Up next, I teach two creativity workshops for Portland Taiko. This is an expansion of a workshop I taught at the North American Taiko Conference in Los Angeles over the summer.

The workshop is called Seven Ways to Develop Material. Here’s a description:

Do you have great ideas but need to know how to turn your thoughts into a composition? Learn seven ways to expand craft and creativity to create compelling music. These tools can help produce work that takes risks, develops material, and engages the audience. Together, we will expand the space between our ears to complete unfinished works or refine existing catastrophes.

There will be two workshops. The first workshop introduces seven ways to approach creating a musical performance. In between the two workshops, students will use these tools to develop musical material. In the second workshop, four to five participants will share their developed material.

In preparation for the first workshop, I’ve asked participants to come with:

1. A list of 20 ways music is used. For example one way would be wedding music.
2. A list of 20 audience types. For example one type would be farmers.
3. One musical idea you are working on, with, around, or in. The idea should be on paper and can be drawings, words, musical notation, or a combination of any/all of the above.

Seven Ways to Develop Material will cover the following:

1. Function What and who is the music for?
2. Concept How does the work access imagination?
3. Structure Does the form promote the concept?
4. Time Where does the performance take the audience?
5. Timbre When do in/significant moments happen?
6. Filter How does the music breathe?
7. Notation How can the work be remembered/documented most effectively?

I look forward to working with Portland Taiko on these Creativity Workshops.

As I clear autumn leaves from clogging the sewer drain outside my home, I am reminded of all the music-making that needs to happen in preparation for Three Seasons to premiere at On the Boards in mid-January 2010:

• Finish my musical analysis of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
• Meet with Stuart McLeod to figure out an amplified percussion set-up that can appear and disappear seamlessly with the dance
• Touch base with Baroque violinist Ingrid Matthews, costume designer Michael Cepress, and choreographer Olivier Wevers

Even though it is much more fun to gather leaves in the rain and hang out with the chickens, I know that once I start transferring my sketches and connecting with collaborators, my figurative clogged gutter will flow with musical creativity.

Tristan Uhl recently wrote about the Whim W’him launch where a Three Seasons musical sketch presented:

For Whim W’Him’s debut production Olivier has chosen to address not only the unpredictability and fragility of our lives but also, the changing of the seasons. The title for the debut is Three Seasons — an apt beginning for a project that thrives on unpredictability.

The piece has been scored Composer Byron Au Yong, who has created a profoundly moving and modern interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The musical instruments used almost confront nature with man by melding sounds including but not limited to, a violin, the rhythmic rustling of leaves and — my favorite — a high heel. The overall effect makes it hard to distinguish the traditional instruments from the more novel ones.

SubterfugeSeattle.com has the full article plus photos. Thanks for the nice write-up. High heels are my new favorite instrument too.

Last Saturday, Whim W’him held a benefit for the launch of Olivier Wever’s new company. The debut work, to be premiered at On the Boards in January 2010, will be the Three Seasons prompted by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

percussion set-up photo by Stuart McLeod

I’ve been sketching ideas drawn from Vivaldi’s use of musical gestures. His phrases for violin and strings represent birds, thunder, and other sounds heard in nature. This prompts me to think about the nature of “nature.”

Each of Olivier’s nine dancers have an object they cannot live without. These include high heels, pillows, and light bulbs. I wonder if these factory-produced items affect a listener’s notions of what is natural.

• How do man-made and nature sounds inhabit the world?
• In the Digital Age, is the notion of nature broadened?
• What is the sound of light bulbs with leaves?

The audio sketch above is from a live performance held at Steve Jensen’s studio loft.

The music was created in collaboration with Sebastian Lange on amplified/processed violin, and percussionists Stuart McLeod and James Whetzel on amplified leaves, water bowl, pillows, high heels, water phone, and light bulbs. Jeff Walker recorded the performance and yours truly edited the sample above.

Aaron and I are busy revising Stuck Elevator for two readings in New York in mid-November. To that end, we created a demo from the September reading. This was recorded in the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at the Tisch School of the Arts by audio engineer Mark Aiken.

Already one of the songs, A River Running, is cut from the November version of Stuck Elevator. I am fond of the music, so I included it as part of this online demo.

On Tuesday, the faculty and students in the Dance Department at Cornish College of the Arts discussed the core values listed below. I find these nine keywords to be a clarifying reminders when lost as an artist within academia.

Of course these are words on the screen, to actualize them Professor Michele Miller had students come up with “We will…” statements; action plans generated during the discussion to make these abstract words come alive. Here’s an example of an action statements that a group of students wrote:

We will practice the idea of respect by taking care of our bodies in dance and in health, practicing courtesy to our teachers, musicians, fellow students, and dancers, while also self-encouraging ourselves to take on the challenge of technique.

Here are the keywords and thoughts generated by the dance faculty:

Excellence

Strive for excellence. Challenge yourself to develop to your fullest potential in every aspect of your work: physically, intellectually, emotionally, imaginatively, and artistically. Take the risks necessary for growth, embracing failures as an essential path to success. Invest your whole self in your work for the reward of knowing you have done your best. Commit to a process of change. Support extraordinary efforts, your own and others.

Exploration

Explore your body, cultivating awareness. Explore all possible connections to the world and embrace the breadth and variety available to you in dance. Learn about dance through live performance, film, videos, books, electronic media, and other resources. Explore your potential as a generative artist as well as an interpretive one, reaching beyond your discipline to embrace collaboration, interdisciplinarity and multicultural perspectives.

Inquiry and Reflection

Be curious. Seek out the widest range of educational resources that are available to you within this college and the world at large. Question deeply your relationship to your art form and your own artistic purpose. Take time to reflect about what you have learned in order to integrate what you learn into your work as an artist. Synthesize information from multiple sources.

Openness

Seek and welcome feedback. Be willing to evaluate your own work unsparingly. Develop the ability to generously, constructively, and specifically critique the work of your fellow artists, and connect your critique of others to your own ongoing development.

Responsibility

Assume responsibility for your learning and progress by providing your own discipline and motivation. Take advantage of all learning opportunities, within the college and in the outside community. Develop a diligent and consistent approach to your education. Take responsibility to care for your self: body, mind and soul. Embody: physically manifest your knowledge and intentions.

Trust

Trust your faculty and their knowledge. Trust your body and its wisdom, your process of growth and change. Trust your ability to succeed. Trust your peers and their creative energy. Dare to be authentic, dancing truthfully from who you are.

Respect

Learn and practice respect for yourself, your peers, your instructors, your dance musicians, all Cornish staff, your artistic community. Respect your art form, the process of creation, the space in which you do your work, the audience who receives your work, the history of dance, its traditions and legacy. Respect your body, developing a healthy approach to your art form. Respect cultural diversity, learning from those whose experiences differ from yours.

Humility

Be humble. Practice empathy, patience and compassion. Recognize that in dance we commit to being lifelong learners, always students of our art form. Be of service to the work and people involved in the work.

Passion

Remember why you are here. Celebrate your love of dance and the joy that it brings you. Share that joy with others and support them in their passions. Draw inspiration from others’ growth and challenges.

# # #

The students were given the keywords and grouped into discussion teams of five or six where they focused on one or two keywords for 20 minutes. They then presented their thoughts to the larger group. I was surprised by how many of their ideas resonated with the faculty’s.

Kitty, the chair of the department, commented at the end that the keywords and their personalized meanings reminded her that Cornish was a place for practicing artists. Alex, a junior in the department, said that it was a great way to kick-off the start of the school year.