‘Sparks jumping’
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Reflection post development workshops with singers for Emergenc/y:
When asked by Juliet Fraser to describe some advantages of composer-performer collaboration, Pia Palme responds: ‘the sense of sparks jumping over between artistic-minded individuals, a spark that can trigger something that reaches beyond what was there before, into some new terrain…Moreover, this experience seems to happen in a space outside of myself, yet connected to me- a “third space”?’ (Palme, in Fraser 2022).
I love this. Palme’s words perfectly describe the way I felt when we reached the end of the workshops - I was merely offering words, a phrase, and the soloists were just going wherever these prompts took them. At this point I felt like I was in a self-driving car. Definitely going where I wanted, but not necessarily on my terms or in the driver’s seat!
I experienced the dual act of ‘giving space and taking responsibility at the same time’ (ibid.) as the most natural urge, yet also found that walking this tightrope was the greatest challenge. It was the work; it was constant. It required vigilance and commitment, self-regulation. It was about creating a culture, paying attention to people, and also paying attention to the work. It felt profoundly feminist in that it was about care. Listening. Agility. Flexibility. Availability. All the things I have practiced as a mother and a teacher. Yet it was also about nuanced, engaged, high-level arts practice. Affirmingly, it felt like I was pulling together the disparate threads from my commercial work as music director running sessions, as concert composer mediating with performers on my scores, as a hired hand on the receiving end of others’ direction, and as an educator with a duty of care over people with diverse needs. It took all of me. All of my training and expertise to give space and simultaneously take responsibility. But it worked! Each performer went out of their to way acknowledge this and to thank me for the spaciousness and trust I created from the get-go. And that, I suspect, was why I got to sit back in that self-driving car by the end.
I think the routine I established of guided improvisation sessions followed by work on the notated ‘Calling’ compositions was also really effective and important. Because: a) it neutralised the dynamics between performers and put them all on equal footing, where in improvs much of what they offered was dictated by their confidence and/or experience; b) it reasserted my role as ‘composer’ and theirs as ‘performers’ whereas at other times these roles were not so clear or meaningful. Coming back to these traditional, clear boundaries allowed the other activities to be more porous; c) It gave the cast a glimpse of how it might feel to perform ‘my’ music, which appeared for the most part, to be a good experience for them! So, even as I was learning about the sound they made, they were learning about the sound I made. This interplay strengthened our mutual understanding of the process around and quality of each others’ work. I only hope we are allowed to continue to work in this way once the big fish start to bite.
Fraser, J. 2022. In the thick of it. Further reflections on the mess and the magic of collaborative partnerships. In: Sounding Fragilities, I. Lehmann & P. Palme (eds.) Wolke Verlag, Hofheim.
