on choreography notation…
| the intersection between choreography and percussion performance is much narrower than it may appear - i believe i have said before in this blog, and if not let me say it now, that i want to find this intersection and make it smaller still - the work of thierry de mey, or more recently the work of casey cangelosi, strikes me as being sometimes more choreography than music - i find it fascinating that percussions, myself included, gravitate towards some of these gesture only works - something like “silence must be!” of “bad touch” are entirely gestural yet they retain some western music notation to best communicate to the performers how the actions should take place - this makes sense if your performer is classically trained and typically a musician but what is stopping a dancer, a mime, a juggler, a conductor or whomever from approaching the same works - if these other vocations were to attempt performing these pieces their technique wouldn’t hold them back, the technical vocabulary of the piece is well within their abilities but the notation of these works would end up creating a barrier that prevents them from approaching the piece, or at least slows their learning process |
| i find this both an issue of equity as well as a missed opportunity for the composers of these works who could have many qualified artists performing their works - on the other hand, many percussionist might be prevented from performing these works if it wasn’t for the use of western music notation - there has to be a way to compose music, to inform gesture, that isn’t reliant on words on a page or referencing a video but rather a notation style that can be developed and understood by performing artists but that still communicates the composers intent clearly |
| it begs being clarified, that not all aspects of “silence must be!” or “bad touch” are written out in western music notation solely, and calling it western music notation is a stretch given the lack of pitches and the difference in note heads - the point stands though that the rhythm, arguably the most important aspect of these percussion works and that which gives the piece structure and the sole thing that adheres to the pre-composed playback track, the rhythm is notated with western musicians in mind - this concept can be observed across percussion music and i intend to help composers and choreographers both find common ground to best inform all performers interested in performing this music |
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