Wandelweiser and Improvisation
I finally got around to reading a very thought-provoking post from Yuko Zama at her blog A View from Elsewhere, about her transition in interest from improvisation to Wandelweiser style composition. While I can’t say that I see things exactly as she does, she makes a point about ego-limiting that does strike a chord with me.
I gradually lost interest in the relationship was perhaps because, at some point, listening to improvising music started to feel more like being forced to experience the performer’s personal ego - whether I liked it or not, instead of being allowed to experience the pure state of the ‘sound’ itself.
I can’t say I haven’t felt like this at times, but I’d say that it is a worst case scenario. When improv goes wrong, you could say. But it’s that exact failure in some ways, that makes the challenge worth-while. When you can escape this in improvisation, then you have the chance at something really special.
I’d add too. that getting to the same place via composition, is much simpler, at least from a performers perspective. There is a certain freedom from who you are, and what you do that a score can give you. (The permission to shut-up is one of my personal favorites)
To look at it from a composers perspective (in empathy only), it must be very freeing to write such open scores. You have to put your ego away, and hope that your openness makes a connection with someone who can complete (or help you finish) the thought. So if both composer and performer have no choice but to put themselves aside, (if they desire to be successful) it’s no wonder the music of the Wandelweiser composers has so often been elemental, concrete, and beautiful.
All of this is not to say that what these composers do is easy, as that would be silly and far from the truth. I will say though that attempting to do it as an improviser, in the moment, sitting on a mountain of your predecessors dirty laundry, seems like a somewhat more difficult task, and one I’m personally glad some people are still up for.
