Colab 2020 - Trinity Laban Conservatoire

COLAB 2020 - Trinity Laban Conservatoire

Writing Music For The Flute and Piano

Mentors - Aleksander Szram (Piano) and Fiona Kelly (Flute)

This blog is an account of Trinity Laban’s yearly ‘Colab’, which aims to encourage whole institute collaborative projects that are performed at the end of the week’s activities. My activity for the week was composing new music for the flute and piano, something that as a composer, I welcomed

Monday 17th February 2020

Day one of colab.

As the participants filed in and began to introduce themselves to one another, it became apparent that the group was a good mixture of musicians ranging in age from aged 19, to age 44 (me!). There were in total; four flautists, three composers and three pianists. As the mentors introduced themselves to us and we formally introduced ourselves to each other, a common theme was of people saying they had chosen this colab option, as they wanted to extend their knowledge and skills of the creative capabilities of the piano and the flute.

Fiona, our mentor, (a professor of the flute), began by demonstrating the extended techniques of the instrument, also charting the flutes evolution in this respect, over the 20th and 21st century, The talk was very topical on a personal level as I had recently completed a composition for Dr Carla Rees, called ‘Beneath The Veil’ and the possibility of being able to explore this further was exciting.

There were two creative tasks given on the first day, the first I was placed in a group with flautist Jess and pianist Queenie. For this we decided to have myself and Queenie at the piano; with me plucking the strings, while she played the keys and Jess using a range of extended techniques that included multiphonics, overblows and harmonics. This piece was responding to our own story and it followed through the use of timbre and technique elements of that story.

For the second task, we were again mixed up as a group and I was again placed with Queenie. (The top video, below, with myself on guitar and Queenie on the piano), was taken mid-improvisation on the first day of Colab.)

The story given to us was of a cat that was happily strolling around the neighbourhood, until he decided to climb onto the roof of a house. Once reaching the roof and walking the ledge, the poor cat after fighting to stay on balance, loses control and falls to the ground. After a brief moment of suspense surrounding the cat’s survival, he rises up suddenly on all fours, obviously unharmed and then metaphorically dusts himself down and goes about his daily business.

Classical pianist Queenie, during our discussion (prior to our several improvisations), liked the idea of exploring jazz and blues ideas and we agreed a sense of fun should be explored given the type of story it was. We experimented with walking bass type riffs to emulate the cat’s walk, which resulted in a very bass guitar sounding funk riff on the guitar, punctuated by syncopated seventh chords on the piano. We discussed cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and the recent two animations ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ and decided the melody should be bluesy and fast. For the cat’s fall, we used an old fashioned musical gesture of a high to low chromatic gliss, before landing on a 5th chord - and to evoke the classic sense of ‘The End’.

Tuesday 18th February 2020

On day two, in the morning before the next creative exercise was set, a series of group singing exercises were performed. This involved singing a very simple piece of music (for one exercise, we choose Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star), but each person had to make each note for as long as possible, before drawing breath for the next note. For me personally, just like the previous days activities were, this was also a challenge to me. I don’t enjoy group activities and my preference professionally and socially, is to be for the most part alone; dipping in and out of group options when necessary.

A few minutes into the exercise, the room had turned into a very pleasant cacophony of sound. What I began experiencing, was a feeling of prayer. The sounds became strangely hypnotic and my meditation was only briefly interrupted by my chattering consciousness of a voice in my head, that said “you can use this idea for a new composition’. I must say, of the group warm ups and ‘bonding’ exercise, this by far my favourite. I think this was because it allowed still for a degree of autonomy, where as some of the other warm ups involved exercises that included shouting and sudden noises.

Extended Techniques and stepping out from comfort zones

Later this day, the flautists of the group were shown how to execute a variety of extended techniques on their instruments. This seemed very new territory for them and I empathised with them having to demonstrate these newly acquired skills this to a small, albeit friendly audience.

Nick, (in the second photograph down the page), much to the surprise of the group (and the tutors too), demonstrated some very unusual animalistic sounds that he achieved with differently phonetics, breathing control and also strength. The animalistic, loud and even vulgar sound Nick produced made an impression and I began to in my imagination, think of where and how this technique could possibly be used in a piece of music.

Being a keen gypsy jazz guitarist as well as classical, I have a variety of plectrums at my disposal. For Colab, I brought my 5 mm thick picks in, with the idea of using these with the piano strings.

Wednesday 19th February 2020

Wednesday afternoon I had to teach elsewhere, but by this stage of colab, Nick, Faye and myself had decided we would like to work together as a trio. Having established the type of piece they would find exciting to play and also which techniques they thought would work well on their respective instruments, it was agreed that I would write the score and e-mail them a pdf that evening, so we could as a group tweak any necessary directions on the music. The third photo, taken on the Wednesday, demonstrates Faye’s chosen physical stance when playing the piano, which she also used in the end performance. Faye explained later that standing allowed her to see Nick’s physical gestures as well as being able to pluck the strings (using one of my thick gypsy jazz guitar picks), knock on the strings - and also, to be able to conventionally play the piano on the non-extended techniques parts. Working with Faye was a pleasure and despite our age difference, we had a lot of similarities. For example, there tendency to interpret information literally, When asked by Aleks, the course mentor the name of the mystery piece, Faye said she had received the email and assumed the title of the piece was Mystery Piece.

Thursday rehearsal and Friday’s recital in the Peacock Room

Our group met up in the Peacock room with a last day demonstration of extended piano techniques was given by Aleks. Aleks bought in various metallic objects such as chains and nails and screws and showed how they can be placed with the mechanisms of the piano to produce new sounds, but perhaps most importantly he stressed the need to be not too precise with instructions, citing John Cage’s frustration of artists who followed his extended techniques instructions so literally, often they didn’t produce the desired effect, as the performer lacked the initiative to tweak the placement of a screw or object, as they felt they were not following the score appropiately.

Our group used our final hours of Thursdays colab to rehearse the score and for Faye and Nick to become comfortable with their improvised sections. The fourth photo below, with myself, Nick and Faye, was taken while we experimented with the low timbre produced by hitting the piano strings with a knocking gesture, similar to knocking on a door. This produced a very deep ‘gong-like’ effect and we agreed it worked well underneath a very high pitched flute section. Nick used the harmonics of the flute here to contrast the lower timbre of the piano. Faye’s use of the plectrum, for a non guitarist was impressive and her improvised sections of the score that used a strumming technique on the strings of the piano was really effective. Faye’s piano repertoire had been for the most part, works from the classical and romantic period and she by her own admission, had little experience of contemporary music. Despite this, she threw herself into the creative process with gusto and commitment. Nick and Faye showed a very good musical rapport responding to each other’s phrasing and giving visual cues to indicate a new section was being approached or coming to an end. Even from my previous research into the extended techniques of the flute

On the Friday, unfortunately a family crisis meant that Nick couldn’t be there, but that didn’t stop us being able to introduce a video of a performance on a big screen. The group’s pieces were all very different in musical style, but all, used extended techniques and a combination of written scores and improvised aspects. There are now new things I wish to get cracking with and try as a composer. Colab was very much a double experience for me. On the positive side, I am pleased to have learned new things about music, to have met and worked with so many fine musicians and good people. On a practical level, I am pleased to have a new piece produced as a result of the negatives. My life long misgiving, because the is how I am wired, will always been directed group work. us humans are all an infinitely complex bunch, but that is what I believe makes life all the more interesting.