I experimented with creating an instrumental voice (a flute) using some music notation software (Staffpad) and then improvising some kind of accompaniment to it on the piano. The notation process was interesting because it was effectively a process of creating space in the score. The gaps between the instrumental sections were more important than what occurred in those sections. I improvised into the gaps.
This worked quite well. It struck me that the process is a bit like doing a drawing where you demarcate the background and work towards the figure. The instrumental sections were pretty random - but it was just a frame. The colour was filled in with the improvisation.
I listened to the ensemble and started to add another voice which reinforced some of the features of the piano. Eventually I imagine I could dispense with the improvised bit completely.
When we sing along, or improvise with existing music, what is happening is the making of an alternative description of it. It's rather like taking Picasso's bare skeleton of a bull, and gradually filling in the bits which are missing. The bare bull is still a bull. What we add are alternative redundant descriptions.
This is what my improvisation is in relation to the fragments of notated melody on the computer. Gradually more and more description is added, and more and more redundancy is created.
One further point: thinking about my interest in Ehrenzweig's work on psychotherapy and the creative process (see http://dailyimprovisation.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/ehrenzweig-on-objects-and-creativity.html), the notated score with its bare bones and large gaps is a means of creating what Ehrenzweig calls "dedifferentiation" in the psyche. It breaks things up and creates a framework for the drawing up of new forms and ideas from the oceanic primary process. Ehrenzweig talked about serialism doing this. This is the first time I have had the feeling that technology might actually be able to do it too. My experience with technology and musical creativity generally has been that it gets in the way because it reinforces the superego's "anal retentive" demand that things must be done in such and such a way.
I have not felt this with this particular exercise. Of course, it's not great music. But the process promises something...
This worked quite well. It struck me that the process is a bit like doing a drawing where you demarcate the background and work towards the figure. The instrumental sections were pretty random - but it was just a frame. The colour was filled in with the improvisation.
I listened to the ensemble and started to add another voice which reinforced some of the features of the piano. Eventually I imagine I could dispense with the improvised bit completely.
When we sing along, or improvise with existing music, what is happening is the making of an alternative description of it. It's rather like taking Picasso's bare skeleton of a bull, and gradually filling in the bits which are missing. The bare bull is still a bull. What we add are alternative redundant descriptions.
One further point: thinking about my interest in Ehrenzweig's work on psychotherapy and the creative process (see http://dailyimprovisation.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/ehrenzweig-on-objects-and-creativity.html), the notated score with its bare bones and large gaps is a means of creating what Ehrenzweig calls "dedifferentiation" in the psyche. It breaks things up and creates a framework for the drawing up of new forms and ideas from the oceanic primary process. Ehrenzweig talked about serialism doing this. This is the first time I have had the feeling that technology might actually be able to do it too. My experience with technology and musical creativity generally has been that it gets in the way because it reinforces the superego's "anal retentive" demand that things must be done in such and such a way.
I have not felt this with this particular exercise. Of course, it's not great music. But the process promises something...
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