University of Huddersfield Repository Fell, Simon A more attractive ‘way of getting things done’ freedom, collaboration and compositional paradox in British improvised and experimental music 1965-75 Original Citation Fell, Simon (2017) A more attractive ‘way of getting things done’ freedom, collaboration and compositional paradox in British improvised and experimental music 1965-75. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/34533/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ A more attractive ‘way of getting things done’ freedom, collaboration and compositional paradox in British improvised and experimental music 1965-75 Simon H. Fell A thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Huddersfield September 2017 copyright statement i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the University Library. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of any patents, designs, trade marks and any and all other intellectual property rights except for the Copyright (the “Intellectual Property Rights”) and any reproductions of copyright works, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property Rights and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions. 2 abstract This thesis examines the activity of the British musicians developing a practice of freely improvised music in the mid- to late-1960s, in conjunction with that of a group of British composers and performers contemporaneously exploring experimental possibilities within composed music; it investigates how these practices overlapped and interpenetrated for a period. The thesis identifies those characteristics of improvisation and experimentalism which favour a relationship between the two fields, but which ultimately underline the different expectations and objectives underlying each activity. The historical material is explored through a combination of archive research and interviews with musicians who were actively involved in the developments under examination. In addition the author draws upon his extensive personal experience as an improvising musician and composer, and as a performing associate of several of the key improvising musicians of the period. The first section of the thesis identifies the historical and social background, outlining the two key groups of participants working in the unmapped area between existing idiomatic improvisation and experimental composition practice, including brief studies of important figures who initiated or facilitated the exploration of shared activity during the period. A second section seeks to introduce further precision into discussion of improvised music by seeking to clarify the definition of taxonomic terms currently in use, and to extend these by identifying key characteristics of the wide range of approaches to playing improvised music. Section three explores the practical implications of the differing objectives of improvising musicians and composers. A series of archive case studies examining composing for improvising musicians during the 1960s and 1970s are discussed, along with an investigation of issues raised by the restoration of Derek Bailey’s Ping (prob. 1967/8) for contemporary performance by improvising musicians. The final section identifies fundamental differences of aspiration and approach within improvisation and composition, and examines the consequent implications for joint practice. It establishes why such differences are inevitable, and the insights they provide into the nature of artistic practice. 3 4 A more attractive way of getting things done: freedom, collaboration and compositional paradox in British improvised and experimental music 1965-75 contents copyright statement ..................................................................................................... 2 abstract ......................................................................................................................... 3 acknowledgements & thanks ...................................................................................... 9 introduction ................................................................................................................. 11 section 1: dramatis personæ & mise en scène ......................................................... 19 1a: historical & social background ................................................................................................. 19 1b: the musicians in question......................................................................................................... 20 the post-avant-garde experimentalists .......................................................................................... 20 the post-jazz improvisers .............................................................................................................. 23 ‘lazy, irresponsible, insular and useful’ .......................................................................................... 31 1c: building bridges ......................................................................................................................... 33 Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981) ..................................................................................................... 33 Gavin Bryars (b. 1943) ................................................................................................................. 35 Barry Guy (b. 1947) ...................................................................................................................... 38 Paul Rutherford (1940-2007) ........................................................................................................ 41 Hugh Davies (1943-2005) ............................................................................................................ 46 the SPNM Composers’ Weekends ............................................................................................... 48 preMICo / Instelimp ...................................................................................................................... 57 section 2: (re)defining and rebalancing ..................................................................... 65 2a: the taxonomy of improvised music .......................................................................................... 65 current terminology ...................................................................................................................... 65 poiesis & praxis ............................................................................................................................ 68 somatic & associative ................................................................................................................... 70 free jazz & free improvisation ....................................................................................................... 75 non-idiomaticism .......................................................................................................................... 79 on groups ..................................................................................................................................... 82 2b: restoring critical balance .......................................................................................................... 83 5 AMM, Nyman and re-mixing the un-mixed .................................................................................... 83 what they say they play and what they play .................................................................................. 86 the great composers speak to us .................................................................................................. 88 section 3: interfacing ................................................................................................. 93 3a: some compositional consequences of improvisative praxis ................................................. 93 general