Creative bodies; embodied creation. Unlocking the idiosyncratic behaviour of performers to find new voices in composition
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal Northern College of Music
Department Name: Research Office
Abstract
In acoustic music composition there is an inevitable collaborative dimension when a composer hands over
interpretation responsibilities to performers. As a creative process, composer-performer collaboration is often
central to a composers research, and outputs in the field encompass many working models and aims (see
Fitch and Heyde, 2007; Gorton and Östersjö, 2016; Styles, 2016; Williams, 2013, and Clarke, Doffman and
Lim, 2013 for autoethnographic documentation of collaborative models). For many composers looking to
expose the performer's voice in composition, collaborative research aims to elevate the performer's status to
'co-creator' of the work (see Hayden and Windsor, 2007, for review, or Kanga, 2014a, for a critical reflection
of this methodology). I do not aim to enter into this familiar composer-performer relationship, but intend to
identify and creatively direct the idiosyncratic performance behaviour of individual performers, as
differentiated from their normative performance practice. I aim to document an anthropological
understanding of the performer (see Ingold, 2013, p.2 for definition), intending that this can be shared with
an audience through composition.
interpretation responsibilities to performers. As a creative process, composer-performer collaboration is often
central to a composers research, and outputs in the field encompass many working models and aims (see
Fitch and Heyde, 2007; Gorton and Östersjö, 2016; Styles, 2016; Williams, 2013, and Clarke, Doffman and
Lim, 2013 for autoethnographic documentation of collaborative models). For many composers looking to
expose the performer's voice in composition, collaborative research aims to elevate the performer's status to
'co-creator' of the work (see Hayden and Windsor, 2007, for review, or Kanga, 2014a, for a critical reflection
of this methodology). I do not aim to enter into this familiar composer-performer relationship, but intend to
identify and creatively direct the idiosyncratic performance behaviour of individual performers, as
differentiated from their normative performance practice. I aim to document an anthropological
understanding of the performer (see Ingold, 2013, p.2 for definition), intending that this can be shared with
an audience through composition.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Lawrence Goves (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Ellen Sargen (Student) |
| Title | Candidate 3 |
| Description | 'Candidate 3' is an aria written for soprano Ella Taylor. It is a collaboration with librettist CN Lester and was commissioned by the National Opera Studio in 2020. It was premiered online at OperaVision in November 2020. It was given its first live performance in March, 2021 at Firth Hall in Sheffield. The experiences of soprano Ella Taylor were used as inspiration for the libretto. The programme note for the full opera, 'Audition', reads as follows: A one-act satire including mistake and muddle and misplaced good-will. A company commits to staging a new work featuring transgender singers. The audition panel comprising four people, none of them trans hear three singers. An agit-prop activist. 'Too political'. A singer who tuns out to be a part of a duo auditioning together with a light-hearted love tale. 'Too niche' and singer who has sung for the panel before but of whom they have no recollection. 'Ideas are OK but where's the surgery theme?' An all too common experience for trans creatives. |
| Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | This was the first piece written in this research project. Although my methods for writing with a performer's 'behaviour' and 'identity' have moved on significantly since writing this work, many of the questions that have become pertinent in my research project (e.g. those that deal with collaborative ethics) were first realised during this project. |
| URL | https://youtu.be/J8wYaHVvefA |
| Title | Conversation Piece |
| Description | This score was written for Jenni Hogan, one of my collaborators for this project and a flautist. I wrote this piece for Jenni after we had collaborated remotely throughout the first lockdown, sending daily videos to one another diarising the everyday, throughout living in lockdown. This created an extended and remote dialogue lasting four months. The piece is for solo flute with electronics and uses the videos from this dialogue as 'found footage'. This is used to create the electronics part for the piece. The flute part was created in response to the following questions: how can the flute become a tool to embody feelings of resistance and of overcoming? What techniques and sonic characteristics does the flute afford me to translate 'resistance' and 'overcoming' into sound? These questions became important after I had created the electronics part for the piece. The compositional process of editing our dialogue into a new track had allowed me to create a new narrative and create new textual meaning in our recorded dialogue. I wanted to emphasise this new narrative (based on resistance and overcoming resistance) with the flute part. This piece was premiered at Bishopsgate Institute in London during November, 2021. |
| Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | During the creation of this piece I developed methods for composition that I had previously worked with for 'as in mirrors' and 'Flect'. I explored new definitions of my research focal points 'behaviour' and 'identity' in this piece. Jenni Hogan and I are currently writing a paper discussing the impact of the piece on audiences, after the premiere of this piece resulted in a collective emotive response from the audience. Our paper discusses pandemic-based art as a space for audiences to collectively process a shared experience (the pandemic). We discuss the accessibility of this new space, particularly as an invitation for new audiences in experimental music. |
| URL | https://fabric-project.blog/2022/03/14/conversation-piece/ |
| Title | Flect |
| Description | This audiovisual work was created in collaboration with percussionist Darren Gallacher and premiered on September 1st in an online festival hosted by The Incognito Project. The piece documents moments of conversation, instrument building and performance over a two week residency. Building sonic and visual narratives from found footage during the collaboration, Flect explores layers of meaning around the central image of a percussionist's hand gesture and movement. This work was the first completed output with one of my collaborators for this project. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | Developing this audiovisual work gave me the chance to apply and interrogate the compositional methods I had developed as part of 'as in mirrors', directly to the creation of a new work and to a new collaborative space. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdImGJDjR6c |
| Title | Song for CoMA |
| Description | This audiovisual piece was developed with CoMA Manchester, an all-abilities contemporary group that I set up in March 2020 and still direct. The piece was developed remotely in the third lockdown. The piece was developed in three stages. In the first stage, I devised questions for each individual group member to creatively respond to with sound. These responses came back in the form of videos from each member, playing certain gestures on their instruments or using other objects as sound makers. During the second stage, we came together as a group online for a remote rehearsal. I had created a quasi 'board game' score that asked players to move between different spaces, on each of which were the same questions I had asked in stage one. We collectively played this game on zoom, creating unique textures based on the creative response of each player. During the third stage, I edited the material I had received from stages one and two into a new audiovisual piece: Song for CoMA. The piece was premiered in RNCM's digital PLAY festival alongside a full programme created remotely by the group. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | This development of this piece had several impacts for CoMA Manchester as well as impacts on my own professional profile. CoMA Manchester developed significantly as a group from this intervention. I had set the group up in March 2020 just before the lockdown hit. We had been rehearsing online for nine months and had very little profile as a group. Developing this piece (alongside another by colleague Bofan Ma) allowed us to submit a full programme to the RNCM PLAY festival, by way of application. Our inclusion in this festival was the debut performance for the group and allowed us to start building our profile. I believe this was crucial in our successful application to the Arts Council later that year, for funding to put on a festival in August 2021. Developing this piece also contributed to the group's development of an audiovisual language that we continue to include in our programming today. Most recently this was used in our programme for the Festival of Contemporary Music for All (March, 2022), where we used this process to develop a score by local artist (and CoMA member Lorna Green). Other outputs resulting from the development of Song for CoMA include my appearance at the Music and/as Process conference on 24 June 2021. I, alongside composers Bofan Ma and Shaun Davies (who had also written for the group), delivered a paper entitled 'CoMA Manchester: Building a community new music ensemble over Zoom' in which I discussed 'Song for CoMA'. |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSkVVy_waM4&t=224s |
| Title | as in mirrors |
| Description | This audiovisual piece was premiered in Future Music #2 festival at the Royal Northern College of Music in June 2020. The digital work was devised and performed by myself and now sits on my website (embedded from YouTube). There is no score at the time of this submission. This piece was written to creatively document my relationship with my flute, as well as unpack some thoughts about 'performing the self'. Within it I perform an alternative digital identity (derived from ASMR), as well as something much more personal, where I talk about my relationship with the instrument. I include diary entries and footage that were recorded in January 2020 when I was trying to change this relationship. These changes included exploring the sounds that I was producing, as well as the way I held the instrument. The piece explores identity through the act of performing and was conceived of as a 'collaboration with myself'. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | This piece transformed the course of my research practice. It was the first time I had defined what I meant by ' research focal points 'behaviour', or 'identity' through my own creative work (where until this moment my definitions were drawn from others' work). This piece was also integral to building a methodology for my research practice that could be sustained throughout the pandemic (where harsh limitations had been placed on my ability to create and perform new works with other people). This piece led to an invitation from The Incognito Project to create a piece for their upcoming online festival (September 2020). |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVFQMQncNj8&t=2780s |
| Title | to find myself staring back |
| Description | 'to find myself staring back' is a piece for Clarinet, Oboe, Piano and Percussion, written in consultation with Ensemble Recherche in Freiburg over 12 months. The piece was premiered in Freiburg in December 2021 at the Ensemblehaus. |
| Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The piece used methods developed previously with CoMA Manchester to interrogate the generalised collaborative methods used in my research. A paper is planned to reflect critically on these methods. This will be written after applying these methods to a third collaborator - an orchestra. |
| Title | you may own us but we are going to inform on you |
| Description | 'you may own us but we are going to inform on you' is for contrabass clarinet and electronics and was written in collaboration with Sarah Watts (on clarinet) and Christopher Melen (software engineer for PRiSM Sample RNN (artificial intelligence recurrent neural network). The piece was written in four stages. During the first stage, I composed a new piece in consultation with Sarah Watts who recorded this and sent me the soundfiles. During the second stage, Sarah recorded some improvisation based on a hybrid score (text and images) that I had made for her. During the third stage, Christopher Melen trained PRiSM Sample RNN on these recordings (from stage 1 and 2) to generate new sound files that exhibited behaviours learned from the files it trained on. During the fourth stage, I edited these into an electronics part which was to accompany the original (and edited) composition I had written in consultation with Sarah. The piece was premiered during RNCM's festival 'Future Music #3' and will receive its first live performance in Firth Hall on 31 March 2022. |
| Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | This piece applied methods in my previous research (using artefacts and 'debris' from a long-term and dialogic collaborative process as 'found material' in the piece), but employed new methods, using artificial intelligence to find a 'between point' in mine and Sarah's creative voice. Developing the piece has led to a new collaboration between myself and colleague Bofan Ma, who are currently writing a directing a research project to document the collaborative processes employed by the creative community engaging with PRiSM's Sample RNN software (these contributors will become co-researchers). The output from this project will be a new paper, co-written by myself, Bofan Ma and the other co-researchers on the project. |
| URL | https://youtu.be/Xb04oPIqpOY |
| Description | Formation of CoMA Manchester |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The activities in this engagement have led me to develop methodologies for collaboration that are pertinent to my wider research. These methodologies are consistently enacted in this engagement and my commentary will discuss this in relation to all other projects in my research. My methodologies consistently impact upon the participants engaged with these activities. In March 2020, I set up CoMA Manchester which I continue to direct. We are an all-abilities ensemble of up to 20 members, focusing on contemporary and experimental music. A mixed group of instrumentalists and sound-makers, we often play from graphic, text or open-scores. We have just finished collaborating with three Manchester-based composers over three months, work which culminated at our most recent event on Saturday 5th March 2022, as part of the Festival of Contemporary Music for All. Revived during the lockdown, our group built its current community over Zoom, using remote practices to create music together. These processes embraced sound-making using everyday items found in the home and incorporated a strong visual language into our music, which we first presented at the digital RNCM PLAY festival in March 2021. This was watched by 136 people. Elements from this practice are still an important part of what CoMA Manchester do today, and we have just presented our most recent 'remote-live hybrid' piece at our festival in March 2022. CoMA Manchester often perform work created by our own members and have premiered pieces by ensemble members Shaun Davies, Lorna Green, Bofan Ma. We have also premiered one of my own pieces, Song for CoMA. The group recorded graphic scores by Year 3 students at Bridge & Patrixbourne School in May, 2021 and I created a lasting resource for the children that documented the project. Our debut live performance took place in Autumn 2021 at our festival 'Streaming Blue' in which we explored connections between sound and Manchester's green and blue spaces. This two-day event, which I produced, was funded by Arts Council England and was in partnership with Groundwork Manchester. Digital documentation of the event will be premiered online during summer 2021. The festival engaged with 40-50 audience members across the weekend. As part of this event we commissioned a new piece of music from local sound artist Kelly Jayne Jones (part funded by a successful crowdfunding campaign). This performance has been rearranged for summer 2022. As part of this festival we also sent Kelly Jayne Jones to do a project in a Groundwork youth group in North Manchester. Twenty children used microphones to explore their local outdoor environment (as a sound walk) before creating graphic scores. These graphic scores were played by the ensemble on the second day of the festival in Philips Park. This festival deliberately engaged with different parts of Manchester (including postcodes M16, M11, M8). Our most recent festival, as part of the Festival of Contemporary Music for All, which I produced, engaged us in a partnership with contemporary music ensemble KEMS Macclesfield (6 members). Our festival consisted of two events; our Allcomers event was an open workshop for members of the public, of all abilities. In total 26 participants workshopped local composer Xia Leon Sloane's new piece (commissioned by CoMA central). Xia was also present at this workshop. Our evening event was attended by 25-30 audience members and was the culmination of our work with four local composers (three of these were three month long collaborations). This included collaborating with composer Mark Dyer as part of his research at Royal Holloway in his Cyborg Soloists project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021,2022 |
| URL | http://www.coma.org/get-involved/ensembles/manchester/ |
| Description | Invitation to present a lecture at Leeds Conservatoire on collaboration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a guest lecture at Leeds Conservatoire on collaboration, attended by 11-15 second and third year undergraduates on the Collaboration module. This lecture was entitled 'Developing Collaborative Spaces' During this lecture I presented methods for collaboration and for self-reflection in creative practice. This lecture was interactive and we entered into meaningful dialogue about methods for collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Invitation to present a poster at Orpheus Institute conference 'Who is the 'I' that performs?' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to present my poster 'Emerging performer identity in long-term collaboration' at the Orpheus Institute conference 'Who is the 'I' that performs?' in Ghent, November 2019. As anthropologist (see Ingold, 2013) and composer, Ellen seeks to understand what her performers mean by identity, as embodied within relationships to their instrument, body, repertoire, performing environment and audience. This poster explores the resultant methodologies that emerge from a completely non-hierarchical approach to co-creation. This provoked discussion and increased interest in my research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://orpheusinstituut.be/assets/files/news-events/191108_Schedule_Who-is-the-I-that-performs.pdf |
| Description | Invitation to present a seminar in University of Sheffield Music Department seminar series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This presentation was entitled 'Three's a crowd? Inviting Machine Learning into the collaborative space in a new work for contrabass clarinet.' I presented this in the University of Sheffield Department of Music seminar series in June, 2021. Attendees included staff and students in the Department of Music. This talk focused on a then recent collaboration between myself and Sarah Watts which used Machine Learning as a third collaborator in the creation of a new piece for contrabass clarinet and track. In this talk I discussed the social and ethical concerns and benefits that arose from giving a non-human this position in the collaboration. The audience reported that they had learned about artificial intelligence (AI) through this talk and started to think in new ways about the creative use of AI. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/music/research/research-seminars |
| Description | Machine Learning for Manchester working group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to join the Machine Learning for Manchester working group in September 2020, now named Unsupervised. This is a group of researchers from RNCM and Novars Centre, University of Manchester, led by Sam Salem and Ricardo Clement. This group shared research and knowledge as we independently worked towards new pieces using PRiSM Sample RNN software (recurrent neural network). We presented a concert of eight new pieces in the Future Music #3 festival at the RNCM in June, 2021. The group was shortlisted for a Digital City Award in 2022. I am currently co-directing research alongside Bofan Ma that investigates the collaborative processes used by this group. We plan to publish a collaborative paper with the group by the end of 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| URL | https://www.unsupervised.uk/about |