New Work for Bass Clarinet in Progress

 

PART II: A Surface Construct as a Tablature for the Performer. The Evolution of Composition and the Score.

A Surface Construct as a Tablature for the Performer. The Evolution of Composition and the Score. 

 A student asked me is this piece more complex or less complex than Brian Ferneyhough's Mnemosyne or Sisyphus Redux? 

 My response..."Don't weaponize complexity" 

Any part of this new notational system (tablature) can be generated by the functional demands it has to meet, however its relationship to those requirements is not an ethical one; they are not necessarily the nature or true substance of the notational system. 

 The polytypic nature of this new music lexicon (language) suggests that there can be a gap between the way each visual icon will look and perform. For the performer, this notation or pattern can play multiple interrelated roles, each capable of being understood without knowledge or appreciation of the others. One might zero in on a particular coloring effect while another gravitates towards its structural logic. It can also appeal to multiple audiences. 

 In this work for solo flute, here are two pages for the performer to interpret throughout the score. The overlay transparency page consisting of Moire elements lies above the surface construct tablature page. 

 As one pages through the score these are consistently alternating, one transparency Moire based score page residing above the surface imagery construct. The capacity of a surface construct to embody and adapt to changing material information being processed by the performer - information that is arranged to withstand large amounts of geometric interpretation provides a suppleness to the score. 

 At first glance, the page looks like a constellation of randomly chosen imagery as opposed to a traditional stave and notational system. In fact it is a highly calibrated and topologically generated tablature whose overall effect is sonically deep and complex. The interpreter/performer should recognize each page of the score and image itself belies its agility in adapting to different operative and environmental requirements. 

To successfully execute the score, the performer must take an integrative approach which will result in a combinatorial interpretation that performs multiple roles with nuanced effects. In this score, patterns are meant to function as more than a motif or an expedient design tool as they must be able to produce new sonic environments by linking the notation's internal (that is formal and spatial techniques) with extradisciplinary knowledge. 

Their capacity for doing so is granted along three interrelated lines; their redundant qualities, their flexibility and their combinatory logic.

In the end, it's music...it's composition that does not play by all of the rules.

"Fluoride Joker" For Viola (PDF Score)

"Fluoride Joker" 

For Viola 

Bil Smith Composer

(PDF Score)

Commissioned by BHP Billiton

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByXT8veODB_TZVlEWG9RVE50bUU/view?usp=sharing

"Changes to a Gleam-Ring" for Harpsichord. Bil Smith Composer

"Little Galvanic Halo" for Dunnett M2 Magnesium Snare Drum

"Compositional Surrogates: Translating a Theoretical Treatise"

“A Series of Storms” Bil Smith Composer (2012-2013)

"Compositional Surrogates: Translating a Theoretical Treatise"

SCORE: “A Series of Storms” Bil Smith Composer (2012-2013)

For Benedikt Eppelsheim Contrabass Saxophone (conversely Contrabass Clarinet); Tambourine: Retresium Trumpet in ‘A’; Inderbinen Wood Flugelhorn,: Eva Kingma Contrabass Flute; Celestonite Modified ‘A’ Clarinet with Slide ‘Pirix’ designed by Richard Fulbright; Angh, and Maser 2 Snare Drum.

In this work ("Series of Storms"), translating this theoretical treatise under this very broad definition; systems like Morse code, Ventisma, Fortola Codex, flag semaphore, secret speech, and other types of signals that share little in common could also be included. Tristan Murail has used the term “talking musical instruments,” which provides a clearer set of fundamental boundaries.

Even this term highlights a significant cultural bias. For many of the cultures studied under this lens, speech and music are not so easily partitioned.

In this work, “A Series of Storms”, I attempt to articulate the theatrical ambivalence towards these theorems, yet with great respect, illustrate a ritualistic musical tablature which has been buried.

In the words of Elliot Fereder, speech surrogates are the “conversion of human speech into equivalent sounds for transmission in vestigial systems”. 

He goes on to define percussive and whistle languages as well as surrogates played on other musical instruments.

The term “drum and whistle languages” has been used by several authors when describing systems that are neither drummed nor whistled but rather played on musical instruments. 

In this work, the customized Maser 2 Snare Drum, Tambourine and Angh are aligned with this evidentiary platform.

Drum and whistle languages and talking musical instruments share an important feature: the conversion of speech into a musical medium. The signal is based on pitch, rhythm, timbre, and other characteristics shared by speech and music, but it is performed by musical means—drums, whistling, flutes, etc.

Perhaps the best term to describe these related phenomena is “musical speech surrogates,” which has been used by Jeremy Blaise and Todd Reese among others.

“Acknowledging The Equinox In A White Suit And Panama Hat” for Tuba

“Acknowledging The Equinox In A White Suit And Panama Hat”

For Tuba

Bil Smith Composer

2018

A Numerics Tablature

Published by LNM Editions

"Remnant Fantasy". For Echo Cornet.

"Fundamental Overture" and Performativity

"Fundamental Overture" 

Bil Smith Composer

On SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/bil-smith/fundamental-overture

Performativity is the hallmark of thinking in accordance with immanence.

Agree?: {Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof}

It provides the cri­terion for an important contrast between the self­ sufficient or musical practice of composition and its empirical activity whose claim to theoretical legitimacy is only ever assured through its performance.

{I know that I'm carrying on, never mind if I'm showing off...I was just frontin'}.

It may be that this Fundamental Overture's crisp, sharply delineated mode of abstraction turns out to be far more concrete than those nebulous abstractions which composers try to pass off as instances of concretion.

Agree?: {Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do }

In other words, the criteria for evaluating the worth of 'Non-Compositional'­ function are not available to composers, who know not what they do.

In 'Non-Composition', radical axiomatic abstraction gives rise, not to a system or doctrine inviting assent or dissent, but to an immanent methodology whose function for music no one is in a position to evaluate as yet.

{Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth}

Ultimately, then, 'Non-Composition' can only be gauged in terms of what it can do.

And no one yet knows what 'Non-Composition' can or cannot do.

Clap+

Lucy's Sequenza for Piano

FEB 5 2023 UPDATE: "A Special New Work In Progress for Solo Viola" (A Continuing Preview)

Final pages of seven total measuring 30" X 30" for new work for solo viola.  There will be two scores that will be used during the performance, this one consisting of seven 30" X 30" pages and the other bound score of 16" X 6" color scores (see examples below).  The 16" X 6" will also contain a special prelogue which showcases a new tablature system consisting of banded circles.

Final four pages of seven total measuring 30" X 30" for new work for solo viola.  There will be two scores that will be used during the performance, this one consisting of seven 30" X 30" pages and the other bound score of 16" X 6" color scores (see examples below).  The 16" X 6" will also contain a special prelogue which showcases a new tablature system consisting of banded circles.

Example page from the 16" x 6" score

Several weeks ago I posted the beginning pages of score for a new work for solo viola.  Below are updates and continuations of this multifaceted work. 

 It will be comprised of two separate score documents, one document consisting of a 16"x 6" page dimension and the other 30" x 30".

Performance guidance will include instructions as to how the two scores are interlaced and will define further detail as to the treatment of the various neologisms, symbology and notational elements found on the staff.

The 16" X 6" score document will also contain a prelogue of which this is the opening page.

The above pages measuring 30" X 30" will consist of 7 pages in total and will be used in conjunction with the smaller score during performance.

For the last six months I have been working on a special piece for Solo Viola. People ask why I have so many solo instrument works in my ouvre.  Simply put, as a teenager I was deeply inspired by Berio’s Sequenzas.  The beauty of an isolated instrumented performing in ways never previously heard were profound to my ears.

The central theme in this work is that of virtuosity, evident not only in the technical difficulties presented, but also in the treatment and writing style for the Viola.

In this new work, I employ a different type of tablature; a new musical lexicon which is inspired by Enrico Castellani and Paolo Scheggi along with my own foundational knowledge as a neologist and composer. 

Each page of the score is measured at 16” X 6”.  It embraces imagery (mostly of a partly metallographic in nature, (hence the nod to Castellani) as well as neologisms which are intended to shape the performer’s characterization of the work.  The neologisms are intended to act as an intransigent, emancipatory narration of the notational elements.

Fortunately, I have received funds to implement several recordings of the work which, when the work is completed next year, I will reach out to three of the most unmatchable violists in the world to each perform a rendition of the work. 

I would like to start with Renee Baker of the AACM, as I render her profound substaunce and conceptual genius as a perfect example of what this work should represent.  An intelligible communication of the work demands increased accuracy from the transmitter, and I can think no one more formidable than Ms. Baker to carry out this mandate.  Nils Mönkemeyer and Tabea Zimmermann are two other remarkable talents I will pursue for this adventure.