Recreating and Reimagining Music: Performance and Improvisation as Iterative Processes

This presentation will discuss how the iterative approach through which I have previously conceived my practice in composition and the creation of music can be applied to an understanding of performance and improvisation practices. At the forefront of this consideration is the idea that—despite various attempts to de-hierarchise musical practices—the material cultures of music still provide reference points that maintain the work concept, even when the music itself might be rooted in practices that are beyond the score. Although I am not able to present a definitive answer to this problem, I will explore what performance and improvisation might do to or with a piece after the creation of material objects that might be taken as a complete statement of the music (such as scores or studio recordings). In particular, I address the project hearmleoþ-gieddunga that began as a series of graphic scores and was released as an album in October 2018. By exploring the roles played by performance and improvisation afterthe album was made, I consider what might meaningfully be meant by the term processin this context and how such an understanding might also intersect with the various possible understandings of improvisation.

Lauren Redhead is a composer of experimental music, an organist who specialises in music for organ and electronics and a musicologist who focuses on the aesthetics and semiotics of contemporary music. Her compositions are published by Material Press (Berlin), and her music and performances have been released on the sfz music, innova, pan y rosas discos and engraved glass labels and performed and broadcast internationally. Lauren is currently Senior Lecturer in 20th and 21st Century Music at Goldsmiths, University of London.