Soundpainting Lecture-Recital with Marc Duby
Sunday, 12 February 2012 - 10.00h
Marc Duby will be joined for discussion by Mokale Koapeng and Paul Hanmer
Soundpainting is the method of "live composition" invented by New York-based composer and saxophonist Walter Thompson. Using physical gestures for the spontaneous creation of music, Soundpainting therefore shares similarities with other types of gesture-based systems for music performance, such as orchestral conducting. Thompson himself (2006) describes his Soundpainting system as a "universal live composing sign language for the performing and visual arts," and therefore Soundpainting can be considered as a subset of other communication systems such as verbal and written language, kinesics, and paralanguage.
Walter Thompson is a New York-based composer and saxophonist who derived the basic idea of using non-verbal signals for directing the course of a live ensemble performance in that city in the mid-1980s. Thompson (2006:12) describes the genesis of Soundpainting as follows:
“Thompson moved to New York City in 1980 and formed the Walter Thompson Big Band (now the Walter Thompson Orchestra) in 1984. During the first year with his orchestra, while conducting a performance in Brooklyn, New York, Thompson needed to communicate with the orchestra in the middle of one of his compositions. They were performing a section of improvisation where Trumpet 2 was soloing. During the solo, Thompson wanted to have one of the other trumpet players create a background. Not wanting to emulate bandleaders who yell or speak out loud to their orchestra, Thompson decided to use some of the signs he had experimented with in his Woodstock days. “
Soundpainting begins with a set of simple signs depicting musical concepts such as volume, tempo, pitch, and duration. Once the ensemble has mastered these musical building blocks, the Soundpainter introduces progressively more complex signals encompassing such notions as genre or style, key, memory, and more. Under the guidance of an expert Soundpainter, the performers interpret progressively more complex combinations of signs resulting in a fluid and flexible performance. In a given Soundpainting event, the result may incorporate sections of previously prepared music as well as free improvisation. Thompson started developing his system in 1984 and has since founded the Walter Thompson Soundpainting Orchestra (or WTSPO), based in New York and dedicated to the performance of Soundpainting creations. Beginning spontaneously during the course of a live performance, Soundpainting has grown over the twenty years of its existence into a robust and precise means of communication.
(c) Marc Duby
At 11.30h the Lecture-Recital is followed by an open rehearsal workshop to prepare an ensemble of musicians for the jam session concert in the afternoon.