Topic & original project description

 

The project researches from an artistic perspective the two musical dimensions texture and timbre/klang – surface and color – through systematic creative material investigations with the aim of creating new music. Simultaneously, the project is about how our understanding of these dimensions is partly metaphorical, when we listen to, contemplate on and communicate about music. Hence, it will be examined whether metaphor as a perspective on the textural and timbral dimensions of music can become a productive, creative tool as a perceptual path to new experiences and understandings about music.

 

- In other words:

A systematic mapping of texture and timbre, with respect to parameters of variation, as well as a metaphorical perspective on the whole topic

(Note: This is an active, ongoing project, running August 2018 to June 2020. This exposition, as of 2019, is a temporary status, not a final result.)

Artistic output, so far + planned 

The artistic output from the project include a number of ALBUMS:

 

* Kinetics + Evan Parker: CHIASM (rec. in Cph+London), out on Clean Feed (Portugal), June 2019

* Fosterchild: Dear Earthling (Pan-European Quintet - rec. in Köln), release Oct 25th, 2019, on ILK

* J.A. Solo on-and-around a European avant-/modernism repertoire, working title: Modernismus Nostalgikus (rec. ’18 – editing done - mixe to come, release details not set).

* Resonance volume III (strings + pno + drums): A full new repertoire, recording details tba

* Card Deck pieces "Bats - Bees - Birds - Boids - Bugs", large ensemble playing conducted textural improv - recording details tba

* Temporal Allusions  - recording details tba

( + new intl. ensemble tba..?)

  

Plus a number of other concerts, repertoires and ensembles:

Commisioned piano work for Kathrine Gislinge, premiered in Paris, May 2019, "Complexion Miniature #1"

Onto-Occidentals: Live Card Deck Pieces #1, premiere, July 2019 

Brorson Kirke - a series of four audience involvement concerts in 2020 (Februry to November).

SALIGIA for Antioxidanterne (’18) – metaphor as a compositional method

3 new Card Decks: Elements/gestures deck, Changes deck, Metaphor deck.

Organ solo concert (’18) - texture as pure parameter

 

ARTISTIC output related to areas of investigation:

Evan Parker & Kinetics (spectral improv)

Solo on 20th century modernism (practice/process and osmotics immersion, reinterpreting the results of 700 years of harmonic history)

Fosterchild (harmonies; interval-catalogue)

Temporal Allusions (functions)

Resonance (intervals + texture – full new rep since start, still not recorded)

Card Decks "Elements" & "Changes" (parameters or dimensions of musical texture, expressed as resp. gestures/positions in each dimension, and changes of specific parameter)

Card Deck "Metaphor" (metaphor as an empowering tool for collective music creation, and for dissemination of a model of textural decisionmaking)

Originally intended contribution:

- Artistic output (a number of albums)

- knowledge (about the mapping process, on structure/parameter/texture, etc., and on the metaphorical perspective.)

Findings, a.o.:

 

- The artistic output, complete list still TBA, will be released gradually, 2019-2021.

 

- The mappings shown under Harmony and Texture.

 

- A model of possible mental representations of sonic experiences: (textural/harmonic, etc.): 

-       Structural

-       Parametrical

-       Gestalt

-       Stylistic/historical

-       Metaphorical/ embodied / Metaphysical.

 ... as a model of our mental representation of non-representative artforms. A tool for understanding as well as for creating music.

 

Points of discussion:

- Can emotional or spiritual reactions to / representations of music be said to be contained in the rather broad metaphorical/metaphysical category, or does it need a 6th category?

- Does the model lack a hermeneutic/semiotic mode of mental representation - or is that unnescessary as long as we talk about non-representative art?

 

Research Questions

 

How can I as a composer and improvisator via systematic methodical investigations, in artistically informed ways, develop new music with a particular focus on the textural and timbral dimensions of the music?

 

To what extent can an articulation of a metaphorical perspective qualify this process?

 

To what extent will a mapping of my already existing music clarify my work in terms of texture and sound, structurally as well as metaphorically?

 

How can I communicate central insights and perspectives to peers and to the outside world, in a manner adequate for the purpose of the project?

A rough overview of investigations,

activities and findings, so far

Main areas of investigations:

 

Harmony

Texture

Metaphor

Practice / process

Findings

Output

Practice/ process

 

Daily routines

20th century composed piano music as a warm up, and as osmotic immersion.

(Ligeti, Stockhausen, Boulez, Webern, Feldman, Gubaidulina, Crumb, Pärt,

Boulanger, Takemitsu, Saariaho, Messiaen, etc.)

 

Listen – analyze – interpret 

Listen – play – perform/record – reinterpreting

Playing my way around, recording my way through, improvising my way out of my 20th century European composed piano music context.

Recorded December 2018, release details tbc.

 

Unsolved question: What cultural territory is this upcoming album for?

Is it commenting on a European Music History context, is it post-jazz, or should it be produced as if it was an ambient music album..? Is it a statement from within or a full frontal attack on the institution of Western Contemporary Composed New Music..? 

 

Definitions of terms  & concepts

 

Texture

In this project: The layout of the sum of the actual played musical elements, choices of instruments, registers, dynamics, playing techniques, etc.

 

“Klang”

The different elements united in our experience.

Connotations in Danish

- harmonik (eng.: harmony)

- klangfarve (eng.: timbre)

- musikkens samlede lyd (eng.: sound).

 

Metaphor

”Using a concept from one domain to denote/describe something from another domain”

While addressing metaphor in mental representations of music/art, I use the term Metaphor as if quite similar to Metaphysics, or to Articulations of an Experience

Harmony

 

An idiosyncratic, unifying theory of harmony ?

 

Harmony as…

- A result of simultanous linearities 

- Functions/ tension-release 

Vertical translations of horisontal logics:

  - Tonality / modes 

   - Intervallic logic 

- Free intervals

Spectrally influenced approaches:

  - Overtone series etc.

  - Imitation or inclusion of sounds from the outside world.

 

Metaphor 

 

Metaphor literature, a.o.:

Lakoff & Johnson: Metaphors we live by

Paul Ricoeur: Rule of the Metaphor (Metaphor vive)

James Geary: I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We…

Nunez & Lakoff: Where mathematics comes from

David Borgo: Sync or Swarm 

Zbikowski: Metaphor and Music Theory

Interviews with and/or texts by Anthony Braxton, Björk, Helmuth Lachenmann, Gerard Grisey, Karlheintz Stockhausen, Pauline Oliveros, etc.

 

It is NOT the aim of the project to address ProgramMusik of the romantic era, or give a history, not even a brief one, of the use of metaphor in music over time. The aim is not to understand nor direct the  listeners' metaphorical mental representation, but to investigate productive strategies for music-making.

 

CARD DECK 3:

Metaphor

(so far 104 cards)

This card deck is thought of as an empowering tool for collective music creation  - with or without a paedagogical aim, and for dissemination of a model of textural decisionmaking)

Texture

 

Texture as parameters I

Rhythm, timbre, dynamics, pitch

(Sissel Endresen, in conversation)

Texture as parameters II

Marilyn Nonken: 9 dimensions

Toneness, amplitude Flux, rhythm, horisontal density, vertical density, gestural repetition, pitch salience, process, silence.

(Marilyn Nonken, PhD thesis, “An ecological approach to music perception: stimulus-driven listening and the Complexity Repertoire", 1999.)

Harmony as free intervals I: E.g. Solo recording, reinterpreting Feldman, Ligeti.

Harmony as free intervals II: An intervallic mapping of Harmonic possibilities; ”The almost complete list of possible combinations of 3-4 voices” – or, of possible families of sounds. 20+ systematic compositions based on a metasystem.

E.g. Upcoming album "Fosterchild" (title tbc), J.A + Kasper Tranberg, Sebastian Gilles, David Helm, Fabian Arends, and upcoming recording of Resonance (Karen Johanne Pedersen, Mette Brandt, Ida Nørnolm, Peter Bruun & J.A.)

(...Harmony as a result of simultanous linearities: Covered in depth in the Habitable Exomusics Project..)

Harmony as abstrations on functions, or on tension-release. "Temporal Allusions"

Harmony as spectralism.

E.g. Upcoming album: Evan Parker & Kinetics: Chiasm. J.A., Evan Parker, Adam Pultz Melbye, Anders Vestergaard.

(overtone series and inclusions of outside sounds)

Harmony as vertical translations of horisontal modality logics

E.g. Solo recording, reinterpreting Pärt, Messiaen.

Harmony as vertical translations of horisontal intervallic logics

E.g. Solo recording, reinterpreting Boulez, Stockhausen, Webern.

Texture as parameters III

A fuller picture of J.A.’s version

 

Dynamics: which level(s)

Many/few dynamic levels?

 

Note/sound qualities:

Clean – distorted / harsh – soft (Timbre )

pitch - noise

Short notes/ Long notes / Staccato / legato

High - low

Registers (which)

Intonation

Degree of harmonic complexity

Degree of tonal/melodic complexity

 

Densities:

Registral spacing of events (vertical density)

Wide pitch – narrow pitch (registral density)

Interval sizes - large, small, few, many?

Degree of spaciousness (Horisontal density)

Density – rhythm continuum.

 

Rhythmic dimensions:

Recurrences / repetition?

Loops/ vs transitions?

Pulse? / One or more pulses?

Fast tempo – slow tempo – Slowing down/speeding up, etc.?

Degree of polyrhythmic content

Subdivisions?

Fast – slow actions (speed / density)

Tempo / pulse / meter / rhythm / groove

 

Form and process:

Short phrases/long phrases

Rests – many/few /long/short

Linear - scattered

Epic / broken

Static/ development /permutation / change

Expressive/ neutral?

Motivic?

Stocastic?

 

Fabric/texture:

unison/ chordal/ choral/ counterpointal/etc.

counterpoint by notes/rhythms/character ?

”more than one kind of music at once?”

instrumentation

featured soloists

 

Effects

(technically not parametrical, rather elements/gestalts)

playing techniques incl. extended technique

(arco – pizz / sticks-mallets-brushes / insidepno-keys / multiphonics-clean / growl-clean / ponticello-normal )

sounds from: wood/metal/air/skin/breath/whistling, etc.

Tremolo?

Modulations?

Note repetitions?

Distortion?

Spectral disturbance?

Agate, Fosterchild, rec. 2018, expected release nov. '19, ILK

Compare to  Anthony Braxton’s Language music:

12 types:

Long Sounds

Accented Long Sounds

Trills

Staccato Line Formings

Intervallic Formings

Multiphonics

Short Attacks

Angular Attacks

Legato Formings

Diatonic Formings

Gradient Formings

Subidentity Formings

Webern-remake J.A. solo, rec. 2018,expected release fall '19, 

Cph part II, Evan Parker & Kinetics, rec. 2018, expected release May '19, CleanFeed

Translating each parameter/dimension into multiple possible elements/gestures, and into  possible changes/developments


New Invented Card Decks:


CARD DECK 1:

Elements/Gestures

(so far 120 cards)

 

CARD DECK 2:

Changes

(so far 41 cards)

Texture as 

* parameter (Nonken/ Lachenmann/ post-Darmstadt); 

a number of possible dimensions

vs.

Texture as 

* elements (Braxton and other post jazz/ pan-African approaches);

 a number of positions for each possible dimension