Ann Southam's Piece "Natural resources or: What to do till the power comes back on" was written in 1981 for the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, and is performed by four players. Southam herself calls it a "sound game" rather than a musical piece, which is apt, as she places multiple rules and guidelines for it in the same way a rule book accompanies a game. 

Ann was born in Winnipeg in 1937, though lived almost all of her life in Toronto. Originally going to school for secretarial skills as was the culturally anticipated route for most girls her age at 15, she dropped out after a year and began studying piano and composition at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. There she was introduced to, at the time, what was called "tape music" (The Woman in Fleece | The Walrus, para.9). The child of musique concrete led by Pierre Schaeffer, and the Cologne Radio Studio led by Karlheinz Stockhausen, tape music became the North American proxy to these innovative genres.

Thus, most of her early music catalog is a mix of electronic music or solo piano works, with some chamber pieces spread throughout. Later in her career, she began experimenting more with acoustic composition, almost entirely abandoning electronic composition in the 1990s. Thus, "Natural Resources" sits comfortably in the transition for her between electronic and acoustic composition.

The piece uses 15 different objects: Southam asks for "15 wooden dowels and 15 pieces of metal hardware". these objects will become part of the instruments three players will use, though no more than 5 of these objects will compose the instrument at a time. The instruments will be placed on 3 different foam mats (the instruments), which 3 players perform on. Striking five separate spots above the mat, the players play in unison from left to right and back repeatedly, and the fourth member will begin to place different objects on varying spots of these mats, which will then sound as the players play their repeated pattern. For your aid, a picture Southam gives demonstrates the set-up for a standard performance as a quartet. 

As shown, there is an array of objects, metal and wooden, that compose the instruments. This is done in order to produce unique patterns of pitches and timbres, which will be constantly changing and vary from performance to performance. In this way, the instrumentation is an essential form of the piece. Having a variety of objects to work from makes the piece interesting from an audience's and performer's view. Thus, the instrumentation is an essential variable, but it is possible to alter the requirements of the objects used. Southam herself later describes that the performance could include tin cans, cardboard boxes, bottle tops, or other items on hand¹. 

 We could then utilize items based on location, purpose, or sound qualities. For performances in the outdoors, utilizing logs, broken fence posts, gardening dowels, piles of leaves, and even having a tree form one of the sound objects could be possible with these rules, and would still fall within the intention Southam had. One could also adjust the items to be wood and skin, or metal and plant, or create any number of versions that suit a venue better. In this aspect I find the piece to be quite malleable and versatile. As a touring group, it may make sense to retain a set of items to perform with for safety, but it is also just as interesting to gather some pre-determined sounds and then fill the gaps with found objects on location. 

For the performance pictured on the right, we gathered items prior to the performance which we knew worked well and then chose to incorporate other additional objects we found on the way or on location. In this way, we could keep the program varied for both ourselves and the audiences. 

In performances with Slagwerk Den Haag at the Klaterklanken Festival, one noticeable effect of altering these instrumentation guidelines was the engagement it provided with younger kids. Due to the wide variety of objects we had collected beyond metal screws and wooden dowels, things such as a saw or a clog were noticeably more enjoyable for people to watch come into the musical space. As we will discuss further, we also allowed audience members to help place items and move items around the spaces, creating new beats and patterns. Having a variety of objects people have associations with may cause them to become more involved or connect with it more perhaps, compared to the more traditional setup. In this way, instrumentation can provide access to connecting with audiences based largely on the kinds of objects you include in a performance of the piece, especially if the audience is involved in the music-making process.

This kind of connection may be important to developing conversations on larger topics about sustainability, if only as a way to show that items have more value than their intended uses. One idea of promoting sustainability comes from the transtheoretical model for behavioral change², which suggests that based on where an individual is at in their journey of changing behaviors, different tactics succeed in progressing that behavior to the final goal of maintenance.

Fig. 42. Philciaccio, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

This kind of theory is helpful in developing some more justification for why exactly certain sounds or certain pieces may be more effective. No individual work of music will suit the needs of inspiring an entire audience, but combining effective use of items and ideas into a coherent performance offers more opportunities for all kinds of people at different stages in their journeys of sustainability. Instrumentation in this way is a great start for people just starting, or children to connect with the actual items they are familiar with, with no direct implications required about recycling. It is intended as an opportunity to explore sound and enjoy the creativity that all kinds of objects can bring out in people.

Location

As we have seen earlier, performing this piece is accessible in almost any location. The instrument setup could be something that a performer must walk around in order to play, or it could be the size of an airplane tray table. Furthermore, the piece benefits from close proximity to an audience so they can see what is happening more easily. By including the audience in the musical process, performances could take place outdoors, on shared tables, and the intention and creativity of the piece are not lost. This is therefore a highly modular, flexible piece of music that benefits from being played in multiple locations. It also is successful in concert halls, as it is a clear deviation from traditional performance techniques, and since every performance may be different, there is no shortage of creative solutions and ideas that can be applied to it. 

Personnel

As stated previously, the performances in the Klaterklanken Festival were with the idea that audiences would become involved in the music making process. Likewise, there are other instances where this becomes an effective tool for developing interaction in the piece and about the objects being used. 

Southam herself says any number of people can be involved, whether it is two performers making their own changes, a trio, or more beyond that (ibid).

Allowing more people to be involved in the process allows a more connected experience with the piece, and with the material at hand. For some people, physically handling an object may be more beneficial and more engaging than hearing that object struck, and likewise for others than seeing the object itself. Like learning styles, which according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, are "characteristic cognitive, effective, and psychosocial behaviors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment" (Curry, L. “Learning preferences and continuing medical education.” Canadian Medical Association journal vol. 124,5 (1981): 535-6.). By using that as a basis, it would make sense to allow audiences to participate in a piece like this could offer multiple experiences in the same situation. These kinds of learning styles include visual, verbal/aural, sensory, or intuitive, and including an audience in a piece focused on objects, it may allow for all types of learning styles to be included. 

Contextualization

Compared to the other variables, this piece perhaps may not benefit from additional contextualization. Part of the intrigue in this piece is hearing what different objects sound like, and I believe part of that is the visual connection to the objects as well. From the experience in the Klaterklanken Festival, having visually interesting items was already an engaging factor for audiences, and there was an apparent surprise when certain objects were laid down, such as the clog. 

Because the piece is visually engaging, it seems less important that there be additional media or information placed beforehand, as it may detract from the musical process. As stated before, context such as the kinds of instruments may be enough, such as using recycled instruments, or plant materials, or on-location items. In this way, context is kept local or refined to just instrumentation, and enhances the musical output. 

Conclusions

Here you can see how this piece could be performed very quickly as a solo, and just how simple it is. Southam dictates a number of rules, but she herself says in the end, the rules may be varied or changed. As a result, there are numerous outcomes for how this piece could be realized. In this instance, I chose to use household items that were intended to be sent to recycling and made a short piece out of them. Allowing audiences to see this and also how simple the setup allows people to engage with it and even mimic it at home if encouraged. Ultimately, these items will get recycled eventually, but they can also live a life briefly as instruments and as a source of enjoyment for people too. It is less about the content or the virtuosic quality of performance than it is about how the sounds are made, and collecting a unique set of objects can make for a one-of-a-kind musical moment, which is another step in promoting the value of sustainability and raising simple awareness of the materials each object uses. 

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