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RE: Off-ICMC



At 5:50 AM 2000/9/4, RhFriedl@xxxxxxx wrote:
> I dont wish Christoph Charles to organize a festival with more than 50
> musicians, most of them only arriving for the soundcheck - and than they
> should discuss first, who has to play in which room (:-)

This kind of discussion is important, necessary, indispensable
in any event of any scale.

> Thats true (I said: even: "please go down and play now") - the audience in
> the other room has already been waiting for Charles performance more than 15
> minutes, while I was searching the musician. Thats why I could not take care,
> that the doors stayed closed while Bernhard G箔ter (written without "h")
> played.

No precise schedule had been fixed beforehand,
only the order of the performances.
To have an intermission between two performances seems quite normal.
Mr Friedl could have closed the door from the beginning of the piece,
instead of talking with his friends, standing at the entrance
of the hall for the first fifteen minutes. What they were speaking
about was quite distinguishable. No relation with me.

> As Mr.Charles did not start to perform, the audience in the downstair room
> got nervous and went upstairs into the concert of Bernhard Guenter and
> disturbed his silent music.

I don't believe that an audience who attends such an evening,
going on from 10PM to 2AM, where (almost) everybody is
smoking and drinking wine and beer, would become so nervous
if one of the pauses is 15 minutes longer.
Because of the whole organization, the audience "disturbed"
not only Guenter's but ALL concerts, by going in and out the rooms.
To say that it was "my" audience and "my" fault
reflects perfectly Mr Friedl's state of mind.

> This political attitude was the main reason that Guenters performace has been
> disturbed. If somebody is really convienced only to play in the moment he
> likes, than he shouldnt sign a contract and take care, not to be sceduled in
> festivals.

When no schedule is fixed and no discussion about these issues has been done,
and when the organizer can't be trusted, the musician will act as he thinks
is best.

> The true highlight of Mr charles was, that before writing this message to all
> the e-mailgroups he knows, he came to me after the concert and excused
> himself several times in order to get his fee. That's probably what Mr.
> charles calls a political attitude.

I am not sure who apologized to whom,
I agreed we should have discussed that before,
although I emailed about this issues long before the concert :
the choice of the room, my position in the room,
the order of the performances, I got no answer,
I should probably have insisted on talking about these,
but as Mr Friedl ignored my suggestions -
they were probably lost in the organisation panic -,
I also lost interest in discussing them further.
I know it is a big task to organize such a festival,
and on the first day Mr Friedl was obviously very tense
and not in his normal state. The situation of the afternoon was
quite chaotic: the soundcheck was scheduled at 3PM
and began only at 8PM.

As for the fee, it was the lowest I was ever paid in Germany,
receiving it or not would not have made a big difference in my budget.
It was symbolic, but as I have done my two concerts on Monday
and Tuesday, I had no reason to refuse it.

If Mr Friedl ever organizes other events of this kind,
I suggest that he doesn't ignore the musicians' suggestions,
and discusses the contents of the contract before the concert.
The musicians should sign this contract before the concert, not after.
Above all I suggest he remains polite.

All the above details are just boring, but after having been thinking
of them for a few days, I felt it was important not to remain silent
about Mr Friedl. Although I never experienced such an attitude,
Mr Friedl is certainly not the only one, and there are still many things
to expose about the "tyrrany of the programmers" (cf. Jerome Joy),
which lead them to tell the musicians they invite : "if you don't obey
me right now I cancel your concert". I thought this issue could be
discussed furthermore on the mailing lists which seem concerned.

At 11:03 PM 2000/9/2, jerome joy wrote:

> And consequently, that raises very interesting questions related indeed to
> the new musical practices and to the new technological mutations.
> It is the situation of concert which is questioning here, indeed the new
> music electroacoustic or electronica is coming here at a nodal point
> between the fixed musics (it seems to me that it is the case of Gunther)
> and the improvised and controlled musics, is confronted with the
> organization in the concerts.
> Obviously the fact that a festival or that a concert takes the image "
> fashion " to align as many musicians and composers who carry this new music
> (I can add here that the programming of this off-icmc is enough enticing
> and relevant) doesn't seem astonishing but is nevertheless symptomatic.
> The new electroacoustic music wanted to leave the concert hall without
> finding new situations and constraints of representation, or well rather by
> accepting by defect the situation of the improvised scene and the music
> resulting from the "very advanced" rock'n'roll... while being short and by
> using short cuts.
>
> In the same manner the composers and the musicians working on these
> experimental contents, confront themselves with rigid and inappropriate
> situations when they play in situations of traditional concert
> (electroacoustic and instrumental).
> On the two sides, we're finding the hegemony and the tyranny of the
> programmers who are undoubtedly not also close to the contents to these new
> musics and their constraints certainly not enough marked. Indeed, I think
> that we should more integrate the questionnings about the representation
> and the realization in concert, that is an integral part of the today
> composition. No more concessions!
>
> To play in a concert does not go from oneself! it is about a spectacle in
> the literal meaning of the term... And also by there, wouldn't one have to
> leave these small phantasms which haunt us? for the composer coming from
> electroacoustic, to play on scene becomes a blow of projector and a
> considerable resumption of ego , this one who was accustomed to the
> confined air of the studios and to the work at the table (or rather with
> the computer).
>
> The fusion of the studio, the homestudio, the media and the concert, where
> now all the steps of the composition and the play are found unified in real
> time (production, composition, transmission, representation), sets up new
> musical practices which are not inevitably comptatible with the already
> existing standards of representation. The position of the public will not
> be any more the same one, because these new musics work now on situations
> of listening in contexts not validated by " the history ". It is what would
> define a new experimental situation and this is inevitably interesting.

-
christophe charles
Musashino Art University_Media Art Lab
185-0087 Tokyo Kodairashi Ogawacho 1-736
tel +81(0)42-342-6070
http://kubric.musabi.ac.jp/charles