ISCM
Global Interplay
_ Bericht
_ Teilnehmer
_ Konferenzen
Klangpark
Short Cuts
N[you]
[english]
von Dietrich Heißenbüttel
Sechs Städte, fünf Länder, vier Kontinente treten in einen interkulturellen Austausch. Im Projekt »Global Interplay« diskutieren seit September 2005 an die 40 angehende Komponistinnen und Komponisten aus Accra, Beijing, Berlin, Kairo, New York und Shanghai in einem Internetforum über alle wesentlichen Aspekte, die ihre Arbeit betreffen. Zugleich finden jeweils vor Ort, unter der Leitung eines Mentors, Kompositionsworkshops statt.
Ziel ist es, aus der jeweiligen lokalen Perspektive heraus und über sie hinaus in einen weltweiten Dialog zu treten, der Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede in der musikalischen Orientierung, aber auch in der Rolle des Komponisten und der Funktion von Musik als solcher erkennbar machen soll.
Freilich zeigt schon ein näherer Blick auf die einzelnen Gruppen, dass sich hinter einer scheinbar homogenen, ausgewogenen Zusammensetzung eine weitaus komplexere Realität verbirgt. Tatsächlich stammen die Teilnehmer der Workshops in Accra und Kairo durchweg aus Ägypten und Ghana.
Schon an den beiden chinesischen Gruppen zeigt sich jedoch, dass das, was von außen als einheitliche Realität eines einzigen Landes wahrgenommen wird, in Wirklichkeit ein halber Kontinent ist.
So betont Jean Y. Foo [>1], die aus Singapur stammt und in einer westlich orientierten, multikulturellen Umgebung aufgewachsen ist, dass es in China 56 verschiedene ethnische Gruppen mit jeweils eigenen musikalischen Traditionen gebe. Sie erzählt, wie aufregend es für sie war, auf dem Festland von China Studienkollegen aus Tibet zu begegnen und etwas über deren musikalische Herkunft zu erfahren.
Obwohl 90 Prozent der chinesischen Bevölkerung der Han-Gruppe angehören, unterscheide sich ihre Musik von Region zu Region beträchtlich. Um diese Unterschiede zu beschreiben, verwendet sie die Begriffe »flavour« und »inflexion«, annäherungsweise zu übersetzen mit Aroma und Modulation.
Jia Yao [>2] stammt hingegen aus der Provinz Xinjiang im äußersten Nordwesten von China, fast 1000 Kilometer von Singapur entfernt. Sie weist darauf hin, das diese Region für die zwölf Muqam, die traditionelle Musik der Uiguren bekannt sei.
Sun Chang [>3] wiederum kommt aus Hohhot, der Hauptstadt der Inneren Mongolei. Es wäre jedoch falsch, daraus zu schließen, er sei in einer Umgebung aufgewachsen, in der traditionelle Musik eine dominierende Rolle spielte. Seine Eltern sind Fagottist und Sängerin. Wie die Mehrzahl der chinesischen Teilnehmer begann er bereits im Vorschulalter Klavier zu spielen.
Wie Jia Yao und Jean Y. Foo zeigt auch Liu Kun [>4] ein starkes Interesse an der traditionellen Musik ihres Landes. Dieses teilen die drei Chinesinnen mit Teilnehmern aus Accra und Kairo. Das gegenseitige Interesse ist groß, umso mehr als offenbar begrenzte Kenntnisse und Informationsmöglichkeiten vorliegen.
Bassam Nour-Eddien [>5] aus Kairo schreibt, die Ägypter hätten ein »melodisches Ohr« und bezeichnet die ägyptische Musik als »melodic animation music«. Er spricht auch von dem Juwel der »tonal folk music melody«, das es zu erhalten gelte, wenn neue Techniken der Komposition auf die ägyptische Musik angewandt werden. Mit Maysara Omar teilt er die Ablehnung der Musik von John Cage.
Maysara Omar [>6] erweist sich als eloquenter Sprecher seiner Gruppe, gut informiert auch über die Geschichte der europäischen Musik. Er bekennt, ägyptische Folk-Musiker zu kennen, die um nichts in der Welt davon zu überzeugen seien, eine andere Musik sei besser als die ihre. Er betont die Differenz zwischen den verschiedenen weltweiten musikalischen Kulturen und die Notwendigkeit, sie ausgiebig zu studieren. Er wehrt sich gegen Vorurteile über den Islam und die Rolle der Frau in Ägypten und gibt an, neben der unverfälschten traditionellen ägyptischen Musik am liebsten europäische Musik bis zur Barock-Ära zu hören. Er neigt allenfalls dazu, seine reservierte Haltung gegenüber der Moderne etwas zu schnell mit einer Ablehnung der amerikanischen Politik kurzzuschließen.
Gleichzeitig betont er die multikulturelle Geschichte des Landes und die Rolle der Griechen, Italiener, Armenier, Briten und Deutschen für die Musikgeschichte des Landes.
Wie Bassam Nour-Eddien und Maysara El-Zobir gehen auch die Teilnehmer aus Ghana von der traditionellen Musik ihres Landes aus, um sie mit den Mitteln moderner, zeitgenössischer Komposition weiter zu bearbeiten. Wie die ägyptischen Teilnehmer betonen auch sie die Vielfalt der musikalischen Kultur ihres Landes, wo nicht nur verschiedene Ethnien ihre eigenen Traditionen besitzen, sondern auch verschiedene Arten von Musik an bestimmte Bevölkerungsgruppen oder Anlässe gebunden sind.
Frank Ferguson Laing [>7] unterteilt alle Musik seines Landes in die drei Kategorien occasional, recreational und incidental.
Wie Senyo Adzei [>8] erläutert, gibt es in Ghana bereits seit den zwanziger Jahren notierte Musik, die zumeist in Kirchen aufgeführt wird. Dies weckt freilich unangenehme Erinnerungen. Waren es doch gerade die christlichen Missionare, die die die traditionelle Musik des Landes bekämpften und so bis vor kurzem zu ihrem Niedergang beitrugen.
Diesem entgegenzuwirken ist jedoch nach Meinung von Ansah Torwomenye Kofi [>9] gerade die Aufgabe auch der komponierten Musik.
Folk Music vs. Art Music
Probleme ergeben sich indes nicht nur, wenn es darum geht, ein Publikum für neue Musik zu finden. Vielmehr findet Musik traditionell in einem ganz anderen Rahmen statt als in Europa. Sie ist so sehr an bestimmte Funktionen wie Geburt, Heirat, bestimmte Feiern und andere soziale Aktivitäten gebunden wie diese Handlungen immer von Musik begleitet werden.
Aufführungen finden normalerweise unter Beteiligung des Publikums statt, weshalb eine Konzertpraxis im europäischen Stil nicht auf große Resonanz stößt. In einem ausgearbeiteten "Essay on New Music" gibt David Egyaiku Awotwi [>10] seiner Faszination, aber auch seiner Perplexität über die Bedeutung der Begriffs Neue Musik Ausdruck. Umgekehrt fragt Benjamin Amakye-Boateng [>11], ähnlich wie auch Jean Y. Foo [>12], nach Folk Songs aus New York und Berlin.
Auf Nachfrage stellt Nils Günther [>13] aus Berlin fest, dass es dort keine Folk Music gebe, nicht einmal irgendeine Art von traditioneller Musik mit Ausnahme volkstümlicher Schlager, die er als pervertiert bezeichnet.
Auch Todd Tarantino [>14] aus New York bekennt, Kunstmusik und Folk Music seien zwei verschiedene Dinge, zwischen denen nicht notweniger Weise eine Verbindung bestehe, er verwende schließlich auch keine amerikanische Country-Musik in seinen Kompositionen.
In ähnlicher Weise gibt Katharina Rosenberger [>15], die aus der Schweiz stammt, aber zur New Yorker Gruppe gehört, an, zur traditionellen Musik ihres Herkunftslandes keine besondere Beziehung zu haben.
Auch Yoav Pasovsky [>16] bezieht sich in seiner kompositorischen Arbeit nicht auf Folk. Anders als die Studenten in Shanghai und Beijing, Accra und Kairo stammt die Mehrzahl der Teilnehmer der New Yorker und der Berliner Gruppe aus ganz verschiedenen Ländern. Im ersten Falle reicht das Spektrum von Island bis Japan, im zweiten sind Kanada, die Niederlande, die Schweiz, die Türkei und Israel vertreten.
Dabei ergibt sich ein interessanter Austausch zwischen Yoav Pasovski, der aus Israel stammt, und Maysara Omar [>17] über Oum Kalthoum und Abd El-Wahab, die Entwicklung der traditionellen und zeitgenössischen Musik in beiden Ländern und ihr Verhältnis zur politischen Geschichte.
Immer wieder kommt es vor, dass einer der Teilnehmenden Genaueres zur Musik und Geschichte eines anderen Landes wissen will.
Nils Günther [>18] versucht die Frage von Senyo Adzei nach gegenwärtigen Tendenzen der europäischen Musik zu beantworten.
Jean Y. Foo [>19] erkundigt sich bei ihrem Mentor Qin Wenchen, inwieweit chinesische Musik zutreffend als pentatonisch bezeichnet werden könne und bezieht sich dabei auch auf die Aussagen eines Spezialisten, ihres achtzigjährigen früheren Lehrers Li Yinghai.
Auf Anfrage von Frank Ferguson Laing gibt Todd Tarantino einen ausführlichen historischen Überblick über das Verhältnis amerikanischer Komponisten zur Folk-Musik ihres Landes. Solche Referate können Bücher und Internet-Ressourcen, nach denen ein wachsendes Interesse besteht, nicht ersetzen. Sie haben jedoch den Charme, die Situation direkt aus der persönlichen Perspektive der Studenten wiederzugeben.
Einige der Beteiligten verfügen über einen weiten Bereich musikalischer und kultureller Erfahrungen.
Nils Günther [>20] hat Free Jazz und Gamelan gespielt, war interessiert an japanischer Musik und mongolischem Obertongesang, Zen-Buddhismus und Yoga. Geblieben ist ein starkes Interesse an chinesischer Philosophie und Kultur, aus der er auch ein harmonisches System ableitet, das sich auf die fünf Elemente der chinesischen Tradition bezieht.
Jean Y. Foo [>21] hat sich in Japan mit Noh-Theater beschäftigt und indischen Tanz gelernt. Yoav Pasovsky [>22] interessiert sich ebenfalls für ostasiatische Kultur und studiert in Berlin Japanologie.
Bassam Nour-Eddien [>23] arbeitet auch als Jazz-Bassgitarrist. Katharina Rosenberger [>24] hat nach einem Wirtschaftsstudium unter anderem als Tourneemanagerin einer Band aus Kenia und Ghana gearbeitet, bevor sie sich der komponierten Musik zuwandte.
How do you compose?
Es besteht ein reges Interesse am gegenseitigen Austausch. Die Stimmung ist enthusiastisch und schlägt nur gelegentlich um in ein Aufstöhnen über die Menge der zu bewältigenden Post oder den ungeordneten Verlauf der Diskussion.
Auf den Wunsch, eigene Werke und Fragen der Komposition stärker in den Mittelpunkt der Diskussion zu rücken, reagieren Jean Y. Foo [>25] und Nahla Mattar [>26] mit detaillierten Beschreibungen eigener Kompositionen.
Andere versuchen, wie Katharina Rosenberger [>27] den Prozess der Formfindung, ihre Anregungen und ersten Schritte auf dem Weg zum späteren Werk oder wie Jing Xu [>28] und Liu Huan [>29] die Essenz des musikalischen Erlebnisses in Worte zu fassen oder haken einen eigentlich eher als Anregung gedachten Fragebogen der Reihe nach ab.
Dabei ging es darum, herauszufinden, inwieweit die Instrumente, Gesangstechnik und Aufführungspraxis, die Rolle des Komponisten, die Notation und die chromatische Skala der europäischen Tradition für die jungen Komponisten der verschiedenen Länder als verbindlich aufgefasst werden, ob sie sich an alternativen musikalischen Praktiken und Verfahren anderer Teile der Welt oder auch an neueren, den Rahmen der herkömmlichen Kompositions-, Notations- und Aufführungspraxis überschreitenden Vorgehensweisen orientieren. So wenig sich aus den Antworten repräsentative Aussagen ableiten lassen, so sehr ergeben sich doch bisweilen überraschende Gegenüberstellungen und Vergleiche.
So bevorzugen Nils Günther und Yoav Pasovsky klassische Notation, während Bassam Nour-Eddien und Liu Kun eher mit graphischer Notation und gegebenenfalls verbalen Erklärungen arbeiten.
Nils Günther [>30] bekennt, mit dem Vibrato klassisch ausgebildeter Sänger Probleme zu haben, Liu Kun [>31] mit Gesang überhaupt: In einem neueren Werk arbeitet sie mit einer charakteristischen Stimmführung aus der Shanxi-Oper, übersetzt diese jedoch in den Instrumentalklang.
Von verschiedener Seite besteht ein lebhaftes Interesse an interdisziplinären und interaktiven Projekten, Elektronik und neuen Technologien, Mikrotonalität und Just Intonation sowie Forschungen an den Grundlagen der Wahrnehmung und der Aufführungsbedingungen.
So interessiert sich Cathy van Eck [>32] für das Verhältnis von instrumentalem und elektronisch erzeugtem Klang und für die Rolle von Mikrophon und Lautsprecher.
Katharina Rosenberger [>33] experimentiert mit dem Verhältnis von aufführenden Musikern und Darstellern zum Publikum und bezieht dabei auch Tänzer, Schauspieler, Video, Elektronik und interaktive Installationen in ihre Arbeit mit ein. In ihren Recherchen beschäftigte sie sich auch mit Gnawa-Musik aus Marokko.
Neue Kompositionstechniken für eine »healthily globalized world«
Dass neue Technologien dem Komponisten neue Wege eröffnen, ist eine Binsenweisheit. Dabei geht es nicht nur um die Klangerzeugung selbst, sondern auch um die Verwendung bestimmter Softwares als Form generierende, strukturierende Hilfsmittel der Komposition, wie sie David Brynjar Franzson [>34] in seiner Arbeit verwendet.
Allerdings stellt sich für Huckleberry John Hodge [>35] die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Intentionalität, wie sie solchen Formen technischer Modellierung notwendig innewohnt, und Intuition. Diese Frage führt unmittelbar zurück zu der von Jean Y. Foo [>36] früher angesprochenen Nicht-Intention taoistischer Tradition.
Yoav Pasovsky [>37] fragt weiterhin zurück nach dem auslösenden Moment, das den kompositorischen Prozess in Gang setzt. Großes Interesse an neuen Technologien bekundet auch Senyo Adzei [>38]. In diesem wie auch in anderem Kontext stellt sich die Frage, ob Musik sich selbst genügt oder eine soziale Funktion zu erfüllen hat.
Jean Y. Foo [>39] glaubt an eine heilende Wirkung, die ihre Musik ausüben soll. Für Liu Kun [>40] ist dagegen Komponieren etwas sehr Persönliches. Besser als in abstrakter Form lässt sich die Frage vielleicht am konkreten Werk klären.
Für Bassam Nour-Eddien [>41] muss Musik immer von einer Geschichte ausgehen. Nahla Mattar [>42] arbeitet unmittelbar auf dem Gebiet der interkulturellen Interaktion, wenn Sie in ihrer Komposition »Eyes of the I's« selbst zusammen mit einer amerikanischen und einer russischen Kollegin auf der Bühne agiert.
Die Mittel Tanz und Bewegung, Gesang arabischer und russischer Tradition, Elektronik und Video ergeben sich aus den Anforderungen, das Thema der Heimatlosigkeit des modernen Menschen in ein musikalisches Werk umzusetzen.
Den Austausch zwischen Kulturen, wie ihn Nahla Mattar hier musikalisch zugleich thematisiert und umsetzt, bezeichnet Maysara Omar [>43] auch als das Ziel des Austauschs, der nach übereinstimmender Meinung über das konkrete Projekt Global Interplay hinausreichen soll, um am Ende zu einer »healthily globalized world« zu führen. In diesem Austausch hat die traditionelle Musik nicht den Charakter des nur Lokalen, Rückwärtsgewandten.
Jean Y. Foo [>44] gelangt ganz im Gegenteil zu der überraschenden Erkenntnis: Folk is global.
_____
1]
In China, there are 56 ethnic groups and every group has its unique musical features.
Jean Y. Foo, 23.9.05
Even though I'm Chinese by race, but growing up in a Western influenced and multi-cultural country like Singapore, has made me (and many other Singaporeans) lose touch or become unaware (worse still, ignorant) of the social and cultural activities my Mainland Chinese counterparts have experienced. You can imagine my feelings when I first met my Tibetan classmates and learned about their music!
27.9.05
I think this is truly an interesting question: What criteria does one apply to distinguish folk music from other kinds of music? I think it would be a sad thing if people categorize music into 'higher" and "lower" orders. For me, having studied both Western and Chinese music simultaneously since young (I played instruments in both Western and Chinese ensembles/ orchestra), I feel that folk music has attracted me a lot because of its flavor (not to be confused with style) and inflexion characteristics. I have observed that folk music, whether Chinese, Indian, Javanese, Irish, Turkish etc., has in common strong flavors and strong degrees of inflexion. Contrary to that, I would think, is Western music (i.e Vienna schools etc). Maybe I'm wrong? "Flavor", defined by dictionary.com: a distinctive yet intangible quality felt to be characteristic of a given thing. Inflexion, as a musical term, the altering of a sound through it's resonance (not it's struck note). As far as I know, there isn't really an international way to notate flavor and inflexion in a work. In China, folk songs are passed down aurally, because only through human interaction, one can hear/ feel the flavor. Reading scores is quite useless, unless you just want to know the notes.
26.9.05
2]
I come from the Xinjiang province, one of the minority regions in China where the Twelve Muqam, the traditional folk music of Xinjiang's Uygur people, is very famous. I hope I will have the chance to introduce it to you.
I always like to use folk materials in my pieces. I do not just copy the folk materials, but absorb some elements such as rhythm, tone, tone color etc. into my composition, and take them as a main clue. So, you can hear this folk tone from time to time. Moreover, I also add some modern materials and combine the folk and modern.
In my opinion, it doesn't matter whether one uses folk material or not. The most important thing is that there have to be some spark spots in the composition so as to move the audience and let it be remembered for long.
Jia Yao, 5.11.05
3]
Born in Hohhot, the Capital of the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, I'll be twenty in 7 days, I began learning composition at the age of 5, and now i'm stydying both composition and orchestral conducting in the Shanghai conservatory.
Sun Chang, 7.11.05
4]
I have a big interest in Chinese traditional music and African folk music, though I know so little about it. Within my own course of music composition, I start looking for a way to combine the Chinese traditional music and Western reasoning and logic, in order to create my own musical language.
Liu Kun, 23.9.05
5]
In general, you can say about Egyptian music, it is melodic animation music. Any music here was accompanied by animation even if you did not see it and just listened, and all of our Citizens have a melodic ear, so that if you give them some non-tonal music or normal symphonic music with no melody to to give them an inside animation, they will refuse it.
Bassam Nour-Eddien, 23.9.05
All folk music is tonal music, whereas the new direction in Europe is non-tonal music or depending on sound; I think the important question is: How we can use the new techniques of composition with new sound, while keeping our Gem "TONAL FOLK MUSIC MELODY".
27.9.05
6]
I have seen many musicians in my life who thought that nothing is more potent than folk-music. It was impossible for me to convince them otherwise. ... I would like to urge you to listen more to the riches of our "national" folk-musics, of China, Ghana, even Germany, and Egypt. They will, at lease, cause no harm to your ears! ... Through GLOBAL INTERPLAY, the ISCM World New Music Festival will be extensively confronted with numerous musical cultures that have no direct relation to European aesthetics. In this way, a balanced interplay of cultures can be considered in the sense of a 'healthily' globalised world.
Maysara Omar, 25.9.05
I also want to make a point about how 'studying' that folk-music is important before we express any absolute judgments and decisions. Indeed the more I study, the more I find many potentialities for my own art-music composition. 6.10.05
For the time being, I can only say that I hardly find anything that can take me even near the state of excitement and thrill I always experience when I'm listening to plain, or "pure" Egyptian folk-music. For me, listening to Egyptian folk music is much like listening to Bach or Mozart.
6.10.05
I personally make strong distinction between art and intellectual notions and ideas. It is a long debate, wether the artist should go *beyond* his art, or even totally sacrifice that art for the sake of a literary or philosophic, abstract notion. This is of course a recent development in the history of art, in the West, to be more precise. An example, an extreme one, of that way of thinking may be very found in aleatoric or chance music, where John Cage, for example, sacrifices music, the art itself, that is supposedly the organization of sound, by means of declaring an empty piece of music which contains nothing but silence. Here, the destruction of the nature and general characteristics or the art itself, for the sake of a 'modernistic' literary idea, that was developing strongly in his time in art, that is, "nihilism", to go beyond abstraction itself, to nothing. (The same happened in fine-art). This I personally do not appreciate, and in fact, I think it is closely related to some "political" circumstances in world politics around mid 20th century that helped in the developing of that attitude, not only towards art but towards many other affairs in economy and social life. ... Preaching economic liberty, anti-communist, freedom and free-speech, the school of modern art in America was very well nourished by the state. It was the need for a distinct American identity in art. ... I am not quite sure if chance music was particularly one such art in America, but I believe that the environment of nihilistic art was quite epidemic in America at that time only for political reasons.
22.9.05
Up to the 50s of the past century, ... a portion of the population in Egypt was constituted of European foreigners, most of which were Greeks, Italians, Armenians and to a lesser extent, British and Germans, who all lived in Egypt for all their lives, in total harmony with the Egyptians. They had great influence on cultural, social and economic life in Egypt. In fact, they took the lead in the field of music, and my piano professor, today, is Italian. From Germany there was "Hans Hickman" who accomplished one of the most important research studies in the field of ancient Egyptian music and attained his Ph.D from Germany on the topic. His study is one of the rather few scientific writings on the issue and it is a necessary reference today.
25.9.05
7]
In Ghana, we have different ethnic groups with diverse cultures, music, etc. But we can group the music into the following categories: Occsional, recreational and incidental. Performance of traditional music in general was with group participation where the audience partakes in the performance. We are yet to adapt the the European style. There is the problem that people don't like instrumental music like the orchestra performing. So this makes it difficult to compose or arrange for the orchestra to perform. Because the patronage will not be encouraging. Another problem is that, the organization of music, dance and drumming is centered around the culture, i.e. in context, so when you compose using 20th century compositional techniques, no one will listen to the music. It is a challenge, I think, to break this myth for the people to appreciate art music. I am trying to recreate some of our folk songs using Western tecniques like atonal, and so on. I know that this will not sound normal in our cultural sense.
Frank Ferguson Laing, 30.10.05
8]
In fact, composed Music in Ghana dated as far back as 1920s, when the pathfinder of Ghanaian art music of blessed memory, Dr Ephraim Amu, begun to write music for his school choir. People like prof. Nketia, a Ghanaian renowned composer who was also at our last workshop as a mentor, followed Amu, and many others. The question, where is their Music performed is quite a difficult one.
Unfortunately their Music is mostly performed in Churches. To go a little bit into history, the missionaries, when they first arrived in Ghana, they brain washed the people even against their own music saying it was evil, for this reason a lot of rich musical cultures in Ghana have been abandoned until recently when we have decided to go back to our roots.
Ghanaian composers have always been writing for Western instruments and unfortunately the unavailability of the instruments has kept some of the works still in boxes. We are now thinking of new possibilities to make do with what we have at our disposal.
Senyo Adzei, 10.11.05
9]
The idea, I think, among other things, is to revitalise the traditional institution which, if care is not taken, will lose its significant.
Ansah Torwomenye Kofi, 20.9.05
10]
When the Global Interplay began a couple of months ago, what fascinated me was the aim or objective of writing new music. Why it fascinated me was simple.
On the one hand, my interest in composing was challenged and incited; moreover, the chance to bring out something new was even more challenging. But just when the musical part of me was about to take up the opportunity to bring something new, the philosophical side of me asked me a big question: What is new music?
Anytime I started to compose, I thought to myself: Is the piece I'm writing new enough? Would it be called new music? ...and many other questions related to the question of new music.
I used the opportunity then to just sit and probe into the question of what music is and for that matter New Music - thus the essay on new music.
An Essay on New Music
From the early days of music theory, composers have strived to create music that sounds different from our everyday repertoire. As music continues to evolve, composers still look for new ways of writing music; furthermore, with the advent of Globalization, exposure to other cultures reveals many more ways and possibilities in which music can be composed. But the question still remains: what is New Music? What is fit to be called new music? An insight to these questions will pave the way to probe further into the conceptualization of new music. By simple definition, new is anything that has not been used before, or is being introduced for the first time. In this vein, New Music will be music not played before or music being introduced for the first time. Obviously, this definition of music is too shallow to encompass the entire implication what new music is; furthermore, it might be misleading. Nevertheless, it is not wrong. One thing which would affect how music is defined lies in the context of its definition. For instance, what is called new music in one culture would certainly vary from another culture - even the definition of music is expressly different from culture to culture. Our cultural background would influence our view of what new music should sound like. A culture of predominantly percussive instruments would be fascinated, at least to some extent, by other kinds of instruments. Also, in western cultures, musicians would be fascinated by predominantly percussive music and so on. In this context, both cultures would describe each other's music as new music. If we are to consider the history of western music from the Middle Ages through to the Twentieth Century, the evolution of style and theory defined what new music is. Each era of music presented a different idea of music, or at least different theories of music which affected the way music was composed. But the question is: was the music new or different as it evolved through the ages - or what adjective tagged that kind of music?
David Egyaiku Awotwi, 30.10.05
11]
I am very much interested in using traditional and folk material as my source to experiment with various techniques. For a start, i would like to learn some folk songs from New York, Berlin, Cairo and Beijing.
Benjamin Amakye-Boateng, 20.9.05
12]
(Vgl. Fußnote 1) In China, there are 56 ethnic groups and every group has its unique musical features. What about folk music in Europe? What is it like?
Jean Y. Foo, 23.9.05
13]
You are right, we don't have any folk-music here. I have the feeling that we don't have any traditional music at all. At least nothing you could compare to the music of one of the other countries. What we have very much is a kind of perverted folk-music. It is called "volkstümlicher Schlager" (sorry, that is not translateable, but Schlager means "Hit"). That's complete nonsense, because it tries to sound like folk-music but is purely commercial. Maybe it is just my opinion, but I believe we don't have a living tradition.
Nils Günther, 26.9.05
14]
I think one of the goals of this experiment is for us to move beyond any stereotypical understandings of the music of the various lands. There are national styles of folk music surely, but our art music and our folk music are two different things and may not necessarily be related - you'll find very little American Country music in my own music.
Todd Tarantino, 24.9.05
15]
I am not too inclined to Swiss traditional music... the only experiment I did was with a sort of drone we have... a big coin, that we rotate in a ceramic bowl.
Katharina Rosenberger, 5.11.05
16]
So far I haven't used (at least not consciously) folk/ traditional material in my music.
Yoav Pasovsky, 6.11.05
17]
I'm also very interested to hear about contemporary music in Egypt. Although being neighboring states, one cannot acquire in Israel much information about what's going on musically in Egypt. I guess it's pretty much the same from the other side of the border (correct me if I'm wrong).
Yoav Pasovsky, 15.10.05
No, of course you are not wrong. It is the: Status Quo!
Maysara Omar, 17.10.05
I grew up to the music of Bach, Mozart, etc. as well as to the music of Um Kalthum and Abd El-Wahab (both were Egyptian musicians. I might as well ask my Egyptian colleagues if such music is to be regarded as popular, traditional or both?), Let alone popular music.
Yoav Pasovsky, 15.10.05
Their music was both traditional and popular at the same time, although without being actually truly popular and traditional. That is, at their beginnings, those two particular musicians (Kalthoum as only a singer, while Wahab both singer and song-composer), were certainly considered as POP; much like what many today consider "pop music of the VAIN young generation!". Though they co-existed with some other form of, one could say, more RURAL pop-music which was in fact more traditional, more popular in the non-urban places. Both sorts of music are, however, not really traditional or FOLK. The Kalthoum and Wahab, and co., started to have more space sometime late in the 30s with certain fortunate political events in Egypt that brought them to Cinema and brought Cinema itself to a great state which immediately became popular all around the country and consequently, those artists became popular as well; the "national heroes of our Cinema" one would feel, and even say so, at that time. But SOMETHING will happen afterwards, that will bring those formerly POP artist of the good old days to the fore, as the "artists of FINE taste", and also as the NATIONAL EMBLEMS of art, in Egypt (and the ARAB world), also due to certain, sudden! political events as well, early on in the 50s. Now they are no more popular, they are "refined" or, I'd say, refined-ed - refinedized! So they started to disintegrate from the populace, or maybe the populace started to disintegrate from them, as is the case today.
Maysara Omar, 17.10.05
But I guess Israel is a special case, where the overwhelming majority of the current Jewish inhabitants had immigrated 60-80 years ago from all over the globe (even from Shangai) and imported the indigenous culture with them to Israel. Unfortunately some cultures were suppressed in favor of others, but now I'm really going astray.
Yoav Pasovsky, 15.10.05
Astray but interestingly enough - as you said we too know little about your place. Could you go on in that, AstrayNESS?
Maysara Omar, 17.10.05
As a quick and very partial glimpse at the nascent Israeli art music scene I can offer you the following link: http://www.kith.org/jimmosk/israel.html more elaborate is the book: Twenty Israeli Composers - Voices of a Culture by Robert Fleisher The remaining resources I know of are mostly in Hebrew, and some in German. However, I can further explain what happened culturally in the new-born Israel, which had far-reaching consequences.. ultimately also on the music scene. As in the late 30's and 40's many Jews came from Europe and the Arab states, there was an urgent need to define a cultural common denominator, which would then be propagated as the national culture - an Israeli culture. Yet in order for such national being to develop its identity it must define itself also as differing from its surroundings - in this case the Arab countries.
Thus, the rich culture brought by hundreds of thousands of Jews who came from countries like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Egypt and many others was deemed "Indigenous" and therefore unwanted. As a consequence, there was a one-sided cultural suppression.. and the western culture was taken as a basis. Of course this is a generalisation.. and there are many particular examples undermining my proposed view.. but it is still more than evident.. a good example is the European provenance of Israel's high echelons between 48 and the late 70's or even 80's.. Ironically enough, the first European Jewish composers who came to Israel.. tried to distinguish themselves from Europe by adapting what they called the "Mediterranean" style..
In this style they tried to incorporate Jewish folk songs from both east Europe and Arab countries in otherwise post-romantic/impressionistic music. There is in the last decade an ongoing dispute regarding the validity of the Mediterranean style as an independent musical style. A common critical view is that at the end of the day, this style has nothing innovative to offer. So much for cultural muddle in Israel..
Yoav Pasovsky, 19.10.05
18]
As you know, after serialism and aleatoric music, we came to the point where many composers had the feeling that we reached an end of innovation. Everything was done. An important thing was to allow consonances again (I think we would have to discuss what consonance really means, but that's another topic...).
Now we are in a situation where we can do almost everything. Some composers follow the historic line and have much influence of the great composers of the 20th century like Boulez, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Stockhausen etc. So they try to "go on" by using some techniques that are often called "advanced". That means for example they use many instrumental techniques and try to get rich colors. Other composers are influenced by foreign music, Asiatic, African etc. Very often they use these influences in an idiomatic way. So the music shall sound like African music, maybe because of use of percussion or special rhythms. Other composers go "back to the roots" and try to use influences of medieval music or romantic music. If the influence is romantic, the music is very often extremely expressive. They "paint with a big brush" and want to write very spontaneously.
Of course there are also those who are close to the New York School, Cage, Feldman, Browne and Wolff. But they don't use chance operations. They try to write in a more simple way. We have the situation that an artist often does not really know what he could do, what he could not do. Some composers try to include almost everything in their music, jazz, techno, Strawinsky, medieval music etc. And of course electronic music is very important. Some composres are completely specialized in working with electronics.
But I think the time of the great experiments is over. Avantgarde seems to be a historical thing. What would be a further progress? I realize that composers are not much influenced by other cultures. If they are, they write idiomatic music. I think we could "import" much more than this. Because every culture has it's own philosophies, religions, it's own character. In music it has it's own forms, it's own functions of music, it's own rituals etc.
Nils Günther, 23.9.05
19]
I have spoken to our Beijing mentor, Professor Qin Wenchen, and have asked him about his views with regard to the current conversations of "folk music vs art music" and "the one-sided fact about Chinese music". ... During my stay in China, I studied with Professor Li Yinghai, a 80year-old man, who is specialised in Han Chinese Scales, Tonality and Music. The Chinese community is very large, geographically and culturally. The Han group is the largest ethnic group (90%) in China, yet the Han music can sound very different in the North and South. Professor Li educated me about one very important thing of Chinese Pentatonism: the difference between a 5-note-scale pentatonism and a 6/7/8/12-note-scale pentatonism. In other words, the ear may hear a 5-tone pentatonic backbone, but it could be made from 5,6,7,8 or 12 notes. If using 7 notes, the 7 notes are treated in special manners where not all 7 notes are given equal importance. Some are "guests" , "ornamented" or "modulatory" notes. The concept of 12 tone is hence viewed differently in Western and Chinese music, and I'm sure 'pentatonic" will have different meanings in these 2 kinds of music. It is indeed misleading to think that Chinese pentatonism is pentatonic because of the pentatonic scale. The "sounds and expressions" have elements of the direction of the notes' progression, inflexions created by instruments and certain accented notes to create augmented sounds. It is also amazing to know that so many geographical flavors can be created across the ethnic groups, yet be able to hear pentatonism as a backbone sound of China. According to our mentor, Professor Qin, he said China's music evolved to exhibit the 5-tone scale largely also due to political reasons. Indeed, the earliest bell chimes did have chromatic notes, but the Chinese aesthical perception of 'harmony" of the 5-tone pentatonic led her music to become more "conservative". Political reasons not as in recent 100 or 500 years, but back to the period of the Warring States and Han Dynasty (centuries before Christ). ...The truth is, as much as lots of music have a pentatonic backbone, there are lots of music in China that are not at pentatonic. And to hear them, one might need to explore mountains and caves to find the indigenious people. ... (Ab hier s. Fußnote 1) I think this is truly an interesting question: Which criteria does one apply to distinguish folk music from other kinds of music? I think it would be a sad thing if people categorize music into 'higher" and "lower" orders. For me, having studied both Western and Chinese music simultaneously since young (I played instruments in both Western and Chinese ensembles/ orchestra), I feel that folk music has attracted me a lot because of its flavor (not to be confused with style) and inflexion characteristics. I have observed that folk music, whether Chinese, Indian, Javanese, Irish, Turkish etc., has in common strong flavors and strong degrees of inflexion. Contrary to that, I would think, is Western music (i.e Vienna schools etc). Maybe I'm wrong? "Flavor", defined by dictionary.com: a distinctive yet intangible quality felt to be characteristic of a given thing. Inflexion, as a musical term, the altering of a sound through it's resonance (not it's struck note). As far as I know, there isn't really an international way to notate flavor and inflexion in a work. In China, folk songs are passed down aurally, because only through human interaction, one can hear/ feel the flavor. Reading scores is quite useless, unless you just want to know the notes.
Jean Y. Foo, 26.9.05
20]
The truth is (and that's in fact the reason why I am participating here) that I want to get the "big picture". I want to find out how we are connected. I was a very active musician. I was on tour at the "new jazz festival" in Switzerland years ago, I improvised very much and also played jazz in several bands (mostly free jazz, whatever that means). I also played in a gamelan-ensemble for two weeks, which gave me a real experience of learning by doing. It is one of the best examples for non written music. The workshop was like falling in very cold water, but I had to swim all the time. I also tried to learn the Mongolian technique of throat-singing, but I didn't get it. I was interested in Japanese music for many years ( I wanted to be a zen-monk years some years ago), I also visited Tibetan monks in a monastery in Switzerland. And I really love Tibetan music and have some very good recordings of it too. I also participated at workshops on Indian music (vocal music) and I still love Indian music very much. Indian music is like Indian food, I think. We really can talk about flavor here... When I was interested in Indian music, I also was a yogi at that time and practiced hatha-yoga every day at 5 a.m. When I was interested in Japanese music and art I was a zen-scholar too, sitting for hours, clearing my mind.
Nils Günther, 27.9.05
My special interest is Chinese philosophy and culture. That's my most important influence. 20.9.05 I am interested in the model of the five elements wood, fire, earth, metal and water. I have built a harmonic system based on these principles. Not in a mechanistic way but in a way that allows me to compose empirically but "guided". I also believe that sound has a direct influence on the listener and I try to compose music that puts the listener into "balance". The reason why I am so interested in Chinese philosophy is that I found everything in it that I felt somehow before.
20.9.05
21]
I studied for 2 months in Kyoto, Japan and watched the Noh theatre, I learned steps of Indian dance, did fusion improvisation etc.
Jean Y. Foo, 27.9.05
22]
I too have an interest in East Asian culture. As a composer I am intrigued by the notion of time and space in its traditional art (be it music, performing/visual art or poetry) and although (or perhaps because) my current focus lies on Japanese culture, I'm definitely also interested in its Chinese roots (or main source of influence until late 18th Century). However, until now I have obstinately deprived myself from any thorough study of texts about that music, fearing that it might shatter some (romantic) aesthetic ideal that I've been holding up to. Perhaps it's time to let go.
Yoav Pasovsky, 15.10.05
23]
It's nice to find a friend from Ghana who wants to know about our Egyptian music, so I'm happy for that and look forward to know more also about your music. It's very interesting for me as a composer and also as a Jazz bass guitar player (you know jazz comes from African roots and still depends on your interesting rhythms). It is very difficult to explain our traditional music, because every period has had an effect on our music, so we have a rich musical inheritance, that's how I would explain it. We still have a pentatonic scale in our southern music, in Nubian Valley, Luxor and Aswan and the history goes it comes from time of the Pharaohs and is still used. When we come to upper Egyptian music, we find a different kind of music that depends on some Arabic Island moods like Bayati and Sabha and such.
Bassam Nour-Eddien, 23.9.05
24]
My musical journey started sort of late, I have been studying economics and business affairs and worked in music management for quite some years. My favourite encounter was with a band from Kenya/ Ghana, their name "Ashantis", with whom I toured all over Europe and produced several cd's. So... so far about my old life...
Katharina Rosenberger, 23.9.05
25]
For now, I am composing a string quartet and an a "music performance theatre" work. The "music performance theatre" work will be about 10-15 minutes long for my final project to be submitted for the interplay project. My string quartet does not really have very strong folk subjects, but like previous works, a hidden pentatonic scale will be used together with a harmonic system.
For the interplay project, it is a combination of music, dance and narrative play (unaccompanied 5 voices SATBB, 1 bamboo flute, 2 percussionists and 1 dancer). The highlight of this work will be using 2 long bamboo poles as a link for percussion and dance. The dancer will dance between bamboo poles according to the rhythm and placements generated by the hitting the poles together and on the grounds (done by 2 percussionists). Yet the rhythms are not freely hit because the rhythms have to go together with vocal and flute part, which is also the basic music part for the piece. So everything is sort of integrated. The idea of bamboo is derived from folk bamboo dance which can be found in the Philippines, Hawaii, India and Hainan Island of China. So my basic work material is bamboo, hence the bamboo poles, the bamboo flute and small bamboo boards (traditional Chinese percussion instruments). The theme of my work is "inter-religious peace" and there will be a dance of the "wine god", a metorphorical expression of "our human and religious spirits drunken with the wine of mysticism". According to the Philippine bamboo dance, the tradition dance was a narrative tale of how their deities punished people for bad deeds by clamping their legs between the bamboo poles and people would jump about trying to avoid to get hit. A similar concept is used here where god tries to wake our drunken beliefs by sending his angels to clamp our feets as punishment. The traditional dance is primitive (as in simple movements and forms as used). So as a composer, I try to maximise the potential of expression by incorporating rhythmic elements into the dance based on my music, and to move the poles in as many different directions and displays as possible to see if new sounds can be created from them. I try to create a balance of globalness and traditionality with hopefully a social message. The bamboo dance comes from many cultures, yet bamboo itself is a representative image of the Chinese culture. The vocalists are humans, yet provide a good complement/ contrast to the religious and mystical theme. The work seeks to show a distinction between right and wrong/ good and evil, yet the "drunken spirit" is a key element of the piece. Because this work is experimental for me (and also for my dancer, voice and percussionist friends, to whom I'm grateful for their help), I've created a plan to accomplish different stages of the work. I have just finished my "research stage" which was video-taped by another good producer friend of mine. Edits of the film will be shown together with my presentation when I attend our next workshop in Shanghai (that's like in 2 days). After that, I will move on to the "composing stage" and then the "rehearsal stage".
I am still thinking about my sound for this work. I intend to use the Hainannese language (partly because my ancestors are from Hainan Island!) and see what I can do with the tones. I think I will be further enlightened after our mentors have seen my presentation and have a better idea of my thoughts. I intend to also view DVDs of folk dances and shamenistic music.
Jean Y. Foo, 27.10.05
26]
I do not really have a clear plan how I compose, as I consider that difficult to answer because I depend on my intuition and the circumstances of the work. Let me give you a recent work of mine that I think could explain my process or at least one of my interests. The work is entitled "Eyes of the I's", and it is an interactive multi-media installation for Dance, Video, and Music. There is some ideas about the project (not the music on this address:
http://artslide.fa.asu.edu/mfaslide/melkoz/melkostatement.htm and pictures
at http://artslide.fa.asu.edu/mfaslide/melkoz/index_mel.html
The collaborators of the project were three females from diverse backgrounds: American, Russian, and Egyptian. We choose the global theme "Homelessnes of the Modern Man", and the work was a mix of our feelings as women and our cross-culture experience. As the dance was linear, and video was non-linear, I decided that music connect between the four sections of the work, and I decided to express my point of view through the usage of Arabic music maqamat and rhythms, mixed with electronic processes, to deal with the changes happened to the main character in the story. I used melodic connections similar to "Fixed Idea", that were recalled with certain modifications, to remind the audience with the narration. I scored the first movement (cocoon) for flute, clarinet, accordion, and percussion, and in Arabic rhythmic cycle 10/8 called "samai teqiel". The 2nd(revocation) and last movements (Eyes of the I's) were for electronic processing to my Russian friend singing a lullabye, and me singing a composed Arabic song of mine that followed the traditional singing methods of using a lot of ornaments and microtones. The processes were adding some reverberation units to express the inscape (imagined space, of memory), with different panning to the sound projected through four speakers. The third movement (dispersion) was scored for solo amplified flute and electronics. It is the climax of the piece where the real-time processing of the flute (mostly structured improvisation) of using the reverberation units is expressing the idea of a hunted space of memories and recalling roots as a magician, so we hear different levels of wind (flute modified).
Nahla Mattar, 29.10.05
27]
What happens usually in my case is that, in a very unexpected moment, I suddenly hear the music I am supposed to write. That means, let's say, I write for a particular combination of instruments. I spend some time of thinking of their sonic properties and combinations, I think of what it is I want to express, what are my concerns, which issues have crossed my mind and the more I think about it, the more the music is concret. Then I spend time with a piece of paper and pencil and describe in words or in drawings what I hear. I have a stop watch so I know how long certain processes need. Once this is done, I start to think more logically, how to structure and to develop these ideas. How I could generate the harmonies, pitch material, rhythms and only then, after I know already how long all the section last and what is happening within, pitches, rhythm, I start to notate...
Since I experience the music first evolving in time and not to a particular beat or meter, I always feel strange to fit the music into a system. There is a lot of corruption happening from the moment of hearing to the exact notation. I wish, it could be more immediate. I have to work on that.
For a moment, when I lived in London, I did work with improvisers. I enjoyed it. Interesting to notice the differences in perception of time and the amount of musical information that happens within. I have to say that free improvisation is a tricky business, so much can go wrong. In fact, of about 90% of the concerts, I was not happy. Yet, from some players I could learn a lot. It would take too much to describe in detail, but particularly I was impressed by their unconventional approach to form (evidently) and the sense of "breath" inbetween the musical events.. the so called "no music moments".
Since two years, I work more and more with electo-acoustic music. Here in new york, I got involved with dancers, video artists and theatre. I am quite fascinated to see, how this rather spontaneous approach to work with sound has also influenced the way I work in an acoustic setting.
Katharina Rosenberger, 5.11.05
28]
I feel that music creation has a kind of micro beautiful feeling in inside, which one cannot really ponder over. Because it would be a great pity if the human nature, the essence of a human, which is also part of human makings, would be absent from music itself. Yet this is so difficult to capture.
Jing Xu, 6.11.05
29]
I have a question: If there is no musical structure, there will be no musical spirit.
I wonder what are your opinions regarding the above statement. I look forward to hear your views!
Beginning with myself, I would like to share some thoughts after having the chance to rehearse with musicians. I feel that the linear quality in music is very important! And also sudden changes and sustained effects to create a wholesome quality made up of fragments. How do the rest of you feel about your works. What are the most difficult things you encouter when you compose?
Liu Huan, 8.11.05
30]
I really hate the vibrato and try to explain the singers that it is extremely important for my pieces to avoid it.
Nils Günther, 31.10.05
31]
My inspiration for this music is by using a special vocal accent from Shanxi opera. But I do not want to express this kind of music with voice in my works; I want to sing it with musical instrument that I chose and to display the characteristic of this kind of music. In addition, my subconscious keeps repelling the writing of the vocal music, but I do not know either why there is such an idea, a bit strange. Liu Kun, 3.11.05
32]
I'm especially interested in the relationship between instrumentalists and electronics, in an interactive way. I also investigate quite some time in the research of the role of microphones and loudspeakers in music, and in what kind of different ways they have been used by composers and how composers and also artists from other disciplines experiment with them nowadays.
Cathy van Eck, 23.9.05
33]
In my work, I love to experiment and reconfigure the relationship between the performer and the audience, between how music/ sounds can be heard/ understood and how this could have an impact on a different performance practice. I have done so with all sorts of different formats: solo, ensemble music, with dancers, actors, electronics, video and interactive installations, where the audience would have the chance to change what they hear in real time. What interests me particular in this regard and our group, is, to know better the relationship and different meanings of the interaction of performers and the audience in your traditional music. For a while I looked into Gnawa Music from Morocco and I was fascinated. So in a way, instead of looking only into new technology, I'd like to understand better the very basic, or let's say, natural and direct approach to music.. the meanings of the rituals connected to it.
Katharina Rosenberger, 23.9.05
34]
As a big user of all sorts of computer tools for compositional aid, I have spent a lot of time and energy trying to understand many of the problems that are associated with computer-aided work methods, and in particular simply trying to phrase my concerns rather than necessarily answer them.
For the last 10 years, I have used computers as a compositional aid in one way or the other. At first it was mostly as an aleatoric generator and as a sounds analyzer. This use has grown over time, until today, where large part of the structuring, form and certain aspects of materials are worked out or evaluate by the use of computers. Currently, I use a mixture of some of the household names in computer-aided composition. Just to be sure that we are all aware of their use, I give a short description of each, so sorry if you all are more aware about these programs than I would expect, I am sure all of you have at least heard of any two of the list.
1. OpenMusic. A visual LISP based programming language from IRCAM. It comes with a number of established solutions to common compositional problems, but I mostly use it for its extendable architecture, where I can rapidly implement and experiment with all sorts of algorithmic techniques, and manipulate data analyzed in the other software I use. I have developed a library for my most common compositional techniques, allowing me more time to focus on poetics rather than simply technique in my music.
2. Spear / Audiosculpt. Audiosculpt is the main spectral analysis software that IRCAM has been putting out for the last decade and a half. It analyzes the spectral components of a soundfile, and can track independent partials within a sound, and export that information for use by other software, such as OpenMusic. Spear is a little bit more focused (and better) approach, created by Michael Klingbeil at Columbia University.
3. Pure Data. A free program, by the original creator of Max/MSP. It is a visual programing language for audio, interactive events, and analysis. For my music, I use it to both implement the electronic parts of my pieces, as well as to analyze rhythmic parameters, that I then import into OpenMusic.
Currently I use computers on a few separate compositional levels. After I have chosen the sonic objects I am interested in using, I model its behavior, or analyze it in various ways, to see what it is made out of. This is done to better familiarize myself with what is related and unrelated between the objects. Next I will generate a grid, or a set of constraints, that limit how these objects interact, and how they react when in interaction one with another. The strength of using a computer to do this is that I can try out 2000 different types of models, constraints, forms or whatever it is that I am using to hold things structurally together, in the same time as I could make one by just using a pencil on paper. Hodge brings up a question relating to this, which is how this effects the idea of work (as in job, not piece), and I must admit that while working out a single construct by hand, I used to have a faith in the final construct. It was as if the effort spent on it was enough to animate the product in my eyes as I was working on it. In some ways, the choice and quality of material doesn't seem to matter all that much as long as a composer believes in it. Now that I experiment and automate large parts of this process, there is no longer the qualitative hierarchy of effort embedded in the objects based on the work that goes in to them. It took me a long time to come to figure out how to continue from that point on, because once ones naivety is lost, it never returns in the same way. What I have discovered is the above mentioned faith in the material. It doesn't matter if I generate, manipulate or destroy the materials using my mind, my hands, algorithms, or intelligent machines, as long as I am doing that with materials I believe in, and I am consistent about my decisions and their consequences. To put it more simply, as long as I believe in the materials, any dishonesty or violation of them is a violation of me. This make me equally responsible within the whole decision making process, whether I use computers or not. After solving this problem for myself, I have feel like I have gained an incredibly powerful partner in the computer, where the interaction is not master / slave in either direction.
A little side note on structure. One could argue against my use of structure altogether, but for me, an eclectic collection of sonic materials, no matter how good or ugly they are can never make an interesting piece of music alone, unless they are forced to confront each other, and a common environment within a piece. Otherwise the only possible communication in the piece is simply what the composer likes and dislikes. I believe it says more about a person how he/she reacts to situations, than simply what he "thinks" he likes. I am not advocating structuralism as a solution, only that something more, a concept, a form, a silly idea in someways constraints the composers choise, and forces him out of his comfort zone within each given piece.
But back to composition. Once I have generated a construct, and chosen objects and how they are placed in relation to the construct, I start making decisions upon the interaction of objects. Each decision has consequences, and I am forced to face up to all further appearances where the same decision could be made. The end result of this is an accumulation of a logic of my subjective choice. There is no overall narrative, only localized fiction, globally interrelating through the complex network that my subjective choices generate. These choices are in no way arbitrary, because as soon as one is made, the other ones become more logical. I guess paradoxically it makes me a subjective empiricist. It feels as if I have a carcass or an inanimate body in front of me, and I embroider around the breaks and the decay in this body, and in that way re-animating it locally, allowing small worlds to emerge. In this step, I use a number of small calculators, rhythmic generators and manipulation machines in the computer, just like a painter uses different widths of pencils and different colors to paint out his objects and constructs.
David Brynjar Franzson, 9.11.05
35]
As for me, I have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the computer. When I was studying in Stuttgart (composition and computer music), I did alot of work both with sonification of data structures and algorithmic modelling of compositional processes. But over time I have become much less interested in that way of structuring music in favor or poetic, symbolic, expressive, read: intuitive principles of organization (these may not be mutually exclusive...). In short I have gradually become wary of "intention" and no longer see it as an a priori truth as regards the compositional act. This frees me up to use the computer as a tool instead of serving it as a jealous and unremitting master.
Huckleberry John Hodge, 8.11.05
36]
Maybe you can elaborate on the structuring concepts of your work? I think my teammate Liu Huan has an interesting post on musical structure and musical spirit. I know some composers plan everything from head to tail whilst some just write whatever comes to their minds. For me, I start have a general outline but I try to leave enough space for instant changes instead of locking myself into a fixed mode.
Jean Y. Foo, 9.11.05
In the book of Laozi and Taoism in general, the main idea is 'non-intention'. Some books tranlate as 'non-action' but many people think it means to 'do nothing'. But the real meaning is that all things should flow naturally and not be forced or intended in a specific way.
21.9.05
37]
I was wondering what is the initial phase or initial "push" that begins your compositional process. ... I ask myself if it is possible to have an initial auditory mental image/musical idea that one can follow even if the results of computer manipulation (especially algorithmic) could be somewhat unpredictable.
Yoav Pasovsky, 10.11.05
38]
Really, it is not bad at all to introduce music and technology into the discussion. In fact I am particularly greatful because considering the way some of us in this part of the world is lacking in terms of technological developments.
Senyo Adzei, 10.11.05
39]
Social meanings are gradually integrated into my work, like the "inter-religious peace" theme in my "bamboo work-in-progress", my piano suite "music for the masses" where i believe that music has a strong healing power etc. So to feel "responsible to society" in my craft means to use it "to heal people/ spirits." In many of my works, I pursue sounds that are "pleasant yet forceful" (these are very subjective terms) to the ears. So my social belief and responsiblity do affect the sounds in my works.
Jean Y. Foo, 1.11.05
I feel that that composer should not give up the idea of social responsibility just because we are afraid the audience can't understand or if we ourselves can't understand our work. The reason for my strong belief in the "society factor" is not unjustified. In comparison with science or business or politics, art has a much higher degree of aesthetics (even to some extent we can say art is aesthetics). "Aesthetics" is the line that separates humans and animals. Animal aesthetics is limited to mating, but the human aesthetics is beyond that and further. Our aesthetics has led to the existence of art. And so art is from mankind. Nature is thought to be beauty because of man's aesthetics, not in itself. So I feel that art is very closely related to man, and where there is man, there is society. So our art, directly or indirectly has a social factor.
4.11.05
40]
I and one of my friends can't agree that composing should come along with the social responsibility after we discussed. And, composing is a very personal stuff, is something from the composer's spirit, maybe not perfect, maybe ugly, but they are the real thing. They have nothing to do with being a person. Against that, being a person, sometimes you need to control your emotion, sometimes you need to pretend, so to be a person you need to perform to others, but composing is performing to yourself, and sometimes only the composer knows what it is, others maybe know about half, maybe 0.
Liu Kun, 3.11.05
41]
I have my own way of composing, in so far as I can't compose for the sake of composition alone. I must have a story first to built on, and I must believe in it in order to compose. It's like in romantic music ( program music), but including the new material we have, and all works must have a short story and you must create a balance between sound and fancy (imagining the events with music), so the story is necessary for me to compose. But although this is my way of composing, I find myself sometimes composing the music first and the story comes after. This happens rarely, but I alsohave some pure music with no story.
Bassam Nour-Eddien, 31.10.05
42]
(=26) I do not have really a clear plan how I compose, as I consider that difficult to answer because I depend on my intuition and the circumstances of the work. Let me give you a recent work of mine that I think could explain my process or at least one of my interests. The work is entitled "Eyes of the I's", and it is an interactive multi-media installation for Dance, Video, and Music. There is some ideas about the project (not the music on this address:
http://artslide.fa.asu.edu/mfaslide/melkoz/melkostatement.htm
and pictures at
http://artslide.fa.asu.edu/mfaslide/melkoz/index_mel.html)
The collaborators of the project were three females from diverse backgrounds: American, Russian, and Egyptian. We choose the global theme "Homelessnes of the Modern Man", and the work was a mix of our feelings as women and our cross-culture experience. As the dance was linear, and video was non-linear, I decided that music connect between the four sections of the work, and I decided to express my point of view through the usage of Arabic music maqamat and rhythms, mixed with electronic processes, to deal with the changes happened to the main character in the story. I used melodic connections similar to "Fixed Idea", that were recalled with certain modifications, to remind the audience with the narration. I scored the first movement (cocoon) for flute, clarinet, accordion, and percussion, and in arabic rhythmic cycle 10/8 called "samai teqiel". The 2nd(revocation) and last movements (Eyes of the I's) were for electronic processing to my Russian friend singing a lullabye, and me singing a composed Arabic song of mine that followed the traditional singing methods of using a lot of ornaments and microtones. The processes were adding some reverberation units to express the inscape (imagined space, of memory), with different panning to the sound projected through four speakers. The third movement (dispersion) was scored for solo amplified flute and electronics. It is the climax of the piece where the real-time processing of the flute (mostly structured improvisation) of using the reverberation units is expressing the idea of a hunted space of memories and recalling roots as a magician, so we hear different level of winds (flute modified).
Nahla Mattar, 29.10.05
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(s. Fußnote 6) I think this, too, is one of the ideas of Global Interplay. But also another idea of Global Interplay is that "Through GLOBAL INTERPLAY, the ISCM World New Music Festival will be extensively confronted with numerous musical cultures that have no direct relation to European aesthetics. In this way, a balanced interplay of cultures can be considered in the sense of a 'healthily' globalised world."
Maysara Omar, 25.9.05
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As for the definition of "worldly", actually I translated it from Chinese. The original phrase "All that is Folk is Worldly" is actually a Chinese one which we (the Chinese team) debated and discussed during our 1st workshop. I did check the online English dictionary and the word "worldly" has elements of temporal and secular aspects, but also meanings of "human affairs". From my understanding of the phrase, the best explanation for "worldly" would be "global". "Global" means "comprehensive, all-inclusive, involving the entire earth, not limited or provincial in scope". So for this statement, it can be interpreted as "folk, since coming from humans and communities, we can automatically presume that folk can be comprehended (understood) and accepted by the world. Therefore, folk is global". I think this is the best explanation of the original phrase I can give for now.
So to make things simpler, the topic for debate would be "folk is global". Following my previous post, I am wondering if folk has also slowly becoming globalized through "culture mix". Maybe we are so keen on culture mix because we subconciously/conciously realize that folk on its own is actually not all that global after all. But a greater concern for me as a composer is that if a "globalized folk" culture is actually a trap generated by globalization and not a concious movement by artist to really show the spirit of mankind. As mentioned before, what will come after cultural and folk intergration? How much further or deeper can we push the boundaries of mixed music? How can we move on to the next stage of culture mix?
Jean Y. Foo, 27.10.05