Space Junk; An Exploration Of Indeterminacy In Music.

This is only an excerpt from the piece, because this site wont let me upload a PDF...

This project emerged from an interest in the tools and techniques developed by a small group of 20th century composers who, in spite of their technical deficiencies, created an art form so pure and original that it can be considered the last truly great movement in classical music. By allowing chance to enter into composition and performance they created an ever-shifting series of sonic sculptures and sonic tool-kits, which empowered, challenged and confounded performers and audiences alike while allowing them unprecedented access to the creative process. This project aims to use techniques inspired by these pioneers combined with modern influences to create a piece which will span decades, connecting the past to the present and looking into the future of this style of composition. The composition looks skywards for inspiration, taking the celestial, scientific and chaotic processes found there as influences. Using the global positions of satellites to time events and the destructive forces contained in high-speed orbital convergences and collisions which break the large structures apart as a guiding metaphor for processing the sound, the piece will bridge the gap between the 1950s and now utilising string instruments alongside sampled impacts to simulate a process known as Kessler`s Syndrome. This states that due to the large amount of debris created by orbital collisions between satellites, the chance of future collisions is increased exponentially, thus creating more and more debris, and so on until anything introduced into orbit is eventually ground down by a process of attrition. (Kessler.D 2009) The global positions of a number of satellites, calculated using a free application called JSat-Trak and information supplied by NORAD, will form the basis for a graphical score which will be interpreted by a string trio and a laptop musician. The piece not only imagines the sound of the process in space, but also the atmosphere; the apparent emptiness of space, an uncomfortable uncertainty and state of perpetual tension, the circular, beginning less, endless orbits and the collisions, breaking down large structures of sound into smaller and smaller parts. The ideas behind the chance movement were often associated with rapidly creating large amounts of music from limited resources and by allowing different instruments and above all sounds to find their place in a new sonic landscape, unhindered by traditional musical theory and knowledge by casting off ideas of structure and harmonic development and simply allowing sounds to find their own places, without the will of the composer being forced upon them. They were embracing their own technical shortfalls and making them integral to their aesthetic - it was their uniqueness - and around it they created sounds and music perpendicular to developments in Western Europe, music more influenced by visual arts and sculpture than any music of the past. With the easy availability of modern technologies, the "musically innocent" (Cardew, C. 1969) can create anything they desire but with the computer taking the role that the chance techniques played in the compositions of the chance period. The process of setting up systems in which chance can flourish and order sound is a similar abstraction between composer and composition as is loading up a software synth and creating music using preset sounds or samples; a large amount of the work can be delegated to a third party whose predictability is partially or fully controlled by the composer but without the artistic intent of the piece, the originality of the ideas or the skill needed in execution being degraded. These techniques, although they are being applied to create a musical piece, could easily be used to order sound in commercial projects, such as installations, sound design for public areas, soundtracks and the like. The composer with an idea of the final sonority or the one who merely wants to be surprised, can create pieces with varying levels of abstraction and difficulty. It is hoped that these techniques can form a vital part of the authors compositional canon and combined with modern technologies, they will allow the creation of more commercially minded pieces after then end of this specific project that display a unique compositional flair and interesting treatment of sound. 1.1 AIMS Understanding and documenting compositional practices Creating a transferable compositional system which can be applied to different musical situations. Creating a graphical, indeterminate score which turns the theme into music. Performing and recording the piece to a high standard. Analysing and documenting key steps in a thorough report.

1.2 OBJECTIVES Development of ideas in line with research; this involves the logging of old ideas, to give some idea of project trajectory. Research into the history of chance and indeterminacy. What is chance/indeterminacy? Investigation into the tools/techniques/composers. Imagining what the final sound is going to be like. Working backwards from the imagined sound; development of compositional style and system. Creation of score based on research. Recording/creating the piece. Evaluation of methods used and possibilities for the future. 1.3 FORMAT This document is split into six sections. 1. RESEARCH History Composers `Point-drawing` techniques Musical tools Graphical scores Chance Indeterminacy 2. SPACE JUNK What is the project? How research impacted on the project. How different options were investigated. The how and why of the choices made. How the final piece has been developed. How successfully does the project link to the research?

3. EVALUATION How do the separate parts combine to create the whole project and how well is this achieved? Have the original objectives been achieved?

4. CONCLUSION What worked well and what didn`t? Opportunities for further research. Achievements of the project. How well was the project planned and time used? 5. References and Bibliography 6. Appendicies

Indeterminacy, hallucination and boredom Cage and Zen Music as process December 1952 Variation 2 Fluxus The Scratch Orchestra Project proposal Project progress form Score Gantt chart WBS/Gantt breakdown Logbook scans

2. RESEARCH Chance and indeterminacy in music are not identical. Chance refers to the use of random procedures in composition; for instance the coin tosses that selected material for Cage`s Music of Changes. Chance is present in composition but not necessarily performance. Indeterminacy refers to the ability of a piece to be performed in a number of different ways that are more than subtle reinterpretations of an idealised score. Indeterminacy is about creating situations where "radical differences that extend to the nature and order of events" (Pritchett. J(1993)p.167) flourish in performance. 2.1 HISTORY 2.1.1 BACH - DESIGN OR ACCIDENT? Bach was writing at a time when composers used rigorous notations resulting in little or no ambiguity in the interpretation of the score. The unfinished Art of the Fugue breaks this tradition with chance entering into performance: "Timbre and amplitude characteristics, by not being given, are indeterminate" (Cage, J. 1968) and can vary depending upon the performer, giving the potential for multiple versions. It can be performed in an specific, organised, systematic manner; in a way where the player follows the "dictates of his own ego" (Cage. J. 1968) or by using mathematics to decide on amplitude. This breaks the normal composer/performer relationship and empowers the performer by involving them in the creative process while stamping their tastes and personality on the performance. Before he died, Bach scrawled this cryptic message on the manuscri pt paper: "At the point where the composer introduces the name BACH [for which the English notation would be B?-A-C-B?] in the countersubject to this fugue, the composer died." (Bach, J.S, 1748) In his thesis Accident or Design? Indra Hughes argues it is purposely unfinished to encourage its completion. He argues that since Bach was an organised, methodical man, if he could have finished it, he would; he therefore left clues providing a framework for the remaining bars. He believes "Bach would have actively wanted people to attempt their own completions... No one completion can be said to be completely `right` or `wrong`, and in particular the free episodic material is necessarily open to the individual and subjective ideas of each person." The Art of the Fugue was as a masterful contrapuntal exercise and indispensible as an early indeterminate example. Returning to the intention for the piece, history is unclear. Perhaps the most significant part The Art of the Fugue played was its reference by Cage; his appropriation of any musical form, whether as an example or model for future composition gives it gravitas. 2.1.2 ERIK SATIE Erik Satie is among the most important 20th century composers for his "continual rethinking of the whole aim and aesthetic of music as a reaction to nineteenth century practice and excesses" (Orledge. R 1990). Satie understood his technical deficiencies: "They will tell you I am not a musician. That`s right. .Take the Fils des Etoils or the Morceaux. It is clear no musical idea presided at the creation of these works." (Cage. J, 1968) He sought perfection in musical simplicity; as such he was ahead of his time. It was not until his discovery by Cage in the 1950s that he made an impact; "It`s not a question of Satie`s relevance. He`s indispensible."(Cage.J. 1968) 2.1.3 CAGE ON SATIE There was much common ground between the two composers; both had been reorganising the structure of music, embracing metric time not musical time and displayed a rejection of development and harmony as the building blocks of music. Cage`s goal was a non-symbolic music of sound and silence. Satie had been working on music that was "white and pure like antiquity" (Volta. O, 1989). Satie believed music needn`t serve any purpose. Music could be made for the background; "music which is like furniture - a music which will be part of the noises of the environment, will take them into consideration".(Cage, J. 1968) Satie composed for theatre intermissions and encouraged the audience to behave in the way they normally would during the break. These ideas underpin experimental music: Music can be composed from any sounds (or noises) outside the control of the composer Music can find new contexts. Most of all, Satie`s compositional aesthetic interested Cage; many of Satie`s compositions feature just an idea, seen from different angles rather than a complete `Germanic `explanation and exhibition of that idea1. Cage and Satie sought a purity of sounds as sounds and ideas in their simplest forms. (For more information on Satie and Vexations see Appendix A.) 2.1.4 FROM SATIE TO CAGE Cage sought to redefine the methodology and sound materials from which music was constructed to place sound in a more natural setting in line with Satie`s ideas of the purpose and function of music. The structure of music was defined by harmony and not, as Cage believed, by time. Using units of time meant structure was "as hospitable to non-musical sounds, noises, as it was to those of conventional scales or instruments"(Cage, J. 1968) Movement could be created by rhythms not harmonic progression and pieces could be created using new sounds, old notions of form and content destroyed, replacing them with freely organised rhythmic structures. Cage filled these structures with sounds and silences according to the logic of sound; sounds occur in space in at a given time. Sounds are not mountains; they are sharp, soft, brittle etc. It was impossible to treat sound this way using old systems. By dividing chunks of time into smaller local rhythmic structures, the "method (note-to-note procedure), materials (sounds and silences) and form(continuity) remained uncontrolled, allowing the sounds to form relations freely amongst themselves." (Nyman, M. 1999)

2.2 CHANCE COMPOSITION 2.2.1 JOHN CAGE Cage`s 1940`s pieces were concerned with "throwing sound into silence" (Pritchett. J (1993) p.74); composing sounds and letting them find their place in. The music was directionless, non-symbolic but each sound could emerge, "isolated from all others by silence and a lack of conscious continuity". (Pritchett. J (1993) p.74) His new sound combined these ideas with a new philosophical approach - the eastern ideas of Zen. (For more information on Zen, refer to Appendix B.) 2.2.2 IMPERSONALISM "Personality is a flimsy thing on which to build an art" (Revill, D. 1992 p 122). Cage wanted music that could write itself and exist forever in a unique moment; "Uniqueness is extremely close to being here and now. Each moment is virgin - even the repeated one; you cant repeat anything exactly"(Revill, D. 1992). He wanted his music to be prepared to leap into something completely different, based not on what happened or following a path to resolution, just sound in a moment. It is a fact of semantics that we cannot fully describe the ever shifting moment that is now! but listening Cages chance pieces there is a real sense that all that matters is what is happening right now and all that will ever happen is happening right now. Time, rhythm and sound seem disconnected but are locked in a duel, each part of effecting every other part in a natural process. Cage said "The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature in her manner of operation" (Revill. D(1992) p.118) 2.2.3 CHANCE COMPOSITION BLOSSOMS In a visit to an anechoic chamber at Harvard University in 1951, Cage had a revelation. He heard two sounds, one high the other low; his blood circulation and nervous system. The experience was the catalyst for two decades of work. Rather than thinking of sound as the opposite of silence, he saw there was no such thing as silence, only unintentional sound. Instead of working with sounds and silences he now saw his "field of action as an ultimate space of sounds that are completely unconnected yet unique" (Pritchett. J(1993) p. 76) With chance composition he could explore many routes around this `musical space`.

2.2.4 A MUSIC OF CHANGES Cage realised that he could use its coin tossing methods of the I Ching to select music from an eight-by-eight grid(Fig.1). By tossing three coins six times each element in the grid is equally possible. Fig.1 The 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching http://theabysmal.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/64hexagrams.png?w=366&h=367 He prepared a library of piano fragments, rhythmic fragments and dynamic markings, filling chart with each. The sounds chart contained thirty-two `ideas` on the odd-numbered squares and thirty-two `silences` on the even ones, classified into four types:

1. Single notes 2. Intervals (2 notes) 3. Aggregates (chords) 4. Constellations(complex sets of notes, flourishes, trills and chords)

Unusual playing techniques were notated; plucking strings, muting strings with a finger, using sticks or beaters and slamming the keyboard lid. The use of sound and silence gave a sense of "spaciousness and isolation of independent events in time" (Pritchett. J(1993) p.79) where sounds spring from silence in a manner impossible to predict then vanish, never to be heard or recognised again. From a second chart, rhythm/duration was applied, taking the initially `composed` material and rewriting it. Rather than notating standard durations, Cage used the metric distance on the page; one quarter note is 2.5cms of the page creating a piece fixed in clock time(Fig.2).

Fig.2 A segment of the score of Music of Changes. As Cage was writing a large work the material in the charts could be repeated. The I Ching decided whether the charts were `mobile` or `immobile`; in a mobile chart, fragments would be replaced after use; an immobile chart would hold on to its information. The fragments were arranged into between one and eight layers giving the piece its spacious sound and allowing changes in density by phasing overlapping layers. The piece is composed of half-sound half-silence but at high density there is continuous sound for fairly long periods of time, separated by periods of relative or complete inactivity. A problem with the system was it took Cage nine dull months to finish it. He later described the piece as `inhuman` and `plastic`. (Cage, J. 1968) It was created by chance but none had been taken in its precise notations and transcri ption. Unique events were created on paper then replicated as a best fit performance; the piece is more of an exercise and experiment in composition. However the importance of Music of Changes is not about new sounds, its about new processes. 2.2.5 MUSIC AS PROCESS Rather than filling charts with pre-composed fragments, Cage developed a new `point-drawing` technique; notating imperfections in manuscri pt paper to generate ideas. Added to I Ching selection methods, this allowed chance into every facet of composition. The system gave Cage the "ability to work with continua of pitch and time provided by the point drawing method, used to fill the event profiles of varying complexity that had been the strongest point of the chart system." (Pritchett. J.(1993) p.95); the most flexible, wide-ranging system yet. 2.2.6 THE 10000 THINGS1 This refers mid-50s compositions based on the new system, including works for various instruments and medias performed together in any combination. Cage was specific with the sounds and by consulting musicians he made a complete list of all the sounds and noises their instruments could make:

(Source Pritchett, J. 1993 p. 99) The I Ching selected a category at the start of each phrase and the various sonic events described were randomly distributed throughout the phrase. This gave the events a structure which was notated in a series of notebooks giving him a pattern of events and sounds. Point drawing was used to fill the structures with pitch and rhythm information. Then using the notes made previously the pitch information could be given expressive content.

Fig.3 Excerpt from the score for 1`18" For a String Player from Pritchett. J(1993) p 98 The random processes applied throughout the pieces mean events are impossible to predict; there is a "spontaneous eruption of activity. figures appearing from nowhere, leaving no trace".(Pritchett. J.(1993) p.100) The success of these pieces as Pritchett points out is that where Music of Changes used chance to order materials, The 10000 Things uses chance to determine materials; the goal of this period of Cages composition.