This term I’ve been working on a new improvised theatre work, assembly line, with The Assembled. A free informal concert on Thursday 27th March in the Rymer Auditorium, University of York will showcase this work plus 3 other improvisation pieces we have been working on this year.
Cardew Treatise
James Tenney Swell Piece
Des Clarke new piece
James Whittle assembly line
assembly line was born from a desire to thwart the oft-made observation that musical improvisations will follow the same old path of rising to a climax before fading away. The piece relies on each performer giving any action they choose to make a very precise characterisation. Once on stage, a choice of 1 from 3 traits conditions the kind of interaction a performer may have with any other: dependent, supportive, or independent.
As part of his third year dissertation project, bassist Twm Dylan has been studying the works of Cornelius Cardew. Twm has been leading our improvisation sessions using selected pages from Cardew’s seminal graphic score, ‘Treatise’ (1963-7). Amongst our discussions has been the observation of moving between linear and nonlinear interpretations of a page, as individuals and as a collective.
The group has been playing ‘pure’ versions of James Tenney’s first ‘Swell Piece’, as well as versions with added rules to allow more flexibility around certain parameters.
Des Clarke‘s new piece situates a freely improvising soloist within an accompanimental group, who respond to whatever they interpret as ‘trigger events’. The group’s instructions are in the form of a tree-score of possible directions, favouring, but not always resulting in, material that rapidly decays to silence.