CMPCP/IMR Performance Research Seminars are sponsored by the AHRC Research
Centre for Musical Performance as Creative Practice and the Institute of
Musical Research. For further information see www.cmpcp.ac.uk/imr2013.html.
FLAT TIME/sounding: improvisation, research and the conditions of
performance
David Toop (London College of Communication/Leeds College of Music)
15 October 2012
17.00 - 18.30
Chancellor's Hall, Senate House, University of London, Malet Street, London
WC1
Inspired by the ideas of artist John Latham, FLAT TIME/sounding is a
six-page score of textual and visual elements composed for improvisers. The
score is not a series of directives to be followed so much as an examination
of Latham's theories of time, and a collection of analects, aphorisms and
images inviting musicians to consider structural and archival aspects of
their own improvising language. Apparently a starting point or discursive
stimulus that questions the meaning of 'score', FLAT TIME/sounding also
raises questions of how it affects its own unfolding. Improvisers do not
need, nor do they want, a score, and yet there is a case to be made at times
for shifting the conditions of improvisation. Through examination of the
oscillation between musical practice and so-called embodied research, the
score may be construed as an example of the contemporary model of 'art as
research' within the academy, within musical communities and as individual
'practice' across a range of technologies.
David Toop is a composer/musician, author and curator based in London who
has worked in many fields of sonic arts and music. He has published five
books, including Ocean of Sound, Haunted Weather and Sinister Resonance;
released eight solo albums, including Screen Ceremonies, Black Chamber and
Sound Body; and as a critic has written for many publications, including The
Wire, Leonardo Music Journal and Bookforum. Exhibitions he has curated
include Sonic Boom at the Hayward Gallery, London; Playing John Cage at
Arnolfini, Bristol; and Blow Up at Flat-Time House, London. Visiting
Professor at Leeds College of Music, he is a senior research fellow at
London College of Communication. He is currently writing Into the Maelstrom:
Improvised Music and the Pursuit of Freedom, and his opera - Star-shaped
Biscuit - will be performed as an Aldeburgh Music Faster Than Sound project
in September 2012.
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