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COMPROVISATION
Friday 9th and Saturday 10th December 2005
Persistence Works,
Sheffield
Programme: Friday 9th December
Cornelius Cardew Treatise (pages 6-15, 1963-7)
Chris Burn from ten, two and three (2005)
Michael Finnissy Jazz (1976)
Christian Wolff A Keyboard Miscellany
(selection,1988-2005)
Chris Burn pressings and screenings (2005)
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE
Cornelius Cardew Treatise (pages 165-173)
interval
John Cage Variations II (1961)
Paul Obermayer Coil (2001)
Mick Beck Not Just a Load of Balls (2005)
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE
Simon H Fell Composition No.73: Thirteen New
Inventions (2005)
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE
Programme: Saturday 10th December
A programme of mixed ensemble improvisations,
featuring Martin Archer (saxophone, bass clarinet,
bass recorder), Mick Beck (bassoon, saxophone),
Chris Burn (piano), Steve Chase (guitar), Simon H
Fell (bass), John Jasnoch (guitar), and Philip Thomas
(piano)
My musical experience, my education and training,
and my work is founded upon notated music – the
score. Associated with this is the world of so-called
classical and ‘contemporary classical’ music, with its
baggage of musical and professional hierarchies,
competitions, the preservation of work, and the
deification of the great ‘masters’ (Bach, Mozart,
Beethoven through to Stravinsky, Schoenberg,
Boulez).
Yet over the last ten years some of my most treasured
and significant musical experiences have come about
in concerts of what is commonly termed ‘free
improvisation’. One day in particular marked a
turning point: the one and only occasion in my life
when I entered a competitive event as a pianist was
nine years ago, in London. I found it a very
uncomfortable and disheartening experience and
vowed never to enter such an event again, and even
contemplated giving up music. After wandering fairly
aimlessly around the city I chanced upon a Mondrian
exhibition at the Tate and felt deeply moved by the
simplicity and originality of his late works in
particular. I walked out of the exhibition feeling
cleansed of the experience earlier in the day. That
evening I attended a concert given by the seminal
improvisation group AMM at The Spitz, in a dark,
smokey upstairs room. An eighty-minute wash of
sound, utterly engaging throughout, with each
moment so beautifully articulated led me to conclude
that this, in total contrast from that morning’s event,
was where I belonged as a musician.
Since then I have encountered the exhilarating and
affirming musics of Derek Bailey, John Butcher,
Evan Parker, Cecil Taylor and many many others.
The musicians featured in these two concerts, as
composers and/or players, have all been influential to
my development as a musician. In particular, the
efforts of Martin Archer, Mick Beck and John
Jasnoch, amongst others, have been fundamental to
the continuation of improvised music concerts in
Sheffield and I owe them a great deal.
Some of the characteristics of improvised music
which I find so refreshing are: the immediacy of the
moment; the risk-taking; impermanence; the
involvement of noise and environmental sounds; and
the humour. Furthermore, the combination of being
true to oneself, allowing others to be true to
themselves, and still allowing the possibility of
change, of furthering one’s own technique, taste and
style through the experience of playing with others,
are values I hold dear.
However, I know that for myself I remain primarily a
notated music man. The score as a visual object
fascinates me, and the possibilities for notation as a
prescription for action seem inexhaustible. I relish
new scores arriving in the post and the opportunities
to engage with different methods, styles, and layouts
of notating music. I fundamentally disagree with
Eddie Prévost, a founding member of AMM, who, in
his book No Sound Is Innocent1, rails against the
hierarchical contract between composer and
performer and the presumed negation of performer
creativity that the striving for a honed and perfected
realisation creates. I accept that such a situation can,
and probably frequently does, arise, and I consider
Prévost’s book to be an important one. But for me,
every score represents a dialogue – with the
composer, with the notation, with my instrument and
my technique. The composers whose music I most
enjoy playing are those who, whether through
indeterminate or fully determinate means, approach
notation as a creative dialogue with the performer.
So why Comprovisation? Put at its simplest, this is a
concert of music by musicians whom I admire
greatly. I do not intend that the programming will in
any way address some kind of debate about the
greater merits of either composition or improvisation.
Nor do I conceive of this as a ‘crossover’ event (such
occasions generally seem to take out what is best
about different musical genres/styles and try to marry
what is left as a miserable and flaccid union). The
1
Edwin Prévost No Sound Is Innocent (Copula, 1995)
programme arises from my love of progressive
music, be it improvised or composed.
From the outset I wanted to commission musicians
who are perhaps more commonly associated with
improvised musics to compose a piece for the
concert. I was curious to see how they might tackle
writing for a solo instrument, in this case the piano.
The results are placed alongside works by composers
who have been associated with improvisation or
whose works allude to that world in some way. The
programme is not, of course, an exhaustive
examination of such repertoire – there are
innumerable other composers whose works I could
have included. Some works are fully notated, others
are graphic or verbal in nature. Some allow for
considerable spontaneity, whilst others demand
lengthy rehearsal. Common to all the works is a spirit
of adventure and exploration.
____________________
It seems right to begin this programme with music by
Cornelius Cardew. Cardew did more than anyone in
recent times to overcome divides between improvised
and notated music. Scores such as Autumn ’60 and
Material invite the performers to create their own
scores (either real or virtual) through elaborate
systems and notational devices. Treatise is the end-
result of this line of enquiry. It is an entirely graphic
193-page score, with no instructions attached.
Though a visually stunning work it is not intended as
a work to be looked at but to be played. Around the
time of writing it, Cardew was a regular member of
improvisation group AMM and Treatise continues to
be a significant reference point for this group of
musicians. The guitarist Keith Rowe has likened the
physical space in which an improvisation takes place
to a ‘score’, and Treatise can be approached in a
similar way, as a focal point for improvisation.
Running throughout the work is a horizontal straight
line, which in the two realisations this evening is
interpreted as a drone.
Chris Burn’s from ten, two and three is a
transcription for solo piano of improvisations by the
legendary guitarist Derek Bailey, taken from his solo
recording on the Incus label. There are six pieces,
drawn from the tracks on the original recording that
are listed in the title. The surface simplicity of these
pieces may come as a surprise to devotees of Bailey’s
idiosyncratic playing, but to my ears they reflect the
more delicate side of his playing and the influence of
Webern. The timbral complexities of the guitar are
reflected in a precisely notated use of the pedal.
Jazz by Michael Finnissy is the most complex notated
piece in this programme, yet the result is at times like
that of a wildly ecstatic improvisation. The title refers
not to a type of music (‘jazz’ as a noun or adjective)
but to a way of playing or doing (‘jazz’ as a verb, i.e.
to ‘jazz it up’). The music is both reflective of
Finnissy’s own style of improvisation at the time of
its composition (Finnissy was the founder of the
Music Department of the London School of
Contemporary Dance, for which he would provide
regular improvisations) and also a tribute to the world
of legendary pianist Jelly Roll Morton. The influence
of Cecil Taylor is surely also evident. Though the
notation is extreme and demanding, for me its
particular value lies in the way it pushes me as a
pianist beyond my technique and experience and
almost ‘beyond myself’. The energy created from the
struggle to ‘get the notes’ is, in my view, impossible
to produce in any other way.
Christian Wolff has achieved a balance between
notation and improvisation comparable to that of
Cardew. His music is often characterised by a game-
like structure which relies upon decisions made in the
moment of performance. Wolff has played on
occasions with AMM and a number of his works
(including Edges which will be played during the
concert on Saturday) act as catalysts for
improvisation. The recent collection of short piano
pieces, taken from his Keyboard Miscellany are
notated with regard to pitch but only some are precise
with regard to duration. Other directions are generally
left to the performer. These pieces, which are mostly
very short, can almost be seen as doodles, or little
objects which the composer has seen fit to collect and
present very simply as they are.
I first saw and heard Chris Burn play in a concert at
Over the Top (Sheffield’s premier venue for radical
improvisation involving piano!). I arrived early and
the musicians (which I think consisted also of bass
and trumpet) were warming up. Chris’s piano playing
bowled me over, even in just this warm-up, and the
tightness and timbral imagination of the group’s
playing remains vivid in my memory. Discovering
that he had composed some piano pieces I was eager
to find out more and in 2001 I played two of these
pieces at the Mappin Art Gallery.
pressings and screenings is a new work, in four
sections, written for tonight’s concert. Like the
aforementioned piano pieces, the focus of attention is
upon the use of the keys rather than the inside of the
piano (with the exception of the second section). The
resonant capabilities of the piano are explored
through use of pedalling and silently depressing notes
to allow selected harmonics to be projected. The
rhythmic and gestural qualities of the work are
improvisatory, jazzy, in feel and exude a brilliance
and vivaciousness typical of Chris’s own playing.
Q: why do you compose and why do you improvise?
A: during the 1970s/80s i made the transition from being a composer
and also a jazz musician to one who was almost exclusivly involved in
free improvisation. in the mid 90s i examined ways of piano playing
that involved much more keyboard playing - as opposed to, and in
addition to inside work. it seemed to me that much of this way of
playing could be equally well served by composing as it could by
improvising. i have stayed with composing ever since in addition to
improvising. for me the composing is very much informed BY
improvising. it is for me more difficult to articulate how the composing
informs the improvising although i suspect it is doing so - more and
more as time goes on. i guess for me one of the ways that this influence
is felt is in terms of form/structure/architecture of the music and not so
much in material. however i can say this because i have mainly
composed pieces for piano, brass and percussion - instruments that i
have used as improviser. maybe i should challenge myself and compose
a piece for flute or cello. would i draw on my experiences of working
with improvising flautists and cellists i have worked with?
Chris Burn
John Cage was famously against improvisation,
believing it to be a forum for self-expression and to
be too easy for musicians to rely upon their technique
and experience, thus regressive. Cage in his
compositions strove to discover new sounds, new
combinations of sounds, and new contexts for
sounds. It is possible, given the change of aesthetic
within improvisation over the last forty years,
informed in part by Cage’s music and ideas, that he
would look more favourably upon improvisation
today if he were alive, though I suspect not.
His Variations II is less a score than a DIY kit. It
consists of eleven transparent sheets, six with a single
straight line on, and five with a single ‘dot’. The
performer is instructed to throw the sheets onto a
surface and take the resulting configuration of lines
and dots as the score. Measurements are then made
by drawing perpendicular lines from the dots to the
lines and assigning parameters to each line, such as
time, frequency, amplitude, number of events, etc. It
can be played by any instrument or any number of
instruments. For this version, I have made seven
versions of the score and taken a number of readings
from each to create a piece which lasts just over 6
minutes, and explores various methods of producing
notes and noises on the piano.
Paul Obermayer is a musician known to Sheffield as
a member of the band Bark!. The spiky, hyper-
rhythms of Phil Marks on percussion and Paul
Obermayer on laptop computer was a highlight of the
‘Other Music’ series of concert a few years ago. The
dryness and vividness of this music is reflected in the
piano piece coil.
‘Coil is the short fourth section of REDUCTIONS for
piano, a projected series of eight interconnected
"studies", each using probabilities to modulate serial
determinism, and each using the instrument in the
absence of an aspect of standard playing technique
(modestly, in the case of coil, the sustaining pedal is
only fully "rediscovered" at the end). The basic
material is a simple (and awkward) polyphonic
process generated using matrices of probabilities to
continuously vary the "accuracy" or "intensity"
of a fundamental serial structure. For this section of
REDUCTIONS, however, all such continuous
development is suddenly cut off, and this "organic"
material is "fossilised", fragmented into cells, and
reordered. Three parallel sets of these cells are
variously eroded and transposed, and "coiled" round
each other to form a multiply-connected space that
highlights certain self-similarities due to the
underlying (serial) unity but obscures many others -
remnants of a disintegrated totality, as confusion
gives way to frustration... coil is dedicated to Ian
Pace.’ [PO]
Q: why do you compose and why do you improvise?
A: I improvise because it is the only way I know to produce certain
interesting musical phenomena. And I compose for the same reason.
But composers cannot be separated from the performers of their music.
And the idea that improvisers pluck it all completely spontaneously
from nothing is as unhelpful to me as the notion that performers of
notated music are simply attempting to "reproduce" composers' scores.
In other words, I certainly don't regard the two methodologies as being
quite as distinct as these questions imply. There will be plenty of
"digging back" in improvisation, as there must be real spontaneity
playing notated compositions.
Even so, compositional structuring is arrived at through reflection,
planning, and more or less precise temporal coordination; while
improvisation structures music primarily through this (apparently)
"intuitive", spontaneous activity. But I think it is important to
recognise that there is likely to be at least as much "deep structure" in
the latter as the former - or, otherwise, that an arbitrary "compositional
system" is likely to be at least as incoherent as any intuitive outburst...
More generally, these questions might in any case be more precisely
phrased in terms of music which is fundamentally structured either
before or during performance. The kind of music I want to make
requires me to consciously engage with both approaches - and in
FURT [electronics-based improvising duo with Richard Barrett] in
particular with the ways in which they "interfere" with one another.
Paul Obermayer
Mick Beck has been a driving force for improvisation
in Sheffield for many years. The first occasion I
witnessed his playing was at ‘The Grapes’ about ten
years ago, before his recent discovery of the bassoon.
Then he was playing saxophone and accompanying
objects. The humour, craziness and virtuosity of his
playing was and still is an inspiration. Not Just a
Load of Balls captures those very qualities in a
singular manner.
Simon H Fell is no stranger to Sheffield, familiar to
many through his trio with Mick Beck and Paul
Hession. His approach to composition, like other
composers in this programme, reflects an interest in
notated composition and improvisation. A
characteristic of a number of his works is a drawing
upon the music of the past (recent and not-so-recent)
which, combined with other material, forms part of
the debris from which we make music.
Composition No. 73: Thirteen New Inventions
When Philip Thomas commissioned Composition
No. 73 (as it was to become), it presented a rare and
interesting opportunity for me. I have composed solo
music only infrequently, as much of my interest in
musical performance derives from the communal
nature of creative improvisation, and the fluid
interaction of the jazz performance tradition;
moreover, the piano itself is an instrument which
seems to epitomise the pitch clarity and intonational
inflexibility which (at first glance) appears
diametrically opposed to fields often explored in my
music. But Philip’s openness to whatever I wanted to
try made the project irresistible.
Whilst there is indeed a considerable literature (even
tradition) of extended-technique piano music - where
the piano sounds like anything but a piano - I decided
that I wanted to (attempt to) deal head-on with some
of the weighty implications of the Western European
solo keyboard literature; for some time I had wanted
to write a piece that reflected my love of J. S. Bach’s
clarity, incisiveness and mathematical architecture,
and this began to seem like an ideal opportunity.
Thus, whilst I was aware of Philip’s keen interest in
improvisation, Thirteen New Inventions is full of
written notes.
But it is also full of improvisation – some of it will be
Philip’s, most of it is mine. Indeed, Composition No.
73 is subtitled Improvisations after J. S. Bach, and
over a period of 13 days I immersed myself in Bach’s
two-part keyboard inventions, each day improvising a
different approach to realising a new version of this
music. Sometimes these improvisations were
conceptual, such as turning the Bach upside down
and trying to play it that way (eventually leading to
Invention 1), or superimposing 2 inventions
simultaneously (Invention 13). Sometimes the
improvisations were more literal, as I improvised
responses to Bach, notating them as I went
(Inventions 4, 9 & 12); sometimes this extended to
setting parameters within which Philip would
improvise (Invention 7). Some of the pieces involved
my forcing errors (improvisations?) in music-
scanning software, or using other technological
corruptions to ‘degrade’ or ‘pervert’ the original
(Inventions 3, 5 & 11). Sometimes I just let Bach be
Bach – almost…
Along the way I’ve managed to tip my hat to many of
my favourite composers-for-piano, including
Milhaud, Gerald Barry, Ives, Webern, Stockhausen,
Messiaen and Nancarrow…. and given the starting
point for this composition, it proved impossible to
exclude a fleeting appearance from Jacques Loussier,
plus concert-pianist’s-dismembered-hand-on-the-
rampage B(ach)-movie classic The Beast With Five
Fingers. But hopefully the common thread running
between these thirteen meditations/reflections on
Bach is a sense of spontaneous, free, loving and
sometimes wilful personal extemporisation…
happening before your very ears.’ SHF
Q: why do you compose and why do you improvise?
A: I don't really perceive these two as different things with a clear
distinction between them. To me improvisation and composition are
labels used by some people (myself included) to signify differing points
on a spectrum of creative musical activity involving the summoning,
marshalling and/or restraining of sound. Definitions are by no means
clear, and these labels have at least two aspects - the 'objective' one of
how much of the performance was predetermined in advance of the
start of the performance, and by whom (and indeed to what extent
were any instructions observed) - and the 'subjective' one of whether
the music sounded improvised or composed, i.e. possessed those
qualities which one associates with the archetypes of these states
(although improvised music often sounds composed, and composed
music sometimes sounds improvised). Having said which it's worth
reiterating that these states are different shadings of the same activity -
performance in real time; my work delights in sliding through the
overtones of this spectrum in a free way unconstrained by
categorisation. Remember, scores are not performances (or music -
yet), whilst recordings are outside the real time continuum, although
either form may suggest or document music from any point along the
spectrum.
Simon H Fell
Philip Thomas (b.1972, North Devon) specialises in
performing new and experimental music, including
both notated and improvised music. His concerts are
noted for being both accessible and provocative. He
places much emphasis on each concert being a unique
event, often addressing an underlying theme or issue.
Philip's most recent solo projects have included
premiere performances of major new works by
Richard Emsley and Christopher Fox; a highly
successful three-concert festival of the music of
Morton Feldman, alongside three specially
commissioned new works by British composers (this
took place in October 2002 at the Mappin Art
Gallery, Sheffield, and subsequently toured venues
across the country); performances of solo music by
Lachenmann, Zimmermann and others in Spring
2002; and a John Cage and contemporary British
composers festival in February 2001, including a
number of world and British premieres.
Philip is a regular pianist with leading experimental
music group Apartment House. Recent performances
with them have included a 70th birthday celebration
of Christian Wolff’s music with the composer at
Kettles Yard, Cambridge; a concert at the 2004
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.; a BBC
invitation concert featuring the music of Christopher
Fox and others; a Brian Ferneyhough workshop at the
Huddersfield 2003 Festival; a ‘Fluxus-Defluxus'
event in Berlin as part of the 'Maerz-musik' festival; a
performance in Ghent, Belgium, as part of Ghent's
contemporary music series; 2 concerts at the 2002
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival,
including a major portrait of the music of Christian
Wolff, featuring the composer himself in a rare visit
to England; a Luc Ferrari/Sylvano Bussotti
presentation at the 2002 Hoxton New Music Days; a
world premiere by Christopher Fox, broacast on the
German radio network WDR and subsequently
released on CD, in April 2002, at the Witten Neue
Musik Tage, Germany; and a portrait concert of
Clarence Barlow at the Hoxton New Music Festival
in June 2001, which included two solo works and was
subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
In 2005 Philip joined the renowned pianist Ian Pace
in a programme of experimental music for two
pianos. Other recent collaborations have been with
David Toop and others at the Anolfini Gallery,
Bristol in Playing John Cage; improvisers Martin
Archer and John Jasnoch; electronics improvising
duo Transient v Resident; and Manchester-based
Ensemble 11.
Philip has premiered solo works by Richard Ayres,
Chris Burn, Stephen Chase, Laurence Crane, Richard
Emsley, Christopher Fox, Bryn Harrison, Michael
Parsons and James Saunders. His repertoire also
includes works by Clarence Barlow, Gerald Barry,
Luciano Berio, John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Aldo
Clementi, John Croft, George Crumb, Morton
Feldman, Michael Finnissy, Graham Fitkin, Charles
Ives, György Kurtag, Helmut Lachenmann, Alvin
Lucier, Olivier Messiaen, James Macmillan, Per
Nørgård, Katherine Norman, Arvo Pärt, Wolfgang
Rihm, Robert Saxton, Howard Skempton, Rodney
Sharman, Linda C.Smith, Karlheinz Stockhausen,
Mark R.Taylor, Michael Tippett, John White,
Christian Wolff , and Walter Zimmermann.
Philip was appointed a lecturer in performance at the
University of Huddersfield in September 2005.
I wish to thank Arts Council, England, The Holst Foundation, and
the University of Huddersfield for their generous financial
assistance, without which this programme would not have been
realised.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
His repertoire also includes works by
  • Clarence Philip
  • Gerald Barlow
  • Luciano Barry
  • John Berio
  • Cornelius Cage
  • Aldo Cardew
  • John Clementi
  • George Croft
  • Morton Crumb
  • Michael Feldman
  • Finnissy
Philip has premiered solo works by Richard Ayres, Chris Burn, Stephen Chase, Laurence Crane, Richard Emsley, Christopher Fox, Bryn Harrison, Michael Parsons and James Saunders. His repertoire also includes works by Clarence Barlow, Gerald Barry, Luciano Berio, John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Aldo Clementi, John Croft, George Crumb, Morton Feldman, Michael Finnissy, Graham Fitkin, Charles Ives, György Kurtag, Helmut Lachenmann, Alvin Lucier, Olivier Messiaen, James Macmillan, Per Nørgård, Katherine Norman, Arvo Pärt, Wolfgang Rihm, Robert Saxton, Howard Skempton, Rodney Sharman, Linda C.Smith, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mark R.Taylor, Michael Tippett, John White, Christian Wolff, and Walter Zimmermann.
a BBC invitation concert featuring the music of Christopher Fox and others; a Brian Ferneyhough workshop at the Huddersfield 2003 Festival; a 'Fluxus-Defluxus' event in Berlin as part of the 'Maerz-musik' festival; a performance in Ghent, Belgium, as part of Ghent's contemporary music series
  • Huddersfield Contemporary
  • Music Festival
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.; a BBC invitation concert featuring the music of Christopher Fox and others; a Brian Ferneyhough workshop at the Huddersfield 2003 Festival; a 'Fluxus-Defluxus' event in Berlin as part of the 'Maerz-musik' festival; a performance in Ghent, Belgium, as part of Ghent's contemporary music series; 2 concerts at the 2002