Issues: 4. influence, improv and chance

1. Compositional influence:
- CJA

- SFM

- Sinking of the Titanic (1969-) - Gavin Bryars
“All the materials used in the piece are derived from research and speculations about the sinking of the "unsinkable" luxury liner. On April 14th 1912 the Titanic struck an iceberg at 11.40 PM in the North Atlantic and sank at 2.20 AM on April 15th. The initial starting point for the piece was the reported fact of the band having played a hymn tune in the final moments of the ship's sinking. A number of other features of the disaster which generate musical or sounding performance material, or which 'take the mind to other regions', are also included."

- –,–– CIRCUS ON – (1979) John Cage

developed after he created Roaratoria, an Irish Circus on Finnigans Wake, and is a

“means for translating a book into a performance without actors, a performance which is both literary and musical or one or the other.”

He applies a similar forensic approach to Bryars but also uses a system termed Mesostics to weave the text of the book into a new libretto.

2. Improvisation and Chance ...
... (NOT randomness) are still important elements. Whilst I do not understand have each of these elements work, and would regret any attempt to describe a realm of research that is not within the remit of this project; the purpose of improv and chance is to open the compositions up to more possibilities than I would consider.

Also, the dialogue between a random list of numbers called upon by the software, the software GUI and the composer-improviser creates a sense of intermedia collaboration.

But it is the wholeness of the composition that I am most interested and so any formal organisation of this: any hierachy, would degrade the worth of each element.


3. On a matter of form
On the subject of macro-structuration and form these pieces are not concerned with didactic narratives - but rather the flow of dramaturgy (dramatic experience). However, this is a 40-60 minute piece and I will need to consider its structuring!

Also, my life in the 21st century can not be expressed in simple structures such as sonata, or ternary - therefore shouldn’t the music that I create, here in 2010, reflect this?