Instant Composers Ensemble
This class focuses on improvisational strategies which aim towards the spontaneous creation of music with formal integrity. The course functions both as an ensemble which works in improvised performance and a seminar which surveys approaches to open form improvisation historically and internationally. Students examine how sounds and motifs are transformed by musical and social context. The work is not based on a specific style; all idioms are food for creation. Central pan-idiomatic focal points are creating transitions, tension and release, and imitation and contrast. Students also look at conducted cueing systems as utilized by John Zorn, Sarah Weaver, Butch Morris, and others, as well as approaches to graphic notation. The class will strive to understand the social and political models of the musical conversation; how is it different and similar to a verbal one?