Today, I worked on turning a photograph I had taken of a stray cat in a public park in Manama, Bahrain into a graphic score. Oddly enough, the scale/mode used is Maqam Hijaz – a definitive “oriental” mode. This is another investigation into my Post-Esoteric (Oriental) Art Music.
The music:
The graphic score:
In a temporary pause from my research-based “Post-Esoteric (Oriental) Art Music” (i.e., my ongoing soapboxing project), I would like to share a part of my recent process. I went back over several texts (such as Morton Feldman’s Give my Regards to Eighth Street (Exact Change), Curtis Roads’ Microsounds, Steve Reich’s Writings on Music (1965 – 2000) and John Cage’s Silence: Lectures and Writings) that once inspired me to champion ‘serious’ music despite several foreseeable and unforeseeable roadblocks. I also spent time listening to works of music that meant a lot to me varying from Bjork and Radiohead to Karlheinz Stockhausen and György Ligeti (and to a lesser extent, some music from the Middle East such as that of Marcel Khalife and Munir Bashir). Through my re-reading and re-listening, I was hoping to find the fingerprints of the hand that pushed me towards pursuing music. I also secretly hoped that it would all speak to me, reminding me of the aesthetic value I felt best reflected the direction my practice needs.
Despite all this seemingly confused process, I made the time to revisit an approach I had wanted to test for several years: the Graphic Score. In this first attempt, I use a combination of Iannix and a Max4Live device named iannixtomidi to generate the resulting organised sound. The title of the work is “number one: another death”.
And the moral of the story is that continued exploration is the only way to break new ground in music, art, or any intellectual pursuit for that matter.
A curiosity in the process of taqasim (improvisations in the Arabic musical traditions) is the constant reference to the qaraar (the bass drone; literally translates to ‘decision’). The interplay between the qaraar (bass drone) and the jawaab (all other tones that are usually on a higher pitch; literally translates to ‘response’) is often seen as the content of the taqasim. I imagine an overall arc that exists on a plane beyond the divorced distinctions of qaraar and jawaab. In this sonic experiment, I explore the existence of a deconstructed sonic arc (or multiple arcs) that are presented in connected electronic pulses.
Again I find myself looking into the idea of the structural arcs of taqasim (improvisation in the Arab musical traditions). Despite the idea of improvisation being that of complete freedom in expressing sound or music (assuming that the two are different), there generally seems to be an agreement of there being what is generally ‘acceptable’ as a successful attempt at improvising within classical Arab musical traditions.
I must also point out that I have recently been experimenting with the impact of intonation within the framework of improvising in the taqasim approach. Intonation, I find, certainly adds an important depth to a musical work that is prepared in the taqasim improvisational style. One must remember that although there needs to be a strong understanding of maqam (mode) and iqa’a (rhythm), intonation – perhaps as Harry Partch argued is the very foundation of the origin of music in its most corporeal form – must never be overlooked.
In this following piece, I attempt to deconstruct elements of this improvisational arc as played on an electric oud running through Ableton Live and Max4Live. Please refer to my art music manifesto for more background.
ALMOST BEAUTIFUL:
Between 2009 and 2011, I had an ongoing project I named “sonicles”, which were posted regularly on this website (which have been compiled and moved here). In July 2011, I began my next project – Post Esoteric Art Music – which entails an art manifesto of my own based on my research and experimentation with music and performance.
Since ending my “sonicles” project I uploaded some other works on my soundcloud page. These ‘homeless’ works are here for your listening pleasure.
Furniture One:
Self-Imposed Ethics:
Beta Wall: A Sketch