Creative Music Intensive 2022
August 14th – 28th, 2022
Online and In-person Hybrid Program
The 2022 Summer Creative Music Intensive was a two-week hybrid program ( In-person & Online ) held from August 14th – 28th at Arts Letters & Numbers. Participants were immersed in the creative process of making and performing music, exploring new approaches and developing individual and collaborative works as creative artists.
This unique program was led by Michael Harrison and co-taught by Del Sol String Quartet, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Elliot Cole, Payton MacDonald, and Arts Letters & Numbers founding director David Gersten, with special guest Terry Riley. They each hosted weekly classes on site or via Zoom, give one-on-one lessons, as well as facilitating potential collaborations with co-participants and a wide range of artists affiliated with Arts Letters & Numbers.
Topics covered during group and private classes include composition and improvisation; performance, recording and career strategies in the current environment; Indian classical ragas, rhythms and techniques; modular synthesis, music programming; developing interdisciplinary work and collaborations.
On Sunday August 28th, a 3-hour concert was held as the conclusion of Creative Music Intensive 2022. The concert was conducted in-person at ALN and livestreamed on zoom for everyone to join. Highlights include five world premiere performances by Del Sol Quartet. To watch and listen to the concert, please check the video on the right.
Participants
Vibha Agarwala . Yazan Al-Hajari . Maddie Ashman . Peter Bailey . Alexander Baxter . Paula Bickham . George Brandon . Colton Brown . Hon Ning Cheung . Debra Cope . Stacy Fahrion . Philip Foster . Anirban Ghosh . Will Hallett . Tiffany Hopkins . Luke Johnson . Tianxin Li . Soo Lyuh . Noah Magnus . Tamara McLeod . Guinevere McMichael . Parsa Noroozian . Mark Roberts . Eoin Schnell . Kornel Thomas . Willyn Whiting
Concerts:
All Graphics by Adrianos Efthymiadis
Photo Archive:
Program Content
Participants will be able to prioritize which of the following subjects they would like to cover in group or private classes. Archival recordings of online workshops and performances will be made available for future reference or use in grant applications and career development:
Composition: An Overview & Discussion (Michael plus discussion with Aleksandra and Elliot)
My creative work and process (covering both written works and non-notated improvisations) (Terry)
Improvisation (Payton and Michael)
Writing for percussion (Payton)
Writing for string quartet (Aleksandra, Del Sol)
Vrebalov has written 18 works for Kronos Quartet, rehearsed them with the group and had them performed over the past 25 years. Her most recent collaboration with Kronos is a co-commission by Carnegie Hall, ilektrikés rimés (2022).
Technical feedback on writing for strings as well as on compositional issues of works rehearsed by Del Sol.
Intro to composing and performing in alternate tuning systems and just intonation (Michael and Del Sol)
Forging new approaches to composition and performance through tunings and structures that extend the ancient concept of just intonation, a form of pure tuning constructed from musical intervals of perfect mathematical proportions.
Indian Ragas (Michael and Elliot) 10 sessions
In this series of classes Michael shares the Kirana lineage of Khayal singing that he learned from his Gurus, Pandit Pran Nath and Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan, as well as Terry Riley and La Monte Young. Primary attention will be given to learning the basics of raga and improvisation, as well as syllables and structural principles.
Introduction to Modular Synthesis (Elliot) 2 sessions
Modular synthesis is a playful, open-ended, bottom-up approach to designing musical systems. We’ll learn about the fundamentals of electronic sounds—oscillators, amplifiers, filters, envelopes—as well as approaches to patterning, rhythm, phrasing, and generative music. Even for those whose primary focus is acoustic music, this is a useful path for developing the systems-oriented thinking essential for developing new musical languages. Instructor Elliot Cole will provide his own modular system for practice, and make it available for off-hours exploration.
Writing Rounds (Elliot)
Writing a round is a great skill to have at your fingertips—a focused composition exercise that can be practiced on a plane or a train, executed quickly or puzzled over like a crossword for hours. It hones your counterpoint skills and produces beautiful songs to sing with your friends. We will review counterpoint fundamentals, practice various strategies, and sing and study rounds by Moondog and instructor Elliot Cole.
Early Polyphony in Original Notation (Elliot) 4 sessions
By learning to sing from the beautiful mensural notation of the 14th and 15th centuries, we defamiliarize ourselves from our comfortable languages and re-discover the magic and miracle of polyphony all over again. We will learn by doing—slowly puzzling our way through music by Dufay, Ockeghem, and Agricola, discussing points of notation, challenging our minds and our musicianship, and listening deeply as we sing together.
Introduction to SuperCollider (Elliot) 2 sessions
SuperCollider is a free music programming language that can be used for sound and instrument design, exploring scales and tuning, generative music, live coding, sound installations, as a compositional aid, and many other uses. You’ll learn the basics and then go straight to the fun stuff: designing sounds and musical patterns.
Composition (Aleksandra) (only for individual lessons)
Individual lessons will explore necessary tools for a creative process - from sketching of initial ideas, to bringing a piece of music to a physical world. Depending on each composer’s needs, topics would cover:
- spiritual dimension of creativity - why and for whom we compose,(awareness of) synthesis of emotion and intellect in the creative process
predetermined form, content-defined form, and free form
notation and attitude towards the score and performers as “translators” of coded messages
text vs. underlying (programmatic) narratives
choice of instruments and orchestration
Imagining and sketching a piece of music (Aleksandra)
Keep the freshness and authenticity of an idea by learning to capture it quickly. Explore ways to develop inklings of a new piece through visual and verbal sketches. Hands-on approach, the session includes drawing in color.
Writing music with text (Aleksandra)
Unlocking the text - analysis of text both as meaning and sound; text as a structural element in a piece of music.
Bring texts and we'll analyze them on the spot to gather information useful for the compositional process, such as form, rhythm, texture, instrumentation.
Vrebalov’s three operas with libretti in English, Serbian and German include award-winning Mileva (2011) commissioned by Serbian National Theater for its 150th Anniversary season, and most recently The Knock (2021) commissioned and released as opera on film, by Glimmerglass Festival.
Indian rhythmic theory and practice (Payton)
Payton covers the basics of both Carnatic and Hindustani rhythmic theory and practice, and shares several beautiful compositions he learned from his Guru, Pandit Sharda Sahai.
Starting and maintaining a successful new-music ensemble (Payton)
As a founding member of chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound and flute and percussion duo Verederos, and now co-director of New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, Payton has over 20 years experience building ensembles from the ground up and keeping them going.
Winning a tenure-track teaching position at a University (Payton)
Payton has won two tenure-track jobs, and was tenured at William Paterson University in 2009. He has served on seven search committees and knows what committees are looking for. If you're in the later stages of graduate work and looking to get into the college teaching market Payton has some ideas that will help.
Sonic Divide/Sonic Peaks Performance Art (Payton)
Payton MacDonald shares his epic music/film/endurance sports performance art pieces Sonic Divide and Sonic Peaks. With Sonic Divide, Payton rode his mountain bike 2,500 miles from Mexico to Canada, while premiering 30 new pieces of music in the wilderness, all of which he captured with cameras and then created an award-winning film. With his follow-up project Sonic Peaks, Payton is climbing all 146 peaks in the Northeast U.S. that are above 3,500 feet, and creating original graphic scores for each climbing experience. We'll discuss each project, and all the aspects of interdisciplinary art.
Sonic Divide trailer: https://youtu.be/oYM5_BjUKzY
Sonic Peaks trailer: https://youtu.be/AXPOyi721qM
Grants Pants (Kathryn, Del Sol)
Advancing your funding application skills with how-to’s, best practices, and a review of grant samples.
The Power of Music (Kathryn, Del Sol)
Deepening the connection between audience, performer and composer and considering the social impact of performance.
Quartet Coffee - “Ask a quartet” (Del Sol)
An open Q&A with the quartet, with an emphasis on exploring how to make performers do what you want in notated music.
Interdisciplinary Interactions & Collaborations (David)
Unstructured Synth Exploration (Elliot)
Listening Non-Critiques (David, Michael & Participants)
These are opportunities to share our works in a safe and supportive framework and engage in positive conversations about the works and the connections between them.
Private lessons
Participants are allotted a total of two private hour-long lessons during the program (one each week). Participants must make the request to schedule lessons with any of the composition faculty (Michael, Aleksandra and Elliot) no later than Tuesday of each week.
Collaboration with Del Sol Quartet
The Del Sol Quartet will work with a small number of composers to develop new works for the quartet.
The Del Sol Quartet will hold 2 large reading sessions. (These sessions will be recorded for the composer’s private use, but will not be available for the composer’s public use.)