Saturday, February 21
Mexicains Sans Frontieres — 120 S. Division #226, Grand Rapids 2 – 5 pm
musical transparencies
A workshop in composition & contemporary performance with NYC composer patrick brennan. Walk through artistic process: challenge your ears, imagination, concentration & skills in close ensemble playing.
advance registration using brown paper tickets — $25
reserve a spot & pay at workshop — $30 (cash only)
walk-ins welcome: first come, first serve
— open to players of any melody capable instrument —
Transparencies are constructed through the superimposing of musical figures, with each articulating a contrasting rhythmic stratum, that intersect as unisons. Each line “shows through” the others, even if they are radically different.
For those working with European classical music, this could be understood as a kind of 21st century counterpoint.
For those working with more contemporary procedures such as Minimalism, Afroamerican forms such as jazz, funk/hiphop/rock and Afro-Caribbean musics, transparencies rhythmically and melodically extend the interactions between the repeating lines that we call groove.
Transparencies also introduce alternative applications for the possibilities of decentralized composition in real time that will be investigated.
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Workshop Plan:
A detailed discussion:
of the compositional design decisions in the construction of the interface (aka “composition”) in relation to listener perception, interactive potential & real time development & in dialogical relation with the ideas & examples of Elvin Jones, Morton Feldman, Ornette Coleman, European Medieval & Baroque polyphony, West African polyrhythm, Steve Coleman, Dub principles, Butch Morris, the Second Viennese School, Thelonious Monk, Steve Reich, Duke Ellington, Conlon Nancarrow, Charles Mingus, producer generated musics, etc.
Playing & hearing the material:
Varying unison timbres. Accented silences. Mixed attacks. Clarity. Listening & coordination of contrary lines. Relaxing with complex polyrhythm. Composite ensemble sound & multidirectional currents.
Exploring transformations of the material using conduction:
Pitch transformations. Inexact percussion pitch. Textural variation. Loops & back loops. Stop-time weaves. Coordinated open development of events.
Discussion of the social implications of compositional structure:
Centralized vs. decentralized organization. Compositional agency. The role of information flow in compositional structure and sound.
An introductory look at a second compositional matrix:
A more complex transparency configuration. A similar investigation as long as time permits.
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If your experience has been in Euroclassical music, jazz, new music or other Afroamerican forms this will introduce you to new skills & potentials.
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Recommended minimum skills for benefiting from this workshop:
instrumental facility
ability to read notation (or an exceptionally good ear)
reasonably good time sense
BRING A MUSIC STAND
participants who reserve in advance will also be
e-mailed notated parts & scores ahead of time
advance registration: brown paper tickets
reserve a spot: patrickb AT transparencykestra DOT org
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