Tuesday, April 30, 2013
At the FARR, with a Canon
DEUX COUPS I
F So. You got your degree in composition at the University of Montreal...
R I studied composition at the University of Montreal between 1972 and '75...
F But you had started working on a version of the game in '71
R My games were created...
F Before your degree
R Before my degree
F Wait a sec...
R But I'd say, um... yeah, before my degree.
F How did it come to you?
R I think that the very first game I put together was DEUX COUPS and it came to me from the process of improvisation itself, it's... I was looking for systematic, um, ways, concepts that would be very... that would be purely improvised. Meaning that when you play jazz, you're playing with harmonic progressions, you're playing with melodies, you're working from a specific material, and you also play with a certain language that you can recognize and call jazz. And at that point in time, I... I was already very interested in improvisation, in jazz, but I was interested in, I was wondering, is there a way to improvise on other things than on the conventional language of jazz. From there I started looking for other colors, I started listening to contemporary music, and in those days it was Messiaen, Xénakis, Stockhausen... and I got interested in, rather than writing themes on sheet music and all that, finding what is very specific to improvisation, that is to say, the possibility of reacting, in real time, to a musical proposition. That's what fascinated me, and it's still what I'm interested in today; when I put together little games, I don't want to force people to do something in a specific time frame, I'd rather make them respond to something that is developing, growing in time. So you don't have a score that tells you, "Whup, you gotta slide in there", but a "score" that dictates, "react to this one", "react to that", "react in such a way", which forces you to be in the flow of music. All my games come from this idea of making musicians understand and acknowledge that they must react to each other, because that's the very essence of collective improvisation.
F Collective, because solo improvisation is what
R It's something else entirely... Solo improvisation is being by yourself with yourself, so, um... Yet at the same time, yet even then you can play games with yourself, you can say, "well, Ima do a first one, and then well, I take only the middle of what I just did, and I keep the beginning and the end and I'll develop them later", you're always reflecting on what you can possibly do, and your performance develops along these lines.
R I studied composition at the University of Montreal between 1972 and '75...
F But you had started working on a version of the game in '71
R My games were created...
F Before your degree
R Before my degree
F Wait a sec...
R But I'd say, um... yeah, before my degree.
F How did it come to you?
R I think that the very first game I put together was DEUX COUPS and it came to me from the process of improvisation itself, it's... I was looking for systematic, um, ways, concepts that would be very... that would be purely improvised. Meaning that when you play jazz, you're playing with harmonic progressions, you're playing with melodies, you're working from a specific material, and you also play with a certain language that you can recognize and call jazz. And at that point in time, I... I was already very interested in improvisation, in jazz, but I was interested in, I was wondering, is there a way to improvise on other things than on the conventional language of jazz. From there I started looking for other colors, I started listening to contemporary music, and in those days it was Messiaen, Xénakis, Stockhausen... and I got interested in, rather than writing themes on sheet music and all that, finding what is very specific to improvisation, that is to say, the possibility of reacting, in real time, to a musical proposition. That's what fascinated me, and it's still what I'm interested in today; when I put together little games, I don't want to force people to do something in a specific time frame, I'd rather make them respond to something that is developing, growing in time. So you don't have a score that tells you, "Whup, you gotta slide in there", but a "score" that dictates, "react to this one", "react to that", "react in such a way", which forces you to be in the flow of music. All my games come from this idea of making musicians understand and acknowledge that they must react to each other, because that's the very essence of collective improvisation.
F Collective, because solo improvisation is what
R It's something else entirely... Solo improvisation is being by yourself with yourself, so, um... Yet at the same time, yet even then you can play games with yourself, you can say, "well, Ima do a first one, and then well, I take only the middle of what I just did, and I keep the beginning and the end and I'll develop them later", you're always reflecting on what you can possibly do, and your performance develops along these lines.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Transcript of a Conversation between Robert M. Lepage, composer, cartoonist, and his daughter.
I am almost done transcribing over an hour's worth of small talk and deep thoughts on Robert's musical improv game and his career, and my memories growing up throughout. The French transcription I typed on a tiny, fussy blue thing; the English translation of the funner excerpts I will post up here shortly.
Transcribing I was interested in the sounds of casual conversation and how to spell them. There something strange about both of our speeches -- his is almost indescribable -- I don't hear its accent strongly, I mostly hear the tones, the texture, and the clarity. Mine is accented by many years spent in a French school and some years spent loosening up. And some eagerness, I suppose.
Top down: a 1983 programme for an evening of improv with Jean Derome and Robert M. Lepage; transcript p. 1: Dessine-moi un mouton is actually Dessine-moi une chanson and can be watched in full here; transcript p. 2: La Princesse Maladroite is one of Robert's characters; she can't dress herself very well so her dad makes her a onesie full of sleeves for arms and legs.
Transcribing I was interested in the sounds of casual conversation and how to spell them. There something strange about both of our speeches -- his is almost indescribable -- I don't hear its accent strongly, I mostly hear the tones, the texture, and the clarity. Mine is accented by many years spent in a French school and some years spent loosening up. And some eagerness, I suppose.
Top down: a 1983 programme for an evening of improv with Jean Derome and Robert M. Lepage; transcript p. 1: Dessine-moi un mouton is actually Dessine-moi une chanson and can be watched in full here; transcript p. 2: La Princesse Maladroite is one of Robert's characters; she can't dress herself very well so her dad makes her a onesie full of sleeves for arms and legs.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Writings on Pärt
...and writings of. This New York Times article recounts aspects of the life and work of Arvo Pärt, whom I am reading about in detail in a publication called Music & Literature: An Arts Magazine. I was struck by this particular image. I'm reminded perhaps of Xenakis' manuscripts, but especially of the way Prokofiev and Eisenstein would match the music to the storyboard, see below...
This would be in the years leading up to the release of Alexander Nevsky, in 1938.
P.S.: This post is largely an effect of stumbling into this delectable tumblr, which apparently is about to shut down. Fill your eyes...
Monday, March 11, 2013
Dr. JEKYLL & Mr. HYDE
A couple of weeks ago, Robert came over to discuss the ideas behind the dice game I'm using for the content of the watercolors. I'm still working on the full transcript, but here's the translation of an excerpt I was particularly interested in... I based my last watercolor, the one with the rats, on the idea. The excerpt starts as we're looking at a 1983 program for a night of improvisation where Robert and his friend Jean Derome played a few games and exercises before public.
R So you see, all these titles, they're already there... MINIATURES, QUEUE LEU LEU, DEUX COUPS...
F QUEUE LEU LEU... LEU LEU QUEUE, huh... MACHINALEMENT, ATTITUDES... INDIVIDUS NON-CONFORMES, you're still using that one... Dr JEKYLL & Mr. HYDE!?
R Yeah?
F Huhuhuhuhuh...
R See I played this one in Québec City and, well... it was pretty effective
F What is it? What's Dr JEKYLL & Mr HYDE?
R Well, it's, um... energy, when you try for instance to play a tightly controlled musical phrase, with intellectual constraints, and then you let loose
F So this restrained energy, you control it and then all of a sudden you BRÄÄÄÄ!
R Yes exactly. It's a rather interesting way to create sound... It makes for a rather neat improvisation, since you never know when it'll pop
R&F Huhuhuhuhuhuh...
R Give this to a couple of classical musicians...
F They'd probably break a rib...
R Oh, they have fun, it's great relief for them... For jazz musicians, however, it's a totally different thing, it's the structured part they have trouble with... They go "bop... pob... pop" and you can tell they're working hard and then pfffffffft! and then back to "bop... bob pop"...
F Whoah.
R So you see, all these titles, they're already there... MINIATURES, QUEUE LEU LEU, DEUX COUPS...
F QUEUE LEU LEU... LEU LEU QUEUE, huh... MACHINALEMENT, ATTITUDES... INDIVIDUS NON-CONFORMES, you're still using that one... Dr JEKYLL & Mr. HYDE!?
R Yeah?
F Huhuhuhuhuh...
R See I played this one in Québec City and, well... it was pretty effective
F What is it? What's Dr JEKYLL & Mr HYDE?
R Well, it's, um... energy, when you try for instance to play a tightly controlled musical phrase, with intellectual constraints, and then you let loose
F So this restrained energy, you control it and then all of a sudden you BRÄÄÄÄ!
R Yes exactly. It's a rather interesting way to create sound... It makes for a rather neat improvisation, since you never know when it'll pop
R&F Huhuhuhuhuhuh...
R Give this to a couple of classical musicians...
F They'd probably break a rib...
R Oh, they have fun, it's great relief for them... For jazz musicians, however, it's a totally different thing, it's the structured part they have trouble with... They go "bop... pob... pop" and you can tell they're working hard and then pfffffffft! and then back to "bop... bob pop"...
F Whoah.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Annotations, Drafts and Scribbles
I've always loooooved artists' drafts leading up to a finished project and so I'll scan mine and show you what I'm working from. Below you will see Robert's grids with my notes, my ghastly and cleaner drafts towards a weekly drawing, and a journal I keep from time to time to jot my ideas down and see where I'm at. And also a link to a newly discovered tumblr that is just full of it. Enjoy!
Monday, January 7, 2013
Musique ludique at the FARR
In 1971, an experimental musician started working on a dice game in Montréal. Each of the six to eight die, in the order in which they are thrown, determines a different aspect of a musical improvisation. The number of musicians, how they interact, sound textures and melodic progression are set before the performers and provoke a number of unexpected games -- Simon says, a school of fish, or the parrot, the stutterer and the repeater being only a few.
Some of the parameters evoke visual textures, characters, or situations. What of using this game to map out a short video, a sentence, or a narrative drawing? In the Reading Room can be found six die and a few sheets of paper to start a page of aleatory nonsense.
RULES
1. A word;
2. Throw the die;
3. Write down the results in the proper order.
I shall pull the numbers through a grid and end up with a drawing. And once the grid is up, anyone can do the same, really. At the end of the residency I will collect the weekly drawings and bind them in a book during an open workshop.
Meanwhile, here is a shelf, with the die, the sheets, doodles and a book. The book changes every week or so and is usually quite nice to look at. Coming up in January is also the musician himself, Robert Marcel Lepage, who will give and artist talk about his practice and the game. Notice will be posted.
Some of the parameters evoke visual textures, characters, or situations. What of using this game to map out a short video, a sentence, or a narrative drawing? In the Reading Room can be found six die and a few sheets of paper to start a page of aleatory nonsense.
RULES
1. A word;
2. Throw the die;
3. Write down the results in the proper order.
I shall pull the numbers through a grid and end up with a drawing. And once the grid is up, anyone can do the same, really. At the end of the residency I will collect the weekly drawings and bind them in a book during an open workshop.
Meanwhile, here is a shelf, with the die, the sheets, doodles and a book. The book changes every week or so and is usually quite nice to look at. Coming up in January is also the musician himself, Robert Marcel Lepage, who will give and artist talk about his practice and the game. Notice will be posted.
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