'Crossing' (2019), saxophone, harp, and electronics (10’)
'Crossing 2' (2019), voices, ensemble, and live electronics (35’)
- Submitting institution
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Royal Northern College of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 41A
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
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- Year
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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1 - Composition
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘Crossing 2’ is part of a sequence of pieces which uses spoken text with music and physical movement, in this case employing a non-poetic text: extracts from Thomas Nail’s philosophical treatise ‘Theory of the Border’ (2016).
The piece explores Michel Chion's notion of vococentrism and the sub-conscious influence of music (2009), and seeks to realise some of Gernot Böhme’s ideas surrounding the creation of staged atmospheres (2017). The piece refers to musical examples such as Heiner Goebbels’ ‘Everything that Happened and Would Happen’, (2018), while also critiquing general tendencies in television documentary-making.
The score, through the use of semi-open notation, seeks partly to re-establish an aural tradition in the rehearsal process, and to critique the role of the score following on from similar experiments by, for example, John Zorn. Rehearsals provoked rethinking of performance possibilities, rehearsal styles and techniques in the conservatoire setting.
The research and compositional process for ‘Crossing’ produced insights into techniques and implementation of distributed creativity. Of particular note is the group exploration of notions of borders by multi-media workshop participants, which directly influenced the graphic score improvisation in the première and which, in turn, was integrated into the performance, of ‘Crossing 2’. The audience contributed to a graphic score at the première of ‘Crossing’ which was also used in the rehearsals for ‘Crossing 2’.
‘Crossing’ was commissioned by Uppermill Summer Music Festival and Arts Council England and premièred at the festival by the Polaris Duo in July 2019. It formed part of a wider outreach project involving 30 students and staff from Ashton Sixth Form College, Tameside. A further performance was planned at the triennial World Harp Congress in Cardiff in 2020.
‘Crossing 2’ was premièred at the New Music Manchester Festival, RNCM, November 2019 by an RNCM ensemble with Polaris Duo, conducted by the composer.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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