Collaborative Ethics

Today I came across a fantastic piece of tape music by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, “Hibiki Hana Ma” (“Reverberation – Flower – Interval”).  With just one listen I can’t say whether I see the name as a reflection of a tripartite form although for an 18-minute electronic work it possesses a great sense of musical direction, not always a common occurrence in music of this kind.  Xenakis wrote this piece for the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka and to truly appreciate its greatness it would be necessary to hear it on an 8-channel system as originally intended.

While listening I found myself wanting to respond to the various textures and gestures with improvisation.  Improvising with tape is nothing new, however, in my experience tape parts are designed with collaboration in mind.  Would it be disrespectful to a composer to take an extant tape piece and use it as material for improvisation?  Certainly an element of flattery exists in this yet one also senses an attitude which hears this not as a singular composition but an “interesting” background setting for live interpretation.

Broadcloth at Audubon Strings

This Saturday, January 30, the new music and improv trio Broadcloth will be performing at Audubon Strings in downtown New Haven.  Broadcloth features Anne Rhodes on voice, Adam Matlock on accordion/recorders, and myself on cello.  We will also be joined by guitarist/composer Gabriel Bolaños and percussionist Stephen Zieminski.

Musical improvisation drives this ensemble, however, we make a distinct effort to maintain coherent levels of structure and thematic unity in many of our pieces.  One such piece, written by Anne, requires each of us to play from a freehand embroidered score.  Another, written specifically for this concert by Gabriel, features interaction between our acoustic instruments and an electronic audio track created by processing pre-recorded sounds from our instruments.  This piece should be a wild ride.

Considering that we are performing in a violin shop full of sympathetically vibrating stringed instruments, we have designed some of our pieces around the open strings of the violin and cello (C – G – D – A – E).  The effect should sound something like a Norwegian hardingfele (see picture below) crossed with a plate reverb effect.

I posted some audio from our last performance on the Media page.

Come one and all and please feel free to bring drinks as this is an informal venue.

Notice the sympathetic strings running under the fingerboard and through the middle of the bridge