Output details

things whole and not whole

Commissioned by Basel Sinfonietta with funds provided by Ernst Von Siemens Musikstiftung. Performances include: Basel Sinfonietta - Martinskirche, Basel (08.11.11); Rote Fabrik, Zürich (09.11.11); hcmf (20.11.11); Murmuration - Café Oto (13.10.12). Broadcasts: BBC Radio 3, Hear and Now (24.12.11); DRS2, Switzerland (28.12.11). things whole and not whole develops Saunders’ interest in group behaviour as an organising principle, and in the use of collaborative approaches to score-making. The starting point was Craig Reynolds’ (1987) analysis and computer modelling of flocking behaviour in birds. Movement was governed by three rules: a clumping force which keeps the flock together, a separation force which keeps them apart, and an ability to match velocity. The individual ‘boids’ follow these rules, and the flock movement emerges from their interaction. In Saunders’ piece, the interaction of the players is similarly governed by rule-based cueing: players make sounds in response to those made by other players. They also have autonomy in the selection of sound-producing materials. The players source a wide range of sound-producing objects different to those used by other players. This approach to distributed decision-making is presented in a conference paper and subsequent journal article (Saunders, J. (2013) ‘Specific Objects? Distributed approaches to sourcing sonic materials in open form compositions’. Contemporary Music Review, 32/5: 473-484 ), and a conference keynote address (Saunders, J. (2013) On Generality. Notation in Contemporary Music: Composition, Performance, Improvisation. Goldsmiths, University of London. 19 October 2013.). The piece is articulated as a verbal score, informed by research into this form of notation for the volume Lely, J. and Saunders, J. (2012) Word Events: Perspectives on Verbal Notation. New York: Continuum. It is also part of a series, the underlying principles of which are examined in Saunders, J. (2011) ‘Testing the Consequences: Seriality in the work of the Wandelweiser composers’. Contemporary Music Review, 30/5: 497-524.