DEVELOPING APPROACHES FOR SITE-RESPONSIVE COMPOSITION

“In the world of music production, the acoustics of a space in which you present a musical idea is a prime consideration, but in live music we have this odd concept that we can perform music from anywhere on earth, from any period, in the same space.

“Historically, music evolved out of the context in which it existed, so the harpsichord is perfectly designed for an early eighteenthcentury European salon, while African drumming sounds great outdoors but very different in a room with walls,” said Dr Drew Crawford, University of Southampton Associate Professor of Music. “Live performance practices still largely ignore space as a compositional parameter.”

His project, ‘Developing approaches for site-responsive composition’, funded by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities Strategic Research Fund and the Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities (SIAH), explores music’s relationship with the acoustic in the space in which it is performed.

“Composing in ways that exploit the acoustics of the physical space – its fundamental frequencies and reverberation times, for example – offers novel aesthetic possibilities and models of working,” explained Drew, whose research draws on acoustics, affective aesthetics, and aural architecture, as well as theatre-, choreography- and studio-based creative practices. But it also raises further questions.

“When you’re working in a site-responsive way, if you want to exploit the acoustics of a given space, you might need the musicians to move around the room.”

This might mean that, rather than having a conductor indicating what to do, the musicians would have to give and receive different types of cues from other performers.

“My research is also asking ‘What new skills might they need when engaging in this kind of music-making practice?’.”

The project was designed as a ‘proof of concept’ ahead of a major Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) bid planned for 2024. Drew said:

“The SIAH funding enabled me to establish relationships with interdisciplinary colleagues with whom I will be making the AHRC bid, as well as bringing one of them, choreographer and movement expert Jonathan Burrows, in to assist with skills development.”

A process of knowledge exchange workshops with Plus Minus Ensemble, and Tim Hand (audio), has led to the creation of a new work for gallery spaces, ‘We’ll Find out When We Get There’. The SIAH funding is also allowing it to be premiered at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton on 11th and 12th May 2024.