The following are extracts from an introduction to Stanislaw Hansel's 'Studies in Negative Time' with questions as part of a 'meet the composer' session.
Following an introduction to the 'Musical Time Machines' concert and the work of eae, the floor was given to the composer to introduce his work:
"The way I came across this way of teaching was with a piano student in 2003 who was not making much progress with his understanding of music theory and had got himself really confused. 'How many beats is that worth?' asked the student (it was a crotchet and we were in 4/4 time) . He was of the opinion that it was worth 0! The thinking being that this was the basic value and other values were a subdivision of this. Afterwards I began thinking what if the crotchet was 0 and that if you had something shorter than 0 (e.g. a quaver) how do you go there?
The student was not old enough to know about minus figures and going backwards to say -0.5 etc. However, if you can have music which consists of a infinitesimally small value then you could envisage music coming in to your music, or existing at the same time but finishing just as you are about to start playing.. so you won't actually hear the music which is going backwards in time...
Another analogy, would be when physicists talk about a part of an atom (and a very small particle within which I think are called tachyons? )They were able to prove that time travel still exists in the future because these minute particles were arriving before they set off. So therefore they were going backwards in time while the rest of the particles were travelling in the right direction.
"My own music has a lot to do with creating tensions between not many notes. I make a particular use of fractional notation. "
..I'm interested in popular cosmology and in particular string theory... although I have to say I don't really understand it.. but the idea is that whilst we are sitting here there are another 9 versions of us I believe somewhere else. We are not doing the same as the other versions but somehow floating on the surface. However we would not exist without the other versions of ourselves (i.e. these parallel dimensions) and that partly fed into this music.....
Tom Warden (student):
" Do you mean that with string theory when one decision is made in one dimension the opposite is made in the other?
Stan Hansel:
"Yes that's right although I'm not a mathematician, and even they cannot agree what exactly is happening in other dimensions. Also that there maybe many other dimensions... however for the music itself this should be represented by a series of tensions.. Now what I like to do is indicate within the music where a tiny fraction of what is happening in the other dimension(s) maybe finishing
At this point the second page of the first study was projected indicating where the composer has indicated the arrival of a signal from negative time....
".. What you can see is that the top 3 staves are for negative time.. you don't actually hear these fractional notes.. but you can imagine that you can hear them...this in itself is interesting because does it make any difference that we imagine that something is happening which could be happening or might not be happening?
...What I'm actually playing are the 4 staves below...what you hear is based on what is actually happening in the parallel dimension...
... Now I've done that sort of thing throughout, but it's not as if there's a whole composition going on.. for that I'd have to have a brain like Einstein's! But I'm trying to create a sense of tension that some of my music is pre-existing... Now the music that comes in like this, uses signals. I like signals! They are part of everyday life. You can go to a shop and hear a till ringing, or a mobile phone ringing. A signal to me means that something is going to happen; it demands your attention.
In my music, I use accents to highlight a signal and then after that has happened the rest follows on. .. it's a bit like your mobile phone ringing where you are going from not doing anything to suddenly being expectant.
When you get a signal (e.g. telephone ringing) it's as if there was a potential for that ringing in the first place... i.e there is someone at the other end isn't there? They do say this about electricity: before you turn a light on, there is a potential for it to be there (for something to happen)... and that to me is what gives my music tension. Any questions?
Why did you choose to write this for the keyboard and not the piano? (student)
Hansel: The sounds I require are very quiet sounds (played staccatissimo). Those sounds linger a little bit more than I need them to on the acoustic piano.
...Very quiet sounds can create an illusion: were not always sure of the nature of the sound itself, it could be a distant voice? Have any of you had the occasion when perhaps drifting off to sleep.. you hear a note played.. its so clear it really IS as if someone has just played a note. This has happened to me and my children several times. I have a name for this I call it psychic music. Its all in the mind and perhaps because you are tired. The sounds perhaps exist in the house and you think you are hearing them again.
"I thought perhaps someone was going to ask me why choose a keyboard rather than another acoustic instrument(s) e.g. a string quartet? Well there are problems about playing this sort of music. I have (for example) being trying to write a symphony for a long time. I like what I have written but it's not possible to keep it all in time because I'm using such varied tempi, and such complex fractional notation (e.g. a 3rd of a crotchet followed by a 5th, then a semiquaver etc) It's not always possible but desirable in that it adds to the tension within the music..
If we look at the first page right at the bottom of the stave there.
...the 3 you see above the note (under the words quite fast) is not fingering but meant to indicate a 1/3rd of a crotchet.
.. if you look at the middle of the page (where it says mf) the line is deliberately oblique so it is not meant to be played exactly in time but speeded up on repetition...(rather like Stockhausen might write).
..this is still a work in progress in that say on this page there is a time indication for the notes from negative time (10") and the signal is marked 'quite fast' - the notes in the middle stave have no marking....
How many wrong notes could you play before the piece ceases to be the piece? (Dave Truswell)
Hansel: "... Good question- it's one which can be applied to composers writing incredibly complex rhythms in scores after 1945 which not many people can actually play those rhythms accurately... You have to take a balanced view- so the composer will expect that it will be performed as near as possible and the performer will work at is slowly over a period of months before a performance and that it should all hang together.
.. The music that starts the piece reoccurs several times over in different guises- so it goes in sequence in fact. By working with sequence I'm trying to heighten this sense of tension and also have a uniformity within the music. So if you can imagine if you are really listening fairly acutely.. if I play too many wrong notes especially in passages like the signals, then this will become a little bit distorting...
"Do you learn the negative time music as well even though it is not played? So that you run this music through your mind as you are playing (Student)
Hansel: "Yes I think you have got to be thinking of the other levels as well. If I was writing an orchestral piece and had asked someone else to conduct it, then I would expect that person to understand what is happening in the other dimensions (in this case)... what is happening in the 'unheard' elements must inform what is happening here.
"...Tonight's performance includes the two studies. The second one is much shorter than the first, and I'm still working on a bit of it because I suddenly had an idea; if there was suppose to be nine dimensions, why am I just talking about one? There could be two (or more) dimensions going backwards in different times!
So that is something, for me still to work through...."
"If you could give this score to an audience hearing this for the first time- so that they could see the negative time writing would you ? ( Ewan MacGregor:Student)
" I would love to do that...
"If I was writing for a larger group then my music would have to be more metrical and for me therefore less interesting, though easier to play...it's a bit like Cage's 4:33
.. my question has always been with this piece (as much as I think it's great) what happens beyond that?
... I would love to give an audience as much information as possible.. for me the concept behind the work is just as important to the finished work of art...
"It would be great to be able to see what's in your head whilst you play the piece..(student)
"Well of course you never can unless we can attach electrodes to the back of the brain.. i.e. the stimulation of the centre of the brain through an electrical device... the future maybe?
"Are there any moments in the piece when the two dimension fit together in time- you know where you get deja vu and people perceive they have heard/seen something before? (Tom Warden:student)
...You might get the feeling you have heard an earlier sequence in the piece...I write in very small elements, mainly because the signals are really not part of the music; they are there to stimulate and to create a sense of expectancy (as we discussed earlier) so given that I'm not sure 'déjà vu' would be possible... I'd like to say one thing here however, it's whether writing like this could lead to some sort of piling on- like a fugue (subjects/countersubjects etc)? I hope perhaps to consider this more fully in a string quartet and there will be a sense of argument... what I'm doing here is perhaps more compositionally simpler....
... you would have to indicate in the positive time that the same was happening in the negative time to make déjà vu work here... its not impossible...
Stanislaw Hansel finished by asking for the Mars/Earth slide obtained from the NASA site and concluded with a final further thought...
About 5 years ago I read about a machine built which distorts time.. it uses magnetism.. something, if it could be big enough, could be built to distort time. It would involve two planet size magnets in orbit at about the same distance as the moon one either side of the earth. The time on the earth would be faster (or slower) than if we were sitting on Mars watching all that. The earth would be going at a different pace as to how it would appear to us on Mars. Then if you were able to have two players playing one on the earth and one on the moon and you were able to hear them. I wonder what the effect of that would be because you would perceive one playing in one particular time dimension and one on the moon in another time dimension.
For further images from the day's events please click here
Workshops in Fractal Geometry.
Lastingham Day of Light
16.10.04
The fractal workshops were given as part of a 'day devoted to light' culminating in a son et lumiere by John Stead
The programme integrated the workshops with seminars and discussion on light and darkness in our lives and in sacred writings. This provided a framework and focus for the workshops.
Click here to go to images and fractals produced during the day.
Email project with York college students
June- July 2000
(Electro-Acoustic music concert 17.07.2000)
This project was a wonderful opportunity at the beginning of a new century to look at an area of music, which still has a tremendous capacity for growth. This is particularly so because of the development of the computer and the ability relatively cheaply for a lot of people to have in their bedrooms a single digital environment for recording and processing audio and creating synthetic sound. This will make the biggest impact on the young whose musical tastes may broaden, especially in the light of the seeming fragmentation of the pop industry and the growth of music downloading, internet radio etc.
Discussion took place between performer and student on issues such as the understanding and performance of the works and what it is like to be a performer of 20th century music.
New music is always a challenge for an audience especially a young audience unfamiliar with the musical language used. The pre-concert preparation was an attempt to demystify and prepare the ground.
Email Project with York College students
June-July 1999
(20th Century music for 'cello and piano, 19.07.99)
Our E-mail projects involve discussion between students and composers and performers re the compositional process and preparations for performance. They are a way for students and their teachers to be directly involved prior to the concert day. Teachers are able to introduce students to composers, and access links to important web sites, discuss the works, and the issues involved in performance in the classroom.This also includes a sharing of feedback from composers/performers to students.
1999 E-mail Project Evaluation
I hope that the following is of interest for anybody involved in music education, and I would welcome any comments or requests for further information. Also please let me know if you are involved in such a project and we will include you in our forthcoming Education links.
1) Internet Resource pages.
The web authoring involved here did take time to produce (i.e. more than normal lesson planning) though there were considerable benefits for the students and the teacher which may be summarised as follows:
An interesting resource for a work with good Internet links (and sound clips and score excerpts in some cases) supports self-study and frees time in lessons to listen and discuss the music. It is a good idea however initially to take students to an area where they can have access to a computer each (with headphones) and provide guidance on essential research skills to the less confident if asked for. I found setting a few questions on the resource to be of value, especially where the answers can only be found by exploring the web links supplied.
The concept of linking documents both via the Internet and between the pages on the resource made me think carefully about cross-referencing when preparing the notes. A valuable aspect of this kind of resource (and this kind of learning method) is that the students are only one 'click' away from reading one page with another (e.g. Cage's ideas on the use of silence in music with Stanislaw Hansel's ideas on the same). Links to sites, which explain terms (e.g. integrated serialism), provide a fast way of checking understanding without needing to break the session to consult a book etc. Sites can be down but, careful checking by a teacher prior to use, as to the reliability of a site, is an essential part of the preparation.
I found that the resource helped focus the minds of the students on the works and the composers, and helped in the initial stages of question preparation for the performers. Students (quite understandably) have little or no experience of new music and to get to a deeper level of questioning about this music, takes gentle but instructive preparation.
2) Discussions between students, composer and performer via e-mail.
The intention was that the performers would be able to give the students insight into their preparations for the concert, through discussion of the learning process involved, discussion about musical detail and other questions which they found of interest. The email discussions helped to develop ideas for the 'live' seminars and ultimately to enhance the students' enjoyment and experience of the subsequent concert. The areas of greatest interest were firstly the learning process for this 'strange' music, and the audience reaction to a concert of New Music. Students seemed less interested in discussing the details of the pieces themselves - perhaps the resource notes and the lessons were enough for them! From a teaching viewpoint the e-mail discussion gave us a structured approach to the seminars and ensured continuity of ideas. The time (2 hours) passed very quickly, which was partly due, I'm sure to good preparation.
The e-mail discussion provided excellent starting points for the seminars. It is important to ensure that the 'live' discussions have enough scope to add more to points already raised via the emailing.
I found it of value to put the performer/student e-mail discussion on-line and allow others participating in the project to read it. This gave it a sense of importance and helped put across a seriousness of intention on the part of the teacher, and conveyed to the students the value of their involvement.
I would finally recommend that the teacher begins a project by setting up e-mail accounts (e.g. hotmail.com). Students use a common password so that access can be had to all the discussions in order to have all the material on line, and it is also the resource for the seminar content preparations.
3) The Open Rehearsal and Concert
Some of the best comments I received from students were:
"Well, I enjoyed the concert a lot more than I thought I would!" and "I couldn't believe the audience for this music, Amazing!"
The intensity of the open rehearsal of Lutoslawski's 'Grave' made a particular impression, as did hearing the works live after previously hearing them only on CD and tapes. The visual presentation including the projected images of the performers and the projected paintings in the Cage were much remarked upon. The experience was musically enriching and the students have the ability to say that they were part of a rare opportunity to hear the works featured, and it was an experience they will never forget. The audience for the concert, which included the students, was extremely attentive and appreciative.
 
Fractal Workshops, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
08.07.97
(Chaos of Rainbows son et lumiere, St. Mary's church,Hull)
E.A.E. presented a workshop preceding the son et lumiere 'Chaos of Rainbows' by John Stead. Fractal geometry was used in this son et lumiere, and E.A.E. led a workshop for pupils and students from local schools and 6th. form colleges, in which methods of creating fractal images were explained and explored.
Fractal geometry has been the subject of much interest (the Mandelbrot set for example) and an educational workshop was offered to explain what these amazing geometries are about, and opportunity was given for students to create and print their own fractals. A disk containing the software used to create the fractals was given to each person attending the workshop with guidelines for installation and use, so that further exploration of the world of fractals could be continued after the introductory talk and workshop.
N.B.
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