Around the Bend (Video)
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- - Thank you guys
- for being hijacked by your professor to come and listen to Colin's talk.
- This is the first of this year, I think,
- for Music from the Library Speaker series, but it's the fourth in the entire season.
- So Colin, as you know, is going to talk to us about the compositional process
- for his work, Around the Bend, which was recently performed.
- He will have some audio sampling for to enjoy as well.
- [applause]
- - Thank you for coming.
- I figured I would play you the pieces.
- The audio's kind of--I tried to turn it up all the way,
- but you'll have to strain your ears to hear it unfortunately.
- But I'll read you the program notes for each piece before I'm gonna play it.
- You can follow along with the score and listen,
- and then I got a few things to say about it
- and take some questions.
- So this is what the players see.
- There's an audio score that goes along with it
- that they're listening to.
- They manipulate the instruments with their hands.
- They can use sticks and mallets.
- The crotales can be bowed and the wood block be covered in sandpaper,
- but it's up to them.
- The transcription, which you will see is not exact, but it's as close
- as I can get of the audio score that they're listening to.
- They have to listen carefully to the audio
- and also to each other in order to get the piece to work.
- But the exact timing with the recording is not necessary.
- We try to recreate all the sounds that they hear
- and for each note [inaudible] you’ll see a quarter note, or half note,
- or whole note.
- It represents an opportunity for them to play.
- They don't necessarily have to play if there are other instruments playing.
- If there is a solo then they do have to play.
- And that forces them to really listen to each other,
- listen to the audio and improvise.
- And I'll go into more detail with the score afterwards.
- I figured you could just see what's going on... first.
- So there's-- the first player has snare drum, bass drum
- and a woodblock, and it's set up... like this,
- snare, bass, and a wood block here.
- And the second player has snare drum,
- [inaudible] here, floor Tom, crotales.
- And then the third player has snare drum, conga, and the cymbal here.
- And they can all use their hands and get to where they’re going.
- Alright so lets open that up.
- [inaudible]
- [recording plays miscellaneous percussive sounds]
- Alright, well it didn't exactly follow the score, but...
- that’s a basic outline.
- [recording plays miscellaneous percussive sounds]
- So the third one follows the same directions as the first one.
- [recording plays miscellaneous percussive sounds]
- Alright, those are the three pieces.
- Just a quick note on the notation before I get into this.
- So here you see-- [clapping audio play]
- you see three lines for each player...
- and each line corresponds with particular instruments,
- so snare drum's the top one for this player, bass drum and woodblock.
- And then it goes down.
- So this person has the opportunity.
- He's listening for a breath in [inhales heavily]
- and then can use that with using his hand on the snare drum.
- And he's the only one playing that. So he has to play.
- However these two players when they hear the next audio,
- which I'll also should play the audio in a second.
- They don't necessarily have to play
- or maybe they can split up the solos themselves.
- They have to listen to each other, use cues or feel,
- they can determine the musicality of each gesture.
- In this mark here, it was trying to--
- if you have-- tried to simplify, not have a bunch of quarter notes.
- So these are just ten like beat markings, and where exactly which letter
- falls on the beat, so zoup.
- [Z sound] was on the beat.
- So that was the basic...
- outline for that.
- So, I guess...
- [inaudible] Any questions on what you've seen so far?
- - [audience member] So the vowels, is it also the supposed to be heard?
- - Why don't I play you what they hear.
- - [audience member] Okay, cause yeah, I’m missing something.
- - Okay.
- I was going to preface this a little bit before playing it because it sounds
- really kind of ridiculous,
- but I think it, it'll [inaudible].
- Okay. Well, I’ll just do it myself then.
- So for the very first--
- - [Maxwell] You don't have the actual recording they had
- or can you just not get it to play.
- - I can't get it to play.
- I can go to Box real quick.
- - [audience member] Is it you saying... the words/letters?
- - Mhmm.
- Sorry about this.
- [typing]
- - [audience member] [inaudible]
- - So this is the audio for the first piece...
- that they hear when they try to put [inaudible] with their hands.
- [recording plays various letter-based sounds]
- You get the idea.
- - [audience member] Where did you develop the text from?
- - Made it up.
- - [audience member] [inaudible]
- - [Colin] Yeah.
- I'm actually going to go ahead and jump into [inaudible] my little presentation.
- So, it’ll give you more context on how it actually came about--
- the system of notation and why I chose to make those particular decisions.
- So I want to preface everything I’m about to say with the following that
- I would not be able to write this piece without the help of Dr. Rick Snow,
- he helped me construct the architecture and...
- made sure that I didn't
- put an outhouse where a kitchen should be or something crazy like that.
- His constant [inaudible]
- feeling what I was doing was too weird or ridiculous.
- In fact, what I came up with is not that radical,
- it fits within the tradition of contemporary music.
- I did not know this at the time and it felt really strange to write...
- and everything [inaudible] took a span of about a few months.
- So...
- I’d never actually written a piece that used a different set
- of tools for building blocks [inaudible] pitches,
- [inaudible] this point really more worried about
- modal harmonic relationships,
- and my understanding of structure was still pretty small.
- I’d only written a few pieces, each one dependent on harmony,
- really intensely.
- After this piece was finished, my understanding of what was possible
- as a composer really kind of expanded.
- You can organize a piece around most any sound
- as long as you set the right parameters.
- And I-- to go back and just a--
- I feel like it's important as a composer to just kind of
- share the process of development.
- When I was first trying to become a composer, I took a jazz lesson
- and my teacher said, “You can't play these notes.
- You’re not allowed to.” And...
- my gut reaction was, this is ridiculous.
- Why can't I do whatever I want?
- Why am I learning the parameters of someone else's piece?
- So there's improvisation, but I cannot deviate harmonically
- if I want it to sound halfway decent.
- And I've learned in that, and also since then, in order to satisfy myself
- as a musician, as an artist, I had to set the parameters myself.
- [inaudible]
- That being said, composition allows you to create the structure,
- but you have to pick and choose very carefully.
- You can do whatever you want, but you can't do everything at once.
- Otherwise, you get a jumbled mess.
- Kind of speaking to the crowd here, but...
- I wrote this in the sense that anyone can really understand
- what’s going on.
- With this piece, I had the opportunity to manipulate timbres and timbres alone.
- There are other factors that I could manipulate, such as tempo, dynamics,
- phrasing, rhythm.
- However, this foundation demanded that each one of these remain secondary.
- Timbral shifts would inform how these secondary factors would play out,
- which was not to include factors like melody or harmony.
- So these were the types of decisions that helped me
- to make shape of this piece in my mind [inaudible] asking about.
- So, I had part of the foundation already, but it wasn't enough.
- I knew that the group coming in love to improvise and were very good at it.
- [inaudible] the year before, they performed a 20 minute piece
- that sucked you in using just a minimal amount of sound.
- Writing for the strength of the group was exciting
- because it allowed me to constrain myself.
- When you have infinite possibilities in front of you as a writer,
- it's hard to pick just a few.
- It's nice to know that one thing will absolutely work.
- And I also knew that this group specialized in graphic notation.
- This was not a chance to step out of my comfort zone
- and structure my piece around something completely foreign.
- I still use quarter notes and ledger lines
- and time signatures, but I wanted to redefine them in some way.
- This desire manifested itself similarly in the first and third movements,
- but differently in the second.
- I’ll cover more on notation later on.
- So at that point I knew to use timbre improvisation
- and graphic notation as three foundations for my piece.
- That's why I needed to figure out gesture.
- I wanted my piece to create a kind of
- aural experience with no narrative, or no exact purpose.
- The first and third movements I wanted to suck you in
- without dragging you from one point to another.
- It couldn't feel linear.
- That informed my decision regarding gesture and localized ideas.
- I needed to have enough timbres to keep it interesting,
- but also to keep the sense of stasis.
- You're not going to move from A to B, but you're going to fluctuate on A.
- Stick with the first and third movements.
- I had stasis, timbre, and gesture to inform my large, middle,
- and local structures.
- Large was mainly static.
- Middle had to move in some way from sets of sounds to other sets of sounds.
- And local had to have small, subtle gestures to keep you interested.
- With these three parameters, that’s how I used my voice
- as the source material for gesture on the percussion instruments.
- By using my voice I could allow the virtuosic improvisers,
- to use their skills to interpret what I was saying in real time.
- The score, as you can see, is a transcription of the noises
- that I recorded.
- Here's where the improvisation comes into play.
- I decided that there had to be a balance between improvisation preset parameters.
- You cannot let the players run wild, but I also could not keep them
- from interpreting my scores without more than the usual amount of freedom.
- My first and third movements gave the most [inaudible].
- My vocal score was an attempt to outline general phrasing,
- dynamics, and articulation,
- but I left the specific sound creation and timing open to the performer.
- I would cue only what instruments potentially play for a period of time,
- not how or when exactly to play it during that period.
- A shhh sound could be rubbing, tapping, or resonant noise.
- Your valves could cause the player to change the pitch or the sound--
- pitch of the sound he or she is making on the instrument, for example.
- Three players who play different parts of the sound.
- One player can play that-- you know, they can split up what they hear,
- and one player can play that one sound for-- And then the next one plays.
- So you can take one sound, split it up,
- or they can take that one sound and just have it be linear.
- Just trade off depending on what I say is okay for them to do.
- So a situation would be like this one,
- they don't have to play.
- They can split up the aria, [inaudible].
- The pitch might change so they might slide up [claps] the drum differently.
- It's really, their musicality comes in play.
- So it depends on how a few players hear each other and the audio is scored.
- I took inspiration from the Ursonate and we'll see if it works.
- [recording plays miscellaneous voices making musical sounds]
- [inaudible]
- He would take...
- he would take one sound or one word that he had made up and then expand upon it.
- So [sounding out notes] something.
- And so that inspired me for the first movement with the language,
- I wanted it to feel natural and to make up my own kind of Ursonate
- to be interpreted.
- And that would inevitably influence the phrasing of the piece.
- Because if I'm speaking with the language
- the way they play it, it’s going to sound more...
- the timing would be more like I'm speaking a sentence and invariably
- change the music.
- Whereas in the third movement I did a lot of...
- breath, but it wasn't
- phrased like in sentences and I manipulated the sound they were hearing.
- I extended some things to the natural lengths like a shhhh sound that you hear.
- I overlaid lots of different sounds on top to...
- put into the instruments and make it more musical.
- So the form is different in that way in terms of the localized gestures.
- But the large-form structure is still static and the middle structure
- is still sets of sounds changing over time depending on what they hear.
- So the tempo of the first and third movement is really fast.
- It's at 120, it's fast for them to hear themselves,
- hear what they're doing, hear everything around them and also put it in.
- So they're kind of just a little bit behind the beat.
- So, I found that
- while my intention was to have them have the time to listen each other,
- I think if I were to do another piece like this, I would slow down the tempo,
- give them more time to hear each other, what each one was doing,
- and create really personal improvised gestures and [inaudible].
- - [Maxwell] Yeah, but, could you comment on
- how you think that would change the effect of music.
- I mean, the fact that they are processing information at the rate
- at which their processing information creates a certain...
- it's not really complexity, but it's on the border-- it's like...
- simplified new complexity in the sense like what [inaudible] does
- when he creates so much information for a performer to process.
- They’re required to...
- play all of this information in time and it creates a certain energy.
- And I was wondering, you know-- - At the time--
- - [Maxwell] how you would balance-- I like the energy of the piece.
- And so if you slow it down, you're not going to have--
- - I wouldn't slow this piece down.
- If I did the piece would be completely different.
- And I still think it works. I think the energy was great.
- However, at the time I didn't quite conceptualize how much.
- Like, so it was a learning process.
- After the fact, they like, couldn't do it all.
- But it still works even though they couldn't do it all
- ‘cause they were forced to just do-- There's lots of energy.
- - [Maxwell] That's what I mean.
- Like, when you listen to the
- Catalonian composer talk about his [inaudible] score
- on Friday and he was referring
- to the fact the performer will never perform all of it.
- I don't know. I didn’t get to go hear it perform, but maybe you did.
- That creates a certain environment,
- like a meta-environment in which these,
- in which they sort of have to inhabit this space with the piece.
- And I understand what you mean by wanting to give them more time.
- I just don't know...
- if you think about it in terms of--
- - I wouldn't change this,
- but when I started out, I wasn't expecting this.
- So, I think if I wanted to actually execute on my initial plan,
- was to have really, truly [inaudible] and have time to really craft [inaudible].
- That’d be a good starting point for [inaudible] and I know what not to do.
- It still ended up working through my own ignorance.
- I think it just worked out. [chuckles]
- - [audience member] [inaudible]
- - Yeah, of course. Yeah.
- So, the audio wouldn’t be so-- and the tempo might not be 120,
- but this is a great,
- like-- I didn't know about that kind of style at the time [inaudible]--
- - [Maxwell] He plays a different music in many ways.
- I made that comparison and I should make it...
- carefully, because I’m not trying-- you know, you've already stripped harmony
- and melody out of your music in this project.
- So, you know, that strips a layer of that complexity out.
- And that's why I mean, kind of like a simplified complexity.
- Because they don't read the complexity, but the complexity
- is putting the thing together, which I find very interesting.
- - Mhmm
- - [Maxwell] It's quite simple on the page, but there's a--
- when you look at it, it's not what it sounds like.
- So there's another layer of complexity that sort of [inaudible] improvised
- elements that you’ve added in.
- The chance of operation, so to speak.
- - [audience member] How efficient do you feel this notation is [inaudible]?
- - It would have...
- it would have been really-- I wouldn't have been able
- to get a sense of-- I wouldn't [inaudible] improvisation
- into this piece without loosening up the rules of traditional notation..
- - [audience member] [inaudible]
- - That one was much more straightforward, actually.
- - [audience member] [inaudible] And it suited that,
- because it's the clearest representation of what you wanted them to do.
- Then you have the [inaudible] what part of the [inaudible], right?
- - Yeah.
- So, actually, the second movement is very different from
- the first and third, and it actually has a good climax.
- And I think that the...
- the architecture of that was...
- actually isn't just like flat, you know, when you think of the first and third
- that's just not-- doesn't go anywhere, just kind of chills.
- It's got lots of sound, but the overall large structure,
- it’s just flatline [smacks hands].
- But the second one just goes
- up, and up, and up, and down a little bit and then we’re done.
- [inaudible chatter]
- - [Maxwell] You may not have composed that,
- a shape into the first piece, but they certainly performed a shape
- in their own way.
- I mean, that's I think part of the intent, right?
- - Well-- - [Maxwell] I mean, the improvised nature
- of creating music based on timbral objects and...
- with which they can perform the piece, sort of,
- almost at their discretion, but also with what you sort of suggested.
- - When also, yeah, with the-- I might be..
- thinking too much away from the first and third, because my vocals...
- there is structure to that.
- In that...
- some of them, yeah, some of it gets faster, sometimes it gets louder.
- There's-- and that's when you hear the [claps loudly]
- loud kind of pops and that happens at very specific times.
- And that will always happen at specific times.
- It will always be louder
- even as this piece is played again, and again, and again.
- There will always be points where it’ll sound similar
- because of the way that I phrased the vocal line.
- Yeah, So I guess it's not as obvious as the second one.
- Yeah.
- And I guess I also learned from writing these three pieces what's possible,
- but also to respect notation and to be clear and concise.
- It took me forever to make this look as good as I could
- and still had plenty of mistakes.
- And they were moving so fast
- that there was just a little mistake in there then it wouldn't,
- it wouldn't come out like-- it would be a problem.
- But I guess to quickly talk about the second one again, yeah,
- the overall shape for me in my mind was crescendo.
- [inaudible] crescendo and then the middle structure was planning out
- how to get-- basically [inaudible] dynamics.
- And then the localized structure was just a swell.
- And then the variations on that one gesture.
- So in the second one we had the one swell gesture [inaudible] differences,
- and then in the first and third one we have a ton of [inaudible].
- So, what allowed for more a linear
- feeling in the second one was the fact that I took this one idea and,
- I think, managed to balance it fairly well on the local, middle,
- and large levels to create this, basically, climax [inaudible].
- - [audience member] I wanted to ask how did you conceptualize
- and create a second movement?
- What was the thought process?
- - I saw a YouTube video of a guy rolling a drum.
- And then It was going from [inaudible] to the middle and back again
- and it was like a lot of sound. - [audience member] Mhmm.
- - With dynamics some of that, the differences are lost.
- But I think it was enough to vary,
- you can still hear-- it still popped through.
- It didn't have to be-- it could be either super-soft or have lots of variation.
- [inaudible]
- [inaudible]
- - [audience member] Okay.
- - But yeah, I'm really glad that I wrote these
- and definitely open to writing more timbral-based music because of it.
- And I don't think it'll take me nearly as long to do it again because it won't
- be such like a mind--
- I can get over the fact that this is just not weird, you know.
- [inaudible] transcribing strange noises in a room by myself--
- - [audience member] Is cool? - is fun. Yeah. So--
- - [Maxwell] So, that was going to be one of my many questions
- that [inaudible].
- How did you approach creating the text?
- Was it transcription of improvisation or was it working with certain
- sounds and then, you know, composing them out?
- - Well, for the first one--
- - [Maxwell] [inaudible] - Okay [chuckles]
- For the first one I actually wrote out the language.
- And I practiced it and fiddled around with it like it was a poem or something.
- And after I got more comfortable with that and I just moved completely away from it
- and then just-- when I was recording it, I just made maybe 10 or 15
- different recordings of how to say what I'd written
- in different and interesting ways and just chose what I like the most.
- And I didn't want to cut it up. I just wanted to...
- get into different characters until I found one
- that was the most dynamic and interesting.
- And with the third one, after having done all the language,
- I kind of want to move away and see if I can get different sounds.
- So, that one was...
- just me making noises into the microphone, like,
- a bunch of times until I had my structure and things that I liked.
- I wrote-- actually that one I did not write out beforehand.
- Yes, basically improvisd.
- - [audience member] [inaudible] - Mhmm.
- - [Lisa] I have probably what is going to sound
- like a completely superficial question
- for all you composer types and then a practical question.
- So a superficial question: Did you actually intend
- to get all those [inaudible] or was that just a really happy accident?
- [inaudible]
- - I knew there would be different sounds but I didn't know [inaudible].
- - [audience member] [inaudible] I thought about that when I was listening to it.
- [inaudible] it's like its own little ambiance track that adds to it.
- It's awesome.
- - [Maxwell] Yeah, I think...
- one thing to sort of take from this...
- it's there... that becomes a control parameter
- if you get a snare drum player to play some of the things
- and then start putting things together and analyzing them before you compose it.
- - Right.
- - [Maxwell] ‘Cause then it becomes not just a...
- [inaudible] resonance within the overall gesture and sort of--
- you notated a little more clearly
- or you plan when you're notating and you figure out this beautiful graphic
- thing and then it becomes part of the sort of [whispers] harmony.
- - Right. - [Maxwell] But like the naked,
- it's this sort of deconstructed,
- [coughing]
- hidden, recessed harmony.
- Like, this sort of visage of that, you know, which is really beautiful.
- But... I think that was a very,
- very good question.
- [chuckles]
- - [Lisa] That was [inaudible] I’d never heard percussion sound like that.
- It's just the coolest. Alright, so the practical question,
- because I am a librarian and you composer types
- just hurt our minds all the time with your insane scores.
- How would you imagine packaging this?
- So it sounds like movements one and three are really an auditory score
- and only the second movement is actually composed [inaudible]?
- - Mhmm.
- - [Lisa] So would you want to have some-- like, a score with only
- the second movement and then an audio component for the first and third?
- Or would you also include a transcription and say the first and third
- movements indicating those are just for educational study purposes?
- [inaudible]
- - No, the first, the first and third we need the paper score.
- - [Lisa] Okay. - Because the paper score
- tells you when...
- when to play a particular instrument. So--
- - [Lisa] So that's in combination with the sound [inaudible].
- - So this guy's got a conga.
- - [Lisa] Right. [inaudible]
- - Right. And he has to play. He’s--
- - [Maxwell] Why does he have to play the conga?
- Did you make a conscious decision, like, you want that sound on the conga?
- [coughing] Or was it just, like, arbitrary.
- - [Colin] It was not arbitrary.
- I figured-- I knew I would listen to the word and...
- it's a great question.
- I listened to the word and I thought, okay, what have I done
- previously before this moment and what [inaudible] [chuckles]
- - [audience member] [chuckles] I was like, hmmm.
- - So yeah, that actually I [inaudible] was talking about, they can improvise.
- But I was also giving them like a barebones structure for the piece of--
- it actually is important for the bass drum to be interacting with the snare drum
- at this moment because I want this octave essentially to be present...
- and with the higher octave of the snare drum,
- because the word called for it at the time of the structure that I had set.
- - [Lisa] So that actually vastly simplifies it.
- But still, how would you imagine packaging this score conception,
- either by performers or libraries?
- - It would be all three movements together.
- One, two, three in order, because you can't--
- it wouldn't be the same if you just played, if you like--
- you need to have all three.
- One-- like, it needs to go in order to play--
- - [Maxwell] [inaudible]
- - Excuse me? - [Maxwell] [inaudible]
- - Yes, you do need audio for the first and third.
- And then you need-- it’s unfortunately complicated,
- you also need a computer and mp3 player for every single person...
- to listen.
- Or they memorize it, but that’s asking a lot.
- - [audience member] Yeah.
- - [Lisa] So my evil plot is [inaudible].
- How would you present [inaudible] or other people
- through time, since mp3 players
- soon will someday disappear and be replaced by something better.
- - [Maxwell] I imagine it would go with...
- I imagine that we would go with the, sort of, best hard copy,
- you know, there's the idea of flash drive,
- but then you’ve got something that's kind of...
- 3D in the 2D the world.
- And then-- so maybe, I mean, I think CDs still--
- and then the CD at some point, just like,
- the problem is, like, we have all of these great
- reference...
- there's a great flute reference book that’s out of print,
- but it comes with the record, it’s 45, you know.
- [inaudible] And no one ever, no one ever digitizes it ‘cause they always forget,
- because it's in the back of the book and they just leave the book on the shelf.
- And then you want to hear the, you want to hear the samples and you’re like,
- “What is this thing?”
- - [Lisa] [inaudible] - [Maxwell] Exactly. That's a good point.
- - [audience member] You think it's things like what you just did to access your file
- through that Box sharing website that, basically like, if you're worried about...
- the physical material that we use right now.
- Like, VHSs disappear,
- DVDs disappear, we go to Blu-Ray, we’ll go to the next one and we’ll keep going.
- Same thing with music.
- You'll still be able to access this file through the internet if...
- - The cloud.
- - [audience member] to set it up correctly we're like--
- - [Maxwell] Plus, the internet will change too--
- - [audience member] No, it will. It will.
- But, like, you’re not [inaudible] I mean, it's,
- it’s going to be an easier way to access it if you set up right.
- - [Lisa] But then, how do you have controlled distribution?
- [inaudible discussion]
- - [Maxwell] Yeah, that or maybe, is it possible
- to make an element of a publication public domain, just like--
- - [audience member] If they sign the rights over.
- - [Maxwell] if the-- the publisher would have to agree to it.
- Because it would be easiest just to go ahead and make that component,
- not the score itself but the-- because they can't,
- they still can't perform it the same way without the score.
- - Yeah. - [Maxwell] But...
- maybe that might be an answer and then it can be, you know,
- a little more [inaudible].
- [inaudible discussion]
- - [Lisa] [inaudible] So you’re saying you can’t perform it
- just based on the sound, you do need the score?
- - Yes.
- - [Lisa] But you could be losing some control of the distribution [inaudible].
- [inaudible]
- How much control are you comfortable giving up?
- [inaudible discussion]
- [tapping podium]
- [Lisa] Do you guys have anymore questions?
- [inaudible discussion]
- - [Maxwell] Did you do any analysis
- of the sounds that you created to inform timbres
- that you asked performers to perform in movements one and three.
- - Did I do any analysis?
- Ummm...
- [audience chuckles] At what point?
- When I was writing them or...
- - [Maxwell] When you were-- the pre-compositional plan.
- - Yeah.
- - [Maxwell] Were you, were you listening and analyzing
- what existed within the sound you were making?
- - I mean, I wouldn't have--
- - [Maxwell] Besides “shhhh” and “oouh” because that's like long, short.
- I mean, like the actual formant analysis, maybe.
- - The formant?
- - [Maxwell] Yeah. - What is that?
- - [Maxwell] Formant analysis is basically analyzing--
- FFT analysis is analyzing the, both the...
- like, it's not a sonogram analysis in a sense but--
- and Dr. Snow can tell you more, give you a program that can do this.
- - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- - [Maxwell] But there's a sonogram analysis and then there's--
- which is based on an FFT analysis,
- which is basically taking the spectrum of the sounds--
- - I did a real-- - [Maxwell] [inaudible] amplitude and
- sort of analyzing the vertical and the horizontal.
- - I did not go into that much detail.
- I just knew the “shhh” would sound pretty good on cymbal, you know?
- [audience laughs] - [Maxwell] No, I like it.
- - Yeah, I'm not-- I'm just saying, like, my straightforward
- answer here is just, like...
- - [audience member] Simplicity.
- - I, yeah...
- I tried to get at least for the-- let’s see...
- - [Maxwell] I'm asking this-- - Basically, if you look at what's
- going on here, you have two instruments
- going into-- and then it spreads out,
- and comes back in, and then it comes out, stops,
- and then it’s spread out even more.
- There's a shape to everything I was doing.
- And then it basically does it again.
- And then it spreads to three, the last measure.
- - [Maxwell] At which point they could or could not play some element of that.
- So it could just be one.
- It could be some composite gesture, this [inaudible].
- - Right, but they're all [inaudible].
- So then you have-- it goes again you have the three, was the two,
- back to three, stays with three, and then a solo.
- But you still have two potentially.
- So that's kind of how I was, I was thinking and to try and get it, so...
- [inaudible]
- - [Maxwell] I don't-- I really,
- this is more just devil's advocate, kind of.
- - That’s fine. [inaudible]
- - [Maxwell] I mean, because I think...
- as a composer and in your growth, there's always--
- All of our growths as composers,
- we have to come to terms with the fact that we perceive that idea at one point.
- You've already established the fact that, like, what would I do next?
- How would I approach the next piece if I were even to redo this...
- recommit to composing something similar to this again.
- And there are a whole different...
- there's a whole set of parameters that
- you've already thought about doing a little differently for the next piece.
- And so, it's like that.
- And I ask all of this because you only used your voice.
- And you have a deep voice. - Right.
- - [Maxwell] And so your deep voice dictates the way I think or I--
- it doesn't sound like your voice when they perform.
- So I'm not trying to-- but there is a formant
- analysis to have for a relationship because the way you're perceiving
- the sound is the way you perform the sound.
- It informs the way you kind of compose with the sound.
- You know, just like if you had Lena perform it and record it.
- [Colin and Lena chuckle] And Brandon perform the same sound
- and then put it together. - Yeah.
- - [Maxwell] So then you get different--
- then we're dealing with different kind of ways of interpreting
- the make up of that sound because we've made a composite
- sound out of what was made already. So.
- - That's, yeah, that's a great idea. The way to expand it.
- [inaudible discussion]
- I tried to-- when I was writing this,
- I tried to get, like, “high” and “low”, you know.
- I tried to get [inaudible] with the spectrum,
- but in general, I was around my speaking voice.
- - [Maxwell] I think one thing that would be really effective
- for this in that respect is that, like, do what you've done.
- Like...
- don't divorce yourself from the process.
- Go through it, but then have like a good new music
- performing vocalist perform it for you as well.
- - Mhmm.
- - [Maxwell] And just to kind of have that experience
- because I think that might also inform how you approach the whole...
- music that follows the music.
- - I feel in that case I would actually have to notate everything prior
- to recording it and like-- ‘cause I can't just improvise it.
- I mean, I could [inaudible] give her certain parameters. But--
- - [Maxwell] No, no, I'm saying do what you did.
- - Yeah. - [Maxwell] But then at the end,
- after you’ve got everything, before you make all the decisions about...
- instrumentation or orchestration.
- I mean, this is like, if you look at-- I use, this anecdote probably far too much.
- But If you look at [inaudible] sketches for...
- [inaudible] you know, you’ve got-- he colors things in red,
- like, it's all just piano music and then he starts, like, circling things.
- So it's sort of the modernist approach to, like,
- playing at the piano and circling things and then making it bigger, you know.
- It’s like... And that's all I'm kind of thinking about.
- Because there's one other thing that I think that I feel is missing
- from this piece, and that's-- like everything's very
- one dimensional...
- on the page.
- It's almost monophonic.
- - And in fact, several voices it certainly would be.
- - [Maxwell] Well. Yeah. I mean,
- I just wonder why it’s so monophonic.
- I mean, when I say monophonic, I mean literally like, rhythm.
- It is homophonic, but it's all-- since we don't have pitch.
- So we don't have melody and harmony.
- We don't-- it sounds, it looks more homophonic.
- It follows the same rhythms.
- The same syllables are with the same rhythms.
- So it's like, it's not like a choral piece that turns into a percussion piece.
- - Mhmm. - [Maxwell] It's a solo voice piece
- that’s being split up into three parts.
- - [audience member] How would you create [inaudible] with that then?
- - [Maxwell] Blending of vowels, you know.
- I mean, it's a whole nother piece.
- I mean, it would change the piece completely.
- - Well, I tried to counteract that by saying...
- split the sound with each other, you know. It allowed--
- - [Maxwell] But I think that’s the improvised part, right?
- - Yeah.
- They handle timing and...
- and actually have it, like,
- what timbre.
- - [Maxwell] I guess I'm really, like,
- thinking through all these things because I think it's a very original way
- of going about it.
- And I think it...
- it kind of asks to be delved into again multiple times because there are...
- there's definitely a multiplicity of possibilities...
- - Mhmm.
- - [Maxwell] in terms of how you go about creating form
- out of this sort of simplified construct, you know.
- So maybe I'm just kind of sitting here thinking what I would do with this music
- because I kind of like the effect.
- - I feel like what you're asking is to remove the improvisation [inaudible].
- - [Maxwell] No, I don't want to remove that at all.
- I want to find another way to inform the improvisation [inaudible].
- In another piece. I’m not saying--
- - Yeah, yeah, no [inaudible]. I feel you though, it’s good.
- - [Maxwell] [inaudible]
- [laughs]
- Maybe I’ve had too much coffee.
- - I appreciate the questions.
- - [Lisa] You know, I hate to be the one to stop a really interesting conversation
- but it's past four o’clock. We’re past the hour marker.
- So thank you Colin so much for doing this and thank you guys--
- [audience applause]