Emily Payne
University of Leeds, School of Music, Faculty Member
- Music, Performance Studies (Music), Performance Practice, Creativity, Music Psychology, Contemporary Music, and 15 moreClarinet, Cultural History, Collaboration, Philosophy, Anthropology, Tim Ingold, Craft, Embodied Cognition, Anthropology of Performance, Craft Knowledge, Materiality (Anthropology), Richard Sennett, Embodiment, Material Culture Studies, and Affordancesedit
- I am an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Leeds. My research interests include performance studies (p... moreI am an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Leeds. My research interests include performance studies (particularly of 20th-century musics), creativity, collaboration, psychology of musical performance, and anthropological approaches to western 'art' music.edit
- Eric F. Clarkeedit
Material Cultures of Music Notation brings together a collection of essays that explore a fundamental question in the current landscape of musicology: how can writing and reading music be understood as concrete, material practices in a... more
Material Cultures of Music Notation brings together a collection of essays that explore a fundamental question in the current landscape of musicology: how can writing and reading music be understood as concrete, material practices in a wider cultural context? Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches from musicology, media studies, performance studies, and more, the chapters in this volume offer a wide array of new perspectives that foreground the materiality of music notation. From digital scores to the transmission of manuscripts in the Middle Ages, the volume deliberately disrupts boundaries of discipline, historical period, genre, and tradition, by approaching notation's materiality through four key interrelated themes: knowledge, the body, social relations, and technology. Together, the chapters capture vital new work in an essential emerging area of scholarship.
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This article examines the dynamic nature of instrumental interaction in indeterminate music, using John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957–58) as a case study. Performing the Concert requires instruments to be dismantled,... more
This article examines the dynamic nature of instrumental interaction in indeterminate music, using John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957–58) as a case study. Performing the Concert requires instruments to be dismantled, detuned, and destabilised, and within the parts themselves techniques are often stretched or combined to the point of complete breakdown. Drawing on interviews and observational studies undertaken with the experimental music ensemble Apartment House, I explore how the indeterminacies of the instrumental parts are enacted and negotiated in performance. The article suggests the ways in which indeterminacy is not an abstract compositional device, but is distributed across musicians, their instruments, and their environments. More broadly, it shows how a reading of indeterminacy through performance both underlines and complicates the relationships between individuals, objects, and the kinds of agency that are enacted and animated in creative work.
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This article explores the ways in which the music of experimental composer Christian Wolff engenders surprise through processes of disruption and provocation. The contexts under examination are: scores which employ cueing strategies;... more
This article explores the ways in which the music of experimental composer Christian Wolff engenders surprise through processes of disruption and provocation. The contexts under examination are: scores which employ cueing strategies; improvisatory pieces; ensemble pieces; pieces for solo piano; and Wolff’s practice as an improvising musician. These case studies show how Wolff’s music occupies a particular position between improvisation and composition. In examining the space that Wolff’s music opens up for contingency and play, and in adopting a view of indeterminacy as understood through performance rather than limited by its notation, the article puts forward a view of indeterminacy grounded in sociality. More broadly, in its contribution to the body of literature investigating the role of notation in improvisation practices, the article invites a reconsideration of the ontological understandings of composition, improvisation, and performance.
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The premiere of John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957–58) is notorious for being disrupted by the behaviour of the orchestral musicians, decried by Cage as ‘foolish and unprofessional’. The interpretative options available to... more
The premiere of John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957–58) is notorious for being disrupted by the behaviour of the orchestral musicians, decried by Cage as ‘foolish and unprofessional’. The interpretative options available to performers of the Concert are, however, many and baffling, the instrumental techniques required are arcane, and the response of the early performers, if apparently juvenile, is hardly surprising. This article considers the challenges of performing the Concert, first by examining historical evidence for the early performances, analysing existing recorded performances and considering the performance choices Cage himself made, as conductor. It then draws on material from a major data-collection event with musicians from the ensemble Apartment House, as illustrated through films and discussion at cageconcert.org. The creative possibilities of Cage’s notations, and the ways in which musicians respond to their complexities and ambiguities, are explored, and the authors consider how these perspectives might contribute to a developing performance practice surrounding the work and informing the performance of indeterminate music more widely.
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Musicology's performative turn was formulated in opposition to the disciplinary dominance of music notation in favour of a focus on the creativity of performers. However, scores are a central part of many musicians' creative work, and a... more
Musicology's performative turn was formulated in opposition to the disciplinary dominance of music notation in favour of a focus on the creativity of performers. However, scores are a central part of many musicians' creative work, and a complete conception of creativity in performance should take this centrality into account. This article investigates performers' uses of notation, particularly annotation, in both composed and improvised musical practices. Through ethnographic methods, we examine how performers engage with their notations and how this engagement resonates in their further creative processes. By approaching the score as a concrete material object rather than a representation of an abstract structure, we move beyond a paradigm that opposes notated permanence to performed and/or improvised transience. Drawing on anthropological work on artistic production, creativity, and improvisation, we propose an understanding of (an)notation as integral to the forms of imagination, creativity, knowledge, interaction, and even improvisation that occur in music-making. One of the most important developments in current musicology has been a disciplinary turn towards performance as the defining element of music. There is a growing body of research investigating the multi-layered forms of social and distributed creativity inherent in the
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Musicology’s performative turn was formulated in opposition to the disciplinary dominance of music notation in favour of a focus on the creativity of performers. However, scores are a central part of many musicians’ creative work, and a... more
Musicology’s performative turn was formulated in opposition to the disciplinary dominance of music notation in favour of a focus on the creativity of performers. However, scores are a central part of many musicians’ creative work, and a complete conception of creativity in performance should take this centrality into account. This article investigates performers’ uses of notation, particularly annotation, in both composed and improvised musical practices. Using observational methods, we examine how performers engage with their notations and how this engagement resonates in their creative processes. By approaching the score as a concrete material object rather than a representation of an abstract structure, we move beyond a paradigm that opposes notated permanence to performed and/or improvised transience. Drawing on anthropological work on artistic production, creativity, and improvisation, we propose an understanding of (an)notation as integral to the forms of imagination, creativity, knowledge, interaction, and even improvisation that occur in music-making.
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In this article I examine the role of the instrument in Evan Johnson and Carl Rosman’s collaboration on a new work for eighteenth-century basset clarinet, ‘indolentiae ars’, a medium to be kept (2015). Drawing on material collected over... more
In this article I examine the role of the instrument in Evan Johnson and Carl Rosman’s collaboration on a new work for eighteenth-century basset clarinet, ‘indolentiae ars’, a medium to be kept (2015). Drawing on material collected over 30 months—including interviews; audio–visual footage; and correspondence containing sketches, fingering charts, and recordings—I consider the latent practices that lie within the instrument, and their role in the creative process. From the aesthetic discourses that pervaded the musicians’ discussions, to the transitional and sometimes ‘accidental’ moments of instrumental interaction during workshops, I trace the micro-processes within the broader creative trajectory, in order to understand how the instrument’s historical, social, and ergonomic affordances were enmeshed within the here-and-now of the collaboration. The article illustrates the dynamic character of collaborative work, shaped not solely by the knowledge of individuals, but through a close reciprocity between perception, action, and the discursive and material conditions of their surroundings.
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This article examines the nature of skilled practice within two settings of musical performance, the rehearsal and the compositional workshop. Drawing primarily on the work of Richard Sennett and Tim Ingold, I suggest that a... more
This article examines the nature of skilled practice within two settings of musical performance, the rehearsal and the compositional workshop. Drawing primarily on the work of Richard Sennett and Tim Ingold, I suggest that a characterisation of musical performance as a craft practice attends to the development of skill and expertise through the performer’s physical and everyday encounters with the world and provokes a reconsideration of the dimensions of performance that might otherwise be taken for granted. The first case study addresses rhythmic coordination during a rehearsal of Four Duets for clarinet and piano (2012), composed by Edmund Finnis for Mark Simpson and Víkingur Ólafsson, and the second traces the development of instrumental techniques by composer Evan Johnson and performer Carl Rosman as they collaborate on a new work for historical basset clarinet, ‘indolentiae ars’, a medium to be kept (2015). The article makes the case for skilled practice as an improvisatory interplay between performers and the meshwork of people, objects, histories and processes which they inhabit.
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While creativity has been defined in a multiplicity of ways across disciplines, scholars generally agree that it involves the generation of ideas or products that are novel, of value, and appropriate to the field. Yet by too readily... more
While creativity has been defined in a multiplicity of ways across disciplines, scholars generally agree that it involves the generation of ideas or products that are novel, of value, and appropriate to the field. Yet by too readily connecting creativity in musical performance to innovation, does this model neglect the more inconspicuous and unrecognised, but no less valuable, dimensions of creativity in score-based performance? This article offers a characterisation of musical performance situated within a framework of craft, by tracing rehearsal strategies employed in two new performance projects: the rehearsals for, and first performance of Four Duets for clarinet and piano (2012) by Edmund Finnis, written for Mark Simpson and Víkingur Ólafsson; and a recording made by Antony Pay of Alexander Goehr’s Paraphrase for solo clarinet Op. 28 (1969). My argument draws attention to “everyday” aspects of music-making, in which musicians make decisions in engaging with their work which are less explicit than the conventional “moments of revelation” that are prevalent in the literature, but which are nonetheless significant. Acknowledging these attributes of musicians’ performance practices can serve to develop a more nuanced understanding of creativity based on processes rather than outcomes, in order to move beyond a paradigm that opposes notated permanence to improvised transience.
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Examining ensemble interaction in the music of experimental composer Christian Wolff, this chapter uses as a case study a professional recording session undertaken by the ensemble Apartment House of Exercises (1973–2013), a series of... more
Examining ensemble interaction in the music of experimental composer Christian Wolff, this chapter uses as a case study a professional recording session undertaken by the ensemble Apartment House of Exercises (1973–2013), a series of pieces for (mostly) unspecified instrumentation and numbers of players. Wolff’s skeletal notation is deliberately under-determined, acting like something of a puzzle to be solved. Consequently, the players must negotiate a way of working with the notation and with each other, making decisions prior to, and during, the moment of performance. Drawing on interviews and observational studies, the chapter identifies three different forms of interaction in the musicians’ playing as they engaged with Wolff’s notation: working responsively, independently, and emergently. The chapter offers a view of ensemble interaction that is characterized by cooperation, but also uncertainty, surprise, or even complete breakdown.
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This chapter examines ensemble dynamics and time consciousness in indeterminate music, using John Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957-8) as a case study. Drawing on interviews and observational studies undertaken with the... more
This chapter examines ensemble dynamics and time consciousness in indeterminate music, using John Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957-8) as a case study. Drawing on interviews and observational studies undertaken with the experimental music ensemble Apartment House, I examine the role of temporal indeterminacy in the socio-musical interactions that characterize performance, and its implications for the musicians' experiences. In doing so, the chapter makes a broader contribution in its consideration of the ways in which issues of authorship and authority are negotiated in such temporal interactions, and how the dynamics of these negotiations present a sociality based on a 'separate togetherness', whereby performers play together (out of time) with one another.
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In 1973 American experimentalist Christian Wolff embarked upon a series of pieces titled Exercises for (mostly) unspecified instrumentation and numbers of players. This paper examines the ways in which the music is worked out in... more
In 1973 American experimentalist Christian Wolff embarked upon a series of pieces titled Exercises for (mostly) unspecified instrumentation and numbers of players. This paper examines the ways in which the music is worked out in performance, through playing and other forms of ensemble exchange. The ways in which the indeterminacies of the score and the skeletal notation function in relation to a more or less democratic praxis are explored. The shift in Wolff’s compositional practice at around the time of the Exercises’ composition, the result of a conscious effort to foreground political thinking – specifically a tendency toward democratic socialism – in and through his music, is explored. The chapter draws upon documentation of a recent recording session featuring the ensemble Apartment House, in which a selection of the Exercises was rehearsed and recorded, as well as an interview with Wolff about the Exercises, conducted specially for this project. Analysis from the sessions draws on both personal involvement and reflection and ethnographic observation to isolate and analyse individual and collective behaviours; and to explore how decisions are prioritised, arrived at, and implemented.
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Collaboration is usually associated with the co-presence of those involved; but in this Intervention Emily Payne discusses a more complex and convoluted process extending over forty years, and involving different performers. Payne’s... more
Collaboration is usually associated with the co-presence of those involved; but in this Intervention Emily Payne discusses a more complex and convoluted process extending over forty years, and involving different performers. Payne’s account of Antony Pay’s 2013 recording of Alexander Goehr’s Paraphrase for solo clarinet, premiered by Alan Hacker in 1969, reveals a ‘back story’ that casts new light on the network of distributed relationships that lies behind this unusual collaborative project.
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Cornelius Cardew proposed that notation was ‘a way of making people move’ (Cardew, 1963, p. iii) and two decades later his friend Christian Wolff wrote: ‘Notation is before the fact; incentives and suggestions for action’ (Wolff, 2017... more
Cornelius Cardew proposed that notation was ‘a way of making people move’ (Cardew, 1963, p. iii) and two decades later his friend Christian Wolff wrote: ‘Notation is before the fact; incentives and suggestions for action’ (Wolff, 2017 [1984], p. 85). Since the late 1950s, from his cueing procedures, to a myriad of other notational innovations and performance directions up until to the present day, Wolff has developed a musical practice which foregrounds performance processes and multiplicity over sounding result and fixity. Some notations are deliberately opaque with little by way of instructions for performance; others are accompanied by lengthy explanations of rules, possibilities, and ideas of how musicians might work, both with the material in the score and (in the case of ensemble music) with one another. Rather than the score functioning as a fixed representation of action that assumes a unified performance intention, in Wolff’s music the notation can be a source of disorientation, instability, and sometimes even complete breakdown.
Drawing on case studies of Wolff’s solo and ensemble music, this paper approaches Wolff’s notations as objects of ambiguity and disruption, and investigates their consequences for the performers’ embodied relationships to their instruments, and their socio-musical interactions with one another. First we focus upon a selection of Wolff’s solo piano music, in which indeterminate notations are not necessarily concerned with a sounding result, but with physicality: inviting the pianist to make decisions about pitch and continuity in relation to finger placements and hand coordination. We then discuss one of Wolff’s most recent works–Resistance, for eleven or more players (2017), composed for and premiered by Philip Thomas and Apartment House–, which, the composer has suggested, is an assemblage of notational strategies employed in earlier works. Drawing on observational studies undertaken of the rehearsal, concert, and studio performances, we examine the choreographies, interactions, and sounding results of the many varied notations employed in both the solo and ensemble pieces–from rhythmicised sections, to open durations, cueing, text-based and other indeterminate forms. In addition, interviews with the musicians explore how the particular challenges and ambiguities presented by the notations are experienced and negotiated in the actual circumstances of music-making. By investigating how the indeterminate notation of Wolff’s music both mediates and unsettles (collective) musical experience, our paper sheds new light on the function of notation in performance.
Cardew, C. (1963). Treatise Handbook. London: Edition Peters.
Wolff, C. (2017 [1984]). On Notation. In C. Wolff, Occasional Pieces: Writings and Interviews, 1952–2013 (pp. 85–86). New York: Oxford University Press.
Drawing on case studies of Wolff’s solo and ensemble music, this paper approaches Wolff’s notations as objects of ambiguity and disruption, and investigates their consequences for the performers’ embodied relationships to their instruments, and their socio-musical interactions with one another. First we focus upon a selection of Wolff’s solo piano music, in which indeterminate notations are not necessarily concerned with a sounding result, but with physicality: inviting the pianist to make decisions about pitch and continuity in relation to finger placements and hand coordination. We then discuss one of Wolff’s most recent works–Resistance, for eleven or more players (2017), composed for and premiered by Philip Thomas and Apartment House–, which, the composer has suggested, is an assemblage of notational strategies employed in earlier works. Drawing on observational studies undertaken of the rehearsal, concert, and studio performances, we examine the choreographies, interactions, and sounding results of the many varied notations employed in both the solo and ensemble pieces–from rhythmicised sections, to open durations, cueing, text-based and other indeterminate forms. In addition, interviews with the musicians explore how the particular challenges and ambiguities presented by the notations are experienced and negotiated in the actual circumstances of music-making. By investigating how the indeterminate notation of Wolff’s music both mediates and unsettles (collective) musical experience, our paper sheds new light on the function of notation in performance.
Cardew, C. (1963). Treatise Handbook. London: Edition Peters.
Wolff, C. (2017 [1984]). On Notation. In C. Wolff, Occasional Pieces: Writings and Interviews, 1952–2013 (pp. 85–86). New York: Oxford University Press.
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Empirical research on orchestral performance has focused almost exclusively on tonally mediated, notated music of the common practice period. Consequently, the experiences of performers have been viewed through a lens focused primarily on... more
Empirical research on orchestral performance has focused almost exclusively on tonally mediated, notated music of the common practice period. Consequently, the experiences of performers have been viewed through a lens focused primarily on principles of coordination, one that assumes the existence of unified performance practices. But what happens when that unity does not exist? Indeterminate music challenges the conventional relationships between musicians, instruments, and scores through techniques that elicit contingency in performance, interrogating the mechanisms and hierarchies that traditionally pervade classical music-making. This paper examines the role of the conductor in indeterminate music, using as a case study John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957–58). The orchestra plays from separate parts, and, working within a predetermined duration, each performer can choose to play any number of pages of the part. The conductor works from a performance part too, using both arms to imitate the hands of a clock, to, in Cage’s words, change ‘clock time to effective time’. Drawing on interviews and observational studies undertaken with the ensemble Apartment House, the paper examines the conceptual, aesthetic, and practical questions that the Concert raises for performance, and their implications for analysis.
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In 1973 American experimentalist Christian Wolff embarked upon a series of pieces titled Exercises for (mostly) unspecified instrumentation and numbers of players. Since then Wolff has returned to the title to extend the number of works... more
In 1973 American experimentalist Christian Wolff embarked upon a series of pieces titled Exercises for (mostly) unspecified instrumentation and numbers of players. Since then Wolff has returned to the title to extend the number of works to, at present, 33; they are amongst his most frequently-performed works. The notation is skeletal, with little by way of instructions and indications for performance. Consequently, players negotiate a way of working with the score and with each other, making decisions prior to, and during, the moment of performance. Issues of orchestration, tempo, dynamics, sequence, coordination and much else are all ‘up for grabs’.
Although the first set of Exercises was composed around the time that Wolff was especially energised by leftist political ideologies, and indeed was originally conceived to partner with a set of songs (unpublished) with explicitly political texts, these are not necessarily political pieces. The title 'Exercises' is, however, suggestive of both preparatory work toward a future act, putting into action, of being active, and of having effect. All the Exercises afford democratic negotiation on a number of levels: individually and collectively negotiating with the notation, through the music, and with the ensemble members. As such, there is considerable potential for navigating approaches to ensemble interaction, and for exploration and investigation of performance possibilities. Exactly how these possibilities are exercised in practice is the focus of this paper.
This paper draws upon documentation of a recent recording session featuring the ensemble Apartment House, in which a selection of the Exercises were rehearsed and recorded. Analysis from the sessions draws on both personal involvement and reflection (Philip Thomas is pianist with the ensemble), and ethnographic observation (Emily Payne observed the sessions). Both Thomas and Payne make use of video documentation from the sessions to isolate and analyse individual and collective behaviours; and to explore how decisions are prioritised, arrived at, and implemented. Finally, an interview with Wolff about the Exercises, conducted specially for this project, acts as a further contextual frame.
Although the first set of Exercises was composed around the time that Wolff was especially energised by leftist political ideologies, and indeed was originally conceived to partner with a set of songs (unpublished) with explicitly political texts, these are not necessarily political pieces. The title 'Exercises' is, however, suggestive of both preparatory work toward a future act, putting into action, of being active, and of having effect. All the Exercises afford democratic negotiation on a number of levels: individually and collectively negotiating with the notation, through the music, and with the ensemble members. As such, there is considerable potential for navigating approaches to ensemble interaction, and for exploration and investigation of performance possibilities. Exactly how these possibilities are exercised in practice is the focus of this paper.
This paper draws upon documentation of a recent recording session featuring the ensemble Apartment House, in which a selection of the Exercises were rehearsed and recorded. Analysis from the sessions draws on both personal involvement and reflection (Philip Thomas is pianist with the ensemble), and ethnographic observation (Emily Payne observed the sessions). Both Thomas and Payne make use of video documentation from the sessions to isolate and analyse individual and collective behaviours; and to explore how decisions are prioritised, arrived at, and implemented. Finally, an interview with Wolff about the Exercises, conducted specially for this project, acts as a further contextual frame.
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The graphic notations of John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957–58), described by Cage as ‘a work indeterminate of its performance’, are among the most complex and abstract that he ever wrote; and the piece’s formal... more
The graphic notations of John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957–58), described by Cage as ‘a work indeterminate of its performance’, are among the most complex and abstract that he ever wrote; and the piece’s formal instructions (that the thirteen instrumental parts can be played in any combination, including with other pieces) offer seemingly endless performance possibilities. The notations do not necessarily prescribe their sounding result nor their method of realisation, sometimes deliberately subverting conventional means of performance.
Despite the apparent performative liberties suggested by the Concert, some of the notations’ complexities conceal ‘a comparatively straightforward method of realization’ (Thomas 2013: 102), necessitating a rigorous and ocularcentric response from the performer. Moreover, Cage’s indeterminate works were accompanied by a tightly defined performance aesthetic of 1950s experimentalism (Lochhead 1994, 2001), influenced in part by David Tudor, whose practices have shaped understandings of Cage’s music almost as much as the composer himself. Given these contextual circumstances and the apparent adherence required from the performer, the Concert poses something of a conundrum.
This paper untangles some of these problems and contradictions, exploring the creative negotiations that the notations afford, and thus drawing out the tacit assumptions of freedom and constraint in indeterminate performance. I consider whether the Concert offers an example of where notational ‘discipline’ is a crucial aspect of the creative process. My discussion draws on outline findings of the AHRC project, ‘John Cage and the Concert for Piano and Orchestra’, including analysis of notations, performer realisations, and recordings.
Despite the apparent performative liberties suggested by the Concert, some of the notations’ complexities conceal ‘a comparatively straightforward method of realization’ (Thomas 2013: 102), necessitating a rigorous and ocularcentric response from the performer. Moreover, Cage’s indeterminate works were accompanied by a tightly defined performance aesthetic of 1950s experimentalism (Lochhead 1994, 2001), influenced in part by David Tudor, whose practices have shaped understandings of Cage’s music almost as much as the composer himself. Given these contextual circumstances and the apparent adherence required from the performer, the Concert poses something of a conundrum.
This paper untangles some of these problems and contradictions, exploring the creative negotiations that the notations afford, and thus drawing out the tacit assumptions of freedom and constraint in indeterminate performance. I consider whether the Concert offers an example of where notational ‘discipline’ is a crucial aspect of the creative process. My discussion draws on outline findings of the AHRC project, ‘John Cage and the Concert for Piano and Orchestra’, including analysis of notations, performer realisations, and recordings.
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This paper traces the interactions between the composer Evan Johnson and clarinettist Carl Rosman in the making of a new work, ‘indolentiae ars’, a medium to be kept (2015) for eighteenth-century basset clarinet, in order to examine the... more
This paper traces the interactions between the composer Evan Johnson and clarinettist Carl Rosman in the making of a new work, ‘indolentiae ars’, a medium to be kept (2015) for eighteenth-century basset clarinet, in order to examine the histories and practices that lie within musical instruments, and their role in the creative process. Drawing on video documentation and interviews, the paper explores the processes through which new practices and musical materials were developed over the course of the commission. I begin by considering how the conditions of this collaboration demonstrate a distinctive way of sharing knowledge and expertise, before examining the ways in which the compositional material was shaped from three angles: the wider historical and cultural dimensions of the creative ecology; the development of techniques through various categories of engaged interaction; and Rosman’s embodied relationship to his instrument and his developing technical expertise in preparing for performance.
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This paper considers the distribution of knowledge and developmental processes over the course of joint creative work, using as a case study a new commission by the composer Evan Johnson for the clarinettist Carl Rosman, ‘indolentiae... more
This paper considers the distribution of knowledge and developmental processes over the course of joint creative work, using as a case study a new commission by the composer Evan Johnson for the clarinettist Carl Rosman, ‘indolentiae ars’, a medium to be kept, for eighteenth-century basset clarinet. The score was completed in June 2015 and will be premiered in Germany in February 2016. This is the first contemporary composition for such an instrument, and while Rosman has a reputation as an internationally leading performer of new music, he had never performed on this instrument in public before this project. A significant focus of the musicians’ workshops has been to explore Rosman’s relationship to his instrument in order to develop a new instrumental rhetoric and forms of notation.
Drawing on ecological theories of distributed cognition (Hutchins 1995, 2010; Ingold 2000, 2011) I consider the ways in which the conditions of this collaboration demonstrate a distinctive way of sharing knowledge and expertise. A broadly ethnographic approach is employed, drawing on material gathered over a two-year period: semi-structured interviews with the performer and composer; audio-visual footage of three workshops; email correspondence in which the musicians shared score fragments, sketches, fingering charts, and recordings of techniques and passages; and documentation of rehearsals and the premiere itself.
The formation of compositional material is examined from three angles: the wider historical and cultural dimensions of the creative ecology; the development of techniques through various categories of engaged interaction; and the performer’s embodied relationship to his instrument. The structure of the discussion moves from the broad to the specific, from the wider aesthetic discourses that pervade the musicians’ interactions to the momentary and in some cases ‘accidental’ outcomes that occur as a result of a specific interplay between body and instrument. The paper aims to understand how the particular affordances of the instrument are enmeshed into the ‘here and now’ of the present collaboration; ultimately, how are performance practices distributed across musicians and the complex ‘musical ecosystems’ (Clarke et al. 2013) which they inhabit? The findings suggest that instrumental practices are shaped not solely by the static knowledge and actions of individual practitioners, but through a close reciprocity between perception, action, and the discursive and material conditions of their environments.
Drawing on ecological theories of distributed cognition (Hutchins 1995, 2010; Ingold 2000, 2011) I consider the ways in which the conditions of this collaboration demonstrate a distinctive way of sharing knowledge and expertise. A broadly ethnographic approach is employed, drawing on material gathered over a two-year period: semi-structured interviews with the performer and composer; audio-visual footage of three workshops; email correspondence in which the musicians shared score fragments, sketches, fingering charts, and recordings of techniques and passages; and documentation of rehearsals and the premiere itself.
The formation of compositional material is examined from three angles: the wider historical and cultural dimensions of the creative ecology; the development of techniques through various categories of engaged interaction; and the performer’s embodied relationship to his instrument. The structure of the discussion moves from the broad to the specific, from the wider aesthetic discourses that pervade the musicians’ interactions to the momentary and in some cases ‘accidental’ outcomes that occur as a result of a specific interplay between body and instrument. The paper aims to understand how the particular affordances of the instrument are enmeshed into the ‘here and now’ of the present collaboration; ultimately, how are performance practices distributed across musicians and the complex ‘musical ecosystems’ (Clarke et al. 2013) which they inhabit? The findings suggest that instrumental practices are shaped not solely by the static knowledge and actions of individual practitioners, but through a close reciprocity between perception, action, and the discursive and material conditions of their environments.
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This paper examines the interactions between composer Evan Johnson and clarinettist Carl Rosman in the making of a new work, indolentiae ars, a medium to be kept (2015) for nine-key basset clarinet. This is the first contemporary... more
This paper examines the interactions between composer Evan Johnson and clarinettist Carl Rosman in the making of a new work, indolentiae ars, a medium to be kept (2015) for nine-key basset clarinet. This is the first contemporary commission composed for such an instrument, and a significant aspect of their collaboration has been to develop a new instrumental rhetoric and forms of notation. The particular instrument employed in this collaboration, a reconstruction of the instrument associated with Mozart’s collaborator Anton Stadler, has its own distinctive affordances: huge flexibility of colour, yet limited ergonomic and mechanical properties and greater intonational instabilities. Period instruments are connected to particular repertoires and practices, and raise aesthetic questions such as the extent to which contemporary composers embrace or reject these historical associations. As Johnson put it, ‘To what degree is this just an exotic quasi-clarinet, and to what degree is it a specifically eighteenth-century instrument?’ Through analysis of episodes from the compositional trajectory of the piece, the paper illustrates how the particular historical, cultural, social and ergonomic affordances of the instrument are gradually enmeshed into the ‘here and now’ of the present collaboration.
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This paper traces the trajectories of two recent performance projects, asserting that performative creativity has been too readily connected to innovation to the detriment of the more practical notion of craft. Drawing on interviews and... more
This paper traces the trajectories of two recent performance projects, asserting that performative creativity has been too readily connected to innovation to the detriment of the more practical notion of craft. Drawing on interviews and video data gathered during compositional workshops, rehearsals and performances, I examine the ostensibly prosaic and everyday moments of music-making, where musicians make creative decisions in engaging with their work which are less explicit than the conventional coup de foudre moments that are prevalent in the literature. Situating performance within a framework of craft accounts for the dimensions of performance that might otherwise be taken for granted, and makes room for a more forward-looking model of creativity based on processes rather than outcomes.
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Composers and performers have long collaborated fruitfully, but the twentieth century has seen compositional activity shaped more profoundly by shared experimentation and research, and instrumental possibilities extended ‘beyond accepted... more
Composers and performers have long collaborated fruitfully, but the twentieth century has seen compositional activity shaped more profoundly by shared experimentation and research, and instrumental possibilities extended ‘beyond accepted idiomatic writing’ (Heaton 2012: 783). Despite this development and the apparent elevation of the role of the performer, the composer-performer relationship remains problematic, with roles remaining clearly demarcated: the composer as the authoritative ‘primary creator’, and the performer as the subservient interpreter or executor, whose role is limited to realising the composer’s ‘intentions’ through ‘faithful’ adherence to the score. This stubborn hierarchy has been widely observed (Born 2005; Cook 2001; Goehr 1994).
This paper aims to reconsider the perceived identities of performer and composer across various collaborations. I present case studies from my research, in which I document clarinettists and composers working together towards the realisation of new music across different contexts. Using material from interviews, rehearsals and performances, I assess the impact of creative collaboration on the participants’ sense of identity, and the implications of this for the traditional composer-performer-work paradigm.
This paper aims to reconsider the perceived identities of performer and composer across various collaborations. I present case studies from my research, in which I document clarinettists and composers working together towards the realisation of new music across different contexts. Using material from interviews, rehearsals and performances, I assess the impact of creative collaboration on the participants’ sense of identity, and the implications of this for the traditional composer-performer-work paradigm.
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A central component of musical performance is skill and expertise, yet how is musical skill manifest, and what is its relationship to creativity? This paper seeks to demonstrate that performative creativity has been too readily connected... more
A central component of musical performance is skill and expertise, yet how is musical skill manifest, and what is its relationship to creativity? This paper seeks to demonstrate that performative creativity has been too readily connected to ‘innovation’ to the detriment of the more practical notion of ‘craft’, as proposed by Richard Sennett (2008). This division perpetuates a binary of the perceived creative affordances of improvisation and notated performance. The notion of musical performance as craft restores the relationship between skilled practice and creativity, and allows for the performer’s proactive yet pragmatic engagement with musical notation. The presentation traces the performance strategies employed by a number of performers through interviews and documentation of rehearsals and performances, in order to examine the ways in which skilled practice is developed and refined according to different contexts. Skill is necessarily technical and interpretative, rooted in the physical, developed over time and embedded in routine. The engagement between a practitioner and a tradition entails a synthesis of action, perception and prior experience. A reading of performance as craft allows for the development of skill and expertise through activities such as repetition and problem-solving, and provokes a reconsideration of the dimensions of performance that might otherwise be taken for granted. The wider objective of the paper is to suggest that skilled practice is integral to musical creativity. I propose the metaphor of the performer as craftsman rather than creative agent as a more persuasive and richer representation.
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This paper examines performers’ notational practices and seeks to uncover the creative possibilities of intensive engagement with notations of varying ‘specificity’. Nicholas Cook (2013) challenges the assumption that complex music is... more
This paper examines performers’ notational practices and seeks to uncover the creative possibilities of intensive engagement with notations of varying ‘specificity’. Nicholas Cook (2013) challenges the assumption that complex music is creatively restrictive and suggests that complex notation can serve as a stimulus for interaction between musicians and score. I argue that all notation can serve this function, even the most ostensibly ‘straightforward’ music. Several case studies from my fieldwork are presented, where I document clarinettists working with notation of various styles and degrees of ‘specificity’ – from the ostensibly ‘minimal’ to more conceptually and technically challenging musics – and trace the creative decisions that are made. Through close analysis of rehearsal and performance footage, semi-structured interview material, and performers’ score annotations, I seek to unpack the problems and limitations, but also the potentialities that the score can generate.
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This paper considers how the social nature of music-making might be understood in different ways. First I discuss the different ways in which creativity has been characterised as a social phenomenon in some existing studies. Against this... more
This paper considers how the social nature of music-making might be understood in different ways. First I discuss the different ways in which creativity has been characterised as a social phenomenon in some existing studies. Against this background I present examples from my research, with the aim of assessing how performers’ creative opportunities are shaped by different collaborative contexts. My broader objective is to demonstrate that creative interaction is not always explicit; even the most ostensibly solitary activity is a ‘manifestly cultural process’ (Toynbee 2003: 111). I conclude with some remarks on the potential fetishizing of collaboration.
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In this paper I present outline findings of my research, with the aim of considering the ways in which musicians characterise creativity in relation to their practice beyond ‘doing something different’ in performance. A reading of... more
In this paper I present outline findings of my research, with the aim of considering the ways in which musicians characterise creativity in relation to their practice beyond ‘doing something different’ in performance. A reading of creative activity that emphasises the more pragmatic and skilful qualities of a musician’s response to notation might be a more useful characterisation, as in Richard Sennett’s understanding of ‘craftsmanship’ as ‘the skill of making things well … an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire to do a job well for its own sake’ (2008: 8-9). This avoids the word ‘creativity’ and instead suggests a coming together of ‘practice, method and skill’ (Godlovitch 1998: 56). The notion of performance as craft or even engineering offers an alternative that allows for the development of skill and expertise through activities such as repetition and problem-solving.
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This paper presents a case study from my doctoral research which investigates the creative processes of musical performance across different contexts, aiming to develop a broader model of creativity reflecting the collaborative processes... more
This paper presents a case study from my doctoral research which investigates the creative processes of musical performance across different contexts, aiming to develop a broader model of creativity reflecting the collaborative processes of music-making. Here, I document the clarinettist Antony Pay recording an unaccompanied work, Alexander Goehr’s Paraphrase (1969). The aim of this case study is to uncover the rich collaborative network of relationships behind this ostensibly solitary activity, including the performer, composer, notation, past performers and recordings, and demonstrate how these elements are deeply intertwined with performance decisions in response to apparently highly specified notation.
Research Interests:
This paper interrogates the term ‘creativity’ in musical performance, and seeks to demonstrate that performative creativity has been too readily connected to ‘innovation’ to the detriment of the more practical notion of ‘craft’. This... more
This paper interrogates the term ‘creativity’ in musical performance, and seeks to demonstrate that performative creativity has been too readily connected to ‘innovation’ to the detriment of the more practical notion of ‘craft’. This division perpetuates a binary of the perceived creative affordances of improvisation and notated performance. I propose that a diametrically opposed reading of these two activities is rather narrow, and that instead, the performance of both notated and improvised music is a more mixed economy. Against this backdrop I present narratives from performers, examining how their understandings of creativity in performance are constructed according to different contexts.