Anne-Marie Houy Shaver
  • Home
  • About
  • Musicology
  • Flute
    • Lessons & Workshops
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Home
  • About
  • Musicology
  • Flute
    • Lessons & Workshops
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Blog

Stones and Water

5/10/2018

0 Comments

 
Hunter led us on a great walk around campus this week. The sounds gradually grew in volume to a climax of generators/AC units humming, and our return to the music building acted as a decrescendo. In our discussion following the walk, one person commented on how the flow could be interpreted as musical in its form.
 
Following the walk, Luna (a music therapy student) led us through an improvisation to conclude our time. We each chose rocks of various sizes and took them to a fountain in the education building.

Picture
Our haul
To begin, we each organized our “set” of stones from smallest to largest. We then took turns dropping stones into the fountain one-by-one, starting with the largest rocks first. This helped get us accustomed to the sounds (and pitches!) of our “instruments.” After all the rocks were in the fountain, we fished them out and talked about the sounds. Luna led us through a few more exercises, framing each one in a slightly different way – taking turns each dropping a rock, each of us dropping one rock all together, all of us dropping a stone from different corners of the fountain, etc. We even unintentionally built a major triad at one point!

We ended our session with a few free improvisations. Rhythm and timing became a more prominent player at this point, resulting in some very cool moments. The consistent running water of the fountain became more noticeable to me as well.
 
A huge part of this experience was handling the rocks, feeling the weight, size, and texture of each one. For me, this tangible aspect helped increase my awareness of the sounds the stones made as they hit the water. I’m sure setting the rock into motion in order to make a sound also contributed.
 
We reflected that this exercise bounced back and forth, at times feeling like creating music and at other times being more playful in nature. And both were great! I highly recommend dropping stones into water either by yourself or with a friend. It was relaxing yet engaging all at once. Plus, the “found object” nature of the stones as instruments may promote openness to other nontraditional music possibilities.
 
(And don’t worry, we removed all rocks from the fountain and returned them to their original location.)
 
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
5:45 - 6:15pm
Sunny
0 Comments

"Rock" Music

5/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Our walk this week implemented a new feature. Using a resonant bell, I was able to signal where the group would stop, and the sound of the bell also defined the different spaces sonically. The type of structure we were in or the kind of materials around us would make the bell sound reverberate in various ways.
 
We started by the fountain. Regular pulsations.
 
Down a sidewalk parallel to the road, to a building with a large awning and pillars.
Ding.
The bell bounces off the building and its overhang. Chirping birds are hidden in the trees. Nearby, someone is talking on phone. The voice and birds blend at some points, their shapes and tessituras similar enough to combine easily.
 
We move to a more populated area of campus, more conversations, more skateboards.
Under a small lattice – ding.
Skateboards create regular rhythms as they move over the grooves in the sidewalk. Then it sounds like one skateboard is stuck on a loop, the sound continuing but not moving through the space. I can’t aurally identify the source, so I have to look for it.
 
It’s a plastic bag stuck in a window on the top floor of the building under renovations. The wind is making it flutter, making a sound very similar to the skateboards multiple stories below it. The sound cuts through the entire open area.
 
Polyrhythms between actual skateboards. More layering because of the plastic bag.
 
Walking back to the music building, birds sing in interlocking rhythms.
 
One more ding – in an outside corridor with open sides.
 
We ended our time together with an improvisation led by music therapy student Luna Sun. She had chosen Christian Wolff’s piece “Stones” for us to perform.
Picture
There is a huge area next to the music building that’s full of various sized rocks, so we “set up” there.
 
At first, it seemed like we were just individually exploring the sounds of the rocks around us. But we did hit a groove as a group, responding to stylistic changes from others. We grew to all be forte at one point, and we abruptly stopped together following the high point. And that was a wrap!
 
April 18, 2018
5:45 – 6:30pm
 
Until next time!
0 Comments

"Half-step away from reality"

12/7/2016

0 Comments

 
We worked with double bassist and improviser Ken Filiano. Basically, we did a few different group sessions of improv, along with each of us playing individually, and there was a discussion following each session.
 
Playing with a non-flutist was inspiring as far as the different types of sounds that were produced, and I felt pushed to explore how the flute could imitate the bass sounds. Ken also suggested improvising with spoken word artists, like poets, if possible. Relatedly, the book Sing Your Story by Jay Clayton was mentioned as a great resource on improvisation.
 
In our improvisations, we talked about the ideas of foreground, middle ground, and background; clearly establishing which “ground” you are playing as can help group improvisation. Eye contact with other people in your same ground can also be important to facilitate communication between players.
 
One exercise for practicing improv is to set up a limitation before you begin. This could mean choosing to play only one or two notes, or using only breath sounds, etc. Doing this will better encourage the exploration of the capabilities of you and your instrument. In other words, limitation can lead to expansion. While we were talking about this idea, either Ken or Robert said, “We don’t know what it is, but it is.”
 
Ken also presented two different kinds of hearing: 1) hearing music and 2) hearing musical facts. Typically we are strong in one and need to develop the other to be better balanced, and practicing improvisation can help with that.
 
Some other artists to listen to for funzies:
Gheorghe Zamfir on the Romanian pan flute
Donald Martino (specifically Notturno, for which he won the Pulitzer in 1974)
 
Until next time!

0 Comments

    Categories

    All
    Arizona
    ASU
    Circular Breathing
    Conference
    Density 21.5
    Difference Tones
    Flying Lessons
    Harmonics
    Improvisation
    Listening
    Multiphonics
    Rain
    Residual Tones
    Robert Dick
    Sequenza
    Singing
    Sonic Meditation
    Soundwalk
    Tambin
    Throat Tuning
    Tongue Stops
    Vibrato
    Voice
    Whistle Tones

    Archives

    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016