OPEN, MOBILE and INDETERMINATE FORMS Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Guy De Bièvre School of Arts Brunel Un
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OPEN, MOBILE AND INDETERMINATE FORMS submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Guy De Bièvre School of Arts Brunel University CONTENTS Contents …..................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... v Abstract …..................................................................................................................... vi Introduction …............................................................................................................. 1 1. On Form ….............................................................................................................. 4 1.1 What Form? …................................................................................. 4 1.2 Precursors …..................................................................................... 5 1.3 Open Form …................................................................................... 7 1.4 New York vs. Darmstadt ….............................................................. 10 1.5 Lost in Translation …..................................................................... 14 1.6 Good vs. Bad Indeterminacy …..................................................... 20 1.7 How Open? …................................................................................ 25 1.8 Opening the Closed Form...and all that jazz …............................... 28 1.9 Anti-Music? ….............................................................................. 31 1.10 Aimless Rambling ….................................................................... 34 1.11 Conclusion …................................................................................ 36 2. Earle Brown – Folio …............................................................................................. 39 2.1 Never the same twice, yet always the same …................................ 39 2.2 Folio …............................................................................................ 46 2.3 October 1952 …............................................................................... 47 2.4 November 1952 (“Synergy”) …..................................................... 49 2.5 December 1952 ….......................................................................... 52 2.6 MM-87 1953 – MM-135 March 1953 …......................................... 63 i 2.7 Music for “Trio for Five Dancers” June 1953 …........................... 66 2.8 1953 …............................................................................................ 67 2.9 Four Systems …............................................................................. 68 2.10 Laboratory …................................................................................ 69 3. Miles Davis – Ife …................................................................................................. 72 3.1 Bitches Brew …............................................................................. 72 3.2 Ife 1972-1982 …............................................................................. 74 3.3 Ife, as a composition …................................................................. 80 3.4 The right audience …..................................................................... 82 4. Adam Rudolph – Ostinatos of Circularity ….......................................................... 84 4.1 Chicago – Ghana …..................................................................... 84 4.2 Ostinatos of Circularity …........................................................... 89 4.3 The Score …................................................................................. 92 4.4 Rhythm ….................................................................................... 99 4.5 Performing the Score ….............................................................. 100 4.6 Freedom ….................................................................................. 109 5. Peter Zummo – Experimenting with Household Chemicals …............................. 111 5.1 Peter Zummo …......................................................................... 111 5.2 “...all it is is Bb to B and C# to D...” …..................................... 114 5.3 Fresh Batteries …....................................................................... 122 5.4 Includes Free Information …....................................................... 124 5.5 Sung, Played, Heard …................................................................ 125 5.6 Rocket Scientist …........................................................................ 127 5.7 In Three Movements ….................................................................. 128 5.8 Peaceful Transportation …............................................................ 129 ii 5.9 Transposability …......................................................................... 130 5.10 The Listener …............................................................................. 132 6. Anne La Berge – Guided Improvisation …............................................................ 133 6.1 Anne La Berge …........................................................................... 133 6.2 Guided Improvisation ….............................................................. 135 6.3 Swamp …....................................................................................... 138 6.4 Treads …...................................................................................... 142 6.5 Lumps …....................................................................................... 143 6.6 Spitty and Scratchy …................................................................. 150 7. Guy De Bièvre – Works 2007-2011 …................................................................. 152 7.1 Origins …....................................................................................... 152 7.2 And Above All …............................................................................ 154 7.3 Blue Light/Red Light ….................................................................. 156 7.4 3 Pack …........................................................................................ 158 7.5 Stare Into the Light …................................................................... 159 7.6 The Relative Probability of Forming a Knot I ….......................... 160 7.7 The Relative Probability of Forming a Knot II …........................ 161 7.8 Poker Test …................................................................................ 163 7.9 Composed vs. Improvised …........................................................ 165 8. Coda …................................................................................................................. 168 CD track list ............................................................................................................. 173 References …............................................................................................................ 174 iii Appendix: portfolio of scores: – And Above All – Blue Light/Red Light – 3 Pack – Stare Into the Light – The Relative Probability of Forming a Knot I – The Relative Probability of Forming a Knot II – Poker Test iv Acknowledgements First and foremost I want to thank my friend and supervisor, Bob Gilmore, for convincing me to embark on this doctoral journey and to provide me with support and advice all along. His knowledge and experience have saved me vast amounts of time and energy. Next, I want to express my gratitude to my consecutive other supervisors: Richard Barrett, Christopher Fox and Peter Wiegold, each providing an enlightening different point of view on the subject of my research. Composers/performers Anne La Berge and Peter Zummo have occupied a very special, not to say essential, place in my musical life for many years now and were extremely helpful when I decided to delve deeper into their practice. They both, on many occasions, were also exceptional accomplices in my own experiments. Adam Rudolph, composer, conductor, master percussionist was extremely patient, open and generous when I requested attending his Organic Orchestra rehearsals and performances and never hesitated to make time to answer my many questions. Very special thanks go to The Earle Brown Music Foundation, Thomas Fichter, Jason Cady and especially Susan Sollins-Brown, for their warm welcome and helpfulness during my too brief visit. Without the Foundation's resources the chapter on Folio would never have been possible. I cannot sufficiently express my indebtedness to Victoria Carolan for her invaluable London-based logistic support, without which this adventure would have been extremely hard, if not impossible to accomplish, and her guidance in the world of British academia; to say nothing about her precious friendship. Last, but far from least, I want to thank Sofia, for her advice, support, patience and willingness to share my attention with this enterprise. She made many things much much easier than they could have been. v Abstract of the thesis Since the early fifties “open form” has become a generic description for many different compositional concepts having in common musical outcomes which to a certain degree are indeterminate. The introduction looks into different meanings given to “form” in music and gives a historical survey of the origins of compositional indeterminacy.