Performance Skills
cw1 :
Public online performance of large instruction piece
cw2 :
Analysis and evaluation of your performance of the large instruction piece.
Contextualisation and analysis of your instruction piece.
Instructions and descriptions of what you did.
Please include which minutes you were assigned, and what you did (solo or calling ‘conspiracies’, and who were ‘co-conspirators’), and the contents of them:
For our coursework one we had to take part in a public online performance of a large instruction piece.
This instruction piece was designed by Chris Cutler and our lecturer Yumi Hara Cawkwell.
I was assigned minutes:
1,11,17,21,30.
My co conspirator was Aghigh Mousavi.
On minute 1: I sung acapella; the first verse and chorus of a Bengali song ‘Gaibona Ar Kono Gaan’ by Sumon and Anila.
On minute 11: I sung acapella; two verses and chorus from a Hindi daily soaps Title track ‘Meri Awaaz Ko Mil Gaayi Roshnii’.
On minute 17: (which was a shared minute between me and Aghigh)
So Aghigh decided to call her conspiracy.
Before the performance she gave me a shaker and her instruction was for me to shake the shaker according to the tempo of how she was playing her ukulele.
On minute 21: (which was also a shared minute between me and Aghigh)
I decided to call my conspiracy.
My conspiracy was really simple and friendly for people with mixed musical capabilities.
My instruction piece was:
0 to 10 sec : clap
10 to 20 sec : hum
20 to 30 sec : hiss
30 to 40 sec : lalala
40 to 50 sec : click
50 to 60 sec : fast clap
On minute 30: I sang a verse and chorus from a Hindi song ‘In Dino’ by Pritam, Soham, Sayeed Quadri.
Explain the concept of your piece.
What is the main focus of the piece? (Harmony/rhythm/timbre/dynamics/texture/structure/anything else)
And what kind of effect(s) or result(s) do you want to create by the set of instructions? Analyse the resulting music using musical terms accurately and avoid colloquial expressions.
The piece I created was in my opinion easy to understand and perform.
But it had a strict structure.
First 10 seconds was clapping. I would assume that the fellow conspirators would clap for 10 seconds as they would normally clap it was tempo based. Next 10 seconds were humming, which is harmonic. It is also open to interpretation that if its a series of hums or a continuous note. Either way I was curious to see someone else’s interpretation. Next was ‘Hiss’ which is an odd sound to make in a traditional song but as the assignment is to think outside of the box, I chose it. Also this could be slightly left open for interpretation as you can choose to make a continuous hissing sound for 10 seconds or just do series of hisses. My next 10 seconds were ‘Lalala’ which is also harmonic. But as I didn’t specify a scale or key, it could be left to interpretation. The next 10 seconds were to click, with which I assumed the co conspirator clicking their fingers. And the last 10 seconds were to fast clap, where I assumed that the co conspirator/s would clap faster and louder than the initial normal clap. I wanted to prove with that how our brain responds similarly to that instruction but sadly I didn’t have many co conspirators. Overall in my piece the timbre and texture was changing from section to section. Some parts were sparse and some were dense. There were definite changes in the Tempo as well as dynamics and when people usually clap faster they tend to tense up and clap louder as well. And with the ‘humming’ and ‘lalala’ section harmony was incorporated as well. And the whole thing was tempo and rhythm based. Over all I feel like I designed a very easy piece in one minute that included all these major musical aspects.
Where did your idea come from? Mention any composers/performers/pieces that inspired you, and how you used their ideas to create your own instruction pieces.
My idea mainly came from what we were taught during lessons.
I remember our lecturers Guy and Yumi incorporating different body movements, sounds (even animal sounds), instruments like flute,keyboard etc.
I mainly drew inspiration from the graphic score ‘Stripsody’ by Cathy Berberian and ‘Bricks For Six’ by Fred Frith. For some reason these two scores were the most prevalent in my mind. Being inexperienced in reading actual scores, these two scores were a breath of fresh air and something I’ve never seen before. It was open to interpretation whilst being heavy on scribbles and imagery. I found it extremely fascinating, however my own instruction piece wasn’t as visual or interesting but definitely was a key inspiration. As it gave me the freedom to create something very simple and not traditional in terms of how music is viewed generally.
Heading 2
How did your performance/recording go? If you did Option 1, include all aspects of the performance, not only your 1-minute piece.
Did it create the expected sound? If not, how would you improve your instruction?
I feel like my performance and the overall performance of the group went really well. It was amazing to perform with people from Japan and have audience from USA. It really shows the power of the internet, digital space, technology, performance and music uniting us all.
For my solo minutes I did Bangla and Hindi songs first one sounded like it was in a major key second one sounded like it was in a Minor Key and third one sounded like it was in a Major key as well. I do not know if I am correct or not but I wanted to provide the contrast in my sound. And to state the obvious it let me showcase a part of my culture and background and the versatility in my singing ability. As well as displayed different scales and key signatures of south eastern music. I feel like timing wise except one please everything went very prompt as timing was the essence of this piece.
Me and my co-conspirator tried our best to perform with full awareness and concentration. My first four minutes went as planned. My co-conspirator Aghigh did my instruction piece really well but also interpreted certain parts her way just like I had planned. But before minute 21 was over which was my conspiracy minute. One of the staff member Patrick from the equipment store opened the door to our room. This interrupted our flow a bit and hindered our concentration. We finished our minute together well. But assumed it was other people’s solo minutes after us. So we paused for about a minute only to realise the short sound section had started right away. So we jumped into that in less than a minute after our performance. My last solo minute went fine as well. I feel like that interruption was the only thing that made the performance less than perfect. But such is life and the nature of performance, we as performers are meant to account for things malfunctioning or going left. Like I realised how some of the performers were on mute by mistake in certain sections.
It was definitely a very interesting and new experience for me. It challenged our way of thinking and showed us that a lot is possible musically just by thinking outside of the box even if you are not super proficient in your musicianship. Overall we all tried our best and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and I am very happy with my performance.
However upon reflection I realised my instructions could have been made more specific and comprehendible for the co-conspirators.
For instance I could have added some extra instructions which would me it’s more easy to understand and a performance more effective :
0 to 10 sec : clap
I could’ve mentioned
If the claps needs to be in a regular beat or any other tempo
Or
clap in any tempo
but should be in regular beat
Or
clap in any way you like
it doesn’t have to be rhythmic
Likewise for
10 to 20 sec : hum
and
30 to 40 sec : lalala
I could’ve specified a pitch or could have mentioned to sing in any pitch as the co-conspirator would like or or I could even mention if I wanted them to be in harmony with me.
50 to 60 sec : fast clap
I could mention that it needs to be faster in tempo than the first section.
References :
Cathy Berberian,1966. ​
'Stripsody'
Fred Frith,1999.
'Bricks For Six'