- Part of 'A topology of musical encounter' (summary) -
After a careful study of the musician’s personalities, followed by the conceptual sketch of a collective -their connections, differences and collective musical potential – the actual encounter of the musicians and their sounds can take place. This final and most important stage in the musical process raises the question what exactly we should consider ‘musical innovation’ and whether an encounter can be considered successful or not. I state that musical innovation in our context of working arises at the moment the collaborating musicians are able to highly synthesize with each others qualities. At that moment new language does come to existence, because non of the elements can be understood anymore from their original context. Alike the social process of musicians developing from a traditional cultural frame to an individualized cultural understanding, also the elements belonging to several musical histories are understood and reinterpreted in a new surrounding. When this process is executed it is truly the sounding realization of our present social era.
If we measure the success of an encounter purely on the basis of innovation, we will be confronted with disappointment. In many cases a working process will not lead to this ideal synthesis or will only succeed on certain levels, which doesn’t mean that music is without quality. Also encounters that lead to increased opposition can be valuable and pleasing from a musical point of view. It is therefore wise to separate these two goals when initiating musical encounter. The success is foremost expressed in musical quality, that is indirectly also related to its communicativeness to listeners. The innovation is a bridge further, the transcendence of a development that needs to happen on a larger basis to eventually carry out those encounters that proved to be a true revelation. The effect of this movement towards the sublime is that the most innovative will naturally turn in the most sustainable.
In collaboration with the Senegalese masterpercussionist Mamour Seck, the Israeli singer Anat Spiegel and Iraqi Sattar el-Saaedi on ‘ney’ , the bambooflute, I created an ‘arrangement of two songs in one’, based on a melody written by Anat and the other written by Sattar. Although the melodies were different in affection and cultural ‘colour’, I felt their melodic structures would naturally fit. I brought them together with a simple method. While I kept the vocal melody – and therewith the text –unchanged, I fragmented the flute melody of Sattar el-Saaedi into four different phrases, that I displayed in an order that formed a elegant counterpoint to the voice. Finally Mamour accompanied the melodies with a groove that added a constant and activating rhythmic base to the piece. The idea is simple, born in an instant of concern with the musical materials, and the realization was brought together without any obstacles. The collaboration didn’t require any daring steps from the musicians towards something unknown and even the musical material didn’t require much deconstruction. All in all the concept doesn’t seem very interesting from a compositional point of view. But in the musical reality of this idea something happened that touched upon musical synthesis. The timing of the melodies and their affection became something truly new, the togetherness gained a character that could never be predicted or analyzed beforehand out of the separated materials. Therefore the musical collective and the reality of the sounds was refined, musical and within this composition somehow ‘complete’.
Such a musical achievement exemplifies my main artistic drive within this process of musical encounter. I aim to minimize a pluriformity of elements down to a most concrete and simple musical structure. I imagine a music where different sources are represented in the music clearly audible, but at the same time a kind of ‘perceptive filter’ is created where one sharp and catchy musical idea naturally beholds all of them. The listener gains a ‘double ear’: we clearly separate the musician’s characteristics and sounds, but at the same time we can’t separate the musical content.
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