Abstract
Interpreting a scored musical composition entails the composer’s relinquishing some control over the piece to the performer. In ‘open’ scores the composer relinquishes most control and in effect allows the performer to collaborate in the compositional process; in traditional scores the composer specifies as much as possible in order to leave little to no room for the performer to use personal judgment regarding interpretation.
The principal focus of this talk will be to examine, through my own scores, a possible available spectrum between these two types of scores and to define more clearly different options presenting varying degrees of control over a performance. The initial stimulus for this research stems from a fascination with alternative compositional scenarios that consequentially aid the creation of incidental musical materials that are not specified or scored. These moments resemble an improvisation in their immediacy of execution and erratic sound characteristics. Hence, it is this quality that many of the ‘open’ elements in my own pieces try to extract, but not exclusively so.
The talk will also dwell on elements of performance psychology in attempts to better define the mechanisms at work in different interpretation/improvisation scenarios, as well as refer to non-classical musical traditions as an example of alternative didactic systems leading towards a non-score based, quasi-improvisational practice.
About Ophir Ilzetzki
A composer and researcher by calling, and lecturer by vocation, Ophir is also the curator of Anechoic Transmissions – an independent radio production house dedicate to the extremes of non-commercial music throughout genres.Ophir’s music explores the intersection between through-composed and improvised pieces. His ongoing attempt is to strip forms to their bare essentials whilst still maintaining their identity. In recent years Ophir has been researching the application of games to musical structures, a fascination leading more often than not to another intersection that combines music with dramaturgy.
Ophir currently resides in Tel-Aviv, where he is an Israel State Lottery (Mifal Hapais) scholar in collaboration with The Israeli Centre for Digital Art in Holon. His research, Experimental Israel, is an archive-based survey of experimental voices in the Israeli scene. Its attempt is to trace the boundaries of the experimental genre and ask whether there truly is an Israeli experimentalism. Ophir’s music is published by the Surrism-Phonoethics net-label (and its offshoot, Classwar Karaoke), and his scores are published by BabelScores. For more information, visit Ophir Ilzetzki’s homepage: www.ophirilzetzki.com