USING MUSIC AS AN OPEN CREATIVE RESOURCE (published article by Zachàr Laskewicz) Previous | Non-Fiction List HOME | Next

ACHAR LASKEWICZ, Theoretical Work

This is the lecture version of a paper which was afterwards published in the New Music Articles journal (issue 9) 1991, pp. 26-30 Sounds Australian (Australian Music Centre Ltd.).  

[ISSN: 0811 - 7497]

"Using Music as an Open Creative Resource"

ZACHAR LASKEWICZ
Composer

Working on stage and for radio and learning instrumental music as a child greatly influenced my concept of performers and performing, although I could not reconcile the difference between dramatic and instrumental performance. I was drawn to the stage because of the freedom in self-expression it provided through free dramatic improvisation. Instrumental performance was so restricted by tradition and form, and I soon discovered that acting was not a satisfying creative medium. When I began composing, I didn't really understand why. Now I know that it was the beginning of my search for a successful formula for combining my interest in theatrical and musical performance. My decision to study formal music was one that I regret, not being able to reconcile the musical forms and styles of an age long passed with my own composition. After being alienated from traditional musical forms, I began to move into different areas of sound, music and theatre. At the Academy of Performing Arts I have studied sound production and design, which was particularly beneficial, involving me in the recording, mixing and editing of sound sculptures and radio dramas. Sound engineering is highly detached from performance, but it certainly is a useful tool and influenced my attitude to composition. My studies of performance theory in experimental theatre have encouraged me to take a conceptual stance on my work, which has also been important particularly relating to my most recent composition exploring the differences that exist between theatrical and musical space. My involvement with Indonesian Gamelan and other Asian forms of music and theatre have also been an important influence.

My work is influenced by two primary forces, (i) Theatre and (ii) Structure. They are highly contrasting and thus put a division in the different works I produce. The first is involved with a way of thinking about musical processes as they relate to theatre and theatrical processes, and the second involves specific techniques in composition working with musical structure and development used in other forms that have influenced me (particularly Indonesian Gamelan).

(i) Theatre

This area is primarily involved with experimentation in using different theatrical techniques in composition, and also includes compositions that are influenced by literature (new ways of interpreting literature in music). Studying contemporary literature and theatre coupled with my own view of the problems of communication through words, helped me to realize that language should not be regarded as the most important means of communication and that there are many things that humans are unable to communicate through language. This realization has affected my work in two ways, the first forcing me to reject language and work with other forms of communication, and the second to use language in an alternative format, abstracting it from any literal meaning.

Harold Pinter, a British playwright famous in new wave theatre of the late fifties and early sixties, has his characters trapped an a void of ignorance, pain and confusion as they try to communicate. This breakdown in language reflects the inadequacies of the society that has created it, and I have aimed to express this in a lot of my early work through disintegration of texts as they grow towards chaos and cacophony.

My first important theatre work in this area is called Darkness and it is uses a deck of prepared cards (read by five people who sit around a small table) and a group of instrumentalists. It uses five excerpts from the poem by Lord Byron that shares the same name. They are alternately whispered and read out loud by the readers according to instructions on the cards. These cards have instructions for levels of dramatic intensity, which increase as the readers work through the deck (morbid tone, mournful, with a hint of fear, approaching madness, totally hysterical and so on). The cards also contain four solo speeches that divide the composition into sections. They are important not only because of their relationship to the structure of the poem, but also because they affect what the instrumentalists play.

The instrumental parts are sparsely scored and are mostly patterns to improvise around. The solo speeches signify to the instrumentalists that the composition has entered a new section, and a new pattern of improvisation begins. Below are some examples of the instrumental parts.

Example 2

During the performance, the readers sit behind a semi-transparent screen and the lights are gradually dimmed. The table with the cards is lit by candles. As the work develops, the text literally drowns in its own enthusiasm. The readers begin to lose control as the dramatic intensity increases. The words of the text (which have been constantly repeated) now have a new dramatic function as they can no longer be understood. The work is concluded by a scream and the extinguishing of the candles, leaving the performance space in darkness. The poem is of a horrific nature using bold and frightening imagery, and reflects a rather pessimistic view of the future of humanity. It depicts an intensely theatrical post-holocaust soundscape. Another poem that deals with themes involved with the end of the human race via nuclear destruction inspired the composition of the work titled There Will Come Soft Rains. This poem is much more reflective and beautiful and I employed more traditional composition methods than Darkness. These works are coupled by thematic content only.

My most important theatre work to date is called From a Gable Window. It is a tape composition involving the manipulation of recorded sound, and to obtain the full effect the work should by played in darkness and at the loudest possible volume. The wordless cries of pain and terror should emerge from the darkness and be a positive affront to the listener. The work is basically the editing together of four musical scenes, with the addition of some special effects to unite the scenes in the planned scenario. Three of the scenes were recorded in a large hall with stone floors, and one of the scenes was recorded in a smaller acoustic space to provide contrast for a climactic build.

Thirty-two local performers and technicians gathered late at night at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in May last year. All performances were improvisations under the direction of the composer, using simple hand signals and conducting techniques. The scenes were planned in detail before performance, but because of the improvised format the performers required no prior knowledge of the structure of the piece. The work also uses montage effects which were achieved by multi-tracking in the studio using the recorded scenes and the special effects. The composition is recorded in stereo which gives a wider space in sound than where it was recorded so an awesome and ominous soundscape is provided. The work is based on the writings of Howard Philips Lovecraft, famous for his horror fiction. The stories and themes he worked with were basically involved with the existence of dark and uncontrollable forces that prey on the brink between the real world and fantasy/nightmare. Identification with his writings shows an interest in that part of our subconcious that takes over when we sleep and dream. He has influenced writers as diverse as Jorge Luis Borges and Stephen King. I have written a short poem that summarizes the atmosphere and action within the composition.

From a Gable Window
the ghastly howling of the Viol
rends the night air
answering an exquisitely distant note
from the darkness

Spectral Strains
played with sinister intent
can attract nightmare forces
from the blackness of space illimitable

From the top of and old and crumbling building, a decrepit and ancient violin player listens to the sounds emerging from the darkness beyond his window. Something is calling to him, and he closes the window to block out the sound. The haunted summons continue, passing easily through the glass, so he picks up his violin and begins to play. The window panes begin to shudder and the sounds outside become louder and louder. His playing becomes more and more frenetic until his window shatters and he is completely overtaken by outside forces.

This work has two primary attributes. The first is that it is a theatrical work that does not use words - showing that important themes can be expressed without the use of language. The second is that it is a realization in sound of a piece that was originally conceived as a live instrumental work, but was not brought to fruition in this form.

Literature involved in experimentation with language has also influenced this side of my work, theatre that goes beyond trying to make me believe that I am re-experiencing something from the past, or trying to teach me lessons about life. There is so much more to theatre, just as music can go far beyond a simply pleasant aural experience. Experiments in meta-theatre (theatre about performance in theatre) are particularly exciting, often dealing with the interactions between the theatrical world (actors on a stage) and what is "real" world beyond the stage. Tom Stoppard, a British playwright, has been experimenting with meta-theatre. In his play The Real Inspector Hound, two different discourses run concurrently, that of an incredibly clichéd mystery thriller, and two critics who are reviewing the play and sit in a reflected audience on the other side of the stage. The viewer is at first fooled into thinking that the discourses are separate, but when the hideous clichés of the play become inextricably involved with clichés that seem to make up the life of the critics, we realize that the mystery of the play cannot be solved without the involvement of the critics. Another of his plays called Dogg's Hamlet is about two groups of people trying to set up for a performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet, but have great difficulty because even though they share the same words, the meaning for each group is different and they have to go to considerable extremes to communicate. This experimentation with language and reality excites me, and was one of the primary influences for my work which uses a text by graphic artist Edward Gorey - called The Object Lesson. The text is basically a series of humorous clichés that sound as though they should make sense, but in fact don't. In performance, instrumentalists alternately read sections of the text and play from the score, so that a single constant stream of text emerges above a pool of instrumental sound. The text has been divided into thirty-four parts, and each player has a series of excerpts which only he/she recites. After a reading of the complete text, the excerpts are mixed and read in a totally new order. The sense of the text moving around the instrumentalists in a cycle is broken. After this the combinations of text starts making less and less sense and it moves into absurdity while the instrumental sound envelops it. The joke in this piece was that the text was developed in a musical form, and the music in a theatrical form (the instrumentalists had to read text). Below is the complete text as it is used in the composition.

It was already Thursday
But his lordships artificial limb could not be found
Therefore, having directed the servants to fill the baths
He seized the tongs
And set out at once for the edge of the lake
Where the Throbblefoot spectre still loitered in a distraught manner
He presented it with a length of string
And passed on to the statue of corrupted endeavour
To await the arrival of Autumn
Meanwhile on the tower
Madame O, in conversation with an erstwhile cousin
Saw that his moustache was not his own
On which she flung herself over the parapet
And surreptitously vanished
He descended, destroying the letters unread
And stepped backwards into the water for a better view
Heavens, how dashing
Cried the people in the dinghy
And echo answered:
Count the spoons
On the shore, a bat
Or possibly an umbrella
Disengaged itself from the shrubbery
Causing those nearby to recollect the miseries of childhood
Guns began to go off in the distance
It now became apparent
Despite the lack of library paste
That something had happened to the vicar
At twilight however no message had come from the asylum
So the others retired to the kiosk
Only to discover the cakes iced a peculiar shade of green
And the tea-urn empty
Save for a card on which was written the single word
Farewell...
Guns began to go off in the distance
Where the Throbblefoot spectre still loitered in a distraught manner
Despite the lack of library paste
On which she flung herself over the parapet
And stepped backwards into the water for a better view
It was already Thursday
He descended destroying the letter unread
And passed on to the statue of corrupted endeavour
So the others retired to the kiosk
And surreptitously vanished
Madame O, in conversation with an erstwhile cousin
Disengaged itself from the shrubbery
But his lordships artificial limb could not be found
Or possible an umbrella
At twilight however no message had come from the asylum
Causing those nearby to recollect the miseries of childhood
Farewell...
Therefore, having directed the servants to fill the baths
He presented it with a length of string
On the shore, a bat
Saw that his moustache was not his own
And the tea-urn empty
Only to discover the cakes iced a peculiar shade of green
Meanwhile on the tower
Cried the people in the dinghy
It now became apparent
That something had happened to the Vicar
Heavens, how dashing
Save for a card on which was written the single word
To await the arrival of Autumn
He seized the tongs
And surreptitously vanished
Therefore, having directed the servants to fill the baths
He descended destroying the letters unread
Or possible an umbrella
And echo answered:
He presented it with a length of string
He seized the tongs
Guns began to go off in the distance
Or possibly an umbrella
On which she flung herself over the parapet
Only to discover the cakes iced a peculiar shade of green
At twilight however, no message had come from the asylum
Where the Throbblefoot spectre still loitered in a distraught manner
Despite the lack of library paste
He descended destroying the letters unread
And passed on to the statue of corrupted endeavour
Causing those nearby to recollect the miseries of childhood
Farewell...
Cried the people in the dinghy
And surreptitously vanished

This work has an obvious comic element, but it also reflects absurdist drama - the disintegration through mixing the repetitions stoops the text of meaning, questioning the purpose of the language. The work also sets up tensions by projecting two performance systems at the same time (music and theatre).

A recent work called Overture and Piano Blues was composed for a theatre production (India Song by Marguerite Duras). As well as fulfilling the traditional role of an "overture", the work deals with the concept of space in music and theatre. In this respect, the piece has two functions. The first is to take the audience from their space seated in the theatre into the world of Duras, involved with fragmented memories of a distant past. At the beginning of her play it says that music is played "to cover the time that it takes the audience to emerge from the ordinary world they are in when the performance begins." The piece attempts to make this transition by moving gradually from detached live improvisation, to a distant pre-recorded blues piano piece. This transformation can also be seen as a movement from a purely musical space to a theatrical space. The piece begins in darkness, and only detached long-note musical gestures can be heard. As it develops, fragments of melody used in the blues piano piece are heard in different transformations. In the last section, the piano gradually takes the melodic fragments from the other instruments (as they fade out) and the piano piece is formed.

(ii) Structure

This area relates to my work in developing composition techniques relating to musical development and structure, influenced both by formal and folk music. Important influences include Indonesian Gamelan, which I have played and written for, and the minimalist movement in music. Below is a few of these techniques and how they have been used in specific examples of my work.

1 - Gradual development of melodies and textures over a repeating chord sequence.

Techniques used to develop and alter melodies include increasing speed (by doubling or trebling it), increasing the amount of notes and changing the octave. Complex pulsating textures are developed using excessive melodic and rhythmic counterpoint designed to overwhelm the listener. The examples below are taken from the work The Power of Steam Machines 2.


Example 3

An early example in this style is called POWAH which at the moment only exists on 8-track tape (not yet written in full score). It was composed on request for 2 female singers, and also uses piano, 2 marimbas, 3 flutes, 2 'cellos and oboe. The piano and marimba are produced electronically on the recording which exaggerates the machine-like forward motion in the piece. This work is part of the Power of Steam Machines series, working with simple chord sequences, repeated to create the locomotive feel. In all these works variety is produced in the following ways; melodic development, transposition to a key area one tone lower and a suddenly contrasting middle section. In these works also, the wind instruments are designed to become the "Steam machines", requiring a lot of puff to play.


2 - Use of speed change to bring composition into a new section

This element of my work is influence by techniques used in Indonesian Gamelan. The free structural form of Gamelan allows the drummer (the conductor of the ensemble) to gradually increase or decrease the speed to what is an approximately doubled or halved tempo. The instruments that accompany the simple repeating melody with rhythmic and melodic figures, change their patterns to suit the new speed. Often new instruments are introduced, and a sudden change is brought about, although the core melody and structure stays the same. This is an exciting form and was first used in a work for pelog gamelan, Project-2, which used the improvised format of traditional gamelan. It has also been used in a fully notated form in a work for concert band, Exordium. In The Power of Steam Machines 2 this speed changing format is used, but for a different reason - to set the speed of the finale at a slower speed to the rest of the work to make it possible to double then triple the speed of the melodies, creating a truly climactic end to the composition (see previous examples). This format is most most clearly used in the piano blues from India Song Overture. The example below shows the composition as it moves into the middle section. The piano gradually slows, and the melody above the bass line now has the room to grow in complexity. It reaches a point of destination where the metre changes and its stop slowing its tempo. The new melody now changes the feel of the piece, although the basic pattern for the notes in the bass line are the same (although it has transposed up a tone and there are some extra notes).

Example 4

The use of doubling and tripling the speed of melodies was developed in Project-2 in a single voice introductory format. A melody is introduced on a marimba-like percussion instrument, the speed is doubled then tripled. After the third repeat the composition goes directly into the next section. The melodic figure has now become the accompanying figure repeated continually while other instruments develop melodically in the above it. This technique is used in a new work, Celebration-1, and an example taken from the marimba part when using this technique is printed below.


Example 5

3 - Pre-planned structure

This very much describes my non-intuitive style of composition and my primary interest in the structure of the work rather than the (harmonic) content. The process of composing begins with a simple idea, then a small plan, and then it evolves into a series of numerical relationships and rhythmic developments. After I have worked out the entire structure of the composition, I can start thinking about the notes used in the piece. The work Mood movement and Reflection represents this interest in structure. This work was planned in detail before being scored, freeing up the process of determining structure and how the work should develop. Works like Celebration-1 and India Song Overture and Piano Blues have been largely planned in this fashion, although the use of the intuitive process in combination with the planned seems to create a much more well rounded work.

The title Mood movement and reflection comes from the way the piece moves through a series of contrasting moods - "movement" is also a play on this word in its traditional musical use. Reflection in the title refers to the fact that when the work reaches a central point, it reflects exactly backwards to the beginning note for note through the 6 flute parts. It also refers to the contemplative nature of the gradual development. An example of the score at the point of reflection is printed below.

Example 6

This work was composed for performance by one live flautist, with the other parts playing on a stereo recording. The performance element (interaction between flute and tape) is very important. This work has had one performance with six live flautists, and it was not as satisfactory as the tape version because of the difficulty in keeping rhythmic accuracy and to fade successfully from silence.

4 - Merging of one section into another

This technique has a theatrical nature and if it is correctly used it can have quite an impact on the listener. It is involved with the gradual introduction of a totally new melody, that gradually develops into its final form, invades all instrumental parts and then brings the composition to a new section. This gradual transformation is theatrical in that it is designed to bring the listener to a new state of mind, without him necessarily realizing it. It is used in the climax of The Power of Steam Machines 2 and Celebration-1. In The Power of Steam Machines 2, the simple single chord structure allows a new melody to be introduced in its final tonal form, and rhythmic development occurs in the form of speed change (as explained). In Celebration-1 however, the more complex chordal structure means the new melody must be introduced in a melodic form that will fit in with the chord structure it is imposing upon. Only when it becomes a dominant invading force through the instruments can the final melodic structure be used, by which time the piece must have entered the new section. In India Song Overture and Piano Blues I use a similar formula that uses imposing melodies on a set structure. The example below shows a point of metric modulation. One by one, the flutes fade in on a melody using dotted quavers, and when they are are a dominant force, the other instruments fade out and it modulates to a new speed. The new speed is the old speed decreased by a third, so the dotted quavers of the flute melody before transposition are now quavers in the new speed.

*LAST MODIFIED: September 27 2013.

Major Writings