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Iris ter Schiphorst
Some short comments about my music
The area ‚Music‘ appears to me to be more polarised than ever; predominantly on the
one hand, a music culture that manages entirely without writing – at least without the
traditional written-down system (the so-called pop-music); and on the other hand a
small circle of individuals who are completely dedicated to the (new)written-music, in
other words the miswriting of music.
He, or she, who works in between is often ridiculed not only from one side, but also
from the other... or even classified as a traitor... Just to forestall this: I am an expert
for the ‚In between‘...
I always find myself somewhere in between..., between the media, the styles,
between writing and sound, listening and seeing, between science and art, theory
and practice.. It is this zone, the ‚In between‘, where I know my way around
especially well, which especially interests me...
In the meantime, there is a term in the newer literature and cultural studies for a very
particular ‚In between‘: „semi-literal literature“. This refers to a literature which is only
shaped and formed very rudimentarily by writing. „Semi-literal literature“ is a „hybrid“;
it is, of course, written but employs formal ans stylised criteria which are more likely
indicators of an illiterate culture. Here belong, on the one hand, the manifold forms of
appearance of repetition (the basic principle of oral composition), and on the other
hand the simultaneous use of various codes (such as melodic, rythmic,
choreographic and physical expression) which intensify the message.
For in oral culture the listeners must be addressed in a variety of ways and via
various senses be touched, in order to accept and understand the message.
Perhaps I should interpolate here that the meaning of an independent oral stylistic as
well as its influence on the written culture is only gradually being recognised. And it is
perhaps no wonder that this is happening at a time when integration to a global
information society is more or less concluded: when the laws of writing have won
their victory. There is no oral stylistic in the global network. There the message is
extremely brief, reduced to a minimal code which can circulate completely
disassociated from space and time, completely disassociated from matter.
In ‚oral cultures‘ the reverse is true. There the message is always allied to matter –
the body of he who presents it, and those who receive it, the ‚listeners‘ (...from ‚mouth
to ear‘ as opposed to ‚from letter to eye‘). At this point I would simply like to presume
that my music as well always works with elements of so-called ‚oral stylistic‘. (In as
far as it has little to do with the expression and style of a majority of New Music.
Although any music in the end – in as far as its purpose is to be performed, amounts
to the situation that recalls according to its form the archaic ‚mouth to ear‘ principle –
disregarding how new the message is. Writing does not matter in a performance – for
the listener at least.)
For me, music is ‚language‘ (whether I want it so, or not...). That means my concern
is entirely traditional to express ‚something‘, to communicate something. The starting
point for this is always my body, for it’s always then, when something moves me very
much, a form of ‚inner monologue‘ is activated which affects completely different
levels, one could even say, quite different feelings, which captivates the whole body:
a mixture of words, melodic and rythmical phrases from images and impulses of
movement – which belong irrevocably together – and which can hardly be included in
the medium of writing. Nevertheless, I am repeatedly attempting to include this
mixture, these very different levels, in my work. Therefore I often overlap the forms
(my first opera ANNA’S WAKE has, for example, a 16mm film, and the score of my
chamber opera SILENCE MOVES specifies not only a choreography for light and
movement composed in detail, but also a video installation which is written into the
sequence).
Naturally, there are also works which are only concerned with the code of music. As,
for example „Ballade für Ochester: Hundert Komma Null“. Nevertheless, here are
also elements of ‚oral stylistic‘, for example a melody which runs through the whole
piece as a sort of ‚Lied‘ (even if it is extremely estranged and instrumented in a way
which clearly shows that it is no longer credible)..., or rythmical structures wihich are
conceived in a very physical and expressive way, or repeats placed very intentionally
etc.
It is perhaps rather rash in this brevity and in this way to draw a connection between
the perceptions of the new literature and cultural science and my music, as I have
attempted by was of suggestion here (and finally music is not simply literature –
althouhg it sometimes appears to be...). But perhaps, in this way, certain musical
characteristics can be observed in a rather different light – and be heard... Perhaps it
is possible via such a detour to track down somewhat better the nameless ‚In
between‘..