline have been expanded so far human), physical or non-physical objects, in a disciplinary context, which results in naming.
as to sever from hierarchies of modality altogether, is to enact a form of abstract theorising
To address the complexities of embodiment feels beyond the scope of this article.
which I contend is at the strongest a manifestation of privilege—which actually risks avoiding
Jennifer Torrence, again, engages thoroughly with issues of body, liveness, embodiment
interrogation of the processes by which disciplines and their axiologies are constructed—and
and gesture, in particular with relation to devising, and to co-performance with instrument-
is at the least inattentive, neglecting broader social understandings of types of performance
objects throughout Percussion Theatre, providing an excellent overview of the topic; Spatz
which might exist outside the conversations between peer-artist-researchers and academics,
discusses distinctions between embodied practice, technique, research, and knowledge at
and outside the realm of experimental performance.
length in Embodiment as First Affordance;67 and Warburton re-evaluates notions of embodiment
Walshe’s Manifesto is laudable in its call-to-arms to render the “ear, the eye and the in dance from an interesting phenomenological perspective in Of Meanings and Movements.68
brain […] active and engaged” in contemporary musical practice.63 It is filled with what I feel What I would highlight again however, as previously articulated, is that as a constituent
are very accurate descriptions of its pluralistic nature. But it is still rooted in the language part of disciplinary axiological systems, vocabularies of embodiment and physicality are
of a discipline which prioritises the sonic over other things. It opens by making analogous entangled within the same structures of privilege, power, and processes of othering which
pieces “which often invoke the extra-musical” and pieces “which activate the non-cochlear”, can be critiqued as having determinising effects on how an improviser’s activity is valued.
and while the last paragraph states that “the bodies playing the music are part of the music”, I propose that in conversations where we advocate for the re-appraising of discipline,
the ending of the text qualifies this by saying that they “inform our listening”.64 I would regarding its relationship to modality, this must come hand-in-hand with criticism of
challenge whether using this language can be identified as placing the sonic and not-sonic on nominally ‘acceptable’ or ‘skilful’ embodiment, against which a performer’s modal activity
an equal footing, and whether this really indicates that music might be considered modally may be subsequently qualified, and how these notions themselves might be impacted by
all-encompassing. normative understandings of what constitutes ‘valid’ bodies, performers, and publics.69

It is important to stress again that these disciplinary boundary distinctions are

conceived of within the White-Eurocentric context, and that delineations of understandings
of performance practices outside this context should not be presumed to be analogous. Kofi
Towards transdisciplinarity
Agawu’s wry comment on this, quoted in Adam Neely’s recently trending YouTube video
Music Theory and White Supremacy (which is laudably detailed and accessible),65 illustrates this What is it first to sound and then to move, and then to verbalise, and then to move
directly. Agawu writes: again; or to enact something between all these things, at once discernibly related to some
discipline or other, at once beyond or outside an established disciplinary embodiment?
Imagine, if you will, a new world order in which African approaches to rhythm pedagogy How does it serve our practice to suggest that all this is “music”, or all this is “dance”, or
predominated in the American academy. Patterns would be taught holistically rather than “theatre”?
atomistically; theoretical work would privilege gestalten and larger rhythmic units over
pulses akin to the movement of millipedes’ feet; and no one would be granted a music At what point in the performance event is the identity of the performer inferred? For how
degree who could not dance!66 long must one assume a given modality before it is considered embedded in embodiment?
For how long must one enact any modal divergence before the boundaries of discipline
Returning to the issue of naming: as indicated at the beginning of this article, while the feel challenged or are shifted?
assuming of a given modality can point towards a disciplinarity as outlined above, it cannot
be said that a modality alone gives rise to the naming of an improviser with a disciplinary How do we, as improvisers, navigate this issue, particularly in contexts where improvisation
identity. It is the way in which a modality is embodied in relation to disciplinary axiologies, is co-present with other forms of practice? How is it possible to challenge the
problematising, deterministic or restrictive aspects of a history of embodied disciplinarity
63 Walshe, The New Discipline. which might inhabit an individual’s bodymind, awareness, and affect their interactions
64 There’s a valid question here as to whether the “listening” to which Walshe refers is explicitly aural, or is used in a less with other entities (with which they themselves inhabit events of performance), and at
specific sense. However, her prior reference to the cochlear would suggest to me an aural alignment to this particular use
of ‘listening’. the same time acknowledge the existence and impact of that history; for its very real
65 Adam Neely, Music Theory and White Supremacy, 2020. With reference to the work of musicologists Philip Ewell,
William O’Hara, Kofi Agawu, and W. Tecumseh Fitch, among others, accessed September 10, 2020, https://youtu.be/
Kr3quGh7pJA. 67 Ben Spatz, ‘Embodiment as First Affordance: Tinkering, Tuning, Tracking’, 2017, https://core.ac.uk/reader/78074350.
66 Kofi Agawu, ‘Structural Analysis or Cultural Analysis? Competing Perspectives on the “Standard Pattern” of West 68 Edward C. Warburton, ‘Of Meanings and Movements: Re-Languaging Embodiment in Dance Phenomenology and
African Rhythm’, Journal of the American Musicological Society 59, no. 1 (1 April 2006), 12, https://doi.org/10.1525/ Cognition’, Dance Research Journal 43, no. 2 (2011): 65–84, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0149767711000064.
jams.2006.59.1.1 (emphasis mine). 69 On publics, see again Burt, ‘The Specter of Interdisciplinarity’.

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and discernible presence within their presence, and for the possibility that it can also, in not the same as non-definition, or an absolutist not-naming—and this point is key. It is essential
addition to presenting restrictions, afford for creative agency? to recognise the implications of drawing generic statements on total a-relation, a-causality
I believe that some kind of turning towards a solution for me and my problem with or a-definition. To imply a total abstraction is to neglect the potentially determinising factors
fixed-naming can be found, perhaps ironically, in the assuming of a disciplinary prefix, of socio-cultural context, power, and privilege in how entities are named, conceived of, and
considering my practice through the language of transdisciplinarity, and combining this with how their activity or interrelation in an improvisation may be interpreted. In particular,
the idea of viewing of improvisers and improvising events as singularities. in improvising contexts that involve people whose identifications regarding race, gender,
sexuality, disability, spirituality (etc.) may be unfortunately inferred or externally imputed,
A basic definition of transdisciplinarity is that it is a supradisciplinary approach rather than self-reported, this can lean precariously towards erasure, where not-naming
which “does not strive for mastery of several disciplines but aims to open all disciplines to becomes consummate with performing whiteness—the false “claim to total objectivity”,
that which they share and to that which lies beyond them”.70 It is, semantically, both across which Nicolescu describes as “life-negating”.77
(encompassing) and beyond disciplinarity, placing disciplines themselves in a field of shifting
relations. What transdisciplinarity is not is the absolute dissolution of discipline. Basarab The same extends to non-human entities. Mel Y. Chen, in their discussion of the
Nicolescu’s influential Manifesto, states that transdisciplinarity “compliments disciplinary concept of animacies, take words as “a primary site in which the matter of the world takes
approaches”, and that both “an excess of formalism [or] rigidity of definitions and a claim shape and is affectively informed”.78 They write that “words, and genres of language,
to total objectivity”71 or total abstraction, “entailing the exclusion of the subject, can only become akin to a first level of animation” where animation points to locating entities within
have a life-negating effect”.72 Practically speaking, for me, a transdisciplinary approach to a hierarchy of Animacy in which they are afforded notions of sentience, consciousness, and
improvisation does not represent an outright rejection of the languages, embodiments, and agency.79 We are to understand that the language ascribed to entities—their naming—is not
formalisms of the disciplines, it simply considers them in every single moment of performance to be taken as superficial, but forms a constituent part of their reality and how we experience
to be unfixed. It entails “[t]he recognition of the existence of different levels of reality them; a reality which is politicised, which exerts force in all directions in interrelation
governed by different types of logic”,73 and that at any moment, for any duration, different with other entities, and which cannot be ignored. MacDonald and Wilson, regarding
“registers of sense”74 might come into play—that forms, relationships and bodies hitherto improvisation explicitly, indicate the importance of words in their discussion of “talking
unimagined and unvalued might emerge, which invite audiences to view them within their about improvisation”:
own contexts.
Two musicians discussing a concert they have both just performed may exchange ideas
Key applications of my understanding of transdisciplinarity to my improvising on the good points and bad points of the music. They may reach an agreement, their
practice are the related notions of porousness and transformation. To be porous is, in one views may differ, but the negotiated views exchanged will help construct how the event
way, to embody Stacy Alaimo’s concept of trans-corporeality, in which our material bodies is remembered. Also, the version of the concert that emerges from this discussion can
are rendered permeable in relation to the geo-bio-political,75 interrelated with conceptions influence the music played in future concerts [.…] When discussing improvising, speakers
of all delineated things. Alaimo proposes that to recognise this, and “[t]o analyze, theorize, create, negotiate, and maintain[ ] particular lines of arguments, and these lines of argument
are linked to the musical identities and broader psychological identities of the speakers.
critique, create, revolt, and transform as someone whose corporeality cannot be distinct from
Talking about improvising is important not just because it describes improvisation, but
biopolitical systems and biochemical processes is to think as the stuff of the world”.76 It is also by
also because it constructs musical and social realities for those engaged in the dialogue.80
extension to recognise a porousness in definition and identity. However, this permeability is
If, as Chen suggests, to name is on one level to animate, to construct a reality, then an
70 Basarab Nicolescu, Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002), 149.
examination of how this naming comes to be seems all the more pertinent.
71 Basarab Nicolescu, Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity, 149 (emphasis mine).
72 As Osborne writes in ‘Problematising Disciplinarity’: “The reduction of transdisciplinarity to ‘fuzziness’ of disciplinary Second to porousness, the transformation aspect of transdisciplinarity as applied to
boundaries is a serious intellectual collapse” (15). He goes further to tout that the “dissolution of disciplinary frameworks” improvisation is, for me, the idea that the improviser moves across a spectrum of relation
is tantamount to a “re-disciplinarization via the new ‘discipline’ of a methodologically standardized transdisciplinarity”
(12). In this sense, transdisciplinarity should not profess a-disciplinarity.
to disciplinarity—at one moment aligning their activity with, playing with, drawing on, the
73 Nicolsecu, Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity, 149. forms or vernaculars of discipline, at another time disentangling from it. The idea affords for
74 Alys Longley and Jenny Roche, ‘What Would It Be, If It Didn’t Have to Be like That? Undisciplining the Travel of Dance
Ideas in the Neo-Liberal University’, in Undisciplining Dance in Nine Movements and Eight Stumbles, ed. Carol Brown and
Alys Longley (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018), 49–57. 77 Nicolescu, Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity, 149.
75 Stacy Alaimo, ‘Trans-Corporeality’, in Posthuman Glossary, ed. Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova, Theory (London 78 Mel Y. Chen, ‘Animacies’, in Posthuman Glossary, ed. Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova, Theory (London Oxford New
Oxford New York New Delhi Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018), 435-438. York New Delhi Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018), 32–34.
76 Stacy Alaimo, Exposed: Environmental Politics and Pleasures in Posthuman Times, 2016, 185. This emphasis on the 79 Chen also highlights the issue of “politically dominant” hierarchies of Animacy, “potentially affected and shaped by the
entanglement between the individual and the geo-bio-political is also, I feel, connected to the idea of understanding spread of Christian cosmologies, capitalism and the colonial orders of things”.
disciplinary axiologies in relation to privilege-structures; that is, as political, as well as aesthetic, value-systems. 80 MacDonald and Wilson, The Art of Becoming, 46

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the improviser to be neither of discipline, in a rigidly defined sense, or entirely amorphously “take on a different understanding and relation to the instrument and therefore a different
other to discipline. In fact, it suggests that at any one moment, the improviser will be in a given relation to the body”, a relation which “calls for new ways of making and doing, in other
proximity to disciplinarity. The important idea here is twofold, firstly that this state is only words, a new kind of artistic practice”.83 In contexts aligned with ‘dance’, the subversion of
ever temporary, that any naming which might be ascribed can only be considered a point in somato-centric and ocular-centric performance84 seems imperative, as is the need to demand
a continuum of impermanent states—essentially it requires a reconsidering of the naming the inclusion of diverse bodies—and subsequently, diverse ways of embodying—in dance
of improvisers towards the idea of context-dependent singularities, as previously discussed. settings, to combat the trap that Steve Paxton describes regarding the dancer as a “generic
Secondly, the idea of transformation comprises an understanding of individual “starting body type”.85 These subversions reveal, practically and performatively, elements of systems
points” which may include a particular history with discipline, but it demands in effect that which once illuminated can be subject to further critique and comment, representing very
individuals be allowed to choose whether these histories are placed at the forefront of their practical conduits for change.
expressivity.

In order for this transdisciplinary improvising singularity-entity to come into being,

however, what is required is not just the ingesting by an individual improviser of the ideas
of transdisciplinarity outlined by the paragraphs above, but also the generation of contexts
which allow for the transdisciplinary approach, this being predicated on the generation
of transdisciplinary audiences or publics. As previously articulated, the presence of
disciplinarity in context and framing comes into constellation with modality and axiology
in processes of naming. It seems important then, for an improviser who wants to inhabit
transdisciplinarity, to advocate for the creation of performance contexts which afford for
disciplinary transgression and transformation, which afford for an individual to inhabit
shifting hierarchies of disciplinarity, but which also emphasise the singularity of the
individual and of temporal-situational context; to advocate for an approach to practice which
is not held to fixed axiological notions of aesthetics, ethics, and embodiment vocabularies, but rather
is located in what amounts to a topographically diverse supradisciplinary field. Returning
to Burt, this feels like it would require a foregrounding, in the minds of both practitioners Sky Su & Henry McPherson

and audiences, of the conception not just of individuals as improvising singularities, but of Another answer undoubtedly lies in verbal and textual critique itself, in discursive
individual performing events as singularities in and of themselves.81 arenas of the academy and culture at large. I feel an interrogation of pervading axiologies
of discipline is paramount: to question politically, as well as aesthetically (and really these
How to go about this? I cannot, of course, speak for all practitioners, but returning
cannot be made entirely distinct), why we afford value to particular forms of embodiment,
to the model I proposed for processes of naming (see fig.1) I would like to suggest that it
particular bodies, and particular notions of skill; to challenge any nominal universality
be approached holistically from several different directions. I feel that one answer lies in
of aesthetic preferences, and to recognise in global context how these preferences are
continuing the existing practices of what might be considered disciplinary subversion:
constructed in relation to hegemonic power-structures and the insidious properties of
antagonising the formalisms of delineated disciplines, in particular their modal hierarches,
whiteness. The practice of improvisation itself can be an effective vessel for this critique,
to question them. In ‘musical’ contexts, I think much of this work lies in the re-evaluation
but I would suggest that for its efficacy to come to the fore, a shift in focus is required
of the relationship between improvisers and instruments as interrelated and porous bodies, as
in improvisation pedagogy, away from the pursuit of replication of aesthetic forms and
co-improvising entities rather than tools, in the foregrounding of physicality,82 and in the
embodiments sanctioned by existing disciplinary systems, towards a stronger emphasis on
exploration of the non-sonic. This might allow, as Torrence suggests, for the musician to
the essential emergent properties of improvisation itself. I would highlight presence and
ephemerality as key properties, as well as what I have proposed is the agency to be found
81 Torrence moves towards this idea, albeit in relation to ‘works’, when discussing the positioning of works across Kirby’s in the singularity of individual and temporal-situational contexts. This, to my mind, would
spectrum of theatricality in Percussion Theatre. Perhaps it also aligns with what Ciciliani refers to as an “individualised
patchwork of discursive islands”, when discussing the polythetic, multireferential nature of contemporary composers’ represent a radical step towards reassessing the dominance of existing value-systems. It
practices with regards to discourse. See: Marko Ciciliani, ‘Music in the Expanded Field: On Recent Approaches to
Interdisciplinary Composition’, in Darmstädter Beiträge Zur Neue Musik, ed. Michael Rebhahn and Thomas Schäfer (Mainz: 83 Torrence, Percussion Theatre.
Schott, 2017), 23–35. 84 See, for example, Zahra Killeen-Chance, ‘Breath of Air’, in Undisciplining Dance in Nine Movements and Eight Stumbles, ed.
82 The latter of these points is something Ciciliani highlights as a key component of Music in the Expanded Field, which he Carol Brown and Alys Longley (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018), 28–38.
implies represents to some degree a transdisciplinary approach. 85 Paxton, ‘Brown in the New Body’, 44.

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seems pertinent also to interrogate the disciplinary language in text we use to describe
expanded practices, in the way we describe the relationships between practices, and in how
we describe ourselves as practitioners. To assess—even as we attempt redefinitions and
radical reimaginings—whether these might in fact be complicit in maintaining a fixedness in
our understanding of disciplinary identities.

How to reframe performing contexts to afford for transdisciplinarity is a more complex

issue; one for which I have no concrete solution, though I think the path forward might
emerge from engaging in the methods outlined above. Supradisciplinary initiatives such as
those I have mentioned—the Weekend of Improvisation in Glasgow, the METRIC Conference, the
Interdisciplinary Improvisation Research Group—are undoubtedly important meeting places
for practitioners seeking to expand into a transdisciplinary field, so long as they balance
the coming together of diverse practitioners with a necessary critique of the language and
embodiments of discipline, the value-systems derived from discipline, and whether these
themselves are valuable, applicable, or even relevant in whatever new and singular contexts
might be generated through improvised practice.

The joy I find in improvisation is the creation and dissipation of worlds in an instant;
in the fluid unravelling, reconstituting, exploration and explosion of in-the-moment logics,
connections, narratives, and relationships. My practice must account for disciplinarity as
a component of its parameters, but one which can also be moved through, moved around,
transformed or made irrelevant as the improvising context shifts and evolves. What feels
inherent to me in free improvisation is the limitless opportunity for transformation, which
does not preclude the possibility that certain forms or certain ideas might coalesce into
distinct disciplinary being and be brought forward into focus (even if only for a moment),
but neither does it suggest that this must always be the case. No matter how much I might
find it a personal frustration, I cannot for a second dismiss the possibility of being named
at any time as a disciplinary entity. What I feel is paramount however is to advocate that
in participating in, and researching improvisation, we undertake a reconsideration of
the fixedness of any disciplinary identities, to create contexts which might afford for the
foregrounding of porousness and transformation; towards democratisation and inclusivity,
towards new locations of value, towards radical practices of self-expression.

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 Collaboration as Contingent on Material Encounters
Collaboration as Contingent on Material Encounters in Making
Imitate Elegance Expertly Overview
(Re)Thinking Violin Virtuosity
The piece Imitate Elegance Expertly was created over the course of November 2018 to
Dejana Sekulic, Irine Røsnes, Linda Jankowska, Colin Frank December 2019 as part of the Mixed Currents research project1. Multiple laboratory sessions
distributed across that year allowed for experimental exploration of the violin, virtuosity,
beauty, and identity. These investigations were formed into a roughly twenty-minute
performance that was presented publicly three times, as of this writing. These concerts were,
respectively, in Huddersfield’s Phipps Hall; at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, as part of
the conference Collaborations Are More Refreshing than New Socks; and finally, at the Q02 art
space in Brussels. The devising process was a multilayered dialogue between four people,
three violins, three bows, and a myriad of other recording technologies, locations, and ideas.
From the outset, the project aimed to investigate collaborative methods that relied on regular
discussion, exchange, and active doing. It aimed to explore how ingrained notions of the
violin changed when used beyond sounding purposes, and how the violinist’s identities—
Irine, Dejana, and Linda being virtuosic and trained violinists—could be stretched,
augmented, and recontextualized to create new forms of meaning. The personal and specific
identities of each performer, rather than be hidden or backgrounded, were emphasised as
integral for our collaborative process and the resulting piece.

Of primary concern for the project was to question of how possible relationships
could unfold between the performers’ bodies, the instruments, the performance space, and
Performance of Imitate Elegance Expertly at DeSingel, Antwerp, Belgium on December 3rd, 2019
technological mediation. How could these factors be considered as agents, and operate
Abstract beyond deemed customs or sedimented roles? We were interested in how audio and video
recording could be reintegrated into the process, such that recordings taken over the course
In an attempt to understand how this project operated as a collaboration entangled within of laboratory sessions could influence action later on, thus forming underpinning threads
the material contingencies of violins and media technologies, we have collectively reflected across the project. We were entangling ourselves with ingrained histories and associations—
on the project’s making process. We have included in this article key points that stood out to the violins being imbued with established performance practices and associations—but we
us, and discuss them theoretically in relation to other practitioners. We consider the violin wanted to look at them afresh, to approach the instruments as material objects. Recasting
as an instrument wrapped up in a long history of virtuosity, and wonder how that history the instruments as objects allowed us to experiment with performance practice as embodied
points towards contemporary playing assumptions. We then discuss ways to break from such and embedded within the material world. Through this object-oriented gaze we considered
standardised and ingrained approaches, proposing as one possible way to move the body in the violins beyond their sounding capacity; as artefacts. Violin traditions, along with the
alternative relations to the instrument. Having multiple instrumentalists touch one another’s violin performers’ stage presence and violin repertoire, seeped into the process by way of
instruments especially allows for this. Such a non-standard playing approach furthermore the materials and personnel involved. By toying with the violinists’ stage persona—whereby
allows the violin’s agency to influence, a topic which we expand when we discuss getting the violins were prized as visual items alongside their sounding capacities—an attempt was
together to collaborate. The multifaceted nature of collaboration allows for many occurrences made to liberate the performers from ingrained violinistic movement and thinking. Through
and creative becomings, but we discuss here how working through ideas in the studio with this practitioner undoing, the performers’ bodies became not only ‘doers’, the manipulators of
the materials allowed for unforeseen dimensions of the piece to emerge. This leads to a final this instrument into sounding, but also instruments themselves, receptive to the influences of
discussion of how recording influenced the creative process and final performance. We hope non-human agents.
that this article will be useful to other artistic practitioners that desire the intrigue, flexibility,
This object focus arose in tandem with an emphasis on visuality, as explored through
and positive communication that is possible when a collaboration is open and reflexive to the
video recordings over the course of the laboratory sessions. The camera was used to frame
situational, social, and material.

1 Mixed Currents is a collaborative research project created by Linda Jankowska, Dejana Sekulic, Irine Røsnes, Colin
Frank and Pablo Galaz, supported by the University of Huddersfield’s Researcher Environment Development Fund. See
https://www.mixedcurrents.com/ for more information about the project.

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CeReNeM Journal issue 7 · Performing Stuff Collaboration as Contingent on Material Encounters

the motion of bodies and objects. Some of these videos, both transformed and uncut, were Virtuosity: underneath and beyond
reincorporated into the creative process to influence further layers of performing. The live-
performance shows this accumulative process, as it includes video projection of prerecorded
The violin has its secrets: it has at one and the same time a soul and a mind. It is a poet
materials. Because the performers were captured in these videos, in concert the live musicians
whose enigmatic nature may only be divined by the elect. It is an instrument whose voice,
performed alongside their alter egos, compressing temporality and the spaces inhabited
since first it came into being, has stirred the heart-strings of the human race; and the lofty
across the project into the presence of the concert experience. The piece gradually emerged raptures which it has called forth have done their part, with other branches of the art of
as devised movements, conceptual ideas, and audio/video recordings accumulated. In this music, to raise the soul of man to the highest summits of the ideal.
way, the piece in its late stage was immersed within the artefacts of its creation. Embodied Eugène Ysaÿe3
memories of movement experiments from early lab sessions returned, and video recordings
were brought back to be performed alongside. Multiple temporalities coexisted in the final The Romantic narrative of the violin as an object of beauty, magic and with powers
work, but also earlier actions directly informed later performance. Video recording factored to evoke high intensity emotions, and a violinist as a persona possessing a mystical kind
into the process monumentally, both because of the camera’s frame, and because it created of instinct, have played a significant role in the formation of a well-functioning myth. But
digitally exact reproductions of performances. that story would not have much traction without a whole scaffolding of social history of
the instrument dating back to its appearance at royal courts in Europe in the 16th century.
During this project, how we went about collaborating was centralized. In the The violin gained significance not only for the musical and social functions it could fulfil—
‘approaches to composer-performer collaboration’ model proposed by Jennifer Torrence,2 its portability turned it into dance music’s most suitable companion—but also for its
we would place our collaboration somewhere between the performers as advisers and as economic importance supported by an infrastructure around the production and trade of
devisers. This is because the primary work methodology occurred in group workshops, the instrument. Despite violins and violinists being used in negotiating peace treaties, for
and because all parties were contributing creative decisions. Indeed, the piece could not example to end the Italian war of 1536–15384, or to demonstrate royal superiority, wealth
be performed by any other musicians, not just because the know-how to perform the piece and magnificence, as seen at the French court of Louis XIV5, the instrument became one of
arose over extensive time spent together, but also because the piece’s projected video element the most democratic and widely used, and gained much of its aesthetic currency for Western
contains images of Irine, Linda, and Dejana. This collaborative approach differs substantially art music composition in the Baroque period.6 It is thanks to the Italian violinist Arcangelo
from the other end of Torrence’s spectrum, whereby a performer interprets a score prepared Corelli, Giuseppe Torelli and Antonio Vivaldi—the forefathers of the concerto form—who
independently by a composer. As a result of this close collaboration, much of the creative laid the foundations of virtuoso soloist repertory for many generations of violinists.7
process was open, improvisatory, and reflexive to contingency. Although Colin frequently
developed plans and notations before worksessions, these were quite loose and allowed for Nicolo Paganini (1782–1840), perhaps the human synonym of Romantic violin
creative decision making and experimental exploration in the studio. As the piece gradually virtuosity, reinterpreted the rich Italian tradition for the socio-economic context of his time.
formed to be repeatable, many aspects were left open. In final rehearsal sessions, details about Since the appearance of Paganini, violin repertory and instrumental education have been
movements, event order, and sounds were collectively discussed and decided. Although we trying to account for the kind of virtuosity understood as a display of great technical skill,
maintained fairly standardised roles as ‘composer’ and ‘performers’, despite discussion of speed, spectacle and bravado. A widely contested and convoluted notion—regarded as
Colin getting onstage for the live-performances, the laboratory sessions were open structured
and cooperative explorations of ideas. Typically, Colin arrived with some prompts to try 3 Alberto Bachmann, An Encyclopedia of the Violin (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1925).
4 The Italian War of 1536–38 saw King Francis I of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain fighting
out, from which experimentation and problem solving commenced. The prompts were
over Northern Italian territories, the Duchy of Milan being the most fought over. The hatred between the two monarchs
vague enough that improvisation, dialogue, and experimentation could happen fluidly and was so stark that they refused to sit in one room and talk to one another, forcing Pope Paul III (in power from 1534–39)
to assume the role of a mediator in the Truce of Nice, which was signed on June 18, 1538. The papal records show that in
reflexively. This flexible approach allowed for the non-human objects and technologies to
order to appease the kings he brought with him violinists from Milan, trombonists from Bologna, and trumpet, drum, and
have agency. The physical materials and electronic media thus factored into the development bombard players from Genoa. David Dodge Boyden, History of Violin Playing from Its Origins to 1761: And Its Relationship to
and creative collaborative making of this piece. the Violin and Violin Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965), 26; Wikipedia, “Italian War of 1536–38”, last modified
August 3, 202, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_War_of_1536–1538.
5 Les Vingt-Quatre Violons du Roi was the first permanent five-part string orchestra, established at the court of Louis
XIII in 1626. Gaining international fame during Louis XIII’s reign, the orchestra grew in size, quality, as well as courtly
and political importance under Louis XIV’s rule, particularly with the employment of Jean Baptiste Lully as the court’s
primary composer. Louis XIV’s affinity and generous support for the arts, and passion for ballet and opera performances,
gave stable employment to a large number of musicians. Ultimately, his artistic investments were done to demonstrate
and display his own wealth and magnificence. Manfred F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era: From Monteverdi to Bach
(London: J.M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1948).
2 Jennifer Torrence, ‘Rethinking the Performer: Towards a Devising Performance Practice’, Nordic Journal for Artistic 6 Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, 52-4, 219-35.
Research, no. 0 (9 April 2018), https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/391025/391476/25/26. 7 Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, 219-35.

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shallow, excessive and ego-maniacal by theorists, music critics and certain composers, while modern violin, as designed to be held and played under a person’s neck, is ripe with potential sounds,
appreciated and perhaps desired by audiences, to whom it provides transgressive qualities actions, and artistic creativity when it is dislodged from this presupposed embodied technique.
similar to sports fandom—virtuosity has underpinned violin playing. Virtuosity’s controversy As such, we were keen to explore what corporeal activities could arise when the performers
seems to be centred around a fascination with both the possibilities of the human body, as moved differently with their instruments, and how these gestures could in fact become
well as with the need to control and police its actions’ aesthetic and social appropriateness. musical material in the creation of the piece. With this reorientation of the violin physically
In the 20th century the growing gap between composition and performance saw virtuosity came an alternative focusing on the instrument’s use. The violin departed from being an
mediated by a score and rearticulated as a type of power play and imposition on the instrument to be controlled, to instead be an instrument that influenced the performer’s
performer’s body.8 The virtuoso body served the composition, accepting the subjugation of bodies. Sound production, as the standard purpose of a violin’s use, frequently became
its singularity and expansion of possibilities to an external force of a composer. But the body subordinate to visual movement.
is central to any music performance. Behind every development in an instrument’s design
During this process of deconstructing standardized violin performance practice we
and every virtuosic technical challenge written down in a score stands a human exploration
investigated how the instrument could be interfered with by more than just a solo player.
of untrodden paths and a push for more. The ever growing and stretching practice of sound,
The idea of multiple performers on the same instrument is not a foreign one. Multiple players
challenging performers’ identity, skillset, and education, brought performance to a junction,
on a piano even in more standard western classical music is common to the point of being a
where everything can become an instrument. Virtuosity and experimentation need further
sub-genre. For example, Eleana Rykova’s 100% Mind Uploading (2015) sees three performers
negotiating.
playing on the inside of a grand piano. MoNo Guitar duo often includes four hand playing,
The understanding of virtuosity has evolved in line with the developments in and the band Walk off the Earth in 2012 released a video cover of Gotye’s Somebody that
contemporary experimental practices. The transdisciplinary approaches to artistic practices I used to Know, wherein all five band members played one guitar. Multiple players on
and progressively prominent use of technologies presented a growing need for expansion bowed stringed instruments is perhaps less represented, although not unexplored. In the
of skills and knowledge9 and ultimately—a new understanding of virtuosity. For the documentary “The Trout, Music Film” from 1969, Zubin Mehta approaches Itzhak Perlman
contemporary experimental artist mastering the violin is no longer enough—rather, it is about and says “Let’s make our Mendelssohn” shortly before they start playing the piece. Perlman
feeling at home in approaching one’s own body, the surrounding objects, the technology, and executes actions of the left hand, while Mehta provides the actions of the bow, the right hand.
the performance space with equal seriousness, curiosity and dedication to find expressive This was done as a fun activity between colleagues, away from audiences’ eyes and ears,
potential and meaning—something that we attempted in Imitate Elegance Expertly. only becoming available for a viewer as a backstage anecdote in a documentary. A public
two person performance on a single violin occurs in Kate Soper’s Cipher (2011) for soprano
and violin. In approximately the middle of the piece the singer approaches the violinist with
Bodies as instruments and instruments as bodies a seemingly casual interaction of fixing the mute on the bridge. As the singer remains close
to the violinist, their adjusted position and pose suggesting that more interaction will occur,
From the outset, the Mixed Currents project focused on researching new perspectives text from Freud’s “The Interpretation of Dreams” is spoken by the singer: “The dream is not
for violin performance practice. We wanted the project to be explorative, collaborative, and comparable to the irregular sound of a musical instrument, which, instead of being played by
question hierarchical interrelationships. We chose to explore the violins and violin practice the hand of a musician, is struck by some external force.”11 Before going into the end of this
through the physicality of performative acts. Prompts, ideas, and flexible notations were
evidence of the specific violin hold, the indication that it is supported on the arm is less likely to be related to the modern
presented at the outset of work sessions, to then be tested and experimented with physically.
violin hold. In the long period that followed examples from treaties, texts, and method books on violin playing suggested
This embodied situatedness coalesced with improvisation, noisey soundworlds, and human different violin hold and placement. What can be understood from these writings is the shift from “chin-off” to “chin-on”
bodies alongside non-human objects in space. Considering the violins not as instruments violin hold, though always with alterations depending on the author’s views and stands. In the 1600’s Prinner was the
only example that strongly advocated for only chin-on hold, while somewhat later Playford and Unterricht suggested
for executing prescribed directions but rather as entities existing physically allowed us to “breast a little below the shoulder”. Although by the end of the 18th century the “chin-on” violin hold became favoured,
reconsider how the human body interacts with the instrument. Although throughout its long there continued to be still discussions on how and where the chin should be placed. Richard Gwilt gives a comprehensive
starting overview concerning the “chin-off—chin-on” transition in his essays “Holding the Violin, Part I” and “Holding
history the violin has been held and played in various positions relative to the body,10 the the Violin, Part II” (http://www.baroque-violin.info/essays.html). As a response to increasing technical demands that
needed a freer left hand, in the early 19th century (around 1820) Louis Spohr designed the first chin rest to accommodate
8 Paul Craenen, Composing under the Skin: The Music-Making Body at the Composer’s Desk (Leuven University Press, 2014), a better, more comfortable violin hold, that allows the left hand to be more independent and mobile. There is no exact
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt13x0ms5. evidence and records of the invention of the shoulder rest. The first mention of shoulder rest appears in Carl Flesch’s “The
9 Sebastian Berweck, It Worked Yesterday (PhD thesis, Huddersfield, University of Huddersfield, 2012), 3. Art of Violin Playing” in its revised edition from 1930. A story told among some musicians suggests that the violinist
10 Jambe de Fer in his Epitome Musciale from 1556 gives one of the earliest descriptions (in the period when the violin got Rudolf Kolisch, the leader of Kolisch Quartet and the Pro Arte Quartet, may have designed the first shoulder rest after
distinguished from the Viol): “The Italians call it the violon da braccia, or violone because it is supported on the arm, some being wounded in WWI. This shifting trajectory of placement and violin hold can be further supported with iconographic
use scarfs, cords, or other things” [Philbert Jame de Fer, Epitome musical des tons, sons et accordz, es voix humaines, fleustes evidence from respected periods.
d’Alleman, fleustes à neuf trous, violes, & violons (Lyon: Michel du Bois, 1556), 62-63]. Although this is hardly conclusive 11 Kate Soper, Cipher (New York: PSNY, 2011), 11.

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longer interactive passage12 and its energetic explosion in both sounding and gesture between became increasingly apparent. Furthermore, their presence influenced the perception of
the two performers and the instrument, the question is spoken “Are there then dreams other gesture and action not in the sense of what violinists/performers can do to the violin, but
than wish-dreams or are there not but wish-dreams?” Suggestive of “external force” in text what happens to gesture and movement when the instrument, and not the body of the
and action at the beginning of the passage, this moment is perhaps a return to the deeply performer, ignites action.
embedded continuous questioning of the relation between instrument and musician.
It would be impossible, however, to imagine that actions and interactions between two
In Pas de Deux (2014/2015) for violinist and performer, Tyler Futrell also explores entities, let alone six, would result in no sound produced. Even a deliberate avoidance of any
actions and movements of the violinist. In the opening four bars of the piece, the performer’s sound would create a context in which the sounds around the instrument could be perceived
first action is to move the violinist’s left hand, which is holding the violin, from its resting as the sounding response of the instrument. The actions explored in Imitate Elegance Expertly
position beside the body into a playing position (holding the violin on the left shoulder). The were, likewise, two-fold: on one plane it was about the movement, but then there was still the
performer proceeds to move the violin performer’s head into this habitual position, slightly second plane—the sound.
tilted and resting on the chin rest. The next actions of the performer are to release and then
The alternative practices with the violins were in three possible combinations of bodies
reposition the left hand, followed by the exploration of the fingers and their movement.
with their instruments: solo, duo, and trio. Although different quantities of violins relative
Upon this action, the performer then engages the right hand and the bow. From here on,
to performers were used during rehearsals, the violinists remained holding their violins and
although the interacting performer who moves and alters the violin playing performer greatly
bows throughout the final performance. A performer relinquishing their violin was decided
influences the sounding outcome, the exploration and movements are those more commonly
against because it would require extra movement to do so, would jeopardize the violin’s
used in violin playing. All gestural aspects of the piece are directed to trigger sound out of
safety (especially when in unfamiliar spaces and without excessive planning), and, frankly,
the violin, or rather sound out of the body of the instrument. This latter aspect is perhaps
did not seem a necessary artistic choice.
a more important understanding of the role of the violin, as through-out the piece it is as
if the non-violin playing performer is learning how to become the body of the violin, and One solo activity which differed significantly from the standard way of positioning the
finally in the last section of the piece, takes the violin’s place. The violin playing performer violin was used in performance. This was done by Dejana only and can be seen in the
continues their actions, but instead of bowing the violin, bows the other performer’s body. following rehearsal video 1. It can furthermore be described as follows:
The manner of playing this new corporeal instrument is legno tratto,13 that, although not
uncommon for violin music written from the mid-20th century, suggests in this situation care
for the instrument itself.14 Samuel Cedillo, in his piece Estudios de Contrapunto 1 (2015/16), in
the last part of the piece introduces a second performer, who joins the main performer with
additional bows to play on the same instrument.

Although these examples present multiple players on a single violin, it is an

instrument predominantly played by a single performer. The departing idea for Imitate
Elegance Expertly was not to create a piece for any three performers, but a piece for three
violinists. Yet what developed through our laboratory session and collaborative practice,
between four performers and four instruments/objects while wondering how multiple
performers may play the same instrument, was a gesture-based theatre-charged music piece.
Our inquiry directed us to explore bodies and their relation to the violin in ways that would
enable us to use the messy entanglements of bodies with objects to create a trio-performer,
navigating closer to contact improvisation practices than to musical performance. The
Video 1: Rehearsal excerpt containing Dejana spinning her bow, standing to the right side of the room.
performance practice we were exploring included complex physical negotiations, wherein
the violins as delicate and small personal belongings and the bows as light and long sticks • Holding the violin by its neck. The arm folded in the elbow to the performer’s left side
with the hand holding the violin in the mid-chest area, parallel to the ground. The other
12 A second much shorter passage, where the singer retunes the violin, happens a little after the third quarter of the piece. hand holds the bow, and the entire arm swings in larger circular motions in front of
13 A horizontal bowing with the right hand, but instead of using the hair of the bow, the bow is rotated 180 degrees such
that only the wood of the bow is used. the performer’s body. Interspersed throughout this motion, the bow comes into contact
14 The contact of the hair of the bow with the skin can have damaging consequences on the hair. The natural grease of the with the violin’s strings, at which point the performer rapidly and robotically bows the
skin is not a suitable substance, as its transfer to the bow-hair makes it oily. Thus, the bow-hair is less likely to grip and
create friction when in contact with the string, resulting in poorer control for sound production.
instrument. Although the off-instrument circular motion was always done with the full

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circle ratio, its speed spanned between slow to very fast. This action alone demanded • Standing back to back with arms outstretched, and one’s
adjustment of movement (which will be mentioned later in the text), but in combination violin grasped by its neck. This time the grip cannot
with the motions when in contact with the strings (which included additional horizontal change, so any stopping is fixed when the pose is initially
and lateral movements), the freeze-change action asked for further adjustments to bow- arrived at. The strings are facing outward from one’s body
hold, wrist actions and thumb-rotation control. The off-instrument full arm circular and rotated slightly towards one’s back, such that the other
motion could be seen as an extended “circular bowing”15 technique. In one of the performer can place their bow onto its strings. The other
instances, when the cut from the circular arm movement to the instrument being bowed, hand, holding one’s own bow, is curved behind one’s body
the rapid change is to this exact bowing technique, giving an expected sound result. to contact the other performer’s bow. Since it is difficult to
see the other performer’s violin, much of the interest in performing this movement is the
The duo activities were performed by Linda and Irine. This duo arose because Dejana
negotiation of coming into contact with the other’s bow and violin. The playing motion of
was not able to attend a rehearsal, so we decided to try out duos rather than trios. This
this awkward pose has both movement of one’s bow and one’s violin.
practical situation resultantly impacted the piece directly, as a section of the piece divided the
ensemble into Linda and Irine performing these duos while Dejana played solo.16 Video of the • Standing and facing one another holding one’s
duos as removed from the entire piece can be watched in video 2 below. Additionally, these violin to the other performer’s neck. Fingers
actions can be described as follows. remain on the violin’s neck and are free to stop
down on the strings. With one’s other hand
holding the bow, play upon the other performer’s
violin that is held to one’s own neck. A joint
instrument is formed whereby one is only
in partial control of their own instrument and the other’s instrument, creating many
possibilities for duo communication through improvisation.

• Standing facing each other and holding one’s violin close

to one’s own body such that its strings face the other
performer. With one’s bow spun such that the hairs face
away from one’s body, bow the other performer’s violin on
its strings.

Video 2: Linda and Irine perform a sequence through the duo positions. This footage was Finally, the single trio activity done
made during the first time these were being experimented with in the performance was what we refer to as
‘dancing’. This consisted of the performers
• Standing turned face to face, holding one’s own violin by the standing in a triangular shape facing
neck. The thumb is on the fingerboard and is able to minimally inward with each performer moving their
move and change pressure. The instrument faces towards one’s violins and bows around their body. Each
body, outstretched to touch the back of the other performer’s performer could contact another performer’s
violin. One’s bow is wrapped around the other performer’s instrument with their bow, typically to
violin to play the strings of their instrument. produce quiet and brief sounds.

15 Even, uninterrupted lateral motions of the bow along the strings resulting in circular bowing, with possible wide sound
timbre ranging from flautando to (various) over-pressured sound.
16 See from 14’50” onwards of the video of the Antwerp performance.

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These varied ways of using the violin outside of its ordinary function allowed for Flexibility, Openness, and Getting Together to Collaborate
the instrument to act as an agent. Rather than just being a tool for the performer to control,
through the instrument’s (mis)use it fed back to the performers in ways not possible when
In collaborative work we learn from each other by teaching what we know; we engage in
held at a performer’s neck. When the instrument was held airborne, without the support
mutual appropriation.17
of a performer’s shoulder to take pressure, its lightweight nature meant it could easily
be pushed when a bow was rubbed against it. Achieving loud dynamics would require A curiosity to explore collaboration as a creative approach was at the heart of
significant reciprocal force from another player. Resultantly, dynamics often remained quiet, developing this piece. Collaboration is something we hear often about—it is a fashionable
and negotiations of pressure factored into the duo and trio actions. Furthermore, without word that promises to secure arts funding applications with a morally appropriate, politically
the instruments secured under a performer’s chin the violins required firm grasping. This correct and a democratic, non-hierarchical swing to it.18 It is also one of the most intimate
differs substantially from the ordinary use of the instrument; when held under the chin a relationships that can be developed and experienced in a creative practice: a continuous
performer’s fingers can move freely over a violin’s fingerboard. Typically the violins were dialogue that takes unexpected forms and that would never occur in solitary. It is a dynamic
grasped by their necks, resulting in set block chord quadruple stops. These could sound fully, and a fruitful exchange of ideas, perspectives and opinions, an immense challenge to one’s
be dampened, or occasionally receive half-pressure, as long as the security of the instrument ego and a patient service to the common cause. The mythology of collaborative processes19
was not compromised by this action. This resulted in unpredictable chord content, and is closely intertwined with the history of Western Classical Music and wider discourses of
prolonged, static, and atonal harmonies. In some poses, fingers could be wiggled slightly or performance and composition practices. Most recently, collaboration as a discursive object
even raised, but with the requirement to hold the instrument the performer was faced with has received a vivid interest from the research community20 which shows that although there
minimised fingerboard mobility. are some general similarities that most collaborative practices share, each and every one of
those relationships is solely unique and operates in an idiosyncratic way.
The bow became particularly noticeable as a lengthy implement. In ordinary violin
playing the bow occasionally causes problems due to its length, notably in small rooms or Collaboration and experimental processuality of compositional undertaking has
when a low hanging overhead microphone is in place. During its use in our non-standard been practiced throughout the history of Western instrumental music, which in modernist
violin playing, the bow required lots of attention in its navigation. During Dejana’s solo literature lead to the creation of pieces such as Bela Bartok’s Sonata for Solo Violin (1944,
action, for example, the bow would easily whack the floor when spun in a circle. This factor written in collaboration with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin), Luigi Nono’s La Lontananza
required Dejana change the shape of her motion, creating an outwardly turned angular Nostalgica Utopica Futura (1988, with Gidon Kremer), or Hilda Paredes’ Señales (2012, with
contour when at the lower points of her arm’s circling. During the duos and trios, especially Irvine Arditti). Collaborations between composers and performers to a large degree have
when moving between positions, the bow’s length encouraged it to be thread amidst shaped the history of Western music and recently became a topic for eager attention and
appendages. Its length meant it could easily run into or jab another body or object, so the conversation within contemporary cross-disciplinary experimental communities.21
performers had to attentively manoeuvre it.
Some recent alternative collaborative methods are being attempted within the New
Through our breaking with standard modes of using violins, the instruments’ fragility, Discipline practice.22 With technologies easily and cheaply available, boundaries between
lightness, and small shape influenced bodily actions and sounds. The bows length became ‘low’ and ‘high’ art seemingly non-existent, performers’ bodies integral and visible on stage,
more apparent, requiring precise movements as to not unintentionally hit things. Mentioned and the spectacle as pervasive element to live performance, the creative process has potential
examples speak to the air of altered relationship in regard to gesture and action and reaction to include numerous traditions, activities, and knowledge. To deal with such excess and
with our instruments and bodies—and a shift of perception of who is the object and who
the “manipulating entity”. For the violin trained performers, the arrival point of exploration 17 Vera John-Steiner, Creative Collaboration (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 3.
was as if there had been an exchange of roles, and that the instruments, the “objects”, began 18 Juliet Fraser “The Voice that calls the hand to write” (Lecture, Collaborations are More Refreshing than New Socks, Royal
Conservatoire of Antwerp, December 2019).
assuming roles of active live performers. As such, the violin acted as a contributing agent in 19 Zubin Kanga, ‘Inside the collaborative Process: realising New works for Solo Piano’, (PhD thesis, London, Royal
the making of performance. Its physical and material qualities influenced the performers to Academy of Music, 2014), 15.
20 Elizabeth Dobson and Karen Littleton, ‘Digital Technologies and the Mediation of Undergraduate Students’ Collaborative
actions they otherwise would not have taken. Through treatment in non-standardized ways—
Music Compositional Practices’, Learning, Media and Technology 41, no. 2 (2 April 2016): 330–50, https://doi.org/10.1080/
beyond intended functionality—alternative becomings-with emerged. 17439884.2015.1047850; Alan Taylor, ‘“Collaboration” in Contemporary Music: A Theoretical View’, Contemporary Music
Review 35, no. 6 (November 2016): 562–78, https://doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2016.1288316; Heather Roche, ‘Dialogue
and Collaboration in the Creation of New Works for Clarinet’, (Doctoral thesis, Huddersfield, University of Huddersfield,
2011).
21 Kanga, ‘Inside the Collaborative Process’; Roche, ‘Dialogue and Collaboration’.
22 Jennifer Walshe, ‘The New Discipline’, Borealis Festival (blog), January 2016, http://www.borealisfestival.no/2016/the-
new-discipline-4/.

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superabundance,23 practitioners of the New Discipline get together, along with their materials, Direction A, as observable in figure 1, asked each violinist to be filmed separately staring
to make. Problem solving, learning, and trial and error are done when everyone is in the directly into the camera. The idea was that someone else would gradually pass the violin in
same rehearsal space. The ensemble Bastard Assignments, a group who can generally be front of their face, as if the violin were disassociated from its conventional playing position to
considered as New Discipline artists, provide a good example of this approach. As a quartet instead appear as if floating.
of composer-performers their sessions typically comprise of long afternoons gathered
Although Colin had tested
together, wherein they exchange directorial roles, test ideas, discuss, eat lunch, learn new
this movement beforehand on his
software, and so forth.24 Even though they create pieces that retain individual member’s
own, enough to create a rough video
authorship—whereby an individual takes on the role of director or auteur to create a specific
demonstrating the concept, when we
piece—their process is cumulative and situated in co-productivity. Furthermore, it relies little
all arrived into the rehearsal room
on speculation, an issue when preconceived notation is then executed. Ideas can be tested in
and started trying it out, unforeseen
laboratory sessions without much prior time spent. Thus things are less invested in, and can
aspects arose. These issues, and the
be discarded or changed without much emotional fatigue. In this sense, conceptual labour is
subsequent solutions to them, became
not overly precious, and how something may manifest in actuality is closer attained. Through
focal points for the aesthetic and artistic
direct contact with the materiality of performance, as done in togetherness with all members
focus during the session. One of the
of a collaboration, the creative process benefits.
most consequential realisations was
Such a collaborative process sounds appealing. In practice, though, it involves many that if a single assistant moved the
complex layers of interpersonal interaction, decision making, and organisational navigation. violin their hands or other body parts
Concepts or ideas don’t always come, uncertainties arise, and navigating such a non- would involuntarily enter the camera’s
standardised method can take extra time and not always be productive. Our own project had frame. This was undesirable, as we
its share of these drawbacks, but ultimately the approach’s flexibility and situatedness opened wanted to create an effect that the violin
the possibility for us to explore with, learn from, and react to the violins and technologies was disembodied, floating on its own.
brought. The rehearsals were always flexible, and thus capable of allowing the unexpected To solve this, simply, two assistants
in. By letting go of ideas as a product of an individual achievement and viewing them as would stand on either side of the frame
the creative capital of the group we were able to bypass any major clashes of personalities and pass the violin to each other. This
and egos. The time between rehearsals was treated as an opportunity to reflect on and solution resultantly introduced an Figure 1: Prompts to try out for first rehearsal.

development material. As such, we easily accommodated the unknown, and were responsive unforeseen quality to the gesture; at the point when the violin exchanged from the hands of
to the material objects we experimented with. Maintaining a degree of openness meant the one assistant to the other a clear change in the violin’s motion would occur. This, we realized,
collaboration could unfold fluidly as the project progressed, and not be hampered by preset was an important detail worth focusing on, as it could be modified to provide interesting
conditions. variations. It was also the most crucial moment of interaction, as dropping the violin was not
desirable, and to avoid such, the two assistants needed to verbally communicate with one
One of the first sessions exemplifies how this flexible approach would unfold for much
another, as well as negotiate the pass through their tactile hold on the instrument. As such,
of the rest of the project. Colin had prepared a few prompts to try out, and all these were
how the violin passed hands gained major focus during this activity, even more so than the
to be video recorded (see fig. 1). Partly these tasks were for the purpose of collecting video
facial expression of the performer who was in frame. We experimented with speed of the
footage for future modification, but also they were to try techniques for possible inclusion
violin moving and how long the pass would last for, all while trying to avoid fingers entering
in the performance. From this initial session much of the material was kept, both in the
the frame. Furthermore, as we experimented with passing the violin across the frame in
projected video and in the performer’s motions. We will discuss how one specific prompt
different directions (left-right, right-left, top-down, bottom-up), gravity and how to hold the
was collaboratively explored and executed during this initial recording session, and how
violin further influenced its movement (see video 3).
the instruction’s openness allowed for responsiveness to the tools we were working with.
Thus, unexpected practicalities for performing this activity became incredibly
important for the aesthetic quality of executing the task. Since the prompt was quite vague
23 See Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Music after the Fall: Modern Composition and Culture since 1989 (Oakland, California:
University of California Press, 2017). from the outset, the material qualities of the violin and video camera highly impacted the act.
24 Colin visited a Bastard Assignments rehearsal in London during 2018 wherein he observed these activities. He also With our approach of getting together to try things out directly with the materials, we
worked with Timothy Cape, one of the ensemble’s members, in two other projects, and experienced first hand this fluid
approach to collaborating, where rehearsing mixes with hanging out with friends. situated ourselves within the actualities of forming this performance. Although the

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CeReNeM Journal issue 7 · Performing Stuff Collaboration as Contingent on Material Encounters

aforementioned example is but one from an initial session, many of the subsequent sessions synchronously (fig 2-3). They perform from the same indications, but, because these are quite
and activities followed a similar approach. As each of us was quite flexible and open to broad prompts that can be interpreted differently, each performer’s individual playing style
exploration, and initial prompts from Colin were not overly specific or constricting, the and artistic voice is emphasised. Because they are playing the same material simultaneously,
collaboration was a productive co-development and exchange of our individual artistic differences in approach are quite obvious. Furthermore, each player responds to one another.
voices. Of course, because the project consisted of multiple meetings spread across a year, we The notation intentionally allows each performer to improvise, and, as such, interpersonal
had long periods of time to reflect and plan between sessions. Ultimately, because we worked communication and the coordination of progression through the sections is founded
together in shared space, we could easily influence, combine, and co-develop our individual on attentiveness to one another. This emphasises the performers as laden with personal
artistic voices. In that collaborations equally shape identities as do instruments, especially identities, in an attempt to further combine the highly personal video footage with the
when an expanded artistic practice incorporates improvisation, composition, research, and performer’s live selves.
performance,25 we collaboratively expanded our personal artistries and performance
practices. A mutually beneficial, co-productive force thus emerged during our project.

35” Increasingly sparse

10 - 25” Delicate
° w

&
Repeat ad lib.

Linda
Agressive, Heavy Dramatic Col legno battuto Vary duration

O
Alternate rapidly & randomly between four fingers as glissandi upwards

OOO
Sul ponte. Double/trip stops. Overpressure. Any pitch Ric. sus.
Articulate lengthy strokes. Sim. (irregular) Ord.
Gliss resonance
Footage from initial recording session showing violins being passed in front of each performer. O w
OOO
(light pressure)

& ‰ ‰ ‰ & w


Dejana
&   &  
(sim.)


Tutti

    &

Irine
w

Alternate
Alternate

Individuality within Collective

Gradually add

Video ¢

 
As the collaboration was reliant on our individual interests, practices, and aesthetics, °
w Fragment glitching


Linda &
(ste (sh
p fo uffl

the piece gradually foregrounded each performer’s identity. The video recordings contained
e fo
D rw rw

U U
ard ard

U
s) )
Screen

L
I
faces of Irine, Linda and Dejana, meaning that these personalities and individualities became w Fragment glitching

&w SILENCE Walk off


Dejana + stage SILENCE SILENCE
FREEZE purposefully
important subjects to the final performance. No other performers could present this piece, as Fragment glitching

&
images of the performers were embedded in the piece’s materiality. Although, following the w
Irine


¢
Video solo


Video solo
Electronics cont. glitching

same instructions, the actions would inevitably be performed differently by each performer
Video

 

(see the walking scene), the given openness and flexibility of the instructions invited each
Figure 2-3: pages 5 and 6 of the score. Each box shows a type of activity that each
performer to interpret and approach movement in a way that reflected individuality. This violinist performs together.
unity of activity, variable per performer, formed an underpinning thread of this piece. -6-

Furthermore, within two sections wherein the performers walk angularly around
A central section of the piece highlights this well (see 10’08”–14’52” of Antwerp the stage (5’55–6’55 and 17’22”–18’00”) the same instruction is given to each performer.
performance). In this section all three performers move through the same instructions Because these sections involve full body motion, their individual physicality dominates.
Each performer’s approach to walking is highlighted. This is not to say that this section’s
25 Torrence, ‘Rethinking the Performer: Towards a Devising Performance Practice’.

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CeReNeM Journal issue 7 · Performing Stuff Collaboration as Contingent on Material Encounters

main focus is on each individual, separately moving performer, as they negotiate a shared overall form of the piece, tying firmly the structure and the two entities belonging exclusively
space and distance between one another. Often, indeed, there are moments of confrontation, to each other. In Imitate Elegance Expertly, the footage and all editing thereof appear as a
when someone suddenly changes their path, interfering with another’s course. Such an fixed medium in the final performance. The sound, although Colin triggered it on multiple
inter-relational dimension was more apparent in smaller performance spaces: with little occasions, was not live processed, therefore also represents a fixed entity. Considering the
space to manoeuvre everyone had to be more attentive in order to avoid bumping into each source for material used for both these fixities, the new area of interaction arose for our
other. Larger venues lessened this aspect to instead highlight each performer as their own work as a whole. At this point, a manifest presence of our virtual selves awarded the video
self, walking independently. The Antwerp Concervatoire’s Witte Zaal was the largest space as the integral fourth instrument and performer. As “fixed” as they were, they carried a re-
performed in, resulting in that performance separating out each performer as individual mouldable meaning. They allowed for the interactions that became a continuous conversation
the most. Such an effect on the piece was expected, and was simply another influence from between the virtual and real self—in both physical gesture and thought. We engaged and
material factors. The variety caused by the differing room sizes instilled new life into the explored these elements in depth during our rehearsals, to shape and decide how to move,
piece, giving vitality to the collaboration and artistic practice. In this sense, the variability and how and what kind of sound could be produced. The sound in the video was derived
designed into the piece, i.e. that each performer had liberty within unity, also allowed from recordings made during our laboratory sessions, mixing between improvised and fixed
for material contingencies to be impactful and influential during performance. Openness notated material. Elements of this then processed material further ‘demanded’ response from
relinquished any attempt at complete control, and, as such, the materials involved in the the real-life violins. Violins, but not necessarily the performer. Of course, it was us, the three
process and the individualities of each performer were given space to contribute. violinists, that would play. Still, in the overall meaning of the work, these moments were
more the conversation between the violin and the video, the two “objects’’, only facilitated
The decision making implemented in the creative process of the piece was intimately
through the human body, us as performers. In this respect, it would be difficult to imagine
connected with the use of audio and video technology. The choreography of the piece and
this piece without the video, as well as imagining this video as an independent work.
the hierarchy of our decision making developed in a close dialogue with the technology,
and in many aspects, was led by it. Therefore, we argue that the role of technology here is The piece developed through a close dialogue between the different media of
instrumental to our collaborative process—a statement that we will explore in the following expression: audio and video digital technology, theatrical movement, moving performers,
section. violin as an object and the surrounding space. The pre-recorded alter egos of the violinists
projected on the screen introduced an additional dimension to the physical presence of the
performers on stage. The graphic notation served as a map of the broadly choreographed
Recording Influence movements and was created in an intimate duo partnership with the projected virtual images,
which were primarily pre-recorded and developed further outside of the rehearsal space.
Another object, perhaps at first unassuming and the “fourth’’ instrument that became
a contributing agent for the performance, was the video. The presence of the video, and it
simultaneously being material, instrument, and performer, can easily result in highlighting
its potential as a stand-alone medium. As such, it evokes questions to which extent it is a
necessity, and how it can be utilized, integrated and merged into work to become an integral
element. In recent work by Miika Hyytiäinen, “Impossibilities of...” (2019/2020), for violin
and video, the video functions as a score but also as a co-performer and instrument—
defining the outcome of the piece and more importantly, in the context of an instrument-
Figure 4: from the 1st page of the score. Example of composed material at beginning of the piece.
object-performer relation, defining the human-performer’s actions and their shaping of the
resulting form of the piece, both visual and sounding. A similar example can be seen in
The interaction and influence of the recorded material were not used just as a fixed
Johannes Kreidler’s work “BOW” (2020) for violin, audio and video playback. Firstly the idea
form. Instead, it became a feedback loop in the development of the performance as a whole.
itself is driven by the capturing of the gestures of the player. However, the way of playing
This can be demonstrated through two specific sections. The very opening of the piece is an
the instrument underwent alterations for the material required for the video, as to achieve
audio-video recording, with particular framing and placements of the three violin performers,
the optimal motion-tracking results. Video as an “object” is influenced by the gestures of a
playing on their instruments composed musical material. The drone-like sound builds up
performer while also influencing the gestures of the performer (as well in the interpretation
from an initial double-stop, Bb3–A4 (see figure 4). The pulsation of sound in space becomes
of the live solo violin material), becoming through this process both an instrument on its
amplified by the spatial displacement of the performers in the video. It initiates the play
own and a co-performer. Finally, performer and video are equally decisive agents for the
of perceiving, perhaps at first more psychologically as it is two-channel audio. The sound

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CeReNeM Journal issue 7 · Performing Stuff Collaboration as Contingent on Material Encounters

material itself continues to build through non-synchronous changes of bowing speed and Conclusion
dynamics between the three players, followed with again non-synchronous glissandos, with
each line aiming for a different end note. This audio-video material is both very static, as the Imitate Elegance Expertly happened when we considered how human bodies and non-
three performers playing their instruments keep their initial positions, but also very vibrant human objects act primarily as agents instead of further enacting their sedimented roles.
through this sound build-up. As we watched in our working session this recording, now These agents happened to be violinists, violins and bows, but their mission and dynamic
visual and sound object, the exploration of interaction unveiled into further amplification of interaction was not concerned with the tradition from which they all stem. It is not to
and multiplication of spatialisation of space and experience. The positions of each of the say that tradition wasn’t lurking from every corner. It would be impossible not to consider
three violin players, the pace of walking, doubling our selves in sound, but again in a what this piece means or does at the level of its engagement with all kinds of points of
non-synchronous way—they all amounted to how this opening section would be staged, reference, like violinist stage presence or classical violin repertoire’s material density.
choreographed and performed. Furthermore, the video and audio of the recorded material However, toying with the idea of a stage persona that holds a violin, yet never really plays
in the moment of the performance also played a crucial role for cues. As we performed the it in a conventional way, producing scarce instrumental content alongside choreographed
piece in three different spaces26 the video became our ally, a performing partner that provided movements, allowed us to liberate ourselves for a moment from thinking like the violinists
a link between the three in-space performing bodies, perhaps most valuable in the moments we became. Walking the line of an experimental approach, we questioned what virtuosity
when we would not have any possibility for in-person eye contact. could be in 21st century performance, putting our bodies cautiously against a mirror of the
Romantic tropes of virtuosity as dexterity, speed, and bravura. We discovered, however, that
The second example comes from the section that continues from the walking part of
handling violins in a choreographic way poses difficulties that can not be disregarded amidst
the opening. As we continued to contemplate and develop the performance, understanding
other considerations. The economic and emotional value of the instrument for a performer,
deeper connections and possibilities of interaction with the pre-recorded material, in a later
its object value, is undeniable and needed to be approached as the middle ground between
laboratory session we found further possibilities to bring to the forefront and connect with
relaxing into it, and finding ways around our anxieties of breaking the instrument. In the
material that would appear much later in the piece.
end every human-object interaction can be reshaped, yet at least for us, it did come heavy
Once the three in-space live performers have reached the playing positions, the audio of with meaning that was at times hard to forget. Our collaborative approach allowed everyone
the recording begins to cut and break. The material that came from recordings of our violin to weave their specificity and identify into the fabric of the piece, and distributed creativity
playing of a division chord, one that appears in the multi-fragment dialogues which start allowed us to feel invested and connected to the project in ways that the strict interpretative
approximately at 10’11’’ in the piece (see figure 2, the chord in the green box), got its own process possibly cannot.
meaning in and with the video processing itself. But furthermore, this sound then became a
‘disruptor’ of individual improvising motives (figure 5) that each player was occupied with.
As each Linda, Irine and Dejana would briefly play at that moment a pre-selected double stop
from the mentioned chord, this disruption momentarily worked as a bonding agent, not only
between the in-space-live-bodies but also the performers, instruments and the video.

Figure 5: from the 3rd page of the score. Example of improvisational motives that were
to be played in response to the set audio/video track.

26 Performances took place on November 2nd, 2019 at Phipps, Huddersfield (UK), December 3rd, 2019 at DeSingel,
Antwerp (Belgium), and December 6th, 2019 at Q2, Brussels (Belgium).

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 The Tuning Fork in My Life

The Tuning Fork in My Life Let us start by defining what preconditions an object needs to be considered a musical
entity, a living object. I want to answer this question by introducing a three-phase revaluation
plan that the tuning fork will have to pass through to become musically meaningful.
Hakan Ulus The creation of an aesthetic surplus is a condition needed to step-by-step enhance an
Alles kommt auf die Perspektive an.1 object’s status towards that of an aesthetic object, allowing for it to then evoke an aesthetic
[Everything depends on the perspective] experience—i.e. its aestheticization. An aesthetic surplus arises when a new perspective
(Thomas Bernhard) is added to an object/subject/matter whose aesthetic value was not previously fathomed
sufficiently or was not even associated with. It is this process of aestheticization which is
investigated here.
The Aestheticization of the Object

Acoustic objects need people to breathe life into them. They are ascribed meaning and
require connotation. The initial purpose of their creation forms their material consistency. An
The Object as a Ding
object whose initial purpose is per se musical—such as instruments which historically grew Mit jedem Kunstwerke kommt Neues,
over hundreds of years, or newly invented instruments, for example, those of Harry Partch— ein Ding mehr in die Welt.3
is constructed such that its material consistency serves its initial purpose. For an object whose [With every work of art, one more thing
comes into the world.]
initial purpose is not inherently musical, particularly objects from everyday life, which are (Rainer Maria Rilke)
nowadays widely used by composers in percussion music writing, the issue becomes more
complex. In such cases, one has to move away from the object’s initial purpose, scrutinize it Heidegger’s terminology is predestined as a starting point. In his text Der Ursprung des
and strive for its redefinition: one may speak of misuse; however, this term seems problematic Kunstwerkes (1935/36, The Origin of the Work of Art)4 he proposes to call an object which is
as I will demonstrate later. By doing so, an artistic void opens up. The musical potentiality approached in a purely material way ‘Ding’ (thing). The ‘Dingsein’ (being of the Ding) also
of the object needs to be evaluated; this can be done substantially through compositional highlights its ontological aspect. It is an object that, at the first stage, is ultimately reduced to
practice. If the potential of an object proves to be rich, it enables a manifold creative approach: its physical properties, thus in a certain sense scientifically understood, no more and no less.
the resulting void gets artistically filled. But what an object ‘means’ is not clarified at this A highly complex process with interdependences between several sociological, art historical,
stage. The process of its aestheticization, which goes beyond a mere acoustical level of the aesthetic and philosophical aspects takes place until the thing is seen as a work of art. There
material, is required; the object’s aesthetic potential unfolds in a compositional context. It is in are principally two different areas in which a change can be made for the purpose of
this way how the content and substance (Gehalt)2 of an object can be fathomed. redefining the thing. The first one is related to the Ding itself—its property, consistency,
material, refinement and the craft put into it—the second to the perspective and perception of
The object I want to give meaning to is the tuning fork. After something catches the object through the viewer or the listener. For the latter, Lacanian psychoanalysis, or even
my attention, be it an instrument, a sound, or in this case an object, I understand it as my standard works of German idealism, like Arthur Schopenhauer’s Die Welt als Wille und
responsibility as a composer to explore an object’s inherent musical potential, to have a multi- Vorstellung (1851, The World as Will and Representation),5 can be given consideration. I focus on
perspective approach towards it, to give it aesthetic content and to recreate it. The tuning fork this aspect in the third phase. The mentioned first change in perspective regarding the object’s
became organically relevant to my music over the last eight years—particularly in my piano properties is more important at this juncture.
music, which will be the main focus here. This article gives insight into my artistic exploration
of tuning fork techniques inside the piano, and how I used them as musical material. It What is a tuning fork? What are its material implications? Grove Music Online defines
aims to trace this evolution with all challenges I went through while exploring this sound it as “a metal device (occasionally with resonator) for establishing pitch.”6 Thereby, it
world: with moments of desperation and epiphany. In a way, this article is supposed to be a addresses the material and utilitarian function of the fork at once. In distinction to other
declaration of love for the tuning fork. extramusical everyday objects, the tuning fork’s essence includes its connection to music. So,

3 Rainer Maria Rilke, Über Kunst, in: Schriften zur Literatur und Kunst, author’s translation (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2009), 29.
1 Thomas Bernhard, Monologe auf Mallorca, author’s translation, YouTube, accessed August 23, 2020, 07:40, https://www. 4 cf. Martin Heidegger, Der Ursprung des Kunstwerkes, in: Holzwege (Frankfurt: Klostermann, 2003).
youtube.com/watch?v=rHWhbMEFKG4. 5 cf. Arthur Schopenhauer, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (Munich: dtv Verlagsgesellschaft, 1998).
2 cf. Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Frank Cox, Wolfram Schurig, eds, Substance and Content in Music Today, in: New Music and 6 L. S. Lloyd, revised by Murray Campbell, “tuning fork,” in Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, accessed August
Aesthetics in the 21st Century Volume 9 (Hofheim: Wolke, 2014). 23, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.28579.

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its initial purpose7 is already one that links to the field of music, even though it is not typically instruments lead to a multiplicity of the potential of the initial object. It is the space between
used as a musical instrument. As an auxiliary tool, invented by trumpeter John Shore in 1711, limitation on the one hand and multiplicity on the other that interests me artistically. The
its primary function is to establish pitch for tuning purposes and to serve as a point of constraint forces me to get everything out of the tuning fork: to focus on the smallest
reference of finding the right pitch for singers. Its form is characteristic: “a metal object with fluctuations in sound, to enrich it with energy, and to push that energy to its extreme so that it
two long, thin parts, joined to a short handle, that, when hit gently, produces a particular may lead to an ‘implosion’ of the material (i.e. its energy is directed inwards and leads to a
note.”8 feedback, whereby the musical energy collapses; this resembles the comprehension of
material in musique saturée, a style highly shaped by composer Raphaël Cendo).

The essential physical feature that I expect a tuning fork to have is a ball at its bottom
and a length of 10,5 cm—this is for technical reasons to which I will respond to in phase two.
For this reason, it has proven successful to use tuning forks of the German company Wittner.11
In its original condition, principally, three ways of sound production exist at which all have
the same starting-point, namely, the striking of the fork:

1. Holding it “in the air its sound is faint and, for a short time, at least one high partial tone is
clearly heard”;12

2. Holding it with the bottom on a resonator (depending on the property of the material
it may sound stronger or weaker) it sounds a very clear pitch with little overtone
component;
Figure 1: tuning fork, 440 Hz, 10,5 cm, Wittner.
3. Holding it on the head, the vibration penetrates the human body and lets ring the
The consistency of the metal, flexibility and handiness makes it particularly
frequency.
advantageous for musical practice, since it is “hardly affected […] by changes of temperature,
[…] it retains its pitch permanently, […] it is of convenient size and […] its pitch can be All three types are common and produce the sound which one would expect from a tuning
adjusted by careful filing.”9 It is this convenience that its initial purpose generates. Thus, fork. But what can be done to break with expectations and to open up a new creative space?13
dissociating oneself from that purpose seems inconvenient at first glance. Nonetheless, this This opens out organically into the second phase of this line of thought.
readiness to assume a risk enables artistic insights.

Tuning forks can be produced theoretically in all frequencies.10 However, some Composing the Tuning Fork
standard frequencies according to musical practice were established, e.g. a4 = 415Hz for
European Baroque Music in the period of 1650­–1750. For my approach, I do not make changes Die Phantasie ist immer schaffend.14
to the tuning fork’s physical properties. I take it as it is, in its being. My approach is rather one [The imagination is always constructive.]
of limitation, combination and contextualization. To date, I have used only four tuning fork (G. W. F. Hegel)
frequencies in my music (415Hz, 435Hz, 440Hz, 466Hz). These are combined with the inside
of a grand piano, which is understood as an expansion of the tuning fork: auxiliary objects or
In a second step, the object is raised into a higher dimension through validation of
its musical potential. The most apparent to do so is putting its pure sound into a musical
7 The determination of the initial purpose of a thing lies in the intention of its production by the producing subject. The context, e.g. holding it on the bridge of a string instrument which functions as a resonator,
moment of its creation opens an aesthetic vacuum—a void—whose potential does not have to be fully revealed at the
beginning of its existence. It is a ‘shrouded’ potential that turns out differently depending on the object; it has limits and as in Marc Andre’s piece üg (2008) for ensemble and electronics. It becomes musical material
is always tied to the level of creativity of the composer. Recognizing the potential of an object requires a multi-perspective
consideration, which must be dialectical in order to be fruitful.
8 Tuning fork, Cambridge Dictionary, accessed August 23, 2020, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/de/worterbuch/ 11 cf. Wittner, accessed August 24, 2020, https://wittner-gmbh.de/wittner_stimmgabeln.html.
englisch/tuning-fork. 12 See annotation 6, tuning fork, Grove Music Online.
9 See annotation 6, tuning fork, Grove Music Online. 13 Alberto Posadas demonstrated in a lecture titled From exogenous models of composition to the instrument as a model himself
10 Tuning forks are produced with a high level of accuracy and precision and a tolerance of only 0.01 Hz. cf. Die Thätigkeit how one can view everyday objects from a new perspective and explore their musical potential. Youtube, accessed
der Physikalisch-Technischen Reichsanstalt bis Ende 1890, in: Zeitschrift für Instrumentenkunde 163, XI. Jahrgang, (January 1891), October 22, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnswq4LlZLU.
https://archive.org/details/zeitschriftfrin11gergoog/page/n14/mode/1up?q=Stimmtonkonferenz. 14 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Ästhetik I/II, author’s translation (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2008), 394.

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whose acoustic variability is per se limited due to its aforementioned properties. Integration from which it arises and as a product of it for other things, for the view and perception
and contextualization in a compositional context ascribe meaning and bindingness. Canadian of the audience. This activity is the artist’s imagination.]
composer Nicolas Bernier goes a step further in his sound installation series titled frequencies By combining two objects whose initial purposes are not musical, in this case a tuning fork
(a). In each installation, he focuses on different aspects of the tuning fork’s sound properties. and a metal ruler (in my case a 40 cm metal ruler of the company Staedler), new possibilities
Frequencies (a/continuum), for instance, prolongs the sound of the tuning fork electronically. arise. There must be a physical interface between the two so that they can constructively come
In frequencies (a/friction) beating is the main compositional idea: a solenoid strikes a 480 Hz in contact with each other.
tuning fork whilst an oscillator which is connected to a loudspeaker produces a stable 476 Hz
frequency. Bernier puts the tuning fork in the context of a sound experiment.

The initial purpose of the tuning fork is therefore removed. When moving away from
the initial purpose, one speaks of misuse. It is important to interpret this term adequately.
Misuse in the sense of shifting the focus to the negation of the term is not expedient, as it
implies a pejorative connotation and thus loses its neutrality. If the alienation is grasped
constructively as an opening space, it is artistically productive and enables a multi-
perspective approach. Putting the tuning fork in the context of misuse means two things:
1. it is not used anymore as an auxiliary item for tuning, i.e. pitch orientation for singers; 2. it Figure 2: tuning fork and metal ruler.

breaks with expectations, i.e. it does not only produce the one sound we are accustomed to The physical movements can be defined in detail by taking the direction of the
but a wide spectra of sounds. Consequently, its utilitarian function is questioned; the object movement (vertical or horizontal) and the angle at the interface into account. The following
is transcended and the foundation for a hybrid material laid. The tuning fork can gradually two sounds are characteristic:
be removed from its pure sound by variation through physical movement,15 distortion and
interpolation. If, after it has been struck, the bottom comes in contact with an elastic material 1. A timbral glissando which occurs when the ball of the tuning fork slides slowly alongside
such as a membrane of a percussion instrument (e.g. a bass drum), it produces vibratos the delimited middle part, whereby the tuning fork can be damped or struck to sound. In
of varying speeds by moving it up and down while maintaining continuous contact with the former, the tuning fork functions as an activator; in the latter, sliding alongside the
the membrane. The point of contact with the membrane, the strength of striking, as well ruler adds a timbral shade to the tuning fork’s pure sound.
as the angle of the tuning fork are essential to the intensity and dynamic of the sound. The
tuning fork becomes embodied by coming in contact with the human hand and using the
bass drum’s corpus as a resonator to unfold its whole sound potential. The vibrato through
movement can be further musicalized and varied, e.g. the rhythm of the vibrato can be
composed, and the action combined with other tuning forks of various frequencies to produce
interferences. A complex multi-dimensional sound with different layers and a virtual relief
structure results from this approach. Many other constellations are possible. Hegel’s maxim
about the imagination of an artist is relevant here:
Figure 3: tuning fork vertically on metal ruler; sliding alongside.
Indem nun aber das Kunstwerk aus dem Geiste entspringt, so bedarf es
einer produzierenden subjektiven Tätigkeit, aus welcher es hervorgeht und 2. The same movement with a simultaneous tremolo, i.e. the tuning fork moves from left to
als Produkt derselben für anderes, für die Anschauung und die Empfindung
right hitting the delimiting grooves while sliding on the metal ruler.
des Publikums ist. Diese Tätigkeit ist die Phantasie des Künstlers.16

[Since the work of art arises out of the spirit, it requires a producing, subjective activity

15 An excellent example of this is the percussion music of Pierluigi Billone. In a yet unpublished paper titled Arising Acts,
Billone shows how vital the hand and its physical movements are for his percussion music writing.
16 Hegel, Ästhetik I/II, author’s translation, 393.

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approach to tuning fork sounds that are used as musical material. My artistic engagement
with tuning fork sounds found its first culmination in my quasi piano concerto, Tawāf (2016),19
for amplified piano, large ensemble and electronics, which in turn was the initial piece for a
large set of polywork-cycles (the Alaq-Cycle, the Tawāf-Cycle, the Shrouded-Cloaked-Cycle, and
the Bernhard-Cycle) as well as for the polywork-piece Hajj (2017–2020). I discovered plenty of
possible sounds, and the potential is still not exhausted. Due to this abundance, I will only
focus on three sound categories.20 The first two include two tuning forks with one of them
fixed with the ball at its bottom between the strings; the relevant strings are damped with
gum so that the string does not sound by itself at any time.
Figure 4: tuning fork vertically on metal ruler, sliding
alongside with tremolo.

However, it is the synthesis of a sophisticated, historically evolved instrument with an One of the most striking sounds is the bell-like sound which comes into being when
object whose purpose does not lie in functioning as a musical instrument that I am interested the fixed tuning fork is hit at the top by another tuning fork. Depending on the position of the
in. In my case, this is the combination of the tuning fork with the piano. There is an fixed tuning fork (partial) the pitch and timbre changes. The hammer of the key activates the
abundance of compositions, the relevant piano repertoire, particularly after World War II, string and at the same time brings the tuning fork to vibrate. The combination brings a highly
which experiment and explore the sound produced inside the grand piano. Nevertheless, complex sound into being. It can sound harsh (closer to the bridge) or mellow (closer to the
preparations and sound production with tuning forks are quasi non-existent. This void in damper) with many shades in between. The shorter the string, the higher and sharper the
exploration was one of the main artistic stimuli for combining the fork with the piano—it sound. By arranging more than one tuning fork in a row, the sound can be multiplied. My
fascinated me from the very beginning. A preparation inside the piano can look like this: most recent piano piece Alaq III21 starts with such a sound (four tuning forks fixed on A3, Bb3,
B3, and C4):

Figure 6: tuning fork on tuning fork. Figure 7: Alaq III for piano, m. 1, self-published.

This sound is considered an Impulsklang according to Lachenmann’s description of

sound categories,22 i.e. a sound that, after an impulse, fades away by itself without the
performer having control of it anymore; thus it is close to the very nature of the piano sound.
Figure 5: tuning fork preparation for Alaq I (2015).
However, great pianists like András Schiff or Daniil Trifonov can evoke the impression of
vibrato on the piano. This requires mastery of the instrument. The same applies to the tuning
I used tuning fork techniques inside the piano in my piece A.Q.A.R. (2014)17 for
ensemble and tape; however, Alaq I (2015) for piano solo—which is the first piece of my 19 cf. Samuel Solis Serrano, Musical analysis of Hakan Ulus’s Tawāf through its relation to al Qur’ān recitation, master’s thesis
(Berlin: University of the Arts, 2019). Recording of the premiere: Hakan Ulus, youtube, accessed August 23, 2020, https://
Alaq-Cycle (2015–2020)18—employs for the first time a more advanced, varied and focused www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEOsw6J146Q.
20 A more detailed categorization of the tuning fork sounds in Tawāf can also be found in Samuel Solis Serrano’s thesis.
Serrano, Musical analysis of Hakan Ulus’s Tawāf.
17 Recording of the premiere, Hakan Ulus, A.Q.A.R., YouTube, accessed August 23, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/ 21 Recording, Hakan Ulus, Alaq III, SoundCloud accessed October 7, 2020, https://soundcloud.com/hakan-ulus-1/alaq-iii.
watch?v=V8b2BZvu6uE. 22 cf. Helmut Lachenmann, Klangtypen der Neuen Musik, in: Musik als existentielle Erfahrung, Schriften 1966-1995 (Wiesbaden:
18 Recording, Hakan Ulus, SoundCloud, accessed October 7, 2020, https://soundcloud.com/hakan-ulus-1/alaq-zyklus. Breitkopf & Härtel 1996), 1-20.

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fork’s bell sound. As a variant of this sound, damping the fixed tuning fork creates a dry, motion which creates different nuances of sound. The notation of the example above (figure
percussive sound. 10) defines the positions top-middle-bottom on the fork and illustrates the transitions between
them graphically. The sound at the top is much sharper and more metallic, whereas the sound
This sound can also be combined with an ‘ordinario’ sound played on the same note: at the bottom is softer and more resonant. Moving between these positions creates subtle
fluctuations in timbre. To perform this accurately is challenging, however, it is this tactile
focus on the tuning fork that generates dense musical energy.

Moving the fixed tuning fork at the same time creates another layer of glissandos.
Similar to the previous example, the combination of two physical movements results in a
more complex sound. By composing several layers of individual physical actions, a genuine
polyphonic process is created.

The third example involves the hand. The hand’s palm, as well as the nail, strikes
against the fixed tuning fork:
Figure 8: Alaq III, mm. 14+15, self-published.

Here, the articulation is essential: playing staccato creates the feeling of activation of the more
prolonged sounding tuning fork strike. The sounds blend very well. If one puts the two
sound sources in a polyrhythmic relationship, the characteristic peculiarities of each can be
perceived more consciously. This combination allows to compose much more amorphous
sounds than the pure bell sound.

The second sound is close to the tremolo-glissando sound of the tuning fork and ruler
combination. By holding the unfixed fork at a 90° angle inside the fixed one and moving it
Figure 12: Alaq III, mm. 49-50, self-published.
horizontally from left to right, resultantly hitting the fixed tuning fork (a fast movement Figure 11: hand on tuning fork.

creates a tremolo; a slower movement creates a perceivable rhythm), one can produce
tremolos with different nuances.
The pianist comes into direct physical contact with the fixed tuning fork. The resulting sound
is, in general, much more mellow due to the soft surface of the palm.

All three examples given here have in common that the physical movement of their
production, i.e. they require striking, is very much linked to percussion playing. Another
important element is the role of the pedal, which should not be undervalued here. It has
direct impact on the nature of the musical material by allowing or stopping resonance, thus,
affecting its spectra and percussive fraction. The following fourth example has a strong
percussive component since it is very noisy:

Figure 9: tuning fork in tuning fork. Figure 10: Alaq III, mm. 41-43, self-published.

From A.Q.A.R. to Alaq III an evolution of this sound took place: In A.Q.A.R. the
compositional awareness of the subtle shades of this sound was not yet existent. It was a
purely interpretative decision at which point on the tuning fork the tremolo should be
performed. It was not until Alaq III that I integrated a simultaneous vertical movement, a

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and foremost, the perceiving subject needs to be receptive to the aesthetic category of the
musicalized tuning fork. The philosopher Zlavoj Žižek formulates felicitously:

The locus communis ‘You have to see it to believe it!’ should always be read together
with its inversion: ‘You have to believe in it to see it!’ Though one may be tempted to
oppose these perspectives—the dogmatism of blind faith versus an openness towards
the unexpected—one should nevertheless insist on the truth contained in the second
version: truth, as opposed to knowledge, is, like a Badiouian Event, something that only
an engaged gaze, the gaze of a subject who ‘believes in it’ is able to see. Take the case of
Figure 13: Alaq III, m. 23, self-published. love: in love, only the lover sees in the object of love that X which is the cause of his love,
the parallax-object; in this sense the structure of love is the same as that of the Badiouian
The pianist executes a tremolo-glissando—similar to the physical movement shown in figure
Event, which also exists only for those who recognize themselves in it: there can be no
4—with the ball at the bottom of the tuning fork on the string. By damping the string, the
Event for a non-engaged objective observer.25
sound becomes dry. In this case, the tuning fork does not sound, but its ball functions as an
activator. Perspective is the keyword here. The Thomas Bernhard quote that precedes the text—
everything depends on the perspective—is precisely about this. If one rejects per
The synthesis, which the tuning fork and the piano formed, disestablishes the se an aesthetic category of a work of art, then they are unresponsive to its truth; an
utilitarian function of the tuning fork, puts it into a new context and transforms it into a aesthetic experience remains closed to them. It requires the inner will to see the truth
hybrid: it is not a sound object anymore but an instrument. It becomes musically relevant of a work of art; it can not be forced. The philosopher Wolfgang Welsch points out that
and part of a complex sound producing action; therefore, the tuning fork is now musicalized. a “reflektiertes ästhetisches Bewußtsein” (reflected aesthetic consciousness) leads to a
The tuning fork does not exist on its own any longer; rather, it only interfaces with the piano. “Selsibilitätspotential”26 (sensitivity potential). This Selsibilitätspotential inextricably links to
They overcome the extreme discrepancy in size between each other, i.e. the small tuning fork, the sensual. An aesthetic experience, initially, is a sensual one. Two levels of meaning of the
with its delicate, fragile, and private nature, contrasts to the grand piano’s largeness, but a word ‘aesthetic’ come together here:
new instrument emerges that comprises both elements.
Zum Ästhetischen gehört eine Tendenz zur Überformung, Überhöhung und
Oscar Wilde’s well-known quote in the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) Veredelung des Sinnlichen. […] Während ich das erste Bedeutungselement, das
paves the way for phase three: sich allgemein auf das Sinnenhafte bezieht, als das aisthetische Bedeutungselement
bezeichne, nenne ich dieses zweite Element, das spezifizierend hinzutritt, das elevatorische
Element. Es bringt eine Absetzung, eine Distanzierung vom Vulgär-Sinnlichen, den
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only
Aufstieg zu einer höheren Form des Sinnlichen zum Ausdruck. Erst beide Elemente
excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.23
zusammen—das aisthetische und das elevatorische Element—machen die volle
Semantik der auf das Sinnenhafte bezogenen Bedeutungsgruppe von ‘ästhetisch’ aus.27

[Part of the aesthetic is a tendency to reshape, exaggerate and refine the sensual. […] While
I call the first element of meaning, which relates generally to the sensuous, the aeisthetic
The Aestheticization of the Musicalized Tuning Fork
element of meaning, I call this second element, which is added, the elevatoric element. It
Das erste Kunstwerk ist, als das unmittelbare, expresses a withdrawal, a distancing from the vulgar-sensual, the ascent to a higher form
das abstrakte und einzelne.24 of the sensual. Only both elements together—the aeisthetic and the elevatoric element—
[The first work of art, as immediate, make up the full semantics of the meaning group of ‘aesthetic’ related to the sensual.]
is abstract and individual.]
In 2017, I visited the Archaeological Museum in the ancient city of Ephesus. There, one
Now, after the tuning fork became musicalized, what does it need for a tuning fork to
object caught my attention immediately. I stopped in front of it, frozen and struck by the
be viewed as more than a source of sound, as a source of aesthetical experience? What does
it need to go beyond the mere physical aspect of sound towards a metaphysical level? First
25 Zlavoj Žižek, Living in the End Times (London, New York: Verso, 2018), xiii-xiv.
26 Wolfgang Welsch, Ästhetisierungsprozesse – Phänomene, Unterscheidungen, Perspektiven, in Grenzgänge der Ästhetik, author’s
23 cf. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (London, New York: Penguin, 2003). translation (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2010), 58.
24 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Phänomenologie des Geistes, author’s translation (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2020), 539. 27 Welsch, Grenzgänge, 25.

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beauty and power of the object as if petrified by the sight of Medusa. I was perceptive to its quality to a musicalized object for it to generate an aesthetic experience. Thus, viewing an
aesthetic potency; I saw its aesthetic category. object in the right perspective is only possible if the aesthetic category is inherent to the
object’s ontological composition; this is its inherent potential. Rainer Maria Rilke writes:
“Wir müssen es aussprechen, dass das Wesen der Schönheit nicht im Wirken liegt, sondern
im Sein.”31 [We have to say that the essence of beauty is not in appearance, but in being].
The inner depths of an object must be aesthetic in themselves. The artist is the person who
sees and externalises the aesthetics of the musicalized object. This lays the foundation for the
perception of the aesthetics of a piece. The philosopher George Santayana, in his magnum
opus The Sense of Beauty (1896), points to the distinction between physical and aesthetic
pleasures, which are metaphysical and transcendental:

Aesthetic pleasures have physical conditions, they depend on the activity of the eye and
the ear, of the memory and the other ideational functions of the brain. But we do not
connect those pleasures with their seats except in physiological studies; the ideas with
Figure 14: goddess statuette, gold, h: 7,91cm, weight: 20,5g, around 580 BC, which aesthetic pleasures are associated are not the ideas of their bodily causes. […]
Ephesus Archaelogical Museum. There is here, then, a very marked distinction between physical and aesthetic pleasure; the
organs of the latter must be transparent, they must not intercept our attention, but carry it
It was fascinating to see how this artefact has been adored, how it became meaningful,
directly to some external object. The greater dignity and range of aesthetic pleasure is thus
how it was raised to something as holy as a goddess, thus, to a spiritual sphere. It was an made very intelligible. The soul is glad, as it were, to forget its connexion with the body
Event,28 like the love-example mentioned by Žižek previously, that allowed me to see beyond and to fancy that it can travel over the world with the liberty with which it changes the
the mere material and utilitarian aspect of the artefact, to see it as a source of aesthetic objects of its thought. The mind passes from China to Peru without any conscious change
experience. The perceptive relationship between the viewer/listener and the work of art is a in the local tensions of the body. This illusion of disembodiment is very exhilarating,
dynamical one. Adorno puts it as follows: while immersion in the flesh and confinement to some organ gives a tone of grossness
and selfishness to our consciousness.32
Daß die Erfahrung von Kunstwerken adäquat nur als lebendige sei, sagt mehr als
Tuning fork sounds inside the piano can be aesthetic in themselves, however, to create an
etwas über die Beziehung von Betrachtendem und Betrachtetem, über psychologische
aesthetic experience, they need to be composed; it is a piece that creates it.33 I, as a composer,
Kathexis als Bedingung ästhetischer Wahrnehmung. Lebendig ist ästhetische Erfahrung
vom Objekt her, in dem Augenblick, in dem die Kunstwerke unter ihrem Blick see something in the tuning fork which is not apparent; I put musical energy into it and
selbst lebendig werden. […] Indem es spricht, wird es zu einem in sich Bewegten.29 make it a new, transformed, hybrid object, more precisely, an instrument with unique and
sophisticated sound qualities: my artistic engagement with it leads to its aestheticization.
[The fact that the experience of works of art is only adequate as a living, says more than The sensual experience which I had when I first discovered the bell-like tuning fork sound
something about the relationship between the viewer and the observed, about psychological was of great intensity. I immediately understood that this sound offers a multiplicity of
cathexis as a condition of aesthetic perception. Living is aesthetic experience from the combination possibilities, and has a strong expressive potential. The beginning of Alaq III
point of view of the object, at the moment in which the works of art under their gaze (see figure 7) is an excellent example of this. Four tuning forks in the middle register, close
become alive themselves. [...] When it speaks, it becomes something that is in motion in to the damper, evolve into a vibrant and full sound. The compositional context elevates the
itself.]
sound from an absolute sound category to something more than that. Repeating this sound
I was in direct contact with the work of art: it spoke to me and I spoke to it. seven times is a ritualistic behaviour which I generally ascribe to my tuning fork sounds;
for me, they are mystical. In Islamic tradition, seven is part and parcel of many rituals,
Even though, theoretically, every object can be at least examined for its aesthetic e.g. the seven times counterclockwise circling of the Kaaba, called Tawāf. This binding
potential, not all objects have the potential to be aestheticized.30 There needs to be an inherent compositional contextualization gives meaning to the tuning fork’s sound; its aestheticization

28 An event can be something with a great impact on one’s live, cf. Slavoj Žižek, Event (London: Penguin Books, 2014). 31 See annotation 3, Rilke, Über Kunst, 29.
29 Theodor W. Adorno, Ästhetische Theorie, author’s translation (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2003), 262. 32 George Santayana, The Sense of Beauty – Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory, § 7 (eBook: Project Gutenberg, 2008),
30 Again, Wolfgang Welsch is relevant here. In his text Ästhetisierungsprozesse – Phänomene, Unterscheidungen, Perspektiven accessed August 24, 2020, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26842/26842-h/26842-h.htm#07.
he accurately describes today’s problem of universal aestheticization. see annotation 25, Welsch, Ästhethisierungsprozesse, 33 So, it is the singularity, that explains the general (Hegel). An in-depth analysis of my Alaq-Cycle can not be provided here;
9-61. nevertheless, I highlighted the diversification of the tuning fork sound material which I develop in my pieces.

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is consummated. The compositional act in which the works of art “synthesieren unvereinbare, Virtuosity, Performance and Interpretation
unidentische, aneinander sich reibende Momente; […]”34 [synthesize irreconcilable,
unidentical moments that rub against each other] is the place of aestheticization.
The technical implications outlined above and the three-phase process of the tuning
fork’s aestheticization also raise questions about the role of the interpreter,36 who functions as
In many ways, the tuning fork sounds link to the Qur’an recitation, which is an
a mediator between my compositional practice and the aesthetic experience of the tuning fork;
essential source of inspiration to my music. They have a strong vocal quality, even though
it is the pianist who conveys the aesthetics of the tuning fork sounds to the listener. My piano
this does not seem evident at first glance. By deconstructing the vocal tract, the different
music requires great sensitivity, precision and physical control from the interpreter. Pianist
sounds evoke—in a context of a composition—various qualities of Qur’an recitation such as
Yumi Suehiro, the dedicatee of the Alaq-Cycle, describes her experience in preparing the piece
fragility, pureness, the tension of nasality, ornamental elements and vibratos. In many places,
as follows:
the pure or distorted tuning fork sound is prolonged after been struck; in figure 10, for
instance, executing the tremolo with timbral fluctuations also produces a long-lasting sound
My experience through the Alaq-Cycle was quite interesting because […] I had to
which resembles electronically produced sounds. So, the tuning fork has an important
internalize massive energy and control such delicate sounds with its highly demanding
symbolic character in my music. Its visual aspect is relevant, as well. When the listener not
tuning folk technique. It was extremely demanding to play with standing, keeping certain
only hears but also sees how the sound is produced, he looks at the tuning fork differently. posture, and make such delicate sounds. I spent a lot of tension and energy into my body
Aural and visual qualities become linked. and my mind.37

If the stop angle of a tuning fork is not accurate, there is a risk that it does not sound to its
full potential. In that sense, the sound production is subject to fragility and fine motor skills.
Linked to this, my piano music demands a high degree of virtuosity; I push the pianist to his/
her extreme. The pianist needs to change positions inside the piano rapidly; she/he needs to
rehearse a physical performance: this is the performative aspect. In this respect, the pianist
resembles a percussionist (also in ways of sound production and the material itself) who
needs to virtuosically change between his/her instrumental setup. Suehiro, who also has a
background as a percussionist, compares piano technique to percussion technique:

In addition, from the technical aspect, because I have a background as a trained

Figure 15: tuning fork preparation with seven tuning forks fixed inside the piano. percussionist, I could come up with this idea; some technique (i.e. tremolo between tuning
forks, hitting it by the other tuning fork) could be comparable to triangle technique which
The fixed tuning forks rise up to the air as if columns in an architectural context, and requires fine control of finger-tips’ muscle with slight wrist motion. But while performing,
thus create the visual aesthetics of the preparation inside the piano. As an aesthetic visual my brain function was always as a pianist which I found the most interesting.38
object, they exude their inner sound without even sounding. This is the “Aura”35 of the tuning Starting as a “beginner at the tuning fork technique,”39 Suehiro had to discover the tuning fork
fork and its sound, which is important in the process of their aestheticization: they emanate and, in the act of interpretation, pass through the outlined process of its aestheticization. It is
a magical power of beauty. What was before an auxiliary instrument for tuning, became noteworthy, that Suehiro highlights the vocal quality of the pieces:
now a musicalized object, an instrument, that contains magical powers to create music and
to enchant. It is this change of perspective that raises the object to an aesthetic object. The Whereas it [the piece] always contains cantabile which almost comparable to 19th century
musicalized tuning fork became aestheticized, thus meaningful. of piano repertoire (i.e. Chopin, Schumann) due to its rhythmic context especially at
uncompleted measures. Also, microtonal glissandi imply melismatic/vocal phrasings.
Therefore, my [performance] advice [to other pianists] would be the pianists need to

36 I wrote about the process of rehearsing complex music which can be taken as a general reference here. cf. Hakan Ulus,
Erfahrungen, Realitäten, Visionen – Meine Probenerfahrungen und Vorschläge zur Verbesseung der Probenbedingungen komplexer
Musik, in: Proben-Prozesse ed. by Wolfgang Gratzer (Freiburg: Rombach, 2019) 197-212.
37 Yumi Suehiro, the answers to the 5 questions, e-mail to the author, August 29, 2020.
34 Adorno, Ästhetische Theorie, author’s translation, 263. 38 Suehiro, answers.
35 Walter Benjamin, Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2011). 39 Suehiro, answers.

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understand the lyrical pianistic/vocal like phrasings, and then apply them to the tuning
fork technique.40

The link to Schumann is justified since he had always a big impact on me as a composer, and
is close to my heart. Suehiro substantiates: “I was humming your phrases like Schumann in
my brain.”41

Outlook into the Future

Denn das, was die Kunstwerke unterscheidet
von allen anderen Dingen, ist der Umstand,
daß sie gleichsam zukünftige Dinge sind,
Dinge, deren Zeit noch nicht gekommen ist.
Die Zukunft, aus der sie stammen, ist fern:
[…]42
[Because what distinguishes works of art from
all other things is the fact that they are future
things, things whose time has not yet come.
The future from which they come, is far away
[…]]
(Rainer Maria Rilke)

My artistic engagement with the tuning fork has by no means been saturated yet. My
next compositional project is to compose a large-scale piece for four subtly amplified pianos
which are staged in a circle facing each other. With a duration of 30 to 45 minutes, it will be
a monument and dedication to the tuning fork, and will be my biggest culmination of the
tuning fork sound world. This project has haunted me already for more than four years—it
waits for its realization, concretization and will come from my heart of hearts.

First, the tuning fork was an object, then became musicalized—coalesced with the
piano—and finally aestheticized, but what is all of this ultimately about? It is about the poetic
beauty, the aesthetic experience of, and my love for the tuning fork. It is about the tuning fork
in my life.

40 Suehiro, answers.
41 Yumi Suehiro, e-mail to the author, September 2, 2020.
42 Rainer Maria Rilke, “Kunstwerke,” in Schriften zur Literatur und Kunst, author’s translation (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2009), 85.

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Devising Interaction and Improvisation in Motion Studies project on this approach; in our laboratory sessions, we aimed to develop our abilities, experiment
with ideas, and search for expressive possibilities. The final product we arrived at was more
a result of the process than a focal driving force. During our laboratory sessions, we focused
Cristina Fuentes Antoniazzi, Ilona Krawczyk, Solomiya Moroz, Colin Frank on how we would respond, influence and react to each other’s sound and movement in
space. Interactions between us were incited by exercises and prompts for improvisations
that were brought by each of us. Although the project was initiated by Solomiya and Ilona,
as the project progressed leadership and decision making changed between us during the
sessions. Propositions and exercise-leadership changed persons, and creative suggestions
and decisions were made by all. As such, creativity was distributed amongst us. With much
discussion throughout sessions and the contributions of each practitioner’s creativity in
action, the creative process was collaborative, in which we aimed to investigate how this
interdisciplinary meeting would create new artistic processes.

These sessions were video and/or audio recorded, both for the purpose of
documentation and for reintegration into the working process. In this latter application, the
videos were reviewed during working sessions, so that we could look back upon ourselves.
By reviewing an improvisation directly after its doing we could reflect upon it immediately,
allowing our short-term memory to aid in re-witnessing our performance from another
perspective. This process incited us to discuss, reflect, and make decisions about coming steps
during sessions. In this way, we utilized the videos as an “epistemic object, new technique in-
Motion Studies performed in St. Paul’s Hall, Huddersfield at the Moving the Musician concert. the-making”.2

The process over the course of the lab sessions was one of gradually accumulating
Project Overview
embodied actions and inter-relationships. As exercises and prompts were explored through
improvisation during the sessions, certain movements and relationships were selected and
During the Motion Studies research project, which happened throughout 2017–2019 at the
remembered for subsequent performances. Memory was partially embedded in our corporeal
University of Huddersfield, our group of four artist-researchers explored how space, objects,
bodies, leading to the creation of what Solomiya refers to as an ‘embodied score’. This
bodies, and each member’s prior practice influenced performance. Together we were two
physically remembered score was gradually constructed across the multiple sessions and
musicians, Colin Frank and Solomiya Moroz, and two actors, Cristina Fuentes Antoniazzi
was flexible as to its makeup. Rather than having fully set or reproducible moments, there
and Ilona Krawczyk. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of our collaboration, the process
were rather flexible yet recognisable features that allowed our performance to definitively
of devising performances employed a combination of strategies and exercises, which we
recur without being entirely fixed. These moments can best be understood as ‘boundary
describe in the following paragraphs. These strategies, although developed particularly for
objects’, what dance scholar Freya Vass-Rhee defines as “objects or concepts, which,
Motion Studies, draw from each artist-researchers’ background and practice, namely those of
although jointly deployed by members of a community, are utilised differently by different
post-percussion performance, contemporary music composition, post-Grotowskian theatre1
participants”.3 Boundary objects are loose, yet they contain adequate detail to be recognised
and contemplative theatre. The project consisted of multiple experimental laboratory sessions
by multiple collaborators. In our open score work, the boundary objects were movements
and culminated in three performances, respectively at the Audiovisual Body symposium
and sounds that could be easily recognised by each participant but were never fully fixed.
in Huddersfield, the event Reverb hosted by The Arts Center at Edge Hill University in
Each individual interpreted them differently, and there was room for improvisation within
Ormskirk, and finally, the Moving the Musician concert held in St. Paul’s Hall in Huddersfield.
them. Although referred to in a less technical manner as ‘moments of movement and sound’
In post-Grotowskian theatre practice, laboratory sessions are not solely to train during discussions, these will be referred to as ‘boundary objects’ in the context of this text. In
performers for theatre productions but also for long-term research into an actor’s craft, their
performance form, as well as for investigating human expression and interactions. We took
2 Ben Spatz, ‘Colors Like Knives: Embodied Research and Phenomenotechnique in Rite of the Butcher’, Contemporary Theatre
Review 27, no. 2 (3 April 2017): 212, https://doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2017.1300152.
1 By post-Grotowskian lineage of theatre practice we denote the practitioners and companies whose artistic work has roots 3 Freya Vass-Rhee, ‘Distributed Dramaturgies: Navigating with Boundary Objects’, in Dance Dramaturgy: Modes of Agency,
in, refers to or is inspired by Jerzy Grotowski. See James Slowiak, Jairo Cuesta, Jerzy Grotowski (London and New York: Awareness and Engagement, ed. Pil Hansen and Darcey Callison, New World Choreographies (Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Routledge, 2007). Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 91.

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CeReNeM Journal issue 7 · Performing Stuff Devising Interaction and Improvisation in Motion Studies project

addition, the openness of the boundary objects allowed for instances of new improvisations
to emerge within a collectively remembered framework. In this sense, these boundary objects
contributed to the formation of an embodied score. Three main instances of repeatable
movement and sound combinations emerged during the course of the lab sessions that
became the boundary objects of our collective work. They can be understood as:

• Linear movements: straight-line walking movements divide the larger space as if into a
grid. Rattles and woodblocks are used. Pairings of Colin-Cristina and Solomiya-Ilona are
centralised (Excerpt 1).

• Circular Movements: Solomiya plays flute, Cristina and Ilona sing, and Colin plays the
cymbal somewhere in the space. Slow rotational movements are done by an individual
where they stand that are gradually expanded into movements encircling the space
(Excerpt 2).
Excerpt 1: Linear Movements
• Alternating movements: carried out in the pairs of Solomiya-Cristina and Ilona-Colin.
Members alternate leadership roles, where sound leads movement or vice versa. Colin
performs with drum and brush, and Solomiya with flute. Typically highly energetic
(Excerpt 3).

These boundary objects arose in an entanglement with our different background training,
with the exercises carried out in the laboratory sessions, with collaborative decision making,
with spatial awareness, and with percussion objects.

The Exercises

In the practice of post-Grotowskian theatre, exercises serve as starting points for

devising a performance. There are no fixed recipes, repeated structures or exercises “locked in
form”.4 After initially following guidelines, a performer develops and transforms an exercise
creatively in the process of performance making. Primarily three exercises were used during Excerpt 2: Circular Movements

the laboratory sessions that contributed to our embodied knowledge and the devising of an
embodied score. These were:

• ‘Walk and stop’—one of the exercises of post-Grotowskian companies that focuses on

receiving impulses from partners and developing spatial awareness. Performers learn
to be attentive and responsive towards each other’s actions on an instinctual, “animal-
like level of perceptual/sensory awareness where the body ‘becomes all eyes’”.5
As an ensemble, everyone walks and/or stops together with as minimal a delay as
possible. Altering between moving and pausing is initiated by any of the performers.
Accompanying this aim of being together, is that everyone be distributed equally
throughout the space. The exercise helps to develop performers’ spatial and interpersonal

4 Mark Brown, ‘The Aesthetics of Song of the Goat Theatre’, New Theatre Quarterly 28, no. 1 (2012): 97, doi:10.1017/
S0266464X12000085.
5 Philip Zarrilli and Peter Hulton, Psychophysical acting: An intercultural approach after Stanislavski (London; New York:
Routledge, 2009): 1. Excerpt 3: Alternating Movements

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awareness. The times of stopping are moments of attentive suspension, an active awaiting awareness of the shared space, they can shorten the intervals, and the movements begin
for new impulses to pick up (see Excerpt 4). to overlap. This exercise also affects the performers’ understanding of space as an active
agent in the interactions. Therefore, through developing spatial awareness performers
gain an embodied knowledge that enables them to relax in space.

Paper Methodology

Four primary research concerns emerged from the process of making Motion
Studies that will be addressed by each of us independently. We choose to write about them
individually because our separate areas of inquiry are aligned with our personal PhD
research. These topics, with their respective author, are:

• Exterior and Interior Qualities of the Embodied Score: how the exterior and interior
qualities of individual and group reflections and responses aided in composition of the
embodied score of Motion Studies (Solomiya Moroz).

• Instruments as Objects: how the materials brought to rehearsals influenced motions and
Excerpt 4: Walk and Stop exercise
structural decisions (Colin Frank).
• ‘Motion’ exercise (following the dynamic)—an exercise from post-Grotowskian actor
training.6 It aims to enhance the ensemble’s awareness of group dynamics and to awaken • Space Awareness: how becoming attuned to the performance space and noticing the
individuals’ creativity in developing physical actions. The exercise relies on movement space between performers informed the composition of movement (Cristina Fuentes
improvisation to create a “living stream of impulses”.7 The group begins with stillness. Antoniazzi).
A leader initiates the exercise by walking in a slow motion which gradually speeds up
• Sound and Movement Integration: how the sound of voice and instruments influenced
to reach a peak dynamic as a run. All the group follows the leader’s pace. After the peak
movement and vice versa in developing embodied score (Ilona Krawczyk).
moment, the group gradually slows down, coming back to stillness. The dynamic of the
whole run depends on a leader. Similar to ‘walk and stop’ exercise, the group of actors
should follow the initiated movement and its dynamic with an awareness of the space to Although these separate threads are written from our separate perspectives, we
avoid any time-laps in reacting to the leader’s impulses. have been discussing and reflecting about the process together. To show this discussion,
throughout our individual writing are interspersed reflections and responses from the other
• ‘Duet conversation’ is an exercise from Social Presencing Theatre.8 In the exercise,
practitioners, outlined in coloured boxes to the side of the article. In this sense, the article
performers learn to inhabit moments of stillness by consciously creating an interval
reflects the collaborative process and the entire project, in that our individuality is maintained
in time and space between each movement. Hayashi, the developer of this technique,
while cross-pollination between our ideas and practice occurs.
describes this exercise as a dynamic dialogue created as a result of repetitive cycles of
movement and stillness based on observation, sensory awareness and doing without
thinking. There is an emphasis on sharing long pauses between each movement.
The Exterior and Interior Qualities of the Embodied Score
Consequently, by inhabiting these pauses the movements emerge from a sense of shared
stillness. Once the interaction evolves and the performers feel more confident of their
(Solomiya)
An embodied score was developed over the course of the Motion Studies project which
6 The exercise conducted during Motion Studies is a simplified version that Ilona adapted from a series of training led by
Przemysław Wasilkowski during Dynamics of Metamorphosis project in Grotowski Institute (Wrocław, Poland) between became a combination of repeatable instances of sound and movement emerging within an
2012–2014. See Teatr w Sieci Powiązań neTTheatre, “Dynamika Metamorfozy - relacja z sesji w Lublinie”, YouTube video, experimental framework of our lab sessions. For my definition of an embodied score, I draw
11:58, December 5, 2013, https://youtu.be/e4FQzT_Zsrs, 7:25–9:56.
7 Thomas Richards, At Work with Grotowski on Physical Actions (London and New York: Routledge, 1995): 104. on Ben Spatz’s What a Body Can Do (2015),9 where one treats technique that anyone’s body
8 Social Presencing Theatre (SPT) is an art-based social change technology developed by Arawana Hayashi, dancer and acquires as knowledge and practice as research that one engages with to gain insight into new
meditation teacher, student of Chögyam Trungpa. This method is an embodied practice that uses simple body postures
and movements to communicate directly, dissolve limiting concepts and access intuition. For more information see
https://www.presencing.org/aboutus/spt. 9 Ben Spatz, What a Body Can Do: Technique as Knowledge, Practice as Research (London: Routledge, 2015).

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embodied knowledge. In devising the embodied score of Motion Studies, we use both of these The Interior
approaches—participants’ disciplinary techniques of their previous training and the new
instances of embodied knowledge, i.e. the boundary objects developed in our lab-sessions. Another tool that helped in devising our collective work became reflections on one’s
This makes the work possible for repeat performances in various venues without a musical own phenomenological presence during the improvisations in relation to the others. We
score or theatrical dramaturgy. Here, I will consider the exterior and interior qualities of the arrived at this through discussions, where we recorded our affects and feelings and analysed
embodied score which led to the formation of boundary objects; the exterior being responses the relationships between each other during the improvisation. This helped to discover which
aided by external tools such as video documentation, aspects of disciplinary training and sensations and affects had potential to be explored further. In this way, we shared our
transcription through musical notation; and the interior being a phenomenological reflection reflections on each other’s actions within the group
on oneself during a moment of improvisation in relation to the others. and how we perceived they were working and
Ilona: Originally I developed this strategy for
affecting our sound and movement. This tool was
my PhD research to investigate the differences
originally proposed by Ilona who has used similar
in perception of the same phenomena according
The Exterior techniques in reflection during lab-session in her
to performer’s individual creative processes in
previous work. The language concerning our order to support devising performance and
In Motion Studies, the initial structure of the lab environment already assumed personal multi-sensory experiences in relation to employ deep democracy in the decision making.
emphasis on the embodied research where the primary site of investigations are the bodies of each other became more important here than This way my aim was to devise through collective
performers, individually or together.10 This research took place through open improvisations discipline-specific language if it was a theatrical or work as opposite to a single director’s vision.
as well as working in more detail on movement and sound, elements of which were captured a musical improvisation (Moroz, 2020).
through video documentation for further reflection and composition. As described above,
As we started working with the interior and exterior qualities of the embodied
the video itself became an embodiment of certain techniques and embodied moments, “an
score our responses became quickly entangled. Thinking in terms of Deleuze’s ‘packets of
epistemic object, new technique in-the-making”.11 For us, it became an aid in remembering
sensation’ as personal sensations in the moment of improvisation helps in understanding the
and learning new combinations of sound and movement. In our lab session recordings and
entwined nature of our work:
performances, it is possible to observe technical aspects of exercises such as ‘Walk and stop’,
‘motion exercise in following each other’s dynamic’, and ‘duet conversation’ reflected in
Percepts aren’t perceptions. They’re packets of sensations and relations that live
the new combinations between sound and movement referred to as boundary objects. More
independently of whoever experiences them. Affects aren’t feelings, they are becomings
specifically, we have adapted the quality of sound following movement and movement that spill over beyond whoever lives through them (thereby becoming someone else) ...
following sound through the techniques of these initial exercises which had a strong Affects, percepts, and concepts are three inseparable forces, running from art into
emphasis on pairings and group dynamics. The musicians’ instrumental improvisations were philosophy and from philosophy into art.12
initially inspired by the movement in pairs, however, as the melodic and textural materials
‘Packets of sensations’ are each
of sounds were becoming sonically embodied into actors’ vocal responses some further Colin: The flexibility of the boundary objects allowed me to retain
participant’s phenomenological
devising of this response was needed to understand the interactions of movement and sound. a reactivity and responsiveness situated in the present moment of
reaction to the boundary objects
To arrive at the sonic quality of some of the vocal characteristics of the boundary objects, performing. During rehearsal run-throughs and performances I recall
in the moment of improvisation, responding to the uniqueness of that performance by making fairly
such as ‘circular movements’, which contained stretched vocal sections with high leaps
what they are and what substantial modifications or complete changes to previous performances,
and ‘alternating movements’ as well as energetic melodic and textural bursts, I transcribed
they could be in the future while stile maintaining the boundary object. This was especially the case
the sonic content of these boundary objects. This helped the theatre collaborators, Ilona
presentations of this process- when moving the cymbal for the Circular Movements section. Sometimes
and Cristina, in remembering the main features of the sonically embodied moments which
based work.13 The reflective I would turn it onto its edges and roll it slowly across the floor, other
occurred during improvisations, ensuring that these could recur with some variation in new
part of these sensations became times I would spin it vigorously on its central bell, and yet other times
lab sessions and performances. As exchanges through exercises and techniques of different
reactive in the moment of I dragged it across the floor letting it scrape on the surface. Everytime
disciplines started to spill into each other through interdisciplinary collaboration, we were I approached the cymbal felt different: I was reacting to the atmosphere
improvisation with no room
creating new embodied techniques beyond the disciplinary boundaries of each other’s in the moment by adding whatever emotional contour I felt was suitable.
for conceptual decisions. Thus,
practice.

12 Gilles Deleuze, Negotiations. Trans. Martin Joughin, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), 137.
10 Ben Spatz, ‘Embodied Research: A Methodology’, Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, Vol 15, n. 3., 2017. 13 Solomiya Moroz, “Confronting Embodied Knowledge: from Observing to Listening and Reacting”, Seismograf, Fokus:
11 Ben Spatz, ‘Colors Like Knives: Embodied Research and Phenomenotechnique in Rite of the Butcher’, 212. Silent Agencies, (July 2020), https://seismograf.org/node/19365.

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the kinetic aspect of our responses drove the work further and became its own concept, bodily movements—framed through physical theatre and music performance discourses—
supporting an open and process-based approach when it came to performances in new these objects as activatable through tactile means was fitting. The objects were easily
spaces. incorporated amidst movement, and indeed their shapes, weights, sizes, and material
makeup integrated with and influenced our bodies. How the objects could be moved, and the
Considering both the interior and exterior qualities of the embodied score helps
ways their properties resulted when moved, was
in understanding how the flexible structure of Motion Studies evolves with each new Cristina: For example, in the rehearsals, the ground for improvisation and experimentation
performance. Through the embodied memory of our lab-sessions, we became carriers of the instruments were presented as objects to during the artistic process. Discoveries from directly
exterior and interior qualities of the boundary objects which guide our future decisions in improvise with. There was a playful quality of
moving with an instrument were further extrapolated
the work, where ‘affects, percepts and concepts’ can flow in and out of each other if we are to exploration stimulated by this sounding objects
to performing when without that instrument. The
present the work again. that affected the interaction. For me as a non-
instruments acted tactilely upon a performer when in
musician, this approach was appealing as I did
not feel that I needed to “know” how to play their hand, but also acted upon performers when
x or y instrument, but on the contrary, I felt they were not physically touching them. As such, our
Instruments as Objects (Colin)
encouraged to discover and trust the sounds performance co-evolved with the instruments. We
Objects as Agents that emerged from the interaction. developed motions directly through the instruments
and via observation of their actions.
Each laboratory session an assortment of small percussion items, wind instruments, A good example of tactile and observation-based influence is found during the third
and mallets were brought to the rehearsal space. These were distributed on the floor, differing alternating movements boundary object, when Ilona and I performed a duo principled upon
in configuration per session; either centralised in the room or distributed to its sides. The exchange. As I moved with the handheld circular drum and horsehair shoe brush, Ilona
items’ properties and their placement affected how we moved, interacted, and developed the moved without any implements. My motions were derived from the relatively heavy weight
piece. The objects can be considered as actors, in Bruno Latour’s understanding that non- of the drum, and how I contacted the drum’s skin with the brush. I mainly held the drum in a
humans can be considered to form interactions.14 Their presence within the rehearsal space, single hand by the wooden cross-grip on its rear side, while holding the brush in my other
coupled with their individual properties, led us to motions and choices we otherwise would hand. The drum’s size and weight encouraged cumbersome, sturdy movements, and its
not have made. By understanding that “musical practices are circularity allowed for rotational, smooth gestures. In contacting the drum’s skin with the
Solomiya: The flute was at times material; they unfold by way of material circumstances; objects, brush, friction and pressure played into my motions, resulting in granular, gritty, and noisy
treated like an object, an equal to
bodies, places, surfaces and boundaries all help to constitute sounds. While influencing my movements directly,
other (percussion) objects, as it
human action and interaction in the context of musical events”,15 these objects’ properties spilt into Ilona’s movements
could be placed anywhere in the Ilona: In the laboratory sessions, I first
then the objects we used and space we inhabited influenced this and vocalisations. She followed the articulate swishing observed the dynamic that Colin needed in
space, dragged around and used
percussively if desired besides piece’s making. But how specifically did the material items brought sounds made from the drum with her voice, and took his body to produce the sound. I then began
being used as a woodwind to the rehearsal room influence us? Argued here is that their tactile on similarly large, dramatic stances. As such, the to search for it in my body and explore what
instrument. physical properties, their visual appearances, and their sounds material properties of the drum and brush partially kind of vocalization can come out from
informed our creative process. Both minutiae details and the constructed my movements and sounds through my such an embodied action. Then I could test
macroscopic form were influenced by their agency. tactile relationship to them, and they influenced Ilona different dynamics on my own, to not only
follow Colin, but to produce/initiate an
indirectly, as she took on characteristics that arose from
exchange of dynamics between us.
them. However, understanding this duo performance as
Tactile affordances entirely developed from the objects would be
oversimplification. Rather, the physical objects were actors within a network of relationships.
Each of the items was intentionally designed to produce sound via some form of touch. They were but one influence within an entanglement of bodies, space, and sound, all
Rubbing, scraping, striking, rattling, shaking, sliding, blowing—these actions could sound an fluctuating within time. Ilona took gestures and sounds arisen in the drum-brush-me
object on its own or when in combination with other objects. Because our project focused on assemblage, but her vocalisations and rapid movements fed back. Without extra appendages,
her motions were unrestrained. As such, her movements could be quicker than my own. In
14 Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, UK, 2005).
attempting to follow her motions, I attempted to augmented my motions to be agile and
15 Mads Krogh, ‘A Beat Is a Hybrid: Mediation, ANT and Music as Material Practice’, Contemporary Music Review 37, no. 5–6 quick. The system was thus expanded outward to comprise a multitude of interactions
(2018): 530, https://doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2018.1575125.
between agents.
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Objects’ Visuality Influencing Spatial Decisions arose in conjunction with the cymbal’s overtones. Ilona and Cristina’s pitch content, and the
flute playing of Solomiya, co-formed with the cymbal. Once again, the visual properties of
Although the percussion items we used are intentionally designed and typically used an object informed bodily movements. A bidirectional interchange occurred; as our bodies
for sounding purposes, their visible features informed our choices. In our merging of musical moved in rotations, the cymbal was also spun. The instrument fed into the devising process; it
practice with physical theatre practice, intermixing both disciplines onstage, both the visual acted agentially, contributing to the network. As such, decisions and doings emerged through
and the sonic were of equal importance. As such, sound and image existed in a bidirectional our interactions with the objects we brought.
exchange; movements for the purpose of sound production entangled with movements
intended to be seen.
Agential Objects Conclusion
For the first section of the piece, in the boundary object linear movements, we moved in
straight lines. This choice arose from the shape of one of the instruments used in this section,
The creation of this piece predicated on our understanding of the objects as tactile,
namely the woodblock. We mimicked its rectangular prism shape by moving in a grid pattern
visual, and sonic influencers. Through our including them during rehearsals, we gradually
through the space. We hoped a connection could be
built the piece collaboratively with them. The objects can be understood as having been active
noticeable between our bodies moving in the space and Cristina: At the same time, the interaction
agents. They influenced our physical movements consequent from their tactile attributes,
the instruments being played. As such, an instrument’s propelled by the woodblock and the rattles are
an example of the pair led rehearsal process their soundings, and their visible features. As the piece emerged, entangled with the agency
visual property was extended to a spatial-structural
previously described by Solomiya. Where the of the non-human world, the question remains as to why these objects and not others were
dimension of the performance. Why did we base our
improvisation in pairs, or in this case in trios, chosen, and where the line exists between our capacity to decide and their ability to act.
ensemble movements on the woodblock’s visual
if we count the object as an actor, was the To better investigate these questions, other artistic research could consider the assemblage
characteristics, even when Solomiya and Ilona were
main way for finding repeatable movement as wider, incorporating greater situational and historical factors. Future research could
using two seed pod rattles concurrently? Indeed, the and sound combinations that resulted in the incorporate a greater quantity of actors and could go into more detail about their individual
rattles influenced Ilona and Solomiya’s movements embodied score. In this way, the objects/ and unique properties. However, this project aimed to consider objects as agential within the
through their tactile agency. The rattles’ bulbous and instruments affected the interaction, boosting
devising process and provide specific examples of how the objects in Motion Studies acted.
continually fluctuating shape led Ilona and Solomiya to the dynamism of the performance.
It considered how objects informed choices in an interdisciplinary devising process. With
eventually break from the linear shape to instead spin
the sound and visuals of equivalent importance, due to our mixed backgrounds in physical
messily on the floor. That the woodblock was given
training and music, the objects’ visual, tactile, and sonic characteristics were formative in the
initial precedence over the rattles only suggests that Solomiya: To Ilona and I, both the sound of
development of this performance.
objects and practitioners are in constant interchange the rattles and its shape suggested the messy
and negotiation. Objects influence choices simply by rolling and exchanges on the floor. The shape
their being there, while at other times they present of the rattles being continually fluctuating with
affordances that the practitioners may or may not sound suggested our bodies should be in close Spatial Awareness in Motion Studies (Cristina)
proximity to the floor as the rattles also relied on
take. The woodblock provided possibilities for our In the following section I will examine how spatial awareness informs the composition
the floor to strike it. In addition, I was moving
taking—without it present we would never have of movement and sound in Motion Studies. The reflection will focus on the concept of ‘ma’
as my imagination was responding through
moved in a grid. The visual shape of the rattles understood as an interval in time and space, as a way to practically embody spatial awareness
sensorimotor body reaction to sound, the sound
could have just as easily influenced our group was suggesting shapes that I wanted to embody. on stage. I will first explain the technical and theoretical background from where I approach
movement, resulting in an alternative performance. the notion of spatial awareness. Then, I will discuss the exercise “duet conversations”,
However, the shape of the woodblock was given introduced in the rehearsal process as a practical way to explore spatial awareness by
precedence at that moment, and was resultantly developed into a boundary object structuring inhabiting ‘ma’. Finally, I will track the possible traces that this exercise had in the devising
our performance. process and in the Motion Studies performance.
The second boundary object, circular movements, was influenced by the round shape
of the cymbal. In initial improvisation sessions, I explored the cymbal by spinning it on the
ground (both with it resting flat on its dome and spun on its edges). These rotary movements
were picked up by Ilona, Cristina, and Solomiya, resulting in their moving in large circles
around the space and spinning in small circles in localised positions. Here, the sonic texture

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Spatial awareness in performer training motion and to hear the silence that contextualizes sound”.20 At the same time, this state
of receptivity and openness acts as an antidote for being ‘caught in thoughts’ or self-
My understating of spatial awareness in performance training is strongly influenced consciousness onstage. In consequence, spatial awareness can enhance a performer’s ability
by two contemplative training techniques: Mudra Space Awareness16 and Social Presencing to stay open to what is happening onstage and by being in tune with the potentiality of the
Theatre. At the same time, both of those forms are rooted in Chögyam Trungpa’s (Tibetan unfolding present moment, respond to the external stimulus in an authentic way.
Buddhist Master) Teachings of Dharma Art17 which are based in Tibetan Buddhism, where
awareness of space is a core teaching as it allows us to connect with a greater view that is not
constricted by our thoughts and emotions. Duet conversation: A practical exploration of spatial awareness
As it has been explained thoroughly in previous sections of the article, Motion Studies is
In order to foster a practical exploration of space awareness in the rehearsal process
based on devised and structured improvisation. The piece was created based on the way we
of Motion Studies I presented an exercise from Social Presencing Theatre training called “duet
responded, influenced and reacted to each others’ sound and movement in space. Therefore,
conversations”. This exercise21 consists in establishing a physical dialogue in pairs, where
the ability to foster a receptive state from where to interact and improvise was a foundational
movement and stillness alternate. The way to do so is by inhabiting long pauses of “ma”,
skill that the performers had to have in order to participate in this endeavour. Thus, finding
intervals in time and space, where nothing happens between each movement.
techniques to train our receptivity was a suitable approach. Accordingly, the notion of spatial
awareness as a catalyser of mental openness was an appealing feature to explore in this According to Hayashi, who is the developer of Social Presencing Theatre, the
context. experience of “ma” enables performers to integrate silence, space and not-knowing as part of
their interactions. She states that “the concept of Ma is used to acknowledge the shared space,
From a Buddhist perspective, space is the opposite of an empty void, as it is considered
quality of relationship, resonance and connectivity”.22
the element of creation, fertile and full of potential. Space is the ultimate container, from
which form emerges and dissolves. Trungpa describes the state of space awareness as one in However, the use of “ma” in performance practice can be traced to the XIV century, on
which “you are willing to play with the phenomena (...) the fickle quality of being willing to Zeami’s work on Noh theatre.23 Zeami’s approach to actor training has influenced performer
associate itself with something or other”.18 Therefore, interconnectivity is inherent to spatial training ever since. Ma is defined as “an interval, a gap in space or time through which
awareness. something can appear … an intersubjective occasion that provides an empty space and silent
place to encounter the other”.24 According to Pilgrim25 the Chinese character that composes
In the actor training field, Lee Worley states that being aware of space is essential for
the written word ma symbolises the opening that let the light shine through. The ideogram
performers. In her analogy, performers are “like fish in the water, space is the element that
ma is made by two elements: the first meaning gate or door (mon, 門) and the second one
we swim in”.19 She proposes that spatial awareness highlights the kinaesthetic experience of
is sun (hi, 日) or moon. Therefore, its Japanese kanji symbol (間) already denotes that sense
our bodies, providing a clear experience of our boundaries. Also, Worley suggests that being
of openness and potentiality. Ma can be understood as a ‘negative space’ which holds the
able to recognise space by abiding in ‘the gap’, understood as those moments of inaction
stillness and emptiness between a unit of movement or sound. This negative space/time is
that underlie and enable action to happen, can strengthen performers’ stage presence, as
presented by Hayashi as a ‘pregnant nothingness’.
it connects them with the rawness of the present moment. In that way, spatial awareness
promotes in performers a state of alertness and open receptivity. According to Quinn,
performers’ training in receptivity “readies audiences to feel the stillness that contextualizes

20 Shelley Fenno Quinn, Developing Zeami: The Noh Actor’s Attunement in Practice (Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii
Press, (2005): 215.
16 Mudra Space Awareness is a sequence of exercises developed by Chögyam Trungpa. The tibetan master developed 21 Duet conversation is described in detail in the first section of this article. For further details go to https://
psychophysical training based on his experience teaching and performing the classical Chakrasamvara dance of the arawanahayashi.com/.
Surmang monastery in Tibet in order to help Western performers develop authenticity. For more information see Lee 22 Hayashi, A., 2016. Duet Conversation. [Toolkit] Social Presencing Workshops.
Worley, Coming from Nothing: The Sacred Art of Acting (Boulder, CO: Turquoise Dragon Press, 2001). 23 Nicolas Standaert, “Don’t Mind the Gap: Synology as an Art of In-Betweenness”, Philosophy Compass 10, no. 2 (2015) 91-
17 Dharma Art is a series of Bhuddhist teachings presented by Chögyam Trungpa Rimpoche about how meditation practice 103.
fostered a state of mind to tap into creativity. For more information see: Chögyam Trungpa, The collected works of Chögyam 24 Yoko Akama, ‘Attuning to Ma (between-Ness) in Designing’, in Proceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference
Trungpa: Volume 7, (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2004); Chögyam Trungpa, 2008, True Perception (Boston: Shambhala. on Short Papers, Industry Cases, Workshop Descriptions, Doctoral Consortium Papers, and Keynote Abstracts - PDC ’14 -
2008); Fabrice Mindal, Chögyam Trungpa, His Life And Vision, 1st ed. (Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, 2004). Volume 2 (the 13th Participatory Design Conference, Windhoek, Namibia: ACM Press, 2014), 21–24, https://doi.
18 Chögyam Trungpa, ‘Glimpses of space: The Feminine Principle and EVAM’ in The collected works of Chögyam Trungpa, Vol org/10.1145/2662155.2662179.
6 Shambhala: Boton & London (2004) 443. 25 Richard B. Pilgrim, ‘Intervals (“Ma”) in Space and Time: Foundations for a Religio-Aesthetic Paradigm in Japan’, History
19 Worley, Coming from Nothing, Turquoise Dragon Press: Boulder(2001):126. of Religions 25, no. 3 (1986): 255-77. Accessed October 5, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1062515.

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Tracing how spatial awareness informed the composition of movement movements and sounds, a feeling of betweenness with each other and with the audience
and sound in Motion Studies. arose.

The following section of the article focuses on tracing how spatial awareness informed Colin: From the ‘duet conversation’ exercise I became more aware of the distances between myself and
the composition of movement and sound in Motion Studies. Here, I will explore the impact the other performer’s bodies. Even when someone moved behind me, out of my sight, I felt able to sense
that “duet conversation” exercise and the principles of spatial awareness that it stands for, their physical presence. I became highly aware and felt present, feeling in what Csikszentmihalyi would
had in the rehearsal process and in Motion Studies performance. call flow. Energy radiated off everyone’s bodies, and the negative space between us became alive as it
changed size and shape amidst us. The space can be thought of as another contributing agent. The spatial
gaps between us were not empty voids for us to fill, but contributed to how we perceived. Through our
becoming aware of space, it then influenced our attention, movements, and creative choices.
Spatial awareness during rehearsals

During the rehearsal process, we used the “duet conversation” exercise, specifically the Spatial awareness during Motion Studies performance
previously described phenomena of ‘ma’, provided us with tools to train a receptive state
from where to interact and improvise. In other words, the focus of acknowledging no-action, The element of working with “ma” is observable in the recordings of Motion Studies
expanded our interactional scope, enriching the ways that we as performers responded to performance. In the first minute of the interaction of the performance that took place at the
each other in the rehearsal process. University of Huddersfield in St Paul’s Hall we can watch how the performers inhabit long
Thus, the duet conversation exercise Ilona: The ‘walk and stop’ and ‘motion’ exercise pauses between gestures and sounds. Using the technique of integrating pauses and silences
served similar purpose. They aimed to open at the beginning of the score enabled us to become attuned with the performance space and
provided a technique to embody openness
performers attention towards partners and space each other. In this way, each of us used these pauses to sense the qualities proscenium (size,
through abiding in spatial awareness.
in order to awaken creativity, and receptiveness resonance, light, smell, temperature) and the space between the performers, allowing us to
Understanding “ma” as a place of encounter, towards unexpected external impulses. In such
allowed us to notice how the interaction can calibrate the energy needed to perform in that particular venue. At the same time, we could
strategy the interactions emerge not from
emerge from the space. Consequently, we learned tune-in socially, feeling and being aware of each other, which enabled us to develop a playful
calculated, thought driven intentions, but from
that by restraining ourselves from deliberately interaction afterwards.
spontaneous encounters. Spatial awareness plays a
planning the movements and sounds, genuine crucial role in this process as different interpersonal In this way by deliberately abiding those gaps at the beginning of Motion Studies,
encounters could emerge. In this way, this responses emerge depending on the distance and was a way to enhance the performers’ state of receptivity, a crucial skill for performing this
exercise provided a practical gateway towards configuration of performance in the space.
piece. As discussed previously in Solomiya’s reflection on boundary objects, Motion Studies
openness from where our movements/sounds is an embodied score composed of repeatable combinations of movement and sound, which
arose as a result of the interaction through the moment-to-moment experiences. are open to variation. As the piece progresses, the gaps between movements and sounds
Another effect of this exercise in our rehearsal shorten, however, the sense of spatial awareness prevails. Maintaining spatial awareness
process that informed the composition of Motion while performing enabled us to notice the moment-to-moment experiences, acknowledging
Solomiya: The openness observed by
Studies was that space becomes a collaborative the resonance that our instruments and movements had in any particular moment. This
engaging with spatial awareness provided
agent in the making of a scene. Therefore, through acute receptive state nurtured the ‘boundary objects’ of the piece with the fickle quality of
an opportunity for the spontaneity and
variation within the boundary objects to developing spatial awareness, performers gain associative aliveness.
emerge. Trusting in the space and each other embodied knowledge that enables them to relax in
in the moments of improvisation allowed and rely on space. Thus, as Quinn states, “Far from
for interesting variations within boundary vacuous, the silence before sound is intense and Sound and movement integration (Ilona)
objects to shape the piece differently with
expectant, accessible to the intuitive faculty but
each new presentation.
cognitively undecipherable”.26 Therefore, by
Entering the collaborative work on Motion Studies, I was particularly interested in
noticing and abiding in the intervals between
crossovers between alternative theatre as derived from post-Grotowskian lineage, which I am
a practitioner of and contemporary classical music. Through my conversations with various
26 Fenno Quinn, Developing Zeami: The Noh Actor’s Attunement in Practice (Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, artists-researchers in music and observations of their practice presented in Huddersfield,
2005): 214.

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I found it intriguing to discover a shared interest in Solomiya: The non-verbal utterance instrument playing and the shape and quality of sound began to take over the inquiry, as
as the unspoken embodied technique
embodiment and non-verbal utterances in these two described by Colin.
of music and physical theatre is
disciplines of performing arts.
common to the working methods of As motion was so prevalent in the sound making and devising process, we applied
At the time of our lab sessions, I aimed to research these two disciplines. It is interesting exercises such as ‘walk and stop’, ‘ma’ and ‘motion’ to awaken our attentiveness towards
the integration of movement with non-verbal expressions to note this commonality that each other’s actions, build a common dynamic of expression and balance the space. These
of voice and explore how the improvisation based on these helped us to immerse ourselves in a basic elements—space, movement, and sound became a base for composition of our bodies in
productive workflow in the studio.
elements can be applied to create an embodied score and the space, and enacting the embodied score from the boundary objects.
devise a performance. In the initial lab sessions, which I
discuss below, this inquiry shifted towards a group exploration of how movement and sound
inform and inspire each other, contributing to the final outcome of our laboratory work. Devising embodied score
In the first lab session, the ‘stop and walk’ exercise served as a springboard for
Devising performance through physical and vocal improvisation with the support
further examination of the relationship between movement and voice. At first, Cristina and I
of video material is a procedure that I utilised before in other projects, particularly with
explored ways of vocalising only while walking, gradually extending this pattern into more
insoundout collective27. However, in Motions Studies we worked on a different dimension
expressive movements. We then shifted to a sequence in which we explored how movement
by notating the patterns of vocal and instrumental expressions emerged in improvisations
and vocalisation inspire one another, following four rules:
and generating an embodied score based on them. The embodied score as discussed by
• Move without voice. Solomiya, became a point of reference for our mostly improvised performance, highlighting
the interrelation between voice, instruments and movement. This strategy for devising
• Let movement inspire you to develop a vocal expression integrated with a repetitive
performance contributed to my inquiry on embodying voice in the post-Grotowskian
motion.
theatre practice, by eliminating its different approach to movement and voice in generating
• Move with a melody imagined only in your head, letting this thought guide and inspire performance material.
the movement.
In post-Grotowskian practice, while physical and vocal training both makes use
• Vocalise without movement.
of improvisation, the improvisation of movement continues into the generation of
performance material, whereas the voice is first subjected to a musical or textual structure
In the course of the practice, these rules began to interweave and made the performers and only then to a search for the “line of life” in performance.28
observe what attracts their attention and how this process inspires their embodied actions.
Meanwhile, in Motion Studies, similarly to my work with the insoundout collective, the
First, Cristina and I worked together in the space with Solomiya and Colin observing.
improvisation on both movement and non-verbal utterances became a source of the final
When they joined moving in the space with their instruments, the attention shifted towards
score of performance.
partnering—picking up sounds and motion, giving each other impulses for further
interactions. In the next step we decided to work in pairs, narrowing down attention to the Interestingly, despite the differences of the artistic expertise and embodied
contact with one partner and exploring how each other’s movement and sound produced techniques that as actors and musicians we possess, we managed to find a common
through voice or instrument inspired one another. These very first interactions marked language of expression and interactions. What I found particularly intriguing was how,
the linearity and circularity of movement in the space and set up some of the principles of through the exercises and musical attentiveness, we achieved a high level of sensitivity
ensemble work, which we utilised in further lab sessions when working with instruments as and responsiveness to the ensemble’s dynamic. While actors who enter the “theatre of
objects. musicality”29­—as the lineage of theatre derived from Grotowski is also called—train for
weeks to reach such a level of listening, I expected that in the newly created interdisciplinary
During the second lab session we applied our experience of movement inspiring sound
ensemble of Motion Studies, we would also need more time to embody such attentiveness,
through our embodiment to investigate how instruments—additional bodies and what Colin
names as “agents”—change this interaction. Working with movement still played a central
27 See Krawczyk Ilona, ‘Unspoken performance-installation’, YouTube video, 4:23, February 27, 2019, https://youtu.be/
role. However, in this case we were interested in exploring different kinds of movements
bIzEtKU18qE.
that emerged from or were needed to play these instruments. Therefore, the mechanics of 28 Ilona Krawczyk and Ben Spatz, ‘Dreamvoice: A Dialogue’, in Somatic Voices in Performance Research and Beyond, ed.
Christina Kapadocha (London: Routledge, 2021), 141.
29 Dariusz Kosiński, ‘Song from Beyond the Dark’, Performance Research 13, no. 2 (2008): 69, doi: 10.1080/13528160802639318.

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particularly in physical actions. Therefore, I was surprised how fast the understanding of In Motion Studies, embodiment became a primary reference point for the engagement
these principles and responsiveness towards each other’s actions, whether vocal, instrumental with voice and instrument. Nevertheless, the movement did not serve merely for the sake of
or physical, developed. sound production or illustration. At the same time, the sound was not just an accompaniment
for physical actions. Both assisted as equally valuable means of artistic expression, inspiring
one another in the process of “choreographing music” and “composing movement”. Such
Conclusion a conceptual change in working with sound and movement could be further developed for
devising interdisciplinary performances, in which visual and audible aesthetics are equally
The account of different perspectives on devising Motion Studies presented how important and mutually dependent.
collaboration between musicians and theatre practitioners could be formed by devising
interaction and improvisation in a laboratory setting. In that we come from multiple
backgrounds and disciplines, we influenced one another in crossing from sound into
movement and vice versa. By taking up practices otherwise foreign to our ordinary practices
we expanded our individual capacities and grew the project across disciplinary boundaries.
In the writing of this article, wherein personal reflections were combined and juxtaposed, we
became aware of the phenomenological differences between our personal experiences that
occurred throughout this collaborative process. We observed similar elements as significant
and artistically valuable, as expressed in the flexibility of the boundary objects, but looked
and analysed them independently.

This research demonstrates rich possibilities for working with embodied memory
in the creation of new work in a lab environment by using video documentation, devising
methods and musical instruments. Future projects with embodied scores could include
computer interactive environments, which would offer another layer of interaction between
self, motion sonification and others.

As the objects brought to the laboratory sessions were active agents, our
improvisations, devising, and the overall artistic process was influenced by these non-
human items. As demonstrated in Colin’s examples of the woodblock and frame drum,
our embodied movements were influenced by and entangled within a more than human
assemblage. Why these objects were used and not others remains unanswered, however,
future artistic research could consider the selection of objects, and further inquire into their
specific influence.

We as performers realised how space can become an ally. By including the space
as an agent, the field of interaction was broadened during the devising process and while
performing. In this way, spatial awareness can be a handy technique to use for enhancing
the receptive state of performers, connecting them to the present moment, and enabling a
common language of expression among interdisciplinary groups. Considering the current
situation of the pandemic, where most of the performances have been online, in future
projects one could test the applicability of working with awareness of “ma” in an online
format, where the performance space is not shared by the members. Additionally, on a social
level, the duet conversation exercise might contribute with an embodied technique to better
understand practices of social distancing.

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 Giving new life to ordinary and non-ordinary sound devices
Giving new life to ordinary and non-ordinary sound devices
The Museo del paesaggio sonoro in Riva presso Chieri and the Sinfonia del mondo Museum, on a project by Domenico Torta and Guido Raschieri, one of Febo Guizzi’s students
by Domenico Torta who dedicated an important part of his PhD dissertation to this experience.4

Cristina Ghirardini This paper focuses on a piece for narrator, small orchestra and traditional musicians
written in 2013 by Domenico Torta that is entitled Paesaggi sonori. Piccolo popolo ƒievoli ƒiabole
ƒrivole. Quattro brevissime favole musicali per voce recitante, campane tubolari, rastrelli, cucchiai,
Introduction
cintura, bottiglie percosse, bottiglie insufflate con la complicità di un’Orchestra d’Archi e un Quartetto
di Legni,5 performed for the first time on 26 and 27 February 2015 at the Auditorium Piccolo
In 2011 the Museo del paesaggio sonoro (Soundscape Museum)1 was founded in
Regio Puccini in Torino.6 This score was revised for a new performance scheduled on 22–23
Riva presso Chieri, a small town about 40 km from Torino, in Northern Italy. The Museum
April 2020 at the Teatro Regio in Torino which had to be cancelled because of the Covid-19
preserves a collection of musical instruments, bells, noise makers, hunting calls, toy
lockdown.7 The new version has a slightly different title, Racconti di paesaggi sonori (la musica
instruments, and clay whistles which were collected by the local traditional musician, teacher
è di tutti e si può fare con tutto),8 and has been heavily revised. The new score includes an
and composer Domenico Torta.2 The new Museum is the result of a collaboration started in
additional section for the narrator since Domenico Torta himself was expected to perform this
late 2004 between Domenico Torta and a few students and PhD candidates at the University
part in April 2020.9 This new section is optional because it relies on the exceptional experience
of Torino (myself among them), all pupils of Febo Guizzi, Professor of Ethnomusicology in
of the composer, which cannot be easily replicated. The new score includes also an optional
Turin from 1999 until 2015 (when he passed away before his time).
Interlude for 50 children-percussionists, which is the result of Torta’s school teaching of the
The collection, however, has a longer history. Domenico Torta has always lived in last few years. Moreover, the conclusion of the new score engages the audience in playing a
Riva presso Chieri. He learned the local traditional music aurally from his family and from rhythmical accompaniment of Amilcare Ponchielli’s Danza delle ore with spoons. In the 2015
other musicians from Piedmont, but he also attended the Conservatory of Torino where he performance, each audience member received a couple of plastic spoons at the entrance to
graduated in double bass in 1978. Both a performer and a composer, he became a teacher of play the Danza delle ore as an encore. In the new performance this piece would have been the
music in local schools, and for all his career as a music teacher (he retired in 2019), he tried great collaborative Finale of the work.
to transmit to his students both his academic and his traditional knowledge.3 He started
collecting musical instruments and various sound devices for teaching purposes, and only
In this paper I will focus on Torta’s recreation of the soundscape of Riva presso
later did he display his collection in various occasions. The collection shortly became a
Chieri in the first part of his Racconti di paesaggi sonori, which he obtained using mainly non-
reference point both for his activity as a traditional musician, together with the local ensemble
conventional musical instruments reconstructed according to those preserved in the Museum.
I Musicanti di Riva presso Chieri, and as a composer. In 2004 the encounter with Febo Guizzi
I will focus on the special relationship between language and music in Domenico Torta’s
encouraged him to start a new season of fieldwork research in collaboration with Guizzi’s
work, and on his creative use both of folk music (including imitations of natural sounds
students. Thanks to the town council and to some close friends of Torta’s, a provisional
and of non-human beings) and of the conventions of Western art music. This paper will
Museum was created in the highest floor of Palazzo Grosso (the town hall of Riva presso
focus only on the first part of the score, the Sinfonia del mondo. This Symphony will be used
Chieri) in 2005. However, it was only in 2011 that, benefiting from the extraordinary resources
that were granted to the town council by private and public sponsors in occasion of the 150th
anniversary of the Unification of Italy, it was possible to create a new and partially interactive 4 Guido Raschieri, “Ce la faremo? Ce la stiamo già facendo! Il Civico Museo del Paesaggio Sonoro di Riva presso
Chieri”, Senso e identità del termine popolare. Alcune prospettive di indagine etnomusicologica. La riproposta di repertori musicali
tradizionali in Piemonte (PhD diss., Università degli Studi di Torino, Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione, 2011), 471-623.
5 Soundscapes. From the little people of faint frivolous tales. Four very short musical tales for a speaker, tubular bells, rakes, spoons,
belt, struck bottles, blown bottles, with the complicity of a string orchestra, and a woodwind quartet.
6 A short trailer has been obtained from the video recording of the 2015 performance https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=_LAL6gg3YBo.
1 https://museopaesaggiosonoro.org/. The catalogue of the museum is available here https://dati. 7 https://www.teatroregio.torino.it/spettacoli-2019-2020/racconti-di-paesaggi-sonori-annullato.
museopaesaggiosonoro.org/.This paper is the result of years of conversation and exchange of ideas with Domenico Torta, 8 The complete title of the 2020 version is Racconti di paesaggi sonori (la musica è di tutti e si può fare con tutto). Piccolo popolo
an artist, an excellent ethnomusicologist sui generis and a wonderful friend. I would like to thank the editor of this issue, ƒievoli ƒiabole ƒrivole. Quattro brevissime favole musicali per voce recitante, campane tubolari, rastrelli, cucchiai, cintura, bottiglie
Colin Frank, for his careful reading and his relevant questions which helped me in finding the words to introduce a work percosse, bottiglie insufflate… e la complicità di un’Orchestra d’Archi con un Quartetto di Legni e uno spiritoso percussionista. Non
which is quite far from the actual perspectives of New Music in Northern Europe. si esclude, inoltre, la partecipazione straordinaria dei celeberrimi maestri Georges Bizet, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus
2 https://tasch5.wixsite.com/domenicotorta. Mozart e, per finire, di Amilcare Ponchielli e del favoloso pubblico in sala. In English: Soundscape stories (music is for everybody
3 A performance by the students of Domenico Torta, Guido Raschieri, Pasquale Campera and Gabriella Rustichelli of and can be played with everything). From the little people of faint frivolous tales. Four very short musical tales for a speaker, tubular
the Scuola Media “Oscar Levi” (Istituto Comprensivo Chieri I) can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/ bells, rakes, spoons, belt, struck bottles, blown bottles… and the complicity of a string orchestra, a woodwind quartet and a comedic
watch?v=eY6jUTEebaU&feature=share. The students composed a new text for the renowned partisan song Bella ciao and, percussionist. Moreover, the extraordinary participation of the world-famous masters Georges Bizet, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang
together with their teachers and under the supervision of Domenico Torta, they elaborated a new musical setting for the Amadeus Mozart, and, to come to an end, Amilcare Ponchielli and the fabulous audience is not excluded.
melody of the song, including a rhythmical accompaniment with spoons. 9 In the 2015 performance the speaker was the Italian actor Bob Marchese.

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as a passe-partout to understand Torta’s creativity, where new music mixes with historical Hornbostel-Sachs Classification) with a resonator made of an inflated pork bladder. The
awareness and sense of place. In Torta’s work sound, music and parody of music merge with torototela used in Domenico’s Torta Racconti di paesaggi sonori (fig. 3) is a kind of reinvention
the materiality of the sound devices, whose performance technique is challenging even for the of this basic instrument played to parody music in wedding ceremonies by a musician who
most skilled performer. was called torototela, like his instrument. It is Angelo De Gubernatis, for example, who gives a
description of a “testament of the turkey” performed by a torototela during a wedding party in
Riva presso Chieri.11
Domenico Torta, the Museo del paesaggio sonoro and traditional music
in Riva presso Chieri

Domenico Torta’s special sensibility for sound is rooted in his family. His mother,
Giuseppina Tamagnone (Pina ’d Tasché, 1925–2015) was a passionate folk singer and maker
of toy instruments for children, and the two uncles of his mother, Giuseppe (1899–1989) and
Ernesto Fasano (1904–1993), were deeply immersed in the traditional use of sound in Riva
presso Chieri. As it was common in the local traditional culture, they were able to use almost
everything to improvise a rhythmical accompaniment and were able to construct musical
instruments and sound devices which were used in everyday life.

The Museo del paesaggio sonoro preserves many instruments built by Giuseppe and
Ernesto Fasano, as well as other sound devices used by them. Some of their sound devices are
rooted in ancient traditions, like noise makers that were used to stop the swarming of bees.
Ernesto Fasano used to strike a scythe (fig. 1) but in the Museum also a tin is preserved, used
by Gabriele Pennazio for the same purpose.
This practice in Italy has been documented
at least since the years between I century
B.C.E. and I century C.E., in the Georgics by Figure 3: Domenico Torta playing his torototela (photo by
Figure 2: A torototela made by Giuseppe Fasano (Museo del
Virgil and in De Rustica by Columella, and has paesaggio sonoro, Riva presso Chieri, photo by Ilario Meandri). Cristina Ghirardini).

been discussed until our age. It is Italo Sordi

who has recognized that the act of making Giuseppe Fasano is also the maker of the froja, a wooden scraper which in southern
noise is not intended to have an effect on the Italy is called scetavajasse, i.e. the instrument to wake up female servants,12 and in northern
bees, it is rather a performative act to declare Italy is documented only in Riva presso Chieri. It was used by Barba Pino (Uncle Pino, as
publicly the appropriation of the swarm by Torta called him) to perform rhythmical accompaniment to dance music (fig. 4). But Barba
a new owner.10 His brother Giuseppe Fasano Pino was also able to improvise rhythmical accompaniments with many kinds of tools, for
is the maker of one exemplar of torototela example a broom: he used to scrape its broomstick on the surface of a box made of poplar,
preserved in the Museum, where the body which had been previously sprinkled with ash. In this way, he intended to imitate the sound
of the instrument is obtained from a wooden of the bass flugelhorn in the wind band performing for the dance (fig. 5). But he was also a
shovel (fig. 2). The torototela is a musical bow maker and player of reedpipes, cog rattles, and bullroarers. In his performances, Giuseppe
or a stick zither (according to some variants Fasano combined a clearly theatrical attitude with a sense of rhythm: despite the fact that he
in its structure it may correspond to one was a clever musician, for him the theatrical gesture itself was more important than music.
of these two different subdivisions of the
Figure 1: Ernesto Fasano striking a scythe to stop the swarming of bees.
11 Angelo De Gubernatis, Storia comparata degli usi nuziali in Italia e presso i popoli indo-europei (Milano: Treves, 1869), 184-185.
10 Italo Sordi, “Rumori e suoni di carnevale” in Maschere e corpi. Percorsi sul carnevale, ed. F. Castelli and P. Grimaldi 12 It is made of a notched stick which is scraped with another stick. Normally the notched stick is provided with rattles. It is
(Alessandria: Edizioni Dell’Orso, 1999), 283-291. I have discussed this subject in Cristina Ghirardini, “Variabilità widely documented in the area of Naples and in Campania. Its playing technique is a parody of the violin’s and its name
morfologica, temporalità umana e uso del suono al Museo del paesaggio sonoro di Riva presso Chieri’” in Lingue e suggests a burlesque use, maybe to parody serenades. See Febo Guizzi, Gli strumenti della musica popolare italiana (Lucca:
migranti nell’area alpina e subalpina occidentale, ed. M. Del Savio, A.Pons and M. Rivoira (Alessandria: Edizioni Dell’Orso, Lim, 2002), 43-45 and Paola Elisabetta Simeoni and Roberta Tucci, ed., La collezione degli strumenti musicali [del] Museo
2019), 395-413. nazionale delle arti e tradizioni popolari (Roma: Libreria dello Stato, 1991), 111-114.

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shape language. This is evident in the many onomatopoeic names attributed to instruments,
for example, the name trich trach attributed to some noise makers of the Holy Week (a
name documented also by Filippo Bonanni for the same instrument in 172213 fig. 6) or the
expression in the dialect from Riva presso Chieri used to define the bullroarer: vzon-vzon ch’a
fa ra vos der tron (vzon-vzon which makes the voice of the thunder).14

As we will see, a cultural awareness of music as a shared means to live together in a

community—therefore having political implications—is at the basis also of Torta’s musical
production. Music is traditionally perceived in Riva presso Chieri in a dichotomy between
chaos and order. Chaos is represented, for example, by ritual noises made for the Holy Week,
which were part of the paraliturgical celebrations of Holy Friday in the Catholic Church,
banished in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council. Order is represented by singing, by
the melodies played by bells, or by the music for dance in various celebrations, among them
the dance for the conscripts15 and for the feast of St. Alban. The aggressive implications of
Figure 4: Giuseppe Fasano playing the froja together with Domenico Torta.
the ritual noises for the Holy Week and their complicated history have been reconstructed
by Febo Guizzi, following a series of paintings of the mocking of Christ.16 He introduced
the concept of antimusica to define the sonic manifestation of disorder. The word antimusica
is used for a performative event which corresponds to a reversal of the dynamics inside a
group of people, that is why it may be applied both to the ritual noises during the Holy Week
and as a more generic form of aggression, like in charivari,17 sports events, and protest. It
does not imply any specific idea of “noise”, but it is the result of performative acts which are
considered dichotomous with the idea of musical orderliness. Antimusica can be performed
together with music or as a kind of aggression to a musical practice; it can replace music,
or it can be represented by a voluntarily distorted way of playing music. However, as we
will see, in Domenico Torta’s Sinfonia del mondo, the chaotic experience of antimusica is also
regenerative, containing in itself the seeds of a new beginning. In the Museo, as well as in
Domenico Torta’s experience, the noise makers for the Holy Week (horns, cog rattles and
other kinds of struck idiophones) are complementary to bells, since they were played to
replace the sound signals of the bell tower from Holy Thursday to Holy Saturday, when bells
used to remain silent.18 Moreover, the series of bells of the bell tower, with its keyboard and

13 Filippo Bonanni, Gabinetto armonico (Roma: presso Giorgio Placho, 1723), cxviii-cxix.
14 The same can be said for the areas of Italy where studies on similar sound devices have been carried out, see for example
Vincenzo La Vena’s research in Calabria: Vincenzo La Vena, Strumenti giocattolo e strumenti da suono a Terranova da Sibari
Figure 5: A broom used to imitate the sound of the Figure 6: A plate from Filippo Bonanni, Gabinetto (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 1996).
flugelhorn (Museo del paesaggio sonoro, Riva presso Armonico (Roma: presso Giorgio Placho, 1722). 15 In his recent publication entitled Ij brando. Mùsica - Mùsiche - Musicant, with an introduction by Guido Raschieri, (Riva
Chieri, photo by Ilario Meandri). presso Chieri: EdiTo, 2020), Domenico Torta has not only reconstructed the traditional contrapuntal techniques to
Music and language were deeply integrated in the traditional musical culture in improvise dance in small ensembles of woodwinds and brass instruments, but he has also described the various occasions
for dance in Riva presso Chieri and other towns of Piedmont.
Riva presso Chieri. Sound was generally connected to emotions, and music was perceived 16 Febo Guizzi, “Corni, strepiti, diavoli e giudei. Le raffigurazioni del Cristo deriso e il ‘demoniaco’ nei rituali della
as a cultural construction, rooted in the linguistic thought, which could acquire different Passione” in Charivari. Mascherate di vivi e di morti, ed. F. Castelli (Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2004), 201-243.
17 Claudie Marcel-Dubois, “La paramusique dans le charivari français contemporain” in Le charivari, ed. J. Le Goff and J.C.
meanings according to the situation, and which could also be the object of imitation and of Schmitt (Paris: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales – Paris, La Haye, New York: Mouton Éditeur, 1981), 45-53.
parody. This is true even if, both for Domenico and for the people from Riva presso Chieri, See also Franco Castelli, ed., Charivari. Mascherate di vivi e di morti (Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2004).
18 According to the Catholic liturgy, during the Holy Week bells are played until the Missa in Coena Domini of the Holy
this relationship is mostly unconscious: what we now verbalize as a result of a research Thursday, then they remain silent for the whole Friday. They are allowed to play again from Saturday, when the priest
process carried out with Domenico Torta was implicitly shared by people (especially before and the people sing (or say) the Gloria. In the past the ceremonies on Friday used to be announced playing cog rattles and
other idiophones, as well as horns. In some Italian villages these instruments are still played during the liturgical and
WWII) and did not require any of our current explanations. Sound was also a powerful tool to
paraliturgical celebrations of the Holy Friday.

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the complicated way to play bells through the technique of pulling ropes both by the hands In the 2020 version, the score is divided into eight parts (the Interlude is optional), both
and the feet, is not only the instrument to play a shared code to send messages to people—for music and the spoken parts are by Domenico Torta:
example the sequences of sounds to announce the death of a man or of a woman—but is the
basic tool to play short melodies, and to play dance tunes. La sinfonia del mondo
Prologo
Both music and antimusica in Domenico Torta’s perspective rely on the awareness of Ouverture (homage to Leone Sinigaglia)
the emotional power of sound. He often uses the word “ancestral” to define sound devices I. L’omino e la vecchia torre [The little man and the old bell tower]
which might be found almost everywhere in the world, and which are largely documented in II. Le sei principesse [The six princesses]
Riva presso Chieri and whose sound has a strong emotional impact. Ancestral sound devices III. I tre rastrelli musicanti [The three rake musicians]
for Domenico Torta are mainly idiophones, friction drums, the torototela, bullroarers, whistles, Interlude (50 children percussionists ad libitum)
reeds, horns, and conches; that is sonic devices which are extremely basic in structure, IV. E un patà! —Tik! e Tak! [nonsense syllables representing rhythmical patterns]
extremely widespread and often used in similar situations by different cultures. Among the
“ancestral” sound devices, the Museum preserves a series of hunting calls, many of them La sinfonia del mondo (The symphony of the world) and Ouverture are completely
are also used in Racconti di paesaggi sonori. Even if the practice of hunting is now considered instrumental, except for a short but significant introduction of the narrator that divides
an unnecessary and almost sport activity, Gabriele Pennazio (a former hunter from Riva the Sinfonia del mondo in different parts. The Ouverture is a homage to Leone Sinigaglia
presso Chieri) explained that before WWII it was an important means to earn one’s livelihood (1868–1944), a composer and researcher of the folk songs of Piedmont, who transcribed
and be in balance with the ecosystem of the countryside of Riva presso Chieri. Behind the
many folk songs in a series of pieces for voice and piano, and it is played by the orchestra.
construction of hunting calls—it was common for hunters to make their own instruments In this piece Torta quotes some of Sinigaglia’s melodies in a Pastorale played by the strings
by themselves—there is a practice of listening to the sounds of birds, a deep knowledge of and woodwinds, together with the percussionist playing tubular bells. At the beginning the
their behaviour in the local environment and a technical and acoustical awareness of the Musicanti imitate the sounds of birds with hunting calls and whistles, later they interrupt
potentiality of different sound devices, mainly friction idiophones, edge-instruments, and Sinigaglia’s “pastoral” tunes with the imitation of “rural sounds: bleating, bellowing,
reeds. Gabriele Pennazio, for example, used different calls (made of a bone or brass whistle cowbells”.21 The Sinfonia del mondo instead is played only by the Musicanti di Riva presso
with an air reservoir made of a leather bag full of horsehair) to imitate the sound of the quail
Chieri. Here the dawn of life is evoked through the sounds of the human and non-human
depending on the distance of the possible prey from the hunter.19
activities of a rural place, in an indefinite time which might always be possible. It appears
to be pre-modern, according to the purely acoustic performance of the whole Symphony,
and thanks to a tradition of shared gestures which allows the actual performers to repeat
Racconti di paesaggi sonori the same gestures that thousands of people have done for hundreds if not for thousands of
years to activate the same sound devices. Even if the score is based on the music experience
The Racconti di paesaggi sonori20 requires a string orchestra with a wind section and
that the composer had in Riva presso Chieri, this town is mentioned only in the composer’s
a percussionist, and a series of traditional musicians capable to use the sound devices that
Introduzione to the score and is never mentioned by the narrator during performance.
Domenico Torta asks for. At the moment, only the Musicanti di Riva presso Cheri are capable
The Prologo is entirely spoken and it is a message from the author to the members of the
to do that, thanks to their long musical experience with Domenico and thanks to their
orchestra. It is almost an apology, explaining to the members of the orchestra why he felt the
common traditional background in music. In the 2020 performance they would have been
need to dedicate a work to a series of common objects and working tools, which, in the land
joined by a group of 50 children, the pupils of Domenico Torta: some of them, hopefully, will
from where the author comes from, often assume a ludic and musical role, replacing the real
be able to take the place of the Musicanti in the future.
musical instruments which do not exist there. This happens especially in parts III and IV,
where common tools and objects are used to play music, both traditional dance tunes and
excerpts from pieces by Beethoven, Bizet, and Mozart. Parts I to IV are tales for narrator and
performers. The first one deals with the death of the bell-ringer, the last of a genealogy of
bell-ringers who have shaped the local soundscape with their signals and their tunes from
19 Cristina Ghirardini, “Variabilità morfologica, temporalità umana e uso del suono al Museo del paesaggio sonoro di Riva the bell tower and the necessity to find a new one. The second is the tale of a King and his
presso Chieri”, 404-7.
20 The score has never been published. Thanks to Domenico Torta, I have had access to the first draft, which was employed six daughters: an evil sorcerer wanted to marry one of the girls, but the King refused, so
for the 2015 performance, and to a series of additional parts that Torta wrote as revisions to his first project for a
performance with his students on 19 and 20 November 2017 and for the 2020 performance which was cancelled. A definite
version of the score does not exists yet, and its various parts are scattered in Torta’s computer. 21 In Italian “suoni agresti: belati, muggiti, campanacci”, the translation into English is mine.

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the sorcerer transformed the king into a bell tower and the six daughters into six bells. The three parts. La parata degli oggetti (The objects’ parade) is a parade that the students perform
tale deals with the characters and sound of the six girls/bells: Coscienza (Consciousness), while playing the recorder, the kazoo and the cog rattle while others strike the handle of
Scadenza (Deadline), Partenza (Departure), Invadenza (Inquisitiveness), Intelligenza brooms, a drum and some light wooden chairs. In the Passaggio di consegne (The handover)
(Intelligence), Urgenza (Urgency). In this tale, the six bells of the real bell tower of Riva presso some of them accompany the orchestra by striking rhythmically the handle of a series of
Chieri are personified, while in the next tale, three rakes meet a group of musical instruments brooms according to a technique similar to the one used by the rakes in part III. In the third
and start playing a rhythmical accompaniment to a dance in order to be acknowledge as part, Scope alla ribalta (The curtain call of the brooms) some children continue to play a
musicians. The fourth tale is a consequence of the third: after the rakes, different objects, rhythmical pattern on the brooms, while others strike wooden chairs and a plastic tank. The
like whips, spoons, glasses, saws, tools for work, belts, crockery, and bottles, want to be most difficult rhythmical part of the Interlude is the brooms’ part, and, in order to make it
considered musical instruments and to play with the orchestra. The story told by the narrator more comprehensible for children, Torta has added into the traditional rhythmical notation
in tales III and IV is very simple: some musicians arrive in a village and are hosted by some a series of words divided into syllables. The pronunciation of these words helps to keep
local people. The travellers’ musical instruments are stored in a room with other tools and the right rhythmical pattern without the children needing to be very familiar with musical
everyday objects. The musical instruments start recalling their travels and while the musical notation.
instruments fall asleep, the tools decide to leave their lives of labour and become musicians.
Racconti di paesaggi sonori is a very unusual score even in the actual Italian panorama
The conversation of the musical instruments is played by the string section with pizzicato and
of new music. As it is quite common in Italy, the link with a past tradition is of paramount
short melodic patterns. The rakes’ “chattering” is obtained by beating their handles with the
importance for the composer’s creativity. In Torta’s case, however, it is the strict relationship
beaters or passing the beater through the “comb” of the rake. The accomplished involvement
with traditional music and the everyday use of sound in a rural community that allowed
of tools in music is obtained by joining the tools and the orchestra in a mutual engagement.
him to define a special aesthetic of sound and of music, which is grounded on the acoustic
This is realized first by allowing rakes and spoons to play the rhythmical accompaniment
experience. Until now Torta has never used electronic music. The bodily technique of
to dance tunes or well-known pieces of classical music. Secondly, it is obtained through
playing musical instruments and the relational nature of music making, involving different
the implicit interaction of language. Whips for instance are used to play a very theatrical
performers as well as the audience, are the most important aspects of his creativity. Torta’s
rhythmical accompaniment to a dance tune by the orchestra, together with the idiophone
Racconti di paesaggi sonori are intended to tighten the relationship between humans and
commonly called “whip” and played by the percussionist. The use of the glass harmonica
between humans and environment through the use of the body and of the human senses,
by various 18th and 19th century composers, which are quoted in Torta’s score, legitimates
relying on gesture, on musical forms and on a kind of musical notation which can be easily
the entry of tuned bottles to play melodies both by blowing them and by striking them with
understood by everybody having a musical background. Torta is not interested in any
beaters. Sometimes in part IV the Musicanti and the percussionist exchange their parts: this
conceptualizations or in any kinds of abstraction which cannot live outside the spaces for
requires a great musical versatility and sense of irony from the percussionist of the orchestra.
artistic performance. His art is extremely grounded in a shared experience of sound and the
That’s why in the subtitle of the 2020 score he is mentioned as a “comedic” percussionist.22
theatrical potentialities of gesture. In his refusal of the avant-garde he can be considered at
Parts III and IV contain several quotations from composers of the past, in a mutual the crossroad of important Italian traditional musical routes: folk music, “classical” music,
engagement of traditional and classical music. The respect for tradition is intended as a and the ingenious use of sound that hunters and other users of specific sound devices have
collection of classics which, far from being a series of monuments in a historicist view of the in common with Foley artists.25 His music is deeply engaged with language: the sense
past, gain new life in performance.They are combined with parody and irony, thus enhancing commonly attributed to performance is reshaped in his scores, playing with names and with
the emotional power of the music. E un patà! is composed of a series of pieces performed on the sonority of words and of vocal utterances.
various sounding objects, according to different playing techniques that Domenico Torta and
His music comes from an aesthetics of sound of everyday life and from a cultural
the Musicanti have developed.23 Tik & Tok is an arrangement of Ponchielli’s Danza delle ore
and “musical” view of life. Torta’s Racconti di paesaggi sonori are probably an interesting
which requires a rhythmical accompaniment with spoons by the audience.
counterpart to Giorgio Battistelli’s Experimentum Mundi (1981).26 In this piece Battistelli
The Interlude played by children is optional. In the 2020 performance it should have involved sixteen craftmen from his native town, Albano Laziale, in a performance with an
been performed by 50 children according to a choreography by Domenico Torta.24 It is in
25 On the Italian tradition of Foley artists see Ilario Meandri, International recording (1959–1969). Indagine sulle memorie orali
22 See footnote 8. (Torino: Kaplan, 2013) and Ilario Meandri, Luca Cossettini, Cristina Ghirardini, Alessandro Molinari, Archivi sonori del
23 Many of the playing techniques employed here and in the Sinfonia del mondo have been also employed in a cinema. Progetto ICSA Italian Cinema Sound Archives (Venezia: Fondazione Levi, 2020).
previous cd by Domenico Torta and the Musicanti di Riva presso Chieri: Saré l’uss e buté fòra ‘gat! [Close the door 26 http://www.giorgiobattistelli.it/opere/teatro-musicale/experimentum-mundi/. See also Maria Carmela Ranieri,
and put outside the cat], FolkClub Ethnosuoni, 2007, also available on youtube https://www.youtube.com/ Dall’opus all’opera. Experimentum Mundi di Giorgio Battistelli (Roma: Aracne 2020). A performance of Experimentum Mundi
watch?v=cspAfH5pjkU&list=OLAK5uy_l6V4tQ8yXvdVM0kIWAbU8r1uvDUqAXXF8&index=2. can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SjFoSi7zLk or https://www.raiplay.it/video/2018/05/
24 The first performance of the Interlude took place in Chieri on 19 and 20 November 2017. EXPERIMENTUM-MUNDI-1c4fff01-c37e-42c7-b84a-0444fb11d20a.html.

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actor, a percussionist and a female choir. However Battistelli, relying on a strict relationship bells in Europe and the role of the sound of birds in the Bosavi culture of Papua New Guinea
between the sounds of work and the sounds of music, never imagined to transform musically that shaped his cosmopolitan view of jazz in Ghana, allowing the figure of the drummer and
and theatrically the use of the tools by the craftsmen involved in the performance. Instead, bells player Nii Otoo Annan to emerge:
he fully integrated the sounds and the time needed for the accomplishment of their manual
activities on stage with the parts that he wrote for the percussionist, for the narrator and
for the female voices, according to a libretto based on the Encyclopédie by Diderot and Listening to all that ringing—near, far, above, below, in sight, out of sight, soft, loud,
D’Alembert. stationary, moving—powerfully brought back the sound-space of the rainforest. And that’s
when, in the immediate overlay of auditory recall, I began to wonder if bells might stand
Torta instead loves to play with different senses of sound associated to different ways to a thousand years of European village acoustemologies as birds stand to thousands more
to manipulate objects for playing sound and music and he takes them to extremes, playing in the New Guinea rainforest. That’s when I began to wonder if animal bells sonified the
on dichotomies between sound and music, traditional music and art music, musica and boundaries of common and private land, and with that, sonified histories of class, wealth,
antimusica, musicians and Musicanti, time and space. As we will see, especially in the Sinfonia labor, and struggles over ownership. That’s when I began to wonder if there were pastoral
del mondo the linearity of time is broken by his idea of the “ancestral” sounds, while Riva parallels to what was so audible in the Bosavi rainforest, an acoustemological triangle
linking sound to ecology and cosmology.
presso Chieri, the geographical pivot of his musical thinking, may become everywhere, a
casual place where the dawn of life can be reconstructed through the mimesis of the sound of
Those questions impelled me to ten years of listening and recording animal, church,
pre-modern life.
festival, and carnival bells in villages, towns, and cities in Greece, Italy, France, Finland,
What Torta and Battistelli share, however, is a sense of gesture, a sense of form, and a Norway and Denmark. And what I’ve continued to hear is how time and space fuse as bell
sense of accomplishment of musical or non-musical actions which, using Giorgio Agamben’s ring, patterns of immediate resonance simultaneously sounding a longue durée. Bells, like
words, are turned from their ordinary utilitarian purpose in order to become inoperative rainforest birds, resound simultaneously as natural historical clocks, as place makers of
(inoperoso). And in this inoperativity relies the form-of-life of anybody involved in a process of the ecosocial niches that define communities, and as spiritual beacons mediating heaven
poiesis, whose aim is not work but happiness: and earth.28

Listening as a practice to shape thought as well as the adjective “aural” and the name
A living being can never be defined by its work but only by its inoperativity, which is to “aurality” have gained special interest in recent years, especially in sound studies and in
say, by the mode in which it maintains itself in relation with a pure potential in a work and musical disciplines related to ecology, most which also aim to decolonise music research.
constitutes-itself as form-of-life, in which zoè and bios, life and form, private and public
Aurality is the title of a seminal book by Ana María Ochoa Gautier29 which aims at examining
enter into a threshold of indifference and what is in question is no longer life or work but
the “modes of audibility”30 of the human voice in various writing concerning the music of the
happiness. And the painter, the poet, the thinker—and in general, anyone who practices
natives in 19th century Colombia. Ochoa Gautier worked on different writings that originated
a poiesis and an activity—are not the sovereign subjects of a creative operation and of a
work. Rather, they are anonymous living beings who, by always rendering inoperative the in a cultural milieu shaped by colonial experience and where the voice itself could be an
works of language, of vision, of bodies, seek to have an experience of themselves and to important embodied element to distinguish the human from the non-human (the screaming
constitute their life as form-of-life.27 of the bogas, the boat rowers of the Magdalena Rivers, was considered hardly human) but
also a means to achieve a national identity after the end of the Iberian domination, through
The Racconti di paesaggi sonori are pivoted on bells. The two tales on the bells (I and II) are in
pronunciation and orthography of language and the construction of a folklore.
fact the centre of the score, the Sinfonia del mondo and the Ouverture represent the transition
from natural sounds to chaos and finally to music, and the last two tales fully integrate Domenico Torta’s Racconti di paesaggi sonori cannot be properly compared to the
everyday objects and tools into the world of musical instrument. The juxtaposition of bells historical sources examined by Ochoa Gautier, instead Torta’s musical tales open a new
and other sound producing devices with their respective sound worlds and super natural
or spiritual implications is in itself “ancestral” in Domenico Torta’s view. Torta developed it 28 Steven Feld, Jazz cosmpolitanism in Accra (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2012), 128-129.
starting from his experience in Riva presso Chieri, but the potentialities of this germinal idea 29 Ana María Ochoa Gautier, Aurality. Listening & Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Colombia (Durham and London: Duke
University Press, 2014). Despite the fact that the book originated from a very different academic experience, the analysis
are not necessarily tied to a place or a time. Instead their strength lies in being out of place
of historical sources carried out by Ochoa Gautier has interesting aspects in common with the approach of historical
and out of time, always ready to come up and shape human and non-human relationships. sources promoted in the late 1980s and 1990s by a few Italian and European musicologists and ethnomusicologists. See
for example Franco Alberto Gallo, ed., Musica e storia tra medio evo e età moderna (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1986) where in the
Steven Feld in fact wrote that it is the possible comparison between the role of the sound of
Introduzione Gallo explains his notion of eventi sonori, proposing a new historical approach which should be interested not
only in art music but in any kinds of “sonorous events”. See also Roberto Leydi, L’altra musica (Firenze and Milano: Giunti
– Ricordi, 1991).
27 Giorgio Agamben, The Use of Bodies, trans. Adam Kotsko (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015), 247. 30 Ochoa Gautier, Aurality, 20.

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perspective on the modes of representation of the knowledge on sound and music through 00.00.58 Nell’oscurità della notte dei tempi il suono era libero: Soundscape: keynote
the ears and the playing techniques of local people. They are an alternative to the current idea In the darkness of the dim and distant past sound was free sounds 1 A
of intangible heritage supported by the Unesco lists and a good example of collaboration with libero di volare nel vento,
school children. free to fly in the wind, (wind)
di immergersi nel mare,
to plunge in the sea (sea)
La sinfonia del mondo di bruciare nel fuoco,
to burn in the fire (fire)
The Sinfonia del mondo starts with a short speech by the narrator, who connects the di spegnersi e rigenerarsi nella pioggia…
origin of music from sound to the dawn of humanity, together with the appearance of some to die out and regenerate in the rain… (rain)
basic needs for humans: hunger and thirsty as well as the need for the sacred. According to 00.03.33 Spuntò così, a poco a poco, l’alba della vita… Soundscape: keynote
the score, the spoken part has to be performed by an off-stage voice with a “biblical” tone. That’s how the dawn of life slowly started… sounds 2 B
For Domenico Torta music is strictly related to a sense of the sacred, it is rooted in linguistic 00.08.52 Apparvero la fame e la sete Soundscape: signals C
thought and it pervades everything in life (independently from any religions, even if Torta Hunger and thirst appeared
was grown up in a Catholic environment). Moreover music, according to Domenico Torta, e la mancanza del Sacro si fece sentire:
can be played with any kind of musical instruments and sound devices and also by the and the lack of the sacred became evident
voice, as Racconti di paesaggi sonori tries to demonstrate. Torta’s perspective highlights the fu allora che il suono divenne rito e magia…
very idea of sound as an ancestral element preceding music, common to different cultures, at that very moment sound became ritual and magic…
and connected to emotion. Moreover, he would like to stress the permeability of the borders 00.12.30 L’umanità imparò ad osservare e a vedere,
between art music and folk music. He aims to overcome academic conventions of Western art Humanity learned to observe and to see
music by stressing the technical and musical awareness of the performers of traditional music ad ascoltare e a sentire,
and of the users of sound devices, being musicians, hunters, bell ringers or even singers. As to listen and to hear
Torta likes to remark, the Sinfonia del mondo can be sung: it is not based on a melodic pattern, ad immaginare e a narrare…
but it can be played with the voice. to imagine and to tell
In the 2015 score the text read by the narrator is divided into four parts. Three of Il riflesso di quell’immenso paesaggio fu subito musica.
them correspond to the first three Paesaggi sonori (Soundscapes) represented by the Sinfonia. The reflection of that immense landscape was immediately music
In the centre column of table 1 there is a transcription of the text, on the left the timing L’uomo, col tempo, creò gli strumenti per poterla
corresponding to the recording of the 2015 performance,31 and on the right the guidelines by raccontare…
Domenico Torta. The whole Sinfonia in the 2015 performance is played by the Musicanti di Man, with time, created the instruments to tell it [= music]
Riva presso Chieri, the Orchestra entering only for the fourth soundscape, which corresponds 00.12.56 [pause, the Musicanti go out, the Orchestra enters]
to the tuning of the Orchestra. 00.13.55 Soundscape:
soundmark D
In the 2020 version, the role of the narrator is much more complicated. Soundscape D
Table 1 The narrator’s part in the 2015 score of Paesaggi sonori.
of the 2015 score corresponds to soundscape E in the new version (fig. 7), which includes two
following page. The narrator’s part added in the 2020 score will be considered separately
more soundscapes, called D and D’. Two traditional songs accompanied respectively the first
later.
by a primitive form of polyphony, and the second by three torototelas, one froja, a cow horn
and two idiophones made respectively with two halves of nut and with a couple of wooden In the 2015 score of Paesaggi sonori the four soundscapes correspond to four parts
pegs used to tie the sheaves of wheat. inside the score. A, B and C are played with different sound devices and noise makers which
Torta calls toniche (tonics). D is the impronta the “soundmark” of the orchestra tuning, which
For better clarity, here I will take into consideration the 2015 score of the Sinfonia del
might appear separated to the preceding parts, however, as I will explain, an important link
mondo, corresponding to the performance at the Piccolo Regio, which can be watched on the
connects the orchestra’s tuning with the antimusica of the final part of soundscape C. The
words tonica and impronta are the Italian translations of Murray Schafer’s keynote sounds and
31 https://vimeo.com/439997049.

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“La sinfonia del mondo”

voce fuori campo (biblico):
Nell’oscurità della notte dei tempi il suono era libero:
libero di volare nel vento, (vento)

di immergersi nel mare, (mare)

di bruciare nel fuoco, (fuoco)

di spegnersi e rigenerarsi nella pioggia... (pioggia)

(Paesaggio sonoro: toniche A ) (vedi partitura )

Spuntò così, a poco a poco, l’alba della vita...

(Paesaggio sonoro: toniche 2 B )

Apparvero la fame e la sete

e la mancanza del Sacro si fece sentire:
fu allora che il suono divenne rito e magia...
(Paesaggio sonoro: segnali C )

L’umanità imparò ad osservare e a vedere,

soundmark.32 Domenico Torta has been impressed by Schafer’s idea of soundscape, especially
ad ascoltare e a sentire,
when we (Torta and the groups of students of Febo Guizzi) started talking about a possible ad immaginare e a narrare...
“soundscape museum”. However he never worked according to Schafer’s method and, as Il riflesso di quell’immenso paesaggio fu subito musica.
a research team, we tried to reflect more on relational aspects of the use of sound inside (Paesaggio sonoro: impronta sonora D e D’ )

the community of Riva presso Chieri and we did not engage in fieldwork recordings of the L’uomo, col tempo, creò gli strumenti per poterla raccontare...
sound environment. Nevertheless, in his Racconti di paesaggi sonori Torta adopted Schafer’s [N.B.: D e D’ : queste parti (questo “quadro”) si possono omettere nel caso in cui il Narratore non sia in grado di
eseguirle con la voce (canto) e lo strumento (torototela).
distinction between keynote sounds, signals and soundmark and used this vocabulary in the
score with a slightly different meaning. The word tonica (keynote sound) in Domenico Torta’s
(Paesaggio sonoro: impronta sonora E - mentre il narratore e i percussionisti-attori abbandonano la scena
score is used for the sonic output of various sound devices, which are characterized mainly l’’orchestra entra rumorosamente, prende posto ed accorda)

by their timbre qualities. Segnale (signal) is used for a series of sounds which are produced by Il narratore raggiunge il proscenio (lato destro del palcoscenico visto dal pubblico).

instruments commonly used for a double purpose: to send messages according to a shared
code and for antimusica. Conches and horns are among them. Finally the word impronta Figure 7: The narrator’s part in the 2020 score of the
Sinfonia del mondo by Domenico Torta.
(soundmark) is used in the 2015 score for the tuning of the orchestra, while in the 2020
wind machine, with other instruments or sound devices well known to Foley artists. Three
version it is used also to define the “ancestral” world evoked by the two songs sung by the
rainsticks are used for the rain and a big sieve containing dried seeds of corn, which move
narrator.
while the sieve is rotated, provides the sound of the backwash. The thunders associated with
Unlike his previous works, where he made use of traditional staff notation, for each rain are played with two different thunder sheets: according to Domenico Torta’s guidelines,
part of the Sinfonia del mondo, Domenico Torta has elaborated his own notation and has one is made of polyester and the other with metal or other (unspecified) materials. It is the
provided a Legenda, that is an explanation of his way of writing the music. Both in the 2015 second sheet which will be shaken to obtain the stronger thunder associated with lightning;
and in the 2020 score, the Legenda is missing for toniche B, simply because he did not have time the lightning being notated with a special picture similar to an arrow. The crackling of the fire
to finish it before the performance, which (in both cases) was under his supervision, so it was is obtained by rubbing a large sheet of paper, sometimes combined with plastic glasses and
not strictly required. For each part, a series of drawings represent the instruments required bottles.
and their playing techniques.
In his explanations of the instruments, Torta calls these sound devices with half-serious
The soundscape in part A is a sonic representation of the four elements: three are names in Italian: the wind machine is called anemofono, the sieve is called talassofono, the paper
evident, water (sea and rain), fire and air (wind), while earth is implicit in the regenerative producing the sound of the fire is called pirofono, the rainstick is called brocheofono and the
power of rain. They are obtained combining traditional sound devices for the theatre, like the thunder sheet is the bronteofono (fig. 8). The act of giving new pseudo-scientific names to these
sound devices sounds ironic for people reading the score. However, it might have a more
32 R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World (New York: Knopf, 1977), tonica, segnali, impronta are used in the Italian
translation Il paesaggio sonoro, trans. Nemesio Ala (Roma: BMG Ricordi - Lucca: Lim, 1985). hidden purpose connected to the general statement of the score (whose title insists on the fact

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that music can be played with everything), i.e. to raise to nobility sound devices which might
Effettistica: A Toniche 1
not be considered prestigious enough to be played on stage, and particularly at the very
opening of a “Symphony”.
Anemofono - Si tratta della macchina del vento (detta anche eoli- fig.1
fono) già utilizzata da G.Rossini, R. Strauss, R. Wagner, The score of soundscape A is made of a series of boxes referring to the sequence of
O.Messiaen, M.Ravel, G. Puccini… un tamburo rivestito in tessuto these actions and to the spoken parts. The length of each sound effect is given in seconds (fig.
che viene strofinato, quando l'apposita maniglia viene girata, con-
tro aste di legno o cartone, produce un suono frusciante simile al 9). The Legenda (figg. 10–11) explains the movements that the performer have to execute in
vento. (fig.1) order to increase tension and to manage the dynamics.

Part B represents the dawn of life, initially only with the sounds of frogs, crickets, owls,
Talassofono - Crivello - È possibile ottenere un ottimo effetto di little owls, larks, turtle doves, cuckoos, lapwings, fieldfares, and nightingales. Only at a later
risacca utilizzando un crivello da grano (Ø cm. 150 circa), conte- stage do human sounds appear, and Torta chose to represent the advent of humans with
fig.2
nente semi di granoturco ben essiccati. Per ottenere un suono pro- the sounds of work, including a hammer striking a sickle, and the sounds of tamed animals:
lungato si dovrà porre molta attenzione al quantitativo di semi im-
piegati perché mentre pochi non produrrebbero l’effetto desiderato, horses with their bells, the sound of cowbells, the sound of a whip alongside vocal calls for
troppi renderebbero lo strumento addirittura afono. La tecnica ese- animals, and the sound of seeds being thrown to hens. At the end of this sequence a reed
cutiva è simile a quella del Ocean Drum. (fig.2) imitates the cry of a baby.

The section entitled Strumentario minore (minor instruments) describes the sound
devices used for these toniche: friction drums (frogs, hens), hunting calls (cricket and almost
Pirofono - Il crepitio del fuoco è un effetto ben noto ai rumoristi
fig.3 all birds), whistles (nightingale, owl), two different types of bells for cows and goats, pellet
che solitamente lo ottengono stropicciando della carta. Si prepari la
carta idonea allo scopo, quindi precedentemente testata, e si aggiun- bells for horses, and two halves of a coconut to make the sound of horses’ pace or trotting.
gano bicchierini di plastica (come quelli bianchi da caffè) o/e botti- The sound of falling birdseed is included, using a sieve and making seeds fall into the sieve
gliette di plastica per poter aumentare a piacere l’effetto del crepiti-
with the hand. The cry of a baby is imitated with a double reed, using a drinking-straw where
o. (fig.3)
Nell’oscurità della
notte dei tempi il anemofono Paesaggio sonoro A Toniche 1 partitura
suono era libero:
Libero di volare anemofono
Brocheofono - Si utilizzino 3 lunghi bastoni della pioggia (lung. Perc. att.
nel vento:

cm.200 circa) ricavabili da tubi di plastica (come quelli utilizzati da- 1 ff

gli idraulici del Ø di cm. 6,3 circa) contenenti piselli da seme ben 20” ca. talassofono
20” ca.
essiccati. Gli esecutori (tre) dovranno disporsi in fila indiana (fronte fig.4 di immergersi talassofono
pubblico) ed alternare i loro movimenti con moto rigorosamente rit- Perc. att.
nel mare,

mico per evitare interruzioni improvvise all’effetto dello scrosciare 2

della pioggia. (fig.4) Vedi esempio seguente: 20” ca.
40” ca.
pirofono
bronteofono
Perc. att. di bruciare (cambia strumento)
nel fuoco,
3

20” ca. 30” ca.

brocheofono
di spegnersi
e rigenerarsi
Perc. att. nella pioggia...
fig.5 4
Bronteofono - La macchina del tuono (nota tanto ai rumoristi quan- 60” ca.
to ai percussionisti) consiste in una lastra rettangolare in rame, accia-
brocheofono
io, latta o lamiera zincata sottile o di medio spessore e con dimensio-
Perc. att.
ni di cm.70 x 100 o 100 x 200. Si possono utilizzare con discreto 5
successo anche lastre litografiche in alluminio anodizzato o di mate- 60” ca.
riali plastici o sintetici come fogli (di diverso spessore) di poliestere. brocheofono
Risulta ottimo l’impiego di due lastre: una di maggiori dimensioni
Perc. att.
per il rombo del tuono l’altra di minori dimensioni per le saette. 6
(fig.5) 60” ca.

Figure 8: The musical instruments used for Toniche 1 in Racconti di paesaggi sonori 0” 20” 30” 40” 50” 60”
by Domenico Torta (drawings by Domenico Torta). Figure 9: The score of Toniche 1 in Racconti di paesaggi sonori by Domenico Torta.

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pirofono
Legenda: Paesaggio sonoro A Toniche 1
= stropicciare la carta con una e due mani - stropicciare il materiale pla-
stico per aumentare qua e là il crepitio cercando di creare un effetto quasi
anemofono reale.
20” ca.
= si dovrà sentire il sibilo del vento (per quanto possibile) nelle sue
“svariate forme - ciò sarà possibile imprimendo, con la maniglia, diverse
velocità alla ruota.
20” ca.
= saette - con una mano si azioni o si tenga e si azioni un foglio di polie-
anemofono stere (dimensioni cm.50/70 ca.). Scuotendo il foglio energicamente il suo-
no risulterà secco ed incisivo.
= idem come sopra - aumentando al massimo la velocità (crescendo) ne-
ff gli ultimi 10”.

20” ca. bronteofono

= tuono - con l’altra mano si azioni o si tenga e si azioni una lastra
40” 50” 60” metallica o di materiale sintetico (dimensioni cm.70/100 ca.). Scuo-
tendo, più o meno velocemente, la lastra sarà possibile ottenere
30” ca. l’effetto del rombo del tuono, variandone l’intensità e la “tonalità” a
piacere. Negli ultimi 20” si dovrà agire con entrambe le mani per ot-
talassofono
30” 40” 50” 60”
tenere l’effetto richiesto: tuono e saette in crescendo.
= si dovrà sentire la risacca del mare (per quanto possibile) nelle sue
“svariate forme” - ciò sarà possibile imprimendo diverse inclinazioni al
crivello.
20” ca.

talassofono
= dissolvenza sonora incrociata fra una “box” e l’altra: per evitare
un intervento sonoro troppo didascalico.
= idem come sopra - invertendo ed aumentando il numero del-
le inclinazioni del crivello (gradatamente negli ultimi 20”).
40” ca.

20” 30” 40” 50” 60”

brocheofono = l’effetto della pioggia si ottiene inclinan-

do lo strumento (lo “scrosciare” è provo-
cato dalla caduta dei piselli che sbattono Nell’oscurità
contro gli ostacoli che incontrano sul loro della notte dei
percorso). NB.: Più si inclina il bastone tempi il suono
60” ca. era libero: = voce fuori campo del narratore.
maggiore sarà l’intensità dell’effetto e mi-
nore la durata. Libero di volare
0” 20” 30” 40” 50” 60” nel vento:

Per evitare interruzioni di suono i tre esecutori dovranno Es

imporre un ritmo ai loro movimenti, coordinandosi fra di
loro. (Vedi esempio) Si tenga inoltre presente che per ot-
Figures 11-15: A few pages from the score of Toniche 1 in Racconti di paesaggi sonori by Domenico Torta.
tenere il crescendo degli ultimi 20” si dovrà accelerare
gradatamente il tempo.
Figure 10: The Legenda of Toniche 1 in Racconti di paesaggi sonori by Domenico Torta.

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2 8

grilli capre al pascolo

Perc. att. Perc. att.
1 1

BOX

pp f
Perc. att. Perc. att.
2 2

grilli
Perc. att. Perc. att.
3 3

Tordo cesena

Perc. att. Perc.

4 att.

Perc. att. Perc. att.

5 5

Martellatura della falce

rane nello stagno
Perc. att. Perc. att.
6 6
BOX

9 12

rana
Perc. att. Perc. att.
1 1

pp
rane nello stagno
Perc. att. Perc. att.
2 2

Grrwauv! Rrwauv! Rwauv!

Cavallo al passo

Perc. att. Perc. att.

3 3

BOX

p f rana
Perc. att. Perc. att.
4 4

mucche al pascolo
rane nello stagno
Perc. att. Perc. att.
5 5

BOX
pp f pp
vagito del neonato
Perc. att.
Perc. att. 6
6

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the reed is obtained by squashing one of its ends and cutting its sides, in order to obtain two
sharpened lamellae.
Strumentario minore: B Toniche 2

Coro di rane nello stagno - giocattolo sonoro: (“ran-a ëd San Gioan”) -

Domenico Torta has introduced a personal notation system for this part, combining
tamburo a frizione rotante di piccolissime dimensioni che riproduce il gra-
musical figures with iconic signs, like a spiral to represent the long croaking of frogs in a pool, cidare della raganella , o di piccole dimensioni che simula il gracidare delle
or dots of different sizes to represent the sound of cowbells and bells for other animals or rane in uno stagno (fig.1). Qui, consistente in un barattolo di latta che
falling birdseed (figg. 12–15). A white and a black dot represents the beginning and the end of l’esecutore (dopo averne inumidito, con dell’acqua, il manico di legno)
farà roteare, producendo il classico effetto Doppler. Grazie a questo parti-
the baby’s cry. As I wrote before, the explanation of Torta’s notation (Legenda toniche B) is still fig.1
colare effetto sonoro l’ascoltatore si troverà di fronte ad una sonorità che si
missing, however, the description of the instruments and of their playing techniques in the avvicina molto a quella di un gruppo di rane che gracidano in uno stagno
section entitled Strumentario minore is one of the most impressive parts of the score, since they (craw-raw-raw-raw-raw…!) (fig.2).
contain various suggestions which pertain to the traditional making and playing of different
sound devices. It is significant that many of them are instruments which were commonly Il gracidare della rana si potrà ottenere con una differente tecnica esecuti-
made and played by children (figg. 16–19). va: mentre una mano manterrà immobile il barattolo l’altra farà roteare il
bastoncino (sempre inumidito) su se stesso (utilizzando il tamburo a frizio- fig.2
Two different friction drums are used for frogs and hens. The sound of hens is ne in modo statico: senza effetto Doppler), l’attrito produrrà un suono sin-
golo più o meno prolungato, simile ad un gracidio (crè! crèè! crèèèè! op-
obtained with a small friction drum with cord: while a hand holds the body of the instrument,
pure crà! cràà! cràààà!). (fig.3)
the other hands, with its thumb and forefinger, pulls the cord, which is internally fixed with
a knot. The cord has to be tarred and the body of the instrument may be made with a small
cardboard glass for coffee. Instead the friction drum used for frogs is a rotating drum with a
body made of a tin box. The continuous sound of the crocking frog in a pool is obtained by fig.3
rotating the drum, instead the discontinuous crocking is obtained by holding the body of the
instrument with one hand, keeping it steady, while the other rotates the stick: in this way the
stretched string makes the skin vibrate. For a better result, the wooden stick must be wet.
grilli - richiamo ornitologico - dispositivo a frizione consistente in una vite
The sound of some birds can be obtained with hunting calls combining blowing with metallica inserita in un blocchetto di legno di noce. Il frinire (canto) del fig.4
the utterance of syllables. In the case of the hand-made ribbon reed (fig. 20), used as a call grillo si produrrà girando (avanti e indietro) nervosamente la vite ed eserci-
tando una lieve pressione (sulla vite stessa) in direzione del blocchetto di
little owls, the air stream must be accompanied by the onomatopoetic syllables “quìu!” and
legno o una lieve trazione in direzione della mano. (fig.4)
“sutuquìu”. The sound of the vessel duct fluct, used to mimic the turtle dove, should be
shaped around the three syllable words “resisti!” (resist!) or “Roberto!” (figg. 21–22). Another
ribbon reed (generally a commercial one) has to be blown simulating the sound “pau!”.
gufo - flauto globulare o ocarina di medio-grandi dimensioni. Insufflare fig.5
Finally, for the plastic reed made from a drinking-straw that imitates a baby’s cry, not omettendo il colpo di lingua: l’attacco poco definito del suono, il timbro
only is its construction carefully described, in order to let every performer make his/her own nasale dello strumento, il suono grave e cupo produrranno il gufare
dell’uccello notturno. Il canto del gufo corrisponde ad un suono soffiato e
little reed, but also the playing technique is described, which involves two hands creating a
malinconico : l’inconfondibile “uuu!”.(fig.5)
kind of resonator, similar to the wah-wah technique of the mouth harmonica.

The relevant aspects of this part of the Sinfonia del mondo are not only the use of sound
devices and playing techniques common to children33 (at least to people who were children
civetta - ancia a nastro - funziona con lo stesso principio del filo d’erba
until immediately after WWII and used to play with toys made by themselves34) to evoke the
tenuto teso fra i pollici, mentre le mani, chiuse a coppa, permettono la mo-
dawn of life, but the fact that the Sinfonia del mondo inverts the normal descent of ritual sound dulazione timbrica. Qui il filo d’erba è sostituito da un elastico (un anello
ricavato da una vecchia camera d’aria rossa di bicicletta) e le mani da due
pezzettini di legno o da un tappo di sughero. (fig.6) Insufflare energica- fig.6
33 The process of ritual instruments descending to the status of toys is well documented in organology. See for example mente per mettere in vibrazione l’ancia e pronunciare (silenziosamente
André Schaeffner, Origines des instruments de musique (Paris: Payot, 1994 [1936]), 107-108, Febo Guizzi, Gli strumenti della senza far sentire il suono della voce) le seguenti onomatopee: “quìu!” e
musica popolare in Italia, 350-354. “sutuquìu!”
34 Friction drums, whistles, bullroarers, hunting calls, etc. were ordinary toy instruments for people born before the 1960s.
Figure 16-19: The musical instruments used for Toniche 2 in Racconti di paesaggi sonori by Domenico Torta (drawings by Domenico Torta).
Before the 1960s it was not so common for ordinary people to buy toys for children and both adults and children made
toys by themselves or used as toys some objects that they received from adults.

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usignolo - fischietto ad acqua - giocattolo sonoro a forma vascolare o zoo- fig.7 campanacci per mucche - campanacci di medie e grandi dimensioni an-
morfa che, grazie al gorgoglìo dell’acqua contenuta al suo interno, può ri- corati a collari di cuoio. (fig.13) fig.13
produrre un suono simile al gorgheggio melodioso caratterizzante il canto
dell’usignolo. (fig.7)

tortora - richiamo ornitologico - (flauto globulare) - insufflando pronun-

ciare (silenziosamente senza far sentire il suono della voce) : “turturù-
uu!”, opp. ”resisti!” (opp.”Roberto!”), opp. Robèr!Robèr! Robèr!Robèr!… campanacci per capre - campanacci di piccole dimensioni ancorati a col-
Questi tre sono i “versi“ più comuni che caratterizzano e simulano meglio lari di cuoio. (fig.14)
il canto della tortora del collare. (fig.8) cuculo - il verso del cuculo si ottie-
ne con l’apertura e la chiusura del foro presente su questo stesso richiamo fig.8
ornitologico: “cu-cu!” (intervallo di terza minore).
fig.14

allodola - richiamo ornitologico - simile a quello già descritto ed utilizzato

fig.9
per imitare il verso dei grilli. La vite molto più allentata ed il movimento
meno nervoso e più ampio producono, per frizione, il trillo acuto, potente e zoccoli di cavallo - (effettistica/rumoristica) - idiofono a concussione -
strumento consistente in due semi-gusci di noce di cocco che, percuotendo fig.15
variegato che caratterizza il canto dell’allodola. (fig.9)
la superficie di un asse di legno o sbattuti fra di loro, riproducono lo scalpi-
tio degli zoccoli del cavallo. Il suono prodotto risulterà molto realistico so-
prattutto se si cercherà di riprodurre il suono delle andature, passo e trotto.
(fig.15)

tordo cesena - richiamo ornitologico munito di soffietto (sorta di manti-

ce) a forma di sacchetto. Colpendo (in modo ritmico: due crome) con il
fondo del sacchetto il palmo dell’altra mano aperta o una qualsiasi altra
parte del corpo, si otterrà il classico verso roco e soffiato della cesena (cè-
cèch!). (fig.10)
fig.10 frusta - frusta del cocchiere - si tratta di una vera e propria frusta utilizzata
dai cocchieri e non di quella altrettanto nota generalmente impiegata in or-
chestra dai percussionisti. (fig.16)

pavoncella - richiamo ornitologico - si tratta di un’ancia a nastro (un ela-

fig.11
stico largo e sottile (simile a quelli impiegati nella biancheria intima), fis- fig.16
sato alle due estremità ed imprigionato in un piccolo cilindro di legno
(tagliato a metà in senso longitudinale e tenuto insieme da due piccole sfe-
re di legno). (fig.11) Per produrre il suono che caratterizza il verso della
pavoncella insufflare molto piano, simulando la pronuncia del suono ono-
matopeico: “pàu!”
Sonagliera - collare per equini con bubboli. (fig.17)

martellatura della falce - idiofono a percussione - incudinetto (il ferro fig.12

che solitamente il falciatore pianta in terra) e martello. Impugnando in una fig.17
mano il ferro e nell’altra il martello, percuotendo, si produrrà quel tintinnìo
ritmico, tipico della martellatura della falce. (fig.12)

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gallina - (giocattolo sonoro) piccolo tamburo a frizione a corda fissa

che imita il verso della gallina. Un piccolo cilindro di cartoncino aperto fig.18
da un’estremità e chiuso dall’altra da una membrana, nella quale, al cen-
tro, viene praticato un foro in cui passa un filo ritorto di cotone che viene
annodato all’interno. (fig.18) La frizione sul filo (esercitata con i polpa-
strelli del pollice e dell’indice), precedentemente impeciato, trasmette le
vibrazioni alla membrana ed il cilindro (fungendo da cassa armonica)
amplifica il suono prodotto. Ottimi allo scopo sono quei bicchierini di
carta utilizzati per il caffè. Facendo scorrere le dita sul filo si pensi al
verso della gallina che si dovrà ottenere: “Cooc-coc-coc-codè!”

becchime - setaccio con semi di granoturco - fig.23

L’esecutore preleverà, a più riprese, una manciata di grani che la- Figure 20: A ribbon reed (call for little owl, Museo del paesaggio sonoro,
scerà cadere gradatamente nel setaccio, simulando, così, il rumore Riva presso Chieri, photo by Ilario Meandri).
del becchime dato (o lanciato) al pollame.

vagito del neonato - ancia doppia ricavata da una cannuccia di plastica fig.19
per bibite. Tagliare una porzione di cannuccia (lung. 6/7 cm. ca.) appiattir-
ne la punta (per 2,5/3 cm. ca.), con le forbici eliminare i due bordi della
parte appena appiattita, creando così due piccoli segmenti appuntiti che
fungeranno da ancia doppia (fig.19). Inserire l’ancia in bocca, evitando che
le labbra siano a contatto con le due parti vibranti, e soffiare con la giusta
forza per emettere il suono (fig.20). Accostare le mani alle labbra, come
farebbe un suonatore di armonica per produrre il classico effetto wa-wa
(simile, anche, al caratteristico suono della tromba, prodotto dall’apposita
sordina, nella musica jazz); si otterranno così due suoni: uno chiuso (u-) e Figure 21: A call for turtle dove (Museo del paesaggio sonoro,
l’altro aperto (-è) che simuleranno il vagito del neonato (uè!) (fig.21 - 22). Riva presso Chieri, photo by Ilario Meandri).

fig.20

fig.21
fig.22

Figure 22: A call for turtle dove (Museo del paesaggio sonoro, Riva
presso Chieri, photo by Ilario Meandri).

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devices to a status of children toys. In fact these sound devices receive a new “ceremonial” Paesaggio sonoro C Segnali partitura
Pag 1

grande corno
role in the Sinfonia del mondo, and their playing technique, once common and well known Perc. att.
1 , ,
by everybody, becomes the skill of some specialists, i.e. Domenico Torta and I Musicanti. 20/30” ca.

Moreover, according to Domenico Torta’s idea that ancestral sounds are capable of persisting
6/7” ca. 6/7” ca.
bucina marina
Perc. att. ,
through time, thus breaking the linearity of history, although music always changes they re- 2

emerge, with their emotional power.

Perc. att.
3
This is even more true in part C, where instruments for signals are used. When asked
to explain what he means when he says that “sound remains while music changes” Torta
Perc. att.
brings the example of the sound of a ferry boat: it is the same as the sound of a conch trumpet. 4

Horns and conch trumpets, commonly used for signals all over Italy (and of course not only
in Italy) because their morphology produces very loud sounds that can be heard at great Perc. att.
5

distances, become instruments of chaotic situations, like the antimusica for soundscape C. The
narrator at this point is very clear: hunger and thirst represent the basic needs for life, and Perc. att.
6

in the text of the Sinfonia del mondo they represent basic dangers; the risk of falling into what Pag 4
Questa BOX inizierà quando i 6 percussionisti-attori si troveranno
Ernesto De Martino called the “crisis of presence”.35 So the instruments to send signals are tutti sul palco allineati (vedi tavola del posizionamento degli esecutori).
BOX: 5/6”

involved in a disruptive and chaotic process culminating in the climax of antimusica, where Perc. att.
1
(grande corno)

chaos becomes a ritual response to the crisis of presence. Antimusica for Domenico Torta is
an ancestral cry, full of pain and fear, however, it is exactly from that painful and chaotic Perc. att.
(bucina marina)

situation that sound is capable to transform itself into music, whose advent is represented by
the entrance of the orchestra. Perc. att.
(shofar)

Soundscape C starts exploring the signal instruments: a large horn opens the scene,
trik trak

,
first played in a long and steady sound and then with a didgeridoo technique. Other Perc. att.
4
(corno ad ancia)

instruments for signals enter, like some reedpipes (horns played with a single reed), the (troccola)

shofar and conch trumpets. Gradually the instruments de ténèbres36 enter: they are the typical Perc. att. (corno ad ancia)
5
idiophones for the ritual noises of the Holy Week. A notation made of conventional and battola 1)

non-conventional signs gives the instruction for the various playing techniques and the Perc. att.
(corno ad ancia)

time of entrance (figg. 23–24). According to the Legenda (figg. 25–27) the large horn playing
6

(troccola)

alone at the beginning has immediately a sacred connotation: a long initial sound, according
to Torta, represents the Magna Mater who calls everybody, while the sound produced with Figures 23-24: A few pages from the score of Segnali in
Racconti di paesaggi sonori by Domenico Torta.
the didgeridoo technique represents the Om, a sound which can resonate together with the
Soundscape D, corresponding to the tuning of the Orchestra in the 2015 score, is in perfect
Universe itself. The chaos is only apparent, since in the score all the signal instruments have
continuity with antimusica: it is in a prosecution of the chaos of antimusica that the Orchestra
special instructions about the sounds to be produced and the respective timing, integrating
tunes itself (fig. 29), providing the conditions of the beginning of a new order. And the new
the entry of wind instruments and idiophones. All the instruments for soundscape C are
order is represented by another soundscape, the Ouverture dedicated to Leone Sinigaglia,
copies of instruments for the ritual noises of the Holy Week preserved in the Museo del
which combines the conventions of Western art music with folk tunes from Piedmont.
paesaggio sonoro (fig. 28).
In the 2020 version, the transition between the antimusica and the soundmark of
The tension is released after the announcement of the invention of musical instruments
the orchestra is much more complex and requires also the presence of the sung voice. The
by the narrator, the Musicanti leave the stage and the Orchestra enters. However, the
possibility for Domenico Torta himself to be the narrator for the performance scheduled in
April 2020 gave him the possibility to include two songs which correspond to the the same
35 Ernesto De Martino, “Crisis of presence and religious reintegration”, Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 2, no. 2 (2012):
434-50. It is an English translation by Tobia Farnetti and Charles Stewart of De Martino’s article published in 1956 in Aut idea of “ancestral” that Torta gave to the sound devices of the Sinfonia del mondo. Both songs
Aut. See also Tobia Farnetti, Charles Stewart “Translators’ preface. An introduction to ‘Crisis of presence and religious are based on a pentatonic scale, and the range of the voice is included in a fifth. Both are
reintegration’ by Ernesto De Martino”, Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 2, no. 2 (2012), 431-3.
36 The expression is used also by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Du miel au cendre (Paris: Plon, 1966). entitled La conta, a word meaning “the tale”, thus evoking (as the score itself underlines)

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Legenda: Paesaggio sonoro B Segnali bucina marina: corni ad ancia: Strumentario : C Segnali

grande corno - corno bovino (simile o appartenente alla razza

grande corno: ankole-watusi) - Si suona con lo stesso sistema di produzione
= suono grave (generatore) del suono dei moderni ottoni, cioè soffiando e facendo vibrare
Es.: = 6° esecutore Es.: = 5° esecutore Es.: = 4° esecutore Es.:
le labbra sulla cavità più piccola del corno, adeguatamente
tagliata e rifinita. Per via della forma non regolare della cavità
= suono grave (generatore) Es.: = primo armonico Es.: interna al corno, l'armonica emessa dallo strumento può essere fig.1
= suono chiuso (ottenuto inserendo la mano nel “padiglione”) - suono aperto = la linea in neretto indica la “durata” approssimativa del suono. molto varia: possono uscirne tanto delle quinte perfette, quan-
Es.:
(senza l’inserimento della mano nel “padiglione”). to degli intervalli limitati come delle quarte o ampi come delle
= la linea in neretto indica la “durata” approssimativa seste o delle settime. (fig.1)
= secondo armonico Es.:
del suono. fig.2
= la linea in neretto tratteggiata indica interventi discontinui.
bucina marina - conchiglia (Charonia lampas lampas o
= segnale Es.: Charonia tritonis variegata) - Nella mitologia greca, Tritone
(Evitare di saturare l’ambiente suonando tutto e tutti insieme).
= la linea in neretto tratteggiata indica interventi discontinui. era, il figlio di Poseidone e aveva un corno di conchiglia che
(Evitare di saturare l’ambiente suonando tutto e tutti insieme). col suo suono calmava le tempeste e annunciava l'arrivo del
dio del mare. La conchiglia usata come uno strumento a fiato
rappresenta uno dei modi più arcaici e naturali di produzione
= segnale: suono corto immediatamente seguito da suono lungo Es.: del suono. Legato alla sacralità o alla ritualità, il suono delle
= la linea in neretto indica la “durata” approssimativa del suono.
(secondo e terzo armonico). troccola: conchiglie é tuttora presente in molte parti del mondo. (fig.2)

shofar - corno di capro o di montone - Si suona appoggiando

= alternare liberamente i suoni indicati (generatore, primo e secondo armonico). = la linea in neretto tratteggiata indica interventi discontinui. le labbra al foro (come una tromba) e facendo vibrare la co-
= la linea in neretto tratteggiata indica interventi discontinui. lonna d'aria interna al corno. Anche in questo caso, per via
(Evitare di saturare l’ambiente suonando tutto e tutti insieme).
(Evitare di saturare l’ambiente suonando tutto e tutti insieme). della forma non regolare della cavità interna al corno, fig.3
= la linea in neretto indica la “durata” approssimativa del suono. l'armonica emessa dallo strumento può essere molto varia:
= la breve coronata indica un suono (in questo caso il generatore) lunghissimo.
possono uscirne delle quinte perfette, quanto degli intervalli
limitati come delle quarte o ampi come delle seste o delle set-
time. (fig.3)
= la semibreve coronata indica un suono (in questo caso il primo armonico) lungo.
shofar: trik trak: corno ad ancia - corno bovino ad ancia semplice battente -
Questo strumento dall’imboccatura simile al clarinetto (ancia
= le linee in neretto indicano la “durata” approssimativa del suono. semplice battente ricavata da un calamo di canna) veniva pre-
parato ed utilizzato dai ragazzi durante l’Uffizio della Setti-
= fondamentale Es.: mana Santa. Lo strumento produce un solo suono, che ricorda
= le linee in neretto tratteggiate indicano interventi discontinui. il bordone di una zampogna. (fig.4)
(Evitare di saturare l’ambiente suonando tutto e tutti insieme).
I crepitacoli - strumenti da strepito - o “delle tenebre” - sono
20/30” ca. = primo armonico Es.: fig.4
= le figure musicali indicano il cambiamento ritmico graduale strumenti che appartengono alla tradizione popolare e che un
(accelerando) che dovrà avvenire , però, senza alcuna interru- tempo venivano impiegati nei riti della Settimana Santa, du-
zione. rante la quale le campane dovevano tacere in segno di lutto.

= segnale La battola (tabërna - tenëbra) è composta di una tavola di le-

“Magna Mater” la voce che a tutti si rivolge e tutti chiama”. Es.: gno su cui sono installate delle "maniglie" in metallo. Agitan-
L’esecutore (partendo con la campana del corno rivolta alla propria destra) traccerà nell’aria un battola: do la battola le maniglie metalliche percuotono il corpo in le-
ampio semicerchio (fino alla sua estrema sinistra). Il suono dovrà essere tenuto per circa gno producendo un suono caratteristico. Nella religiosità po-
20/30” (sarebbe auspicabile, potendo, utilizzare la respirazione circolare). = le linee in neretto indicano la “durata” approssimativa del suono. polare questi strepiti richiamano i chiodi (ferro) e la croce
(legno) di Cristo. (fig.5) fig.5
= la linea in neretto indica la “durata” approssimativa del suono. La troccola (cantaran-a - raganella) è fatta soltanto di legno.
Il suono si ottiene facendo ruotare una parte dello strumento
con un movimento centrifugo. Grazie a questo movimento un
= “(Oṃ) - Il suono che entrando in sintonia con la vibrazione dell'universo diventa = le linee in neretto tratteggiate indicano interventi discontinui.
lembo di legno batte ripetutamente su di una ruota dentata, fig.7
un’ unica cosa con l'universo stesso”. L’esecutore (con la campana del corno rivol- (Evitare di saturare l’ambiente suonando tutto e tutti insieme).
producendo così il suono caratteristico che ricorda vagamente fig.6
ta ai propri piedi) eseguirà il generatore arricchendolo, con la propria voce, di ulte- il gracidare delle rane (ecco perché raganella). (fig.6)
= la linea in neretto tratteggiata indica interventi discontinui.
riori armonici (ottava - quinta - ecc.). Tecnica ben nota a chi conosce o pratica il (Evitare di saturare l’ambiente suonando tutto e tutti insieme). = le figure musicali indicano il cambiamento ritmico graduale Il trich-trach è sostanzialmente simile alla battola, però il
6/7” ca.
didgeridoo. (accelerando) che dovrà avvenire , però, senza alcuna interru- battente, in questo caso, consiste in un vero e proprio martello
zione. di legno che percuotendo il corpo dello strumento produce lo
strepito. (fig.7)
Figures 25-27: A few pages from the Legenda of Segnali in Racconti di paesaggi sonori by Domenico Torta. Figure 28: The musical instruments used for Segnali in Racconti di
paesaggi sonori by Domenico Torta (drawings by Domenico Torta).

traditional narrations improvised around a fire or in meetings inside the cowshed or outside everybody is able to sing in the style prescribed by the score,38 moreover not everybody can
while pasturing the herd. The two songs are in dialect, in the Piedmontese variant of Riva find or make and is able to play the torototela. La conta represents the early development
presso Chieri. The first one is the insipid of a folk ballad sung by Domenico Torta in a free of human life, of the life of the linguistic animal whose language, according to Giorgio
rhythm exploring noise and guttural resonances as well as the chest voice. His voice singing Agamben, never coincides with his/her voice.39 What is important here is not the sung
the text of the ballad is accompanied by three Musicanti: one plays a variable drone with text, even if it is extremely located by the use of the dialect of Riva presso Chieri, but the
a horn, while the other two sing nonsense sounds and syllables in mask and with nasal “ancestral” quality of a dying language and of a traditional singing style. According to
resonances in a primitive polyphony (it is called Organum in the score). Domenico Torta the sung voice of La conta, in its restricted range and in its dualism between
a free rhythm in the first piece and the more rhythmical, dance-like, movement in the second,
The second song has a more rhythmical pattern,37 it is accompanied by three torototela
can exist almost everywhere. If Racconti di paesaggi sonori are performed by other people, this
and by other sound devices: two halves of a nut, both struck and rubbed together, two
part might be replaced by something else, provided that it is characterized by the fact of being
clappers made of two wooden pegs to tie the the sheaves of wheat (fig. 30), the froja and the
at the same time extremely contemporary in traditional music and archaic in its style.
percussion of parts of the body. Also in this case the sound devices correspond to instruments
preserved in the museum and all the vocal and instrumental sounds to be played are For Domenico Torta ancestral instruments, that is sound devices which can be found
described in the Legenda (figg. 31–33). almost everywhere for their structure and their acoustic properties, and an archaic use of the
sung voice are the necessary technological tools to evoke the dawn of life. New Music, as
Despite the fact that according to Domenico Torta the Sinfonia del mondo can be sung,
this is the only part where sung voice is prescribed. This is an optional part because not
38 From an ethnomusicological point of view, the two pieces entitled La conta are an extremely interesting example of auto-
transcription by a traditional singer who is also familiar with staff notation. This aspect deserves a deeper consideration
which is not possible here.
37 A version of this song by Domenico Torta and Valerio Chiovarelli accompanied by two torototela can be found here at 1.02 39 Giorgio Agamben, Language and Death, trans. Karen E. Pinkus and Michael Hardt (Minneapolis–Oxford: University of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_M_y9QVZ5c. Minnesota Press, 2006).

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D D Legenda:

Melos

Canto "libero" di tipo "ancestrale" con melismi, portamenti e fioriture, esplorando i registri di pet-
to, gola e naso .

Organum vocale

Forma primitiva di musica polifonica. Qui la “polifonia ancestrale” viene generata da due voci che
si muovono a distanza di intervalli di 5ª,4ª e 3ª rispetto al bordone, generando “accordi” di 5 e 5 .
4 3

ŋ il simbolo rappresentata la consonante (n) nasale velare. il fonema /ŋ/ inglese

ŋëŋ! verrà pronunciato dagli italiani come [ŋg]: un occlusivo velare Es: angolo

ë è una lettera delle lingue piemontese, albanese, casciuba e ladina, presente

anche in olandese, francese , lussemburghese e afrikaans.

Figure 29: The impronta of the Orchestra in Racconti di paesaggi sonori by Domenico
èòuau Sonorità che ricorda vagamente il canto armonico (questo vale anche per le note
lunghe che seguono).
Torta (drawings by Domenico Torta).

Bordone

Forma primitiva di musica polifonica. Questo “pedale” viene affidato ad un grande corno di bovino
e, per le note lunghe si auspica l’impiego della “respirazione circolare”.

N.B.: Le sillabe tra parentesi, Es. (fi) (da) (on) (ve)…, presenti sui righi dell’organum e del bordone
fanno riferimento al melos ed indicano il punto preciso i cui suoni debbono essere simultanei.
Figure 30: Two wooden pegs used to tie the sheaves of wheat and employed as clappers
(Museo del paesaggio sonoro, Riva presso Chieri, photo by Ilario Meandri). Figures 31-34: A few pages from the Legenda of the narrator’s part in Racconti di
paesaggi sonori by Domenico Torta.

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D’ Legenda:
gusci di noce

1° torototela
“toch! ("il picchio") - suono ottenuto "picchiettando" un guscio contro l'altro

"ra-ga-ra-ga" ("le rane") - suono ottenuto dallo sfegamento dei due guusci di noce (v. fig. ...)

"ra-ga-ra-ga-rà!" ("le rane") - come il precedente

Suoni determinati - ottenuti suonando lo strumento con l’arco, (v. fig.....)

N.B.: le note lunge (il bordone) può essere arricchito a piacere sollecitando (con la mano sini-
stra), ad libitum, gli armonici di quinta e di ottava ricavandone un suono simile ad una canna
di flauto che “ottavizza”. cavigliatori o cavicchi di legno
Suono ottenuto percuotendo, alternatamente, l’uno contro l’altro i manici dei cavic-
chi (incrociando destro contro sinistro e sinistro contro destro) (v. fig. ...)

2° torototela Suono ottenuto percuotendo fra di loro le punte dei cavicchi (v. fig. ...)

Suono determinato - ottenuto con un plettro, sollecitando la corda (v. fig.....)

N.B.: l’intonazione viene determinata dalla pressione esercitata sulla corda dalla mano sinistra. corpo

Suono ottenuto - percuotendo le proprie spalle con i palmi delle mani

Suono "muto" - ottenuto strisciando i palmi delle mani sul torace dall'alto verso il basso

3° torototela Suono ottenuto - percuotendo, con i palmi delle mani, le gambe sopra le ginocchia

froja
Suono indeterminato - ottenuto dalla percussione del
legno dell'archetto sulla vescica nel punto A (v. fig.....) Come nel violino : “arco in giù” - l’arco (la froja) partendo dal tallone si muove dall’alto in basso.
Come nel violino : “arco in su” - l’arco (la froja) partendo dalla punta si muove dal basso in alto.

Lo scorrimento della parte dentellata della froja sul bastone produrrà un suono ripetuto.
Suono indeterminato - ottenuto dalla percussione del legno
dell'archetto sulla tastiera nel punto B (v. fig.....)

Suono ottenuto percuotendo il bastone con la froja .

Suono indeterminato - ottenuto dalla percussione del

“Picchettato in su” - suono ottenuto percuotendo il bastone con la froja, avanzando nella
"puntale" dello strumento sul pavimento (v. fig.....) stessa arcata (arco in su - “alla punta”).

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well as cinema, have got us used to electronic instruments, which are currently more often reconstruction of the dawn of life, based on the idea that humans and non-humans are part
employed to evoke atmospherical events and environmental sounds. In Torta’s perspective of the same nature. The sound devices used to reconstruct it, as I have tried to demonstrate,
live electronics lack the most important aspects which enable us to go back to the beginning are some of the most archaic sound devices, whose acoustic affect relies more on timbre than
of life: the presence of the body and gesture. The dawn of life can be evoked, in the Sinfonia on other parameters. The hunting calls, friction drums, whistles, cog rattles, horns etc. used in
del mondo, only by the relational nature of life and by going backwards in the gesture’s the Sinfonia del mondo are found almost everywhere in the world. For thousands of years they
relationship with the things and their acoustic potentialities. have not necessarily been used for what we call “music”, since they generally had a more
utilitarian purpose in other activities involving the use of sound. This characteristic gives
them a more conservative status than the sound of the musical instruments for art music,
Soundscape as natura artificialis having evolved across centuries and being subject to stylistic and esthetic variations. They
survived through time and have constantly been reconstructed, serving as ritual sound tools,
Despite the use of the expression paesaggi sonori and of Murray Schafer’s terminology toy instruments, mimetic sound devices for utilitarian purposes (hunting) and for fiction (the
(toniche, segnali, impronte), Domenico Torta’s Racconti di paesaggi sonori do not have almost theatre), which can be used as signals as well as for chaotic and aggressive sounds.
anything in common with the artistic practice resulting from the famous World Soundscape
Rather than being made of fragments of field recordings, the soundscape of the Sinfonia
Project. Rather, it is a narration about an aural experience of life in Riva presso Chieri which
del mondo is closer to the Italian tradition of the creation of a natura artificialis, an artificial
does not make use of field recording. Instead it is based on the local knowledge of sound
nature. As Eugenio Battisti has demonstrated,44 the history of the Italian garden has especially
and on the playing techniques of various common sound devices. Making good use of an
aimed to create natura artificialis. A place which must be lived according to a special cultural
academic musical background, Torta has been able to translate this experience into a score,
disposition in order not to misunderstand it, paying attention to its strong relationships with
in a piece of writing which, in its turn, to be performed requires a familiarity with local aural
the environment in which it is created and with the people who live in this environment and
musical knowledge.
contributed, more or less actively, more or less consciously, to its creation. Racconti di paesaggi
In their reconstruction of “a world of things rendered in their acoustic forms”40 sonori shares with the Italian garden the same relational nature: they have been conceived
Racconti di paesaggi sonori might be an indirect answer to Tim Ingold’s critique of the concept in a specific place and in a specific culture and, despite Torta’s effort to make the score
of soundscape. Tim Ingold argues that the current notion of soundscape “might lose touch understandable by everybody, it relies on a common awareness of the use of sound which
with sound in just the same way that visual studies have lost touch with light”41 and risks is not the same everywhere. The relational connotation of Torta’s idea of paesaggio sonoro
to lose the multimodal perception which always characterizes our experience of the world is enhanced by the Italian word paesaggio. Paesaggio means landscape, but both the words
through the senses. Moreover, it risks to “set up a rigid division between two worlds, of mind paesaggio and paesaggio sonoro lack the “scopic” component of the word which caught the
and matter”. Ingold insists that sound is “neither mental nor material, but a phenomenon attention of Tim Ingold,45 instead they share the same root of the word paese (“village” or, in
of experience”,42 more specifically, he adds, “sound, I would argue, is not the object but the a broad sense, “country”). Paesaggio and paesaggio sonoro are more linked to a sense of place,
medium of our perception. It is what we hear in”.43 than to a reproduction of a sight or of an acoustic impression. In fact, according to the art
historian Eugenio Battisti:
The Sinfonia del mondo is a recreation of the dawn of life through the experience
of sound that Domenico Torta had as a native of his cultural environment. His academic
Landscape […] does not describe the natural environment, but it gives an interpretation of it and a selection
background has given him the necessary sense of distance to recognize in the traditional
(which is partial and angled even when the purpose is to give a scientific and documented record of nature).
culture in Riva presso Chieri a deep sense of sound which could be used as a special point of It is made of a collection of elements, only a few of them, each time, acquire a special importance (trees, or
view to create a new musical perspective. Theatre, word and music merge in his Racconti di towns, or mountains, or atmospheric conditions).46
paesaggi sonori, which in performance become an immersive experience for the audience.
For Domenico Torta the result of a process of listening is narration, hence the structure of the
By evoking the rural soundscape of Riva presso Chieri, the Sinfonia del mondo becomes Racconti di paesaggi sonori as a series of tales, merging music and theatre, past and present. The
an aural narration of an event which nobody could witness. In a certain sense it is a mythical
44 Eugenio Battisti, “Dalla ‘natura artificiosa’ alla ‘natura artificialis’” in Iconologia ed ecologia del giardino e del paesaggio
40 Tim Ingold, “Four objections to the concept of soundscape” in Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description (Firenze: Olschki, 2014), 3-50.
(London and New York: Routledge, 2011), 136-139 (originally published with the title “Against soundscape” in Angus 45 Tim Ingold, “Four objections to the concept of soundscape”.
Carlyle, ed., Autumn Leaves: Sound and the Environment in Artistic Practice (Paris: Double Entendre, 2007), 10-13), the 46 Eugenio Battisti, “Il paesaggio. Complessità e storia di un ‘genere’” in Iconologia ed ecologia del giardino e del paesaggio
quotation is from p. 136. (Firenze: Olschki, 2014), 51-69, the quotation, translated into English by myself, is from p. 51: “Il paesaggio […] non
41 Ingold, “Four objections to the concept of soundscape”. descrive l’ambiente naturale, ma ne dà una interpretazione e una scelta (parziale e angolata anche quando lo scopo è di
42 Ingold, “Four objections to the concept of soundscape”, 137. dare una registrazione scientifica e documentata della natura); è costituito da un raggruppamento significante di elementi,
43 Ingold, “Four objections to the concept of soundscape”, 138. alcuni dei quali, di volta in volta, assumono una speciale importanza (alberi, o città, o montagne, o effetti atmosferici)”.

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orality expressed in his Racconti is an act of freedom from the risk of standardization of life
and music, which is always threatening our way of living. The first part of the Introduzione
to the score of Racconti di paesaggi sonori contains a critique to modernity, it invites to take a
step back from globalization which results in a lack of freedom and in a standardization of
knowledge and of the means of artistic expression. Tradition and the awareness of the past in
Torta’s perspective seem to provide a good way to escape from the danger of losing cultural
diversity. Therefore it is by quoting Torta’s appraisal of the freedom of orality which opens
the Introduzione that I would like to conclude this short presentation of the Sinfonia del mondo:

Being born in a small countryside village at the beginning of the second half of 1900
means having seen oxen and horses working in the fields, the last swallows, the last fishes
in streams, having drunk the water from the well and having taken part in the winter
evening parties in the cowshed.

A world inhabited by simple men: poor and miserable, farmers and weavers, who have been
devoured by a pantagruelic globalization which, little by little has lead to the disappearance
of “the last free man”.

That small group of people knew well the meaning and the strength of words: a gaze, a
shaking of hands, a [physical] contact! Everything converged and passed through orality:
the old rhymes used by our grandmothers to entertain and educate children, the folk tales,
the legends, the songs and the tales of the old people describing the war with meticulous
details which had escaped the careless gaze of hegemony.

Since from the “culture of diffused orality” of our ancestors we have plunged into the
abyss of the actual “culture of image”, becoming more and more extraneous to the
perception of the “form of the word”, I believe that it has never been more crucial to
take a step back and to act immediately to recover “memory” and “narration”.

The narrating voice here represents “orality” rather than “aurality” and the performer is
asked to play the part of a “griot” rather than a “bard”. His/her voice, now austere, now
persuasive will be able to take the audience by hand leading them to the “little people”
of “faint frivolous tales”, accompanying them where everything is possible, where music
is of everybody, where the blackthorn and the sloe can coexist without humiliating or
depreciating each other. In this way the objects and tools for work, by sharing the stage
with the instruments of the orchestra, will be able to give life to a saga full of surprises
and of unexpected colours.47

Poiché dalla “cultura ad oralità diffusa” dei nostri nonni siamo vertiginosamente precipitati negli abissi dell’attuale “cultura
dell’immagine”, allontanandoci sempre più dalla percezione della “forma della parola”, sono convinto che, mai come
47 “Nascere in un piccolo paese di campagna agli inizi della seconda metà del ’900, significa aver visto buoi e cavalli al oggi, sia indispensabile uno sguardo a ritroso seguito da un repentino intervento per il recupero della “memoria” e della
lavoro nei campi, le ultime rondini, gli ultimi pesci nei ruscelli, avere ancora bevuto l’acqua al pozzo e preso parte alle “narrazione”.
veglie invernali nelle stalle. Un mondo popolato da uomini semplici: miseri e miserabili, contadini e tessitori, divorati poi
da una pantagruelica globalizzazione che, a poco a poco, ha portato all’inesorabile scomparsa dell’“ultimo uomo libero”. La voce recitante qui rappresenta “l’oralità” piuttosto che “l’auralità” ed all’interprete si richiede, quindi, di impersonare
un “griot” piuttosto di un “aedo”. La sua voce, ora austera ora suadente, ora sognante, saprà ricondurre il pubblico,
Quel piccolo popolo conosceva bene il significato e la forza della parola: uno sguardo, una stretta di mano, un contratto! prendendolo per mano, verso il “piccolo popolo” delle “fievoli fiabole frivole”, accompagnandolo là dove tutto è possibile,
Tutto convergeva e passava attraverso l’oralità: le antiche filastrocche utilizzate dalle nonne per intrattenere ed acculturare dove la musica è di tutti, dove “pruno e prugnolo” possono convivere senza umiliarsi o svilirsi a vicenda. Così gli oggetti
i bambini, le favole, le leggende, i canti ed i racconti dei vecchi che descrivevano la guerra con meticolosi dettagli sfuggiti, e gli attrezzi da lavoro, condividendo la scena con gli strumenti dell’orchestra, sapranno dar vita ad una saga ricca di
peraltro, allo sguardo poco attento dell’egemonia. sorprese e di colori inaspettati”, the translation into English is mine.

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 The Tender Listener

The Tender Listener for home recordings. They will incorporate the shared recordings into a second iteration of
Collaboration and Friendship as Compositional Methodology in boundarymind the installation, which they intend to present at ESS’s Audible Gallery in September 2021.

Linda Jankowska & Katherine Young

The Tender Listener
About boundarymind
To generate this piece of writing, boundarymind creators Linda Jankowska and Katherine
Boundarymind is an evening-length Young corresponded via email and google doc. Jankowska and Young used Olga
electroacoustic sound piece and aggregating Tokarczuk’s 2019 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, “The Tender Narrator,” as a shared
multimedia installation that explores and point of reference to frame their written conversation. Below is the conversation,
transgresses the geographical, cultural, edited for clarity. The authors have retained the fragmented, back-and forth form of
psychological, temporal, and musical the correspondence and labeled the portions written by Jakowska (LJ) and Young (KY).
boundaries that impact how we share ourselves
with others. KY: First, I’d like to say a little about boundarymind, as an introduction to the project for
Developed collaboratively over the those who will read this conversation later.
course of eight years by Linda Jankowska In boundarymind, objects, memories, personal histories, acts of tenderness and sharing,
and Katherine Young, the project also and experiences of (dis)location sonically constellate into expansive and layered musical/
incorporates video projections by Kera performative structures and works. Linda and I have built boundarymind’s world from
Mackenzie and sculpture by Molly Roth objects collected from our childhood homes. In the making of the piece, we have shared
Scranton. Boundarymind’s production partners stories of our pasts, and our families’ pasts, as we have explored the sound-making potential
are Experimental Sound Studio, 6018 North, of these objects. We have found this artistic practice to be extremely rich, creating space
RomanSusan and P.O.Box Collective in for introspection, social connection, relationship formation, musical experimentation, and
Chicago. intense listening. Through boundarymind, Linda and I have formed a very deep collaborative
The complete work will premiere in relationship and personal friendship. We see this as one of the most important outcomes of
Spring 2021 at 6018 North. the project, more important, in many respects than any one artistic object.

Two public performances will include We want to ask as much of boundarymind as possible, and so, we intend to utilize (and
original, collaboratively composed music already have utilized) this artistic practice to build other relationships and communities.
presented within a multimedia environment. Through a series of community sound-archiving events and calls for home recordings, we
Throughout the performance space the artists offer boundarymind to others who wish to explore how sounds store memories and shape our
will install talisman—ceramic pots, plastic toys, beings.
wooden spoons, pine straw, sugar packets, We also intend boundarymind as a space in which—together with our community of
and other things—chosen for their personal collaborators, production partners, audience members, friends, families, and colleagues—
significance and power to evoke memories we can explore how, collectively, to build beautiful futures. In this ambition, we have
of places from our childhoods. For Linda, the been inspired by the writing, thinking, and spirit of Olga Tokarczuk, whose 2019 Nobel
space is a cottage in rural Poland where she Prize acceptance speech, “The Tender Narrator”,1 beautifully articulates ideas we have
spent formative years. For Katie, it is her early discussed developing boundarymind. Tokarczuk aspires to make work that is “capacious
childhood home in Mississippi. On a series of visits in 2015, the artists gathered objects and
sound recordings from these places.

The public will also be invited to contribute objects and sounds to this project. The
artists will host social recording events at 6018 North, as well as at RomanSusan and P.O.Box 1 Olga Tokarczuk, “The Tender Narrator,” Nobel Media AB 2020, December 7, 2019, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/
Collective. Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, Jankowska and Young are planning a remote call literature/2018/tokarczuk/104871-lecture-english/.

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and transgressive,” a description that captures what we love best about her writing and [listening] that shows the world as being alive, living, interconnected, cooperating with, and
experimental music. codependent on itself.

Speaking in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, the related economic collapse, and
Literature is built on tenderness toward any being other than ourselves.6
the Black Lives Matter uprisings of summer 2020, Tokarczuk presciently stated:
We also connect our practice—for more than a piece or a project, boundarymind is becoming a
The climate emergency and the political crisis in which we are now trying to find our practice for us—to Pauline Oliveros’ life’s work. We particularly identify with Oliveros when
way, and which we are anxious to oppose by saving the world, have not come out of she aligns her practice of Deep Listening to ethical action: “Listening is directing attention to
nowhere. We often forget that they are not just the result of a twist of fate or destiny, what is heard, gathering meaning, interpreting and deciding on action. Quantum listening is
but of some very specific moves and decisions—economic, social, and to do with world listening to more than one reality simultaneously….How we listen creates our life.”7
outlook (including religious ones). Greed, failure to respect nature, selfishness, lack of
imagination, endless rivalry and lack of responsibility have reduced the world to the status Eight years ago, Linda and I embarked on a modest project—to make a new piece for
of an object that can be cut into pieces, used up and destroyed. solo violin. We quickly realized that we had a lot to learn about each other before we could
truly create together. So, diligently and patiently, we have gotten to know each other. Our
That is why I believe we must tell stories as if the world were a living, single entity, process of becoming friends became the structure of our project, which even as it has grown
constantly forming before our eyes, and as if we were a small and at the same time in collaborators, media, and years of germination, remains a humble endeavour. As we have
powerful part of it.2 listened together—to each other’s stories and the sounds of objects from our pasts—we have
spent as much time talking about formative moments of our personal histories, what is going
Tokarczuk proposes that tenderness could be a radical orientation, creative methodology,
on in our present lives, and what we want to hear in our future.
and political-spiritual practice that our current emergencies and crises demand. In many
ways, Tokarczuk’s tenderness intersects with adrienne maree brown’s concept of emergent
strategy, which foregrounds collaboration and interdependence, articulates imagination as
LJ: Tokarczuk, in “The Tender Narrator,” says: “As a child…I believed that objects have
a “battleground” with life-and-death ramifications for oppressed peoples,3 and which she
their own problems and emotions, as well as a sort of social life, entirely comparable to our
defines as, describing “ways for humans to practice complexity and grow the future through
human one.”8 Growing up surrounded by an array of curious, found, antique, and hand
relatively simple interactions.”4 Or, moreover, coming from Margaret Wheatley and Grace
crafted objects, such a thought never even crossed my mind. In 1985 my parents bought a
Lee Boggs, she states, “relationships are everything.”5
piece of land, near the city where I was born, with a cottage built in the beginning of the 20th
For Tokarczuk, describing how she utilizes it in her writing: century, and we moved there shortly after my birth in pursuit of a peaceful and outdoorsy
upbringing. Over the course of my early childhood my mother gradually decorated the house
Tenderness is the art of personifying, of sharing feelings, and thus endlessly discovering with various objects she bought at flea markets in villages nearby, or at Cepelia, a chain that
similarities.... Tenderness is the most modest form of love. It is the kind of love that does sold handmade but mass-produced folk arts and crafts. Collections of mostly wooden or
not appear in the scriptures or the gospels, no one swears by it, no one cites it. It has no ceramic pots, plates, spoons, and coffee grinders hung around the cottage as decorations,
special emblems or symbols, nor does it lead to crime, or prompt envy.
giving the place a feel of a mini museum. I didn’t question either their purpose, nor ask how
they found themselves in our space. There were so many of them that surely they could
It appears wherever we take a close and careful look at another being, at something that
have had a social life of their own, talking to one another or dancing to the dim light of the
is not our “self ”.
fireplace, after we had gone to bed. But I never thought of such a possibility back then.
Instead I imagined that maybe, somewhere in the house, I too could find a gateway to Narnia.
Tenderness is spontaneous and disinterested; it goes far beyond empathetic fellow feeling.
Instead it is the conscious, though perhaps slightly melancholy, common sharing of fate. Many years later, by way of Munich and Manchester, where I studied classical violin
Tenderness is the deep emotional concern about another being, its fragility, its unique playing, I found myself on a train platform at Ravenswood in Chicago about to meet you,
nature, and its lack of immunity to suffering and the effects of time. Tenderness perceives Katie, for the first time, after corresponding over email for more than a year. Besides interest
the bonds that connect us, the similarities and sameness between us. It is a way of looking
in contemporary and experimental music, what else could we have in common? I travelled

2 Tokarczuk, 25. 6 Tokarczuk, 24-25.

3 adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy (Chico, CA: AKG Press, 2017), 18. 7 Pauline Oliveros, “Quantum Listening: From Practice to Theory to Practice Practice,” MusicWorks 75, Fall (2000): 1-2,
4 brown, 20. https://soundartarchive.net/articles/Oliveros-1999-Quantum_listening.pdf.
5 brown, 28. brown traces the lineage of her thinking through Octavia Butler, Margaret Wheatley, and Grace Lee Boggs. 8 Tokarczuk, 15.

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with hidden nostalgia for my country and culture, and a sense of loss for a time and place themes that circulate in boundarymind. She describes the radio as a cherished vessel through
that could no longer fit into my current lifestyle, yet where I felt perhaps more at ease. One which she experimented with formative imaginings, personal mythologies, and desires for
teary and vulnerable confession later, we found the reason to work together for as long as connection to the universe and new experiences:
we have. It is through boundarymind that I have finally found that entrance to my Narnia, a
biomythographic reworking of the magical world of objects that surrounded me as a child. This radio later became my great childhood companion; from it I learned of the existence
At last I hear the objects speak. They hum, screech, gnarl, and whistle stories of extraordinary of the cosmos. Turning an ebony knob shifted the delicate feelers of the antennae, and
beauty and peculiarity. Old memories came back asking, “Is it all there was to it?” There is a into their purview fell all kinds of different stations— Warsaw, London, Luxembourg and
great reward in listening so closely to what, in our immediate surroundings, we have taken Paris. Sometimes, however, the sound would falter, as though between Prague and New
York, or Moscow and Madrid, the antennae’s feelers stumbled onto black holes. Whenever
for granted, to the past that we thought we had already reckoned with, and to the failing of
that happened, it sent shivers down my spine. I believed that through this radio different
our heart. Everything connected, orbiting, and even if temporarily out of obscurity, helps us
solar systems and galaxies were speaking to me, crackling and warbling and sending me
to notice more clearly that around us there is always more than we could possibly perceive,
important information, and yet I was unable to decipher it.9
and certainly enough to happily be.
Perhaps her (perceived) inability to decipher the intergalactic secrets the radio sent her
spurred her curiosity and need to learn, listen, remember, and write as a way to decipher.
Working with you, Linda, for these many years on boundarymind I am certain I have learned
to decipher the secrets the universe whispers to me a little better because I have learned to
listen a little better— more tenderly, capaciously, articulately, vigorously, and imaginatively.
Our project has offered me the opportunity to reflect on my past, but more significantly it has
helped me practice listening better to my present as a way to imagine our future.

LJ: We used to have a few different types of pine, spruce and larch trees in our garden. My
Mum let them grow into a small forest in front of the house. I loved their smell and prickly
branches. It wasn’t until a 2017 hurricane obliterated these trees, leaving my heartbroken
Mum to cut the entire forest out, that I picked the few remaining spruce cones from the
ground and started plucking their scales close to my ear.

Linda’s cottage in Psary Wielkie

KY: I have a terrible memory. At least, that’s what I tell myself. I am, therefore, repeatedly
and profoundly drawn to individuals with capacious and detailed memories. Tokarczuk is
one such person; you are another, Linda.

Tokarczuk begins “The Tender Narrator” with an anecdote describing a photograph of

her mother by a radio. In this fragment of writing, she alchemically weaves together thoughts
Linda’s pine cone
on sound, memory, personal objects, childhood, motherhood, imagination, and desire—all 9 Tokarczuk, 1.

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KY: One memory I can conjure of my childhood is spending hours outside collecting, you visited as an adult, it was barely an incline. We agreed that the process of close-miking
arranging, sorting, and assembling pine cones, sticks, leaves, and dirt. Having moved away and amplifying microsounds could be a metaphor for getting-to-know the world from an
25 years later, I visited my childhood home as research for boundarymind in 2016. I took a walk inquisitive, child-like point of view. I remember such details of our conversations.
around the block and observed it from the street, and I was struck by the Mississippi pine
Tokarczuk’s poignant formulation of tenderness as “the art of personifying, of sharing
cones. They are such sturdy pieces of architecture. Bringing one back to Chicago with me and
feelings, and thus endlessly discovering similarities”10 deeply resonates with me. But to
taking it into the studio to listen with the help of a microphone, I was astounded by the bass
seek similarities and sameness of experiences is a rather common methodology for forging
resonances of its microtonal scale.
relationships and connections. Social media and modern communication technologies are
giving us this incredible illusion of (or a potential for) connectedness with anyone in the
world, whether we have met them or not. We perform this connectedness, isolated. Families,
friends, lovers and strangers, typing on machines, sitting next to one another, exploring
emojis to express themselves is the new way of making sense of our shared humanity.
Tokarczuk’s tenderness, as an artistic methodology and concept-building tool, places
opening-up to vulnerability, emotion, and memory ahead of any other concern. It is patient
and slow, “spontaneous and disinterested”11, reminding me of countless examples of your
grace and empathy towards my numerous life crises over the recent years. Her tenderness
erases subject-object dualism and dismantles any potential for hierarchy of authorship
of ideas. Through “deep emotional concern about another being, its fragility, its unique
nature, and its lack of immunity to suffering and the effects of time”12, tenderness disables
Audio excerpt from mvt 3 mechanisms of self-protection. It overshadows academic intellectualisation.

We perceive the vulnerability and emotion-driven reasoning of tenderness as a

Katie’s pine cone method to be in positions of strength. And yet, I can see how these characteristics could lead
to dismissal and even mockery: tenderness as method could be disparaged as “feminine”.
Unlike many of our (often male) composer peers and (almost exclusively male) canonized
role models, we do not focus on the latest technology, nor do we use algorithms or
calculations. As evidenced by the respect given to composers such as Brian Ferneyhough
or Yannis Xenakis, our field has prioritized precise notation of musical / sonic complexity.
In boundarymind, instead of producing a traditionally notated score, we have codified and
committed the materials through our process of collaboratively generating text files and
spreadsheets, a personal archive of recorded examples, and, most importantly, through
creating and sharing the memories and personal histories that have led us to our materials.

KY: Absolutely. In addition to specific objects / products (i.e. exceptionally complexly

notated scores, as one example) receiving prioritization within our field—and then the
prestige, resources, and recognition that often follow—the objects that are prioritized are the
Visit to Psary Wielkie in October, 2015 manifestation, of course, of underlying aesthetic prioritizations. These are the aesthetics put
forth by European and European-American men, for the most part.
LJ: Remember October 2015, when we went together to the cottage in Psary Wielkie, the
village where I grew up? We went for a field trip and first exploratory session with the objects
I had identified as having a curious sounding potential. We sat in my former childhood
bedroom and talked about the world from a child’s perspective. You mentioned how, in 10 Tokarczuk, 24.
your memory, the street in front of your house seemed like a massive hill, but that when 11 Tokarczuk, 24.
12 Tokarczuk, 24.

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This type of criticism—that labels supposedly feminine aesthetics as defects—recalls There has certainly been more discussion about representational balance in
something I recently read regarding Alice Coltrane’s critical reception: programming works by composers in our field, thanks to initiatives such as GRiD (Gender
Relations in Darmstadt) in 2016. As Ashley Fure pointed out:
When women instrumentalists have garnered attention for their talents in the male-
dominated jazz world, their success has usually hinged on the supposedly male qualities Viewed through simple statistics, female composers are by nature more professionally
of their playing: they are praised for their strong rhythm, big sound, and aggressive precarious than their male counterparts. We have less safety in numbers, less historical
improvisations. Conversely, when a woman plays sensitively or with quiet dynamics, her precedents, and less representation in positions of power. The vast majority of curators,
musicianship tends to be dismissed for lack of sufficient masculine characteristics. This teachers, ensemble directors, publishers, and critics making decisions that impact our
gendered mediation is evident everywhere in the assessment of Alice’s solo career.13 professional trajectories are cis white males.17
It is important to directly label Coltrane’s negative critical reception as gendered. Being able Concurrently other festivals, such as, for example, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music
to unpack such criticisms is a necessary tool for female-identifying members of our field. As Festival, signed a pledge to achieve a 50/50 programming balance by 2022. Such initiatives
a personal example, early on in the development process of boundarymind we were working will certainly help to address some of the pertaining inequalities. But perhaps even more
with embedding sensors in shoes to trigger electronic playback. The shoes themselves, thus, interestingly, as we hear more music by more different kinds of people, we may also start
became a significant compositional parameter. A male teacher of mine advised me to be to gain a more nuanced view of the sonic and aesthetic perspectives and concerns that
careful working so overtly with shoes because drawing attention to something like an article composers, performers, and sound artists of all genders are considering.
of clothing might lead people to dismiss the work and silo it into a category of “women’s
music.” The implication was that “women’s music” is a lesser category and one that he was,
with the best of intentions, trying to help me avoid. Unfortunately, his advice rattled me and KY: I do want to make clear that although we reject facile, gendered, patriarchal criticisms
temporarily undermined my creative confidence. If he had expressed his idea while invoking of tenderness—supported by decades of feminist scholars and activists—we do not reject
a feminist critique of the gendered perspective that would lead to such a dismissal, I would “critiques ... offered in the spirit of collective liberation.”18
have been tipped off to the potential problem of reception, while not discouraged from
For instance, it seems valid to ask if, as a method that claims any connection to radical
pursuing my compositional interests.
politics, tenderness is only available to those in highly privileged positions. I wonder what
Following that, if tender listening is not taken seriously, we obviously must ask these gentle approaches accomplish in the face of extreme poverty, climate change, fascism,
whether those criticisms are meaningful, or if they are knee-jerk patriarchal dismissals. and white supremacy? I accept and recursively engage with these criticisms, but I also believe
that no single tactic or approach is going to solve our global crises, and that long-lasting
change will require work in all arenas and at all strata of our existence.
LJ: Yes. Tokarczuk’s tenderness closely connects to a deep reservoir of second- and third-
One thinker I find helpful for how he foregrounds the imagination as a political space
wave feminist thinking, including Ethics of Care, which emphasizes “interdependence,
is Arjun Appadurai. Discussing digital archives in relation to diasporic, migrant communities,
relationships, vulnerability, responsibility, and trust.”14 These theories understand the
he insists that the work of the imagination is
interconnectedness of everyone and everything in this world, a notion Tokarczuk also
addresses in her lecture and in novels such as Flights. According to Ethics of Care scholar
critical for exercising the capacity to aspire....[It] is not a privilege of elites, intellectuals and
Virginia Held15, this undeniable interdependence, mutual care, relational concern, and, we
soi-disant Marxists, but is indeed being exercised by poor people, notably in the worldwide
add, tenderness, are essential tools for the advancement of society. As we are now officially
pursuit of their possibilities to migrate, whether to near or far locations. Denuding these
facing a climate breakdown, it is no longer possible to deny its connection to the patriarchal proletarian projects of the dimension of fantasy, imagination and aspiration, reducing
structures of oppression, domination, unbridled extraction, and a culture of discourse that them to mere reflexes of the labor market or of some other institutional logic, does
delegitimizes the great majority of humans, as well as the planet itself. Therefore, Ethics of nothing for the poor other than to deny them the privilege of risk-taking.19
Care is a daily practice, rather than a fixed moral stance.16

13 Franja J. Berkman, Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane (Wesleyan, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2010), 5. 17 Ashley Fure, “Reflections on Risk,” GRID, August 13, 2016, https://griddarmstadt.wordpress.com/2016/08/14/
14 Nadja Furlan Štante, “The Feminine (He)Art of Caring and the Power of Feminine Divine as New Ethics of Peace and reflections-on-risk-by-ashley-fure/.
Ecojustice,” The Ecumenical Review, 70, no. 4 (2018), 651-660. 18 brown, 5.
15 Virgina Held, The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political and Global (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). 19 Arjun Appadurai, “Archive and Aspiration,” Archive Public, accessed October 8, 2020, https://archivepublic.wordpress.
16 Furlan Štante, 656. com/texts/arjun-appadurai/.

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Or as, brown puts it, This brings me to the thistles. I know that your thistles have a story that relates very
directly to your embrace in recent years of a more authorial role in your creative practice. Can
We must imagine new worlds that transition ideologies and norms….This is a time-travel you tell me about the thistles, what they mean to you and where you got the actual thistles we
exercise of the heart. This is collaborative ideation—what are the ideas that will liberate use in boundarymind?
us all? The more people that collaborate on the ideation, the more people will be served
by the resulting world(s).20

Boundarymind has been a collective space for us to share our work of the imagination and
develop our capacity to aspire. Now, our challenge is to humbly offer this practice-project-
music-art-resource to anyone else who could make use of it.

LJ: Am I right to remember that the cassettes you chose to use in movement 1 of
boundarymind have a connection to some gendered baggage for you, Katie? What do these
represent for you, or to what memories do they connect you?

Audio example of milk thistle flower and

poppy-head, excerpt from mvt 2

Milk thistle flower

LJ: There are a few reasons why this particular flower is a part of my boundarymind
instrument. The most obvious one is that dried flower bouquets and framed dried flower
arrangements were an integral part of the decor of the cottage. The same bouquet of dried
One of Katie’s cassettes
thistles in an orange vase survived intact in one of the bedrooms for a number of years. It has
KY: Definitely. I had these cassettes of “Musical Masterworks and Stories of Geniuses” (or never been replaced. The flower patterns and decorations are very common among Eastern
something like that) as a child, and I loved them. Although I felt no personal identification European cultures, perhaps representing rural life’s interconnected rapport with nature.
with these historic German men, I was enthralled by the biographies and stories of the The other reason is somatic. They are simply incredibly interesting to touch! They are
creative eccentricities of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and other “greats.” I certainly did not see prickly, yet soft. They need to be treated with the right amount of pressure, so that they don’t
myself as possessing any particular musical aptitude; I struggled along with piano lessons, hurt the one who touches, and so they respond with intricate sonorities. They are like sonic
loving moments and fearing many others. hedgehogs! Around 2013 I started improvising with materials I’ve never used before, like a
It was only many, many years later that I remembered these cassettes and what they prepared snare drum, various friction surfaces, microphones, and pedals. I was quite amazed
inspired and codified in me. They instilled a love of music and an appreciation of artistry and that I was getting interesting enough results purely through focusing on tactility, touch, and
artists. They also reified notions that those artists were only white men, who often exhibited somatic experiences of sound production. Over twenty years of violin playing didn’t open my
psychological instability and selfish anti-social behaviours. It took me a long time to unlearn ears quite as much as the art of touching objects in non-descript, non-informed ways.
these hegemonic ideas and to be able to imagine differently and more expansively who can be A beginner’s mind attitude, when you flow with the notion of not knowing what
an artist and how one can be an artist. you are doing, became a very useful practice when I started working on Hanna Hartman’s
music in 2014. Meeting Hanna and learning her music provided me with a fascination for
activating the childhood object as instruments in boundarymind. Hanna sensitised my listening
20 brown, 19.
and tactility, and—with the totality of her sound art and composition practice—showed

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me that one can approach creating music without necessarily going back to school to get a KY: I love that you’re playing thistles Hanna sent you! It illustrates so perfectly how
composition degree. Thanks to the encouragement I got from her, I dared to take a creative sounding our boundarymind objects opens up the potential for us to inhabit a fluid past-
turn in my musician’s life, from interpreter of new music to an integrated music creator. present-future temporal-geography in which our ears are listening, in the case of your thistles,
to the sounds of now-wherever-you-are; Berlin-2019, Poznan-2015, and Poznan-1989 all at the
In co-composing boundarymind you and I never directly discussed authorship, which I
same time. As brown puts it, “here you are, in the cycle between the past and the future.”21
find particularly important to highlight, especially as we each label our primary musician
identities differently. You are primarily an improviser and composer, I call myself a new For me, the cement in my set-up functions in an analogous way, charting this past-
music performer and violinist. In boundarymind it would never make sense to create (present)-future cycle. When I try to conjure up memories of my childhood, our cement
production hierarchies and engage in a binary approach typical for notated music. The co- driveway is one of my most salient memories. I remember entertaining myself when I was
authorship perhaps most poignantly surfaces when we try to verbally describe what supposed to be doing chores by raking the pine straw that I’d been asked to remove from the
boundarymind is about, albeit each of us only holds half of the knowledge. Despite traveling driveway into the geometric patterns of an imagined floor plan. I felt empowered producing
on this journey together and sharing an archive of files and documents, we each hold a the noisy overtones as the metal rake scraped the cement. Although the walls were made of
somewhat different map of the piece. Layering these two maps underneath one another, air, I felt cosy and at home inhabiting the space I created for myself, with winding corridors,
spotting the discrepancies, and tenderly co-composing is perhaps the closest we will ever get lots of windows, and oddly proportioned rooms. When I play the groove of the cement block
to summarising our process in a sentence. It is only in academic presentations that I feel with a small rake in Movement 2 of boundarymind, I attempt to conjure the realness of that
compelled to elaborate on the notion of co-authorship, to argue for a shift in perspective on imagined childhood structure. And of course, thanks to its ubiquity in American (sub-)urban
what performers can do, with the hope that one presentation at a time, we will continue to planning, most any day, cement offers itself to me as a texture and substance through which
contribute towards a more multidirectional approach to classical music education, job to say, “Here you are, Katie, in the ‘cycle between the past and future.’” Do I accept this
opportunities, and funding structures. invitation? Not nearly often enough!

LJ: It dawns on me that in fact you do have a very tangible rapport with your objects, even
with the way you use them performatively, and that the memories you have of interacting
with them place boundarymind on a continuum of your life’s history, rather than, as it is in
my case, on a separate, lane of imaginary what-ifs. None of the objects from my collection
were toys, none of them I even held in my hands. They were just there— in the space of the
cottage; inanimate, mute, austere and bizarre decorations. Like the eerie, antique brush for
weaving, which I am now bowing. Or the clay pots, whose rims I am circling against with
a single bow hair. Or the old manual coffee grinder, which, when it is connected to a delay
pedal, creates stuttering loops. What if, as a child, I accidentally hit them, or brushed against
them? But I didn’t. They were decorations on display, surrounding me. In my defence, they
were hanging or placed too high for me to reach, and the musician in me wasn’t yet awake.
The child accepted the materiality of the space as a given, as normalcy of a home. Years later,
the musician visited the cottage with an altered sense of listening, and a gratitude for the
atmosphere of the cottage, that many other spaces the musician had visited couldn’t live up
Box of thistle flowers sent by Hanna Hartman from Berlin to. The musician reimagined the existence of the space from the child’s nostalgic musings,
that child still living inside the musician.
Coming back to the thistles we are using in boundarymind—they are in fact not
originally from Psary Wielkie; I only ever had a few. In the spirit of sharing materials and
sounds, I gave Hanna one of my Polish thistles. I thought she would surely do something
remarkable with it. In return, Hanna sent back a whole box of these flowers, picked
somewhere near Berlin. Eventually our Chicago audience will be able to experience them as
well, as I have now many more thistles to share!
21 brown, 1.

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we have been turning imagined childhood memories into sounds, I have had the privilege
of witnessing my child’s imagination develop. Observing this has added new layers of
poignancy and meaning to our project of listening and collaborating through objects from our
pasts in order to create shared meaning.

Every day I witness Julian, who is almost four, create meaning, joy, and a sense of
well-being for himself by infusing his toys and the objects of the world around him with
“their own problems and emotions, as well as a sort of social life, entirely comparable to our
human one.”23 He asks profound questions about why and how the world works (he once
asked, “do you think there are two universes?”). He asks constantly about the thoughts of
so-called inanimate objects, demanding that I imagine the world from another’s perspective:
“What is [insert anything he’s curious about] saying?” Some of his recent favourites have
been, “What are the ants saying?” “What is this corythosaurus [toy] saying?” “What is the
basil plant saying?” “What are the tomato plants saying?” I often struggle to come up with
a satisfying response. As I write this, I’m realizing, I can just reply, “Let’s listen a little more
carefully. I’m sure they will tell us!”

I’m no expert in cognitive development, but from what I know, Julian is not
exceptional—these are totally normal behaviours. These questions and considerations
evidence with his developing sense of morality. There is an ethics that comes with the
wonder-filled belief that anything could speak, have desires, have feelings. This ethics
Katie’s sonic exploration of cement
demands that we must be careful not to step on the ants or play too rough with the
corythosaurus. We should wonder what the basil experiences when we pick it. We must be
responsible and remember to water the tomatoes.

As political theorist Jane Bennet writes in Vibrant Matter, she intends “to think slowly
an idea that runs fast through modern heads,” that “matter [is] passive stuff ... raw brute,
or inert.”24 For Bennett, her research is philosophical and political in its perspectives and
intentions. Philosophically,

The quarantines of matter and life encourage us to ignore the vitality of matter and the
lively powers of material formations, such as the way omega-3 fatty acids can alter human
moods or the way our trash is not ‘away’ in landfills but generating lively streams of
Hattiesburg, driveway and playground in Katie’s childhood house in Hattiesburg, MS chemicals and volatile winds of methane as we speak.25
front of Katie’s childhood home and its driveway
Furthermore, politically, she advocates for the vitality of matter because her “hunch is that
KY: True, but the space that you, as a child, accepted as home was most certainly also the image of dead or thoroughly instrumentalized matter feeds human hubris and our death-
infused with the kind of magic that children seem to bring to experiencing the world as destroying fantasies of conquest and consumption.”26
“populated by animate things rather than passive objects.”22 During the time of boundarymind,
In contrast to the wood and ceramic of most of your boundarymind batterie, mine
a lot has changed for each of us individually and, very palpably, in the world around us.
includes a lot of plastic toys. The mardi gras beads, transformer cars, and toy bus are
One of the biggest changes for me during this period has been becoming a mother. This
stand-ins for the thousands of plastic toys that I came into contact with as a kid. Remember
role was not one that I longed for or immediately felt at ease assuming, but it absolutely has
expanded my capacities, even as it puts excruciating demands on my attention and time. As
23 Tokarczuk, 15.
24 Bennett, vii.
25 Bennett, vii.
22 Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010), vii. 26 Bennett, xi.

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those McDonald’s Happy Meal toys? For most American kids in the 1980s, the feel, sound, parents’ stuff one day, after I had come across a Forbes article by Richard Eisenberg titled
and smell of plastic was ubiquitous. What was there in the 40 years ago, we know now may, “Sorry, Nobody Wants Your Parents Stuff”.27 I went into a dark place and started imagining
molecularly, never go away. These seemingly so disposable toys are difficult to responsibly bonfires like in the TV series “Six Feet Under”.
get rid of as well. For these and other sentimental reasons, my mom has hung on to quite a
To some extent boundarymind has been therapeutic because it allowed me to reckon
number of them. It feels good to reactivate them, to sound them and put them to use again.
with my nostalgia and directed me towards a process of letting go, of arranging my stories
and memories around just a few significant things. I found another meaningful purpose for
the objects, which eventually I will need to part way with. They have crossed the Atlantic,
they are starring as dancers in a short film28, they sing in our composition. Giving them a
performance opportunity in boundarymind reminds me of the famous Song Dong installation
Waste Not (2005)29, in which the author displayed collections of over 10,000 objects gathered
by his mother, which informed his upbringing during the Cultural Revolution in China.

Art is a space of transformations, of healing and of exercising alternative perspectives.

Perhaps it is the safest and most accessible place in which we can put different spins on
reconciliation of our pains and worries? Although art reveals vulnerabilities, it also provides
endless ways of reaffirming one’s agency. Entering into someone’s art zone, their relative
Part of Katie’s instrument in boundarymind reality, observing the tools they use to challenge or appease it, is a powerful and intimate
encounter.
LJ: I felt similarly about my objects in terms of their reactivation as a way of repurposing
them to justify holding onto them. Both of my parents have collector-hoarder tendencies, At some point during my recent years of new music performing, I became dissatisfied
likely brought out by spending over forty years of their lives in scarcity and lack, due to with the artist-audience divide, and wondered whether there was another way of interacting
the post-WWII communist People’s Republic of Poland (PRL), and they have a hard time within the space of alternative possibilities together. I wanted to share not only the fruits
discarding things. Sometimes it is hard to discard things because they are beautiful, precious of our efforts, but also the process itself, and work towards a living and malleable type of
and special things— antiques, art pieces, memorabilia, like my paternal grandmother’s composing.
alarm clock, which I am using as a part of my installation in movement 1 of boundarymind.
This is why we will create social archiving events, in which we invite the public to
Sometimes, however, it is because my parents still hold on to the worry of tough times
contribute sounds to our piece by setting up recording stations in a couple of art spaces
coming back. Experiences inform our individual and collective psyche in numerous
around Chicago. By sharing our process of listening to the sounds of significant objects, we
ways, and as an evolutionary species we will perhaps endlessly struggle with balancing
are hoping to invite a conversation and exchange of perspectives, and experiences. Does our
our survival and protection with striving for enhancement of our condition, which isn’t
process inspire others to reconsider what surrounds them, what they hold onto, how they
necessarily contradictory, however, it depends on what you consider a necessary betterment
interact with matter, and where do they store their memories?
of human existence.

In Mellor, a village near Manchester, an archaeologist uncovered British-Romano

settlements, and reconstructed them. You can enter and crouch inside an Iron Age hut, made
Conclusion
of pebbles and covered with hay, moss and branches, where our ancestors slept in the damp
From its beginning, boundarymind has spun out beyond the two of us. Spanning eight
and cold on bare ground. We have always existed within the vortex of Earth’s forces, being
years, our transatlantic process required us to travel to work together, and a number of
a part of a larger interaction of matter, something that we have been trying to understand,
people supported and impacted the project along the way by offering housing, rehearsal
conquer and dominate— to a very poor result!
space, encouragement, creative feedback, technical skills, physical materials, and other things.
Although my generation can no longer relate to such deep-rooted concerns of not Their kindness and generosity stimulated and sustained our collaboration and became a part
being able to have enough clothes or plates, in our wasteful, single-use times, we need to keep
worrying about matter, its surplus and purpose. Can we justify production and acquisition 27 Richard Eisenberg, “Sorry, Nobody Wants Your Parents Stuff”, Forbes, February 12, 2017,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2017/02/12/sorry-nobody-wants-your-parents-stuff/#52340fe324ed.
of all these things that we will undoubtedly have to leave behind one day, when our material
28 Kera MacKenzie, “boundarymind trailer,” May 4, 2020, https://vimeo.com/414886476.
bodies will wilt and perish? I started deeply worrying about what I am going to do with my 29 See photo documentation of this installation at ‘Song Dong’s Waste Not at the Barbican – in pictures’ The Guardian,
February 13, 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/feb/14/song-dong-waste-not-in-pictures.

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of the work’s methodology, and these “systems of mutual connections and influences” have
shaped the piece, and we hope have allowed us to “create constellations capable of describing
more, and in a more complex way, multi-dimensionally.”30

We also brought on two sensitive and thoughtful collaborators— Kera Mackenzie and
Molly Roth Scranton. Kera created the film mentioned above, in which these time traveling
objects spin, jitter, and pop in and out of the frame. The third movement of the boundarymind
performance features Kera’s film projected onto a sculptural weaving created by Molly, with
a fixed media sound piece made of recordings of the objects diffused throughout the space.
Then, we have our partnering organizations: 6018 North, Experimental Sound Studio, Roman
Susan, and P.O.Box Collective. 6018 North, the planned site for the premiere installation /
performance, is a large, old house that Tricia Van Eck has transformed into an exhibition,
performance, and community gathering space. Under Van Eck’s curation, individual pieces of
art embed themselves into the architecture and interior design of the building, as 6018 North
becomes its own work of art. The building and works that were part of the show that was up
during Summer 2019 are major characters in Kera’s video, which was partially shot on-site.
Meanwhile, the efforts of Olivia Junell at ESS, in particular, have been formative to how
boundarymind has evolved. All of these partnering organizations will be crucial to our
community archiving efforts.

Photos of Molly Scranton’s sculpture

we are open to time travel, four-dimensional) sculpture that will hang in the middle of the
performance space.

Symbols of the personal exchanges we have had during boundarymind’s germination

find their way into boundarymind’s very fabric. Molly has designed the sculpture around the
Ker MacKenzie filming at ESS in May 2019
contributed objects, and we have designed performative choreography around the sculpture:
To honour the many participants in our process, we invited everyone to contribute at first the sculpture acts as a divide, with each of us on opposite ends of the room. Then,
to our performance/installation. We asked them to donate an object, which could be of any as the light bleeds through and scatters throughout the space, Kera’s projections transgress
possible meaning to them—important, indifferent, emotional or inconsequential. Molly has the boundary created by the weaving. Sounds will also be diffused throughout a 4-channel
woven together bow hair, pine straw, ex-boyfriend’s T-shirts, wedding rings from defunct system in the room, activating all corners.
marriages, floppy discs, and stuffed animal toys into a three-dimensional (or perhaps, if After this exquisite transgression of the piece’s artificial boundaries, we will come to
the center of the room and stand back-to-back on either side of Molly’s sculpture to perform
the last movement. Relying on proximity now to feel and hear each other’s most subtle
30 Tokarczuk, 22. movements and breaths, we will play an acoustic piece for violin and bassoon.

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Tokarczuk the storyteller states, “The world is a fabric we weave daily on the great
looms of information, discussions, films, books, gossip, little anecdotes…. When this story
changes, so does the world. In this sense, the world is made of words.”31 We also make the
world through sounds. As Oliveros reminds us, “What is heard is changed by listening and
changes the listener.”32

Photo of Molly Scranton’s sculpture

We began our work—and consistently check-in—with what is close at hand and heart,
our individual memories and relationship forged through acts of vulnerability, sharing,
criticality, and imagination. We are inspired and emboldened by brown’s articulation and
practice of emergent strategy as “ways for humans to practice being in right relationship
to our home and each other, to practice complexity, and grow a compelling future together
through relatively simple interactions.”33 We know there is always more we can do, so
we accept the challenge put forth by brown’s emergent strategy to do as much good as
we can through and within our work, so that “we intentionally change in ways that grow
our capacity to embody the just and liberated worlds we long for.”34 For these reasons, we
continue to work to listen “in as many ways possible simultaneously—changing and being
changed by the listening.”35

31 Tokarczuk, 3.
32 Oliveros, 1.
33 brown, 24.
34 brown, 24.
35 Oliveros, 2.

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Subverting by Not Subverting
Free Improvisation Dreams of Counter-Logic Activisms

Maria Sappho Donohue

Subverting by not subverting is an open proposition. It is a way we might reconsider the lens
we use to look at free improvisation history and practice. This article is non-linear in form,
which experiments with alternate ways of presenting and thinking about research. Through a
collection of short articles, a larger picture is drawn about free improvisational practices and
voices which are operating outside of the traditional radical representation of the canon. I
look to further critical thinking about freely improvised art by noticing bias in our ‘normative’
Eurological perspective. We do this by uncovering the product of the subverting/subverted
binary towards uncanoning new histories and future traditions. As a jumping off point I ask
us to move from independently considering bodies, objects, contexts, and spaces, to listen
to them collectively with no distinct definable edges. By considering many agents at play in
free improvisation practice, we look through a lens of drifting socio-political, experiential and
individual freedoms. We consider how these factors are at once all at play and always in flux:
in drift.

Click Here

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 Composition, Technology, and the Posthuman

Composition, Technology, and the Posthuman were purpose-built for this project strip the literal meaning from some selected texts,
providing a space to bring sound-based nuance into a dialogue with non-semantic expression.

Andrew A. Watts in discussions with Stefano Corazza, Constantin Basica, Julie

Herndon, Andrew Blanton, and Caroline Louise Miller

Introduction

In 2014 I moved to Palo Alto, California, a town many would consider to be in the
epicentre of Silicon Valley, a global capital for high technology and innovation. Before
moving to California, my work as a composer had included technology as an occasional
added feature, but nothing more. I had not yet embraced it as vital to my topics of musical
interest, central to my output, or necessary for my process. However, once in Palo Alto,
I pondered how this new environment might impact my compositions. In the beginning,
I felt the presence of tech, be it giant corporations or start-ups, to be an inescapable and
dominant influence on the local culture. Over the following six years I sought to integrate,
when appropriate, many of the tools and concepts that were being developed in this unique Figure 1: Charlotte Mundy (soprano) performing What it means to be posthuman with Ekmeles at CCRMA Stage, Stanford University.3

environment with my artistic voice in a genuine manner.

What it means to be posthuman explores how technology can utilize the human body
The works1 I composed during this period often seek expressivity through dialogues
as an acoustical space, with live performers modifying the playback environment while
between humans and machines. I addressed themes of desemanticized communication and
philosophizing on profound tenets of humanism. The work imagines a futuristic, hive-mind
the physical limitations of both parties. The conflict between performative elements only a
scenario with the singularity represented as a synthesized voice made manifest through
human can carry out, and those only a machine can execute, fascinate me and feed my artistic
cyberpunk-looking headsets. This synthesized speech of the imagined hive is given a
drive. Living in Silicon Valley and being surrounded by an innovation-obsessed culture
physical host in the human performers. As such, a strange virtuosity is achieved: a hocket
inspired me to aim to express the qualities that make something artistically more human
of “voiceless” vocal expressiveness across the group. Through my experience of writing
or less human. My music often turns toward mechanical precision and the implementation
What it means to be posthuman, questions arose regarding artistry, often concerning individual
of electronic sound sources, and yet, I regularly have human performers imitate these
expression, and the expanse of industry, typically considering efficiency through mass
inorganic entities. My own perspective on posthumanism wants to maintain the intimacy
uniformity. These questions coalesced into:
and immediacy that is inherent to the organic, corporeal human voice, while also obfuscating
language's meaning— the latter being a typical behaviour of machine-like systems.
What if our physical bodies become nothing more than shells to host human made technologies?
What it means to be posthuman, a work for vocal sextet with electro-acoustic Are technological advances reducing the qualities that make someone an individual?
augmentation, was an opportunity to, in a singular effort, make musically manifest the Will the omnipresence of distributed intelligence lead to absolute homogeneity?
disparities between the aforementioned entities. The composition focuses on novel
I realize such questions, henceforth identified as the “preliminary questions,” are not
augmentation of the body through ad hoc instrumental prototyping, an approach that was
specific to our present time and place. Well before the invention of the integrated circuit,
inspired by the DIY maker/builder culture common in the Bay Area.2 In What it means to be
microprocessor, and other core developments that led to our Digital Age, philosophers
posthuman, synthesized speech is projected into the mouths of singers; their oral movements
Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) and Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) independently questioned the
actively change the sound of a computer-generated voice in performance. Technologies that

1 Documentation, audio and video content for these works is available at www.andrewawatts.com. 3 Andrew Watts, “What it means to be post human (2018) - Andrew A. Watts,” YouTube video, 10:01, May 29, 2018,
2 For example, the annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, California. https://youtu.be/oyPKBUpE3BY.

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ramifications of technology on society. Their works4 have proven to be highly influential, Louise Miller’s Sound Masses for Dark Times orchestrates different tracks such that they sound
with some scholars5 linking particular concepts from Heidegger and Jaspers to current together as a mass of industrial decay, resultingly nodding to the practices of mashup and
discussions on posthumanism and tech-centric culture. Heidegger and Jaspers may be viewed remix.
as major figures who provided the groundwork for future discussions on technology and the
The proposed structure for the concert series was informed by the Festival of the
posthuman. It is important to note from these examples that the examination of technological
Impossible, a three-day exhibition that took place in San Francisco. According to their
integration in our lives has been ongoing for generations now. It is not a novel concept tied
website, the 2019 edition of the festival was “a journey into the intimacy of Human-Machine,
to a specific zeitgeist. Rather, I view the works of thinkers and creators from different eras,
a concept which involves interaction through augmented experiences as well as enhanced
including our own, to contribute to a larger discussion on the ongoing relationship between
human senses and deeper personal connections.”10 Stefano Corazza, the Creative Director
humanity and technology, allowing for new facets of the evolving symbiosis to be uncovered.
and Founder of the Festival, was slated to give the pre-concert talk for “Technology and the
Today, amidst the innovation-centric companies and institutes throughout the Bay Posthuman.” Given that his multidisciplinary artistic practice is well aligned with my series
Area, there are several artists and composers I have encountered who have one foot firmly
6
topics, his interview provides the jumping off point into the preliminary questions; questions
placed in the implementation of cutting edge technologies and the other in principles of “that evoke wonder and challenge our thinking about what could be possible as we move
humanism. Within the artistic community in Silicon Valley, I am not the only one who has into the future.”11
responded to these topics with compositions. What this article aims to highlight is several
It is important to note that the aforementioned concerts, planned to take place at
different perspectives from those living in the epicentre of tech today; addressing the
CCRMA, CNMAT, and C4NM, were scheduled for the spring of 2020. However, due to the
zeitgeist, atmosphere, and impact of our Digital Age (and beyond) through their original
COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders that were given throughout the San Francisco Bay Area the
works.
series has been postponed. In the meantime, each of the figures involved has kindly outlined
In early 2019, I started planning ways to interweave a collection of musical their views on “Technology and the Posthuman” and discussed their practice through
perspectives on these issues, along with my own composition What it means to be posthuman. recorded interviews. The recording sessions were kept largely colloquial. Though the general
This project became a curated concert series entitled “Technology and the Posthuman” hosted topics were made clear in advance, the specifics, beyond the structural preliminary questions,
at three of the Bay Area's institutions most closely tied to musical innovation: CCRMA7 were formed as impromptu conversations in the sessions. From a technical standpoint, each
(Stanford University), CNMAT8 (University of California, Berkeley), and C4NM9 (San interview's audio and video were recorded via Zoom.12 After the sessions, I excerpted and
Francisco). Accordingly, the composers featured in the series were based locally and would transcribed the most pertinent passages. Finally, these passages were then reviewed by the
present their own perspectives on the concert theme through their original works. Constantin respective interviewees for accuracy.
Basica's Chatbots envisions a post-apocalyptic future in which the only remaining humans
In short, regardless of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the concert series,
serve as voice donors for their overlords. Julie Herndon’s A Long Postlude expressively
this article will discuss these works from the past decade that confront Silicon Valley’s
re-imagines the 19th century Graham-Bell “photophone,” a device reflecting sunlight to
innovation-obsessed culture and the artistic ramifications of technological choices. Versions of
wirelessly convey speech, by converting light bulbs into independent characters. Andrew
each installation and composition are linked in the footnotes for each respective artist. Please
Blanton’s MØDULATOR explores iPhone/iPad improvisation by mixing one mode of human
refer to these hyperlinked videos to gain a fuller understanding of the discussed pieces.
perception (sound/hearing) with another (touch/tactility). In doing so, he emphasises how
devices can help us to better understand the way we perceive the world. Finally, Caroline

4 These include Martin Heidegger and William Lovitt, The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays, (New York:
HarperCollins Publishers, 2013); Karl Jaspers, Die geistige Situation der Zeit, (Berlin: Göschen, 1931); Karl Jaspers, Vom
Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte, (Zurich: Artemis, 1949); Karle Jaspers, Die Atombombe und die Zukunft des Menschen,
(Munich: Piper, 1958).
5 For example, but not limited to, Rae (regarding Heidegger), and Walters and Erickson (regarding Jaspers). Gavin
Rae, “Heidegger’s Influence on Posthumanism: The Destruction of Metaphysics, Technology and the Overcoming of
Anthropocentrism,” History of the Human Sciences 27, no. 1 (February 2014): 51–69. doi:10.1177/0952695113500973; Gregory
J. Walters, “Transhumanism, Post-Humanism, and Human Technological Enhancement: Whither Goes Humanitas?”
Existenz 8, no. 2 (2013): 1–13. https://existenz.us/; Stephen A. Erickson, “Posthumanism, Technology, and Education”
Existenz 8, no. 2 (2013): 40–46. https://existenz.us/.
6 The San Francisco Bay Area covers dozens of cities and towns beyond what is traditionally thought to be “Silicon Valley.” 10 “Human Machine, 2019,” The Festival of the Impossible, accessed 16 May, 2020, www.festivaloftheimpossible.com/human-
Nevertheless, within the scope of this article, the Bay Area as a whole is entangled with the presence of the tech industry. machine.
7 Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, 660 Lomita Court, Stanford, CA 94305. 11 "Human Machine, 2019."
8 Center for New Music and Audio Technologies, 1750 Arch Street, Berkeley, CA 94709. 12 Zoom Video Communications (the American technology company specializing in videotelephony), not to be confused
9 Center for New Music, 55 Taylor Street, San Francisco, CA 94102. with Zoom Corporation (the Japanese audio company specializing in handheld recording devices).

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Stefano Corazza — Festival of the Impossible humanoid in the way they look because they initially originated as companions of
humans, but then they take their own route to evolution. It's fascinating to me to
imagine what that could be. I find myself trying to brainstorm what a society based
on telepathy will be, because these machines will be able to wirelessly share feelings,
thoughts, [and] experiences with each other. Like what we dream, in telepathy. [What]
kind of world would it look like? Would people still go around, or [would] androids
go around, or will it be all one synchronized brain? Right? It's a fun exploration to try
to imagine the future, and then I like to put that in art form, and then put it in front of
people and see how they react to that new reality.

AW: Do you believe there's a point in time when our physical bodies become nothing more
than a shell to host our technologies?

SC: Yeah, absolutely. And then we can go even further where [at] some point we don't
need the body anymore, right? The biological body is a phenomenon in terms of the
capacity to store energy, utilize energy... [it's] very energy efficient. But it's very prone
to diseases, and we are witnessing one pretty major now [with COVID-19]. All [these]
Figure 2: Ractive rendering.13
problems don't exist for electro-mechanical bodies. I think there's still a current massive
advantage because we're not even close in robotics to where the human body is. But I
Stefano Corazza is currently a Fellow and VP at Adobe Systems, heading Adobe's augmented reality think at some point we will cross that threshold.
effort. His works14 include video and animation projects, with his first installation, A Field of
AW: Will distributed intelligence lead to absolute homogeneity?
Sunflower Robots, funded by Burning Man in 2006. He is also passionate about music, with two
albums and over twenty shows in the Bay Area with 45isdistance. Based in Marin County, California, SC: The main difference, if you think about the intelligence of a human being and how he
Stefano (henceforth abbreviated as “SC”) spoke with me on March 30, 2020. Below are excerpts from evolves and the presence of a computer that is connected to the Internet or to other
the recorded interview. beings, is if those two had the same exact capacity to learn (if they were completely
equivalent, like in terms of neural network structure, and how they can learn, how fast
they can learn), the first one, the human, is basically learning through the five senses.
AW: What do the terms posthuman or posthumanism mean to you and, broadly speaking, It can touch a finite number of things, can smell, things, can see things, right? But the
how do they fit into your compositional work at large? machine, connected to the internet, has the whole world of data available. That is [a]
massive differentiation where if at some point intelligence evolves to a level that the
SC: I feel like our civilization is very egocentric in the sense that we believe that we are
machine is as intelligent as the human, by having access to all of the word through this
the ultimate result of natural selection, right? And evolution. But if you actually zoom
interconnected brain, then it's going to be orders of magnitude ahead... over us.
out, you realize that the goal of natural selection and evolution is just intelligence. If
you look back, we evolved from plants to animals to humans just in stages of higher I think the bigger [hurtle] for that is to be able to connect all the data of the world in a
consciousness and intelligence. If there was, in the future, a way to continue that way that can be fed into this intelligence. The connected intelligence is definitely a great
progression that may not involve biological beings like we are, nature will be totally concept. Anyone connected to that [will] be able to leverage it. It's similar to what we
fine. The goal is not preserving humans, the goal is enhancing intelligence. And so, I'm are doing today with Alexa15 if you want. Right? If Alexa was the only interface that we
fascinated by these leaps into the future in posthuman societies, like the one that I had connect to, and then that had all the world's [knowledge], that will be this concept of
my art installation Ractive in The Festival of the Impossible last year.

[Fast] forward 1000 to 2000 years [...] maybe there will be still some anthropomorphic
being out there, but they may not be biological at all. They may be Android [...] maybe

13 Reproduced with permission from Stefano Corazza. "The Festival of the Impossible - Human Machine 2019."
Festivaloftheimpossible.com. Accessed July 26, 2020. https://www.festivaloftheimpossible.com/human-machine.
14 Documentation for Stefano Corazza's works is available at www.stefanocorazza.org. 15 Alexa is a virtual assistant AI technology developed by Amazon.com.

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distributed intelligence I think [many] are referring to. [Posthumanism is] taking that to that is distanced from how we would naturally speak. [The android] is imitating that
the next level where the client may be computers themselves and not just humans. gap, which may not actually be the case anymore.

AW: Could you describe your process creating [Ractive]? SC: It's gone full circle... and then half of a circle.

SC: For Ractive, I sent an email to a lot of my artistic friends and I said, “okay, if you were
in a room by yourself in front of an android from [the year] 3282 and you have three
minutes, what would you ask that person?” People gave all kinds of answers, but
Constantin Basica — CHATBOTS
ultimately, they were all super intrigued and there were really deep questions. And
for me, I have an amazing curiosity about the future. And so, I wanted to offer that
experience to a bunch of people. And seeing the response that [my friends] gave, it felt
like I latched on to something that was very powerful and very emotional.

And so, I decided [to] try to make [the hypothetical android encounter] as realistic
as possible. We [then] figured out that the only way to make AI be emotional is it
needs to be driven by a real human. Therefore, we hired stand-up comedians—people
who [perform] all the time. We figured out how to drive the character from backstage
in real time. And we figured out also to make the experience immersive so people
were wearing this head tracker so that they can go in and they feel like they are in
the environment. All these pieces were just to augment the power of the emotional
connection with the android. Blade Runner is one of my favourite movies... and that idea
of the connection between the android, the machine, and the human is super powerful
to me. I just tried to make [Ractive] as realistic as possible. And about 80% of people
thought [the android depicted in Ractive] was AI.

I think that the performers we had were phenomenal. They were even able to do Figure 3: Jonathan Nussman, baritone; Hillary Jean Young, soprano (Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford University).17
the right intonation, so it looked like a very boring machine as opposed to a human.
And people completely bought into that. The vast majority of people thought that was
Constantin Basica is currently the Concert Coordinator at CCRMA. His work18 focuses on symbiotic
AI. Even family members of mine came to me and said, “What technology is that? It's
interrelations between music, video, and performers. His portfolio includes pieces for solo instruments,
amazing. She knew my name.” I'm like, “of course, because I told her.” But yeah, that
chamber ensembles, orchestra, electronics, and video. Based in Palo Alto, California, Constantin
was my process: start from a basic idea, test [to see] if that generates any kind of deep
(henceforth abbreviated as “CB”) spoke with me on March 30, 2020. Below are excerpts from the
emotional connection, if that's the case, try to make it as true to the idea as possible.
recorded interview.
AW: Two things come to mind as you were describing that. The first is the Turing test,16
because, as people are experiencing Ractive, they're thinking that it's an AI, but it is
actually not an AI. It's a weird spin on that [saying]: “art imitating life imitating art.” AW: I feel like I've witnessed multiple takes on posthumanism within your work. In your
Well, this is like humans imitating robots that are then actually humans. We are used to composition [Knot an Opera!], the section directly after the Chatbots section you've even
the gaps in the technology, right? We are used to text-to-speech sounding a certain way labelled “posthuman”. And the plot, which we'll get to in further detail, is definitely a
world after humanity. But there are plenty of other works [of yours] that I could point

17 Reproduced with permission from Constantin Basica. "Knot an Opera!” YouTube video, 1:01:30, January 17, 2017, https://
16 The Turing test, named after computer science pioneer Alan Turing, is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent youtu.be/iOI_iyV7z_w.
behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. 18 Documentation for Constantin Basica's works is available at www.constantinbasica.com.

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to that take more of a [perspective that] technology is an extension of human expression. intelligence, but never actually reaches intelligence because it's just learning from what
So, I think you have a foot in both definitions. we speak and what we say, but never actually developing intelligence.

CB: Yeah. I grew up with science fiction movies, electronic music, and things related to [My brother] writes poetry that is very sombre and apocalyptic sometimes. So, I asked
technology. I think more recently, as in 15 years ago or so, I've started really engaging him to send me selections of his poetry. [When] I started going through it I chose some
more with technology in my own work. It's been an exciting path to work with different of the lyrics that I found that could work for this idea to translate it by using technology
emerging technologies, but also older technologies, and finding ways of making sense that is on a similar level as [internet] chatbots. So, online translation tools and the whole
of them in just working with technology for creative work. So yeah, that's a good point idea for this sketch came from doing internet searches to come up with inspiration
about that specific point in the opera that actually does use the word “posthuman”. It's for the piece. [Along the way], I encountered this very funny and dark conversation
something that I find very interesting. To think about: What is the future? How will all between two chatbots. They even have 3D shaped persons and they seem like they're
this influence the way we live? interacting. It's really disturbing to watch and to listen. I'm not even sure that [the
conversation text] could even be something that was created by someone [intuitively]
AW: Are technological advances reducing what makes someone an individual?
and not an actual conversation between [two legitimate chatbots]. But regardless, it's
CB: I think it does reduce [individualism] a little bit, but it also enhances it a lot. I'm thinking very entertaining and disturbing to watch.
of things like Web 2.0,19 where everyone has a thing to say on the internet, but it's all
So, I wanted to do something in that vein and use my brother's poetry, but I wanted
part of this huge machine that everyone has access to it. It's a matter of how we use
to translate it with generic tools because I knew that [the software] won't be able to
technology: whether it makes us more able to express things as individuals, or whether
translate it perfectly. I knew there was going to be some degree of error in it, and I
it flattens everyone in a way, and makes everything more homogeneous. For me, for
wanted to play with that error; to portray this idea that [modern AI] is an imperfect
sure, I think it enhances individuality. I mean, technology definitely gave me a lot of
tool that won't actually display the intelligence that we're hoping for in an intelligent
ways of expressing things. [For instance], when I got my first computer, that's when
artificial being.
I actually started composing, like properly, because I had this software that I could
suddenly write music. [I then] started doing my own personal CDs, and doing music
and sharing with friends. And I shared [my music] with my piano teacher who said,
“Well, why don't you study composition?” And I was like, “What is composition?”
Julie Herndon — A Long Postlude
So [… technology and homogeneity] could go both ways... I think it depends on each
person.

AW: Could you briefly explain the context that Chatbots was written for?

CB: So Chatbots appears towards the end of [my] opera [Knot an Opera!] after a lot of sketches
that are, let's say, quite comedic, and [Chatbots] catches on to what I would say is more
serious or...

AW: Sombre?

CB: Yeah, exactly. It's very sombre and tries to put everything into balance with what
happened before by making this giant leap into something that's dark about the future
of humanity. But at the same time, it's still a little bit comedic because the point of it is
that in the future humans have been turned into slaves by this very primitive technology
that is chatbots. It is something that's supposed to be the beginning of artificial

Figure 4: A performance of A Long Postlude at CCRMA Stage, Stanford University.20

19 Web 2.0, also known as the Social Web, refers to websites that focus on user-generated content and participatory culture 20 Reproduced with permission from Julie Herndon. "A Long Postlude,” Vimeo video, 06:07, March 16, 2018, https://vimeo.
for all users. com/260497057.

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bodies aren’t just being hosted by this other thing; there’s biofeedback (for one), and
Julie Herndon is currently a Hume Fellow pursuing a doctorate at Stanford University. Her work 21
things influence each other […]
explores the body’s relationship to the self, to performance, and to tools like musical instruments and
Our bodies aren’t possessed. Our minds are just the co-host. Our minds aren’t being hosted
personal technologies. Her electroacoustic work has been described as “blended to inhabit a surprisingly
by our bodies. [So] I buck against that line of thinking because it creates a dualism that
expressive space” (San Francisco Classical Voice).22 Based in Oakland, California, Julie (henceforth
is very Cartesian in a way that I don’t think is accurate. We’re so entangled that […] I
abbreviated as “JH”) spoke with me on March 27, 2020. Below are excerpts from the recorded
don’t think there will be a point in time when physical bodies only become a shell. And
interview.
if there is, it will be a different life entirely.

AW: The period that you referenced in your work A Long Postlude with Alexander Graham
AW: What do the terms posthuman or posthumanism mean to you and, broadly speaking, Bell is The Age of Electricity. This is the first time in human history where you could
how do they fit into your compositional work at large? communicate almost instantaneously across the whole world, effectively utilizing a
technology to extend our voices much further than otherwise humanly possible. As
JH: I define posthuman and posthumanism as an idealized world that inherently
such, would you point to this as proto-posthumanism? That's a lot to get out as a term
emphasizes technology in the way that we use it now, but is also reminiscent of this
“proto-posthumanism.” But the notion of humanism was well established. Then of
almost rationalist renaissance of…
course you had The Age of Enlightenment that we already talked about. Posthumanism
AW: The Age of Enlightenment? wasn't really a philosophical thing yet, but in a way, this is like a prototype for the
posthuman concept, right? You're using technology to extend the capabilities of human
JH: Yes. It is, to me, a second wave of that, using technology as its primary tool. […] I see
functions.
it as an interesting language and, by an interesting language, I mean an interesting
paradigm that makes the body optional in a lot of ways. That’s how I understand it. And JH: Yeah, I think there are a lot of similarities between that time and the present because
at times the body does feel optional. But in my own work, when I compose, the way there were so many new technologies. Electricity was a new technology and it was also
things feel physically and the way that music is experienced is more phenomenological exploring ways that it could be used, and some of them are duds and some of them are
than technological. What’s interesting to me is the memory, the individualism, the not. [For instance], we use light to send data through fibreoptic cables now. So, we’re
physicality of things. And so, [posthumanism] is not a paradigm I am inherently using light to communicate. Bell was thinking of light-based communication then
attracted to, though it is something that I am interested in thinking about. (with the photophone), but it didn’t really work in his conception because you have
to be within eye-shot of the person. It basically used flashes and mirrors; it didn’t go
AW: Will we reach a point in time when our physical bodies become nothing more than a
through a cable. But Bell was onto something, thinking “Oh, light! We could use light
shell to host our technologies. Are we already there? Have we passed this point? Is it on
to do stuff (other than just see).” It was prophetic in a way, and that’s why I think it was
the horizon?
interesting.
JH: This question reminds me of the Catholic Church way back in the day. During the time
I also think it’s interesting personality-wise. Bell invented the phone. He was in this patent
of Palestrina, the Catholic Church was saying something like, “We need to be spiritual.
war with Edison, who also did the phone, and somehow Bell got the patent in right
We can’t promote anything except spirituality. And a sensory pleasure like polyphony
before Edison. But he didn’t want to be just “the phone guy”. He wanted this other
is distracting everyone from what’s really important.” And then Palestrina wrote this
feather in his cap. He wanted that next innovation and that next great thing. And he
really beautiful, intelligible polyphonic piece (Missa Papae Marcelli)23 that probably
thought, “The photophone is it. This is so cool. This is my thing.” He even wanted to
influenced the Council of Trent not to condemn polyphony after all. It’s probably just
name his daughter “Photophone.”24 He was so into this idea, but it obviously ended up
legend, but I guess [in] every time there’s some kind of movement saying, “Hey, bodies
not working.
are less than our minds. Bodies are less than our spirits. Bodies are less than our souls”.
And I think that’s inherently flawed because we’re not one thing hosted by another. Our But there’s the fervour of “How we can use technology? And what we can do with it?”
Sometimes you end up doing something that’s a lot easier to do in another way. So,

21 Documentation for Julie Herndon's works is available at www.julieherndonmusic.com. 24 According to Mary Kay Carson’s 2007 biography of Alexander Graham Bell, Alexander Graham Bell: Giving Voice to the
22 Giacomo Fiore, “Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Revives a Minor Master,” San Francisco Classical Voice, 2017, https:// World, Bell was so proud of this invention that he wanted to name his newborn 2nd daughter “Photophone”. However, he
www.sfcv.org/reviews/left-coast-chamber-ensemble/left-coast-chamber-ensemble-revives-a-minor-master. was dissuaded by his wife, instead naming the child “Miran.” Mary Kay Carson, “Chapter 8,” in Alexander Graham Bell:
23 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 – 1594) composed Missa Papae Marcelli around 1562, with the work performed at Giving Voice to the World, (New York, NY: Sterling Biographies, 2007), 77.
different papal coronations thereafter.

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the photophone is a little bit of a warning in the rush to capitalize on everything a identities. We’re able to think about how we’re using our physical identities because we
technology can do. You can end up short circuiting an existing technology or an existing almost are having this option of not needing to use them in a way. So, the same kind of
method that is actually more suited for your needs. So, I guess that’s one parallel. stepping away, in order to have this range of options to look through, kind of comes into
play.
I do think it is proto-posthumanism, but I also think that religion, in a way, is proto-
posthumanism [too]. Catholicism, like I was talking about [pre-Council of Trent], was AW: Last question. How do you perceive the juxtaposition between the prophetic nature of
the big thing. Their whole idea was that our bodies are just here to support our souls. the Latter-day Saints General Assembly text27 and the innovation-centric Graham Bell
And that our souls are the most important thing. And our souls are going into this text28 you draw upon for A Long Postlude?
afterlife. Maybe a monastic life of cultivating the soul at the sacrifice of the body is
JH: The relationship between the Latter-day Saints prophecy and the Alexander Graham
similar to what you described in one of those screen-fitted pod capsule hotels.25
Bell prophecy is that they’re both reaching for something outside of themselves using
AW: That's a good point. I honestly had not thought of posthumanism in the sort of religious light. For the LDS prophecy, Dieter Uchtdorf is using light to symbolize enlightenment,
terms that you're bringing out, with the exception of maybe cults. There is sometimes for lack of a better word, spiritual enlightenment. And Bell is using the light to try
this cult presence to technology, especially with new technologies where people to communicate. They’re both taking this material and stretching it, in two different
proclaim: “it's the future, and we should all adopt it.” A lot of what you're saying— directions, but also in the same direction. They’re both saying, “light has this capacity,
connecting traits of well-established world religions to notions of posthumanism—is what else can we do with it?”
really fascinating. Is there an imagined nostalgia for the novel expressivity in this lost
technology (the photophone)?

JH: There’s maybe a real nostalgia, because it seems really quaint and I like it. [Those
Andrew Blanton — MØDULATOR
technologies are] not cutting edge now, they seem like a “crazy idea,” but they have
been endeared by time. Bell was really trying something different.

AW: Is the use of lights styled after old incandescent bulbs in A Long Postlude beyond a
technical decision (i.e. the ability to fade the light intensity smoothly)? Is this an aesthetic
statement, a yearning for a step back to the buzzing warmth of analog in an increasingly
cold digital world?

JH: There are two parts to that.

The first part of the answer is about the Edison bulbs.26 You can’t dim and brighten
LEDs in the same way that you can an incandescent bulb. The light just works
differently. The piece started with an interest in dimming and brightening incandescent
bulbs. That also became the topic of the piece because it is now a remnant of a specific
time where the Edison bulb was a new thing. I don’t know if it is yearning, but I do
think they are nostalgic and carry a little bit of time with them. It’s not just the effect of
the light, but it is also a little bit of a story when using it.
Figure 5: Andrew Blanton performing MØDULATOR.29
The second part of the answer is that using that sort of technology is a choice and I’m
able to make that choice because other light sources exist. There are fluorescent bulbs,
LEDs, incandescent, even different coloured candles—there are so many different ways
to light things. Using this method is a choice because there are other choices, which is
what I think is interesting about relating it to posthumanism, embodiment, and our
27 Dieter Uchtdorf, “Bearers of Heavenly Light” (presentation, General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, 2017), https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2017/10/bearers-of-heavenly-
25 Before the interview formally began there was a brief discussion about recent instances of individuals living an almost light?lang=eng.
entirely internet-mediated lifestyle. 28 Robert V. Bruce, Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990).
26 Edison Bulbs refer to any lights modeled to look like the wound filament bulbs made popular by Edison Electric Light 29 Reproduced with permission from Andrew Blanton. "MØDULATOR,” Vimeo video, 04:28, December 3, 2018, https://
Company at the turn of the 20th century. vimeo.com/304089056.

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Andrew Blanton is currently Assistant Professor of Digital Media Art at San José State University in from the feminist perspective, posthumanism, at least in looking at A Cyborg Manifesto32
the CADRE media lab. His work30 is fundamentally transdisciplinary, combining classical percussion, and as a riff on that idea, the later The Xenofeminist Manifesto,33 somehow dethrones
new media art, and creative coding to create real-time sonic and visual instruments. Based in Berkeley, humans as a superior species to all others. Like while we believe we are the dominant
California, Andrew (henceforth abbreviated as “AB”) spoke with me on April 14, 2020. Below are species on the planet, we could not exist without the rest of the natural world. And
excerpts from the recorded interview. technology also ties us to the natural world through the exploitation of resources. For
instance, the mining of minerals that have developed on the geological scale for use in
an iPhone that is designed to last only two years is very problematic.
AW: [What do] the terms posthuman or posthumanism mean to you? And broadly speaking,
Posthumanism needs to be tied into how we as humans use technology, but it needs
how do they fit in your compositional work at large?
to be from a designed perspective, at least with the understanding that we are a part
AB: [Our] relationship to technology is complicated by our own understandings of a working ecology and dependent on resources that have taken billions of years to
of ourselves. [A lot] of times, I think it's hard to place ourselves outside of the come into their current form. Pushing McLuhan beyond the technology as an extension
understanding of our relationship to technology. By that I mean, how do we begin to see of our bodies, I think we exist a bit more as nodes or concentrations of resources that
our relationship to technology objectively? I'm really interested in how technology can are specifically organized to form function. I saw Newton Harrison34 describe human
hold bias, and how we can engineer and design-in bias that we might not be aware of. evolution and technological development as more of a dance with our environment.
Things will not go back to some fetishistic 18th century society where everyone is
From this subtle perspective, we start to remove ourselves from this perspective of
living on farms. But rather, as a species, we need to be smart and understand and be
being inside of the technology, but rather [...] as observers of the technology in the space.
mindful of our relationships with the planet and the role that technology plays in that
The idea though, is to [...] take this meta level approach and understand the bigger
development, whether that technology be digital or otherwise.
pictures of what we're working with, as far as technology goes. How [can] we interact
with technology as a species? And then, how [does] technology impact the greater I tend to believe more in spectrums and not binaries. I think oftentimes in the
ecology that we live within? [...We] have to acknowledge technology and its impact on posthuman spaces people can get scared and jump to absolutes and say: "Oh, we're
our environment as well. going to be these online realities and bodies that are going to exist only in this way, in
this capacity, or we're not going to exist all." [And] I think that's the real trouble with
AW: [People] take one of two approaches [to posthumanism]. There's the approach that
thinking about Western philosophical discourse: we do have strong dualities built into a
you've taken, which is that posthumanism is about this extension of capabilities and our
lot of this. [I think] a bigger part of this discourse is seeing how things naturally evolve
relationship with technology; drawing from this long lineage that posthumanism is just
and how we live in a world of interconnected relationships.
extending. And then the other approach is definitely more doom and gloom, a literal
sense of posthuman...beyond humanity as such. AW: [We're] in a very strange time with this quarantine and COVID-19 where we can't
go out. So, what do our bodies typically mean? Well, with our bodies we can get our
AB: [When] we think about our digital devices, you and I now are talking as avatars over
thoughts and ourselves to move about the world and to interact with other people.
this communication line, which is essentially taking our ideas and thoughts and words,
[One] of the primary functions of our bodies has been to facilitate mobility and the [...]
and translating those into electrical signals that are digitized, that are then sent over this
exchange of thoughts. But this [quarantine] is a heightened period [where] our bodies
massive infrastructure, that is then coming out the other side for us to interpret each
are being used to just then interact with our technology. And it's the technology that's
other. This is all happening in real time, simultaneously, as we talk to each other. [With
doing all of the exchanges and mitigating our virtual self throughout the world. 
the] augmentation of our bodies, we're sort of speaking as avatars in this third space
already. AB: There's a lot to be said about signals and signal compression in this [virtual] space,
and thinking about how there's a lot of nuance in meeting in person. [Like] with any
That fits into the transhumanist discourse but does not really get to the point of
medium, we have a type of compression that happens, where we're taking a full, long
posthumanism. I think the discourse surrounding technology as an extension of the
lived experience, and trying to reduce it to [two parameters] of that experience. In this
human body is really important in the McLuhan sense (think the 'Gadget Lover').31 But
case, it happens to be audio and video. I would also argue that [...] these systems have

32 Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians,
Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (Routledge, 1991).
30 Documentation for Andrew Blanton's works is available at www.andrewblanton.com. 33 Laboria Cuboniks (Collective), The Xenofeminist Manifesto: A Politics for Alienation (Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2018).
31 Marshall McLuhan and W. Terrence Gordon, “The Gadget Lover: Narcissus as Narcosis,” in Understanding Media: The 34 Newton Harrison was a pioneer in the eco-art movement. Information about his works and collaborations is available at
Extensions of Man (Berkeley, Calif: Gingko Press, 2015). https://theharrisonstudio.net/.

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a bias and that [...] we're speaking over an optimized system right now that is made to Caroline Louise Miller — Sound Masses for Dark Times
cut out any background noise algorithmically. I've been speaking to some of my friends
quite a bit about this space, and it really has a lot of implications [...] on how we create
media, and how we create these sort of experiences. [In] thinking about how [to] create
a likeness of a thing, we have to make decisions and choices. [By doing so] we make
simulations [where] we have to make choices of what to amplify to make things feel
more like real life. So, on the one hand, we lose something, but then maybe on the other
hand, parts of my voice are being amplified to make you feel like I'm more present. And
so, it's a really strange direction, but [it] also creates a new bias, and it creates a different
version of reality that tends to be reflective of the creators.

AW: [Could] you describe your process of writing the texts spoken at the beginning of
[your work MØDULATOR]? [It is perhaps] an entry into a long line of text based
indeterminate works that you cite [on MØDULATOR's website]?35 [These are] works by
John Cage, La Monte Young, Alvin Lucier, and so on.

AB: Yeah, and I think there's a direct [reference] even in the text. [My text for MØDULATOR]
ends with “as we are all sitting in a room together.” This is in direct reference to Lucier.36
Figure 6: Sound Masses for Dark Times installation at the Che Café, University of California – San Diego in early November 2016.38
[I] think the positioning of [MØDULATOR] to that is really important.

It took a long time to write that piece. I built the software starting around 2014 when
Caroline Louise Miller is a US composer and sound designer. Her music39 broadly explores affect,
I was at STEIM37 in Amsterdam, and I was playing with it and working with it as an
ecology, labour politics, tactility, and digital materiality, often addressing contemporary issues within
instrument. The idea was that the instrument can be taken and used for whatever
dreamlike musical spaces that thread shimmering textures and romantic melodic lines through harsh
people wanted as [...] multiple pieces and [...] distributed as a tool or an instrument. I
noise and clattering dissonances. Based in Oakland, California, Caroline (henceforth abbreviated as
think of myself as a tool builder. So [I] built [MØDULATOR] out [and] really wanted to
“CM”) spoke with me on April 16, 2020. Below are excerpts from the recorded interview.
formalize it into a composition as well. I knew there were [...] compositional aspects [to]
it because I've been performing with it and then showing how it worked. But it [...] was
lacking a sort of an architectural structuring that I think it needed.
AW: What do the terms posthuman or posthumanism mean to you? And broadly speaking,
[I did want to] tip my hat to that world [of sound art] and speak to it. [MØDULATOR] how do they fit in your compositional work at large?
is really like a contemporary version of I am sitting in a room, it's all just compressed into
CM: To me, posthumanism is [...] about not seeing humans as central to everything. I think
a shorter amount of time and made to be performed live as a very narrow reduction of
it's expanding the idea of other materials and objects as life forms, [and] thinking of
it. But I was also thinking about [posthumanism] a lot, about how technology extends
them as more central to the universe. It's a way of thinking that's decentring the human.
our bodies, and how [...] we use technology in really important ways as extensions of
An [author] that I find to be posthumanist in a way, even though maybe [she's] drawing
ourselves, and [also to] represent ourselves and connections to others around us.
from a different tradition, is Jane Bennett. She wrote a text40 on [material animation],
understanding animate materials [as] having their own lives, voices, and processes, and

35 www.andrewblanton.com/portfolio/modulator.html. 38 Reproduced with permission from Caroline Louise Miller. "Sound Masses for Dark Times: 2016 Multimedia Installation,"
36 The text for MØDULATOR is a direct reference to the original text in Alvin Lucier’s iconic work I am sitting in a room Caroline Louise Miller, Composer and Sound Artist, accessed July 26, 2020, http://www.carolinelouisemiller.com/
(1969). soundmasses.html.
37 The Studio for Electro Instrumental Music is a center for research and development of new musical instruments located in 39 Documentation for Caroline Louise Miller's works is available at www.carolinelouisemiller.com.
Amsterdam, Netherlands. 40 Jane Bennett, Vibrant matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010).

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thinking through the life of objects as something to consider in our worldview. So, for example], the “Prelude” from Tristan and Isolde obviously has been associated with
me, that's part of posthumanism—taking the [...] decentred perspective. apocalyptic landscapes in film and theatre for a really long time.41

AW: Could you describe the process of writing Sound Masses for Dark Times? How did the [...In] the installation [version of Sound Masses], people can go and make their own
concept of the work develop and how did you go about selecting the recordings to mixtape or mashup and it's always three recordings at a time, unless you hit upon
include in the mashup? a specific number and then it's just the recording of me singing and playing guitar.
People can essentially go into the installation and twiddle the knob and create their
CM: I was asked to create an installation in [the summer of] 2016, right before Trump got
own mixtape of precarity inside of this industrial space with a lot of power tools and
elected. And the installation was going to be in an industrial space... a shed... in a
little bells hanging and really dark LED lights and stuff. So that was the first iteration of
collective space called the Ché Café, which is sort of a historically significant socialist
[Sound Masses for Dark Times] and it was really very DIY, but it was cool. It worked really
anarchist venue on UCSD's campus that has been there basically since UCSD was
well and I would like to do a live performance of [Sound Masses for Dark Times] with
founded.
multiple people performing and creating a mixtape together.
I'm really into stacking things, stacking sounds, [and] I would experiment with this all
AW: How do you feel [Sound Masses for Dark Times] relates to both our sudden isolation and
the time. [I] would just take recordings that I thought would sound interesting stacked
also the topic of posthumanism?
on top of each other and put them in a DAW and make these giant stacks without any
editing. [Then I would] listen to them and see how the chaos sounded and what kind of CM: [For] the people performing it, [playing] it together, and [improvising] together, it can
affect it had. And I would wonder if I [could] amplify particular affects by […] taking be an exercise in talking to each other through these recordings. That could be really
a bunch of recordings that are peaceful and stacking them on top of each other and/ nice. And maybe like taking control. It's almost like you're taking control over precarity
or angry or any other emotional or conceptual aspect that music could transmit. And, a little bit by being able to switch, change the dial. [It's] like, “do we want to think
it kind of worked. I mean, there are a few things to consider, like if you don't want to about climate change, or the failure of radical and progressive movements to make any
just sound like total chaos and you want to create a peaceful sound by stacking eight headway, or the pandemic? Take your pick, there [are] so many precarious things to
different peaceful recordings on top of each other, then you might want them to be in worry about.”
the same key or in related keys.
[Regarding] posthumanism, [there is] the materialism that I was talking about
You'll always get this unsettling feeling of chaos, but there are moments where things before—developing a broader consciousness of how inanimate things, other ecosystems,
combine and coalesce. Almost like a new piece of music that sounds really awesome. To and whatnot contribute to the world and shape us. I think that this piece is pretty
me, [the layering] ends up amplifying whatever effect was there in the first place. And centred on humans... human emotions and human experiences. I think that the need
it's even better if you can find recordings [...] of similar [lengths] with similar structures to move to a different way of understanding humans in relationship to the world is
so that moments where there [are] peaks, the peaks will amplify each other, and definitely part of the precarity driving this piece. The systems that are causing us to fail
moments where there's downtime, the downtime will create this trough. at fighting climate change are the same systems that are causing us to fail at fighting the
pandemic.
AW: I listened to your [Sound Masses for Dark Times] demo improvisation about an hour ago,
so [that] makes a lot of sense. AW: I see... the lack of cooperation, differing goals, the power of corporate interests versus
protecting human interests... [that] kind of thing.
CM: The idea is sort of like corralling energy. [Noticing] that a lot of pieces, of course, have
moments of high energy and low energy. Then, if those are stacked with other pieces, CM: Yeah, those are all related. I feel like corporate interests are almost pushing their own
and those high energy times correspond, then you'll get this über peak energy. kind of posthumanism, which is like, “fuck individual human lives. We need to save the
economy.”
With Sound Masses for Dark Times [I] wanted to work with precarity and apocalyptic
vibes. [Therefore], I chose a bunch of recordings that seemed to have some kind of [...In] terms of making this new version [of Sound Masses for Dark Times] it's definitely
precarious sound—a warning, a sort of apocalyptic aspect. [...For other recordings] stuff to consider.
there wasn't any immediately conceptual reason [I] chose [them]. [They] just had
this particular vibe to me. But most of them have a particular conceptual aspect. [For

41 In particular, Lars von Trier's 2011 film Melancholia prominently features music from the Prelude.

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Concluding Thoughts

When creating the concert series Technology and the Posthuman I was interested
in showcasing works that provide a unique perspective on this theme. There was no wish
to have the compositions give self-righteous lectures or posit answers to the concerns
individuals and societies face during our Internet Age. Rather, I was looking at the role of
today's composer as in-conversation with posthumanism—communing with the posthuman.
The aforementioned works assert nuanced views of technology, with the goals of expression
and provocation (over resolutions). Perhaps, what it means to be posthuman, as of 2020 and
according to these composers and artists, may be an increasing awareness of technology's
multifarious roles in our lives, and the related ramifications technologies may have on our
futures.

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 A Post-Percussive Approach to Performer-Controlled Electronics

A Post-Percussive Approach to Performer-Controlled Electronics 1

playing an important role in development of new musical tendencies over the last century,
this paper proposes that integrating electronic performance through the lens of an expanded
understanding of a percussive practice can present a fresh perspective on performing with
Noam Bierstone electronics, and help bridge the gap that currently exists between acoustic performance and
live electronic performance.

An expanded understanding of percussion can be understood as a post-percussive practice,

Abstract which advances further than a simple notion of extended techniques for percussionists.
Rather, it can be understood as a practice that abandons the fundamental concepts of
The integration of electronic devices into Western contemporary instrumental practices what is typically considered as percussion, making its original characteristics practically
has emerged as a driving force in the expansion of music performance possibilities. The ambition unrecognizable.2 These fundamental concepts can be technical or theoretical and pertain to
to treat electronic devices as musical instruments leads to the emergence of unique behavioural the act of hitting, a coherency of technique, instruments that are traditionally recognized
tendencies that can be manipulated in order to further expand the potential of new music as percussion, and assumptions of how certain instruments are supposed to be played.
performance. Similarly, radical developments in contemporary percussion performance in the The notion of a post-percussive practice is a fluid and eclectic collection of approaches that
20th and 21st centuries have introduced a wide range of challenges, extending the fundamental celebrates curiosity, openness and personal contribution.
notion of percussive playing and stimulating performers to develop new skills and approaches
Performer-controlled electronics refers to the use of electronic devices or systems that are
to music-making.
manually operated by a performer in musical performance. The term implies that a performer
This extended understanding of percussion performance has formed what can be can develop a certain tactile connection to a device, allowing them to manipulate it, and leading
identified as a post-percussive practice. The manipulation of electronic devices in music to the creation of responsive interactions with a device and its sonic behaviour. This is a broad
performance, developed out of a desire to explore electronic technologies for their unfamiliar definition that, like a post-percussive practice, requires a personal approach and does not set
sounds and new performance possibilities, can be described as performer-controlled electronics. strict boundaries as to what is or is not “performer-controlled.”
This paper proposes that integrating performer-controlled electronics within the context of a
post-percussive practice can present a fresh perspective on performing with electronics, and
help bridge the gap that currently exists between acoustic performance and live electronic Post-Percussive Practice
music.
The notion of a post-percussive practice has emerged from the rapid development of
Two works that the author regularly performs—Hanna Hartman’s Message from the
classical percussion playing and tradition throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. In Western
Lighthouse (2009/16) and Mauricio Pauly’s The Threshing Floor (2014)—are used to demonstrate
music tradition, with the exception of orchestral timpanists or the rare marimba soloist,
that a post-percussive approach to integrating electronic devices can lead to fruitful and
percussionists are rarely attached to one instrument, as is often the case for other musicians.
rewarding experiences in performing with electronics.
Whereas the identity of other musicians is generally tied to their respective instruments,
percussionists are instead identified as versatile hitters of various objects. Whether a
percussionist is playing a conventional instrument or a collection of found objects, the root
Introduction of the word ‘percussion’—to hit or to strike—has been the primary feature that maintains a
percussionist’s identity.3
There is a perpetual dynamic relationship between performers and electronic technology
through the ongoing development of Western contemporary music, with performers Through the latter part of the 20th century, what can be considered as extended
influencing the continuous evolution of electronic equipment along with a desire to explore techniques for percussionists began to occur more frequently, such as the use of bows on
the artistic potential of such devices. As a result, performers are driven to expand their vibraphones and cymbals, superballs rubbed on bass drums, and other new methods of
musical capacities as they incorporate electronic devices into their artistic practices. The rapid producing sounds beyond the traditional notion of how instruments are “supposed” to
progression of contemporary percussion performance since the early 20th century has similarly
initiated an exponential growth of musical and technical possibilities. With percussionists
2 Håkon Stene, “This Is Not a Drum: Towards a Post-Percussive Practice” (Dissertation, Norwegian Academy of Music,
1 This article is based on the author’s doctoral dissertation, ‘Integrating Performer-Controlled Electronics in a Post- 2014).
Percussive Practice’ (Doctor of Music dissertation, Montreal, Quebec, Schulich School of Music, McGill University, 2019). 3 Steven Schick, The Percussionist’s Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2006), 5.

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sound. This mirrors the development of extended techniques on other instruments, rooted in not restrict the use of conventional percussive strokes or sounds, but rather signifies that there
a quest to expand the sonic capacities of an instrument. is no overarching instrumental technique that can be learned independently and applied from
one work to the next, as is the case in conventional instrumental performance. That said, the
All Western classical instrumental practices, including percussion, have developed
relationship that one builds with an instrument through the study of conventional playing can
a catalogue of conventional playing techniques formed by the standard repertoire for the
still inform newly invented techniques, as it provides the musician with the reflective listening
instrument. As a result, a shift of perspective must occur for extended techniques to no longer
and performance skills to adapt oneself to a renewed, defamiliarized instrument.
be categorized as “extended” or special effects relative to an existing catalogue considered
as the standard way to play an instrument. This shift of perspective, in the form of a desire
to abandon the considered conventions and characteristics of Western classical instrumental
practice, has driven developments in contemporary music. In percussion music, these
Work-Specific Techniques
tendencies take advantage of the versatility of a percussionist’s skillset, but move so far away
A consequence of the defamiliarization of instrumental technique is the creation of work-
from conventional percussive techniques and instruments that they have formed what can be
specific techniques. These are techniques that are uniquely developed in the conception
described as post-percussion or a post-percussive practice.
of a work, and are often idiomatic to the structure and aesthetic of the work.6 This often
The disorganized and dispersed nature of a post-percussive practice makes it difficult to necessitates a lengthy set of instructions that describe how to perform the required techniques
define as a coherent system. However, this lack of coherency can be understood specifically as and the sounds they are meant to produce, as a way of teaching the performer the musical
the identity of the performer in this practice. The versatility that contemporary percussionists language of the work.
have developed proves to be an advantage when dealing with the new and unconventional
The concepts of defamilarization and the development of work-specific techniques are central
demands of experimental practices such as the post-percussive. Certain recurring characteristics
to the music of composer Pierluigi Billone, whose percussion works, including Mani. Gonxha
of a post-percussive practice—that become fundamental to the integration of performer-
(2011), Mani. Δίκη (2012), and Mani. Amon (2019), have greatly influenced my artistic practice
controlled electronics—are outlined below.
and pursuits. In these works, Billone develops a musical language where the sounds and
techniques used are both inherent and idiomatic to the instrument and to the structure of the
work. This is a result of Billone’s compositional method where instrumental study, systematic
Characteristics of a Post-Percussive Practice instrumental exploration, structural elaboration, notational development, and compositional
conception are all integrated and inseparable from the beginning of the working process.7

Defamiliarization of Instrumental Technique Music such as Billone’s requires the performer to be more invested in the development
and elaboration of the musical language, as one cannot simply apply previously learned
The defamiliarization of instrumental technique is a distinctive quality of a post-percussive techniques to the performance of the work. Inevitably, there is a daunting feeling of having
practice. It signifies a deconstruction of instrumental conventions to instead develop an to learn an instrument from scratch. For example, there are very few techniques that can be
approach that embraces all possible sound-producing actions on an instrument. The concept transferred directly from conventional percussion playing into a situation where sticks and
of defamiliarization, a term coined in 1917 by the Russian formalist Viktor Shklovskij, refers mallets are replaced by two Tibetan singing bowls in the performer’s hands, as is the case in
to the artistic technique of presenting an object in an unfamiliar way in order to enhance Mani. Gonxha and Mani. Δίκη. Nonetheless, the identity of percussionists as versatile musicians
perception of the familiar object, 4 and has greatly influenced 20th century art movements accustomed to playing different instruments and adapting to new setups is vital to developing
such as Dadaism. In music, this process can be carried out on any instrument or instrumental the necessary skills to perform such works.
combination. By not recognizing traditional technique as the gold standard of sound
production, all techniques and sounds—including traditional techniques—can be considered
as suitable to a renewed instrumental context.5 Adaptability as a Form of Virtuosity
In the case of percussion, defamiliarization implies that the act of hitting and the assumed
A post-percussive practice highlights the skill of adaptability as a new form of virtuosity
conventional use of sticks or mallets is not taken as an automatic point of departure. This does
in musical performance. Percussion music has always required flexibility and versatility

4 Lawrence Crawford, “Viktor Shklovkij: Différance in Defamiliarization,” Comparative Literature 36, no. 3 (1984). 6 Stene, “This Is Not a Drum,” 39-40.
5 Helmut Lachenmann and David Ryan, “Composer in Interview: Helmut Lachenmann,” Tempo New Series, no. 210 (1999): 7 Pierluigi Billone and Laurent Feneyrou, ‘Le Son Est Ma Matière: Entretien Avec Pierluigi Billone’, 2010, http://www.
21. pierluigibillone.com/it/testi/il_suono_e_la_mia_materia_2010.html#french.

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from the performer: percussionists must constantly adapt to new instruments and setups, where multiple performance techniques are used to extract the timbral complexities of the
and they modify percussive strokes to different instruments, materials, and acoustic spaces. instrument.11
Contemporary percussionists are equally proficient moving around large instrumental setups
This approach highlights the idea that it is precisely through the narrowing of material
as they are performing small object setups that involve minimal movement.
that the experience of differentiation can be expanded. This can be considered as a focusing
The concept of work-specific techniques increases the importance of adaptability, as in—or zooming in—on an object’s sound to discover variations in sound that may not be
performers attempt to apply previously learned skills to new, dissimilar situations. Unlike perceived otherwise. In addition to requiring the performer to develop the technical capacities
conventional percussion practice, where percussionists learn basic technical principles that to produce these subtle variations in sound, it also requires the performer to develop more
can be applied or adapted to a majority of standard percussion instruments, a post-percussive acute and sensitive listening in distinguishing sonic parameters such as timbre, texture, and
practice calls upon the musician to discover unique and unrelated performance setups, grain that one may not typically encounter in conventional classical music performance.
actions, and systems from one work to the next. This means that each performer must form These sonic parameters are drawn from an interest in noise-based sounds, and they figure
their own set of skills within this practice, applying what they have learned and gathered prominently in the incorporation of electronics into concert music performance. As such, a
from previous personal experiences to the requirements presented by new situations.8 sensitivity to them is invaluable in the integration of performer-controlled electronics.

Virtuosity of adaptability requires the musician to perform specialized actions

using techniques or objects that they have often never encountered before. This demands a
reflective approach to performance in which the performer must discover for themselves how
Performer-Controlled Electronics
previously learned skills can be applied to what may initially appear an unfamiliar context.
The incorporation of electronic devices into music is rooted in the aesthetic, cultural,
and technological advances of the 20th century that prompted the notion that any sound
can contribute to the musical palette. Luigi Russolo’s Futurist manifesto The Art of Noises
Exploiting the Potential of an Instrument
(1913) calls for the embrace of noise born from the invention of the machine, and for it
to become a primary element in art.12 John Cage similarly appeals for the incorporation
A recurring theme in works that can be characterized as post-percussive is the
of noise in The Future of Music: Credo (1937), and for the need for electronic instruments
exploitation of one instrument or a small collection of instruments through a multitude
to construct the future rather than imitate the past.13 Cage viewed electronic music as an
of playing techniques. This approach contrasts to early solo percussion works that are
extension of percussion, since any sound that could be manually produced was considered
characterized by large collections of instruments performed with a limited set of techniques.
as acceptable in percussion music. This helps to explain why early examples of performer-
The composer and trombonist Vinko Globokar addressed this difference in 1989 in his article controlled electronics are often combined with the use of percussion, and provides context for
Anti-Badabum.9 He criticized the existing contemporary Western percussion practice at the approaching the use of performer-controlled electronics as an extension of a post-percussive
time of routinely accepting that each instrument has a unique natural timbre, primarily based practice.
on the action of striking, that musicians must seek as the preconceived ideal sound of the
Cage’s Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939) is one of the earliest works to incorporate
instrument. As he explains,
electronic devices into instrumental performance.14 It is scored for four players: two players
controlling turntables, one playing a Chinese cymbal, and one playing the piano.15 Cage asks
This philosophy implies an accumulation of sound materials, for according to this logic of
unique sound one must, for every new timbre to be obtained, use a different instrument. for the piece to be executed in a radio studio and then performed through a live or recorded
With a large number of instruments, a stereotyped kind of virtuosity can be developed broadcast, reformulating the fundamental relationship between a musical creation and
based on the joy of striking with an emphasis on physical activity, the aim being to play its environment. Additionally, Cage transforms the radio studio itself into an instrument
faster and faster and louder and louder.10 by using the test tones of the studio—in the form of frequency recordings played on the

Globokar suggests instead an approach where a single instrument is used for a varied
palette of timbres and articulations that might initially be considered as foreign to the nature 11 Globokar, “Anti-Badabum.”
12 Luigi Russolo, “The Art of Noises,” in The Art of Noise: Deconstruction of Music by Futurist Machines, ed. Candice Black (Sun
of the instrument, modelled on the tradition of instruments such as the zarb or the tabla, Vision Press, 2012).
13 John Cage, “The Future of Music: Credo,” in Silence: Lectures and Writings (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1961),
8 Stene, “This Is Not a Drum: Towards a Post-Percussive Practice,” 41-42. 3-7.
9 Vinko Globokar, “Anti-Badabum,” Percussive Notes 31, no. 1 (1992): 77-82. Originally published in Italian in 1989 in the 14 Susan Key, “John Cage’s Imaginary Landscape No. 1: Through the Looking Glass,” in John Cage: Music, Philosophy, and
journal Eunomio. Intention, 1933-1950, ed. David Wayne Patterson (New York: Routledge, 2002), 105-134.
10 Globokar, “Anti-Badabum,” 77. 15 John Cage, “Imaginary Landscape No. 1,” (New York: Edition Peters, 1939).

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turntables—as a generator of meaningful sound. Since the test tones are an inherent part of Characteristics of Performer-Controlled Electronics
the medium of the radio, Cage is taking a formerly neutral medium and bringing it to the
foreground of the work. This makes the listener perceive a sound emanating from the speaker Similar to the notion of a post-percussive practice, performer-controlled electronics can
that is not intended to be noticed, and that one would usually ignore, as an integral part of refer to a wide range of approaches. Nonetheless, certain characteristics of performer-controlled
the musical work. The listener is thus forced to disengage the sound from its normal use and electronic devices can be highlighted. These characteristics provide a point of comparison to
meaning, first by accepting it as a discreet phenomenon and then as an aesthetic object. This the characteristics of a post-percussive practice, from which we can investigate how to apply a
approach simultaneously challenges the nature of the radio and of musical sound itself. post-percussive approach to this kind of electronic music performance.

The incorporation of sounds that are originally by-products of a system into the
structural framework of a piece is very important in both experimental acoustic music
Instrumentalizing and Creative Abuse
and performative electronic music. Cage’s treatment of the radio unifies the medium and
the message by creating a sounding object of the medium itself. This becomes an essential
Instrumentalizing, a term proposed by Andy Keep in “Instrumentalizing: Approaches
principle in the use of performer-controlled electronic devices. Just as extended techniques
to Improvising with Sounding Objects in Experimental Music,” refers to the potential of
are no longer exotic extensions of conventional technique but become integral to the musical
treating any object as a musical instrument. The process “seeks to discover the performability,
language of an instrument, electronic devices are not used as special auxiliary effects but
intrinsic sonic palette and possibilities for sonic manipulation of objects,”18 and is a common
instead can be fully integrated into the conception and realization of a work.
artistic practice for many improvisers and sound artists. It can be performed on any object
Other emblematic works in the development of performer-controlled electronics are that has the potential to sound or to manipulate sound in real time, and can range from
Cage’s Cartridge Music (1960) and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie I (1964). Cartridge simple acoustic objects to a wide range of technologies. Instrumentalizing typically involves
Music marks the development of the turntable from a tool used to reproduce previously the de-contextualization and re-contextualization of the device used, and can include devices
recorded material into an instrument capable of producing its own sounds and possessing its designed for music production as well as those intended for uses in other fields.19 At its core,
own aesthetic.16 Mikrophonie I exploits the microphone as a mobile performance instrument in the idea is that an instrument is not completed at the stage of design or production, but is
relation to a large tam-tam. Stockhausen attempts to use the microphone to modify the same rather made complete through its use.
parameters as conventional musical instruments and guide all aspects of sound-shaping.17
The process of instrumentalizing reformats the common perception that a musical
Mikrophonie I is unique in that it simultaneously cultivates the performative use of electronic
instrument or object is a predetermined entity used to realize an external musical language.
devices, extends the fundamental notion of percussion playing, and presents a new model for
Instead, the object is explored for its inherent sonic properties. This approach seeks to create
chamber music performance. It introduces unique performance challenges through a renewed
an artistic statement that is responsive to the emerging characteristics of an adopted or
notion of virtuosity and a shift towards deliberately unstable sound-producing systems. As
appropriated sounding object. For example, the use of prepared phonograph cartridges in
such, Mikrophonie I signals a turning point both in the history of percussion music and in the
Cartridge Music uncovers the inherent sounds of objects that would otherwise go unheard
development of performer-controlled electronics.
through the re-contextualization of the phonograph’s intended purpose. The phonograph’s
The general approach of performer-controlled electronics implies a certain tactile original function as a playback device is deconstructed; it is then reconstructed as an
connection to a device that allows the performer to track the relationship between an action instrument capable of producing its own sounds, thus stretching and redefining its sonic
or adjustment and the resulting sound, leading to the creation of responsive interactions potential.
with the device and its sonic behaviour. Such an approach favours devices that have an
This approach is similar to the defamiliarization of instrumental technique, as
inherent specificity that can be explored and exploited in an immediate and direct manner,
described earlier, rooted in a rejection of instrumental conventions and an embrace of
and explains the general tendency towards the use of analog devices in performer-controlled
extraneous instrumental sounds. The treatments of technologies such as the phonograph,
electronic settings.
microphones, and oscillators in Cartridge Music and Mikrophonie I represent a reaction to the
fixed nature of electronic music studio composition. These technologies could be explored
for their unfamiliar sounds and new performance possibilities, resulting in unique sonic
characteristics and an “explicit rejection of past musical technique.”20
16 Caleb Kelly, Cracked Media: The Sound of Malfunction (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2009), 116.
17 Sound-shaping refers to the practical activity of instrumentalizing, a term discussed in the following section. See also Andy 18 Keep, “Instrumentalizing”, 113.
Keep, “Instrumentalizing: Approaches to Improvising with Sounding Objects in Experimental Music,” in The Ashgate 19 Keep, “Instrumentalizing”.
Research Companion to Experimental Music, ed. James Saunders (Farnham, England: Ashgate, 2009), 113-129. 20 Keep, “Instrumentalizing”, 115.

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The notion of creative abuse is a primary method within the process of In this way, developing a musical language from objects or electronic device manipulations
instrumentalizing, especially when working with electronic devices. Creative abuse refers to can be approached in a similar manner.
the exploitation of a sonic object by any means necessary and in manners for which it is not
initially intended or generally accepted. This can be achieved by pushing an electronic device
to the edge of unstable activity through the experimentation of its capacities, leading to the Inherent unpredictability
emergence of the device’s “personality” and the discovery of unique behaviours. Creative
abuse places devices in situations where undesired elements of the media are accepted and Instrumentalizing and creative abuse highlight functions of electronic devices for
embraced, and can ultimately be exploited in performance.21 which they are not initially intended. As a result, these functions typically do not behave
as consistently as musicians are accustomed to in instrumental performance. The use of
In acoustic music, the use of prepared instruments and extreme extended techniques
performer-controlled electronic devices therefore requires a performance practice that accepts
can be understood as a form of creative abuse. As extended techniques are pushed to the
and embraces the inherent unpredictability of electronic devices. This is demonstrated in
extreme, the original intention of an instrument is forgotten; it is fractured by its treatment
Cartridge Music, an extreme example in this case since Cage requires the performers to follow
and is transformed into a new sounding object. In electronic music, although creative abuse
instructions without subjective input.23 Players must perform an action and accept any
can be applied to both new and outdated technology, it relies on the materiality and inherent
possible outcome, which allows for unexpected outcomes to emerge. Cage notes in the score
limitations of the media, just as acoustic instruments by nature are material objects with
that “all events, ordinarily thought to be undesirable, such as feed-back, humming, howling,
limitations. While these limitations can be stretched, as demonstrated by developments
etc., are to be accepted in this situation.”24
throughout musical history and especially in experimental performance practices, they cannot
be completely erased. Mikrophonie I represents another form of unpredictability, since no performer has full
control over the final sounding result. With each individual sound being produced by the
Creative abuse highlights elements of musical technologies that the production
combination of three performers, the players are performing actions that result in sounds
process attempts to eliminate, bringing these elements to the foreground of the technological
that cannot always be anticipated. Therefore, in addition to the complexity of notated
system. Through the creation of music from the sounds of technological dysfunctions, our
actions in Mikrophonie I, a key challenge for performers—who are generally trained to
attention is shifted to the failing of systems that have been designed to not fail, therefore
produce a predictable outcome—becomes the embrace and management of an aesthetic of
contributing to the transformation of these devices into active participants of artistic creation
unpredictability.
and performance. The mistreatment of technology, just like the perceived misuse of an
acoustic instrument, therefore, goes beyond the shock of the act and into the field of artistic The embrace of an aesthetic of unpredictability can also be demonstrated by the
productivity.22 use of acoustic feedback in musical performance. Feedback was originally a sound to be
avoided, since it disturbed the standard approaches of sonic reproduction and amplification.
The incorporation of electronic devices into an already extended musical practice can
As with the previous examples, the active use of feedback was a way to purposely misuse
thus be viewed as a further defamiliarization of instrumental performance, rather than an
technological equipment. Feedback became a common feature of much music in the 1960s,
entirely different practice. In this way, one can develop electronic performance techniques
which could be due to the fact that the problem of feedback had largely been solved and
in conjunction with newly invented instrumental techniques, allowing them to function and
could be controlled. Therefore, since it could be avoided, there was a clear difference between
interact on the same plane of importance.
sounds that were intended and those that were not.25
Since the use and treatment of electronic devices will inevitably vary from one work
Once feedback functions as a central sounding element of a work it can be manipulated as
to the next, the notion of work-specific techniques from a post-percussive practice is similarly
sounding matter, drawing the audience’s attention to the interaction between the performer
applicable to performer-controlled electronics. The process of developing these techniques
and the feedback system. Artists such as Robert Ashley, Eliane Radigue, and Jimi Hendrix
allows performers to familiarize themselves and develop a performing relationship
were drawn to the unpredictability of acoustic feedback, as opposed to the very controllable
with an electronic device in a manner that will resemble their re-familiarization with an
nature of conventional instruments that had been developed over time. The instability and
acoustic instrument. A performer adept at developing work-specific techniques in acoustic
performance should be able to transfer these skills to the performance of electronic devices by
discovering their sounding characteristics, their tactile response, and their unique behaviours.
23 Alvin Lucier and Robert Ashley, “Cage and Tudor,” in Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music (Middletown: Wesleyan
University Press, 2012), 60.
24 John Cage, “Cartridge Music,” (New York: Edition Peters, 1960).
21 Keep, “Instrumentalizing”, 116. 25 Cathy van Eck, Between Air and Electricity: Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments (New York: Bloomsbury,
22 Kelly, Cracked Media, 126. 2017), 83.

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fragility of the feedback system was regarded as an interesting and captivating element of they have an inherent and designed resistance against such uses, resulting in sounds that
performance.26 can be surprising for both audiences and performers. The unpredictability that results from
such treatments of electronic devices, and the tension that emerges from the juxtaposition of
In The Wolfman (1964) by Robert Ashley, for amplified voice and tape, sustained vocal
unpredictability and strict musical performance, is central to the works that have shaped my
sounds are combined with highly amplified resonance feedback shaped by the performer’s
experiences with performer-controlled electronics.
mouth cavity. Resonance feedback is created by bringing a microphone proximate to an air
cavity—the performer’s mouth in this case—which can be excited to resonate into feedback The unstable and volatile nature of the treatment of certain electronic devices demands
even with a relatively distant loudspeaker. Ashley explains that the tongue must be kept in an altered performance practice. As compared to Western classical instrumental practices,
contact with the roof of the mouth to create a special cavity that allows for a certain amount such a practice involves more searching, listening, and adapting to sounds, with a greater
of acoustic feedback to be present within the vocal sounds. The mouth must also be kept close acceptance of unpredictability. When working with such unstable environments, one cannot
to the microphone to allow for the softly produced vocal sounds to control the feedback and search for the reproduction of exact sounds but must rather aim to recreate sonic behaviours.
achieve a proper mix of levels. As a result, the performer can roughly control the electronic This perspective can be paralleled to common percussion techniques—such as bowing a
sound with their mouth cavity.27 cymbal or rubbing the tip of a drumstick across the surface of a tam-tam to create a high-
pitched harmonic—as well as the unstable nature of many other acoustic sounds used in
Eliane Radigue began experimenting with feedback in the late 1960s, using the basic
experimental music performance today.30 One can develop the skills to shape and manage
equipment of tape recorders, loudspeakers, and a microphone. Her experiments resulted in
the produced sound while also embracing its unpredictable nature. This kind of approach is
works realized with feedback and processed feedback, including Stress-Osaka (1969), Usral
common in experimental improvisation circles, where the material resistance and deviations
(1969), Omnht (1970), and Vice - Versa, Etc... (1970). These pieces feature continuously shifting
of objects used play a fundamental aesthetic role in the practice.31
yet very slow streams of sound, with transformation occurring within the sonic material
itself. Radigue maintained the subtlety, serenity, and focus of these works, influenced by the Performers can treat their connection to such electronic devices as an extension of their
technique of feedback, as she replaced the feedback process with the use of synthesizers in the traditional relationship to an instrument, finding the skills that are transferable and viewing
1970s, and as she began incorporating acoustic instruments in the 2000s.28 this as an opportunity to expand their capacities and develop new performance sensibilities.
Percussionists, and especially those working in a post-percussive practice, are well suited to
Jimi Hendrix fully incorporated feedback into the physicality of his playing,
this approach since they are trained to develop a versatility in adapting to new instruments
introducing the electric guitar as an entirely new kind of instrument by diverting it away
and methods of sound production.
from its conventional use. His crucial innovation was to play at high volume while standing
close to the speaker to obtain feedback, which he could then control in a very nuanced and The integration of performer-controlled electronic devices into an instrumental practice
sensitive way using the angle of his guitar, the weight and position of his fingers on the extends the performer’s capacity for adaptability. Rather than operating as a conventional
strings, and the position of his entire body.29 Hendrix’s developments played an important instrumentalist, the performer often becomes an exciter or prober of sounds, controlling sonic
role in the use of feedback in rock and popular music genres, influencing future generations activities that may have a behaviour of their own. The notion of virtuosity of adaptability that
of artists and composers working in various musical fields to incorporate feedback into their emerges in a post-percussive practice assumes an even greater role in the use of performer-
work. controlled electronics. The integration of performer-controlled electronics into a post-
percussive practice stimulates performers to expand an ever-growing set of skills while also
Feedback systems have since been used by composers, performers, improvisers, and
drawing on past experiences to transform the unfamiliar into the familiar.
sound artists in various ways, such as sending a feedback signal through effect pedals or
controlling it in a very nuanced and sensitive manner with an instrument. A feedback system The use of “instrumentalized” and “creatively abused” electronic devices can be
is given vitality as an active sound shaping instrument by the strong interaction between understood as contributing to the continued expansion of musical instrument possibilities.
performer movement and feedback sound. Although the relationship between movement In instrumental practices, the inherent limitations of an instrument are what allow for
and resulting sound is much less predictable than with conventional instruments, every small creativity and innovation to emerge as these limits are exploited, pushing an instrument’s
movement affects the sound. Since these devices are not intended to be used in this manner, and a performer’s capacities past what was previously conceivable. The processes of
instrumentalizing and creative abuse subvert the use of electronic devices typically designed
26 Eck, Between Air and Electricity, 83-84.
27 Robert Ashley, “The Wolfman for Amplified Voice and Tape,” in Source: Music of the Avant-Garde, 1966-1973, ed. Larry 30 For example, the use multiphonics and split tones on wind instruments, or the gliding of various objects along piano
Austin and Douglas Kahn (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 144-45. strings.
28 Joseph Ghosn, “Vivre sa vie.” Liner notes for Œuvres Électroniques, by Eliane Radigue. INA 6060/74, 2018, 14 compact 31 See, for instance, Matthias Haenisch, ‘Materiality and Agency in Improvisation: Andrea Neumann’s “Inside Piano”’,
discs. in Noise in and as Music, ed. Aaron Cassidy and Aaron Einbond, trans. Carter Williams (Huddersfield, University of
29 Bob Ostertag, “Human Bodies, Computer Music,” Leonardo Music Journal 12 (2002): 13. Huddersfield Press, 2013), 147-170.

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for their transcendent qualities, and instead reveal their material limitations. These material performative electronic component—as opposed to simply playing an instrument and having
limitations are precisely what allow them to be treated and exploited as musical instruments, the electronics controlled independently—I could apply similar working methods that I had
even if they may not share the same behavioural characteristics as acoustic instruments. The developed through a post-percussive practice.
incorporation of electronic devices thus affords performers the opportunity to further expand
their instrumental capacities through the creation of new hybrid instrumental-electronic
setups. Hanna Hartman, Message from the Lighthouse (2009/16)

The highly-amplified setup used in Message from the Lighthouse, a work for solo
Performing (with) performative electronics percussionist by Hanna Hartman, can be considered as one of the simplest forms of
performer-controlled electronics. In this example, a high-end Schertler DYN contact
The use and development of a performer-controlled electronic practice has been microphone picks up the full range of frequencies transmitted from a contraption built of two
explored by artists in various ways. There are no set rules that one must follow for an flower pots and stainless steel knives, and amplifies them to a degree that can make the
electronic performance situation to be deemed as performer-controlled, and the aim of this audience feel as if they are inside the flower pots themselves (see Figure 1). The sounds
paper is not to define what is or is not performer-controlled. The integration of performer- created by the instrument would not be heard without the use of the microphone, or a
controlled electronics into an instrumental practice requires a personal approach that microphone of such high quality. The sounds that are heard are therefore intrinsic to the
embraces the process of experimenting with objects, devices, and their various combinations, newly created object of which the microphone is an integral element. This use of a
or in other words, “getting the hands dirty”.32 There is no substitute for spending time with microphone can be compared to a singer’s use of extremely close microphone placement—
the materials, exploring their sonic characteristics and discovering their unique behaviours, perhaps the simplest form of performer-controlled electronics—which could either be using
much like a performer does with an acoustic instrument. As numerous performers in various an air microphone or a contact microphone placed on the throat, to amplify and bring to life
artistic fields who incorporate these elements demonstrate, a performative electronic practice internal sounds that rely on amplification for their existence.
can be developed in different ways and lead to original and distinctive results.

I have not set out to develop a new performative relationship with a single instrument
through its electronic augmentation, but rather extend an already expanded percussion
background through the incorporation of performer-controlled electronics. This approach
is assembled from a deconstruction of conventional technique, and a resulting lack of
coherency, through the exploitation of the intrinsic sonic characteristics of instruments,
objects, electronic devices, and their various possible combinations. The composers and
musicians that I have worked with in this field are from a generation that has grown
up immersed in popular culture with access to all sorts of musical genres beyond those
propagated through institutional music training. As such, the use of feedback, guitar effect
pedals, and contact amplification—typically associated with noise-based musical genres—
feature more prominently than complex computer systems.33

I began performing works that integrate electronic devices into my instrumental setup
in 2014. As with many classically-trained musicians, the use of electronics in performance
was daunting to me. However, I discovered that in cases where I was given control of the

32 John Richards, “Getting the Hands Dirty,” Leonardo Music Journal 18 (2008), 25-31.
33 The developments that characterize performer-controlled electronics are more often found in popular culture and
underground music circles than in electronic music research institutions such as IRCAM (Paris) or CIRMMT (Montreal).
The approach favoured by such institutions has been to electronically process a musician playing their instrument in the
conventional manner, or to develop new digital instruments that can be programmed to produce any possible sound. Figure 1: Hanna Hartman, Message from the Lighthouse. Flowerpots and knives setup.34
Both of these approaches run into issues: the division of tasks between two people of the generation and control of sound
is a problem, as the person generating the sound is disconnected from the final output; and music that is designed using
electronically generated sound from computers suffers from the problem that one cannot actually touch and manipulate
the generation of sound. (Ostertag, “Human Bodies, Computer Music,” 14.) 34 Hanna Hartman, “Message from the Lighthouse,” (Self-published, 2009/16).

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The extreme amplification system used in Message from the Lighthouse allows for the
deconstruction and reconstruction of the object’s sounding characteristics, through the de-
contextualization and re-contextualization of the object itself. As such, I discovered that I
could approach the flowerpot contraption, constructed through a process of instrumentalizing
and creative abuse, in a similar manner as I approached my performance of post-percussive
works. Just as I had to learn and develop new techniques in the performance of those works,
Message from the Lighthouse required me to discover the sonic characteristics of the flowerpot
contraption, its performability, and its possibilities for sonic manipulation.

As I was preparing the work, I quickly realized that it would be useless to attempt to
construct and test the flowerpot contraption without the required amplification. The manner
in which one constructs the object—choosing the appropriate flowerpots and knives—is fully
reliant on being able to hear the sounds in their totality. I also realized that using a lower
quality contact microphone hindered my progress, as I was searching for sounds that could
not actually be produced without the correct amplification system. The electronic system of
the contact microphone and loudspeaker, as well as careful frequency equalization on the
mixer, is thus a fundamental component of the instrumental object.

In turn, I found that this construction influenced how I went about playing the object, Figure 2: Mauricio Pauly, The Threshing Floor. Setup and technical diagram.35
and shaped the actions that I use in performing the piece. As an exciter and prober of sounds,
I discovered that I was responsible for triggering and shaping sounds rather than creating As the diagram indicates, each performer has a personal mixer that allows them to
them. It felt as if the sounds were already inside the created object, and the electronic system control their individual amplification levels and equalization (EQ). The fine-tuning of levels
simply provided me with the means to transmit them into audibility. and EQ influence the produced sounds in certain sections of the piece, such as the frequency
of feedback pitches. This action can be considered as similar to a string player fine-tuning
their instrument, only that feedback carries much greater levels of unpredictability. Each
performer has a wedge-shaped loudspeaker placed behind them; this not only allows for the
Mauricio Pauly, The Threshing Floor
production and shaping of feedback due to the proximity of the microphone and loudspeaker
The Threshing Floor (2014) by Mauricio Pauly is the work that led me on the path to system, but also maintains the localization of amplified sounds to each performer’s position
integrate performer-controlled electronics into my practice. Pauly wrote the piece for my duo in space.
scapegoat with saxophonist Joshua Hyde; we premiered it in 2015, and it has since become one The use of contact microphones on both instruments allow for the use of techniques
of our trademark works that we have performed over 25 times across North America, Europe, and sounds that would be otherwise inaudible, such as the sticky opening of saxophone keys
and Australia. We first began workshopping the piece in 2013 in Manchester, experimenting and the pressing and lifting of moist fingertips on the frame drum. Furthermore, Pauly and
with the integration of guitar effect pedals and different forms of feedback control at our I discovered that the choice of contact microphones very much contributed to the sound and
instruments. The resulting work incorporates the electronic component directly into our aesthetic of the piece. The K&K Hot Spot microphones used are relatively cheap microphones
instrumental setups. Both performers control two effect pedals, a BOSS DD-6 Digital Delay with limited frequency response, yet when we tried performing the piece with higher-end
and a BOSS OC-3 Super Octave, in addition to highly-amplified instruments and resulting microphones we discovered that we were unable to replicate the sounds that we were
feedback production. The full setup is detailed in the score (see Figure 2). searching for. Since the musical language of the work had been developed with the full setup
of instruments and electronics, the inherent quality of the original microphones becomes an
essential and inseparable component of the instrument and the work.

The development of the musical language of The Threshing Floor can be understood
as the process of instrumentalizing the instrument and electronics setup. The decision to
use specific microphones and guitar pedals contributed to the “intrinsic sonic palette and

35 Mauricio Pauly, “The Threshing Floor,” (Self-published, 2014).

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possibilities for sonic manipulation”36 of the instruments. For example, the sounds of the
sticky opening of saxophone keys and the lifting of fingertips off the frame drum were
initially unavoidable by-products of the high-volume contact amplification. However, once
we discovered that these sounds could be controlled and shaped by our playing, they could
then be integrated into the musical language of the work. Similarly, the capsule microphone
is not only used as a tool for amplification, but also contributes unique sounds through its
unconventional uses: it is held in contact to frame drum’s skin to alter the timbre of various
friction sounds, it is rubbed directly on the skin to produce a rough scratching sound, and it
is pressed onto the kick drum’s head during superball rubbing actions to create low, distorted
buzzing sounds.

The high-amplification levels also result in various forms of feedback that are fully
integrated as musical elements in the work. The saxophonist creates feedback by approaching
the dynamic microphone with the bell of the saxophone, using the body of the instrument as
a resonating chamber to create feedback. Hyde alters the feedback frequency using the keys
of the saxophone, a technique that he further developed with Michelle Lou in Opal, a work
that she wrote for us in 2017.

In the percussion setup, feedback is produced in two ways. At the very beginning of
The Threshing Floor, high amplification levels on the contact microphones result in feedback Figure 3: The Threshing Floor. Opening, measures 1-9.37

when the frame drum’s head is unmuted. I am thus able to shape and control this feedback
by lifting my hand off the drum and simultaneously adjusting volume levels on the mixer. In
this opening section, my feedback sounds are combined with saxophone multiphonics and
feedback; I therefore adjust the EQ of the contact microphones to attempt to blend within the
frequency range of the saxophone. (See Figure 3).

Feedback is also created with the capsule microphone using the kick drum as a
resonating chamber. For this, I move the capsule microphone between the edge of the frame
drum and the rim of the kick drum, exploring the different feedback frequencies that can be
created. In some situations, certain spots can be found where two frequencies are produced
at once. If the frequencies are close enough in pitch to one another, special beating patterns
emerge. Since this method of producing feedback is more volatile than with the contact
microphones, it is only used in open sections where the two performers ebb and flow in and
out of quiet feedback tones, blended with pre-recorded tape tracks that give the impression of
extending and resonating the live feedback sounds.
Mauricio Pauly, The Threshing Floor, 0’14” – 2’05”. Performed by scapegoat (Joshua Hyde, Noam Bierstone).
These uses of feedback can be understood as a form of creative abuse, where the Knafel Center, Cambridge, MA. May 13, 2015.

highly-amplified instruments are pushed to the edge of unstable activity, thus allowing The feedback systems used in The Threshing Floor behave very differently with each
for the resulting elements to be exploited in performance. As performers, this compels us change of venue, equipment, and positioning, so I found that I rely much less on replicating
to develop a deep understanding of the components that result in feedback production— physical actions from one performance to the next and instead focus more on the qualities
volume levels, microphone placement relative to instruments and loudspeakers, resonating of the sounds produced. In feedback production, minute movements can result in drastic
characteristics of the instruments, and the influence of effect pedals—in order to incorporate sonic changes. Furthermore, the performer loses the direct contact to the sounding object that
the unstable behaviour of feedback into the relatively controlled setting of chamber music one may be accustomed to in instrumental playing, and that is maintained in a work such
performance. as Message from the Lighthouse. I found that certain adjustments had to be made when I could

36 Keep, “Instrumentalizing: Approaches to Improvising with Sounding Objects in Experimental Music,” 113. 37 Pauly, “The Threshing Floor.”

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no longer rely on the tactile response of the object I was manipulating. I had to place greater these behaviours is embraced as an integral element of the work, contributing to a liveliness
importance on aural response through more acute listening, rather than rely on any sort of that can only be felt in live performance.
felt resistance from the sounding object. This required me to spend additional time with the
objects and devices—carrying out the process of instrumentalizing—to track the relationship
between a sound producing method or parameter adjustment and the resulting sound.

In these situations, the notion of tactile manipulation is maintained even if tactile

response is not, therefore sonic changes and results can still be correlated to physical
manipulations. As with more conventional instrumental situations, actions can be repeated
to retrieve and reactivate fruitful sonic behaviours.38 This is a skill that I cultivated through
my focus on a post-percussive practice, and that has become invaluable in my pursuit of
performer-controlled electronics systems. I have found that I can maintain a strong sense
of control over the materials used by experimenting with the devices and discovering their
behaviours, exploring their essential characteristics as it relates to the sonic material of the
work.

The effect pedals used in The Threshing Floor are featured in various ways. The OC-3
Super Octave is used straightforwardly; it transposes a sound sent through the pedal down
one or two octaves, blending the transposed sound with the direct sound to varying degrees Mauricio Pauly, The Threshing Floor, 11’13” – 13’25”. Performed by scapegoat (Joshua Hyde, Noam Bierstone).
Knafel Center, Cambridge, MA. May 13, 2015.
depending on the pedal settings which are changed by the performers throughout the work.
It is notable that my first foray into the use of performer-controlled electronics was
The octave transpositions are applied to both instrumental sounds—including sounds looped
in a chamber music setting. Chamber music performance requires communication and
through the DD-6 Digital Delay pedal—and to feedback tones. Triggering the octave pedal
consistency between the musicians for them to be able to effectively coexist and synchronize
on and off also resets and produces different feedback sounds, allowing for the performers
their playing. The Threshing Floor provided us with the ideal framework to maintain a
to push the volume of feedback knowing that the octave pedal or another action will reset
chamber music connection while also embrace the inherent behaviours of the electronic
the feedback before the sound reaches a dangerous level. This is demonstrated in the excerpt
systems used. The electronics are fully integrated into the instruments in ways that
below, where the amplification volume is so high that feedback appears quite regularly, yet
expand their capacities, but also preserve a performative relationship with the combined
the instrumental and pedal actions control the volatile nature of the sound.
instrumental-electronic setup. Even though the electronics used in this piece behave
The DD-6 is used in a more unique manner through a form of creative abuse. In unpredictably at times, we found that we could maintain a certain degree of consistency in
addition to using the pedal for its looping function, Pauly exploits it for an inherent glitch that the sonic results that allowed us to stay connected as we would in acoustic chamber music
creates a stutter effect. The tightness of the stutter, essentially created as an extremely short without sacrificing the uniqueness of the electronic performance system.
loop, is not fully controllable. One can aim for a shorter or longer stutter loop, but since the
As I discovered with Message to the Lighthouse, Hyde and I quickly realized that it
technique relies on the inherent glitch of the pedal it is by nature unstable, contributing to the
would be of little use to rehearse The Threshing Floor without the electronic setup from the
aesthetic of chaos and volatility moulded by the behaviour and limitations of the device. This
very beginning of the process. This approach to performing with electronics is vital, as it
use of the glitch in the DD-6, while perhaps unfamiliar to Western contemporary classical
is precisely what allows the performer to develop the new techniques used in the work in
music, is nothing new. Pauly in fact borrowed it from the Japanese noise-rock band Melt-
the correct context. A musician would never learn a technique on a conventional acoustic
Banana after seeing them use it in a live show.39
instrument without listening to and adjusting the sounding result, and it should not be
There is an aesthetic of dirtiness and imperfection that permeates The Threshing Floor. different when performing with electronics. This notion has been a driving force for me in my
The sounds and behavioural tendencies of the hybrid instrumental-electronic system provide pursuit of works that integrate performer-controlled electronics, requiring the construction of
a level of unpredictability to the musical material. The sonic contamination that can arise from an instrument and its respective work-specific techniques for each situation, and ultimately
leading to more rewarding performance experiences.

38 Keep, “Instrumentalizing: Approaches to Improvising with Sounding Objects in Experimental Music,” 119.
39 The stutter features prominently in Melt-Banana songs such as Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold from the 2003 album Cell-
Scape, released one year after the BOSS DD-6 release in 2002.

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Conclusion

A post-percussive practice signifies a deconstruction of Western percussion

conventions to instead develop an approach that celebrates the unique (re)construction of
an instrument and its technical language for each and every work. This requires performers
to learn and develop work-specific techniques and stretches their capacities for adaptability
from one situation to the next. The integration of performer-controlled electronics into an
instrumental setting can be understood as an extension of the potential of a post-percussive
practice. It requires a similar approach by the performer in learning the language and
behaviour of the electronic device as they would with an acoustic object, thus importing
the device into the realm of an instrumental practice. Incorporating electronics allows for
the further exploitation of an instrument’s potential, or in the case of the already seemingly
limitless world of percussion, it provides new instruments to exploit through their
deconstruction and reconstruction.

An electronic device must be able to be treated as a musical instrument for it to be

brought into the realm of an instrumental practice. This does not mean that it will behave
like a conventional musical instrument but rather that it must have an inherent materiality
that can be explored. This materiality, and the limitations associated with it, is what allows
a performer to develop a tactile relationship with the device. From here, a performer or
composer can apply the processes of instrumentalizing and creative abuse to discover
the performability of the device, and ultimately exploit its potential within an extended-
instrumental setting.

The incorporation of electronic devices into an instrumental setting not only requires
a performer to develop a relationship to the electronic device, but it also modifies their
relationship to the previously acoustic instrument. Even with the use of simple contact
amplification, one can no longer expect an instrument to behave in the same manner; new
sound production techniques become available while others must be set aside, reformulating
the artistic possibilities of the instrument. Furthermore, the incorporation and various
treatments of electronic devices often contribute unpredictable or volatile sonic behaviours
that a performer must learn to control within the confines of a system. The performer in
this case must relinquish some of the control they are accustomed to having in acoustic
playing, and instead embrace their role as an exciter or prober of sounds as they trigger and
shape unique sonic behaviours. Most importantly, performers must recognize that with the
incorporation of electronic devices, it is very rare that any two performance situations will
ever be same, and that a performance relationship built upon flexibility and adaptability will
lead to the most fruitful and rewarding results.

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Virtual Reality as Musical Environment while it is running. Implementation of this idea would be a visual programming environment
within virtual space, where the “code blocks” (Jaron refers to them as editors) communicate
intuitively with each other via their interfaces. All these concepts are having their renaissance
Przemysław Danowski as the “third wave”6 of Virtual Reality began in 2015 with the emergence of the Oculus
company.

My fascination with VR technology began around 1992 on a school trip to the cinema.
The movie was “The Lawnmower Man” by Brett Leonard, a film based on a Stephen King’s
novel. It was filled with VR imagery, as the main character was the subject of dreadful
experiments that used VR as a means of accelerating human evolution. Back then, I had
little knowledge of this technology, but it triggered a fascination that prevailed for many
years until I was able to get my own VR equipment and begin to experiment with it. My
focus wasn’t on evolution though, but rather on music composition and performance.
Unfortunately, as the internet was at its beginnings, I had no access to more information
about VR besides sci-fi literature and popular science and IT magazines. My country, Poland,
was in a transformation process from communism to free-market economics and the access
to modern technology was very limited. I couldn’t imagine VR as a real thing, just a fictional
concept.

The vision of VR presented in the movie was directly derived from the concepts of Jaron Lanier presenting “The Sound of One Hand” at Moogfest 20167
Jaron Lanier, CEO of VPL, the company that supplied wearable hardware as the costumes.
VPL was the first company that tried to popularize VR as a new medium and an artistic For a number of years beside being a multimedia artist, I was a professional classical
creation environment. Lanier is a musician himself, so it was natural that he tried to use VR as and jazz musician. What I found to be an intense experience during my performing
a musical instrument. One of first such performances took place in 1992, when he presented experience was the moment when, after years of practising, the instrument felt like it was
his “The Sound of One Hand” at the SIGGRAPH conference in Chicago1 (there is video part of my body. My muscles reproduced remembered movements while I could focus
documentation of the performance available on Lanier’s website2). on aesthetic details and fitting my part into the ensemble. That feeling was the thing I was
always looking for in work with music and sound, yet I couldn’t find it in front of a mixing
Lanier’s approach was more focused on improvisation rather than playing
desk or monitor with Digital Audio Workstation. I was looking for an interface that would be
precomposed musical structures. He designed virtual instruments that were controlled by the
as expressive as the woodwind instrument I played.
DataGlove—wearable hardware placed on a user’s hand—including the Rhythm Gimbal and
The Cybersax.3 Their sounds were generated by MIDI devices controlled by the interface that As VR rose back with its third wave, I instantly fell back to my original fascination
was driven by the data coming out of VR. In other experiments Lanier uses real instruments with it, intuitively feeling that it might be something that would accommodate my need of
to control VR environment.4 One of the most interesting things that Lanier brings up is that expressiveness and sonic versatility. My conclusion was that fully expressive interaction with
VR can be used to create the environment that one is already immersed in. He even proposes digital sound cannot be achieved by simulation of known physical instruments. I imagined
the concept of phenotropic programming5 to materialise this concept. Lanier calls it also that as a programmable environment, VR had the capacity to be calibrated to various
neuromimetic or organic programming. This idea rejects the need of separate modes of gestures, movements or positions of users. That turned out to be true and these capabilities
software development—coding and running the code. Instead it proposes working on code are growing as the devices are developing.

1 Jaron Lanier, Dawn of the New Everything: a Journey through Virtual Reality (London: The Bodley Head, 2017), 267-277.
2 Jaron Lanier, “Virtual Reality and Music”, Jaron Lanier’s Homepage, accessed September 14, 2020, http://www.
jaronlanier.com/vr.html.
3 Jaron Lanier, “Virtual Instrumentation”, Jaron Lanier’s Homepage, accessed September 16, 2020, http://www.jaronlanier. 6 According to Michael R. Heim’s terminology first wave of VR was Lanier’s era up to the late 90’s and the second wave
com/instruments.html. was at the turn of the 21st century. See Michael R. Heim, “Bridging Real and Virtual: A Spiritual Challenge,” Journal for
4 Jaron Lanier, “The Latest VR Music Adventures”, Jaron Lanier’s Homepage, accessed September 17, 2020, http://www. Religion, Film and Media 3, no. 1 (2017): 159-181, https://doi.org/10.25364/05.3:2017.1.8.
jaronlanier.com/performance.html. 7 “Jaron Lanier - Virtual Reality in 1987 - The Sound of One Hand - Moogfest 2016,” Accessed September 13, 2020. https://
5 Lanier, Dawn of the New Everything: a Journey through Virtual Reality, 301. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItaPqJaUypY.

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A need for such new instruments was expressed by Antonin Artaud in his “Theatre “Versum” is an example of a system wherein the space becomes a leading structure
of cruelty” manifesto.8 Artaud was the first to use the phrase “virtual reality”; it was his of the composition. It is also evident that its interface becomes the notation tool for the com-
description for the new format of modern theatre. In Artaud’s manifesto there is a passage position, where the spatial arrangement of the objects is a scoresheet at the same time. This
concerning musical instruments: way of organizing performance resembles features of a gallery exhibition—a common form
for presentation in visual arts. Such spatial arrangements of sounds in space could be defined
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: They will be treated as objects and as part of the set. Also, as “architecture of sound”. Although “Versum” is not a VR work, it could be easily imagined
the need to act directly and profoundly upon the sensibility through the organs invites as one, projected via headset. “Versum” uses POV locomotion as a way of interacting with
research, from the point of view of sound, into qualities and vibrations of absolutely the composition. The speed of movement through the 3D space induces the level of Doppler
new sounds, qualities which present-day musical instruments do not possess and which effect. The audiovisual entities are time-agnostic; they constantly produce sounds from the
require the revival of ancient and forgotten instruments or the invention of new ones.
beginning of the composition. There are no other means of affecting the sound during the
Research is also required, apart from music, into instruments and appliances which, based
performance other than the navigation system.
upon special combinations or new alloys of metal, can attain a new range and compass,
producing sounds or noises that are unbearably piercing.
4D SOUND collective created the software TRACER,10 a spatial audio middleware for
Ableton Live DAW that allows composers to arrange sounds in 3D space by drawing sound
trajectories in virtual reality. It was designed for the Spatial Sound Institute (SSI) studio in
Virtual space as a canvas for sounds
Budapest, Hungary.
One of the natural qualities of virtual 3D space is that it can be operated in ways that
in the physical world would be possible only for beings residing in the fourth dimension.
One can move freely in 3D space, scale it, watch from any angle and position, transform it to
2D image, listen to it from any spot while watching it from different positions. Having those
abilities, we can think about new forms of interacting with sound. These are new affordances
for developing spatial features of music compositions. Locomotion inside VR is very natural
and easy. It doesn’t require vast physical spaces, so it expands accessibility of using space as
a means of arranging sounds, parallel to the arrangement of sounds in time. Tarik Barri in his
“Versum”9 system enables the composer to place audiovisual objects in 3D space and then the
audience is able to move around them, effectively running the composition. There is no strict
timeline and the path through the composition can be defined in a number of ways, creating
the “meta-compositions” as Barri names them. TRACER VR interface, https://www.filipruisl.com/work/tracer/

These trajectories correspond to the positions of the sound in the room and the virtual
overlay is aligned with the studio space. The sounds can be decoded and played by the SSI
speaker system as they move with time along the trajectories. The audience can explore the
spatial soundscape by walking or by just sitting and listening to the shifting sounds.

In both applications the audience is free to explore the compositions by travelling in

their architectures—virtually or physically.

These two examples are highly specialised applications, but there is also a genre
which instead of using bespoke tools adapts applications not primarily designed to be music
instruments. Avatar Orchestra Metaverse is a telematic music performance collective. They
use Second Life (SL) application as a space for constructing their instruments and doing
Tarrik Barri, Versum (2011) interface, https://vimeo.com/20347210

8 Antonin Artaud, The Theater and Its Double (New York: Grove Press, 2004), 95.
9 Tarik Barri, “Versum: Audiovisual Composing in 3D”, in Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Auditory Display
(Copenhagen, 2009). 10 Filip Ruisl and Gábor Pribék, “Tracer: Spatial Sound Composer”, 2019, https://www.filipruisl.com/work/tracer/.

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performances. This approach results in aesthetics that are rooted in gaming and virtual social first use was in a concert where I presented a composition called “Connexion”, which was
network environments. A note from their concert program aptly describes their artistry: modulated with the monad live on stage. The idea behind this performance came from the
need of lifting borders between the composer and performer, performer and the audience,
A day in the life of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse: Meeting in a networked virtual world composition and the instrument, the visuals and the sounds—following the concept of
as avatars, AOM members design and play new otherworldly virtual instruments while oneness raised by philosopher Plotinus. We wanted also to achieve the intense feeling of
experimenting with identity, perception, telepathy and collectivity. They present the sounds, physical interaction with avatar objects.
images and movements from a few of their repertoire works, using custom-designed
instruments that determine movement, audio emissions, and the release of particles and “Connexion” uses a precomposed music track, which is then modulated during the
textures that give visual indications of sounds made independently by individual players performance with granulation and spatial panning. The performer is placed inside virtual
in real time. Combined with their unusual sets and scripted objects, gestures and machines reality and uses the monad to alter the parameters of granulation and propagation of the
available in Second Life, they create a rich and wildly varying otherworldy experience, sound with hand gestures. Connexion was created using Unreal Engine 4 (UE4). We used the
perceived in a unique way by each visiting avatar.11 first version of Oculus Rift VR headset with Touch Controllers. The audio setup was based on
In one of the scenarios for their performances, the audience is allowed to move around the an eight-channel loudspeaker system that surrounded the auditorium with two additional
artists’ avatars in the Second Life room, and in some of the compositions the audience subwoofers. The audio routing used ambisonics to pan and render sounds to the horizontal
members are also invited to play with the virtual instruments. To operate instruments, 8.2 speaker array.
performers use HUDs—an additional user interface placed on top of the application SL
window. Using Second Life not only simplifies the technical aspects of telematic cooperation
but also allows to connect with its user base and promote art in this online community. There
are other metaverse platforms like Sansar or VRChat that are also being used by many artists
as spaces for their performances, e.g. Polish based theatre group Dream Adoption Society.12

UE4 was used as a panner and a MIDI controller. The primary source of sound was
SpaceCraft Granular Synth that was plugged into Reaper. Its parameters, such as grain
duration and spread, were controlled by MIDI messages sent from UE4, and they were
based on the position of hands in relation to the centre of the monad sphere. Sound from the
Avatar Metaverse Orchestra performing in La Casa Encidida in Madrid, 2018 synth was routed via a virtual sound device to capture the audio component back into UE4.
In UE4, the captured sounds were played back by the player’s avatar hands, so they acted
as secondary audio sources. As the performer moved hands around the monad sphere, the
Monad/Connexion sounds were played from the hand’s position, and then rendered accordingly around the
auditorium via the horizontal spherical sound system.
In the fall of 2019, I and my colleagues—Jakub Wróblewski and Andrei Isakov—
created an audiovisual tool in Virtual Reality. I wanted to have a controller or instrument that The Monad is an avatar object that reacts to the performer’s movements. Playing this
did not resemble any known instrument—analogue nor digital. I imagined it like a quasi- instrument consists in moving the hands around the sphere and bringing the hands closer
biological entity that I could manipulate with touch-like gestures. We called it “monad”. The to and away from its surface. Its visual form is a sphere, which extends spiky shapes when
the virtual hands get closer to its surface. Those spikes represent the positioning of sounds in
11 “Avatar Orchestra Metaverse”, accessed October 14, 2020, http://avatarorchestra.blogspot.com/. the soundfield so the performer knows how the spherical panning of the sound is working.
12 https://dreamadoptionsociety.com/

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The performer positions sounds in space with his hand movements. The composition is also is one of the key factors as it highly impacts the communication between audience and
affected with a secondary method. The position of the hands around the sphere (vertical performer. Eventually we will develop a system for a large number of performers, so that
position and distance) controls granular synthesis of the precomposed sample that is being every participant can be a performer as well. This need of being an active participant is very
played. In this arrangement the performer doesn’t change the pitch nor the timing of the common for interactive environments such as virtual reality, which is not the case in the real
sounds in the classical context but rather operates two types of DSP as a means of musical world in which the audience in most cases is unwilling to rush the stage.
expression.

The system enables the projection of POV video onto a screen, which is shown to the
audience. The performer can move around the sphere, go inside it and modify its reactions
Composing within VR
with his hand movements. All those actions are connected to the signal processing of the
Monad is designed mainly as a performative object as it uses a precomposed track and
sound.
during performances the track is manipulated. I was recently invited to use the PatchXR
system, which is considered a 3D version of visual programming engines such as Max/MSP.
Is this Jaron Lanier’s idea of phenotropic programming brought to life? Maybe, at least in
part. The system is based on Unity 3D engine, but its functionality allows the user to construct
audiovisual devices inside of it without the need of coding in the source project. It has its own
frequency modulation synthesis engine and can communicate with external devices via MIDI
or OSC. There are building blocks for mathematical and logical operations and the avatar
movement controllers such as sliders, buttons, knobs, and more sophisticated blocks like the
theremux (a three dimensional slider in the form of a sphere inside a three axis box). This
allows the user to build his own avatar device that can produce sound through an unlimited
number of virtual speakers positioned in the virtual world. The user can record movements
and create instances of their avatar that will reproduce such recordings in a looped manner,
so one can create a kind of ensemble that way. There are tools for manipulating sound and
POV inside the Connexion application image as well.

On the 3rd of November, 2019, we had a premiere performance. I was the performer
using a VR headset and a built-in headphone system with binaural rendering of the sound
reference produced by the system.

Physical reception of interactions inside the virtual reality environment is almost

as real as with real world objects. The scale is accurate and the range of the movements
is suitable for developing a wide scale of expression. The response from the object gives
instant information about the performer’s input, so there is a multimodal perception of the
interaction. Without the need of applying real resonators, like strings or reeds, the forms of
avatar instruments can be shaped in any way. A sphere was a perfect choice for representing
the soundfield in this spatial performance, but for other types of interactions the shapes and
forms can be unrestricted to known objects. One example of such unrestricted virtual reality
visualization is the application SoundSelf,13 which creates fractal projections to a soundtrack
that can be controlled by the participant’s voice. The audience reaction to the Connexion “Urchin”, created with PatchXR
performance was enthusiastic, but some people were disappointed they couldn’t watch it
from within the virtual world. This is our objective for next versions of the system—making I was invited to create a composition for A MAZE Festival in Berlin.14 I designed a sea
it possible to experience the performance inside virtual reality as immersion of the audience urchin-like form using slider controllers in the form of a stick with a ring on it that was

13 R. Arnott, “SoundSelf” [Online]. Avaliable: https://www.soundself.com. 14 Due to the pandemic the festival was held online. See https://2020.amaze-berlin.de/.

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connected to the sound system surrounding the object. Each slider represented a different
sound parameter and all those were distributed to a number of synthesizers and sequencers
connected to the virtual speakers. The slider could be controlled manually or by data via
OSC. Urchin was an attempt to reproduce form of Monad in PatchXR environment using the
given building blocks. PatchXR’s modularity caused some problems, as the blocks have
defined sizes and shapes. For example, I was able to put many objects in a small space of a
sphere only by overlapping them. That produced more problems when I tried to move them
afterwards, but in general the modular approach has many advantages. The uppermost
advantage is that the designing process happens inside virtual reality.

Urchin in close up, POV in performance

During conversations with PatchXR developers, we agreed that massive online music
collaboration within VR environments is the most wanted feature that we would like to
incorporate. In the face of the pandemic lockdown such collaboration might be an alternative
to traditional ways of performing music.

Conclusion

Each of these examples represents different way of using virtual reality as a musical
medium, their use of space, tactile interaction, real-virtual continuity and modularity.
Immersive environments are changing the way we interact with sound and image. To find
these new methods we need to experiment inside those environments, because only then can
we realize how we would create without limitations of the physical world. Our art forms
would be extremely different if we could teleport, use telepathy, change our shapes and sizes,
look through the walls or listen to more spots than these two where our ears are. Designing
an environment is the new way of composing audiovisual artistic forms. A new kind of
architecture, where interaction is one of its native features. In the sound and music area—the
sound objects are becoming Artaud’s parts of the set. In that sense the designed environment
becomes a kind of a scoresheet and instrument itself and once the participant is immersed, he
instantly becomes the performer.

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226 227
 Cristina Fuentes Antoniazzi is an actor, meditation Linda is a founding member and artistic co-director
Contributors teacher and communication consultant. She is of Distractfold Ensemble. Distractfold received
Chilean and currently resides in Manchester. She is a the Kranichstein Music Prize for Interpretation
PhD researcher in Drama, Performance and Dance at from Internationales Musikinstitute Darmstadt
Noam Bierstone is a Canadian percussionist and and designer of interactive audio. Member of
The University of Huddersfield. The objective of her in 2014. She co-curated and co-produced the 2017
curator dedicated to modern artistic performance. INEXSISTENS creative collective along with Jakub
research project is to develop a Mindfulness-Based Cut and Splice Festival in collaboration with
Committed to the creation and development of Wroblewski and Andrei Isakov. His latest works
Performer Training (MBPT). Sound and Music and BBC Radio 3. For the past
new music, Noam is a founding member of three include immersive music documentaries, interactive
seven years she has been closely collaborating
primary artistic ventures: the saxophone and 6DoF VR experiences and panostereographic Cristina studied acting at Universidad Diego
with Katherine Young on their site specific
percussion duo scapegoat, which has extensively journalism. https://zdarzeniawirtualne.asp.waw.pl Portales, with Psychology studies at the same
installation and co-composition ‘boundarymind’,
toured and performed across North America, university. She has a diploma in “Mindfulness in
Maria Sappho Donohue is a hybrid. She co-produced with Experimental Sound
Europe, and Australia; the Montreal concert series Relations”, by the Instituto Mindfulness Chile. She
acknowledges the plasticity of the present and Studio Chicago and 6018th North, premiering
and performance collective NO HAY BANDA, that is a meditation teacher accredited by Shambhala
therefore does not worry much about being in Chicago in May 2021. She has recorded
has quickly grown to be recognized as a leading International and also has a degree in Management
anything in particular. Most often she enjoys any for Kairos and Another Timbre, and participated in
voice of experimental new music in Canada, and from the School of Economics and Business,
opportunity to explore the magically absurd. She large-scale dance-theatre projects (New Movement
the Montreal-based percussion quartet Architek. University of Chile.
has worked with the BBC Scottish symphony Collective‘s Casting Traces, Sadler’s Wells/Sidi Larbi
Noam pursues ongoing collaborations with various
orchestra, Australian Art Orchestra, the Instant Currently, she teaches Mindful Acting classes to Cherkaoui’s Sutra, Nagelhus Schia Productions‘
composers and artists, with a particular interest in
Composers Pool, and is a current member of the professional actors in Manchester. For more details Orbo Novo). In October 2014 she started working
works that expand the notion of percussion playing
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. She is a winner on her work, please visit her web page www. towards a PhD in contemporary music performance
through new techniques, hybrid instruments,
of the New Piano Stars Competition, Governors presenciautentica.com or instagram account @ at the University of Huddersfield researching the
theatrical and choreographic elements, and
Recital Prize, and the Dewar Awards. She is a presenciautentica. topic of interdisciplinary virtuosity. Linda is a violin
performer-controlled electronics. Noam is regularly
current PhD Candidate at Huddersfield University, and viola lecturer at Leeds Conservatoire.
invited to perform at international festivals and
on the European Research Council project IRiMaS. www.lindajankowska.com
with leading new music groups across Canada and
‘In her spare time’, as biographies like to have, Cristina Ghirardini obtained her PhD in Storia
Europe, and in his spare time he enjoys cooking,
she runs the Feminist Free Improvisation Archive, e critica delle culture e dei beni musicali (History
gardening, and folk dancing. noambierstone.com
works for Mopomoso TV (the oldest running free and critics of musical cultures and heritage) from Ilona Krawczyk is a performer, singer and
improvisation series in the UK) and is the co-editor the University of Torino in 2007. Her doctoral pedagogue, specialising in physical and musical
for the discursive political arts magazine the Mass. dissertation focused on the sources of Filippo theatre. As a PhD candidate in Drama, Dance and
When he eventually turned 36 and had composed www.mariasappho.com Bonanni’s Gabinetto Armonico (1722). She has worked Performance at the University of Huddersfield, she
about 80 pieces, had been on stage as a performer as a freelancer with various cultural institutions and developed a process-oriented approach to vocal
and an improviser and had started working on his sound archives. Recently she has taken part in the training and performance practice. In her artistic
composition PhD, Brice Catherin realised that Colin Frank experiments with sound, electronics, project Sound Archives and Musical Instruments work she uses a wide range of vocal techniques,
music was less important than love. Therefore, he theatre, and percussion; investigating excess, bodily Collections directed by Ilario Meandri at the including open throat singing, Persian tahrir and
decided to dedicate himself to the latter and since extremes, unpredictable instruments, and rich raw University of Torino, where she collaborated on the extended vocal techniques. Her recent work explores
then has been producing, in the form of consenting noises. He has worked with the Noisebringers, TAK catalogue of the musical instruments of the Museo possible overlaps between physical-musical theatre,
collaborations with his good friends, intermedia Ensemble, AndPlay, Red Note, Gods Entertainment, del paesaggio sonoro in Riva presso Chieri. She is experimental music, and sound art.
items (notably with the Noisebringers), art Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, and conducting research on sung improvised poetry in
performances (with Ioannis Mandafounis), poetry Ilona trained at the Song of the Goat Theatre and
is a founding member of the DriftEnsemble and ottava rima in central Italy as a PhD student within
(with Clea Chopard), visual art (with Mariabrice CAPITOL Musical Theatre. In her freelance career,
Brutalust. He has presented in the Huddersfield the IRiMaS (Interactive Research in Music as Sound)
Sapphocatherin), but also stained glass (with she performed for Grotowski Institute, Stage Song
Contemporary Music Festival, Berlin’s CTM festival, project that is directed by Michael Clarke at the
Cynthia Udriot), various articles (for The Mass) and Festival (PPA), Anna Zubrzycki Studio, NeTTheatre,
the Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue University of Huddersfield. Her publications can
a jazz album (with Sam Eastmond), since he is still SheWolf Company, Mechanical Animal Corporation,
Musik, Electric Springs, SoundThought, Beast be found at https://independent.academia.edu/
a funny noise making cellist when asked kindly. In Royal Exchange Theatre, Drift Ensemble, among
Feast, PAS Quebec Days, amongst others. Colin’s CristinaGhirardini.
this respect, he is honoured to be a veteran of the others. She is a co-founder of Insoundout collective
installations often involve audience interactivity
improvising ensembles Insub Meta Orchestra (CH) and a founder of DreamVoice practice. For more
and have been exhibited at Salem Art Works
and Union Division (UK). He lives in Geneva. information, please visit www.ilonakrawczyk.com.
and Dai Hall. His PhD research at the University Linda Jankowska (Poland/UK) is a musician
of Huddersfield considers how unconventional whose artistic practice orbits around long-term
instruments and objects act and influence his collaborations and multifaceted modes of working
Przemysław Danowski—Interdisciplinary artist, creative process. He studied performance and D Henry McPherson is an artist, improvising
with sound that stretch her limitations.
performer and composer based in Warsaw, composition at McGill University and sound at the performer, researcher and composer, from the
Primarily a violinist, she works at an intersection of
Poland. Teaching and research assistant at the Institute of Sonology. He has taught improvisation at United Kingdom. His creative practice draws
contemporary extended instrumental performance,
Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in the Sound the Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Festival widely across the visual, sonic, kinetic and somatic,
sound art,  improvisation and composition. She
Engineering Department. Guest lecturer at Visual and at Huddersfield University. emerging in a shifting exploration of the myriad
is also an active concert producer, contemporary
Narratives Laboratory in Film School Lodz and overlapping forms of communication, rooted in a
performance researcher and educator.
Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw. Spatial audio expert
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desire to express and explore the interconnectedness pursuing a PhD at the University of Huddersfield, Hakan Ulus (*1991) is a German composer. He 2019 Watts wrote a new large-scale work entitled
of things. through my artistic research project “Theatre studied composition with Tristan Murail, Adriana Adhocracies for Ensemble Dal Niente. He completed
of Transformations”, I am investigating the Hölszky, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf and Ernst his D.M.A. in Composition at Stanford, master’s
Henry is a founding member of Improvising trio
performative aspects of mixed music for violin and Helmuth Flammer at the Mozarteum University with distinction from Oxford, and bachelor’s
Noisebringers (with Brice Catherin, FR; Maria
electronics. and the HMT Leipzig. His music is internationally with academic honours from NEC. He has been a
Sappho, USA), and is one third of the queer chamber
performed by ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, featured composer at MATA, impuls, Rainy Days,
trio Savage Parade (with Adam Hall, USA, and Dedicated to establishing long-term collaborations
Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Recherche, Delian, YCM, Cheltenham, Darmstadt, Composit,
Inkeri Kallio, FI). He has recently undertaken and developing new works across different genres,
Talea Ensemble and Ensemble SurPlus. He received Ostrava Days, highSCORE, Wellesley Composers
residency collaborations with Ngallery (GR), and I have presented numerous premieres across
several stipends, prizes and commissions, e.g. Conference, Etchings, Fresh Inc., New Music on the
held the position of artist in residence at the Banff Europe and North America and appeared in
Artist-Residency at Schloss Wiepersdorf 2021, Point, and AMF. Watts is currently a Lecturer in
Centre for Arts and Creativity (Alberta, CA), and various settings at festivals such as Huddersfield
Artist-Residency of the Art-Foundation NRW 2017, Music Composition at UC Santa Barbara’s College of
at Despina gallery (Rio de Janeiro, BR) with the Contemporary, Borealis, Gaudeamus, Chicago
Jonathan Harvey Scholarship 2017–20, prize of the Creative Studies.
Fruitmarket gallery (Edinburgh, UK). He is co-editor New Music, Wonderfeel and others. Educated in
international competition of AuditivVokal 2019,
and curator of the MASS collection, a monthly online Bergen, Düsseldorf, Utrecht and Chicago, I consider
Berlin Stipend 2017/18 of the Academy of Arts
publication of discursive art, articles, and opinion Elisabeth Perry, Ilya Kaler and Irvine Arditti my
Berlin, prize of the international impuls composition Katherine Young makes electroacoustic music
pieces addressing global issues (www.the-mass. most influential teachers. My repertoire extends
competition 2017, and stipend of the International and sonic art centred around collaboration. The
com). from the music of early Baroque Era, to some of the
Ensemble Modern Academy 2015/16. Since 2020, he LAPhil, Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW,
newest works of the 21st Century.
Henry is a doctoral student at the University of is lecturer for analysis, aesthetics and performance
Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt,
Huddersfield’s Centre for Research in New Music, I collaborate and conduct an artistic research practice of contemporary music at the GMPU Third Coast Percussion, Ensemble Dal Niente,
and Research Centre for Performance Practice, practice on improvisation together with pianist Klagenfurt. He is currently in the final stage of his
Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik, and others
supported by a PhD Studentship in Music and Dance and researcher Jonny Best, with whom I regularly PhD at the University of Huddersfield (supervisor: have commissioned her music. She has worked
in association with Huddersfield Contemporary perform improvised silent film accompaniments. Aaron Cassidy). closely with Wet Ink, Ensemble Nikel, WasteLAnd,
Music Festival. The working title of his PhD is Our work is documented at www.impro.network. Distractfold Ensemble’s Linda Jankowska, and
‘Bodies of Meaning: Investigating Transdisciplinary Through my work with Yorkshire Sound Women Yarn/Wire. Her installation work has been
Free Improvisation in Sound and Movement’. Network, I have been involved with educating Andrew Watts’s works, from chamber and commissioned by the University of Chicago’s Smart
and inspiring young women to explore music and symphonic to multimedia and electro-acoustic, Museum of Art. As a bassoonist and improviser,
sound technologies. I am a visiting lecturer at the are actively performed throughout the US and Katherine amplifies her instrument and employs a
Solomiya Moroz is a Canadian-Ukrainian University of Wolverhampton (campus in Leicester). Europe. His compositions have been premiered flexible electronics setup. She has documented her
musician, based in the UK. She has a PhD in music at world-renowned venues such as Ravinia, MFA work on numerous recordings, including her debut
composition from the University of Huddersfield Boston, Jordan Hall, and the Holywell Music Room. with Sam Scranton as Beautifulish (out December
in which she examined the performative aspects of Dejana Sekulic, violinist, sound+silence explorer, Watts has written for top musicians and ensembles 2020 on Shinkoyo) and a duo with Anthony Braxton.
composition with physical gestures in a chamber and performer, born on 43°18’58.5”N 21°54’39.5”E, including Ekmeles, Proton Bern, Distractfold, RAGE Katherine teaches composition, improvisation, and
music context. She also holds a Master’s in Live obtained her Bachelor performance and teaching Thormbones, Splinter Reeds, Quince, Line Upon electronic music at Emory University in Atlanta.
Electronics from Conservatory of Amsterdam where degree at the Faculty of Art at the University of Line, Tony Arnold, and Séverine Ballon. In 2018– https://katherineyoung.info/.
she became engaged with hybrid forms of sound in Niš, Masters and Postgraduate music, performance
electronic and instrumental music. Her work can degree at the Royal Conservatory Brussels
be anchored within an expanded field of music that (with Oistrakh and Bouckaert), and completed
embraces not only notated music but also electronics. advanced program for contemporary music lead
She has participated in the Bozzini String Quartet by Ictus (Brussels) and Spectra (Gent) ensembles
Composers’ Kitchen residency, Takt Berlin Artists at School of Arts Gent. She is actively performing
residency, Omi International Musicians residency in as a soloist, as part of the “LAPS” ensemble, duo
New York, and Banff Centre Creative residency. She Momitani-Sekulic, and violin and live electronics
has performed as a flutist with various ensembles duo with Gilles Doneux. Currently, she focuses
in Canada and Europe and presented her music at on her research “Temporality of the Impossible”,
many different festivals and concert series in the UK at CeReNeM+ReCePP, Huddersfield (UK), that The articles in this volume belong to the respective authors, who are kindly
and internationally. Her projects and research have explores thinking the future in the present as sharing them through a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-NC-ND).
been supported by Canada Council for the Arts and the past, in contemporary violin repertoire. Her Images are copyright of the authors unless otherwise specified.
Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et other artistic works include research in the field of
Culture. www.solomiyamoroz.com interactive sound installations and video. Passionate
in acquiring knowledge, Dejana is equally passionate
in sharing it, and is therefore actively engaged with
Irine Røsnes: I am a UK-based violinist, academic, teaching. http://dejanasekulic.com/
improviser and specialist in performance of
repertoire for violin and electronics. Currently

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