Hello to all our readers, and here is our R&P from the 11th February to present.

Things are getting exciting for our upcoming performance next Friday 1st March at the Saatchi Gallery! Recent news is that Absolut Vodka will be sponsoring the event, which means ticket holders receive two FREE Russian cocktails! Yes Two! Excellent, you can’t go wrong with a bit of vodka and what better to compliment the current exhibition ‘Breaking the Ice: Moscow Art 1960’s-1980’s’ ?! 

MOC will be opening the event at 19.00 with four pieces written for flute, oboe and bassoon, by the composers of the Purcell School for Young Musicians. The concert then goes on to explore some pieces written by composers of Queenswood School and then finally, a performance of Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony conducted by James Ross. 

So with the concert fast-approaching, we were excited to pay the composers a visit last Monday for our second workshop of the project, where they were to present the first draft of their pieces. The composers Anna Didley-Simpson, Nathanial Coxon, Jordan Stockdale, Sophie Sparkes and Gabriel Williams were all eager to have their work played…

“Nothing better than having music you’ve written come to life when people play them so beautifully :)’ tweeted Anna.

Well, we felt there was nothing better than to see how five people can react so individually and creatively to the same exhibition! The pieces sounded fantastic and each one painted its own new picture in response to the art work. It truly is a fascinating thing to be part of the creative journey, seeing developments from the initial visit to the gallery through to notes on a manuscript. 

As mentioned in our last R&P, we made sure that the brief for the project was true to the vision of MOC, after all it is important for composers to know who they are writing for. We have encouraged choreographic elements to be included in the piece, such as where we might stand in relation to the art work and also for some thought to be given to the outfits which we might wear. This kind of territory is not explored too broadly in music so happens to be new ground for the composers. Last week we experimented with playing a simple musical phrase in various physical positions around the room to show how it can change the effect of the music. This exercise seemed to liberate the composers and ideas started to flow! One suggestion was to have us dress up in corrugated cardboard… we have since been collecting boxes.

We return back to Purcell on Monday to rehearse the completed pieces and can’t wait to see what we have to play with.

Catch the performance this Friday 1st March, 18.45 at the Saatchi Gallery as we unveil the creations.

Last Friday we had another inspiring session with Movement Specialist Niamh McKernon. We met Niamh back in December and since the New Year, have been sharing our knowledge in our specialist fields and exploring links between Laban’s ‘Eight Efforts’ and music.

To explain a little: Laban breaks down the way we move using three different areas of analysis - space, weight and time. Space can be either direct or indirect, weight can be strong or light and time can be sudden or sustained. When you put these all together, you end up with eight efforts that classify styles of movement as well as something of the personality of the person making the movement.

1. Direct, strong, sudden = Punch
2. Indirect, strong, sudden = Slash
3. Direct, strong, sustained = Push
4. Indirect, strong, sustained = Wring
5. Direct, light, sudden = Dab
6. Indirect, light, sudden = Flick
7. Direct, light, sustained = Glide
8. Indirect, light, sustained = Float

Most of us generally inhabit one or two of these efforts and the others are usually not as comfortable for us.  But as we start experimenting with these different efforts, we can learn to use all of them.  Practising and using the efforts makes it possible for us to create wildly different physical performances, whilst still remaining true to our own unique and special quality.

Music can also be analysed through space, weight and time. The way instrumentalists play a musical phrase can change according to the choices given to the balance between its space, weight and time. We are therefore exploring the ‘Efforts’ as a potential method of cross-arts language.

Our explorations have so far been led by Niamh, getting to grips with the physical representations of the ‘Efforts’. Niamh has been kind to us perhaps not-so-limber musicians, starting sessions with relaxing yoga before moving onto the harder things! Last Friday it was our turn to share some musical exercises and the cross-overs are quite fascinating. We have found that a lot of the time, the quicker one can pick up on the ‘Effort’ quality of a fellow performer, the more powerful the communication. We can’t wait to discover more territory before sharing our discoveries with other fellow performers through workshops.

Lastly, following on from our visit to the venue for our performance in April for Nonclassical/Platform33 at the Macbeth in Hoxton, we had an action packed creative session with mime artist Emma Miller full of ideas! We played around with several scenarios, plucked out of thin air to see where they may take us and improvised around them. One of them included being conducted by a giant cucumber! We certainly giggled a lot and have now come up with a good first draft for a piece. As ideas become more certain, we may share a few of them on here with you… keep an eye out!
That’s all for now but check in on us again next week for a lowdown on the Saatchi performance. Must remember not to drink too many of those cocktails!

MOC x

Hello to all our readers, and here is our R&P from the 4th February. It’s been a very busy and exciting week for the three of us and we have hardly had a chance to stop and write about all that’s been going on, so apologies that this is reaching you a little later than planned.

First up on the week’s agenda it’s time to diarise, as we can officially confirm our next performance date, Friday 1st March at the Saatchi Gallery. We will be performing new works by the young composers of The Purcell School, who are writing pieces for MOC, inspired by the work on display in the current exhibition at the Saatchi ‘Breaking the Ice: Moscow Art 1960’s-1980’s’. On Monday we travelled up to Purcell to have our second brainstorming session with the composers, following on from our visit to the gallery last week. We are encouraging the composers to think of creating ‘performance art’ as opposed to simply a piece for flute, oboe and bassoon, to be performed in traditional format - seated behind music stands. Thus, we have asked them to think about the extra elements of choreography, staging, costume, lighting etc, and to consider including some freer sections which could have an improvisatory element, where we can leave our stands, and the constraints they bring.

The ideas the composers have come up with so far are really exciting, including the use of neon lights and fake blood, and putting us in prison! They are also thinking about how the musicians will reflect the medium used, stamping on the wooden floor to reflect the tempura on cardboard used by Valery Koshlkyakov inGrand Opera, Paris 1995, and walking independently around the space, joined by the music yet also free to move note at random, depicting the mood created by Yelena Popova’s Untitled 2011 (mixed media on linen).

Monday was a busy day for us, as in the morning we headed up to north London to run three workshops at Oakleigh Special School with the Live Music Now scheme. Before Christmas we gave a series of workshops to the junior school, based around the theme of landscapes, and this second visit we were working with the older children and our topic was animals in the jungle. It is incredibly rewarding to share and make music with children who have SLD (severe learning difficulties) and PMLD (profound and multiple learning difficulties), as their reactions are so spontaneous and uninhibited. Our workshops in this setting are improvisatory at the core, and we also incorporate any themed songs that the children are familiar with, as repetition is an important aspect in their development. Two effective ways to connect with the children utilise their one-on-one helpers, who know the children so well, one being to tap along to the pulse of our music on the child’s body, the other to shake percussive instruments close to them, allowing the child to feel the texture of the instrument. We also go right up to the children with our instruments so that they make a visual connection to the sound heard, and to allow them to feel the vibrations of the sound waves.

On the previous Saturday we had another rehearsal for our upcoming performance in collaboration with Emma Miller, and the piece is starting to take shape. It’s great to be composing again, and exploring the capabilities of our instruments. We were buzzing after the rehearsal, and headed down to the venue for the upcoming performance, The Macbeth http://www.themacbeth.co.uk. Nestled in the heart of Hoxton, The Macbeth is an old pub come music venue with a great deal of character and charm. Over the years it has hosted, among others, Florence and the Machine, Gallows, Annie Mac, Pete Doherty, Toddla T, Gang Of Four, Roots Manuva, Fucked Up, IS TROPICAL, Drums Of Death, Saves The Day, Rolo Tomassi, Dan le Sac and Scrubious PiP, The XX, The Count & Sinden, Fake Blood and Franz Ferdinand. Now that we’ve seen the venue, we can think about appropriate staging, and other exciting elements the space inspires.

That’s all for now, so follow us next week to find out how our next meetings with Niamh, Emma and the Purcell composers go, plus, the three of us get creative with candle sticks, and reveal our Martian melodies!