JAVS Summer 2021

Example 2. David Bird, Bezier, mm. 26–44. The extended techniques described in the key are arranged in quick succession with harmonic gestures to form short phrases, creating a unique language for the work. Click the icon to the right for an audio recording (from andPlay’s album playlist, New Focus Recordings 2019).

syntax, arranging the “words” into sentence fragments and phrases. Though it took a lot of practice to play these “sentences” up to tempo, this piece eventually became a fluid language that transformed the instruments into something entirely new. The placement of these “words” in quick succession gives the impression that the music is performed by a computer, or at least electronically processed, yet it is simply two acoustic string instruments. Bird’s approach matched how we think about contemporary performance: he incorporated extended techniques intentionally and with equal consideration of more traditional methods of playing to create a work that integrated a wide range of sounds into a cohesive, idiomatic language.

Asher’s compositions are in the form of graphic scores, which use visual or graphic images to notate sound instead of the staff and notes common to Western classical music. While graphic scores come in many different forms, Asher’s are highly influenced by her work as a visual artist and her experience as a performer and improviser on violin and viola. In many ways, Letters to My Future Self resembles a traditional score: the dividing line in the middle of each page separates the two parts, with the violin above the line and the viola below (see ex. 3). This creates a score-like presentation of the two parts, with the ability to identify simultaneous events vertically, and to establish the work’s pacing through changes in density of score events as time passes horizontally. While many would assume that a graphic score is a vehicle for constant improvisation, andPlay’s approach to this work is not improvisatory. Instead, we spent time thoughtfully considering every aspect of the score, determining what we imagined as the sonic result of each event, and then working to discover a repeatable way to create those sounds on our instruments. In a way, our approach to this work was the reverse of Bird’s, as Asher presented us with a score which we then broke down to create our own sonic vocabulary. After devising this language, we worked to interpret the score as logical musical phrases. Asher’s work allows for the artistic identities of the performers to emerge and play a meaningful role in the creation of the music, something that is vital to us as performers.

3. Sharing the creative role between performer and composer

andPlay is not interested in simply being replicators of musical scores, but instead finding ways to infuse works with our artistry through the exploration of our own creative impulses and ideas. This is especially true when premiering a new work; as there is no existing performance practice, we are left with a more-or-less open slate to approach a score. We look for collaborations that allow that space for our own voices as performers and creators.

One work that exemplifies this concept is Letters to My Future Self, written in 2018 by Leah Asher (b. 1986).

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 37, 2021 Online Issue

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