Concerto for Improvising Soloist and Two Ensembles was commissioned by the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival with funds provided by the Britten-Pears Foundation.

First Performance: Bates Mill, Huddersfield Festival
Soloist: Christopher Redgate (oboe)
Improvisers: Mattthew Wright (turntables/laptop), Mick Grierson (laptop/guitar/audio visual projection), Mark Knoop (piano)
Ensemble Exposé, directed by Roger Redgate.

This work forms a significant part of my research into notation, improvisation and the physicality of performance seen as possible forms of material.

The work explores a wide range of notational strategies from very precise (complex) notation to various degrees of freedom in spatial/open form notation. The material for Ensemble I is largely notated, whereas Ensemble II is formed by improvisers whose ‘material’ consists of instructions as to how they might react/engage with the notated material. Similarly the soloist’s part is improvised with specific instructions as to how s/he might develop/supplement material from the ensemble. Fully notated music alternates with completely improvised music. The order of the sections is free or they may also be combined/subdivided.

The aim of this work is to explore the nature of musical material in relation to instrumental techniques in terms of what can or can’t be notated and what might form meaningful boundaries of notation. Each section addresses different notational/improvisational contexts with specific instructions as to how the material should be interpreted (see score).
For sometime I have been working with ‘complex’ notational strategies which aim to redefine the gestural nature of material and performative responses to notation beyond certain inherited concepts as to how notation functions as a one to one mapping of a musical idea, at the same time using extended playing techniques and combinations of actions, which seem more related to the work of free improvising musicians and perhaps transcend conventional notation. As an experienced improviser myself, the potential connection between these extremes became apparent. In this work, therefore, I was interested in exploring such boundaries in relation to how the psychological aspects of notation or freedom change the nature of the material.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/8405