Distorted Reality Act V (Fluxus) - Experimental Composition

Description and Explanation (Part 1)

This is the last movement of the Shutter Island piece, and it is an example of an experimental form of contemporary music and performance art from the 20th and 21st centuries. Creating this piece was purely an experiment in curiosity that I contemplated for the future. There is no single art form represented in this composition, but a synthesis of several that incorporates the contributions of Johan Cage, Dick Higgins, who worked with a Fluxus score, but in contrast to them, this composition employs a serialist technique applied to dynamic and gym equipment as well as the Fabicini series.

It demonstrates how serialism and anti-music movement (Danger Music) can be interconnected by uniquely applying serialism techniques to a composition. Its primary objective in creating this composition was to perform experimental compositions and evaluate Anders Buen's expression that there are various impulse noise sources in strength training facilities (Buen, 2020) Using this conception as an inspiration, I propose an original method of reimagining composition through an anti-music movement and serialism.

As Nyman proposed in his paper, a score may no longer represent the sound by means of special symbols called musical notation. Considering this, why can't we use the sound itself as a music notation? As John Cage explains, the music sound can be found virtually anywhere. This second view of sound- that sound (and its rhythm, dynamics, timbre) is incidental to the actions that make them-is common to many Fluxus event scores.

Cornelius Cardew, however, wrote in 1963 that " a composer who hears sounds will try to find a notation for it." (Nyman, no data) . This suggests that someone with a creative idea (like me) will find a notation to express that idea, leaving their interpretation to their discretion, and that is something that this experiment truly express. As Distorted Reality, it depicts a false view of the reality using Fluxus (see appendix C for instructions) and using incidental music and non-diegetic elements as the performer is unaware of these elements during the performance.

Instruments such as the piano, whistles, dumbbells, weights, etc., were inspired by two specific Fluxus scores. For example, Motor Vehicle Sundown (Event) has a total score and parts. As directed, motorists are instructed to gather at dusk, get into their cars, start their engines, and take action (i.e. sounding their horns, turning on their radios, running washers, and pressing the brake pedal) according to their instruction cards. A similar effect is achieved in Dick Higgins' The Thousand Symphonies, in which the chief of the South Brunswick Police Department shreds blank pieces of sheet music with a submachine gun, resulting in a score whose bullet holes serve as unconventional notations and whose angles influence the timbre, melody, and tempo (Nyman, no data). Thus, this led me to explore how this piece may involve weights and dumbbells, both serialized. There are different exercises, dumbbells, weights, etc., and so for this reason, this work contains twelve different sounds, including jerking, clean sound, deadlift sound, which is followed on the recording in a specific order (see attached document to find out gym equipment order).

It is also shown that the whistle dynamic is serialised, as it consists of six dynamics that are sequentially arranged (table 1), which are repeated several times until the piece is completed. The word whistle also serves a metaphorical purpose since it signifies screams, while the sound of dumbbells and weights represents broken bones.

1	2	3	4	5	6
Mp	Sf	f	mf	P	ff

Table 2 Serialized dynamics of whistles

It is evident that the chords heard in the background of Fluxus performance are based on the serialism idea and the Fabiccin series. Like Sofia Gubaidulina, who used Fibonacci numbers such as 3, 5, 8 and 13 in the opening section of her Seven Works composition (Wilkins, 2006), the chords in this movement are based on Fibonacci numbers such as 2, 3, 5, 7. However, the Fibonacci numbers are presented differently, as the chords in the movements correspond to what bars and what frequency they occur.

Fig. 1 Dissonance chords built from RI rows in succession (Sibelius, 2021)

As shown in figure 1, the chords appear on bars 2,3,5,7 and 9; later on, the same type of spacing is applied. Furthermore, each of the four chords which recur in this movement is constructed from six notes taken from five different RI rows, creating an extremely dissonant sound. As can be seen from figure 17, the first chord is built on RI0, the second on RI3, and the third on RI5. As the notation and recording of the sound are simplified, the confusion of reality is reflected.

References:

‘12TonePrimer.pdf’ (no date).

Anderson, V. (2016) ‘Fluxus : Event Scores and Their Performance’, (1960).

Buen, A. (2020) ‘Impulse noise from dropped weights on concrete floors’, (0218), pp. 1–8. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14930.79049.

Brindle, R. S., 1962. Serial Composition. In: London: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, pp. 6-7.

Lignon, J. and Le Douarin, G. (1971) ‘Action des ions K + , Na + , Ca 2+ et Ba 2+ sur le rythme spontané du ventricule isolé de l’ammocète de Lampetra planeri.’, Comptes Rendus des Seances de la Societe de Biologie et de Ses Filiales, 165(2), pp. 407–412.

‘Nyman.pdf’ (no date).

Hope you enjoyed my article, please find below a link to my performance!

My Fluxus Performance