Friday, December 30, 2022

"BonnGasse Twenty" For Solo Piano (Susanne Kessell's Beethoven Project)


"BonnGasse Twenty"

For Solo Piano

Part of Susanne Kessell's 250 Piano Pieces for Beethoven Project

Bil Smith Composer






Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Preview of New Commissioned Compositions for 2023: The Bassoon Duet Inspired by Ed Ruscha and David Carson

 





Preview of New Commissioned Compositions for 2023: The Bassoon Duet Inspired by Ed Ruscha and David Carson

Excerpt from a Bassoon Duet inspired by Ed Ruscha and David Carson. In this work for two bassoons, I explore the noise and the fluidity of language.
Recently, when asked about the abundance of text in this work, I explained, “I just happened to create words like someone else uses traditional music notation.” Aside from newly crafted notational tablatures, language remains the my most consistent subject, one whose form and meaning I continuously explore.

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Preview of New Commissioned Compositions for 2023: Works in Progress for Solo Flute

 






Preview of new score for solo Flute inspired by Piero Manzoni, Fortunato Depero, Aldo Tambellini, Mimmo Rotella and the Arte Povera movement.  This tablature was born from a need for separation from the traditional.  This notation in no way relates to aesthetic fantasies or a quest for fashionable effects, but concern compositional facts that imply an entirely new kind of musical interpretation.

In this work as many of my compositions, the way the visual elements act upon each other is like a molecular process that combines images of transformations that occur in the real world: images of mathematical or logical transformations; multiplication of visual representations, affiliations between pairs of divergent materials; existence and absence of materials and of tactile adaptations.

I do not suggest that the art of composition is really a science of measurement and precision. I do think that any work demands precision of judgment.   It is precision that informs both the performer and the listener.


Preview of New Commissioned Compositions for 2023: Works in Progress: Trio for Flute Bassoon and Tuba (Guillioche)


In this new piece for the trio of Flute, Bassoon and Tuba, I employ a Guillioche design aesthetic as a compositional tool.  Guilloché (/ɡɪˈlʃ/; or guilloche) is a decorative technique in which a very precise, intricate and repetitive pattern  is mechanically engraved into an underlying material via engine turning, which uses a machine of the same name, also called a rose engine lathe. This mechanical technique improved on more time-consuming designs achieved by hand and allowed for greater delicacy, precision, and closeness of line, as well as greater speed.



From Cardew's Treatise Handbook....

"However, the years of work on Treatise have furnished me with a fund of experience obviously distinct from the experience embodied in the score itself.  And this fund continues to accumulate , since my experience of and with the piece is by no means completed with the completion of the score ; so some of the excreta of this fund may as well be made available to those who, because it 's published, may shortly wish to be occupied with the score."



Friday, December 23, 2022

"The Library Forecourt At Some Private Reversed Murmur of Surprise" for Two Sopranino Saxophones. Donatiene Martin, Composer.

"The Library Forecourt At Some Private Reversed Murmur of Surprise" for Two Sopranino Saxophones.  Donatiene Martin, Composer.

Excerpt:"The Library Forecourt At Some Private Reversed Murmur of Surprise" for Two Sopranino Saxophones.  

Donatiene Martin, Composer.

Premiere November in Espoo, Uusimaa, Finland

A Commission from The Guidance Foundation, The Fredrik Idestam Trust and Nokia Corporation.


Excerpt:
"The Library Forecourt At Some Private Reversed Murmur of Surprise"
for Two Sopranino Saxophones.
Donatiene Martin, Composer.

Excerpt:
"The Library Forecourt At Some Private Reversed Murmur of Surprise"
for Two Sopranino Saxophones.
Donatiene Martin, Composer.

Excerpt:
"The Library Forecourt At Some Private Reversed Murmur of Surprise"
for Two Sopranino Saxophones.
Donatiene Martin, Composer.

Excerpt:
"The Library Forecourt At Some Private Reversed Murmur of Surprise"
for Two Sopranino Saxophones.
Donatiene Martin, Composer.


Friday, December 16, 2022

"Perimeter Walls" (2002) Bil Smith Composer.

 


"Perimeter Walls" (2002) Bil Smith Composer.  An Oulipo inspired composition for for a solo percussionist, to be used in whole or in part to provide a solo or ensemble for any combination of pianists, string players and percussionists.

Can An Asemic Notational Aesthetic Create A Valid Compositional Lexicon?

Bil Smith's "Delinquent Spirits..."


Can An Asemic Notational Aesthetic Create A Valid Compositional Lexicon? 

 I look to Ariel González Losada, Gustavo Chab, and Anat Pick for their keen insight. I think of Hans Robert Jauss, being the key figure associated with 'Reception Theory.' Mikhail Bakhtin's 'Dialogic Criticism', and Hervé Le Tellier, member of the international literary group Oulipo as guideposts of thought.

Ariel González Losada

Gustavo Chab
Anat Pick
Ariel González Losada








































My idea is to create a new system of notation embedded with apparent contradictions, but is itself based on the recognition that contradiction is the fundamental starting point of all musical departure, indeed all thought. 

The real kernel of ideation in this abstruse speculation is about the process involved in getting from nowhere to nothing. 

From the brilliant mind of Gustavo Chab...

Gustavo Chab   "Asemic writing is a wordless open semantic form of writing. The word asemic means "having no specific semantic content".   With the non-specificity of asemic writing there comes a vacuum of meaning which is left for the reader to fill in and interpret. All of this is similar to the way one would deduce meaning from an abstract work of art. The open nature of asemic works allows for meaning to occur trans-linguistically; an asemic text may be "read" in a similar fashion regardless of the reader's natural language. Multiple meanings for the same symbolism are another possibility for an asemic work.

Some asemic writing includes pictograms or ideograms, the meanings of which are sometimes, but not always, suggested by their shapes. Asemic writing, at times, exists as a conception or shadow of conventional writing practices. Reflecting writing, but not completely existing as a traditional writing system, asemic writing seeks to make the reader hover in a state between reading and looking.

Asemic writing has no verbal sense, though it may have clear textual sense. Through its formatting and structure, asemic writing may suggest a type of document and, thereby, suggest a meaning. The form of art is still writing, often calligraphic in form, and either depends on a reader's sense and knowledge of writing systems for it to make sense, or can be understood through aesthetic intuition.

Asemic writing can also be seen as a relative perception, whereby unknown languages and forgotten scripts provide templates and platforms for new modes of expression. It has been suggested that asemic writing exists in two ways: "true" asemic writing and "relative" asemic writing. 

 True asemic writing occurs when the creator of the asemic piece cannot read their own asemic writing. Relative asemic writing is a natural writing system that can be read by some people but not by everyone (e.g. ciphers). Between these two axioms is where asemic writing exists and plays



The Asemic Continuum

Influences on asemic writing are illegible, invented, or primal scripts (cave paintings, doodles, children's drawings, etc.). But instead of being thought of as mimicry of preliterate expression, asemic writing may be considered to be a post-literate style of writing that uses all forms of creativity for inspiration. Other influences on asemic writing are xeno-linguistics, artistic languages, sigils (magic), undeciphered scripts, and graffiti.

Asemic writing occurs in avant-garde literature and art with strong roots in the earliest forms of writing. A modern example of asemic writing is Luigi Serafini's Codex Seraphinianus. Serafini described the script of the Codex as asemic in a talk at the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles held on May 8, 2009."




"Memphis Design" (Dedicated to Ettore Sottsass) For Bassoon


"Memphis Design"

(Dedicated to Ettore Sottsass)

For Bassoon

Bil Smith Composer

Link To Full PDF Score: