Update
The inaugural session and `Ensemble 50:50 Ceredigion` meeting took place on 24.11.2024.
- Thirteen players, musicians, and improvisers attended.
- The ensemble played eleven pieces. Two sets together lasted seventy-six minutes.
- The ensemble sizes were a mixture of half the room and everyone in the room. This was the sound world of a large ensemble.
- The musicians who had not met before in this configuration, trying something new, meeting new people maintaining old friendships.
- The ensemble could be characterised as diverse. There was a wise and wide range of voices, personalities, personal histories, and instruments in attendance.
- System 50:50 for improvisers can support meetings of this description. It works straight out of the box, and there were no preparatory exercises.
The session on 24.11.2024 was rewarding and upbeat, and the plan is to continue in 2025.
The details of the next session should be available in January 2025.
Listening Forwards: Phil Morton
Introduction
The aim is to
- To create something new in a musical sense owned by those present.
- To explore the possibilities of freedom and improvisation and their limitations.
- To shape the sound with silence,
- To shape the ensemble size: moment by moment.,
- To empower the musicians with agency, they shape the music through active listening.
The approach.
This ensemble will employ System 50:50 for improvisers to explore the aim noted above
For more information on System 50:50 please go to the TAB `About system 50:50`
Expect to hear:
A diversity of sounds, shifting foregrounds led by changing personalities sprinkled with timbral melds, unexpected silences, melodies and kitchen clatter.
The players
will be drawn from the experimental and improvised music scene in Ceredigion area of Wales and beyond.
The Curators
This session is being curated by Lyndon Owen (Abersytwyth) and Phil Morton (Liverpool)
With Funding from
Arts Council Wales and many thanks to Arts Council Wales for this support.
Tickets and schedule
Admission fee and participation subs are set as by donation with the suggested amount being £5.00
Tickets
This is not a ticketed event
In the future tickets will be made available through the Eventbrite website.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/improvisers-networks-online-26497896907
Schedule Autumn 2024
- 24.10.2024
- The plan is for the next session to take place during February 2025
Social Media
Facebook events page: https://www.facebook.com/events/434211553028090/
Facebook, System 50:50 Group account: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1352948624792591/
Facebook: Improvisers Networks Wales: https://www.facebook.com/groups/784549951671973
About System 50:50
The goal is
- to encourage music created in the moment by those present.
- to encourage music created by ensembles of three to thirty musicians. to support large ensembles to play free.
- to explore the possibilities of freedom and improvisation and their limitations.
The approach is
- To shape the sound with silence,
- To shape the ensemble size moment by moment.,
- To empower the musicians with agency over their contribution.
- To shape the music through active listening.
Description
The duration of the piece is agreed before the start of the performance..
A performer must play for 50% of the duration of the piece and remain silent for 50% of the duration of the piece
Example
If the duration of the piece is 16 minutes, the performer plays for 8 minutes and is silent for 8 mins. Each player is free to choose when they play and when they are silent within the duration of the piece but they must have a 50/50 balance between playing and being silent. It is expected that each player will improvise their music.
Quick summary using 50:50 ratio
Each player `improvises` for 50% of the piece
Each player is `tacet` for 50% of the piece
The totals are aggregated
Each player/improviser has their own clock and manages their own time
Each player has `agency` over the content they share during the performance.
System 50:50 for improvisers - Click the link for a detailed description and history.
https://www.improvisersnetworks.online/system-50-50-an-introduction
Delivered by the primary and preferred time management option:
Mechanical chess clocks are required to facilitate the aim of the system. One of the pair of dials is called ‘tacet’ and the other ‘free play’.See image above. Each performer has an individual chess clock to monitor and manage their contribution. The performer plays when the ‘free play’ dial is running down and is silent when the ‘tacet’ dial is running down.
Youtube demonstration, Duration 1 minute Ratio 50:50 or 1:1 Content, is speech, status managed by the rocker (lever): URL LINK
Link to image of an adapted chess clock URL LINK
Selected feedback about system 50:50
Simon Ross (Macclesfield), Blank Canvas Octet - Liverpool
System 50/50 works well - it’s a really good way to get a group to play effectively without egos , virtuosity , and shyness getting in the way. It is democratic, inclusive. coherent, leaderless, focused, there is room to think and time to listen, choices. It is less competitive more cooperative. Ends well.
Charlie Collins Sheffield
On system 50:50 “Definitely something with LOADS of possibilities - the reaction in the car driving back was unbelievably positive - no one could remember playing in a large ensemble that was so "open". The openness allowed me to play quietly, which meant the dynamics were incredible for an improvising large ensemble.”
Dan Goren, Oxford Improvisers.
`"It seems to me that any attempt to restrict what free improvisers play, presents a threat to the core nature of their music. Generally, 'To play or not play' is about as far as any predetermination can productively go, the player retaining (almost!) complete formal agency regarding when and what (s)he decides to play"
Richard Harding Liverpool.
``Sometimes in free improv it is just not working but we carry on in the hope it will get better, in system 50:50 if it (free improv) is not working one can select tacet and stop playing`
Jon Aveyard, Lecturer UCLan University England
`It gives me permission to do nothing`
Helen Conning, Liverpool.
It is democratic
Maggie Nicol - West Wales.
I want to buy twelve 50:50 clocks
Sign up
Suggested scripts for the form
Name of event, please enter Ensemble 50:50 Ceredigion
Location: please enter,Ceredigion, Wales
Comments: add your comments and any requests for support with Zoom and the associated technologies required to support online participation.
Email: please send an email, sharing your interest in this project to: philmorton@improvisersnetwork.co.uk
To register for this event and project via eventbrite, please follow the link below.
The link will display all events posted to the Improvisers Networks Online account.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/improvisers-networks-online-26497896907
About the venue
Address: Marine Terrace, Aberystwyth SY23 2BY
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