Today has been quite an interesting day. Among other things, I finally talked to the bass-bariton I mentioned yesterday, the guy who's going to sing my piece. He's a really nice person and he was very willing to work on this, which is great. Now I have two musicians that re very interested in the piece... I need to write something that's up to the task! I am already full of ideas, which is good, for a change, other pieces have not come out this way. I hope these ideas are good ones, though.
Also today, all the students of composition were invited to attend the rehearsals of some pieces by Christian Wolff that will be performed tomorrow and on Friday at the Conservatoire. Mr. Wolff himself was there and some of the composition students actually performed on the pieces. The pieces rehearsed were Pulse, another one which I don't remember the title, and Changing the System. After that I stayed with other musicians to rehearse Excercises 1, 8 and 15, which we will rehearse tomorrow with public as well.
Christian Wolff
(of course, I do not own the rights to this image)
The general idea behind the music of Christian Wolff is how musicians intercat with each other during the performance of a piece, and how a piece of music is actually not finished when the composer finishes writing it, but when it is performed. For Wolff, the performer has a very important role in the process of composition of the piece. Most of his scores haver very few indications (on Edges the only indications are the articulations, and even they are not completely accurate, nor is the performer forced to play all of them), and the performer has to decide, both individually and together with the ensemble and following the (few) parameters stated on the score, how to interpret what is written. Every interpretation of the piece is different, even by the same performers.
When we were rehearsing the Excercises (where the performer is only given the pitches to be played, but not the tempo, rhythm, articulations, etc., and the only indication given is that unison among all the performers should be the ideal, but is not compulsory) a very funny thing happened. We would all begin more or less playing together (you should not previously agree on a starting tempo either), and suddenly one of us would want to go faster, or slower, or louder, etc, and either the rest of us would follow, or not, and when we didn't, the person that started this change would have to return to what the rest was doing. So this musical dialogue between us took place, where people proposed things that either were accepted or rejected, and this process enriched the music greatly. When we tried to play the pieces again, different things happened. It was beautiful.
After the rehearsal, I went to a friend's house and watched V for Vendetta. He had never seen it, but it was my 10th time watching it, I think. It's one of my favorite films. But now, after having this experience with Christian Wolff's music, I thought I could relate even more closely to his ideas. I recognize in his music, the urge to make people come together and build something together, to make people realize that they can be agents of change in this world of injustice. Performing his music, you can decide what to do, what to play, what not to play, you don't have a tyrant composer giving you all the parameters and hitting you with a wooden ruler every time you play a false note, or do a pianissimo instead of a mezzo piano. He gives you the freedom to participate in this creation, he gives you ideas, not laws, he proposes what you could do, but does not force you to do it. What he does, though, is gently ask you to commit yourself to make the piece come to life in the best possible way, which I think should be the aim of any person leading a nation. Not set laws and punishments, xenophobic slogans and containment policies, but rather seek to create an environment of justice, of understanding, of acceptance, of love and compassion between people.
A crowd dressed with the Guy Fawkes mask,
the symbol of V, the main character in the film.
All the best you you!
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