CANZ/NZSM NZ Composers Conference 2008

CANZ/NZSM NZ COMPOSERS CONFERENCE
27–28 September 2008
New Zealand School of Music, Kelburn Campus, Wellington

"Methods, concepts and strategies in recent New Zealand composition"

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

This conference is an initiative of the Composers Association of New Zealand in conjunction with the New Zealand School of Music to foster important research and discussion with specific relevance to composers working in New Zealand today. As such, the conference will focus on research issues relevant to current New Zealand compositional practice, including papers/presentations on working methodologies, relevant concepts and contexts, analysis, theory, as well as sociocultural/historical/political discussions

SCHEDULE

PAPER ABSTRACTS

OPENING ADDRESSES: "STATE OF THE UNION"

GLENDA KEAM — UNITEC
Here and There: Observing eddies and currents in the flow of compositional concern on both sides of the Tasman

The composing 'scene' in New Zealand is mutating quickly. Here - as elsewhere - composers have a widening array of relationships to 'academia', the music industry is undergoing major reformations, new technology developments are accelerating and offer an increasingly diverse range of compositional tools, and the position of art music in the lives of the wider population has moved significantly. The current state of New Zealand's post-colonial condition, its sense of identity and role in the world, also affects composerly concerns and approaches. This paper considers some ways in which New Zealand composers have responded to the changing environment here, and contemplates similarities and differences between these and some approaches taken by Australian composers.

DUGAL MCKINNON — NZSM
Taste, Autonomy, Engagement: where music shouldn't go

The parameters of Western art music remain largely proscribed by the aesthetic of autonomy. To be a composer is to be bound to the wider set of conditions associated with this, admittedly complex, aesthetic. However much the defining boundaries of concert hall music, whether instrumental or electronic, have been strained against, there remain physical, spatiotemporal, musico-material and sociocultural taboos that are rarely, if ever, exceeded and just as rarely discussed. Through analysis of the work of a number of New Zealand's "maverick" artists, this present paper aims to define – loosely – the taboos that the autonomy aesthetic sets in place, the ways in which these taboos have been broken, and inevitably, the consequences such taboo breaking occasions.

SESSION ONE — SHAKY ISLES: POLITICS AND GENDER

SUSAN FRYKBERG
Do Women in Music in the 21st Century Have a Role in Shaping Global Culture?

In April 2008 I was privileged to attend the ICWM (International Congress of Women Musicians), in Beijing, where I had one of my works played. This gave me the opportunity to reconsider the role of Women's Organizations in music, as the fertile mix of ideas from Asia, Europe and America impact on economic, social and religious thinking. This paper attempt to articulate some of these musings, with the hope of entering into dialogue with those listening.

CHRIS ADAMS
An evolution of style, new direction or just taking the piss? Two recent quartets by Chris Adams.

The Clarinet Quartet The Liberation of Mr Norris for four clarinets is a reaction to an article written by Michael Norris on compositional pedagogical practice. Persephone, a string quartet, uses a similar compositional language, exploring extended technique and form. Examining the process and methods used in the writing of these works and comparing common features in the musical language, Chris Adams discusses his current compositional outlook.

CLAIRE SCHOLES — AUCKLAND
Epicene Women: working with Sydney's Song Company

Last year I travelled to Sydney to attend the workshopping and performance of my recently completed vocal work Epicene Women as part of top Australian vocal ensemble The Song Company's MODART07 festival. Epicene Women was inspired by Henry Wright's infamous notice posted around Wellington in the early 1900s which warned women not to relinquish their femininity by concerning themselves with politics and other 'masculine concerns of which they are profoundly ignorant'. In this presentation I will discuss the circumstances that lead me to feel compelled to write Epicene Women; the choices I made whilst writing it; and the process of workshopping it with The Song Company.

SESSION TWO — SENSE OF PLACE: APPROACHES TO COMPOSITION IN NZ

BRUCE CROSSMAN — AUSTRALIA
Spiritual Essences: Sounds of an Asian-Pacific Place, Personality and Spirit in Double Resonances.

Double Resonances is about an essence of sound which is both personally resonant of the Pacific (East and South East Asian with European influences) and yet aims for the spiritually transcendent on emotional-human and heavenly levels (embodied and beyond). Korean Gayageum master, Hwang Byong-ki speaks of a felt spiritual essence—m?t—an essential quality sensed within artistic endeavour and life, as well as an emotional charge from heaven that touches the human heart. Judaic-Christian thought talks of the sea-sound as deep speaking to deep from within nature—a natural presence of the divine that communicates deep inside the human heart. So with regard to sound—its creative heart—two principles emerge: emotion and spirit. In Resonances I consider that essence is evoked as sounds of place and personality with a spiritual transcendence component that aims to speak in human and heavenly spheres. On the spiritual level, emotionally charged climactic moments and thrusting juxtaposed rhythms speak of the human-touch/spirit whilst symbolised sounds (communion bell-like crotales and Thai temple gong) suggest another world. This other-world essence is also expressed in an embodied way through interval-colour and the reverberant—an inner felt-tension of m?t or the in-dwelt presence of spirit.

RICHARD HAYNES — AUSTRALIA
The Clarinet Music of James Gardner

I will give a brief introduction and summary of key works for solo clarinet/bass clarinet by New Zealand composer James Gardner, with a particular focus on certain technical demands, and their expressive effect.

SESSION THREE — PERSONAL STORIES: NARRATIVES OF COMPOSITION

M. LOUISE WEBSTER — AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY
Better late than never?

In this paper I will examine some of the issues that have arisen in approaching composition somewhat later in life, and from the context of a very different career. I will also discuss the diverse influences on my compositional practice, which include the Anglo-Saxon and European musical traditions of the early colonising settlers in New Zealand, the sound-world of the New Zealand landscape, and the dilemmas I experience, as one who is not tangata whenua, in using or acknowledging the influence of traditional Maori musical forms in my work.

JOHN ELMSLY — AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY
New wine and old bottles / old wine and new bottles

A survey of some of my recent compositional work and its relationship to the past and my past, with consideration of some of the varied even conflicting demands of teaching, research and the musical community.

GILLIAN WHITEHEAD — DUNEDIN
The Islands — Jack Speirs.

In 2000, Jack Speirs died, leaving an unfinished three-movement symphony, based on Charles Brasch's cycle of poems, 'The Islands'. In Sydney, Peter Platt and I looked at the sketches to decide whether or not it was possible to complete the work; a week later Peter Platt himself died. He had suggested to Ann Speirs that I was the appropriate person to try and complete the piece. Two movements were realised at the SOUNZ/NZSO readings last year. The paper will address the problems encountered in the reconstruction and realisation of the work, and present aspects of the work itself.

SESSION FOUR — OF SOUND MIND: SONIC ARTS IN AOTEAROA

JOHN COULTER — AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY
Methods of Electroacoustic Composition

It is the innate conviction of every composer that the creative process yields the greatest of discoveries. We have evidence of this from the pioneers of the electroacoustic domain. History also reminds us that common methods of composition have been adopted on mass, and that composers have made similar discoveries quite independently of one another. General process models exist at very high levels of abstraction that describe all methods of composition - an example is Emmerson’s simple model of composition (1989). There are also a number of broad principles that may be drawn from these universal models. However, there are fewer models available that accurately describe common compositional procedures within individual musical genres, and fewer still that describe common methods of realising the various styles of electroacoustic music (EAM). This paper systematically investigates the methods associated with composing acousmatic EAM, 8-channel EAM, EAM with moving images, interactive installation, and music for instrument and tape. It does so through the study of domain-specific literature, through the use of compositional process diaries kept by the author, and through the discussion of key principles with other composers. The finding of the research is that common methods of electroacoustic composition exist within stylistically constrained frameworks. The paper presents several detailed process models corresponding to the aforementioned styles as well as a general discussion concerning the need to innovate within these known procedures.

JASMINE CHEN — AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY
Creative progress in electro-acoustic music with live acoustic performance: the significance of interactivity.

To compose an electro-acoustic music with live acoustic performance is one of the projects for my Master year’s compositional portfolio. This action research paper seeks to explore the essential key points to electro-acoustic music with live acoustic performance. As an empirical research study for the composition project, it draws attention to areas in: Creative progress, Composing and experimenting with sounds, Interactivity – musical discourse, Interactivity of sound and visual elements in a live performance situation

RIETTE FERREIRA — AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY
Black vs Blue: Scoring film

The topic is a comparative analysis of the scores of two recent New Zealand feature films composed by Victoria Kelly: Out of the Blue (2006): real-life drama based on the Aramoana massacre in 1990 with sparse use of music; AND Black Sheep (2007): comedy horror/science fiction with about 70 minutes of music. Scoring music for films is an active part of contemporary compositional practice and shows the versatility of New Zealand artists. The research for my doctoral thesis has shown that to date there has been little critical assessment or appreciation of this work in the film industry. Music is often the most persuasive factor in the viewer’s perception of a scene. The methods and materials used in layering music and image have a significant effect on the scene’s emotional undertones. Music emphasizes and supports the genre and style of a film and manipulates the focus of the audience, e.g. reflecting characterisation by means of leitmotifs. This presentation will discuss aspects of the creation and production of an essential element of the sound design in films.

 

 

SESSION FIVE — CHOOSING NOTES: TECHNIQUES AND STRATEGIES OF COMPOSITION

ROSS HARRIS — WELLINGTON
Who cares about voice leading?

An examination of what voice leading means in tonal and non tonal contexts with examples from the composer’s recent work. The talk may also include composition of a short piece of music to demonstrate the application of voice leading in a unfolding compositional context.

 

MICHAEL NORRIS — NZSM
Microtone clock theory: generalising pitch-class tessellations to finite cyclic groups of arbitrary size

This paper presents a mathematical generalisation of Jenny McLeod's "tone clock steerings" (transpositions and inversions of an intervallic prime form that partitions the chromatic scale), to enable similar constructs in other equal-tempered divisions of the octave. A simple computer algorithm for generating these tessellations is provided, and the musical applications of these configurations discussed.

 

SAMUEL HOLLOWAY — UNITEC
'Microtonality' in Recent New Zealand Music

The use of microtones, particularly quarter-tones in an expanded form of equal temperament, can be increasingly found in the work of New Zealand composers. This paper will explore 'microtonality' and its various manifestations in recent New Zealand music, with reference to works by composers including Michael Norris, John Psathas and Ross Harris, as well as a number of my own works. It will also suggest potential areas for further compositional exploration.

Conference info

Dates

27–28 September 2008

Venue

New Zealand School of Music, Kelburn Campus, WELLINGTON

Concert

A new quartet featuring Richard Haynes, Arnold Marinissen, Johnny Chang and Donald Nicolson. 4pm, Sunday 28 September, Hunter Council Chamber, Victoria University of Wellington.

Sponsors

Composers Association of New Zealand

New Zealand School of Music

Victoria University of Wellington