DOCSLIB.ORG

Conference Booklet

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Conference Booklet First International Conference on Music and Minimalism 31 August – 2 September 2007 Conference organizers: Pwyll ap Siôn and Tristian Evans Programme of Events 1 28 August 2007 Welcome – Croeso – to the first international conference of its kind on Music and Minimalism, held at the Bangor University Wales, UK, between Friday 31 August and Sunday 2 September 2007. Kyle Gann pointed out back in 1992 that reports of minimalism’s death were greatly exaggerated. Fifteen years on, and a mere cursory glance at the thirty-plus abstracts submitted in response to our call for papers suggests that this subject is sustaining more interest than ever within the wider academic community. Indeed, quoting Gann again, minimalism’s only really just gotten started despite having been established for over forty years. During the past twenty-five of those there’s been a gradual but inexorable rise in publications on the subject. Recent books by Keith Potter and Robert Fink demonstrate the extent with which this subject now elicits a whole range of contrasting aesthetic, theoretic and analytic interpretations, all of which are equally valid in their own ways and according to their own terms of reference. And there is little doubt that the papers presented in this conference will give rise to important future publications in this area. Demand has not only been generated from the top of the academic pyramid, however. Undergraduate students subscribe in great numbers to modules on minimalism in a variety of institutions (some having been introduced to its music through A-level or equivalent syllabuses) and later develop their research into MA, MPhil or PhD theses. Unlike many post- war avant-garde composers, students have actually heard of the likes of Philip Glass and Michael Nyman, and they want to find out more. And despite the protestations of many disenfranchised composition professors, more and more students are taking their creative cues from this music too. All in all it’s an exciting time to be involved with this music, both academically and creatively. We hope that this conference will be the first of many on this subject; the wide range of subjects, approaches and methods offered in the papers contained herein is testimony to the fact that minimalism isn’t dead – it’s only gotten started, and there’s much more to come ... Enjoy the conference! Pwyll ap Siôn and Tristian Evans 1 Acknowledgements The conference organizers wish to thank the following: Our sponsors Kawai Pianos UK for providing a 9 ft Grand for the Ryder and Appleton concert; Pianos Cymru for co-ordinating links with Kawai UK Cambridge University Press and Perspectives of New Music The Music Analysis Development Fund for providing financial assistance towards travel costs for Professor Jonathan W. Bernard Our assistants: Linda Jones for processing registration forms; Dr Peter Flinn for printing concert tickets and co- ordinating the Young performance; Mr Edward Wright for technical assistance in Powis; Mr Huw Powell and Aled Williams for technical assistance in MALT; Mr Gorwel Owen for help with advertising; Graeme Cotterill and Sam Ellis for help with the concert; Jo Orr, Harry Perry and Jasmine Hornabrook for general assistance. 2 Useful Information Who and Where? All conference papers will be delivered EITHER in the Main Arts Lecture Theatre (MALT), which is situated directly behind the foyer of the Main Arts Building, OR in the School of Music Hall, which is located inside the red-bricked School of Music building on the far side of Main Arts Car Park. If you experience difficulties finding them (or anything else) please ask one of our assistants, who will be happy to help. You will need to punch in a code to enter the School of Music building. The code is 3, 1, 4+2, 5 then turn the knob clockwise to open. Both entrances may be accessed with this code. Please provide technical specifications for your presentation (video, CD, Power-point, keyboard etc.) to Tristian Evans as soon as you arrive – and even if you have done so beforehand! Any Power-point files on memory sticks should be presented to Tristian, who will load them onto the computer hard disk in MALT. Delegates and chairpersons are kindly reminded that papers are limited to 20 minutes plus 10 minutes discussion. The Friday evening concert will be held in Powis Hall. To get there, go past the Porters’ Lodge to the right side of PJ Hall foyer then follow the corridor which runs along the side of PJ Hall. Keep going until you reach Powis Hall. Should you need to send or receive emails during your stay, please go to the listening room opposite the music library in the School of Music building (down the corridor from the Main Hall). We hope to set up some Apple Macs which will allow you to access emails from your own college or institution. Philip Martin Books will be setting up a display in the Main Arts Foyer on Saturday, 1 September. Tea, Coffee and Water will be made available in the Main Arts Foyer throughout the conference. Should you require a comfort break at any point or wish to make use of our minimalist iPod (see below) please feel free to go there. Hot and cold beverages, snacks and sandwiches are also sold in Dylan’s coffee shop, which can be found by following the long corridor leading beyond PJ Hall foyer and down a flight of steps (or lift) to the ground floor. (Note that opening hours at Dylan’s during vacation is limited to between 12-2.) The conference dinner will be held in the Plas Gwyn Bistro, indicated as number 25 on the site map included at the back of this booklet. Further information on campus accommodation will be included with your conference packs. Please make a careful note of the information on conference hall accommodation also included at the back of this booklet. 3 Other Events Planning on listening for a long time? Some of you may have noticed that we have adopted as a watermark for the conference La Monte Young’s Composition #7 – a perfect fifth interval with the simple instruction ‘to be held for a long time’. We thought it might be interesting to arrange for a performance of this piece to take place alongside all our other activities on the organ in PJ Hall during the conference. A performance will start at 9 a.m. on Saturday 1 September and will end at midnight. Audiences are invited to come and go as they wish, to listen, contemplate, meditate, talk, dance, play or sing along. Fancy brushing up on some phasing? Our sponsors, Kawai Pianos UK, have provided us with a CP136 digital ensemble piano into which we have programmed the opening 12-note pattern from Steve Reich’s Piano Phase. Test your phasing skills by playing the same pattern against the sequencer before gradually increasing your pattern by one semiquaver / sixteenth-note beat. This is effectively a more up- to-date version of the method used by Reich to compose the piece (he had to make do with the more cumbersome tape loop back in 1967 ...). If you wish, your performance can be recorded and burnt onto CD for posterity ... First-ever Minimalist iPod? We’ve loaded an iPod with a wide range of minimalist music, from Adams to Zev Gordon. It’s on shuffle unless you decide to scroll down the list and choose something specific. 4 PROGRAMME SCHEDULE FRIDAY 31, AUGUST 2007 12.00 – 2.00 Registration & Coffee Main Arts Foyer 2.00 – 2.15 Introductory Remarks Main Arts Lecture Theatre 2.15 – 3.00 Keynote address Main Arts Lecture Theatre, Chair: Jonathan Bernard Keith Potter (Goldsmiths College, London) 1976 and All That: Minimalism and Post-Minimalism, Analysis and Listening Strategies 3.00 – 4.00 American and European Perspectives Main Arts Lecture Theatre, Chair: Jonathan Bernard Maarten Beirens (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) Beyond antagonism: Serialism into minimalism Kyle Gann (Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson) Phase-Shifting as an American Compositional Paradigm 4.00 – 4.30 Tea and Coffee Main Arts Foyer 4.30 – 5.30 Session A: Terry Riley Main Arts Lecture Theatre, Chair: Brian Hulse William E. Lake (Bowling Green State University) Structural Analysis of Minimalist Music: The Case of Terry Riley’s In C Ann Glazer Niren (Indiana University Southeast) An Examination of Minimalist Tendencies in Two Early Works by Terry Riley 5.30 – 6.30 Music and Process Music Hall, Chair: John Richardson Evan Jones (Florida State University) The ‘Content and Flavor’ of Philip Glass’s Harmonic Cycles Vladimir Tosic (Belgrade University) Process in Minimal Music 6.30 – 7.30 Buffet Dinner Ffriddoedd Site 8.00 – 10.00 Music for 2 Pianos by the Appleton and Ryder Duo Powis Hall 5 SATU RDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 2007 9.30 – 11.00 Keynote addresses Main Arts Lecture Theatre, Chair: Keith Potter Jonathan Bernard (University of Washington) Minimalism and/vs. Pop: Some questions (and maybe some answers) John Richardson (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) Resisting the sublime: Strategies of convergence and divergence in Glass’s La Belle et la Bête 11.00 – 11.30 Tea and Coffee Main Arts Foyer 11.30 – 1.00 Minimalism, Multimedia and Technology Main Arts Lecture Theatre, Chair: Marcus Desmond Harmon Pwyll ap Siôn and Tristian Evans (Bangor University) Parallel Symmetries? Exploring Relationships between Minimalist Music and Multimedia Forms Beate Kutschke (Universität der Künste, Berlin) Minimalism and Normalcy: Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives John Pymm (University of Wolverhampton) Steve Reich: stories of machines and minimalism 1.00 – 2.00 Buffet Lunch Powis Hall 2.00 – 4.00 Session A: Other Arts and Aesthetics Session B: John Adams Main Arts Lecture Theatre, Chair: Beate Kutschke Music Hall, Chair: Kyle Gann Marija Masnikosa (University of Arts, Belgrade) Timothy B.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Scratch Orchestra and Visual Arts Michael Parsons
    The Scratch Orchestra and Visual Arts Michael Parsons Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 11, Not Necessarily "English Music": Britain's Second Golden Age. (2001), pp. 5-11. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0961-1215%282001%2911%3C5%3ATSOAVA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V Leonardo Music Journal is currently published by The MIT Press. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/mitpress.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Sat Sep 29 14:25:36 2007 The Scratch Orchestra and Visual Arts ' The Scratch Orchestra, formed In London in 1969 by Cornelius Cardew, Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton, included VI- sual and performance artists as Michael Parsons well as musicians and other partici- pants from diverse backgrounds, many of them without formal train- ing.
    [Show full text]
  • Christopher Hobbs, Word Pieces
    Christopher Hobbs Word Pieces 1966-70 Experimental Music Catalogue www.experimentalmusic.co.uk WORD PIECES 1966-70 This collection brings together all the pieces I have written using solely words or typography. These were busy years; in 1967 I started at the Royal Academy of Music, studying composition with Cornelius Cardew. By 1970 I had left the Academy, and was a member of the Scratch Orchestra, AMM, and the Promenade Theatre Orchestra. Before 1966 I had written music using either graphic scores or conventional music notation, or a mixture of both. One Note 1966 was originally fully written out using chance operations - it was Cardew who suggested that it would be more effective as a verbal score, and words seemed an interesting and challenging way of expressing musical ideas. The pieces here represent the greater part of the work I produced over these years, though there were some conventionally notated pieces, whose proportion grew through 1969 until by 1970 they became predominant. I have written no word pieces since 1970. The publishing history of the pieces is as follows; all the works up to and including The Friesian Cow were issued by the Experimental Music Catalogue in 1969 as Word Pieces 1966-69. For that publication I retitled several pieces. They now appear with their original titles as “Composition [Date]”. Various pieces then found their way into the Anthologies which the Catalogue began issuing in 1972: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 in the Verbal Anthology , The Castle Keep in the Vocal Anthology , Walk Event in the Visual Anthology, Voicepiece and The Friesian Cow in the Scratch Anthology.
    [Show full text]
  • Erik Satie's Vexations—An Exercise in Immobility Christopher Dawson
    Document généré le 23 sept. 2021 22:49 Canadian University Music Review Revue de musique des universités canadiennes Erik Satie's Vexations—An Exercise in Immobility Christopher Dawson Volume 21, numéro 2, 2001 Résumé de l'article La pièce pour piano Vexations d’Erik Satie comporte une « Note de l’auteur » URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1014483ar où le compositeur demande apparemment aux interprètes de répéter le DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/1014483ar morceau 840 fois. Les opinions des biographes de Satie divergent quant à savoir si Satie voulait ou non une exécution « complète » de la pièce. Dans cet Aller au sommaire du numéro article, l’auteur évalue comment une interprétation littéraire de la Note peut jeter un éclairage sur les intentions de Satie. Il conclut que Vexations n’est pas tant un morceau de bravoure qu’un exercice : un moment musical conçu pour Éditeur(s) dégager les interprètes des notions occidentales conventionnelles de développement linéaire et de réception cumulative, en faveur d’un style Canadian University Music Society / Société de musique des universités musical personnel d’où est absent le développement, et pour les préparer à canadiennes jouer d’autres pièces, telles une Gymnopédie ou une Gnossienne. ISSN 0710-0353 (imprimé) 2291-2436 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer cet article Dawson, C. (2001). Erik Satie's Vexations—An Exercise in Immobility. Canadian University Music Review / Revue de musique des universités canadiennes, 21(2), 29–40. https://doi.org/10.7202/1014483ar All Rights Reserved © Canadian University Music Society / Société de musique Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur.
    [Show full text]
  • THE ROCK IS STILL ROLLING FINAL.Pdf
    ‘THE ROCK IS STILL ROLLING’: CAMUS’ ABSURDITY AND THE MUSIC OF SATIE NIMISHI ILANGO MA by Research University of York Music December 2016 It is nigh on impossible to find examples of musicological scholarship that have correlated Western art music to the philosophical concept of absurdity as theorised by Albert Camus. Erik Satie’s music has characteristics that can be related to aspects of absurdity, despite pre- dating Camus’ theory. Much of the theory of absurdity will come from Camus’ extended essay entitled The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), which delineates his thinking on absurdity as part of the human condition: essentially that life is rendered meaningless by its unceasing, repetitive cycles. My thesis will focus on two of Satie’s works in relation to absurdity, Socrate and Vexations. Their characteristic features, such as repetition and immobility, bear a striking resemblance to the corresponding plays of the Theatre of the Absurd. The term for this category of plays and their grouping was coined by Martin Esslin, whose comparison of absurdity to another art form has been invaluable in the formulation of my own methodology. Whilst Satie may not have written in a consciously absurd way, ultimately I aim to reveal that a new and illuminating reading of Satie’s music can be generated through the lens of absurdity. LIST OF CONTENTS Abstract 2 List of Contents 3 List of Musical Examples 4 Acknowledgements 6 Declaration 7 Chapter 1: Introduction 8 Chapter 2: Absurdity 18 Chapter 3: Socrate 38 Chapter 4: Vexations 82 Chapter 5: Conclusion
    [Show full text]
  • IM-OS, Issue #7
    IM-OS Improvised Music – Open Scores Issue 7, Summer 2021 Editors: Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Denmark Teglgårdsvej 649, DK-3050 Humlebaek Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Finland ISSN 2596-9080 (paper) ISSN 2596-9099 (online) [email protected] http://im-os.net Proposals from readers are invited Copyright © 2021 authors, unless otherwise stated. IM-OS, Issue 7, Summer 2021 2 CONTENTS: Editorial (Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen) 4 Music from drawing lines and a map of Harlem (John Voigt) 5 Reflections on the Scratch Orchestra (Alan Brett) 10 Transcript of BBC interview with Cornelius Cardew 16 about the Scratch Orchestra, 1972 (Alan Brett) Excerpts from Meditations (VII) for any ensemble 19 (Andreja Andric, 2019) Cornelius Cardew, the Scratch Orchestra and its Text Scores 1966 - 72. 22 (Stefan Szczelkun) Compositions No 1 and 2 for the Scratch Orchestra (Stefan Szczelkun) 41 Voicepiece (Christopher Hobbs, 1967) 42 Small notes (Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen) 44 Contributors 46 IM-OS, Issue 7, Summer 2021 3 EDITORIAL We are proud of presenting two new and original texts about the Scratch Orchestra by its former members Alan Brett and Stefan Szczelkun. The Scratch Orchestra was a large group of people performing experimental music in London 1969-1974 and acting as a collective. It was an outgrowth of composer Cornelius Cardew’s experimental music class at Morley College, but quickly it came to attract musicians and non-musicians as well from very diverse backgrounds, becoming a peculiar form of fusion of popular and avantgarde culture. It is also known for cultivating its own genres of improvised music which often used scores. These genres were described in the “Draft Constitution”, which was written by Cardew and published in The Musical Times, June 1969.
    [Show full text]
  • Contact: a Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1988) Citation
    Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1988) http://contactjournal.gold.ac.uk Citation West, Peter and Evans, Peter. 1971. ‘Interview with Christopher Hobbs’. Contact, 3. pp. 17-23. ISSN 0308-5066. ! - 17 - INTER.V.Thv\1 vi1TH CHR.ISTOPHER. HOBBS Christopher Hobts -a composer, member of P.T.O., ex-member of AMM., editor of the Experimental Music Catalogue· - was interTiewed recently by Peter Wes.t and Peter EVans. · ·· Could we sta,rt off by asking you something about your musical education? I studied bassoon and piano at Trinity College of Music and composition and percussion at the Royal Academy. Before that I had been l§o grammar school in Northwood. · And you studied the usual kind of music there? Yes. Did you become less certain of: the capabilities of conventional music while you were still at school? It wasn't a matter of becoming less certain of it because we were lucky in having amusic master enlightened enough to play us records of Cage and Boulez as well as Beethoven anQ. .Holst - and it became immediately apparent that i preferred the of Cage and Boulez.· So you could say that I took natlirally to the newer type of music; though I had to study older music to pass the exam- inations, of course. Do you think these examinations have any relevance? None I didn 1 t actudlly need to,pass any to go to the Oollege and I didn't take any >ihile r was at · the qollege •••• That means you're totally unqualified? Yes. Then do you think that s.tudies in traditional harmony and counterpoint are totally useless? I've never found a use for them.
    [Show full text]
  • Contact: a Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1988) Citation
    Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1988) http://contactjournal.gold.ac.uk Citation Bryars, Gavin. 1983. ‘Vexations and its Performers’. Contact, 26. pp. 12-20. ISSN 0308-5066. ! 13 sequence of composition (contrary to the belief of True, one could not endure a performance of Vexations Christian Wolff and others in the early Cage perform- (lasting [my estimate] twenty-four hours; 840 repetitions of ance-see Wolff's letter quoted below) was first the a fifty-two beat piece itself involving a repetitive structure: music, then the title, and only afterwards the con- A, A1, A, A2, each A thirteen measures long), but why give it ditions under which it could be played. The ink was a thought?S watered down during the writing of the word The first English publication of the music was in an 'Vexations', after the letter 'x'. article by Peter Dickinson in Music Review, vol.28 It is worth mentioning, too, the significance of the (1967), pp.139-46; the score (reset, not a facsimile) is linguistic elements. Satie calls the whole piece a on p.145. This was the version that Richard Toop saw 'motif', that is to say something that by nature returns and which gave him the idea for his performance. The time and time again. He also refers to the bass vyork was eventually published in its own right by melody, which precedes each harmonisation, as a Editions Max Eschig in 1969 as one of three pieces in 'theme'. Using a simple Rousselian method of letter a collection entitled Pages mystiques.
    [Show full text]
  • The Piano Sonatas of John White Dave Smith
    11 June 2011 Jems: Journal of Experimental Music Studies - Reprint Series The Piano Sonatas of John White Dave Smith Originally published in Contact no. 21 (Autumn 1980), pp. 4-11. Reprinted with the kind permission of the author. Jems original upload date: 19 March 2004. John White was born on April 5, 1936. His works include nine ballet scores, three film scores, two operas, two symphonies (one for organ and six tubas), three concertos and 98 piano sonatas as well as a vast amount of music for the composer/performer ensembles which he has initiated. His musical experience includes that of: pianist (studied at the Royal College of Music from 1955– 58); tuba player (from 1971–72 in the London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble); Musical Director in theatre and ballet (e.g. for Western Theatre Ballet in its early stages from 1958–60 and for Canterbury Tales from 1970–72); session musician; arranger; improviser (with Cornelius Cardew from 1967–69); member of the Scratch Orchestra (1969–72), of the Promenade Theatre Orchestra (1969–72; predominantly four toy pianos and/or reed organs), of a duo with Christopher Hobbs (1972–76; percussion duo, piano duet, piano and tuba, finally multi-instrumental) and of the Garden Furniture Music Ensemble (1977 onwards; multi-instrumental); teacher (of piano and composition to music students at the RCM from 1960–64 and at the Yehudi Menuhin School from 1974 onwards; of drama students at the Drama Centre, London from 1969–77 and at RADA from 1978–79). A few words about the piano sonatas in general first of all.
    [Show full text]
  • Just the Job for That Lazy Sunday Afternoon’: British Readymades and Systems Music
    ‘Just the job for that lazy Sunday afternoon’: British Readymades and Systems Music An amplification of a paper given at the First International Conference on Minimalism, University of Wales, Bangor, 31 August–2 September 2007 Virginia Anderson, University of Nottingham THIS PAPER is concerned with definitions and their change and application over time and space. Take the term ‘systems music’, or its associated terms, ‘systems’ and ‘sys- temic music’, also ‘systematic’ music. Nobody seems to know exactly what these terms mean. In fact, the use of the term ‘systems’ became so vague that although it had appeared in the first New Grove of 1980, ‘systems’ disappeared as a definition in New Grove II in 2001. This would imply that ‘system’ is not only an old term, but a meaningless one. Is the term ‘system’ just another synonym for ‘process’, a way of structuring minimal music? Is the term ‘system’ is just outdated slang for repetitive minimalism? ‘System’ has been considered to be either a synonym or an archaism for repetitive music, sometimes both, at different times and to different scholars. However, there is a reason for bringing back the term ‘systems music’, with a clear definition. If we return ‘systems music’ to the group of British experimental com- posers who first used it, we find that it is also of use as applied to some music by this group today. Even so, we must clarify the use of the term ‘system’ within British experimental composition, because the way that each composer uses it depends on the time and situation in which it is used.
    [Show full text]
  • Cornelius Cardew's Music for Moving Images
    Cornelius Cardew’s Music for Moving Images: Some Preliminary Observations Clemens Gresser Some initial thoughts Whereas Cardew’s autonomous music (especially within a modernist or more experimental framework) has received some attention, his music for moving images and for radio has been little discussed to date.1 Such applied music seems to fit none of what could be seen as the four core areas of Cardew’s musical activity: 1. his modernist and avant-garde music (all his works before starting his early experiments with the Scratch Orchestra),2 2. his experimental and improvisational music (Scratch Orchestra, AMM), 3. his overtly political and tonal music (mainly songs, and often performed by PLM3 or the Songs for Our Society Group), or 4. his programmatic, indirectly political music (mostly piano music, such as Thälmann Variations).4 However, film and radio music might also feature (or can have traces of) any of the approaches found in other areas of his oeuvre. This research was supported by a three-month British Library Research Break (an annual scheme for BL staff). I am extremely grateful to my former colleagues in Music Collections, and particularly to Nicolas Bell and Sandra Tuppen, for allowing me to have access to uncatalogued material and generally answering all my questions; to Trish Hayes (BBC Written Archives), for helping me with BBC archival materials; and to Susan Reed for not interrupting my research work with queries relating to my previous library position. 1 John Tilbury, Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981): A Life Unfinished (Matching Tye, Essex, 2008), and Eddie Prévost (ed.), Cornelius Cardew: A Reader.
    [Show full text]
  • British Minimalism and Post-Minimalism in Piano Duets and Two-Piano Works 18 June 2013
    British minimalism and post-minimalism in piano duets and two-piano works 18 June 2013 Programme Michael Parsons Rhythm Studies II (1971) Howard Skempton No Great Shakes (1989) John White Untitled Piano Duet (1966) Piano Duet 13 (from 1st Set of Duets (1974)) Dave Smith Swings (1974) Christopher Hobbs Pretty Tough Cookie (c.1972) Piano Duet 11 (from 1st Duet Set (1974)) The Remorseless Lamb (exc.) (1970) Dave Smith A Gay Romp (1974) About the composers Michael Parsons was born in 1938. Co-founder, with Cornelius Cardew and Howard Skempton of the Scratch Orchestra he has been closely associated with visual artists of the Systems group. Like Skempton, with whom he has worked as a duo, his music is characterized by an economical use of material and clarity of structure. Since 1956, John White has composed a considerable amount for the concert platform, dance and theatre productions, electronic media and experimental ensembles that he has initiated. His works are written in a wide range of styles and include 175 piano sonatas and much for piano duet and 2 pianos. He is Head of Music at the Drama Centre, London. Dave Smith read music at Magdalene College, Cambridge in the late 1960s, joined the Scratch Orchestra and performed in various composer/performer groups in the 1970s. These included a keyboard duo with John Lewis as well as later groups with Parsons, Skempton, White and Gavin Bryars. Much of his own music since the mid-1980s is for solo piano. He teaches at the University of Hertfordshire. Christopher Hobbs studied with Cornelius Cardew at the Royal Academy of Music.
    [Show full text]
  • Experimental Music After Nyman’, from Tomorrow Is the Question: New Directions in Experimental Music, Ed
    This is an uncorrected draft of Virginia Anderson, ‘British Experimental Music after Nyman’, from Tomorrow is the Question: New Directions in Experimental Music, ed. Benjamin Piekut (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2014), pp. 159–179. The pages have been broken up to reflect the pagination in the book. Thanks to University of Michigan press for allowing the reproduction and dissemination of this draft. British Experimental Music after Nyman Virginia Anderson In the last twenty years or so, the features that constitute an understanding of “experimental music” have been shifted from those delineated by Michael Nyman in Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond to include the work of continental avant-garde composers.1 Nyman had primarily defined experimental music in opposition to “the music of such avant-garde composers as Boulez, Kagel, Xenakis, Birtwistle, Berio, Stockhausen, Bussotti, which is conceived and executed along the well-trodden but sanctified path of the post-Renaissance tradition.”2 Yet Bjorn Heile calls Nyman’s definition “anti-European”;3 Christopher Fox castigates the book for “[its] central thesis, that a music called ‘experimental’ existed in a directly oppositional relationship to another music called ‘avant-garde’”;4 David Ryan calls Nyman’s separation of the experimental and avant-garde movements a “segregation”;5 and James Saunders claims that “the distinctions made by Nyman between experimental and avant-garde music seem less clear with time.”6 This shift in understanding complicates what was already a muddle of multiple, contradictory definitions of what “experimental music” is. In the early 1950s, experimental referred both to the (mostly acoustic) indeterminacy of the Cage group and to the (mostly avant-garde, even serial) work of the early European electronic studios.
    [Show full text]