Iris ter Schiphorst

Dialogic Composition (2014)

using the example of DISLOKATIONEN for large orchestra, solo piano + samples

I have spent some time considering what I could present to you in the brief time available today. In doing so, I came across the term "Dialogic Composition."
This concept has occupied me for quite a while; it describes a core aspect of my composing. What do I mean by this?

By "Dialogic Composition", I mean reference—a reference to an "outside," to something already given.
By "Dialogic Composition", I mean an opening: opening the system of music, my music, toward something else, toward an exterior.
By "Dialogic Composition", I mean processes characterized by the inclusion of an outside—finding a musical-artistic statement only through the process of engaging with it, through a dialogue, if you will.
By "Dialogic Composition", I mean reference instead of self-referentiality.

Systems need irritation from the outside. Our own systems are no exception. Systems need disturbances to remain alive, to escape the danger of entropy or mere repetition.
In its details, "Dialogic Composition" can focus on very different things and possess many facets. However, the decisive factor, as mentioned, is the moment of opening, the reference to or the inclusion of an outside.

This can be, for example, existing compositions or works by other composers; but it can also involve other media, such as film, language, sounds, light, or movement. Furthermore, "Dialogic Composition" can quite literally mean collaboration: with other artists, other composers, or colleagues.

As you may know, I did exactly that for several years with the composer Helmut Oehring. Through this, I gained the experience that the collision of different elements—which always provokes an irritation of one's own identity—can lead to unpredictably rich results. Dialogic Composition—understood in this way—has implications for the concept and understanding of what we call the "subject," the artist, or the composer... and, of course, for the work of art itself [2].

I would like to introduce a piece to you that, in my opinion, relates to certain aspects of Dialogic Composition:
DISLOCATIONS (DISLOKATIONEN) for amplified orchestra, solo piano, and sampler. It was commissioned by musica viva in Munich and premiered there by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins. The soloist was the pianist Christoph Grund. The piece had a further performance here in Berlin at the Ultraschall Festival in 2011. ("Dislocation" refers to the shifting, displacement, or disturbance of geological layers. )

In DISLOCATIONS, I was interested in a very specific aspect of this opening, in several respects: I wanted to find out what happens when I use that which surrounds me acoustically every day—all these musics, noises, sounds, all these bits and bytes—as actual material, as compositional material. When I bring together—that is, compose—what does not actually belong together: acoustic elements of the most diverse origins, sounds, texts, musics, etc.

This approach was inspired, among other things, by Elfriede Jelinek's novel Lust—more specifically, by certain techniques she employs there which, with all due caution, could perhaps be described as "dialogic." I am referring to her use of traditional texts alongside everyday language; above all, her reference to Hölderlin. Through minimal word twists, rearrangements, or simply through a false context or the encounter with a different linguistic ductus (e.g., from advertising), Hölderlin's language in Lust mutates into something entirely different, something grotesque.
Something new emerges, an "added value"—and with it, an expression that stirs, alienates, and irritates.

I attempted a similar process in the field of music with DISLOCATIONS. This means I bring together acoustic material of the most diverse origins: materials from so-called "high culture" (Mahler, Varèse, Ligeti, Lachenmann, etc.), but also from everyday culture (film music, hip-hop, commercials, etc.).
In doing so, I did not want to simply juxtapose the incorporated elements without mediation—not just to quote or create a collage. No, I intended to truly compose with them.

To achieve this, I first had to analyze and organize this source material according to its context, its properties, and its fields of force.Ultimately, my goal was to weave the disparate material together in such a way that it became more than the sum of its parts—that something new would emerge. Something that, at best, would cast a different light on the individual components AND simultaneously generate an increase in expression, an "added value"—to use film music terminology, or rather, to put it à la Chion.

In this sense, I also view my work as a form of sound research—as an attempt to discover something about our "sonic era" in which we live, about our collective hearing in the 21st century.