Download Light Music: Crossdisciplinary approaches to collaborative practice

Light Music: Crossdisciplinary approaches to collaborative practice in
Fulgurite Chamber (2012)
Dr. Adam Melvin
Composer - Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, University of
Ulster, Magee College, Northern Ireland.
Abstract:
The recent years have seen a growing interest among composers and
musicians alike to explore the creative possibilities of combining music with
visual media both within and beyond the realms of established collaborative art
forms. The technological advances of the digital era have established an
artistic climate of increased and ever-evolving potential for collaborative
practice not least for works combining music and the sonic arts with timebased visual media. However, the combination of music – particularly music
involving live performers – and visual arts whose ontological state is less
obviously temporal (e.g. sculpture) can constitute a slightly more elusive and
arguably problematic marriage.
Fulgurite Chamber is a piece that confronts this
very
scenario.
Commissioned
for
Derry/Londonderry’s Void Gallery (Northern
Ireland) and scheduled for performance later this
year, it is the result of a collaboration between
composer Adam Melvin, artist Mark Melvin and
Rarescale, a London-based new music ensemble
dedicated to the performance and promotion of
repertoire for alto and bass flute, in particular the Kingma/quartertone versions
of these instruments. The work itself is ‘scored’ for multi-channel sound
installation, neon light sculptures/light box installations and solo quarter-tone
bass flute.
Existing as both an audio-visual installation
and live multimedia performance, Fulgurite
Chamber revisits several ideas explored in
previous pieces between the artist and
composer, incorporating a language of
deconstructed, yet seemingly familiar elements
as its source material, prompting notions of
locality and memory as well as seeking ways in
which to achieve a true sense of integration
between its audio and visual elements. At the same time, the piece adopts a
collaborative strategy that seeks to exploit what could be deemed as the crossdisciplinary (Shaw-Miller 2002; 17) or transformational (Levinson 1990;32-3)
potential of its component parts
- i.e. the potential for media to
adopt/incorporate the characteristics of another and thus alter their established
states - as a means of overcoming potential problems inherent in its make-up.
In doing so, the piece establishes a dynamic with which to bypass and even
reinforce the properties of its component media while simultaneously exploring
the points of convergence between them.
By discussing this rather unusual piece in more detail and in the context of my
previous work and research, this paper hopes to offer a unique perspective on
collaborative practice while addressing broader questions concerning the
marriage of music and visual art as well as our evolving notions of what we
deem to be ‘chamber music’.
Levinson, Jerrold (1990) Music, Art and Metaphysics: Essays on Philosophical
Aesthetics, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
Shaw-Miller, Simon (2002) Visible Deeds of Music: Art and music from Wagner
to Cage, New Haven & London: Yale University Press
Biography
Adam Melvin is a composer, saxophonist and researcher. He studied music at
Queen’s University Belfast and composition at the Guildhall School of Music
and Drama before completing his PhD entitled Composing an Installation:
Visual and Visuospatial Processes in Musical Composition at the Royal
Academy of Music, London where he was later appointed Manson Fellow in
Composition. His music has been performed throughout Europe, in the United
States and Japan by artists including the Composers’ Ensemble, Psappha,
Carla Rees, Duo X, Kathryn Tickell, Kuljit Bhamra, Tom Arthurs and the Juice
vocal trio. He work has also been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, RTÉ Lyric FM,
Ireland and Antena 2, Portugal. Recent commissions include pieces for the
Cheltenham Festival, London City Showcase, London Jazz Festival and a
project with the Verbal Arts Cente, Derry for the UK Olympic Legacy Trust UK.
A great deal of his recent practice has involved collaborative work with the
visual arts, including projects for Glasgow’s Mackintosh Gallery and a
residency at CESTA in the Czech Republic. In addition, he has given research
papers on music and moving image, site-specific performance and
collaborative practice at conferences in London (IMR), Vilnius (Lithuanian
Academy of Music and Theatre), New York (NYU Steinhardt) and Vancouver
(Cinesonika), amongst others. He is based in Ireland where he is represented
by the Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin. He is Lecturer in Popular and
Contemporary Music at the University of Ulster, Magee College, Derry.