YES!
(Affirmative Music in Negative Times)
Background
Is it easier to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’? I don’t know anymore, I
really don’t. What I do know is that during the guest editorship of
Parallax 56 on my chosen theme of YES! I said ‘no’ a lot more than
I said ‘yes’. And I was not the only one…oh no! Weirdly, I’m still
not sure what the opposite of affirmation is (not negation, that’s
far too obvious), but through a series of de-affirmations let us
say the music premiered here never found its way into the journal
as intended. However, not to be out-‘no’d’, ways were found to
affirm this affirmative music: a collective ‘no’ to ‘no’, a classic
double negation that, I believe, captures the affirmative spirit of
all art, even (or perhaps especially) the most beleaguered.
As with the Parallax ‘call for papers’, a group of
composers/musicians were invited to submit one or more pieces of
work as a response to the affirmative brief, one intent on
enunciating a ‘big YES!’
So, what might this big ‘yes’ look like? Well admittedly it
could look very bad, a ghastly regime of agreement, where a
quagmire of consensus sucks all and sundry into an undifferentiated
community of care and enabling; where the warm glow of an assumed
oneness replaces the searing heat of endless strife. But surely
there are more interesting ways of saying ‘yes’, neither
contradictory nor consensual but contestational, interruptive
rather than responsive, the affirmation rather than the negation of
difference.
Happily, as the music here presented emphatically confirms, this
big (OK, not so big) ‘yes’ is far from consensual and even further
from being undifferentiated. There is no banal cheeriness here or
any evangelical promotion of ‘causes’ or ‘positions’ that
effectively deflect affirmation away from itself into the
breathless positivity demanded by the market place. As the written
contributions to Parallax 56 demonstrate, affirmation takes many
forms, and so it is with this music where saying ‘yes’ opens out on
to infinite difference, while the big ‘no’ tirelessly attempts to
close everything down again. Terry O’Connor et al., in their piece
for the journal, say this much better than I ever could:
‘Shall I tell you what yes means? Yes, means no resistance. Yes
means going with the current. Yes means lying down when it rains,
and standing up when it’s sunny. I lived with a man whose ‘no’ was
in the middle of his heart, whose ‘no’ kept him thin as a bone.
‘No’ is pain, and ‘Yes’ is pleasure. ‘No’ is man, and ‘Yes’ is
nature. ‘Yes’ is laughter, and ‘No’ is torture. ‘Yes’ is old age,
and ‘No’ is early death. I hate ‘No’. ‘No’ is misery and lonely
nights. Do you follow, or shall I say it again?’
Images taken from the YES cd booklet, designed by Fred
Swist, 2010
The Music
Track 1: Tesselations II for Nine Singers (exerpt). Veryan
Weston
Veryan writes: There is here a continuous notated composition
that runs parallel with any improvising. This functions as a
'thread' whose lengths are also determined by the length of the
improvisation/s, so the thread is designed to create an affirmative
background or foundation which also helps to form the character of
the improvisation/s which are solos or duets most often. But
singers of the thread can also be affected by the improvisations
(e.g. volume, articulation, variation of the lines). The singers
have cultural connections with various places (Northern Iraq,
Armenia, Serbia, Italy, Canada, the Tyrol and Hertfordshire) and
traces of this can be heard in their improvisations. Real proof of
affirmation comes when an artistic project is initiated and/or
funded by the artists themselves. Arnold Schoenberg once said that
'art comes from necessity', and when there are situations where the
artists make the work themselves, for themselves, then this is an
affirmation based on a primal impulse and real need to do the work.
The reasons can be many: self-affirmation, sanity, self-expression,
projection, reflection, the therapy of labour, and pure, adulterous
Dionysian celebration.
Track 2: Af-firm-attion: Forever. Gary Peters and Veryan
Weston
Affirmation has many aspects, but at its root is the concept of
the root itself. A ‘yes’, not to this or that, but to the ground
beneath all secondary affirmations: af-firm-ation. In this sense
self-affirmation, far from being the performative venting of
private passions, is the affirmation the self itself
receives from the ground that holds it in place. Far too
literally, this piece uses the drone provided by Veryan’s piano
(you guessed, the root!) to launch a series of personalised
guitaristic clichés that are always there and available and which,
once entered into, want to go on forever and ever and ever…
Cliché’s are self-affirming to the extent that we are willing to
become other than we are, again and again.
Track 3: Zurich One (exerpt). Simon Picard and Christian
Wolfarth
Simon and Christian declined my invitation to provide a text to
accompany their music. It is an act of violence to speak for the
other when they have made the decision not to (the violence of the
critic), so I will not do so. What I will say is that this is one
of six live radio broadcasts they sent me for consideration. Each
piece (of which I chose two) appear to be completely, or almost
completely improvised. The importance of this from my point of view
is that the affirmative nature of music does not only concern its
end—what it is trying to affirm and who receives this
affirmation—but it beginning. When speaking above of
affirmation as ground or root, I would also want to consider this
in terms of the source or origin of the work of art. For me,
improvisation (particularly ‘free-improvisation’) is the purest
enactment of the beginning of art and the affirmation of
the leap from nothing to something. That’s why I love the beginning
of this piece and, in particular, the suggestion of infinite
circularity that the rotary-breathed opening section affirms.
Track 4: Fallen. David Lancaster
David writes: ‘Fallen’ was composed in January 2010 to a text
which combines words from the Sufi mystic poet Rumi with an ancient
Persian proverb, both of which seem to exude a quietly persuasive
optimism. Two soprano soloists stand either side of the SATB
chorus. ‘Fallen’ was first performed in Canterbury Cathedral
by York St John University Chamber Choir in February 2010.
Track 5: K’un. Ralph Bateman
Ralph writes: This is one of a set of 8 TRIGRAMS AND A
FINALE for Piano and Chinese Percussion, composed for the
Chinese percussionist Peng-Yu and the Austrian-Czech pianist
Wolfgang Mastnak. The whole work will receive its première in
Shanghai in September 2010. K’un is the female principle, the
nature and the earth, and represents “yes” in the sense of
acceptance rather than assertion, but that acceptance is to be
positively asserted; there is no sense of resignation.
Track 6: Ear to Earth: 14-4C_SW7mph_47%_1015mb. Markus
Jones
Markus writes: The acknowledgement of working with
environmental data as a non speech communication tool, then to
convert biospheric statistics into frequencies of sound.
Sounds pretty affirmative to me! (I think).
Track 7: Affirming Solitude, Gary Peters
Just in case anyone thought that affirmative music had to be
positive (a common misconception), this piece explores the deeply
negative consequences that can result from persistent and
irrepressible affirmation. This music is not about
solitude, that would have resulted in the affected loneliness all
too common in the psycho-dramatic world of ‘the artist’. No, this
music (without any hope of success) is intent on capturing the
solitude that is produced by affirmation. Crucial
to an understanding of this—the predicament of the affirmer—is the
recognition that saying ‘yes’ does not lead to agreement or
commitment but to sophism, and the tragedy of sophism is that the
self is estranged not only from every other, but from itself: the
‘essential solitude’. Such are the hazards of affirmation. And the
music is pretty ugly too.
Track 8: Threshold: Fleshfold. Rob
Wilsmore
Rob writes: This extract of a work for choreographer Vida
Midgelow is constructed from a recording session of Note-abiltiy,
all material used is from the moments directly preceding the
‘performance’ (whispers, hummed starting notes, the removal of
shoes, the occasional collapse into hysterics). To accompany
Intermezzo 2 [see Parallax 56] these moments of
non-performance are here made to perform as the artwork; each
selected sound does nothing more than repeat right then left on the
stereo perspective building up antiphonal polyrhythms with other
sounds undergoing the same treatment. (Best listened to with
headphones – better still with earplugs).
Track 9: Zurich Two (excerpt). Simon Picard and Christian
Wolfarth
Nothing to add except to draw attention to the wonderful
bugle-call opening and the extraordinarily floating percussion of
Christian Wolfarth…so refreshing not to have the ubiquitous bass
drum pedal bringing all of this flight to earth. Nietzsche would
have been so proud of them, as would Deleuze: a veritable ‘line of
flight’.
Track 10: Finchcocks. Veryan Weston and Jon
Rose
Veryan writes: a recording made at Finchcocks near Goudhurst in
Kent, the piece explores free improvisations involving 'period'
instruments which were more than just antique. Ways of working
together were very much determined by the limitations of space,
acoustic, time and the idiosyncratic nature of each keyboard.
However, far from being restrictive, the situation provided a very
affirmative series of parameters to work inside. So, as with many
creative situations, new boundaries provided the artists with the
very structures in which free improvisation was stimulated. If
anything the boundaries were expanded, as each keyboard possessed
many unusual timbres, colours and different 'touches' compared to
the modern standard grand piano, which has become homogenised.
Track 11: Oh Yeah! Gary Peters
Although its C&W heritage is not much in evidence here, this
piece is built around the signature riff of the greatest country
guitarist James Burton (Elvis, Gram Parsons, Merle Haggard, Emmylou
Harris…). Not the opening phrase, by the way, but the repeating
figure that emerges beneath it and then persists throughout. This
incessance is intended to affirm something very different to the
dubious self-affirmation that dominates western rock guitar, and
which is ironically overlaid here from the third repeat on.
Over-indulging the ‘expressive’ potential of the wammy-bar
counter-posed to the mechanical repetition of a collective aural
tradition was all part of this irreducible affirmative dualism.
Track 12: Sanctus (live). Rob Wilsmore
Rob writes: From Techno-Mass (2002-ongoing). A Live
performance given at the University of Chester (c.2004) performed
by Note-ability and conducted by Caroline Palmer. I stumbled upon
this recording whilst searching my files for the Intermezzo
2 example, I had thought it erased at birth due to its mild
earthing buzz but it survived and is here sold as if a porcelain
second (the pattern misaligned, the glaze uneven). This is
a document of a performance, a remnant, but should you be
inclined to sing along, dance even, then maybe its status might
shift to become the artwork itself?
Track 13: She Won’t Say No. Gary Peters
Written, recorded, overdubbed and mixed in two hours from
beginning to end, with my daughter Isabelle singing along (she
didn’t want me to use that take, pity). Sometimes being affirmative
is sooooo easy. But oh so rarely!
The Musicians
Ralph Bateman: currently Senior Lecturer and
University Director of Music at York St John University. He studied
music, specialising in composition, at the University of Nottingham
and at Kings College, London (with Nicola Lefanu). He also studied
singing with Pamela Cooke and Derek Hammond-Stroud, gaining an LRAM
in the teaching of singing. As well as singing, he also plays
piano, harpsichord, organ, violin, viola and ukulele. His
compositions include works commissioned for the Nottingham Festival
and the Academy of St Olaves Orchestra (among others) and
performances of recent works have been in York, London, Munich and
Ludwigsburg. 8 TRIGRAMS AND A FINALE for Chinese Percussion and
Piano is currently in rehearsal in Shanghai. He has worked as a
conductor with several choirs and contemporary music groups, and
recently conducted 400 singers in a performance of Tallis’s 40-part
motet in York Minster at the climax of the 2009 Church Universities
and Colleges Choir Festival.
David Lancaster: is head of the Music Programme
at York St John University. His music has been played at most of
the major venues and festivals in the UK, by such ensembles as the
Kronos String Quartet, Electric Phoenix and Black Dyke Band. His
music has been used for theatre and television but in recent years
he has written extensively for voices, brass and composing for
dance. He draws upon many sources for his work, including
popular styles from around the world but counts Harrison Birtwistle
and Stravinsky amongst his strongest influences. David has won many
awards for his work, including the Michael Tippett prize and the
LCM Centenery Award for ‘Insula Dulcamara’. He is currently
composer in residence with Laudamus.
Markus Jones: Designer of sound and
phonographer, educated at the RNCM and the University of York, in
both composition and electroacoustics. Largely focusing on
site-specific and installation work by simply offsetting our normal
perceptions.
Given that the aim is to replicate a subjective experience of
the surrounding sonic environment, collecting sound based on its
original origin before twisting it into an interpretation of the
original source. Projects include spending two weeks within the
Amazon Rainforest, collecting sounds ranging from insects, birds
and giant frogs, working alongside the Emergency Fire Service,
creating an audio piece based around the use of a number of hoax
telephone calls made from around the Manchester area throughout
2008, and spending a year as an Artist-in-Residence at York St John
University, creating an audio acoustic interpretation of life on
the campus, using a mixture of lo-tech means and digital plugins.
His work has been presented in Canada the United States and across
Europe including Belgium, Holland, Italy, Croatia, Germany, and
Austria. Appearing at Sightsonic, Toronto Electroacousic Symposium,
International Conference of Electronic Art and Lab. Buridda.
Gary Peters: Is a musician and Professor of
Critical and Cultural Theory at York St John University. His most
recent book was The Philosophy of Improvisation published
by Chicago University Press (2009). He is currently working on a
book entitled: Yes. No, Don’t Know also to be published by
Chicago University Press.
Simon Picard: Tenor, Soprano and Alto Sax,
founding member in 1976 of the award-winning band ‘Stinky Winkles’,
he has gone on to become one of the leading figures in the British
and European improvised jazz scene. Having recorded many CDs, his
cv includes performances and recordings with a multitude of
internationally renowned musicians including: Charlie Watts, Paul
Dunmall, Paul Rutherford, Keith Tippett, Paul Rogers, Elton Dean,
Tony Levin…and many others.
Jon Rose: is an Australian violinist born in
the UK in 1951. Rose began playing violin at age 7 after winning a
music scholarship to King's School in Rochester. For over 35 years,
Rose has been at the sharp end of new, improvised, and experimental
music and media. A polymath, he is at much at home creating large
environmental multi-media works as he is playing the violin on a
concert stage. Central to this practice has been 'The Relative
Violin' project, a unique output, rich in content, realising almost
everything on, with, and about the violin and string music in
general. Most celebrated is the worldwide ‘Fence project’; least
known are the relative violins created specifically for and in
Australia. He has appeared on over 60 albums, and worked with
artists such as the Kronos Quartet, Derek Bailey, Fred Frith, Chris
Cutler, Otomo Yoshihide, Evan Parker, Phil Minton, John Cage, Tony
Oxley, George Lewis, Christian Marclay, Toshinori Kondo, Joelle
Leandre, Frances-Marie Uitti, Barre Phillips, Veryan Weston and
John Zorn.
Veryan Weston: began working as a jazz pianist
in London (1972) as well as playing at the Little Theatre Club. In
1975, he received a fellowship and residency for Digswell Arts
Trust in Hertfordshire. In the '80s and '90s, he worked with the
Eddie Prévost Quartet and Trevor Watts' Moiré Music. Later,
collaborations with Phil Minton have included the Ways duos, two
choral projects, a quartet performing extracts from Joyce’s
Finnegans wake, and 4Walls. Ongoing projects are: with Jon Rose
(EMANEM 4207), Caroline Kraabel (EMANEM 4048), Sol6 – an eclectic
song project, and the Trio of Uncertainty (EMANEM 4141), with
violinist Satoko Fukuda and Hannah Marshall (Cello). ‘Tessellations
I’ for solo piano (EMANEM 4095), was initially supported by
Peter Whittingham Foundation, a published paper on
pentatonic scales was given at International Conference of
Bridges: Granada and continuing research on pentatonic scales
has also yielded Tessellations II for 9 Singers commissioned from
'GamsBart – JAZZ 2010’ (in Graz), and performed by
‘Vociferous’. [excerpt premiered on this CD] Most recent CD release
called ‘Stops’ (PSI 10.07) is a series of duets for church
organ with drummer/percussionist - Tony Marsh.
Rob Wilsmore: Is subject manager for the
Creative Practice hub in the Faculty of Arts at York St John
University which includes Dance, Fine Arts, Music and Theatre. His
Doctoral studies were in music composition (with Nick Sackman at
the University of Nottingham graduating in 1994). Since then his
practice has been a mix of composition and interdisciplinary
collaboration. He has recently completed a chapter on Kraftwerk
with long term collaborator Simon Piasecki as well as contributing
three pieces to Parallax 56. Performance works include 'The
Knowledge of Whitby Steps' with Simon Piasecki and 'The Music is
Hiding' a composition for performance at electroacoustic concerts
that is a description of itself.
Christian Wolfarth: 1960 born in
Zürich/Switzerland. 1982 -1986 studied with Billy Brooks at the
Swiss Jazz School in Bern. 1992 -1995 studied with Pierre Favre at
the Conservatory of Luzern.1995 studied in contemporary composition
with Siegfried Kutterer in Basel. He is a percussionist who has
performed solo and in groups, typically in avant garde or
experimental settings and typically defying what most people would
consider the role of a drummer. Sounding like a child let loose in
a factory full of potential snares and cymbals, Wolfarth unleashes
a fury of finger tapping rolls and unusual percussive sounds. His
approach to his craft is exactly the opposite of most drumming in
its most popular form. Instead of bombast and intense, nearly
super-human fills, time signatures, and polyrhythms, Wolfarth makes
simplicity and timbre his weapons of choice.
Links
Thanks
I would like to express my gratitude to all of those who
contributed to the YES! project whether it be in written, aural or
visual form—thanks to you all!
I would also like to thank Russ Hepworth-Sawyer for mastering
the CD; Frédérique Swist for all of her design work in addition to
the ‘visual essay’ in the Journal; Steve Purcell for his
encouragement and support for this venture and York St John
University for funding the initiative.
Gary Peters 2010