Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival blog Posts

4 x 10/10

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 11:23:32 +0000

As we enter into this last phase of rehearsing the four new pieces for our premiere at 14:00 in the Town Hall, I have been thinking about the journey that the four ECPDP composers have taken with Ensemble 10/10.

It is rare for composers to be given the opportunity to truly experiment with a large ensemble. Beginning in March of this year, we were given that chance. All four of us were allowed to try out sketches that used techniques and ideas that we might have been wary of using if we were in the typical situation of having only one or two rehearsals before an imminent concert. The ensemble made their best effort to realise everyone's sketches and gave honest and creative feedback in two workshops separated by several months. This process allowed each composer to stretch him/herself in new ways.

In the end, we have arrived at four distinct pieces for the same ensemble that emphasize very different aspects of the instrumental possibilities. Some of the pieces ask the ensemble to blend. Others aim for maximal instrumental differentiation. All of the works are in very different styles, but I think that, despite our great aesthetic differences, all four composers have benefited immensely from going through the rehearsal process with each other. Personally, I have found the process tremendously inspiring for my work going forward. I am very excited to hear the final products of our work with Ensemble 10/10 premiered tomorrow.

Elizabeth A Kelly ECPDP Composer working with Ensemble 10/10

ECPDP - Nieuw Musical Possibilities

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:51:59 +0000

The European Composers' Professional Development Programme enabled twelve composers to develop compositions with one of three different international ensembles. I was fortunate to be one of four composers working with the Nieuw Ensemble in Amsterdam. Having heard about funding cuts in the Netherlands before attending the second and final workshop, I wondered if there might be an air of resignation. This was not the case. We were treated to another intense experience in which the music was all that mattered. We worked hard and challenged one another, and spoke of the performance in Huddersfield with excitement and anticipation.

The players did not waste a second of our time. We arrived early, had coffee, chatted for a while, and then worked without interruption. Sometimes a long discussion would follow a point of contention. If Joel, the ensemble director, felt that we might gain something valuable he gave the discussion space, and demanded concrete examples if points made by players or composers seemed too general to be of use.

Until this year, I have had little experience of developing material in a workshop with a contemporary music ensemble. In the first workshop I was reluctant to present the sketches that were not typical of my style. Even though these were the sketches I was most curious about, I kept putting them off until the last available opportunity to hear them. That was the turning point. In the second workshop I began to feel less self-conscious - it was about the music, and how we could collectively make the ideas work, or improve on them. Realising that narrative and an association with the visual are defining features of my piece, I tried to communicate some of my ideas verbally - asking the players to characterize the musical material in certain ways, and describing their respective ‘roles' within these narratives. They responded well, and I could hear the music beginning to come to life.

The four of us - Andrea, Helen, Maurizio and I work in such different ways. I'm stunned by the clarity with which my fellow composers hear their respective sound worlds. I soak up information. How could the pieces end up being so different, when the ensemble has such a distinctive sound? I start thinking about the hcmf// performance and become a little nervous.

My musical ideas are becoming less ‘approximate'. I'm beginning to appreciate the value in working in detail from the outset, and this is opening up new musical possibilities for me. The players were amused and a little bewildered by my constant shifting of entire sections of music up and down octaves and by my last minute re-orchestrating on scraps of manuscript. I like the conductor's take on this - ‘your music is imaginative but your orchestration is a bit random...that's just inexperience. Don't worry so much about that'. Of course, I did worry, and have since worked tirelessly on the piece in the hope to put that right. I hope I managed it. I'll find out - a week from now.

Jonathan Brigg - ECPDP Composer working with the Nieuw Ensemble

Cinema trailer for Maja S K Ratkje documentary

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 08:58:35 +0000

Regular readers will know that we're taking a keen interest in Ingo J. Biermann's new documentary about our Composer in Residence, Maja S K Ratkje.

He's going to join the pre-concert talk with Maja on 18 November and screen excerpts of his film, and a further glimpse of what it will look like is provided by this lovely new trailer:

"This f***ing world is a waste of time"

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 10:48:56 +0000

At this year's festival, Crash Ensemble will be performing a new work by Glenn Branca that was co-commissioned by hcmf// and, if you arrive early (9.45pm), you'll get the rare opportunity to hear the great man speak about his work. Get a taste of what he might say with this excellent interview recorded last year with The Drone.

Sample quote:

"We're vicious, psychopathological beasts and the only reason I bother - even play the slightest bit of attention to this world - is because I love music".

Ingo J. Biermann's music video portrait

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 13:32:14 +0000

We've been chatting to filmmaker Ingo J. Biermann who's currently making a documentary about our Composer in Residence, Maja S K Ratkje. He's going to join the pre-concert talk with Maja on 18 November and screen excerpts of his film. We can't wait.

In the course of conversation, he mentioned this 'music video portrait' of Oslo artist Jenny Hval that he shot with Kai Miedendorp for The WIRE last year.

It's simple, effective and rather beautiful, don't you think?

Red Note Ensemble sound off

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:27:49 +0000

Here's a fun idea from our friends at Red Note Ensemble.

From Monday 24th September to Saturday 6th October, to take part and celebrate Social Media Week (http://www.facebook.com/socialmediaweekglasgow), they're asking people to record and email clips of their favourite noises.

This could be anything from a child laughing, to a coffee machine steaming milk, a door bell ringing or a champagne cork popping. All the mp3 sound clips, recorded on mobile phones, will be uploaded onto http://www.soundcloud.com/noisynoises.

To take part in Noisy Noises please record 20-30 seconds of your favourite noise on your phone and email the mp3 to noisynoises@rednoteensemble.com by midnight on Saturday 6th October and they'll upload them. The ones they like the best they'll make into a collage and play them at Noisy Nights at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh http://www.rednoteensemble.com/Noisy_Nights.html on Monday 8th October, so you can go and hear your sounds played in public.

Visit their Soundcloud page to hear what everyone else has sent them.

Happy capturing!

Find Red Note at:

http://www.rednoteensemble.com

http://www.facebook.com/rednoteensemble

http://www.twitter.com/rednoteensemble

John Cage's Song Books

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 07:18:01 +0000

Here's a nice little video of Robert Worby and others performing Cage's Song Books.

There are two connections to hcmf// 2012: Song Books is part of our programme and Robert is one of the BBC Radio 3 presenters who will host our talks programme at hcmf//. Hope this whets your appetite.

hcmf// head for TUSK Festival

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:06:58 +0000

Warm up for hcmf// 2012 with TUSK Festival which takes place from 5th-7th October in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Our Sarah will be going and is hoping to catch Rhodri Davies ahead of his hcmf// set. She’s also looking forward to Hild Sofie Tafjord who’s playing a solo set but is also known for performing in a duo with Maja Ratkje – our 2012 Composer in Residence.

We have nothing whatsoever against London, but we love this pen portrait of Newcastle that they’ve written on their site:

“Newcastle is a beautiful city in the North East of England – it’s much smaller, cheaper and less congested than London and has great travel links, whether arriving by air, rail or road.”

Can’t say fairer than that.

Visit http://tuskfestival.com for more information.

From Amsterdam to Bolsterstone - via giant shell-shaped tents

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 08:36:07 +0000

My working week started in a crisp, autumnal Amsterdam on Monday, after an intensive weekend of workshops with the Nieuw Ensemble, working with four young composers on our European Composers Professional Development Programme (ECPDP).

This is my second trip to Europe since I started in post as Learning and Participation Officer four months ago, and I’ve been lucky enough to observe the young composers' workshop material. They are composing for some of the most renowned ensembles performing in contemporary music today: Nieuw Ensemble, Icarus Ensemble and Ensemble 10/10.

Once completed (after some feverish final tweaks and revisions, no doubt!), each of the 12 ECPDP composers will have their work performed by their host ensemble during our European Composers’ Spotlight taking place on the Wednesday of the Festival. The composers have boldly met the challenge of working with such professional and respected ensembles and so far have yielded some extraordinary results. I can’t wait to hear the finished pieces.

Mondays are proving busy! My week usually starts with a trip to the edge of the Peak District to see Bolsterstone Male Voice Choir (BMVC) rehearse. The 80 strong choir has been dedicating their time to John Surman’s Lifelines, a work jointly commissioned by hcmf// and the BBC.

These songs, accompanied by saxophones and piano, deal with topics such as smuggling and the industrial revolution’s effect on communities in Yorkshire, and so who better to bring these tales to life than the earthy, characterful voices of a male voice choir (a multi award-winning one at that!).

I’ve yet to experience their post-rehearsal sing-along in the pub, but I’ve been told to be expected to chip in with my lowest bass tones when I attend their preparatory residential weekend in October. I’m not sure I’ll be able to live up to that request!

We’ve been careful to make sure that this year’s Learning and Participation Programme really covers the age spectrum, from well-seasoned singers in BMVC, to babies and toddlers in our upcoming performance of Korall Koral – a baby opera during the final weekend of the Festival.

I am incredibly excited about this unique project, which has been scored by Composer in Residence, Maja S K Ratkje. The performance will take place within an inviting, tactile world, contained within a giant shell-shaped tent. This structure will house creatures from the depths of the Arctic Ocean, which on closer inspection from the audience (and we will encourage close inspection!) will reveal themselves as instruments specially crafted for this immersive undersea world.

And that’s not the half of it! There’s plenty of preparation currently taking place for annual favourites such as hcmf// shorts and Pop-Up Art School, as well as the CeReNeM Masterclass in this year’s festival.

Has it really only been four months? I feel like I’ve been here forever. In a good way, a very good way!

A new documentary about Maja S K Ratkje

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:29:31 +0000

We've invited Ingo J. Biermann, director of a new documentary about Maja Ratkje, to come to the Festival to talk about his film. This is what he says about it on his site:

A cinematic feature documentary about Norwegian composer and performer Maja Ratkje. It is not only the portrait of a singular musician and singer, but the film will explore the sound and the nature of the human voice in all its facets.

Here's a sneak peak:

ECPDP Icarus Workshop I

Wed, 23 May 2012 12:13:36 +0000

Note to self: Italians know how to make music, and Italians know how to cook. I'm stating the obvious here (don't mind the stereotyping), but I just experienced these two truisms for the first time myself and I feel it worth reiterating. After a weekend of mind-expanding lessons in instrumentation paired with espresso and Parmiggiano-Reggiano, we have reached the end of our first workshop with Icarus Ensemble in Reggio Emilia, Italy. I am one of twelve composers chosen for this year's European Composers' Professional Development Programme, and one of four who are writing new pieces for Icarus Ensemble to premiere at hcmf// 2012. I will be blogging occasionally about my experiences in the programme, as will some of my Icarus-composing colleagues Ben Gaunt, Chikako Morishita, and Fátima Fonte.

The first day of our workshop involved extensive presentations by each of the ensemble members. They showed us one-by-one their plethora of techniques and tricks on flute, clarinet, electric guitar, bass guitar, accordion, sampler, and percussion, all the while revealing their individual preferences and musical personalities. As our ears perked at certain sounds, we asked questions and began complex dialogues and experiment sessions which at times resembled contortionism: "Ok, so you can do a descending microtonal glissando with the right manual of the accordion while keeping a steady tremolo in the left manual, but can you simultaneously press the register keys with your chin?" "Wow, that's great! Ok, now can you hum this line of counterpoint at the same time and play the tambourine part with your right foot?" (don't mind the hyperbole). The percussionist showed us his massive categorized list of instruments, with an accompanying 500Mb of digital photos of the gear. One by one we added items to the percussionist's list of instruments to bring for our rehearsal the following day: "I'll definitely need a full drum set...wait, how many frame drums do you have?...can you bring all of those giant metal pipes?...I've never heard a high octave of chromatically tuned almglocken before..." He stopped us when he thought his car couldn't fit any more instruments.

Much to our enjoyment, this level of excess was provoked from within the ensemble as well. The flutist brought not only bass flute, alto flute, ordinary flute with open-hole keys, ordinary flute with closed-hole keys, and piccolo, but also two traversi (baroque flutes), one tuned to A=415 and one tuned to A=440! It was a pleasure to indulge, to explore less-common techniques and instruments, and in the end we discovered many beautiful new sounds which will find their way into our works. Had the percussionist not brought his 15-kilo metal chain, and had the flutist not brought his traverso tuned to A=415, something would likely be missing from our final works, even if only indirectly. I suspect the real challenge for us all will be showing restraint in our use of the seemingly unlimited technical capabilities of the musicians. I, for one, have never felt so untouched by practical considerations and will have to firmly set enough constraints for myself to compose a work that has depth and focus.

For the second day of our workshop, the full ensemble read through sketches we composed for them before coming to Italy. Although most of us revised our sketches overnight, we felt a bit silly that our material did not at heart reflect the great knowledge we had just received the day before. Still, it was a chance for us to reciprocate a bit of our own ideas and style to the ensemble, and to test out a few possibilities regarding notation. It was also nice to hear the variety of approaches and aesthetics each of us composers are coming from, which sparked many conversations between us that carry on even now through email. At the end of the weekend, we all agreed that this intense exploration was the deepest lesson in instrumentation any of us had yet experienced.

Brains filled to capacity with new ideas and a firm grasp on the workings and spirit of Icarus Ensemble, we departed on Monday for our homes in the Netherlands and the UK. We will return to Reggio Emilia again in June for a workshop/rehearsal with our pieces, and in the meantime my colleagues and I will keep you informed about our new compositions for Icarus as they come about. For now, we stay busy composing, taking advantage of this incredible opportunity as best we can. Stay tuned...

Brendan Faegre

Almost there...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:43:56 +0000

The concert is just a few weeks away now, and everything has been sent to the ensemble. Apart from finishing the piece and struggling with the parts, in the last weeks I've also been involved in some other activities related to the ECPDP, which are worth mentioning here:

- I interviewed Marco Pedrazzini from Icarus Ensemble. We had a nice chat over the phone - topics included Romitelli's music, the present situation of Italian music, this year's ECPDP, etc. I'm now in the process of transcribing and translating the interview, which will be published here in the next few days.

- A business seminar for the four ECPDP composers from British institutions took place at the University of Huddersfield on 3 October. The session was opened by Graham MacKenzie, who gave advice on the best ways to establish relationships with festivals. This was followed by a two hour workshop with Elaine Gould from Faber Music, who gave us a lot of precious feedback on our scores and parts. The day was concluded by Nikki Cassidy, who discussed different approaches to self-promotion, mainly through the web. The whole seminar was chaired by Heidi Johnson.

- Some other good news: I've been contacted by the University of York Music Press, who offered to publish the scores written by the four UK-based ECPDP composers. I've also been asked to help with the Romitelli concert that's going to be played by Icarus on the 24 November: this is an honour for me and will definitely be the icing on the cake after the premiere on the 23 November!

Marcello Messina

I supikkjarìi - My piece for Icarus

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:02:35 +0000

The piece is almost finished now and very soon I'll send it to the ensemble - the deadline is the end of this month. I have to admit that, similarly to what I read in last year's blogs, I've been feeling under increasing pressure, basically being expected (or should I say expecting myself...?) to produce the best possible piece for such an important opportunity in my career. I don't remember having spent so much time rewriting and refining the material when composing any of my previous pieces.

Now that the piece is almost complete - well, I'll probably spend another ten days refining some bits and especially struggling with the parts - I'd like to write a few lines about it. The title I supikkjarìi means 'the abuses of power' in Sicilian, and is not so much referring to obvious and violent abuse (still, physical repression is becoming more and more fashionable in these days) as it is to a more subtle process of deterring potentially revolutionary instances by incorporating them into the ruling politico-economic system. This process is well described by such authors as Naomi Klein in No Logo or Slavoj Žižek in First as Tragedy, then as Farce. Klein shows how oppressed minorities gradually became the target of brands wanting to expand their market, so that the praise of diversity became part of the purchased commodity. Žižek goes a bit further and speaks about 'cultural capitalism': so, for instance, some groups come up with the claim that companies are responsible for innumerable ongoing atrocities at the expense of humankind and the environment, and then eventually manage to spread this consciousness to a quite large portion of the population? No worries, companies have got the solution: you pay an extra price and they promise they will take better care of the people and environment they exploit (or, at least, they'll do their best to make it look as though they're doing it). So what happens is that you, as a consumer, make up for the guilt inherent in the act of consumption by purchasing redemption as part of that very same act of consumption: 'It's all included in the price'. This is wonderfully explained in this video animation:

This process is eventually one of the recipes for the inhibition of dissent, probably more powerful than any direct physical form of repression, and is not only influencing our behaviour as purchasers, as described above, but is also likely to condition our choices as voters, mass-media spectators, etc.

So, for someone who's grown up in Italy, it's not hard to recall that, in the 90s and 2000s, anti-Berlusconi feelings were mainly exploited by Berlusconi's TV channels, that used to broadcast myriads of comedy shows with an openly satiric attitude towards him, thus attracting even the most radical parts of the public: while enjoying anti-regime satire we were thus creating profit for the ruler, basically making him and his allies more powerful and harder to overthrow (to give a better idea of the function of these TV shows, a parenthesis should be opened here about their farcical nature: according to the Russian philosopher Michail Bachtin, in fact, the carnivalesque derision of people in power is, in the end, an instrument of conservation of the power rather than an element of potential subversion).

Similarly, it's not hard to think about puppet parties, eventually in coalition with the mainstream political forces, created on purpose to attract, and basically rob, the votes of particular protest groups: those who are familiar with the long history of the struggle of Sicily (and, similarly, Sardinia and the continental South of Italy) against the central Italian politico-economic powers in demand of greater autonomy and less economic and infrastructural isolation may know what I'm talking about.

The piece is characterised by the alternation of moments of creation and moments of destruction by saturation/distorted replication etc. This alternation is facilitated by the co-existence, in the line-up, of electrical and acoustic instruments. In particular, I've used the sampler and various electric guitar and bass techniques, including an extensive recourse to the loop station, to create moments of sonic saturation that basically originate from the development of the material.

Compared to other recent pieces of mine, often characterised by a high level of fragmentation, this one is characterised by a more fluid transition between different sections.

Marcello Messina

A brief introduction...

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:58:27 +0000

We're approaching the end of July, it's been almost a month since the second and last workshop in Reggio Emilia with Icarus ensemble, and my piece is now due at the end of September.

First, a quick word about my background: my name is Marcello Messina, I'm a Sicilian composer based in Leeds, at present I'm doing a PhD in composition at the University of Leeds, but I have a past as a student of modern languages, literatures and philology (mainly Russian and other Slavonic languages).

The two workshops were really good, and that's why I decided to start this blog: in the next entries I'll post details about the musicians involved in the programme and about the piece I'm writing for them.

Marcello Messina

Work almost done

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:12:53 +0000

Well, everything has been finished and sent to Amsterdam.

The work on the piece, now entitled Equivalents, has been important for me this year acting as a counterbalance for the other increasingly less traditional ‘compositional’ work I’ve done this year to complete my Masters. In this respect, it has proved an invaluable experience.

The title, Equivalents, alludes to the controversial series of works by artist Carl Andre. His Equivalents I-VIII series (pictured) consist of the same number of identical bricks arranged in different ways (it’s worth noting that each Equivalent can also, and usually are, shown separately).

Something additionally important for me was that Andre also made a subsequent work, Cuts, (pictured below) which was a ‘negative’ of Equivalents I-VIII.

In short, these two works, both individually and conjointly, were very appealing to me. It’s becoming increasingly common that visual art is the impetus for me to create something, culminating in me actually regarding it as unnecessary to limit myself to activities specifically ‘composerly’ in medium. Taking a pointer from the first (and my favourite) generation of conceptual artists, I believe the idea to be the most essential thing for a piece for work - the medium I then choose to render it is of secondary concern.

In my work, this doesn’t mean that the idea is something concrete that can be cogently intimated to someone prior to completion of the work. Calibrating with artist Joseph Kosuth, if I’m asked about work I’m currently involved with, I’m likely to be fairly resistant (not to say incompetent!) in disclosing specifics as this instigates a process of self-sloganizing and ‘canning’ of a work before it has even been completed – hence my timidity in writing many blog entries here!

It’s also worth adding that I haven’t written any of this information in the programme note for the piece; I don’t see the role of the programme note as being some instantaneous ‘way in’ for a majority of audience members reading it. Resultantly, my recent programme notes can seem rather abstract, however, perhaps that’s only because they’re in written language, a medium most consider to be an exemplar of clarity.

The final hurdle will be the rehearsals and the performance, I’ll most likely close my eyes for the latter, the idea of a room full of people listening to my humble offering absolutely..!!…well, lets just say I imagine that I will wish to be somewhere else!

Thanks in advance to the Nieuw Ensemble, Joël Bons and the profound Pat Allison (whose piece I very much look forward to hearing) – Equivalents is dedicated to them. I’d also like to thanks Robbert van Steijn, Heidi Johnson, Stef and Ed for their help, support and company during the whole project.

Radio Kootwijk Live

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:04:51 +0000

What would you do if one of the world’s most respected contemporary music festivals asked you to curate a 20-60 minute programme with a maximum of four musicians?

Graham McKenzie, artistic director of hcmf//, posed this question to eight students of the Master of Music Programming in Arnhem, The Netherlands. As one of the students I can say we were honoured and humbled by the assignment and took the challenge to make a proposal with great enthusiasm.

We are eight Masters students in Music Programming. To make things clear: that is not with computers, but programming in the way Graham McKenzie does for hcmf//. After an entrance exam the courses started in September 2009. We are engaged with subjects and reflections about (music) programs, concepts, dreams, reality, marketing and finances. All students have a musical background, either as a musician or a musicologist and most of us have a working practise as a music programmer. This can be in jazz, classical, world, electronic or contemporary music. The one thing we have in common is that we want to move, affect, confuse and connect true music, energy, beauty and art.

One of the big questions that often rise in classes is Why? Why this? Why here? Why now? Why what? What’s the story? What’s the story of the music, of the composer, of the musicians? And why should this story be told?

So what is the story that we, this group of eight ambitious future programmers from the Netherlands, want to tell? Before answering that question I will explain a bit more about our working process. Because how do you get eight people with different backgrounds and ideas to curate a clear and strong performance?

In the working process we first discussed the qualities of hcmf//, the good, and yes also the bad. I won’t discuss these here, but I’ll share our conclusion: we want to question standard concert etiquette and discover new ways of presentation, that can contribute to the experience of the listener. Is there something wrong with the way composed music is presented on stages across the world? No, we don’t think so, but it may not be the only way. We believe that every age and place demands a contemporary way of programming that reflects and reveals the zeitgeist

We found likeminded musicians in a deserted concrete radio transmission building, that resembles both an Egyptian Sphinx and a gothic cathedral in 1920s art-deco style, situated in the beautiful surroundings of Dutch National park De Veluwe. Every two months a group of highly respected performing musicians, dancers, theatre makers, technicians and other artists gather here for three days to investigate the act of performing composed music and build new and other relations with the audience. The results from Radio Kootwijk Live, as this collective of musicians call themselves, differs from fragile to interesting to absolutely beautiful.

For the hcmf// performance we have chosen the theme Resonation. On one hand this can be interpreted as the hcmf// performance being a resonation of Radio Kootwijk Live’s many activities. On the other hand it stands for physical resonation of sound through instruments and bodies, and more metaphorical also about the aim of artists to resonate in and through the audience. There will be compositions from amongst others Michel van der Aa, Georges Aperghis and Jacob ter Veldhuis. For now I hope you have an idea of this part of the hcmf// program that takes place on Monday, November 22nd in Bates Mill. In future blogposts we’ll expound on the theme and the developments during rehearsals.

Shane Burmania, 29 September 2010.

On behalf of Frank van Berkel, Lisette Castel, Gert Gering, Ali Hendriksen, Guy van Hulst, Nick Moritz and Masa Spaan.

Earl Grey, Biscuits and SARDINES

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:00:34 +0000

Approaching now the deadline for our scores. It's been a gruelling process I think - to be not experienced in writing for larger ensembles is to miss out just how long it takes to write a single page, which may comprise 10 seconds of music. Also never before have I thrown out and re-written so much material! It is a mark of pride for a composer when he finishes a manuscript book and I've so far finished two in this process.

However it is a strangely appealing process as well - so long as you have enough material, and a concept which could be played out on every instrument, you could go on for hours combining and recombining instruments and dreaming up new and interesting combinations and sonorities and potentially not even dent the surface of what can be done with the ensemble and it's something that had I more time and infinite Nieuw Ensembles to perform it I might doggedly pursue in that however much I am frustrated with some of the material I'm writing (and I am!), I still want to get to the bottom of what it is to write for such an ensemble.

Another thought is how like painting it is - whereas in chamber music you're playing against the limits of the context and the instruments you are writing for, with large ensemble it feels like you are constantly thinking about colour and texture - instead of exploring limits you are constantly adding to what is there.

Another thought on this process is one of timescale - in the time between the workshops and now I have moved house, fallen ill, got better, lost relative, job and girlfriend, gained a teaching position and various friends and many musical influences. My whole approach to the ensemble has changed somewhat and I find it very interesting that all being considered the audience is very unlikely to know! Even the section I'm working on right now - a Trio section that's extremely fast - I've had to pause, stop, re-write and re-think many times - something that should all being well be undetectable in the final version...

Anyway - here's a round off with a glimpse at my thought processes. I'd initially come to the process with an idea of using Claude Le Jeune's 'Qu'est devenu ce bel oeil' as a kind of source material for tonal structure. I've stuck to this in general apart from one thing - I'm no longer going to include the original source material in the piece. For a long while I've been fascinated by this poem by Frank O'Hara.

What interests me is this monadistic relationship between the subject and the final artwork, and how something can be referenced and yet not there, in the way that the SARDINES in the painting are gradually painted over. Such is the case here with the Le Jeune in my piece.

Poised at a moment of indecision

Mon, 17 May 2010 12:44:31 +0000

Ok, so it’s the day before the sketches are due for the next weekend. I have sketches for 3/4 different types of material which I’m slowly evolving. I forgot about this, but I also have material which I didn’t get ready in time for the last weekend, which I may take as well just as a matter of interest (although my thoughts have moved on somewhat since then).

I’m finding it difficult not to just write for strings - the ensemble has a very rich combination (Vln, Vla, Vcl. Dbl Bs) and string writing is a bit of a comfort zone for me at the moment. I have some exciting material for strings and winds though which is based on my recent piece for Trio Atem (Sop. Fl. Vcl. Atem). Not to mention the difficulty of incorporating the plucked instruments. It’s also very difficult not to think of the groups as blocks - it’s undoubtedly easier to write for them that way! I was encouraged not to last time though so I should adhere to that notion!

So I’m at a point of indecision with one bit of material - I have some very nice, lush string writing which I’d like to leave intact, but if I do so I feel I really wouldn’t be taking advantage of the ensemble for what it is. Happily, this week I had a seminar at York given by Joe Cutler, and the nature of juxtaposition in his pieces was an interesting compositional idea - I might take that as a cue as to how to structure the slower string material...

It’s very difficult to make a decision at this point though! I’d much rather write my blog, or go and buy more coffee, or spend time on twitter (@eddjc).

I guess another thing to think about at this point, and it’s something I’m finding hard to get my head round, is the fact that what we’re producing is sketch material. In some ways it should make writing it easier - If for example I don’t like the juxtaposed material over the strings then I can always take it out later. This should be quite liberating, but I really am beginning to feel the pressure of needing to produce a final piece, and also to make the best use of my time when I’m out there i.e. utilising the whole group.

All in all I’m beginning to wish I had a couple more weeks to do this! Better get back on with it...

Edd Caine

Anxiety beginning to set in!

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:14:36 +0000

Well, it’s about time I started properly getting down to some work for the next Nieuw Ensemble weekend in Amsterdam. The deadline for sketches to be sent out to Amsterdam is the 15th May - scarily close! In the meantime I have also been chosen for Sound and Music/Cheltenham Festival opportunity to write a piece for Danish Accordion Duo TOEAC, which will be running at the same time - I go out to copenhagen to work with TOEAC *the week before* I go out to Amsterdam!

After the last time I stayed up all night typesetting a late submission (about 2 weeks ago) I told myself I wouldn’t do this again! Doh! In my defence, I have been very busy with my Late Music duties, and various bits of typesetting and website work.

So, here we go again. I thought I’d write this blog entry as a prelude to doing some actual work to get my head back into what I am composing. So, apologies - the next bit may seem like I’m planning my work (mainly because I am):-

What worked well from last time:-

The pitch material all seemed quite appropriate and did what I wanted it to do. It’s a good starting point. The string material also worked very well, and will make for a good start to some slow moving material.

The wind and plucked material didn’t work so well. I did realise however how I should be thinking of them in the context of the wider ensemble as a colour, so that’s a good starting point for both the ensemble writing and the plucked instrument writing. One texture in the wind involving “beating” did work pretty well though and I should explore that further.

The best bit of the whole experience was in my arrangement of the source material - this worked very well and clued me in a lot into the layout of the ensemble and what I can do with it. I should revisit it a bit and pull out the best bits.

To focus on for this time:-

At this stage, everything should be full ensemble. I should also work to incorporate Piano and Percussion. I have been working with a fantastic percussionist (Enrico Bertelli of Brake Drum Percussion on a film score project recently so I might call on his help beforehand. I have some ideas for the piano as well. I find piano particularly difficult to write for because I am a pianist. Also it doesn’t quite fit with the texture again. I think I should be thinking of it more in the same terms as the plucked instruments.

Hmm. Lots to think about! At the moment, I have two main textures in mind that might make it into different movements.

I won’t lie - I’m very nervous about this second weekend! Time to get down to it.

Edd Caine

Belated thoughts on the first weekend

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 07:43:50 +0000

Seeing as Edd has done such a fine job in summarizing the weekend?s activities, I will briefly draft a few personal responses to the first Amsterdam events.

Admittedly, I had a somewhat of a crisis before making the trip. It had been many years since I had the chance to write for so many instruments (a trio being the largest ensemble I have written for in the last 3 years!) – having all those sound possibilities at your disposal isn?t as luxurious as one might think!

Additionally, my high regard for the Nieuw Ensemble compounded my anxiety; I felt the pressure of the ?this piece needs to be amazing?-syndrome.

Well, that caused all sorts of problems! Personal drama aside, I eventually did get a few morsels of material scribed, I thought they had potential to be stretched and explored in a workshop.

Satisfyingly, the first day?s workshop was a real success for me. The sounds produced were interesting and the players seemed to be authentically engaged with the material and possible extensions of it. Looking back, I?m also very pleased with how I led the workshop too - quite a miracle considering how anxious I was that week
before!

As Edd has mentioned, Pat and I stayed in that night and furiously produced some material for the next day. Our thoughts were along the lines of: ?if the Nieuw Ensemble is at your disposal, make the most of it!? I think Steph and Edd had focused on this before the workshop, impressively producing considerable amounts of work. I also admired how Pat quickly rendered something strikingly cohesive and assured for Sunday?s session.

I went away from the workshop feeling galvanized. Jöel had been generous to us all in his comments. I was personally heartened and encouraged by what he had said. I have been thinking about the work to be done since the workshop, ideas since then have been multiple and disparate: I?m intrigued to see how things (un)fold. The main thing that I think needs addressing is form: how to enable the evolving material to have multiform applications within the (probably tiny) space that I delineate for the sounds themselves.

Finally, I know Pat and I (perhaps Edd and Steph too?) feel that having now met some of the players that will be playing our music, we feel that there is a connection established. I hope that there is a feeling that we are working together to create something; I?m writing for them now, not blindly to some imagined figure as before the first workshop. The fact that they were also so understanding, open and genuinely enthusiastic is extremely beneficial for any composer willing to take risks and extend themselves; I?m certainly willing to fail whilst attempting!

Johnny Herbert

4th day: the end of the project?

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:00:06 +0000

I stayed up late on Thursday evening sorting out the programme and the collation of all the new techniques and approaches and questions and Bob stayed up much later editing the first draft of the film of the children.

I was really pleased that on editing the material I discovered that every child had directly invented at least one new technique or approach. Thirteen new inventors, composers, choreographers and creative people who hopefully won't have their playful creativity squashed or repressed as they age into primary school and beyond.

Friday morning - we went to the nursery. We re-arranged the room, and Bob set up the projector and the AO white plastic projector screen on the piano. We welcomed in the children, their staff, some friends from the LBT, some other children from the school, the head-teacher, some of the adult group and lots of parents all on the floor or very small yellow chairs. In fact we had a parent/relative or carer for every child apart from one.

Later we chatted to the parents who really enjoyed it and though, in many cases, their offspiring did not directly talk to them about the project, there was enough energy or buzz about what was going on to inspire the mums and dads in. Emma and Isobelle (nursery staff) were really pleased and surprised by the turn-out.

Pat and I played a tune on melodica and recorder, we watched the film Bob had made (about 9 minutes) and then uncovered the piano. There was much playing at this point, which we curtailed after about maybe seven minutes. Very interesting to observe two girls who had not been in during the week, but came to school on the Friday. One, named Pearl, was clearly in need of having time to play the piano on her own as all the other children had, but in this context it was not quite possible. She looked very disappointed as every time she played others accompanied her.

The room got very hot and there was a real buzz. We ended with 'If You're Happy and You Know It', Five Little Monkeys and the Piano Bedtime Lullaby.

During the afternoon after we had watched Liz reverse ever so slowly and slightly into a taxi, we had a quartet rehearsal (Jac, Pat, Bob and I), trying out ideas from the new techniques for the evening. Some we tried and rejected, others we tried and felt that they would be great without further 'rehearsal', others we knew would work without even rehearsing.

The duet of Pat and Jac with elbows on piano was very wonderful to observe. Also nice to have a time to play, especially for Bob who had been so tied up in his filming, documenting and observing that he had not really had time to 'play'.

At 6.30 we gave a performance of Piano Dances in St Paul's Hall. I prefaced it by playing simultaneously two-pianos in a new phasing piece. We then watched the newly edited film which Bob had worked on in the afternoon. Finally a series of new pieces in solos, small groups and full group (22 performers).

NEW PIECES

1.   A Spell for the Piano - Based on Question 21
2.   Solos Together - Everyone chose one new technique or approach from the list, but especially Approach 15
3.   Playing Other People's Hands - Developing Technique 6
4.   The Piano Fairy - Inspired by Question 13 and also Approach 27
5.   Full-Group Bob - Starting from Approach 31 and going elsewhere...
6.   Graceful Elephant Teapots - Using Technique 4 as a starting point
7.   Kneading - A small group performance of Technique 7
8.   A Line Around The Piano - From Approach 4 and Questions 3, 9, 10 and 11
9.   Putting The Piano To Bed - Approach 40 and Question 15?

My favourites sonically were 'Kneading' - a kind of mix of Messiaen and Ligeti - and 'The Piano Fairy' - a wonderful original conceit. I also loved the choreography of 'Solos Together' and performing in 'Putting The Piano To Bed'.

We ended by bestowing a professorship of Keyboard Choreography upon Jac Gaile (prof KCC), only the second such position in the world.

Most of the performers went to a nearby Thai restaurant for a meal afterwards. Very lovely to be together socially. I instigated a Japanese tradition which is at the after-performance party to share round and read the evaluation forms together. They were all (all the ones that Heidi had collected) very positive and effusively generous. We shifted tables and managed to talk with most people, and then home late and tired, but with a very warm and harmonious feeling.

The day after Piano Dances Pat and I travelled south together, leaving Huddersfield and its sleet for the sunshine of South Devon. We were performing at the Plymouth Contemporary Music Festival, a programme of live music to a selection of silent films. We were chatting with Eduardo Miranda, the festival director, and explaining Piano Dances and he was very intrigued and enthusiastic. 'Maybe you should come and do it here next year?' So maybe we will. Roll on volume 4 of Keyboard Choreography wherever it may be.

Now I need to find some time to sleep.

Hugh Nankivell

Thursday 3rd day

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:43:42 +0000

Now finished all the workshop sessions at the nursery and with the adults. A real contrary emotion of a day.

In the evening the group made beautiful keyboard choreography and there was a clear feeling of a group and a shared energy. There was much laughter, thought and some tears.

As Hilary left she asked 'what am I going to do next week without you'? She played a beautiful piano solo while looking at her self-portrait, but prefaced it by saying that she couldn't play the piano. Of course she could.

In the morning, Jac led the session and we drew happy pictures of ourselves and Jac asked us whether the piano was happy or sad and what its name was and whether it was a girl or a boy?

Everyone did portraits and most then put the portrait onto the piano and played from it. There was some energetic and delicate solo playing and also a mix of group playing, but a lot less playing of the piano than on the previous days. It really felt like the piano was becoming part of the furniture of the nursery.

Serenna was obviously not well (she kept holding her ear and looked very sad) and her playing was without bunny-hops and was very doleful. Sophie again played and squeaked and was FULL of joy and Gael played with great confidence. There was quite a long stretch of time today without much attention paid to the piano and there were far fewer new techniques and approaches that we discovered, but by contrast there was lots of repeat-playing of earlier material.

Today there was a picnic at the piano and phone calls using cheese and calculators.
We ended with singing together and I led a lullaby story-song for the piano which had the following lyrics before we put the piano to bed and covered it up.

Bed time
Twinkle twinkle
Night night
Night night.

When we analysed the video in the afternoon we had a very good discussion about what age it is that a child loses the un-self-conscious-playful-exploration? This came about because one girl (and only one) seemed to play the piano mainly to attract adults attention or to be noticed and she was very clear about what we could or could not do at the piano (no picnics for instance!) whereas the others played it without reserve.

The new things we discovered were:

Techniques

1.    Play a note and hold it down, then add other adjacent notes and hold them down. Then take the hand off and do the same again. use thumb sparingly. Smudging. Serenna.
2.    Play with both hands. Only using index fingers. Contrary motion at all times, firmly. Contrary Index. Gael.
3.    Sit under the piano and play with the pedals with your hands. Pedal Hands. Lautrelle and Chloe.

Approaches

1.    Draw a picture of how you feel. Put the picture on the piano. Play.
2.    Place your score on the keyboard, covering some of the keys. Play.
3.    Phone someone up and ask them to play the piano with you. See what happens.
4.    Play your own hand, (from day one).
5.    Play while jumping at the keyboard, synchronised or unsynchronised. Morgan.

Questions

1.    Is the piano a boy or a girl?
2.    Does the piano have a name?
3.    Is the piano happy or sad?
4.    When you put the score on the piano music stand how do you know which way up it should be?
5.    Is the piano in good working order?

We have now made a set list for tomorrow evening of new pieces all of which are generated from the playing we observed in the morning. Our set-list will include

A Spell for the Piano
Solos altogether
The Piano Fairy
Full-group Bob
Playing other people's hands
Graceful Elephant teapots
Kneading
A Line Around The Piano
Putting The Piano To Bed.

We will have a sharing at 11am in the nursery and show them a compilation video with parents and friends and then a 6.30pm concert in St Paul's.

We ended the session this evening talking about how tomorrow we will be playing a different piano from the one we have developed a relationship with during the last three evenings and whether this is adulterous behaviour. The piano has been developing a character in a way that I have not experienced before, but perhaps I have been careless and fickle in my past piano dealings as, although I love the acoustic piano very much, I have in my time lost both a grand piano and a player piano.

Hugh Nankivell

Wednesday - 2nd Day

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:43:03 +0000

Just back to Meltham, after another long day.

We left in thick slushy snow that melted during the day and came back to bare potholes.

Bob led the hour at Christchurch Woodhouse nursery. We had three new children with us today and lost three from yesterday.

Everyone again played the piano, in groups and solos. There was only about 90 seconds of time when no-one was playing the piano.

We are blessed with having a very quiet piano, such that when three or four children are playing it loud with fists and elbows and the sustain pedal pushed down, it doesn't seem to dominate the room in the way that pianos sometimes can. It will be really interesting to see what the nursery does with the piano when the project finishes. Will it become another toy in the room? Will they move it? How quickly will it disintegrate? How will the piano feel?

Great to see some players play a similar solo to the one they did yesterday (Chloe, Serenna and Lautrelle for instance, and it was great in the afternoon comparing the video of the solos from day one to day two) and then also to see how some of them developed and changed and extended their playing (Sophie and Serenna) and to have the new players who came in and had to just get their heads down and play (Kaden, Brody and Doris).

We found 6 more new techniques, 20 new approaches and 7 extra questions to add to the list from yesterday. Here are the new list of techniques discovered today, we gave each one a title and then the name of the inventor(s).

Techniques from day 2

1.    Play the keyboard and lower your head below the keyboard to look underneath while still playing, then bring the head back up, still playing. Peek-a-boo. Lautrelle initially copying Brody.
2.    Both hands close together on the keyboard, use all the fingers (not thumbs) to make wave patterns. Waves. Sophie.
3.    Play the piano with nose on the keys and using both hands. Piano Close-up. Serenna.
4.    Raise both hands left then right, above your head, fingers pointing out, spiky hands, then bring them down crashing to the piano, right hand just before left hand. Witches Flam. Georgia.
5.    Press the end-blocks (and other parts of the piano that are not keys) to see if they move and what sound they make. End blocks. Serenna.
6.    Play deliberately with one hand - only using the index finger, but approaching from high above the keyboard. Crane. Chloe.

In the evening session we made many more new pieces, using the work of the nursery children as the starting point. We also had much great discussion and laughter.

To begin with we shared personal stories about pianos. We tried a meditation 'Don't play the piano and put it from your mind' (I found it almost impossible), and we cast spells on the piano and talked about pianists as a breed.

Bob drew a line around the piano and we had to play it from behind that line.
The session ended with Chris completely covering four prone piano players and the piano with chairs as they played.

Hugh Nankivell

Tuesday - first day

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:32:54 +0000

We had a great morning with the nursery group - 10 children one aged 2, one aged 4 and the others aged 3. We were a big group of adults in their small space.

Barry had done wonders with the tuning of the piano and in retrospect it was quite a quiet piano and even when lots of people were playing at the same time it was not too noisy.

There were many wonderful moments; when Chloe played her solo and everyone listened rapt, also when Morgan went to the piano and played without making any sound. A real '4.33' performance with silence from the audience.

Afternoon analysing the video and loving the upside-down seasickness of Jac's flip videoing.

We came up with 11 new techniques, 20 approaches and 15 questions.

Here are the questions.

QUESTIONS

1) What is a piano?
2) How near do you have to be to be enraptured by a piano?
3) How far from the piano can you be and still be a piano player?
4) Is the piano a road or a garage?
5) When someone plays the piano for the first time, can you tell what they are going to play?
6) How do you open a piano?
7) What is it about leaving the piano that makes you cry?
8) Are you aware of the audience when you are playing and does it affect your playing?
9) Is the piano a height chart and a reach chart?
10) How territorial can the piano be?
11) What does it mean to share the piano?
12) What does the piano stool represent?
13) Is there such a thing as a piano fairy?
14) Why might you need to wear a hard hat at the piano?
15) How do you say goodbye to the piano?

In the evening we explored many of the ideas discovered in the morning with a lovely group of open-minded adults, including trying out question number 5. The answer was (generally) no!

Roll-on tomorrow.

Hugh Nankivell

Monday

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:56:38 +0000

Cold Monday in Huddersfield, but warm people. Visited the nursery school and met Emma and Isobel and visited the space, which will be warm and cosy, and saw the 'new' piano that has been donated. Barry later was tuning it and was very glad when we said that it didn't need to be raised to concert pitch. It is very flat and battered.

Planning the project at Huddersfield Uni. The team is me - composer and musician, piano player and melodica. Bob - actor, director, improvisor, film-maker and much more. Jac - speech therapist and educational interest in early years and playful. Pat - composer and musician, guitar, bass.... We all have different interests and expertise, but a real desire to see what happens when we explore creativity with three year olds and then analyse this and take the upcoming ideas and work on them with adults.

We spent some time discussing how we might notate and describe the new techniques. if we are too detailed will this give enough scope to the adults in their creativity and will it reduce the possibility of mutations, which is of course one of the main ways in which we evolve and change.

Hugh Nankivell

KCC

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:54:14 +0000

Tomorrow we start the Huddersfield leg of the world tour that is Keyboard Choreography Collection. I'm coming back to my old home and really looking forward to it. The warmth of the people and the cold of the snow!

A year ago, in January 2009, I began a new project with Japanese composer Makoto Nomura in the north of Japan. A wonderful theatre called Ezuko Hall just south of Sendai invited us both to come and lead a new project, and so Nomura asked what ideas I was interested in. I said that, since moving to Devon I had been working with pre-school children, searching for pianos and exploring ideas with dance companies, and perhaps a project that incorporated all three would be good. And from that Keyboard Choreography Collection (aka Piano Dances) was born.

Nomura and I, working with a dancer Shin Sakuma, spent each morning with a nursery (The Elephant House) encouraging the children to play the piano, in whatever way they wanted. We filmed the sessions and spent the afternoon analysing the video - discovering many new techniques and approaches which in turn raised a whole series of questions. We then worked with adults each evening using these techniques to create and develop new pieces of music/dance/theatre.

In July of 2009 we then brought the project to England and ran similar programme at The Sage Gateshead and The Baltic Gallery, again playing with a nursery (and a piano from freecycle) and a group of older adults from The Silvers.

Now we are coming to Huddersfield and tomorrow meet the nursery and see the spaces and plan the sessions. I can't wait. This time I am working with Bob Lockwood, Jac Gaile and Pat Allison, none reknowned (yet) for their dancing skills.

Hugh Nankivell

Thoughts from the first weekend

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:19:53 +0000

Things learnt:

1) Never be late when people are being paid to be there
2) Always come prepared with sketches and ideas - stay up late doing them if needs be!
3) Plan ahead
4) If unsure of something, ask
5) When dealing with players, good communication is key!
6) Make sure your recording equipment is working, and on! (we lost the first session)

Notable people in the ensemble:

Joël Bons, Artistic Director

Joël's comments are incisive, penetrating and above all extremely helpful! He's very concerned with the minutia of performance and will point out the tiniest thing that you didn't even notice was a problem. Joël is also your translater for the musicians, both in language terms (although they all speak excellent English) and in terms of getting the best out of them. The other thing I was impressed with is that Joël is sceptical of the performers as he is of the composers - He will always be your advocate if you're struggling to communicate your ideas and the performers are getting uncomfortable with what you're asking. This is essential if you are being experimental, and so helpful!

Ernest Rombout, Oboe

Ernest, apart from being one of the best oboe players I've yet met, has the air of a charming and helpful academic, always patient and willing to discuss technique in great detail. As I was dealing with multiphonics, a touchy subject in the best of cases, Ernest very patiently explained that I was unlikely to get the clarity of multiphonic I was after and that I should specify types. i had basically specified just a couple of pitches. When I thought the session was over I thought I had finished - I turned away then heard a cry - it was Ernest having found a good multiphonic for what I was after - in the next minutes he'd found a range of fantastic sounds and offered to write down the fingerings. Wonderful!

Helenus de Rijke, Guitar

A Paul McCartney lookalike in his youth, Helenus was again charming and helpful, and very patient with my (deliberately basic) questions.

Rob Dirksen, Bass

Morton Feldman lookalike Rob was inestimably cool and came up with some great sounds over the course of the workshops. Most notable was playing the bottom of the tailpiece with the lowest string - it made the room vibrate!

General Thoughts

It was so nice to just compose for a weekend, away from my crowded life. When I wasn't workshopping my stuff, I was sat at the side sketching, typesetting, reading technique books and more importantly listening to other people's workshops, from which I learnt a lot. Doing this, and working hard before and during the weekend, I really felt I got everything I could have got from it!

It is tiring though - I got barely any sleep the week before, and very little sleep while I was there. I'm now having a lazy day to make up for it though. It was totally worth it!

Amsterdam is beautiful.

Ernest came up with a fantastic technique, which I choose to call the "Rombout Tongue Trill". Or maybe the "Rombout Roll"?

Quotes

"It was interesting 50 years ago" (Me, about Cage)

A good name for a band, and album: "Personal Hugbear: A Fluffy Grudge" (Stef and Me)

Edward Caine

Lazy Day Monday

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:28:49 +0000

Well, I'm back from Amsterdam and completely wiped out! I've had a really fantastic weekend with the Nieuw Ensemble - they're all really helpful, and I had a great time working with them.

Friday

We met at Leeds Bradford Airport, me and Stef having travelled there together, then meeting Johnny and Pat in the airport. We then got on our plane and were met in Amsterdam by Neils, who was a student of Joël's. It was very nice to meet someone off the plane as Amsterdam was at first a little daunting!

Once we'd got to our guesthouse (an extremely friendly little house run by a seafairers mission charity with very comfortable rooms and a nice atmosphere) we went out to find a pub to get to know one another. Ironically the first one we went to was an English themed pub!

One of the nicest things about this weekend was just spending two straight days jawing with composers about all things musical! Debate was intense with Pat and Johnny coming from a more experimental angle and me and Stef coming from more of a traditional angle, but all was good fun and there's nothing like a good musical debate!

Saturday

Getting slightly lost on the way to meet Jasper (our contact with the NE) at the station we nevertheless got there for 10am, having crossed the river in the free ferries you get in Amsterdam. There was some startling architecture on the way! The Nieuw ensemble themselves have a nice little den in a commercial lot in the back end of an industrial estate. Not much to look at from the outside, but a nice large square room inside with a mezzanine office. The large rehearsal space was littered with stands, instruments and exciting boxes full of percussion. It was a veritable musicians playground and 'lair' if you can imagine that.

We had introductions. I took scores with me because I was told I needed to give a talk about my work but actually all it amounted to was a "say your name and a sentence about yourself" type of thing.

Then it was straight into the workshops. We started with my material because the parts were ready. The string material worked really well and with some constructive comments, particularly from the double bassist (about reach). I did my material in sections - Strings, Winds and Plucked (apparently very common for composers to do that). The two sections I was less confident about - winds and pluckeds - went as badly as I thought, but I found it very constructive and later had a session with just those instruments in an effort to get my ear in and understand them a little better.

Session format was completely open - it was amazing having a whole ensemble there to do your bidding - if you felt you needed something, just ask. Planning was a must though - the whole ensemble was there Saturday morning, but nobody had any tutti material!

That night me, Stef and Joël went to the Chinese opera in the amazing Musiekgebouw - it was bonkers and virtuosic and altogether awesome. Johnny and Pat, after eating with us in a nice Thai Restaurant, went home to sketch stuff for Sunday.

When we got back that night I stayed up until 3am sketching a tutti arrangement of my source material for the next day, and finishing some sketches for Oboe, Percussion and Double Bass.

Sunday

Having requested a special percussion session (Johnny and Stef were particularly interested in the Chinese percussion) we needed to get there for 9am as the percussionist had to leave early. unfortunately we misjudged timing and were 25 mins late - got a rounded reprimand from Joël, quite rightly, and felt heartily ashamed. Lesson learnt.

Then we launched into a tutti session - we all by then had tutti material. On Saturday, we tried to plan ahead and thought we wouldn't need a conductor so he was sent home on Sunday, however, we then realised we did but it was too late. The upshot was - I got to conduct! Amazing! This was a real boon to me as I do conduct a fair bit, but I never get to conduct such amazing musicians! That gave me a real buzz.

My tutti arrangement of "Qu'est devenu ce bel oeil" went down really well and sounded fantastic. It was rather hurried and had some mistakes in the score but it was a real blast hearing something come out well. We didn't have time or resources to try out my Ob. Perc. Dbl Bs material but that's not a problem - more for next time! Stef, Pat and Johnny's material all sounded interesting and it was in general a very good day.

We then had an evaluation, where we discussed how we felt our sessions and material went with Joël, who seemed in general very positive, and then details about organisation with Heidi. The organisation feedback was a little awkward because there were a couple of points for improvement in the run up to the weekend and a couple of fine details, but the consensus was that the weekend itself could not have been organised more thoroughly and positively, and that the helpfulness of the astute Joël Bons and the organisational skills of the indomitable Heidi Johnson were very much appreciated!

Then we headed back to the station and airport, stopping off briefly for a wonder round Amsterdam. Heidi had arrived early morning and was with us all day and so accompanied us back, which again we might have had trouble with on our own!

Edward Caine

Frantically Creating

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:25:23 +0000

OK, so Amsterdam is looming up (we go out on Friday) and I'm frantically trying to create what I deem as enough appropriate material for the first set of workshops. I thought it might be helpful to explain the type of material that I'm taking out there for any future participants - although I can't say for certain that I'm making the right kind of sketches -

The piece is to be based on a medieval chanson 'Qu'est devenu ce bel oeil' by Claude Le Jeune - you can listen it here:

I first came across it when listening to Salvatore Sciarrino's 'Lucie mi traditrici'. My first instinct is to fragment the chanson into instrinsic section and then to use the shape and harmonic 'field' to generate material.

The main thing I am interested in at this point is the nature of the instrumentation in the ensemble, so I am creating lots of fragmentary sketches for different combinations and different types of material. Something I noticed quite quickly is that, to my knowledge at least, the whispery legato string music I've been writing is not transferable over to the guitar, harp and mandolin. Those are three instruments that I really want to focus on when I'm over there - they're difficult to write for! Also their very presence dramatically changes the type of material you write

I'm thinking at this stage that I'll probably write a three movement/section piece - the material I'm using lends itself very well to slow moving, beatific chords, however the ensemble also dictates a leaning towards staccato material. At this point I'm finding the piano a little difficult to reconcile too - but then I'm a pianist, and find it very hard to write for my own instrument...

Also I have a nagging feeling that what I really want in the middle of it all is a trombone! I'll quash that one - I am excited to be writing for Double Bass though!

Back to it - sketches are needed yesterday!

Edward Caine

Coffee and Manuscript

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:09:48 +0000

Well, it's time I got on with sketching material for the first workshop in Amsterdam and, in keeping with the perennial rules of procrastination, write my first blog for the HCMF website at the same time. That's why I'm here in my office at 10pm, jug of coffee steaming away, pistachio nuts and dried apricots on standby to stave off even the suspicion of hunger (I have a tendency to binge eat while composing). Now also staving off the temptation to pop down to the bar for a drink.

A bit about myself - I'm a composer based in York - doing a PhD in composition. I am shortlisted with Sound And Music (formerly SPNM) and get performances of my work with various ensembles and festivals/concerts. Most commonly my work is performed at the Late Music Concert Series (http://www.latemusic.org/concerts), where I help organise the concerts and publicity.

I also have a number of different jobs to fund my PhD - I am "Music Tutor" for Vanbrugh College, a role which has expanded dramatically and I am now running 3 ensembles, organising workshops, teaching orchestration and privately mentoring ensemble leaders. I am also welfare tutor there, which involves looking after the undergrads. I also work for University of York Music Press (www.uymp.co.uk), accompany at a school, perform in a jazz restaurant and do graphic design and website programming. I do some typesetting on the side and also will be teaching adult daytime classes on contemporary music soon.

All of which has made it very difficult to get down to writing anything in advance of this weekend! Not to worry - I used to be known as "Two-minutes-to-midnight" at school because that's when I'd start my work. I have got better though!

I'm really excited about the weekend and looking forward to getting stuck into some composition and collaboration. The HCMF are being fantastic organising travel etc. and I anticipate a fun and instructive time!

Right - better get back to it!

Edward Caine

Looking Back

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:25:01 +0000

It feels great to look back on a year working with and writing for the Nieuw Ensemble. Composing for the group posed many new challenges which were rewarding to overcome. The weekends in Amsterdam were very informative and the concert at HCMF was a fantastic event for all four of us. Special thanks are due to Heidi Johnson for all her hard work on the project. The recording and score of and darkness sweeps in like a hand can be heard and seen here.

Ben Isaacs

On reflection...

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:00:14 +0000

The experience of working with the Nieuw Ensemble this year has been very positive for me. I feel I have developed as a composer through participating in the programme and I was pleased with the performance of my piece. I enjoyed the weekend workshops earlier in the year and relished the opportunity to write short sketches without the immediate pressure of creating a final piece. The final performance fulfilled a lifelong ambition - to have a piece performed in the festival - and I am happy to say that the guitar is still out of the cupboard...

Jenny Jackson

The Last Phase

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:44:20 +0000

Work on my Nieuw Ensemble piece is in its last phase; roughly a quarter of the notation is complete. Pictured are two pages of an overall plan. Each box represents a single phrase, a small gestural compound characterised by a low dynamic and a slow but noticeable rate of change. This may be a soft tremolo beating on a muted glockenspiel, a focused strumming of an upper-register mandolin note, or a slowly sliding harmonic fingering on a bowed string. The highlighted boxes are those in which pitched material is present, with the uncoloured phrases contributing to the muffled darkness from which individual details emerge. The distribution of pitched material, in its gradual diffusion across the ensemble, mirrors the fragile unpredictability one finds within each phrase, the whole piece then becoming a slowly fluctuating, tense aggregate.

Inspired by:

James Saunders – #211007

Joanna Bailie – Five Famous Adagios

Evan Johnson – Colophons (“That other that ich not whenne”), reflecting pool / monument

Roland Barthes – The Pleasure of the Text

Mark Z. Danielewski – House of Leaves

Ben Isaacs

Time to get serious...

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:16:10 +0000

With the workshop weekends fading into the distance and the impending first performance looming dangerously in the not so distant future I am, officially, starting to write the piece for the Nieuw Ensemble. Soon...

I'm currently in the throes of pre PhD viva panic (preparation) and feel (hope) that the floodgates will open once this has happened (14th July - all goodwill messages gratefully received). At the moment I can't remember how you start... Eek.

Jenny Jackson

Sketches are all very well...

Wed, 06 May 2009 09:42:45 +0000

Having recently returned from the second workshop weekend, for which I prepared a further four sketches, I am in the process of listening back to recordings and evaluating the results. The eight sketches I have written overall enabled a familiarisation with the distinctive sound of the Nieuw Ensemble and it has been a fun and informative process. Somehow I persuaded myself that the sketches were just for the workshops and found them easy to produce as they carried no value beyond the purpose of discovery and experimentation. Now, however, I am faced with the reality of writing the final piece and the thought of the first perfomance is making the task appear both exciting and daunting, possibly to the point of immobilisation. I'll try not to project too much...

Jenny Jackson

Preparing for April workshops...

Fri, 01 May 2009 15:04:49 +0000

Only two lines are now missing from my sketch for the second weekend of workshops. A lot of time, ink, and tippex, as well as four sheets of (now ripped and curled) A2 paper have been used. I have expanded my string quartet sketch from the first weekend (where constantly shifting harmonic phrases move quietly and unpredictably between pitched and un-pitched sound) to create a longer, more substantial passage in which consistently intricate internal detail creates a largely homogenous, slowly moving surface. The result, I hope, is an intense and perhaps unstable environment, somehow imposing yet dominated by microscopic gestures. I can't wait to hear it!

Tackling the pluckers...

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:15:34 +0000

The first weekend workshops were excellent and provided me with a catalogue of live sounds and colour combinations which I can now go and play with. The microtones on the cor anglais sounded wonderful and just how I'd imagined, although a couple of them were impossible to play - just what I needed to find out! The challenge now (before the next workshop weekend in April) is to tackle the pluckers (the harp, mandolin and guitar). They can so easily be lost within the texture of the larger ensemble but also offer a real delicacy and lightness. The guitar is out of the cupboard, so this is serious!

High Notes

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:32:05 +0000

I wrote a piece last year for the violist Bridget Carey that was full of extremely high harmonics and had a great fragile and delicate feel to it. I'm really looking forward to trying similar ideas across the four bowed strings in the Nieuw Ensemble - I have no idea what it will sound like!

This is a fantastic opportunity to write a large-scale piece - I've never written for more than six players before - and I'm still trying to figure out how to cope with so many musicians. Hopefully things will become clearer when I meet the group! Roll on Amsterdam...

Ben Isaacs is currently studying for a Masters degree in Composition at the University of Huddersfield with Aaron Cassidy, and enjoys playing in the University's edges ensemble and Split, his free-improvising, notation-reading, experimenting trumpet trio.

Ben is one of four composers selected to join this year's HCMF & Nieuw Ensemble Composers' Professional Development Programme, which sees emerging composers spending two weekends of workshops in Amsterdam working alongside the Nieuw Ensemble, trying out new ideas with the ensemble and receiving advice and guidance from the tutors. Each composer will have their piece performed by the Nieuw Ensemble at HCMF 2009. The first set of workshops runs from 20-22 February and the second set from 24-26 April.

Yikes! Only a week to go...

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:18:08 +0000

With the first workshop weekend in Amsterdam fast approaching, the PhD writing up is officially ‘on hold' (my decision: what a brilliant excuse!) and I'm having a go at a few sketches to take with me instead. After weeks of writing words it's such a relief to be working with sound again and I'm particularly looking forward to experimenting with the huge range of colours available within the Nieuw Ensemble. Of course, I do have to get over my guitar ‘thing'... It will be good to meet the ensemble next week and to start the collaboration, and to meet the other composers too. I hope to be inspired and educated, and to come back armed with ideas and a better working knowledge of the guitar and mandolin. And, of course, going to Amsterdam can't be bad... Wahey!!

Jenny Jackson (b. 1971) is currently studying part-time for a PhD in composition with George Nicholson at the University of Sheffield. She is one of four composers selected to join this year's HCMF & Nieuw Ensemble Composers' Professional Development Programme, which sees emerging composers spending two weekends of workshops in Amsterdam working alongside the Nieuw Ensemble, trying out new ideas with the ensemble and receiving advice and guidance from the tutors. Each composer will have their piece performed by the Nieuw Ensemble at HCMF 2009. The first set of workshops runs from 20-22 February and the second set from 24-26 April.

Blog bed-time - it's been fun!

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:11:20 +0000

This blog has reached a conclusion. Had a great time at the launch last Friday (thanks again to Heidi, HCMF, and Jay & Bill, Green Building Company, for last minute help) and Sunday morning with all the people that showed up for the soundwalk (thanks to you all). Full details of the project are now available at the:

Colne Valley Listeners website (thanks for visiting)

Sneak preview

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:02:43 +0000

Really busy finalising the dishes, still on target for Friday ... just! The dishes are looking superb.

Presenting the dishes! well, very nearly...

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:02:11 +0000

Artec have been working hard to meet the deadline - hugely appreciated by everybody involved in the project. They've sent through these images, not of the dishes, not yet, but of the form used to make the dishes. Tantalising!

Project nearly online

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:01:30 +0000

Drafting the website for downloading the audio and soundwalk instructions: go here for a preview >> Soundwalk Downloads

Keeping Cool

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:00:50 +0000

I have loads I could put up here now... but the truth is, with the launch just 7 days away, I am just too busy. See you next weekend?

Planning Permission?

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:55:29 +0000

Got it!

Everything crossed...

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:50:32 +0000

You may not be aware reading the blog recently that we still don't have planning permission. But a bit like another important announcement today coming from across the Atlantic, we will hear this morning from Kirklees Council if we've been successful... Will keep you posted!

Site Visit

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:49:37 +0000

Had a great visit to Slaithwaite on Monday 27th - fabulous autumnal weather, as you can see. 9 hours in the car round trip but well worth it. Finally met Desmond in the flesh! and now so close to installation. Me being the dishes:

Everybody say, 'acoustic mirrors!'

Desmond, Neil (Kirklees Council), Heidi (HCMF), and Cate (RCST)

Popeye the soundscape man

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:45:32 +0000

Okay well here's a video of me talking about the project back in July. Thanks to Oliver Jones for this and for making me look like gurning soundscaper (oh, and for mispelling my name). All in a day's work. http://www.hcmf.co.uk/media/show/16

Lots of activity!

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:51:35 +0000

Well, after holding my breath for a while things are rocketing forward ... a big relief. I now have dates in my diary for a site visit to peg out the space for the concrete pads that the dishes will sit on, and also for transportation of the dishes. Here are some realisations of what it all should look like at the site (thanks to Heidi at HCMF):

A waiting game...

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:03:35 +0000

Progress is suspended at the moment while we wait for planning permission. Although it may have taken a little longer to finalise things to get to this point (mainly by me getting to spend time on site), we're still hopefully on schedule.

In the mean time Desmond made a trip to Artec and I made a trip to Istanbul. So it's time for some holiday snaps! First Artec, this is the lathe used for spinning large dishes

and aluminium ready for the lathe:

Thanks to Desmond for those. And while while Desmond was there I was bobbing around the Bospherus to escape the heat of Istanbul. Here're two snaps, inside and out, of the 500 year-old 'new mosque':

It wasn't all fun, fun, fun: I managed to make some field recordings of this wonderfully sounding city in between and during the boat rides, sight seeing, kebabs, fresh fish sandwiches, ayran, tea, locum, Turkish hospitality... take me back!!!

Trip to Slaithwaite

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:00:41 +0000

It's been a while but lots has been going on. Firstly, a workshop with 10 great children at Neilds School. We discussed sounds, went on soundwalks, recorded soundwalks and generally had some fun. A big thank you to all the pupils, staff and Heidi (from HCMF)! Here we are having some fun with listening dishes:

Secondly, it was time for me to really get acquainted with the location. I spent a lot of time wandering about, taking photos and making recordings to establish a strong connection with the place. Really good quality time for research and thinking. It is a really beautiful place - especially at 4am!

Also met and was interviewed by Oli Jones who's putting together a series of short videos and other exciting stuff for HCMF - will put a link to it from here as soon as it's ready.

Well, it's time for me to get cooking in the studio with all the material I recorded and to start designing the audio and walk that will accompany the experience of visiting the installation. Feels good to be at this stage.

Dishes

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:36:00 +0000

Some rapid progress was made recently by Desmond researching the dishes. After considering other materials (including fibreglass and concrete) I really wanted one last shot at finding someway of casting these large dishes out of metal. And Desmond came up trumps with a foundry that can manufacture the dishes in aluminium (which wikipedia tells me is the most abundent metal in the earth's crust)

But they (probably) aren't going to look like these early models, and there'll (probably) be only one. Having re-visited the site, I currently thinking that there's only room for one and want it elegantly rising from the ground rather than being housed in any structure. We'll see..

Introducing Desmond

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:53:51 +0000

Things are progressing well. I've been spending time sorting out technical details for the acoustic mirror (one not two - that's decided). Central to this process and to the mirror's construction is Desmond Brett. He's a sculptor (Slade MFA graduate no less) with lots of exactly the right kind of experience.

The mirror draws inspiration from the many gigantic concrete acoustic radar dishes that were built between the World Wars. The Colne Valley Acoustic Mirror will be distinct in its three-way function and status as conceptual sound art, sculptural form, and sound sculpture.