on April 8, 2008Flash
Bart van Rosmalen, of the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, and I did a session of free play, as we always do when we meet, last time he visited London. At the beginning of this clip we make really simple movements with our hands, backwards and forwards, up and down. It is though we are talking […]
on March 27, 2008On 7 March a stimulating Connecting Conversation took place at the Walter Maas Huis, in a series on Artistry and improvisation. The theme ‘Memory’ proved very fertile. Afterwards I wrote a reflection on this day, from the experience of reading the book On Dialogue by David Bohm.
How does musical improvising affect communication between people? What kind of insights can it bring?
Two experiences in the last weeks have brought me some direct and perhaps startling challenges relating to musical improvising and how this stimulates communication between people, bringing insight, but also stirring up fear and at times a desire to reject artistic […]
on March 17, 2008Professional conversation is often strongly formatted. Expert meeting, symposium, debate, study day and conference, they all follow well known traditional forms. We meet and talk within the lines of the symposium habits.
WHY DO WE DO THAT? CAN WE CHANGE THIS CONTEXT?
on March 16, 2008How does one exercise improvisation? Helena Gaunt and I have developed a way of beginning we call the Stravinsky exercise: start playing using only a few notes, a single pattern, and the methods of variation. It is like musical chitchat.
on March 7, 2008Today was the third meeting with Lab21. Lab21 is a small group of master-students from the Royal Conservatoire. They meet me on a monthly basis for a two hour session on artistry and artistic reflection. This time the given task by e-mail was to prepare a quotation on freedom.
on March 7, 2008Today I worked in London together with Helena Gaunt (Deputy Head of Wind, Brass and Percussion) Sean Gregory (musician, Head of the Centre for Creative and Professional Practice, Head of Professional Development), Christian Burgess (Head of Acting). We only had a small hour with the four of us. We came together to discuss the research application in the ‘beyond text’ programme Helena made and where we all take part in. Instead of speaking we would however in line with the idea ‘beyond text’ play together. Sean and Gregory seemed surprised to see us really with instruments. With a minimum of exchange in words we prepared a simple set with the piano and chairs for the musicians. We played for about half an hour and recorded the session on video. Then we had another half hour for a conversation about what we experienced.
on March 3, 2008Flash | QuickTime
“We simply begin by improvising,” says Helena Gaunt. Whenever they meet, in any setting, Helena Gaunt and Bart van Rosmalen simply start by playing. You cannot theorize beforehand, because there is nothing yet to theorise on. The situation in improvisation is that you know that you don’t know; there is no time and […]
on March 1, 2008On September 5, 2007 Helena Gaunt and I collaborated with painter Liselot Schut in an improvisation in image and sound. This post shows excerpts from the film that was made out of this collaboration, and I share some of my thoughts on this kind of interdisciplinary improvisation.
on February 25, 2008On the 4th of February I conducted workshop about the theme ‘sitting not knowing’ at the Walter Maas Huis. I introduced the idea that you can begin an improvisation in different ways. You can enter an improvisation for instance as sound, as communication, as looking for rhythmic patterns, as an exercise, as a slightly dramatic personage leaving your chair, as a performance with meaning included and so on.
