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WEAVING AN EXPANDED SONIC PRACTICE: PROPOSING A TEXTILIC SONIC METHOD
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2023
Abstract
This article discusses the way textile metaphors can act as catalysts for reflection in my practice as a trumpet performer and composer. Metaphors such as ‘fibre’, ‘spin’, ‘yarn’, ‘ply’, ‘weave’, ‘loom’, ‘drape’ and ‘felt’ are engaged as lenses through which the dynamic, contingent and tailorable interactions are made between sonic and extra-sonic elements in my expanded practice. The metaphors are engaged to shape instrumental techniques, improvisation, form, audiovisual media, physicality and spatial design. In this article, I describe how I developed my own expanded sonic practice by using Tim Ingold's concept of ‘textility’, expressed as a Textile Sonic Method (TSM). I demonstrate the application of this method using a subset of textile metaphors as the basis for the development of new double-bell trumpet techniques and applications in a range of compositions: Gradient (2020–23), for double-bell trumpet, live video and sound processing, co-composed with Olivia Davies and Nick Roux; Untitled (2021), for double-bell trumpet, portative organ and electronics, co-composed with James Rushford; and my own work Charcoal VI (2017), for spatialised, amplified double-bell trumpet. This article outlines the potential for the application of metaphor as a creative catalyst in an expanded sonic practice.
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- RESEARCH ARTICLE
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
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7 Mitchell, ‘Text, Textile Techne’, p. 325, my italics.
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9 Rosalind Krauss, ‘Sculpture in the Expanded Field’, in October, 8 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1979), p. 38.
10 Ciciliani, Marko, ‘Music in the Expanded Field: On Recent Approaches to Interdisciplinary Composition’, in Darmstädter Beiträge zur Neue Musik, vol. 24, eds Rebhahn, Michael and Schäfer, Thomas (Mainz: Schott, 2017), pp. 22–35Google Scholar; Jennifer Walshe, ‘The New Discipline’, http://milker.org/the-new-discipline (2016) (accessed 12 October 2020).
11 Ibid.
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14 Callum G'Froerer, Charcoal X, for double-bell trumpet, CD, water bowls, spotlights and pre-recorded track (2017).
15 Cole, William Davy, ‘Touch as a Model for Expanded Musical Form’, TEMPO, 73, no. 287 (January 2019), p. 67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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17 In 2021 I participated in an Introduction to Spinning course through the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria, Australia. This was an excellent way to start getting a hands-on education in spinning fibre – the fundamental process in textile creation. I have also participated in an Introduction to Tapestry Weaving course, which, while it resulted in a more ‘finished’ textile piece and a more pictorial approach, offered less useful textile concepts.
18 Fibre may derive from animal or plant sources or may be synthetic.
19 Lexi Boeger, Hand Spun (Beverly: Quarry Books, 2012), p. 75.
20 Callum G'Froerer, Olivia Davies and Nick Roux, Gradient for double-bell trumpet, interactive video projections, and audio processing (2020–2023).
21 https://successfulfashiondesigner.com/types-of-weave-structures/ (accessed 10 November 2021).
22 https://rosiepink.typepad.co.uk/rosiepink/tutorial-how-to-make-flat-felt-wet-felting.html (accessed 1 May 2022).
23 https://northhouse.org/course-session/warp-and-weft-introduction-to-floor-loom-weaving-1-13-2022 (accessed 18 December 2022).
24 Depressing the valves halfway divides airstreams across two outlets, making it possible to activate multiple air/sound outlets.
25 Typically in a tapestry, strong twine is used as the warp and is completely hidden behind softer, coloured weft threads. In multi-shaft loom weaving, the warp is as visible as the weft, contributing to the design as well as providing structure. I would argue that the latter represents the situation in Charcoal VI.
26 Claire Pajaczkowska, ‘Making Known: The Textiles Toolbox – Psychoanalysis of Nine Types of Textile Thinking’, in The Handbook of Textile Culture, eds Jefferies, Conroy and Clark, p. 89.