Composition Workshop (440-0-3)
Topic
Xperimental Music
Instructors
Jay Alan Yim
847/467-2030
jaymar@northwestern.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Jay Alan Yim has received Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and many other awards for his music, which has been featured at international festivals (Darmstadt, Tanglewood, Ars Musica, Wien-Modern, Gaudeamus, Huddersfield, Aspen, ISCM, ICMC) and performed by the New York Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Nederlands Radio Filharmonisch, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble SurPlus, Arditti, JACK, and Spektral Quartets, dal niente, ICE. He co-founded the intermedia collaborative 'localStyle' with Marlena Novak, and their work has been exhibited internationally (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Chicago, Eindhoven, London, Mexico City, New York, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Warsaw) in festivals, museums, galleries, and public spaces.
Meeting Info
RCMA Lower Level 121: Tues 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
Lines and/or Lines (alternatives to standard notation: graphic or textual scores)
Direct Contact (materiality of sound)
Game of Tones (foregrounding contingency through chance procedures)
Alienation (changing the point of view from human to non-human)
The Partial Enchilada (asymptotically accepting the theoretical impossibility of the whole enchilada)
Details of specific assignments are included in the PDF for each project. Each project culminates with the in-class presentation of an experimental musical work.
Registration Requirements
This course is conceived in a spirit of openness, to the point of radicalism, albeit a radicalism that has its roots in a tradition that goes back at least a century, and which is therefore paradoxically traditional by now. Undergraduates and graduates alike are welcome, without regard for class standing (freshman-graduate student) or formal musical training. The only requirement for registration is an a priori commitment to sincerely embracing the spirit of the course assignments. Familiarity with music theory and 5-line staff notation is beneficial but absolutely not a prerequisite. Facility with electronic soundmaking (analog or digital) can be quite advantageous but not absolutely required. Ability to perform vocally or instrumentally is advantageous but can be replaced by electronic soundmaking.
Learning Objectives
To introduce students to paradigmatic themes (aesthetic attitudes or materials and methods) typically considered to be intrinsic to approaching music composition from an experimental perspective. The course will emphasize the empirical atop a theoretical foundation with the focus on finding new approaches to incorporate into each student's personal praxis. Experimentation necessarily involves thoughtfulness, and this is true regardless of whether it is scientific experimentation or artistic experimentation. Concomitantly, philosophical dimensions come into play, which means that the course will take this opportunity to address the three major branches of philosophy—ontology, phenomenology, epistemology—via our exploration of sound. I want to underscore that in no way could this be considered thoroughgoing or comprehensive, as philosophers have devoted entire lifetimes to pursuing the threads of just a single one of those branches, and we are only going to have ten weeks. Moreover, there will be a bias towards emphasizing the stream of philosophical inquiry that is being referred to as speculative realism or object oriented ontology (OOO).
Teaching Method
The course is divided into five Thematic Units, with each unit spanning two weeks. Each unit has an associated project, which centers on a particular focal point. All projects carry equal weight towards the final grade, including the fifth project, which has a quasi-cumulative aspect to it, but is nonetheless weighted the same as the other four. There are four assigned essays for which each class member is responsible to have read and to have posted a written response to that essay. The written response should take the form of selecting a quotation from that reading that the student either resonates with, or that they find problematic: in 1-2 paragraphs, articulate what it is about the writer's position that you admire or consider deserving of critique.
Evaluation Method
The course is taught as a weekly seminar. All students in the course are expected to do the assigned reading, listening and score study in advance of the subsequent class meeting. As described above, there will be five composition projects, each with equal weight towards the cumulative grade for the class, and each with specific parameters and goals, detailed within the project descriptions.
Grading will be P/NP, and as such it will be determined by the following factors:
— Attendance Regular weekly attendance is mandatory; unexcused absences will lower your grade. A seminar course of this nature is a participatory enterprise; if a class is missed you are responsible for finding out from a classmate what material was covered.
— Tardiness Excessive tardiness will lower your grade; leaving class early will lower your grade. There will be scheduled breaks every 50 minutes, and some class Zoom sessions will not last the entire 3 hours.
— Ability to understand the project
— Commitment to course This means being prepared with appropriate materials and attention in each class, and treating other class members with courtesy and professionalism.
— Meeting assignment deadlines Each assigned project must be completed on time in order for other members of the class to be able to contribute their responses during discussion periods.
— Participation in critique You are required to participate verbally in the discussions/critiques. The ability to articulate your responses critically and develop a basic critical vocabulary will be acknowledged in the grading process.
Class Materials (Required)
Assigned readings will be available as PDFs to be downloaded from Canvas. Additional handouts will be provided as necessary. Students will study directly from scores of the relevant compositions. Some assignments may require notational skills, either on paper (possibly, but not necessarily music staff paper) or via use of a computerized notation program. Some kinds of notation will be most easily handled with a word processor or some other kind of writing or graphics software.
Bennett, Jane Vibrant Matter, a political ecology of things, Chapter 1
Bogost, Ian Alien Phenomenology, or What It's Like to Be a Thing, Chapter 1
Brabec de Mori, Bernd Music and Non-Human Agency
Hayles, Katherine Speculative Aesthetics and Object-Oriented Inquiry (OOI)
Selected works or writings by John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Fluxus, Thierry de Mey, Michael Pisaro, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Kurt Schwitters, David Dunn, Pauline Oliveros, and others will be discussed in class meetings.
Cage, John 4'33" (1952) score
Cardew, Cornelius Treatise (1952) score
Dunn, David Purposeful Listening In Complex States of Time (score, 1997-98)
Friedman, Ken & others The Fluxus Performance Workbook
Oliveros, Pauline Sonic Meditations (score, 1974)
Pisaro, Michael Writing, Music, (Chapter 2 in the Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music)
Szlavnics, Chiyoko Interview with Another Timbre
Schwitters, Kurt Ursonate (score, 1922-32)
Yim, Jay Alan force:field (score, 2012)
Class Notes
A readiness to set aside preconceptions is beneficial to the point of being essential.