Immanence and the realtime aesthetic 2011 Lindsay Vickery
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Although all music emerges in the moment, some music also seeks to be “invented” in the moment. Such music still creates a sense of structure over time, but its emergence is often deliberately indeterminate and spontaneous. Examples of this music may be: Free Improvisation: Conceptual Music: Indeterminacy: Game Music: Technological Solutions: Interactive Music: Evan Parker, Derek Bailey John Cage – 4’33” (Tacet) (1952) Karlheinz Stockhausen - For times to come (1969-70) La Monte Young - Compositions 1960 (1960) John Cage - Concert for Piano (1958) John Zorn - Cobra (1984) Graphical notation, Mobile Scores and Live Coding. George Lewis - Voyager (1987)
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Immanence and the realtime aesthetic 2011 Lindsay Vickery
- 1. Immanence and the real-time aesthetic in music Lindsay Vickery Edith Cowan University l.vickery@ecu.edu.au
- 2. a pure stream of a-subjective consciousness, a pre-reflexive impersonal consciousness, a qualitative duration of consciousness without a self. Deleuze, G., (2001). Pure Immanence: Essays on A Life, Zone Books: Brooklyn p. 29 Abstractions explain nothing, they themselves have to be explained: there are no such things as u n i v e r s a l s , t h e r e ' s n o t h i n g transcendent, no Unity, subject (or object), Reason; there are only processes, sometimes unifying, subjectifying, rationalizing, but just processes all the same. Deleuze, G., (1995). Negotiations, Columbia University Press: New York p. 145-6 i m m a n e n c e . . .
- 3. The Twentieth Century saw challenges to notions of stability, linearity and the grand narrative of progress. The range of cultural, scientific and technological changes emerged that together refocussed artists on the phenomenological “immanent moment”. “We are suggesting, then, the evolutionary development of both art and science over the past few hundred years in mutual interaction with the evolving Zeitgeist. Specific examples of parallel developments in art and science thus far in the 20th Century may serve to illustrate this point. In art the following innovations arose: 1905, Fauvism; 1907, Cubism; 1910, Abstract Painting; 1915, Dadaism; after 1925, Surrealism; and recently, Abstract Expressionism. In science we find corresponding innovations: 1900, Planck's Quantum Theory; 1900, Freud's Psychoanalysis; 1905, Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity; 1908, mathematical formulation of Minkowski's Space-Time Coordinates; 1912, Einstein's General Theory of Relativity; and, through the years, Niels Bohr's Hydrogen Atom Theory, Schroedinger's Wave Equations, and Heisenberg's Interminacy Principle.“ Fischer, T., Irons, I. and Fischer, R. (1961). Patterns in Art and Science Their Creation, Evolution, and Correspondence, Studies in Art Education Vol. 2. No. 2 pp. 1-100 p. 89-90
- 4. WORKING METHODS WORKING PRINCIPLES IMG IMAGES FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTION .4 C- . Science and art share this use of logic and metaphor in their practices. Artists and scientists have utilised the power of the metaphor since the genesis of their disciplines. Sturm, B. L. Composing for an ensemble of atoms: the metamorphosis of scientific experiment into music , Organised Sound (2001), 6:2:131-145 Cambridge University Press p. 144 Coenen, A. (1994). Stockhausen's Paradigm: A Survey of His Theories. Perspectives of New Music, 32(2 (Summer, 1994)), 200-225.
- 5. When surgeons cut the corpus callosum joining the cerebral hemispheres, they literally cut the self in two, and (that) each hemisphere can exercise free will without the other one’s advice or consent. Even more disconcertingly, the left hemisphere constantly weaves a coherent but false account of the behaviour chosen without its knowledge by the right. For example, if an experimenter flashes the command “WALK” to the right hemisphere, the person will comply with the request and begin to walk out of the room. But when the person is asked why he has just got up, he will say in all sincerity, “To get a Coke” – rather than “I don’t really know” or “The urge just came over me” or “You’ve been testing me for years since I had the surgery and sometimes you get me to do things but I don’t know exactly what you asked me to do”.
- 6. Similarly, if the patient’s left hemisphere is shown a chicken and his right hemisphere is shown a snowfall, and both hemispheres have to select a picture that goes with what they see (each using a different hand), the left hand picks a claw (correctly) and the right picks a shovel (also correctly). But when the left hemisphere is asked why the whole person made those choices, it blithely says, “Oh, that’s simple. The Chicken goes with the claw and you need a shovel to clean out the chicken shed. The spooky part is that we have no reason to think that the baloney-generator in the patient’s left hemisphere is behaving any differently from ours as we make sense of the inclinations emanating from the rest of our brains. Pinker, S. (2002). The Blank Slate, Penguin: London P. 154-5.
- 7. AUTOMATISM Defined by Andre Breton as to “express – verbally, by any means of the written word, or in any other manner – the actual functioning of thought” (Breton, A., 1972. “Manifesto of Surrealism.” In Manifestos of Surrealism, University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor. p. 26). The corridors of the big hotels are empty and the cigar smoke is hiding. A man comes down the stairway and notices that it's raining; the windows are white. We sense the presence of a dog lying near him. All possible obstacles are present. There is a pink cup; an order is given and without haste the servants respond. The great curtains of the sky draw open. A buzzing protests this hasty departure. Who can run so softly? The names lose their faces. The street becomes a deserted track.
- 8. time and space are relative identity is a construct memories are constructed reality is altered by observation civilisation is relative progress is not guaranteed religion is not necessarily absolute IMMANENCE! FUTURE!PAST! NOW! Incredulity towards metanarratives technological mediation transcendentalism rules and knowledge systems are constructs beauty is lazy and hypocritical hell is other people the past is a foreign country history is written by the victors the truth is not out there post-colonialism the rational mind is an illusion Annihilation of time and space telepresence
- 9. time and space are relative identity is a construct memories are constructed reality is altered by observation civilisation is relative progress is not guaranteed religion is not necessarily absolute IMMANENCE! FUTURE!PAST! NOW! distrust in metanarratives technological mediation transcendentalism rules and knowledge systems are constructs beauty is fake and hypocritical hell is other people the past is a foreign country history is written by the victors the truth is not out there post-colonialism the rational mind is an illusion Annihilation of time and space telepresence The slippery nature of history, memory, the future and prediction push us inexorably into the present moment.
- 10. IMMANENCE Although all music emerges in the moment, some music also seeks to be “invented” in the moment. Such music still creates a sense of structure over time, but its emergence is deliberately indeterminate and spontaneous. Examples of this music may be: Free Improvisation: Evan Parker, Derek Bailey Conceptual Music: John Cage – 4’33” (Tacet) (1952) Karlheinz Stockhausen - For times to come (1969-70) La Monte Young - Compositions 1960 (1960) Indeterminacy: John Cage - Concert for Piano (1958) Game Music: John Zorn - Cobra (1984) Technological Solutions: Graphical notation, Mobile Scores and Live Coding. Interactive Music: George Lewis - Voyager (1987)
- 11. FREE IMPROV Also known as non-idiomatic improvisation”, “total improvisation”, “open improvisation” and “free music” (Bailey, D. (1993). Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music, Da Capo p.83.) It is perhaps impossible to completely eliminate “pre-defined” structures, as the “instrument” or medium of expression itself might be considered to be defining structure to an extent. Free Improvisation, for example, exhorts performers to actualise a kind of sonic stream of consciousness without reference to established rules or codes of behaviour. Real-time invention of this type might be described as requiring a state of “immanence”, in which reflection and planning are minimised.
- 12. In Free Improvisation, invention proportedly takes place at the same instant as performance. Predetermined, “composed” structures in this case are minimised. Improviser Evan Parker’s definition of this mode of improvisation, as quoted by Anne LeBaron, is as follows: We operate without rules (pre-composed material) or well-defined codes of behaviour (fixed tempi, tonalities, serial structures, etc.) and yet are able to distinguish success from failure. Experientially, improvisation draws on a range of subconscious physical and cognitive “reflexes”. LeBaron argues that the practice of non-idiomatic composition can be liked to that of Surrealist technique automatism. In accessing the unconscious by the most immediate and direct means, non- idomatic musical improvisation might elicit an even speedier transfer from the unconscious into sensory product (sound, in this case) than either visual or literary automatism.” (ibid) LeBaron, A. (2002). “Reflections of Surrealism in Postmodern Musics”, in Postmodern Music/ Postmodern Thought, Routledge: London pp. 27-74 p. 37
- 13. It might be argued that improvisation is a form of “instantaneous composition”, however the process of improvisation is a cognitively and experientially a different process to composition. Improvisation specifically “dissociates” activities in the part of the brain primarily identified in planning complex cognitive behaviours, the prefrontal cortex (Limb and Braun 2008). There is also some evidence for a neurological a basis for the distinction between improvisation and reading music in the mind of the performer: we found that improvisation (compared to production of over- learned musical sequences) was consistently characterized by a dissociated pattern of activity in the prefrontal cortex (…) This distributed neural pattern may provide a cognitive context that enables the emergence of spontaneous creative activity. Limb, C., and Braun, A., (2008). Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation in PLoS ONE. 2008; 3(2): e1679.
- 14. Improvisation is imbued with a sense of instantaneity – it is part of its essence both for the performer and the listener. It has been noted, for example, that recordings of Free Improvisation are unable to fully capture the spirit of this form of performance: Documents such as tape recordings of improvisation are essentially empty, as they preserve chiefly the form that something took and give at best an indistinct hint as to the feeling and cannot convey any sense of time and place. Cardew, C., (1971). “Towards an ethic of improvisation”, in Treatise, Edition Peters Although composition may also involve similar “dissociation” in the creative solution of problems, so called “inspiration”, it is generally identified with clear planning and structuring tasks. Typically associated with the prefrontal c o r t e x “ i n t e r n a l i s a t i o n o f structures”.
- 15. CONCEPTUAL MUSIC
- 16. Projection 4
- 19. INDETERMINACY The structure of the piece is not presented as a sequence of development in 5me, but rather a direc&onless &me‐field in which the individual groups also have no par5cular direc5on in 5me. Stockhausen 1957 p. 36 The arts are not isolated from one another but engage in dialogue. Much of the new music composing means that are indeterminate, nota5ons that are graphic is a reply to modern pain5ng and sculpture. John Cage in Cummings 1974
- 20. Indeterminacy Clefs and noteheads are presented with a great deal of ambiguity, allowing for a significant level of openness in their interpretation. The twenty pages of the work can be played at any speed and in any order by up to twenty pianists. John Cage: Winter Music (1957) p. 13 (detail) Chance The notational symbols that comprise the score, were created using a combination of chance operations and the notation of imperfections in the paper on which it was written.
- 21. In his compositional, performative and listening strategies, John Cage (1912-1992) sought to reduce or remove intention from the experience of music. His stance, “to let the sounds be themselves” (Kostelanetz, R. (1988). Conversing with Cage. New York: Limelight p. 42), aimed to sever the linear associations between events and to empty them of meaning other than their own existence. These pieces, I said, are not objects, but processes, essentially purposeless. (…) I said that sounds were just sounds, and (…) that since the sounds were sounds, this gave people hearing them the chance to be people, centered within themselves, where they actually are, not off artificially in the distance as they are accustomed to be, trying to figure out what is being said by some artist by means of sounds. Cage, J. (1985). A Year From Monday. London: Marion Boyars Publishers p. 134
- 22. The “Moment” a formal unit in a particular composition that is recognizable by a personal and unmistakable character. Depending on their characteristics, they can be as long or as short as you like" Stockhausen, K., (1963). “Momentform: Neue Beziehungen zwischen Aufführungsdauer, Werkdauer und Moment”. In his Texte zur Musik, vol. 1, pp. 189-210. Cologne: DuMont Schauberg p. 200) When certain characteristics remain constant for a while – in musical terms, when sounds occupy a particular region, a certain register, or stay within a particular dynamic, or maintain a certain average speed – then a moment is going on: these constant characteristics determine the moment. And when these characteristics all of a sudden change, a new moment begins. If they change very slowly, the new moment comes into existence while the present moment is still continuing. The degree of change is a quality that can be composed as well as the characteristic of the music that is actually changing. (…) That is what I understand by moment forming. I form something in music which is as unique, as strong, as immediate and present as possible. Or I experience something. And then I can decide, as a composer or as the person who has this experience, how quickly and with how great a degree of change the next moment is going to occur.” Stockhausen on Music, Marion Boyars Pubishers, London,1989. THE MOMENT
- 23. Music thereby relinquishes its "narrative" character. It no longer "tells a continuous story, is not composed along a 'red ribbon' that one must follow from beginning to end in order to understand the whole. ... It is thus not a dramatic form with exposition, in- creasing energy, development, climax, and effect of finality, but rather . . . every moment is a center connected with all others, but one which can stand by itself. Morgan, R. P. (1975). Stockhausen's Writings on Music, The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 61, No. 1, p. 8 INTUITION Opening one's mind in order to receive more vibrations from the universe than one normally does. Coenen, A. (1994). Stockhausen's Paradigm: A Survey of His Theories, Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 32, No. 2 p 210.
- 24. “From the Seven Days” (1969) There’s a story of a second violin player who said, “Herr Stockhausen, how will I know when I am playing in the rhythm of the universe?” Stockhausen said, with a smile, “I will tell you.” Anthony Pay of the London Sinfonietta, Rehearsing Stockhausen’s Ylem, quoted in (Bailey 1992 p. 72)
- 25. GAME MUSIC
- 26. GAME MUSIC
- 27. John Zorn 27 Game Pieces between 1974 and 1992 These works combined elements of Free Improvisation with game strategies. Ackley, B. 1997. Sleeve notes for 'Lacrosse' by John Zorn The Parachute Years. New York: Tzadik Baseball (1976), Dominoes (1977), Curling (1977), Lacrosse (1977), Golf (1977), Hockey (1978), Cricket (1978), Fencing (1978), Pool (1979), Archery (1979), Tennis (1979), Track and Field (1980), Jai Alai (1980), Goi (1981), Croquet (1981), Locus Solus (1982), Sebastopol (1983)Rugby (1983), Cobra (1984), Xu Feng (1985), Hu Die (1986), Ruan Lingyu (1987), Hwang Chin-ee (1988), Bezique (1989), Que Tran (1990) k.
- 28. In game pieces such as Cobra (1984), Zorn deliberately sets in play the “engagement” of musicians from different stylistic backgrounds, drawing on the disjunction between approaches that emanate from “inside” musical styles to create nonlinear tension. Each Musician has his own musical world in his head so that, as soon as he gets involved, is interested and excited, he’s going to add his world to it. That makes my piece, my world, deeper.’ Rovere and Chiti 1998 p. 13 His compositional approach places his music, his musicians and himself as: a center for the aggregation of citations… according to which images, discourses, ideas, words and sounds… seem to have been taken elsewhere and reproduced without any alteration are used as elements of discourse that face and clash with each other. Grignaffini, G. (1977). Lettera a un produttore di immagini. Cinema& Cinema 10: Godard a son Image(January February 1977). pp.17-18
- 30. I: Strings Pointillism III: Strings Crossing Glissandi!II: Held Strings! IV: Normal Percussion! V: Winds! Excepts of the six Fundamental Tac5cs of Iannis Xenakis Duel. The length of each sec5on is: I ‐ 68 bars, II – 77 bars, III – 42 bars, IV‐ 71 bars and V – 69 bars. (The “held strings” and “strings crossing glissandi” tac5cs are actually labelled II and III respec5vely in the score. (Xenakis 1959).
- 31. Our desire for closure or openness, for order and disorder, cannot necessarily be identified with the actual perception of that openness, of that order or disorder. p. 95 Listening to “openness” is always a dilemma. A musical event may present us with extremely complex, chaotic, and diversified sound situations. This will lead us to look for single out their common aspects, and we will certainly find some, given the already stated fact that, once a point of view has been established, everything can be related by analogy, continuity, and similarity to everything else. At the other extreme, a homogenous and immobile musical event will stimulate us to pick out the slightest differences and variations. p.5 Berio, L. (2006). Remembering the Future. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
- 32. TECHNOLOGY 21 Apr 1951 USA Whirlwind, the first real-time computer was built at MIT by the team of Jay Forrester for the US Air Defense System, became operational. Levinson, J. (2010) Music in the Moment
- 33. TECHNOLOGY Up/Off-loading the of superego onto the computer
- 34. The performative, and potentially structural, implications of computer control derive from the nonlinear, hypertextual nature of computational capacities and are musically manifested in three principal organisational procedures: The Real‐time Score • permutative: allows the presentation of materials to the performer in an indeterminate order • transformative: allows a fixed score to be altered in real‐time • generative: constructs components of the score in real‐time. p c. permuative score c.tra 1. 3. 4. 5. 2. l p mp f b. fixed score and swiping playhead c. generative score separated parameters pitch dynamic duration ornament c. permuative score c.transformative score 1. 3. 4. 5. 2. layer 1. p qex > .< layer 2. a. scrolling score and fixed playhead a. generative score traditional notation > > > > p mp f
- 41. What then renders these forces visible is astrange smile (or, First Study for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion) (2007-08) for solo trumpet Genera3on In a Genera5ve work, algorithmic or interac5ve genera5ve processes are employed to construct components of a digital score in real‐5me. This approach opens broad range of structural possibili5es o[en linked to a narra5ve or drama5c concept. Although algorithmic processes may be predetermined in a genera5ve work, the outcome, in the form of a score or sonic product is completely undefined prior to the performance. For this reason, this form of “dynamic scoring” is some5mes euphemis5cally referred to as “extreme sight reading”. Freeman, J., (2008). Extreme sight‐reading, mediated expression, and audience par5cipa5on: Real‐5me music nota5on in live performance. Computer Music Journal, 32(3), 25–41.
- 42. In Polish composer Marek Chołoniewski’s Passage (2001), a conductor directs a silent performance of hand gestures by the performers, which are measured by changes in luminosity measured by light sensitive resistors mounted on their music stands. The recorded gestural data in turn generates a scrolling score that is subsequently performed by the ensemble. Chołoniewski, M., (2001). “Passage”, Interactive Octet for Instruments and Computer, http:// www.studiomch.art.pl/.
- 43. In the 80s, Barry Vercoe, working initially with Larry Beauregard at IRCAM, then in M.I.T., implemented a process whereby a computer program followed the score played by a performer, so that a synthetic performer can accompany the live performer. This was used in works by Philippe Manoury, Cort Lippe and many others. Miller Puckette developed to this end remarkable graphic programming environment, Max, later amplified into MaxMSP, a real-time modular program with advanced scheduling capabilities for both synthesis and programming. Roger Dannenberg also developed interactive software. Rissett: Fifty Years of Digital Sound for Music
- 44. Interactive Music “The environment is listening to the performance data, which in its turn can trigger predetermined or algorhythmic, or even aleatoric processes. By the same token, the performer is also reacting to the environment, placing herself into a fully interactive feedback situation.” (Povall: Compositional Methods)
- 46. (Possible) Interactive Instrument Mapping
- 47. Jon Rose: The Hyperstring Project The MIDI bow The Whipolin http://www.jonroseweb.com/f_projects_hyperstring.html
- 48. George Lewis: Voyager (1993-) “Voyager was more an architectural than a conceptual change from the IRCAM piece. It was a massively parallel type deal, where you had a large number of software “players” that could play any instrument at any time. This comes directly out of AACM multi- instrumentalism. See, I don’t know of any culture where you can get a hundred people together, each one of whom can play a hundred instruments, and they get together and they improvise. It doesn’t happen. Software is the only place where you can realize conceptions like that now. My feeling was that there is a political subtext to the idea of signifying on, that sort of détournement of the classical orchestra.”