During this research project I have investigated how techniques from modernist composers can be used in improvising and composing, moulding and reshaping the musical material. More specifically my investigation has led me to work with small pitch-class sets of trichords and tetrachords as a starting point. On this page I will discuss where this investigation has led me so far. I consider this chapter a checkpoint where I will report my conclusions of where I am now in the process, at the end of my master studies. Because this artistic research is based on my practice I am certain it will continue to develop over time and will likely be subject for re-evaluation. Still, I would like to share my reflections on if the work presented within the time-frame of this research project and my initial questions.

Techniques to keep the musical material in flux 

In my initial questions I described a strive to create music that can operate in what I call a ”flux state” where it is constantly transformed by the performers while still remaining coherent to the listener. What became my way of approaching this question was to experiment with improvisational potential within small pitch-class sets. The techniques I have been describing, mainly modernist and post tonal theory, opens up more possibilities to see harmonic connections and directions in which the music can go harmonically and melodically that would seem remote in any traditional key or tonality. At the same time its inner logic puts my strive for coherence at rest. In this way I feel the techniques presented here are useful to study for me as a way of getting my creativity started although I still feel like I have much to learn in order to be able to use this way of thinking more intuitively.

Some tools that I have been using, like the common tone transposition tool, I have found particularly fruitful for me, especially as a way of creating melodies that have their own inner logic. The logic provides a kind of truss bridge to support the melody. I think it would effect the music badly if the melodies cannot carry themselves. The idea of harmonic truss work I find useful both in freer harmonic contexts and in music with a clear tonal center because it allows the music to be more flexible and send out harmonic offshoots like some tropical plant looking for new fertile soil. 

Another interesting observation is that the study of this theory has not in any way replaced previous conception of harmony, rather it is adding on to it. The music I have presented here for example still rests mainly within key centers and uses chord and scale material that I have been using for a long time. The theoretical ideas that I have investigated here have instead made me see already familiar material in new ways, allowing me to dig deeper into something already familiar. I believe this is a natural process of internalizing new vocabulary into an already existing one rather than starting from zero with a new set of words trying to form a language.

Starting from a single pitch class set 

All the compositions I have presented within the research project have been constructed around this idea as a way of dealing with the potential problem of coherence in music, especially when it comes to harmony in freely improvised music. The reader might wonder if this approach is really necessary considering that the music here is neither completely freely improvised nor, as mentioned above, by any means, atonal. Rather, this investigation has been the occasion for me to learn and experiment with techniques that I believe will be useful for me in many of the contexts where I am active. I have found them useful both in constructing synthetic musical materials as in Moineaux I or in more traditional ones like Svartvinter. It has given me tools to work extensively with a very small material and these kind of material fragments can always be found, on their own or as part of bigger sets. 

In my compositions, the original cell is more or less audible to the listener. In Förnimmelser the set is present already from the start but it is in the end choral that it is the most prominent. Moineaux II is extremely strict using almost only transpositions of the set except for the improvisers own interpretations. But as a whole I think that even when considering only a few pieces of music like the ones presented here it becomes clear how very many possibilities there are to make music with different moods and identities all constructed around the same compositional principle.

Comments on the method and working process

The compositions are all explorations of harmonic material and working with them has been an important learning process both on a technical level, working with the guitar, and for my musical hearing and harmonic imagination. The example of mapping out of the different trichords on the guitar has provided a base of new knowledge for me but I would say that the kneading and shaping of the material into compositions has been a more efficient and more ”musical” way to get familiar with new techniques, even though less systematic. In the end it is esthetic choice-making that lead to which ones, out of the seemingly endless possibilities, that attracts my ear. Composing, then, also becomes a way of forcing me into this kind of choice making.

Separating exercise & studying time from playing and composing time works well for me as a way of structuring my work. Composing sometimes works as a bridge between the two mindsets, something that starts out as an exercise in applying a set of rules can spark creativity and if I find something I would like to add to the music but that falls outside of the rules of the exercise I can still use it in a composition. When improvising however I have sometimes found it difficult not to get caught up in exercises. I think this is a result of some of the language that I am exploring has not yet been internalized fully and I do not feel like I am fully improvising if I am also analyzing what I play at the same time. 

Improvising and ensemble playing

Improvising using the same tools is a different challenge than composing, especially when it comes to ensemble playing. In a solo situation I can draw from vocabulary that has been internalized from practicing and modulate or transpose freely without having to worry about putting my fellow musicians off track. I can, so to speak, draw on all the advantages of the inherent potential within the material.  However, if many players were to improvise in the same manner collectively, the outcome might be harder to predict. I find there is a risk that if there are many conflicting layers happening on top of each other, the logic or truss work supporting the individual players could be hard to follow as a coherent whole by the listener. The setting, thus, plays a huge part in what kinds of in-the-moment musical decisions that are possible to make while playing, how big the ratio of improvisation can be, while still staying with the original identity of the musical piece. 

In the music presented here the identity of the composition has been given a higher hierarchical value than the ”freedom” within improvisations in themselves and therefore I have aimed for designing clear frameworks for the improvisations to stay within. My hope is to, in this way, make it easier for the improvisers to work in the same direction as the intentional mood of the piece. As a composer I see improvisation as an incredibly interesting way to add qualities to the music that cannot quite be written down with the same result, some kind of nerve and musical interaction that is added to the music by activating the musicians as co creators.

Another important point that must be adressed is the need for presenting the music to the players in a way that does not demand a lecture in music theory. As I mentioned in the introductory chapters, these modernist techniques are usually not included in the common practice package of music education and cannot be expected to always be familiar. The way I present my music to my musicians must be done in a way that open directly for music making. For me, woking with box notation, musical cues and writing out ”playing scales” for improvisation like in the Moineaux pieces has proved to be an efficient way of working around this problem and is something I will continue to use whenever I want to integrate improvised parts, based on modernist ideas, to a composition.

Looking forward 

I think all the techniques that I have been looking at demand further investigation and could be a great source of inspiration for any improvising musician. I bring with me the confidence that I can study new approaches to music making while continuing what I am usually doing and apply whatever technique I find useful in my own context. Reading the Habitable Exomusics¹ interviews (quoted on the Context page) has strengthened this position for me. Some of the materials I have looked at still feel too complex to be useful for me to improvise with at this stage, especially in ensemble contexts. This high complexity presents a barrier that demands patience and long term work to break down. But even small pieces of new knowledge have worked as catalysts for my own music making. In that sense I find it quite exciting knowing there is so much musical potential just within the material itself. There is new music to unfold within the material and all my musical tools and imagination must be put to work in shaping it. When some parts of the material are left to the musicians for re-investigation the music unfolds even further, staying in flux.