Breathing New Life into Old Forms: Collaborative Processes Supporting Songwriting and Improvisation

The primary aim of this practice-based research was to reinvigorate my artistic practice in composition, and in so doing provide a useful model for vocalists and singer-songwriters in the contemporary jazz genre. These aims are achieved by identifying the dialectics – the collaborative inputs – in composing, lyric writing, rehearsing and recording. The thesis provides a narrative of processes undertaken in the creative practice journey involved in the production of the albums Get Out of Town (2012), Mandarin Skyline (2013) and Weave (2016). Leading Australian musicians and composers were selected for the writing and recording processes. Through a detailed examination of their input and contribution to the music, along with the input of non-musician participants, an enhanced understanding of the musical and wider interactions related to collaborative processes is revealed. The collaborative processes are outlined song by song and analysed in every stage of music creation, including preproduction discussions, communications with selected co-writers, musicians’ contributions to arrangement and composition, informal discussions related to “best” practice, and negotiation regarding stylistic interpretations pertaining to genre, harmonic movement and improvisation. Improvisation emerges as a key factor in not only the personal creative compositional process, but also in the collaborative process. The concept of collaboration was stretched to encompass personal creative processes, informed as they are by issues of stylistic identity, inspirational figures and the creative milieu within which musicians hone their skills. This process shone light on strategies within the collaborative spectrum that promoted the extension and development of my songwriting and improvisational practices

Interfacing Jazz: A Study in Computer-Mediated Jazz Music Creation And Performance

O objetivo central desta dissertação é o estudo e desenvolvimento de algoritmos e interfaces mediados por computador para performance e criação musical. É sobretudo centrado em acompanhamentos em Jazz clássico e explora um meta-controlo dos parâmetros musicais como forma de potenciar a experiência de tocar Jazz por músicos e não-músicos, quer individual quer coletivamente. Pretende contribuir para a pesquisa existente nas áreas de geração automática de música e de interfaces para expressão musical, apresentando um conjunto de algoritmos e interfaces de controlo especialmente criados para esta dissertação. Estes algoritmos e interfaces implementam processos inteligentes e musicalmente informados, para gerar eventos musicais sofisticados e corretos musical estilisticamente, de forma automática, a partir de um input simplificado e intuitivo do utilizador, e de forma coerente gerir a experiência de grupo, estabelecendo um controlo integrado sobre os parâmetros globais. A partir destes algoritmos são apresentadas propostas para diferentes aplicações dos conceitos e técnicas, de forma a ilustrar os benefícios e potencial da utilização de um meta-controlo como extensão dos paradigmas existentes para aplicações musicais, assim como potenciar a criação de novos. Estas aplicações abordam principalmente três áreas onde a música mediada por computador pode trazer grandes benefícios, nomeadamente a performance, a criação e a educação. Uma aplicação, PocketBand, implementada no ambiente de programação Max, permite a um grupo de utilizadores tocarem em grupo como uma banda de jazz, quer sejam ou não treinados musicalmente, cada um utilizando um teclado de computador ou um dispositivo iOS multitoque. O segundo protótipo visa a utilização em contextos coletivos e participativos. Trata-se de uma instalação para vários utilizadores, para ecrã multitoque, intitulada MyJazzBand, que permite até quatro utilizadores tocarem juntos como membros de uma banda de jazz virtual. Ambas as aplicações permitem que os utilizadores experienciem e participem de forma eficaz como músicos de jazz, quer sejam ou não músicos profissionais. As aplicações podem ser utilizadas para fins educativos, seja como um sistema de acompanhamento automático em tempo real para qualquer instrumentista ou cantor, seja como uma fonte de informação para procedimentos harmónicos, ou como uma ferramenta prática para criar esboços ou conteúdos para aulas. Irei também demonstrar que esta abordagem reflete uma tendência crescente entre as empresas de software musical comercial, que já começaram a explorar a mediação por computador e algoritmos musicais inteligentes.Abstract : This dissertation focuses on the study and development of computer-mediated interfaces and algorithms for music performance and creation. It is mainly centered on traditional Jazz music accompaniment and explores the meta-control over musical events to potentiate the rich experience of playing jazz by musicians and non-musicians alike, both individually and collectively. It aims to complement existing research on automatic generation of jazz music and new interfaces for musical expression, by presenting a group of specially designed algorithms and control interfaces that implement intelligent, musically informed processes to automatically produce sophisticated and stylistically correct musical events. These algorithms and control interfaces are designed to have a simplified and intuitive input from the user, and to coherently manage group playing by establishing an integrated control over global common parameters. Using these algorithms, two proposals for different applications are presented, in order to illustrate the benefits and potential of this meta-control approach to extend existing paradigms for musical applications, as well as to create new ones. These proposals focus on two main perspectives where computer-mediated music can benefit by using this approach, namely in musical performance and creation, both of which can also be observed from an educational perspective. A core framework, implemented in the Max programming environment, integrates all the functionalities of the instrument algorithms and control strategies, as well as global control, synchronization and communication between all the components. This platform acts as a base, from which different applications can be created. For this dissertation, two main application concepts were developed. The first, PocketBand, has a single-user, one-man-band approach, where a single interface allows a single user to play up to three instruments. This prototype application, for a multi- touch tablet, was the test bed for several experiments with the user interface and playability issues that helped define and improve the mediated interface concept and the instrument algorithms. The second prototype aims the creation of a collective experience. It is a multi-user installation for a multi-touch table, called MyJazzBand, that allows up to four users to play together as members of a virtual jazz band. Both applications allow the users to experience and effectively participate as jazz band musicians, whether they are musically trained or not. The applications can be used for educational purposes, whether as a real-time accompaniment system for any jazz instrument practitioner or singer, as a source of information for harmonic procedures, or as a practical tool for creating quick arrangement drafts or music lesson contents. I will also demonstrate that this approach reflects a growing trend on commercial music software that has already begun to explore and implement mediated interfaces and intelligent music algorithms

Live electronics in live performance : a performance practice emerging from the piano+ used in free improvisation

This thesis explores a performance practice within free improvisation. This is not a theory based improvisation – performances do not require specific preparation and the music refrains from repetition of musical structures. It engages in investigative and experimental approaches emerging from holistic considerations of acoustics, interaction and instrument, and also philosophy, psychology, sociopolitics and technology. The performance practice explores modes and approaches to working with the given potentiality of an electronically augmented acoustic instrument and involves the development of a suitably flexible computerised performance system, the piano+, combining extended techniques and real-time electroacoustic processes, which has the acoustic piano at its core. Contingencies of acoustic events and performance gestures – captured by audio analysis and sensors and combined to control the parameter space of computer processes – manipulate the fundamental properties of sound, timbre and time. Spherical abstractions, developed under consideration of Agamben’s potentiality and Sloterdijk’s philosophical theory of spheres, allow a shared metaphor for technical, instrumental, personal, and interpersonal concerns. This facilitates a theoretical approach for heuristic and investigative improvisation where performance is considered ‘Ereignis’ (an event) for sociopolitically aware activities that draw on the situational potentiality and present themselves in fragile and context dependent forms. Ever new relationships can be found and developed, but can equally be lost. Sloterdijk supplied the concept of knowledge resulting from equipping our ‘inner space’, an image suiting non-linearity of thought that transpires from Kuhl’s psychological PSI-theory to explain human motivation and behaviour. The role of technology – diversion and subversion of sound and activity – creates a space between performer and instrument that retains a fundamental pianism but defies expectation and anticipation. Responsibility for one’s actions is required to deal with the unexpected without resorting to preliminary strategies restricting potential discourses, particularly within ensemble situations. This type of performance embraces the ‘Ereignis’.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Live Electronics in Live Performance: A Performance Practice Emerging from the piano+ used in Free Improvisation.

This thesis explores a performance practice within free improvisation. This is not a theory based improvisation – performances do not require specific preparation and the music refrains from repetition of musical structures. It engages in investigative and experimental approaches emerging from holistic considerations of acoustics, interaction and instrument, and also philosophy, psychology, sociopolitics and technology. The performance practice explores modes and approaches to working with the given potentiality of an electronically augmented acoustic instrument and involves the development of a suitably flexible computerised performance system, the piano+, combining extended techniques and real-time electroacoustic processes, which has the acoustic piano at its core. Contingencies of acoustic events and performance gestures – captured by audio analysis and sensors and combined to control the parameter space of computer processes – manipulate the fundamental properties of sound, timbre and time. Spherical abstractions, developed under consideration of Agamben’s potentiality and Sloterdijk’s philosophical theory of spheres, allow a shared metaphor for technical, instrumental, personal, and interpersonal concerns. This facilitates a theoretical approach for heuristic and investigative improvisation where performance is considered ‘Ereignis’ (an event) for sociopolitically aware activities that draw on the situational potentiality and present themselves in fragile and context dependent forms. Ever new relationships can be found and developed, but can equally be lost. Sloterdijk supplied the concept of knowledge resulting from equipping our ‘inner space’, an image suiting non-linearity of thought that transpires from Kuhl’s psychological PSI-theory to explain human motivation and behaviour. The role of technology – diversion and subversion of sound and activity – creates a space between performer and instrument that retains a fundamental pianism but defies expectation and anticipation. Responsibility for one’s actions is required to deal with the unexpected without resorting to preliminary strategies restricting potential discourses, particularly within ensemble situations. This type of performance embraces the ‘Ereignis’

Change of the "Guard": Charlie Rouse, Steve Lacy, and the Music of Thelonious Monk

The word “Monkian” is frequently used in jazz discourse to describe the music of pianist Thelonious Monk. This study consolidates literature on Monk’s music to define the Monkian aesthetic as an integration of the following musical elements: unorthodox jazz harmony, rhythmic displacement, principles of economy, an emphasis on thematic repetition, and technical experimentation. These elements appear in his compositions, which jazz musicians find difficult to perform. The Monkian aesthetic may be apparent in music by other jazz performers who integrate these elements during improvisation. An analysis of selected improvisations by Charlie Rouse and Steve Lacy, two saxophonists who performed Monk’s music extensively, demonstrates this aesthetic. Analyses are conducted on two solos by Rouse in the post-bop style—“Evidence” (1960) and “Rhythm-A-Ning” (1964)—and three recordings by Lacy in the free jazz style: two versions of “Evidence” (1961 and 1985) and “Pannonica” (1963). The Monkian aesthetic is prominent in their music, and is demonstrated through narrative description with the aid of formulaic, schematic, and reduction analysis techniques. Group interaction is shown to play a significant role in their interpretations. I argue that Monk, Rouse, and Lacy were avant-garde jazz musicians. They represent a change in the notion of “avant-garde” in jazz according to the musical analyses and a critical evaluation of their social environment. Monk’s performances, recordings, and public image were avant-garde for the 1940s and 1950s. Rouse followed Monk’s musical conception closely, and by extension, is considered an avant-gardist in jazz. Lacy’s music and his community of musicians helped define the 1960s avant-garde movement in jazz. Both saxophonists contributed to Monk’s legacy in these conceptions of avant-gardism

Navigating Jazz: Music, Place, and New Orleans.

Conceiving, historicizing, and analyzing the cultural creation of place as a contested musical act, this dissertation scrutinizes conventional understandings concerning the relationship between place and musical representation and proposes a new framework for interpreting relationships of music and place. Detailed examination of the intersections between sound, associated terrain, and worldview draws out the generative capabilities of geographical thought. The complex relationship between the city of New Orleans and the music of jazz serves as a backdrop for exploring the multifaceted means through which sound both engineers and activates ideas of place. Close analyses of musical portraits of New Orleans—as performed by musicians across a range of historical contexts—provide a more thorough understanding of place-based struggles to claim, protect, and transform the city’s so-called jazz heritage. Such musical visions of the city not only contribute to its iconic position in the national imagination but also express different and often conflicting perspectives with respect to local and regional identity. Key debates surrounding the emerging field of music and place studies form the backdrop for Chapter One, which focuses on New Orleans to reveal new avenues of analytical inquiry. Prevailing methodologies are challenged and reimagined in terms of the creation, imagination, and relocation of musical places. Chapter Two explores the many lives of the song “Basin Street Blues”—its interpretations, variants, and representations across time, space, and media—to inform a new theory of musical place, encapsulating the analytic potential of cultural geography. Conjured scenes of Congo Square, as imagined by jazz artists including Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, and Donald Harrison, Jr., form the subject of Chapter Three.These stylized depictions of historically fraught relationships to New Orleans as the “birthplace of jazz” reveal complex personal and professional relationships to emblematic New Orleans communities, traditions, and tourism. Chapter Four tackles the disputed local terrain of musical tradition and preservation, mapping the (re)definition of traditional New Orleans jazz as performed by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Finally, Chapter Five examines the music of Trombone Shorty, an artist working in the post-Katrina context, to illustrate the implications of performances of place in exile.PhDMusic: MusicologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133368/1/sarezesu_1.pd

A Constraints-Led Approach to Improvisational Saxophone Practice

This practice-led research project documents the application of the constraints-led approach within my self-regulated improvisational saxophone practice. The constraints-led approach is a pedagogical framework founded on the theoretical principles of ecological dynamics, within which learners are conceived of as complex adaptative systems with the capacity to spontaneously form self-organising patterns of behaviour in response to organismic, environmental, and task constraints. Constraints-led learning designs harness this self-organising tendency, implementing practice tasks that guide learners to explore new methods of identifying and acting upon information sources within their performance environment. My practice project unfolded across a 13-month developmental period in three overlapping phases of practice, each of which featured a unique learning design founded on constraints-led principles including nonlinear learning, constrain-to-afford, task variability and representative practice design. The three learning designs implemented movement-based task constraints that were oriented towards skill acquisition and the development of improvisational dexterity rather than the internalisation of musical vocabulary. A corresponding self-assessment model was developed to evaluate the efficacy of the practice tasks in promoting the formation of new stable patterns of coordination and control. Research outcomes include newly generated understandings of the relationship between saxophone-specific movement-based processes and resultant improvised musical production, and the development of practice processes to overcome movement-based instability. Outcomes also include a creative component, featuring four recorded original works. Together, these outputs contribute new knowledge to current understandings of improvisational learning and practice, as well as illuminating the utility of the constraints-led approach within self-directed musical learning projects

Gear Acquisition Syndrome

"Gear Acquisition Syndrome, also known as GAS, is commonly understood as the musicians’ unrelenting urge to buy and own instruments and equipment as an anticipated catalyst of creative energy and bringer of happiness. For many musicians, it involves the unavoidable compulsion to spend money one does not have on gear perhaps not even needed. The urge is directed by the belief that acquiring another instrument will make one a better player. This book pioneers research into the complex phenomenon named GAS from a variety of disciplines, including popular music studies and music technology, cultural and leisure studies, consumption research, sociology, psychology and psychiatry. The newly created theoretical framework and empirical studies of online communities and offline music stores allow the study to consider musical, social and personal motives, which influence the way musicians think about and deal with equipment. As is shown, GAS encompasses a variety of practices and psychological processes. In an often life-long endeavour, upgrading the rig is accompanied by musical learning processes in popular music.