Just Keep Swimming

So.
I keep using the word “gesture.” It seems to be the most effective way to communicate the parts of the score that I am trying to create. It’s not really a phrase or a measure, a note or a line, it’s a bit more abstract.
What does Merriam-Webster say it is?:

ges·ture
Pronunciation:
\ˈjes-chər, ˈjesh-\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin gestura mode of action, from Latin gestus, past participle of gerere
Date:
15th century

1archaic : carriage , bearing
2: a movement usually of the body or limbs that expresses or emphasizes an idea, sentiment, or attitude
3: the use of motions of the limbs or body as a means of expression
4: something said or done by way of formality or courtesy, as a symbol or token, or for its effect on the attitudes of others

I like all of these, but mostly entries 2 and 3 seem to capture what I am trying to put onto paper. Let’s hold on to number 2; “… that expresses or emphasizes an idea, sentiment, or attitude.”

Carnegie Mellon is one of a handful of universities (maybe two handfuls) in the United States that offers training in Dalcroze Eurhythmics. At CMU, it is required for all undergraduates for four semesters, but I have been taking it for seven semesters now(adding a semester in my senior year as well as both semesters this ear). Joelle has also taken two semesters of the course. I can’t really explain to you in fewer than six paragraphs what Eurhythmics is, and even then it will really only be my definition. However, one of the best partial definitions I can offer is that it involves the physical realization of the body and mind’s internalization of music. How’s that for abstract. We take music, something completely fleeting and intangible, internalize it, and then recycle back out through physical expression and abstract gesture. I’m hoping that once we get into rehearsals, Joelle will comment on her process of analyzing/reading the score and if Eurhythmics plays a role in that at all(I’m guessing it does.) In those classes, it is all about the gesture. What is it that the music is trying to communicate, is there a way to communicate that to yourself and others with your physical body as well? (Side note: there are extensive additional applications of Eurhythmics training to one’s development as a musician, but the one that most predominately affects this process is the idea of gesture.) Even in writing this piece, I am constantly moving around, physically gesturing in ways that another person might, looking at the shapes I have created. I even go so far as to think of what might happen if someone was given a loaded paintbrush and a canvas as well, and asked to dictate or trace their gesture onto paper. Just food for thought, I suppose.

In our meeting last week, Richard and I also talked about the process of reading from a part and playing in an orchestra. In this type of ensemble setting, you only have your information, and you assume everyone is also playing what is asked of them in their different set of instructions.
How does reading from a score change things? This allows you to understand visually what is going on with the other members of the ensemble without necessarily aurally engaging as much as you would with just your own part to read from. It also has the potential to enhance the musical experience as the performers each see how they fit into the overall gesture(there’s that word again) of the work.
What if everyone has the same part but they play it on their own instrument (their own form of media?) This was more of a hypothetical question. In the discussion of altering the abstract proposal to include a score that everyone reads from, I emphasized the importance of everyone having the same information to interpret. I am not going to write four or five or ten different scores to cater to the needs of each artist; the goal is to find a method which caters to the needs of all the artists in a similar fashion. While the interpretation of the elements may be different by each performer, each individual element is intelligible and useful for each person.

I’ve been working more with this idea of fractals, too. I’m not sure I can get it to work mathematically, but I do think that I will be able to draw connections between the smaller and bigger elements of the piece in a somewhat fractal-like reference. It will be interesting to see as an end result what might happen.

Audience experience: what’s it all about? Apologies, guys, but I haven’t really given any conscious thought to you yet. My first audience is my performers. Roger Sessions talks about some of this thought process in his book, “The Musical Experience of Composer, Perfomer, and Listener.” Who is most important? Who comes first? Is a Performer also a composer? Does a Composer need to be a Listener as well?

As a composer, I go through a process of recycling. Step 1: Get an idea in your head. Step 2: Get thought from brain to paper (there is potential here to lose the essence of what you’re trying to say). Step 3: Give paper to performer. Step 4: Allow performer to read and interpret what you are trying to say (potential for transformation here both in the player’s interpretation and the restrictions of their physical skills and capabilities). Step 5: Rehearse, sometimes with other people who will have their own comments. Step 6: Perform. This can go any number of ways depending on the day, time, what the player ate for dinner, if it’s raining out, etc. Additionally, the audience experience changes based on where in the hall they are, what time they woke up that morning, if they’ve heard the piece before, if they know anything about the composer, if they want to be there or not, etc. The list goes on. From the point of the creation of the idea to the performance for an audience, the piece has the potential to retain little of what I initially imagined. Most of the time, this is okay with me, even welcomed. I think the opportunity to really see what someone else gets out of my music when I hand it over to them is a gift. At Carnegie Mellon we are rarely allowed to perform our own music; we are strongly encouraged to find other players to perform what we write. This is to test our skills of composition as much as it is an opportunity for the performer to play new music.

Being in the academic bubble, I know 99% of the time who will be performing my music so I have the luxury of writing for a specific performer. I get to work with them and highlight their talents and perhaps brush past their less desirable skills(or lack thereof). The performer is the first person that sees my music; they are my first audience, so my thoughts usually go immediately to them.

Richard asked me in my meeting with him what I thought about the audience experience. What do I want the audience to experience? What do I want them to go through? Are they just viewing the performance or are they a part of the performance? Today, concertgoers attend performers with a certain apathy, rarely are they truly involved and engaged, something that is both the fault of the performer/composer and the audience member. How do we engage the audience? How can I engage the audience with my score? Are there directions I can provide that would involve the audience more directly?
Probably.

Any ideas? What if I place the performers in the audience space or place the audience on the stage between the performers? What if the audience is allowed to dictate certain parameters of performance upon their entrance into the space? All of these have potential, but I’m not sure how involved I should get with it. The direction that I would like to provide is to allow the audience to move freely around the performers, look at their scores and move around the stage to view the performance from different angles. As for other involvement in regards to the actual outcome of the score, I am inclined to leave the audience out of it. At some point, there is a line that could get crossed that renders me as the composer useless. I wouldn’t want the title; if all I did was provide directions but left the majority of the decisions up to performer and audience, then maybe I am just winding up the clock and letting it go. When does the piece fall out of my hands as a composer? How far does it go?

-Kate