Grandchildren of experimental music : performing the compositional act by creating intriguing situations in which musical sound may occur

• Main Author: Ingamells, Andrew Thomas
• Other Authors: Dr. Michael Wolters; Howard Skempton; Prof Ronald Woodley
• Published: Birmingham City University 2017
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.753298

This portfolio of work explores alternative methods of musical composition that question the distinction between composer and performer, presenting an integrated and interdisciplinary artistic approach that aims to engage a broader public in the production of experimental music. The seventeen pieces in the portfolio are playful outcomes of a practice that, whilst rooted in musical concerns, does not privilege the sounding result. In the accompanying commentary the heritage of experimental music and Fluxus is used as a starting point to reconsider the traditionally separate roles of composer and performer. I assert that these roles currently remain distinct and separate in contemporary practice, despite the challenge that experimental music and Fluxus posed to conventional music-making. In order to address this I reconfigure the relationships between composer, performer and listener through an interpretation of a diagram by experimental composer George Brecht, and develop a framework in which the act of composition can be performed through ‘reading’, ‘character’ and ‘playing’.