winkelwagens, an update

Already more than two weeks ago, or is it three? (how time flies!), I had a run-through with Ceci and Flor of the first version of my shopping-cart piece. Although we couldn’t make the run-through of the whole piece, it was very useful. The things I had in mind more or less seem to work, so in that sense I’m satisfied. But there’s one thing that worries me. Before the run-through of the piece Ceci and Flor were testing the carts, (which I now equipped with a morse on-off button and a volume control, both at the handle, so giving more possibilities of a quick control of the sound) trying out different things. I was delighted with the sounds they produced. Why is it my piece doesn’t have this wonderful atmosphere they were creating while improvising? Maybe it’s because of my fondness for chaos that I prefer the improvisation more than a well-ordered composition? Or is my composition simply too dull, having not enough interesting ideas to capture the ear?

Some of it has to deal with notation, and the problem how to notate different movements with different speeds, having no connection with a shared pulse.

This is going to be a bit of a technical story, I’m afraid. So, dear reader, a warning beforehand! Also I don’t want to bother anyone with my compositional hang-ups, but as this blog is dealing with the ‘work in progress’, inevitably the gory details of composing are part of it. Maybe a blog like this is not such a good idea; after all, you don’t want to take a look in the kitchen of the restaurant you’re having dinner, do you?

For those who are still with me, some general information: the piece is a recycling of a golden oldie, the 1970 hit 'Du' from Peter Maffay. Both players of the carts are walking alongside a tape with a recording of this song. So, that is the original material that shall be used as a sort of acoustic clay. The singer is using the text of the song, stretching the words, and using the megaphone as an extra device to modulate her voice (there's a 'morse' button on the megaphone that is used to modulate the voice with rhythms.). She's not so much singing. I thought the megaphone was necessary, in order to include the voice of the singer in the same kind of crappy sound world as the portable cassetteplayers: some sort of acoustical waste land.

When I started composing I had to choose which kind of notation I would use. First I was thinking of a score on the floor, a rolled-out wallpaper with arrows and numbers pointing out the car-drivers how to move. I rejected this idea, because a score like this only indicates positions, and no timing. For an installation-like piece this idea could have worked perfectly, but not for a theatrical song-like piece where the singer uses words and her timing has to be coordinate with the movements of the carts. I decided that the movements of the carts would be my starting point, and the music would be the mere result of these movements.

These movements could be indicated using conventional notation with some additional indications for the direction of movement, (e.g. an arrow above the note pointing out the direction). One step of the cart-mover would in principle equal one beat. In this manner it shouldn’t be too difficult to notate a dance-like movement.

This is all practical enough (one has to be practical), but it doesn’t produce the most interesting sounds. Cassette-tape has a very slow speed (4,75 cm/s) and in my opinion the most interesting sounds are those produced around that speed, when the ‘original’ so to speak is still distinguishable. Preferably slower, but a slightly higher speed is also great. A normal walking speed, being a great deal faster, produces very squeaky sounds, also nice as an incidental sound, but for me less interesting to explore structurally.

So it seems there’s a conflict between the piece as a dance-like movement and the piece as a musical composition. The music wants something different than the dance. Or is it?

Maybe it’s mostly a problem of notation I’ll have to overcome. Slower speeds of the car-drivers can be equally of interest in terms of movement, but they are difficult to relate to a pulse of around 70 beats/minute.

The first pages I wrote, were a rigid movement, some kind of hoketus between carts and singer, not too difficult to execute. I was thinking that this rigid, clockwork like motion might be an interesting counterpart to more fluid pulse-free (or seemingly pulse-free) sections of the piece. But I’m still not sure how to fix this free floating motion in a score. So here’s the challenge...

(first rhythmical part of the piece, after the introduction)