If A Tree Falls in the Forest…

Is it a Performance?

We had our first official meeting with our advisor (Richard Randall) this past week. Joelle and I came in with a paper full of questions and left with all of them answered; mostly with more questions.
We explained our project in greater detail, and then went through a list of questions that we had, including;
How long should the performance be?
How many people is too many?
Should we have a pianist play?
Can we blindfold the actor?

The list goes on and on. Our advisor mainly just said things like “sure” “you decide” and “go for it”. It became very clear to us that this project really was completely in our hands; he is there to make sure we don’t break any laws or cause anyone permanent damage. It’s like our own little cheering team in a game that’s impossible to lose. This project is all about discovery, observation, and learning. There is no final exam at the end, no note taking or cramming that we can do. It’s all about the process.

So here I am, stuck in the process. I’ve been slowly picking away at this score, a little more intimidated than I had planned on being. I have been looking at graphic scores (ones like Robert Moran's or Earle Brown’s December 1952). Scores like George Crumb’s are so artistically created that I am finding myself hugely intimidated by what I have to live up to. I am not an artist(in the visual sense), so creating a graphic score seems to highlight my lacking artistic prowess. I am also curious as to how I’m going to pull off a score of this magnitude solely by the skill of my not-so-artistic hand. Does anyone know of any computer software that I might be able to make this graphic score in? I’d love to have a digital version I can manipulate. It will make edits a much more bearable experience.
I think I’ve decided (gosh that sounds real convincing) that I need to go about this project just like I would any other composition in my studio time. I need to figure out what I want to say and then how to say it in a way that people (performers, audience) would understand. However, what happens when I give the score to the artists and they aren’t even close to what I wanted? Perhaps that’s where this process differs from my studio composition time; it’s in the afterthought, the performer to audience process that things leave my hands. That’s the point of the independent study anyway.
So what is it that I want to say? I want to explore the idea of taking a small motive/image/cell, and watching it expand into something much larger in an ordered, almost formulaic manner. After the high point of the piece (where the cell reaches maximum capacity), I will offer two methods of deconstruction, formulaic again, or a more random, aggressive, breakdown of the larger image.
Joelle had suggested doing something with a circle broken into four parts; pages that you could turn and perform in any orientation and order that you wanted. I am still toying with that idea, seeing if there is a way to work it into the piece I am currently conceiving of. It could be interesting, and allow for a much more varied performance, but I think that at this stage, with the huge array of performers that we are using, varying the orientation of their score might make things more unconnected than is necessary. Plus, I would like to see what happens if everyone has the exact same set of information. (Another project for another day, perhaps.)

-Kate