Seven Text Scores

Composition (2012): ‘Classical Music’


Write a piece of music. Make it the greatest, most beautiful, transcendent piece of music you have ever written. 
Without playing or singing this piece of music to anyone else, record it onto some physical format (be that a paper score, magnetic tape, or whatever) such that your recording contains sufficient information to fully reproduce this piece of music to your satisfaction. Make no copies of this recording. Remove any traces left by the process of production. Alone, without witnesses, and without wrapping it in any kind of casing or covering for protection, bury beneath the ground the physical object on which this recording is held.
Never reveal to anyone else the nature of this piece of music that you have buried. Never perform it, never explain a word about it. But on regular occasions (say once a week, once a month) visit the site where you have buried it and leave flowers or pebbles or some other token. As you are leaving your offering - and only then - allow yourself to think about your piece of music. Run through it in your mind soundlessly. 
Leave instructions in your will such that after you have died and a sufficient amount of time has elapsed, your next of kin is to exhume your piece of music. They must not clean it or make any attempt to otherwise restore it; they have simply to play whatever it is they find.


Composition (2012): 'Popular Music’

For any instrumental ensemble (probably around ten people would be ideal) and one vocalist.
Procure a copy of the vocal score of any recent hit single, with the lyrics printed underneath the notes. With scissors, cut the score into its as many sections as there are individual bars, being sure to include the corresponding lyrics underneath each bar. 
Distribute the score fragments amongst the instrumentalists, giving each musician an equal number . 
A singer, actor, or vocal artist of some other sort should then intone the words of the song in order. Each musician should listen out for any words that appear on their fragments. 
Upon hearing a word that appears on one of your score fragments, play the notes on that fragment in free time (even if your fragment refers to a different occurrence of the same word, eg, if words like “and” or “you” appear in several places in the lyrics, any bar which features the word “and” should be played every time the vocalist utters the word “and”).
The performance ends when the vocalist has reached the end of the lyrics.


Composition (2012): 'Repetitive Music’

For any ensemble of more than one singer or instrumentalist
Play (or sing) a note in the key of C major and, at a constant metre but a different tempo to all other performers, repeat.
Play (or sing) a different note in the key of C major and alternate between your new note and the last one at the same constant tempo. Repeat.
As before, adding a further note, repeat.
Keep going, adding more and more notes from the C major scale, until all performers are cycling through the entire scale of C major at different speeds. Then, at an agreed signal, stop.

Composition (2012): 'Urban Music’

For One or More Performers
Arrive at Bank underground station at half past six in the morning on a normal working day (you may be able to think of an appropriate equivalent in whichever major city you have chosen to perform). Head down to one of the platforms and, if possible, take a seat.
Wait. Listen.
At about eight o'clock, when the platform is full of people, start humming, choosing any note you can hear from amongst the general hubbub.
At half past nine, leave the same way you came in.



Composition (2012): 'Perfect Music’

Feed every number one single from the previous decade into an algorithmic software programme along the lines of David Cope’s Experiments in Musical Intelligence and instruct it to begin producing endless streams of 'new’ music.
Send the results to another piece of software of the sort, Hit Song Science by Polyphonic HMI
Return the results of this analyse back to the Experiments in Musical Intelligence-type software in an endless feedback loop.
No loudspeaker output or audience is required for this piece.

Composition (2012): 'Sweet Music’

For a single piano.

Coat all of the keys and all of the strings of a grand piano in honey.
Invite a grizzly bear (or other wild animal) to lick it off.
The performance is finished when the piano is clean or the bear is full.
Composition (2012): 'Tele - Music’

For two performers, in two different cities, each with a laptop and mobile internet connection.
Keeping in constant contact via Skype (or similar), each performer should scour their respective city in search of a good busker. Once two suitable buskers have been found, introduce them to each other via Skype and encourage them to improvise together a brief duet.
As the two buskers continue to play, slowly start to move away, at roughly equal pace.
The performance ends when both buskers are no longer within range of the inbuilt microphones on your laptops.
06/10/12 at 1:23pm
2 notes
  1. monsterbobby posted this