The adventure of the refrain composing with improvised music

THE ADVENTURE OF THE REFRAIN: COMPOSING WITH IMPROVISED MUSIC Timothy Joseph O’Dwyer Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology November 2012 Keywords Improvisation Composition Assemblage Refrain Deterritorialization Abstract This practice-based inquiry investigates the process of composing notated scores using improvised solos by saxophonists John Butcher and Anthony Braxton To compose with these improvised sources, I developed a new method of analysis and through this method I developed new compositional techniques in applying these materials into a score This method of analysis and composition utilizes the conceptual language of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari found in A Thousand Plateaus The conceptual language of Deleuze and Guattari, in particular the terms assemblage, refrain and deterritorialization are discussed in depth to give a context for the philosophical origins and also to explain how the language is used in reference to improvised music and the compositional process The project seeks to elucidate the conceptual language through the creative practice and in turn for the creative practice to clarify the use of the conceptual terminology The outcomes of the research resulted in four notated works being composed Firstly, Gravity, for soloist and ensemble based on the improvisational language of John Butcher and secondly a series of studies titled Transbraxton Studies for solo instruments based on the improvisational-compositional language of Anthony Braxton The implications of this research include the application of the analysis method to a number of musical contexts including: to be used in the process of composing with improvised music; in the study of style and authorship in solo improvisation; as a way of analyzing group improvisation; in the analysis of textural music including electronic music; and in the analysis of music from different cultures—particularly cultures where improvisation and per formative aspects to the music are significant to the overall meaning of the work The compositional technique that was developed has further applications in terms of an expressive method of composing with non-metered improvised materials and one that merges well with the transcription method developed of notating pitch and sounds to a timeline It is hoped that this research can open further lines of enquiry into the application of the conceptual ideas of Deleuze and Guattari to the analysis of more forms of music Table of Contents Keywords Abstract Table of Contents List of Figures Error! Bookmark not defined List of Tables Statement of Original Authorship Acknowledgements Introduction My Background 13 Philosophical Context 20 Summary of Chapters 35 The Method 37 The Outcomes 37 Chapter Literature Review 38 Chapter Methodology 52 Ethical and Collaborative Arrangements 56 Research Design and Methodology 57 Research Design 57 Selection of Instruments 66 Chapter Background to the Creative Practice 68 Chapter Analysing Improvised Music: A Deleuzian Approach 78 Conception 80 Analysis 91 Chapter Reterritorializing the Refrain 98 Compositional Process (Gravity) 102 Chapter Deterritorializing the Refrain 125 Transbraxton Study I 132 Transbraxton Study II 141 Transbraxton Study III 149 Conclusion 157 Bibliography 161 Discography 167 Appendices 168 Appendix I 169 Appendix II 190 Appendix III 232 Appendix IV (DVD - Muscial Examples) (Inside back cover) List of Figures Figure 1: Extract from the Oboe part (Movement II bar 1, Gravity) 103 Figure 2: Extract from Oboe part (Movement II bar 73 Gravity) 104 Figure 3: Extract from Viola part (Movement II bar 19-22 Gravity) 104 Figure 4: Extract from Viola part (Movement II bar 85-89 Gravity) 104 Figure 5: Extract from Viola part (Movement IV bar 14-21 Gravity) 104 Figure 6: Extract from Viola part (Movement V bar 17-21 Gravity) 105 Figure 7: Extract from Percussion part (Movement I bar 1-20 Gravity) 105 Figure 8: Extract from Percussion part (Movement II bar 82-96 Gravity) 106 Figure 9: Extract from Movement V Orbit, final measures (Gravity) 107 Figure 10: Extract from Movement II (bars 19-24 – full score Gravity) 109 Figure 11: Extract from Viola part (Movement IV bar 14-15 – full score Gravity) 109 Figure 12: Extract from Viola part (Movement V bar 18-19 – full score Gravity) 109 Figure 13: Extract of Oboe part (Movement V bar 12 Gravity) 111 Figure 14: John Butcher notes on pedal points, multiphonics and trilling options 111 Figure 15: Tenor Saxophone multiphonic fingerings supplied by John Butcher 112 Figure 16: Extract of percussion part Mvt I (bars 16-23 Gravity) 112 Figure 17: full score (Movement II bars to 10 Gravity) 113 Figure 18: Extract of trumpet part (bars 44 – 67 Gravity) 114 Figure 19: Extract of Viola part—an example of imitation indication (Gravity) 115 Figure 20: Extract of Oboe part Mvt II (Bars 27- 32 Gravity) 115 Figure 21a: Extracts from Mvt III (John Butcher solo Gravity) 120 Figure 21b: Extracts from Mvt III (John Butcher solo Gravity) 120 Figure 22a: Extract from Movement V (Bars 7-10 full score – premiere performance Gravity) 121 Figure 22b: Extract from Movement V (Bars 7-10 full score – circa 2011 Gravity) 122 Figure 23: Extract from Movement (Bars 21-33, Full Score – circa 2011 Gravity) 123 Figure 24: Extract from transcription of (f) (00:00 – 00:20) 138 Figure 25: Extract Pg Transbraxton Study (Violin) (00:00 – 00:21) 140 Figure 26: Extract of opening phrase from Composition 8g 142 Figure 27: Extract of Transbraxton II for bass clarinet (Pg 1) 148 Figure 28a: opening refrain 00:00 (Pg1) 153 Figure 28b: recapitulation at 02:18 (Pg 5) 153 Figure 29: Extract from Transbraxton Study III (Pg 1) 155 List of Tables Table Assemblage 24 Table Machinic Assemblage (Evan Parker Analysis) 30 Table Machinic Assemblage (Jim Denley Analysis) 31 Table Research Design – Gravity – John Butcher Project 59 Table Research Design – Transbraxton Studies – Anthony Braxton Project 63 Table Legend of abbreviations for analysing Buccinator’s Outing – John Butcher 92 Table Analysis: Buccinator’s Outing – John Butcher 93 Table Legend of abbreviations for analysing Composition 8f– Anthony Braxton 134 Table Analysis: Composition 8f– Anthony Braxton 136 Table 10 Legend of abbreviations for analysing Composition 8g– Anthony Braxton 143 Table 11 Analysis: Composition 8g – Anthony Braxton 146 Table 12 Legend of abbreviations for analysing Composition 106j (Pointillistic) -Anthony Braxton 150 Table 13 Analysis: Composition 106j – Anthony Braxton 152 Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made Signature: Date: QUT Verified Signature Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people for their invaluable assistance and support: Dr Mike Howlett, Dr Robert Davidson, Professor Philip Graham, Mr Greg Jenkins, John Butcher, Anthony Braxton, Daryl Buckley, Graeme Jennings, Richard Haynes, Genevieve Lacey, Peter Neville, Peter Veale, Erkki Veltheim, Tristram Williams, my family and friends Introduction The Adventure of the Refrain: Composing with Improvised Music This introduction presents the research problem and outlines how the research question was formed and explains why the research is a contribution to new knowledge In addition, a brief background of my previous work in relation to the current study is presented and some discussion of the main conceptual terminology to be used in this exegesis Music to many modern philosophers is one of the most powerful devices of control, disorder and expression within society and throughout human history The ability of the affects of music to transcend its original formal structure and influence, invade and manipulate nature and the cultural environment of humans is unparalleled Jacques Attali in his seminal book Noise: The Political Economy of Music writes: More than colors and forms, it is sounds and their arrangements that fashion societies With noise is born disorder and its opposite: the world With music is born power and its opposite: subversion In noise can be read the codes of life, the relations among men Clamor, Melody, Dissonance, Harmony; when it is fashioned by man with specific tools, when it invades man’s time, when it becomes sound, noise is the source of purpose and power, of the dream – Music (2006, 6) This ability of music to move out into the world and influence society, to enforce dominant paradigms of state control, manipulate people to go to war, shop in the mall, buy products through advertising or to soothe individuals intimately with a pair of headphones makes music a force that is fundamentally about its ability to permeate and influence every context within our lives Whether we choose to listen to music or not if we have the faculty of hearing then noise and its ultimate organization into Improvised Music in this context is defined in the Derek Bailey sense of: ‘Non-idiomatic improvisation’ “Idiomatic improvisation, much the most widely used, is mainly concerned with the expression of an idiom – such as jazz, flamenco or baroque – and takes its identity and motivation from that idiom Non – idiomatic improvisation has other concerns and is most usually found in so-called ‘free’ improvisation and, while it can be highly stylized, is not usually tied to representing an idiomatic identity” (Bailey 1992, xii) 10 music is unavoidable According to Deleuze and Guattari (2004a, 343-4) music is a phenomenon that can pacify a child alone and in the dark as he sings a little tune under his breath as a calming and stabilizing mechanism; music defines spaces or territories in our environment whether it is the radio playing in a home to define the territory of the domestic borders of a household, or a song of a bird in nature; and finally music can move out from these contexts and have its expressive qualities (meanings) completely transformed The bells of a Christian church the Muslim call to prayer the chanting of Buddhist monks signify the power of organizing sound to evoke the deity from the source of the temple but more importantly, the power of this organized noise goes out into the world that surrounds the temple and into our everyday lives creating infinite possibilities of affectation For Deleuze and Guattari, the concept of the refrain encapsulates all of these intrinsic tendencies of music and this ability of music to re-contextualise into wider possibilities is divided into two forms of transference articulated by the neologisms: reterritorialization and deterritorialization In view of the above statements, the adventure of the refrain could be said to be occurring all around us simultaneously all of the time However, this exegesis will concern itself primarily with one particular adventure of the refrain, specifically in describing the journey of music from an improvised source to a written score within my creative practice To make this journey I needed a map that would delineate how to make this journey possible and also to be able to trace my process along the way My map provides two functions The first function is to understand the content of what is to make the journey—in this case improvised music The second function is to understand the journey itself and the changes that occurred to the musical materials and importantly its expressive qualities once they arrived at their destination in the notated scores and were subsequently performed again 244 Transbraxton Study II For Solo Bass Clarinet Timothy O’Dwyer 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 Transbraxton Study III For Solo Ganassi in G Recorder Timothy O’Dwyer 255 256 257 258 ... Braxton The implications of this research include the application of the analysis method to a number of musical contexts including: to be used in the process of composing with improvised music; in the. .. deterritorializing the refrain (Deleuze and Guattari 2004a, 331) The content of music is held together by the refrain through the formation of its internal structure and the expressiveness in music enables music. .. practitioners The title of the exegesis comes from the proclamation: Music is precisely the adventure of the refrain (Deleuze and Guattari 2004a, 333) It is in the nature of music to journey outward