2.3. Technology and the super-score
I envisage that the score of the future will be a multimedia object bringing together in
various degrees:
- Traditional notation (where pitch is a significant component of the work)
- Extended notation (for new techniques specific to the instrument and its
performance practice)
- Recording of example material (demonstrations played by a performer with the
supervision of the composer)
- electroacoustic materials
- Patches for live electronic treatment (for importing to other devices or self-sufficient
utilities)
- Recorded examples of live electronic treatment (demonstration versions)
- An example recorded performance (or more than one to illustrate possible variations
and interpretations)
- Commentary (written and recorded spoken texts, programme notes, explanatory
texts etc.)
3. Music examples from works by the author
I will draw music examples from four works I have written over the last 10 years:
Pathways (1989), and Points Trilogy (three works, 1993–98).
3.1. Pathways
In 1989 I was asked to write a piece (Pathways) for the Euro-Indian ensemble, Shiva
Nova. The instrumentation at that time was sitar, tablas, flute, cello and keyboard,
which in this case I made a sampler, adding, live electronics (using a Yamaha DMP7
completely pre-programmed). The compositional ideas cannot be separated from the
instrumentation: 2 Western instruments (flute, cello), 2 Indian instruments (sitar, tablas)
plus MIDI keyboard controlling sampler and live electronics, processing the sound of all
instruments.
I decided that the piece had to be written for the specific players of the ensemble. The
two Indian musicians had learned their traditional practice in India but were now
resident in Britain. Dharambir Singh taught sitar at the time in Leicester but is
now at Leeds College of Music and Sarwar Sabri, the tabla player, is from
Birmingham.
An immediate question concerned the degree to which I should or should not use
Western notation. I consulted the director of the group (Priti Paintal) and the sitar
player (Dharambir Singh) and I looked at other scores the group had played (most of
which I had heard in performance) and concluded simply:
- for the sitar, a skeleton notation in Western and Indian mnemonic script
around which the player could elaborate (the word ‘improvise’ is inadequate
within the Indian music context, though I noted that the performers used
the term unequivocally!). Dharambir Singh reads Western notation quite well
but prefers to be given the freedom to work around the material.