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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 March 2014
This paper, originally the keynote address at a conference on notation in contemporary music held at Goldsmiths, University of London, in October 2013, examines the relationship between notation and improvisation in today's music. Starting from the position that improvisation is a method of composition, and that the two are in no way opposites, the author reflects on his dual practice as composer of often complexly notated scores and an improvising musician. The title subverts the familiar claim that it is improvisation that liberates the musician from the supposed tyranny of fixed notation, suggesting instead that notation may serve a valuable function in suggesting possible directions or points of focus in free improvisation.
1 This essay was originally written as a keynote address to NCMS2013, a ‘symposium devoted to research in notation in contemporary music: composition, performance, improvisation’, held at Goldsmiths, University of London, between 18 and 20 October 2013 and organised by Roger Redgate and Alistair Zaldua, both of whom I should like to thank for the opportunity.
2 See, in particular, Bailey, Derek, Improvisation: its nature and practice in music, 2nd edition (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1993)Google Scholar.
3 This aphorism is also often attributed to Niels Bohr, although Dirac appears to have stated it in an address to the Indian Science Congress in January 1955. See Dirac, with Gupta, K.K. and Sudershan, George, Lectures on Quantum Mechanics and Relativistic Field Theory (Bombay: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, 1955)Google Scholar.
4 codex VII is available on a CD entitled adrift: three compositions 2007–8 (which also contains codex IX and adrift). London: Psi Recordings, psi 09.10, 2009.
5 A more extended account of the working process may be found in the liner notes to the CD (see footnote 4).
6 The score in this case functioned only as a mnemonic to remind the players of what we had worked through in rehearsals, so the score, such as it is, doesn't give sufficient information to allow a new realisation to be made.
7 Boulez, Pierre, Conversations with Célestin Deliège (London: Eulenberg Books, 1975), p. 65Google Scholar.
8 More detail on transmission may be found in an interview with Daryl Buckley and a programme note for DARK MATTER here: http://richardbarrettmusic.com/DARKMATTERinterview.html (accessed 26 October 2013).
9 FURT is my electronic duo with Paul Obermayer, formed in 1986. See furtlogic.com.
10 In my essay “The construction of CONSTRUCTION,” http://richardbarrettmusic.com/writings.html (accessed 26 October 2013).
11 Both the duo version of transmission and DARK MATTER are available on CD. London: NMC Recordings D117 (2006) and D183 (2012) respectively.
12 More detail on Blattwerk may be found in my essay “Blattwerk : composition/improvisation/collaboration” - http://richardbarrettmusic.com/BlattwerkEssay.html (retrieved 27 October 2013).
13 See the score of CONSTRUCTION, which may be downloaded as a pdf here: http://richardbarrettmusic.com/scores2ensemble.html (accessed 27 October 2013).
14 Score of CONSTRUCTION, p. 263.
15 “If the level is so low as to merge with the environment, the interaction with the other musicians is reduced. If it is so high as to dominate the environment then it has moved out of the sphere where it can be influenced by interaction from the other players.” In Cornelius Cardew: A Reader, ed. Prévost, Edwin with introduction by Michael Parsons (Matching Tye: Copula Press 2006), p.148Google Scholar.
16 The score of tendril will be available as a pdf here: http://richardbarrettmusic.com/scores1soloduo.html - after any revisions subsequent to the first performance.
17 The score of cell may be downloaded as a pdf here: http://richardbarrettmusic.com/scores2ensemble.html (accessed 26 October 2013).
18 Compare Stockhausen's formulation of serialism in relation to his Kontra-Punkte as ‘not the same entities in a changing light. But rather this: diverse entities in the same, all-pervading light’. Stockhausen, Karlheinz, Texte Band I (Cologne: Dumont Buchverlag 1963), p. 37Google Scholar.
