On Music and Spatiality

Kurs: DA3005 Självständigt arbete 30 hp (2019) Konstnärlig masterexamen i elektroakustisk komposition, 120 hp Institutionen För komposition, dirigering och musikteori Handledare: Henrik Frisk Fredrik Mathias Josefson On Music and Spatiality Spatialization as a vehicle towards a chimærical space Skriftlig reflektion inom självständigt arbete Till dokumentationen hör även Följande inspelningar: Entering Heaven Alive, On Beginning and Ending [with regard to music], What Word Can I Say to Convince You That All My Happiness is in Loving You? Remember When You Put Your Hands on Mine and Crying You Told Me That You Would Forget Me? For Duende i Table of Contents Prologue ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Sentences on Music and Spatiality ........................................................................................... 6 A House as Space and Structure of Composition ................................................................... 8 Blueprint ................................................................................................................................... 8 Theoretical fundament ......................................................................................................... 9 Spatialization ...................................................................................................................... 10 Duende .............................................................................................................................. 11 The building of tools ........................................................................................................... 13 The pathway leading up to the house .................................................................................... 16 The garden toolshed .......................................................................................................... 16 The Hallway ........................................................................................................................... 17 The Basement ........................................................................................................................ 18 The Dining Room ................................................................................................................... 19 What Word Can I Say To Convince You That All My Happiness Is In Loving You? .......... 19 The Winter Garden ................................................................................................................. 26 On Beginning and Ending [with regard to music] ............................................................... 27 The Studio .............................................................................................................................. 29 Expedition style .................................................................................................................. 29 Alpine style ......................................................................................................................... 30 The Library ............................................................................................................................. 31 The melancholy of the tape loop ........................................................................................ 31 The Workshop ........................................................................................................................ 34 Remember When You Put Your Hands on Mine, and Crying You Told Me That You Would Forget Me? ......................................................................................................................... 38 The Staircase ......................................................................................................................... 42 Entering Heaven Alive ....................................................................................................... 42 The Concert Hall .................................................................................................................... 44 The camera obscura of sound ........................................................................................... 44 Epilogue .................................................................................................................................... 46 Glossary .................................................................................................................................... 48 References ................................................................................................................................ 49 Appendix ................................................................................................................................... 53 Appendix 1: Recording of exam concert The Melancholy of the Tape Loop .......................... 53 Appendix 2: Recording of concert What Word Can I Say To Convince You That All My Happiness Is In Loving You? ................................................................................................. 53 ii Prologue It is perFectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.1 – Søren Kierkegaard In one of his journals, Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) wrote that “… life must be understood backwards.” To my experience, it can be hard to fully understand choices and deci- sions when one is immersed in the creative process. Why is a particular decision taken? Perhaps following intuition, habit or far too often, just falling back on earlier patterns as a deadline is approaching. I will, in this text, turn around and take a look back, in an attempt to bring clarity and reflect over my work and decision-making process; to reflect both on the path that has led me to where I position myselF artistically and also to take a closer look at my most recent compositions. Moreover, I hope to trace my steps and shed some light on my artistic practice. In the same paragraph quoted above, Kierkegaard also wrote that life “must be lived forwards”, hence I will also share some thoughts on my strategies and ambitions regarding moving forward musically and how I try to avoid falling back into earlier patterns. An aspiration that I certainly share with many of my composer colleagues is to write new music. Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) wrote, “especially a young mu- sician who was then engaged in the fight all of us young artists must carry on, the fight for what is new and unforeseen, the treasure hunt, in the sea of thought, for inviolate emotion.”2 I think, however, that this treasure hunt should not be an exclusive privilege of the young. It is an attitude that defies age, as everyone can go on this treasure hunt, independently of their age. I will let others if they choose to do so, comment on if my compositions can be categorized as new music, but I hope that my ambitions to make new music becomes clear through this text. To clariFy, when the term new music is used in this text it is not a case of neomania3 as defined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, but rather it refers to music that explores the boundaries of music itself. Simply that a piece of music has been composed recently in time does not make it “new”. I would already at this point, emphasize that my strategies for creating new music are personal – what works for me, may or may not work for others. However, I want to make clear that these strategies are of course not the only methods for creating new music. Surely, there are as many methods to create new music as there are 1 Kierkegaard, Søren, Papers and journals: a selection, Penguin, London, 1996, p. 161. 2 García Lorca, Federico, In search of duende, New Directions, New York, 2010, p. 10. 3 Taleb, Nassim Nicholas, Glossary, [website], http://www.Fooledbyrandomness.com/aF-glossary.pdf, (Ac- cessed 2019-04-18) 3 composers. Furthermore, not every composer needs to aspire to compose new music. How- ever, I am convinced of the benefits of a method of working that challenges conventional boundaries of contemporary composition. As I embarked on my studies at the Royal College of Music almost five years ago, I realized I wanted to take the road less travelled. Where do the uncharted territories lie? I evaluated which field I would like to focus my research on, and I came to the conclusion that spatialization was the topic for me to investigate. Between the time that I made that decision and now, Curtis Roads has written: “Indeed, the art of spatialization has emerged as one of the most important topics in composition today.”4 I have worked and experimented intensely over the past five years. This, in turn, has had a significant influence on my method of composing. There have also been changes to the Royal College of Music, during the time that has passed since then.5 The structure of this text corresponds, on an abstract level, to how I think about my compositions: as a journey through space.6 To me, there is a direct correlation between composing music and making a map. I equate composing music to map-making. Maps to be explored by the listeners. The journey in this text goes through a house where some of the rooms correspond to ideas and tools that I use when composing while other rooms represent compositions written during my master's studies. All the compositions discussed in this text share the aspect that they take some element of spatiality

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