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LECTURE NOTES :
The
work of Zachar Laskewicz
2 September 2002
LASALLE-SIA college of the arts
Singapore
A
set of fragments will be heard from the following compositions:
1. Songs of Incantation
2. Het Loket
3. Transmigration-2
4. Zaum-1
5. Zaum-3
6. From a Gable Window
7. Imbahl-1
8. Project-2
Introduction
- Through my
compositional work I've explored alternative approaches to musical
experience. In this presentation I'd like to discuss some of these by
using a number of practical examples. Doing this will involve
demonstrating the scores, the notation systems I have used and how this
expresses a very particular and personal agenda. I will also be playing
some fragments of my music.
- I'd like to
generalise that to a new approach to musicological theory that I have
expressed in my doctoral research, that music is an 'episteme' in that it
influences how we think and feel, and how we interact with the world
(especially when that interaction involves a 'musically' communicative
event, which many social events embody).
- My talk
will also embody aspects of intercultural influences from Balinese,
Javanese and other forms of non-Western music, theatre and dance.
- Introduce
the notation systems used, compositional quest searching for new notation
systems.
Transparency
1: Zaum-3
Transparency
2: Zaum-3
- Belief in
the similarity between 'science' and 'art'; phenomenological approach in
research where the work of the artist is considered a valid tool for the
unravelling of human experience, and not just unreliable data.
- A number of
major key-terms to understand my approach to music and music-theatre:
[1]
multimediality;
[2]
multisensoriality;
[3]
interculturality;
[4]
textuality.
- Division of
talk into a number of major areas:
1.
Relationship between language and
music
2.
Relationship between music and discourse
3.
Relationship between music and
epistemology
1. Relationship
between language and music
Relates to
forms of communication which go beyond the verbal means of signification.
o
Primordial
forms of communication
Fragment
1: Songs of Incantation
-
Main purpose of this was to
explore the nuances behind text, that were
communicable by the sounds of the words and the tone of voice of the readers
rather than the meaning of the words.
-
Recite contrasting texts.
-
Scene involving the
different texts read with contrasting expression, with the original text being
sung of a pastoral nature; relationship between 'sound of the text and the
meaning of the words.
Transparency
3: Songs of Incantation
-
Scene where the furies take
over
Fragment
2: Songs of Incantation
-
Earlier work using cards,
DARKNESS
-
Russian cubo-futurists were
also greatly influenced by a quest not towards the future, but the past. This
included going back to children's language use and primeval forms of
communication.
o
Language
in ritual
-
Language performing
'speech-acts' because of power considered to be inherent in the pronunciation
of the word.
-
Sound inherent in the 'um'
or 'um-man-un' sounds in Hindu religion.
-
Khlebnikov, Russian futurist
poet, and his belief in the magical power of words.
Fragment 1: Zaum-1
o
Language
structuring non-verbal information
Transparency
4: Zaum-3
-
Use of language in
Bharata-Natyam where the sounds have no meaning of their own, but signify dance
movements
Fragment
1: Zaum-3
o
Verbal
and musical signs as empty meaning-bearing vehicles
-
The epistemic move which saw
the abstraction of language from sound deep with signification and empty
vehicles for the purpose of carrying meaning.
Fragment
2: Zaum-1
2. Music
and discourse
Involves
music as kind of dialogue or a system which helps us to make sense of our
world. Does music
involve the same or a totally contrasting set of 'discursive' rules? Are their
musical discourses that we can apply in everyday life to make sense of our
existence, or does music merely reflect our culture?
o
Music
with a narrative
-
First expression of music
and discourse involved the telling of a narrative taken from a story by
Lovecraft.
Fragment
1: From a Gable Window
o Visual and aural discourses in competition
Fragment
1: It was already Thursday.
-
About how this represents a
quest to find 'meaning' of the visual sort in everything we see, when there is
very often non-verbal levels of signification. This composition deals with some
of these issues.
o
Musical
as opposed to verbal discourse
Transparency
5: Het Loket score
- Jean Tardieu's play, the sort of communication it concerns
- The Chinese melody being taught.
- The method of combining discourses together in certain forms of theatre
- The intention of this composition of contrasting opera discourse with other sorts of musical communication, parodying traditional Western opera, but at the same time suggesting alternatives.
Transparency 6: Het Loket score
Fragment 1: Het Loket
o
Looking
for and expecting narrative
Transparency 7: Zaum-2
- Point out also the fact that this is another type of notation.
3. Music
and epistemology
It could be suggested the way we are taught to experience music influences the way we experience reality. How does it do this? Which aspects of our perception does it influence? Why do cultures experience musical 'knowledge' in a contrasting fashion?
o
The
nature of epistemology
- Describe first what an episteme is.
o
Notation
as an expression of 'hyperliterary' episteme
- Describe first what an episteme is.
- Describe what our notation system denotes about our culture.
-
Although my early work led me
to explore different sorts of notation, my experience with
- Learning Indonesian music taught me that other forms of notation are possible, and the idea of recreating a performance in the same style is a very 'western' musical understanding.
Fragment
1: Project-3
-
Describe notation system of
Project 2 & 3, Transmigration.
-
What listeners have to
listen for in this work.
Fragment
1: Transmigration-2
Transparency 8:
Imbahl-1
-
Describe open repetition
system
Fragment
1: Imbahl-1
o
Music
and temporality/spatiality
Transparency 9:
Imbahl-1
Transparency 10: Imbahl-1
-
Describe irama changes
Fragment
2: Imbahl-1
-
Describe the unique ability
of music to affect the way we experience temporality and spatiality; a space
changes its ontological status when music is being performed, e.g. from an open
space to a disco or a field to a ritually sanctified area.
-
Describe technique of
colotomy.
-
describe also the slowing
down and the relation to irama
-
I've always been interested
in including a spatial element to the way performers are spread out on stage, I
believe this influences signification.
Transparency
11: Het Loket
o
Product/Process
aspects of musical analysis
-
Discuss here the fact that
'product'-based analysis of music is typical of an approach to music embedded
in a hyperliterary episteme.
-
Process of embodiment of
music in temporal and spatial environments.
Conclusion
o
Music
as a form open to everyone
-
Everyone who is able to
appreciate music has a significant musical talent.
Seminar:
The
work of Zachar Laskewicz
2 September 2002
LASALLE-SIA college of the arts
Singapore
A
set of fragments will be heard from the following compositions:
9. Songs of Incantation
10. Het Loket
11. Transmigration-2
12. Zaum-1
13. Zaum-3
14. From a Gable Window
15. Imbahl-1
16. Project-2
Introduction
- Through
work as artist and theoretician I've explored alternative approaches to
musical experience.
- Exploration
of music is an 'episteme' in that it influences how we think and feel,
and how we interact with the world.
- Lecture
will also embody aspects of intercultural influences from Balinese,
Javanese and other forms of non-Western music, theatre and dance.
- Introduce
the notation systems used, compositional quest searching for new notation
systems.
Transparency
1: Zaum-3
Transparency
2: Zaum-3
- Belief in
the similarity between 'science' and 'art'; phenomenological approach in
research where the work of the artist is considered a valid tool for the
unravelling of human experience, and not just unreliable data.
- A number of
major key-terms to understand my approach to music and music-theatre:
[1]
multimediality, [2] multisensoriality, [3]
interculturality, [4] textuality.
- Division of
talk into a number of major areas:
1.
Relationship between language and
music
2.
Relationship between music and
discourse
3.
Relationship between music and
epistemology
1. Relationship
between language and music
Relates to
forms of communication which go beyond the verbal means of signification.
o
Primordial
forms of communication
Fragment
1: Songs of Incantation, Transparency 3: Songs of Incantation,
Fragment
2: Songs of Incantation
o
Language
in ritual
Fragment 1: Zaum-1
o
Language
structuring non-verbal information
Transparency
4: Zaum-3, Fragment 1: Zaum-3
o
Verbal
and musical signs as empty meaning-bearing vehicles
Fragment
2: Zaum-1
2. Music
and discourse
Involves
music as kind of dialogue or a system which helps us to make sense of our
world. Does music
involve the same or a totally contrasting set of 'discursive' rules? Are their
musical discourses that we can apply in everyday life to make sense of our
existence, or does music merely reflect our culture?
o
Music
with a narrative
Fragment 1: From a Gable Window
o Visual and aural discourses in competition
Fragment
1: It was already Thursday.
o
Musical
as opposed to verbal discourse
Transparency 5: Het Loket score, Transparency 6: Het Loket score
Fragment
1: Het Loket
o
Looking
for and expecting narrative
Transparency 7: Zaum-2
3. Music and epistemology
It could be suggested the way we are taught to experience music influences the way we experience reality. How does it do this? Which aspects of our perception does it influence? Why do cultures experience musical 'knowledge' in a contrasting fashion?
o
The
nature of epistemology
o
Notation
as an expression of 'hyperliterary' episteme
Fragment
1: Project-3, Fragment 1: Transmigration-2, Transparency 8: Imbahl-1,
Fragment 1: Imbahl-1
o
Music
and temporality/spatiality
Transparency 9:
Imbahl-1, Transparency 10: Imbahl-1,
Fragment 2: Imbahl-1
Transparency
11: Het Loket
o
Product/Process
aspects of musical analysis
-
x
Conclusion
o
From
product to process-based analysis
Send mail to zachar@nachtschimmen.eu with questions or comments about this website.
Last modified: 6 June, 2008
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