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Waves of...

Waves of...
Waves of...
Waves of… (2019) is a 15-minute work for 21+ performers, optional conductor and electronic diffusion system. The piece is principally concerned with the choreographic implications of spatialised sound in live performance – what happens when sound’s interaction with its physical space is a subject of compositional focus. Bodies and instruments must move to enact this spatialisation and, once this is established, the physical, theatrical and visual components of it open themselves up to further compositional exploration and organisation. 
The aim of the work is not to catalogue and exhaust the possibilities of this situation in the manner of Kagel’s Instrumental Theatre, for example, but relates more to Jennifer Walshe’s concept of the New Discipline  – working methods from dance- and theatre-making and studio-based music-making practice are compositional starting points. 
Developmental strategies are mainly borrowed from choreographic practice and the initial (macro) composition of the work was conceptualised via a detailed storyboard (movement map), notating the physical action and musical textures of each section. More conventional music notational systems were then deployed to define (micro) harmonic and rhythmic structures. 
The work manipulates the affective aesthetics of human, binaural perception – our relationship to sound in space is both deeply emotional and learned – as it moves from a minimal texture focused on the materiality of sound towards an immersive dance-pop climax and final diffuse, rippling coda.
Contrasting real, hyper-real & imaginary physical spaces are deployed and manipulated, via tropes from classical composition (including minimalism) and electronic dance (specifically House) music. The physical stage action, the foregrounding of sound’s behavior in space, and the lyric content of the work generates a productive tension between literal and figurative meanings of ‘waves’ (sound, air, emotion, action, etc): global political problems are transmitted, reflected, refracted and absorbed by the emotional systems of human beings. 
The first performance took place in Southampton in Jan 2019. 
Crawford, Drew
c0b21df8-0d1f-4cbf-870b-b5c6b2fbd34c
Crawford, Drew
c0b21df8-0d1f-4cbf-870b-b5c6b2fbd34c

Crawford, Drew (2019) Waves of...

Record type: Music Item

Abstract

Waves of… (2019) is a 15-minute work for 21+ performers, optional conductor and electronic diffusion system. The piece is principally concerned with the choreographic implications of spatialised sound in live performance – what happens when sound’s interaction with its physical space is a subject of compositional focus. Bodies and instruments must move to enact this spatialisation and, once this is established, the physical, theatrical and visual components of it open themselves up to further compositional exploration and organisation. 
The aim of the work is not to catalogue and exhaust the possibilities of this situation in the manner of Kagel’s Instrumental Theatre, for example, but relates more to Jennifer Walshe’s concept of the New Discipline  – working methods from dance- and theatre-making and studio-based music-making practice are compositional starting points. 
Developmental strategies are mainly borrowed from choreographic practice and the initial (macro) composition of the work was conceptualised via a detailed storyboard (movement map), notating the physical action and musical textures of each section. More conventional music notational systems were then deployed to define (micro) harmonic and rhythmic structures. 
The work manipulates the affective aesthetics of human, binaural perception – our relationship to sound in space is both deeply emotional and learned – as it moves from a minimal texture focused on the materiality of sound towards an immersive dance-pop climax and final diffuse, rippling coda.
Contrasting real, hyper-real & imaginary physical spaces are deployed and manipulated, via tropes from classical composition (including minimalism) and electronic dance (specifically House) music. The physical stage action, the foregrounding of sound’s behavior in space, and the lyric content of the work generates a productive tension between literal and figurative meanings of ‘waves’ (sound, air, emotion, action, etc): global political problems are transmitted, reflected, refracted and absorbed by the emotional systems of human beings. 
The first performance took place in Southampton in Jan 2019. 

Text
Waves of... Complete Rehearsal Score 190119
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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 27 January 2019
Published date: 27 January 2019
Additional Information: Final score still being prepared (full rehearsal score attached).
Venue - Dates: SHIFTS: Seismic shifts and sideways glances at New Music, Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton, United Kingdom, 2019-01-27 - 2019-01-27

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 437351
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/437351
PURE UUID: 2d0e5d30-864f-4894-b4c6-b7722edfcb64
ORCID for Drew Crawford: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8147-2904

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 24 Jan 2020 17:32
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:33

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