‘SYNTAX’ was developed in collaboration with violinist Paula Guerra and pianist Abigail Chen, under the supervision of Mark Knoop. My initial conceptual framework for the composition process of the work was influenced by my previous ‘plant series’, which used simple notational rules to challenge performers to interact with scores in a new way. The plant series involves treating the score as a visual aesthetic object. SYNTAX was developed under the same guidelines: that when musicians perform using notation, they do not simply interact with the material in a diagrammatic way, but respond to the aesthetic qualities of the score in their decisions about playing the material. SYNTAX uses spatial notation in an attempt to remove the rhythmic hierarchy of measures and beats, in order to free up the musical sensibilities of performers to interact with the musical material in an organic way.
My desire to free performers from the restrictions of traditional notation in this work was not motivated solely by a breaking down of classical hierarchies—although this was a factor. Instead, it is my belief that a piece can act as a critical enquiry into the histories, both shared and individual, of performers. For instance, if a gesture within the notation reminds a performer of a passage of Mozart they once played, then perhaps a similar gestural response can be triggered in the mind of the performer. The inclusion of historical and symbolic tools in the construction of SYNTAX is an idea which first emerged when I read some of the work of German philosopher Martin Heidegger. He uses an analogy of a classical Greek temple: “Standing there, the building holds its ground against the storm raging above it and so first makes the storm manifest in its violence.” It was my aim to make the history and gestural conventions of classical music manifest in the work, as well as the individual experiences and relationship each performer has with music of the past.
The material of the work was created using Supercollider. An array of pitches was composed, and then an algorithmic transformation was performed on them. The duration of each note was decided probabilistically. Since traditional note durations were not used for the piece, relative durations were assigned. However, these durations were not selected randomly, but were instead decided by a weighted probability calculation.
A specific function was used to calculate the probability of a duration using an array of probabilities. These values were normalized so that their values mapped to a total of 1, allowing a specific probability to be assigned to each duration. My aim in having a set of probabilities constructed in this way was to achieve a vast range of results; in one case, a short duration could happen most of the time, while in another, it may barely happen at all. The pitches were selected at random, meaning there was a statistically even spread of every pitch throughout the piece. Harmonic transformations were achieved when the entire pitch set was transposed up or down by either a semitone, minor third, or major third.
The final written material was fixed in a new way compared to previous works. I created a workflow where Supercollider sent MIDI to Logic Pro, allowing me to hear the algorithmic transformations I was making in real time. Then, a traditionally notated score was produced using Logic and opened in notation software, which allowed me to remove the bar lines and stems—causing what was once traditional notation to be spatialized. ‘Gestural’ material was indicated using slurs on the score. These slurs could correspond to their traditional meanings or could be interpreted in other ways by the performers.
It was also important to me that the piece emerged from nothing and faded to nothing. The piece was designed in this way to give the impression that the listener was simply ‘tuning in’ to a section of what could have been an infinite work. As well as the symbolic relation to the continuum of history, the cyclical nature of the work provides boundaries in which the indeterminate material of performative gesture can occur.
SYNTAX offered an interesting opportunity for communal music-making. A method of rehearsal had to be arrived at where the performers took ownership of more of the direction of the music than they were used to. This initially presented some issues, since both performers were classically trained and had little experience of improvisation. However, as I had hoped, the particular degree of ambiguity within the score did not create an insurmountable challenge; they were both able to engage with the material and make suggestions on how to communicate sectional changes to one another.
My goal—of creating a work which could be approached in the same way as a long-dead composer—was achieved. The work did not exist, as many contemporary works do, as an object to be reproduced in intricate detail as accurately as possible, but as a vessel for the aesthetic whims and personal expression of the performers. SYNTAX served as a critical enquiry into the nature of symbolism and historicity in music. It was essential to me that the work was ‘self-aware’, showing an awareness of the historical weight of a violin soloist with piano accompaniment. I chose to disrupt these roles: the piano plays clouds of single notes augmented by the meandering material of the violin. Occasionally, gestures emerge from the texture, presenting the piece as an imagined landscape of historical instrumental gestures combined into a haze of sound. The language of piano and violin as an ensemble was used to develop a new syntax. As Heidegger writes: “Where does a work belong? The work belongs, as work, uniquely within the realm that is opened up by itself.”