There is always another dragon in the way of "happily ever after"...

I find the fairytale analogy particularly relevant to my independent project, not only because it fits within the theme of storytelling but also because in every story there is a "dragon" to be fought, a villain that needs to be defeated so that the hero/heroine may ascend into their power and discover their own true nature.

In my case, I resonate with this in the sense that there were a lot of personal demons I had to battle in order to reach my own artistic voice. In other words, I was getting in my own way through learnt behaviors like "the harmony cannot progress like that because it is not correct from a music theory perspective!" or "that is not how you play the flute" or "there is no room for mistakes, everything has to be perfect all the time" or "everything needs to be written down in extreme detail otherwise the result is not valid or not your own composition". On the other hand, even though my previous work with metal bands helped me along the way of improvisation and letting go of prejudice, it created a different type of constraint in the form of constantly having to adapt to the stylistic direction of a specific project.

Naturally, we are all a product of everything that we have seen or heard over the years and the art that we produce is merely an amalgamation of experiences and impressions, presented through our own filter. That being said, I had to fine tune my "filter" so that it is calibrated according to my own values.

Working with musicians from diverse backgrounds was most helpful in navigating my own place in the artistic world since I was presented with numerous viewpoints and artistic perspectives and had to constantly find my role in the music, that was true to myself at the same time as it fit within the bigger picture. It may seem counterintuitive that I credit being "forced" into other genres and projects with my own self-actualization, given that merely one paragraph before I "blamed" outside influence for my struggles but it was the diversity that had the biggest impact. The fact that we were all trying to find common ground while not pushing each other in a specific direction. We discovered that, by being as abstract as possible in our "plan" for the sessions, we could all use our own understanding of the concept and dress it in our own unique performative style, while still working towards togetherness. While in the very beginning, everyone would bring a score, musical idea or harmonic progression to the interplay sessions, eventually we opted for conversations, key words or images instead. For example, some people brought a plant or a recording of the ambient noise they recorded on the way to rehearsal. In this new space that we had created, while there was a general understanding of musical decisions (such as a scale or a tonal gravity point), we were focused on "telling the same story in our own words", understood as each of us using the playing techniques we were familiar with but in a way that would suit the atmosphere we were trying to create, or the tales that we were trying to weave. In my case, I became a lot more aware of my role in the ensemble, be it as a band leader or ensemble musician, but also in the role of my instrument. I always thought of the flute as a melodic and soloistic instrument. It was through these sessions that I discovered the potentiality to use my instrument as an accompaniment, especially through extended techniques. Furthermore, I became more and more comfortable with inventing my own sounds and using my voice or my body to communicate my ideas or emotions. 

The musicians I had the opportunity of working with greatly shaped the way I think about music, not to mention the actual results. I am aware that I would never have thought to use more exotic instruments such as pipa, or to delve into uncharted territory with jazz drumkits and vocals had it not been for these people. However, I do not see this influence as taking away from my musical expression but as an enrichment of the experience by providing an extra dimension.

Speaking of demons or villains, one of the biggest issues I faced during the composition process has been deciding how much information to give in order to achieve the desired results. I constantly felt the need to write everything as clearly as possible and to lock in every performative aspect before a public presentation. It took me a long time to realize that certain things that happen in the moment have a magic that cannot be attained through hours and hours of practicing the written material and that sometimes you get much more out of the people you play with when you allow them more freedom.

Even though the road is still stretching ahead of me and I know there is much more work to be done, I believe I am finally comfortable within my own style which draws elements from contemporary classical music, Romanian traditional music, free improvised music and electronica in order to tell existing or newly invented stories about people and places, to an audience that is actively involved in the process. It is particularly important to me that the narrative is complete by the end of the performance. In this moment of my artistic development, meaning and intention are above musical structures and rhythmic patterns, and audience perspective/understanding is more relevant than appreciation of artistic value. Instruments, melodies, rhythm, harmony, all serve the story and not vice-versa, the mystical/magical atmosphere that I strive to create being above technically challenging and braggy instrumental parts.

What I strive for is the audience leaving a performance of my music with the feeling that they have been a part of something. In this sense, as you can discover throughout this work, I have attempted many different ways of interacting with them, as well as helping the message get across. I experimented with crossdisciplinarity through the use of visual elements, movement, theater and sound installations, to different degrees of success. I found, for example, that by using the whole physical performing space, either by simply walking through the audience, or positioning them in an unconventional way so that they feel as if they are "on stage", people felt more included and engaged in the piece. A recent example of working with the audience in this way can be observed in the performance of Odă cesiului și celor de pe urmă for flute, vocals, prepared piano and movement, which took place at the Romanian Museum of Art in Cluj-Napoca, Romania on the 27th of May 2023.

I also noticed that my fellow musicians need to be as involved in the staging and movement part of the performance as I am in order to keep the magic alive. Everyone needs to be an equal "resident" of the world that we are trying to create. Of course, in some cases, such as playing the drums or the piano, one is typically restricted in their movements by their instrument, which is why I initially hesitated to assign the musicians any "movement" roles but, upon reviewing our performances, we all agreed that it took away from the desired atmosphere. As such, we found some ways to have them join in on the non-musical aspect of our performance, either through costumes or by them assuming a specific character or having little "solo" moments when they did not have to play. I also explored the idea of using interactive sound installations in my performances that the audience would have full access to. In some ways, this worked well in terms of making them feel like they are contributing to the music that is unfolding on stage, but on the other hand, it shifted their focus from the performance towards what they were asked to do (you can hear more about this in Chapter 3).

It was not an easy task to reimagine my artistic practice from the perspective of the storyteller. I always felt that there was a wall between myself and the audience and, even though I was constantly working on expressing my thoughts and emotions through my music, I very rarely felt any sort of direct feedback from the people that I met in a typical concert hall. This changed a bit when I started playing rock and metal music, when the people coming to see our shows were there specifically to enjoy the live music, dance and experience our performance to the fullest.  However, as I mentioned in the context portion of this exposition, in order for a performance to be categorized as "storytelling" it needs to tell a story, be interactive, use vocalization, physical movement and/or gesture and encourage the listener to actively imagine the world, characters or images through their own emotional filter. In order to achieve this, it was not enough to simply use text as a source of inspiration! If I wanted to transition into a storyteller, I needed to develop skills beyond composition and instrumental technique. I had to learn how to be tear down that (albeit sometimes comfortable) wall that separated the stage from the audience, I had to discover how to be present in the moment, how to react to the input I received, both from the people on and stage, how to let go of expectations and self-doubt, but most importantly, how to let myself go. One of the most important things that I learned in this process is how to not fear "looking silly", just as an actor or a dancer sometimes needs to exaggerate their movements in order to communicate their message, so I too must dare to go beyond my comfort zone. 

An interesting development following my coming into my own as a performer rather than "just" an instrumentalist has been the fact that the musicians I worked with in my projects also became more comfortable with playing along, from a theatrical point of view. While initially I focused on myself as the storyteller and the rest of my group as musicians helping to tell the story, recently, we have transitioned towards all of us being "tellers of stories" and characters in my plays.

My work is about telling stories, be them fairy tales, ideas, dialogues or emotional journeys...

References

• Abebe, Tatek. "Storytelling through Popular Music: Social Memory, Reconciliation, and Intergenerational Healing in Oromia/Ethiopia". In Humanities 10, no2 (2021): 2 - 20. Accessed 20th of April. https://doi.org/10.3390/h10020070
• Appleton, Jon. "Musical Storytelling". In Contemporary Music Review, vol. 15, part 1 (1996): 67-71. Accessed 3rd of March 2023. DOI: 10.1080/07494469608629689
• Gipson, Ferren. "Art Matters podcast: the magic of fairy tales in art". Last modified on the 7th of May 2019. https://artuk.org/discover/stories/art-matters-podcast-the-magic-of-fairy-tales-in-art
• Gregory, A. H. "The roles of music in society: The ethnomusicological perspective". In D. J. Hargreaves & A. C. North (Eds.), The social psychology of music (1997): 123–140). Oxford University Press.
• Martin, Naomi. "Narrated By Contemporary Art:The Darkness Of The Fairytale Reimagined
• The Darkness Of The Fairytale Reimagined". In Artland Magazine. Accessed on the 3rd of March 2023. https://magazine.artland.com/narrated-by-contemporary-art-the-darkness-of-the-fairytale-reimagined/
• Maus, Fred Everett. “Music As Narrative.” Indiana Theory Review 12 (1991): 1–34. Accessed 2nd of May 2023. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24045349.
• Raffel, Burton. “Music, Poetry, and Translation.” The Antioch Review, vol. 24, no. 4 (1964): 453–61. Accessed 20 January, 2023. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4610629.
• Scheub, Harold. preface to "The Poem in the Story: Music, Poetry, and Narrative", xi-xiv. Wisconsin: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 2002.
• Theobald Boehm. Biography, http://www.theobald-boehm-archiv-und-wettbewerb.de/41377.html. Accessed on the 20th of March 2023.
• Walzer, Daniel. " Digital Storytelling in Music and Audio Education: Inspiring Modern Reflective Practice with Relevant Technology". In TOPICS for Music Education Praxis, no. 3 (2016): 46 - 74. Accessed 30th of April 2023. http://topics.maydaygroup.org/2016/Walzer16.pdf
• Þorsteinsdóttir, Elva Lind. Theobald Boehm – The Reinventation of the Flute -. Reykjavík: University of Iceland Press, 2010.
• "What is storytelling". National Storytelling Network. Accessed on the 1st of May 2023. https://storynet.org/what-is-storytelling/

There is always the next journey and the next story to be told. This is not THE END...

It is interesting how even by collecting all of the ideas and material that I have been saving for the past two years I keep drawing new conclusions and discovering things about myself.

I set on this journey thinking I would spend this time composing. What I did not expect was spending this time figuring out WHAT I wanted to compose. I know now that I can pull from all of my artistic experiences if I want to convey something and that there are no "good" or "bad" means of musical expression. Everything within my tool box has its place, from strict classical music theory and traditional flute playing to free improvisation, extended techniques and live electronic processing; from strict conventional notation to video scores and vague, abstract instructions; from intellectual inspiration sources to unexplainable emotional outbursts.

Reverting back to my research questions, I would like to summarise the answer to the most important one (How do I use the musical tools available to me in order to facilitate storytelling through music and communication with an audience?) by stating that the solution is focusing on two of the most important aspects of storytelling: the teller and the listener. Any and all means of artistic expression involved should serve the narrative and engage the audiences' imagination.

The secondary questions focused on the practical aspects of achieving this and have been answered at different times throughout this work. Thus, in Chapter 2 - Thoughts on Musical Language and Stylistic Particularities, I discuss how rethinking my relationship with the flute has directly influenced the way I compose music by viewing it as a conduit for meaning, as well as how I reached my current notation style by striking a balance between traditional notation and descriptive passages. 

In Chapter 4 - Results, Case Studies and Conclusions, I focus on using text as a source of inspiration by analysing two of my most recent compositions, Transhumanță and Odă cesiului și celor de pe urmă, and pointing out the different ways I interacted with the material, using the poet's words as not only guides for the musical discourse but also for their own particular artistic value as revealed in their individual sounds, shapes or rhythmic qualities. In the same chapter, you can read about the reasoning behind my chosen instrumentation and its effect on my music, as well as how the interaction between myself and the people I perform with ultimately shapes the compositional style. I address this specifically in the Personal Reflections subchapter, where I add how important staging has become in my performance pieces and how it helps underline the artistic intent.

When it comes to the use of electronics and digital visual art in my work, I touch upon this subject in many places throughout this inquisitive endeavour, the conclusion being that it has taken the role of an oftentimes subservient or accompanying instrument (or layer) meant to help deliver the narrative and support the underlying message of the performance.

As I look forward into the future, the only question I have unanswered is "what story should I tell next?"