Improvising Object Guitar
(2024)
author(s): Hugo Ariëns
published in: Research Catalogue
This thesis traces the transformation of a prepared electric guitar practice into a practice where improvisation is infused in all of its facets. Through this research, I have developed a personal approach to the prepared tabletop electric guitar that I call "Object Guitar". I leave the historical frame of the prepared guitar as a reflection of the prepared piano and take an interpretation of the 1912 "Guitar" sculpture by Pablo Picasso as a starting point. Through Picasso’s use of improvised techniques and heterogeneous materials, we can see the prepared electric guitar practice as possessing a similar process of "bricolage" and the agency and recalcitrance of the objects used to prepare the guitar. This makes the prepared tabletop electric guitar fundamentally impossible to master. Mastery gets substituted with the process of "assemblage"—the arranging of disparate found materials.
With this approach, I developed a series of experimental instruments and devices. Experimental instruments explore novel possibilities in instrument design but also provide a platform for experimentation. These instruments magnify the improvisational characteristics of the existing electric guitar. The 18-string Object Guitar is a gradual development of the electric guitar into a dedicated tabletop instrument. A series of Deconstruction Guitars break down the electric guitar into fundamental elements to understand their function in the prepared guitar system. All the instruments and devices form an open-ended series of constructions; each playing situation has a different configuration of these instrument and device modules.
Along with the instruments, I created a new practice method for the prepared tabletop electric guitar in improvised music. As mastery falls away as a criterion for the prepared guitar practice, the focus shifts to an exploration of the instrument. Practicing becomes a progression of questions and curiosity, with each question leading to new questions. The Object Guitar Archive gives structure and context to this method. The exploratory practice method spans the whole range of prepared guitar practice activities. Each step of the process is supported by the Object Guitar Archive.
Concert for Double Bass ‘In Absentia’
(2022)
author(s): Ivar Roban Krizic
published in: Research Catalogue
The project “Concert for Double Bass ‘In Absentia’” explores the effects of spatial displacement between performer and audience on the production and reception of free improvised practices. An instrument fitted with contact speakers and placed in a space becomes a conduit for sound, creating a reversal of roles–the audience is present in the performance space while the performer streams an improvisation from another location. This setting breaks established conventions and expectations of a performance situation, and therefore allows for a thorough analysis of the various ways in which improvisatory practices are perceived and conceptualized. The framework of the performance provides stimulation resulting in a series of qualitative interviews with members of the audience on the topics of absence, classification, perception of musical form, distraction, and interaction. Through these interviews, clear irritations in relation to the absence of a performer have been observed. These initial irritations in turn stimulated heightened levels of imaginative thinking and listening during the performance. This project shows how an experimental performative setting can provide a starting point for subsequent theoretical research.
Between Freedom and Fixity: Artistic Reflections on Composition and Improvisation
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Ilya Ziblat Shay
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Between Freedom and Fixity: Artistic Reflections on Composition and Improvisation is a practice-based research project that aims to highlight the role of freedom and fixity in music and to develop a discourse based on these two concepts. The research suggests a creative approach based on the interrelationship between freedom and fixity, for example their combination, juxtaposition, and tension, and describes them as abstractions or placeholders for musical agents such as rhythm, notes, structure, timeline, and interactive computer systems. Another important notion is the inherent coexistence of the two concepts, and proposing the constant oscillating between them as a creative musical approach. Furthermore, the research aims to establish the use of freedom and fixity as a productive paths for extra-musical disciplines. Four works by the author are used as case studies to examine the integration of the research concepts as tangible musical forms. In each of the case studies freedom and fixity are embodied differently, and the relationships between them develop into distinct paths. This study relies on the author’s experience and experimentation as a composer, performer, improviser, and electronic-music practitioner, and draws inspiration from works by other musicians and scholars.
Apām Napāt Trio
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Saman Samadi
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Apām Napāt (آپام نپات) is a trio by Persian pianist, violinist, and vocalist Saman Samadi, clarinetist and saxophonist Blaise Siwula, and Buchla-player Hans Tammen. The ensemble presents improvisational compositions that draw connections between their musical backgrounds. Using Persian modes and poems as well as a structured and recognizable yet free impulsive interaction between the instruments, they set parallel narratives in motion, occasionally intersecting but always accompanying one another. The trio released an album called "Apām Napāt" consisting of the recordings of their first performance, in 2016.
AŽI TRIO
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Saman Samadi
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Aži Trio is an NYC-based ensemble founded by composer and pianist Saman Samadi, in collaboration with saxophonist Sarah Manning, and Buchla-player Hans Tammen.