Grandchildren of Experimental Music - Performing the Compositional Act by Creating Intriguing Situations in Which Musical Sound May Occur

Abstract

This portfolio of work explores alternative methods of musical composition that question the distinction between composer and performer, presenting an integrated and interdisciplinary artistic approach that aims to engage a broader public in the production of experimental music. The seventeen pieces in the portfolio are playful outcomes of a practice that, whilst rooted in musical concerns, does not privilege the sounding result. In the accompanying commentary the heritage of experimental music and Fluxus is used as a starting point to reconsider the traditionally separate roles of composer and performer. I assert that these roles currently remain distinct and separate in contemporary practice, despite the challenge that experimental music and Fluxus posed to conventional music-making. In order to address this I reconfigure the relationships between composer, performer and listener through an interpretation of a diagram by experimental composer George Brecht, and develop a framework in which the act of composition can be performed through ‘reading’, ‘character’ and ‘playing’