Day 229: Group improv
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
229 — Group improv
18-March-1972
(Samstag–Sat.)
TRANSCRIPT
Had a very good lesson this morning with Herr
Gabler—3 lessons a week, talked, etc. I seemed to
have progressed a lot but am never satisfied. Because
I can never play, always, fairly good.
In electronic music had an excellent day. I even
partook in the electronic music improvisation. After
some improvisation, Ing. (Engineer) Gottwald began
manipulating us (like instruments) and we began
having fun and getting involved in what we were
doing. For me personally, it had some of the best
results (effect-wise) because we were being
ourselves—we were the music.
Then we tried the grand experiment—3 separate
improvisations in 3 separate rooms. Taking place
simultaneously. It turned out great. Prejudiced
opinion. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.
For example, myself and friend (Austrian and
newcomer) were in a hallway of the school (hall
effect) and we were laughing, talking, questioning,
moving benches around, etc. Then we were joined by a
girl, Synne, and it turned out to be like a “group
encounter.” We were all involved; serious but having
fun. Can’t explain the feeling. I can’t believe some
of the things we did and how much racket we were
making. We also involved the “other” microphone.
Great idea. We violated the rules of the game. All in
all, I don’t know if it was music but it was a lot of
fun. Good word is “musical theater.”
Afterwards, we made some recordings of my primitive
works for the tape that I needed and the quality came
out pretty good. Very satisfying day.
Saw 2 films from the film festival today. (1) Short
film about the artist, M.C. Escher and perception.
Fascinating. The camera work was very simple. Most of
it was photography of pictures. Simple, but it works.
(2) “Lions news (wars),” [uncertain title] a pop film
about Hollywood. Had some interesting things. Not the
most interesting total result, however, photography
was nice.
REFLECTIONS
Group
vocal improvs. A long
post today. In electronic music class, we spend most
of the day doing group improvisations. You know that,
normally, I don’t always like the results of group
improvs. However, I seem to like these results.
Improvisation sounds easy but it isn’t. The danger is
that you end up getting “same sounding” music. Most
of our improvisations, as a musique
concrète class,
primarily use vocal and “found sounds” as source
material—making sounds with your mouth and any
objects available. What is important to the result is
the interaction of the participants in getting
results. And you thought improvs were only for comedy
shows.
Vocalization and live improvisation are trademarks of
composer Dieter Kaufmann’s style, at that time. The
opening photo shows composer Kaufmann as the young
professor that I knew (left) and in recent years
(right).
Chance
improvisation. Here is an
amazing idea. If you take people or small groups and
place them in different rooms and allow them to
improvise, the results are then modeled by “chance.”
I am fairly certain that we did not have the ability
to monitor each other. Probably we had a start-stop
signal. Very interesting. I talked about John Cage
and chance (aleatoric) music, a few days ago. See Day
222.
Sound
engineer, Gottwald. I don’t
mention him very often, but the electronic music
class had an engineer—Herr Gottwald who would be
present on these special occasions and kept the
studio running. Today, he is the center of
manipulation with other devices. I did find a list
that mentions that the studio did have electronic
devices, including filters, and ring modulators. We
did not have a reverb, so we used the hallway
(echo…echo…echo). Kudos to Ing. Gottwald.
Film
festival. Film is on
my mind again when I see a couple of avant-garde
films. I like visual imagery and photography in both
photography and film. My handwriting is terrible and
I may not have the titles right, especially after a
36-year lapse.
Links
Link to Dieter Kaufmann’s
bio
John
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