further notes toward performance next wednesday

Surprisingly I'm managing to stick to my schedule for writing and rehearing my Icarus piece for The Other Room on Wednesday next week (19 August). I'm even adding additional steps so I can tighten the piece further, and plan to make a third recording tonight as well as rehearsing the piece.

 

You might ask, since I'm spending so much time writing/composing this piece, how genuinely improvised it is. That's a very good question. I'm still thinking of it as semi-improvised; the written score I'm using identifies a sequence of just ten sounds across around 20 minutes (in five sections). Additionally, decisions as to duration, precisely how the sounds are made, how I transition from one to another and so forth are made during performance. Some parts such as the microtonal bits of section 1, the plainsong section 4, and the collapsing voice of section 5 are largely or wholly extemporised. But I recognise that I'm drifting closer to something resembling composition than true improvisation here.

 

Below are the sections I identified and refined way back on Tuesday this week after a day or so of recording, sketching and making notes. Appended underneath each section are the notes made yesterday in response to my first recording, and made this morning in response to my second recording.

 

One of the things I'm trying to achieve is a sense of 'intention'. This means trying to give each sound a purpose, and trying not to fudge any moments. Intention is also distinct from energy, which can give an illusion of purpose through momentum, volume or intensity of performance. It's that intention that I have in mind below wherever I mention things being 'shorter' or 'sharper', or where I talk about clarifying things.

 

Speaking of clarity, I repeatedly use the word phoneme below when what I really mean is syllable (and I do mean syllable there and not morpheme). This is because I'm careless with my terminology, though I aim not to repeat the mistake in any future notes.

 

Finally, before my transcribed notes, in the next couple of days I may post some of my sound sketches recorded before I started to bring the piece together. They bear very little relationship to anything I'll perform next Wednesday, but they may be interesting as part of the process in getting there. I might even post a short extract of one of the complete versions of Icarus recorded if I can find something that works ok in isolation and doesn't give too much away.

 

Section 1 - Cry/laugh leading to microtonal modes leading to drones

Wed 12 Aug referring to 1st version - shorter, more panicked, more silences

Thu 13 Aug referring to 2nd version - fine, could do with developing a theme to return to

 

Section 2 - Surges of white noise like waves, traffic or wind in trees

Wed 12 Aug referring to 1st version - shorter with more silence, also more bass-y, more physical & more immersive

Thu 13 Aug referring to 2nd version - fine

 

Section 3 - Squeal, birdsong and mournful howls

Wed 12 Aug referring to 1st version - sharper more piercing squeals & chirps. Whistle pips. Shift focus rapidly at times - chirp/moan/squeal/chirp/squeal etc.

Thu 13 Aug referring to 2nd version - needs to be a lot sharper, greater differentiation & variety. As throughout define clearer, narrower set of phonemes - leave '[I]carus' out of it if they [the constituent phonemes] don't work. It all gets unfocussed here and in the next bit.

 

Section 4 - Plainsong around limited palette of phonemes

Wed 12 Aug referring to 1st version - clarify melody, clearer & more defined palette of phonemes. Can be shorter

Thu 13 Aug referring to 2nd version - awful, unfocussed. Clarify phonemes. Develop a theme to first appear in microtonal section, then expand here. Perhaps from first version - just clarify & memorise (may need mnemonic).

 

Section 5 - Multivoice drones leading to collapsing voice [which originally led to hiss like waves on shingle]

Wed 12 Aug referring to 1st version - longer, more of multivoice drones, more varied and intimate examination of voice & breath during breakdown. Leading to gentler more organic shingle hiss from silence

Thu 13 Aug referring to 2nd version - strongest section. Not convinced by shingle hiss at the end, cut it.

 

Summary notes

Wed 12 Aug - referring to 1st version Generally sharper, clearer and briefer except during 3 & 5 (squeal, birdsong, mournful howls & multivoice drones > collapsing voice > shingle hiss) where there are transitions & development

Thu 13 Aug referring to 2nd version - For a musical motif, since it already informs the piece, maybe an extemporisation around Did The Morning? And perhaps growing from that MA, MO and MOY as phonemes - except birdsong etc where it would be MI, MIK, MIT

 

Record 3rd version tonight [Thu 13 Aug], but more importantly rehearse - get straight home & at least 3 run-throughs. Try to memorise - I've basically got it, just need to consolidate.